THE MOVIE WORLD STUDIO & SCREEN

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16846, 23 September 1922, Page 16

THE MOVIE WORLD STUDIO & SCREEN

.NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS. Correspondents desirous of havinar quea* (ions answered in the current issue are requested o see that their communications • re delivered at this office not later than Tuesday afternoon. Henpecked.—“ My Four Years in Germany ” was screened at Liberty. Mae.—Helene Chadwick. Goldwyn Studios. Culver City, California. Glares Walton and Miss Dupont, Universal Studios, Universal City, California. Query.—Niles We'ch had the part of Roy Bradley in * The Cup of Life." What you say is unite correct, hut the average movie fan would not think of following your sumffestion. Movieite.—lt is all a matter of taste. What about Nita Xaldi and Mary Miles Minter, La-sky Studios. Hollywood, California; Marion Davies. Internationa! Studios, Hollywood. California; Joßepl* Sohildkraut. Griffith Studios. Orienta Point, Mamaroneck, Mew York; Eamou Navarro, Metro Studios, Hollywood. California. Cast vot obtainable in Christchurch. Am trying Wellington. M.M.M.—Mary Miles Minter, La-sky Studios, Hollywood, California. Send 2s in International Coupons if you desire ;t large-sized photo. The Lee Kiddies, according to latest advices, have just on tered into a contract with the Fox Corporation to produce a series of two-reel comedies. No doubt some of them will come along in due course, and be screened at the theatre which is handling the Fox productions. “ A Lover of Music ” registers a complaint, and will have plenty of support from those who have had a similar experience: “ Were you ever at a pidtore show and during the overture heard some ‘ melodious ’ voices going at top behind you? I was at Everybody’s last Thursday night. The music was exquisite, but unfortunately w-3 were sitting near some people who evid - ently thought their voices were more attractive than the orchestra. Also,

heroes ; 16 hogsheads of glycerine tears were shed by oppressed heroines ; £here were 33 close-ups of babies being bath j ed ; 97 persons shot in the arm fell to the ground and appeared a few scenes j later with their heads bandaged up . i 14.5 sunset fade-outs were effectively 1 presented. j To make the tropical scenes in ! “ Love’s Redemption,” Norma Tal- ; madge’s company spent three weeks in the West Indies. Some of the photographs were taken on the sugar plantation of a millionaire landowner of the islands, and interesting sidelights are thrown on the affairs in the West Indies a features of dub and native life and an insight into the management of a sugar plantation covering thousands of acres. AH the earmarks of popular success are to be found in “ Nero,” a ten-reel Fox film* spectacle—companion to ‘‘Queen of Sheba”—which was privately exhibited at the Alhambra Theatre, London, recently (says a London paper). Nero fiddling. Rome burning chariots racing, mobs hurrahing, mar tyrs dying, lions prancing, pomp ’ licentiousness, riots, and religion —all the ingredients that made the fame of “The Sign of the Cross.” and some of those that made the “ Queen of Sheba” popular, are in this new header into an cieut, imaginary history. Pathe News has inaugurated a new and novel feature of statistical cartoons on vital subjects made in co-operation with the Babson Statistical Service. The first of the series illustrates Russia s financial survey. Each cartoon of the series will have a direct bearing on business conditions, and will show the operations of upward and downward business flow. The authenticity of these facts and figures visualised in graphic form

