A hundred million movie-goers must be right... (1938)

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dominating action with the prolongation, the sheer genuineness or outright brilliance of their trouping. Excess and excellence of smoothe or brilliant individual support trouping has been one of the major deterrents to progress in movie production, holding playwriting and direction at a standstill much too long, yet we can be most thankful for both the excess and the excellence. It has halted progress at a higher entertainment level than ever before. Transitions Obtrude Prisoners. (Russian made). "They're trying in Russia to evolve new films with greater box office appeal on a universal scale. That's commendable, but in so doing they're stepping backwards, because they are neglecting the thing wherein Russia has always stood at the head of the parade — photography and montage. Those last few films that have come over from Russia are not only dull scenarically to non-believers but are distinctly inferior from a technical standpoint." (Kauf.) "Swing High, Swing Low. (Paramount) Camera and general technique click throughout, including some brief but punchy montage by Farciot Edouart, who has so skillfully blended his special camera affects — the booming notes from the trumpet, the champagne bubbles, etc. — that it's almost a part of the plot. The increasing usages, of late, of unobtrusive but well-fitting montage to interpret dramatic screen moods incidentally points the way to a new and finer film art." (Abel.) In one sense montage means flashes of action, people and backgrounds super-imposed one upon the other, picturing in the briefest space of time possible, action and events taking place over a longer period of time. More specifically, a close-up of a clock, the revolving hands measuring off the hours as the dirty work takes place unseen; the burnt ends of cigars and cigarettes piling up in an ash tray while the victim is being third-degreed or waiting for the fatal stroke of eleven, are time lapses. Montage is a time lapse, also, with super-imposed flashes of the action taking place during the lapse. The gay, mad whirl of night life lends itself beautifully to montage or vice versa, but to what effect this 15f3