Page:The New Yorker 0003, 1925-03-07.pdf/31

THE NEW YORKER MOTION PICTURES Dine a Dance and IN THE DELLA ROBBIA ROOM OF The VANDERBILT Hotel Thiny Fourth Street FAST at Park Avenue Tues. Wed., Thurs., Fri., Sat.. Seven to Twelve o'clock $3 per person Formal Van.7100 THE HOLLIDAY BOOKSHOP 10 WEST 47th STREET Current English Books B В ROADWAY just now presents two Odd story from Hollywood: interesting contrasts in motion pic- A young college graduate, through in- ture making. One film is “The Miracle Auence at headquarters, had been shipped of the Wolves," produced in France, and out to Hollywood to learn the art of the other is "The Thundering Herd," a title writing. In due time he was re- Zane Grey opus screened in the great ceived in the sanctum of the cinema over- open places of the West. lord. Cariously, the big scenes of both films "A college graduate, yes?” asked the are identical. In the Gallic effort, the mogul. beautiful heroine, carrying a paper which “Yes," answered the collegian respect- will save the life of King Louis XI, is fully. pursued by bloodthirsty scoundrels. Just The magnate paused and then de- as they are about to overtake her, a dozen manded, "You can spell, yes?” wolves dash upon the scurvy knaves and "Of course," said the astonished new- kill them while the maiden escapes. Thus comer. the happy ending. "Well, spell me a big word," com- Zane Grey tells the story a bit differ- manded the producer. ently. The beautiful heroine is fleeing from a tribe of bloodthirsty Indians. Just as they are about to overtake her, a herd We doubt that the Western movie col- of stampeding buffalo gallop in front of the scurvy savages and the maiden es- Italian film recently unreeled at the ony need worry over "Quo Vadis," the capes. Similar situations, but observe the dif. Apollo Theatre. This is typically Italian ference in treatment. The French calmly --full of profuse Latin extras, who ges- call the incident a miracle. The Ameri- ture and gesture. The announcements can film men ask audiences to swallow say there are 30,000 of them-extras, not the event without explanation. gestures—and, after you have watched the tribulations of Siekiewicz's Christian mar- tyrs under the bloody rule of Nero, you will well believe it. "Quo Vadis" has Actually, "The Miracle of the Wolves" one item besides boredom. That able has intelligence and a certain interest. actor, Emil Jannings, recently the hotel Basically, it is the story of Louis XI who porter of "The Last Laugh," plays the laid the foundations of a centralized royal fiddler. Jannings gives an able French monarchy. The German film ad- performance but we still prefer him in renturers who recently did “The Last Germanic studio surroundings. Laugh" would have dared to make it a genuine character study. Raymond Ber- nard, the director of "The Miracle of the Wolves," has adulterated the whole element of humor. Only the other day, The art of the motion picture has its thing with conventional movie glucose. The film offers nothing new in technique a certain film producer hurried to New York. anywhere, but it has a genuine feeling of He had been low in spirits for a long time and place. time. He felt ill and was worried. Someone had suggested a pyscho-analyist and the producer mustered up courage for "The Thundering Herd," on the other a consultation. hand, is obviously theatric stuff. All the An hour of intimate questioning fol- oid ingredients are here, the fine clean- lowed. The disciple of Freud then gave limbed hero, the unscrupulous villain and his verdict: "Your whole trouble lies in the innocent heroine. So, too, is the in- the fact that you lack a sense of humor evitable attack upon the wagon train of develop it." hardy pioneers. It is produced by Jesse The manager hurried downtown Lauky, who found the covered wagon so purchased of Twain succenfal in "The Covered he tried it again in "Nort is trying to turn the an Élie series. W Wagom at Hom at School, W Baron" and se id Telephone : BRYANT 8527 THE NEW YORKER to get wom inter luck to nave lim Digitized by Google