Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

WITH THE REEL OBSERVER By Henry MacMahon (Special Correspondence of Reel and Slide) NEW YORK.— Experts agree that "Under Four Flags" is the best film yet made by the Committee on Public Information. S. L. Rothapfel dropped his mixed programs and gave it at the Rialto and Rivoli Theaters the third week of November to enormous crowds and tremendous enthusiasm. I find it impossible at the present time to criticize it dispassionately or to calculate the elements of permanent worth in it. It is just one grand orgy of patriotism, at the end of which the spectator shouts : "Thank God, I'm an American and an Ally, and not a bolshevik !" Beginning at the date of the AlHed armies' retreat last spring, the seven reels of the picture recount the pitiable plight of the refugeed populations, the Versailles conference, the appointment of Marshal Foch as supreme commander, the embarkations and journeyings of the American troops, the celebration of the Battle of Belleau Wood, Chateau Thierry, scenes on the British front, scenes on the Italian front, the Battle of St. Mihiel, and the review of the American and French troops by General Pershing and the Allied officers. At the very end, the collapse of Germany and the signing of the amistice are told by newspaper headlines, which is followed by picturized scenes of the New York celebration. There is a good tag of portraits of the Teutonic rulers lengthening out and going down, down into oblivion. Pathos has its place as well as humor. The scenes of the American wounded and of their care in hospitals are beautifully handled, ending up with a picture in colors of the sad-eyed angel of mercy which does not fail to draw the tribute of tears. 1 OF the historical portraits, the best one is that of Premier Clemenceau. Some of the shots at celebrities are very poor, but others are clear and distinct and, fortunately, most of the portrait subjects are camera-wise. Though the battle-pieces may at first disappoint, the limitations of photography must be allowed for and the conditions of haze and smoke that bothered the picture-takers. On the other hand, the service side of war is superbly interpreted. The giant and baby tanks, the working of the guns, the lightning-like building of pontoon bridges, the taking back and caging of prisoners, the ministry to the civilian victims of war by the warm-hearted doughboys — these things leave an ineffaceable impression. Every activity of the American soldier is ably presented. The assembly has been made with a due regard to proportion, and the titles are great patriotic stuff. Finally, the colored pictures and the natural tinting and toning are very fine. "Under Four Flags" bears about as much relation to history as the contemporary journalistic narratives of 1783, 1815 and 1865 bear to the history of the Revolutionary, Napoleonic and Civil Wars. One can only describe the film, not criticize it now. There is, however, considerable historical raw material in it. I see George Creel is going to Paris to get more. Let me here remark that a need of the times is the historical director. "There ain't no such animal !" as Artemas Ward would have said. But there ought to be. I mean the motion picture director who can intelligently plan in advance for the picturizing of great events and who can carry out his plan with a due regard to historical requirements. I am not sure that the director ought to be a governmental employe ; in fact, his status would better be independent or semi-independent. What moneyed philanthropist will endow a Foundation of Film History? And where's the director to come from? I Carl H. Carson, school department manager of the Educational Films Corporation, is getting some interesting reports in answer to his questionnaire addressed to school authorities throughout the country regarding the needs of visual education and their attitude as to co-operation. It will be some time before the results of the canvass are tabulated and analyzed. It is already clear that the vast majority of educators are heartily in favor of the motion picture as an auxiliary of the textbook and of oral instruction. They also view with decided favor the great project of the Educational to procure film negatives of school subjects fronr all possible sources and arrange them for schoolroom use. ,_ ^„, ONE great object of the questionnaire, too, is to find out from educators which subjects, in their opinion, should be first taken up in this gradual assembly of filmed knowledge. The leading titles named by Mr. Carson are geography, biology, manual arts, domestic science, physical science, physical education, American government, history, language and literature, moral education, under some of which subjects several sub-studies are grouped. The census of the opinions of the educators will be largely determinative of the order to be followed. Superintendents, chairmen of school boards and teachers whose names may have been inadvertently omitted from Mr. Carson's list, are invited to address him care Educational Films Corporation, 729 Seventh Avenue, New York. The same organization, through a distributing corporation, is rapidly extending its exchanges in the middle West. The latest branch to be opened is Indianapolis, where a complete line of the Educational's product is now procurable at the Bee Hive Exchange, 109 West Maryland Street. Nearby distributing centers, it should be stated, are of the utmost importance in school work. In every large town adjacent to each school customer there should be a well-arranged distributing headquarters equipped with a projection room where teachers can come and look at all the new products. There is no reason against the same exchange selling films to amusement houses and to the schools, but the school department should be separately organized and should possess special facilities. Ultimately the school end of the business may relegate the other to a secondary position. More than 22,000,000 pupils attend the schools of America, and more than half a million dollars is expended annually on the upkeep. While the old-line film men (who are essentially showmen) may fall to grasp the significance of such facts, the new generation is alive to their importance. As the pioneer in the attempt to bring about an alliance between the schools and the motion picture, the Educational Films Corporation deserves every encouragement. Great activity in industrial film manufacture is evident among the New York firms specializing in this field. The problem of raw stock has been solved by the stoppage of the war. Restrictions on industry have been lifted. The world market is short of goods of all kinds. America is in the best position to fill the demands. But America must tell the pictured, as well as the printed, story of what she has to offer. Here is the picture-maker's opportunity. THE industrial film has come to stay. Despised at first because regarded as "screen advertising" unwelcome to the exhibitor and distasteful to the public, it is now the legitimate picturization of the romances of big business and big industry. It has found its true field, and the circumstances that those romances are true-to-fact ones makes them more, not less, interesting. With every forward-looking movement of trade, the American industrial picture should go hand in hand. It is the missioner of commerce, thsadvance agent of the use of the improved appliances of civilization in foreign lands, as well as in our own. Films Shown in U. S. Naval Hospital One of the activities of the Division of Films, Committee on Public Information, in charge of Mrs. Jane S. Johnson, is the furnishing of government films for presentation at the army and navy hospitals. Several of these pictures have already been shown at the U. S. Naval Hospital at Charleston, S. C, and arrangements are being made to extend this service, which is entirely free. Among the pictures being shown to the convalescent soldiers and sailors in the hospitals are "America's Answer," "Pershing's Crusaders," "The Official War Review," and several special pictures that are being reserved for this service. Reel and Slide magazine is, first of all, a service. It can help you with your picture troubles, it can guide you to the films you want to project, it can help you operate your machine successfully, with profit and pleasure. If you are not already a subscriber to Reel and Slide, send in your subscription to-day. 'It is a' gb_ojd, investment. _._ ,^^ ' ,,