The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 59

Filmdom's News and Gossip THE STUDIO THE SCREEN irtr ifrt ft frfr ifor ti r-wl -i WHAT TO SEE. SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 16, 192C. Vol. XLV. OVER-EXPLOITED STARS SCORED AILEEN PRINGLE IN COMEDY HIT PIONEER SPIRIT OF OLD WEST ARCHITECTURAL MOTIF OF CARTHAY CIRCLE Unique Palace of the Cinema Will Open Tuesday With De MihVs "Volga Boatman' as Premiere Attraction English Critic Brings IS'cics of Anti-American War Producers Bid for Cinema Rights to "Gatsby" Favors Money for Stories Rather Than Players Reginald Denny's Comedy Thrills New York Tactless Advertising Ruins "Many iFlms Abroad Interest Wanes in Lloyd's "For Heaven's Sake' BY XORBERT JXJSK EXCLTSrVE DISPATCH! NEW YORK, May 15.

Last reek, rich In news, auch as the BY FRANCES DEAYER European audiences in general and English-speaking people abroad. In particular, are harming fed up on the over-advertised motion-picture players of this country. They also are bored with tha films produced hero that are conscious, or sometimes unconscious irrsults to English or foreign life and Intelligence. The last-named phase is a growing source of ridicule and Irritation against certain American productions. These facts, In the opinion of H.

Sheridan Bickers, dramatic critic of the London Daily Express, are the predisposing causes of the growing agitation In England and the European countries against the unlimited exhibition of American cinemas abroad. Bickers, who haa just arrived from England to make a survey of cinema activities here h.s paper and also to write up Hollywood for the Theater World and the Illustrated Stage Review nf London, canvassed the situation overseas before he left home. He declares he Is nonpartisin. as he is an American film fan himself, although he does think Brt Lytell was very much miscast in the role of Lord Windermere in "Lady Windermere's Fan." This. In the course of the Interview, was the only personal objection he made against an American production.

PATRIOTIC OBJECTOnS Easing his statements upon observations made in an unusually wide area, which even included Asia aa well as the European countries and Great Britain, Fdckers says he is convinced that this agitation does' not come from disgruntled fans but from a certain class of what might be termed "patrlota." "When one realizes the startling fact," says Bickers, "that nearly one-third of America's total lilm market today lies In British territory, this antl-Amerlcan film campaign will be seen to constitute a serious menace to the further development of America's national art and fourth largest Industry. "It behooves every American affiliation of the Stanley Company of America- and three other bl theater chains with First National rnd the financial alliance of the Xeith-Albee intercuts with Producers" Distributing Corporation ftnd Cecil De Mlile must inevitably be followed by a week devoid of uch high lights. The same holda good of this week's pictures at Broadway houses, the three new ones being JMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "Money Talks" at the Capitol; Paramount's "Fascinating Youth" at the Itl-voli and First National's "Wilder-ness Woman" at the Strand. All ere minus points of appeal and all have been pleasantly received, the preference of audiences being the picture at the Strand. In fact, on the three occasions I have witnessed It, Chester has evoked more laughter each time.

It is distinctly a box-office picture and Bowarl HIggin, the director, evidently set out to achieve that goal at all costs, Incidentally "The Wilderness "Woman" absolutely establishes Aileen Fringle ns a comedienne. She has discarded the sultriness of her Elinor Glyn heroines for a comic technique almost as subtle as Conklin's, beyond which. it eems to me, It falls to the lot of fw players to go. WANT FITZGERALD OPCS Motion picture rights to Owen Davis's dramtization of "The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, probably will have gone to Famous Players by the lime this 13 read.

Then again, Henry Ginsberg may told on to the rights In order to get a bigger price. For oddly enough, it is one Ginsberg, of the Ginsberg-Kann Distributing Corporation, who owns one of the most valuable properties een on the Broadway stage this season. The play ha3 been running since January and is rated among the most successful' nf the year. James Rennle, Dorothy Gish's husband, plays the title role. Almost every company sought to acquire the right to film it, only to discover that Ginsberg, hardly conspicuous bidder in tho past for high-priced properties, stood in the way.

