New-York tribune., 1922-12-03
"A Blind Bargain"
Shows Advantages
OfScreenOve Stage

'em-ooWn-and-drag- -'em-out lights ever
put on nightly behind the footlights
was the one In which John Barrymore
took a 80 per eent--at lesst-share
when he was playing In kick In"
There have been other rather juicy
set-to's on the stage. but that one GER
tainly Is good enough for the present
purpose.
The present purpose Il 70 state IN
equivoeAlly that fights on the spoken
stage may be good nov and then, but
they don't hold a candle, as the saying
goes. 20 the fights before the motion
picture camera.
On the stage the actors not only
have an opportunity but must fight
every weekday night, not counting n
couple Of weekday afternoons; on the
screen they only maui each other once,
or AZ most, allowing for rehearsalS.
two or three times. Then they're
through-in more ways than one. In
whole lot Of screen fights the par
tieipants couldn't have put II on again
20 save their neeks. Yet their one en-
deavor Is multiplied sixty or hundred
times and keeps repeating Itself
through as many projecting machines
the world over, for nobody can esti-
mate how many years.
It's the same way with sets. They
can't wreck a big set-really wreck Il,
that is-on the stage every night, not
counting those aforesaid two matinee
afternoons. But they can do it in the
movies. And they sure do.
It's the same way with scenery.
Great artists paint II for the stage.
Super-hne lenses can the real thing
for the movies.
It's the same way With crowds. On
the stage they get a couple Of dozen
chaps at a dollar or so the evening to
moan like lost souls. That makes a
couple Of thousand In a mob. Thirty
or forty Of these moaners make a mil
lion. On the screen they have the
million. They've got the whole land
seape in which to herd the million
They only have TO herd 'em once. And
the Job is done. No means arc neees-
sary.
Take Ares. They have real ones in
I the movies. Train wrecks? What dc
q couple Of passenger trains amour;
to In the expenses Of putting on bie
pieturei
On the stage the hero Is planning to
rob bank or do something equally
exciting, but the heroine praying for
him In London Is invisible, unless shs
writes letter, or little bird walks
on the stage and tells about II. In
the movies such a situation Is easy,
You can see what's happening In Lon
don-and the real London at that
one minute, and what's transpiring II
Oshkosh the next minute.
And did you ever hear Of the same
actor, playing two different parts
meeting himself and talking to him
self with every appearance Of reality
on the speaking stagel Chances are
you didn't. But it's being done, ant
one Of the most artistic ways it's being
done lately was by Lon Clancy, th'
"man Of 4 thousand faces" In Gold
wSn's "A Blind Bargain" "A BLIND
Bargain" is coming 70 the Capitol
this Sunday, and that's what re-
called the matter 20 our attention
Lon CLANCY is an insane doctor II
one character and h victim of thu
doctors insanity in the other eharae
ter. The two characters meet frs
quently, but-and they say it's be
cause Of the miracle called double
exposure" and the clever use Of
metronomc to get the timing right
the probabilities are that few speeta
tors, II they hadn't been warned b.
their programs. would know that th'
two figures on the screen really wer'
the same person.
"A Blind Bargain" teaches one Of
the big truths Of this new age we'r'
living inf II doesn't teach anything
else; and that is that the movies have
some attributes that the stage never
has had, never can have, and never
will have. The movies have the worlt
for a stage-o.2 Dame Nature herself
for a scene designer; the power oi
showing action in widely separated
spots at the same time; the advan
tage Of only having TO have players 81
J through the same violent scene once
at its best and not on many conseeu
tive occasions; the privilege Of de-
etroying sets after one use (witnes'
the use Of 200 barrels Of soap, a ga
tank and what not in that same "A
Blind Bargain" Tor instance. 10 give
tie effect Of a soap bubble ballet)
snd the advantage Of permitting the
same great player not only TO play IN
two different roles, but the power Of
deception that serves to hide the sub
terfuge, and make both characters
seem as real as IL they had been
played BY two different persons
The movies may be a couple Of laps
behind the stage in some respects. but
they might be said to be a nose ahead
in others. II not, how about those his
trionic Sights?
Broken Wing" on the Screen