Evening star., 1925-12-06
The Moving Picture
By Robert L. Slcr7rood.

THE great war is being restaged,
albeit in a bloodless manner and
on a miniature scale. within the mov-
ing picture industry.
The root of the argument is to he
found in two stories-onc Of them
being The Big Parade, which
Laurence StallinSs wrote FOR the
screen. and the other. What Price
Glory" which Stallings. in collahora-
ton with Maxwell Anderson wrote
for the stage.
When What Price Glory" was pro
duced in New York last year, and
established as an emphatic hit. Stal-
lings was invited by MetroGoldwyn
to journey to Hollywood to write a
movie scenario. This he did. and in
the course of his six weeks stay in
California he evolved The Big Pa
radc' For this labor he was paid
so5 900. and in view Of the subsequent
success of the picture, the price was
not excessive.
Production on THE Big Parade"
started early last Spring and was com
pleted In August.
At the same time various bids were
being made for the motion picture
rights to What Price Glory" and n
short time ago the Fox Film Corpora
ported sum of $4,000.
Now that the Fox officials have seen
THE Big Parade they are bringing
suit for infringement. They claim
that Stallings sold the same material
twice.
AS an impartial observer, who has
seen the play. What Price Glory"
and the picture. The Big Parade"
l may say that the stories appear to
have almost nothing in common.
They both deal with the late war
with officers. corporals. privates
French girls. wine, tin hats, barrages
and dug-outs-but I doubt that any
one has copyright on these dramatic
properties. What Price Glory" tells
of two old soldiers who struggle for
the same girl: THE Big Parade" tells
of = Young and unframed soldier who
falls in love with French girl, and
ultimately marrieS her.
II The Big Parade" derives from
anything. it is from shoulder Arms
rather than What Price Glory" /
doubt that Charlie Chaplin will sue
Stallings for stealing his stuff.
Some time ago l remarked. in this
column, on the decline Of three stars
Rudolph Valentino, Thomas Meighan
and Barbara La Marr-commenting, a
Of fame.
Since then | have seen The Eagle"
with Valentino. and Irish Luck"
with Thomas Meighan, and have OBJ
served the attitude of the public to-
ward these pictures
Valentino. it seems, has regained
some of the ground that he had lost.
He does extremely we'll in The
Eagle" fla shng some of the brilliance
n in "a
men and Blood and sand 1t is
not an exceptionally good picture. but
it is fortunate for Valentino in that
it affords him a chance to be gay.
ashing and athletic.
In Irish Luck" Tom Meighan
neither loses nor gains. The production
is much better than any that he has
had in the past year, but it is still
far short of sensational. Meighan is
badly in need of another great role
The public quickly tires of pleasant
young men who never do much of
anything.
In the latest issue of Motion Pic
ture Magazine j note a statement at
tributed to Mack Sennett, as follows:
Most of the girls I pick are inexperi-
enced. They don't know how to be
pretty as a business. l have to teach
what to eat. and how to have their
hair cut and what sort of clothes to
wear"
1t has always seemed to me that
Mack Sennett's greatest achievement
was in teaching girls what not to
wear.
X
Among the new pictures there are
Gloria Swanson in stage Struck"
(fairly funny, Richard Barthelmess in
The Beautiful City" (melodramatical-
ly interesting up to a certain point,
but feeble at the finish), Buster kea-
ton in Go West" lone of his finest
comedies) and Blanche Sweet and Ben
Lyon in THE New Commandment"
exceedingly mushy).
With the arrival of THE Big Pa
rade" and stella Dallas" there is
now an unusually copious supply of
good screen entertainment on the
market
Copyright 1e25.l