American Cinematographer - January 15, 1922 - 10

THE AMERICAN

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Jimmy the Assistant

January 1, 1922

It Can't Be Done

(Continued from Page 7)
And so on. I could sit here and pan German pictures and directors forever, but that ain't what I am
getting at. The picture I been talking about, and all the
other importashions, is in the same class, and that is
this-the pictures, as pictures, is good enough to get by
with the audiences, but as paying perductions, figuring
original outlay with finished results, they is absolutely
impossible.
They is too wasteful of material.
A crazy
quilt as a crazy quilt, may be very good, but when you
cut up a lot of anteeque tapestries and imported cloth of
gold and make them into crazy quilts, as the Germans
has been doing with their picture material, you ain't got
a very paying proposition.
But figure the low cost of things in Germany. "Passion" only cost fifteen cents, figuratively speaking, and
even if it was wasteful, it made money, as the others
have done. They can do these things so cheaply that
they can afford to be wasteful. How can we compete
with that, is what most of you are thinking about now.
How long do you figure Germany, or anyone else,
is going to make pictures for somebody else to profit on?
How long do. you think the German actors, directors,
tecknicians, and all the rest is going to work for ten
cents a day, and beer, when they find they are aktually
earning lot's more? Not very long! The people making these pictures is going to holler for their share of
the prophets and they're going to get them. We went
through the same thing here
The "Clansman" cost
about seventy-five thousand to film, thanks to small salaries. When the "Clansman" staged the biggest cleanup that ever was, it made them same salaries do a skyrocket stunt, and now look at 'em, You couldn't make
the "Clansman" over again for two million!
The Germans ain't boobs in the business sense of
the word. They're what you might call commercial
sharks, and believe me, when they wake up to the realization of the amount of money that can be made in
pictures they ain't going to give away no more "Colems."
They'll market 'em themselves, and they'll have to pay
their people more to keep them from American companies, and the first thing you know Germany won't
have any more perducing cost edge on us than a flea.
Yessir, the end of cheap forrin films ain't far away,
and' when the balance comes to a rest agam, as it is
bound to do, Heaven pertect the forrin perducer with
his cross-eyed angles on picture values.

Grace Darmond backs Bessie Barriscale up in claiming that
there is no such thing as a new way to photograph a star and an
automobile together, but Roy Klaffki, A. S. c., director of photography at Metro, takes issue with them. Here are some of his suggestions:
Show star telling the trafficcop to go jump in the lake.
Show star biting the rear tire, or
Running the vacuum cleaner over the top, or
Spraying violet water on the motor, or
Buying gasoline at 10 cents a gallon, or
Driving 56 miles an hour in Orange county, Calif. (Ask Bebe
Danlels.)
Or, driving over Niagara Falls, or
Up the Washington Monument, or
Saying to the traffic officerwho has just arrested her for speeding: "Thank you, Officer,I'm awfully glad you arrested me. I'm
getting terribly absent-minded about speeding and I certainly
needed the lesson. I shall ask the judge to give me the limit," or
Putting on make-up while exceeding the speed limit, or
Refusing a raise of salary while filling the radiato~, or
Saying to the garage man: "The up-keep on my car is too
little. Henceforth charge me ten per cent more, or
Refusing the gift of a new limousine while she changes the
rear tire, or
But what's the use. By this time Grace and Bessie wll begin
to see that they have little imagination.
Judging by the employment of cameramen, which is the barometer of the cinema, conditions in the motion picture industry are
at least no worse than they have been.

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American Cinematographer - January 15, 1922

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