Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1932)

24 MOTION PICTURE HERALD November 5, 1932 A NEW RATIO FOR DIALOGUE IN FILMS Motion picture audiences are being "musically starved and talked to death," and the solution is to supplant dialogue with silent sequences with musical scoring in places where the dialogue does not serve the intended purpose, says Jay Gorney, composer. Mr. Gorney believes that 60 per cent dialogue and 40 per cent silent with musical scoring should be the ratio in the average script. Mr. Gorney speaks from experience in the industry, which includes four years of service recently completed with Paramount, as composer and musical director both on the Coast, where he took a course in sound recording at the University of Southern California, and at the Astoria studio on Long Island, also becoming a member of the editorial advisory board in the home office. He occasionally wrote complete scripts or dialogue sequences as well. "I grew up with a piano in one hand and a violin in the other," Mr. Gorney said. He early left the practice of law after graduation from the University of Michigan, moved to New York and straightway sold two operettas to Leo Feist. Then came a job with the Shuberts, and after that eight or nine years in writing music, for the theatre and for motion pictures. Stage productions for which he wrote the scores or the music included "Top Hole," Earl Carroll's "Sketchbook" and "Varieties of 1930," "Accidentally Yours," "Greenwich Village Follies of 1926," "Ziegfeld Follies of 1931." With Richard Herndon he was co-producer of "First Night," and of "Unexpected Father." At present he is working on a motion picture story based on his song. "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" a number in the current revue, "Americana." Cites Loss of Music Out of that experience Mr. Gorney hopes to see music made the stepping-stone to greater perfection in pictures. "With the advent of talkers, pictures suffered a great loss — the loss of music as a medium of expression," he said. "It is trite to say that music is the universal language, but it is a very important fact just the same — particularly important if you happen to forget it. Music can create a mood more subtly than the best dialogue. It is the most valuable device we have for the expression of all sorts of emotional and dramatic moods — and, unfortunately, it has been lost since the days of silent pictures." On the point of dialogue, Mr. Gorney argued emphatically that "there are not enough brains in the writing world to go on creating uniformly excellent dialogue for a total output of 600 or more features each year. As a matter of fact, dialogue should not be included in a picture unless it is swift, sparkling, dramatic— -in other words, strong enough in itself to create the desired mood and leave a lasting impression with the audience. "I would eliminate dialogue where it doesn't do the job and use silent sequences with musical scoring to replace it. Let's say the scene is a courtroom. The producer wants an atmosphere of tense, swift action. Audiences "Musically Starved and Talked to Death," Says Jay Gorney, Composer and Director JAY GORNEY The dialogue is rapid, confusing. Everybody seems to be talking at once. Now, instead of prolonging this type of dialogue, suppose we imagine it cut to a few lines and at the beginning of the scene you have something like this. ..." Mr. Gorney's hands pounced upon the keyboard. Crashing chords thundered with rivet-like rapidity, filling the room with a climactic, impelling sound . . . then died away. Mr. Gorney turned around and smiled. "Something like that," he said. "Or suppose the boy is about to take the girl in his arms . . . you know, the real tender Farrell and Gaynor stuff. You just can't talk sometimes, so why try? What the people in the audience really want to hear, the thing that would give them the greatest sense of reality, a feeling of participation in the scene, would be something like the soft, plaintive strains of a Tschaikowsky melody. Points to Varied Usages "Of course, music can be used in either silent sequences or under dialogue," Mr. Gorney continued. "It should not be added afterward, as it is now. Just as the dialogue is carefully planned and written in finished form, so music should also be developed to fit the situation, to develop climaxes. There must be complete coordination between the story and the musical sequence before the picture is shot. "I believe that the average picture script could be constructed with a ratio of about 60 per cent dialogue sequences and about 40 per cent silent with musical scoring." Mr. Gorney reiterated his belief that the importance of the intelligent and discriminating use of music in pictures could not be over-emphasized. He enumerated the fol lowing as among the many uses of music in that connection: As a contrast to, and relief from, too much dialogue. "It is too great a strain upon the average audience to listen intently to recorded dialogue, no matter how good it may be, for an hour and a quarter without some relief. Appropriate music scored under occasional silent sequences would provide this relief." As a creator of mood. "There are situations which in themselves are so delicate that they would become banal if reduced to dialogue. Direct and factual ideas are best projected by dialogue; but music can most subtly create a desired mood." As a descriptive device. "Characteristic music well scored under dialogue can add glamour and romance to love scenes ; pathos and heart-throb to tragedy ; excitement, tempo and pace to tense dramatic situations, where too much dialogue would actually slow up the action." As punctuation of a dramatic climax and to prolong suspense. "In the legitimate play, climaxes are built up and the first and second act curtains are used as punctuation and to carry over suspense. The audience has a chance to sit back, relax, collect its thoughts and speculate as to the outcome of the story. By dividing up the scenario plot into acts, with occasional fadeouts and titles with appropriate music underscored, we can create the effectiveness of curtains without, of course, the objectionable waits suffered in the theatre." More advantageous for foreign distribution. "Pictures with substantial musical scoring are more commercial from a foreign standpoint, because the less they contain of dialogue — and the more of silent sequences with musical scoring — the less there is to translate and make understandable to foreign audiences." Tampa Theatre Firm Files $500,000 Monopoly Action Suit has been filed in federal court at Tampa, Fla., by the Rivoli Theatre Company, Inc., former operators of the Rivoli theatre in Ybor City, against Consolidated Theatres, which is the Sparks circuit, operator of five houses at Tampa; Casino Enterprises, operator of three theatres, and six national distributors, claiming they formed a monopoly to keep pictures from the Rivoli company, and so forced it out of business. Damages were asked in the amount of $500,000. Regarding the suit, N. V. Darley, manager of the Rivoli, explained that he and Ed Cerf had rebuilt the house in 1929 and paid an increased rental. In July, 1930, Mr. Darley said "we were shut out of pictures by United Artists, RKO, Warner and First National. Paramount had refused us service when we opened the new house." In March, 1931, the theatre was closed after a long period of losses. Following the failure of the Rivoli company, the Casino Enterprises took over the house, renamed it the Ritz and is still operating it.