Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-01

a drawing showing the
. end of a fist fight be-
bween two market men. The VIC
tor advised his fallen opponent to
SGo on home, now, and write a
war book" And he might have
added, Get it turned into a
movie" At the present time, the
photoplay vogue turns to war pic
lures. Some of them are excel
lent, some are good and some are
bad. About the best of the lot to
reach the Washington screens is
Journeys End" which deals with
a small group of British fighters
in a single dugout. War is only
present as background-that is,
the actual battles and the thunder
of the heavy guns. The story tells
of the adventures of one COM
pany'S officers, and it follows
closely the very successful stage
play Of the same name.
II anything, the photoplay is
more complete than the stage
story. The continuity is main
tanned throughout in a manner to
leave little to the imagination.
One hears the booming of the
guns and finds himself almost a
member of the officers mess in
the underground shelter. There
are flashes, early in the picture,
of marching troops, and, of course,
The raiding party into No Mans
Land is featured, but, aside from
these bits Of action, the filming is
confined to the officers dugout, so
kyo rdS from tho frnY1f limo
We, here in Washington, have
yet to see "All Quiet on the West
ern Front" which has been hailed
as one of the best of war pictures.
From glance back over the book,
one is inclined to the opinion that
this Aim will have more action
ehan Journeys End"
But, as has been mentioned, the
vogue for war pictures is upon us.
We may have many more of them
before cold weather rolls around,
Tor the producers follow one an
other like sheep in a meadow;
from back-stage stories to avia-
tion thrillerS, from the latter to
wild-party affairs. From the wild
parties we travel to the under
world and witness all the under
cover stuff of the gangster-and
then to the war.
But Journeys End" is entirely
different from all the other war
pictures, silent and talkie. The
heroic little group which it por-
trays places it in class by itself.
HWhat Price Glory" and 1.-THE Big
Parade" took up the general sub
~ fVN 10 hut
they were not as close to the audi
ence as the group in Journeys
End" And perhaps you did not
notice that Journeys End" was
made without the introduction
of a single female character.
There is considerable talk of a
girl, but the customer Is never al
lowed to get look at her. This
is the second picture without
women during the past few
months.
ONE Of the strange facts about
the exhibition of photoplays
is that film may be a record
breaker in one community and
eregiSter q complete flop" in an
other. However, this fact has long
been known to producers Of stage
attractions, and they remain UNI
able to explain why such a sit
nation should prevail. One is
forced to go back only week or
two to see an example of this in
washington. king of Jazz" and
Paramount on Parade" hailed
by New York critics as two of the
best pictures of their kind, verged
on the flop variety when they were
screened in the National Capital.
1.-THE Cock-Eyed World" a big
hit in Washington, failed to at
tract more than average attend
ance in some other large cities.
1.-THE Big Parade" and What
Price Glory" were successful in
nearly all localities, but this was
not true with THE Covered
Wagon" -Four Sons" Seventh
Heaven" and other feature pic
lures.
Old-fashioned showmen blame
the whole thing on community
taste" They class various Iocali-
ties as good spots" and bad
spots" for certain types of pic
lures and stage productions. They
even say that the circus managers
have found the good and bad To-
calities, and that the latter COM
munitieS are usually eliminated
from the routes.
+
a RE we to laugh, or should we
keep absolutely silent? This
query is brought up again after
witnessing one of the new come
dies. If we laugh, we are almost
certain to miss some of the lines.
If we keep still, we are not show
ing proper appreciation. 1t is GER
tainly problem. With the old
time stage productions, the per-
formers hesitated after wise
cracking and we gave them the
well earned applause. Perhaps
they bowed their thanks and even
threw us a smile or two. With
the movies, the comedy plot goes
right on thickening. If we laugh,
we lose a part of the shoW-So
there you are!
A ND, while on the subject of
laughter, Jack Allocate, writ
ting in the Film Daily, has this to
Sav. "nfsrarS the enticinu opd