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, WM. S. HART'S THE INGREDIENTS MAKING MOVIES COMPLETE CAREER OF A GOOD TITLE OUT OF NOTHING THE PROBLEMS OF CARL DREYER April 1955 TV FILM EDITING ON COLOR FILM 40c APRIL 1955 VOLUME VI FILMS ·· NUMBER 4 EDITED BY HENRY HART Cover Glenn Ford and Eleanor Parker in "Interrupted Melody" Articles WILLIAM S. HART, by George Mitchell -------------------------------- 145 MOVIE GROSSES, by Dore Schary -------------------------- -- ------------ 155 EDITING TV FILMS, by Louis Harris -------------------------- ------------ 158 COLOR AND COLOR FILMS, by Carl Th. Dreyer --------- ------ ----- 165 TITLES, by Leonard Spinrad -------------------------------------- -- -- ---------- 168 MOVIES OUT OF THIN AIR, by William K. Everson _____ _______ 171 LONDON'S ITALIAN FESTIVAL, by Christopher Brunel ___ _____ 18 1 HORS D'OEUVRES -------------------------------------------------------------------- 183 MOVIE MEMORY TEST: 10, by John Springer ______________________ 196 Film Reviews A MAN CALLED PETER, by Arthur Gratz ____________ __ _______________ 187 BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, by Richard Ginensky ___ __ ___ ______________ 188 JEAN EPSTEIN, by Henrietta Lehman ---------------------------------- 189 HIT THE DECK, by Edward Jablonski ---------- -------- ------------------ 190 MARTY, by Diana Willing ------------------------------------------------------ 191 LIST OF RECOMMENDED MOVIES --------------------------------- --------- 208 The Sound Track, by Edward Connor ------------------------- --- ---------------- 193 Recorded Filmusic, by Gerald Pratley ---------------------------------- 193 Book Reviews KING 0~ COMEDY, by William K. Everson ---------------------------- 198 THE CEL~ULOID MISTRESS, by L. V. ---------------------------------------- 200 LIFE WITH GROUCHO, by Robert Downing ---------------------------- 200 Letters 202 Published monthly except June-July and August-September, when bimonthlJ, at 13 West Church Street, ·w ashington, N. J., by the N ational Board of R eview of Motion Pictures, Inc., 31 Union Square, New Y ork 3, New York. Annual subscrip tions: $3 .50 in U. S.; $3.75 in Canada; $4 elsewhere. Entered as 2nd class matter at Lancaster, Pa., May 8, 1953. Application for reentry as second-class matter at Washington, N. ]., is pending. Address all communications and editorial matter to the Editorial Office, 31 Union Square, New York 3, New York. Copyright 1955 by the National Board of Rieview of J"\1otion Pictures, Inc. n I I WILLIAM S. HART The Foremost Actor In Silent Westerns Knew And Loved The West By GEORGE MITCHELL HE MAN who did most to raise existence until they settled in Dakota Tthe Western from its haphazard territory near the Sioux reservation. beginnings, and to make a real film As a very young boy Hart had Sioux form out of this vital American tradi playmates, learned their language tion, was William S. Hart. From and customs, and acquired a respect 1914 until his retirement in 1925 he for them he carried through life. produced, starred in, and sometimes His boyhood was rich with unusual also wrote and directed, movies that experiences. His father and he were are still unsurpassed for their depic once caught, in the middle of the tion of the way life really had been main street of Sioux City, in the cross during the opening and settling of fire of the local sheriff and two gun the West. In this, indeed, Hart's pic men. While still a boy he worked tures are the filmic equivalents of the as a hand on a trail herd in Kansas. Frederic Remington paintings and In his autobiography, My Life East the drawings of Charles M. Russell. and West, Hart describes the death of Hart was born on December 6, a baby brother when the family was 1870, in Newburgh, New York. His pioneering in Dakota. The baby was middle name~Surrey-was for his buried near the headwaters of the father's brother, an Englishman who Mississippi by the father, Hart, and had always opposed the rest of the a younger sister, and the passage de family. "He's always on the Surrey scribing its harsh reality will stir the side" is a colloquial expression used sympathy of even the most cynical. in Britain to describe a stubborn The Harts were very poor, but they man. In many ways, if the adverb were also very close to each other, 'always' were eliminated, the phrase and they had dignity. could apply to Hart. And from his When Hart was fifteen his mother's Irish mother he inherited a strong illness forced the family back East. sentimental streak. The father became janitor of an Hart's father, Nicholas, was an apartment house, in the basement of itinerant miller and travelled about which they lived. The son had a the country searching for new water variety of odd jobs. He also sang sites. The family led a nomadic in the