Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-06
Producer Looks Forward
To Perfect Talking Film
But He Admits That Much Work Must Be Done
Before It Becomes Realty-Closer Alliance
of the Stage and Hollywood. :.
By Mollie Merrick.

r HOLLYWOOD, Calf, September
- 5.-One Of the most ambitious
gestures made in Hcllgw, ~
Il Il toward the legitimate theater
was the bringing o. Herman
Shumlin, producer of Grand Hotel" "
the outstanding success OF Broadway
this past season, to talking picture
production. Such q step Is conces-
sion on the part Of gelatin producers
to the idea which first animated
talkie production-an admission that
the technique of the stage must, OF
necessity, strongly influence the tech
nique Of the talking screen, In order
to bring it to its highest functioning:
I learned, in the course OF some NJ
teen minutes chat, that:
Screen effects are more easily OBJ
tanned than stage effects"
The theater is still the most tell
ing medium in the world"
Artistic failures are out OF intelli-
gent reckoning: A thing may be fine
and box -office, and every producer
should work from this angle without
patronizing his medium"
The man who Is ahead Of his gen.
Grafton is a failure: If he is a creative
artist he is producing for the greatest
number of that generation. II the
majority do not understand what he
is about, he has failed in the first
requisite of his art. The highest art
is that which travels within the con-
cept OF its own generation"
The greatest thing which can be
done now for pictures is to give SUM-
cient time to preparation and rehears-
ing before shooting them"
In their present stage, box-office
talking pictures call for q cleverly
handled type of second-rate art"
The day will come when talking
pictures will give the world first-rate
art. although the screen Is no more
flexible than the stage and suffers all
the limitations which the theater suf-
fers with a few notable exceptions. The
theater taxes the ingenuity Of the
producer to the utmost and because
Of this often brings out sunsuspected
qualities. In the theater the thing
which is inferred often has greater
power than the thing which is shown.
A crowd indicated by outside shouts
and cries is invariably telling in the
theater The camera must travel to
window and show a crowd on the
screen, because the microphone is not
yet convincing about the thing We do
not see"
As associate producer on United
Artists lot. Herman Shumln has, at
the present telling two pieces OF work
to his credit. He is responsible for
the production OF The Unholy Gar
den," although I believe not respon-
sible for its choice And he is respon-
sible for the choice of Arrowhead"
for Ronald Colman. At the present
time he is selecting a future vehicle
for Gloria Swanson.
He is brilliant ard unassuning: so
uaassuming that when I walked into
his Office directly without being an
nounced and without waiting fifteen
minutes in an antechambor (the con-
ventional time required by associate
producers in this village I was so
taken aback I could hardly pull myself
together Even when he is speaking
most seriously his eyes are laughing a
little at life, at hinnself-at movies
perhaps-perhaps even at the idea Of
the interview. He has no sympathy
for famous authors who toll out here
for two thousand a week or more. He
thinks they are lucky beyond dreams
ard should turn out better stuff. He
is 80 years old and hes hit
the h:ghwater mark for modern stage
production His smbi ION in talking
picture fields is to find another story