Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1930)

Tell Us All About It $20.00 LETTER '^Mickey Mouse^' Chases The Blues Everett, Mass. Say listen, feller, have you got the blues? Did you have a scrap with your best gal? Is there a rubbery taste in your mouth and do you feel as if the whole world and everything in it wasn't worth while? If you have any of these or any other ailments, I know a sure cure for them all. And it won't cost a dollar a bottle or fifty cents or even a dime. Here's a free prescription for you all. Go to a theater showing a Mickey Mouse comedy and you'll forget you ever felt down in the dumps. These animated cartoons which talk, sing and dance are world-beaters when it comes to chasing the blues away. There's no fault you can find with them unless you feel like I do and that is that they're much too short. A feature picture means nothing when "Mickey" is on the program. More power and success to the producers of Mickey Mouse Comedies and may I suggest that they compel theaters showing these novelty films to say so on their billboards. Mary Ev. ,00 LETTER Those Awful "Shorts" Nyack, N. Y. I'm not going to pan or praise a star and I'm not going to pan or praise a picture, but I'm going after the "short subjects" with a vengeance. When we go to see a picture, why must we be bored to death with all these shorts? First we have to sit through a newsreel, but that's easy enough because news is always interesting, but since the talkies we have had every vaudeville team served to us in a short. It seems to me that all the troupers who have been forced off good circuits are now handed to us in picture form. Why dig up these old-timers who are passe? Can't they let them stay buried? If we want vaudeville we'll go to a theater that specializes in that type of entertainment. They're cheap vaudeville acts and if they can't do better than that, then omit them altogether. A good idea is to give us the feature pictures first and then run the news and other short subjects so that those of us who are not interested may be spared the ordeal of sitting through a performance which is, to say the least, boring. Jay Kay public has become critical. There has been severe criticism of the slang, bad manners and offensive noises used in American talkies. It is remarkable that the American film censors allow some talkies to be shown in America, without sending them abroad to defame American standards of living. Most of the talkies shown in Australia during the past year have pictured the American people as a drunken, dissolute crowd of morons. It is bad advertising for the U.S.A. and the sooner attention is drawn to it by your journal, the better it will be for the U.S.A. The talkies featuring back-stage settings, ballet girls undressing, and wealthy morons tempting them with diamonds and dinners that end in shameless orgies, are not good for the theatrical business and certainly not fit subjects for the younger generation. Another objectionable feature is the making of offensive noises with the mouth by some actors such as "The Raspberry" which originated in Tasmania among the convicts in 1820. Apparently, America has just heard of this awful means of annoying warders that was used by the scum of early convict settlements. In "Untamed," featuring Joan Crawford, the young actress is seen to strip a young man to the buff, and urge him to fight another young society man in the drawingroom of her wealthy uncle's mansion. The men don gloves and fight it out to a finish. Now, I ask you, is that sort of thing done in decent society? Of course not. Yet America allows such films to go abroad to damage her reputation. Joseph L. Cartmel $1.00 LETTERS The Great Garbo Los Angeles, Cal. I have just seen Greta Garbo's latest, and may I say, I think, Garbo's greatest picture, "Anna Christie." What a wonderful production. Need the glamourous Garbo be afraid of the wicked "mike"? I think not. Her voice? It is in keeping with her personality, if it may be termed as "personality." No one can ever define Greta Garbo's appeal. It certainly isn't physical beauty, and in view of the type of pictures in which she is starred, it can't be attributed to beauty of the soul. Perhaps it is fascination alone. As for me, the matter can rest there. What a "break" for Miss Garbo that her first talkie demanded that she be Swedish. During the first part of the picture I sat breathless, waiting for Miss Garbo to appear and speak. And when she did, I wasn't disappointed. I was surprised. Her voice is as different as she herself. The monotone in which she speaks is just typical of her every move. What a mysterious person this actress is whom so many fans hail as the greatest actress of all time. She slouches around in a disreputable looking sweater and skirt, and above all, black tennis shoes, and doesn't care if her hair looks as though it hasn't been combed in a week. That is the way she looks in "Anna Christie. "'Who but Garbo could get away with it? Who, but Garbo would dare try? I am praying that they never train Garbo's voice. I am hoping that she may say "ahn't" for "aint" and "Mott" for "Matt" until the end of time. Gladys E. McWhorter $5.00 LETTER Tut A Stop To Films That Defame America Melbourne, Australia Now that the novelty of "talkies" Ivas worn off, the Australian picture You may have S.A., but do you have S.E.? Motion Picture CLASSIC wants to know. We want you to join our free clinic. If the tests show that you have a superior kind of S.E., you stand in line for one of three first prizes; $20 for first, $10 for second, $5 for third and $1 for every other letter published. To join the clinic all you have to do is to write a letter of. say, 200 to 250 words, about some phase of the movies, advancing an idea, an appreciation, or a criticism, without becoming ga-ga or vituperative. Sign your full name and address, and mail the letter to; Laurence Reid, Bditor.Motion Picture CLASSIC, Paramount Building, 1501 Broadway, New York City. No letters can be returned, and we reserve the right to print any or all that we like. Having done this much, you will perhaps be conscious, without our telling you, that you have S.E. But iT you win a prize, or your letter is printed, there can be no doubt about it; you have Self-Expression. The Dancing Chorus Shamefully Neglected Hollywood, Cal. The star gets a hand, the song bird who once helped light Broadway's night life gets a hand, the toiling director gets a hand, and the scenario writer gets a hand. But what about the dozens of little PoUyannas without whom "Broadway Melody," "Roadshow," "Sally," and the other pitter pattering reels of celluloid would never, could never bring $2.00 worth of satisfaction for fifty cents. Row after row of tap dancers, fringe garbed, always smiling,. always peppy, each one cuter than her girl friend. Who could imagine that these kids work harder than anyone in the cast? Hour after hour bobbing up and down, stretching, fighting soft sagging muscles and the faintness that dancing all day and all night brings, yet here they are in the morning, bright as their lipstick. All ready for a day of working "to eat," or perhaps for that opportunity. I've been one, and I know. Each "dancing pony" is fighting a fight of her own, and beneath gold net each one has a heart full of klieg lights, grinding cameras, and the dream that never comes true. Helen Marie Jelliffe What's Happened to the Scenics? Hancock, Mich. While I am a firm admirer of the spoken motion picture I must confess that it has dealt the final card to our "scenics." To me, there was nothing more wonderful than to sit in the neighborhood theater during the {ConlinuS^ on page 105) 8