Judge — April 30, 1921 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

NEW MOVES IN THE MOVIES How Far Should Venus Be Screened? By Myrox M.S HE Reformer, like the Poor, we have always with us. ‘all, noble and angular he stands, or fierce and fat, directing us confidently in the way we should go, shooing us assiduously away from the edge of the grass. Upon his strong left arm is nailed a white shield, bearing in sable letters the motto: “ Trespassers prosecuted to the full extent of the Law.” Ordinarily, this mythically inspired gentleman gives us little enough trouble. Like the Statue of Liberty, he is most of the time forgotten, seeming hardly more than a symbol, a vast sym- bolical figure silently scrutinizing the Narrows of our National Moral Life. Indeed, it might be far from inapropos for Con- gress in its thoughtful deliberations to appropriate a suitable amount for the erection of a truly colossal monument, so that the new arrival at our gates would be greeted by the imposing figure of Liberty on the left, and the equally impressive form of, say, Censorship on the right Ordinarily, you will notice. But once let an evil flare abroad, allow an abuse of privilege to become so wide that it awakens popular resentment, and our Reformer leaves his pedestal to become suddenly a power in the land, perhaps an oppressor Mone, he is relatively impotent; backed by a blind crowd ac- knowledgement that reform is needed, a feeling that evils must be rectified, he becomes a colossus, able to grant or cut short at will life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the land of the free and the home of the brave. A transitory power, usually, but vast while it lasts, and far-reaching in its effects. TEARNS (“LeENso”) the pulpit, and latterly the films (yes, and probably the soap- box, too, which the Romans called a Forum)—are free and unpolluted. Control these channels of information, and you destroy democracy. Put power over the press or the church, or censorship of the films, in the hands of a few people, or of a class, even though that class be for the time being a majority, and you have at the very best class control and class legislation. You pass from democracy to aristocracy, which Blackstone points out as the most oppressive and ineffective of all forms of govern- ment. Nor does it make an atom of difference whether your aristocracy is one of wealth, or inheritance, or morals; the result is the same: the thoughts and lives of some classes in the hands of others, who can decide for them what they shall eat and what they shall drink and what they shall wear, and what they shall read and what they shall see. Rightly handled, this leads to a benevolent paternalism—such as Germany had before the war, and, in a measure, Russia; mishandled, it becomes simply tyranny. In cither case, as far as Miss Democracy is con- cerned, it is a confession of failure—and the guillotine. Then, concerning the confusion of ideas: Through nearly two decades our last little infant industry Civilization’s youngest child, appropriately named Fillum, has been running wild while growing toward terrific maturity. Edu- cators have held up their hands in horror and swept their skirts >: Lorsavus, they would have nothing to do with it! Neither would the editors, or the preachers, or other respect- able folk, except to point him out as a horrible example, or Alone, General Reform might have shouted his head off through all the cen turics without attracting more than passing attention; backed by that wave of senti- ment, he swelled enormously into a Napo- leon, and wrote Prohibition into the Consti- tution before retiring to Elba Now it is the movies. The General has returned from Elba, and is marshalling his cohorts to secure full censorship of films At this point it is fitting to rise and re- mark First—that censorship can never exist in any true democracy anyway; Seco that the present drive for film censorship is based on an odd, though per- fectly natural, confusion of ideas. As to this Democracy business: democracy is dependent upon the existence of an intel- ligent. independent citizenry, able to gov- ern. itself wisely such citizenry can exist unless the main currents of thought, the main mediums for the exchange of ideas, the main channels of information—the press, Pictures Worth Watching SENTIMENTAL TOMMY? Very nearly Barrie THE FOUR HORSEME Almost Ibatez A YANKEE IN KIN COURT Not far from Mark Twain. WAY DOWN EAST* Purely Griffith. PASSION* German, THE KID’ Chaplin. THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS* Tourneur rather than Cooper OVER THE HILL* Emotional drama, somewhat cheap but very effective THE SIN THAT WAS HIS* versham in the films THE GILDED LILY* ‘A typical movie, but a good one. THE JUCKLINS* Another. still better THE OLD SWIMMIN: HOLE* Country incidents, without titles *Well above average. ARTHUR'S make fun of him or tell good little boys and girls toavoid him. What would you expect of a child allowed to grow up in the gutter and learn loose language and lead his own life and keep away from school and smoke cigarettes? And now we say we will tie this boy to a tree—censorship. We will send him to the reform school, so that when he is older he can go to prison and do no harm But the thing to do is to give him intelli gent companionship and education There is unquestionably a wave of senti- ment sweeping this country in favor of bet- ter pictures. It is this wave that is giving General Reform new power in filmdom. And the great reformer cries: “Censorship! Here is the confusion: the wave for better pictures is not moral, but mental. Pictures asa whole are not particularly immoral; they are still peculiarly unintelligent. But the Reformer, interpreting this demand for more intelligent pictures is advocating, and get- ting, Censorship. Sonny, you've got the wrong answe comicbooks.com