Cinema (Hollywood) (1947)

Previews Agnes Morehead is not only one of Hollywood's finest actresses, she is also a very articulate one. The two together are a rarity. So that the article w hich she is writing for Cinema should be extremely interesting in its revelation of the acting ideas of one of the finest. Though Film Societies have grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years, England has had them for more than two decades. The Film Society movement there has become a well knit group in the British film scene and may account in part for the taste brought to bear on English film productions. Roger Manvell, our British correspondent, has sent us a very informative article on the growth of their Film Societies. Interestingly, he points out that local community groups regularly lent their town's movie house to show the films they want to see! But more of that in his article. What responsibility do movies have to their audience? We decided to find out by asking some people who should know. We went to the President of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, C. S. Beesemyer, and to the Secretary of the Los Angeles CIO Council, Philip Connelly, to get the views of both groups. Continuing the inquiry, we contacted Mrs. Joseph S. Hook, President of the Los Angeles District of the Parent-Teachers Congress. Since, in this atomic age, no round table talk would be completed without a scientist, we wrote to David P. Shoemaker of the Association of California Scientists at California Institute of Technology. Finally we spoke to Hortcnse Powdermaker, visiting Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Los Angeles. She is presently at work on a study of motion pictures as a part of United States culture under a Viking Fund grant. Realizing that the other side of the fence should be heard from, we asked Dore Schary, Executive Vice-President in charge of production at R.K.O., what he thought the audience's responsibility was to movies. Their answers were provocative and exciting. You will read them in an early issue. In checking the New York newspaper and magazine critics' reviews of Charles Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux, we find that most seem to dislike the new, well-dressed Chaplin and nostalgically prefer his baggy trousers and odd feet. Alfred Rosenheimer, Jr., is one New Yorker who doesn't see eye to eye with his fellow critics. And he has written for Cinema an exciting article on the new Charles Chaplin. Eli Willis Note to Film Societies In schools, museums, libraries, churches and private groups, a rising interest has been shown in the screening of "film classics." Forming local Film Societies, the members are able to view once again such various movie milestones as David Wark Griffith's "Intolerance," Robert Benchley in "The Sex Life of the Polyp." Greta Garbo in "Camille," and Sergie Eisenstein's "The Ten Days That Shook the World." The film society movement has grown by leaps and bounds. We are pleased to announce that with our next issue, CINEMA will devote a column to the activities of the Film Societies and individual film experimenters. In this way, we hope to keep you informed of each other's activities as well as helping to serve as a springboard for the formation of a Film Society in your local community. This department will be conducted by Mr. Paul Ballard of the Hollywood Film Society. Mr. Ballard has been in the vanguard in inaugurating film groups on the west coast for the showing of art and experimental films. All communications, news of your Society's activities, and inquiries should be addressed to Mr. Paul Ballard, in care of CINEMA. 8066 Beverly Boulevard, Hollywood 36, California. Contributors DR. SAMUEL LOWY of the Viennese school of neuropsychiatry is a Psychoanalyst residing at Manchester, England since 1940. Previously he practised as a specialist, attached to the Neurological Department of the University Hospital at Batislava, Slovakia. He is the author of Biological anil Phychological Foundations of Dream Inter' pretations, the first volume of a comprehensive standard work. ARTHUR ROSENHEIMER, JR., Assistant Curator of the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, is a wellknown critic in film circles. His articles on motion pictures have appeared in Theatre Arts, Films, Saturday Review of Literature and he has lectured at Fordham University, New York University, Hunter College, etc. During the war he saw action in France as a Lieutenant in the 79th Division, was wounded and then placed in charge of the Signal Corps Training Film Libraries in Italy. MARTIN FIELD, screen writer, is on the editorial board of The Screen Writer, the monthly publication of the Screen Writers' Guild. He has written widely on the special problems of the writer in the motion picture industry. ROGER MANVELL, a leading British film critic, reviewed Odd Man Out for our June issue and in this discusses the cultural film scene as viewed from London. He writes midway between the Czechoslovakian Film Festival recently held in London and the current Brussels Film Festival which he will discuss in a future issue. HERMAN G. WEINBERG with this issue becomes our New York Correspondent. Credit for importing the two Jean Vigo films which he discusses belongs largely to Mr. Weinberg through he modestly assigns it elsewhere. The series of Film Indexes on outstanding directors, which he is editing for the British Sight and Sound, will be published shortly in book form by Dennis Dobson, Ltd., London.