Evening star., 1938-03-13

Twentieth Century-Fox, where
Irving Berlin's "Alexanders Ragtime
Band" Is before the cameras. original
ly designed to follow the life of Ber-
lin, the plot has been diverted to
chronicle the composers writings from
the title piece down through such
venerable works as 'Everybodys DOM
1t, In My Harem," When the Mid
night Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam',"
oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the
Morning" to the more melodic "A
Pretty Girl Is Like Melody" Blue
Skies" and Remember" To these
and others have been added three
swing tunes written for the picture.
Whatever other liberties are taken
with fact, the development of Ameri-
can music will be accurately de-
lineated. According to Berlin ragtime
was introduced in the early part of
the century by Negroes and was seized
upon by song writers who developed
the off-beat and the indiosyncrasies
OF the instruments. Ragtime and jazz
were essentially the same and swing.
formerly known as noodles, is merely
an of1shoot of the original musical
cacophony.
That lavishness with which Fox
loves to garnish its period pictures
will be employed A portion of San
Francisco's great wooden Cliff House
had been recreated as has one of the
inevitable dives of the Barbary Coast,
From California the story progresses
to huge Eastern cantonment which
permits injection of the wartime med
olies and then to Broadway and to-
day. Such stalWarts of the Fox stock
company as Tyrone Power, Alice Fave,
Don Ameche, Ethel Norman. Jack
Haley and Jean Hersholt portray the
leaolng characters, and while the pic
ture encompasses 26 years, none of
the players are allowed to age, Miss
Faye, Power and Ameche being lust
as beautiful in 1888 as they were in
1912. Like all Fox pictures, Band
will cost reputed $2,o00,000.
CHARGES have been freauent that
the screen exerts little effort
to record important stories. Un-
fortunately the accusations stick for
there is little that emerges from Holly
wood that is not of the boy-meets-
girl motif. A film of more than
ordinary weight is being discussed by
Samuel Goldwyn in celluloid ver-
sion OF the hfe of Gen. John j. Persh-
ing Negotiations have been under
way for six months for the generals
autobiography and instead of being
merely a life story of great man, it
should develop into one of the most
vigorous protests against war that has
been presented to the American people
in any form.
Those who have seen the script of
Gen. Pershing's book say that it In
wolves his life from the time he was
an obscure Missouri lawyer through
the Spanish-American War, the
Philippine 1nsurrection, the Mexican
Punitive Expedition and as an OBJ
server at the Russo-Japanese fracas
No attempt will be made to embrace
the World War and the story Will
close with Pershing's embarkation TO
France. 1t is understood that tie
war Department will place its fac.li-
ties at Goldwyn's disposal. Nego:.q-
lions are said to have been opened
between Gen. Pershing and Goldvvl
because the soldier would like to see
his role portrayed by Gary Cooper.
WITH some apprehension, alarm
lists are contemplating day when
the screen will be devoid of flesh AMI
blood actors. On top of the inroac.
made by Charlie Mccarthy and
Snow White" looms a new menace
in which colored geometrical fieyres
are the only performers during
nlne-minute reel. Oskar Fischinser
has completed a film which. for war,
OF better name. eMtro is callirr
an Optical Poem" On the thecr.
that music does more than please rliy
ear and that in the subconscious i.
conjured the thought of color and
visual rhythm, Fischinger has create,
reel which is shown against a soul1!
track of Franz Liszts Hungarian
Rhapsody"
Across the plane Of the screen ana
moving back into its third dimension,
Fischinger has designed a series nf
circles, triangles. rhomboids, con-
noids, rectangles and squares. As the
symphony progresses and the various
instruments are emphasized, with
each combination of bars new geo.
metrical designs enter the vision.
Vari-colored, each sequence contains
like objects of different size and only
in an occasional effect is there an
intermingling of effects. So craftilv
is the animation accomplished that
the designs assume sold form as
they advance to and recede from the
eye and swing about one another. Al
though there is rhyme, there seems to
be no reason to the movement, and
while the result defles description and
analysis by layman. the whole pro-
vides pleasing result that seems to
have sense.
Metro offers Optical Poem" as a
novelty, but Fischinger believes 1t has
positive psychological value. His
method of achievement Is a mystery
to the studio, for he insisted on work.
ing at home and has declined to re-
veal his method of operation, Just as
he conceals the basis for his interpre-
tation. He worked alone for six
months on the animation and deliv-
cred the finished film to the studio
this week. If it creates the stir that
M-G-M and the producers believe it
will, other reels will follow.
Fischinger has been working on the
idea since 1920. A German expatriate,
he convinced Jack Chertok, head Of
Metros shorts department, of the
merit Of the idea last year and he was
assigned a color camera. He says that
the theory is not new to the world Of
art and that books on the subject of
the poetry Of abstract motion date
back several centuries. He compares
the idea to an effect gained by the
Polish composer, Scriaben, who ac-