HOLLYWO OD

QUARTERLY

VolumeII JULY, 1947 * Number4

UNIVERSITYOF CALIFORNIAPRESS BERKELEYAND LOS ANGELES Contents

MOTION PICTURES

The Global Film ...... VSEVOLOD PUDOVKIN 327 The Language Barrier . . HERMAN G. WEINBERG 333 A Survey of Film Periodicals, I: United States and England ARTHUR ROSENHEIMER, JR. 338 The Film Renaissance in Italy LUCIANO EMMER AND ENRICO GRAS 353 Subjective Camera or Subjective Audience? JOSEPH P. BRINTON, III 359 Four-Square Theater ...... HENRY DREYFUSS 367

FILMS IN THE CLASSROOM

The Nature of the Educational Film ... F. DEAN McCLUSKY 371 "Miracles Come C.O.D." ...... CHARLESPALMER 381

RADIO AND TELEVISION

Experiments in Broadcasting and Television . . ROGER MANVELL 388 The Raw Material of Radio . . .. . ERIC BODEN 393

THE REALITY PRINCIPLE: Four New Films Odd Man Out and Monsieur Verdoux . . . ABRAHAM POLONSKY 401 This Happy Breed and Great Expectations . . . IRVING PICHEL 408

NOTES AND COMMUNICATIONS

An Eyewitness Reports ...... STUART SCHULBERG 412 The Film and the Zeitgeist ...... LESTER ASHEIM 414 Operation Celluloid ...... JAY E. GORDON 416 Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ... . SYD CASSYD 419

BOOK REVIEWS

Films As History ... FRANKLIN FEARING 422 From Caligari to Hitler, by Siegfried Kracauer Suggestive Survey .... PHILIP DUNNE 427 The Factual Film: A Survey, by The Arts Enquiry

Eiii iv CONTENTS

BOOK REVIEWS- (Continued) A Smattering of Antheil ...... LAWRENCE MORTON 429 Menagerie in F Sharp, by H. W. Heinsheimer They Like Radio ...... FRANKLIN FEARING 431 The People Look at Radio, by Paul F. Lazarsfeld Teaching by Seeing ...... FRANKLIN FEARING 432 Audio Visual Methods in Teaching, by Edgar Dale The Preparation and Use of Visual Aids, by Kenneth B. Haas and Harry Q. Parker Audio-Visual Aids in the Armed Services, by John R. Miles and Charles R. Spain Magic and Myth ...... HERMAN G. WEINBERG 434 Magic and Myth of the Movies, by Parker Tyler Aurora's Other Dawn .. .. GILBERT SELDES 436 Aurora Dawn, by Herman Wouk The Global Film VSEVOLOD PUDOVKIN

VSEVOLOD PUDOVKIN, the Russian director, is pie, graphic, and sharply expressive best known for his early films, Mother, The End of means what would seem to be the most St. Petersburg, and Storm Over Asia. His latest films, The Russian People, based on Simonov's play, and complex and abstract generalizations. Admiral Nakhimov, have not yet been The artists of that tried to seen in this country. day keep pace with the flashing succession of I AM profoundly convinced that the new, vital, and significant ideas, and film, an art of quite recent appearance, sought new forms of art in which they possesses exceptionally great potential- could be embodied, but it was the film ities for the expression of man's broad- in particular that proved the most pow- est thoughts and ideas. Film history erful means for the expression of those gives us a concrete example of the po- ideas, and undoubtedly influenced tentialities that distinguish the film both the theater and the literature of from the other arts. We clearly remem- the time. ber those days in which our Soviet film Then, too, it was suddenly realized was born and matured, a period which by all that the motion picture camera at the same time was the formative pe- was a new sort of instrument, allowing riod of our Soviet state. The enormous the human eye to penetrate into re- struggle within this period was nour- gions hitherto closed to it. The motion ished by the highest ideas of human picture camera was regarded as a tele- significance. Our best films, linked to scope that could take the human eye this time, are familiar to all. All of into cosmic space, or as a microscope them, no matter how various were the that could bring into the field of vision styles of their individual authors, were the world of infinitesimal organisms. alike in one respect: they strove to unite Actually, the camera lens never saw in a persuasive visual form events more than did the human eye; it was widely separated in time as well as the creative unification on the screen of events spread over the farthest reaches all that the camera could see in many of the earth. Giving substance to the scattered places-throughout the world, largest ideas of humanity, they did not if you wished, and at any time-con- so much aim to tell about as to show structed into a vision as single and con- the connection between phenomena, vincing as a landscape or portrait, that with the conviction which sight alone gave this picture of the true relation- can provide and which only the film ships of phenomena. Before film existed can provide fully. no eye could see this, just as without The creative study of a montage of the telescope no one saw the satellites visual fragments, established in this pe- of Jupiter, or as no one saw living cells riod, revealed the true meaning of this before the existence of the electronic fundamental and mighty method in microscope. film art. By montage an artist could Films, moreover, were still "silent," communicate to the spectator in sim- which gave them one more important

[ 327 J 328 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY capacity: an unlimited audience. The tator's knowledge of real life-this de- silent film was visually international in sire also faded. Now the London street the fullest sense of the word. Its only was quietly built in the studio, for the words appeared in subtitles that could director had begun to acquire a theat- be replaced in any language without ricalized relation to the film, and was harming the artistic integrity or the becoming content with an abstract organic elements of the work. treatment and conventional depiction And then what happened? of the street, which was needed, after In the silent films we artists con- all, only as a background for spoken stantly overcame huge difficulties. Each dialogue, itself the point of the film. step required effort; it was necessary to Imperceptibly, all the vast significance invent perpetually. The silent film was of unimpeded vision and the examina- full of creative inventions without tion of life which the motion picture which it could not have progressed. It camera had given us was replaced by was precisely in the period of the silent verbal narrative, as it naturally has film that the film scenario represented a always existed and exists today in the specific literary genre, one so individual theater. Spectators were gradually de- that it quickly filtered into other liter- prived of that wonderful possibility of ary forms, including playwriting. witnessing real life with their own eyes, But when sound came, and the screen a possibility that had been realized so actor began to speak, film workers en- generously and fruitfully in the days countered a new kind of actor, already of the silent film. Like some cheated experienced, and armed with theater prizewinner, the spectator was offered culture. They also encountered a new a magic-lantern lecture about Africa in kind of writer, armed with the experi- place of the plane trip that would have ence of writing for the theater. Influ- allowed him to see Africa with his own ences turned abruptly in the opposite eyes. direction: literature and the theater Along with many of my comrades in began to rule the film with their tra- art, I still feel sad to see the latest films ditions more and more. One could using the most modern technical de- watch the gradually lessening efforts vices for the imitation of living nature- of the film artist to show everything, to putting lifeless settings before the cam- help the spectator see everything with eras. Location trips to distant points hi? own eyes, and to rouse and convince are avoided as unprofitable. Holly- him by the immediacy of his percep- wood, the world's center of technical tion. film organization, is quite satisfied Films began to tell of things more with its back lots full of used and re- and more in words. It was no longer used sets for all the cities of the world. necessary to send out the motion pic- The few pitiful rivers, sandy places, ture camera in search of the realities and hills that happen to be near the of truth. The desire of a director to film great film city have long since grown a London street in London itself, with accustomed to being made up as the all its inimitable peculiarities and Ganges, as the Sahara, as Mont Blanc. subtle detail, which would make this If everything can be told in words, as London street valuable in the spec- in the theater, why give yourself the GLOBAL FILM 329 extra trouble of showing anything? bing the translated dialogue in the Showing costs more than telling, just mouths of the original actors have been as a trip costs more than a lecture. So, little more successful. for purely commercial considerations, If you agree with me that modern because production costs could be cut methods of producing a sound film and because the craft required for the narrow the audience for it, as a com- adaptation to films of methods already plete art experience, to a single coun- evolved in the theater and literature try and a single language group, then was easier and more convenient, the you, too, must come to the unavoidable modern film was impoverished; mo- conclusion that the problem of creat- tion pictures now bear a closer resem- ing a film comprehensible to all peo- blance to recordings of performances ples must be taken up with far more on a stage than they do to the magnifi- conviction and strength than we have cent, original, and powerful films that hitherto applied to solving it. I repeat: were once given us. the world-wide comprehension of the Sound films also completely lost film is a goal that must be identified their international character. Pictures with the all-embracing goal, impera- produced in one country were nearly tively required today, of a direct ex- destroyed as works of art when they change of ideas of general human sig- were exhibited in other countries. nificance. Since the spectator has to read, almost For this reason I am sincerely con- without pause, the translated words of vinced that our foremost talents, chiefly the film's dialogue, idiotically printed the younger ones, or those that are on the picture itself, he cannot be ex- young enough to be daring and de- pected to gain any impression from the cisive, must be newly directed to the pictorial composition of the original rough and difficult road of creative in- film. Furthermore, the spectator-for vention. Where is this road? Are there he is no longer an auditor, but only a no artists who have already attempted spectator-can only be distracted by the to travel it? unknown language coming from the Here I want to draw attention to one loud-speaker; this has no more mean- sort of film that has acquired particu- ing for him than the static in poor larly clear definition during the war. radio reception. His attention, instead This is the feature-length documentary of being attracted to the direct percep- film, which uses the facts of living ac- tion of the work of art, is broken up; tuality as filmed by the motion picture his impressions are scattered in all di- camera, but which unites them in rections, and he is not fully moved, as montage with the aim of communicat- one should be by a work of art. Our ing to the spectator certain, sometimes contemporary film with its superim- quite general and abstract, ideas. Such posed subtitles gives me the impression a documentary film is not merely in- of an entertaining bus excursion that formational. It differs from the news- has been arranged by removing tires, reel in the same way that an editorial muffler, and springs from our vehicle. or article in a newspaper differs from Such excursions give me nothing but the news item in the next column. nervous indigestion. Attempts at dub- Thanks to those properties of films 330 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY which I mentioned above, we have the in moments of oratorical exaltation, right to look upon such documentary smacking of something very close to films as a phenomenon of high art. idiocy). I have been able to see several of These three basic assertions are pur- these documentary feature films, all sued in a montage of various combina- created while the war was being fought. tions with invariably repeated persist- There is, for example, the American ence. United with the abstractions of film, Prelude to War. One of its strik- the commentator's speech, the visually ing characteristics is its direct, bold, perceived facts produce an unusually and broad use of montage methods powerful impression. Personally, I do that were discovered in the period of not agree with the primitive treatment the silent film. Prelude to War conducts of fascism presented by this film, but its function of communicating with the the powerful impression made by such spectator along three correctly distinct an organized film production on the and separated paths-the word, the spectators is indubitable. Such a film is picture, and the music. The voice of fully international, and can be fully the commentator leads the work of for- understood anywhere. The commen- mulating and summarizing the abstract tator's voice may be translated into propositions. Visual fragments, fixing any language without disturbing the factual material that was photographed integrity of impression. The montage in Germany, Italy, and Japan-mate- of visual images does not require trans- rial originally scattered over half the lation. I shall leave open the question globe,-are linked together and organ- of the music in this film, because the ized for the express purpose of persist- musical element here is used in the ently persuading the spectator of three usual cliche manner. basic assertions: I am convinced that this form of the 1) Fascism is blind discipline, reduc- documentary feature film will gain ing the human being to the condition ever-increasing significance in the post- of a slave (ceaseless mechanically mov- war period, first, because we need no ing cohorts of the fascist organizations longer doubt that it can be understood in Germany, Italy, and Japan). by all the peoples of the world, and 2) Fascism is an organized deception second, because, thanks to this advan- of the people (persistently repeated tage, it can be widely used for fully and shots of thousands of people at a peak profoundly acquainting peoples with of hysterical ecstasy, surging heads, one another and can serve to a very waving arms, filmed in such a way that considerable degree in expressing uni- you cannot make out human faces, and versal ideas in a graphic and striking you get an impression of a disturbed way. The task of the artist working in anthill; similar shots from Germany, this form is to find more subtle means Italy, and Japan are shown repeatedly). for artistic communication of simple 3) Fascism is domination by a hand- propositions, as well as of their pro- ful of worthless men, deliberately ex- found development on the philosophic ploiting the darker instincts of man- and pictorial planes. kind (regularly persistent display, in I must again stress the tremendous close-up, of the fascist leaders, chiefly significance of the documentary film in GLOBAL FILM 331 achieving the desired goal of bringing of subtitles, was artistically destitute. peoples together. Real truth about a Its words were carefully chosen and ap- people cannot be shown in separated peared only when necessity flung them and partial examples, localized to one to the crest of a wave of feelings and or another place. It must be allowed to thoughts that had already been read tell itself on a broad scale, revealing, as by the spectator in the mimed perform- a principle, the historical essence of ance of the actor. Such words are really each phenomenon. universally understood and may well I want to draw attention to one other serve as a lead in our search for a new path along which we can conduct our film form comprehensible to all. This search for new forms. We all know that would be a task well worth all the crea- human speech is not the first, but the tive strength spent on it. last, culminating, moment in the ex- Music stands in direct relation to pression of the inner state of man. Fig- such words and cannot be questioned as uratively speaking, the word may be an organically necessary element within thought of as the foam rising to the any film. The relation between music crest of an emotional wave as it reaches and cinema is not accidental. The pro- its height. The word was organically found rhythmic structure of every film preceded by that vast wealth of mimic is musical by nature. Silent films could expression which man possesses and not exist, nor did they ever exist, which we were able to read so easily and without music, even though sound was accurately in the close-ups of actors in not recorded on the film itself at that the silent films. There are words so time. But the fact cannot be overem- immediately linked with mimed ac- phasized that music has not yet been tions that their meaning is already read utilized in film making to the full ex- on the speaker's face before the word tent of its possibilities. There are, of has been fully articulated. Their in- course, many pictures known as "musi- tonations take on almost purely musi- cal films," filled and running over with cal functions. In these words may be music, but these are, with rare excep- revealed the secret of the musical tions, no more than screen translations phrase that can be sensed not only as of musical plays or shows that could be a formal combination of sounds but just as well produced on any stage. The also as a kind of composer's speech giv- mighty capacity offered by music to ing clear expression to feelings and bear profund meanings, approaching thoughts. Such a word can be almost heroic speech, has scarcelybeen touched completely comprehended by any per- by film artists. It is to musical thought son, regardless of the language in which of this kind that creative film attention it is spoken. must be directed. We were once very close, in film art, It would be absurd to interpret what to the discovery of such a film vocabu- I have said as a recommendation to lary. It often appeared in the subtitles abolish the sound film or even as a of silent films, and even these mute recommendation to erase all dialogue letters had the cogency of spoken from future films, replacing it with words. I do not consider that the speech laconicism and music. These thoughts we had in the silent film, in the form have been merely an attempt to put 332 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY into words a task which, I feel, all re- be born. Now it is time to gather to- sponsible film artists must face: to find gether all the scattered attempts and and develop new film forms which will experiments made by artists in an in- answer the universal desire for unity stinctive expression of this need, to that has arisen among all the peoples revive the vast opportunities left latent of the world. Alongside the sound film, in our silent film experience, and to which has achieved so much in so brief begin work on this new film for all the a time, a new kind of film is waiting to world. (Translated by J.L.) The Language Barrier HERMAN G. WEINBERG

Faire peu de bruit, mais dire beaucoup de choses-GABRIELFAURE

HERMAN G. WEINBERG has adapted and titled on this new film for all the world." The numerous foreign films for distribution in the United famous Russian silent films ,of the States. Among them are Mayerling, The End of a Day, Extenuating Circumstances, The Virtuous Zizi, 'twenties did indeed give substance to Sous les toits de Paris, Marie Louise, Portrait of a the ideas of Woman, The Well-Digger's Daughter, Carmen, Open largest humanity. "They City, and the forthcoming Nais, Sakuntala, and Shoe- did not so much aim to tell about as to Shine. His unprecedented project of titling Marcel show the connection between Pagnol's nine-hour trilogy, Marius, Cesar, and Fanny, phenom- is scheduled for 1947-1948 release. ena, with the conviction which sight alone can provide and which only the ELSEWHERE in this issue, in his article film can provide fully." (Italics mine.) "The Global Film," Pudovkin makes With the advent of the sound film, a plea for a truly international film films lost their international character, which will leap all language, ethnic, says Pudovkin. He objects to the spec- and social barriers between the peoples tator's having to read, "almost with- of the earth, "to answer the universal out pause," the translated words of the desire for unity that has arisen among film's dialogue printed in the form of all the peoples of the world." Since the a title on the bottom of the screen. It politics of a nation is but the super- is distracting, he says, and dubbing structure developing from an ethnic the dialogue into another language is and social base, it is easy to see that, hardly an improvement. once such barriers to mutual under- Still, titling foreign films had to be standing were destroyed, political bar- taken as a first step toward achieving a riers would be quick to follow. A global global film form such as Pudovkin en- film is a way to that universal dream visages. The immediate problem was of one world. Perhaps it is not in itself to retain and communicate, as far as the way, but it is a way of such infinite possible (within technical and ideolo- salutary possibilities that it will have to gical limitations), the "universal" ele- be reckoned with if this great goal in ments in films through titles superim- human progress is ever to be achieved. posed on the film. Even having granted Lenin's dictum that "the cinema can that this method is at best a necessary and must be Soviet Russia's greatest evil, we would have to admit that it has cultural weapon" is but a facet of the not always been used as well as it might larger truth that the cinema can and have been. Many foreign films were pre- must be the world's greatest cultural sented in America in woefully deficient weapon. Pudovkin begins his article by translation through titles, so that audi- saying this and ends it by reminding ences here were cheated of the full us of "the vast opportunities left subtlety and meaning of these films. latent in our silent film experience" Nuances were by-passed, colloquial- which should be revived "to begin work isms ignored or stiltedly rendered, long 1333 334 HOLLYWOOE QUARTERLY gaps in the films' dialogue were not Apparently, since American audi- even covered by titles because they "did ences will not accept dubbed films, not advance the story line" and were what we do now is to make the most of "superfluous." Humor had frequently the printed subtitle until a better way to be sacrificed because the translator comes along. found no English equivalent. And so What we must have is not literal on. If even the most perfectly titled translations but equivalents in our translation of a film in a foreign lan- own terms, inspired by the original, guage cannot be more than a second- with a genuine appreciation of its at- best way to communicate the full im- mosphere, spirit, and intent. The words pact of that film, one can well imagine chosen in the translation must almost the havoc that less-than-perfect trans- be forced on the translator by the lations have wreaked in the original rhythm, cadence, and beat of the de- films. Nor have critics and reviewers livery of each phrase of dialogue trans- contributed to the appreciation and lated. In that way will a parallel be insight of these films' audiences. For achieved between the tempo of the the most part, critics have been as de- dialogue as spoken and the translations pendent on the titles for their evalua- as read. This will make it easier to read tions as were the audiences. Hence, no the titles, too, if they appear on the one directed attention to the fact that screen at the exact moment the spec- such richly subtle and complex films tator wants them-not a trifle before or as Grand Illusion, 7he Baker's Wife, a trifle later. Also, it may be argued and Port of Shadows were only partly that a dozen translators would translate made comprehensible to American a single passage a dozen ways-how to audiences. There were others. I have determine the arbitrary words? I be- chosen three examples that come read- lieve that theoretically, at least, there ily to mind. is only one way to translate any given Unquestionably, Pudovkin is right- passage. That way may not always be another way has to be found. At the found and, as one who has broken his end of this article I shall make a sug- head many times against unyielding gestion in that direction. Meanwhile, passages of dialogue in foreign films, I what do we do? Rene Clair in Sous les can vouch for its will-o'-the-wisp elu- toits de Paris made an almost success- siveness. Nevertheless, there is but one ful attempt to achieve global film in correct translation, just as much as one version by blending the best fea- there is, perforce, but one original as tures of the silent and sound tech- the source. niques. So did Lang in M, and Clair Then, too, there is the problem of did it once more in Le Million. Clair, translating humor and colloquialisms even now, in his new film, Silence d'or, indigenous to the country of the film's is attempting to carry his early method origin. Our native equivalents must be still further. (Whatever became of the found. Often, when they are happily manifesto issued by Eisenstein, Pudov- found, local censorship demands that kin, and Dovzhenko in 1930 on the the translator either by-pass such pas- function of the true sound film? We all sages or bowdlerize them. looked to them to show us the way.) Yet, the chief handicap under which THE LANGUAGE BARRIER 335 the translator works is a technical one. (Sturm retains three words from the He must try to retain as much of the French which are the same in English: original flavor and meaning of the automne [autumn], rose, and morose. spoken dialogue as possible in far fewer Whenever possible, the film translator words than are given the actors in their should do likewise. The effect of a word lines. Since dialogue is spoken on the heard and read simultaneously is felici- screen faster than it is possible to read tous for the spectator.) a translation of it, the actors' speeches But just as you could never convince must be highly condensed in the titles, a German that there was any transla- withal retaining the essence of what tion for: was said. This is frequently an exceed- Sah ein knab'ein Roslein stehn, R6slein auf der ingly exasperating business, in French Heiden,... and Italian films especially, where the so you could never convince an Ameri- racing dialogue leaves the conscien- can or Englishman that there was any tious translator a harried and bitter translation for: man. But it can't be helped. Nor is But, soft! what light thru yonder window Edna St. Vincent Millay's beautiful de- breaks? It is the east, and is the sun! scription of what a translation should Juliet be any consolation to him: or for the quatrain beginning, "I know The translatormust be able to fill the veins a bank whereon the wild thyme grows," of the poem, nearly emptied thru the or: wound inflictedby the translation,with his Hark,hark! the lark at heaven'sgate sings, own blood, and make the poem breathe And Phoebusgins arise... again. or the sonnet that begins, "Shall I com- What Miss Millay says of translating pare thee to a summer's day?" poetry is true of every kind of transla- And if Salome was indeed translated tion, to a lesser or as great a degree. by Lord Alfred Douglas from Wilde's Sometimes the "blood transfusion" is original French (a miraculous distilla- an exultant success, as in Scott Mon- tion from one language into another), crieff's translation of Proust, Constance what was the original French of: and Mrs. H. Garnett's of Dostoievski, You will do this thing for me, Narraboth. T. Lowe-Porter's of Thomas Mann. Or You know that you will do this thing for F. P. Sturm's translation of Baude- me.... Whereis she who gave herselfunto laire's the Captainsof Assyria? Vous etes un beau ciel d'automne,clair et Why were the libretti of Mozart's Don rose! Giovanni and Nozzi di Figaro written Mais la tristesseen moi monte comme la in Italian, and that of his Zauberflaut mer, in German? And does it not matter Et laisse, en refluant,sur ma levre morose why Le souvenircuisant de son limon amer. in what language The Merry Widow is sung? The answers bear directly upon which Sturm transmutes (nay, alche- the whole problem of the limits of mizes) into: translation. There are certain things You are a skyof autumn,pale and rose; which translations cannot do. But all the sea of sadnessin blood just my As a creative Pudovkin Surges,and ebbing, leaves my lips morose, great artist, Salt with the memoryof the bitter flood. sees the employment of words in sound 336 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY films as "the culminating moment in in for a close-up, the English titles got the expression of the inner state of in the way." Having titled Carmen, I man ... the word may be thought of as plead guilty to inconsiderateness, and the foam rising to the crest of an emo- fully sympathize with him. Mais, que tional wave as it reaches its height.... voulez-vous? The dialogue at those mo- There are words so immediately linked ments was too good to miss. (Even as it with mimed actions that their meaning was, I had difficulties with Carmen. is already read on the speaker's face The Legion of Decency ordered thirty- before the word has been fully articu- seven title changes in that film for its lated." In this acute observation is a national distribution.) glint of the path which may ultimately At the risk of talking myself out of lead to his dream of the truly global my own me'tier,I submit the following film. One recalls that moment in Pu- as suggestive of possible first steps to- dovkin's own End of St. Petersburg ward an eventual international film when the peasant has knocked down form which is no longer subject to the factory manager in a rage when he the interpretive limitations of the har- finally understands that he has been assed translator or the monolingual duped by the factory system of exploi- film critic. Since the problem of mak- tation. Towering over him in bitter- ing truly international films is as much ness, he shouted down at him, and we an ideological (i.e., socioethnic) prob- supplied his words in our minds even lem as a technical one, let a board of before we saw them on the screen:"THE qualified consultants be chosen from HIGHEST!"The peasant wanted to settle the major language groups among the his score with "the highest." Similarly, nations and let each nation, before un- Albert's single word to Pola in the de- dertaking the production of a film serted Montparnasse street at night, in intended for world distribution, sub- Sous les toits de Paris, "Bon." "Their mit the scenario of that film to this intonations," says Pudovkin, "take on board for criticism. When the story has an almost purely musical function." been approved, or so modified as to be Such a word, he says, gives "clear ex- acceptable and meaningful to each of pression to feelings and thoughts ... the nations, let it then go into produc- [and] can be almost completely com- tion, in the country of its origin, in as prehended by any person, regardless of many versions as there are major lan- the language in which it is spoken." guage groups among the nations in A final objection by Pudovkin to su- Which it is to be distributed. Each perimposed titles is that, almost con- country would underwrite the produc- tinuously reading titles, the spectator tion cost of its particular language ver- "cannot be expected to gain any im- sion, the cost to be recouped by the pression from the pictorial composition underwriter out of film rentals he of the original film." This has a face- would pay the original producer and tious echo in the recent statement of a distributor of the film. Both producer- wag who, enthusiastic over the low-cut distributor and exhibitor should be peasant blouses worn by the girls in happy under such an arrangement as the French film, Carmen, said, "It was a result of the increased attendance fine, but every time the camera moved that films made in the native languages THE LANGUAGE BARRIER 337 of each country (and edited to suit that consultants for the global film than that country) would draw. great film artist and humanitarian, the Perhaps this is something for the film creator of such unforgettable films as division of UNESCO to consider. In Mother, End of St. Petersburg, Storm any case, I know of no one more quali- over Asia, and Life Is Beautiful- fled for participation in such a board of Vsevolod Ilyanovitch Pudovkin. A Survey of Film Periodicals, I: The United States and England

ARTHUR ROSEN HEIMER, JR.

