Visual Education (Jan-Nov 1920)

4\ Visual Education tures of these hideous cannibals, their village, homes, and social life, are unique, adding a new and rare chapter to the information that the camera has accumulated about lands and peoples that have hitherto been inaccessible to the world at large. These pictures were made when Laemmle and Alder were not quite certain which one was to furnish the entree at a sumptuous banquet. The appetites of these barbarians were as horrid as their facial decorations and the explorers had great cause to recall the prayers of their infancy. The photography and continuity throughout the reels are excellent. Many of the scenes are superb and all are interesting because of their remarkable subject matter. The picture is one that has fine educational possibilities if rightly used. There are naturally a few scenes that could be called rather "strong" and startling. For school use, therefore, the age of the children viewing this film should be carefully considered and the picture should be viewed by the teacher in advance. * • • THE Charles Urban Movie Chats, produced by the Kineto Co., are delightful bits of genuine value. They seek primarily to entertain and run in the theatres, to be sure, but the materials chosen are of the sort that is good for the mind and the fancy at seven or seventy. Here are half a dozen topics that make up Chat IV, for instance: (1) An -English holiday crowd on the Thames watching the Henley rowing races; the vista of punts huddled close together along the course as far as the lens can see, — with pennants and paddles and picnickers gloriously jumbled during the excitement of a passing race; a colorful scene, teeming with life and movement, that makes the viewer want to know more of out-of-doors England. (2) Close-up illustrations of the effects produced by a small electrical machine are suggestive of what can be done with Physics on the screen. The laboratory will soon have, not a rival, but a strong partner. (3) The picturesque trade of gathering sea birds' eggs on the face of the Scotch crags is vividly shown. It thrills, for there is manifest risk in the work. These are legitimate thrills. The hardy Scotchmen have lived such lives for generations past. If we are to grasp fully how the rest of the world lives, we should feel what they feel. Let the American boy have the thrill the Scotch boy had the first time he went over the edge of the sheer cliff with but a slender rope to keep him from the hungry swirl below. (4) Then monkeys in India, swarming on the temple steps, rapidly broaden the American child's common conception of a monkey as a component part of a hand organ. (5) Next, many a grown-up learns with a bit of astonishment that camels are not always as passive as they seem. They fight. Many more grown-ups will here learn for the first time how camels fight. (6) Finally, half a dozen glimpses of matchless Paris, under the witchery of sunset and the night sky. A thousand feet of such stuff, titled with great skill and excellently photographed, seem short. There will be many reels in this series before the releases stop. School and community centers should remember the Urban Chats when their programs need "one more reel." • • • ATRIP Thru the Fastest Growing Automobile Factory in the World is a frank advertisement of the past and present activities of the Elgin Motor Works, Inc. It seeks to give an impressive survey of the work that will promote sales both of stock and product. However well the film may attain this primary purpose, we are still more interested here in another aspect of the production; namely, its general educational value. America is justly world-famous as the land of swift-growing industries. Any film, therefore, which depicts with fullness and clarity such a distinctly American achievement is a document of genuine public value, whose secondary re