(2 of 4)
Adolph Zukor arrived in the U. S. in 1889, got into the cinema industry after being a furrier, then a nickelodeon operator. In 1912 he formed Famous Players Film Co., which eventually became Paramount Pictures Inc. Last fortnight's festivities marked Chairman Zukor's return to power in his own company from which he was practically ousted in 1931 by John Hertz and Albert Lasker. During the Hertz-Lasker regime and the John Otterson regime that followed it, Adolph Zukor had small authority. Last summer, Paramount's board of directors decided to restore the man under whom the company had its greatest prosperity from 1921 to 1930.
As Paramount's board chairman, with his friend, Barney Balaban, Chicago theatreman, for president, Adolph Zukor is currently in sole charge of Paramount production. His first move has been to restore executives ousted during the Otterson regime, fill Hollywood tradepapers with glowing testimonials to his own faith in Paramount's forthcoming product. During Adolph Zukor's previous absolute reign at Paramount, production was largely handled by able colleagues like Jesse L. Lasky and Ben P. Schulberg. Despite his 25 years in the industry, Producer Zukor is by no means a veteran at his present job. Last week, Hollywood and Wall Street were waiting to see if, when all the celebration was over, he would really have hoisted the quality of Paramount product.
The Eternal Mask (Progress Films) is the inside story of a nervous breakdown. In it, outlined with scope, clarity and impact attainable in no medium except the cinema, the psychiatric case history of a young Swiss physician becomes one of the season's most exciting melodramas.
Dr. Dumartin (Mathias Wieman) has perfected a new serum for meningitis. Before he has time to try it on himself, there is an epidemic in the Basle hospital where he works under Professor Tscherko (Peter Petersen). Dumartin begs for a chance to try the serum on a case diagnosed as hopeless; Tscherko refuses; Dumartin disobeys; his patient dies. The melodrama that starts at this point is no less real because it exists not in the world of reality but in Dr. Dumartin's sick and tortured imagination. It consists first of his efforts to escape his sense of guilt, later of his colleagues' efforts to restore his sanity.