Films of Cities are Most Popular

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 400, 14 July 1928, Page 23

Films of Cities are Most Popular

What Interests Public PERIOD DRAMAS DISLIKED Belief that tlie public is more interested in motion pictures deal- . ing with life in the large cities than in period dramas, was expressed recently by Paul Bern, in charge of stories at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. Mr. Bern points to the tact that the biggest pictures in recent months have dealt with

modern city life and have enjoyed tremendous popularity. Such pictures were “The Crowd," King Vidor’s picturisatio n of middle-class existence in New York, and “Our Dancing Daughters,” stai'ring Joan Crawford. The latter was a story of city life in a higher strata of society. The notable success of these pictures, coupled with an increasing amount of mail requesting further films dealing with city life, led Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to produce “the Bellamy Trial,” a murder mystery laid in a large city. Lon Chaney’s “While the City Sleeps,” a gangster romance of New York; “Excess Baggage,” though opening in a small tiwn in a cheap vaudeville theatre, takes its characters to “big time” and New York, and John Gilbert’s “Four Walls,” a New York drama.

Three of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayers latest pictures are laid in New York. “Snap Shots,” Buster Keaton’s comedy, was filmed in Manhattan, and “The Baby Cyclone” and “Beau Broadway,” Lew Cody-Aileen Pringle stories, rely on the large city and Its ultra-smart society life for atmosphere.