Motion Picture Reviews (1933)

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Motion Picture Reviews Three MOTION • PICTURE * REVIEWS Published monthly by THE WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY CLUB LOS ANGELES BRANCH AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN Mrs. Chester Ommaney, Preview Chairman Mrs. Madison J. Keeney, Bus. Manager Mrs. Thomas B. Williamson Mrs. Bruce A. Findlay, Asst. Business Manager Mrs. John Vruwink Co-Chairmen Mrs. Palmer Cook EDITORS Mrs. Margaret Argo Mrs. Palmer Cook Mrs. J. Allen Davis Mrs. Arthur Jones Mrs. George Ryall Mrs. Walter Van Dyke Mrs. John Vruwink Address all communications to The Women’s University Club, 94-3 South Hoover St., Los Angeles, Calif. 1 Oe Per Copy $1.00 Per Year Vol. IV SEPTEMBER, 1933 No. 9 EDITORIAL Again vacation days are over, boys and girls go back to school, and mothers find a little more leisure time which in many cases is applied to the stimulus of club associations and Parent Teacher groups. Metaphorically speaking we “take stock,” and as motion picture committee chairmen again select their personnel and step before their groups to report accomplishments of the past and plans for the future, the profound necessity for new facts, for real encouragement and for incentive for active interest is apparent. For the public will not admit that pictures are socially better. Junior matinees have not become a panacea for the children’s problem, and double billing has almost completed the debacle for selective entertainment. On the surface it seems a dreary outlook after years of optimistic “Better Film” work. However it is not fair to judge too quickly or to censor too severely. The gradual growth of interest in the national committees’ previewing has spread over the country and the influence is felt in smaller communities especially, for in these centers the Better Film’s committees have their greatest opportunity. They have the advantage of being able actually to represent the community, to express its taste, to secure through the theatre an expression of the best of the product. And from the exhibitors in these smaller towns and cities comes the first tangible proof of accomplishment. These individual theatre men are expressing satisfaction that the “women’s recommended films” are paying in dollars and cents over the salacious type which formerly they counted on. It is the first drop in the bucket of encouragement for the gospel of selective entertainment. But this is not enough for it does not touch the children’s problem. Each month’s list of films as previewed holds fewer recommendations for their entertainment. The junior matinee is of necessity passing because it is not possible to offer weekly, new and entertaining feature films suitable for these young audiences. However, children are still flocking to the theatres in spite of a growing realization by parents that motion pictures are in reality adult fare. To attack a problem intelligently and effectively it is necessary to understand it from every angle. Better Films committees have been handicappd in this respect because amateur groups have never had the training nor the facilities to cope with the difficulties of such an investigation. But in reporting the next step of accomplishment we believe that women’s groups, arousing public opinion, may have had a small part in inspiring the scientific studies sponsored by the Payne Foundation. For the first time material is at hand which will answer the question “What are the Movies Doing to Our Children?” and no one interested in the subject should fail to avail himself of the knowledge. The Motion Picture Research Council supported by the Payne Foundation, an organization devoting funds to the study of the radio, books, and motion pictures in relation to children and young people, has compiled a series of studies, the findings of which are now available. The work has taken more than four years to complete and was done by investigators who are among the most able scientists in the country and are connected with outstanding uni