Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1912)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD What The People Want By Louis Reeves Harrison. 375 ]MAY be wrong in regarding the photoplay as a great possible factor in human enlightenment, especially I in this country, where general intelligence has been ai'. is being illuminated to a wide and ever-widening e.\2nt, but when all restrictions are removed, it seems to in that we can present the living truth as powerfully on th' screen as on the stage or printed page. The range is w'e, no really living issue is now e.xcluded, and the art 15 pen to an infinite variety of treatment — it may disclose e:»tence as it could not be elsewhere adequately portr/ed. By restrictions I do not mean any particular one, bi'all that can be classed under cupidity or stupidity and mf interfering with the natural evolution of what is reilly a fine art. ,'roof positive that many pliotoplays are well worth s£ ng lies in the enormous attendance at the picture slws. Even when the low price of admission is consii;red, it is plain that some remarkably good productions arin constant supply, otherwise there would be a decided fiing off in attendance at the exhibitions. It is the purpcfe, however, of all interested in bettering present condi;ons to so elevate the quality of present releases as to rech out for the very best class of patronage obtainable. Iiorder to bring about this desirable result, producers sl'uld go oftener to all kinds of theaters exhibiting photcVamas on the screen, and not study what the other feows are doing, but the people. I know of no audience more generous than the average oi| attending picture shows. It is composed of people wb go to be entertained, but they are not exacting. They eisr the little theaters in a good-natured, receptive mood, pipared to excuse whatever falls below the average in qiflity and enjoy in a quiet way what is meritorious. Cle of the distinguishing traits of the crowd is a sense o:ijustice that is not at all regulated by our present code o:ilaws, a demand for the reward of vicarious virtue, a cliracter performing a kind act, or suffering for another, rrst be rewarded in the end. A really good play seems tciift the audience out of humdrum reality and carry it a'By on the strong wings of imagination ; the natural hnan sympathies of common people seem to be ever rfdy for the expected quickening. On this account I h/e advocated intense characterization wherever possibl At least one personality should be so well and favora\y introduced that we can follow the course it pursues ir:he story from sympathetic interest in a creature akin tc ourselves. noticed the other night, in an audience numbering Q-'r a thousand people, a tendency to guy certain pieties, and I turned to see what the people were ridiculing. Anaiden was captured by the Indians as usual, but there ws a slight innovation in the piece. The hero went to th Indian encampment, assumed a slap-you-on-the-wrist atitude and declared that he would put out the light of tl' sun unless they released the fair maiden. Then there W3 an eclipse, and the horrid Indians were so scared that tly knelt down in prayer while the hero and the irSden beat it. What the gallery gods said is unprintable, b' all around me people sniflfed and sneered in disgust. S[ne laughed with good-natured toleration, but no reS[ict was shown to pictures thereafter. In the next one tl unwashed shepherd wanted to marry the nicely ssed princess, but her pa objected — pa was made up wh a King-Georgian beard and twirled his sceptre with althe importance of a moving-picture orchestra leader. V|ien the guards brought the shepherd before him he summoned a big man with an obviously wooden sword and was going to chop the prisoner's head off there and then. It was so thrilling that the audience laughed. Now the court jester came to the rescue of the young couple in whom the audience manifested no interest with the old theatrical clap-trap of rope ladder for the princess and a diversion for the court of seven supers. He brought on a modern dog who could put his paws on the back of a chair and say his prayers. The court of seven supers laughed heartily and the prisoner escaped — it was so easy that the audience laughed derisively and the kids in the gallery whistled through their fingers. The place was in an uproar when the jester ran to get horses for the escaping couple. He jogged along from the camera to a far-distant stable for the space of a hundred feet of film, while advised from the auditorium to hurry up, mingled with other suggestions like those heard at a variety entertainment on amateur nights. There was another play of a superior character, but it fell flat because the audience was disgusted with moving pictures in general by the time it arrived. I have recently noticed some very low comedies from a very high source, and they do not serve to interest the general public in motion-picture exhibitions. Some of them depict wise guys doing up good-natured and unsuspecting people, stories of the kind that the bragging commercial traveler tells when he comes in from the road ;• but where human kindness is victimized in the photoplay the theme has a tragic as well as a comic side, especially in presentations given for the edification of those whose natural sympathies are with the under dog. Plays that antagonize the finer element in an audience had better never be shown at all. There is nothing funny in what is cruel, though vulgar brutality in a play may get a laugh from a few who have not yet emerged from primitive egotism. The standard of right and wrong in the great audience, stretching from ocean to oc^an in this country of ours, is not that laid down by ancient authority, but that of present intelligent sympathy. W^e all feel an abiding affection for writers of days gone by, some of them never will lose their endearing charm, but we are most thrilled by the fresh and buoyant pulse of our own times, and producers will find it hard to make old skeletons run red blood for people whose distinguishing peculiarity is a tendency to look forward rather than backward. To most of us who read the papers nothing is impossible for a race that has made giant strides in the new century, our passionate love of justice has been proven in past struggles for mental and moral emancipation ; we are on our way to better things, and we should keep the pictures up to the spirit of the people. Whether we are producers, directors, actors or playwrights, we must delve deep into what does not yield itself readily to superficial study — life as it is, as we are living it — regarding nothing that is human as alien. That does not mean the elimination of what is beautiful or romantic in the past, but in our getting away from antique obsession. We cannot fool the people by using a venerable masquerade to cover a jointless skeleton of decayed ideas. Any apprehension we may feel about the future of moving pictures does not arise from lack of faith in the art, but from the false uses being made of it. Every fine play presented may not receive distinct, individual appreciation, but it constitutes a step towards an end we all desire.