THE PICTURES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14142, 12 June 1920, Page 3

THE PICTURES.

THE COSY. Pictures, permanent. FORESTERS’ HALL. Paramount Pictures, permanent,

The remains of Sam Sothern, brother of E. 11. Southern, the Shakespearian actor, have been taken to England for burial. Death came suddenly while Mr Southern was playing in a film production. Clara Kimball Young is at work on Sir Arthur Wing Pinero s play, MidChannel, which Ethel Barrymore played on tho stage. Lillian Gish is said to be not unfavourably impressed with a proposition she has received to appear on the stage. In his next picture, William, Desmond will appear in cassock, playing tho title role in Dan Hart’s comedydrama, The Parish Priest. William Farnum will make things willing in “Tho Man Hunter” at the Cosy this evening. The supporting films will include a Sunshine comedy, “Some Real Catch.” “Dear me,” said Fritzie Brunette the other day, after a shopping tour, “If we did not have to spend a good share of our income for elaborate clothos in our pictures, our Stilnries would be just as lovely as they look in piint. As a matter of fact, many a girl in my profession comes on at the end of the year with a very small net sum. But there is some compensation in wearing the clothes. Every girl likes that.” All but two of the Charles H. Hoyt farces that were the rage 30 years ago in America and England have been purchased ‘by Charles Ray, and will be shown on the screen. Ray was not the first to think of this richly humorous material, but he had to pay the heavy sum that the estate of the late playwright has been holding out for. The Hoyt farces are conceded to be, as a group, the funniest things ever written for the stage. They can be successfully treated for the screen. “The Flame of Life” a Continental release, will head the bill at the Paramount to-night. This is a Swedish, picture, and comes with a big reputation. The cast selected to support Annette Kellerman in the spectacular production now being made in California, includes Wheeler Oakman, Ralph Lewis, Walter Long, and Carl Ulman, all .of whom are familiar to Australasian screen followers.

Ralph Bushinan ,16, eldest son of Francis X. Bushinan, the well - known photoplay artist, is to appear in Christie comedies. Some years ago, when Francis X. Bushman was at Essanay sludio, the lad played child parts in pictures made there. 'The part of the soldier hero in Civilian Clothes, which Paramount has begun to produce, will be played by Thos. Meighan. In Los Angeles this comedy ran as a stage play for more than 30 weeks, breaking all western records. “One of the charms of an English country house,” says Mr West, producer of Broadwest films, “is the furnishing, and if wo are to give the public films picturing English baronial .residences, and old country mansions, tho style of decoration and furniture must bo exactly what one would expect to find in such homes. This is one point on which we have the Americans beaten. When filming an English story they seldom set it in typical British surroundings, and accordingly half the interest in the film is lost to audiences on this side. Recent purchases for the Broadwest furniture department include an old English oak waiting table valued at £6OO, a quaint 16th century settee at £3OO, and a Hepplewhite suite (which will be seen in A Dead Certainty) worth £SOO. The. most valuable of all, however, is a suite of furniture belonging to tbc Louis Seize period. This has been obtained only after great difficulty for settings in Her Son. “After several months’ experiment,” writes Borzagc, the Cosmopolitan director, to a Los Angeles paper, “the Capital Theatre, Now York, has expelled vaudeville acts from its scheme, of exhibition, and at a heavy expense, because it has numerous performers under long-time contracts, which will now be icancelled. The management has become convinced that its patrons do not like the specialities, and regard them as out of harmony with the film entertainment. The picture programme is to be varied with music of a high order, which is all right because music and films aye demonstrably harmonious arts. The cinema play must stand or fall on its own merits; any intrusion of other sorts of attraction, ostensibly to bolster it up, is a tacit reflection on the picture-play by those who get their main support from it.” FILMS AND FASHIONS. WOMEN ’S INTEREST AROUSED. Of the seven million people who weekly iill the picture houses of Great Britain it is estimated that over 60 per cent arc women. They are not all worshippers of Charlie Chaplin, neither are they enslaved by the art of Mary Piekford (writes Paula Louant in the Daily Express). Why, then, do they go? For the same reason that they go to cliureli, get married, and do many other things. It all arises from that exclusively feminine trait which in the beginning induced Eve to cat of the forbidden fruit —curiosity.

This is the day of the society drama pictures, in which there are plenty of liveried servants, motor cars, and the latest things in women’s evening wear, gowns and hats. This \ ariety of picture is particularly sought after in the suburbs and in the provinces. The film has, in fact, taken the place of the fashion plate. The gowns and the costumes of the artists are criticised, envied and copied. This has on more than one occasion led to trouble with the management. _ I remember on one occasion visiting a cinema theatre when one of my pictures was being shown for the first time since its release. In the production I had worn some exceptionally smart gowns, and was anxious to discover how they were regarded by tho audience. Unfortunately, from the time a picture is produced to the time it is actually released frequently covers a period of several months. This is, of course, on account of the advanced booking system. “It’s an old film,” declared one woman. “T remember those hats when they first came out over six months ago. ’ ’• She was under the impression that the management was fooling the audience with out-of-date pictures, and no amount of argument would convince her otherwise. What, then, is the remedy?

Here we have a considerable percentage of the picture-going population whose object in visiting the cinema is not only to be amused, but to get a glimpse of the latest fashions actually being worn. The only solution seems to be for the actress to live an “advanced” life —

as far as clothes are concerned, at least. And that is exactly what sho does. She is six months ahead of other women. It is hoped that by the time a picture. is released the dresses which have been designed in advance of tlie times will then be the latest thing.