Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

50 CELLULOID value until mechanically set in motion. When a bridge is built, it is a bridge and may be crossed, but a length of film is merely celluloid until it is projected on to a screen. Nevertheless the processes of construction in both cases have a distinct affinity. Film propaganda may be said to fall roughly under two heads. Firstly, there is the film which wields influence by reason of its incidental background propaganda, sometimes harmful but generally beneficial to its place of origin. Secondly, there is the specifically designed propaganda film, sponsored as an advertisement for some industry or policy, conceived either as a direct piece of advertising, or in an apparently casual manner so as to disarm the suspicions of an audience which is looking for entertainment. Incidental background propaganda is present, of course, in practically every theatrical film wherever its origin. Because America produces the great majority of films for the screens of the world, it is only natural that tremendous advertisement should issue from every American studio each time a new film is released. Such a big picture as The King of Jazz, with its impudent melting-pot into which the music of the world is poured to bring forth American jazz as the supreme music, is to all intents and purposes straightforward incidental advertisement. Adopting the point of view of an outsider and not that of a filmgoer, we observe that American films set out to appeal by their brilliance of appearance and by their sensational bigness. They overawe the filmgoing public by their flatulence. Film after film from the studios of America puts forward the same idea of