Amateur Cine World (February 1935)

article or thought there appears, every now and then, a creation, which by virtue of its general excellence and value stands out from among the ranks of the general le each sphere where human activity produces some products of its class. Such incidents mark steps forward along the paths of progress in industry. Film history can be traced by a series of pictures each of which, in its turn, indicates a step forward in the general progress. We are fortunate this month in having two remarkable pictures scheduled for release. One, Crime Without Passion, comes as a successful conclusion to what was thought would be a rash experiment, and the other, The Man Who Knew Too Much, is just one of those delightful surprises that dawn unheralded upon the world, bringing something that has been awaited for years. Let us deal firstly individually and then collectively with these pictures. Crime Without Passion was the first of four rather experimental productions which Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, who together wrote Twentieth Century and Viva Villa, contracted to make for Paramount. Tiring of Hollywood mill-work and churning out stuff for directors and producers to ruin, they decided to run out of the film city and do a little producing all on their own. Paramount gave them their chance to make pictures in New York at the Astoria, Long Island, studios. So Hollywood’s two crazy boys set to work. They did away, first of all, with the star system, and secondly with elaborate settings. They brought a long word... psychology . . . to a screen public that had hitherto been fed on hot-dogs and pea-nuts, made their hero a villain and produced the first real motion picture tragedy. And as a result of their work that admirable production, Crime . Without Passion, comes to our screens. Shot almost entirely in close-up, the 504 stairs. By JEAN STRAKER Professional Films FEBRUARY RELEASES America Invents A NEW ‘TECHNIQUE film introduces a completely new technique, which, although best suited for psychological subjects, can be applied with great advantage to almost any production. The masterly avoidance of elaborate settings, without in any way detracting from the value of the film, by Albert Johnson, kept down production costs to a minimum and at the same time gave a dramatic power seldom experienced before in the films. A single wall gives the effect of a room; a settee conveys an expensive restaurant—thus is the film built. (Two production stills from this picture, showing the simple settings, were published on page 406 of the December number of Amateur Cine World). In this story, which is certainly not a cross-section of real life but merely a magnification of one part of the human character, all photographic preference has been given to the interpretation of that character, everything else being avoided. Neither the players, nor the settings, tell the real story in this film, for the camera, acting as the sole narrator, functions as the eye of the spectator and conveys the theme message. It is the first time, as far as I am aware, that such technique has been used in the telling of a film story. I think one could best describe it as an introspective use of the camera into the minds, principally of the author, and secondly of the characters. The film is not a series of episodes, but a series of picturized thoughts and in this definition of its structure one finds the main contrast between it and The Man Who Knew Too Much. In the latter film, almost a British counterpart of Crime Without Passion, the story is told in the customary film fashion by a series of pictorial episodes which build up the general theme and character play. The characters here are defined by their material actions, a method we have always considered correct for the film. Crime Without Passion, on the other. hand, brings us something which we should consider entirely irrational—the telling of a film story by means of a series (Continued on next page) = st Elaborate equipment and set for the B.I.P. film, “Girls will be Boys,”’ released this month. The castincludes Cyril Maude and Edward Chapman ; the latter is seen on the