New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-12
Gulf Between Stage and
Screen Should Be
Preserved.
RUSHVILLE ELEVEN
SETS NEW STANDARD
Some of the Difficulties of Walk
ing Right Up to Inter.
view a Star.
BY HAYWOOD BROUN.

BY HAYWOOD BROUN.
Most plays which succeed and many
which do not are turned into moving
pictures. The greatest possibilities OF
the films will not be achieved until
there is complete realization of the
fact that there is no relationship be
tween the silent and the spoken drama.
The man who writes for the stage ac-
cepts certain limitations in return for
number Of advantages. Freely he
surrenders his right 10 spin rowing
yarn in return for the voice Of julia
Marlowe and for the sake of the com
pelling presence of Maude Adams he
agrees 20 wrestle with the diihcuities
of getting his characters on and on
the stage as needed.
The foolish movie man takes the play
without its advantages and with all Its
limitations. Truly, before the story
appears on the screen more scenes have
been added. The gaps between the
acts are pieced out. Not only do we see
the hero enter the drawing room, but
we watch him coming up the stoop'
Yet at best it is only patchwork. The
story is told in the way of he stage
and not in movie manner. The thing
had lines once upon time, and when
they arc gone it wabbles.
Nobody undertakes TO translate plays
written for the films back TO the stage
again. but there would be just as much
logic in the process. Picture people
should not try to make their films as
much like plays as possible, but as diff
ferent. The movie has it's own relation
to time and to space. The laws of the
drama do not help, and they should not
bind.
Eligibility rules are getting more
stringent every day. In Otto Hauer-
bach's new play. 1.-THE Silent Witness
the captain of the Rushville eleven
drops the best end on the squad be-
cause it is rumored that he is illegin-
mate. cupid" Black, who saw the
show, seemed amazed. He said that to
the best Of his knowledge there was no
such rule at Yale, and he was sure that
the custom did not prevail in Cam
bridge.
When no show is produced the con-
ductor of a dramatic column ought to
interview somebody. We like TO get
within hailing distance of the great,
but it terrifes us. Maybe there is
some stock question with which to
open a conversation with an actress,
but we don't know il. No sooner does
the press agent open the door oil the
dressing room and push US in than we
are seized with feeling that the
thing must be done quickly. Usually
we can detect the same signs of I'M
patience in the person TO be inter
viewed.
When the five minutes are up we
have learned that the lady likes 10
act. that she tries to feel her part,
that cool weather is more pleasant
than hot, that she wants 70 play Juliet
some time before she dies and that
She discards seven or above from
the suit she would like 10 have led.
Some people can make a column out
Of that. but we cant.
Gertrude Hoffman, was the first
actress we ever interviewed. She was
doing Salome dance in vaudeville.
In some paper or other we saw Miss
HofFmann's Salome is frankly physi-
cal rather than psychological ~
didn't mean much, but we iotted 1t
down as the basis of possible cues
ton. When we got in the dressing
room it was the first thing we could
think Of
We began right off, miss Hoffman,
is your Saome physical or psychology
cai"? She answered "Huh!" but when
we wrote up the talk she was quoted
as saving "Psycher WHAT"
We saw Miss Hoffman, a year later,
and she said that we were not
gentleman because we had made fun
of her grammar and education. Since
then VIC have always written inter-
views as politely and as truthfully as
we could
Carroll McComas of Seven
Chances" is the sort of a beauty who
seems to have dew on her hair.
The doctor in 1.-THE Silent Witness"
calls those red and white things cor
pussels."
II makes us mad every now and
again TO look in the paper and fnd
that six or seven lines of type out OF
our story have been dropped on ue
floor. The thing that makes US mad IS
that the review reads along just about
the same as if it were all there.
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