Educational film magazine; (January-December 1920)

THE CASE AGAINST THE MOVIES (Continued from Page 11) joke, and thus too added suggestion finds its way iiitii the adolescent mind. One wcindi-rs in do^pair whether it i? no longer possiible for honior to be injected into a situation without this detestable sugges- tion of the sex motive. B. Another unfortunate tendency in sireen drama of the ligliter sort is the in- trusion of vulgarity into the action. This is in manv ways allied with the unseemly ex- posure mentioned above. But coarseness and vulgarity creep in often without the sex moli\e being prominent. For example, the sudden appearance of daddy, in the first outline above, in the midst of a room-full of ladies. Daddy is stripped naked as far as his waist anil as he plunges unexpectedly and unexpecling into the assembled guests lliey hold up their hands in outraged horror and cover their faces modestly while daildy. vainly endeavoring to cover as much of his upper body as possible, rushes madly out of tile room. At least three of the six com- edies offends on the score of vulgarity. The skirts of the Isdies rasis^d by a cyclone, the rat and mouse precipitating themselves up the leg of a woman; the offended minister in the beauty parlor are all types of the I oarse and vu'gar. C. But far more insidious than the last i» the exploitation on the comedy screen of marital fickleness and wedded inconstancy. Obviously, it is only comedy, but this fact fails to excuse the needless persistence of this theme in film. .Such situations, car- ried to the extreme as they usually are. can- not properly be termed humorous, nor are they satires upon life. They are rather ex- idoilations of infidelity in that one relation- ship above all others vhere we look for constancy. It matters not whether the un- faithfulness is depicted ^s occurring between lovers or married men and women; one per- son tires of his or her male and proceeds to attract some other in a sort of puppy-dog promiscuousness which cannot be interpreted in the unsophisticated eyes of the boy as idacing any special emphasis upon faithful- ness and truth in human relation. D. .A fourth striking tendency in recent comedy drama is the increasing abortion in the use of the English language as it is em- ployed in titles and subtitles. It is rela- tively rare nowadays to find correct, not to say elegant, use of language on the screen. And yet here is an agency in the molding of the speech of children which is probably not paralleled Ly any other agencv with (he possible exception of the school. The writer hears nearly every day the complaint of teachers lo the effect that they find it often all but impossible to offset in their schoolrooms the unfortunate influence of the screen in the use of lan;4uage. Now it is of ciiur'ii' a well-known fact that effort among children is likely lo follow the line of least resi-.tance- it follows that the slangv, coarse, meaninaless and often vulgar laniiuage of the title and sub-title becomes the habitual sperch of the children who come under the influence of the screen immoileral<'ly — as most cliililren undoubtedly do. The writer likes to cite in illustration of the tremen- dous influence of slang upon the speech of young people a little but very significant in- cident which came under his notice recently. It chanced that an elevator which he de- sired to make use of was not in working condition. The operator stood by the en- trance to direct the people who wished to be carried up. to another elevator in the rear of the building. The writer recpu'sted to know the trouble with the lift. The oper- ator, a youth of doubtful appearance, replied earnestly, pointing upvard to ihe pulleys in the top of the well: "The whole blamed shooting-match up above is on the blink." Now it was quite apparent what he meant by the "shooling-match" and "on the blink." It is true, however, that that youth was making use of a poveriy-slricken English, imbibed doubtless in considerable measure from the same screen source whence is de- rived the motto over the shoe store in Thea- ter B., above; Slow service, punk goods and bum treatment. The influence of such ex- amples upon boys and girls, who by the way have not the nicest sense of language, is par- ticularly unfortunate. E. A fifth reaction to the sort of comedy film which now enjoys undue prominence is the feeling that too often false and unhappy notions of life are given young people who have not yet tried life but before whom lite stretches in hazy, uncertain glamor and idealism. The incident, for example, in which it is stated that the events about to be portrayed are the events peculiar to '"any rich man's house." is not true. Not all rich men are unfaithful to llieir wives or be- trothed. Not all rich men deceive. Not ev- ery rich man ""holds a promise from .ill the chambermaids in town to wed him." The outlook upon life which such statements en- gender in the minds of youthful observers is a false one. Such notions of human inter- course and society are dangerous when aroused in the soul of childhood which, as mentioned above, naturally surrounds life with the mysticism and beauty of idealism. F. Finally, the very disconnectedness and lack of coherence in the comedy film of the poorer sort is psychologically unsahitary to the menial gri>wth of the child and to the furthering in him of logical and connected thinking. A plot