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the thirtieth made. In three months with the help of two Eskimos he had built a lab. and cutting room. His water was got from an ice hole and carried in gasoline barrels on dog sledges. He printed with reflected sunlight and turned his acetylene projector by hand. Eighteen months later Flaherty was thawing out in New York with the first documentary ever made. Very few critics of the time realized the size and importance of the foundation Flaherty had laid. Very few do to-day.
Pat Mullen does not pretend to criticize. He realizes that Flaherty is a great man and wisely does not pass judgment.
John Taylor.
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII. Story and Dialogue by Lajos Biro and Arthur Wimperis. (London : Methuen, 3s. 6d.) At last a complete scenario has been published in book form. While admitting the excellence of the precedent, however, one must admit that there is little of technical interest in this little volume. It may be supposed that the editing by Ernest Betts has resulted in considerable simplification of the actual working script. Descriptions of scenes and technical terms are cut down to a minimum and printed in small italics (like stage-directions in a play) leaving the dialogue as the reader's main interest. Even under these conditions, however, some significant facts emerge. There are 239 scenes in the film, as compared with about 2000 in such films as Jeanne Mey and Storm over Asia. Of these, seventy-six are silent. Most of these are unimportant detail shots. Of the remaining 163 scenes, by far the greater number have no interest apart from the dialogue. These figures give some idea of the extent to which the ear has encroached on the province of the eye. Most of the methods by which the genuine film gets its effects are here necessarily excluded. One cannot do quickcutting with an average scene-length of twenty seconds, and if there is no quick-cutting, slow-cutting is meaningless. The relations between scenes are of the most straightforward type imaginable: effects of juxtaposition are naturally absent. The one faint-hearted attempt at a crescendo climax is considered mostly in terms of sound. The scenario, says Ernest Betts in his introduction, "reads very like a play." G. F. D alton.
THE STREET OF SHADOWS. By Elizabeth Coxhead. (London: Cassell, 7s. 6d.) A novel of the film trade in Wardour Street and of the studios in Germany at the end of the silent era and the coming of sound. Some of the characters are well-known personalities — directors, actors and critics — but thinly disguised ; others are synthetic figures with certain clearly recognizable traits belonging to more than one notable character in the industry. An interesting and at times amusing, if never deeply illuminating, volume.
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