Hollywood Spectator (1938)

Hollywood Spectator Page Five rific it is almost impossible for him to hear the lines the players are bawling at one another above the mechanical din. Instead of sleeping that night, our little man just thinks, and next morning he gathers together all the motion picture producers and goes into conference with them. What Camera Can Do . . . HE motion picture camera, he explains in simple language so as to be understood, is the only thing on earth which can conduct us through an operating machine shop, show us every wheel turning and every belt traveling, saws whirling and hammers pounding, without bringing to our ears, and through them to our nerves, even as much sound as perhaps scientists claim a feather makes when it falls. Why, our meek little fellow inquires, cannot the camera be used to perform this miracle? We know we are in a machine shop as soon as we see it; we know machines make noises and we know we do not like the kind of noises they make, so why make us buy them when we seek relaxation in the evening to rest nerves which have been tired by the unescapable noises of the day? And while they are at it, he asks the producers, why not cut out all the other mechanically reproduced sounds and let us assume a whistle is a whistle even if we do not hear it toot? Our little man completes the list of things screen entertainment could do without, and there is a great awakening on the part of the people who make our pictures. What Discovery Would Mean . . . 7 'HE discovery is made that motion pictures can give their patrons a great deal to look at and very little to listen to; that recording only the essential speeches and using the camera to make, it reasonable we do not hear those which add nothing to a scene, lead to the simplification of the producing process with a corresponding reduction in production costs. The lack of clamor makes the pictures better entertainment, they attract greater audiences, the art itself steps to the front as the principal entertainment factor, there is less reliance on star names, salaries go down, ad¬ mission prices drop, the film industry is prosperous and everybody is exceedingly happy about the whole thing. . Does all this appeal to you as unreasonable reasoning? If you had been used only to noisy pic¬ tures, would you not extend a warm greeting to al¬ most silent ones, ones which made you listen only to the dialogue you had to hear to get the sense of scenes? * * * STRENGTH OF FAMILY PICTURES . . . NOT HER studio announces the production of a series of pictures dealing with the experiences of one family. In that funny way it has, Hollywood no doubt believes the public suddenly has taken a fancy to screen entertainment of that sort. The truth is, however, that people have been interested in famil¬ ies ever since there have been families with which they became intimate. The strength of such series as screen entertainment lies in the opportunities they give us to become acquainted with the members of the families. When we learn to know them and like them, we become interested in even the trivial things they do. Every producing organization should fea¬ ture at least one series of the sort, each picture, of course, to be complete in itself. * * * IF ONE WOULD DO IT . . . ROBABLY of all the follies the film industry commits, no other is as foolish as its failure to give musical interpretation of the mechanical sounds which now assail our ears in every picture theatre we attend. If even one producer had intelligence enough to give us a picture in which we heard only conver¬ sationally spoken dialogue and music to suggest all the mechanical sounds — motors, sirens, machinery, traffic — he would turn out to be the Moses who would lead the entire industry back to prosperity and keep it there without any more financial problems to worry it. * * * MENTAL MEANDERINGS . . . REDDIE, the spaniel, z.nd Sophie, the duck, have become bosom pals; wl en Bo Peep, the Peke, tries to make it a threesome, Sophie pecks her. . . . High on the list of things I could do without is the gargl¬ ing of tobacco auctioneers on Lucky Strike radio broadcasts. ... In Paris I ran across two friends from my old home town in Canada; they urged me to cancel my reservation for the return voyage and sail with them a week later; only reason I did not do it was the bother involved, as I had made my reser¬ vation in London; I sailed on the Mauretania; they sailed a week later on the Titanic; they went down with the ship. . . . Among Spectator subscribers is the War Department, Washington; perhaps with the United States Army back of us we can get some¬ where in our war on loud dialogue. ... I find this among my notes: “Meand. — fishing trip." Can't recall why I wrote it; may have had in mind the time Perry Wood asked me if I would like to go out and get a whale; thought it some sort of joke and said I’d like it; he routed me out of bed at four next morning; we went to San Pedro, joined a party on a boat and that evening returned with a whale lashed to the ship’s side. ... In a flower bed this morning I found a feather standing up straight, quill in the soil; Mrs. Spectator denies she is trying to grow a hen. . . . The other day decided to put rock borders around flower beds; cruised around the Valley but could find no rocks; came to a place where the flood tore through a highway and tossed pieces of the con¬ crete sidewalk hither and yon; brought home slabs of it, broke them up, and, as I look at the garden now I forgive the flood for scaring me stiff. . . . Over the week end Bo Peep and Freddie entertained their cou¬ sin, Queenie, an affable German shepherd belonging to one of our daughters; Freddie's attention to her seemed to put Sophie’s bill out of joint; she pecked the guest, much to the latter’s astonishment. ... I love the feel of the clean earth as my hands tuck it in around the new plants, but later I have a devil of a time getting it out from under my fingernails.