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

6 THE MOTION PICTURE AND THE FAMILY March 15, 1936 A Clubwoman Chats About Family Films AVAILABLE STUDY GUIDES NEW THIS MONTH Give Us This Night, 15c Little Lord Fauntleroy, 15c The Prisoner of Shark Island, 15c Purchasable from Educational and Recreational Guidels, Inc., 125 Lincoln Avenue, Newark, N. J. OTHER GUIDES Fang and Claw, 15c A Midsummer Night's Dream, 15c Mutiny on the Bounty, 15c Peter Ibbetson, 15c Seven Keys to Baldpate, 10c A Tale of Two Cities, 15c Alto Prise Contest Guide, 6c Sheet of Miniature Stills, 6c Purchasable from Educational and Recreational Guides, Inc., 125 Lincoln Avenue, Newark, N. J. These Guides, issued at an earlier date, are likewise still available : Anne of Green Gables, David Copperfield, Dog of Flanders, The Last Days of Pompeii, Les Miserables, Scrooge, Sequoia, The Three Musketeers, Treasure Island. Lower prices for bulk orders of all guides WHAT'S NEXT IN HOLLYWOOD? wife, Billie Burke, and Louise Rainer, of the starry eyes, pictures Anna Held, while 5000 people play minor parts in what is one of the most ambitious extravaganzas yet filmed — all the years of gorgeousness flowing into a three-hour show. The most popular actress in the world, little Shirley Temple, has just completed making Captain January over at the Twentieth Century-Fox studio, a story of the orphaned child of a great opera singer, brought up in a lighthouse on the Maine coast. They tell a tale over there to this effect— that H. G. Wells recently walked onto the set and that Shirley, seated at her school table, asked her mother who he was. "He's one of the most important men in the world," said Mrs. Temple. "Oh, no," said Shirley, "There's God and then comes the Governor." One of the features of Captain January is the singing of the sextette from Lucia di Lammermoor by a trio — Kibbee, Summerville, and Shirley — and Shirley "recorded" perfectly the first time, which was more than the two men did. And again this small child of unusual genius sings one song, The Codfish Ball, in five languages — English, French, Hawaiian, Chinese and Russian— while she does a notable piece of dancing with Buddy Ebsen. In another scene, she and Kibbee dance down a thirty-five foot spiral stair case in the lighthouse, keeping time to her repetition of the multiplication table. Or, again, she does {Continued from Page 4) another dance with a "whoopee" crane, who is a rare comedian well as a remarkable bird. Stories gather around everything Shirley does. She overheard a parrot who is in the cast, and who is guaranteed to utter typical seafaring phrases, gurgling and said, "Oh, do you speak French? I'm studying it, too." We think, hereabouts, that These Three is rather a remarkable production, played with utter simplicity, truth and naturalness by Merle Oberon, Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea, with William Wyler wielding the director's baton and Samuel Goldwyn as presiding releaser. The two children, played by Bonita Granville and Marcia Mae Jones, are really outstanding actors. The claim that "Anthony Adverse" is one of the biggest pictures to come out of Hollywood does not seem an exaggeration from the evidence at hand. It is obvious to any observer that the studio is giving unstinted effort to its production and has turned both technical facilities and personnel loose on it. One hundred thirty-one settings were built, in all. Five countries on three continents were the locales of the far-reaching story. There were over 412 script scenes. More than 3,000 costumes were used in the production. Twenty-one weeks were spent in advance research. The total employment on the pic ture, in terms of man-hours, was 10,626, so Warner Bros, announce. Lessons From The Movies (Continued from Page 2) spirit will have opportunities of constructing a finer civilization out of the confusion of our present social order. TIMOTHY'S QUEST (Paramount) This picture has the fundamental human interest and heart tugs that stir the generous motives of mankind. It is a story of childhood heartbreak and triumphs, of adult selfishness and transformation — one that opens up anew a vision of what the values of life really are. After their escape to Pleasant Valley, Timothy works hard to repay Miss Vilda for her grudging hospitality to little Gay and himself, but he adds this prayer: "Dear Heavenly Father, please make that old lady into a mother for Gay. It'll be awful hard work, but I bet you can do anything, Amen." And something happens to Miss Vilda. At first she will not admit it even to herself, but young life in the house begins to thaw out her frozen affections and baby hands play upon heart-strings that respond to their touch. We all know how easy it is to be moved by a picture like this, and yet how few people so affected go out into life with any change of attitude in their daily human relationships. THE VOICE OF BUGLE ANN (M. G. M.) The love of a man for a dog could not be stated more