Screenland (Sept 1922–Feb 1923)

/V* MOtlVWOOO CftUrOMiA "GBad" Films P P rove I eople ARE <f I n thousands of cases of "drama-erotica" psychologists make the astounding discovery that sensational melodrama is a moral safety-valve. "A girl of irreproachable character and rchncmciit zvas cured of melancholia resulting , from strange, terrible dreams when she followed her doctor's advice and attended 'a movie a day'." I N a Western city there lives a girl, irreproachable in character and refinement, the product of a well-behaved family. She is absolutely ignorant of the ways of the world. This girl had been troubled by strange, terrible dreams. They persisted to such a degree that she became a victim of melancholia and was so affected in health and spirits that the family physician was called in to diagnose her affliction. After hearing the case, the first question the doctor asked was : "Do you go to the movies?" The girl replied, disdainfully, that she seldom attended them. The doctor realized that her case was common to thousands of other souls — quiet folks, for the most part — maiden aunts, ribbon clerks, pious stay-at-homes and professional people whose natural growth had been repressed in the monotony of their callings. So he prescribed picture shows — a film a day. The more sensational the film, the better, he told her. The young lady followed the physician's advice, and in her quest for melodramas of the most lurid character, frequently attended small theaters in a quarter of the town where her family and associates seldom visited. In less than two weeks the terrible dreams ceased. The girl's thoughts, unmercifully cramped by the impositions of a highly organized society, found freedom in "wild" movies. "I have to go unknown to my friends. I do not know what thev would say if they knew. It seems horrible, doctor, but today I saw the most objectionable film, and I actually enjoyed it!" she confessed. This point in psychic expansion warned the doctor that the belabored mind was cured but on the verge of another immoderation — drama erotica, as it has been named. So he warned her to stay away from the theaters of the low type and patronize the better class of plays, and these less frequently. His advice was followed and his patient became normal. OCIENCE makes the astounding assertion that sensational melodrama is civilization's pressure gauge. We should be thankful, say psycho-analysts who have studied the phenomena, that movies rich in emotional stimulation serve as a wholesale relief to the unnatural bent of modern living. Among the thousands of persons who fill picture theaters, these scientists have discovered a strange new social m a 1 a d y — drama erotica — a dream state wherein wistful folk who lead drab lives find wholesome channels for longings and imaginings, in daring rescues, fighting scenes, romance, bloodshed and adventure. What would we do if our imaginations were limited and repressed? What would we do? We would fall in line with drug and alcohol addicts, say the learned students of this new screen madness, as a sort of merciful escape from the cruel hedgings of social convention. Sensational films liberate the psychic urge of the average, individual in the same degree that do unsteady dreams. Unsteady dreams, psychologists explain, give the essential expansion to neurotic temperaments. Such dreams lack the vital force of the kind that persist with unwavering intensity. The latter kind reflect a part in the actual wakeful moments of the subject. For in them there is always action and this action manifests itself in the so-called instinctive show of tenderness, kisses, malice or hatred — whatever emotion is dominant in subconscious thought. Screen melodrama provides the adult with the same lawful outlet for unsatisfied longings as children pass through when they play pirates, dress as Indians and tie wooden guns to their belts and make believe they are outlaws. The law-abiding citizen experiences, vicariously, the thrilling life he sees depicted on the silver sheet — and goes away satisfied. In the case of the girl who followed the "film a day" cure, had she not found relief on the screen, she might have been actually forced to try an adventuresome route of her own. The world no longer scoffs at the researches of specialists along such lines. Startling facts are brought to light with logical reasons for their being. 28