ARTHUR ROSENHEIMER, JR., is an assistant cura- in England, plus one delightful fan tor of the Museum of Modern Art Film Library. in India. The Except for his three and one-half year's service with magazine published pub- the infantry and in the training-film libraries of the lications have been subdivided and ar- Signal Corps in Italy, he has been associated with under the "General the Museum of Modern Art since 1938. He is a fre- ranged headings quent contributor to film periodicals. and Aesthetic;' "Film Reviews;' "Tech- nical and Craft' "Trade;' "Documen- THE NUMBERof film magazines pub- tary and Nontheatrical Films;' Educa- lished in the English language is little tional Films;' "Amateur Films;' and short of amazing. One tends to think of "Fan Magazines;' and a special supple- the Hollywood Quarterly, The Screen mentary section includes magazines, Writer, a handful of trade papers; and from the related fields of photography, one may remember, rather vaguely, television, and theater, that make a that there are also a good many fan practice of carrying film articles. This magazines around. No attempt seems last section is probably less complete to have been made before this, how- than the rest of the list, but a start has ever, to get all the material together to be made somewhere, and the titles and examine it critically. It is hoped given seem the most suitable and most that the results of the present survey relevant. will prove useful not only to libraries, GENERAL AND AESTHETIC FILM which are constantly pleading for this PUBLICATIONS sort of thing, but also to persons who are interested in the general field of England has had a long and honorable film reference. Titles generally tell too record of supplying irllportant and in- little about a publication; hence, brief fluential magazines that deal with the content analyses have been added, to aesthetics of film. The old Cinema bring out the more important features Quarterly, Close Up, and Film Art have of each magazine. long since become collectors' items; the Perhaps it would be well to say at old Sight and Sound still carries on. To the very outset that the listing here is the list can now be added two new as complete as the author could make magazines, Film Survey and the Pen- it. Since he lacked a complete check guin Film Review, both of which are list to work from, however, it is just postwar productions. Except for the possible that one or two titles may have few issues of Experimental Cinema been overlooked-maybe even three; and Films, the United States has had but the list does include every known nothing comparable until the estab- current publication in English, relat- lishment, two years ago, of the Holly- ing importantly to film, that is pub- wood Quarterly and, more recently, a lished either in the United States or brave new magazine called Cinema. E 338 SURVEY OF FILM PERIODICALS-I 339 Because we have in this country no real i6-mm. musical films are listed and tradition of film scholarship, the appeal reviewed at the back of the magazine. of both these magazines is still limited- Film Published but growing, one hopes. Publications Survey: quarterly by Pendulum Publications, io Old in this group deal with the aesthetic Lincoln's Inn, W.C. 2, Lon- and social problems of film production Square, rather than with industrial or technical don, Eng. Subs. 2s per copy. problems. This is one of several new film maga- zines that have appeared in England Cinema: Published Avant monthly by since the war. It is severely hampered Film Publications, 8066 Beverly by the paper shortage; the first issue to Blvd., Calif. Subs. Hollywood 36, reach here suggests that more would be $2.50. welcomed. The issue at hand includes Newest of the American film publi- a symposium on Von Stroheim, an arti- cations, Cinema describes itself as a cle on Laurel and Hardy, one on the "magazine for discriminating movie- Indian theater, and reviews of new goers." It is designed for an audience films and documentaries-making a on a higher level than the fan maga- well-rounded little magazine. Copies zines appeal to, but is less specialized, may only be purchased singly at the or less "high-brow," than the Holly- present writing. wood Quarterly, and its articles tend Published to range between the two-although Hollywood Quarterly: quar- under the of coming much closer to the latter, it terly joint sponsorship the of California and the might be noted. In Cinema, extended University Writers Mobilization reviews of currenit films appear as Hollywood by the of California Press, signed articles; a third of the magazine University Berkeley Calif. Subs. is given over to brief news flashes on 4, $4.00. the national and international film Comment on this publication is scene-a unique and extremely useful hardly necessary here. section; and book reviews and general Film Review: Published film articles complete the issue. Penguin by Penguin Books, Ltd., Harmonds- Film Music Notes: Published monthly, worth, Middlesex, Eng. Subs. is per September through May, by the Na- copy. tional Film Music Council, Old Another of the new film reviews Conn. Subs. Greenwich, $2.00. coming out of England is this one. Reviews and comments on motion The first two numbers establish it as picture music are presented, for the one of the most intelligent and inform- most part, in not too technical lan- ative of the lot, offering excellent criti- guage, primarily for use in advanced cal pieces and surveys of the film in classroom discussion. Articles come England and abroad. Authoritative from many of the better Hollywood articles on documentary, and on car- composers, but reviews of their work in tooning, dubbing, and similar techni- another section of the magazine are cal problems, are also included. It nevertheless forthright. Releases of appears at irregular intervals until "it 340 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY becomes legally possible to establish it the more important, more expensive, as a regular journal"; hence copies may pictures. It includes reviews. be only purchased singly. FILM REVIEWS Sight and Sound: Published quarterly Most film magazines include film re- by the British Film Institute, 4 Great views of one sort or another. This Russell Street, London W.C. i, Eng. group features them. New Movies, it Subs. los 6d. might be noted, is moving increasingly into the field of film One of the finest film magazines in general magazines, and indeed the eventual of the world, Sight and Sound has con- expansion the in that direction is con- sistently, through the fifteen years of magazine its editors. its existence, written of the motion pic- templated by ture as a serious art form. Intended pri- Estimates of Current Motion Pictures: marily for the members of the many Published twice a month by the De- British film societies that make up the partment of Studio and Public Institute, it seeks to keep them abreast Service, Motion Picture Association of film developments not only in Eng- of America, Inc., 5504 Hollywood land but throughout the entire world. Blvd., Hollywood 28, Calif. Free. An American letter is in issue, every A compilation of the estimates of and in other countries is production current motion pictures as given in summarized now and in authori- again Hollywood by representatives of thir- tative and informative articles. Film teen leading women's organizations is and book criticism is on the same in- presented here, along with a brief sum- Pieces on film telligent plane. history mary of each film and the credits. The and film aesthetics appear regularly. combined opinion is not always favor- For the past two years Sight and Sound able to the film under discussion. Be- has been from time to time as including sides presenting the estimates, this an "Index Series" special supplements periodical classifies films according to of historical, studies of iconographic audience suitability. the work of Griffith, Chaplin, Fritz Film Bulletin: Lang, Lubitsch, and other directors. Monthly Published the British Film Insti- These supplements mark one of the monthly by real advances in the field of film schol- tute, 4 Great Russell Street, London W.C. Subs. arship. The magazine has an excellent i, Eng. 15s. index at the end of each volume. This is a monthly presentation of compressed yet brilliantly perceptive What's Happening in Hollywood: Pub- reviews of current films from all coun- lished the of weekly by Department tries exhibiting in England. Credits Studio and Public Service, Motion and audience suitability are given. Picture Association of America, Inc., Educationals and documentaries re- Blvd., 5504 Hollywood Hollywood ceive extended analysis in a separate 28, Calif. Free. section of the leaflet, and film notes on The greater part of each four-page current activities of the British Film issue of this news letter is usually one Institute complete the issue. It is in- story on studio activities or on one of dexed at the close of each year. SURVEY OF FILM PERIODICALS-I 341 New Movies: Published monthly by have been listed again here. Nor is it the National Board of Review, 250 possible to overestimate the importance E. 43d St., New York 17, N.Y. Subs. of The Journal of the Society of Motion $2.00. Picture Engineers. Aside from the tech- Serious, mature reviews of the im- nical articles that the title would lead portant films of each month, and brief, one to expect, there have appeared in one-paragraph summaries of the "also its pages many important, authorita- rans," are the features of this official tive articles on various aspects of film organ of the National Board of Review. history. A complete file of this maga- Pictures labeled, rather fulsomely, as zine is recommended for every library. "exceptional" have been referred to the American Cinematographer: Published Board's Exceptional Committee for monthly by the American Society of extended analysis; the briefer reviews Cinematographers, 1782 N. Orange reflect the opinions of various of the Drive, Hollywood 28, Calif. Subs. Board's reviewing committees. Each $2.50. picture has been thoroughly discussed and analyzed by a group before the re- Essentially the journal of the Ameri- view is written, which perhaps gives can Society of Cinematographers, The these pieces a bit more validity than the American Cinematographer directs its average film criticism. News, feature attentions far beyond the scope of that articles, recommended shorts, and an tightly knit organization. Although occasional section of reviews of non- every issue contains important pieces theatrical films complete the magazine. on technical developments that are The National Board also publishes a strictly within the industry, the real Weekly Guide to Selected Pictures, aim of the magazine is to give expert summarizing the features, shorts, and technical advice to the 16- and 35-mm. nontheatrical films recommended by amateur, spiced with occasional "how the reviewing committees of the Board they do it in the big studios" articles. each week. Films are classified as family News of the numerous American ama- or mature, and especially notable pic- teur cinematography clubs and of new tures are marked with an asterisk. New developments in substandard equip- Movies is designed particularly for use ment is carried in every issue. Another by libraries, P.T.A.'s, and motion pic- feature, and an extremely valuable one, ture councils. is "Aces of the Camera": each issue in- cludes a full-length biography of the TECHNICAL AND CRAFT PUBLICATIONS technique and training of an American This is a group of magazines that really cameraman, a member of A.S.C. Un- bears looking into. Often masked be- fortunately, not indexed. hind such very specialized titles as The Cine-Technician: Published six A merican Cinematographer, The Cine- Technician, or The Screen Writer are times a year by the Association of 2 Soho many articles and features of interest to Cine-Technicians, Square, W. Subs. 6s. anyone who cares enough about films London, i, Eng. to have purchased this issue of the Hol- The Cine-Technician is strictly a lywood Quarterly-which might well craft organ, like America's The Screen 342 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY Writer; and, like The Screen Writer, it ways authoritative "behind the scenes" is concerned with something more than stories in the magazine, and depart- simply trade-union aims. Technical ments include a section on i6-mm. notes are included in every issue, as production and "Television Topics." well as labor news, but there are also Pictures are not reviewed, but a still serious feature pieces on foreign devel- layout gives a good idea of at least one opments, the film in education, and outstanding film a month. television. Extensive space is given to reviews of film books, although, curi- International Projectionist: Published the International ously enough, not of films. Virtually monthly by Projec- every important figure in the English tionist Publishing Co., 19 W. 44th film world has contributed to its pages St., New York 18, N.Y. Subs. $2.00. at one time or another in the thirteen The organ of I.A. projectionists, the years of its existence. An index is pub- International Projectionist publishes lished at the end of each year. technical articles on the latest equip- ment, engineering advances, and tech- Film Industry: Published monthly by niques in the field. It also includes J. F. Sullivan, 58 Wardour St., Lon- union news. don W. i, Eng. Subs. 12s 6d. A relatively new (July, 1946) little Journal of theBritishKinematographic magazine about British studio news Society: Published quarterly by the and activities, Film Industry is intended British Kinematographic Society, 2 primarily for British film workers and Dean St., London W. i. Subs. 15s. studio technicians. Many of its articles The British equivalent of our own come from the film makers themselves. Journal of the Society of Motion Pic- Strongly for British films, it carries lit- ture Engineers is equally authoritative tle that does not relate to their produc- and, if anything, even more learned. It tion. The brief reviews, giving full specializes, of course, in the technical credits, are more than kind. developments made by British engi- neers, but does not ignore the American International Published Photographer: technicians. A yearly supplement is in- monthly by International Photogra- cluded in the subscription price. phers, Local 659 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Em- Journal of the Society of Motion Pic- ployees and Moving Picture Ma- ture Engineers: Published monthly chine Operators of the United States by the Society of Motion Picture En- and Canada, 7614 Sunset Blvd., Los gineers, Hotel Pennsylvania, New Angeles 46, Calif. Subs. $2.50. York i, N.Y. Subs. $1o.oo. While concerned primarily with the This is the authoritative reference studio photographers and their (tech- source for technical developments in all nical) problems, International Photog- branches of the motion picture indus- rapher also includes much material of try-cameras, projectors, film, screens, value for the semiprofessional and etc. Articles are generally submitted by skilled amateur photographer, both the engineers who worked on the prob- still and motion picture. There are al- lem, and hence often appear in rather SURVEY OF FILM PERIODICALS-I 343 technical language. Valuable historical world. (Or is "greatest" underselling?) surveys are included from time to time. But then, the English trade papers are Book reviews and S.M.P.E. announce- no less vehement about the merits of ments complete each issue. Indexed the British product. Perhaps overstate- semiannually. ment is the mark of the trade publica- tions. Their main value, of course, lies The Screen Writer: Published monthly in what they have to tell about current by the Screen Writers' Guild, 1655 industry practices; beyond that, how- N. Cherokee, 28, Calif. Hollywood ever, many carry film reviews which, Subs. $2.50. if not specially noteworthy for critical The organ of the Screen Writers' merit, give fairly complete summaries Guild, The Screen Writer is properly of plots and complete credit listings. concerned, first, with the economic Their reviews are generally indexed. and legal problems of its writer mem- The Billboard: Published bers, and afterward-though only to a weekly by W. D. and R. S. Littleford, slightly lesser degree-with their tech- 25 Opera Ohio. Subs. nical problems. This still seems to leave Place, Cincinnati, $0o.oo. room in this lively and progressive The Billboard has only a slim and magazine for articles on UNESCO, for- very special interest in films: it lists pic- eign films, and serious critical pieces, tures available for road showings, their most of them contributed by authors sources, and current news of that field. who are better known as screen writers, Boxoffice: Published weekly by Associ- directors, educators, and even, occasion- ated Publications, Inc., 9 Rockefeller ally, producers. Book reviews, relevant Plaza, New York 20, N.Y. Subs. $2.00. labor news, and screen writing credits This is a trade which, complete each issue. It is especially magazine along with the standard features of such valuable as one of the few industry pub- lications-film reviews and news arti- magazines that lifts its eyes and its information on thinking beyond Hollywood. cles,-gives picture grosses around the country, indicating TRADE PUBLICATIONS comparative box-office strengths on a scale of its own By far the largest single group of pub- devising. lications in the United States appearing Daily Film Renter and Moving Picture is the "trades,"including both the mag- News: Published three times a week azines and the even more numerous by Pictures and Pleasures, Ltd., 127 little Place of newspapers. publica- Wardour St., London W. 1, Eng. tion usually indicates the audience for Subs. 40s 6d. which each is intended: those published A illustrated, British trade in are for the studio gossipy, Hollywood peo- news for exhibitors and those in the East are paper, offering ple; published film reviews. for the home offices, film exchanges, or film exhibitors. Vary though they Daily Variety:News of the ShowWorld: may in quality and honesty, all are Published daily by Daily Variety, united in the conviction that Holly- Ltd., 6311 Yucca St., Hollywood 28, wood makes the greatest films in the Calif. Subs. $1o.oo. 344 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY Daily Variety is the most liberal of The rest of the magazine is for the most the trade papers published for the pro- part studio production news written in duction end of the business. Along an editorializing style that is gossipy with studio news it has many gossip but not waspish. columns, "inside dope" features, and humor items. Its reviews of current re-The Film Daily: Published daily by leases are on the mild side. Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York 18, N.Y. The Exhibitor: Published weekly by Subs. $10.00. Emanuel Jay Publications, Inc., 1225 All the news that's fit to print, in Vine Pa. St., Philadelphia 7, Subs. brief compass iind from an industry $2.00. point of view, is what the Film Daily This is an exhibitors' trade paper, provides. The annual Film Daily Year featuring news stories about the dis- Book, sold only to subscribers for an- tribution exchanges and the larger ex- other $5.00, serves as an index to the hibitors. The "Supervisection," the daily film reviews, which never fail to section that includes its film reviews, is detail the story or to give full credits loose-leafed to permit easy removal of on each production. The Daily includes pages for future reference. The Exhibi- "Equipment News" every second Fri- tor lists all features and short-subject day, a special section on the equipment releases of the past eight months by market, technical advances, and new producer, with references to the origi- theater construction. nal review in the "Supervisection." Re- views are frank about the probable Harrison's Reports: A Motion Picture box-office attraction of each film. "Phys- Reviewing Service Devoted Chiefly to the Interests of the Exhibitors. ical Theatre," a section offering infor- Published Harrison's Re- mation on new theater equipment, weekly by maintenance, and so on, appears every ports, Inc., 1270 Sixth Ave., New fourth Wednesday. York 20, N.Y. Subs. $15.00. This is a four-page weekly publica- Film Bulletin: America's Independent tion of film reviews for the trade. Al- Motion Picture Published Journal: though it accepts no advertising, its very other week by Film Bulletin reviews tend to be kind, playing up a Vine Co., 1239 St., Philadelphia 7, picture's strengths rather than its weak- Pa. Subs. $3.00. nesses. An editorial comments on news The Film Bulletin asserts its "inde- developments of interest to exhibitors. pendence" by frank, unambiguous film Reviews are indexed semiannually. reviews that don't hesitate to call even Motion Review: a big film bad. Reviews of importantHollywood Picture films are augmented by cuttings from Published weekly by the Hollywood newspaper reviews by the New York Review Publishing Co., 1717 N.Vine critics. Its "Production and Release St., Hollywood 28, Calif. Subs. $5.oo. Record" lists releases of the preceding Describing itself as an "exhibitor's twelve months by production company, weekly," Hollywood Review depends with an index to the Bulletin's reviews. heavily on studio production news and SURVEY OF FILM PERIODICALS-I 345 features extended reviews of the new written from the exhibitor's angle, it releases. It includes news of television includes good film reviews of all re- and radio. leases in England. Published Hollywood Reporter: daily Motion Picture Daily: Published daily The by Hollywood Reporter, 6715 by Quigley Publishing Co., Inc., 1270 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood 28, Calif. Sixth Ave., New York 20, N.Y. Subs. Subs. $15.00. $6.o0. The read within Reporter, widely This trade the East the reflects the daily emphasizes industry, personal, pro- Coast and distributor-exhibitor news of view of its fessional, point publisher. and with a de- It features chatter presented concisely high columns, editorials, of It includes reviews of news briefs, and rather reviews of gree accuracy. tepid new releases. the new films. Motion Picture Herald: Published Hollywood Sun: Published weekly by the Marcy B. Sapin, 1722 N. McCadden weekly by Quigley Publishing Sixth New York Place, Hollywood 28, Calif. Subs. Co., Inc., 1270 Ave., N.Y. Subs. $2.00. 20, $5.00. Labor news from the fields of motion The foremost motion picture in- picture, radio, and entertainment ap- dustry weekly in America, the Motion pears here. Picture Herald has a curiously split personality: for its numerous advertise- Film Devoted to Independent Journal: ments it is dependent on the produc- the Best Interests of the Motion Pic- tion companies, but its circulation is ture Published other Industry: every primarily among distributors and ex- week I.T.O.A. by Independent, Inc., hibitors. Hence, if its reviews tend to New York 18, N.Y. 1515 Broadway, favor the releasing company, the exhib- Subs. $2.00. itor has an opportunity to have his own The Journal is composed mostly of say in the lively section, "What the Pic- news and chatter about the big distrib- ture Did for Me." News coverage in the utors and exhibitors. Reviews of films Herald is full and extensive; it is one are brief and are reserved in criticism, of the few sources for full texts of gov- although each issue lists all features ernment orders, court decrees, etc., and and shorts released in the past two all important speeches affecting the in- years. The rest of the magazine presents dustry are reported in greater detail ideas and stunts devised by various ex- than in any other trade paper. Terry hibitors for promoting a picture. Ramsaye writes the weekly editorial. The "Product Digest" is a separate, de- Kinematograph Weekly: Published tachable section of the Herald, with its Odhams weekly by Press, Ltd., 93 own cumulative index, listing both Long Acre, London W.C. 2, Eng. shorts and features. "Better Theatres," Subs. 30s. a section on the equipment needs of England's oldest, most influential, exhibitors, comes with the Herald every and most conservative trade paper, fourth week. 346 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY Showmen's Trade Review: Published Variety: Published weekly by Variety, weekly by Showmen's Trade Review, Inc., 154 W. 46th St., New York 19, Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York 18, N.Y. Subs. $10.00. N.Y. Subs. $2.0o. Picture biz takes up the first quarter The trade magazine for and about of this realistic, factual bible of the en- the independent exhibitor is the Show- tertainment industry. Indispensable men's Trade Review. Its reviews, how- for keeping abreast of studio activities ever, manage to find good in every film, and film grosses across the country, and offer advice on the best ways to Variety also features by and large the make them pay. It is indexed. keenest and most independent film cri- ticism of any paper in the country in Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys; its weekly reviews of the new pictures. Motion Pictures: Published quar- At least, you always know their stand- terly by Standard 8cPoor's Corp., 345 ards when they write about a film. Un- Hudson St., New York 14, N.Y. Subs. fortunately, it is not indexed. $10.00. DOCUMENTARY AND NONTHEATRICAL The rate is rather subscription high FILM PUBLICATIONS for only sixteen pages a year, but in The of the and those pages appear the most up-to-date growth documentary nontheatrical film movement in this and authentic figures on the corporate in the few is marked earnings and stock fluctuations of the country past years the fact that there are now four major film companies, as well as factual by trade devoted to its analysis of all important trends that papers exclusively interests. The that these could affect a company's earning power. fact, however, are all trade papers, that none of them Studio News: Published weekly by Sam is concerned with the social or even the Black, 5730 Melrose Ave., Los An- technical problems of the nontheatrical geles 38, Calif. Subs. $3.00. film, indicates how far our movement is still behind the British. This lists Documentary weekly pictures currently here can be said to have come of in the of age production, giving types pic- when it is able to a like tures, the featured and the support paper players, pro- the News duction stimulating Documentary personnel. Letter. American Film Center's Film News but its in- Today's Cinema News & Property Ga- approached it, present zette: Published three times a week carnation is something else again. Cinema Press, Wardour by Ltd., 93 Business Screen: Published eight times St., London W. Subs. i, Eng. 25s. a year by Business Screen Magazine, This fat and prosperous trade paper, Inc., 157 E. Erie St., Chicago 1 1, Ill. boasting the largest British circulation Subs. $2.00. of any film journal, features detailed Concentrating on films for industry, reviews of current releases, along with Business Screen is an elaborate maga- production news and special columns zine for the big-business sponsors of slanted toward the British exhibitor. commercial film productions. It dis- SURVEY OF FILM PERIODICALS-I 347 cusses their needs, their solutions to revived under private sponsorship as a problems, and their films, and carries sort of news letter of the entire i6-mm. the only extended reviews of commer- field. Emphasis is still on the documen- cial pictures and slide films published tary film, especially in choice of feature anywhere. A national directory of vis- articles, but reviews and announce- ual education dealers, news notes, and ments of new pictures take in all factual television briefs complete each issue. film production. Detailed information is given on film sources. Documentary News Letter: Published six times a year by Film Centre, Ltd., Film World: Published monthly by 34 Soho Square, London W. i, Eng. Ver Halen Publications, 6060 Sunset Subs. 6s. Blvd., Hollywood 28, Calif. Subs. Now in its seventh year of publica- $3.00. tion, maintained even through the dif- The most complete 16-mm. trade ficult war years, Documentary News publication in the field, although, since Letter is firmly established as the offi- Film World is published in Hollywood cial mouthpiece of the British docu- and the 16-mm. center is still pretty mentary film movement. Well edited much in New York, the news is not al- and alive to controversial questions, it ways the latest. All branches of the field has become the journal in which film are covered-production, distribution, makers confide the social and technical exhibition, film libraries, and the vis- problems behind their productions, ual education departments in schools, defending or explaining their own churches, and clubs, with the news of works and the works of others. Inde- each intelligently spotted in its own pendent enough to be critical of the particular section of the magazine. Re- Ministry of Information, for which views of available films are brief and many of the British documentaries informative, and sources are always have been made, it is nevertheless the shown. A useful section lists sources source of information on the wartime throughout the country where one can achievements of that organization, as buy or rent projectors, films, and well as for news of other fact-film de- screens. velopments in England. Documentaries i6-mm. Published twice are reviewed each month, and outstand- Reporter: The i6-mm. ing feature films. Excellent brief book monthly by Reporter, reviews and occasional authoritative Inc., 1819 Broadway, New York 25, N.Y. Subs. historical pieces complete its contents. $5.00. An index is published at the end of A trade paper serving exclusively the each volume. 16-mm. field-production, distribution, and utilization,-with emphasis on the Film News: Published twice monthly industrial aspects of i6-mm. produc- the Film News The Pent- by Co., tion, it is the best source for tracing house, W. St., New York 18, 15 38th the penetration of the major compa- N.Y. Subs. $3.50. nies into the nontheatrical distribution Formerly the magazine of the Ameri- field, both domestic and foreign. It car- can Film Center, Film News has been ries no film reviews. 348 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY reference sourcebook for nontheatrical EDUCATIONAL FILM MAGAZINES films in this country. Thousands of The constantly increasing use of audio- titles, and all the distributors who visual aids in the classroom has encour- handle them, are shown in the annual aged the publication of a number of edition, which comes along with the new magazines designed to make easier subscription. the tasks of film-conscious teachers, in- Educational Screen: Published the teacher who wants to make monthly cluding in and The his own films. Educational Screen, the except July August by Educational Screen, Inc., E. Lake oldest of them all, still leads the field, 64 St., Chicago 1 , Ill. Subs. $3.00. but each of the newer magazines has its own contribution to make. Film-Forum The oldest and most firmly estab- Review is concerned with the problems lished educational film magazine in of adult education, and its horizon ex- America, Educational Screen seems to tends beyond the classroom. Besides be the ideal teachers' guide in the plan- the magazines reviewed here, which are ning and use of classroom films. Articles essentially educational film magazines, are slanted to be as helpful as possible there are many education publications to the teacher, with film and equipment that regularly include articles on audio- sources uppermost in the editor's mind visual aids for the classroom and list- at all times. Stills are used extensively ings of available materials. Among these to help visualize films for the reader, are the Catholic School Journal (film and new releases are evaluated not by evaluations), the International Journal one individual but by committees of of Religious Education (film reviews), teachers. A special section gives discus- the Journal of Business Education (film sions of school-made films. Stories of reviews), Nation's Schools, School Exec- technical and historical interest to utive, and School Management. people working in the educational field round out the issues. It is indexed. Educational Film Guide: Published monthly September through April Film and Radio Guide: Published by the H. W. Wilson Co., 950 Uni- monthly October to June by Educa- versity Ave., New York 52, N.Y. Subs. tional and Recreational Guides, Inc., $3.00. 172 Renner Ave., Newark 8, N.J. Subs. $3.00. The Film Guide, a monthly pam- phlet, is essentially a listing of available Intended for audiovisual instructors nontheatrical films, including sources in grammar schools, high schools, and and brief descriptions of all titles possibly junior colleges, Film and Ra- mentioned. It also includes, however, dio Guide includes a wide and varied educational film news notes, announce- assortment of material on films pri- ments of new film publications, and oc- marily, less on radio, and occasionally casional book reviews. There are four on television. The articles, popularly quarterly supplements that bring these written, often read like publicity hand- listings together cumulatively, and all outs. Amateur production is viewed are included in the year-end bound with a special orientation toward its ed- catalogue which has become the major ucational use. Features include "Who's SURVEY OF FILM PERIODICALS-I 349 Who in Visual Education" and "The and activities. Directed toward the Pulpit Screen," a column on visual- teacher who uses audiovisual aids, it education equipment and services for keeps abreast of radio and the press as the church. Most issues include discus- well as of the motion picture. sion guides to the important films of See and Hear: The International the period, synopsizing them, adding Jour- nal of Audio-Visual Education: Pub- some production data, and suggesting lished October questions for classroom discussion. Re- monthly through Audio-Visual Publications, views of films are generally laudatory, June by Inc., E. Erie St., 11, Ill. although dissenting opinions are occa- 157 Chicago Subs. $2.00. sionally published. The newest important educational Film Forum Review: Published quar- film magazine, See and Hear pretty the Institute of Adult Edu- terly by much duplicates the work of Educa- cation, Teachers Columbia College, tional Screen, although it bears a bit and the National Com- University, more heavily on the "audio" aspects of mittee on Film Forums, W. i 20th 525 education than does its older competi- St., New York N.Y. Subs. 27, $2.00. tor. Each issue is generally built around An outgrowth of the film-forum some theme or topic. See and Hear also movement, this quarterly dealing with attempts to give coverage to all the film the use of motion pictures in adult edu- activities of the many educational or- cation, now starting its second year, is ganizations, the film councils, and the just beginning to make headway in United Nations that might be of inter- colleges and adult education centers. est to its audience. The magazine has Approximately a quarter of each issue is no film-review section, but new pic- given over to analyses of i6-mm. films, tures and film strips are discussed regu- with a view to their value for adult larly in its articles and news stories. audiences in stimulating discussion of AMATEUR FILM PUBLICATIONS human problems in relation to some important general topic. The rest of The number of publications relating the magazine contains articles on or- to amateur film listed here could be ganizing film forums, directing them, augmented considerably if we were to the objectives to be attained, and per- include all the little house organs pub- tinent problems. The writing is mature lished by dealers in amateur film equip- and tends agreeably away from the ment. Some of them-notably that put pedantic. out by Eastman Kodak-often include valuable data; much of it, however, is The News Letter: Published monthly ephemeral. The articles of more last- October the Bureau through May by ing value are almost certain to be du- of Educational Research, Ohio State plicated in the pages of the other Columbus, Ohio. Free. University, magazines listed here. American Cine- This useful, progressive, compact matographer and International Phot- four-page sheet, edited by Dr. Edgar tographer, it will be remembered, also Dale, is crammed with information on publish important material about the educational film sources, personalities, amateur film field. 350 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY Amateur Cine World: Published quar- films. It carries full news of the activ- terly by E. T. Burt, Link House, 24 ities of the various clubs in the Ama- Store St., London W.C. i, Eng. Subs. teur Cinema League throughout the 2s 6d. United States. Its advertisements are A British amateur film publication, almost as important as its articles. rather like our own Movie Makers in a FAN MAGAZINES reduced edition, Amateur Cine World features its film review section, written There is small point in trying to dif- from the amateur's point of view. ferentiate the innumerable fan maga- zines now available to the great Amer- Home Movies: Published monthly by ican filmgoing public. Each claims its Ver Halen Publications, 6060 Sunset monthly "exclusives"-news articles or Blvd., Hollywood 28, Calif. Subs. star photographs published for the first $3.00. time,-and each has its own version of The accent in Home Movies is on Earl Wilson or Hedda Hopper to peek articles about technical tricks and tech- at and report on what takes place be- niques for amateur movie makers, with hind the scenes in Hollywood. In spite an extensive section about new gadgets of this, standardization is the rule, and and equipment. Every issue includes at it seems to extend right down to the least one article on how films are made very names of the magazines: Movie in the big studios. The new releases are Life, Movie Play, Movie Show, Movie reviewed with an eye to the amateur Story, and Screen Romances offer fic- film maker's likely areas of interest. tion versions of four or five of the new Other sections include news from the films each month, while Movie Life various amateur movie clubs across the tells as much as possible through pic- country, professional i6-mm. produc- tures. Only Screen Guide, of all the tion news, and a useful listing of sources "fans," offers an occasional critical for the rental or purchase of 8-mm. and piece or a serious film article. i6-mm. films in the United States. Time was when the fan magazines exerted some influence over film pro- Movie Makers: Published monthly by duction: Potoplay under James R. the Amateur Cinema League, Inc., Quirk and Picture Play under Norbert New York 420 Lexington Ave., 17, Lusk were magazines that spoke frankly N.Y. Subs. $3.00. and critically of studio productions and The oldest of the amateur film mak- practices. Today, the fan magazines ers' magazines, Movie Makers crams seem to function solely as a channel for each issue with technical information studio build-up of either a new film or on titling, editing, color, and the latest a new personality, the feature articles in camera gadgets, in addition to news, and the chatter columns both supply- reviews, and technical notes. Most pop- ing the magic that is supposed to turn ular of its features is "The Clinic," chrysalis into butterfly. Film criticism, written by the readers of Movie Makers if not actually discouraged, is certainly to inform their fellow amateurs of new not practiced, reviews of current re- devices and methods they have worked leases being more often than not simply out for making 8-mm. and i6-mm. a brief plot synopsis. SURVEY OF FILM PERIODICALS-I 351 Modern Screen: Published monthly by by Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 149 Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 149 Madi- Madison Ave., New York 16, N.Y. son Ave., New York 16, N.Y. Subs. Subs. $1.50. $1.50. Screen Stars: Published monthly by In- Motion Picture Magazine: Published terstate Publishing Corp., 350 Fifth monthly by Fawcett Publications, Ave., New York i, N.Y. Subs. $1.80. Inc., 295 Madison Ave., New York Screenland: Published monthly by 17, N.Y. Subs. $1.80. Screenland Publishing Co., 37 W. Movie Fan Magazine: Published quar- 57th St., New York 19, N.Y. Subs. terly by Magazine Products, Inc., 114 $2.00. E. 32d St., New York 16, N.Y. Subs. Silver Screen: Published monthly by $1.00. Liberty Magazine, Inc., 37 W. 57th Movie Life: Published monthly by St., New York 19, N.Y. Subs. $2.00. Ideal Publishing Co., 295 Madison Filmindia: Published monthly by Film- Ave., New York 17, N.Y. Subs. $1.80. india Publications, Ltd., 55 Sir Phiro- Movie Play: Published monthly by zeshah Road, Fort, Bombay, India. Buse Publications, Inc., 404 N. Wes- Subs. 5os. ley Ave., Mount Morris, Ill. Subs. For forthright criticism of pictures, $3.00. producers, exhibitors, and government Movie Show: Published monthly by interference in film production, there Screenland Publishing Co., 37 W. has never been a magazine quite like 57th St., New York 19, N.Y. Subs. Filmindia-certainly never a fan maga- $2.00. zine. Editor Patel rages Movie Stars Parade: Published monthly sarcastically through its pages month after month, Bilbara Co., Inc., 295 by Publishing now fighting exhibitors whose houses Madison Ave., New York 17, N.Y. are dirty, now the producers of "bor- Subs. $3.00. ing, antisocial films," and now the cen- Movie Story: Published monthly by sors. As a result, Filmindia is a fan Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1501 magazine that bows to no one, respects Broadway, New York 18, N.Y. Subs. few, and gives the foreign reader a $1.80. and often Movieland: Published Hill- fascinating very amusing pic- monthly by ture of the little-known Indian film. man Periodicals, Inc., 535 Fifth Ave., New York N.Y. Subs. $1.80. 17, SUPPLEMENTARY Movies: Published monthly by Ideal Publishing Co., 295 Madison Ave., This bibliography could be extended New York 17, N.Y. Subs. $1.80. indefinitely by including all the maga- Photoplay-Movie Mirror: Published zines in this country that have regular monthly by MacFadden Publica- film sections or publish film articles tions, Inc., 205 E. 42d St., New York frequently. Nor are such publications 17, N.Y. Subs. $1.80. unimportant, either to the public or Screen Guide: Published monthly by to the industry: the "Movie of the Hillman Periodicals, Inc., 535 Fifth Week" chosen by Life, for example, in- Ave., New York 17, N.Y. Subs. $3.00. fluences the moviegoing of millions Screen Romances: Published monthly and is worth hundreds of thousands of 352 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY dollars to the studio so favored (al- future workers in television will-as though perhaps this doesn't come some of the present ones do-come from precisely under the heading of "free" motion pictures. Telescreen has less to publicity). Such a listing, however, do with the technical aspects of televi- could well be the subject of another sion than with its developing art. complete bibliography. Shown here are magazines from the related fields of Television: Published monthly by photography, television, and the the- Frederick Kugel Co., 600 Madison ater which regularly publish film ma- Ave., New York 22, N.Y. Subs. $4.00. terial. The trade magazine of the industry, Television includes an occasional American Photography: Published only film and with the em- monthly by the American Photo- article, always graphic Publishing Co., 353 New- phasis on the technical adaptation of bury St., Boston 15, Mass. Subs. $2.50.films for television. Perhaps more im- portant is its cumulative record of the sixteen earlier Incorporating photo- activities of the major film companies graphy magazines into its pages, Amer- i television. can Photography still seems to find room for an occasional article on mo- Theatre Arts: Published monthly by tion pictures. More often than not, it Theatre Arts, Inc., 130 W. 56th St., takes the form of an "advice to the New York 19, N.Y. Subs. $5.oo. amateur" or a "how I did it" type of story. Each year the motion picture has fig- ured more and more prominently in Minicam Photography: Published the oldest established theater magazine monthly by the Automobile Digest in the United States. Articles by or Publishing Corp., 22 E. 12th St., Cin- about prominent film artists are fea- cinnati, Ohio. Subs. $2.50. tured in almost every issue, and its "Films in Review" column Another photography magazine with monthly by Hermine Rich Isaac offers firm and in- more than an ordinary interest in mo- tion pictures, Minicam Photogeraphye telligent film criticism of a high order. offers a number of articles on film tech- The ma creen a column on non- theatrical films and film sources, is an- niquenique in every issue, as well as a check list of new i6-mm. releases. other regular feature of Theatre Arts.

Telescreen: Published quarterly by U. S. Camera: Published monthly by Telescreen Publishing Co., Inc., 371 U. S. Camera Publishing Corp., 420 S. Orange Ave., Newark 3, N.J. Subs. Lexington Ave., New York 17, N.Y. $1.00. Subs. $1.75. It seems odd to report on a television This handsomely designed photog- magazine in which film is only inciden- raphy magazine carries at least one tal, rather than the expected reverse. technical article on film photography Nevertheless, Telescreen, now in its in each issue, besides a "Movie Course" fifth year, bows occasionally to the mo- for amateurs that has been running for tion picture, realizing that many of the years. The Film Renaissance in Italy

LUCIANO EMMER and ENRICO GRAS

LUCIANO EMMER, an Italian painter, his wife, and was financed with public funds through ENRICO GRAS, an early Italian experimentalist in the Banca Nazionale del the cartoon film, joined forces to produce a series Lavoro, the of experiments in surrealist film, attempting to de- channel created by the regime for fi- velop a poetic documentary form. After the Ministry of Popular Culture condemned these films, Mr. and nancing private industry. But the Mrs. Emmer retreated to Switzerland, and Mr. Gras executives of the film industry were ap- was conscripted into the army. Together again, in without the Panda Film Company, they are now producing a pointed politically, regard for series of films based on classic paintings, attempting their professional ability, and the to capture the spirit of the time and the dramatic bank's executives were conflict of the paintings. Theatre Arts published an wholly unfa- illustrated article on the work of Mr. Emmer and miliar with the film industry; hence, Mr. Gras in its issue of August, 1946. the financing was erratic, frequently IN SPITEOF substantial war scars, the based on favoritism, and the manage- general situation of the Italian motion ment of production was wasteful and picture industry is distinctly encourag- amateurish. The guiding principle was ing, though, of course, difficulties are "quantity by all means," which inevita- still blocking its path to progress. bly proved detrimental to quality. Figures for the latter part of 1946 After Fascism collapsed, this system show that the number of films pro- was abolished, and up to the present duced in Italy has dropped to about no other method of encouraging film half the average production of the years production in Italy has been devised. 1940-1943. The forty-five studios in According to report, the government Italy have an annual production ca- is considering a decree which would pacity of one hundred ten full-length make it compulsory for every movie films, but unfortunately about half the theater in the country to show Italian studios are idle. Thus, the present an- films for a total of at least sixty-four nual production averages between forty days a year. This veiled form of pro- and forty-five films, while the number tection seems to work satisfactorily in of unemployed film artists, technicians, France, where, under the provisions of and skilled laborers runs into thou- the Byrnes-Blum agreement, every sands. movie theater in France must show Under the Fascist regime, especially French films each quarter year for a during its last years, the production minimum of four weeks in the aggre- figures were relatively large for Italy. gate. A similar law is being considered The government superintended and in Britain, supplementary to the fa- financed the entire industry. High pro- mous "Film Act." duction quotas were set, and had to be Most of the existing studios are in filled at any cost. Since only a limited the Rome area. CinecittUa,Rome's mo- number of pictures were imported from tion picture center, has one large stage other Axis countries, Italian films were (about 240 by ioo feet), ten medium- required to cover the entire demand of sized stages, and three small ones. An the home market in Italy. This effort adjoining open area of about 125 acres E 353: 354 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY provides ample space for construction. course, the ratio of the currency depre- Accessory equipment, such as synchron- ciation is considerably larger. ization and mounting facilities, me- Average production costs in the lat- chanical and tailoring workshops, and ter part of 1946 were as follows: scenographic studios, as well as the First-classfilm ...... 50 million lire1 RCA sound-registration apparatus, Average film ...... 20 million lire were smashed when the rake of war Film limited to home mar- ket ...... 12 million lire passed over the area and troops were only stationed in the compound. At present, The exportation of Italian films dur- Cinecitta is used as a D.P. camp. Five ing the last two years has proved en- other stages, belonging to the Scalera couraging, and several films were well Film Company, are in full working received on the international market. order, and so are the four well-equipped The average number of Italian films stages of the Farnesina. There are three exported in 1945 and in the first half more studios belonging to various of 1946 was 50 per cent higher than for minor interests and institutes, includ- the period between 1940 and 1944, ing the Motion Picture Experimental when Italian films sold easily in all Center. There are further production Axis-controlled countries. At present, centers at Leghorn, Turin, Venice, and the main demand comes from the Milan. At Leghorn, the Tirrenia Com- United States and from South America. pany owns and operates two large and Rosselini's film, Open City, brought in two medium-sized stages. Those of the $500,000 in its first eight months' run Venice area belong to the Scalera Com- in the United States. pany. Although Italian specialized in- Distribution is gradually getting out dustry is otherwise supplying excellent of the woods. In the period between the lighting equipment, sunlight arcs come landing of Allied troops in Italy and from the United States. Several Rome the end of the war, Italian production studios have already been equipped facilities were administered by the with them. Optic cameras are imported A.M.G., and the only films licensed for from France. The cost of renting a stage distribution in the country were those and accessory facilities has not in- supplied by the P.W.B. creased in proportion to the deprecia- When the war was over, Italian pro- tion of the Italian currency, since the duction began to develop, but the mar- present supply is greater than the de- ket in Italy is still flooded with foreign mand. films; during the first five months of Italian cinema's skilled labor is both 1946, 280 importation licenses were ingenious and industrious. Foreign granted, considerably more than the film producers who have worked in Italian market at its utmost capacity Italy repeatedly expressed their satis- can absorb. The average monthly pro- faction with the help they employed. ceeds of all movie theaters in Italy dur- The same applies to costume makers, ing the first half of 1946 totaled one scene painters, and to all ranks of tech- and one-half billion lire, which would nical assistants. as ex- Average wages, Official rate of One U.S. dollar -- about ten times exchange: pressed in figures, are 225-385 lire. Black market rate: One U.S. dol- higher than the prewar figures, but, of lar = about 6oo-700 lire. FILM RENAISSANCE IN ITALY 355 justify an estimate of about eighteen ing for humanity as it stands, uncon- billion lire per annum. Out of this ventional, rough, and desperate, a amount about four billion lire repre- novelty in Italian film. Surprisingly sent the net earnings of the distribution enough, Obsession at first slipped by agencies, and about six billion would the attention of the Fascist censors; be claimed by taxation. Italy, in fact, they raised no objection to it, notwith- has the heaviest tax burden on amuse- standing that the author of the book ments in the world. was an American and that the plot in- The artistic value of Italian films is cluded such"abominations" as murder, growing appreciably. When Fascism burglary, and adultery, all of which dominated the movies along with every were banned from the Italian screen. other expression of thought in the Later on, however, the censorship be- country, their standards of quality were came aware of the political lining of low, and even the few honestly inspired the dialogue. After obstructing its dis- pictures were limited by moral handi- tribution for a while and compelling caps that compromised their artistic Visconti to make some drastic cuts, the substance. The Italian film industry of authorities suddenly withdrew the film that period was launched on the rails from circulation. of mass production, turning out cheap Almost simultaneously, Vittorio De comedies, poor imitations of certain Sica, a stage and screen actor well American films, and bulky romantic known in Italy, started on his career as adventures against a historical back- a director by bringing out the film, ground, with occasional colossal pieces The Children Look On. This was an- of propaganda glorifying the "Fascist other black sheep for the censor: the Empire policy" and its leader. Quality plot centers around an adultery; the and intrinsic value were so markedly betrayed husband is driven to suicide, lacking that almost none of this pro- and the child of the couple witnesses duction survived. However, during the the family tragedy. It is a fine piece of last years of the regime a few bold at- realistic and bitter insight into the tempts to break through the net of commonplace middle-class world. Char- restrictions were made, and these cred- acters, mental processes, and situations, itable efforts deserve to be described. hitherto treated only in farcical style They express a rebirth of individual in Italy, were seriously analyzed and independent thought and bely the false condemned. "golden age" established by Fascism. Obsession and The Children Look In 1942, Luchino Visconti produced On are the only films indicating a spirit- his first picture, which he called Obses- ual revolt of the Italian cinema under sion. The subject was drawn from Fascism, and in that respect are un- James Cain's novel, The Postman Al- doubtedly the most outstanding and ways Rings Twice. The general style significant products of their period. was obviously influenced by Renoir Upon the downfall of Fascism, and the and followed a certain trend of the termination of its police restrictions, French cinema; yet it was unquestion- the artistic value of Italian films began ably an achievement. It introduced a to rise rapidly. This rise was so evident realistic note of profound understand- that it attracted the attention of several 356 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY foreign critics, who expressed the view eral drama, into which the whole pop- that some of the best postwar films were ulation of the abandoned city was produced in Italy. plunged. Certain scenes-for example, Soon after the end of the war, Vit- the rounding up of anti-Fascist agents, torio De Sica, director of The Children terminating with the woman's death- Look On, brought out a film of great reach a power of expression excep- artistic beauty and profound human- tional in the history of motion pictures. ity, Sciuscia (the Italian street boy's At times, particularly in the second vernacular form of "shoe-shine"). All part of the film, the story seems more the main parts in this picture are per- controlled by external events and by formed by boys, for whose psychology certain commonplace movie forms, and De Sica seems to have a particular gift the original inspiration slacks down, of understanding. It is a grim and truth- but this impression vanishes with the ful picture showing the sad life of the all-redeeming beautiful final scene, the uprooted and scattered street boys execution of the priest. This film has thrown into the whirl of the early post- revealed two excellent actors: Anna war period in Italy, particularly in Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi. Rome. Sciuscia, which has rightly been Another film by Roberto Rossellini, compared with the famous film of Ni- Paisa, tells of the advance of the Allied colai Ekk, Road to Life, represents an troops through Italy and of their rela- inexorable charge against society for tions with the natives, in particular its social crisis, for the torment of its with partisans. The film is divided into unbalanced conditions, for its lack of six separate chapters, each of which is justice and consistency. This film was set in a different part of Italy. There is recently shown in Paris with much suc- Sicily and the first landing of American cess, and it is to be hoped that it may troops, Naples, Rome, Florence, the soon become known in other countries Adriatic coast, and finally the Po Val- as well. Of course, the picture of so ley a few months before the end of the much misery and pain may, at first war. This last chapter is by far the best sight, shock a foreigner unfamiliar with in the film, and represents a real Jliving conditions in Italy, but on closer achievement in cinematographic art. examination he will become aware that Not all parts of the film fulfill our ex- the will to reconstruct the present state pectations, but they nevertheless reflect of things is rapidly growing among the a most interesting personality, gifted healthy elements of the nation. with a genuine sense for the essence of The greatest success registered hith- characters and situations. Paisa, too, erto by an Italian film abroad fell to had an enthusiastic reception in Paris, Roberto Rossellini's Open City, the and more than one critic described it first picture on the anti-Fascist move- as a masterpiece. ment in Italy during the last phase of Aldo Vergano's The Sun Still Rises the war. It is a piece of rigorously genu- closes, for the moment, the series of ine humanity, without complacency or significant films inspired by the Italian false rhetoric. Individual tragedies are anti-Fascist movement. "The sun still unfolded with scrupulous accuracy rises" is a traditional sentence, a special against a background of the great gen- message that was broadcast by the Al- FILM RENAISSANCE IN ITALY 357 lied wireless to Italian partisans, call- standards, the business interests con- ing them to open action. This film was cerned are endeavoring to improve the shown in Paris, where certain French industrial status of Italian film. Their papers described it as the best film on main effort aims at realizing a fruitful partisan warfare, along with the French cooperation with foreign groups. Note- La Bataille du rail. Aldo Vergano, worthy results have already been with a group of young assistants, makes achieved. An agreement was made with a special effort to interpret recent his- the French industry several months ago toric events in a truly realistic style. for producing films together on a fifty- The plot is built upon a simple story fifty basis. Six films financed jointly by of love, around which vast groups are French and Italian capital have al- moving in different surroundings, re- ready been produced in the Rome stu- flecting the attitudes, relationships, and dios. The agreement will continue conflicts of the common countryfolk through the current year, and is ex- and the landowning aristocracy in a pected to yield further satisfactory re- little village of northern Italy. Not a sults. few times, in this film, realistic observa- A similar scheme has been placed tion rises to a perfect poetic re-creation before American interests, and prelimi- of facts and emotions. Here at last nary negotiations have begun. The countryside folk are portrayed in all Italian market is open to the importa- the tragic reality of their lives without tion of American films, and every year the customary conventional folklore hundreds of pictures produced in the framing. United States flow through Italian dis- Such is the present picture of the tribution channels. By Italian stand- Italian film industry, as seen in its gen- ards, the proceeds of the distribution eral outlines and through its most sig- are very large. It has been suggested nificant products. Other promising that American interests might consider films are under way, such as A Tragic investing these funds through partici- Hunt, directed by Giuseppe De Sanctis, pation in Italian film production on dealing with the tragic aftermath of a fifty-fifty basis. Next spring the war in a part of Italy particularly tried requisitioning of Rome's motion pic- by prolonged fighting. Luchino Vis- ture center, Cincitta, is scheduled to conti, who, since producing Obsession be withdrawn. The reopened studios five years ago, has developed into a would welcome the broadest co6pera- highly successful stage manager, is ex- tion with foreign industries, which pected to return to motion pictures. could be realized, for example, on the He plans to produce a film from Gio- basis of the exchange and acquisition vanni Verga's book, I Malavoglia, a of the material required for sound and classic of modern Italian literature in picture recording. The Cinema Experi- which the life of a poor fishing village mental Center of Rome, a school and in southern Italy is pictured with great studio for training actors, directors, art. and technical staff, has recently been While the best Italian directors are reopened. The natural and architec- endeavoring to bring Italian film pro- tural beauty of Italy provides a match- duction up to international artistic less frame for outdoor shooting. 358 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY It is hoped that before the end of the try into a few major groups provided year the annual production will rise with adequate technical and financial from forty or forty-five films to about means, such as Lux Film, Scalera Film, sixty. This should be facilitated by the Minerva Film, and Universalia Film concentration of the Italian film indus- headed by Salvo D'Angelo. Subjective Camera or Subjective Audience? JOSEPH P. BRINTON, III