beautifully and effectively than in the speech of Lionel Barrymore, as Spring Davis, when he testifies in his own defense against the charge of murder. One is reminded of Charles Laughton reciting Lincoln's Gettysburg speech. A man who hates dogs seems to lack any real capacity to love people. That was the trouble with Camden's father — the reason why she left him — the cause of his being shot. THE COUNTRY DOCTOR (2Qth Century-Fox) While the quintuplets are the headliners of this picture, the character of the country doctor steals the show. His love for the people of his community, his sacrificial service for their health and welfare, his planning for their protection are both challenging and inspiring. But why are there so many selfish people in the world to make the task of the servants of humanity more difficult? And why is it that one must fight almost single-handed for a cause until, in spite of opposition, he succeeds, and then everybody wishes to claim some share in the victory? The world needs today as never before men of the spirit of Dr. Luke. Idealism is expected in the medical profession, but devotion to public welfare ought to be just as fundamental in the ethics of lawyers and bankers, industrialists and traders. Who's Who In Better Films? (Continued from Page 3) libraries throughout the country. All through her years of motion picture work Mrs. Hedges has been animated by the realization that motion pictures were not being adequately used as a teaching tool in visual education and that educators, although they definitely assumed responsibility for shaping children's taste in other forms of art, were neglecting the opportunity to do the same thing with films. She now sees the not far distant day when theatre managers will develop a social viewpoint as a balance to their present commercial viewpoint and then, she believes, the motion picture as a factor in influencing the development of children both educationally and ethically will reach its apex. "The motion picture can never remove itself from the watchful eye of socially conscious people, for its social influence is too great", is her often affirmed conviction. "If at times these people become almost fanatical in their urge to make it wholly constructive, it is perhaps the most helpful influence which is exerted upon the motion picture industry, for anything which causes us to stop and reflect on our handiwork urges us to greater efforts." (Continued from Page 3) P. Miner, members of our East Coast Preview Committee, all volunteer workers, paid surprise visits to 228 theatres in New York and its environs. Fifty-two of these theatres were in the five boroughs of New York City, eleven were in Westchester County and 165 in Pennsylvania. These representatives chatted with the managers in the theatres and came back to our last Council meeting primed with a wealth of interesting information. You will undoubtedly agree that what they reported redounded to the credit of both public and theatre managers. Patrons in this section of the country, at least, apparently like good pictures and the exhibitors seem perfectly willing to gratify their tastes. First of all, the women found that community patronage determines the type of pictures shown in each community. In other words, the exhibitor watches the rise and fall of the weekly exchequer and shrewdly chooses his future pictures on the basis of the types which have proven most popular in the past. No community will have a Mae West film a second time unless it has manifested a genuine liking for the buxom "Belle of the Nineties", when she made her first appearance. No community which pines for Shirley Temple or Freddie Bartholomew and makes their pictures a paying business will have an unremitting diet of the sophisticates of the screen. Local theatre managers, in the New York area, at least, are giving their public exactly what it wants, based upon the strength of the dollars it spends at the box office. Star Determines Popularity By and large, we discovered that the star determines the popularity of the picture. There were exceptions in the case of those extraordinary super-films, which come once in a year or two, or once in so often. But generally speaking, it is the personality of the star that brings the revenues to the theatre. We were indeed gratified to find that generally throughout the area week-end programs for children are provided and that the children pat/onize them generously — an indication that the parents have been on the alert. We also found that even in metropolitan New York parents do not hesitate to express themselves as to the type of films they want to see booked. Of late, however, they have accepted most of the film fare provided without comment — which, interpreted, indicates a subconscious tribute to the high type of current films. The principal box office successes were uniformly pictures of this high type. This is a favorable reflection upon the good taste of the audiences. (Continued on Page 7)