Evening star., 1927-11-27
FLASHES

4 = Film Daily. a weekly maga-
zine devoted to the motion picture
and allied interests. This ballot is
20 be filled out with the names OF
10 pictures which the said reviewer
considers the best of the past year.
Later the ballots are gone over, the
votes tabulated and from the mass
emerges a list of "the Film Daily 5
10 best pictures of the past year.
This is only one of the many lists
of best pictures" but it has the ad-
vantage of being voted upon by mo-
tion picture writers all over the
country. 1t is, as nearly as possible.
consensus of opinion from those
who have made study of the photo
play.
In the opinion of the writer land
his ballot is arranged to conform
with this opinion) there is only a
little difficulty in naming the 10 best
pictures of the year They include
Beau Gcste." "Ben-H Hur," The Big
Parade" Chang" Underworld"
STARK Love-" The Way of All
Flesh" What Price Glory" Sew
enth Heaven" and God Gave Me 20
Cents" If there is any doubt at all
concerning the list, it probably rests
with the last-named picture, for it
might be that Resurrection" or
Faust" would make an appropriate
substitution.
One of the outstanding features
about such a list of photoplays is
that, with one exception. the pic
lures are not star vehicles. The
Way of All Flesh" with Emil Jam
nings, is the exception, for the star
made the picture; an ordinary actor
in the part would have made an or
dinary picture. All the others in
the list are big stories; almost any
cast could have turned out equally
successful productions. 1t may be
stretching point. but Ben Turpin
could almost have played the part
taken by John Gilbert in THE Big
Parade" and the picture would have
remained big one. In Seventh
Heaven" two stars were made-Janet
Gaynor and Charles Farrell-but
they were unheard of up to that
time. THE Big Parade" was not
star-made picture, and into the same
class falls STARK Love- What
Price Glory" "Ben-Hur" and I'm
derworld." The latter picture proved
to be the making of George Ban
croft.
Another feature of the list is that
many of the well known stars are
entirely missing. There is no men,
ton of such we'll known box Of
flce attractions as Gloria Swanson,
Thomas Meighan. Douglas Fair
banks, Mary Pickford, Richard
Barthelmess, Norma Shearer, the
Gishes, Monte Blue, Adolphe Men
jou, Lon Clancy and many others.
They evidently have no place in the
years 10 best pictures. When they
sign a contract to appear in a pro-
duction they are the featured at
fractions; usually the story itself is
lost sight of, and their names do not
appear upon the honor role.
In the ballots cast for the best pic
lures of the year several pictures
already exhibited are not included in
the list for 1927. These are: THE
Gaucho," with Douglas Fairbanks;
THE Jazz Singer with AL Jolson
The King OF Kings" with H. B.
Warner; "Old Ironsides," with
Charles Farrell. Esther Ralston,
George Bancroft and Wallace Beery
The Patent Leather Kid" with
Richard Barthelmess; The Student
Prince" with Norma Shearer and
Ramon Novarro; Sunrise" with
Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien;
Uncle Toms Cabin" with Mar
garita Fischer and James Lowe, and
Wings" with Clara Bow, Richard
Arlen and Charles Rogers.
X
THE John Barrymore unit is the
L only company now producing at
the big plant of the United Ar
lists. The cast is completing THE
Tempest"
FROM Will H. Hays, president of
l. the Motion Picture Producers
and Distributors of America, Inc.
comes note or two regarding the
recent trade practice conference of
the motion picture industry held in
New York. The conference was
held under the auspices of the Fed
eral Trade Commission, and the
three big subjects taken up included
Book and play formula, relating to
the efforts to keep screen entertain
ment wholesome; 'Eliminations'
and be carefuls' relating to the
further efforts to avoid the picturiza-
ton of material that is offensive to
race or creed. or that is objection
able for other reasons" and Block
booking; relating to the wholesale
renting of pictures"
The theatergoing public is not at
all interested in the subject of block
booking" and how the pictures are
distributed and exhibited. 1t is more
interested in good pictures and what
the pictures of the future are to be
like. Mr.. Hays incloses little book
let, THE Motion Picture" issued
monthly by the producers and dis
tributors. in which is detailed the
action of the conference. There is
list of II forbidden themes for the
producers and an added list of %
subjects which are, hereafter, to be
treated Carefully" The list includes
almost everything from use of the
flag to surgical operations, and the
movies of the future are to be lily