The Moving picture world (October 1920)

October 30, 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 1215 Great Britain Subjects American Films To the Acid Test of Foreign Criticism Prejudice in Favor of Home Products Amounts to Propaganda TWQ months spent in Great Britain have convinced S. S. Hutchinson, president of the American Film Company, Una, who returned to Chicago on October 15, that American-made pictures are being subjected as never before to the acid test •of foreign criticism. "So pronounced is the prejudice in favor .of the home product over there that it .amounts to propaganda," Mr. Hutchinson stated in an interview. "The British press •is coming out strong for British pictures and against importing our product. The result is that only the best of ours can .command attention there. A poor British •film has a far better chance of success than has a good American film." While this sentiment is only natural as an outgrowth of patriotism, it is Mr. Hutchinson's opinion that for economic reasons -the importing of American made pictures will never entirely cease, as a cutting off •of trade relations would be far more serious for Great Britain than for America. The industry in our country is far less dependent for its existence upon the sale -of its product in Great Britain than is Great Britain dependent upon us. Financial Outlook Bad "At present Europe is overstocked with •our product," Mr. Hutchinson says. ".This is due mainly to the scarcity of theatres, ;a condition which is true generally of all European countries. What theatres there are do a rushing business, but there are ■not enough. The remedying of this condition will be slow, as the financial and labor outlook is not propitious. Building restrictions over there are far more drastic than here. The need for new homes is so urgent that the matter of building theatres must necessarily wait." But however great British prejudice may be in favor of home stars, home authors and home productions, the reputation of American photography stands as always. It is regarded as unequalled. As president •of the American Film Company (London) S. S. HUTCHINSON Ltd., widely known for the high standard of its prints, Mr. Hutchinson is well qualified to express an opinion on this. His company, established ten years ago in London, now handles about SO per cent, of the finest film printing done in Great Britain. Handicapped by lack of funds and experience, England has not been able to compete in this line. Product in Great Demand In regard to the object of his visit, a survey of the American's business activities abroad, Mr. Hutchinson expressed himself as being very much pleased with conditions, both in the London offices at 89 Wardour street and at the factory in Croyden. Since his last visit to these scenes a period of eighteen months had elapsed, and the degree of progress he noted was highly satisfactory. The product of the American Film Company is in big demand in all foreign territory, which includes Great Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Spain, THE mad struggle between the curlyhaired hero and the sleek-haired villain for the love of the pin-magnate's daughter means nothing to the motion picture audience of the Far East. But show them the machine that makes the pins from a spool of wire and sticks them into a paper in precise rows, and they are filled with never-ending wonder, interest and fascination. Such is the conclusion to which close study of the international film field, with special reference to the industrial-educational motion picture, has led Harry Levey, president of the Harry Levey Service Corporation. This company was formed for the exclusive production of that type of picture, and it was planned from the start to give these films international distribution. Accordingly, for the purpose of ascertaining just where they would find a market, questionnaires in foreign languages have gone out from the Levey offices to all countries of the world, and especially to the Far East, where the film market is winning a strong foothold. The answers received on these questionnaires have been listed and, it is announced, show the following: There is a far wider field and greater demand in the Far East for industrial films than for the non-commercial feature dramas. Industrial films draw larger houses and command higher prices both from the exhibitor and from the individual patrons than the best society dramas. Many of the latter fall flat. Their appeal to the Oriental mind is nil. A great part of the feelings and sentiments attached in the occidental mind with love and the relationship between men and women, which form the background and main substance of the usual motion picture plot are non-existent in the Oriental mind. The Chinaman or Japanese does not think of love and marriage as we do; consequently he does not know what the emotional drama is about. The ideas and conventions with which it deals are no part of his mental furnishing. Portugal, Italy, Greece, Egypt and the Balkan States. Mr. Hutchinson does not contemplate the making of any pictures abroad. "I cannot see where it would be of any particular benefit to produce pictures in England," he said. "Our producing facilities are so much greater in America than they are or will be for some time in England, that the handicaps over there would outweigh whatever advantage there would be in obtaining natural English scenery. And as for English stories, especially those by such popular writers as Hall Caine and Marie Corelli, the screen dramas from their works are just as effective on American soil." Mr. Hutchinson's business pursuits were interrupted for a short time by a visit to Paris and the battlefields. The memory of the war-scarred country and demolished villages he regards as one of the most impressive sights of a very interesting and very profitable trip. The serial of action, the Western cow-boy and fight films hew closer to his understanding. So, too, do detective stories. He responds to the appeal of daring or ingenuity. But the films that have the greatest appeal are those that show him the inside of the great American factories, take him back-stage of the great American industries, open before him the miracle of how things are done in America. It is these things that he wants to know. It is the scientific methods of machine operation, shop practice, welfare work, that the Chinese and Japanese are anxious to introduce into their own countries. They will flock to the theatres to see representation of these things on the screen. There is a thrill for them in the great industrial and educational romances of electricity, railroading, shipbuilding, road construction, bridge and skyscraper building, all the hundreds of stories of the making of everything from locomotives and automobiles to darning needles and cream cheese and the great natural pageants of the wheat and cotton crops. Such films as arc prepared for the Eastern market are re-titled in the language of the exhibiting country. In Chinese a double difficulty arises. To translate subtitles and titles into Chinese would cause the number of feet of titling to exceed the number of feet of picture, owing to the cumbersome nature of the Chinese system of writing. An even more serious difficulty arises from the fact that there are no Chinese symbols to correspond to the technical names of hundreds of mechanical devices and principles. This two-fnld problem has led to the installation in the Chinese molion picture theatres of a reader to read the titles and sub-titles and explain to the audience the meaning of everything that takes place in the picture. Mr. Levey expects to send prints of "The Porcelain Lamp," his industrial-educational feature showing the "Evolution of Travel," and his educational feature on electricity, both of which are now in course of production, to the Orient, he announces. Harry Levey Says that Orient Is Most Interested in Educational Pictures