Motion Picture Reviews (1935)

Four Motion Picture Reviews Welsh in the Federal District Court, issued an injunction against nine of the large motion picture concerns, restraining them from enforcing a clause in contracts prohibiting exhibitors from showing double features. He said that the clause was in “restraint of trade.’’ From a legal viewpoint perhaps the major producing companies are unfairly trying to dictate the conditions upon which their pictures are to be shown; are possibly trying to eliminate the showing of independent films. But on the other hand why should a producer be forced to have his film ruined by having it shown on a bill with an inferior product? It is a quaint custom which prevents the maker of an artistic product from displaying it in surroundings which show it to best advantage. When Mr. Roosevelt was organizing the country for “recovery” and codes for the different industries were under advisement, practically every educational and social group in the country — realizing the undermining social influence of the double-bill in motion picture exhibition— wired either to him or to Mr. Sol Rosenblatt to introduce a clause in the code prohibiting the practice. Mr. Roosevelt, seeing only more work for more people, vetoed the suggestion. And yet these “quickies” use a degrading influence today, and the doublebill is making it impossible for families to enjoy evenings at the movies, or children to have any suitable programs for their special enjoyment. There is a good deal of feeling growing up against the practice of block-booking and blind-selling. Legislation against it is one of the present objectives of the Motion Picture Research Council. An article in the New York Tribune by Walter Lippman, “The Morals of the Movies,” syndicated all over the country, expressed his opinion that this method of selling and distributing films must be stopped in order to open the door to competition by independent and experimenting producers. He believes that when pictures are produced under the same system which books, theatres, magazines, etc., operate and have to stand the test of circulation, then audiences can have a freedom of choice and communities can be able to enforce the moral standards for which they stand. All pictures will then not be forced upon all mentalities and all ages, “puritans and libertines” alike. The women’s groups for the most part have never gone out for legislation. I do not think it is because, as our critics would believe, we are influenced by the industry, but perhaps we have realized that censorship as legally exercised does not clean up a movie. The ideas, the suggestions portrayed on the screen, are too illusive for the censor’s shears and moral standards and spiritual values cannot be protected in this way. Also we are so close to the exhibitors in our contacts that we believe that they can adjust their programs to community needs if they will. The situation in Souhern California is worse than it has ever been in the ten years of our efforts. The Parent-Teacher Association in a recent informal survey contacting some two thousand local families, found that children themselves admitted fatigue from the long hours of a double feature showing; that over 35% of the families were not attending theatres; that 25% were attending infrequently because of the long programs and the ill assorted material shown. Theatres are undoubtedly losing a large potential audience by the policy, and the box office will react eventually upon the producers who control a majority of the theatres. Are you for or against double-billing? If, as we suspect you, too, are against it, will you voice an articulate protest? What can be done? At the present time we can at least register our protest — we can go to the theatre at the hour the feature is shown which we want to see, and walk out when it is finished! We can protest vocally and in writing to the theatre managers, and in writing to the Department of Public Relations, Association of Motion Picture Producers and Distributors, either in New York or in Hollywood. If sufficient objections are registered, if the box office receipts in addition tell a story of lack of interest in double bills, we may be able to impress the industry as a whole, that in addition to clean movies, the public also wishes the courtesy of freedom of choice. FEATURE FILMS BABOONA » » Martin Johnson. Fox. The Martin Johnsons would give us to believe that a vacation trip by airplane over Africa is like any picnic jaunt. No hint is given of the careful preparation necessary to carry such an expedition to success. We might believe that one can refuel at any water hole. But overlooking this lack of realism, we are given a very pleasing impression of the continent, with beautiful shots of mountains, valleys, jungles and wild creatures from an angle impossible otherwise. It is quite fascinating and would make an exceedingly en