Al. Green, Director (1917) 🇺🇸

Al. Green is probably the youngest director in point of years that there is in filmland, but he is not the youngest in point of experience, by any manner of means.

For the past ten years Al. Green [Alfred E. Green] has been engaged in motion picture work. First he was employed as an “extra” at the Selig studios, Los Angeles, Cal. Later, he became a regular player and from that time on his advancement in his chosen profession was rapid.

Colin Campbell (1859–1928), dean of the Selig corps of directors, saw Al. Green’s capabilities and engaged him as his assistant. For several years Mr. Green was assistant to Mr. Campbell and gained knowledge of great value under this wonderful director. Green went to the Panama Canal zone with the Selig players, who filmed The Ne’er-Do-Well. Later, he worked under Colin Campbell in the filming of The Crisis.

William N. Selig then promoted Mr. Green to the position of a full-fledged director. His first picture was a three-reel drama. It was highly praised. Then he was entrusted with greater things. He was commissioned to take a special company to the Southland, where The Princess of Patches, with Vivian Reed, was filmed. His next picture-play was Little Lost Sister, now enjoying an immense vogue in K-E-S-E. He is at present at work on a feature drama, The Lad and the Lion, written by Edgar Rice Burrows [Edgar Rice Burroughs] and featuring an all-star cast.

Al. Green is known for his originality. He and his cameraman, Harry Neuman, are continually devising new effects, many of them so strikingly successful that they have been copied by other producers. Mr. Green is unmarried and resides in Los Angeles.

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Calcutta Notes

A case of considerable interest to American film manufacturers has just cropped up in the Rangoon chief court. It appears from the evidence that Mr. T. Cochrane, who is carrying on business in this country as representative of the Universal Film Manufacturing Co., Ltd., applied for a temporary injunction to restrain the Neikban Cinema Syndicate, cinematograph proprietors and exhibitors, Rangoon, from exhibiting a film, known as The Broken Coin (episodes 15 to 22) on the ground that it was the copyright of the Trans-Atlantic Film Co., London, who had assigned their rights for the use and exhibition of the film to him within British India. The plaintiff also claimed to be agent of the Transatlantic Co., who were stated to have derived their rights to the film from the Universal Film Co., New York.

The defendants contended that they had purchased the film from the Triumph Film Co., London, and that the film was being sold in the open market by several firms for exhibition. They denied the plaintiff’s right to copyright in The Broken Coin film, the first fourteen episodes of which they had already exhibited, and further asserted that the Transatlantic, Film Co. had no power to prevent any of their serial films being shown in India.

Mr. Justice Rigg, before whom the case is being fought, has just delivered a lengthy judgment. He holds that on the evidence before him, the plaintiff’s title to the exclusive right to use the film or to permit its use has not been clearly proved. He admitted, however, that there was a substantial controversy between the parties. If the plaintiff was able to furnish security for any damages that might be given against him if he failed in his suit, he being out of jurisdiction at present, it seemed to His Honor that the balance of convenience was in his favor.

A temporary injunction has been issued against the defendants, prohibiting the exhibition of episodes 15 to 22 of The Broken Coin, until the hearing of a regular suit for damages, amounting to $1,400. The regular hearing will be expedited, as, in the opinion of the court, the film is a perishable article, and, therefore, the question as to the defendants’ right to exhibit should be settled as early as possible.

Regarding the question of security, the court has ordered that the Trans-Atlantic Film Co. must furnish a security of $2,500 for any damages it may appear likely to the court that the Neikban cinema syndicate may suffer through loss occasioned by failure to exhibit the film. Should the said security not be furnished within fourteen days, the injunction would be dismissed. The cost of the application would follow the final decision of the suit.

Needless to add that the case has aroused much interest in the Indian cinema world, and the final decision is being awaited with suspense.

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Two bioscope proprietors, who possess a certain amount of influence, have joined hands for exhibiting British manufactured films only. To my mind, their so-called “combine” will prove a failure. Bioscopegoers will have their serials, for instance, in which American manufacturers specialize. It is because J. F. Madan has understood the requirements of his patrons that he has acquired his present position in the Indian cinema world. The attempt to oust American films from the Indian markets will prove a disastrous failure; and people, who are making the attempt, will make themselves laughing stocks. Nobody will object if objectionable films, be they of American or European manufacture, be shut out; but the attempt to boycott a film, simply because it happens to be of American origin, is foolish.

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At a recent meeting of the Calcutta Trades Association, the chairman referred, at some length, to the attempt, which his association has been making, to secure a better class of films. He referred incidentally to a particularly bad film, which he had been able “to get off the screen.” I shall not mention the film by its title; but this much I shall say — that it was manufactured by a well known American company.

In this connection, I should say that the question of the local censorship of films is receiving attention in Calcutta as in other parts of the world. A conference was held recently at the office of the Commissioner of Police, which the proprietors and managers of all the local picture houses attended. The commissioner talked to them for some time and took note of the ideas expressed by them as to the best method of censoring films. He said that he would report to the Government on the conference and make recommendations accordingly. The general idea of those present appeared to be that a semi-official committee should be appointed to act as official censors.

The Bombay and Madras authorities will, I make no doubt, establish local censorship of films at no distant date.

The Rangoon authorities have already established a committee, consisting of six Government officials and twelve municipal commissioners, to act as film censors. The said committee, I understand, have already justified their existence. The hearty cooperation of bioscope proprietors has undoubtedly improved matters.

S. B. Banerjea.

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Film Men Take a Vacation.

Carl Laemmle, Universal president; Maurice Fleckles of Chicago; Herman Fichtenberg of New Orleans, and Julius Stern of New York and Los Angeles were among the Easter visitors in Atlantic City.

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Mr. Exchange Manager: You will get more help by carefully reading one trade paper each week than by skimming over five or six. The paper you need and the one that gives you weekly more news of the trade than all others combined is the Moving Picture World. It has done so for over ten years.

Collection: Moving Picture World, April 1917