It developed that he had bought the novel on speculation and when it became a play his interest only became more valuable as, of course, he still owned the right to film it. After prolonged negotiation he evidently has decided to part with It and the price is reported to be in the neighborhood of $75,000, of which he will get not all, but a goodly share. But the papers have hot been signed at. this writing. Adele Whiteley Fletcher, as fore-east last week, has moved from the McFadden office on Broadway over to her former desk at headquarters of the Brewster publications in Frederick James Smith's resignation became effective this week when he transferred his pencil Bharpener to the editor's, of Photoplay Magazine, a post he has occupied twice before.

MacFadden, by the has re- ZjUSHKk- THREE PIRATES HARMLESS patriot to take an active interest in this country's greatest medium of publicity and to exercise a jealous regard for the quality and quantity of Its film experts abroad." WAXT HUMAN APPEAT; Darkest Villains of Fairbanks Film Prove Thoroughly Domesticated Gentlemen Fair-minded English audiences. Bickers declares, care little or nothing for the national sources of their entertainment as iong as that entertainment is of the kind that appeals, But they do believe that if America wants to hold the mir nounced the cinema so to speak, with a record of fight unreleased pictures to hia credit or otherwise. Production began last summer and has gone on rather steadily ever since. While the cost of the pictures has not been ereat as costs go, averaging about $20,000, a string of eight stands for a large investment on which returns are problematical. Alice Lake, Gaston Glass, George Hackathorne and Edna Murphy have played in some of them, while Hugh Dierker and Elmer Clifton divided directorial honors.

Something of a stir, a subdued stir, is being created among studio folk by the acting of a newcomer in a picture not yet completed. He is Lucien Prival, the picture is "The Great Deception" and the young rasn bears a striking resemblance to Erich Von Stro-heirn. Robert Kane, the producer, Howard Higgin, who is directing It and Ben Lyon, essaying the lead. S'em more intent on mapping out i future for Prival. than they, are in talking about the picture un- BY AEMA WHITAKER The editor chose that first hot day to hand nne the black pirates.

Phew! But thank goodness, they are comparatively mild fellows again now. First I had to stalk Sam de Grasse, the baddest, wickedest pirate of them all, a lot blacker than Doug Fairbanks, "The Black Pirate" himself, par excellence. thls picture, but gets in a lot of vll- lalnv before he does. He, too. be And I found a modest violet, (Continwd on Page 21, Column 8) ror up to nature it would be bs for this country to confine Itself to its own life and customs.

Bickers discovered that another excuse for the anti-American film lies in the fact that the Quantity vastly exceeds the quality of its output. This, however, he believes is being rapidly adjusted by the ever-increasing excellence of the cinema technique and by the American producers' prodigal but far-seeing expenditure in order to secure the best possible talent in the writing of photoplays. "When American producers will pay as much for their stories ai they do for their shooting stars," continued Bickers, "this causa for complaint will be removed. They have yet to realize. It seen what most motion-picture lovers have long felt that a big story can be put over with a small star, but that no star, however big, can put over a small story.

"It Is true a big director may but how many film fans look for. much less remember, the name of a director?" Bickers is of the opinion thar the day is on Its way when motion-picture producers may find ft mor profitable to advertise their directors instead of their so-called stars, "who," he says, "seldom re- ceive more than their directors' gan his villainous experiences In the long ago. beginning in the old Vltagraph's very first long picture, "The Girl Feiipa," in which he played a nasty revolutionary who killed the kin and stole the girl, and afterward turned spy and ended before a firing squad. He also played in Famous Players very first picture, "The Prisoner of Zenda" five roles, including Rupert of HenUau, a cavalry colonel, a soldier, a military adviser, and he can draw Just as big a salary for being one bad pirate these days. But aside from being a cruel father and a naty old roue and all those things for art's sake Anders Randolf is really a charming artist.

