The devil's camera : menace of a film-ridden world (1932)

46 THE DEVIL'S CAMERA Chapter IV Children and the Films — Revolution in Juvenile Mentality — Failure of Censorship — ' Production or Seduction?' — Do the Churches Care? 1 THE visitor was toiling up the crumbling stone stairs of a tenement barracks in the East End of London. From two landings above came the voices and laughter of children. Pausing to take breath, and leaning against the iron railings which protect each landing, she was amused to learn that the youngsters were playing at ' pictures/ Suddenly a quarrel broke out, and she heard one boy shout angrily : l Garn ! I tell yer, yer wrong. The bloke what rescued 'er wrapped 'er up in a blooming blanket before 'e carried 'er dahn the fire escape/ 'An' I says, 'e did nuffink of the sort, see? D'yer think 'e'd stay fer that? Why, the blinking 'ouse'd be dahn on top of 'im, fathead ! ' So the excited argument went on as the visitor climbed the remaining stairs and emerged upon the group of dirty, ragged, squabbling school children. As she appeared, however, the dispute was settled in favour of the blanket, and she was just in time to see the thrilling rescue, the heroine, a girl of ten, being rolled up in a filthy old bag that may once have held coal, and grabbed head and foot by her two gallant rescuers, aged ten and twelve, whose paper hats and rough wooden hatchets denoted their firemen's rank. Amid the plaudits of the eager little onlookers, and to the peril and vociferous consternation of the heroine herself, they struggled with her down the flight of stairs, dropping her breathlessly on the next landing to mop their sweating foreheads in the approved film fashion. 1 We seen the picture at the Mission, miss,' volunteered a girl spectator. ' Oh, it was lovely ! They took 'er stright dahn out of a burning 'ouse, they did. And the