Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

38 CELLULOID deal of cleverness has gone to their making. They are definitely sophisticated in their appeal because the Americans are no longer making films for the " hick " mind. This is largely because the small cinemas of the United States are rapidly disappearing and their patrons are going to the larger towns which boast a super-house equipped with sound. Consequently, the " intellectual " value of stories has slightly improved with the development of the talking films, and generally speaking direction to-day is more subtle and refined than it was a few years back. But in England we are for ever stopping to consider if we are being too highbrow. Our studio-executives attempt to play down to a hypothetical and totally false idea of the public's intelligence. In actuality, the public is far too intelligent to be satisfied with the undressed immaturity of British films. It is accustomed to the smooth polish and high mechanical efficiency of the American cinema and dislikes the ingenuousness of most of the British product. Despite their superiority, however, American producers have themselves reached the point where they do not know what to do next. As I have explained earlier, they are at their wit's end to find a new angle on the cinema public. Such divergent productions as Abraham Lincoln, Animal Crackers and Morocco are shots at random to test the public's reactions. Shortly, perhaps, producers will realize that they would do well to listen to the theorists of experience, who know a great deal more about the appeal of the cinema to the public than the producers, the latter being concerned almost solely with the business