GERMANY'S INVASION OF AMERICA.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17128, 25 April 1921, Page 8

GERMANY'S INVASION OF AMERICA.

MOTION PICTURE CAMERA THE CHIEF WEAPON. Germany's invasion of the United States is getting under full headway (says a New York correspondent). Her weapon is the motion picture camera; her army is made up of movie writers, directors, actor's —yes, • and salesmen. The only foreign country where film production is approaching the American standard is Germany. While the war was going, on, Germany developed her motion picture industry, foreseeing that some great agency must be pressed into service to regain her standing with the rest of the world. So the Government helped 'to develop the motion picture as that agent.

In 1919, the first year after the war, 941 films were produced in Germany. Then her motion picture salesmen came to New York with a set of filrn masterpieces. Italian, French, English, and Swedish producers had tried to penetrate the American market, but without ava-il. The first German masterpiece "Passion" was hawked ahout "Celluloid" Row" in New York for weeks.

Though 'Tassion" was pronounced a masterpiece, and the price was lower than American films of the same standard by half, "exhibitors feared to purchase because of wartime hostility. Finally, _ however, an organisation of American motion picture theatre! owners purchased "Passidn" and released it in New York. It broke all box office records.

Immediately after the close of the war the German Government is said to have offered D. W. Griffith 3,000,000 dollars a year if he would go to Germany and supervise the motion picture industry. He_ refused, and .Germany is pitting Lubitsch against him. But spectacular productions are not the only kind of films being put out by Germany. Every industry in Germany —automobile, dyes, agricultural implements, toys, etc. —has been filmed, and these short reels are being shipped to all parts of the world and, offered gratis to theatre owners. The idea is to preach the doctrine of "made in Germany." Meanwhile, Germany nas put an embargo against all foreign films, including American, limiting ttem to 15 per cent, of the total number shown on German screens. France is backward with her picture productions. Financial interests in France do not support the new industry, and to-day 90 per cent, of the pictures shown on French screens are American.

In Great Britain the American" picture still holds supremacy, but prominent Britishers like Lord Northcliffe, Lord Beaverbrook, and Sir Thomas Lipton, are backing British-made pictures, and this year will see 75 per cent, of the' British screens showing British pictures, whereas in 1919 and 1920 British screens showed nearly 100 per cent, of American pictures.