The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

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Among the Magazines 15 r. Rascoe is equally unsparing. It is : ortunate indeed that he does not have to >rove so sweeping a declaration as this: 'not one scenario has been prepared in his country for a motion picture with a significant idea." He insists that the no vies have ruined everything in fiction hat they have touched (only difficulty lere is that it isn't so); that 'the most ncompetent journalistic hacks, the most lliterate backwash of the writing profes- sion" are doing the scenarios; and he ex- :uses the few reputable writers that have iabbled with the low enterprise on the 3lea that they could not be expected to resist the easy money. Two pernicious after effects are empha- sized, one upon American writing. Movie prices for material so overtop that ob- tainable from the stage, from magazines and from book publication, that "the ma- jority of American writers are planning their work with a view to screen produc- on." This tends to reduce our fiction to its lowest elements of continuous ac- ion, devoid of comment, observation, and hilosophic content," with disastrous ul- imate effects on the cerebral processes oi the readers. The second after effect is upon the habitual movie-goers. Because he movies are "preponderatingly senti- mental, with constant recourse to the readiest sure-fire methods, the movie fans ire emotionally sapped night after night before unreal circumstances. This means that their capacity for reacting emotion- ally in real life is reduced. The tendency toward emotional insanity, a complete inability to feel any emotion which is not artificially stimulated." As long as the movies are in the hands f the present group of men, "ex-chauf- feurs and ex-scene-shifters," Mr. Rascoe Joubts that first class artists can be brought to touch them. Hence this "art" must be classed with the "art" of "canned teans and dental creams" or any other merchandise. Practically no effort has :een made in America toward developing the motion pictures as a distinct art form and "such a consummation will never be achieved by a collaboration of hack fic- tionists, illiterate continuity writers, vain- glorious directors, simpering flappers, and strutting pomade addicts." In strong contrast t'o the "tawdry claptrap" of our achievements stand such foreign films as the German Caligari, The Golem, and various French and Italian productions which show evidence that their makers are grasping the problem of a new art. As to the stock question of censorship, Mr. Rascoe refuses to grow indignant or take sides in the debate. The anti-censor- ship argument of "artistic 'freedom" he dismisses as "grotesquely ludicrous" when applied to the existing movie industry: but he recognizes also as an equal evil the erection of local censorship bureaus prepared to clip every reel to a pattern of innocuous insipidity. Further, one need hardly worry over censorial activities for "the movies as we know them might very well be censored off the face of the earth, and the only effect upon the intelligence and art of the country would be one of lasting benefit." STRONG criticism, the above, and the stronger because of the critic's evi- dent care not to over-state what he believes t'o be the truth, and because of his clear admission that he attacks the movies as they are and not the movies as they may be. It is the temporary ele- ments that are wrong, not the fundamen- tal and permanent ones. The Educational Screen confidently expects to see, in the near future, defense of the motion picture as authoritative, as sincere, and as strong as this attack. The discussion is on. Arguments begin with the "attack" and "defense" must always • await it. Mr. Rascoe is merely one of the opening guns of an engagement which must last long and burn much powder.