Hollywood Spectator (1937-39)

Hollywood Spectator Page Fifteen f 1 ITH that attitude of society toward crime and criminals, involving the possible complete doing away of all crime, it is difficult to understand why crime and criminals should be taken and established as one of the outstanding and necessary attributes of Art. If dramatic presentation on stage or screen is art, one wonders why that which society has by its own degree declared to be not art at all, namely, crime and criminals, should be so fulsomely exploited as art and as artistic presentation. But, for the stage and the screen, so critics have stated, there can not be drama without evil things to play against the good. Fair enough, but if society in any particular state or community should succeed in abolishing all crime within its confines, then such society would not be interested in anything pertaining to that which is known as the underworld, and drama would take on a character quite different from that at present prevailing. The science of government may take on any form. Its administration may be crude and harsh, with terrorizing subjugation, and in such form it might be known, according to present standards, as artistic rule. But, if scientific government should by a strange, outside chance take on a form of rule that had within itself the ideals of true Art, there would be harmony in its working and it would be an expression of truth, integrity, justice and other like and similar qualities. So that it is quite proper for one to wonder and consider whether liberty is the correct and only true expression of the art of governing. AR is sometimes referred to as scientific. The killing of a sufficient number of people and the destruction of a certain amount of property in order to collect tribute may properly be called artistic warfare. A fair amount of logical reasoning fails to uncover virtuous art in the killing of human kind and the wilful destruction of property. Still, it must be there because war is scientific, and warfare is the art of using scientific means to the best advantage to accomplish wholesale annihilation. So Our Masters sit and ponder, write heavy notes, try to trade for advantage, back and fill and four-flush a little, all to determine whether it will be a more artistic performance to knock off a few thousand with submarine torpedoes, or whether bombs from airplanes would polish them more nicely; whether the gut-burning machine gun and rifle should be discarded for the deadly gas, or vice versa. Warfare must become civilized, so it has been voiced, and it is going to be a tough job for somebody tc figure out how and in what way the wholesale killing of men and women shall be elevated to a civilized art. Further consideration offers the question whether such killing and such destruction ever are civilized, ever artistic or ever an expression of Art. In the field of literature and also journalism, any subject well presented with a choice selection of words, is a work of art because literature and, presumably, journalism are art and therefore anything coming under the head of literature or journalism must of necessity be a bit of artistic work. Just how literature and journalism which cater to depraved tastes and vacuous minds are art is something for critics to dissertate to their hearts’ content. The motion picture is, properly, an art embodying varied arts. The arts of dramatic writing, acting, direction, lighting, music, and other, enter into its production. The motion picture happens to be an art, supplemented with scientific achievement, that appeals direct to the public in a way and in a manner that is intelligible to all kinds and classes except, possibly, the dumbest of the dumb. In view of its broad appeal and its tremendous potential force for inducing thought that later shapes into action, the motion picture should be held to the very highest and the purest and cleanest art. When the motion picture caters to depraved taste, resorts to the picturing of the filth of human life and exhibits passion in a manner to incite destructive and destroying thought, it becomes one with crime and criminals, a something to be held in check, suppressed and obliterated. The glorification and exhibition of the human body seems to be one of the peculair delights of motion picture producers. N 11 OTHING particularly wrong about it, properly handled, but why? It stinks in life and rots in death; is crippled and deformed ; has the bellyache most of the time and is otherwise diseased. Much better, perhaps even from a financial standpoint, to show the workings of nobility, the play of minds in contact and in conflict, the longing heart and struggle of souls to higher estate. The human mass is unthinking; buys what is offered to it, mostly; takes what is handed to it, generally; progress, therefore, is dependent, mostly and generally, on a very few in delegated power. Because those few, very naturally and very humanly, are thinking principally of their own interest, society as a whole moves forward slowly. But if we, thou and I, could hold full sway, how we would change conditions! With thee and me prescribing entertainment and education the world would quickly change to a happier state. But even thou and I, so wellnigh perfect, are yet a trifle frail in some respects and so might lapse a little upon occasion. With thee and me, though, that would not matter much for we, thou and I, are far above the milling crowd and easily exempt. Still, even to us, thee and me, might come a desperate plight. Methinks, for thee and me it would be better, far better, if we, thou and I, did not try to change the whole world all at once. 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