The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1922-06-23
"smil:., Throucb. .

come very commonplace. Therefor
the casual reference and indifference
: to moving pictures.
: If all this was attributed to thu
uses of the screen made by some O
the large producers the rebuke would
be we'll founded.
But when a work of such charm
and wholesomenesS as Allan Lang
don Martins book comes to us with a
screen cast of such notables as Nor
ma Talmadge and Wyndham Stand
ing the viewpoint has another angle
A certain class of the old profess
sion, the spoken drama, has never
surrendered altogether to the silent
play. There are still numbers who
really believe that they see the end
of the screen, yet there has never
been time since the first moving
picture that its growth has not been
marked. The truth is that the old
field of the playwright and the player
has dwindled until there is practical
ly nothing but pictures except in New
York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia
and a very few others.
1t is plainly matter of possibility.
1t has never been practical to carry
the more expensive productions of
the stage to what is known as small
time (towns). Therefore the rural
centers were often treated to un-
professional and Indifferent drama.
1t is practical and it is now the
rule that every small town in the
continent is familiar with the best
talent on the screen. Only now and
then a picture like Griffith's is be-
lated, but they finally reach us.
Therefore we would revise the
bards words, 1.-THE Plays the Thing"
and say The Screens the Thing.
Only we have never learned to dis
and discrimination means
to separate the wheat from the chaff.
That is what the public must do. The
producers heye no standards except
what the public demands. 1t is
choosing between such pictures as
'Smilin' Through" and the Mae Muir
ray undress and bedchamber kind |
There is as much difference between S
hem as daylight and dark. The fact '
S that they should be classed in en- l
irely different professions. They t
should come to us under different I
readings so that the patrons would
NOW what to expect a
An example Of this is seen in the Il
audiences that attend such plays, .
ay as Turn to the Right" at the S
}hautauqua, and those who see it at t
he theatre. The players are the same t
ut the atmosphere is different. e
The sex and the nude will disap- h
ear entirely when the public de- Ii
hands entertainment like "Smilin' "
The screen has not only taken the k
lace of the spoken play, but there m
as also been a marked advance in ta
he progress of the artist. 1t is really b
ne perfecting Of pantomime. Henry Il
rying was probably the king of pan r
omime artists as expressed in his
honorable performance of THE e
ellis. And as to that, the acting is
andards of the screen have not yet 1t
cached that degree of perfection that al
le old players attained. They will
'me day, and such artists as Norma sy
almadge are ambitious enough to m
ndertake the work. 1t took lots of al
'urage to essay the role that Jane Oh
owl made of Monyeen and Kathleen
"Smilin' Through" miss Cows mi
ork is a classic.) But Norma Tai or
adge has given us a charming pic Of
ire. At least she and her husband liz
Id company of artists have done So
A very large audience saw the pic ed
re here last Monday night and they gil
ere delighted "Smilin' Through" I'M
mes like a story of spiritual beauty ha
a rose garden. 1t is like Dave
arf1eld's Peter Grim" or the play
Rosemary produced a quarter of
century ago by John Drew and
aude Adams. Or equally as inter VI
ting was the play of "Heartsease" fol
Henry Miller of that period. eie
If all plays were like these the be-
age or the screen would not suffer ar
e faint of odium of
Right here we would like to take a
e liberty of saying that there are ces
few ambitious artists who are capa- as
of greater achievements and who bet
We already given evidence of posi- To
lities. One of the recent notables col
the film is Priscilla Dean. Really Lei
e seems gifted with the fire of ge- ant
us and the intellectual breadth the
at make imperishable to the stage ont
e names of Mrs. Fiske, Mrs. Carter. lat
d is now making3of Lenore Uric. fgl
won't be long till there will be Diet
revision of film names, especially aga