Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-09

special Dispatch to The Star.
HOLLYWOOD, Calf, March
(NAN.A).-If Ernst Lubitsch could
find time to write a handbook on how
"talkieS" should be made, it would un-
doubtedly contain the following Inn
portant rules, in italics, at the very be-
ginning:
Don't feature revivals. If they've
been done perfectly the flrst time, they
will fall flat the second; remember, you
can't go back of perfection. If they
haven't-why warm over lukewarm
diSh?"
Don't make a photographed play,
Nothing is more painful. You need the
warmth of human contact to keep a
story within three walls and with q
limited number of SETS"
Laugh your audience out before you
get to the love scene. Otherwise they
will laugh at you. This Is caused by
the f1atness of the screen, the distorted
intimacy of close-upS and the sheer me-
chanical quality of the medium"
Would Avoid SiIences.
avoid silences. They are the most
telling feature of stage productions,
heightening the drama and pointing the
chiaroscuro of emotion. But you do not
get sheer silence with the sound cam
eras. There is the delicate whirr of the
mechanism. Anything which serves to
remind the audience of the mechanics
is complete disillusionment"
Ernst Lubitsch makes about four pic
lures a year. No matter what the
story, the finished product always re-
mains directorial triumph. No star
the cinematic art. He is a Hemingway
in gelatin strip.
His pictures are remarkable for what
Is elected from them. He is one ex-
ception to the rule that motion pic
lures may never be sophisticated. He
has created sophiStication in silent
comedy. THE Marriage Circle" is an
outstanding example of this. The same
sparkling Worldliness pervades his re-
cent Chevalier picture, Love Parade"
Lubitsch has a Puckish quality; but
Puck in top hat. evening clothes, gar
denia in buttonhole and monocled eve.
This Puck has known comedy in all its
varying phases. From the loWly blad-
der and broad laugh-getting of the
clown to the revue comedian and his
more adult methods.
Vital Intellect at Work.
Here is the most vital intelligence at
play in cinema circles today. Prompt
and swift, he is at the appointment on
the stroke of the second and lightning
like in his decisions. He hurlS himself
into the story with a very fury of con-
centration. He wrestles with it until
it comes up to his standards. When it
is finished, he does not turn it over
to an army of cutters and executives
to work their sweet way. He carries
uct is ready for the public.
Ernest Lubitsch, who made so many
silent successes, knows that the me-
dunn in which he rose to the heights
of fame and financial success will never
return. In the same breath he says
the celluloid director will always take
precedence over the purely stage-trained
man. They have made all the outstand-
ing successes in the new medium thus
far and will continue to do so.
'Talkies are purely mechanical" says
Lubitsch. "Terrifyingly so. But they
are the natural evolvement of a mech
anized age. They are the inevitable out
growth of world in the machine stage
of its evolution. A world that is steadily
moving toward the mechanical man as
a solvent Of household difficulties.
TaIkies Here to Stay.
you can never displace anything that
is the natural outgrowth of its time
That is why talking pictures are here
to stay. Any artist can make a silent
film and perhaps get one or two au-
diences. They come the first time for
curiosity. The second time to see If they
were right the first time. There will
not be any third time. If any man can
prove an exception to the rule Charles
Chaplin will do so. The world has al
ways had its clowns. The world will al
ways love comedy hung along the shad-
ow line of tears.
"A good novel never make a good
play. A good play never makes a good
movie. 1t is good originally because 1t
has been cast in the perfect medium of
expression. Metamorphoslng it into an