Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

Jonuory, 1946 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 23 Twenty films are analyzed and appraised, all available in 16mm. The best of these are Territorial Possessions of the U. S., 1938 — A Year of Contrast, and 1939 — A Year of Dark Coyitrasts. Sources of the films, prices, etc., are given. 24. FOCUS ON LEARNING. By Charles F. Hoban, Jr. Prepared for fhe Committee on Motion Pictures in Education. Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education, 1942. Pp. 172. The summary volume of a series reporting the work done in projects at Wilmington, Denver, and Santa Barbara, as well as in a number of supplementary projects. The use of films subsequently by the Army, the Navy, the Air Forces, and vocational training centers has moved the decimal point of corroboration of Dr. Hoban’s findings far beyond the experimental stage. 25. FOREMOST FILMS OF 1938. By Frank Vreeland. New York: Pitman Publishing Corporation, 1939. Pp. 347, with ten full-page illustrations. Condensations and analyses of “best” films released in 1938 {Wells Fargo, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, You Can't Take It With You, The Citadel, The Young in Heart, That Certain Age) , summaries of twentyeight “unusual” pictures, and 448 additional annotated listings of pictures of 1938 ; a list of the awards for excellence of various kinds; a list of reissued films; a quotation from Will Hays’s annual report; obituaries ; an index of the year’s pictures; and a 32-page survey of production trends in Hollywood, Great Britain, Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere. The author, one of the older New York critics, had production and editorial experience in Hollywood. He established here a model for a series of yearbooks of the screen, endeavoring to do for pictures what Burns Mantle’s yearbook of the “Best Plays” so admirably does for the stage. While the subjects given lengthy treatment admittedly are selections of expediency, on account of difficulty in obtaining copyright clearance, industry politics, and so on, the volume is a gold mine of reference material. One of the best evidences of editorial sincerity is the fact that the compiler in his foreword cites such films as Marie Antoinette, If I Were King, Boys Town, etc., as meritorious enough to be among the “ten foremost,” but are given briefer treatment in the supplementary group called “unusual.” It is in the secondary list that some of the really “foremost” films of 1938 may be found. 26. GOOD NIGHT, SWEET PRINCE. By Gene Fowler. 477 pp. New York: The Viking Press. 1944. A biography of John Barrymore, comparable to Pearson’s G.B.S. in completeness, vividness, and frankness. Included are descriptions of all the Barrymores and Drews and the host of friends and acquaintances who influenced John Barrymore as a man and as an artist. Students will be fascinated by the scores of colorful anecdotes and lively reminiscences about this great actor, who did notable work for the screen. 27. GRIFFITH, D. W.: AMERICAN FILM MASTER. By Iris Barry. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1940. Pp. 40. Illustrated. This monograph, by the curator of a luxurious. Rockefellerendowed institution, is appropriately de luxe in illustration, format, and scholarship. Miss Barry traces the rise of Griffith from obscurity as an actorpoet to first rank among the film producer-directors of our age. A study of his methods and technical innovations, anecdotes culled in his native Kentucky, a wealth of information contributed by his cameraman-collaborator, G. W. (Billy) Bitzer, and documents from the Museum’s rich film library combine to furnish a first-rate critical evaluation of the immortal director under whose leadership the film first developed. The monograph includes a useful chronology and index. 28. HANDBOOK OF ACTING, A. By Eva Alberti. New York: Sam:jel French, 1932. Pp. vii, 205. The best handbook on acting prepared by a veteran teacher of many actors and directors. Of special value in relation to screen acting because it emphasizes “the new pantomime.” Supplements theory with exercises designed to develop natural expression. Chapter VIII is particularly valuable. 29. HAYS OFFICE, THE. By Raymond Moley. 266 pp. Indianapolis: The BobbsMerrill Co. 1945. This is a notable but partial account of the activities and aims of Will H. Hays as a “traffic cop” I'ather than a “Czar” in the development of Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., since 1922, especially in relation to the Quigley code for “clean pictures,” industry self-regulation, and the promotion of pictures worthy o f appreciation and needing the support of community organizations. John Elliott Williams, in the first issue of the critical Hollywood Quarterly (October, 1945), points out that “anyone familiar with the history and operations of the Hays office will immediately recognize that this book tells the truth, nothing but the truth, but not the whole truth.” Mr. Moley’s sources of objective information are mainly Mr. Hays’s Annual Reports and such files of correspondence and official