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a sound cinema, the teaching and propaganda methods acquire an undoubted superiority owing to the sound and talking film.
Created by an efficient technique judiciously employed, the film, as such, may become an element of certain success because it speaks. We do not refer only to the attractive qualities of an agreable voice, of the interest aroused by persons who behave as in real life with all the charm of the unforseen and the variety of their behaviour and gestures, but we should like to point out that the talking film is able to express, without tiring the audience, all that it is necessary for the audience to know.
The silent film uses sub-titles to which objection may be made. They are often incomplete and inexact owing to the desire to throw the fewest number of words possible on the screen so that the public may be able to read them. On the other hand, with a minimum of four or five lines which pass rapidly across the screen there is the risk that the sub-title will not be properly read. It is no secret to state that most of us feel guilty of not having deciphered a number of sub-titles of films we have seen, either because they were handwritten or believed to be boring.
To sum up the matter : I. Omissions or obscurity due to excessive brevity are capable of making sub-titles useless. II. Long sub-titles distract the public's attention and are not read to the end.
In the two cases referred to, the object of the sub-title is not fulfilled, and the consequences will be especially serious for films seeking to popularize science, or educational or propaganda films. Such a state of things would be fatal, and it is clear that educational and scientific films have all to gain from being spoken and sound films.
A talking film develops an idea right up to the end without tiring the spectator and under conditions approaching reality in a way that does not admit of argument. The text is merely the faithful reproduction of the theories it is desired to propagate.
Is it possible to measure the power of attraction and influence of a film produced in an atmosphere of reality creating a lively current of sympathy between the actors and the public ?
Cannot we imagine the rapid spread of the theories of Pasteur if they had been illustrated by himself before an attentive and understanding public ?
The National Committee of Defence against Tuberculosis is in a position to offer fresh material and new ideas in this connection, and it owes this fact to a capable technician who has placed all the resources of his science