Ills home is hung with much of his work and he has a duck of a studio with a gorgeous view in which to pursue his painting. His portraits are excellent and his landscapes getting better all the time. So here's another screen villain who prefers to stay at home. MOST WEIGHTY HEAVIES Randolf deplores that he has tricked out in a white Louis Quinze wig, and lovely yellow silk stockings coyly peeping beneatn a bathrobe, waiting for the "call" to don a swagger silk brocaded coat and hop Into the role of a wicked wealthy innocent-girl swiper from whom John Barrymore surely would rescue her. seeing that she is Dolores Costello.

BLACKEST OF ALIj And this Sam assured me he was reporter-shy and would surely have dodged me if he had not mistaken me for just-a-hsdy. And this, if you please, is the fellow who almost gets the girl (Billie Dove) and makes poor dear Doug "walk the plank" In thp picture and lives the longest of all the villains, as portrayed at Grauman's Egyptian Theater this week. A thoroughly nasty fellow. He rather shines at this nasty-fellow stuff simply reveled In that Prince John role in Robin Hood, and ns the wicked dollar lover for D. W.

Griffith in "intolerance," in the long ago. In fact, he has been sumptuous villain In so manv plays he can't- remember them beat up his wife and be MERNA APPROVES CHARLIE Youthful Chaplin Leading Lady in "Circus" Tells Gay Tales of His Picture-Making Methods BY KATHERINE LIPKR Merna Kennedy 17 with radiant red hair and green eyes! Uta Grey Chaplin's chum Is now Charlie Chaplin's leading lady In "The Circus." and she discovered that this Wfc'IS 'college STORY OF "JgZZ- INTEREST A girl, boyish and nonchalant yet constantly flushing with an undercurrent of feminine feeling. She would probably Just as soon call (Continued on Pagw 20, Clumn 4) (Continued on Page 20, Column 5) durina "You Charlie Chaplin "Brotm of Harvard" ati CRUZE RECONQUERS TRIPOL Imposing New Carthay Circle Theater As seen by Charles Owens, staff artist of The Times. BY EDWIN KCHALLERT lachrymose display was what he had been working for. CARELESS SOIMEU DAYS She tells of Charlie Chaplin the play boy, who takes Lita.

Merna and Harry Crocker (also in "The to the beach to plan out the picture and then they all go swimming Instead and come back tired and laughing, with the picture stjll in the background. These "are the things about Charlie Chaplin which have impressed his new leading lady. His laughter and his companionabilitv. Loeiv's Depicts Various Phases of Campus Life iHE western idea is at last expressed in a theater. a scene as not.

Yet 'she is breathless in her admiration for his direction and technique. When Charlie Chaplin chose Merna Kennedy from her place as comedienne in "All For You," everyone was surprised. Everyone but Jlerna! To the rest she was Just a little girl with a charming simile, vivid hair and dancing feet. GREAT EXPECTATIONS The Carthay Circle, dedicated to the showing of first-run motion picture typifies both in its inhert inspiration and the Stupendous Sea Battle of Old Ironsides Takes More Preparation Than Real Conquest Preparations even more detailed than were made by Stephen Decatur and Capt. Edward Preble in their memorable conquest of Tripoli Bay were employed for the filming of a reproduction of that battle for motion Dictures.

fleet of old-time sailing vessels an-1 carrying out. of the same through Its adornments the pioner spirit. It is scheduled to open its doors to the public Tuesday. In soft panoply of color it la De Mille, as an attraction. The haved most flisgustlngly for Mary Plckford time and again.

