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MOVIES AND CONDUCT
claws, fighting, shooting, falling or hanging from high places, drowning, collisions, fire, flood, etc. All these objects appear week after week in the children's clubs as they are run at present by the organisation of Mr. Rank. Expressions of emotion during the show included nail biting, grabbing one's neighbours, hiding eyes, screaming, jumping out of seat and even getting under seat. After the show some of the children would run all the way home, avoid dark streets, be frightened by shadows and so on, and they would also be afraid to leave the window open, would look under the bed and behind chairs, and would want a light in their room or someone to sleep with.
Although in many cases the emotional condition induced by frightening films lasts only a short time and the incident which gave rise to it is forgotten in a few days, there are instances where the effect is more enduring. Thus one girl retained a permanent horror of lunatics from having seen a film dealing with a crazy woman of homicidal proclivities. Many examples could be given of children who have developed a neurotic fear of the dark as a result of mystery films of one kind or another. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde seems to have had a potent influence in this direction.
It is interesting to note that, in spite of the fact that the terrors experienced by children in the cinema are often of an acutely painful intensity, yet there is a large number of children who enjoy frightening pictures. For instance, out of a class of 44 young school children, 38 stated that they had been frightened by motion pictures, and 31 of the 38 admitted that they liked these pictures.
Where, however, the fear aroused is so great that the individual feels a compulsive need to take special precautions for his safety, and suffers from delusions about non-existent causes for alarm, it can hardly be supposed that any pleasurable sensation is not heavily outweighed by the sense of insecurity thus created. Frequently, too, the child or youth is aware of the absurdity of his fears but is unable to dispel them by reasoning. Thus one girl who had seen a film containing a horribly disfigured creature in a mask, continually imagined the man to be hiding somewhere in the dark, behind a door — and she writes: T tried to dispel this crazy idea by calling myself silly, but it did not work. I don't like to write about it now because if I recall the picture too vividly my imaginings may begin again'.
It is this condition of emotional possession, wherein the ordinary common sense of the individual is overpowered by an irrational
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