JOSEPH P. BRINTON, III, film student and pros- whirling blackness of Philip Marlowe's pective film producer, has been enrolled successively unconscious. In when at Yale, Columbia, and the University of Southern becoming 1931, California, where he has written dramatic criticism Rouben Mamoulian made Dr. Jekyll for several publications. During the war he served as a publicity writer for the American Field Service and Mr. Hyde, he shot the opening in Italy and drove an ambulance with sequence from the point of view of a the British Eighth Army. Jekyll who, like Montgomery's Philip THE motion picture Lady in the Lake, Marlowe, became visible to the audi- discussed in Mr. Brinton's article, was ence only when he looked into a mir- released in January, 1947. Robert ror; Mamoulian dropped the device, Montgomery was the director. The pic- however, as soon as the physician ture set out literally to tell a detective stepped onto the lecture platform. story from the point of view of the de- Lady in the Lake does represent the tective. The camera-and therefore the first sustained and exclusive use of the audience-was to see only what he saw camera to present naturalistically a as he saw it. The advertising campaign single character's point of view in tell- announced that "You and Robert ing a dramatic story. Montgomery" starred in the Lady in The camera which presents to an the Lake, taking the role of detective audience what a character sees has Philip Marlowe. come to be known as the "subjective The camera's what a charac- camera." seeing THE EDITORS ter sees is not a new device. The close- up of what is noticed for suddenly, CAMERA OR example, the long shot of the eagerly SUBJECTIVE awaited train, and the moving shot SUBJECTIVE AUDIENCE? showing how the pursuing horseman IN A motion picture world where the looks to the pursued as he glances over point of view of an audience is sup- his shoulder, are familiar. Nor is iden- posed to be its opinion as expressed tifying the audience with the central at the box office, it is not surprising that character new; James A. Fitzpatrick, the point of view of the spectator as a in his Travelogues, has been taking creative participant in film experience "you" along on exotic excursions for remains almost wholly neglected. It is years. Not even the camera's seeing remarkable, however, that when sea- what detective Philip Marlowe saw is soned professionals explicity try a entirely new. In Murder, My Sweet novel venture in audience participa- the camera watched a powerful, en- tion, neither experimentalists nor their raged man strangle Philip Marlowe detractors show more than a passing in- (You and Dick Powell), and later in terest in what has been discovered. the same sequence the camera saw the Thus, Robert Montgomery's recent :359 36o HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY production, Lady in the Lake, is essen- doubtless attempt to explain in tradi- tially subjective-camera narration, but tional terms the divergence between the artistic significance of the innova- the artist's intention and the audience's tion has been completely obscured by response. Film makers will probably discussion of its superficial aspects. switch cameras according to the peaks Studio publicists painted heroic pic- and troughs in the attendance curve, tures of Montgomery crawling across or else pay new homage to the notably sets to synthesize his camera's first-per- inexplicable whims of Dr. Gallup's son physique, but to interested techni- button-pushers. Nevertheless, the fun- cians they offered scant advice. Simi- damental factors in their camera's dra- larly, while film reviewers displayed matic efficiency will remain where they a common antipathy toward the camera have always been-within the capacity as hero, none seemed able to explain of the film artists to reason out the his feeling. And at the creative level, essential relationship between the Montgomery himself appeared to for- movies and their audience. get that the key to producing a "sub- Montgomery has clearly failed to jective" film was not the camera, but do this. His experiment suggests that the subject, the individual observer in Hollywood film makers have presumed the audience. to spell out great complex motion pic- In failing properly to relate the in- ture forms without ever learning the dividual onlooker to the image on the aesthetic A B C's of their medium. Cer- screen, Montgomery and his camera- tainly, no other explanation can ac- man, Paul Vogel, have produced a mas- count for such naive mistakes in Lady terpiece of visual ambiguity in which in the Lake as the supposition that the the unique powers of the subjective perceptual field of a turning human camera are left at the mercy of techni- head can be recorded simply by pan- cians schooled in conventional meth- ning the camera in a corresponding ods. The inevitable result is that Lady manner. Only an approach to screen in the Lake never fulfills its initial problems that is primarily intellectual promise to replace the central character can avert such gross misapprehensions of Philip Marlowe with the audience of the medium, and producers who op- itself. It does succeed in telling its story pose such an approach might profitably with a minimal amount of confusiQn, ponder whether the subjective camera and even somewhat acclimates the audi- promises them greater returns as a ence to its peculiar form, but, as one clumsy novelty or as a finished tech- puzzled critic complained, "I didn't for nique. a minute think I was Robert Mont- Meanwhile, Montgomery and other gomery." Instead, as the advertising subjective cameramen must be aware, stated, "You and Robert Montgomery" so far as the technical relationship be- appeared in Lady in the Lake; not you tween the eye and the camera is con- alone. The effect was that the spectator cerned, of the distinct superiorities of was standing beside the hero rather the eye as an optical instrument. The than existing within him. eye possesses far more mobility and If the use of so-called subjective technical efficiency, and while the use camera survives, its advocates will of telescopes, microscopes, and even SUBJECTIVE CAMERA 361 movie cameras, testifies that it does that whereas he must use a one-inch suffer known limitations, its images are 16-mm.lens to reproduce an apparently accepted by most persons as the whole normal linear perspective on film, he of reality. must employ a three-inch lens to make The camera's angle of view, by con- equally convincing the relationship trast, captures only a segment of this between objects at different points in reality. Whereas two human eyes cover the depth of the field. Any normally a field of vision greater than 180 de- observant filmgoer perceives that, far grees, the motion picture normally in- from being two-dimensional, the screen cludes less than 60. The limitation affords a very definite illusion of tri- should not be mistaken for a handicap, dimensionality, one which in effect upon either "subjective" or "objective" approaches reality more closely than uses of the camera, but it does demand have Hollywood's "three-dimensional" understanding from the film artist, short subjects. What, then, is the expla- since his special talent consists in recon- nation of this variability in creating ciling this difference between the real- effective film illusion? Does the eye ity of his eye and the reality of his art. change focal lengths every few mo- Accordingly, he must understand that, ments, or carry a special three-dimen- just as the dramatic perceptions of sional iris? Obviously not; but its everyday life lie beyond the optical images do undergo a transmutation be- scope of the eye, striking cinematic tween the optical response of the retina effects depend on what the spectator and the ultimate meaningful percep- apprehends outside the scope of the tion. camera. The camera cannot do this; it faith- A second, equally misconceived, lim- fully documents actuality with no men- itation of any motion picture is its tal compensation for optical, distor- loss of dimensionality. The subjective tions. Still, this dimensional limitation camera, for instance, can approximate need not faze subjective cameramen. If reality as its character casts his hands they anticipate it, they can, through forward into space, but it cannot di- artful manipulation of subject matter mensionally represent the outlines of and camera angles, imbue the film mouth, nose, and forehead that con- image with a persuasiveness denied stantly confront the human eye (prove even to the images of the eye itself. this by illuminating these features in Even more than dimensionality, the dark). With this problem, even the however, the unique compensating compensating law of perspective fails function of the eye's mind presents the artist, and he must ultimately ad- limitations for the camera that at- mit that the relationship of human tempts to re-create an eye's experi- vision to the camera is a variable one, ence. In regarding a specific object, the determined not by the eye itself, but by camera alone will not discard extra- the human mind behind its retina. neous detail as the eye does. There- Only such an understanding makes fore, only the relevant material that the peculiarities of the eye-camera rela- would be perceived by a human eye tionship comprehensible. For example, regarding the same object should be any amateur cinematographer knows included about the camera's focal 362 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY point. Otherwise, as happens in many view, he should have used, among other Hollywood scenes when movement un- devices, a great many more establish- balances the frame, a large part of the ing shots, showing where his character screen either distracts the spectator's stood in relation to the setting and eye or, at best, makes no dramatic con- where the camera rested (in the head) tribution. in relation to the character. With refer- Furthermore, the human eye moves ence to dimensionality, he should have with much greater agility than a camera altered the composition of his scene, does. The wider angle of view permits particularly when it included Mar- more rapid panning, and the innate will lowe's hands, so that the spectator to composition guides this movement would have been less conscious of with great complexity among the avail- the picture's foreshortened field. And able objects. Still, when he considers finally, had he genuinely considered that the natural effect of film editing the camera's lack of psychological at- results from the cutter's ability to tributes, Montgomery would have re- transcend no less important differences organized the whole conception and between eye and camera, the subjective structure of his production. cameraman should not abandon hope To sketch such an overhaul briefly for realism in his picture. is impossible, but a single studio con- Beyond the afore-mentioned, there ference could enunciate all its under- are further limitations to the camera's lying principles. In the first place, it naturalism-the absence of color, the should be recognized that the realism lack of temporal continuity, and the of motion pictures in general, and of amputation of nonvisual senses. Ru- the subjective camera in particular, de- dolph Arnheim, the psychologist, pends not on an emulation but on a studied these limitations with care in a simulation of nature. Since the camera half-forgotten volume, Film, and every can never duplicate the functioning of Hollywood artist should, of course, the human eye, realism, in its conven- follow his example. The principal tional screen sense of reproducing na- lesson, however, lies not in the details, ture, does not exist at all. Instead, it is but in their general implication that replaced on film (thanks primarily realistic utilization of a movie camera, to the imagination of the audience, not whether "subjective" or "objective," of the artist) by an illusion of reality. does not rely on the physical science of The film artist should not permit photography, but on the psychological the necessarily illusory character of film science of human perception. realism to be confused in the contro- Had Montgomery understood this, versy between representational and he would have based his camera work nonrepresentational schools of picto- not on the human eye's apparent move- rial art. Cinematic realism depends ment, but rather on the nature of per- essentially not on its naturalism but on ception itself. Instead of trying to side- its capacity to convince an audience. step the limitations of the camera, he Again Montgomery misses the point. would have utilized them to make the That which he believed would carry first-person effect more realistic. Thus, conviction simply because it seemed accepting the camera's limited angle of natural, repeatedly lacks artistic con- SUBJECTIV2 E CAMERA 363 viction. The spectator is left staring brief, there is no reason why "subjec- awkwardly into the heroine's face or tive" and "objective" camera view- wondering just where "his" hands came points cannot be blended-transitions from. can occur in one jump cut,-but there From a grasp of the relativeness of is plenty of reason why Montgomery's realism, the subjective cameraman heroine should not be allowed to catch should proceed to analyze the poten- the audience flatfooted with unjustified tialities for projecting inner processes remarks like, "Why are you looking at inherent in the motion picture as an me that way?" art form. These have been largely ig- The camera could motivate such a nored by Hollywood's theater-trained line correctly only if it indicated a artists, who, by insisting that the cam- change of value in the hero's percep- era eavesdrop as through the fourth tion of the heroine. A cut to a close-up, wall of a hypothetical room, continue for instance, might show him looking to grind out what are essentially pho- the lady straight in the eye. Once more, tographed stage plays. Nonetheless, the the technical device would stem from camera need not remain so bound. It the basic relationship between human can not only travel into a room and perception and the camera, the per- study every detail, but also, as Mont- petual movement of human attention gomery has so lately implied, assume being simulated by rapid alteration of the viewpoint of any character in the the camera's subject matter. Because scene. In short, while the stage can Lady in the Lake fastidiously avoids never stray far from the observer's cuts, it denies the shifting focus of at- point of view, the movie camera has an tention and becomes unnaturally static. intrinsic capacity to reveal the partici- Ideally, it should have played Mar- pant's point of view. Designer Robert lowe's gaze over a continual succession Edmond Jones perhaps acknowledges of objects, and the nature of these ob- this most vividly when he advocates jects would have served as a guide to a composite stage-screen medium, in his insights. which projections on a cyclorama be- The selection of detail required for hind live actors represent their subjec- such a technique introduces another tive thoughts and moods. parallel between psychological and mo- Subjectively expressed thoughts and tion picture processes. In the same way feelings do not, however, constitute the that man's memory rearrays impres- whole of dramatic experience. Had sions to explain present circumstances, Montgomery comprehended this fact, all movies select certain relevant details he would never have tried to recount to explain the dramatic narrative. In his narrative solely through the eyes the subjectively photographed film, the of his detective. For when the cam- quality of this selectivity should sug- era is making a purely objective record gest the particular thought processes of its scene, a subjective viewpoint un- of a single character. As previously in- necessarily limits its efficiency. Only dicated, Lady in the Lake conspicu- when an analysis of a character's ously fails to grasp the principle of thoughts is required does the subjective visual synthesis. Montgomery does, camera become fully practicable. In however, supply enough evidence to 364 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY suggest three methods by which details this concept has long been a fundamen- selected from a specific subjective view- tal cinematic skill. Silent-film directors, point can infinitely enrich the audi- particularly, refined it in their substi- ence's range of cinematic experience. tution of visual symbols for verbal- First, plastic suspense affords the izations, and the addition of sound has subjective cameraman a special tech- merely diversified its manifestations. nique for accentuating the action in Today, in its most banal form, plastic his plot. The concept itself is not at all characterization includes such devices revolutionary; innumerable films pho- as lighting for mood and all "cheating" tographed in a conventional manner on the spectator, so called because there have used it for dramatic effect. The exists no naturalistic justification for Southerner, for instance, intensifies its the devices. More subtly, the moods of climactic action with shots of the characters may be visualized expres- agonizing flow of driftwood on a swol- sionistically: for instance, The Inform- len stream, rather than of the two men er's identifying a fugitive's conscience drowning near by. To such pictorial with the person of a blind beggar. Mu- suspense, however, the new subjective sic has often been used to like advan- camera approach can add direct audi- tage, symbolizing the consciousness of ence participation. Montgomery sug- an objectively presented character, as gests the broadest use of this par- in the airport scene of The Best Years ticipation in a prologue inviting the of Our Lives. And comparably, the suc- spectator to find clues for himself, but cess of the recent Brief Encounter dem- he fails to carry through the promise onstrates that the sound track may also except in a conventional, objective be used effectively for direct narration sense. Only in one scene, where Mar- of a character's thoughts. (The author lowe unwittingly discovers a corpse, must apologize for so incidental a ref- does the camera achieve a completely erence to the important potentialities subjective suspense. Then, for several of subjective sound.) exciting minutes, the camera explores a To all these old methods the subjec- suspected person's house, and by noting tive camera adds a new dimension of a. succession of unsettled things-doors value, naturalistically projected. Thus, ajar, a clock ticking, clothing scattered, as an injured Philip Marlowe crawls and the like-from the point of view of across a highway to phone for help, it the detective, it builds its audience to is the value he associates with certain a spectacularly dramatic discovery of objects that makes the scene Mont- the body. Significantly, the emphasis gomery's most convincing one. A sim- rests on discovery, a basic dramatic fac- pie glance at the phone booth perfectly tor that can perhaps be realized better conveys the feeling of his terrible need through the subjective camera than of help, and the changing aspect of through any other technique. pebbles he sees on the road perfectly Plastic characterization, relating to expresses the nauseous dizziness of his the players in a scene, offers the subjec- plight. Like treatment of an operating- tive cameraman a second means of table scene in the British film, Stairway heightening the impact of his produc- to Heaven, leaves no doubt about the tion. In objective use of the camera effectiveness of this approach; it can SUBJECTIVE CAMERA 365 give the audience a more natural and Having seen and heard what the char- vivid perception of the thoughts of acter sees and hears, the spectator will characters than any traditional method understand as never before what he does. Furthermore, the subjective cam- feels. Accordingly, the shorthand of era can contrast two different interpre- Hollywood narratives, whereby a kiss, tations of the same scene simply by for example, has become the sure token changing character. Significantly, the of love, will be supplanted by an ana- emphasis here settles on the basic lytic appreciation of conscious experi- dramatic element of conflict. There re- ence, whereby love can be differentiated mains one proviso. A subjective view- in kind, in terms of what the principals point will convince the spectator only observe of each other. Such subtle par- if it permits him to share a character's ticipation affords the spectator a far experiences, only when it establishes more profound film experience than for both a domain of common feeling. he ever enjoyed under old, stage-bound Refinement of subjective-camera forms of empathy. Discerning events imagery over a series of scenes should precisely as a specific character does, he ultimately transform plastic character- will no longer founder in such a con- ization into a third kind of film experi- fusion of viewpoints as marked The ence that depicts not merely what a Lost Weekend. The saga of Don Birn- character thinks, but how he thinks, ham, which stubbornly adhered to in terms of his physical individuality. objective photography for obviously Again, the usage is not completely subjective material, thereby roused its original, for it appropriates the same audience simply to queasy laughter in principle of selectivity that is found in an episode of delirium tremens that any good film narrative. In fact, in nat- should have been breathlessly terrify- uralistic films it has already produced ing. numerous symbolical cliches, in which In contrast, at a supernaturalistic the villain, for instance, reveals his level, the symbolic picturization of attitude by abusing a pet animal. And man's subconscious in Maya Deren's many films have contained nonnatural- experimental films suggests that the istic fantasy sequences representing psy- subjective camera can explore subtle- chological phenomena. Scenes in the ties of experience hitherto unimagin- classic Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Last able as film content. As the new tech- Will of Dr. Mabuse, for example, ex- nique can clearly express almost any press a subjective point of view in vir- facet of everyday human experience, its tually every aspect of their production development should presage a new type except the camera, and this inconsis- of psychological film in which the cam- tency perhaps accounts for the diffi- era will reveal the human mind, not culty with which spectators follow their superficially, but honestly in terms of narratives. image and sound. Such a film should The new subjective camera invests its indeed endow the cinema with a wholly delineation of a character's thought new dimension of subjective experi- process with a natural directness that ence, permitting the audience to see a gives the audience a far more definite human being both as others see him insight into his mode of evaluation. and as he sees himself. 366 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY Of course, the individual onlooker cater to this audience or whether film- will then assume a creative role he has dom should try to win back the mass of never before played at the movies. Sub- adults who have turned their backs on jective-camera improvements will have a phony brand of reality. an increasing intellectual appeal for For this latter endeavor, the subjec- him, and, as he supplies an ever larger tive camera lends the cinema a tech- measure of his film experience from his nique with which it can seek a new own fund of imagination, the motion maturity. The old styles, which still picture will at last become entirely follow Hamlet's dramaturgic advice to comparable to other arts. Banished mirror reality, may be waning before a will be the hallowed complaint that, new method that makes of the camera whereas literature and painting often a diffusion glass, through which the command the whole of the aesthetic artist lets dramatic clues sift directly sensibility of their audiences, Holly- into the consciousness of his audience. wood films command practically none Clearly, Lady in the Lake only hints at of it. such a transformation. There is need In view of the resistance of many of much more definitive experimenta- film executives to film theory, it is for- tion. There is need of a film in which tunate that the success of the subjective the camera does not simply represent camera does not depend on esoteric a character, but becomes in itself a considerations. If, however, the in- character. But most of all there is need evitable intellectual appeal of the new of a fundamental understanding of the technique challenges old prejudices, it point of view of the individual human will not be to the detriment of the film being in the audience. business. the concern- Today question in the Lake. MGM, Director, the of nineteen- Lady 1947. ing preponderance Robert Montgomery.Novel, Farewell,My year-old patrons in the theaters is not so Lovely, Raymond Chandler. Screenplay, strikingly whether all pictures should Steve Fisher. Four-Square Theater

HENRY DREYFUSS

HENRY DREYFUSS is an industrial designer-of picture theaters require an enormous many things, from fly swatters and alarm clocks to screen to the in the trains, ships, and transoceanic air liners. He has also permit spectator worked in theatrical design, and for twelve years last row to see the picture comfortably; was art director of McCall's magazine. For the New the in the first row suffers York World's Fair in 1939-1940 Mr. Dreyfuss de- spectator by signed the interior of the Perisphere, "The City of having to contend with an overlarge Tomorrow," and the interior of the American Tele- Lamour's must be phone and Telegraph Company's building. In World picture. Dorothy lips War II he designed the elaborate strategy rooms used twenty feet wide to the first-rowsufferer by the joint chiefs of staff in Washington, D.C. He in order to make them discernible to was consultant to the Bell Laboratories in the design of radar installations, and to Army Ordnance in the the spectator farthest from the screen. development of automatic firing equipment and the The level of sound which is neces- redesigning of 105-mm. and 155-mm. guns. He is high the author of two books, Ten Years of Industrial sary to reach the last rows is of course Design (1939) and A Record of Industrial loud in the front rows. Design (1947). unnaturally Thus the exaggerated proportions of THE FIRSTautomobiles had whipsock- the modern movie palace are not con- ets left over from the dashboards of ducive to enjoying the intimate pic- horse-and-buggy days. That reminder tures that make up the greater part of of the past has long since disappeared. our film fare. Yet the large capacities Why, then, must the motion picture, seem to be necessary to make the indus- an entirely new art of entertainment, try profitable. still use an auditorium shaped like a The Four-Square Theater solves the legitimate, theater? Instead of imitat- problem by projecting the picture on ing the playhouse built for presenting four screens placed in the center of the plays, it should take advantage of the building and facing four different audi- possibilities that lie in the projection ences. The projection room is placed process, and create a wholly new and above the screens, and the picture is more advantageous auditorium. It is thrown on them by means of mirrors. practicable to project a single print of A statistical calculation shows that a motion picture so that it is visible on the four small theaters thus created four screens to four intimately seated seat more people on the same area of audiences, all within the ground limits land-and seat them more intimately- of a present-day picture theater. than the conventional auditorium. The The disadvantages of the large pic- Four-Square Theater provides both in- ture house are obvious. Large motion timacy and capacity.

E 367 368 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY

Auditorium plan of the Four-Square Theater, with seats indicated in only one of the four sections which seat the audience. The spectator enters through one of the four vomitories between the sec- tions; he is always close to an exit. The large fins at the corners of the screens prevent him from seeing more than one screen at a time. There are no lighting fixtures. During intermissions, silver curtains are closed in front of the screens, creating in the center of the theater a column with a highly reflective surface; and lights projected on this are deflected over the auditorium. While the picture is being shown, subdued light installed in the fins light the aisles but not the screen. FOUR-SQUARE THEATER 369

street

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tickets LOBBY grand corridor downto I======1{~=====] m------Tbasement managers office ^ \

alcove ) alley

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Circulation is simple and direct. After purchasing a ticket at a booth under the marquee, the spec- tator enters a peripheral lobby which can hold a waiting crowd amounting to half the capacity of the theater. Inside, a corridor beneath the theater leads to four short flights of steps which give on the auditorium. Three alcoves off the corridor form holdout areas where spectators may wait in close proximity to the seats they will occupy. At two places in the corridor, stairs lead down to a large lounge, rest rooms, and lavatories. 370 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY

A sectional view of the theater, with the seating arrangement of one of the four sections indicated. Structurally, a large auditorium devoid of columns demands heavy and expensive girder construc- tion. The screens in the middle of the Four-Square Theater would afford column areas at the four corners of the central cube, thus making possible a minimum use of girders. As our antiquated build- ing and fire laws change, and space above auditoriums is permitted to be used for office or living areas, these central supports will carry the building above the auditorium and not make even heavier girder construction essential. No decoration is indicated in these drawings of the auditorium in use. The upper picture shows a theater seating 1,740 people on a single level. In the lower picture-drawn from a point nearer the screens-a balcony seating 756 has been added to a theater of the same size, increasing the total capacity to 2,496. For every ten people seated in the customary auditorium, the Four-Square Theater seats eleven, with the most remote spectator one-third nearer the screen. The Nature of the Educational Film*

