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SCREEN MAGAZINES
D. F. TAYLOR
It is impossible to define Public Opinion or know "what the public wants," though we do know to-day that there is a growing audience who want to know, an audience who demand more in their relaxation than just entertainment. Financial crises and world economic collapses beset us, and affect us individually. Far from seeking an opiate, there is a large body of people who want to know more about this crazy, chaotic world.
The people cry for knowledge, and the producers give us entertainment. Traditionally they answer, "We know what the public wants; we don't want none of these 'ere intellectuals" — the stock answer that has met every innovation.
Through the screen magazine, the thin end of the wedge of knowledge could be given to the waiting audiences. To-day it is the lowest type of film produced. In form it owes much to ; TitBits ': and "Answers," a speedy collection of odds and ends from here and there, designed to pass ten minutes and then to be forgotten. Its constant seeking after the odd and the curious satisfies the unintelligent lust for curiosity, but achieves nothing.
The present chief operators in the field are Pathe Gazette and Eve's Film Review, the Ideal Cinemagazine , and the Paramount Pictorial, with the rechauffe of five-year-old newsreel, the Kinograph Tonereel. Searching crazily for the strange and the curious, they overlook the solid jobs of review waiting on their own doorsteps. Their formula never changes. Week in and week out we are treated to a dash of industry, a dash of beauteous country-side, two dashes of fashion and a lacing of cabaret to give the reel a kick. I was once told that the North demands the cabaret. This particular statement that certain areas demand a low form of entertainment should have been debunked by now. It is not what the public want in those areas; it is what the exhibitor wants — an entirelv different affair. It is an insult to the North to suggest that they demand legs and lingerie above all else. The theory that the exhibitor knows what the public wants should have been exploded before. From conversations up and down the country with exhibitors I have never yet found one who could give a true estimate of the public taste in his district. He is usually far more concerned with the mess the audience makes on his carpets than the type of film he shows. He is more concerned with the pea-nut audience on Thursday and the orange-peel audience on Saturday to think about their reactions.
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