Mr. Arthur Weigall, author of “The Influence of the Kinematograph on National Life,” has at various times lamented on the dullness of screen plays, making Byron’s phrase in “Lara”—“dull the film”—almost a modern one. There are some film-producers who still fail to understand the mentality of a large portion of their patrons. Some films do not appeal to the intelligence of the audience. Many patrons are wearied of seeing what passes for melodrama. It would be a happy release if there were fewer “releases” of this nature. It has been said that until producers recognize that the principles of Art must come before commercial considerations the film industry is doomed.
It is for the people to insist on the best, and only the best, being “screened,” and the various “corporations” that are giving us mediocre matter will be crowded out by the far-seeing producers who realize that the Public, unlike the Law, is not “a ass.”
While the film can never supplant the printed word, it has been the means of directing the attention of many people to the books available at the Public Libraries. Quite recently the Rev. T. W. Pym, in an article in the “Library Association Record,” said: “People will read any book which they have seen on the films, whether it be Dickens or ‘George Eliot’ or any other author, whom, normally, that particular person would not think of attempting to read.” The cinema is thus a direct advertising medium for the Public Libraries. This phase, and the use of the cinema as a publicity service for Public Libraries, has been definitely outlined in the book on “Library Advertising,” and Mr. Wrigley considerably amplifies this in the following pages.
This volume is a résumé of what has been done in film-land, and the author advances numerous original ideas that will be read with interest and profit by educationists generally, library authorities, social-reformers, and cinema-goers collectively. It is not a technical work, but the technics of the art of film production are also dealt with. After studying this volume the reader will doubtless accept Mr. Wrigley’s contention that “the film is the coming apostle of education.”
Walter A. Briscoe.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
| Introduction: The Cinema-Educator | [ 9] | |
| I. | Historical | [ 21] |
| The genesis of the film.—Present and future. | ||
| II. | Educational | [26] |
| The cinematograph in the schools.—The filmas teacher.—Some educational films.—Historytaught by film.—The developmentof the British Colonies.—Political propaganda.—Thefilm in American schools.—Instructingthe deaf mute.—In mentalhospitals.—Medical students. | ||
| III. | Libraries and Literature | [50] |
| School, Library and cinema.—Film collections.—Preservationof the film.—Libraryof films in Berlin.—Advertising the publiclibrary.—“Publicity” films.—The book.—Filmas mental ally.—Filmed literature. | ||
| IV. | Social | [ 76] |
| The Cinema Commission.—Film censorship.—Juvenilecrime.—Morality tests.—The“White Scourge” problem.—Churchesand the cinema.—The film and the savage.—Co-operativecinemas. | ||
| V. | Commercial Advertising | [96] |
| Advertising by the film.—Sales by the film. | ||
| VI. | Production | [ 101] |
| The failure and success of the film.—Cinemaeccentricities: blunders and inaccuracies.—Naturalcolour films.—Talking films.—Paperfilms. | ||
| VII. | Conclusion | [ 121] |
THE FILM
I
HISTORICAL
The rise and development of the cinematograph during the last few years has been truly phenomenal.