New-York tribune., 1920-03-07
By Edwin n. Blanchard


"sttaw With which 70 make brickSS
that. according 10 Maxwell Kargsr,
director general Of Metro Screen
Classics. 10 the great need Of the mo-
tion picture. Material for the pictures,
stories, ideas, these are the raritiss In
the screen world.
We had begun cur talk with Mr.
Karger with word Of congratulation
on "The Right Of Way which WAS
produced under his supervision, and
had gone on from there to ask him to
tell ~ Of future productions compare.
hls 70 this exceptional film.
nsmsmbsr THU" interrupted tho
ker every day to Give US the material
with which to make q good picture.
On every page of the book there were
indications Of the<character Of Charley
Steele that were carried over bodily
to the screen. II We were faithful to
tho story In our screen version it was
because Parker made 1t possible.
"Bert Lyteli brought excellent char
acterization to the part Of Charley
Steele; he brought what ! always seek
in. the pictures that l direct-the ex-
preston of a. character in action. He
is an actor Of high intelligence and
from the legitimate stage to the screen
who have taken the silent drama ssri-
ously. and the result Ia that he realizes
that suppressed emotion is more efYsc-
tive on the screen than completely ex-
pressed emotion"
"Aren't most Of the actors who 70
from the stage to the screen deceived
by the surface similarities Of tho two I"
THE trouble is rather that they re-
fuse to take the screen seriously" hs
answered. "They fail to realize that 1t
L an entirely different technique Of the
same art that they must master, that
must be studied. The power that tho
voice has on the speaking stage to win
and hold an audience is lost to the
screen; the power that dialogue has in
written literature is lost to the screen.
What we must have is action and va
riety, and all the creation Of real
in that way
s"It is important to have q good cast,
but it Is doubly important to supply
that east with good material Our
present day motion picture audiences
are the most intelligent in the world;
the motion picture theaters that are
built to-day, with their programs of
music and educational films, appeal to
d standard far above the one current
ten years ago.
"To q certain extent tho motion pic
development of these intelligent audi
ences. We know more about the me-
chanical side Of production, about light
ing effects and scenic effects We have,
on the whole, better actors. as witness
the recent comment upon the better
technique gained by Elsie Ferguson in
her absence from the legitimate stage
with tho screen: We have directors
who have learned tho techinQue Of the
SBut.s Mr.. Karger emphasized, s'in
tho matter Of construction you can say
that the motion picture Industry is
comparatively speaking, in its infancy
That statement has been made fos
years. but it is still true. We buy
stories for the screen that are OBJ
viously not material for great pic.
lures because of the great demand, and
great as it Is and the supply Of true
screen material remains as low the
proportion Of good pictures will be as
small as at present.
ain the case of The Right Of Way
we had an exceptional book. But the
average book that Is dramatized fo= the
screen is far different. One novel
nave IN m1nd gave 1l1ty pages 20 de-
scription Of an automobile chase up
Sixth Avenue. It was we'll written, but
on the screen 1t could be given only q
few flashes. Fifteen more pages in
this same novel were given over to q
description Of woman's dress and OF
tho subtle effect Of q perfume on one
Of the characters. Seventy-five pages
out of 400-page novel were Of prac-
tically no value to the screen, and yet
the author wondered why didn't pur-
cha4a his story"
''You believe then that the stories
fpr screen production should be writ
ten directly for the screenf"
Absolutely" he answered. "lu the
past suthors In general have bssn %.