FILM REVIVALS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21186, 5 November 1938, Page 16

FILM REVIVALS

PROPOSAL THAT WALLACE REID FOLLOW VALENTINO Because the Rudolph Valentino and certain other pictures have proved to be good box-office attractions, a feeling still exists that there is still available a number of old productions that would arouse the curiosity of filmgoers (states Sheilah Graham, the Hollywood writer on film topics). Sam Wood, one of the few directors whose movie services date back to the days of the early silents, thinks that the success of the Valentino films has paved the way for the reissue of some of the late Wallace Reid pictures. He directed Wallace Reid in a series, beginning with “Double Speed,” and he says that revivals of the early Reid pictures would attract the wide-spread interest of all old-time fans. “Reid was an actor, and I am sure his efforts of 20 years ago would not look bad to-day,” Wood said. He frankly pines for some of those good old days. “There was not so much fuss, speed and worry then,” he said. “One director took a picture and followed it through to the finish. To-day, they throw a dozen experts on the job and one gets in the way of the other. “The only things our stages used to be cluttered with were people. To-day, you cannot get into a sound stage with much less than a pass from the board of directors, but when we made ‘Excuse My Dust,’ with Wallace Reid, and ‘Her Great Moment,’ with Gloria Swanson, the crowds swarmed around our sets so densely that we could hardly perform. However, nobody seemed to mind, and the pictures got out on schedule—and made money too.”

Agnes Ayres, who played with Rudolph Valentino in “The Sheik” in 1921, and “Son of the Sheik" in 1926, is trying to stage a comeback.

Agnes Ayres recently watched a crowd smash into the Los Angeles theatre, where “The Sheik” was revived. The people did not know that she was the heroine of the picture. Not even the manager knew who she was.

The successful revival of “The Sheik" and “Son of the Sheik" prompted sponsors to send Agnes Ayres on personal appearance tours with the two pictures. Five minutes' discussion with the former star was sufficient to complete a deal. In the 17 years since Agnes Ayres scaled the heights, she has lost a fortune.

“They took me out of high school and made me a movie star,” she told me. “Suddenly I found myself a celebrity, drawing the kind of salary they pay to bank presidents. It was all grand, but what did I, a mere child, know about taking care of money? When I married and retired, I was very wealthy. When the stock market crash came in 1929 I lost everything.” Agnes Ayres thinks that she could still find a niche in the movies. The small parts she has been getting will lead, she hopes, into character roles. “I don’t want anybody to write sob stories about me," she said. “I’m neither poor nor unhappy. I’ve come back to the movies a more experienced woman, and, I think, a better actress. I still get fan mail and I have every hope of making a comeback. All I need is a fair chance. “When the crash came, I was again a single woman. I decided to re-enter the films. But, by that time, sound pictures were in, and I had never been in anything but the silent kind. So I went to New York and into stage stock to gain experience. After that, I took a little show of my own around the country. And I found that people still remembered me, remembered my pictures, and were still interested. Some even still wanted my autograph.” Agnes Ayres is looking forward to her trip. She feels that it will prove a means of re-establishing her name and personality in the movie firmament—and start her out on another career.