F. DEAN McCLUSKY

F. DEAN McCLUSKY, Lecturer in Education at the The film spoke a language, then as now, University of California, Los Angeles, and Head of which the common man could under- Audio-Visual Instruction in the University Extension, is a pioneer in research and organization in the field stand. The impact which the motion of visual education. He has done extensive research has made the American for such organizations as the Commonwealth Fund, picture upon the Sloan Foundation, the National Educational As- public in the past fifty years is immeas- sociation, the Motion Picture Association of Amer- urable. As a method of effective mass ica, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Committee on Scientific Aids to Learning. He is an editorial communication the film is unsurpassed. associate in visual education on the staffs Under the cloak of entertainment the of four national magazines. theatrical cinema has educated the THE MOTION PICTURE, from the broad American public with respect to mores, educational point of view, is essentially manners, and customs. It has also car- a multiple method of communication. ried its messages to all lands. It has It is especially effective as a technique developed desires which have had a for telling a story. It presents facts real- marked effect upon behavior. While istically. It dramatizes human relations the philosophical and ethical values and events. It arouses emotions. It which have resulted have been the sub- transmits attitudes. It records and ject of much debate, the fact is that the reproduces phenomena for scientific motion picture is a powerful educa- study and analysis. It depicts the imagi- tional tool, whether it be used to "en- native. And it can enable one to see the tertain" or formally to "teach." unseen. By means of the sound motion There have been many attempts to picture the whole gamut of human ex- type the educational film. For exam- perience may be communicated from ple, it has been stated that there is and teacher to learner wherever a learning- should be a distinct difference between teaching situation exists. the "entertainment" and the "educa- From the viewpoint of lifetime learn- tional" motion picture. The motives ing, the motion picture is not only for making such a distinction were applicable at all levels of formal edu- mixed. They stemmed in part from the cation, but also may be used for the desire of the producers, distributors, communication of ideas, attitudes, and and exhibitors of films for theatrical experiences to the masses of people out- use to protect box-office receipts. The side the schoolroom. It has proved its producers reasoned that if the "educa- effectiveness in adult education, in in- tionals" could be typed in a nontheatri- dustry, and in sales training. In its cal pattern it would eliminate a poten- early stages of development in America tially powerful source of competition. the motion picture found its support It was suggested that "educatiojials" in the hundreds of thousands of rela- * The material of this article will appear as untutored who flocked to chapter ii of The Film and Education, to be tively people the God- the arcades and nickelodeons to published by Philosophical Library, penny frey Elliott, editor. Publication is scheduled for be "amused" and to "learn" by seeing. fall, 1947. E 371 372 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY should be confined to a straight presen- highly educational may also have dis- tation of fact, that they should be in tinct value when shown in theaters. effect rather unimaginative. Many edu- Rigidly to classify films as educational cators, in turn, fearful of the possible on the one hand and entertaining on unmoral effect of "theatrical" films the other is not sound. shown in schools and viewing with The point of view expressed above is alarm the possible introduction of en- supported (i) by the fact that, as time tertainment or fun into formal teach- passes, more and more films which were ing, likewise supported the typing of first produced for theatrical exhibition "educationals" into a dull illustrated- are being made available for school use lecture pattern. either in full-length or in edited ver- To separate motion pictures into sions, and (2) by the failure of the at- two classifications, (i) those which en- tempt to develop an unimaginative tertain and (2) those which educate, is factual-film pattern for all "education- not paralleled in the teaching of litera- als," because teachers and pupils alike ture and drama in schools. Many novels found them too dull and uninteresting, and plays which were written in the by contrast with "entertainment," to first instance to entertain are used in be of much value. schools for highly desirable educational How, then, may we define the educa- purposes. The novels of Charles Dick- tional motion picture? An answer to ens and the plays of Shakespeare were this question may be worded as follows: not written as school textbooks, but the educational film is one which con- no one would question their educative tributes to the achievement of desirable value in the study of English literature. educational goals by making effective The distinction is rather one of use use of the motion picture as a medium than of something inherently different of communication. It will be noted that in the nature of the films themselves. this definition emphasizes the necessity The motion picture David Copperfield for (i) a concrete positive contribution was produced to entertain, but it is through use and (2) a proper employ- highly regarded by teachers of English ment of the motion picture medium. as having educational value for the The definition further assumes that study of Dickens. users of films in educational situations Obviously not all films made for en- see clearly the goals which are to be tertainment purposes would be selected achieved. by educators for school use. Teachers With this definition in mind, it is pos- select films for purposes different from sible to outline criteria which would those in the minds of theatrical exhibi- enable experienced educators to eval- tors. Just as teachers are careful to uate a motion picture as possessing select educationally desirable novels educational values. But it is clear that and plays for use in teaching literature, a comprehensive outline of criteria so do they evaluate films for classroom would be very complex and difficult use. The demands of education and of to administer with panels of teachers. entertainment are not the same; but a Subject-matter interests and the needs film that is entertaining may be educa- of students vary so widely that teachers, tive as well. And a film which may be even with a common set of ultimate EDUCATIONAL FILM 373 educational goals in mind, will see dif- separated by intervals of time and ferent values in a film as teaching mate- space; (8) the motion involved in the rial. This in part explains why many interaction and flow of ideas between attempts to administer simple evalua- persons as expressed by spoken words, tion charts for educational films have gestures, and other bodily movements. met with little success. The educative A second basic consideration is that value of a film depends upon the pur- the motion picture has the power to pose which the teacher has in mind and communicate ideas in a realistic, con- the use made of the film to achieve that crete manner not possessed by lan- purpose. Furthermore, the purposes guage. Ideas presented by the motion of education are broad and multiple. picture have immediate meaning; ex- Theatrical producers can evaluate the tensive verbal explanation is unneces- success of a motion picture by its popu- sary. The motion picture effectively lar appeal reflected in box-office re- offsets verbalism in teaching. By cou- ceipts; but in education the value of pling the verbal communication of a film is not so easily measured. In the ideas with the motion picture, the theatrical field it is possible to develop teacher has a powerful teaching tool at production patterns which are reason- his command. It is essential, therefore, ably sure of box-office success, whereas that the criteria of high technical qual- in education the types of films which ity and authenticity be applied to edu- can be used successfully are so diverse cational films. that producers seeking a simple produc- A third consideration is that the mo- tion formula for educationals find that tion picture can be used in connection no such pattern exists. Obviously, a with all types of learning. It provides a classification of types of educational model for the learner to imitate in de- films is indicated. veloping sensory-motor coordinations. Any attempt to outline a comprehen- It builds up vivid, rich associations and sive functional differentiation of edu- memories. It presents problems for cational films requires that attention be solution and the basic materials for ef- directed to basic considerations. One fective reflective thinking. It teaches is that the chief educational value of appreciations and attitudes. And it can films in teaching is their power to com- be used to stimulate strong emotional municate concepts involving motion. responses. For example, motion pictures can pre- Finally, the motion picture is a time- sent to the learner (1) the observable saving educational tool. It saves hours movement of objects, singly and in re- formerly spent on field trips by bring- lation to each other; (2) the movement ing such experiences into the class- of objects too slow to be seen by an ob- room. It introduces and summarizes server; (3) the movement of objects too topics in a brief, effective manner. It fast to be analytically studied; (4) the reduces time-consuming repetitive motion of the unseen; (5) the motion drills and explanations. It directs the of the imaginary and of abstraction; learners' attention to pertinent subject (6) the motion of rhythm; (7) the mo- matter. It creates interest, thus saving tion involved in depicting the relation- the teacher's time and energy. And it ships of objects and the flow of events makes possible the presentation of sub- 374 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY ject matter which could not be pre- which is primarily theatrical and is sented in any other way. used in connection with the study of With these basic considerations and the drama and of literature, or for rec- with a knowledge of the educational reational purposes, or for the develop- motion pictures which have been pro- ment of discriminating attitudes of duced in mind, the following func- theatrical motion picture appreciation. tional types of films may be differen- The dramatic film is more highly tiated. The first is the narrative film, charged with emotional appeal than which tells a story based on fiction or the narrative film. It differs also in that fact. The narrative film may be ani- it was produced at the outset for enter- mated with cartoons, puppets, or tainment purposes, whereas most edu- models, or it may use actors in natural cational films of the narrative type were or studio settings. The narrative film produced with a school or teaching informs, but it also gives an orderly, situation in mind. A Tale of Two Cities continuous account of an event or a is a good illustration of the educational series of happenings. It is a type of dramatic film. educational film which has been in use The third type is the discursive film, for many years. George Kleine's Cata- which presents a topic or series of re- logue of Educational Motion Pictures, lated topics in a logical, systematic, and published in lg9o, lists a few narrative authentic manner. It employs the style films, notably The Night Before Christ- of an essay, textbook, or lecture. The mas, based on the legend by Clement discursive film is informational, since Clarke Moore. The narrative film has it is generally produced in a typical il- been used for children's stories and lustrated-lecture pattern. It also gives fairytales. Examples are Pudge, pro- training in following the reasoning of duced by Children's Productions, and an orderly presentation. Beanstalk Jack, distributed by Castle. Industry has made extensive use of It has been used to tell more factual the discursive film to show the processes narratives, such as the story of wheat of modern industry and commerce. and of corn, for use in the upper grades. These films, loosely called "industri- It has been used to teach adults, a re- als," indicate how goods are produced, cent example being Walt Disney's manufactured, and distributed. They Water-Friend or Enemy. The narra- have been widely used in education. tive type of film may use the pictures The Encyclopaedia Britannica produc- to tell the story, or it may use the com- tions titled Southwestern States, Truck mentator's voice to tell the story, or it Farmer, The Moon, Electrostatics, and may use the voices of the actors, or Molecular Theory of Matter are illus- voices may be given to animals, pup- trations. Alloy Steels, produced by the pets, cartoon personalities, or to ob- U.S. Bureau of Mines, and Where Mile- jects. In Disney's Water-Friend or En- age Begins, produced by General Mo- emy the water tells the story. And music tors, are examples from industry. When may be used to add to the effectiveness it is properly made, the discursive film of the presentation. Obviously, a wide is useful for introducing a topic or unit variety of patterns may be used. to a class, or for supplying background The second type is the dramatic film, material, or for summarization. EDUCATIONAL FILM 375 The discursive type of educational In educational circles, extensive use of motion picture, when compared with the evidential type of film is now being the dramatic or narrative film, is dull. made in the natural and physical In characterizing the early educationals sciences, in the applied sciences, and in Mark May has said, "The first teaching physical education. Time lapse and films were visualizations of textbooks. slow-motion photography are employed They were dull and boring, even as extensively in making evidential films. textbooks are often dry. Educational For example, the botanist studies the films early earned the reputation of be- growth and movements of plants by ing devoid of interest."' One explana- time-lapse photography. The ornith- tion of the dullness of discursive films ologist studies and analyzes the flight in the past has been stated earlier in of birds by means of slow-motion pho- this article. A second explanation is tography, and his findings are applied that the producers of discursive-type to the design of airplanes. The engi- films depended too much on verbal neer studies the fatigue of metals by captions or commentary to carry the means of motion pictures. The trained content. This resulted in the too fre- surgeon's delicate operational skill is quent use of static illustrations; in a recorded in slow motion and is ana- historical approach illustrated by maps, lyzed for the purpose of developing inanimate graphs, and pictures of pio- better techniques in teaching the un- neer personages; in failure to correlate trained student. Perhaps the most sys- commentary with the visual material; tematic use of the evidential film today and in the presentation of concepts is to be found in college football. It is which could have been taught better now standard practice for each coach- with slides or slide films because the ing staff in the large universities to subject matter required time for re- make a slow-motion record of every flective study. However, whenever a game. Within two or three days fol- discursive film has been produced with lowing the game the coaches and play- a systematic sequence of motion con- ers analyze the record to determine the cepts in mind, the product has been strengths and weaknesses of plays and rated highly by teachers. A good ex- of the performances of individual ample from the early silent films is players. The Life History of the Monarch But- In industry and business the eviden- terfly, produced by the Society for Vis- tial film is extensively used to study the ual Education. Good examples of more performance of workers in order to de- recent sound films are Truck Farmer, velop work standards. In fact, the by Encyclopaedia Britannica, and science of time-and-motion study has Winged Scourge, by Walt Disney. Such been built on the ability of the slow- discursive films have a valuable func- motion picture to supply the basic data. tion in education. Training programs have been devel- The fourth type is the evidential oped from the analysis of the perform- which is used to record film, chiefly Postwar scientific data for and 1 Mark A. May, Motion Pictures for study analysis. Education (Washington: American Council on It may also be used to make records of Education Studies, Series i, No. 21, October, events for correlation with other data. 1944), P- 4- 376 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY ance of skilled workers. Many large ples. The first three are silent films industries employ competent photo- produced by Eastman Teaching Films. graphic staffs and maintain completely The wording inside the parentheses equipped laboratories in order to study is the description of content: Micro- and improve techniques and processes scopicA nimalLife (photomicrographic systematically. views, amoeba, paramecium, stentor, The foregoing illustrations of the ap- vorticella, rotifer); Alaska (glaciers, plication of the evidential film in edu- gold, salmon, seals, whales, native cation, science, and industry are by no life, American settlers); and Digestion means exhaustive. Examples could be (structures in digestive tract, functions, cited from studies made in child psy- mouth, esophagus, stomach, intestines). chology, neurology, sociology, ord- The next two are sound films produced nance, medicine, and many other fields by Erpi: Beach and Sea Animals (star- of human endeavor. The evidential fish, sea-urchin, crab, cuttlefish, octo- film has made, and will continue to pus, crayfish, lobster, shrimp, snail, make, a large contribution to human scallop, and sea-cucumber, the physical knowledge. When the objective of structure, activities, and interrelations evidential film in use is shifted from of these animals being illustrated, with examination or analysis to straight special emphasis on their methods of presentation of information, it becames protection); and Shelter (various types another type of educational film, which of shelter; Eskimo igloos, African huts, we shall discuss next. Indian adobes, modern construction The fifth type is the factual film, showing use of bricks, concrete, steel which treats a topic or series of topics and glass; living conditions of today). in an encyclopedic manner for the pur- Like the discursive type, factual films pose of conveying information. The have been relatively dull. To many factual film differs from the discursive they characterize educational motion film in that it presents an episode or pictures because they have constituted series of episodes rather than a syste- a substantial majority of the films pro- matic logical treatment of a topic or duced for classroom use. The chief series of related topics. Newsreels and value of the factual film is to provide many of the travelogues may be classi- direct background information to as- fied as factual films. Freeman put his sist in the study of a unit or topic. finger on the type as applied in the Factual films bring into the classroom fields of anthropology and sociology experiences that could not otherwise when he wrote: "Its purpose is to re- be gained except from direct observa- veal directly the customs and modes of tion by means of expensive field trips life of people of various countries, and the use of laboratory equipment. climes or occupations. It differs from The sixth type is the emulative film, the dramatic picture in that it is not which shows how to perform an act of primarily based on a narrative or skill or demonstrates patterns of be- The of educational story."2 catalogues 2 from that of Kleine to the Frank N. Freeman, "Requirements of Edu- films, George cation with Reference to Motion Pictures," present, have been filled with titles of School Review, Vol. XXXI, No. 5 (May, 1923), factual films. Let us cite a few exam- P. 344- EDUCATIONAL FILM 377 havior which the learner imitates. Dur- The eighth type is the incentive film, ing the war this type of film was used which motivates action in the direction to teach trainees how to manipulate of developing character, attitudes, mo- apparatus and machines, and how to rale, and emotional response. The so- behave under combat conditions. It called documentary film would come was especially helpful in training air- under this classification. Films which plane pilots, gunners, and technicians. are made to propagandize and to pro- Before the war, the emulative film had mote sales are of this type, also. In- been used to train learners in sports, centive films make use of all types in first aid, in child care, in industry, of motion picture techniques to pro- and in many fields in which good mus- voke the observer to action. The com- cular co6rdination is important. Since mentary, dialogue, sound effects, and the war, a number of films of the emu- pictures generally move fast and are lative type have appeared. Some ex- rhythmically combined to stir strong amples are Dinner Party and Let's Give emotional response. In some incentive a Tea, by Simmel-Meservey; You and films the stark reality of the pictures Your Friends, by Look Magazine, in themselves serves to achieve this pur- collaboration with Association Films; pose. Such a film is Seeds of Destiny, and Play Ball, Son, produced by Bert produced by the U.S. Army Signal Dunne. The so-called demonstration Corps. film, in which a scientist demonstrates It is the opinion of the author that a difficult laboratory experiment for the term documentary film, mentioned the purpose of informing students, is previously, is misleading. Documen- not to be confused with the emulative tary means "the conveyance of informa- type of film. Rather, it should be classi- tion or evidence for the establishment fied as a factual film or discursive film, of facts," according to Webster, and depending upon the content or use. does not imply the arrangement of the The seventh type is the problematic evidence for the purpose of inciting to film, which sets problems for discussion action. Strictly speaking, a documen- and supplies the basic data for think- tary film should be synonymous with a ing. The Commission on Human Rela- factual film. However, the "documen- tions of the Progressive Education tary" type which has become popularly Association produced a number of films known as such is in reality an incentive of this type before the war by extract- film. Although the scenes of the "docu- ing problem situations from dramatic mentary" film are generally real life feature pictures. During the war the filmed on the spot without sets and armed services used problematic films actors, yet the angle of view, the edit- with success. One in particular was em- ing and arrangement of scenes, and the ployed by the Navy to screen pilots who sound effects, are all combined to estab- were incapable of carrier duty. A good lish attitudes and to arouse emotional example of a problematic film which response. For example, witness The has been released since the war is You River and The City. Likewise, the and Your Family, produced by Look March of Time films should with few Magazine in collaboration with Asso- exceptions be classified as incentive. ciation Films. The armed services made excellent use 378 HOLLYWOOE QUARTERLY of incentive-type films during the war It is to be hoped that more drill films to combat disease, to build morale, to will be produced in the near future, change and develop attitudes, and to since there are many teaching situa- create a better understanding of the tions in which they could be applied. war's purposes. The success with which The eleven types of educational films incentive films have been used during here listed are offered as a working the war years has strong implications basis rather than something which is for postwar education, particularly at final. It may be expected that other the adult level in teaching human rela- types will appear and that there will tions and international understanding. be many subclassifications based on The ninth type is the rhythmic film, use. Furthermore, there are and will be which is used to achieve artistic effects combinations of types which will make and to develop aesthetic responses. For exact classification difficult unless the example, Anitra's Dance, distributed educational goals to be achieved by us- by Gutlohn, and Walt Disney's Fan- ing a given film are known. tasia. The rhythmic film is character- It is hoped that this analysis of edu- ized by the use of moving patterns of cational films will result in more intel- color, light and shade, geometrical de- ligent use of film and in developing sign, and pictorial effects, combined more effective production patterns. with music and other sounds. These Clearly, a typical incentive film should films are constructed to appeal to the not be used as a drill film, and vice inborn rhythmical nature of the ob- versa. Nor should a factual film be used server and to his aesthetic senses. Very in teaching dramatic appreciation to a few rhythmic films have been made. class in English literature. Likewise, a They may be regarded as being in the producer would be foolish to produce experimental stage. a narrative film when the emulative The tenth type is the therapeutic type is indicated. The discussion of the film, which is used in medicine in eleven types of educational films should connection with the educational reha- serve also to give the reader some no- bilitation of psychoneurotic patients. tion of the broad extent to which films These films employ some of the tech- are being used effectively in education niques used in the rhythmic type and at all levels. are in the experimental stage. It is re- At this point one might properly ported that therapeutic films are being raise the questions, What are the limi- used with success. tations of the motion picture when ap- The eleventh type is the drill film, plied to education? and What is the which sets forth repetitive exercises in motion picture's relation to other which the observer participates dur- audiovisual teaching materials? ing the showing of the film. Examples One limitation to the use of the mo- are the reading-drill films produced tion picture in education is cost. Good by Dearborn at Harvard University films are expensive to produce and to and the mechanical-drawing films con- buy. Projection equipment is expen- structed,by Rising at Purdue Univer- sive, also, and requires the care of an sity. Like the ninth and tenth types, experienced technician. Additional cost drill films are in the experimental stage. is entailed in properly equipping class- EDUCATIONAL FILM 379 rooms for the use of film. However, tionist clubs among the older boys. in spite of high initial costs, the use of Teachers will make more extensive use films in schools is steadily increasing. of films when they are relieved of han- A second limitation is that films are dling heavy equipment. perishable and do not withstand wear Finally, there are limitations inher- and tear like many less expensive teach- ent in the nature of the motion picture ing materials. Books, slides, models, itself. It moves too fast on the screen wall maps, globes, charts, and so forth, for contemplative study, unless it is resist continuous usage much better projected many times. It cannot be sub- than films. But all teaching materials stituted for language activities; but it need replacement from time to time. can serve as a springboard for the de- Experience shows that, given reason- velopment of rich language experi- able care, the life span of films can be ences. It would add to the educational increased to compare favorably with value of films if there were a practical that of other materials. way to produce stereoscopic effects. A third limitation is that teachers But even if inexpensive methods for often have difficulty in obtaining a film producing three-dimensional illusions when it is most needed. This is due in were to be developed, there would still part to lack of funds that would per- be the basic limitation that motion pic- mit the purchase of enough duplicate tures in and of themselves do not teach. prints to supply the demand, and in Learning is the resultant of one's ac- part to inadequate methods of dis- tivity as guided and directed by com- tribution. Better-co6rdinated planning petent teachers. The film can stimulate would help prevent many disappoint- activity; but unless there is a directed ments when teachers order films. But response to the ideas which it commu- the distribution problem is still un- nicates, the learning products will not solved. Many believe that the decen- be fruitful. tralization of school film libraries is The well-balanced audiovisual pro- the answer. A fourth limitation is the gram in education is characterized by lack of trained personnel. Teacher- the use of many teaching aids, of which training institutions have been slow to the motion picture is one. That it is an provide adequate training for teachers important member of the audiovisual in the intelligent use of films. Many technical family is clearly indicated by teachers want to teach with motion pic- the discussion set forth here. However, tures but are inhibited by a lack of because of its unique advantage in be- know-how. It is gratifying to note that ing able to depict action and behavior courses in audiovisual education are with an irresistible sense of life and being established in teacher-training reality, it is sometimes employed to institutions throughout the country in communicate ideas which could far unprecedented numbers. There is also better have been left to materials more a lack of trained technicians in schools suited to accomplishing the desired re- to operate and care for the equipment sult. Producers of educational films needed in the effective projection of should, for example, leave still life to motion pictures. This difficulty is in the slide and the slide film. And be- part being met by organizing projec- cause of their expense, motion pictures 380 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY should not be used to present concepts make in the improvement of educa- which are common, everyday experi- tional methodology. However, it is clear ences, or which could be taught with that, of all the modern educational inexpensive materials such as models, tools, the motion picture possesses objects, or wall charts. The combina- qualities which rank it along with the tion of the motion picture with slides printing press as one of man's great or slide films which are employed for achievements in developing methods follow-up discussion and review of sali- of mass communication. Harnessed to ent points appears to possess possibili- the problems of world education, the ties worthy of serious experimentation. motion picture could, in the sober Audiovisual teaching materials of all thought of many, lay the foundation of types have their advantages and disad- human understanding so essential to vantages. Each has a contribution to world peace. "Miracles Come C.O.D."

CHARLES PALMER

CHARLES PALMER, now working as a screenwriter graphic and interesting," we would in Hollywood, has written both fiction and factual "think what can be done material for magazines, books, radio, and films. point out, with the more naturally picturable THE USE of film in education was per- subjects, such as geography." haps our favorite postwar miracle. We're studying Chile today. The film "When the lights go on again," we said, opens with some breathtaking color "they'll include the beams of a million shots to give the students the broad feel- classroom projectors." We could prove ing of the country. It next presents an it: "Look how film has speeded train- animated map on which the moun- ing in the services and the war plants! tain ranges rear themselves before our Why, come the peace, half the teaching eyes to wall off this group of people in our schools will be done with mo- into a bounded nation, and on which tion pictures." We could even see how the rivers rise and begin to flow as it would be... the sound-track commentator explains "Edward," the schoolteacher would how these natural channels directed say, "you've done very well today, you or blocked the communications, com- may run the projector. Josie, pull the merce, and development of the coun- window drapes. Tommy, lower the try. Natural resources flash on, cities movie screen and take this film maga- and ports are born and grow as we zine back to Edward. And class, switch watch, until the picture is complete. on your desk lights and get out your Now the camera trucks through the arithmetic books; today's film is on map into live-action to take us up and long division." down the country itself, watch its peo- In a few well-ordered moments the ple at work, hear them talk, visit their built-in projector would be clicking its industries, see their homes and cultures. edifying beam through the semidark- We come out of that twenty-minute ened classroom to the hooded screen session with the complete picture and behind the teacher's desk. And in the feeling of that country indelibly im- subsequent ten minutes of following printed on that susceptible and re- the dynamic figures and diagrams on tentive section of our minds usually the screen the youngsters would learn reserved for the filmic adventures of more about the principle of long divi- Gable and Grable. sion-and remember more-than they A swell miracle. But it hasn't hap- would from hours of talk and black- pened. board. The film lesson would end, and Despite a lot of earnest activity and in the rest of the week's arithmetic pe- less earnest press releases, it isn't hap- riods the youngsters would implement pening. And despite a few isolated bea- their new knowledge with pencil and cons in the gloom, it isn't going to chalk. happen-unless we in the film indus- "And if arithmetic can be made try stop galloping off in no direction 382 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY and start realizing that miracles come open fields instead of at road junctions, C.O.D. they fail to pilot us along a planned Actually, when we casually use such route to a desired destination. We can- phrases as "a projector in every class- not group any of these films together, room," what we are doing is assuming add them up, and strike a total. So we the development of a whole new edu- are not talking about what we have cational plan complete with new con- now. cepts, new materials, new schedules, We are, if we are sensible, talking some new subjects, new approaches, about films which will fit into, and and perhaps even a new philosophy. A make more effective, the teaching of revolution, no less. But our revolution the standard, basic, elementary, and right now is at the highly preliminary high school courses. Certainly there is stage of heaving the tea off the wharf, a place for the "awareness" film of in- and we don't seem to realize that we direct application (though the term is have a full-scale campaign to plan, im- too often used as a blanket to cover up plement, fight, and win. Educators are a sick horse that can't work), but so far working on their end of the job, but that is about all we have supplied. The on the whole they know little about children's minds cannot grow strong the philosophy and manipulation of on a diet of nothing but desserts and the film medium; lacking that knowl- liqueurs. It is time, and overdue, to edge, they cannot fully grasp its true get some meat and potatoes on the teaching potential. So the crux of the table-to implement the basic teaching job is up to the film industry. In short, of arithmetic, history, geography, lan- up to us. guages, English grammar, reading, Well, to clear the site before we start spelling, commercial subjects, algebra pouring foundations, just what kind and geometry-to illustrate the ele- of film are we talking about? mentary phases of biology, geology, With too few notable exceptions, we chemistry, physics, sociology, and po- are not talking about what we have. litical science. Basic, standard courses, Much, maybe most, of the existing so- approached in a systematic manner. called "educational" film is downright Let's come back to this in detail as soon bad. Oddly, that is not our major prob- as we have done a little more site clear- lem. The nub is that, good or bad, prac- ing. tically all of it rides on top of the Where does film fit in the teaching educative process-it presents "nice-to- process-how much of the job can it do? see" subject matter rather than "got-to- There is an inclination to take too liter- see"-typically, the informative Tribal ally the old vacation exit march, "No Ceremonies of Remote Indians and more teachers, no more books." The How Muffs Are Made, rather than the school of tomorrow is pictured as a sort essential Active Verbs and Common of free nickelodeon arcade, with teach- Fractions. ers reduced to the status of ushers, and But even if all the existing individ- textbooks, if any, turned into an- ual films were "good," they are still nouncements of coming attractions. sporadic, pointing in all directions. The fact is, the teacher will keep Like signposts placed at random in right on doing business at the same old "MIRACLES COME C.O.D." 383 dais. We shall never send a child into rental distribution which insures that a darkened room stupid and have him films will be at the point of exhibition come out smart. True, film will be a on schedule. Can textfilm move eco- teacher's aid, a sort of animated black- nomically and usefully through these board of infinite scope, and invalu- channels, or must some new system be able-but far from omnipotent. Film, developed? Can the present "library" by definition a mass tool, will neces- system be expanded to carry the load? sarily be geared to a norm pupil and Well, any distribution man is going a norm rate of progress. No mass tool to want to know immediately how can ever take over the crucial function we are going to overcome a primary of the teacher which is summed up in distributional stumbling block. The her recurring phrase, "Well, Freddy, present delays in supplying the "nice-to- let's try going at it another way. You're see" films are of no particular moment: going to understand this if we both but each of the "got-to-see"films in the have to stay here all night." standard courses will be demanded by It is doubtful whether film will ever all the schools at roughly the same time fill more than two or three hours of of the year. That film on long division, the whole school week. Though they for example-every October and No- will be vital hours if the film is right, vember the distributor is going to be the teacher will still teach. swamped with rush orders for xx,ooo Nor will there be any reduction in prints, and in December the prints will the use of textbooks. They will change flood back to lie dead in his overstuffed somewhat in format and philosophy, storage vaults till next year. In the film to correlate with film and take advan- business as we know it, even five hun- tage of the new approaches. But film dred prints is a lot of prints, and this can teach only principles, for compre- unbearable peak loading of rental fa- hension, and those only in essential cilities is going to peak load the costs. outline; textbooks must still present As a matter of fact, we will probably the facts, in detail, for memorization. see textfilms breaking down into two Even though portions of the essential separate merchandising groups, mov- text material are filmed, a recapitula- ing through two different channels to tion of the pictured sections must al- the schools. ways be kept available for detailed One group will include those films study, for review and, prosaically, for (both single-film and semester-series) the children who were out sick when which are built for integrated showing the picture was screened. There will in the routine of the standard class- still be the same need for the textbook's room courses; such as a film on multi- organizing function, plus its problems, plication, a grammar film on sentence questions, drill material, and examples. diagramming, a chemistry film on spec- A final bit of site clearing. What troscopic analysis, a semester-series on about the market for educational films? geography. In the net, these would be Will it be profitable, and how will we the films which replace or supplement reach it-what about distribution? pages from the basic textbooks. Let us Entertainment movies have built up call them "integrated films." an intricate and wide-flung system of In the other group will be the single 384 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY films, of the "lecture" variety. These At the expense of repeating certain are films which, although their mate- things already stated, let us funnel our rial is relevant to the course, are related reasoning into a seven-point recipe for to the study routine in the same way as the new film. outside reading or the visit of a travel- HAT FILMSSHOULD E MAKE ing lecturer, and can be shown at any time during the course without loss of "Got-to-see" subjects.-We should effect. Also in this marketing group concentrate for the present on the "got- would be the so-called "awareness"and to-see" subjects. The fact that most "survey" films. Let's call these "occa- present film is "nice-to-see" is con- sional" films. firmed by the fact that it fits several Now the distributional system can be different courses equally well, and can simplified. The "occasional" films, calls be viewed without loss of effect at any for which are spread out over the year, time in the course (or, again without will be rented from the distributor. But loss of effect, not viewed at all): it is the "integrated" films will be bought, superimposed on the teaching process. not rented, and will be stored in the The new film must be an integral part school vault between showings. of the teaching process, teaching things Now we are getting to the heart of which must be taught if the pupils are the financial problem. True, the schools to get a real comprehension of essential buy textbooks. Why not films? Yet, at subjects. Active Verbs vs. How Muffs the present time, they are not buying Are Made. Cultural and advanced so- films in sufficient quantity to make the cial subjects must come, but later: the production of textfilms a profitable job now is to plow the ground and pre- business. Why not? pare the soil. Candidly, among other less obstruc- "Trouble spots."-Why waste the tive considerations, for the same reason new medium on subjects which can be that you and I would not pay out good taught well enough by traditional money for a wooden can opener. It is methods? The new film should concen- because the films we are now offering trate on those specific spots in the es- them do not do the job. Count on one sential course which cannot now be thing: the minute we offer a film that taught well enough-spots which take will teach an essential thing better and up too much time by present methods, faster-hence, cheaper-the enormous spots where the principles are not clear, school market will appear. spots at which teachers are never sure Oddly, this "new film," the kind of in their hearts that the children truly classroom film which does its job, will understand rather than parrot enough not be at all revolutionary in its surface memorized material to get a mark. The appearance. In fact, most teachers will only purpose of introducing a new tool not consciously realize that they are see- is to do something which cannot be ing anything different. But the new done without it. Hence, "trouble spots" film will be revolutionary in its basic in the "got-to-see" subjects. objective, in its process of creation. Principles vs. facts.-Facts can be im- Most of the present film does not teach parted by present teaching methods; well. The new film will. therefore they should not be the con- "MIRACLES COME C.O.D." 385 cern of the film. (The war-training Specifically, the subject to be filmed films, concentrating on facts, the prod- should be suggested by educators with uct of an unusual need and environ- some influence by the distribution ment, hence are not a precedent here.) group. Then the first-draft script Film goes by the viewer too fast to per- should be done by the showman; on mit memorization or retention of facts. its completion, it should be thoroughly Film's primary usefulness rises from its criticized by men whose business is ability to convert abstractions and prin- practical teaching. Through the sub- ciples into rememberable visual images, sequent process of give-and-take the to bring comprehension of those things final script should result in a film which which remain vague even with the best will teach effectively while fulfilling lecture, textbook, or still-picture pres- the progressive ideal of making learn- entation. For example, the abstraction ing interesting and enjoyable. of the nature and the necessity of law, the hard-to-visualize movements of the How WILL THE NEW FILM BE planetary system, the principle of alge- CONSTRUCTED? braic subtraction. The new film will "In the medium."-The only reason introduce facts only for the purposes for resorting to a motion picture should of making concrete or graphic a basic be that it can handle and present a principle: its field is the "how" and given problem with an effectiveness "why" rather than the "what." A future not possible with other media or meth- semester course may use only ten min- ods. Hence, the new teaching film will utes of film a week to lay bare a princi- be literally in the motion picture ple on the comprehension of which medium. rests the remainder of the week's work Primarily, it will lift the teaching by traditional methods. burden from the sound track and put it on the screen where it WHO WILL MAKE THE NEW FILM? up belongs, entrusting the impact to rememberable Showman weds teacher.-Most pres- visual images rather than forgettable ent film is the product of men who are words. either primarily teachers or primarily Present film tends toward radio forms showmen. Film controlled by teachers of presentation, or, at best, the form tends to be audible rather than visual; of an illustrated lecture, simply trans- wordy, overly detailed, dull, and not ferring traditional auditory teaching clear; it fails to exploit the medium. methods to film, and gaining little or But the showman's film may not teach. nothing from the use of the medium. Hence it is logical that, since a film In fact, often the medium is not really must both hold interest and teach, the used at all. The reason-apart from the new film will blend the specialized tal- fact that it is easier-is that the prepa- ents and know-how of both teacher and ration of films is now in the hands of showman. And since teaching will not writers and teachers who naturally teach unless its presentation catches evolve their ideas first in terms of and holds the interest of its the pupils, 1The term "showman" is used here in its influence of the showman' should be strict sense, and refers to ability and approach, slightly predominant. not a plaid suit. 386 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY words. Almost invariably, the sound rials which are indigenous to the point track is written first, then picture being made; that is, the interesting added, and the impact on the viewer is and even funny manipulation of props in that same inverted order. which must be on the screen anyway to The first drafts of the new film must illustrate what is being taught. For ex- be in the hands of visualists, who are ample: Booby Bear can lift a digit up trained to think first in terms of im- into the numerator's position and get ages-and, images in motion. Their first a laugh-but the kids will remember drafts will be constructed as though Booby-whereas if the animated digit for silent film, with words to be added scrambles up by itself in an amusing later on as a plus, not as a crutch or a way, the kids will remember where the substitute for the working image. And digit goes, and why. the added narration will not be a con- Simple, sincere, and story-wise.-The tinuous, unremitting, relentless drone; new film will be simple; planned and there will be plenty of silent stretches presented in terms familiar to the view- where the screen carries the story alone, er-not the author. subtly compelling the pupil to partici- One film will present one idea or pate in its development. point, and stop there, permitting no Most memory-building techniques deviations from the straight line, no try to identify the forgettable word pigpiles of ideas, and no diffusion. The with a rememberable object. The new length will be determined by the sub- film will be built around images; it will ject, not by convention nor by mer- produce clarity beyond the power of chandising custom: if an essential point words, and retention beyond the power can be made clear in two minutes, why of words. Few writers are now trained spin it out to ten just to fill a reel? to create in terms of the visual. They The material will be organized into must be shown, by example, how to in- a block-on-block story line. And it will vert their working approach, then com- take into consideration the fact that pelled to do so. The easy way is out. film goes by our young viewer too fast Entertainment.-This is not as con- for us to require him to hold threads troversial as it seems, once we probe and premises and plants in his mind for beyond the "yuk" and "boff" manifes- delayed application. tations of the term to see what "enter- This, in too brief summary, is one tainment" really is, in function. For our view of the fundamental differences be- purposes, entertainment is that means tween what has hitherto been called of presentation which creates and sus- "educational film" and what teaching tains interest in the point at issue. This film must be in order to be really able interest must be honestly earned, not to go to work on its job. True, it is the won with tricks and dragged-in devices hard way-it compels its creators to which obscure the real point to be choose the very subjects whose treat- made. ment is most challenging. But easy pic- The new film will earn its entertain- tures on easy subjects have not done the ment: first by subtle incentive, then by job. These films will have a chance. clear and straight story, and finally by Some of the conclusions herein may the fresh and ingenious use of mate- be challenged, maybe successfully. All MIRACLES COME C.O.D. 387 to the good. Controversy will be a lot large enough numbers to justify the use healthier than the present weird com- of the top talents and facilities of the bination of lassitude and squirrel-cage motion picture industry. And we will acrobatics. But the over-all conclusion have made a social contribution which will remain valid-that if we make "got- helps to justify our own existence as to-see" films, and make them so well individuals; maybe even lets us leave a that they teach essential things better footprint in concrete instead of in sand. and faster-hence cheaper-than they But time is of the essence if Eddie is can be taught by present methods, going to run that Fractions film on his prints of the films will be bought classroom projector without catching rather than rented, and bought in his long white beard in the shutter. Experiments in Broadcasting and Television ROGER MANVELL

