Picture Stories Magazine (Sept 1914-Feb 1915)

On tfve JScreen EVAN STRONG Mr. Strong has for several years been connected with one of the largest houses in the Film Trade. In his monthly article this keen observer discusses happenings in the Picture World and gives his ideas and suggestions which, supported by such practical experience, prove valuable and instructive reading. FEW evenings ago I was drawn into a theatre — not a first-run place, but still a picture house of some standing, at which ofttimes very good programmes are given. I did not go because I wanted to. At the time I was very busy, but I went to please another person. What was the result % I came out sad at the loss of two valuable hours. Usually I enjoy pictures to the utmost — I never consider an hour or two in a cinema wasted, and I am refreshed ready for the next day's tasks. But on this occasion I was sick to the soul. I had watched a fourreel melodrama which had been boosted, as our friends across the water say, all over the country. It had all the murderous incidents, all the blood and screechings of a penny dreadful — and the end was an appalling anomaly of the kind which calls for ridicule. Half the film was padding, the other half uninteresting novelette. And this picture, I believe, has had a great run in every large town and county. Why % Because no doubt it is an exclusive, ushered in with a blare of trumpets, and its title so blazoned forth that people began to talk of it even before it appeared. But this sort of thing must be condemned. It spells the debasement of the cinema, and one can well understand that there are those who utter unkind words about the pictures after such a performance. * * * TO me the film is a wonderful thing — the manufacture an art on equal footing with any other. The good film teaches things the masses would never know or understand were cinematography an impossibility; the good picture on the screen, as well as the work of art in the gallery, teaches the beauty of things, and creates interest in the little-known, therefore its debasement in any shape or form is an evil, and all lovers of the motion pictures must on all occasions be definite in their expression of regret when absurd and inartistic films are screened. Eisks and dangers, thrilling feats and daring incidents have their value in so far, but sheer bloodthirstiness, murder, reckless shooting and battery, mere episodes pushed in to bolster up some action in the picture, is not only unnecessary but a crime against cinematography. Strong words, you say, but you realise the truth of it, and that is all I wish to bring home. Perhaps the next time you see a film of this nature at your favourite cinema you will not hesitate to suggest to the manager your displeasure. For you, it should be remembered, are the true censors of films; and if you do not make your voices heard, perhaps some day the power to demand this or that class of entertainment may be forced out of your hands. + + * IN America, you know, the big film manufacturing concerns make a programme of pictures for every day, and these pictures are sent to the special exchanges which supply them to the cinemas. A cinema fixes with the exchange of a company for a regular programme by contract, and once the engagement is made the patrons have to sit and watch whatever the company care to make and deliver. This is not at all to our English taste. We do not want such a system here, but attempts are being slyly made to force the thin end of the wedge in, and some people are only just waiting the opportunity to force it home. While you have the power in your hands then use it