The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1923-10-18
Company

Guild was organized financially along the
lines of the Theater Guild, though so far
they have evinced no plans for their
own 100000 movie theater.
Their first production was ''The Cradle
Buster" which futile wrote and directed,
with Creelman assisting on the script,
and in which Glenn Hunter was the first
theatrical lamb whom they drew into
their fold This was a comedy in the
Booth Harrington manner, reproducing
the golden age Of awkwardness. 1t was
followed by Second Fiddle" likewise
written and directed by futile and por-
traying a New England country boy
dominated by the elder brother complex.
In this production the Guild members
drew a deep breath in concert and ex-
perimented The story started out inno7
Gently enough as a nice, pretty light
comedy, and then, throwing discretion
to the winds, let itself go in smashing
dramatic finale.
That adventurous spirit of experiment,
that gnawing desire to try new paths, is
typical of the new blood in the movies
and moreover, they have managed to
establish cordial relations with the public
in spite of departing from mummified
precedent. Critics have ranked both
these productions among the leading pic
lures of the year past, and the Film Guild
members are beginning to feel they have
not lived in vain.
Their third picture was Youthful
Cheaters," written by Martin as a gentle
satire on society, without once drawing
the parallel with Babylonian revels
Martin has set out valiantly to portray
life among the New York drawing rooms
and the Long Island estates as he knows
it actually is, and not as the films have
so often portrayed it, with abandoned
gayety filing the air with champagne
corks, confetti and dirty looks. Further
more, the society men have been drawn
as the Guild members know society men
to be-the polished type without rancid
meanness, such as John Galsworthy de-
picts, rather than the handsome vultures
who in the average movie seem to spend
their time wearing dress suits and lying
III wait for porcelain innocence. An
other interesting feature of this picture
is the novelty of plot with villainless
villain, being the nearest thing to an A.
A. Milne comedy which has yet been
pinned down to the screen.
ln01r picture Is 1SICy >NldChclJC .
"The Scarecrow," a tale of Salem witch
craft in 1892, in which an effort has been
made to reproduce the Puritan period
down to the last scowl The unique fea-
ture claimed for this picture is that it
makes no attempt to set forth natural
istic explanation of it's preternatural hap
penings but gives the devil his due as
real personality. During the fantastic
episodes expressionistic settings were
used for the first time in picture made
in America Mackaye, after seeing the
first print of this picture, sent letter
praising the work of the Film Guild and
congratulating himself ION being the
most contented film author | have ever
met"
The settings used for "The Scarecrow"
are worthy of a few words Realistic,
sets of old Salem were used except in the
scenes of magic, and here the Guild
stepped out boldly and determined to be,
expressionistic, even if Dubuque, Iowa,
hadn't yet declared itself enthusiastically
on the side of expressionism. These eX-
pressionistic mountings are the first to be
done in American pictures--they've only
been done once before in the, whole wide
world, in "Caligari" But that didn't
stop the Guild-they achieved the effect
they were after. so they didn't care what
name it was called by.
Moreover, their willingness to blaze a
trail was shown in their decision to en-
phasize that the devil and witches por-
trayed in "The Scarecrow'' were meant
as real devils and witches, with no gilded
buncombe at the end explaining that they
were human beings who were mistaken in
a perfectly natural way for practitioners
of the black art by poor fossils who didn't
know any better The Guild made the
departure \of designing the picture ale
gorically on the theme that this is the
life Of man"--not to be understood to
mean this is the life!"
That artistic integrity which is willing
to use any unaecustomed means to arrive
at a true effect is the standard around
which they all rally. They strive above
everything else for sincerity, which does
not mean, however, that they, are thereby
fatally condemned to Ibsen and Tchek-
: how! They are equally ready to try satire
or melodrama. provided it's, soldered to-
gether with humanity rather than hokum.
They eschew hokum, that resort to sure
fire but false expedients to put a, situa-
ton over in both acting and story, hav-
ing found from experience that a picture
will go over very well if you just let
nature take its course.
On the other hand they're opposed to
anything just because it's high@brow, for
that type of mind isn't sacrosanct to
them.
Cravens designs sets and attends the
story conferences, making suggestions on
Stories
Waller, in addition to being official
cameraman, knows how to handle the
continuity of a story, do cutting and
make business contracts.
Creelman, besides writing continuity,
can direct and supervise the photography.