ROGER MANVELL, Research Officer of the British several hundred a month. Rather more Film Institute, introduced in earlier issues as the than television English correspondent for the Hollywood Quarterly, 20,000 receivers were is one of the British Broadcasting Company's film in operation early in 1947. critics. He has spoken several times on the Third Let us consider first Program, described in the following article. the importance in the cultural life of Britain of the BROADCASTING and television for audi- BBC's Third Program. There are many ences in Britain are operated by the who are highly critical of the monoply British Broadcasting Corporation un- in broadcasting which the BBC's char- der a royal charter. The corporation is ter implies, and who would like to financed by means of grants from Par- see in Britain competitive commercial liament, and is controlled by a chair- broadcasting of the kind in operation man and body of governors appointed in America; but there are, I think, by the crown. It is administered by a rather more who regard the BBC as director-general (Sir William Haley) an organization with a high sense of and by the several controllers of its public responsibility, and that con- different divisions, with their staffs. sequently the programs are better The number of listeners' licenses taken than would be possible if commercial out indicate that virtually the whole interests hired time on the air and population forms the BBC's potential contracted with artists as part of an audience. Two programs (the Home advertising service. Discussion, how- Service and the Light Program) are ever, remains prolonged and open. available to all listeners, and in Sep- What remains certain is that the tember, 1946, the experiment of giving Third Program could be sponsored the public a new, third program was every night only by a corporation begun-a program different in aim and whose policy was created without com- quality from any other offered in the mercial interests in mind. The Light world. Television was begun as a perma- Program, while by no means excluding nent daily program service to viewers talks and dramas and features which within a forty-mile radius of London1 demand some intelligent attention in 1936, but was discontinued for se- from listeners, is, as its name implies, curity and other reasons during the a service for the casual listener, pro- war. Its programs were recommenced viding an appreciable amount of light in June, 1946. The number of viewers music and light entertainment gener- is limited only by the geographical de- ally. The Home Service programs are limitation of the reception area, which of greater significance: talks, features, it is will soon be and hoped expanded, 1 It must be remembered that a number of television receivers nearly quar- by the ter of Britain's total population of 43,ooo,ooo which can be put on the market, now lives in this reception area. :388] EXPERIMENTS IN BROADCASTING 389 top-line variety, drama, and concerts of demonstrate that we are not afraid to high quality (given often by the BBC's express our own culture or to give our own Symphony Orchestra) make up the people access to the culture of others. daily program. It is hoped that listen- Let it set a standard, and furnish an ers belonging to the greater public will example, which will not only raise the choose their radio selectivity from the level of our own broadcasting but in corporation's published programs, and the end affect the level of broadcasting that the level of taste will gradually in other lands. Let it be something rise. That taste has risen owing to the which has never been attempted hith- BBC's policy in relation, for example, erto in any country. Let it prove that to music and drama, is evidenced by the B. B. C. is no timid spinster, but the high listening figures for symphony possesses will and mind.' The eyes of concerts and serious drama discovered Sir William Haley sparkled when he by the department of listener research said these things. He got to work. Mr. maintained by the corporation. George Barnes got to work. Everybody Nevertheless, the Third Program, a got to work. Sir William has told me section of British broadcasting devoted how, when the first signal came through to experiment, to intellectual debate, to on 29 September, he flung himself back material on the highest cultural level in his chair with a sigh of relief. The from the arts, has now become a perma- great experiment had begun." nent part of the BBC's activity. A re- R. J. E. Silvey, Head of Listener Re- cently published brochure2 has given search, writes on the public reception to outside critics and internal admini- of the new program, which had been strators of the program a chance to air welcomed almost unanimously by the their views. Introducing the brochure, national and provincial press: Harold Nicholson, who served a term "It was not to be expected that the as Governor of the BBC when the idea Third Programme would appeal to of the program was first discussed, puts more than a minority of the listening these words into the mouth of the Di- public. The needs of the majority are rector-General, Sir William Haley, in catered for by the Home Services' and answer to a possible criticism of the the Light Programme. But the numeri- venture: cal strength of the minority to whom "If the Third Programme were to the Third Programme appeals is im- live up to such ambitious motives, pressive. A sample survey made after might it now often become dull? 'Yes,' listeners had had several weeks experi- he answered, 'let it often become dull. ence of the Third Programme's con- Let it often make mistakes. Let it often tents showed seven per cent of the under-run and over-run. Let it remem- listening public to be enthusiastic ber always that it is an experiment, about the new service, and that to a fur- even an adventure, and not a piece of ther twenty-one per cent the broadcasts routine. Let it arouse and 2 controversy The Third Programme: A Symposium of not seek to muffle controversy. Let it Opinions and Plans, published by the BBC, enable the to hear January, 1947. intelligent public 3 The Home Service has a number of addi- the best that has been or said thought tional regional programs limited to a few hours or composed in all the world. Let it each day in the main regions of Britain. 390 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY included in the Third Programme were in a more acute form, since both cinema by no means without interest. It can, and theater interests are involved. therefore, be said that the Third Pro- Maurice Gorham, Head of the Tele- gramme is welcomed by more than one vision Service, mentions this in an arti- listener in four." cle written for a pamphlet published In the space at my disposal there is last year when television was resumed.4 no opportunity to analyze the programs A possible difficulty, he says, "is that we of the first six months. They have may be cut off from some programme ranged from broadcasts of the complete sources by the opposition of people text of Hersey's Hiroshima to plays who fear that television will be harmful such as Aristophanes' Frogs and Sartre's to their own interests in entertainment. Huis Clos. They have included surveys This happened to some extent before and recitals of contemporary poetry, the war, and, going further back, it talks by eminent scientists and artists, happened in the early days of sound the performance of less well known broadcasting. I hope it will not happen works of the great composers, and a to post-war television. Progress cannot number of original works. be held up forever, but it can be slowed The significance of the third pro- down, and we should like post-war tele- gram in the cultural life of Britain was vision to be as good as possible right summed up by a leader-writer in the from the start." The difficulty has in- London Ev,ening News, who is quoted deed arisen in many ways, through the in the brochure as saying: barring of artistes, the barring of use "If the B. B. C. uses its opportunity of almost all feature films and commer- aright, it can, more effectively perhaps cially sponsored shorts, and through than almost any other agency, break the acquisition by interests other than down great barriers of prejudice, and the BBC of rights in equipment impor- can destroy the pernicious distinction tant to the technical development of that has grown up between highbrow television. and lowbrow. It can demonstrate that The BBC's policy in the planning of the fundamental values of civilised life television programs is the same as that are comprehensible to-and enjoyable for ordinary radio. Sir William Haley by-all. The fallacy of 'the precious, writes, in his introduction to Televi- favoured few' has been, in the past two sion Again: or three decades, a stronghold of snob- "Television is a science and an art. bery .... The Third Programme is a It will have to be studied and developed powerful instrument toward the aboli- from both these aspects. The power tion of this culture-snobbery and the which Television has to give the small- impoverishment of life which is its est home a window looking out on the complement. If this programme goes world; the way in which it can even- on as it has begun it can state-and tually bring to men and women every- drive home in the minds of millions- where a sense of participation in many belief and faith in the ultimate values." of the hitherto inaccessible things of The Television Service of the BBC daily life; the pleasure it can provide In this medium is also experimental. 4 Television Again, published by the BBC, the controversy over monopoly arises 1946. EXPERIMENTS IN BROADCASTING 391 and the knowledge it can impart make that they have on the stage, and enables it a social service of the greatest im- them to bring genuine acting to the portance. Experience, entertainment, screen. education, are all within its compass." "Within the limits of the planned Denis Johnston, the famous Irish production, the actor does not have to playwright, is Program Director. He think about cameras-does not have has contributed to Television Again an to feel around on the floor with his important article on the medium. Here feet for pieces of wood, or limit his are two extracts from it: performance to a tiny area mapped "In television, as in the cinema, the out for him beforehand. It is normally focus of the attention is entirely at the the business of the camera to follow command of the producer, with all the the actor, and not vice versa. The per- responsibility that this involves. If, former does not drop his character during a big emotional speech, it is when he happens to be out of vision; important to notice that one of the indeed during considerable stretches of characters is quietly drawing a revolver, a play he is probably unaware whether it is easy to make sure that this fact he is in shot or not. In short, he gives a does not escape attention. In short, the performance that is like that of the producer has most of the tricks of the theatre in its continuity and in its free- movies at his disposal, including the ad- dom from those perpetual shouts of vantage of being able to present his 'Cut,' and yet is cinematic in its fre- artist in close-up. quent close-ups and in all the degrees "On the other hand, he has not got of subtlety that this permits. From the the facile flexibility of the movies, and point of view of the actor, television the chance of shooting and reshooting manages to combine many of the ad- his material till he gets precisely the vantages of both stage and screen, and effect that he wants. As in the theatre, after overcoming the initial difficulties, he is faced with the prospect of one the player usually finds himself devel- irremediable 'take' on which he must oping a new type of performance that stand or fall. is peculiar to the medium and that "We are sometimes told that televi- opens up undreamt-of opportunities sion will always show up badly in com- in new directions.... parison with the cinema because of this "The average screen at present is too inability to correct its mistakes; but I small but not very much too small for for one believe-and here I express what comfortable viewing by four or five is merely a personal opinion-that this people in a sitting-room, which is the very handicap may prove to be one of type of use that is intended. One of the the unexpected strengths of television. facts that we are liable to forget in our "There is nothing synthetic about enthusiasm for something new is that, the medium. It is a violent and healthy actually, television is neither stage nor art with few opportunities for alibis, screen, but is broadcasting. It is neither for delays or for waste. While it denies home movies nor a stage seen through its producers the comforting security of an oblong keyhole; and tempting as it another 'take,' it gives its performers may be to make comparisons and draw the same glorious continuity of action analogies from the older arts, it is even 392 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY more important not to lose sight of the grams contain a high proportion of fact that the roots of television are in plays, of which a brilliantly produced Radio, and that it is a natural develop- and acted two-part transmission of ment of that medium, rather than the Mourning Becomes Electra has been illegitimate offspring of something the highlight of recent months. Outside totally different. It should have all the broadcasts for public sporting events as intimate and personal appeal of good well as visits to exhibitions, theaters broadcasting, for, although its audi- and music halls, variety, features, and ence may be numbered by the thou- talks are the other main items, together sand, they are thousands of individuals with specially shot films covering news and are not great blocks of people sit- events which cannot be televised di- ting in rows and reacting in the mass to rectly. The definition of the image on something that they see together. a good set is of high quality, possessing "This is a matter of some subtlety, both clarity and depth. I have been and it must be remembered when we responsible for giving a number of pro- consider the question that is some- grams for the talks department of the times asked: 'Why go to all the trouble television service, and I have found it of producing live programmes at all? exciting and fascinating work. In ordi- Why not simply televise films?' nary radio everything has to be con- "Television is not just an easy means veyed by the voice; to express the same of transmission, allowing people to sit ideas scriptless in front of the emitron at home and enjoy canned entertain- camera draws one nearer to the fireside ment without the bother of putting on audiences. One's face is present with their coats and hats and going out to them, emphasizing one's meaning with the local movie; and even if the screen the expressions and the movements of were as big as you like, I would still the human being in conversation. The maintain that a popular cinema film result is a greater sense of quiet inti- piped into your house by means of tele- macy than seems possible even on the vision would not be a proper use of the radio, and one's producer sees to it medium. It is a matter of presentation that the personal appearance is not too and tempo. It is a question of what kind long, and that illustrations of all kinds, of audience you are serving, and is best movie or still, are constantly brought illustrated by the dismal failure of the into play to vary the interest of the politician who tries to address a public image before the audience. meeting on the air, rather than talk to The progressive spirit which informs you and me in our respective individual the two BBC services I have discussed millions. People are receptive in a dif- is one of the hopeful signs for the fu- ferent way when they are alone-or ture of British broadcasting. It encour- nearly alone-from when they are in a ages those who have something to con- crowd." tribute, whether by way of art or intel- Audience intimacy and the quali- lectual discussion, to come forward and ties belonging to live presentation as express themselves to the community. distinct from reproduced presentation And in turn it encourages the commu- seem to be the two main principles be- nity to be more receptive to the cul- hind television technique. The pro- tural wealth within it. The Raw Material of Radio

ERIC BODEN

ERIC BODEN is a radio consultant and research "Official Communique of the Losing specialist in problems of audience reaction. Having our worked with the BBC and founded the Irish Work- Team: One of patrols, by clever shop of the Air, he has, in the United States, beamed strategy, penetrated deep into the ene- short-wave broadcasts in Spanish to Latin America second base before and written and produced for commercial sponsors. my's lines, reaching He directed the Treasury Department's wartime overwhelmingly superior forces com- radio campaigns in northern California. pelled him to retire. Outside of this, there is nothing of consequence to re- Radio extendsto the uttermostparts of the earth the range of one person'spotential- port." ity for misleadingand befuddling his fel- In the recent war years, the foregoing low men, either by taking advantage of example did not seem so extreme as it their semanticdifficulties or broadcast- by may now appear; for the manipulation ing his own. of words is most disguised when we ERNESTA. Man HOOTON,Twilight of least it, and in a (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1939) suspect democracy only eternal vigilance can guard against "WHEN I use a word," said a well- it. There is a warning implied in Gus- known commentator, "it means just tav LeBon's remark: "The art of those what I choose it to mean-neither more who govern... consists above all in the nor less." science of employing words." No one has ever taken this statement Words are the raw material from very seriously, because the commenta- which comes all of radio's influence, tor had a shaky reputation. After all, and in the democracies it is the news- words are the raw material of broad- casters who handle most of the in- casting and should not be treated fluential words. They have grown to lightly. Yet it is fun to see what can solemn stature since 1923, when the be done with them in the hands of a carefree Graham McNamee' gave his humorist; as, for example, Joseph Ful- first free translation of a World Series. ling Fishman, in the Saturday Evening By the time of his death in 1942 the Post: "world series" was the total war that "Official Communique of the Win- ushered in the Atomic Age. ning Team: Today we won the World Chief Justice Hughes had warned: Series War, inflicting a crushing de- "Dishonesty in the purveyors of opin- feat on the enemy. The battle was a ion is the worst of civic vices." People slaughter. By daring sorties into the were noticing shifts in the control of enemy's territory, our heroic men suc- 1Time (May 18, 1942) recalls part of the ceeded in capturing eleven runs and Graham McNamee legend: "No sports expert, them all back Not a he drove the experts wild. He once announced bringing safely. the wrong winner at the Poughkeepsie regatta, run was captured by the enemy, and another time caused Ring Lardner, who sat only one of their men succeeded in near him while he was announcing a ball game, our lines as far as second to observe that there had been a double- penetrating header-the game that was played and the one base. that McNamee announced." C393 3 394 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY public opinion. No one could be sure de Janeiro, Swing is a sort of radio where the control was shifting to; they Uncle Sam." agreed only upon where it was shifting Not every commentator is a "radio from. In the British general election of Uncle Sam," but together they form a 1929 there was only one daily news- composite one. In the prewar week paper (with a circulation of only 300,- March 6-12, 1938, normal so far as ooo) in all the British Isles that sup- newscasting was concerned, the F.C.C. ported, the victorious Labor Party. In found that an aggregate of 3,984 station 1936, in the United States, 86 per cent hours was allotted to news. This was of the press supported Landon, who about one-tenth of all the radio time lost in all but two states. for that week. In postwar weeks the Broadcasters who had once trum- figure has been running much higher. peted the praises of box tops into The measure of words.-The shadow innocuous-looking microphones were that falls over the entire realm of words learning to hold the same instrument is felt most keenly by radio newsmen. in awe. The public's confidence was Like every other serious human being turning to them and they grew worthy who attempts to put thoughts down of the trust. It was the awakening of on paper, the broadcasters learn that men who are noxi learning to broadcast words are like coins: they may be used realistically, like reporters that live as a means of exchange, but by them- more on borrowed than on sponsored selves they have no intrinsic value or time. Norman Corwin spoke for the consistent worth. They are the coins broadcasters' new awareness of the in- of the half realm-the realm of half fluence with which their medium in- thinking and half doubting that you vests them: "I have a terrific sense of will be understood. the dignity of a half hour of God's time. To add to the broadcasters' confu- I feel that anything which smutches sion, the N.A.B. code blithely informs that time is inexcusable." them: "Since the number of broadcast- In November, 1942, Richard 0. ing channels is limited, news broadcasts Boyer, in the New Yorker, chose one shall not be editorial. This means that voice as an example of what radio news shall not be selected for the pur- words can amount to: "The soothing, pose of furthering or hindering either whispery resonance that is the voice of side of any controversial public issue Raymond Swing is regularly heard by nor shall it be colored by the opinions more people than has been any other or desires of the station or network voice since man learned to grunt. Every management, the editor, or others en- week some 37 million people hear it; gaged in its preparation or the person about 15 million in the United States, actually delivering it over the air, or, the rest scattered all over the world. in the case of sponsoring news broad- Since Swing, more than any other com- casts, the advertiser. mentator, expounds United States gov- "The fundamental purpose of news ernment policy for a global audience, dissemination in a democracy is to en- he is something like a private, ex-officio able people to know what is happening State Department. To his millions of and to understand the meaning of foreign listeners from Bombay to Rio events so that they may form their own RAW MATERIi XL OF RADIO 395 conclusions and, therefore, nothing in below, in a cross section of opinions the foregoing shall be understood as which has been chosen to represent the preventing news broadcasters from an- general thinking of the majority. alyzing and elucidating news so long Drew Pearson (ABC): "I am always as such analysis and elucidation are mindful when I appear before the mi- free of bias." crophone of the fact that many hun- This is a delightful example of the dreds of thousands of people are paying N.A.B.'s Spartan indifference to knock- me the compliment of listening. I know ing itself out verbally. "Broadcasts that if I were called upon to speak to shall not be editorial," but "analyzing a hundred thousand people in a public and elucidating" is O.K. just so long gathering, I would take great pains to as it is "free from bias." Well, now! measure my words. The radio audience About all we can do with this sort of is even larger, and I'm as careful as reasoning is to nominate it for the New humanly possible." Yorker's "Neatest Trick of the Week" Raymond Swing (ABC): "The great- section. est problem of handling radio news is CBS once tried to pull the same to get at the basic objective facts in any verbal wool over its commentators' situation, and to give partisan state- eyes. Its great news chief, Paul White, ments no more-and no less-emphasis one of the founders of radio journalism, than they deserve in relation to the seemed to believe that radio could ac- basic facts. It is hard to get this grasp curately split hairs although all other of any situation. Most news reaches the media had failed. Time magazine (Oc- public through the channels of parti- tober 4, 1943) reminded him: "Every sanship, and is presented in the hope intellectually honest newsman knows of enlisting partisans. It comes onto the that impartiality (as distinct from non- tickers incomplete, and it is never easy, partisanship) is a human impossibility. and sometimes seems impossible, to If it could be achieved, far from being line up the basic facts. Radio news a feather in a newsman's cap, it would ought to be more scrupulously fair merely make him a man without prin- than printed news for the reason that ciple and without perspective. ... the commentator never speaks to the "If radio becomes guilty of making same audience twice, whereas a news- its commentators take sides-or pull paper goes pretty much to the same their punches-in order to curry favor readers day after day. A statement with advertisers, it will have much to made wrong on the air cannot be re- account for. But it will also have much called effectively, revised, or modified to account for if it abandons all edito- by subsequent statements. rial views in order to put on a false "Obviously there is no such thing as front of impartiality." objectivity. What I consider objective In December, 1946, several leading is what meets my personal test of truth, radio newsmen were asked by the which is a subjective test. But that does writer of this article for their opinion not make it the less vital for a com- on the greatest single problem they mentator to seek to understand the faced in approaching their task. The basic facts objectively, and relate cur- comments of some of them are quoted rent news to them." 396 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY Cecil Brown (MBS): "I would say appreciable number of the listeners to the greatest problem in handling radio assume that those who do not share news-both news and commentary-is their prejudices are necessarily biased a matter of condensation. The great against them." need is to adequately cover a subject Larry Lesueur (CBS): "In my opin- and still avoid a superficial or inade- ion the greatest problem in handling quate presentation.... The great dan- radio news is to establish communica- ger inherent in this problem is that tion between myself and the listeners. lack of time sometimes produces a su- If possible I try to think of a formula perficial report or dogmatism." like this: first tell them what the news Elmer Davis (ABC): "In times of is about, then tell them what the-news crisis I think one of the most important is, then, briefly, tell them what you problems is not to seem too excited have just said, summed up in a short and thereby whip up the excitement of sentence." the listening audience." On the Pacific Coast the oldest and Earl Godwin (ABC): "Greatest prob- most popular nightly newscast is the lem I have is to make sure the broadcast "Richfield Reporter," which is heard is interesting. Too many times the im- over the NBC coast network. Its editor, portant overshadows the interesting. I Wayne Miller, gives an example of the have found that few people give a balance he tries to maintain in each whoop about 'exclusive' news, unless it script: "The greatest problem in han- is the sort that really gets into one's dling radio news is to surmise when consciousness. The radio audience is the correspondent covering an event likely to be a complete sample of the like the United Nations is 'hopping up' entire human race from high to low his lead, beyond the actual worth of degree of intelligence ... and the plain events, in order to make a startling and simple folks predominate. I try headline ... then to 'play it down' for not to be so important that they lose what I think it is really worth. Fre- human touch with me." quently, I have taken a yarn in which Knox Manning (CBS): "As for the Molotov was said to have 'bitterly de- greatest problem in handling radio nounced' the western powers for some- news, I guess the job of giving complete thing or other... and made it read, impersonal coverage is most difficult. 'Russia's Molotov took issue with the Everyone has a tendency to put his own western powers.'" interpretation on what he hears, con- Although Miller prepares and writes sequently, it takes years of experience this nightly news roundup, he does not to learn how to avoid pitfalls in han- himself "voice" it on the air. Never- dling controversial news topics." theless, this description of his working Fleetwood Lawton (NBC): "The method emphasizes the importance of greatest difficulty in handling radio the sound of the news as well as the news is that presented in maintaining sense of the news. The pitfalls that may the utmost impartiality and objectivity be stumbled into when copy is read upon subjects often hardly less contro- aloud can be avoided only by such versial than religion. There is a strong methods as Miller describes here: "I inclination, I believe, on the part of an put in seven hours preparing each RAW MATERIAL OF RADIO 397 broadcast: three hours of that total in spokesman for so many adults. Only in 'going over' United Press copy... sav- American radio can a young man's ing usable stories... arranging them fancy turn to interpreting the entire with regard either to similarity or to trend of current events. Not even in contrast; two and a half hours in 'talk- Europe or Latin America have students ing' the news to a secretary (to get the been offered such strategically placed sound of it); thirty minutes in 'making soapboxes. up' (stapling stories to 8 by 12-inch Of course, there are many unseen cardboards); thirty minutes for re- checks and subtle influences at work hearsal; and thirty minutes for late on every purveyor of the day's news. bulletins and necessary re-makeup." No matter how independent the news- H. R. Baukhage (ABC) neatly ex- caster may be, he must always depend plains the outstanding difference be- upon the services of the established tween spoken and written news copy: news-gathering organizations; and it "I believe that the commentator must is unlikely that radio will ever find it look upon radio as a medium requiring profitable to collect its own exclusive a style of writing and delivery of its news. own. To attempt to apply the tech- Regardless of who collects the news, nique of the written word on the the presentation-and therefore inter- platform is wrong. The style must be pretation-of that news is vitally im- informal and conversational, for the portant in a democracy. The reporting listener is in an informal atmosphere. of news can never be separated from the The speaker is a visitor in a home, not daily lives of people, because many of a lecturer on a rostrum. our personal everyday judgments are "I write in a manner which is not made in the light of what we believe is conventionally grammatical but ex- happening in the world around us. ceedingly conversational." The realistic broadcaster faces a The semantics key to radio.-It is problem very different from the news- obvious that all the leading radio news- paper editor. The honest journalist will men take great pains to "measure their normally write down the main news words." Yet they have no common yard- facts as skillfully as he can-knowing stick. Their goal is not, and cannot be, that his readers will scan, skimp, and absolute impartiality or complete free- select the material that most concerns dom from bias. It has been well stated them. The newscaster, on the other to be an "objectivity" that is sensibly hand, must combine straight reporting within the bounds of human achieve- with his own personal appraisal of ment. Perhaps the shortest route to it what shall be scanned, skimped, and is through semantics. selected. It is technically impossible for A newscaster or commentator has an any discrimination to be left to the audience out of all proportion to his listener, whose only choice is to listen personal importance. On a small 250- or not to listen. watt station, he may be a kid working A knowledge of semantics has be- his way through college. In no other come almost essential to the objective department of our conservative society discharge of the radio news reporter's would the college student become the duties. Of course, a smattering of 398 HOLLYWOOI QUARTERLY semantic information will not alone That the listener may derive a mean- protect the newscaster from error or ing different from that intended by the bias, but it will go further than any writer is explained as follows by Ogden other study in helping him toward and Richards: "Normally, whenever we doing a more impartial job. hear anything said we spring spon- Applied semantics is a practical disci- taneously to an immediate conclusion, pline, in which words are tools as well namely, that the speaker is referring to as topics for analysis. It acknowledges what we should be referring to were that thought and language may not we speaking the words ourselves. In always be identical, but it knows that some cases this may be correct; this will the average man does most of his think- prove to be what he has referred to. ing with words, and it can prove that But in most discussions which attempt unclear expression is the direct route greater subtleties than could be han- to unclear thinking. I. A. Richards dled in a gesture language this will not says: "Semantics is the rationale of be so." translation. It explores theoretically all But if the writer is constantly aware the problems which come up when we of this possibility, he is more likely to compare two ways of saying the same avoid causing confusion. In any serious thing." broadcast, he must repeatedly keep ex- The radio writer must keep upper- plaining his particular use of the key most in his mind the fact that any word words in the script. may have several different meanings, He will also do well to study what depending on how it is used (that is, one school of semantics terms "index- what its context is) and who is hearing ing." This is the habit of always being it. Vendryes cites one example: "The aware that people and things are dif- word 'season' belongs to the class of ferent at different times. The Germany words which admits of the most varied of 1947 is not the same thing as the Ger- applications; for the director of a ca- many of 1940. The Wally Simpson of sino, the proprietor of a villa, a market- 1936 is probably not quite the same as gardener, a vine-grower, or a dress- the Duchess of Windsor of 1947. The maker-indeed for practically every Soviet government believes in democ- man or woman in business or indus- racy, their style, and the United States try-there is a certain 'season' referring government believes in democracy, bur to the time when the work is greatest, style. and which varies according to the kind If the broadcaster just tosses these of activity and the place in which it is names and words around without any carried on. In parts of Pembrokeshire explanatory little tag, the listener will in Wales, the 'season' is the period of automatically interpret things accord- the year when stallions are at stud: this ing to his own background-and the in itself is enough to indicate that in result may often be very different from these parts horse-breeding is carried on, what was intended by the script. Inci- and everyone is interested in the cover- dentally, wartime censorship was a ing period. The word 'season,' there- blessing in disguise because it reminded fore, indicates something special to radio men of the importance of every each speaker." word they used-unconsciously bring- RAW MATERIAL OF RADIO 399 ing them a step nearer to the methods works on a hit-or-miss basis; it either of semantics. registers to some degree or is lost for- A commentator who wishes to do an ever. There is no glancing back for a honest job must try to avoid the temp- second look. This is why good broad- tation to oversimplify. His greatest casters intuitively search for "sure-fire" danger lies in judging events in terms words-otherwise described as "com- of just two values. Incidents are not mon," "simple," "colloquial," or even baldly "good" or "bad." Statesmen are "corny." usually neither completely "right" nor Andrew Salter said, in What Is Hyp- completely "wrong." There is no iron- nosis? that "words are the bells of con- clad dividing line which marks off all ditioned reflexes"-and the broadcaster things as either "positive" or "nega- gets only one chance to ring them. tive." Dogmatic demogogues offer us However, there is one serious drawback only two alternatives. The young lady in this oversimplification. From con- in the song was much smarter and, in- stant wear and tear, "sure-fire"words deed, semantically pure when: "She drift away from their original moor- wouldn't say 'yes,' and she wouldn't say ings; they become either empty banali- 'no.'" She knew that between these ties or vague symbols. Radio especially two extremes lay a range of delightful is ceaselessly rubbing off the sheen possibilities in "maybe." of once-sparkling adjectives. Popular Dr. Irving J. Lee, in Language Hab- songs usually last on the hit parade its in Human Affairs, has practically only a few weeks before constant repeti- the same idea as the young lady: "For tion wears out their melody. Writers purposes of economy in discussion, it for radio must be ever on the alert to is frequently convenient to speak in gauge when nouns and adjectives have terms of few values. Danger arises only suffered the same fate. American radio when speakers act as if these values ex- stations grind out a grand total of haust the possibilities or as if these 20,000,000 words each day and no dic- only are to be found." tionary or thesaurus can be expected to Of course, in a fifteen-minute com- record when overworked words have mentary there isn't much time for hair- exhausted their span. It must be em- splitting or pedantic niceties, but, phasized again that there is no inherent again, the semantic discipline of being quality in words themselves. Their use- aware of the potential pitfalls will help fulness is in exact proportion to their the broadcaster to avoid serious mis- effect upon people other than the takes. "The solution of human prob- speaker or writer. Words removed from lems," says Korsybski, "usually depends people have no separate existence; they upon a consciousness of the difficulties. have no significance. Words that are Even quicksand is not dangerous once unheard and unread are as meaningless we are forewarned." as a hole.within a vacuum. Broadcasting is transitory; its words Long ago, writers of radio copy stum- are much too swift to get caught in the bled on the fact that spoken language gaze of public scrutiny. Impressions are has a logic all its own. The human voice made or ideas conveyed in a fleeting can make statements which are unre- second. Each shortlived radio word lated when written down sound co- 400 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY herent. This purely auditory "logic" sense, but, strangely enough, it doesn't cannot always be defended, but it is the make good broadcasts. stuff of which human speech is made. Radio writers may agree with Haya- It obviously disturbs Dr. Lee, who ex- kawa that "a report with carefully se- claims, "How easy it is to speak 'coher- lected facts is more effective in result ently' by word association which sounds than outright and explicit judgments," 'good' but which is entirely unrelated but they know that the sequence of to life." steps which the medium demands is: Every practicing broadcaster knows (1) judgment, (2) description of "care- that he can make certain sentences fully selected facts," and (3) recapitula- "hang together" which on paper defy tion of judgment. every conventional law of logic and This procedure is necessary because sense. There is nothing necessarily broadcasting does not generally com- wrong about this. Recognized logic is mand the same degree of attention that a product of written language, through printed matter does. It is the old peda- which ideas can be best presented seri- gogical device of telling your listeners ally-one aspect at a time in a sequence what you are going to say, saying it, we have been visually trained to ex- and then summarizing what you have pect. This "logical" order of evaluation said. Or, as radio slang will express it: calls for descriptions first and then in- "hang a sign on it, say it, and then hang ferences. This makes good semantic the sign up again." "Odd Man Out" and "Monsieur Verdoux" ABRAHAM POLONSKY

