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Entering without further ceremony, two of the men proceeded to empty the chests, wardrobes, glass cases of the apartment under the very eyes of the hali porter, while the third « turned » the scene. Three days later M. X... returned to Paris to find his apartment sacked! The trio were vulgar burglars and and this time had done their job with the unusual encouragement of the admiration of the porter and other inhabitants of the apartment building.
When one considers the kind of public that frequents the cinema halls where detective films are shown there will be little difficulty in recognising where criminals get their ideas from!
As long as the censorship remains blind to this truth and sanctions detective films which are nothing more or less the than training courses for would be criminals « cinematographic methods » will continue to figure prominently in the law courts.
Only a rigorous control and the formal prohibition of these unhealthy performances will destroy this « school of criminals » which appeals to overheated imaginations and easily swayed minds, and whose only standard is their « business ». Such prohibition must be extended to films which make fun of the police force. In so called police films members of the force are often depicted as grotesque and uneducated ; they are made to play ridiculous parts in so — called comedies and fun is poked at them in derisory titles and subtitles. Every opportunity of making the policeman a ludicrous figure and destroying the prestige of the force is, in fact, welcomed. It would almost seem as if criminals were to be represented as « sympathetic » figures by every possible means.
For instance in a recent film « Mae, the Thief », there is a detective who cuts a pitiful, rather than a ludicrous figure; his characterisation is the height of the grotesque. Arriving on the scene of action, his first preoccupation is « get some grub ». When on duty at a jewel sale be paces bombastically up and down, while a pickpocket relieves him of his revolver; he has a convulsive suncezing fit and all remark that while the great detective can arrest the most dangerous criminals, he cannot arrest the mildest cold.
Probably the spectator does not always realise the real importance of such scenes and is onlv amused at what seems to him their comic aspects. But the mental repercussions of such pictures cannot be overrated; involuntarily the picture of the policeman as a ridiculous undignified, grotesque figure remains indelibly impressed on the subconsconcius, giving rise to the conception that the force is deprived of all prestige and authority.
This description possibly dramatizes and over emphasises reality, but is not prevention better than cure?
By quoting the following striking example of this modernisation of police methods I think I shall be able to both complete the expose of the methods I am suggesting and to prove their excellent results.