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MOVIES AND CONDUCT an element of danger and that discussion of earlier fighting scenes goes on during the sequences which show the happy ending. The child's own view of the serials is given in the following extract by a boy:
'Perhaps the earliest type of motion picture that I can remember is the serial. This old type of thriller, usually consisting often parts, was shown every Saturday at the neighbourhood theatre. All the children of the district used to attend, and then followed one glorious week during which each scene of the episode was enacted out in our backyards. We had grand times playing "lion men" and Tarzans. During the showing of the picture itself we used to be worked up to a terrific high state of emotion, yelling at the hero when danger was near, hissing at the villain, and heaving sighs of relief when the danger was past. The serial was nearly the sole object for going to the movies for me and for most of the children in the good old days when I was seven or eight years old.' These very same serials, as has been shown above, are still being used in British film matinees for children.
The characteristic feature of the serial is that it stops abruptly when suspense is at its height, and instead of the child being left in a state of tranquillity it is keyed up during the whole of the subsequent week, and is brought to the same condition again by the next instalment. It is impossible to say definitely what permanent effects this perpetual state of suspense may have on the child's mind, although it seems certain that these effects are of an important kind.
Some of the excitement which is noticeable during a children's matinee is, of course, created simply by the fact of there being a large mass of children together, each of whom tends to be infected by the tension of the rest. A high degree of emotional possession is, however, very evident, and may be observed in the behaviour of children after leaving a picture of the 'thriller' type. Many declared, in response to enquiry on this point, that in these circumstances they felt adventurous, daring, and even 'tough5. Usually the feelings are of short duration, as in the other kinds of emotional possession which have been considered, but while the mood is on the child may be prepared to do things from which he would normally refrain. In some cases the acts thus committed may be of a delinquent type.
It is clearly incontestable from the evidence which Professor Blumer brings forward that films can and do create states of emotion which some individuals have some difficulty in controlling. The
l 161 M.S.F.