DOMESTIC NOTE So, of course, he has to bo a thoroughly nice family man in private life, and tell how he loves to stay home with his best-in-the-world English wife, and his sweet 18-year old daughter Clementine. And 'pon my word, I believed tho fellow, We then proceeded to discover Anders Bandolf, whose wife Is, another hVsl-fn-iQie-worlder. and who has transformed Barbara La Marr's home on Whitley Heights into a 'perfectly reasonable comfy domicile quilt? sailed for a dear little old daughter, whose pupa earns his living by playing black pirates. Randolf gets killed off first In The advent of "Brown of Harvard" at Locw's State Theate has created considerable Intercut In local university circles, Th University of California, Southern Branch, the University af Southern California, Harvard alumni and She talks constantly of Lita and But Mania to herself is the girl Charley as if the" comedian, like artistic fulfillment of that sunshine Picture features William l.c.yu, r.n Lita and herself, were 17 In years wno nas Deen iwuucu uiuiiy timia bv life and who is growing to -ex' nor Fair and victor areom in the three principal role, and the C. 1 XI 1 sea equipment to be used.

The encounter, the most stu the University Clu1! r.rt;.. 1 members will attend the theater this week rrt i i 1 I li and inclination. NONCHAIIAXCE When Charlie planned a test for her for "The Circus" she wasn't excited or self-conscious. It was something to get over with lonulirlv rrd.d as the ost ef! I ening per- mood that has exerted always a potential lure over the imagination of men in drawing them to the Coast which is golden. Of all the institutions for entertainment that have been built hereabouts this newest one should have perhaps the most intimate Interest for the devotee' of the pleas- formances.

fective picture that De Mille has made since "The Ten Commandments," surpassing gceatlyin dra before signing the contract. It didn't to her that she might i urea of tne tneater. it snouui "cSr 6 I Prove, attractive particularly to all Although most of the college, football and racing crew scones, as well as romantic campus episodes, were filmed at Harvard and- Yale, there are many scenes in which the University of Southern California and University of California, Southern Branch, collt ge men took part. tor the freshman crew race, as have long been residents of COMEDIAN FINDS NUT CHOP GOOD npnt with Vior urViilo naroo-o 1 V'hO this locality, and who know the matic excellence such more recent films as "The Golden Bed," and "The Road to Yesterday." A view of the interior of the Carthay Circle will immediately determine it as different in architecture from any theater heretofore built here. The word Circle has significance, in that the plan of the interior almost exactly represents a circle.

From the boulevard as one approaches there is glimpsed an imposing campanile, suggestive of the mission and Snanish mode in con depicted in the production, the Federal Report Show? Fine Outlook This Year for Comics pendous ever recorded for the screen, is beinaf filmed off the coast of Southern California, twenty-eight miles from Loa Angeles Harbor. The scenes represent the glorious conquest of the frigate Constitution against the Barbary corsairs in 1S04. Fifty-two ships and more than 200(1 men were engaged to take part for the film version. WOULD RATHER FIGHT "If I had my choice of staging the sea fight for motion pictures or of captaining it in a real battle, I should most certainly choose the latter." said James Cruze, Paramount director, "eve.n if the fate of the United States hinged on the outcome. Never in my career have I encountered such difficulties in motion-picture, production as with this sea battle.

"Personally, I should much rather face cannon shots for the rest of my life than figure camera fdiots for another sea war." Late In October, almost half a year before actual production on University of California crew doubled fur Yale. Thesa scenes were photogrt piled in San Francisco, with William Haines aa of the crew, Tho University of Southern California football team played for pect many things-! This opportunity Chaplin is splendid but a girl to whom no one ever said "No," who has never met disappointment, how can she judge of how great an opportunity It is? Georgia Hale! could tell me without hesitation Just what a picture with Chaplin had done for her artistically and commercially. For Georgia had been through a year of discouragement and bitter de feat. But Merna, with her gay bubbles of enthusiasm, with her eyes untouched by any problem, Just stampers prettily that Charlie is such tun that it la great to work with him she hus never b-en so happy she wants to be in pictures always and then repeats that Charlie Is such fun. She is full of stories about him.

