Hollywood Spectator (1937-39)

Hollywood Spectator f) o Pag* Thr** ~y/LU7?L "the EDITORS EASV CHAIR WRITERS' THOUGHT PROCESS . . . ARNER writers have been assigned a difficult task, that of going over a dozen or more completed scripts in search of spots in which action can be substituted for dialogue. The intention is good. The film industry as a whole is finding it necessary to spend one million dollars in an effort to repair the damage too much dialogue has done the box-office. That is purely superficial treatment of the ailment and will prove about as efficacious as it would be to rub liniment on the stomach to cure indigestion. The Warner studio is the only one thus far which gives evidence of having realized the ailment must be treated at its source. But I fear for the patchwork method of its approach. Literary surgeons cannot cut out dialogue without leaving scars on scripts. The source of the trouble is the thought process of screen writers, and to make the cure permanent, the trouble must be attacked at its source. There are many brilliant writers in Hollywood, more than there are in any other one spot in the world, and they have demonstrated their ability to give producers what they want. The film box-office will not get the relief it needs until the thought process of screen writers is reversed and they give producers what they should have. Weakness Is Fundamental . . . HEN a physician is called in on a case, his skill is not strained in his efforts to discover the effect of the illness. It is apparent on the surface, in the pulse, temperature, general condition of the patient. What the physician looks for is the reason for the condition, the fundamental weakness primarily responsible for it. Screen physicians called in to cure scripts should approach their tasks with as much thoroughness and with as deep concentration on the source of the weakness. They will find that in most cases it would be wiser to let the patient die and advise its parents to get another. When a script needs operating on to remove an excess of dialogue, it means it was born with a weakness practically incurable. The weakness is fundamental because the screen, in its true, and therefore its most sturdy, form, is a visual art, a medium for the presentation of entertainment for the eye to convey to the emotions. The scripts upon which the Warner literary doctors must operate were conceived on the assumption that the sound device had transformed the screen into an aural art, a medium for the presentation of entertainment for the ears to convey to the intellect. I believe there are records of operations which have been successful in changing the sex of humans, but they are extreme ly rare. Almost equally rare will be the complete success of operations to make as great a change in scripts. Reconstructing a Quarrel . . . HE place to begin the elimination of dialogue is in the head of the person who is to write the script. The brain child should be dumb from birth; as he grows up he should use the smallest possible number of words necessary to making his meaning clear. If he is developed intelligently, he will be surprised to find how few words it will be necessary for him to use to make his way in life and become a pleasant companion for those who meet him. In a picture I saw recently, a husband and wife have a violent quarrel; he stamps out of the house, down the path to the gate, hesitates there, stamps back, renews the quarrel in which both have a lot to say; finally the reconciliation. The story reason for his return to the wordy warfare was solely to reconcile the two, what each said being the tools with which the screen writer made gradual the approach to the reconciliation. You see, the writer had conceived characters who expressed themselves only in words, had made his entire script for the ears of the audience, not for its eyes. When he wanted the wife to go into the husband’s arms, he thought only in words as a method of building to it, wrote solely for the microphone, the enemy of screen entertainment; not for the camera, its friend. Let us rewrite the part of the sequence in which the two are reconciled: The hus band’s indignant striding down the path; gradually slower until he comes into the camera; we see him smile, turn around, go back, the camera following him; a cut to the wife peering through the curtains, smiling; back to the husband’s back as he enters the "MOVIES Are Your Best Entertainment” By Mabel Keefer "What is that slogan soundin’ for?” said Files-on-Parade. "To bring you back, to bring you back,” the Colour-Sergeant said. "What makes you look so bored, so bored?” said Files-onParade. "I’m so bored by what I’ve got to watch,” the ColourSergeant said. For they’re spendin’ of a million; you can hear the dollars clink; The industry’s on dress parade — they’re handin’ out the chink ; They’ve polished all its buttons up and an’ used a lot o’ ink, An’ they’re spendin’ of a million on the movies.