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HOW TO SAVE THE FILMS H7
and far-reaching control if they had been alert. In its infancy the film industry depended largely upon the support of the Churches, and many of the films were definitely religious in aim. But the warnings and pleadings of a few far-seeing ministers and laymen awakened no effective response. The great majority of Church leaders were either too obtuse or too indifferent to realize the significance of the silent revolution that was taking place in the habits and outlook of the people. They dismissed the cinema with a careless word and a trivial thought, burying their heads in theological argument or historical research.
So swiftly did the industry advance that it had assumed nation-wide proportions before they realized what was happening. Hence the futility of their sudden efforts to sweep back the incoming tide with brooms of apprehension and ignorance. Almost too late, they have begun to realize that the cinema can be of real value in the development of the highest intellectual and imaginative qualities of men and women. Mr. A. G. Gardiner, one of the most acute observers of contemporary England, put the case in a nutshell when he said :
' At present the appeal of the vast majority of films is unworthy of a great vehicle of expression. Hollywood provides the world with shameless and silly vulgarity, which debases a great art. Technically their films are fine, but the basis of morality on which they work is terribly low. The films have burst upon us so suddenly that it seems only the day before yesterday since they were first shown in this country. And so far only their anti-social possibilities have been realized. Those who produce them seem indifferent to social and moral consequences, concerned only with their own gain.
' As with the Press, the largest circulation is the object in view, and in both cases it is easily achieved by the introduction of vulgarity. As it is being fought in the Press so it must be fought in the cinema. Producers are wrong in their belief that the public want only the worst kind of film. If they were given the chance to see better