The Motion Picture and the Family (Oct 1934 - May 1937)

6 February 15, 1936 THE MOTION PICTURE AND THE FAMILY 3 Six Theatres In N. Y. Aid School Group (Continued from Page 1) The committee in turn then cooperates with the theatres by giving wide publicity to these approved programs in all of the 40 schools and also in local newspapers, the Parents' League Bulletin and the publication of the Horace Mann School. Teachers in the various schools lend further influence and support by trying to create in their students habits and attitudes which will lead them to appreciate the value of the better type of motion picture entertainment. Members of the executive committee of the Schools Motion Picture Committee are: Mrs. Alonzo Klaw, chairman; Mrs. William Barclay Parsons, Jr., president of the Parents' League; Mrs. Irving Heyman of the Horace Mann School and Mrs. John Abbott of the Friends' Seminary, acting chairman. Schools represented on the committee include : Allen-Stevenson, Barnard School for Girls, Bentley, BirchWathen, Brearley, Buckley, Chapin, City and Country, Collegiate, Ethical Culture, Fieldston Lower School, Fieldston, Friends Seminary, Gardner, Horace Mann School for Boys, Horace Mann School for Girls, Hyde, LawrenceSmith, Lenox, Lincoln, Little Red Schoolhouse, Miss Hewitt's Classes, Nightingale-Bamf ord, 0 b e r 1 i n, Riverdale, St. Agatha, St. Bernard, Spence, Todhunter, Trinity, Walden, Public Schools 6, 9, 11, 41, 54, 58. 87, 93, 96, 165, Bushwick High School, Thomas Jefferson High School. The Committee's Standards The committee has worked out an interesting set of standards by which it determines the availability of films for young audiences. Adventure films, it has found, are especially popular with the elementary and a part of the junior high schools. In weighing the artistry of a film the committee considers appropriate casting, authentic staging and careful photography. It has found that elementary school pupils enjoy color in a film and that the junior and senior high schools are interested in clever details. The educational value of films is also carefully weighed — their biographical, geographical and historical accuracies — on the principle that young people remember screen portrayals far longer than adults and therefore motion pictures have infinite educational possibilities. Three factors are considered under the head of entertainment value — clever acting, interesting plot or story and sincere portrayal. Real wit, not vulgarity, is demanded of a humorous film. The committee has discovered that • some films which seem silly to adults and senior high school students provide innocent amusement for (Continued on Page 8) LESSONS from the MOVIES Presented for the Committee on Social Values in Motion Pictures by Howard M. Le Sourd, PhD., Dean of Boston University Graduate School, Chairman The interest in these reviews throughout the country has brought to Dean LeSourd an invitation to broadcast some of them in New England. The first broadcast on the general topic, "Let's Talk About the Movies," was given over WCOP in Boston, on Wednesday, February 5, at 2:30. Other broadcasts will follow, for the response to this effort to suggest ways and means of using current photoplays in discussion groups in schools, churches and social agencies, indicates that it meets a definitely felt need. EDITOR'S NOTE. MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (Universal) Many people have obsessions. Usually they are handicaps to efficient living. But if the obsession drives the individual to service for his fellow-men — how magnificent! This picture tells the story of the influence of a man who was obsessed with the idea of secrecy in his benefactions — a secrecy which constitutes the basis of the value of a gift both for donor and recipient. Depth of power for the individual is achieved only through service unrecognized and unheralded. That the doctor was able to transform the lives of others, even after his death, testifies to the reality of dynamic social immortality. Dr. Lloyd C. Douglas, the author of the story, is the outstanding religious novelist of our day, and the picture portrays vividly and faithfully the message he has for the world. The picture has unique appeal — one that proves the effectiveness of the screen in achieving spiritual inspiration. THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR (First National) The life of Pasteur is one of the most inspiring pictures ever produced. He fought single-handed the whole medical fraternity of France and won. He convinced a skeptical world of the existence of germs and discovered methods of fighting successfully some of the dreaded maladies of mankind. His researches contributed immeasurably to the wealth of