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FOREWORD
This book stirred to life with the discovery that entertainment on the screen was being measured with practically every yardstick known but audience reaction. Indifference to audience reaction was noted first in critic reaction to Over the Hill, produced way back when movies were just movies.
When Over the Hill was made available to exhibitors, a neighborhood theatre in Cleveland booked the picture for the Sun-Mon-Tue grind. In explanation of that booking, on Monday and Tuesday business is usually a little off in neighborhood movie houses. Therefore the exhibitor books the best picture obtainable for the three days. Then if it clicks with the larger Sunday matinee and evening audiences the publicity they give it swells Monday and Tuesday attendance.
Now Sunday business on Over the Hill was normal, but something extraordinary happened Monday evening. There was a line-up at the box-office long before it opened, and when the marquee lights wrent on that line had extended to the corner, a block away. Tuesday evening was the same, a 1400 seat theatre packed to the doors, twice. Over the Hill was a smash hit, not only in that neighborhood but everywhere it played from Coast to Coast. And at a time when the public had learned to take their movies or leave 'em.
The same thing happened with The Miracle Man, Holiday, Street Scene, It Happened One Night, My Man Godfrey and The Three Smart Girls. Advanced with no more ballyhoo than the average Class A product, all became memorable hits.
In later years when cycles got to be the very special headaches of movie critics, they invariably "hoped that Hollywood wasn't going into a cycle of maudlin flickers like the one started by Over the Hill, or a wacky cycle like the one started by My Man Godfrey." And those great movies still supply the ammunition when captious critics go sour on homespun or wacky entertainment.