Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate (NSW : 1905 - 1927), Thursday 20 May 1926, page 1


MASTER PICTURE NEWS. "Make a motion picture realtrue to life-and the art will take care of itself." SThis slogan, which has guided the directorial handiwork - of Clarence -'Brown in each of his productions, may account in great degree for the record of film successes he has established. It particularly guided him in his direction of Rudolph Valontino starring in "Cobra" which is on the coming list of Master Picture attractions. "Decidedly, I believe in the artis.. try of motion pictures," declares Brown. "You will find that there is the touch of the artistic in anything that is human and real." While entertaining the passengers with concerts on long journeys after he had run away to sea, Syd. Chaplin was engaged by a theatrical manager to play in a comedy sketch. This manager made no mistake, for in a very short time Syd. became decidedly popular around London, and later was engaged to play Sid Prince, the comedy burglar in "Shirlock Holmes." Charlie also played in this production, making a great hit as the little page boy. Syd. says that neither could sleep a wink the night before the play opened-for the opening perfornlance was played ith the late King Edward in the royal box. Syd. Chaplin's latest comedy success is "The Man on the Box" from the well-known novel and stage success by Harold McGrath. This Master Picture attraction will shortly be released. Motorists who are on unfriendly terms with traffic "cops" should make a point of seeing Harold Lloyd in his latest Master Picture attraction "Hot Water." Lloyd has a new and novel method of avoiding arrest by motor ! cops, and it might well be worth their while to try his method. While Lloyd never actually tried the scheme himself in real life, he suggested the "gag," and it is one of the high lights of comedy. During the filming of "The Sea Beast," a Master Picture production due for early release and starring John Barrymore, it was necessary to work night and day. A realistic storm at sea had been caught by the camera and these scenes had to be finished before the storm abated, so much of the film was exposed at night and at all times the natural illumination available was insufficient. To remedy this, the greatest amount of electrical machineery and apparatus ever assembled on one set of the Warner Bros.' studio, was crowded on to the "Three Brothers," the three-masted whaling vessel bought especially for this. production. When the director and several members of the cast of the Australian Union-Master Picture, production, "The. Pioneers," were walking to the scene of their activities at Gosford early one morning they met an unwelcome visitor, who certainly wasn't in the cast and had no business whatever on location. Snakes are nasty creatures at the best of times and particularly so when one meets them at four o'clock in the morning lying right across the path one is obliged to traverse. This snake was one of the extremely nasty variety. It measured between six and seven feet in length and was lying right across the 'track. The director (Raymond Longford) would have stood right on that snake, only one of the players grabbed him and threw him off the track. In all probability he owed his life to the prompt action of "Big Bill" Wilson who plays heavy lead in the pro'~uction. "The Pioneers," a vivid atory of early Australian life, is due for early release. Eric Bransby Williams, son of the original Bransby Williams who vis.ited Australia on the Tivoli circuit, plays juvenile lead in Captain Hurley's production "T'he Jungle Woman," to be released shortly. Last year he made four feature length dramas, appearing in three of them at once, and previous to that he appeared in ten Stoll Productions. In his capacity as engineer-in-chief with Captain Hurley's party he made his flrst visit to Australia. He has had a varied career, having been for some years engaged at Vicars on submarine building, and later as a lieutenant in the tank corps duirng the war. He ;plays light comedy parts as well as 'dramatic and juvenile leads. "The Limited Mail," which is on the coming list of Master Picture attractions, is a picturisation of Elmer Vance's thrilling melo-drama of the West. Filmed in the Colorado Moun'taizis, the picture contains some of the' most beautiful scenes ever recorded in a photoplay and the exciting sequences of train wrecks and , ndslides make the picture most thrilling .and . spectacular. Monte Blue is again seen as a rugged outdoor' hero-the type of role .which :first.brought him success.