Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

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THE PRODUCERS AND THE PUBLIC II But unfortunately the Americans seek to exploit this method of appeal by an increased expenditure and not by an increased use of intelligence. Broadly speaking, Hollywood's " sophisticated " films are dressed and apartmented in greater luxury than that available to the cinema audience, but the stories enacted within these expensive surroundings are on the level of the lowest intelligence. The whole intricate problem of the gulf existing between the producing-company and the public is one of the greatest importance, and it is with such a vitally serious matter that an endowed body like the Educational and Cultural Films Commission might occupy itself. Although at this point I am concerned principally with the theatrical side of film production — by which I mean films that rely on a fictional storyinterest for their appeal to the public, and the relation of which to the whole of the cinema (abstract, educational, documentary, scientific, etc.) may be likened to that of the novel to general literature — nevertheless it will be seen at a later stage exactly how powerful is the influence of the film in all its forms on the population of the world. If the relationship existing between the producer and the public is faced without prejudice, we shall find that the sole prerogative of the filmgoer lies in deciding whether a film appears worth paying to see. And when we come to examine this prerogative, there seems very little to make the decision easy. The average person, presumably, does not wish to spend his or her money indiscriminately at any odd box-office in the hope of seeing an interesting or entertaining film, but unless he