Silver Screen (May-Oct 1939)

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78 Silvhr Screen for October 1939 POWQkBASE improves my complexion because POWD'tV BASE conceals lines and blemishes, keeps my make-up smooth and flattering. I am at my oveliest always. Buy your shade at Drug, Dept. , & Chain Stores HARMLESS LECHLER'S VELVET-STOHN NOT A DEPILATORY ODORLESS A smooth pad that removes su perfluous hair the new, clean , odorless way. As ea=y to use as a powder puff. Only our laboratories can supply it to you direct by mail. Sent postpaid in sealed wrapper with plain label for 5 1 LECHLER LABORATORIES S60 Broadway Dept. K-8 New York, N. Y. Dept. K-8 Nev CANADA DUTY FREE MONEY e IE m L \\ Ryl„l._ i_ nr. 5 . • ~, _akeupto $35 in a week. Showbeau:lful Christmas Cards with sender's name, 50 forSl. Choiceof 16 designs. Also "America's Favorite" 21 -card Christmas Assortment for $1. You make 50c. Eipht other Assortments of > Christmas Cards. Gift Wrappings Everyday Cards. Fast Bellers. FREE ^dmples — write today. Mention if also inter1 in selling: fineDeLuxe Personal Christmas Cards. more & Suaden, Inc., Dept. 810 f7T3*SBM Monroe Ave., Roche6ter, N. Y, iLilXIiM/df^ SONG POEMS WANTED AT ONCE! Mother, Home, Love, Patriotic, Sacred, Comic or any subject. __.„ „,._. , Don't delay — send us jour original noem today for immediate consideration JililtlA_y_l?PiLjL>Voods Building, Chicago, III. Earn Extra Money at&me \9 Increase your income at home by inflffl new simple Wentworth Tempera ISi BI S'iW Color method. We instruct you i " j !' . and supply you with work. Write ^fllFiiiB today for FREE BOOKLET. Wentworth Pictorial Company, Ltd. 0EPT.130, Hamilton. Ont BETALLER Men women, gain in height, send for a pair of our tull length special lifting HEEL-ARCH CUSHION nT°iR insoles for insiclc y°uf shoes. (Patent lending). Especially made to raise the height of all persons. For low or high shoes. Easily cemented inside any make of men's or women's shoes, according to their sizes, price §1.95 a pair L.U.U. \\nte tor complete folder or send direct Note: Give size of shoes wearing when ordering \RCH-BASE INNERSOLE CO., NEW FLORENCE, PA So You're Going to the Movies? [Continued from page 49] Daily News, writes for the biggest newspaper audience in America, puts it this way: "My standards are those of the average picture patron. I want first to be entertained. Second, to have my interest in history revived by seeing historical events and personalities brought to the screen. Third, I want to be enlightened on current problems and events. "I consider the story on which a film is based of paramount importance, and, when I say I want to be entertained, I mean that the story and the people on the screen must amuse me, or move me to tears by some realistic touch of human drama, thrill me by exciting action, hold me in suspense by a threat of danger to the characters on the screen, mystify me by the secret moves of an unknown killer, or interest me in the working out of a domestic problem. I don't expect to experience all of these emotions in one film, however. "Acting and direction are next in importance. But, if the story isn't interesting, no amount of fine acting nor the subtlest of directorial touches can make up for the lack of suitable situations and lines. Other production values are then considered, such as the excellence of the photography, sets, scenery, etc." Out in the heart of movieland, Philip K. Scheuer, motion picture commentator for The Los Angeles Times, sees films from a different angle than most critics. They practically are made on his doorstep. So his words have unusual interest. "I still measure a picture by its effect on my emotions," he says. "This implies satisfying the intelligence also, at least while I am experiencing the emotion. If later I realize that emotionally I have 'cheated myself,' as it were, I do not necessarily hold the fact against the picture. Movies, after all, are made to be enjoyed while we're seeing them. It is a rare one indeed to which we may return again and again, profiting by each visit. "As for 'critical standards,' they are those which have been developed during my thirty years of conscious picturegoing. I happened to grow up with the film industry. I have known the silent picture at its best and worst, as well as the talkie so far as it has gone. This gives me a tape measure of sorts, but it is very elastic, and need not be applied in an arbitrary manner. Naturally, I have my personal likes and dislikes. I prefer the Marx Brothers to Joe E. Brown — but I try to be fair to Brown, allowing for the response of his particular fans and at least trying to evaluate his latest offering in terms of his others. "I'm still a great believer in motion for motion pictures," continues Scheuer. "Not necessarily movement, but the cinematic flow of the whole. I think I look for this first. For this reason 'Stagecoach' seemed to me the best movie of the year so far. Its excellent elements of cinema — musical background, camera beauty, character development, and dialogue which was at once succinct and revealing, all combined to make a kind of sym phony, of which the dominant theme was the turning of the wheels, the onward roll of the stagecoach. "To sum up, I think the ideal film is one that gratifies both your emotions and your mind. If it stirs you in spite of your better judgment, it may still be a good job of movie-making. If it makes you think but leaves you cold, something is probably wrong with it. But give it a chance. Perhaps the motivation is just too new, the beginning of a different art form. Tomorrow it may be commonplace." Chester B. Bahn, editor of The Film Daily, one of the chief trade publications in the world of motion pictures, knows his screen. So his words have unusual weight. "It seems to me that the film critic, regardless of his field of service, should strive to see the picture through the eyes of his reading public," he tells me. "That has been my habit for some twenty years, whether my reading public was that of a sensational daily or a more sophisticated periodical, or, finally, strictly trade. "As a movie fan, I am insistent that a picture entertain. As essentials for screen entertainment, I should — and do — specify such qualities as action, freshness in approach and treatment, sympathetic casting, imaginative direction and due attention to the niceties of present day technique." Welford Beaton, who edits and publishes his own magazine, The Hollywood Spectator, in the center of filmdom's capitol, is another who marches in entertainment's first brigade. "Before a picture fades in, I have a definite feeling it is going to be the best I ever saw," he comments. "My mood is receptive to its virtues. If it entertains me for its full length, it is a good picture, no matter how many holes you, sitting next to me, can pick in it. If it does not entertain me, then whatever critical faculty I possess goes on shift and tells me why I am not being entertained. And that is what I tell my readers. "The primary mission of any motion picture is to entertain. If it can break some of its own laws and still be entertaining, that is all right with me; but if it obeys all its laws and still is not entertaining, then it is a bad picture in spite of its constitutional virtues. And during a score of years of picture criticism, my honest endeavor has been to keep from creating the impression that I deem the critic to be of greater importance than the subject criticized." John Hohart, of The San Francisco Chronicle, stands out for honesty, first and last. "Considering the nature and purpose of motion pictures, it is wrong, I think, to have too austere a critical standard and to expect every movie to be a work of art," he believes. "But it is reasonable at the same time to demand a few qualities, and the most important of these, in my opinion, is honesty. A picture that honestly presents its theme, whether it is an historical epic or a simple comedy