Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

50 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE Volume XII, No. 4 Hollywood Trends Evaluated In A New Quarterly The appearance of Volume I, Number 1, of the HoUijivood Quarterlii (October, 1945) is an event of significance to teachers and students of drama, speech, literature, English composition, music, and the social studies, as well as to those interested in films and radio programs and audio-visual education generally. The new magazine is published under the joint sponsorship of the University of California* and the Hollywood Writers Mobilization. This is indeed a happy combination. The editors are Samuel T. Farquhar, Franklin Fearing, John Howard Lawson, Kenneth Macgowan, and Franklin P. Rolfe. Helene M. Hooker is assistant editor. The fir.st issue of the Qimrte'tiij, which runs to 129 pages, contains five articles on motion pictures, three on radio, two on the status of the writer, two on technology, and one on problems of communication. There are four interesting briefer items, including one by Alexander Knox on playing Wilson. There are thirteen reviews of recent books in the film and radio field. Dorothy B. Jones, in “The Hollywood War Film: 19421944,” says: It is well within the power of the film to reduce psycholog-ical tlistance between people in various parts of the world, just as the airplane has reduced physical distance. Whether or not the picture makers of the world will meet this challenge remains to be seen. In the case of the Hollywood picture *The subscription price of the Hollywood Quarterly is $4.00 a year. Single copies are $1.2.5. Subscriptions shoidd be sent to University of C'alifornia Press, Berkeley 4, Calif. makers perhaps some indication of the answer to this question may be found in an examination of the way in which they met their responsibilities to their nation and to the United Nations (luring wartime. The present article reviews the Hollywood feature product of three years of war. * * Hollywood has gained immeasurably in social awareness and in new techniques of film making as a result of the war. Now that the smoke of battle is clearing away, a world public is waiting to see whether Hollywood will accept the greater responsibilities and opportunities that lie ahead by helping to create One World dedicated to peace, plenty, and the pursuit of happiness. Director Irving Pichel, whose latest film is the notable Tomorrou' Is Forever, in “Creativeness Cannot Be Diffused,” says: There are three kinds of pictiues made in Hollywood — those which are distinctly “directors’ pictures,” those which have been “])roduced,” and those which owe their distinction to the work of the writer. In each category, one man has given his stamp to the work. " * * In the end, there will be only one man, the producer-writer-director. Ben Maddow, scenarist, in “Fisenstein and the Historical Film,” remarks that the most expressive of all the elements of cinema is the play of change upon the human face. Lawrence Morton, music editor and comiioser, in “Chopin’s New Audience,” says: The elevation of i)ublic taste is a long and difficult process; it is necessary to acquaint the public with great music ])efore it will care — let alone know — whether an interpi'etation is pure 01 affected. If the cynic despairs, the optimist (one might say, the realist) has plenty of grounds for encouragement. The thousands who read liiogral)hies of Chopiti and Sand may have been shocked by the film’s falsifica tion of fact and character, but they cannot have been b. ought even that close to Chopin without having learned something about the greatness of human spirit which he revealed through his music. Dudley Nichols, former president of the Screen Writers Guild, in “Men in Battle,” reviews three films and points out that A Bell for Adano lacks that one quality which shines out in Stoioj of G. /. Joe — “tenderness, sympathy, and respect for the human being.” Mr. Nichols points out that only in tenderness can real humor be touched. William Matthews, Associate Professor of English in the University of California, Los Angeles campus, in “Radio Plays as Literature,” says; The realization of the best potentialities of radio drama depends upon the welcome that radio will give to <lramatic })oets and the willingness of such poets to make use of this, their natural medium in these days. * * * There is an ample place in radio for vei'se diama and now that drama is likely to realize most amply the Iitera;y potentialities offcretl l)y this medium of the ear; prose may achieve greatness, but in poetry still lies the power and the glory. Marjorie Fiske and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, of the Columbia University Office of Radio Research, present a condensation of a chapter in the forthcoming book, Hou' to Operate Consumer and Opinion Research, in which they say: The programs that are known and promoted as “educational” reach a relatively small proportion of the radio audience, chiefly those who would make a point of acquiring the same information from another medium if it were not available to them over the air. It is known that such progi-ams will not reach even those I'elatlvely few listeners unless organized efforts