Evening star., 1937-11-18


some day, Is a universal, timeless
thing. The excerpts from the various
films, THE New York Hat" starring
Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore,
and "A Fool There Was with Theda
Bara, exhibiting the wiles of the
vampire-to mention but two-were
not timeless. They were dated, not
merely by the dress of the players
but by the camera technique, as
definitely as they could possibly have
been.
That Is not meant to imply that
the first program of the Film Society
was lacking in interest. Actually it is
difficult to conceive that anything hav-
ing to do with the screen could have
been more interesting. One does not
have to be paid for it to notice the
enormous strides that have been made
in photography. in direction and in
acting since the films came, should
one say, of age. The acting, perhaps,
may have been more impressively real
when there was no dlalogue-in other
words no sound-to help the story
along. But, by the same token the
direction and photography were vast
ly inferior to the standards of today.
In those early films, and last nights
program also included The Fugitive"
starring William S. Hart, and The
Clever Dummy a Mack Sennet
comedy dated 1917. the illusion was
achieved for its time, but not for
ours. In rather remarkable contrast
with the present standards of film
production, the ancient products of
the cinema factories seemed incredible.
People did believe them 25 years ago
or more, but they are merely curiosities
today. If you doubt that. there are
nine more programs in the series to
convince you that such, sadly or not
is the case. The old films are interest
ing. tremendously so, but as curiosities.
Even the magic of a David Wark
Griffith, the founding father who di-
rected The New York Hat" could
not give it the aspect of something
that belonged to the present period
Miss Pickford Mr.. Barrymore and
others who participated in the narra-
ton OF the simple story threw their
all into their interpretations but they
could not make them believable to
modern eyes. It was more fun that
they could not, but it was not art In
the definition that has come down to
the modern generation.
And Miss Bara, who was very
deadly lady Of the films in her dav,
is merely funny in the light of what
vampires have learned since she was
an OBJECT lesson of evil as in the very
definite instance of "A Fool There
was" The Film Society could not
nave CHOSEN a film more wisely,
whether it was thinking in terms of
entertainment or mere history.
Most credible of the pieces on last
nights program-which attracted a
distinguished audience were the
Western and comedy numbers, THE
Fugitive" and the comedy, The Clever
Dummy" The former, Western,
and the latter a Sennett composition.
were much closer to the present day
than any other items on the program.
Films selected for the first program
OF the 10 were chosen from the stand
point of showing the rise of the Amer
lean film. They did. And they were
extremely interesting.
X
A l. TRAHAN, who sang Home on
the Range" to such good effect
at the National Press Club last Satur-
Gay night when President Roosevelt
was IN the audience, was guest of
honor at a party at Wardman last
night -. Paul Kain played and every
one had an extremely nice time
Bette Davis does not end all her pic
lures by walking dismally alone in the
final shot &. . That much was demon
strated yesterday afternoon at
screening Of Its Love I'm After"
-. Miss Davis is about to be married
and live happily ever after when this
wild, mad comedy comes to an end
And speaking of Its Love I'm
After" which comes tomorrow to the
Earle, you must notice how Olivia De-
Havlland has grown up She does
not look quite so piquantly pretty
age acting that way-but she is con-
slderably more of an actress than in
any of her previous screen efforts
And Leslie Howard, playing burlesque
OF all his previous parts, very posi-
lively is some one to watch :.