The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-25
Photo Plays Good Enough to
Run Full Year Coming.
Producers Set New Mark for
Future Attainment.
TAKE MORE time ON THEM
DeMille Used to Make Fourteen
Plays Per Year.
Now Can Produce Only Three in
Same Time.

Long run pictures such as we plan
to produce under the new production
policy of this organization are des-
tined to crowd out weaker and pur-
poseless photoplays. thus making
fewer and better pictures a fact rath-
er than phrase"
There. In a few words. Is Cecil B.
DeMille's summary of future events
under the new all-star production pol
icy recently announced by the Famous
Players-Lasky Corporation.
Mr.. DeMille has just started the ini-
tial production for Paramount under
this policy-an adaptation of Arthur
Schnitzler's play. THE Affairs of
Anatol." with an all-star cast which
includes Wallace Reid Elliott Dexter,
Daniels, Theodore Roberts, Dorothy
Cummings, Agnes Ayres, Theodore
Kosloff and Julia Faye
In an interview given out on the
eve OF production work on this photo
drama, Mr.. DeNIille made the follow
ing interesting prophecy and resume
regarding this policy:
Prophecy Is Made.
Just few years ago the producer
was delighted when his picture en-
joyed run OF one or two weeks at a
single theater. Today we have rela-
lively many productions which play
engagements from three to eight or
| nine weeks.
THE reasons for this change are
many but perhaps the most obvious
| IS that pictures have become steadily
| better and have found corresponding
| favor in the eye of the public. The
| day of experimentation is passing and
the day of achievement is at hand
More time, money and thought are
being put into the pictures of today
with result that the spectator sees i'm
measurably better pictures
Barley six years ago, made four
teen pictures in a single year. We re-
corded those as very good pictures at
that time.
Only Three Per Year.
To-day, working just as hard or
! harder, find that 1 can only turn out
three pictures in the same length OF
time. But the three pictures that l
make today draw more patronage than
the entire fourteen of six years ago.
Any one of this trio can be counted
on to play for several weeks in several
of the theaters of the larger cities.
Several years ago 1 tried the ex-
pertinent of producing a picture with
out a star. The pessimists of that day
said such venture was doomed to
speedy failure. Despite these prophe-
cies. this venture succeeded and its
successors succeeded as no other
photoplays to date have succeeded.
To Group the Stars.
MY theory at that time was to get
the best actor or actress that could be
found for the individual role. My
forthcoming production is but the con-
| tinuation of that idea. Stars have
achieved stardom because they are the
most talented players. BY gathering
together a group of stars in one pro-
duction the public will see every role
portrayed by the actor or actress best
fitted for the particular part.
LAS with the cast, so with the story
and its author. Screen writing is the
most difficult of all the arts. In order
that the story may be worthy of the
direction and the cast, it is necessary
to secure the services of the most
capable and artistic of the limited field
| of writer's.
cit is not beyond the bounds of rea-
son to say that the picture of the
future may take a year or more to
produce If a picture produced under
this system should play for three or
six monthS-and our experience in the
past has shown us that this is not i'm
possible-a year spent on production
work would be a year well spent We
are working constantly toward a reaH-
zation in fact of our slogan of fewer
and better pictures"