Evening star., 1929-12-15

- OME ILLne ago Cie hotLoIl $50
Academy Of Arts and Sciences
planned to sponsor a monster
- film to be made up of clippings
from the more memorable pro-
ductions of the past. 1t was tc oe
a collection of the greatest OF the great
moments that the screen has known
and I for one awaited its appearance
with we'll controlled eagerness.
am still waiting. The preparation
of the masterpiece was delayed, in the
first place, because the lords OF the
of great moments. Each one wanted
something of his own included. 1t
was like a group of foot ball coaches
from all sections getting together to
select an All-America team.
Then the talking pictures came
along and Hollywood forgot that any,
thing had ever been done in the cinema
prior to the outburst Of sound. How
ever, I am still hoping that the artists
resurrect their original idea and put 1t
into effect. The expense Of such a
production would be negligible, and l
| feel certain that the Affiliated Brother
hood and Sisterhood Of Film Critics
would be only too glad to take over the
work of selecting the great moments
that are to be used in the celluloid
anthology. Indeed, shall venture to
start the movement with some nomina-
tions of my own.
There will, of course, have to be
something from 1.-THE Birth of Ma
tion," the most obvious choice being
| the scenes of the ride of the Ku Klux
Klan. My own choice, however, would
| be the views of Sherman'S march from
| Atlanta to the sea, with the grim,
homeless Georgians watching his tri-
umphal progress from their hiding
places in the mountains.
From Intolerance" should come the
/ magnificent shots of Constance Tai
madge driving a chariot madly along
the banks of the Euphrates; and pos
sibly the bridal scenes with Bessie
! Love as the bride) from the biblical
sequences of this same picture.
| "Tol'able DAVID can contribute prob
ably the most bitter combat that the
screen has known-the fight between
Richard BarthelmeSs and Ernest Tor
renee for possession of the mail bag,
Space must certainly be found for
the firing squad scene from "The Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse" A group
of French civilians, convicted of es-
pionage, are lined up against a wall;
Wallace Beery, as German officer
is munching an apple as he issues his
commands: just as the final word is
! given, a smoldering youth in the line
| of the condemned SnatcheS of his cap
and starts to shout, "Vive La France!'
The audience couldn't hear his words,
but it didn't need to.
| X y X 4
THE noblest and most poignant
moment in "The Covered Wagon
was the burial of the old woman who
had come all the way from PennSyl-
vania. And there was a scene in "a
! Connecticut Yankee" wherein King
| Arthur's knights were shown in the
act of discarding their armor and piling
| it in a great heap; bevy Of mecha-
nicians then gathered about this heap
and set to work, and when they stepped
| aside, revealed cleaning htvver.
| For purely spectacular scenes, the
finest examples are to be found in the
early sequences of Robin Hood" and
the Siege of Baghdad by the Mongols
| in "The Thief of Baghdad." There
were also some colossal shots in THE
Hunchback of Notre Dame" especially
Lon Chaney's precipitous descent from
the cathedral towers to rescue Mary
| Philbin.
The advance through the woods in
"The Big Parade is an inevitable
| choice, as is the opening sequence of
Beau Geste," wherein it is discovered
that the lonely desert fort is garrisoned
with dead men.
OF all the millions of love scenes that
I have witnessed, those that remem-
ber most clearly and most pleasantly
were played by DoublaS Fairbanks. Jr.,
and Lois Moran in stella Dallas" by
Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman in
THE White Sister," by John Barrymore
and Mary Aster in Beau Brummel," !"
by Mae Marsh and Ivor Novello in THE
White Flower" and by John Gilbert and
an unidentified extra girl in the
Maxim's scene in 1.-THE Merry Widow"
There are plenty of other great mo-
ments that are crying for admission
the scene between Emil Jannings and
Florence Vidor in 1.-THE Patriot" an
| exit by Adolphe Menjou in forbidden
| Paradise" the march of the galley
slaves in "Ben-Hur" and the beating up
Of the villain by Pearl White In a melo-
drama the name of which I have for
gotten.
IF WE'RE in charge of the assem-
= bling of this all-star production
should arbitrarily ignore all the COM
| edieS involving Charlie Chaplin, Harold
| Lloyd, Buster Keaton or Harry Lang
don-for if I ever were to start selecting
| from their pictures there would be no
end to the labor, nor would there be
room left in the anthology for anything
else.