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THE AMERICAN FILM
was his exquisite performance in The Student of Prague. Imagine Universal, with 'Uncle' Carl Laemmle and all, murmuring thus: 'Here is this great emotional actor, who plays with such intense force that his mind appears warped, portraying on his narrow face the inner conflict of self with terrible truth, under contract to us. What part shall we put him over in? How can we make him greater still? Let us take away the use of his mouth, and make him act with his eyes and hands. Let us give him a permanent smile and then make him play tragedy. Think of the sensation . . .'
# Searching for the true characteristics of the American film, as distinct from European influence, it is found that youth, vitality, space, and movement are the chief attributes of the movie. American traditions, generally speaking, date back only to the time of the civil war, and, as in her literature, many of her movies, especially those of the early war-period, carry themes relative to that event. Both politically and socially America has been far too busy to devote any sincere attention to the arts, with the result that there is no contemporary school of American painting recognised in Europe, and her literature is marked only by isolated achievements. The average American citizen has more sympathy with a mechanic or an engineer than with an artist or a writer. Painting or composing is a dilettante profession, pursued only by the rich. Rudolph Messel in his analysis of the American mentality has traced the development of the cowboy mind from the days of the great gold rush into the modern day healthy American with money as his sole aim.1 Much of the American mind is occupied with a primitive instinct for fight and possession, an instinct that is the basis for many movies {viz., the early westerns, with their gunmen and hard-riding cowboys; the recent vogue for underworld crook stories, with gangsters, etc.). Out of this primitive animal mind comes also the strong sexual feeling, particularly in the dynamic American girl. Nearly every movie is saturated in sex stimulant; a quality that is increasing with the dialogue film, and is uppermost in almost every director's and producer's mind, not only in Hollywood, but in England, France, Germany, and even Russia. The most popular stars in Paris are Joan Crawford and Victor MacLaglan. Every girl chosen for a part in a British film is judged by her amount of sex, according to outward appearances.
1 Vide, This Film Business, by Rudolph Messel (Benn, 1928). 83