Evening star., 1924-01-13
BY HALLETT ABEND.

| will be a shortage Of new motion pic
lures for the theaters of the country
from about the first Of March until
well along in April, according to Mar
Gus I,oew. president Of Metro, who
has merely voiced in an interview
what has been apparent to most other
! producers for couple of months. The
partial shutting down of some studios
and the total cessation OF work at
others will cause reissues of old films
and a general scramble for picture
plays worth while, because since mid
| September production has not been
adequate to fill the demand.
This shortage of films will be
! good thing for the industry and it
! viii force big producers who have re-
lease contracts to meet TO go into the
| market here and buy or handle the
| releasing of many meritorious films
, made by independents who have had
| no releasing channel and who have
had to stop production because of
frozen capital in released productions.
| Mr.. Loew announces that Metro has
already made two such purchases.
| The Half Dollar Bill" Max Graf
fea ture. and Lillian Gish's The
White Sister"
| Mr.. Loew has also announced the
signing of Frank Borsage, director of
"Humoresque" and of Norma Tai
! madge's Secrets" for a long term
| Metro contract.
In 1924 Metro will make moro pic
lures than ever before, but fewer
period costume plays. There will be
fewer super-special million dollar
productions in general and more good
hve and six reel photoplays, Mr.. Loew
believes.
! Walsh TO BE Ben Hur.
Goldwyns has announced definitely
that George Walsh will play the title
! role in 'Ren Hur," which Charles
Brabin will make in Italy, with June
Mathis as scenarist and supervising
editor. Gertrude Ofmsted will play
| the woman lead. Esther. and kath-
! leen Key has been contracted for TO
play Tirzah.
! Clara Kimball Young has again
! forsaken the screen for the stage. She
i VIII open a new play, Trimmed in
Scarlet" in San Francisco soon after
the New Year. play Los Angeles and
was written by William Hulburt. Miss
| Young has not appeared on the stage
! for the last nine years.
! Clark W. Thomas, general manager
, of the Thomas II. Ince studios, ha
resigned and has been made manager
of the Cinema Mercantile Company. a
cooperative concern through which
most of the big companies purchase
fixtures and supplies.
Robert Agnew, Bessie Love and
! Warner Baxter have been added to
the Thomas II. Ince cast headed by
! Blanche Sweet. which is making
Those Who Dance" under Lambert
4 HillyerS direction.
| Reginald Denny'S next Universal
production will be a screen adapta-
tion of The Missourian," novel by
Eugene p. Lyle. 1t is to be a cos
tune production, for it deals with the
struggle of Mexico to overthrow the
Emperor Macmillan. Denny, who was
! injured in an automobile accident
eight weeks ago, is at last out of his
| plaster cast and though he broke his
| hip he walks without d trace of ii
limp.
Raymond Griffith has been lent 10
the B. p. Schulberg Company by
Goldwyns and will appear in Poi
soned Paradise" Others in this fea-
ture will be Kenneth Harlan, Clara
Bow and Carmel Myers
Lew Cody has been loaned by Gold
Iwyns to Metro and is working in
Revelation"
Laxky Resumes Camera Work.
The scene of the first resumption
of camera work by Famous Players
Lasky is Natchez. Miss. where James
ICruze went to film outdoor scenes for
Booth Tarkington's Magnolia" Ern-
est Torrance, Noah Berry, Cullen
Landis, Mary Astor and Phyllis HaTer
are in the cast
| Edna Purviance, instead of starring
in another serious drama after "A
Woman of Paris" will again lie
Charlie Chaplin's leading woman in
the comedy drama of the great north
west upon which Chaplin begins work
January 2. The sets are already con
| structed at his studio. but many Of
the eXteriors Will he taken in Canada.
| Harold Lloyd and his bride. Mildred
/ Davis. will make a three months trip
to Europe early in the spring. when
Lloyd commences filming The Girl
! Expert
/ Jean Hersholt has been engaged to
support Norma Talmadge in The
Gold Fish"
| Florence Walton, wife and dancing
| wood and will take a flip at motion
picture work when her husband joins
her in January.
! Hollywood Holds Its Own.
| Hollywood has taken heart again
| because of the definite and detailed
Encouragement sIs, I'm made by Jesse l.
Famous-Lasky Company. that not
only would the big studio reopen
January Z, but that there was no
of the Lasky productions would be
made in the east. Mr.. Lasky says
that in 1924 his organization will pro-
duce sixty motion pictures and 70 per
Moreover. he denies any intention
ever to shift production to the east
! By April there will be twenty COM
panies producing simultaneously here
for Lasky.
| Productions soon to get under way
include Mary Roberts Rinehart's THE
! Breaking Point" with Patsy Ruth
Miller. newly signed as a Lasky star.
in the lead. Matt Moore. George
/ Fawcett and Nita Naldi Will also be
| in the cast. Herbert Brenon directs.
! Sam Wood will direct Bluff" with
Agnes Ayres and Antonio Moreno, and
| Irving Willatt is to direct "Wanderer
of the WaSteland." starring Jack Holt.
| This entire picture will be in colors.
After La ROGUE completes ,"Tri-
umph" he will be starred under Vic
tor Fleming in THE Code of the Sea"
Dimitri Buchowetzky will direct