World Film and Television Progress (1937-1938)

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ARMAMENT RINGS ASSASSINS " Crooks . . . OUR national life, as reflected in British films, is full of interesting features. We are a nation of retired business men, mill owners, radio singers, actors, detectives, newspapermen, leading ladies, soldiers, secret service men, crooks, smugglers, and international jewel thieves. Some of us are only waiters, boxers, chemists, and brilliant young inventors, but the national custom of marrying our employers' daughters may be relied upon to remedy this. Some of us, indeed, are only poor village blacksmiths, but there is no reason to be ashamed of this, for we have millionaire sons in the background. The majority of us move in society. One thing is quite clear. We don't work in coal pits or fishing boats or shops or shipyards or iron foundries, and that is something to be thankful for. We have our servants and employees of course, upon whom we rely for most of our national humour. Not that we do not have a good deal of fun ourselves, sometimes, at house parties or the like, dressing up in other people's clothes, or being mistaken for somebody else, but we do not have a great deal of time for that sort of thing, because mostly we are in trouble with new plays that won't go, or documents that have been stolen, or murders that we didn't commit, or stolen jewels, or international complications. With all this on our minds, it is little wonder that we are not a humorous nation. Fortunately, our butlers, chauffeurs, bus drivers and waitresses compensate to some extent for this, with their quaint vulgarities. They do not have so much to think about. When it is not worry, it is love that keeps us from joking. Apart from hotel adventures which are scarcely worthy of the name of love, our affairs are pretty serious. Of course, our bus drivers have their women folks, and AND POLITICAL MADMEN Our major national problems as seen in British Films by Russell Ferguson our waitresses can be seen occasionally making sheep's eyes at men, but such people are usually married already, and talk about their "old man" or their "old woman" as such people will. In any case their affairs are not to be considered serious, for it is a well-established principle in this country that love is not really love at all unless it is expressed in cultured tones. Some seniors among us, Lancashire mill owners and Scottish bankers and so on have not lost our rough provincial tongues, but in such circumstances we send our children to school so that when they grow up they will be able to make love to each other in pleasant accents. Otherwise we should die out. Our troubles are really endless. Happily, we are not bothered with unemployment, malnutrition, distressed areas, disease, or poverty, but the number of chemical formulae, state documents and bonds that are stolen every year is most distressing, and thousands of pounds worth of jewels are constantly going astray. Then there are business rivalries to think about, and continual murders, and crooks from America.. These are our major national problems. We are fortunate in having a wonderful army, in which all the soldiers are very happy and contented, and enjoy themselves thoroughly, at least until they are killed. Our fighting navy is equally grand, quelling South Americans with hardly any losses. By a longestablished national custom, all naval and military battles result in a wedding. Our foreign affairs on the whole are very serene. Our greatest trouble is spies and fanatics, who threaten from time to time to blow up London, or to bring down all the machines at Hendon with death rays. There has been a great deal of this in recent months. Where the emissaries and agents come from is not always very clear, but it is certain that they are active enough. Encouraged by a partial success early in the year, when a bomb intended for Piccadilly tube station blew up in a West End street, the spies and agents of foreign powers have been hard at it ever since with clocks and bombs and rays and wireless-controlled planes. London has escaped by a series of miracles. What with armament rings, assassins and political madmen, it is a mercy that a good proportion of our population are in the Secret Service. and business men