on so many property thrones in the movies that living in the shadow of one had lost its glamour for her. and that she must decline matrimony, Mohammedan or otherwise. In Mabel’s case it js not a matter of another romance, they say. Tt was just because she could not see life in a harem, whether as the only incumbent or one of several. The prince, who recently visited San Francisco. said he had observed American ‘customs .and was willing to follow them. He had visited Hollywood and had nfingled with the best people there, so he knew the ropes. But, even so. Mabel declined. “T will give up mv princely rank and stop being a Mohammedan.” Prince Ibrahim is said to have offered as a final inducement. Where are you going to; bathing maid ? ” “ I’m cuing a-swimming, sir,” she said. “ Swimming in water, Sennett maid? ” “Oh, no!—in comedy, sir,” 6he said “ SHOVELLING TO FAME.” HOW MONTE BLUE GOT INTO PICTURES. It is the boast of several film stars that they climbed up to "the present heights from the lowliness of mob scenes (writes Monte Blue). I can go ‘one better” than that! Had I been on the stage proper I should have been alluded to as “storm in the distance.” or “ crash without ” ! A ou see. I began my screen career bv digging graves to be used in a scene of a film! Determined to seek out my fortune, T left the cattle ranch where 1 had been working some years and tramped to Los Angeles. Arrived there, I just went on tramping—tramping the streets looking for work, any kind of work! At last, having been advised to trv my luck at the picture studios* I tramped out to Hollywood—Los Angelos’ screen suburb. While 1 was hanging about round tho Griffith Studio, waiting for a chance, the property man happened to need someone to make a cemetery for a scene in “ Enoch Arden.” He came to look for a labourer, and, being attracted by my six-feet-two, engaged me to wield the shovel. That shovel provided me with several meals, and, when the scene had to ho retaken next day. you can guess 1 was glad! Tt meant that another grave must be dug. Although I had been accustomed to hard work on the ranch—and I’d worked pretty strenuously hauling ropes on board ship before that! —T had spent my time tramping for some weeks, so my hands were out of practice. When the director noticed how blistered and raw they were, half-way through that second day’s digging, he relusc*d to let me use the shovel any “ Come along and help shift the scenery,” he said. The scenery being nearer the camera than the graveyard, I jumped at the chance, and went! Then, in a few days, I got another good “ role ” —I was the power that worked" the wings of a large windmill ! That was a step up from the shovel, for, although I was invisible, being inside the plaster-and-pasteboard body of tho mill, still T was “ in the picture ”! ,* The next two years of my life were spent as a “double” for stunt actors.

Although a good part of it was spent in hospital recovering from the results of other people’s “stunts,” I was becoming quite well known in the studios for my willingness to take any risks, however wild and perilous. Crowd scenes also brought me before the camera during my “ doubling period. I appeared in “Intolerance ; bnt I needed a powerful telescope to nick out my screen self in any of the numerous scenes in which I “ mobbed.” At last came a day when n director waxed furious with a- mob for looking too well fed. He tried ever so many of us to see if there were any “extras” who could look hungry. • I was fortunate enough to he able to register hunger and misery to lu’s ! complete satisfaction, with the result that he put me on the regular paysheet, with a salary of two pounds a week— mv first regular earnings m pictures ! BROWN §Eg A DOC STAR. FOUR-FOOTED FILM ACTOR. A British .film producer (says a Lon - don paper), recently engaged two dogs as police dogs in a film drama, at a salary of £3 per week. One dog owner asked the same producer £IOOO for the hire of his animal. The sum seems enormous, and it isn’t surprising that the £IOOO dog was turned down. Nevertheless, there aro* some animals acting for the movies which earn nearly £2OO a week. Tf the art of acting i* the art of being natural, animal actors surpass hui man.beings on the silver screen. An American company filmed a series of I.a Fontaine’s Fables recently, and in the twenty films all the roles were taken by animals. “ Animals can become fine movie actors,“ said Air Charles Urban, the producer. “In the animal world one finds Tictors and athletes, gossips and bullies, and all tho types one finds in the human family. “ Some have intellect.---brains, as the common saving has it —and seme are stupid. There is every variety, just as among men. 1 nfortunately. however. there are very few men in the world who know enough both about animals and motion picture photography, to enable us to Use them.” The world’s best and most highly paid four-footed film star is undoubtedly that wonderful dog. Brownie. You have probably seen this wonderful animal in some of his star stunts. Tn The Dog Doctor ” Brownie takes a. bottle of milk out of an ice-box and feeds a baby with it. Tn “Pals” he washes the baby's face and puts the child to bed. Ho does everything as it should be done, -vyhether it is using his knife and fork at table, driving an ambulance, scrubbing n comedian’s back with a scrubbing brush, or arriving in the nick of time and pulling the rope that hauls the heroine up to safety. Brownie isn’t a pedigree dog: he 's only a mongrel. Indeed, his 1 Ate owner was on his way to drown him. in the nearest pond when a! film director, passing in his car, was struck by the intelligence in the quivering animal’s face, and offered to give Brownie a home. At the studio Brownie learnt his tricks with surprising ease and iapidity, and even devised new ones for himself. Now he knows all the ins and outs of the movie business. He doesn’t begin acting till the word “ camera ” is .given, nor does he finish till he hears the word “ cut.” And Brownie never forgets a trick. As befits his exalted position as a film star, he rides to the . studio every day in a motor.