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THE ADULT AND THE CINEMA message, even when it wore a Catholic garment as in this film. Nor would it be fair to say that you can show a good film everywhere. A charming, but somewhat sophisticated society comedy like On Approval will not be appreciated in a cinema with a prevailing proletarian audience. Nor will a cinema audience of war-time Bristol which enjoys thrillers and slap-stick comedy readily accept the tender and delicate atmosphere of a film like Tawny Pipit. All these differences in group or regional standards are ironed out by the rigid method of film distribution.
Our material would, I think, not justify any conclusions about different standards and norms of group appreciations. I have collected a considerable amount of material on this problem which naturally interests the film industry most, but in view of the introductory nature of this book and also of my limited strength and facilities to carry this investigation through, I decided to withhold this material for the time being.
Finally there is the thorniest question as to whether film reactions have a class structure. Naturally all social phenomena have a class structure, but to analyse the class structure of film experiences is a by no means easy undertaking.
In this respect certain conclusions may be drawn from our documents. We have noted for instance that the majority of our contributors are members of the 'employee' class. The ambitions and attitudes of this class are certainly different from the social behaviour of the manual worker.1 Whilst the former tend to be more 'showy' and more interested in the status quo of their section of society, the latter are perhaps less interested in fashions than in a revolutionary or evolutionary change. I should also not hesitate to suggest that from a certain age upwards (perhaps 30), manual workers go less to the cinema than their 'black-coated' colleagues. On the other hand, I am inclined to believe that in recent years films may have helped to create a common outlook, anyway in the younger age-groups, for both classes. Furthermore this common outlook is (intentionally or not) decisively coloured in favour of the 'employee' mentality, for instance, in films like You Can't Take It With You, The Shop Around the Corner, and This Happy Breed. These three films apparently mean to interpret the daily lives of the employee. The second film admits the insecurity of the employee's job and life, but glosses over this insecurity by showing how the shop-assistant may eventually climb to the position of a
1 Cf. my essay on The New Middle Classes, which I allowed myself to reprint as Appendix IV to this book.
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