The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Among the Magazines 223 :ry to live up to the title, and one feels he effort is too obvious to be ingenious. | The second article is "Adapted for the Screen." A rather flat attempt to be i:lever in presenting a lot of well-known Imd perfectly stale facts as to the vicissi- tudes of a classic passing through the lands of present-day "movie experts." In this case it is supposed to be Romeo ind Juliet on its way from book to screen. Vanity Fair's monthly article on one phase or another of motion pictures is usually worth reviewing. LIFE'S regular department entitled "The Silent Drama" is doubtless familiar to our readers but it is a pleasure o refer again to the sane and readable :riticisms of current films that appear ^here every week over the signature of Robert E. Sherwood. This sort of intel- ligent evaluation of movie products is ex- eedingly rare in the country, for the ndustry greatly prefers press-agenting :o criticism and pays accordingly. Mr. Sherwood occasionally finds space o touch upon other aspects of the field than the films themselves. His ideas upon Will Hays and his job, for example, are rather definite. Mr. Hays is always "out- lining plans" and appointing committees. Apropos of this the following quotation is submitted from Harry Leon Wilson's excellent novel, Merton of the Movies: "I suppose (a movie director is talking) we :an't ever sell to twenty million people a day pictures that make any demand on the human intelligence. But couldn't we sell something bet- ter to one million—or a few thousand?" The Governor (a film magnate) dropped his :igarette end into the dregs of.his coffee. "We night," he said, "if we were endowed. As it is, :o make pictures we must make money. To make noney we must sell to the mob. And the mob eaches full mental bloom at the age of fifteen. ft won't buy pictures the average child can't get." "Of course the art is in its infancy," remarked Henshaw. . "Ours is the Peter Pan of the arts," announced he Governor. "The Peter Pan of the arts—" "Yes. I trust you recall the outstanding biological freakishness of Peter." "Oh!" replied Henshaw. Mr. Sherwood adds: "There is more wisdom in that conversation than in all the voluminous reports of the Will Hays reform committee. It is the basic truth upon which all estimates of the silent drama must be founded." Again—regarding the announcement by Famous Players-Lasky last June that they were establishing a motion picture school to raise the intellectual capacity of the actual makers of the pictures—the editor of "The Silent Drama" would be "the last one to ridicule any attempt to inject a little grey matter" where it is so much needed; and if hearty cooperation is desired by the founders of said school the following examination paper is sug- gested for Commencement time: What foreign authors suggested the stories of "Male and Female" and "The Affairs of Anatole" to Jeannie Macpherson? What did she do with these stories? Define the following words: "Taste," "Repres- sion," "Intelligence," "Simplicity." Account for the financial failure of these pic- tures: "Sentimental Tommy," "The Golem," "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "Broken Blossoms." Account for the success of these: "Fool's Paradise," "Where Is My Wandering Boy To- night?" "Dream Street," "Over the Hill." Who invented "Hokum?" How much money would he have made from the film producers if he had sold his invention on a royalty basis? All of which suggests that Mr. Sher- wood is puzzled," as are so many others, as to why the movie people insist upon using hokum as the foundation for their publicity as well as for their pictures. The "school" was announced to open July 6th—which seems to add one more ridiculous feather to the industry's cap. It is difficult to see why so much energy should be spent in manufacturing boom- erangs to hit themselves on the head.