The New Pictures

Bella Donna. Pola Negri's first American picture is, except for the continuously electric Pola, just another vampire-film, deodorized as much as possible to please the censor. There's a sheik and an English nobleman and a little box of poison and a desert with a prowling lion--and none of it matters very much. Except when Pola appears. Daddy. A blatant assault upon the lachrymal glands, with a few snatches of inimitable comedy by young Mr. Coogan. He is, as you may have guessed, a downtrodden little boy-violinist in search of his long-lost daddy, and oh what a pathetic time he does have! Financially the picture should be a regular rhinestonemine. We suggest as its logical successor Old Curiosity Shop, with Jackie as Little Nell. Prodigal Daughters, Two young daughters of a rich papa decide to Live Their Own Lives, and get into the usual pecks of trouble doing it. But the story fulfills its function in giving Gloria Swanson an opportunity to wear as many different varieties of expensive clothes as ever. The Dayton Photoproducts Company is said to have developed a practical film, made of paper, which can be marketed at about one-third of the cost of the present gelatine reel. The new product is said to be of standard width, hard to tear, imperishable and practically non-in-flammable--the new projection machine to cost in the neighborhood of $50, thus offering an opportunity for showing standard pictures in the home without great cost or serious risk of fire--two difficulties that have so far blocked all attempts toward "Every Home Its Own Hollywood" Robert J. Flaherty, producer of Nanook of the North, sailed for the South Seas to film Samoan life and customs before the natives start charging a couvert-charge for their own variety of hula-hula. "Cinderella of Hollywood" is the nickname of Eleanor Boardman, who plays the leading role in Rupert Hughes' new cinema play, Souls for Sale. A year ago, according to all accounts, she was not even a "super." Her course led her from her home in Germantown, Pa., to Broadway, to a chorus part, to three small movie parts, to the leading role of Souls for Sale--in less than twelve months.