New-York tribune., 1920-10-17
Elimination OF Thrillers
From Films Tends TO Lift +.
Tone, Hugo Riesenfeld Says

Photoplay enthusiasts who feel that
there hasn't been much progress in mo-
ton picture production have failed to
study the subject as carefully as it de-
serves, declares Hugo Riesenfeld, man
aging director of the Rialto, Rivoli and
Criterion theaters
Progress has been slower than dur
ing the first days of the industry when
pictures leaped from a side street en-
tertainment to a Broadway art, de-
clares the noted director, but there has
been progress, none the less, lately,
and it has probably been more impor-
tant than the first spectacular move
ment upward. Mr.. Riesenfeld has
greater opportunities to study pictures
than most other people, and his word
carries the weight Of authority.
The newest development in photo
drama, says Mr.. Riesenfeld, is in the
direction Of truer appreciation of
dramatic values. The motion pictures
are learning the value of suspense and
climax and true drama is taking the
place OF mere Photographic rambling.
1T is not so many years ago when
the photoplay director seemed to be un-
der the impression that motion pict-
ures must do all the things and only
the things which the stage could not
do" said Mr. Riesenfeld reminiscently.
"Only that which the dramatic stage
did not do seemed to interest the di-
rector and he often went far afeld in
his attempt to be different The result
was that many motion pictures had as
much relationship to the realities Of
life or of art as the trick violinst who
stands on his head while playing
'Suwanec River with variations has to
violin virtuoso.
Everybody recalls some of the
thrlllers which were turned out in the
early days-and the early days are
not so very many years ago. 1t
must be about five years ago when |
saw film in which the hero, hanging
by his heels from a blazing balloon.
was swept over the top of an express
train upon which sat the heroine. The
youth picked her off the roof and
dropped her into an automobile in
which were some more Williams. with
superhuman strength he dove from his
perch and strangied the half dozen
CRIMINALS who were trYing TO kdnap
the pretty girl. And SO it went. from
thrill to thrill, and from impossibility
to improbability.
"Or, again, there would be the pic
lures in which the hero, sitting alone
in the Main woods would have d
mental picture Of his sweetheart down
IN Alabama. All the actors had second
sight in the early days. The hero saw
her sitting at the hearth knitting socks
tor the Southern winter.
THE director knew better, however.
and IN reality the heroine was some
who're in Chicago ,Callivanting around
with a good for nothing son of
Brazilian millionaire. The heroine in
turn had mental picture. which was
thrown on the screen, Of her younger
brother in Africa gathering elephant
tusks. She gave him the funds to
make the trip and looked forward to
the day when he would return home
a millionaire, lift the mortgage from
the Alabama roof and pay the Brazil
ian villain the blackmail he wanted.
But the brother was really in Monte
Carlo. He was bankrupt and was pic
tured sitting in a garret with his
pockets turned out, a revolver in his
hand. ready to kill himself as soon as
he finished having a mental vision
of his sweetheart over in Iceland pick
ing moss for starving canaries in the
Hart Mountains.
at was all so pitiful. And there were
so many shattered hopes and such d
variety of second sights until TIC spec
tator felt that he was seeing a travel
ogue and no drama at all.
There was no opportunity for the de-
vclopment of a climax. The spectator
was held by Jumping around the globe
or watching super Seroes perform super
super deeds. Spectacular thrills made
up the pictures, and there was really no
dramatic development The director was
obsessed with the idea that the farther
he got away from the technique of the
speaking stage, the better would be his
films.
This misconception has been out
grown. We have to-day some excellent
studies Of dramatic values which while
they use the photodramatic method of
expression. are nevertheless close 10 the
older technique of the stage. The camera
no longer pictures what is going on in
the brains of the actors or fash back
and forward around the world. Films
of the better grade no longer represent
the old and familiar photograph album
which had snapshots of the head of the
family sitting in friends automobile
or taking dip at Sea Girt or eating a