Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-11
The Moving Picture
By Robert E. Sherwood

At this particular moment. the mo-
ton picture industry Is at its. low
est ebb. Few pictures are being re-
leased. and those Few are frankly. I'M
qualifiedly feeble. The producers
know this, the exhibitors also know
it--and the public doesn't care much,
one way or another. as the public
just al present ~ staying away from
the fil,n parIors,
II IS customary. in these waf1n
Summer months. for the producers 10
dig back into their files to retrieve
once.successful pictures and oftef
them anew as ssrevivals, by popular
request" No one knows just who
makes these popular requests and
here again no one much cares.
Lately have seen advertised g
great number OF honored veterans OF
former seasons, showed out on the
screen to go through their familiar
PAGES. Some OF them have proved
10 be fairly good attractions, and have
drawn well at the box Office.
MThere is .The Marriage Circle, !" for
instance. which was the first. OF the
pictures that ERNEST Lubitsch made
for Warner Brothers. 1t included
such stars as Monte Blue, Marie
Provost, Florence Vidor, Creighton
Hale, Adolphe Menjou. Harry Myers
and I'm a tiny role) Esther Ralston.
Not one of these players was espe-
cially celebrated when THE Marriage
Circle was produced. Now, however,
Mr.. Blue Is Warner Brothers star;
Mr.. Menjou, Miss Vidor and Miss Rail
ston are Paramount iuminaries; Miss
Provost IS starring in feature COM
edies under the DeMille banner, and
Messrs. Hale and Myers are appearing
regularly in high.salaried roles Tor
various companies.
/ saw THE Marriage Circle" the
other day, when IL was revived at
Warmers Theater, in New York. and
I found that the impression that /
formed of 1t three years ago was not
unduly enthusiastic, It stands today
as one of the four or five examples of
perfect direction that the silent drama
has yielded. None OF Lubitsch's SUBJ
sequent pictures-exception as they
all have been can equal It.
~ 4
!. Another revival that has attracted
attention lately is Outside the Law"
q five.year-old thriller, with Priscilla
Dean and Lon CLANCY. II was di-
rected by Tod Browning, who jumped
into the front rank last season with
THE UnhoIy Three"
.'Outside the Law" appears to be
Just about as exciting and as wildly
improbable as 1t ever was. It doesn't
make much sense, but It does cause
the hair to stand on end and the
yertebrae to rattle alarmingiy-w which
is all 1t pretends to do.
Incidently, this revival ID interest
ing In that Priscilla Dean must still
be featured as the star, with Lon
CLANCY listed only as a supporting
player. Actually, Mr.. Chaney's name
appears in much larger type in the
advertisements; since Outside the
Law was produced he has become
one OF the prime favorites Of Holly
wood, whereas Miss Dean has all but
vanished from view.
When / saw Fascinating Youth, :
the picture in which the is graduates
of the Paramount School made their
debut, ! reported in this column that
ii was not so hot as entertainment.
My critical remarks drew forth many
protests from those who said, 'tGive
these young people a. chance. They
are trying to get ahead and they de-
serve encouragement"
In spite of this, felt that they did
not deserve encouragement IL they
were to consecrate themselves to such
pifiling pictures as Fascinating
Youth"
\ nv. verdict appears to have been
justified. Fascinating Youth has
turned out to be e. substantial Mop
wherever 1t has been shown-and
there is no further talk Of another
production In which the 16 youngsters
are to be starred. whether these
white hopes OF the cinema have bright
futures, am unable to. say. Ger