Judge — August 7, 1920 — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Uncovered Cunning By Perrrron Maxwet AKING a leaf from the soiled and battered book of Prussian propaganda, certain well-known factors in the Moshun Pitcher Industry have established an underground sluiceway through which their hire- lings may pour a volume of illiterate and infantile abuse upon the head of any editor who dares point out the puerility and prutescence of recent offending film products. Imbecile in conception, the effectiveness of this abusive prop2- ganda fails at its very source, since the type of person paid to write these scurrilous letters draws his own week portrait in every word and phrase, Judge has been favored with quite a number of these letters since the publication of its damning pege of censored movie in- decencies. The similarity of expression in all these missives end the uniformity of the neighborhoods from which they were mailed makes the whole retaliatory scheme quite laughable The movie folk intended to irritate and only succeeded in making themselves ridiculous. But that is typical and what might have been expected. Instructions evidently went forth to attach to each letter the page of Judge-censored “stills,” and along with it the p: taining a certain reproduction of a famous painting used in connection with a book advertisement. Even had any of the letters denouncing Judge for exposing the salacious intent of the movies selected been intelligently written, the intended effect must have fallen flat, for the correspondents (mainly anony- mous) failed to grasp the fundamental fact of art that brazer nakedness in action is not to be confused with painted nudity in repose, A bit of nude sculpture or the canvas by a master de- picting the beauty of the unclothed form are things apart (leagues apart) from the studied indecencies of Max Sennett’s bathing girls (who do not bathe) and the more subtle and therefore more dangerous appeal to the prurient of otherwise well-constructed stories on the film. Of course the kind of person that writes an indecent letter lauding indecency is not the kind of person one would look to for a discriminating taste in art. To the foul-minded all things are foul, and Art, in its true sense, is so far removed from the average Movie as to make any comparison of things on the screen with things in the art galleries of the world a simple ab- surdity The theatre in its attitude toward criticism never stooped to cheap and vulgar methods of retaliation, even when its critics were manifestly unfair, But the pictures reflecting as they do, for the most part, the undeveloped intellects and i morality of their sponsors, know no ethics and are aware of no limitations of traducement. It is a sign of healthy growth when honest criticism is calmly accepted by the individual or the organization that is criticized; it is an unfailing evidence of moral decay when straightforward criticism is received in a spirit of offended egotism. The thin-skinned are notoriously the most ignorant and perhaps in no other department of modem industrial endeavor is there so much solid bone to the square yard of human cranium as in the production end of Moshun Pitchers. When the Movies have been on earth as long as the spoken drama, and a modicum of the genius that has made the latter an essential part of civilization bends to lift the new, crude form of entertainrrent to a higher plane of art, there will be none of this back-alley business of abusing its critics with a barrage of scurrility. It is a sheer waste of time to send envenomed letters to those who may be outspoken but who have at heart only the betterment of camera histrionics, There are so many worth- while things in life that wait for clever, clean-minded men to visualize and animate upon the films, so much that is fine, and big, and stirring, which eventually must replace the stupidly, coarse and obscenely dull subjects which the less intelligent and discerning directors believe will “catch the crowd” that no one with an ounce of foresight or an atom of imagination will deny the Movies’ future or do aught to retard its vivid progress by word or deed. The editor or writer who docs not believe whole-heartedly in the future of the “silent drama” is a prejudiced oaf or a victi of intellectual myopia. But the Movies’ future, its brilliancy d power, is not yet in the hands of competently equipped guardians, The time is near when more men of D. W. Griffith's calibre will be drawn into the great picture game both by its artistic possibilities and the enormous profits accruing from sincere effort, The surface of Moshun Pitcher potentialities has barely been scratched. The major number of people engaged in the industry view it in the light of an investment paying big dividends or as a great medium for self-exploitation. The most ardent “fans” are beginning to sicken at the manner in which “stars” are thrust upon them to the detriment of theme and story. Everywhere one hears the growlings of the disappointed who have been lured by a familiar name to suffer in the dark from a maximum of “star” vanity and a minimum of story interest. And while the stable is being scrubbed of its filth and the splendid steed groomed for a clean and honest race, let the peanut-headed people in the paddock restrain their primitive instinct to throw refuse at the judges and cease their futile efforts to choke off candid criticism, comicbooks.com