ABRAHAM POLONSKY, screenwriter, formerly an no matter how superficial or hidden. English teacher and radio writer, is one of the edi- What do we mean when we that a tors of the Hollywood Quarterly. His review of The say Best Years of Our Lives appeared in the last work of art is written from the point of issue of the Quarterly. view of reality? Two recent films, Odd Man Out and I Monsieur Verdoux, offer interesting WHENEVERI think of modern times, I material in this regard. see a continuing crisis. Above the air- II planes that circle the globe, scientists tell us, is an atomic cloud, radioactive, The two films have the same abstract created at Bikini, and now a kind of theme: a man, or men, challenging the planet to our own. Upon the earth it- authority and going habits of a modern self every headline proclaims new dis- society. In Odd Man Out the leader of asters, and if every dream dreamed this a nameless revolutionary group in Ire- night were continuously flashed on a land holds up a mill to get money for screen we would see how general secret his organization. In the course of the problems had become. In such an age a robbery a mill representative is killed, great moral danger is that the individ- and the rest of the plot is taken up with ual may lose hope and with it the will the efforts of the police to capture the to struggle. wounded killer. In the end he is shot How, then, can the artist function in down by authority. this crisis to feed consciousness with In Monsieur Verdoux, a discharged iron and fragrance? It is a deep ques- bank teller tries to support his family tion, rooted in the ambiguities of the by marrying and murdering a number recent war and its qualified victory. of women for their money. Pursued by How can reality, reconstructed in art, the police, he successfully escapes every issue into experience as a further mas- trap until a new depression wipes out tery of the daily world? The objectless his resources, his family, and his will anxiety on so many faces will not be to resist. He is then captured, tried, and cured by metaphysical solutions. You executed. can take fear into the street and beat Odd Man Out uses the style of melo- it like a stupid, stubborn dog; but when drama and tragedy; Monsieur Ver- you have exhausted your temper on it doux, that of satire and low comedy. and returned into the house, it will be III sitting on your best rug, drooling saliva on the floor, panting to be cured again. From the opening shot of Odd Man The artist cannot pleasure his audience Out, we are immersed in the sentient except with some fragment of reality, atmosphere of a real city and a real E401 402 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY dramatic tension, for hunted men are ety for the safety of the Leader begins planning a crime which very soon will to pass into the question, Why is this involve death. The screen is crowded man important? What does his strug- with actual objects; people are opaque gle mean for him so that it can mean personalities; the light moves from real something for us? What, in short, is daylight through grayness to rain, and the conflict in the picture? What is the then the soft, spreading silentness of object of the terror, the suspense, the snow. The whole atmosphere of fog suffering, the meanness, and, for 'the and decay which so characterizes the girl,' the love that goes with the Leader milieu of the nineteenth-century real- into death intoned by machine guns istic novel or the street films of pre- from the police and covered gently with Hitler Germany floods the eye. Bars, the falling snow? joints, a boardinghouse; the endless The organization the Leader repre- rows of stoops and windows; factories sents is nameless, its people pursued by pushing their nighttime death upon the police. The city is Irish, the time the avenues; the fracturing glare of the recent wartime or its aftermath. traffic; a busload of people: all launch We do not know for what the organi- their scraping presentness upon the zation is fighting. We do not know in senses, even to the threatening eyes of what sense it represents the population the police-car headlights glaring into or some part of it. We do not know why our own. Such clothes, too, lived in, the police must suppress it. From the inhabited, holding the body shapes! reactions of people, we see that they There are flashes of reality that fear the police as well as the organiza- plunge deeper than the foregoing: the tion. The men in the organization men plotting the crime; the lovers in struggle to find the wounded Leader, the air-raid shelter as the Leader waits and we do not know why. Themselves, in the dark corner for them to leave; they are timid, garrulous, unheroic, the scenes with the children crying for like the ratty gangsters of our own films their pennies, and the little girl who of the 'twenties. One man alone shows points and will not talk until she scur- determination and skill; but the ques- ries off on her single skate. We are, we tion is, For what, for whom, to what feel, delivered into some darker kind end? of living reality. The feeling seems to be that a ques- There are collateral truths of a social tion larger than a historical one is being nature: the doctor will heal the dying posed, a question of some ominous gen- Leader so that he may be executed; eral truth being filtered through simu- the priest will confess him; the sym- lated realistic symbols. It is humanity pathetic will bandage him before fling- itself that is on trial. If we grant, with- ing him into the night; the bar owner out evidence, that it is for the peo- will brace him with a drink; the others ple, for truth, that the Leader offers will buy him or sell him. For the himself; then he offers himself against Leader, as he moves and is moved from no historically conditioned repressive place to place, thrusts his condition state, but just against authority itself. into parallel ways about him. In short, it is man's inner soul in con- But as the story moves on, our anxi- flict with abstract authority. "ODD MAN OUT" AND "VERDOUX" 403 It is here, early in the film, when though invested with all the trappings Denis, the aide to the Leader, makes a of realism, is nothing more than an violent effort to save him, and fails, enormous fantasy, a fantasy of the un- that the whole trend of the presenta- conscious, a confession, a private dream. tion falters. There is a gap, and now Odd Man Out is actually a stereotype we are offered a series of discursive of realism in the literary form of melo- incidents in which people discuss their drama. Its content, as differentiated inner relations to the helpless dying from its mechanical form, is essentially man and his use to them. A cabby, a antirealistic, a consideration of a meta- birdman, a priest, a mad painter, a doc- physical and not a social struggle. tor, even the girl in love, are all sud- In treating social events it is neces- denly flung into a deep inner struggle sary to know their precise historical to determine what their nonhistorical, conditions in order to evalute the oper- unconditioned responsibility is to ation of moral choices. In a metaphysi- authority. The steady, quiet, fatherly cal inquiry we are mainly interested in police official and the eternal law of defining the abstract terms for logical civic order which he represents, must manipulation. Nowadays, a whole liter- be satisfied, so each of the characters ary school has arisen, antirealistic in will now have his use of the helpless nature, which is devoted to deciding baggage of a man before authority whether organization-as-such is evil claims its creature. (not whether this organization is evil or This sudden shift in the midst of not), and whether man's inner agony the film from narrative to moralizing is a condition of physical existence (not is a traditional philosophical method, whether this social existence or that called raising the question from the ac- creates terror and anxiety in his spirit). cidental to the eternal. The film then Such questions are not considered use- proceeds at this high level to put the ful from the point of view of reality. struggle aside and considers a series of IV general notions out of relation to the first presentation of the subject matter. Monsieur Verdoux is more like a clever With the change of perspective the dream than a copy of reality. The nature of the scenes changes and one notion of turning Bluebeard into a wild vignette follows another, culmi- sentimental husband compelled to run nating in a hysterical and rather cliche a small murder mill on the side to morality play in an artist's garret. Noth- support a loving family and give them ing remains but to kill this wretched, all the things society expects families dying creature, and he and his girl are to have, is outrageously unrealistic. slain. Verdoux is a wretched criminal, busy The closer we examine Odd Man as a bee in his work, happy among his Out, its confusions of motive, its drift flowers, counting his ill-gotten money, from facing out toward what condi- terribly earnest about the stock market, tions morality to the inner world making love to miserly women, killing which denies it, the more adequately them; Verdoux is a bigamist, an adult- we estimate our own reactions, the erer, a murderer, a buffoon. clearer it becomes that the film, al- Cinamatographically, the film is awk 404 HOLLYWOOE QUARTERLY ward, the physical backgrounds im- most insane with satire. But artists have provised and unlived in, and the story more resources than those which inade- meanders confusedly from sequence to quate premises force upon their works; sequence. from the very depths of Chaplin's un- From the first stiff and awkward derstanding of needs, from his sensitive scene in which the members of a French awareness of our times, reality begins family snarl at one another and worry to infiltrate the film as passion does a about a missing sister, her money, just cause. and the new husband, through the Who is Verdoux? Suddenly we want bread-and-butter scene in the detective him not to be captured, because he is bureau in which the search for Ver- clearly caught in the dreadful hazard doux is presented for plot reasons, we of the day, the insecurity of the individ- know there will be no realism of char- ual in a world where social forces move acter, decor, or treatment. And then we like landslides without pity or charity are borne on a magic carpet into the or justice. This little bank clerk, faith- presence of Verdoux cutting his roses, ful to one bank for fifteen years, has nimble-footed in his garden, while an been thrown on his own resources by incinerator smokes behind him. This a depression. He provides for his fam- is the fabulous Charlie, a new version, ily in a way not commonly accepted as a ballet of pantomimed subtlety. It is socially useful. He applies himself with Charlie in another visitation on the an employee's devotion, a business- earth, the profound artist of a genera- man's acumen, a workman's skill, and a tion of millions, the imp of perversity philosopher's gaiety to the task chosen. whose defiance of reality has released And only when another depression for a stray moment the social wish to be wipes out his family does he lose heart. free. Neither the clumsy editing nor the It is economic depression, avarice, the stiff head-on acting of the other charac- indifference of society which are his ters takes away from the marvelous flow enemies. He holds them off for a while of gesture with which Chaplin has in scenes of desperate comic gravity, in contributed to our understanding of scenes of hysterical burlesque, and human vitality. even falls victim for a moment to his It is a strange, lost world that we in- own death-dealing intentions. At the habit in Monsieur Verdoux, a world end, all hope gone, he leads a merry filled with examples of the forlorn men- chase just for the fun of it, then gives tality of the little bourgeois. He is so himself up. devoted to his vice, which is gambling In court his defense is traditional. on the stock market, so precise in his Necessity forced him to run a small business, which is murder. business. He objects to being called a There are many styles of storytelling, mass murderer since his record is petty and the symphonic form is not neces- compared with that of the munition sarily the best; but the bits and pieces kings and the lords of our life, the war- of plot do not pattern themselves in riors, the statesmen, the great owners Verdoux. The scenes with his crippled of death. He refuses the consolation of wife and child are incredibly senti- religion, although he regrets that he mental, the scenes with his victims al- has missed some of the sweetness of life. "ODD MAN OUT" AND "VERDDUX" 405 And like countless honest rebels he goes ample, the contribution of Kafka, who to the guillotine. He has acted with all taught himself to write very calmly, as his will, tried to master existence. The if objectively, about the terrible di- defeat is his personal tragedy; the strug- lemma of human existence when all gle, his gay contribution to his fellow he knew was his own crisis, an inca- men. pacity to discharge his feelings into The real conflicts that men must face society as an act of will.) in our world are permitted to operate Like all works of art, or attempts at in Monsieur Verdoux, although the them, Odd Man Out and Monsieur artist lets them in through every device Verdoux are not complete illustrations but a door. Somehow we are not satis- of the point of view I am trying to de- fied by the film since it does not seem velop. The two tendencies in modern to have found an appropriate form for thought which they in part represent the conception. But it is a free film, are general orientations. A specific art made with an artist's freedom from cen- work is concrete, enormously complex, sorship, freely invented, and always influenced by current opinions of na- brought into relation to a living social ture and history, generated deeply by condition. He does not take refuge in the artist's specific personality and ex- some eternal disaster which a false con- perience, partly autonomous, richly at- dition of existence presupposes. Life is tached at numberless places to the not an endless wheel; it is an endless changing processes of life, inheriting set of chances. the fruitful as well as the sterile atti- tudes of the past, and plunging into v the future as a hope. The two films Now, we must not and cannot hope to under consideration are superior ac- be otherwise than most appreciative of complishments and will not ever be all art, no matter from what point of mere examples of any one thing. view it is created, for works of art are They do remind us, however, of a apt uses of a section of history which schism affecting much modern aesthetic is withdrawn from abstraction (and musing; it is not accidental that Odd therefore imaginative death) for the Man Out moves away from reality and uses of human consciousness. If in liter- Monsieur Verdoux toward it. Today, ature, film, and painting today there the aesthetic avant-garde is mystic, il- are perverse and terribly sad forms of liberal, and extremely sensitive to the human frustration and self-deception, psychology of self-consciousness. we who are also subject to both, even Faced with the violent social upheav- when we are not suffering them, should als of the last hundred years, the tur- be particularly sympathetic. Just be- moil of everyday choices, the horrible cause these distortions brood with mel- wars and plagues which we have en- ancholy clarity over the problems of dured, and the worse wars promised by certain artists, and just because we, too, our political and military leaders, many have been nourished on their neuroses delicate minds have ransacked intel- and, in part, think aesthetically in lectual history for malleable modes of terms of them, we must not abandon thought that will comfort them. In their particular contributions. (For ex- scholasticism they have found a nomen- 4o6 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY clature of exceptional rigor which gives the agonized pleasure of self-abase- them strength; in romantic idealism, a ment. breath of energy which gives them cour- It is somehow in this general anti- age; in existentialism and a distorted realistic context that the content of Freudism, a psychic primacy over outer Odd Man Out appears. You cannot reality which allays their fears; in sym- pretend to examine life without open- bolism and the works of Kafka, a lit- ing a floodgate of truths, for the real erary vocabulary which, like music, world is generous in revealing its sys- permits wishes to daydream their anxi- tems, its laws, eager to provide oppor- eties away. These artists have finally tunities for human success. But when "undiscovered" the real world and these truths conflict with presupposi- substituted an Innerlichkeit. They tions rooted in interest, then you must have turned away from history to vast obey the truth or refuse to look. In Odd internal structures of subconscious con- Man Out the storytellers refused to sciousness. Occupied by psychological look. To the senseless world they say: symptoms of the real world, they do there will always be authority, needed, not look beyond into causes, but esti- aided, loved; and there will always be mate, analyze, and dramatize their ap- rebels, both weak and heroic; and peo- parently autonomous inner materials. ple are torn with fears of self and not- As a result, the realists have discovered self; and man is a storm-tossed creature many an important truth about them- adrift on the dark seas of eternal con- selves (and us) and created some ravish- flict and misery; but if we have some ing works of sensitive discrimination; inner dignity, and charity toward but they have abandoned their audi- others and ourselves, while we cannot ence to the turmoil. The search for change life, we can learn to endure it. inner truth suddenly externalizes itself If we cannot change human nature and as a radical verbalism which accepts the the conditions of its existence, let us status quo no matter where. The dis- at least be kind to each other. Let us covery of man's inner agony yields up indeed be kind! We can get used to not to these artists controllable neuroses being used to life, as many a suffering while we are delivered over to objective neurotic can vouch for. This is, of agonies and uncontrollable death. The course, plain antirealistic perversity decision that the universe as such is so- with which the psychiatrist is more fa- cially dangerous leads to the luxury of miliar than I, and no decor of objec- not having to struggle in the market tivity, not real street lights, street signs, place and obscures the truth that social tenements, mills, not any real object or systems change and agony is not man's place, makes this position aesthetically condition on earth. realistic. These works are not created These are the long, dark steps lead- from the point of view of mastering ing down from the life of reason, of reality. You cannot master reality un- passion, of accomplishment, the retreat less you recognize its content, and this, from rational effort to irrational ab- despite its bravura clownishness, Mon- dication of the will. Such personalities sieur Verdoux does.Realism is based on are created for the concentration camps content. Realistic works are those cre- of authority, for the torture cells and ated from' a certain point of view with ODD MAN OUT" AND "VERDOUX" 407 respect to this content. The accidents as a talent in the distinction between of a literary verbal heritage or stylistic the true and the false.' modes are not central to the method of "'Let us only hope,' interposed realism. Goethe, 'that these intellectual arts In general, the orientation of works and dexterities are not frequently mis- written from the point of view of real- used, and employed to make the false ism is: (1) that objective reality is the true and the true false.' condition of man's consciousness, and, "'That certainly happens,' said He- therefore, his morality, not the other gel; 'but only with people who are way round; (2) that the life of human- mentally diseased.' ity cannot be made available for under- "'I therefore congratulate myself,' standing unless it is limited to a specific said Goethe, 'upon the study of nature, society and to conflicts in which men which preserves me from such a disease. are struggling, desiring creatures; and For here we have to deal with the infi- (3) that man's development is directly nitely and eternally true, which throws related to his ability progressively to off as incapable everyone who does not master reality, for that is the condition proceed purely and honestly with the of his social life. treatment and observation of his sub- I am reminded here of an old conver- ject. I am also certain that many a dia- sation between Hegel and Goethe as lectic disease would find a wholesome reported by Eckermann in 1827: remedy in the study of nature.' " "The discourse then turned upon Out. Universal-International the nature of dialectics. 'They are, in Odd Man Producer and director, Carol fact,' said Hegel, 'nothing more than (Rank), 1947. Reed. Novel, F. L. Green.Screenplay, Rob- the regulated, methodically cultivated ert Sherriff and F. L. Green. Monsieur spirit of contradiction which is innate Verdoux.United Artists,1947. Production, in all men, and which shows itself great direction,and screenplay,Charles Chaplin. e"This Happy Breed" and "Great Expectations" IRVING PICHEL

IRVING PICHEL, actor and director in theater and Lean. The earlier, This Happy Breed, film, is one of the editors of the Hollywood Quar- is a "realistic" terly. Two of his articles on film aesthetics and film in the sense of the production appeared in Volume I of the Quarterly. word commonly used in critical com- ment; the latter, a film play based on WHAT is it that invests a film with a Dickens' Great Expectations, has, for sense of reality? On the surface there curious reasons, a far greater sense of may be visual literalness and familiar- reality. Both are admirable works in ity. Beyond that, the characters and their respective genres and both are their actions are made to seem analo- marked by this brilliant director's im- gous to such actions as the spectators aginative and sensitive perception of can imagine themselves engaging in. character and his acute use of the screen The fictional motivations and drives medium. are accepted as indices of the realness This Happy Breed is the account of of the characters harboring them, so the life of a lower middle-class English far as they conform to the patterns ob- family between the two world wars, served by spectators in their own lives when they were not called upon to and in the lives of their friends and stand like greyhounds in the slips, relatives. This is reality in a limited straining upon the start, but showed sense, to be sure. It does not transcend the mettle of their pasture in the com- daily life or reveal unseen signifi- mon affairs of everyday life. It relates cances. It leaves the spectator pretty the manner in which they met the vicis- much where it finds him. He may, by situdes that we all encounter, and iden- identification with what is shown to be tifies, by the utter generality of the pretty much the common lot, be rather events, this one household with the more reconciled to his life than before, whole British breed. Here are stability but he has not been raised above it or and patience in the face of disappoint- stimulated to some degree of revolt ment and sudden death; here is the against it. Even the warmth that spreads capacity to find joy in the undifferenti- to him from the small heroisms or the ated loves and marriages of the univer- worthy sentiment which these "real" sal household; here is the unrelenting characters display is hardly more than rectitude that denies a mother's for- a flattering unction to his own soul. giveness for the child's wrongdoing, the The dividend is complacency, a coin rectitude that is of society and not of which does not purchase renewal of the heart. The performances of the en- spirit. tire cast, but particularly of Robert Two films recently shown throw Newton and Celia Johnson, are excep- some light on these speculations. Both tional in that instantly recognizable are the work of the same director, David types are set up by players who are not

C408 "HAPPY BREED" ANI D "EXPECTATIONS" 409 "typical." This is the reverse of the obligatory scene is far more moving common procedure, and the point is and its content by implication is far instantly clear if Mr. Newton's per- richer than any words or sobs or gri- formance in This Happy Breed is con- maces could have made it, played out trasted with that of the same actor in in all its predictable literalness. Such Odd Man Out.l evasion of trite scenes is a distinction Along with such uncommon per- only in an editorial sense, perhaps-an formances of commonplace roles there evidence of nicety and taste. For the is direction distinguished by invention rest, the people of the film are engag- and reticence in the face of common- ing, as our friends and neighbors are place scenes. One illustration will do. engaging, and the film's reality grows The mother, the mother-in-law, and out of their recognizability. They are the sister-in-law are gathered in the likable for their small virtues of kind- living room. We know that the father ness and friendliness, and their less ad- is watering the garden, though he is mirable traits we pardon as we pardon not visible through the French win- like traits in ourselves. dows at the back of the set. The mother Great Expectations is another mat- goes out to join him, off to the left end ter. of the garden, disappearing through Though Dickens wrote of lowly peo- the open glass doors. A married daugh- ple, he did not see them as ordinary, ter enters the room from the street door or he was not interested in the ordinary and tells her grandmother that her ones among the lowly. The Dickensian brother and his wife have been killed dramatis personae are tasty with the in an automobile accident. She is faced salt of eccentricity and their very names with the task of breaking the news to are as whimsical as the grotesquerie of her mother and father. The hysterical their appearance. The England of grandmother is led upstairs by the sis- Dickens may have the architecture and ter-in-law and the girl goes out into topography of its time, but it is popu- the garden to find her mother and lated with a breed fatter and thinner, father. The room is left empty. The baser and nobler, more feeling and less camera now beings to move slowly to feeling than that happy breed with the right, revealing more and more of whom we like to identify ourselves. the left end of the garden through the They range from caricature to idealiza- doors at the rear, as though it were try- tion, and even when they are cut of ing to find the family group out there cardboard their outlines are not those and overhear the telling of the tragic we see on the streets, unless we look news and witness the reaction of the through a satirically distorting lens. mother and father. The movement Nor do their actions follow the com- seems endless, but finally the camera mon pattern. They behave with greater reaches the side wall of the room and love and greater malice than ordinary can go no further. Still the room re- folk and their lives are filled with the mains empty. After another unendur- unpredictable and surprising. This is able the mother and father moment, 1Robert Newton Frank Gibbons in come in and sit played slowly down, speechless. This Happy Breed and Lucky in Odd Man This avoidance of the playing of an Out. 410 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY not merely a matter of selecting, of ig- themselves narrative. Each has an elab- noring the daily commonplace and tell- orate career with an end remote from ing the few red-letter events which may its beginning, both horizontally in time appear in any man's calendar. The and vertically in station. It follows that whole calendar is written in a different progressions so extreme shall be gov- ink. It is the rising and going to bed, erned not only by the interplay of the the drinking of tea and eating of food, divergent motivations of these charac- the wishing and thinking that fill the ters, but by the action of chance. Their hours between, that are seen and re- story may begin with the time-honored lated with an obliquity unlike normal "once upon a time," but they progress- vision. The result is the world of and this is equally important-with a Charles Dickens, a world as idiosyn- formula once used far more than now, cratic as that of a Daumier or a Van "and then it turned out that.. ." Coin- Gogh, a Poe or a Proust-a world seen cidence, this is called. The term in by a highly special refraction. literal recitals is derogatory. In wonder It follows almost inevitably that a tales of human lives it is a corollary of writer who deals with such grotto- the unexpected and the extraordinary, painting versions of humanity, and the blind fatality which alone can cause the Gothic actions of which only they the average life to deviate from a fixed are capable, should be primarily a schedule beginning with birth and tra- storyteller. This Dickens certainly was. versing through growth, struggle for He was a teller of tales, recounting position, love and marriage, the beget- what his extraordinary people did, and, ting and rearing of children, on to the because the people were extraordinary, terminus, death. he was freed from the obligation of It is an effort to set up a pattern sym- telling why they behaved as they did. bolic of the holiday stopover, the source Consider the gallery in Great Expec- of deviation in the planned journey tations: an escaped convict who be- which marks it with wonder or terror comes rich in Australia and, out of or delight or retribution not to be gratitude to young Pip who had helped accounted for by the timetable and him, enters secretly upon the project the ticket. It is the pattern of the un- of converting the little blacksmith boy planned, the design of the chaotic. into a gentleman; or Pip himself, who, Let it be said that Mr. Lean and his not by education, but by dress and associates have not striven for a Dick- tutelage in manners, acquires the ear- ensian flavor. Their production has marks and attitudes of a man of fashion not tried to reproduce this odd sub- but retains the inherent nobility of his Victorian world. They have accepted humble source; or the disappointed the characters of Dickens and under- bride, who grows old in her finery amid taken to rationalize them not psychol- cobwebs and rotting elegance to work ogically, but visually, thematically. out her vengeance on men by fostering They are not illustrations by "Boz," the love of innocent young Pip and and, lacking undue eccentricity of ap- Estella, whom she has reared to her pearance, they are realized on the own hardness of heart. The premises screen by players and a director who on which these folk are set up are in concede the possibility of their exist- "HAPPY BREED" AND "EXPECTATIONS" 411 ence as living persons. Their speech is sciousness and experience, are real as a credible speech because of the way efforts of the artist's mind to discover they utter it. Their actions are credible meaning and design in human life. In actions because of the utterly transpar- great literature a Hamlet is more real ent conviction with which they are as symbol and synthesis than any actual performed. The extraordinary is em- man who may have lived. braced as though it were everyday, the It is not often that a motion picture unusual as though it were the most set in a somewhat remote time and usual thing in the world. This is not to place, occupied by lives far removed say that anything is "thrown away." from daily commonplace, achieves this There is no embarrassed sloughing, no kind of immediacy. It may be noted self-conscious shying away from what that the scale of either fable I have could not be done or could not be said. mentioned, that of Noel Coward or The nature of these unnatural crea- that of Dickens, is not great. The im- tures has been so fully grasped, so com- portant thing about both pictures is pletely related to the processes of that director, writers, and producers actuality, that they come to seem actual. have realized fully in screen terms the In fact, it is their presentation as actu- content of the story as extraordinarily ality that points out significantly the vivid and believable extensions of hu- bearing which the seemingly actual has man experience. This is a thing to pro- on the real when there is no manifest duce immediate gratitude and great relationship between them. This is the expectation of what the same team may same process, better concealed, by achieve when they give their talents to which fantasy may have reality, by greater material. which takes on a that poetry reality This Happy Breed. Universal-Interna- transcends the literal. It is certainly tional (Cineguild), 1947. Director, David true that poetry or fantasy or a ro- Lean. Paly, Noel Coward.Screenplay, An- mantic are real in the exact thonyHavelock-Allan, Ronald Neame, and viewpoint Universal- sense in which and shoes and David Lean.Great Expectations. ships International(Rank), 1947. Director, David sealing wax are real. It is true, likewise, Lean. Novel, CharlesDickens. Production that imaginary figures, composed of and screenplay,Anthony Havelock-Allan, disparate but arranged elements of con- Ronald Neame, and David Lean. Notes and Communications

"movie" is for the footage that fol- AN REPORTS EYEWITNESS lowed. The cameras of the Signal Corps GENTLEMEN:I have just read "The and the British Army Film Units had Empty Noose," the radio script pub- caught the most grizzly details of the lished in the January issue of the Quar- Nazi charnelhouses-details which U. terly. Arnold Perl, who was intelligent S. exhibitors never allowed to sully our enough to write it, and CBS, which was American screen. There was no such responsible enough to carry it, deserve squeamishness at Nuremberg, and praise which only rarely can be ac- scenes from the murder mills of Ger- corded to radio. But there was one many and Austria followed each other error in "The Empty Noose," one small in a ghastly monotony of torn flesh and and perhaps inconsequential mistake, obscene death. and I'd like to point it out. It concerns By reel two the proud chief of the Keitel and the movies shown at Nurem- German High Command was finding it berg. difficult to sit so sternly at attention. Speaking of the atrocity film shown His shoulders began to droop and oc- as evidence in court, Mr. Perl writes: casionally his head dropped to his "Keitel sat with his arms folded. And chest. He began to cry, I believe, at when the showing was over, he whis- some time in reel four; a quick wipe at pered something to Schacht and then his eyes at first, and finally unabashed he laughed." tears. By the time the projectors high To begin with-and this is really up on the courtroom balcony cranked petty,-Keitel sat exactly seven seats out the sixth and last terrible reel, Field away and across a small aisle from Marshal Keitel was defeated as few gen- Schacht. It seems to me that the Allied erals have been defeated on a field of prosecution had enough on the Field battle. The lights went up quickly. He Marshal without Mr. Perl's adding ven- sat there, bent over and broken, mop- triloquism to the list of charges. No, ping his lined face with a soggy ball Keitel did not whisper to Schacht. Nor of handkerchief. Judge Lawrence an- did he laugh. As a matter of fact, of nounced an immediate recess, and the all the defendants, it was Keitel who prisoners filed out of the. dock, shep- seemed to suffer most that dramatic herded along by a squad of very grave morning in Nuremberg. M.P.'s. Keitel walked out the dock door As the lights went down for the first looking not like a field marshal but like movie shown at the trial, Keitel sat a sad and hopeless old man. stiffly in his Prussian version of the At Nuremberg we tried to find the West Point brace. He did a neat eyes reasons for this most extreme reaction left toward the screen and then folded of Keitel's. We knew, after all, that he his arms, as Mr. Perl says. The movie must have been aware of the results of started-and what an innocent term the savage orders that issued from his

E41'2 NOTES AND COMMUNICATIONS 413 OKW office in Berlin. This was the Hitler Youth leader, found it necessary man who ordered "suitable Draconian to put his head down in his arms sev- measures" against the resisting civilian eral times, as did Frank and Rosenberg. populations of Russia and Poland. Schacht, whose game it was to dissoci- This was the man who overrode all ate himself from the rest of the gang, staff objections to Nazi barbarity be- turned around in his seat and stared cause "the objections arise from con- up at the projection booth for all six ceptions of humane warfare-and this reels. He never once looked at the is the destruction of an ideology." No, screen-trying, no doubt, to suggest we knew that Field Marshal Keitel that the film simply didn't concern could not be so moved by the mere sight him. Goering, on the other hand, paid of blood and cruel death. As Arnold close attention, although he wagged his Perl writes, "His own orders were not head in simulated disgust more than a news to him." few times. Hess, next to him, stared up We decided finally that Keitel had at the screen with his mouth open and cried because that atrocity film had a well-practiced glaze in his eye. robbed him of his last conceit, his cher- Streicher, who always carried off first ished honor as a soldier of Germany; prize for lack of regeneration, watched it pried him loose from his last retreat, the entire picture with a fiendish fasci- the gentleman's agreement that long nation. If the world were peopled with protected captured military leaders. Streichers, that evidence film would For when Keitel saw that film he finally have become a box-office smasheroo. knew he was not being prosecuted as a One last word about this atrocity vanquished Nazi general but as a com- film. The night before the showing, it mon Nazi murderer. He must have occurred to us in the Documentary Evi- realized suddenly that in the world's dence Section that, with the lights off, eyes his still spruce uniform was no it would be impossible to watch the longer the dress of a military man, but reactions of the defendants to this evi- that of a concentration-camp sadist. Of dence. We realized we were to be all things, Keitel must have wanted rec- robbed of a most interesting and even ognition as a military man, a rather valuable (though that may have been glorious, if defeated, general. And so he rationalizing) experience. We decided cried. on the spot to run a neon tubing just The reactions of the other defend- beneath the top of the dock fence. This ants to this film were less extreme but would throw a soft light onto the de- equally interesting. Funk, the rolypoly fendants' faces without affecting the comedy character of the Nazi regime, screen. A grouchy crew of Army engi- ran Keitel a close second in break- neers was roused and set to work. By downs. The other three military men- midnight the tubing was installed. Admirals Raeder and Doenitz and (The Army of late 1945 is not to be General Jodl-managed to hold back confused with the Army of 1947.) the tears but nevertheless found the go- But the next morning early, during ing tough throughout. And probably a dry run, we discovered that the neon for the same reasons that so affected was throwing too much light and turn- their former C.O., Von Schirach, the ing the image milky on the screen. A 414 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY roll of brownmending tape was found THE FILMAND THE and, a little frantically, we began to stretchit along the tubing. By this time ZEITGEIST it was after nine and court opened at Now THAT the motion picture is receiv- ten sharp. What we had forgotten was ing the benefit of serious analysis and that the defendants were led into the constructive artistic criticism, it is be- dock, by twos, from 9 o'clock on. Thus, ginning to suffer as well from subjec- as I was nervously securing tape to neon tion to a technique of interpretation tubing, Goering and Hess were led in which has plagued literary criticism through the back door. Crouched over for many years in the learned journals. to attach the tubing from beneath, I This is the technique whereby a broad blocked Goering's route. (He found generalization of universal application it expedient to sidle into his seat is induced from an isolated and deliber- even when unobstructed.) An enlisted ately selected instance. Such a tech- man of some years, my first impulse nique, while rhetorically more effective was to come to attention at the sight and graphically more powerful, leads of so much expensive fabric. Goering, to the acceptance of assumptions the though stripped of his hardware, was validity of which is seriously open to still wearing his sky-blue Luftwaffe uni- question and to conclusions for which form, replete with high black boots. there is insufficient supporting evi- But I recovered nicely and stayed on dence. the job down there at boot level. Goer- Such an analysis is typified by John ing looked at the tubing a moment and Houseman's provocative article in the pursed his lips. Then he looked down January Hollywood Quarterly, en- at me and said, "Kinema, nein? Kin- titled, "Today's Hero." It is Mr. House- ema." (It is unfortunate, but we must man's thesis that since the motion admit that this man's mind was still picture directly reflects the "emotional keen after many years of narcotics and habits and immediate preoccupations degeneration.) Hess, who was still feign- of its time," the amoral sadism and un- ing insanity at the time, went into perturbed brutality of the current his act. "Ach! Kinema, Kinema," he tough cycle is an index of the current said, clapping his hands together. His American mores, and that the aimless, body bobbed a few times like an ex- amoral "tough" protagonist of these cited child's; "Ach! Kinema." Goering films is the hero of the new American shrugged his shoulders at me in a man- myth. It is an interesting and disturb- ner which his co-defendant Streicher ing theory, but Mr. Houseman mar- would have called most non-Aryan. shals some highly selected evidence to Then he smiled a big smile while Hess support it. beamed and clapped his hands to- The hero of The Big Sleep is taken as gether. representative of the genre. Unkempt, Half an hour later those smiles were uncared-for, without purpose and with- wiped off their faces as they went to out hope, he is an unenviable, charac- the movies in Nuremberg. And Keitel terless mug, but-says Houseman-our didn't laugh either, Mr. Perl. national hero. This, I submit, is a gen- STUARTSCHULBERG eralization of tenuous validity. Granted 414 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY roll of brownmending tape was found THE FILMAND THE and, a little frantically, we began to stretchit along the tubing. By this time ZEITGEIST it was after nine and court opened at Now THAT the motion picture is receiv- ten sharp. What we had forgotten was ing the benefit of serious analysis and that the defendants were led into the constructive artistic criticism, it is be- dock, by twos, from 9 o'clock on. Thus, ginning to suffer as well from subjec- as I was nervously securing tape to neon tion to a technique of interpretation tubing, Goering and Hess were led in which has plagued literary criticism through the back door. Crouched over for many years in the learned journals. to attach the tubing from beneath, I This is the technique whereby a broad blocked Goering's route. (He found generalization of universal application it expedient to sidle into his seat is induced from an isolated and deliber- even when unobstructed.) An enlisted ately selected instance. Such a tech- man of some years, my first impulse nique, while rhetorically more effective was to come to attention at the sight and graphically more powerful, leads of so much expensive fabric. Goering, to the acceptance of assumptions the though stripped of his hardware, was validity of which is seriously open to still wearing his sky-blue Luftwaffe uni- question and to conclusions for which form, replete with high black boots. there is insufficient supporting evi- But I recovered nicely and stayed on dence. the job down there at boot level. Goer- Such an analysis is typified by John ing looked at the tubing a moment and Houseman's provocative article in the pursed his lips. Then he looked down January Hollywood Quarterly, en- at me and said, "Kinema, nein? Kin- titled, "Today's Hero." It is Mr. House- ema." (It is unfortunate, but we must man's thesis that since the motion admit that this man's mind was still picture directly reflects the "emotional keen after many years of narcotics and habits and immediate preoccupations degeneration.) Hess, who was still feign- of its time," the amoral sadism and un- ing insanity at the time, went into perturbed brutality of the current his act. "Ach! Kinema, Kinema," he tough cycle is an index of the current said, clapping his hands together. His American mores, and that the aimless, body bobbed a few times like an ex- amoral "tough" protagonist of these cited child's; "Ach! Kinema." Goering films is the hero of the new American shrugged his shoulders at me in a man- myth. It is an interesting and disturb- ner which his co-defendant Streicher ing theory, but Mr. Houseman mar- would have called most non-Aryan. shals some highly selected evidence to Then he smiled a big smile while Hess support it. beamed and clapped his hands to- The hero of The Big Sleep is taken as gether. representative of the genre. Unkempt, Half an hour later those smiles were uncared-for, without purpose and with- wiped off their faces as they went to out hope, he is an unenviable, charac- the movies in Nuremberg. And Keitel terless mug, but-says Houseman-our didn't laugh either, Mr. Perl. national hero. This, I submit, is a gen- STUARTSCHULBERG eralization of tenuous validity. Granted NOTES AND COMMUNICATIONS 415 that the description of Philip Marlowe it shared honors with Notorious, Holi- is accurate, it is still a description only day in Mexico, The Strange Love of of Philip Marlowe. To analyze a single Martha Ivers,Monsieur Beaucaire, The movie is not to lay bare the spirit of an Killers, Gallant Journey, If I'm Lucky, entire people. Three Little Girls in Blue, and Two Mr. Houseman will, of course, reply Guys from Milwaukee. that his analysis of The Big Sleep can There are twenty-four separate films be applied, with similar results, to the in this group, of which only three-The entire cycle of tough films, and that it Big Sleep, The Strange Love of Martha is this phenomenon of the cycle which Ivers, and The Killers-can really be makes the use of a single sample a valid called part of the tough cycle as defined representative of the whole. But a sam- by Mr. Houseman. There is brutality ple should represent the major charac- in Two YearsBefore the Mast; there is teristics of the universe for which it neurosis and psychosis in Spellbound, stands-and in this instance the uni- Leave Her to Heaven, Mildred Pierce, verse is the overwhelming popular and Love Letters; but none of these preference in film entertainment. The exhibits the "listless, fatalistic despair" tough movie is, according to Mr. House- which is the characteristic that marks man, a fairly accurate reflection of the the cycle of "toughs." At least half the neurotic personality of the United films listed are pure entertainment, States of America in the year 1947, as light and gay, preferably with music; attested by its current popularity. But yet no claim is made that postwar how popular is the tough movie? How America is a lighthearted, song-in-its- overwhelming is the popular prefer- heart haven of romance and the joys ence for this kind of entertainment? Is of youth. If Mr. Houseman's technique The Blue Dahlia a truer reflection of is valid, such a claim ought to follow. the returning veteran than The Best In an article in Vogue for January Years of Our Lives? 15, 1947, in which Mr. Houseman elab- For the year 1946, the year of the re- orates on this same theme, he calls for lease of The Big Sleep, the top money- support upon Siegfried Kracauer, who makers, according to Variety, were has made a very interesting analysis of Bells of St. Mary's, Leave Her to the horror film as a reflection of the Heaven, Blue Skies, Road to Utopia, American state of mind, and who draws Spellbound, The Green Years, Adven- some terrifying parallels between the ture, Easy to Wed, Notorious, and Two current American movie trend with YearsBefore the Mast. A Gallup poll of that which preceded the rise of Hitler- moviegoers to ascertain their favorite ism in Germany. Kracauer finds that, films for the year 1946 lists Bells of St. "aside from the genuine and constant Mary's, State Fair, The Green Years, affinity between sadism and fascism, it Mildred Pierce, Leave Her to Heaven, seems probable that the sadistic ener- Night and Day, Anna and the King of gies at large in our society at the present Siam, Spellbound, Rhapsody in Blue, moment are specifically suited to pro- and Love Letters. And in the last week vide fuel for fascism ... it is in... this of September, when The Big Sleep was emotional preparedness for fascism one of the top-ranking box-office draws, that the real danger lies." To point his 416 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY moral, Kracauer contrasts the Ameri- they will deduce. Mr. Houseman never can film with the postwar Italian film questions the validity of a deduction, as exemplified in Open City, and finds based on a very poor screen adaptation in the latter a moral fiber and an ideo- of a novel published in 1934, to provide logical assurance lacking in the Amer- an insight into the American mind of ican examples he analyzes. It is not the 1946-47. purpose of this communication to eval- The thing to do, then, is to see to it uate the arguments of Mr. Kracauer. that the 1967 analysts view the proper He is mentioned here because in the film in the projection room of the fu- Vogue article Houseman borrows the ture. If they see The Razor's Edge, they example of Open City to support his will deduce that our generation was an thesis, too. But whereas Kracauer keeps intensely earnest group of mystical phi- his comparison valid by contrasting losophers who gladly renounced the Open City with American-made films usual pleasures of this world in order on a similar theme, Houseman makes to find spiritual peace. From State Fair his comparison between Open City and they can conjure up a nation of simple The Big Sleep, films which are non- agrarians whose major problems cen- comparable. The contrast they present tered around the prize hog and spiked seems to support the thesis that the mincemeat. And what would they American film is without moral stam- think of a generation reflected in Road ina, but to draw any conclusions from to Utopia? such a comparison is as legitimate as to A careful study of the whole universe characterize European morality by the of the popular film would be nearer film Ecstasy, and to argue the superior- reality than that of a single instance. ity of American morality on the basis But neither is truly a measure of "to- of The Song of Bernadette. day's national taste." What must con- In the Vogue article there is a para- stantly be borne in mind is that an graph which sums up very clearly what analysis of film content provides an in- is wrong with this kind of selected- sight only into the producers' idea of sample investigation: "One wonders the national taste, and not the national what impression people will get of con- taste itself. To select a single isolated temporary life where The Postman Al- example which supports a precon- ways Rings Twice is run in a projection ceived thesis is thus to remove one's room twenty years hence. They will de- study that much farther from the real- duce, I believe, that the United States ity one wishes to measure. of America in the year following the LESTERASHEIM end of the Second World War was a OPERATION CELLULOID land full of enervated, frightened peo- ple with spasms of high vitality but a IN MID-1945,the War Department in- low moral sense-a hung-over people stituted a regular motion picture serv- with confused objectives groping their ice to bring carefully selected films to way through a twilight of insecurity German prisoners of war working in and corruption." If the people of and around military and naval installa- twenty years hence adopt Mr. House- tions throughout the United States. man's technique, that is exactly what The films were mostly i6-mm. prints 416 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY moral, Kracauer contrasts the Ameri- they will deduce. Mr. Houseman never can film with the postwar Italian film questions the validity of a deduction, as exemplified in Open City, and finds based on a very poor screen adaptation in the latter a moral fiber and an ideo- of a novel published in 1934, to provide logical assurance lacking in the Amer- an insight into the American mind of ican examples he analyzes. It is not the 1946-47. purpose of this communication to eval- The thing to do, then, is to see to it uate the arguments of Mr. Kracauer. that the 1967 analysts view the proper He is mentioned here because in the film in the projection room of the fu- Vogue article Houseman borrows the ture. If they see The Razor's Edge, they example of Open City to support his will deduce that our generation was an thesis, too. But whereas Kracauer keeps intensely earnest group of mystical phi- his comparison valid by contrasting losophers who gladly renounced the Open City with American-made films usual pleasures of this world in order on a similar theme, Houseman makes to find spiritual peace. From State Fair his comparison between Open City and they can conjure up a nation of simple The Big Sleep, films which are non- agrarians whose major problems cen- comparable. The contrast they present tered around the prize hog and spiked seems to support the thesis that the mincemeat. And what would they American film is without moral stam- think of a generation reflected in Road ina, but to draw any conclusions from to Utopia? such a comparison is as legitimate as to A careful study of the whole universe characterize European morality by the of the popular film would be nearer film Ecstasy, and to argue the superior- reality than that of a single instance. ity of American morality on the basis But neither is truly a measure of "to- of The Song of Bernadette. day's national taste." What must con- In the Vogue article there is a para- stantly be borne in mind is that an graph which sums up very clearly what analysis of film content provides an in- is wrong with this kind of selected- sight only into the producers' idea of sample investigation: "One wonders the national taste, and not the national what impression people will get of con- taste itself. To select a single isolated temporary life where The Postman Al- example which supports a precon- ways Rings Twice is run in a projection ceived thesis is thus to remove one's room twenty years hence. They will de- study that much farther from the real- duce, I believe, that the United States ity one wishes to measure. of America in the year following the LESTERASHEIM end of the Second World War was a OPERATION CELLULOID land full of enervated, frightened peo- ple with spasms of high vitality but a IN MID-1945,the War Department in- low moral sense-a hung-over people stituted a regular motion picture serv- with confused objectives groping their ice to bring carefully selected films to way through a twilight of insecurity German prisoners of war working in and corruption." If the people of and around military and naval installa- twenty years hence adopt Mr. House- tions throughout the United States. man's technique, that is exactly what The films were mostly i6-mm. prints NOTES AND COMMUNICATIONS 417 selected for the amount and subtlety Prior to the showing, the German- of Americana they could impart. The language synopsis prepared by U.S. films were "censored" only in the sense Army linguists was read to the prison- that they were carefully previewed by ers to give them an idea of what the officials of the Office of the Provost story was about. All but two of the pic- Marshal General to eliminate any films tures were in original English with no whose theme, intent, or implications subtitles. The two German-language might reduce the working efficiency of films were produced in the middle the prisoners, or incite them to riot or 'thirties in Germany, and as compared rebellion. None of the films were cut in with 1943 and 1944 releases from Hol- any way. If there were scenes consid- lywood, suffered from inferior tech- ered dangerous to the project, or other- nology. wise objectionable, the film was not Motion pictures were reported by approved for showing to the prisoners. the prisoners to be the most favored This may be considered a tribute to source of diversion. Many paid to see the producers, directors, and writers, the same film several times. It should whose complete work was either ac- be pointed out that most of the pris- cepted or rejected, but not altered to oners were young men, about the same served the intended purpose. age as the average American G.I. Most In the western one-third of the of them had been captured in Africa, United States, I supervised the distribu- Sicily, or Italy, and had been out of tion and exhibition of the 106 feature action for at least a year when this film films which played a twice-a-week service started. Further, the ardent and schedule at prisoner-of-war camps for troublesome Nazis had been weeded a twelve-month period ending in out and were all concentrated in one May, 1946. At each camp, the canteen Arizona camp. officer-a U.S. Army officer-reported The feature-film program was sold as showings and attendance, and com- entertainment-and it was entertain- mented on the reactions of the prison- ment. As another project, Frank Ca- ers. As a rule, these reports were heavily pra's film series, Why We Fight, and influenced by the German prisoner- films of German concentration-camp projectionist who actually handled the atrocities were shown to German pris- showing and listened for audience reac- oners also. But these films cost the tions. prisoners nothing, except maybe their Attendance was voluntary, and the dinner, for the showings were compul- price of admission was fifteen cents in sory. canteen coupons. German-language For special attention, I have selected synopses of the pictures were posted on the "Box-OfficeTop Ten," the pictures camp bulletin boards as advertising, which enjoyed the greatest popularity, and often artists among the prisoners and the "Box-Office Bottom Ten," the would make posters for added pub- least popular pictures. The figures licity. As no theater facilities were avail- given in the right-hand column below able, the 16-mm. showings were held represent average attendance per show- in mess halls or other locations where ing, based on 175 to 200 showings of there were few building obstructions. each of the 106 films. 418 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY

