Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-24

our feathered friends make noises
peculiar to themselves; during the
past week we were given the treat
of seeing a cat fight on a back
fence, with the additional cat
erwauling, or whatever it may be.
And we have wondered about these
sound news reels. Were they
created to awaken the audience,
and have they reached the limit
of fooliShness?
How much better it would be to
go back to the old days-the days
when a pile driver was simply a
pile driver and not an ear-Split-
ting piece of machinery, when q
public man could be seen and not
heard, when a chicken could eat
his or her MONDAY meal with
out dialogue and a couple OF cats
could engage in another battle of
the century without telling all the
family secrets.
TT would seem that the law
makers are going after the
movies in earnest this time. The
States of Colorado, Connecticut,
Idaho, Oregon, Ohio, Tennessee,
Vermont, West Virginia. South
Dakota, Iowa. Kansas, Michigan,
Missouri and North Carolina have,
in their Legislatures, bills for ad-
mission taxes. The latter run all
the way from 2 per cent to 10 per
cent, and North Carolina proposes
a tax of $40 per motion picture
reel. In addition, other bills have
been drawn up for presentation in
the Legislatures of Indiana, Utah,
Oklahoma, Minnesota, Nebraska
and South Carolina.
Censorship bills have been in
troduced in Connecticut, Nebraska
and Ohio, and one will be intro
duced in the Pennsylvania LegiS-
lature to include sound pictures.
Bills to regulate attendance of
children have been introduced in
Colorado, Maryland, Nebraska,
New Jersey, New York and oregon,
and they probably viii be intro
duced in Texas, North Carolina
and Iowa. And there are other
proposed laws in various States
laws on daylight saving, Sunday
closing, tax on foreign corpora
tionS aimed at chain theaterS and
chain stores, and labor measures.
Complete repeal of the Ohio
censorship law is asked in a bill
now before the Legislature of that
State. And another bill in the
same Legislature asks for local
option in Ohio municipalities rel
alive to Sunday motion picture
exhibitions. A revision, of the
State censorship law is asked in
Massachusetts,.
Noted in Passing.
EMn JANNINGS has turned out
some fine pictures, his last eff
fort, 'The Sins Of the Fathers"
being no exception. He is prob
ably the leading screen actor Of
the day. But there is a sameneSS
as well as a greatness in his pic
lures. He should be provided with
new characteriZations. He is an
actor who is able to handle any
role. Why not give him a new
story-a vehicle to take him from
the single track which Hollywood
seems to have prepared for him?
VAUDEVILLE is either very good
or very bad, and this fact
may have had an important part
in the killing of of the big time
houses. A result, however, has
been that many of the picture
palaces have been enabled to pick
choice acts to accompany the film
programs. During the past week,
Washington ti1eaterS staged ex-
cellent vaudeville.
THE Mack Sennett bathing girls
are now appearing in all-talk-
ing comedies. Showing that there
is nothing In the report that they
are deaf-and dumb.
THE Carl Laemmle organization
is producing 1.-THE Green Mil
lionaire" with a dialogue entirely
in YiddiSh. There will also be an
English version.
THE first screen musical comedy,
produced as an added attrac-
ton in a Washington theater last
week, left much to be desired. An
entire stage, filled with the dane
ing chorus, is too large for the
camera, and the picture was only
effective when special bits and
close-upS were shot into the piece.
The star was a delight to the eye,
but her singing voice could not
have pleased her own mother.
The chorus was exceedingly well
trained, but indistinct and diff
flcult to follow by the audience.
There will have to be a different
arrangement for the screen musi-
cal comedy, even in the tabloid
form.