Trinity Church choir and took 146 FILMS IN REVIEW to athletics. At nineteen he went to It was these plays, and an occur London with the fabulous track star, rence in Cleveland while he was play Lon Myers, and there set a world ing there, that gave his career its di record for the three-and-a-half-mile rection and his life its goal. walk. In Cleveland Hart saw his first At that time Hart had two am Western film. The thing that im bitions: to go to West Point, and to pressed him most was the terrible mis go on the stage. West Point was representation of the Old West. "I out because he lacked the schooling. was an actor and I knew the West," "The stage idea jus·t came," Hart said he wrote later. "The opportunity that years later, "and always remained, I had been waiting for years to come and will be with me when the final was knocking at my door . Rise curtain is rung down." or fall, sink or swim, I had to bend While working as a postal clerk in every endeavor to get a chance to New York City's main post office he make Western motion pictures." took acting lessons, and F. F. Markey, He kept this ambition to himself, one of the finest actors and teachers and for the remainder of the season of the day, was one of his teache;s. went to the movies whenever possible Daniel E. Bandemann, an actor-man and studied what he saw. ager, gave Hart his first part on the While he was touring in The Trail professional stage-in Romeo and of the Lonesome Pine the company Juliet. By coincidence, it opened in played California and Hart dis Newburgh, the city of his birth. covered that his old friend, Tom For the next twenty years Hart Ince, had become the head of the earned his living as an actor. He New York Motion Picture Company's toured the US and Europe, and was studios. He told Ince of his determi leading man to Mme. Rhea, Julia nation to make Westerns. Ince said Arthur, and Modjeska. His first per Westerns were a drug on the market. sonal critical a0claim was as Messala \Xlhen Hart persisted, Ince agreed to in the original Ben Httr company. give him a chance. He completed his He played in Ben Hur for several tour with The Trail of the Lonesome seasons, and then, like many another Pine and returned to California in actor, hit a series of fl.ops. At this the summer of 1914. juncture he shared a room in the The New York Motion Picture Com old Hotel Harrington, on Broadway pany was owned by Adam Kessell and at 44th Street, with a young and Charles Baumann, and included Mack struggling actor named Thomas H. Sennetfs Keystone Company. Their Ince. studios were located in what was Then Hart got the Cash Hawkins called Inceville, at the mouth of the role in The Squaw Man- bis first Santa Monica canyon, along the pres "Western" role on the stage, and he ent Roosevelt Highway. · There were played it to the hilt. Next came The several open air stages, a few open air Barrier, followed by the lead in the sets of Western towns and the like, a road company of The Virginian. building to house props, stables, and some sheds. The principal players were Charles Ray, Frank Borzage, Tom Chatterton, Sessue Hayakawa, Gladys Brockwell, Rhea Mitchell, Enid Markey, Louise· Glaum, Tsuro Acki, Clara Williams, Dick Stanton, and Walter Edwards (the last two also directed) . The regular directors were Reginald Barker, Raymond B. West, Charles Giblyn, and Scott Sidney. Ince supervised all production and released through Mutual Film Exchanges (John R. Freuler and Harry M. Aitkin) under the brand names of Bison, Domino, Kay-Bee, and Broncho. Hart's first two films were His Hart in WILD BILL HICKOK (1923) H our of Manhood and Jim Cameron's tt7ife. They were two-reelers s,tarring score of two-reelers, plus several fea Tom Chatterton, who also directed, tures. Some of the best- Mr. Silent with Clara Williams as the heroine Haskins, The Darkening Trail, Pinto and Hart as the heavy. They fell far Ben, and Keno Bates Liar- had a short of what he had hoped for and success equalling that of the films of Hart told Ince so. Ince put him in Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks a feature written by C. Gardner Sulli and Charles Chaplin. van, one of the first great scenario In the spring of 1915, after Hart writers, called The Bargain. Reginald had completed over twenty films, Barker, a young Scot, directed. It Harry M. Aitken formed the Tri was a good picture and Hart was angle Film Corporation by absorbing pleased. It was quickly followed by the New York Motion Picture Com On the Night Stage, which Barker pany, Reliance-Majestic, and Key also directed. After it was completed stone. D. W. Griffith, Mack Sennett, Ince released Hart, who returned to and Thomas H. Ince were the di New York. His sojourn had been un rector generals. profitable, and, he thought, unsuc Hart's Triangle films are the most cessful.