The film answers back : an historical appreciation of the cinema (1939)

certain amount of rigidity in social life, in the ideas of superiority, aristocracy, exclusiveness and elevation which inevitably bring about distortion in what is being looked at below. But this distortion is so easily remediable. All that is necessary is to get off the perch and mix with the people, live amongst them, get some idea of human psychology in the real, not from arbitrary imaginings. It is also very necessary to put aside all thoughts of the 'I am' in the studio, and for all to work as one; and abovfe everything it must be remembered that a high-powered medium like the cinema only serves to show up more vividly the social, cultural and ethical concepts of, say, 1888. For it must be said with regret, judging by so many of our films, that English culture seems to have been frozen to the pattern of not later than 1888, and this is to put it as generously as all the evidence will allow. If the films we have already discussed are not enough to show this, let us take a look at one of Mr. Korda's productions, The Drum. In this picture, which must have cost at least ^150,000, we get the latest word in the mechanics of cinema, brilliant Technicolor, perfect sound, lavish sets, expensive cast and crowds, and every evidence to show that so far as technical equipment is concerned our studios are equal to any in the world. But in this story of the North-West Frontier, every gesture, every gag, might have been lifted intact out of the Boys Own Weekly of 1888, down to the last gallant officer, the last soldier caught in an ambush, the last fluttering flag. Psychology and ethical standards also fit in with the same date, as in The Housemaster. The officers are such nice gallant upright fellows, but the men are always bawled at (as in 1888). The officers may have their wives with them, but the men can do without (as in 1888). From the fact that wireless is mentioned in the 174