Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

THE AMERICAN FILM 39 aspect of the industry. It would probably profit a big company far more to employ one single film adviser thoroughly acquainted with the medium than all the well-known authors in the world. But that is exactly what the moneyed movie-makers will not do. They have their biographies written instead. It is interesting to note quite what effect the dialogue film has had on the Hollywood mentality, for although speech has in many ways been a hindrance to film progress, it cannot be denied that in quality of subjectmatter the American movie, on the whole, has somewhat improved. The employment of stage plays written by more or less intelligent authors has necessarily raised the intellectual value of the American cinema slightly above that obtaining during the silent period, often with humorous results. I have experienced at first regret and then amusement watching the Hollywood executives misfire their mental rockets over the wit and satire of the Lonsdale and Somerset Maugham plays — plays which obviously call for more skill of handling (not film direction but intelligent treatment) than that possessed by most of the American film directors. The High Road and Strictly Unconventional both convey my point, which may be still further emphasized by citing the film version of Anna Christie. On the other hand, the adaptation of good stage plays to the screen has brought into the studios a number of brilliant actors and actresses whose work and personalities have given much to the cinema. In some cases the extreme accomplishment of the acting has taken the control out of the director's hands, with the result that a film has relied for its success solely