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THE UNIVERSAL WEEKLY
3
m A BENEDICTION
/ (REPRINTED BY REQUEST.)
Straight-from-the-Shoulder Talk by Carl Laemmle, President
ODAY I saw a four-reel picture that was a benediction r It breathed goodness, purity, truth. The very simplicity of its story had a charm that words cannot describe. I sat through the whole four reels, enthralled, but not excited; thankful, but not thrilled. All the rest of the day (it is now nearly bedtime) I have been a better man. I have not felt like pulling the hair of some one who manifested stupidity. I have not had a bit of hate in my heart. Tonight I am going to crawl into my bed and have a peaceful sleep. I know from the bottom of my heart that I will not dream ghastly dreams. I will not be sliding over a jagged precipice in my B. V. D.'s. I will not be running down the middle of Broadway in my pajamas. I will not dream that I am swimming in a bathing suit that persists in shrinking. I will not see purple ichthyosauri gambolling on top of the mantel piece in the living room. I will not dream of studios burning ; nor of actors blown up by dynamite; nor of stage directors tearing their hair and mine.
I will sleep. 1 feel calm and strangely contented. 1 FEEL AS THOUGH A BENEDICTION HAD BEEN BREATHED OVER AND INTO MY WHOLE BEING.
And think of it! The four-reel picture which has enriched my goodness and impoverished my hate DOES NOT CONTAIN A SINGLE "PUNCH".
Not once is a hero thrown over a cliff! Not once is the leading lady tied hand and foot! Not once is there a fire scene, a boat wreck, a murder, a mystery, a battle scene or anything else that is deemed so essential to the success of a feature picture nowadays ! And yet this four-reel feature held me as in a vice! and it gripped the members of the National Board of Censors who saw it when I did; and it showered a wealth of GOOD FEELING over the members of the Universal staff who saw it !
Here's something totally different and something totally unexpected! Just when you expected us to startle the world with something sensational , we produced something that will startle it because of its LACK of sensationalism.
THAT'S WHAT KEEPS THE UNIVERSAL AHEAD ! We are not stereotypes. We disapprove of hackneyed methods. Let others' stupidity follow the beaten path, and in the end they will find themselves AS BEATEN AS THE PATH. Those who use their legs instead of their brains will pay for it with their dollars.
The four-reeler in question is going to GIVE A TREMENDOUS UPLIFT TO EVERY EXHIBITOR WHO SHOWS IT. It is going to silence the chatter of fanatics who damn all moving pictures up and down and claim they are breeders of crime and immorality.
It is not a sermon. It is not a sickish, goody goody treatise on how to be happy, though good. It is not mawkish sentimentality for falsetto-voiced men or pop-eyed marms.
(Continued on Page 32.)