Screenland (Jan–Jun 1948)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

HOLLAND: Before we get into the argument, I'd like to greet a newcomer to our board, the very personable Ann Sothern. Barbara Stanwyck, who served on the last month's topic, was forced to withdraw because of poor health. She is at present in Palm Springs for a long rest. So, Ann, I hope you'll enjoy our sessions. Now we're really going to be confused with two Anns on our forum. But down to business: our topic for this month is one that several readers have suggested and is a natural due to the current trend of pictures dealing with anti-Semitism and other such topical problems: "Should Movies Have A 'Message' or Merely Entertain?" To start off, let's see how your minds tick by asking you what you look for when you decide to make a picture. What qualities must the story have? GREG: Well, frankly, I don't look for the story as much as I consider who's the producer and who's the director. Any actor's story judgment can go haywire, but a big director and producer will usually work pretty hard to. protect their investment. And that's probably not the answer you wanted at all! LON: Well, Greg has something there, but putting in my two bits — not that I ever get a chance to decide on the picture I want to do — I prefer to do a film that has something to say. And says it in good taste and with a subtle touch. Yeah, I know you're thinking of the animal pictures I've made like "Thunder in the Valley" and "Summer Lightning." And I guess you wonder how my theory holds true there. But even those pictures have had something good to say. Take a scene I had in a picture with a fine colored actor named Willie Best in which I was shown eating with him. That certainly implies tolerance and is a good thing for everyone with a prejudice to see. ANN S: I want entertainment first in the pictures I do. Granted it's important for a film to say something, I still believe that people (Please turn to page 76) GREGORY PECK SUSAN HAYWARD ANN BLYTH 44 DISCUSSING THE QUESTION: "SHOULD MOVIES HAVE / LON McCALLISTER