New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-03

scant novels of theatrical life that are
really worth while, a fiction Of the
screen, whose picturesque possibilities
are as great as is the professional lie
Of the moving picture player itself;
The screen may furnish the kernel ana
substance of this fiction. or 1t may be
used as n peg upon which TO hang the
old inventions OF love and adventure:
Of the clash Of wills, the sIferings OF
virtue and the ultimate defeat Of evil.
There is a little of all this in the
three novels here under discussion.
William Almon VOLTS Behind the
Screen" is moving picture novel IN
the full sense of the word. It takes
the industry at an important stage
of its development, gives sufficient IN,
formation concerning the tecnmeal
part of the work, and lifts the veil be-
fore another phase Of it, hitherto hard
" known, the financing and promoting
Of film producing companies, the ques-
ton Of patents, and of their infringe
ment made easy by their sweeping nat
ure-in other words, it deals with the
industry as "bie business" The story's
Young hero goes bankrupt, and dlscov-
ers among his few remaining assets
some film company stock purchased by
his late father. 1t has never paid diyi-
dends, but the man who controls the
majority of it is reported to have made
s1,50O.000. This sets the young man
thinking. He begins as super IN the
famous studios at Fort Lee, which has
furnished the most realistic pictures
of the Canadian Northwest that have
ever been taken" And there he begins TO
learn things first of all that the movie
actor was in those days mere autom-
atom, that the stage director robbed
him of all initiative. The obseryant
youth saw further and deeper. There
was room in this new art for individu-
atty, for temperament One OF the
extra women" had both. =.
A visit to the California studios fol-
lows. where pictures are made under
entirely different climatic and atmos-
pheric conditions. At last, when he
knows the business in all its details.
the hero makes his venture. lie IS the
first man to produce an old theatrical
success with the original star, and
wins. The extra woman plays lead
the hour of the highly paid movie actor
breaks, but not before some frenzied
big business tricks have been sprung
and foiled. The author gives US WIDE
and deep insight into the industry, and
at the same time tells a good story.
The motion picture as the last re-
sort of the vanishing cowboy and ms
hard pressed fctional biographer this
is the happy invention of b. NJ
Bower. of "Flying Z Ranch" fame. His
motion picture man has the happy
thought of producing panorama Of
the life of the Wild West as it really
was, in iuxtaposition to the caricatures
of that life which the films have given
US Gd Hbititn. The firm for which he
works has no faith in this proposed
realistic innovation. not even after he
has produced a burlesque of the pre-
posterous conventional stuff. SO the
whole "happy family" of the Flying u
goes into partnership with him, moves
with him to New Mexico, where. among
other unconventional exploits, it Dor
rows" the cattle of a number Of MeXi-
can cattlemen, and produces film that
takes the country by storm. Thus, in
geniously, Mr.. Bower has written The
Phantom Herd" another one OF his de-
servedly popular cowboy tales, the new
element, an obvious device, being made
to add to its freshness and entertain
ing quality.
The motion picture companies OF
"Star of the North"-there are two of
them-do not content themselves with
the Palisades as the scene of their
Canadian Northwestern pictures. They
actually venture into the sub-Arctic
Circle in winter. near a Hudson Bay
Company post, whose factor, a Scots
man, of course, has lovely daughter.
The leading man of one of these com
panies falls in love with her; his wife,
who refuses to set him free, is the star
of the other concern And there is the
villain, another actor. Even as Mr..
Bower uses the motion picture as a
peg wherein to hang his tale of the
Wild West, so does the author of
"Star of the North" use it as a peg for
his gripping story Of love and jealousy
among the grim hardships and dan
gers of the Frozen North. Both use
sdroitly the professional and technical
side of the new art, which has, after
ALL some relation with that OF the
stage, for, as Mr.. Wolf observes, "even
a grand opera company cannot teach
very much about the artistic tempera-
ment to the inmates of the average mo-
tion picture studio. The work IS done
nearly always at high speed and under
terrific strain. Nerves get tight;
tempers are nearly always near the
vanishing point"