Educational film magazine; (January-December 1920)

REVIEWS OF FILMS Edited by GLADYS BOLLMAN ' THE^BROKEN MELODY" A PICTURE rich in interest to the ambitious young person and those interested in him or her, is The Broken Melody. It presents the conflict between art and life which so often comes to the young student or artist just beginning his career. Should one's work be sacrificed to the "human" side of life, should love and youth have their hey-day—or is any sacrifice necessary —can a compromise be made? After one has seen The Broken Melody the problems remain in the mind, only revealed, not solved, by the picture. The story has suffi- cient vitality and truth to live off the screen, as well as oh it. Stuart, a young artist, is persuaded to leave Hedda, his fiancee, to study in Paris. The influences which guide his decision are three: the inspiration of a wealthv young woman who plays at being a patron of the arts and who offers him his chance, as she has done to so many other artists; the advice of a broken old man, once a famous musician, who shows him a faded letter, saying, "I loved a girl as lovely and gifted as Hedda. We were selfish in our happiness and this is all I have to show for our wasted talents": and, lastly, Hedda's great sacrivce by which she induces him to go by making him believe that she must work out her success alone. After much suffering and some disillusion for both, Stuart returns and they agree to take up the future together. There is a quality of inevitableness about the story which makes it singularly forceful. The real problem involved, its solution, largely through chance or through mistakes, the excellent characterization, the simplicity of treatment— all are convincing. It is a bit out of real life. It raises any number of those questions so interesting to discuss and so vital to the questioner, who must solve them in his own life. Was Hedda's sacrifice a mistaken one because she accomplished it by a lie? Was Stuart wrong to accept help instead of working out his own salvation? Was the old man wrong in regretting his past happiness? For club and student groups, the picture is ideal. The treatment is sincere, free from the usual display and exploitation of a personality or a setting, and honest in setting forth the characteristics of the hero and heroine and their surroundings — artistic ambition and "singing suppers," days of play and work, the freedom and the innocence of Greenwich Village as it is in places, not as it is thought to be. The Broken Melody seems to have been divested of many of the conventions of the photoplay and more pic- tures of the same type will be heartily welcomed by dis- criminating audiences. The Broken Melody. Produced by Selznick. Distributed by Select Pictures Corporation. 5 reels. 9 9' "THE GO-GETTER" The Go-Getter is the story of a young man who came back from a commendable career in the service and re- fused to become subject again to the slavery of tbe daily round on a farm. He saw, however, that there were quite as many possibilities on the farm, under certain conditions, as anywhere else. He borrows money, purchases up-to-date farm and household electrical equipment, and in a year has not onl\ made these appliances pay for themselves, but has netted several hundred dollars profit. \^1iile this reel was made for advertising purposes, it contains much of educational value for rural and other communities. It would awaken rural communities to the need for eliminating their waste of man-power, to the advantage of being self-sufficient upon their own land, and to the increased possibilities for education and self-culture afforded by more leisure. The picture also gives a picture of farm life not so discouraging to the city dweller as one would suppose. If city-dwellers are ever to go back to the farm, it must be because they want to. and this reel provides an effective argument. The Go-Getter. Produced by the Western Electric Comnany. 3 reeb. o XE of the effective scenes from "The Broken Me'ody," a photo- play with a message. Eugene O'Brien plays the artist. MAKING TELEPHONES IN TOKYO A good example of the travelog which reallv teaches is another Western Electric reel, made to show the Tokyo branch of the American Telephone and Telegraph Com- pany, which is thirty years old. Among the interesting features of the picture are the views of commercial cus- toms. We are given examples of the peculiar speed and accuracy of Japanese workers. A Japanese carpenter is seen at his work, which seems strange to an Occidental, for he pulls his plane instead of pushing it, and saws with an up stroke instead of a down stroke. Coolies are iden- tified by numbers on their uniforms. Hundreds of tons of domestic freight are transported by man power, as illus- trated by the curious method of poling boats in which a man furnishes the necessary force by walking from the front to the back of the boat. We are shown the beautiful inland farm country and the mountain sides which furnish the telegraph poles. We see at the factory the packing and assembling of the tele- phones, and the closing hour, with its curious mingling of American and Japanese customs — time clocks and rick- shaws. American clad men and kimono clad women. Views 22