The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-06-18


Nazimova in 1.-THE Red Lantern" Isis
Today.
The expenditure of a quarter of a
million &plIars. costumes worth
kings ra~~som and the services of !, 500
persons. from director, scenario writ
ers and art designers to an ensemble
that embodied a small army in sTze
represent but part of the trenIcn-
dous outlay in money, time and effort
given by Richard A. Rowland and
Maxwell Karger to the production of
THE Red Lantern" in which they
present the Incompatible Nazimova.
1t is a work of art destined to adj
vance the standards of motion pic
ture making by twenty-five years.
1t is truly colossal when it is judged
by the combination of the Supreme
artistry of its brilliant star and by
the sumptuous environment provided
for her and her supporting cast. 1t
has the added value of being based
upon one Of the most talked of novels
of the decade, THE Red Lantern"
romance of the ancient city of Pekin,
from the pen of Edith Wherry, and
published by the Bodley Head.
The total cost of producing the
Red Lantern" was, in round figures,
s25O,00O The time required to make
it was three months; eight weeks in
actual production and four weeks de-
voted to elaborate research work car
ried out by June Mathis and Albert
Capellani who made the screen adap-
tation and scenario of Edith Wherry's
popular novel in order to insure abso-
lutte accuracy in the matter of Chinese
life and custom.
Albert Capeuani, eminent French
Red Lantern" Henri Menessier, the
French artist and Paris Academy
model winner, designed not only all
the art interiors, but costume details,
special furnishings and properties.
Nazimova's gowns alone; the
splendid robes of state worn in the
imperial court of the Manchus and
the fantastic habiliments of the God
dess of the red lantern among them
were worth $4,000 and the costumes
worn by supporting principals In the
large cast and those of the hundreds
of "extraS figuring in the palace
scenes and the bloody street fighting
scenes reproducing the Boxer uprising
in Pekin at the time of the siege Of
the allied legations in 1900, were
worth $4,000. Real Chinese rugs used
in the production represented fab
ulous outlay. Six acres of ground
were given over to the Nazimova pro-
duction.
Most pretentious of the great out
door settings was an exact reproduc-
ton of a street in Pekin, lined with |
the shops, dwellings, shrines and tenn
pies of the Chinese, with the palace |
of the dowaiger empress at one end |
and a section of the great wall OF !
China at the other. On another part
of the lot was erected the American |
Mission with its beautiful gardens, set
with a fountain, a pool. and adorned
With trees. shrubbery and leafy bow
ers under pergolas.
Vertically miles of California red
wood and ash were used by the car
penters in turning out band-saw re-
productions of Chinese gargoyle
dragon heads and other fantastic de-
signs with which they adorn tnelr
houses of worship and abode. and in
the lattice work with which
.hey cover their windows, In street
battle scenes the extras" numbered !
,lcse to 1900 men, women and Chill
1ren.
Nazimoya has what is in effect a
ripple personality to interpret in The
Red Lantern" She a~pears as Nah
lee. an Eurasian girl Chat is, half
Nnlte ana man OIlilSScJ III "it1ii 'AiS
racial traits of the Oriental and the |
Anglo Saxon conflict in moments OF
elemental passion; and also as
Blanche Sackville, an English girl, the
natural daughter Of the father of
Mahlee. As Blanche, Nazimova for
he first time on the screen appears
as a blonde.
Mary Pickford in Captivating Role.
In Captain Kidd, Jr.," Mary Pick
lord plays another almost-grown-u up
young lady role and the well known
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