IN FILMLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18457, 21 July 1923, Page 8 (Supplement)

IN FILMLAND.

Many experiments are being conducted with a view to perfecting a motion picture apparatus that will show in plain, ordinary daylight. If it is perfected it means that ary room lighted by daylight or any va<-uit piece of ground will, with the screen and picture- apparatus, serve as a photoplay theatre.

When " Safety Last," the latest Harold Lloyd comedy was screened at the Iviriema Theatre, Salt. Lake City, it set a dp.v record for the showing of one picture by completing a three weeks' continuous run. For a city >.tf 12,0'jC )•:• habitants, this record is looked upor is being of even greater importance. At the end of the season business was still good.

John Cosgrovo, well-known Australian actor with the Ofcar Asche company, has just completed a three-reel comedy-drama for the screen, the story bMng written round the famous racehorse Eurythmic. Two factors in its composition are the diversity of scenes and the number of cameramen used in the production. Svd.iey, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth all figure in the story, the filming ot which was done under the direction of Mr. Cosgrove while touring with tho Asche company.

Douglas Fairbanks' thirteen-year-old son Douglas jun. has signed a contract with the Lasky Company to become a cinema star. It is reported that he will receive £200 a week. Young Fairbanks inherits his father's athletic ability, and a scenario will be written for him exploiting this gift. He will be under the management of a Scotsman, Mr. William Elliott, David Belasco's son-in-law. The new star's mother, who was Mr. Douglas Fairbanks' first wife', and, is now Mrs. James Evans jun, approves of her son following in bis father's footsteps.

Kipling's poetic picture of when the monkeys walk together holding earl* other's tails is going to be illustrated by moving pictures and gramophone. Henry A. Snow, whose phenomenally successful film, " Hunting Big Game in Africa with Gun and Camera," has just finished its four-week run at the London Pavillicn, is to take a phonograph-re-cording outfit, synchronised with a motion picture earners., cut to the West Coast of Africa and garner a gorilla conversation sis described by Dr. Garner, the celebrated gorilla-language expert. If the experiment succeeds, you will be able to sit in your theatre arm, chair and see and hear h gorilla pow-wow. Following the footsteps of Du Chaillu, Garner in West Africa discovered the rudiments of gorilla soeechat least more than a dozen cries, ejaculations and commands; a system of vocables by means of which Mr. and Mrs. GorHla indicated their wants, gave orders to their offspring, and uttered timely Ws..'Jling<?.

It is by no me< t ns uncommon for vaudeville artists to have two, three or even four engagements at different theatres on the same night. This fact is well known to amusement goers in England and America; but moving picture lovers are not generally aware that Mary Pickford or Nazimova,- after appearing in film form at one entertainment house, are rushed off, in many instances, to another suburb where they delight further admirers/ Mary and Nazimova, however, unlike the vaudeville artists in the flesh, do not travel in their entirety. As soon as one reel of «, picture has been screened at a theatre a motor-cyclist takes it into his charge and rushes it off to another house, where the management has - perhaps, shown gazettes or a short comedy while awaiting the arrival of the star attraction. Bv the time Mary has unreeled her first thousand feet in the second theatre, reel number two is usually at band ror trie operator; and the previous one is speeding on its way to a third show.

At last Cherry Kearton's film records of wild and savage life in Central and East Africa, India, Borneo, and parts of America are to be placed before the public, which has been wondering at. hi.? silence for so long after his recent return to England from a year's wanderings in the heart of Africa. Cherry Kcartpn has tramped over 50,000 miles through the wilds to get his pictures, his longest walk being from Mombasa on the east coast to the mouth of the Congo on the west coast, a journey which occupied 16 months. As a big game hunter — last of a quintette of famous big game hunters —Cherry Kearton secured some remarkable pictures of wild animals, including the spearing of a man-eating lion without tho aid of do'j;s or guns, the lassoing of lions, rhinocerose.',. cheetahs, and other animals, pictures' of the rare inhabitants of Central Africa, of the interior of Borneo, the jungle in India where he was trapped with a tiger and managed to se cure a picture of the animal which killed one of his spearmen, and the life story of "Toto." a chimpanzee now in London and stated by the Zoological authorities ito be the most remarkable chimpanzee I over seen.

Monaeles are taboo in America. They are regarded, like spats, gloves, walkingsticks, and afternoon tea, ps symbols of effeminacy. All representative Englishmen in American films are fitted with spats and monocles, because these articles create laughter wherever shown. So de yastating is the effect of the Englishmen's single eyeglass on American "audiences that it has created a serious problem for the producer of " Ambrose Applejohn's Adventure," now being filmed under the title of " Captain Applejack," the British hero of which wears a monocle. A happy inspiration, however, led the producer to look up the history of monocles. He discovered that they were formelv a badge of honour, dating,* it is said, from days when the British Army refused commissions to cadets with spectacles. Men with weak sight but brave hearts evaded the regulations by wearing a single eyeglass, and thus started a fashion which," in the 'eighties and 'nineties, became a craze. It is from the latter period, it may be added, that tho American screen-concep-tion of the average Englishman is drawn. This explanation of the monocle's history will he incorporated in the film as shown to American audiences, and, it is hoped, will silence laughter.

A sensational British screen triumph was appropriately recorded on Empire Day at the Alambra Theatre, London, where the new Betty Balfour film, "Love. Life and Laughter," was shown. It says much for the popularity of Miss Balfour that there were queues of critics outside the theatre Ions: before the doors opened, says a London critic. If the applause that carried the film along and rounded its conclusion can he taken a. a criterion of its reception bv the public, tremorf "fv * mht , «P«">nce other tremors . than , earthquakes. Miss Balfour chorus Ctrl who fights hey wav L™*>« c.ioius Cirl who nghts hev way bv sheer I SIS- to f o ' a " d »P*""ncnt from ob. scumj to fame. a performance, so sparklijg, such an assault and battery of whim |«cal airs and graces, plus " a oI ™; leSlt ° f f 03 ") Wlat one hardencd I exhibitor so far forgot professional cvni ; c.sm as to exclaim, ■• TV e il. We .™ , { : the world 5 sweetheart !" Mi ss T> ; , £, will have to sue Miss Balfour for aW tion of the public's affections. Her Ton . don rival is clearh- the apple of L ; camera's eye. a Vesta Tilley of the screen glance and I = esure. Miss Baliour is stonflv sup- | ported by Mr. Harry- Jonas, a " vou f C London artist making his film debut A I gem °, Cockney characterisation is '*« v plied by Mr. Frank Stanmore and tie | night photography of Mr. A. H. Blake is full of enchantment. The producer d-d not wan to receive the congratulations of the audience. Homr-sickness seized 1 mm at the crucial moment. *