Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

10 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE Volume XII, No. 9 part of America’s emotional life. Of course, there are exceptions. There are pictures which deal with basic human problems in a way which is constructive, artistic, and ethically sound. But many films are either innocuous and stultifying, or appeal to repressed emotions or anti-social impulses, thereby intensifying what someone has called the insanity of our culture, in which we preach one thing and passionately desire another. It may be said, however, that if this is true, it is not the producers’ fault, but ours. They are in business to make money. They are making money — by correctly interpreting the public mind. There is no question that the content of Hollywood films is a reflection of much of American life. The crying need is for education of public taste. But this does not relieve motion picture producers of responsibility. They have at their command a tremendous medium which not only entertains but often, unconsciously, teaches and persuades. Producers are coming to a realization of their responsibility through the work of pressure groups, which are exerting a powerful influence to establish political censorship. I abhor censorship as much as any Hollywood producer does. I think it is dangerous and undemocratic and a threat to our American freedom. But if the movies do not want the dead hand of government control, they must reform themselves. This does not mean accepting arbitrary or superficial codes of decency forced on them by special interest groups. It means understanding what life is all about, what morality is, what decency is, and what good art Paul F. Heard, Executive Secretary Protestant Film Commission, Inc. is. It means something far more complex than the acceptance of artificial rules. It means the development and application of artistic and ethical standards. I do not mean that Hollywood entertainment films are not artistic in a purely technical sense. The technique of entertainment films is often superb. What producers must realize is that art involves more than technique. It involves having something Make Literature LIVE In the Classroom The following Teaching Film Custodian (M-G-M) subjects are ideally suited to classroom study: "Treasure Island" Lionel Barrymore Wallace Beery Jackie Cooper "Tale of Two Cities" Ronald Colman "Mutiny on the Bounly" Clark Goble Charles Laughton Franchot Tone "Romeo and Juliet" Leslie Howard Norma Shearer John Barrymore "David Copperfield, the Boy" "David Copperfied, the Man" Lionel Barrymore Maureen O'Sullivan W. C. Fields Freddie Bartholomew Fach subject 4 reels Rental: $6.00 (Special Series Rate) In Our Free Catalofi nf SELECTED MOTION PICTURES Write to Dept. “Y” Y.M.C.A. MOTION PICTURE BUREAU 347 Madison Ave. Chicago 3, III. New York 17, N. Y 19 So. LaSalle St. San Francisco 2, Cal Dallas 1, Tex. 351 Turk St. 1700 Patterson Ave. worthwhile and constructive to say. It involves the application of artistic and ethical standards in the production of entertainment films. Properly applied, such standards will contribute to financial success. What Do We Meon By Standards? People who talk about ethical and artistic standards are often incorrigible emotionalists. They become righteously vague when asked to say what they mean. Let us, however, try to analyze specific films from artistic and ethical viewpoints. From this analysis, certain concrete principles may emerge. 1. Superficiality — The Green Years. This is one of the films which Hollywood has produced to appeal to the carriage trade. Based upon a book by the same name, it is a rather inconsequential story about an Irish orphan boy who grows up in the austere home of his Scotch relations, and, with the aid of his salty and incorrigible great-grandfather, leaves his job in the coal mines to study medicine at the university. The whole is fraught with an air of “significance.” It is done in that imitation epic style which Hollywood reserves for the picturization of best-selling period novels. With the exception of some good scenes between the boy and the greatgrandfather and some revealing incidents about the boy’s early school days, the story seems hardly worth telling. Its scenes often fade out just when they begin to get interesting. Apart from superficiality of theme, which is as much an artistic as an ethical lack, one aspect of the picture deserves special comment. A religious motif is inter