Judge — March 12, 1921 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

j NEW A | Pe Faye Both Sides By Myron M. OOKING at the motion-picture industry from the outside as one might regard the batch of eggs spifling and sizz- ling in a frying-pan, it seems still to be on the whole a rather unpalatable proposition, Just how the world looks from a frying-pan, viewed through the filming eye of an egg, frying slowly into eternity, is hard for 4 mere mortal to say. Probably it looks rather distant and un- important, and as though it n't understand in the least what an essential part eggs play in it, and how few things can compare with the artistry and efficiency of a frying-pan, or the complexity and organization of eggs welding themselves together hrough a brilliant process of co-operative cooking, cach boosting I and all for cach, ‘To most of the people inside the Kingdom of Films, the motion- picture industry seems rather marvelous—with a few odds and ends that need brightening up and looking after, perhaps, but—pshav You know how it is with all important industries: where there's work being done, there has to be some dirt. Yessir, on the whole, a remarkably fine business, tobesure. So that criticism seems—for the most part—unwarranted, unkind, and possibly underhanded. To Filmites, motion pictures are mostly the whole world; to those outside, pictures represent a vast new industry and influence, ad- mittedly (grudgingly) powerful, but still mainly stupid, inefficient, and inartistic, as well as being for the most part unhealthy. Before me are several interesting letters, contrasting, sharply illustrating something of this inside-or-outside the frying-pan viewpoint. A couple are from publicity departments, wanting to MOVES IN THE MOVIES of the Screen Stearns (Lexso) rican people, jazzing us so badly the old pioncering spirit is weakening, ete., ete. That there are no movies without cither a fist fight or a dance, or both.” He “counted” on all points. “The word ‘cheap’ rather stuck in my craw. That so sizes up the average (not best) of the whole movie business. The business heads are cheap; actors, directors, atmosphere, ethics, daily life, language, all have the cheap cast. A_prize-fight is worth seeing once in a while, but only the movie crowd are regulars; a bet at the ball-park puts in a kick, but only the ‘pic- ture gang and professional gamblers always get their money down. And the picture crowd is always first with the divorce. No, I don’t want to reform anything, but I have three growing daughte nd I'm afraid Mary Pickford may corrupt them. I don’t want them going out every night to see some of the boons De Mille is conferring on suffering humanity, either.” Well—where is the answer? Part way between, I reckon. Unquestionably, the movies got away to a poor start. But they’re toddling along further and further into the spotlight, and improving as they go. When the publicity people kicked because their own “great” pictures weren’t included in the “best” dozen or score of a mean and prejudiced critic, they had a rather legitimate kick, because without question those particular pictures had much to recommend them, and were omitted only because others—many others—were still better. But here is something worth thinking about: the movie world today is still altogether too absorbed in itself. For the most part, it fails to realize that it has tapped only a small fraction of know why a certain picture, universally known and admitted to be one of the finest of the year (of course not the same picture, since the letters are from different compa- nies) has not received the praise and atten- tion it deserves. They show not even the comprehensive motion-picture viewpoint; the frying-pan in these particular instances has narrowed down to a particular studio, the output of one particular company. All other pictures, even, are regarded in terms of their own output. Then, there are general letters, pointing out that nearly all that can be found in picturedom is excellent, and that criticism of the same shows only narrowness, prej- udice, meanness, and ignorance. These, also, from “inside. inally there are the isolated plaints from outsiders who feel picture shortcom- ings so sharply that their feelings find vent in prose. I take the liberty of quoting from a letter post-marked Los Angeles: “Count Tolstoi, son of his father, honored L, A. recently and said a few things about your friends the movies, to the effect that the movies are cheapening the Ame- Pictures Worth Watching O'MALLEY OF THE MOUNTED Good wild Western, with Willum Hast. OVER THE HILL* ‘Or, How Not to Forget Mother. MAN, WOMAN AND MARRIAGE Wonderful appeal to the sense of expenditure JIM THE PENMAN Artistic and convincing produc- tion of disagreeable and uncon- vincing yarn BLACK BEAUTY Pretty good melodrama, with horses on the side. THE KENTUCKIANS Almost-excellent drama of Ken- tucky, that just misses fire. HOLD YOUR HORSES Fairly forceful farce THE Kids The Chaplin film you'll want to be able to talk about PASSION* German-madedrama—some way. OUTSIDE THE LAW Good smash-'em-up crook meto- dram: THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS Artistic tragedy of the forests. THE JUCKLINS eli-screened romance of the Southern backwoods. “Exceptionally good. the intellectual resources of this country for its great lights—that its artists (Lam not refer- ring to the actors) and writers and directors. and business heads are as yet in no sense chosen from any country-wide competition —as is largely the case with many of the older industries—but are hand-picked from one small corner, touched by happenstance. And those outside the kingdom are per- haps even more grievously at fault, in failing to do their share of improving work. Many of the“'intellectuals’”"—writers, arti editors, critics—who might do yeoma vice for the films still profess to hold them in contempt, instead of regarding them as the greatest single influence on our civiliza- tion of today and tomorrow. And millions more should be doing their part in fearning about pictures, finding out what films are worth seeing, and why, and where to find them, and spreading the word along, so that the producer of a worth-while picture may get his money back with a reasonable pro- fit and make another, instead of going to the wall and leaving the field clear for the cheaper producer who “gets past” with old stuff. comicbooks.com