Motion Picture Reviews (1934)

Motion Picture Reviews Three MO TION • PICTURE • REV I E WS Published monthly by THE WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY CLUB LOS ANGELES BRANCH AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN Mrs. Palmer Cook, General Co-Chairman Mrs. John Vruwink, General Co-Chairman Mrs. A. M. Marsh, Bus. Manager Mrs. Chester A. Ommanney, Preview Chairman Mrs. Charles Booth Assistant Preview Chairmen Mrs. Thomas B. Williamson Mrs. Lucile R. Eastham, Circulation Manager EDITORS Mrs. Palmer Cook Mrs. J. Allen Davis Mrs. George Ryall Mrs. Walter Van Dyke Mrs. John Vruwink Address all communications to The Women’s University Club, 943 South Hoover St., Los Angeles, Calif. 10c Per Copy $1.00 Per Year Vol. V APRIL, 1934 No. 4 EDITORIAL At the risk of being thought persons with “one track minds” we again reiterate the purpose of this magazine, which is to provide patrons of motion pictures with reliable information on current releases and their audience suitability. It is a little amazing to have even members of the organizations taking part in the reviewing of films still ask, “But what do you think you are accomplishing? You censor films and yet they are no better.” Let us clearly state again: we have no power of censorship. We see only the finished pictures and comment on their artistic and social value from our point of view. We feel that we are expressing the opinion of all the organized women’s groups which preview films, when we say that we feel definitely that our constant efforts in this line extending over a period of years, our futile attempts to secure consistently good material for junior matinees, and the instigation and encouragement of Better Films Councils over the country have stimulated public opinion to such an extent that educational developments today are made more possible because of these efforts. Parents have been at last aroused to the truth that motion pictures are one of the most sensational problems in relation to children which must be considered today. No one questions their instructional and educational value, but the abuse of the cinema is disaster for them. When women’s groups began previewing they had no scientific data to back up their own opinions on what was bad or what was good for children to see. In 1927 the Motion Picture Research Council was organized and financed by the Payne Foundation to study the problem and prove through expert scientific research exactly what the product of the studios was doing to children. Today the results of this study are available and should convince any intelligent person that we cannot have children frequenting the cinema when they like and without direction. Mere legal prohibition will probably never be the solution in America. In Europe children are prevented by law from attending adult performances. Here we are not yet really awakened to the danger: we are also constitutionally averse to laws which prohibit and inhibit unless we are convinced of their righteousness, and so we are feeling our way to know how best to handle this question of the 28,000,000 minors who attend weekly (11,000,000 under fourteen) many of whose physiques are conditioned and whose ideas of