France and the world. Pasteur challenges men and women to a love of people that stops at no personal sacrifice. His patience, his ingenuity, his industry gut ordinary laborers to shame. Education to him was a pledge to contribute to the happiness and welfare of mankind. The tears that will inevitably come to the eyes of the audience will be tears of joy that such a man lived, tears of happiness that the life and health which he made possible have blessed millions of his fellow human beings. Every boy and girl in America should see this picture. Every adult will want to see it. ROSE MARIE (M-G-M) Beautiful music in this glorious picture is hung on a plot which has some food for thought. Rose, by long years of hard work, attained fame that lifted her above her family, but she maintained loyalty even to a criminal brother. Love to Rose was not a convenience for getting a wealthy hus band, but romance that triumphed even over the tragedy of her brother's arrest by one she loved. The discipline of the mounted (Continued on Page 6) Dr. Herzberg Writes About Film Classics WHAT'S NEXT IN HOLLYWOOD? By Alice Ames Winter It was a clever saying of long ago that there were only seven stories in all the world. It may be true that there are only seven themes — but there are as many variations of those themes as there are human lives; and there have been several billion lives since man came to live on this earth. So Hollywood keeps at work, knowing that so long as there are men and women there are stories. Twentieth Century-Fox is doing a very clever thing. Perhaps you have seen Every Saturday Night, built about the small tragedies, triumphs and inter-relationships of an average family — father, mother, grandmother, and five growing children. It has humanity and wit. It boxes all us ordinary people on the ear but loves us still. Yet, in the slang of the day, "You ain't seen no thin' yet." There are to be four more pictures (at least) about the same family, and you will rejoice in "Keeping Up With the Joneses." Quite fortunately a studio representative dropped in on the little Gateway Theatre, which holds only a hundred people, and watched a simple, homely, all American family play written by Katherine Kavanaugh. He went away realizing that he had struck "pay dirt." And when the tale came back to the studio, they knew it, too. As the editor of Hollywood (Continued on Page 6) For students who are interested in photoplays based upon literary classics and for teachers who want to utilize these photographs in stimulating literary interest on the part of their pupils, there is a wealth of valuable suggestion in the article When Great Stories are Screened, written by Dr. Max J. Herzberg, principal of Weequahic High School, Newark, New Jersey, for the December 1-14 issue of Modern Literature. Pioneer in photoplay appreciation work in the schools, principal of the school in which photoplay appreciation classes were started, Dr. Herzberg is exceptionally well equipped to write on the subject. His article is a comprehensive survey of the circumstances that led to increasing interest in filming the classics, together with a recounting of the conspicuous success that has accompanied the plan. Particular emphasis is laid upon the value of motion pictures to stimulate reading of the best books. Dr. Herzberg advises that when Les Miserables was running in Cleveland, the 51 copies of that volume which were on the shelves of the Public Library were constantly in demand. The experience was the same with 83 copies of Of Human Bondage and 40 copies of The Count of Monte Cristo while the filming of The Barretts of Wimpole Street created a great demand for the poetry of the Brownings. One hundred and forty-eight copies of David Copperfield in the Newark Public Library were constantly in circulation before, during and after the run of the film in that city. Dallas Starts Big Jr. Matinee Program (Continued from Page 1) ing with Mrs. B. B. Baldwin, Better Films Chairman of the Dallas Parent-Teacher Association. Six Interstate theatres are involved in the plan: the White, Forest and Dalsec in South Dallas ; the Arcadia in East Dallas, the Melrose in North Dallas and the Village in the Highland Park Spanish Village. Special matinees are planned for 1 p. m. on Saturdays. Each will, wherever possible, be preceded by community singing and the picture program itself will be comprised of cartoons and selected short subjects. House managers will act as masters of ceremonies. AVAILABLE FREE Thii bulletin, published monthly, is available free to community leaders upon application to the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc., 28 West 44th Street, New York City. Address the editor of The Motion Picture and the Family.