How he is constantly impersonating some one or other, many times herself. How at the end of some such impromptu entertainment she gets up and mimics Charlie while directing, revcaliitg nil the funny manrerlsms of which he is unconscious, And Charlie at the end laughsi aM that he can't lpok as bad as that. She explains how he grew brutal the other day on the st't and told her man.y unpleasant thinirs about herself She hesitated between anger an. 1 teari, and when tears won out rushed her to the camera LARGE OROF GIVEN Part of their order read: "Obtain by January 1st, the following: Eighteen antique square riggers, each more than 150 feet' In length; twenty small boau typical of the lSlM period; fourtoea vessels about. sventv-nve feet eacn.

pointed at both ends for Tripoli-tan ships of war; one vessel to be used aa an exact duplicate of frigate all plans and available data upon the "Constitution and the battle of Tripoli Bay; pictures of Stepnc Commodore Edw.ird Preble, and Commodore Soin'-si: 100. 00ft pounds of rope; fifty-two anchors of, the type used In lvs; maps and sketches of the old of Tripoli as it existed in is 0 4 Maps of old Salem the sara period." Cruze himself departed for New York and thence by steamer Europe and Africa, that ha obtain even more information the historical encounter and the site on which it was in.itf(H. With the aid of two French cameramen, also Neveral reels of the city and harbor of Tripoli as It xisu Because Tripoli in th p-K 125 your tins (Continued on Page 20, Column 0) VI was grinding out the test. She snapped back at him In flippant good humor, without self-consciousness. Something to be done and she was doing it.

Not a crisis to be feared! Life has never introduced Myrna Kennedy to a crisis. Merna has been on the stage since she was 9. She and her brother did a vaudevilla act for the Pantages circuit. Mr. Pantages himself seen thm at an amateur entertainment and pressed a contract upon their mother.

ALL FOR YOU" Then 'came the Keith and Or-pheum circuits, with these youngsters calmly going through a corn- history of the-West, Equally it should capture all those, and they are many, indeed, who have, if only during a short residence, fallen "under the spell of western enchantment. 1 It is fitting, perhaps, too, in view of its character, that this picture theater Invades an entirely new domain for the films, The location off Wilshire Boulevard and at the western gateway of the city, makes it distinctively an enterprise of, advancement. There is no other theater of similar pretensions within several miles either to the north or eastward. Grauman's Egyptian in Hollywood and the Forum at Pico and Norton i are the The Department of Agriculture sends out the report that the nut crop In America was never better "Which," replies Ned A. Sparks, comedian and wise-cracker, "proves that tljere is a much better chance for struction.

This campanile will on; many of tho ciose-up shots of tho all occasions be ilumlnated and I Yale-Harvard game, with William fling afar its beacon glow. I Haines, Francis N. Bushman, land Qulnn Williams, an ex-Har-Even the exterior of the build-jvard man, taking part in the scrim-Ing is enriched with those colors mages. The Southern Branch of that In Spain strangely blend in th University of California nerved their softness, combined with strlk- background for several suing contrasts, the Influence of the ciuehces. Jack Plckford and Mary Orient and the Occident.

There Brian appear in these scenes, is a dome and the suggestion of! is not only a collnse picture; minarets that blend gold wlth'bu: it was filmed with the aid of edy act. Merna has always done nearest'neighbors that present first comedians this year than' ever before! 4 the photoplay began, ruze path I ercd his staff about him and to featured rolea in Money each nan he appointed certain run pictures, inc carinay circle consequently represent! another step in the widespread and thef trl-cal development of Los Angele PREMIERE ATTRACnCX The house will open with "The blues and greens, reds ana ye virtually an all-university cast. Tfllkn" anu "There lou Are" comedy. That Is the reason for her plape in "All for You." A friend of a friend of some one saw her and took her down and Introduced her at the Mason. They didn't even try her out.

"khe'll do!" was the verdict. And ehe did. duties. Tom White and Percy lows, They have a charm that Is Donald Ogden Stewart, who worked Paramount location scouts for Metro-Gold wyn-Mayer. veiled: and subdued despite their wltu j.l(.c Conwny on the comedy and technical experts, were as- AtAAAiltAAAA)r o.gnod the tusk of gathering a (Continued on I'ago 21, Column 4) (Continued on Pago 20, Column 5) Volga Boatman," directed I Cecil.