In order of their popularity, these were the "Box-OfficeTop Ten." Title Dream of Spring ...... German-language musical; life of Schubert .... 230 My Pal Wolf...... Dog and children story. Sharyn Moffett ...... 18o There's Magic in Music.... Musical with children. Suzanna Foster...... 174 You Were Never Lovelier.. Musical, fantasy. Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire.. 171 Royal Lovers ...... German-language musical ...... 169 The Great Waltz ...... Strauss, musical. Louise Rainer, Meliza Korjus. 167 Captains Courageous .....Sea drama. Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew 165 The Mighty Treve ...... Dog story. Noah Berry, Jr., Barbara Read...... 162 A Guy Named Joe ...... War, aviation, fantasy. Spencer Tracy, Irene D unne ...... 145 30 Seconds over Tokyo....War, aviation, factual. Van Johnson, Spencer T racy ...... 141

In order of their unpopularity, these were the "Box-OfficeBottom Ten." Objective: Burma ...... War drama. Errol Flynn ...... 101 Keys of the Kingdom ...... Religious drama. Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell ...... i08 Courageous Mr. Penn .....Historical (British). Deborah Kerr, C. Evans. . . 11 The Impatient Years ...... Readjustment. Jean Arthur, Lee Bowman ..... 114 Purple Heart ...... American P.O.W. drama. Dana Andrews, Richard Conte ...... 115 Guadalcanal Diary ...... Combat, factual. Preston Foster, Lloyd Nolan.. 120 Duke of West Point...... Comedy, romance. Louis Hayward, Joan Fontaine ...... 120 Adventures of Mark Twain . Biographical. Fredric March, Alexis Smith..... 129 Back to Bataan ...... Combat, drama. John Wayne ...... 132 Mr. Winkle Goes to War... War, drama, comedy. Edward G. Robinson.... 134

These represent the top and the bot- of entertainment on a synopsis and tom of the circuit. The great middle word-of-mouth publicity. ground of 86 features averaged 134 to Pictures mainly attractive by reason 141 prisoners attending each showing. of scintillating dialogue were, of course, In this middle ground were such at a considerable disadvantage. Note Academy Award winners as Going My that two films in the "top ten" featured Way and How Green Was My Valley, dogs, which express themselves in a uni- such top stars as Cary Grant, Clark versal language, and that both Ger- Gable, Ingrid Bergman, Judy Garland, man-language films were in the "top and Mickey Rooney; such directors five." and producers as DeMille, Milestone, The prisoners seemed to prefer mu- Capra, and Zanuck. Without neon sicals, phantasies, and action pictures. lights, marquees, and ballyhoo the Ger- In general they steered clear of war pic- man prisoners relied for their choice tures, because, as many of them said, NOTES AND CONIMUNICATIONS 419 "We have been in front lines for two Japan) was filmed especially to show and three years and in stockades ever up German prisoners of war by com- since. We want no war in our movies." parison. They resented the film and There's Magic in Music, which was walked out in droves. They felt sorry the top American musical with the Ger- for "Mr. Winkle"-to think that a man mans, was a 1941 production featuring of his age had to go to war!-not know- Allan Jones, Suzanna Foster, and Di- ing that late in the war Germany was ana Lynn, supported by a variety of defended by soldiers from ten to teen-age musicians who enthusiasti- seventy years old. They also thought, cally recorded no fewer than twenty however, that most of the picture was classical and semiclassical numbers on propaganda. the sound track. During its original run The "enemy" in nearly all the pic- in American theaters it did only aver- tures shown to the German prisoners age business, but on this German pris- was Japan, and for the most part the oner-of-war circuit it outgrossed Rose Germans fell in with the story and ac- Marie, The Great Victor Herbert, cepted the Japanese, "honorary Ary- two Bing Crosby films, two of Deanna ans" though they were, as the enemy. Durbin's, and one of Judy Garland's. Still others protested that atrocities, In the Top Ten were two war films, like those in Purple Heart and Back to contrary to all other evidence that war Bataan, were merely American propa- films were "box-office poison" with ganda with no basis in fact. these fallen warriors. It may be a coin- After the novelty of the entertain- cidence that both films were written by ment film service wore off, the prisoners Dalton Trumbo and that both fea- began to get critical, and even griped tured Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson. about the quality of some of the pic- Trumbo allows a maximum of expres- tures. They complained, for example, sive action and a minimum of dialogue, about the acting in DeMille's more as a matter of principle. An unusual than fifteen-year-old King of Kings. In comment on the heaven scene in A Guy general, however, the project was a suc- Named Joe came from one German cessful one. The right to gripe may who contended that heaven was mis- have been only a small part of what represented; it didn't look authentic to the prisoners learned of the American him. of life. way y ofl. E. GORDON back JAY Captains Courageous brought Visual Aids Codrdinator, old memories for some of the prisoners. Headquarters Sixth Army Under the title Manuel the German- ACADEMY OF TELEVISION language version in 1937 had been shown in Hitler Youth camps all over ARTS AND SCIENCES Germany. THE Academy of Television Arts and The Bottom Ten either dealt with Sciences, headed by Edgar Bergen, was the war or were so bound up in dia- set up in Hollywood for community logue that the Germans could not fol- service. It brings together persons ac- low the story. Some of the prisoners tively engaged in television or in its thought Purple Heart (a story of Amer- allied arts and sciences to form a clear- ican fliers captured and tortured in inghouse for information about televi- NOTES AND CONIMUNICATIONS 419 "We have been in front lines for two Japan) was filmed especially to show and three years and in stockades ever up German prisoners of war by com- since. We want no war in our movies." parison. They resented the film and There's Magic in Music, which was walked out in droves. They felt sorry the top American musical with the Ger- for "Mr. Winkle"-to think that a man mans, was a 1941 production featuring of his age had to go to war!-not know- Allan Jones, Suzanna Foster, and Di- ing that late in the war Germany was ana Lynn, supported by a variety of defended by soldiers from ten to teen-age musicians who enthusiasti- seventy years old. They also thought, cally recorded no fewer than twenty however, that most of the picture was classical and semiclassical numbers on propaganda. the sound track. During its original run The "enemy" in nearly all the pic- in American theaters it did only aver- tures shown to the German prisoners age business, but on this German pris- was Japan, and for the most part the oner-of-war circuit it outgrossed Rose Germans fell in with the story and ac- Marie, The Great Victor Herbert, cepted the Japanese, "honorary Ary- two Bing Crosby films, two of Deanna ans" though they were, as the enemy. Durbin's, and one of Judy Garland's. Still others protested that atrocities, In the Top Ten were two war films, like those in Purple Heart and Back to contrary to all other evidence that war Bataan, were merely American propa- films were "box-office poison" with ganda with no basis in fact. these fallen warriors. It may be a coin- After the novelty of the entertain- cidence that both films were written by ment film service wore off, the prisoners Dalton Trumbo and that both fea- began to get critical, and even griped tured Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson. about the quality of some of the pic- Trumbo allows a maximum of expres- tures. They complained, for example, sive action and a minimum of dialogue, about the acting in DeMille's more as a matter of principle. An unusual than fifteen-year-old King of Kings. In comment on the heaven scene in A Guy general, however, the project was a suc- Named Joe came from one German cessful one. The right to gripe may who contended that heaven was mis- have been only a small part of what represented; it didn't look authentic to the prisoners learned of the American him. of life. way y ofl. E. GORDON back JAY Captains Courageous brought Visual Aids Codrdinator, old memories for some of the prisoners. Headquarters Sixth Army Under the title Manuel the German- ACADEMY OF TELEVISION language version in 1937 had been shown in Hitler Youth camps all over ARTS AND SCIENCES Germany. THE Academy of Television Arts and The Bottom Ten either dealt with Sciences, headed by Edgar Bergen, was the war or were so bound up in dia- set up in Hollywood for community logue that the Germans could not fol- service. It brings together persons ac- low the story. Some of the prisoners tively engaged in television or in its thought Purple Heart (a story of Amer- allied arts and sciences to form a clear- ican fliers captured and tortured in inghouse for information about televi- 420 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY sion and a center for its dissemination casters' Association for stations, the So- to the rest of the country. ciety of Television Engineers (a local Only two television stations are now Hollywood group), unions represent- in operation in Los Angeles, but an ad- ing various talent groups and operat- ditional five are scheduled for the end ing technicians, and even a Television of the year. The Academy's work at the Producers' Association in the East. The present time is, therefore, essentially Academy includes members of each of preparatory to full-station operation these bodies and is attempting, success- in 1948. Planning committees have fully so far, to express the common in- been set up in various fields: member- terests of all. ship, awards, technical papers, station One of these groups brought before relations, agency relations, finance and the Academy's membership the prob- budget, publicity, library, speakers' bu- lem of helping television to get under reau, engineering standards, publica- way in Los Angeles. It was reported to tions, panel discussions, and education. the Board of Directors that only an The committee form of organization estimated 15 per cent of the ioo,ooo has already demonstrated its value in sets to be manufactured in 1947 were the six months of the Academy's opera- scheduled for the Los Angeles area. tion. The desire for information about Recognizing the importance of such a television is enormous in Hollywood, problem to all aspects of the develop- and it has been convenient to refer in- ment of television, the Board called a quiries to the appropriate committees. special meeting to which local and na- For example, the question of how to tional video-station operators and rep- fit television into a state-wide audio- resentatives of the set manufacturers visual conference was referred to the were invited. The discussion revealed a Education Committee, staffed with set of mutually inhibiting factors in leading educators in the Los Angeles the progress of television. Programs area. Through the Los Angeles Times must be financed, as in radio, by spon- television station, arrangements were sors; but sponsors will not spend their made to send a mobile closed-circuit money on television until a large audi- unit to the conference for demonstra- ence is available. Meanwhile, the pub- tion. lic wants to see fine programs before Since the first demonstration of tele- buying sets; and sustaining programs vision in this country twenty years ago, find it difficult to maintain high levels vast sums of money have been invested of entertainment with low budgets. in engineering research. In the process, While there is obviously no single wonderful techniques and devices, yet answer for so complex a situation, it is to be explored, and a highly skilled anticipated that the Academy through personnel, have evolved. Broadcasters its connections with the entire field can with large investments in equipment begin to present preliminary sugges- and real estate have speeded the devel- tions. Providing a meeting place for opment of forms of management in the discussion of the problem was the television. Already each of the branches first step. of the industry has its representative Another persistent problem with organizations: the Television Broad- which the Academy must deal is the NOTES AND COMMUNICATIONS 421 current controversy over whether Art Linkletter; "Television in Los An- filmed or live-action programs will be geles," by Klaus Landsberg; and "Films more advantageous for television. Films versus Life Action," with Don McNa- provide for editing and unlimited mara speaking for film and Patrick scope; live action gives immediacy and Michael Cunning for live action. spontaneity to broadcasting. While SYDCASSYD controversy continues, the conclusion Executive Coordinator grows that both will be used. The Awards Committee has, accordingly, HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY set sections for live-action up separate ASSOCIATES and film programs. THE Writers The Awards Committee's prepara- Hollywood Mobilization, which has with the tory work is particularly important. It jointly sponsored will recommend to the Board the cate- University of California the publica- tion of the has gories in which awards shall be given Hollywood Quarterly, transferred its interest in the and the standards upon which judg- periodical to a of ments shall be made. The general mem- group writers, directors, actors, and other craftsmen in mo- bership, however, will make the final producers, decisions in establishing standards of tion picture and radio work who share achievement in television. a common interest in the techniques of fields and The monthly meetings of the Acad- those their social, educa- and aesthetic functions. This emy are announced in the local press. tional, will be known as the The programs for these meetings have group Hollywood been: "Round-Table Discussion of Quarterly Associates and will be self- It will act in an Programming," with Ronald Oxford perpetuating. advisory as moderator; "Talent Looks at Tele- capacity in the publication of the vision," Gayle Gitterman; "Creative Quarterly and will appoint the three Television Writing," by Jack Stuart; editors formerly chosen by the Mobili- "Audience Participation Shows," by zation.-THE EDITORS. NOTES AND COMMUNICATIONS 421 current controversy over whether Art Linkletter; "Television in Los An- filmed or live-action programs will be geles," by Klaus Landsberg; and "Films more advantageous for television. Films versus Life Action," with Don McNa- provide for editing and unlimited mara speaking for film and Patrick scope; live action gives immediacy and Michael Cunning for live action. spontaneity to broadcasting. While SYDCASSYD controversy continues, the conclusion Executive Coordinator grows that both will be used. The Awards Committee has, accordingly, HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY set sections for live-action up separate ASSOCIATES and film programs. THE Writers The Awards Committee's prepara- Hollywood Mobilization, which has with the tory work is particularly important. It jointly sponsored will recommend to the Board the cate- University of California the publica- tion of the has gories in which awards shall be given Hollywood Quarterly, transferred its interest in the and the standards upon which judg- periodical to a of ments shall be made. The general mem- group writers, directors, actors, and other craftsmen in mo- bership, however, will make the final producers, decisions in establishing standards of tion picture and radio work who share achievement in television. a common interest in the techniques of fields and The monthly meetings of the Acad- those their social, educa- and aesthetic functions. This emy are announced in the local press. tional, will be known as the The programs for these meetings have group Hollywood been: "Round-Table Discussion of Quarterly Associates and will be self- It will act in an Programming," with Ronald Oxford perpetuating. advisory as moderator; "Talent Looks at Tele- capacity in the publication of the vision," Gayle Gitterman; "Creative Quarterly and will appoint the three Television Writing," by Jack Stuart; editors formerly chosen by the Mobili- "Audience Participation Shows," by zation.-THE EDITORS. Book Reviews

has been done in this field. Most of FILMS AS HISTORY these studies have been concerned with From to Hitler: A Caligari Psycho- the analysis of literary products, either the German Film. logical History of from the point of view of under- SIEGFRIED KRACAUER.Princeton By standing the nature of the creative pro- Press. University 1947 cess itself or from the point of view of INTOthe sound and fury of the current understanding the personality of par- discussions about the assertedly evil ticular literary artists. Very few at- effects of films on attitudes and be- tempts have been made to utilize liter- havior, and of their possible uses ary content as a way of understanding as propaganda with sinister intent, the basic character of a given society. Kracauer has introduced a sobering It is Kracauer's intention not only to thought. It is his thesis that in motion do this but, by implication, to indicate pictures we find mirrored the hidden that such creative materials may be mental processes of a people. Rather used as a basis for prediction of the di- than shaping attitudes, they reflect rection in which a given society is going. them. He has written a book, appropri- The social-psychological implica- ately subtitled A Psychological His- tions of such a project are so important tory, in which films are treated as rec- and the potentialities for the science of ords in which the underlying predis- society are so significant, that it is neces- positions of the German people during sary to scrutinize carefully the psycho- the critical period petween the end of logical assumptions on which the whole World War I and the rise of Hitler may enterprise rests. It is not the purpose be detected. According to Kracauer, the of the present reviewer to appraise Mr. study of this record reveals the forces, Kracauer's book as a contribution to overwhelming compulsions, and collec- the history of the film (this will be done tive dispositions which anticipated Hit- in a subsequent issue of the Quarterly), ler and, indeed, made Nazism inevit- but to examine the major theses from able. This record may not be read by which his analysis proceeds. those who run-it is an inner and secret Briefly, it is Kracauer's assumption history and requires a special psycho- that films may be analyzed at two levels. logical apparatus for its analysis and At the top level are found their ex- interpretation. plicit credos. At the deeper level "more The psychologizing of art and partic- or less below the dimension of con- ularly of literature is not, of course, a sciousness" we find manifestations of novel undertaking. In recent years, those psychological dispositions, de- under the pressures of the Freudian sires, and compulsions which character- psychologists as well as the social scien- ize a whole people-in this case, the tists concerned with cultural phenom- German people between the years 1920 ena, a rather large amount of writing and 1933.

C422 BOOK REVIEWS 423 According to Kracauer, the reason selves with the imperial regime. "Face that films, rather than other artistic to face with their conscience they had media, reflect the groups' mentality, is to admit that they identified themselves a double one: first, films are the prod- with the very ruling class they opposed. uct of a large number of persons rather They represented both Germanys." than the result of the creative act of a 2. Deep-seated feelings of insecurity single mind; and second, films are in- and isolation, which is indicated in tended to reach a large audience (Kra- such films as The Golem (1915) and cauer calls it the "anonymous multi- Homunculus (1916). In both these films tude") and hence may be expected to figures are created which simulate satisfy "mass desires." With respect to human beings but which lack certain this second point Kracauer is careful essential human traits and conse- to state that it is not so much a matter quently are, or feel themselves to be, of box-office success as the recurrence different from their fellow creatures. of particular motifs. He says: "The The result is isolation with patho- persistent reiteration of these motifs logical overtones. Both figures come to marks them as outward projections of violent ends. Kracauer's comment on inner urges. And they obviously carry that of Homunculus illustrates his most symptomatic weight when they method: "Isolating him definitely from occur in both popular and unpopular the rest of humanity, his end testifies films.... This history of the German not only, as did The Student of Prague, screen is a history of motifs pervading to the desire of the middle-class Ger- films of all levels." man to exalt his independence of social The following is a sample of the exigencies, but also to his pride in this motifs or themes which Kracauer iden- self-chosen isolation. Like Baldwin's tifies in particular films as significant suicide (Student of Prague) the deaths of the deeper layers of the German of both monsters betray gloomy fore- mentality. bodings."

