Educational film magazine; (January-December 1920)

what has been imbibed. In consequence, the alarming m- irease in the amount of indecency and unwholesomeness V hich is creeping into our comedy like a serpent is a matter which merits the careful attention of everyone who has children to be amused or who is possessed of keen interest in the hygiene of mind. Crluities .-v.nd Vulgarities Needless to say, perhaps, the moving picture is not de- signed primarily as a form of juvenile entertainment. It is intended rather for the adult. Even so, it is rather ob- vious. I believe, that the portrayal of crudities and vul- f-arities can hardly have a very .salubrious influence upon the minds and hearts of the adult onlooker. But even though the film was not designed as a form of juvenile re- laxation, it is nevertheless true that a goodly percentage of the patrons of the moving picture theater is made up of the h.nppv-go-iuckv, Inimniing-over boy and the not less impressionable though more reserved girl. Hence, any consideration of the moral effects of the moving picture is by no means complete unless the juvenile consumer has been reckoned with. Glance carefully over any average moving picture opti- ence, outside of school hours, and you will find percent- ages varying between perhaps 10 per cent and 90 per cent ot boys and girls—some of them under the full spell of adolescence, some of them in incipient glamor of pubes- cence, some of them rollicking, noisy boys and girls of six and eight, some of them babes in arms even! And then, as the program proceeds, remember that any situation which is problematic or unwholesome or indecent to your own adult wav of thinking, enriched and trained with experi- ence and maturity, may be searing into the soul of dozens of children around you as though veritably it were a red- hot brand. Do not look for such situations in wild west hair-raisers, nor in recklessly driven automobiles, nor in y-printing clowns and tramps. All these things, though often a bit unattractive to your adult, practical way of ihinking, are just the sort of situations which appeal most keenlv to boys and girls. They are harmless, therefore not lo be despised. The exciting chase, the zig-zagging auto- mobile, the racing train, the pursuer and the pursued make situations that are filled with rapid action and dear to the heart of the boy as the sunlight. Even the pie-throwng and the pastrv-walloping and the whistling hat-raising are comical, essentiallv active or action-producing, and hence enjoyable. No. The danger is not here: the danger lurks in more subtle suggestions. In order to obtain an impersonal and unprejudiced notion of exactly what is tending to be the goal of moving picture comedy, the writer undertook for himself the following task. In a certain citv of some 200.000 people there are ten regular moving picture houses, without including the vaudeville theaters where films are also shown. During the past summer four of the ten houses were closed, but the remaining six were running their regular three-hour pro- grams. The wTiter resolved to visit each of the six theaters during a single week in midsummer, when the children were all free from school, for the purpose of studying the comedy films. He succeeded in covering the six houses in two successive days, thus obtaining a sort of snap- shot cross section of the entertainment provided by moving pictures in a city of 30.000'children. He did not select the films which were being shown during anv definite week, merely taking for his task the week which was available for the purpose. No note was made of the films seen other than the comedy, although it should be said in passing (hi not everything in the feature pictures could be given a cli bill as safe juvenile amusement. He made careful notesi each theater, and later in the same day wrote them up order to give as correct version of the pictures seen possible. In the following paragraphs are presented outlines, in generous abridgement, of the comedv fi, shown in the six theaters. Or, in other words, followinf doubtless a fair sample of any day in any week in ; theater of the type of comedy that is being exhibited. . conservative estimate there were between nine hundred i one thousand children in the six theaters during the ho which the WTiter spent singlv in each. THEATER A. The time of the action is stated to be "anytii ;ind the place "any rich man's house." The weahhy daddy, wl ue are told "holds a piomise from all the chambermaids in ti lo wed him." falls secretly in love with a maid servant in his house. Bud Weiser. the hero, is engaged to marry daddy's daugj f'ut daddy fails to be resigned. Cesar Sweetbread, a roue I about town, becomes furiously enraged at daddy because he greater success with the chambermaids, et al.. than does he. furious encounter between the two ensues. Among other thi daddy is entirely stripped of his clothing above the waist. He fl half naked, homeward, appearing like an apparition before numer horrified females. Meantime. Bud \^ eiser has disguised himsell a beautiful maiden, and daddy's fickle heart goes out to him at sight. Then there follow surreptitious love scenes in which most sickening embracings are featured. Finally the maid sen discovers the secret love-making on daddy's part and sets about once to put a stop to it. The methods which she adopts are A, zonian as well as repulsive. W ith the art of a Circe she arrays her so immodestly that she cannot help but attract the faithless da^ again. But she attracts also Cesar Sweetbread, and the action spe up. The dress of the maid servant is indecent. She is clad ii one-piece dress cut so low in the back that she is naked to belt, and so low in front that her whole form is visible above tight lacings. The dress reaches only slightly below the knees aii( caught up in one place in front so that in moving about its shortn is much accentuated and the whole form of her limb is revealed, a slap-stick scene in the street a cyclone develops and the sk of the ladies are tossed about indecently. Back in the house agi the servant maid discovers daddy and Bud \^ eiser (dressed as woman I love making. Screaming at the offending "woman" I she is a "raw-boned Scandinavian hussy," the ma'd servant rus in and continues her .Amazonian warfare. In the whirlwind wh ensues she and daddy are catapulted upon a bed and Irunde back and forth through the house. Finally, automobiles and mol cycles are commandeered by the several parties and the pursuit Cesar Sweetbread who is kidnapping Bud Weiser takes place *| the usual narrow-escape "recklessness. THE.\TER B. The scene is laid in a shoe store, whose motto,« seen above the entrance, reads: "Slow service, punk goods and b treatment." The shoe saelsman is a young man who aclod ns ' hero of the story—if one can call a Series of meaningless or vulgari questionable scenes a story. The first customer in the shoe dcps ment is a nose-puttied, ape-faced man who, upon the removal of < shoe to be fitted to new ones, is discovered to be wearing a s< which has but a heel and instep. The salesman blackens the t with shoe-polish and then proceeds to throw down shoes from shelves, striking several bystanders and precipitating a goodly anioi of action. Another customer is a lady, who seals herself like" to be fitted for shoes. Her dress is pulled higher and higher ui a considerable hole appears in her stocking slightly below the kn The salesman, with the professed purpose of hiding the rent fr the other salesmen, grasps both hands about the womans leg. 1 customer believes she is being insulted and proceeds lo wreak v geance upon the salesman. .\ sharp chase through the store, o counters and in and out through a revolving doorway ensues, af which the center of interest shifts to the fortunes of a ladv cli who is about to be kidnapped by three men. The brave salesm under cover of an overturned bathtub, routs the plotters, howei and the comedy ends in rapid action. THE.4TER C. The scene is laid half in a restaurant below i half in a beauty parlor above. .Ml the characters are made up to comical and mirth-inspiring, but their costumes are so overdra and exaggerated that they are rather disgusting than humorous, is so likely to be the case in the slapstick comedy. In the midst the noon hour, while the waiters are falling and tripping over i another and while the cash register is registering itself dizzy mouse makes its appearance in the kitchen and is forthwith esp by the omnipresent cook's cat which darts after him. The mo scampers across the kitchen and into the dining-room where diners are seated. The friendly limb of a lady is lolling out fi beneath the table and the mouse scurries across the floor i claws its way up well above the woman's knee, her skirts being d 10