which is no plot because il is continually destructive rather than harmless, not to say constructive, in the de- velopment of a child's mental attitudes and habits. The above reactions *o the comedy films viewed are not to be interpreted as imply, ing that the purpose of comedy is to edu- cate and stimulate intellectually boys and girls. The screen in lighter vein has its distinct place, and there are numberless good comedies which fill this place admir- ably, ft is troe. nevertheless, that when a film produces inirth because of some inher- ent false ideals of living which it exploits, or because of improper exposure which ex- cites the dormant life of the passions, or because of vulgarity which lays bare the personal relationships, or because of undue abortion and misuse of the English language which sets a backfire to education itself, it is no longer lo be regarded as a harmless film. It is true ultimately that the entire and sole end of adult life is to protect anc: promote and safeguard the growth and de- velopment of child life. It follows that any- thing which inUrferes with this natural and complete aim of human life cannot be re- garded as a neutral factor. Millions of dol- lars are expended on the education of youth in the correct use of the English language alone; there is danger that the influence of the screen may undermine much of the work being done. Parents permit their children to see on the s,-reen portrayals of situations. relationships and motives which in (lie or- dinary course of events in the life of the home they would never allow to be lireathed in the presence of their children. I say, there is danger here. But what is to be done? Theater man- acers tell me that it is next to an impossi- bility to procure programs which are free from the taint of the questionable comic film. Even though ihey secure as a feature p»<>. ture an excellent drama, filled with the re- verberations ai\d heart-beats of life, there must be accepted with it several reels of the other which throws an altogether different flashlight upon society and human relation- ships. The remedy appears to lie in par- ents themselves refusing to rely upon the good repute of their favorite playhouse and to personally view a program before per- 26 \ mitting their children to attend a theater. Community effort may be enlisted and week- ly lists ot the harmless films available in the city or town printed in the daily press. Even then, however, there will always be parents who have not the time or the inclination personally to bother with the details of their children's amusement. O temporal 0 mores! FL.ASHES ON WORLD'S SCREEN ^' East Lake School. Atlanta, Ga., has in- stalled a motion picture projector. The pro- ceeds of a recent Friday night movie show were used to help pay for the machine. All of the children sold tickets and there was a prize tor the boy and the girl who sold^ the most. ♦ Saturday morning movie shows for chil- dren are being given at the Lancaster Thea- ter, Boston, Mass. The Catholic Italian Civ- ic League are conducting the performances, A nominal fee of 10 cents for each child tickets free. At the first performance there covers expenses. The poor children receive were 1.500 children. ""The Eternal Trian- gle" dealing with the matrimonial troubles of two collie dogs and Mabel Normand in '"Mickey" were two of the recent pictures shown. A song leader from the War Camp Community Service led the singing. A large American flag was thrown on the screen and the boys and girls rose from their seats and recited ""The Pledge to the Flag.'' Follow- ing that they sang "America." i In the high school assembly room at Clar- inda. La., a suit case model projector is be- ing used. .According to the Council Bluffs (IowaI newspaper the machine is placed on a table and a 400-watt lamp is used. This may be approved by the local fire depart- ment and school authorities, but it does not seem very safe for the innocent little chil- dren of that city, if inflammable films are being used (wluch is probably the case'. The Education Committee in Chiswick, England, is to be congratulated on being the first to realize the possibilities of the cinematograph in elementary education. The local authority has set aside money for a service of films in the schools, and has al- ready illustrated lessons on modern Egypt and the "Charge of the Light Brigade. The Rev. Thornbler, vicar of St. John s. Kensal Green. England, is evidently a staunch believer in tlie film. It has. he says, quickened the minds of the young to such an extent that- he is applying to his Bishop lor leave to confirm children at the early age of twelve years. He also intends to ap- ply the film to his parochial ministrations. The value of the cinematograph as ap- jdied to education was further illustrated at a demonstration under the auspices of the Geographical Association at the Regent Street Polytechnic, London, England, re- cently, in connection with the conference of educational associations. The demonstra- tion took the form of cinematography ap- plied to geography, and the films were ex- plained by Capt. C. E. Hodges. The first, "The Why of the Volcano." illustrated the causes of eruptions and the bending of strata, while another of unique interest was '"In the Land of Cleopatra." I * FOR SALE DeVry Motion Picture Machine New—Price ^150.00 Paul E. Parker, 29 N. Terrace Ave, Mt. Vernon, New York II