A. PRE-WORLD WAR I (ARCHAIC B. THE POSTWARPERIOD PERIOD) 1. Upsurge of interest in sex follow- 1. Deep and fearful concern with the ing World War I. This phenomenon is foundations of the self. This, according regarded as a manifestation of "primi- to Kracauer, was to become an obses- tive needs arising in all belligerent sion of the German cinema and is re- countries after the war." Among the flected in such early films as The Stu- films which showed this were Vow of dent of Prague (1913), which illustrates Chastity, Prostitution, and Lost Daugh- the aversion of the German middle- ters. Homosexual themes were pre- class to recognition of their psychologi- sented in certain films such as Differ- cal and economic plight. In this film ent from the Others. the hero, Baldwin, realizes that he has a 2. Rejection of concern with world dual personality. This duality, accord- affairs. These include films which were ing to Kracauer, reflected the inner either phantasies or pictures in which struggles of the German middle class, historic events were treated as personal who both resented and identified them- intrigues. Examples are One Arabian 424 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY Night and Passion (Madame Du even showed true originality in elabo- Barry). According to Kracauer, these rating a feature familiar to all post- historical films degraded history. His war Germans: the contrast between the analysis again illustrates his method: individual in the crowd and the crowd "Its source was a nihilistic outlook on itself as a solid mass.... The mass world affairs, as can be inferred from scene typical of the Lubitsch films de- the stern determination with which the composed the crowd to exhibit as its Lubitsch films and their like not only nucleus one single figure who, after the put insatiable rulers to death, but also crowd's dissolution, was left alone in destroyed young lovers representative the void... this pictorial device treated of all that counts in life. They char- the pathetic solitude of the individual acterized history as meaningless. His- with a sympathy which implied aver- tory, they seemed to say, is an arena sion to the plebeian mass and fear of its reserved for blind and ferocious in- dangerous power.. It was a device stincts, a product of devilish machin- that testified to the antidemocratic in- ations forever frustrating our hopes for clinations of the moment." freedom and happiness. Designed for 4. The unlimited authority of the mass consumption, this nihilistic gospel state that idolizes power, which domin- must have satisfied widespread wants. ates and dehumanizes the common It certainly poured balm on the man. The example of this theme is, of wounds of innumerable Germans who, course, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. because of the humiliating defeat of The fact that the director, Wiene, the Fatherland, refused any longer to placed the original story of Janowitz acknowledge history as an instrument and Mayer in a frame is regarded by of justice or Providence.... These films Kracauer as itself symbolizing the wish outrightly encouraged the existing re- of most Germans in the postwar years sistance to any emotional shift that to withdraw from a harsh outer world. might have enlivened the German Re- "In this way," he continues, "Wiene's public. Their basic nihilism made film does suggest that during their re- them indulge also in images of utter treat into themselves the Germans were destruction, which, like those of The stirred to reconsider their traditional Student of Prague or Homunculus, re- belief in authority ... The film re- flected forebodings of a final doom." flects this double aspect of German life 3. The threat to the individual man by coupling a reality in which Cali- by mass domination. Example: Decep- gari's authority triumphs with a hallu- tion. Kracauer comments on the use in cination in which the same authority is these films of large crowds. For ex- overthrown." ample, on Anne Boleyn's appearance There are many additional motifs before the Tower of London in Decep- taken from other films which either tion: "The moment for rendering emanate from Caligari or are psycho- crowds on the screen was well chosen logically related to the upheavals and inasmuch as they now assumed the dilemmas which appeared in Germany aspect of dynamic units sweeping in the period preceding Hitler. For through large spaces ... . Lubitsch the purposes of this review those pre- knew how to handle such crowds, and sented above sufficiently illustrate BOOK REVIEWS 425 Kracauer's method of dealing with his the book ("collective mind," "German material. soul," "collective dispositions") seems Since in the present review we are to betray him into an oversimplified not concerned with either Kracauer's personification of a people as a single accuracy as a film historian or the cor- entity. It is difficult to say how far the rectness of his political and psycho- author accepts these personifications as logical diagnoses of the German real and how far he is speaking in terms people, comment will be restricted to of literary metaphors. To this reviewer his psychological method and concep- even the metaphors seem unfortunate. tualizations. There are three assump- More basic criticism, from the point tions which underlie these analyses: of view of rigorous methodology in so- (i) that collective behavior may be cial psychology, has to do with the ques- approached as if it were an entity pos- tion of whose insight it is that the films sessing specific traits; (2) that collective reflect, and how this insight was trans- behavior considered as an entity may lated into film content. Kracauer makes be understood at two levels: one the it clear that films are the product, not superficial and overt, and the second, of an individual, but of a group of in- the inarticulate or unconscious; and dividuals. The question here is, At (3) that the deeper level achieves ex- what point in the production of the pression in disguised or symbolic form. film did the insight into the uncon- These are attractive assumptions. If scious needs of the German people oc- valid, they greatly facilitate the analy- cur? The only answer to this question sis of the meaning of films and give us which is consistent with the author's a clue to the relationship between film conclusions is a mystical one; that is, content and its effects on behavior. It apparently, at one or more points in is perhaps unnecessary to point out the making of the film, the writers, pro- that these formulations are essentially ducers, directors, actors, or technicians Freudian. Regardless of one's accept- individually or collectively "had" an ance or rejection of Freudian theory as insight about the conflicts taking place applied to the individual, the exten- in the German soul, without knowing sion of Freudian dynamics to social they had it. In some manner they in- groups contains the serious error of as- tuited or otherwise mystically partici- suming that a group or a society or pated in the problems and stresses of a nation is an organism and has the the German people. It might be an- same dynamics that individual organ- swered that creative artists (which isms have. This type of analysis has ones?-Kracauer stresses the collective been rejected by most social psycholo- character of film making) have a ca- gists as oversimple.1 The blanketing of pacity for insights into life not pos- an entire population as an entity ig- sessed by laymen. This theory may be nores the enormous differences which attractive to the creative artist because exist among individuals. It is true that it sets him apart, but it is essentially a Kracauer the specifically rejects concept 1 of a "fixed national character as a Perhaps the most illuminating discussion pat- of this is found in Cantril and Sherif's tern elevated above problem allegedly history." The Psychology of Ego-Involvements (New However, his terminology throughout York: Wiley, 1947), especially chap. xiv. 426 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY class-theoretical type of concept and little research. Kracauer's approach gets us nowhere in understanding so- gives us a plausible and even exciting cial phenomena. picture of what goes on in Kracauer's The question which is raised here is mind-and a shrewd and subtle mind concerned not so much with the prob- it is,-but there is not much evidence lem of artistic creativity as with the ob- that the mass audience sees what Kra- jective influences which surrounded cauer sees. We need that evidence. the writers and directors of the German We might, of course, assume that a films. This is a question which is sus- communication was made to the audi- ceptible to objective investigation, and ence's unconscious, in which case we Kracauer gives no attention to it. We would be forced to conclude that the should like to know, for example, more unconscious of one group (the film about the situations and life histories makers) is communicated to the un- of Janowitz and Mayer, the co-authors conscious of another-an assumption of Caligari, or the backgrounds, educa- which probably would not be unaccept- tion, and "life-spaces" of the leading able to the Freudian psychologist, but producers and directors to whom Kra- which would offer difficulty to most cauer refers. social psychologists. A final criticism is closely related to If these criticisms seem somewhat the foregoing. Assuming a two-level harsh, it is because the problem of the theory of group life, and the existence relation of content in films to the mass of an insight on the part of writers, audience is so important to social psy- directors, and others, which has ex- chology and social science that it is es- pressed itself in the plot structure and sential to examine rigorously any set other filmic details, there remains the of conceptualizations used in the an- question of how far this material com- alysis of the relationship. It seems to municates itself to the people whose this reviewer that Kracauer's assump- unarticulated tensions it expresses. To tions here are based on outmoded ideas put this concretely, to what degree regarding the prelogical character of would the people who saw Caligari group behavior. Virtually the same "know" what the film was "really" say- ideas are expressed in J. P. Mayer's re- ing to them? This is important, since cent book, Sociology of Film, which without evidence that consciously or leans heavily on the concepts of the an- unconsciously the mass audience re- thropologist, Levy-Bruhl, and assumes sponded to the themes which presum- that the moviegoer is seeking a partici- ably met their inner needs we have no pation mystique in the events on the objective assurance that the makers of screen. Neither participation mystique, the film were not merely talking to intuition, nor the collective uncon- themselves. Perhaps all the audiences scious is an adequate concept for a sci- saw in Caligari was a horror film, or one entific approach to the study of films in which there were new and startling as media of communication. filmic devices. It is not a simple matter This reviewer believes that there are to find what it is in a motion picture recurring themes in films (as in myths) to which individuals react. It is a basic and that the thematic analysis of film problem on which as yet there has been content is a feasible and important BOOK REVIEWS 427 undertaking. To discover what these in the production of motion pictures; themes mean requires more than arm- for any discussion of factual films and chair analysis. The notion that they the long struggle of their sponsors for "reflect"something in the collective un- playing time on the world's screens conscious is bound to seem plausible. must necessarily include related dis- But "reflection" is too simple a term to cussion of the entertainment film and apply to what is an extremely complex a comparison of the two with respect relationship. The investigation of this to motive, content, and methods of ex- process is a job that needs doing. Un- ploitation and exhibition. fortunately, Kracauer has not done it. I find extremely provocative the very Kracauer has, nevertheless, made a fact that a grouping which includes the real contribution to the problem, and visual arts, music, and the theater is his book will undoubtedly stimulate made to include the factual film and research in this field. In spite of its to exclude the entertainment film. This grave defects in method and conceptu- can only mean that the British Arts In- alization it is an important book that quiry considers the factual film an im- must be read by all serious students of portant art form and does not consider motion pictures. If for no other reason, the entertainment film an art form at it should be read as an antidote to the all. And it must come as something of widely held notion that films are pri- a rude shock to those who take the pre- marily propaganda vehicles which in eminence of the entertainment film for some simple and possibly sinister man- granted, and will serve as testimony to ner mold people's opinions and atti- the importance which our British cou- tudes. sins place on the development of the FRANKLINFEARING documentary. the SUGGESTIVE SURVEY In fact, it may go far to explain of current British entertain- The Factual Film: A The Arts quality Survey. ment features. It may very well be that London: Oxford Univer- Enquiry. the realism and honesty of so Press. graphic sity 1947 many recent British films can be traced THIS IS the second of four reports to be to the influence and competition of presented by the Dartington Hall Trus- Britain's highly developed documen- tees, the other subjects being the Visual tary movement. Nearly two years ago, Arts, Music, and the Theater. The re- I predicted in this publication a similar ports are the work of the Arts Inquiry documentary influence on American and are published under the aegis of entertainment films. I can only regret PEP (Political and Economic Plan- that I was wrong. With a few rare ex- ning). ceptions, the influence of the factual For those who are interested in the film has been negligible. We have had past achievement of the British factual realistic films, but few which, in the film, or in the future of this valuable words of John Grierson, "bring the medium of mass communication and citizen's eye in from the ends of the instruction, this book should prove in- earth to the story, his own story, of dispensable. Indeed, I do not hesitate what is happening under his nose." to recommend it to everyone engaged The book is neither a history nor an BOOK REVIEWS 427 undertaking. To discover what these in the production of motion pictures; themes mean requires more than arm- for any discussion of factual films and chair analysis. The notion that they the long struggle of their sponsors for "reflect"something in the collective un- playing time on the world's screens conscious is bound to seem plausible. must necessarily include related dis- But "reflection" is too simple a term to cussion of the entertainment film and apply to what is an extremely complex a comparison of the two with respect relationship. The investigation of this to motive, content, and methods of ex- process is a job that needs doing. Un- ploitation and exhibition. fortunately, Kracauer has not done it. I find extremely provocative the very Kracauer has, nevertheless, made a fact that a grouping which includes the real contribution to the problem, and visual arts, music, and the theater is his book will undoubtedly stimulate made to include the factual film and research in this field. In spite of its to exclude the entertainment film. This grave defects in method and conceptu- can only mean that the British Arts In- alization it is an important book that quiry considers the factual film an im- must be read by all serious students of portant art form and does not consider motion pictures. If for no other reason, the entertainment film an art form at it should be read as an antidote to the all. And it must come as something of widely held notion that films are pri- a rude shock to those who take the pre- marily propaganda vehicles which in eminence of the entertainment film for some simple and possibly sinister man- granted, and will serve as testimony to ner mold people's opinions and atti- the importance which our British cou- tudes. sins place on the development of the FRANKLINFEARING documentary. the SUGGESTIVE SURVEY In fact, it may go far to explain of current British entertain- The Factual Film: A The Arts quality Survey. ment features. It may very well be that London: Oxford Univer- Enquiry. the realism and honesty of so Press. graphic sity 1947 many recent British films can be traced THIS IS the second of four reports to be to the influence and competition of presented by the Dartington Hall Trus- Britain's highly developed documen- tees, the other subjects being the Visual tary movement. Nearly two years ago, Arts, Music, and the Theater. The re- I predicted in this publication a similar ports are the work of the Arts Inquiry documentary influence on American and are published under the aegis of entertainment films. I can only regret PEP (Political and Economic Plan- that I was wrong. With a few rare ex- ning). ceptions, the influence of the factual For those who are interested in the film has been negligible. We have had past achievement of the British factual realistic films, but few which, in the film, or in the future of this valuable words of John Grierson, "bring the medium of mass communication and citizen's eye in from the ends of the instruction, this book should prove in- earth to the story, his own story, of dispensable. Indeed, I do not hesitate what is happening under his nose." to recommend it to everyone engaged The book is neither a history nor an 428 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY apologia, but strictly what its title im- Film Department within the United plies: a survey. It is an attempt to eval- Nations Educational, Scientific, and uate seriously the potentialities of a Cultural Organisation: this depart- serious art and propaganda form dur- ment to provide films for all United ing a critical period in the world's his- Nations organisations and national tory. It departs from its title in that it governments in order to meet the short- does not concern itself solely with the term needs of reconstruction and event- factual film, but also discusses the en- ually to concentrate on the interna- tertainment film and its relationship tional exchange of films." and responsibility to the public. This is the sort of thinking that is At the beginning of the book is a going on in official circles in the United summary which offers in capsule form Kingdom. Compare with the present most of the material which is expanded situation in the United States. Congress in later chapters. This is followed by has eliminated the meager funds re- the recommendations of the Arts En- quested by the State Department for quiry, which are worth repeating in information films. The other depart- full: ments, with their budgets cut to the "I. The continuance of the Films Di- bone, are curtailing their film pro- vision of the Minstry of Information, grams. In New York, a few hardy docu- or, if this Ministry is brought to an end, mentarians are struggling, with the aid the establishment of a National Film of institutional grants and industrial Office, to produce and distribute fac- subsidies, to keep the American factual tual films, to ensure efficient co6pera- film alive. Perhaps it is no more than tion between Government departments a coincidence that the American doc- and independent producers of factual umentary movement has gone into film and to advise Government depart- eclipse at the same time that America's ments on all matters relating to the characteristic energetic idealism has factual film. fallen under the shadow of "practical" "II. The development of an educa- politics and diplomacy. But I believe tional film policy by the Ministry of the one eclipse to be symptomatic of Education, to include the sponsored the other. The documentary flourishes production and distribution of educa- in periods of political vitality and tional films, the provision of projectors, progress. It is a turbulent child and and the training of teachers in the use has never recognized "normalcy" as its of films. father. "III. The reconstitution of the Brit- The body of the book contains chap- ish Film Institute, whose main func- ters tracing the history of the British tions should be to encourage the use of documentary film from its beginnings the film in Great Britain for educa- under the aegis of the Empire Market- tional, cultural, scientific, and recrea- ing Board through its great wartime tive purposes, to protect the public achievement. There is a stimulating interest, and to assist the British film chapter on educational films and a industry. chapter on news films, which latter "IV. That encouragement and sup- amounts to a severe, though dead-pan, port be given to the establishment of a castigation of the British newsreels BOOK REVIEWS 429 (three of which are owned in the dominant film combines. This inevita- United States). The American Motion bly diminishes the producer's chance Picture Herald is quoted as expressing of trying out original ideas for films the typical trade attitude toward the and for developing new techniques. newsreel: "The news obligation of the Film making, while requiring large- newsreel is happily trivial." scale organisation, is a creative activity The most provocative chapter is demanding the services of writers, called "Films and the Public." I shall actors, musicians, directors, and tech- quote but one paragraph, in the belief nicians. The best of these are not at- that this will serve to convey to the tracted solely by the financial reward, reader the nature of the material under but also by the opportunities and scope discussion: offered for creative work." "The industry itself must ultimately This, of course, could also have been face the problem of what is the general written of the American industry. public taste in films, as opposed to what I hope that this book will be widely the public will at present pay to see, studied in Hollywood. Particularly it and what new public interests in the should be read in executive offices film can be developed. In striking con- where the recent drop at the box office trast to its size and declared impor- is being considered, and in the editorial tance, the film industry has lagged be- rooms of those trade papers which pro- hind the majority of other industries fess concern for the welfare of the in- in matters of market research. It ap- dustry. It might provide some pointers pears on the whole to trust to contin- on how to write about-and how to ued technical development and the think about-this business of making of sex, motion hardy perennials thrills, blood, pictures. PHILIP DUNNE and thunder to maintain the public's interest. Nevertheless, there is evidence A SMATTERINGOF ANTHEIL that the public would welcome some variation from the usual round of films Menagerie in F Sharp. By H. W. HEINS- HEIMER. Garden 8c provided in the cinema." City: Doubleday There are several valuable appen- Company. 1947 dixes, including one which amounts to LIKE many of Erik Satie's composi- a comprehensive study of the develop- tions-Pieces in the shape of a pear and ment, structure, and economics of the Truly flabby preludes-Mr. Heinshei- British film industry (as of September, mer's book excites with its title some- 1945). This, I believe, is a must for any what more interest than it can sustain serious American student of motion with its content. The author is neither picture economics. It should also prove zoologist nor musician, but a music enlightening to those who think the publisher-one of those "middlemen British film industry can do no wrong. of music" who, like managers, impre- Again I quote: sarios, press agents, and critics, stand as "The danger of restricting the op- a bridge and sometimes as a barrier be- portunities for independent produc- tween the producers and the consumers tion is that all ideas for new films have of music. As an executive of the impor- to be approved by the two or three tant Viennese publishing house, Uni- BOOK REVIEWS 429 (three of which are owned in the dominant film combines. This inevita- United States). The American Motion bly diminishes the producer's chance Picture Herald is quoted as expressing of trying out original ideas for films the typical trade attitude toward the and for developing new techniques. newsreel: "The news obligation of the Film making, while requiring large- newsreel is happily trivial." scale organisation, is a creative activity The most provocative chapter is demanding the services of writers, called "Films and the Public." I shall actors, musicians, directors, and tech- quote but one paragraph, in the belief nicians. The best of these are not at- that this will serve to convey to the tracted solely by the financial reward, reader the nature of the material under but also by the opportunities and scope discussion: offered for creative work." "The industry itself must ultimately This, of course, could also have been face the problem of what is the general written of the American industry. public taste in films, as opposed to what I hope that this book will be widely the public will at present pay to see, studied in Hollywood. Particularly it and what new public interests in the should be read in executive offices film can be developed. In striking con- where the recent drop at the box office trast to its size and declared impor- is being considered, and in the editorial tance, the film industry has lagged be- rooms of those trade papers which pro- hind the majority of other industries fess concern for the welfare of the in- in matters of market research. It ap- dustry. It might provide some pointers pears on the whole to trust to contin- on how to write about-and how to ued technical development and the think about-this business of making of sex, motion hardy perennials thrills, blood, pictures. PHILIP DUNNE and thunder to maintain the public's interest. Nevertheless, there is evidence A SMATTERINGOF ANTHEIL that the public would welcome some variation from the usual round of films Menagerie in F Sharp. By H. W. HEINS- HEIMER. Garden 8c provided in the cinema." City: Doubleday There are several valuable appen- Company. 1947 dixes, including one which amounts to LIKE many of Erik Satie's composi- a comprehensive study of the develop- tions-Pieces in the shape of a pear and ment, structure, and economics of the Truly flabby preludes-Mr. Heinshei- British film industry (as of September, mer's book excites with its title some- 1945). This, I believe, is a must for any what more interest than it can sustain serious American student of motion with its content. The author is neither picture economics. It should also prove zoologist nor musician, but a music enlightening to those who think the publisher-one of those "middlemen British film industry can do no wrong. of music" who, like managers, impre- Again I quote: sarios, press agents, and critics, stand as "The danger of restricting the op- a bridge and sometimes as a barrier be- portunities for independent produc- tween the producers and the consumers tion is that all ideas for new films have of music. As an executive of the impor- to be approved by the two or three tant Viennese publishing house, Uni- 430 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY versal Edition, during the days of the immortality"; they are therefore frus- Austrian republic, Mr. Heinsheimer trated, and they long for the oppor- helped to carve the careers of such tunity to write "music for music's prominent composers as Krenek, Weill, sake"; and they are prevented from and Weinberger. Leaving Vienna just doing this by the powerfully distracting before Hitler entered, he came to the influence of inordinately large pay United States and in a short time checks "that spell Success and Swim- worked his way to the top in the New ming Pools." Mr. Heinsheimer is here York firm of Boosey & Hawkes. setting up some interesting but hardly Ten years in America have made Mr. valid relationships between music, am- Heinsheimer as glib as his friend bition, talent, and money. The plain George Antheil, as witty as Oscar Le- fact is that those composers who really vant, as critical of the musical scene as yearn for immortality in the concert Virgil Thomson. In general, his liter- hall do satisfy their yearnings by writ- ary style and social attitudes aspire to ing symphonies, overtures, string quar- those of the New Yorker. Overbrilliant tets, and two-piano pieces-none of F sharp is thus the proper key for his which, unfortunately, seems to be a commentary. In this tonality he writes serious contender for a place in the ironically about such things as Emil standard repertoire. Those who don't Hertzka's benevolently despotic rule write "serious" music simply don't over Universal Edition's domain, want to, even when they are unem- Arthur Judson's monopolistic control ployed and not being distracted by pay over American conductors, the Town checks. The real problem, which Mr. Hall debut racket, and the idiosyn- Heinsheimer so charitably avoids dis- cracies of concert-hall virtuosos. But he cussing, is not that Hollywood com- modulates to an eloquent minor for an posers are frustrated by the medium account of the gathering storm on they work in, but that they don't write which Hitler rode to power, and back better film music. For there is nothing again to major keys for the lyrical in the nature of film music that gives it passages dealing with the future of a mortality rate of almost ioo per cent. music in America. All this is as fa- It just hasn't yet been written by Mo- miliar, as entertaining, and as super- zart, Verdi, and Wagner. When com- ficial as conversation at a cocktail party. posers of such stature come to work in The chapters on Hollywood slip in- Hollywood, they will undoubtedly advertently and enharmonically into write film music that can lead a "happy the flat keys. Like many another ob- and successful life as independent server, Mr. Heinsheimer worries about works of art." They might even find a the fact that motion picture music has place in Mr. Heinsheimer's catalogue. no life when it is divorced from the film For the rest, Mr. Heinsheimer writes for which it was composed. "Almost variations on the familiar themes previ- none of it," he writes, "has ever suc- ously developed by Antheil, Levant, ceeded in stepping out from the screen and a host of newspaper columnists. and leading a happy and successful life There are the usual references to com- as an independent work of art." Film posers' fabulous salaries, their swim- composers can cherish "no dreams of ming pools and Versailles-like palaces. BOOK REVIEWS 431 There are lots of Steinerisms-those They wonder because they are sensi- malaprops and wisecracks with which tive-perhaps too sensitive-to the kind Max Steiner challenges Goldwyn's rep- of things that are being written about utation as a humorist. The hackneyed them by people who flit through Holly- story of Schoenberg's meeting with wood with eyes and ears alert for Irving Thalberg is gone through once "copy," ignoring the real problem of more. The technique of scoring a pic- how to make better pictures and write ture is described again, with no oppor- better music. Mr. Heinsheimer appears tunities missed for satirizing the com- to have been that kind of observer, as poser, the composer's wife, the orches- witty and unsubstantial as the part of trator, the copyist, the conductor, the Hollywood he has written about. sound engineer, and the dubber. LAWRENCE MORTON No one will question the truth of what Mr. Heinsheimer has to say. As THEY LIKE RADIO a visitor to Hollywood, dining at the The People Look at Radio. Report on Brown Derby and visiting palatial a Survey Conducted by the National residences, he could have seen only Opinion Research Center, Analyzed those parts of Hollywood which give and Interpreted by the Bureau of it its reputation for glamour and crazi- Applied Social Research, Columbia ness. His menagerie is inhabited by University. By Paul F. Lazarsfeld. sports and hybrids. The plain ani- University of North Carolina Press. mals still remain to be classified and 1946 described-the unemployed composers IN 1945 the National Association of and arrangers and those earning the Broadcasters commissioned the Univer- five to ten thousand a year, who live in sity of Denver's National Opinion Re- middle-class contractor-built houses search Center to make a nation-wide and shabby apartments, who plunge survey of the public's attitudes toward not into swimming pools but into radio. The Bureau of Applied Social plain porcelain tubs. These are the Research at Columbia University, un- men who read books like Mr. Heins- der the direction of Dr. Lazarsfeld, heimer's and wonder why it is in- made the analysis and interpretations artistic when they work with orches- of the findings which are reported in trators, admirable when Prokofiev does this book. Through interviews, 3,243 the same. They wonder why cue sheets persons contributed the data on which and stop watches are regarded as strait- this survey is based. On the basis of ac- jackets for composers, while opera lib- cepted sampling procedures these may rettos, twelve-tone rows, and all the be regarded as representing a cross sec- paraphernalia of ballet constitute a tion of the United States' adult popu- "discipline." They wonder why it is lation. In this group the various strata more reprehensible for Hollywood to are given proportional representation. ignore the talent of a Schoenberg than These include sex groups, age groups, for nine-tenths of the symphony con- economic groups, educational levels, ductors of the country to ignore every- and size of community. thing Schoenberg has written since It is extremely difficult to present a Verklaerte Nacht. summary of this extensive investigation BOOK REVIEWS 431 There are lots of Steinerisms-those They wonder because they are sensi- malaprops and wisecracks with which tive-perhaps too sensitive-to the kind Max Steiner challenges Goldwyn's rep- of things that are being written about utation as a humorist. The hackneyed them by people who flit through Holly- story of Schoenberg's meeting with wood with eyes and ears alert for Irving Thalberg is gone through once "copy," ignoring the real problem of more. The technique of scoring a pic- how to make better pictures and write ture is described again, with no oppor- better music. Mr. Heinsheimer appears tunities missed for satirizing the com- to have been that kind of observer, as poser, the composer's wife, the orches- witty and unsubstantial as the part of trator, the copyist, the conductor, the Hollywood he has written about. sound engineer, and the dubber. LAWRENCE MORTON No one will question the truth of what Mr. Heinsheimer has to say. As THEY LIKE RADIO a visitor to Hollywood, dining at the The People Look at Radio. Report on Brown Derby and visiting palatial a Survey Conducted by the National residences, he could have seen only Opinion Research Center, Analyzed those parts of Hollywood which give and Interpreted by the Bureau of it its reputation for glamour and crazi- Applied Social Research, Columbia ness. His menagerie is inhabited by University. By Paul F. Lazarsfeld. sports and hybrids. The plain ani- University of North Carolina Press. mals still remain to be classified and 1946 described-the unemployed composers IN 1945 the National Association of and arrangers and those earning the Broadcasters commissioned the Univer- five to ten thousand a year, who live in sity of Denver's National Opinion Re- middle-class contractor-built houses search Center to make a nation-wide and shabby apartments, who plunge survey of the public's attitudes toward not into swimming pools but into radio. The Bureau of Applied Social plain porcelain tubs. These are the Research at Columbia University, un- men who read books like Mr. Heins- der the direction of Dr. Lazarsfeld, heimer's and wonder why it is in- made the analysis and interpretations artistic when they work with orches- of the findings which are reported in trators, admirable when Prokofiev does this book. Through interviews, 3,243 the same. They wonder why cue sheets persons contributed the data on which and stop watches are regarded as strait- this survey is based. On the basis of ac- jackets for composers, while opera lib- cepted sampling procedures these may rettos, twelve-tone rows, and all the be regarded as representing a cross sec- paraphernalia of ballet constitute a tion of the United States' adult popu- "discipline." They wonder why it is lation. In this group the various strata more reprehensible for Hollywood to are given proportional representation. ignore the talent of a Schoenberg than These include sex groups, age groups, for nine-tenths of the symphony con- economic groups, educational levels, ductors of the country to ignore every- and size of community. thing Schoenberg has written since It is extremely difficult to present a Verklaerte Nacht. summary of this extensive investigation 432 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY that will do it justice. Chapter i, "The radio, freedom of access to the air, ar- Score Card," brings out the generally tistic considerations, and problems of favorable attitude of the American social significance. He points out that public toward radio as it exists. Accord- in all these areas the broadcaster con- ing to Dr. Lazarsfeld, the average man fronts conflicting interests and points listens to the radio almost three hours of view. He makes the point that all and the average woman almost four human beings are fallible-even licen- every day. And, on the whole, they sees of radio frequencies. appear to like what they hear. In com- This is probably the most extensive paring radio with four other social study ever undertaken of the public institutions-the church, newspapers, evaluation of a medium of mass com- schools, and local government-radio munication. Because of the unimpeach- comes off best in their scale of approval. able character of the agencies which In chapter ii, the ever-present prob- conducted it, and the scientific stature lem of advertising is investigated. In of its author, all persons in any way spite of what your friends may tell you, concerned with radio are bound to give the survey shows that only a third of this study their careful attention. the population has an unfavorable at- FRANKLINFEARING titude toward radio advertising. The criticisms of the minority are given a TEACHING BY SEEING thorough airing, however. Topping the Audio Visual Methods in Teaching. By list of criticisms of advertising is "In- Edgar Dale. Dryden Press. 1947 terrupt programs." Following, in the The Preparation and Use of Visual order named, are: "Claim too much for Aids. By Kenneth B. Haas and Harry the product," "Repetitious," "Silly," Q. Packer. Prentice-Hall. 1946 and "Too long." long.""Too Aids in the Armed Serv- The thirdeand chapter, "RadioRAudio-Visual For ices. for American Edu- What?" deals with the complex prob- ces Implicationsi ons for American Edu- cation. R. Miles and Charles lem of radio programming. This is By John dealt with mainly in terms of what the R Sain American Council in Edu- survey showed regarding some of the catongton, D.C. things that people get out of broad- THE TIDE of books on audiovisual casts. It includes the kinds of programs methods in education continues to rise. they like to listen to and what they As the present sample indicates, the think they get from these programs in books differ enormously with respect information and entertainment. to topics treated, level of sophistica- The last chapter is entitled "The tion, and type of audience for which Critic, The People and the Industry." they are intended. For Edgar Dale, the Under the heading, "Five Pillars of use of these methods would make Radio Criticism," Dr. Lazarsfeld dis- school an exciting place. He has writ- cusses the appraisals of radio derived ten a 5oo-page book to describe the from the more articulate strata of the kind of place in which teaching and community. He discusses these criti- learning could be both effective and cisms as centered around five points: interesting. He is committed to the doc- advertising, educational utilization of trine that the real threats to education 432 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY that will do it justice. Chapter i, "The radio, freedom of access to the air, ar- Score Card," brings out the generally tistic considerations, and problems of favorable attitude of the American social significance. He points out that public toward radio as it exists. Accord- in all these areas the broadcaster con- ing to Dr. Lazarsfeld, the average man fronts conflicting interests and points listens to the radio almost three hours of view. He makes the point that all and the average woman almost four human beings are fallible-even licen- every day. And, on the whole, they sees of radio frequencies. appear to like what they hear. In com- This is probably the most extensive paring radio with four other social study ever undertaken of the public institutions-the church, newspapers, evaluation of a medium of mass com- schools, and local government-radio munication. Because of the unimpeach- comes off best in their scale of approval. able character of the agencies which In chapter ii, the ever-present prob- conducted it, and the scientific stature lem of advertising is investigated. In of its author, all persons in any way spite of what your friends may tell you, concerned with radio are bound to give the survey shows that only a third of this study their careful attention. the population has an unfavorable at- FRANKLINFEARING titude toward radio advertising. The criticisms of the minority are given a TEACHING BY SEEING thorough airing, however. Topping the Audio Visual Methods in Teaching. By list of criticisms of advertising is "In- Edgar Dale. Dryden Press. 1947 terrupt programs." Following, in the The Preparation and Use of Visual order named, are: "Claim too much for Aids. By Kenneth B. Haas and Harry the product," "Repetitious," "Silly," Q. Packer. Prentice-Hall. 1946 and "Too long." long.""Too Aids in the Armed Serv- The thirdeand chapter, "RadioRAudio-Visual For ices. for American Edu- What?" deals with the complex prob- ces Implicationsi ons for American Edu- cation. R. Miles and Charles lem of radio programming. This is By John dealt with mainly in terms of what the R Sain American Council in Edu- survey showed regarding some of the catongton, D.C. things that people get out of broad- THE TIDE of books on audiovisual casts. It includes the kinds of programs methods in education continues to rise. they like to listen to and what they As the present sample indicates, the think they get from these programs in books differ enormously with respect information and entertainment. to topics treated, level of sophistica- The last chapter is entitled "The tion, and type of audience for which Critic, The People and the Industry." they are intended. For Edgar Dale, the Under the heading, "Five Pillars of use of these methods would make Radio Criticism," Dr. Lazarsfeld dis- school an exciting place. He has writ- cusses the appraisals of radio derived ten a 5oo-page book to describe the from the more articulate strata of the kind of place in which teaching and community. He discusses these criti- learning could be both effective and cisms as centered around five points: interesting. He is committed to the doc- advertising, educational utilization of trine that the real threats to education BOOK REVIEWS 433 are its emphasis on what he calls "ver- himself, one can but wonder whether balisms," its divorcement from real-life there are any other than audiovisual situations, and its dependence on book- methods in teaching. ish, unreal, and abstract materials. Go- The chapters on radio and motion ing to school, he says, must become a picture are excellent. It is interesting "rich, active, personal and adventure- to find that the teacher may make use some thing." Can the experience be of the "entertainment" films as well as made as interesting as listening to a the more traditional educational and lumberjack telling a yarn or a hike in documentary pictures. It is clear that the woods, or a movie? His answer is, Professor Dale does not have much pa- "Not very easily, but school will be- tience with the Ivory Tower teacher or come an interesting place if it proves academician who says, "I don't know to be a place where pupils have in- anything about the movies. I almost teresting experiences-where they see, never go." His reply to such a one is hear, touch, taste, plan, make, do, and unambiguous: "One can only say here try." that the teacher who has not seen such Professor Dale speaks as an authority films as The Informer, Madame Curie, in this field. He is the author of Teach- The Story of Louis Pasteur, Thirty- ing with Motion Pictures, and Motion seven Steps (Note to Professor Dale: Pictures in Education, and is Professor It's Thirty-nine Steps), The River, of Education at Ohio State University. Holy Matrimony, The House on 92nd In this book he states the case for, and Street, Wilson, and similar ones, has describes, the techniques of audiovis- missed out on having a good time, and ual methods as the answer to the fore- has not got in touch with one of the going questions. It is divided into three most important art forms of our day." sections, in the first of which the author In his discussion of both radio and mo- answers the question "Why?" That tion pictures he is not only concerned is, he describes the psychological and with their utilization in the classroom, educational theory underlying the use but with the whole problem of creat- of audiovisual materials. In the sec- ing a larger discriminating audience ond section he answers the question for these media. "What?" by presenting a detailed an- Professor Dale has written an inter- alysis of the types of audiovisual ma- esting and definitive textbook in this terials. And in the third section he deals field. He has written it with an enthusi- with the application of audiovisual asm which lifts it out of the deadly methods in the classroom. monotony of most texts. Any teacher We discover that audiovisual teach- from kindergarten to college might ing materials cover a vast range. In fact, read it with advantage. One suspects they include apparently every school that this book will be very annoying to situation in which the pupil may have those who still believe that going to sensuous experience. This includes the school and teaching may be symbolized use of models, dramatic participation, by a birch rod and a sharp-nosed oldish field trips, exhibits in museums, and, female who undoubtedly is a spinster. of course, motion pictures and radio. The dust cover on The Preparation Although the author does not commit and Use of Visual Aids states that this 434 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY book is designed to show the way to the extent and effectiveness of their use greater effectiveness and efficiency in in the armed services. Only the last fif- Personnel Training, Sales Demonstra- teen pages contain a discussion of the tions and Displays, Educational Pro- implications for civilian education. grams, and Advertising. It is written There is a bibliography listing mainly for the beginner, and is in the jargon the publications of the War and Navy of the personnel technician. Students Departments in this field. become "trainees," teachers are "per- The book presents a brief but useful sonnel trainers," and the humble and factual and historical survey of a vast ancient blackboard is a "visual device" field. This reviewer was disappointed and a "point clincher" on which you not to find a discussion of some of the may "put your story across."The chap- more interesting problems which the ter on the blackboard includes a page film programs of the armed services of specific instructions ("Use a board brought into sharp focus. For example, eraser or cloth and not your fingers") the question of "entertainment" films on how to use it. Teaching is probably or films utilizing "Hollywood" tech- "training" and undoubtedly will be- niques vs. the "nuts-and-bolts" films come "efficient" by the use of these receives but little attention. The au- methods. There are thirteen chapters thors rather cautiously point out that which cover such topics as motion pic- films which enlist and hold attention tures, film strips, maps, posters, models, by being intrinsically interesting as and television. There are numerous films were increasingly produced and illustrations, poor in quality, and an used as the war went on. There is appendix which contains useful and also only brief mention of the different exhaustive lists of sources of visual aids, problems involved in making and us- including lists of universities and col- ing films which primarily present infor- leges which have film libraries, state mation and those designed to modify and federal agencies where visual aids attitudes and opinions. To this prob- may be obtained, and private pro- lem the film programs of the armed ducers and distributors of visual aids. services made important contributions. The book by Drs. Miles and Spain is For some reason, there is very slight a 96-page report prepared for the Com- reference to the work of the First Mo- mission on Implications of Armed Serv- tion Picture Unit of the Army Air ices Educational Programs. Its purpose Corps. It seems a pity that the output is to present an over-all picture of the of this unit did not receive greater at- use of training aids in the armed serv- tention, since most of the problems of ices and an evaluation of the impli- production and content in making edu- cations of these methods for civilian cational film would be illustrated. education. The term "training aids" FRANKLIN FEARING includes films, film strips, graphics, AND MYTH models, and a variety of demonstration MAGIC devices. Magic and Myth of the Movies, by Par- York: The report is primarily a survey of ker Tyler. New Holt. 1947 the types of training aides developed, IF I were locked up in a room and told their production and distribution, and I couldn't come out until I had psycho- 434 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY book is designed to show the way to the extent and effectiveness of their use greater effectiveness and efficiency in in the armed services. Only the last fif- Personnel Training, Sales Demonstra- teen pages contain a discussion of the tions and Displays, Educational Pro- implications for civilian education. grams, and Advertising. It is written There is a bibliography listing mainly for the beginner, and is in the jargon the publications of the War and Navy of the personnel technician. Students Departments in this field. become "trainees," teachers are "per- The book presents a brief but useful sonnel trainers," and the humble and factual and historical survey of a vast ancient blackboard is a "visual device" field. This reviewer was disappointed and a "point clincher" on which you not to find a discussion of some of the may "put your story across."The chap- more interesting problems which the ter on the blackboard includes a page film programs of the armed services of specific instructions ("Use a board brought into sharp focus. For example, eraser or cloth and not your fingers") the question of "entertainment" films on how to use it. Teaching is probably or films utilizing "Hollywood" tech- "training" and undoubtedly will be- niques vs. the "nuts-and-bolts" films come "efficient" by the use of these receives but little attention. The au- methods. There are thirteen chapters thors rather cautiously point out that which cover such topics as motion pic- films which enlist and hold attention tures, film strips, maps, posters, models, by being intrinsically interesting as and television. There are numerous films were increasingly produced and illustrations, poor in quality, and an used as the war went on. There is appendix which contains useful and also only brief mention of the different exhaustive lists of sources of visual aids, problems involved in making and us- including lists of universities and col- ing films which primarily present infor- leges which have film libraries, state mation and those designed to modify and federal agencies where visual aids attitudes and opinions. To this prob- may be obtained, and private pro- lem the film programs of the armed ducers and distributors of visual aids. services made important contributions. The book by Drs. Miles and Spain is For some reason, there is very slight a 96-page report prepared for the Com- reference to the work of the First Mo- mission on Implications of Armed Serv- tion Picture Unit of the Army Air ices Educational Programs. Its purpose Corps. It seems a pity that the output is to present an over-all picture of the of this unit did not receive greater at- use of training aids in the armed serv- tention, since most of the problems of ices and an evaluation of the impli- production and content in making edu- cations of these methods for civilian cational film would be illustrated. education. The term "training aids" FRANKLIN FEARING includes films, film strips, graphics, AND MYTH models, and a variety of demonstration MAGIC devices. Magic and Myth of the Movies, by Par- York: The report is primarily a survey of ker Tyler. New Holt. 1947 the types of training aides developed, IF I were locked up in a room and told their production and distribution, and I couldn't come out until I had psycho- BOOK REVIEWS 435 analyzed such movies as Double In- happened before in the realm of movie demnity and Mildred Pierce and such criticism. That Hollywood has evolved players as Hugh Herbert and Lauren a new mythology in its "stars" is, of Bacall, I should have to send out for course, not new; but Tyler goes deeper. food and drink for many days to come, "The lack of individual control in mo- perhaps indefinitely. To me, Double vie-making in this country, the absence Indemnity and Mildred Pierce were of respect for the original work, the slick murder mysteries, Hugh Herbert premise that the movie is an ingenious was a droll fellow and Lauren Bacall fabrication of theoretically endless elas- was what America would come up with ticity-all these positive and negative when it tried to produce a home-grown elements make for lack of form (or art) Marlene Dietrich. Fancy, then, discov- and specifically encourage the spontan- ering that Double Indemnity is a pro- eous growth of popular forms ('what found psychological study in dualism the public wants'), thus leaving crevices and sex, dealing with "impotence neu- for whatever there be in an actor, dia- rosis" or "strong anxiety feelings about logue writer, cinematic trick shot, or sex" that lead to crime; that Mildred directorial fantasy to creep through Pierce deals with "myth consciousness," and flower." Thus Tyler accounts for being the study of a woman who is the success of the "mythic" factor in herself "ignorant of the true motiva- Hollywood films, that is, "the basic tion of her tragedy, its concealed mech- vestigial patterns surviving in popilar anism, its inner facts"; that Hugh Her- imagination and reflecting the uncon- bert represents "schizophrenia a la scious desires" of audiences. "It is per- mode" in his comic blending of the fectly logical that Hollywood's lust to fussbudget and absent-minded profes- display the obvious, the sure-fire, the sor who, withal, is capable of the most sensational, guarantees for its products fabulous business coups, "a Utopian the latent presence of the most vener- brand of psychology peculiar to Amer- able stereotypes of emotion." Motion ica"; and that La Bacall, whom I re- pictures display in abundance such garded as confusing a dead pan with "folk-myths"as the absent-minded pro- seductiveness, was essentially "a torch fessor, the efficiency expert (Edward G. singer with a trace of low down blues in Robinson in Double Indemnity), and her temperament," a "ventriloquized the eccentricity of genius. siren" (another's voice was dubbed in As you can see, this is as far from for her songs), "with a special fire-ex- Rotha, Benoit-Levy, Kracauer, Eisen- tinguisher kind of charm" and whose stein, and Grierson in the realm of film flat, low voice is a "dechemicalization books as you can get, though it is not of the rampant and fiery juices" of so far from Arnheim and Amiguet. In more unrestrained cabaret ladies. one respect it might be called a par- All this, and more, is to be found in allel on another plane to Kracauer's Parker Tyler's new book, a companion monumental From Caligari to Hitler. volume of a sort to his earlier Holly- Kracauer examined the sociopolitical wood Hallucination; and for once a aspects of his psychoanalytical prob- jacket blurb hits the nail on the head- ings of the German film. Tyler ex- no book like either of them has really amines the mythological aspects of his 436 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY psychoanalytical probings of the Amer- he describes this study, has a counter- can film. (The methods of either writer part in the films themselves. It is "the could be applied to the other field of dubious vision of Bernadette that Hol- films with equally intriguing results.) lywood has stamped on the silver-dol- Both ignore, in principle, aesthetic larlike surface of its frame." evaluation-Kracauer less than Tyler. Altogether, an intellectual spree, a Indeed, Tyler admits, "I do not analyze witty and exhilarating book. the best movies as the artistic best but HERMANG. WEINBERG as the mythological best." In are not short, "Things always AURORA'S OTHER DAWN what they seem," says Tyler. "The fre- Aurora Dawn. Herman Wouk. Ne v quently unconscious magic employed By York: Simon and Schuster. by Hollywood [is] a magic of dream cre- 1947 ation that far transcends its literal mes- Within a few months we can expect sages." some novels glorifying the radio com- Reading, among others, his clever mercial, not because the singing plug, analyses of Double Indemnity (a bril- the hitch-hike, and the cowcatcher have liant tour de force in tracing motiva- improved, but because the razzing for- tions to their wellsprings), Mildred mula will be played out. Mr. Wouk's Pierce, Song of Bernadette, the story of handling differs from The Hucksters the gifted whale from Make Mine and other radio novels because it is Music, coming upon sudden insights frankly unrealistic; it is written as a such as "the mannequin gangster, Alan stunt, antiquely, with an artificial Ladd," and "the mannequin moll, Ver- charm. The elements are familiar; the onica Lake," of The Glass Key, one is abuse of a simple-minded, honest, re- inclined to agree with him. It is not ligious zealot to advertise soap is not that he sees an essential worth in medi- burlesque. A new thing is one kind ocre Hollywood films just because some word for the sponsor. It appears that of them happen to reveal "things be- the name "Dawn" was originally added hind things," according to the relent- to "Aurora" to explain to the custo- less logic of his method. Freud's view mers; the manufacturer knew what that "beneath the upper levels of the Aurora meant. This suggests further mind lies a vast human capacity to inquiry into the radio audience. A few think in terms of frantic passions and years ago, when a toothpaste was ad- symbols," and Frazer'sview of the "pro- vertised as a cure for bleeding gums, found interrelatedness of myths," serve many people came to drugstores and for Tyler to lend many films a clinical wanted to buy a "pink toothbrush" interest beyond their surface attain- which was precisely what the commer- ments. But dross is still dross and Tyler cial warned against. It would be terrify- does not pretend that his point of view ing to discover that the sponsors and necessarily alchemizes films into pure the agencies are right in their estimate gold. On the contrary, his "sardonic of the public, after all. comedy of critical hallucinations," as GILBERTSELDES 436 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY psychoanalytical probings of the Amer- he describes this study, has a counter- can film. (The methods of either writer part in the films themselves. It is "the could be applied to the other field of dubious vision of Bernadette that Hol- films with equally intriguing results.) lywood has stamped on the silver-dol- Both ignore, in principle, aesthetic larlike surface of its frame." evaluation-Kracauer less than Tyler. Altogether, an intellectual spree, a Indeed, Tyler admits, "I do not analyze witty and exhilarating book. the best movies as the artistic best but HERMANG. WEINBERG as the mythological best." In are not short, "Things always AURORA'S OTHER DAWN what they seem," says Tyler. "The fre- Aurora Dawn. Herman Wouk. Ne v quently unconscious magic employed By York: Simon and Schuster. by Hollywood [is] a magic of dream cre- 1947 ation that far transcends its literal mes- Within a few months we can expect sages." some novels glorifying the radio com- Reading, among others, his clever mercial, not because the singing plug, analyses of Double Indemnity (a bril- the hitch-hike, and the cowcatcher have liant tour de force in tracing motiva- improved, but because the razzing for- tions to their wellsprings), Mildred mula will be played out. Mr. Wouk's Pierce, Song of Bernadette, the story of handling differs from The Hucksters the gifted whale from Make Mine and other radio novels because it is Music, coming upon sudden insights frankly unrealistic; it is written as a such as "the mannequin gangster, Alan stunt, antiquely, with an artificial Ladd," and "the mannequin moll, Ver- charm. The elements are familiar; the onica Lake," of The Glass Key, one is abuse of a simple-minded, honest, re- inclined to agree with him. It is not ligious zealot to advertise soap is not that he sees an essential worth in medi- burlesque. A new thing is one kind ocre Hollywood films just because some word for the sponsor. It appears that of them happen to reveal "things be- the name "Dawn" was originally added hind things," according to the relent- to "Aurora" to explain to the custo- less logic of his method. Freud's view mers; the manufacturer knew what that "beneath the upper levels of the Aurora meant. This suggests further mind lies a vast human capacity to inquiry into the radio audience. A few think in terms of frantic passions and years ago, when a toothpaste was ad- symbols," and Frazer'sview of the "pro- vertised as a cure for bleeding gums, found interrelatedness of myths," serve many people came to drugstores and for Tyler to lend many films a clinical wanted to buy a "pink toothbrush" interest beyond their surface attain- which was precisely what the commer- ments. But dross is still dross and Tyler cial warned against. It would be terrify- does not pretend that his point of view ing to discover that the sponsors and necessarily alchemizes films into pure the agencies are right in their estimate gold. On the contrary, his "sardonic of the public, after all. comedy of critical hallucinations," as GILBERTSELDES