WAR-MAKERS DICTATE TO MOVIE MOGULS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 43, 6 March 1937, Page 11

WAR-MAKERS DICTATE TO MOVIE MOGULS

Although there is now a terrifio sentiment in ihe. United State.s againsfc any kind of war, ,we ;Americans xnust 'aecept war' propaganda jn our films, because our nxovies are made for the world market^ writes-. Meyer * Levin, well-knowix Axnerifcah" film critic. , A recent picture, ."Itoad to Glory", promoted' as a .film yrhiich' a'gitated' for peace by exposing the horrors of war, nevertheless carried on all the old .cliches o | honour and glory, and creab,0d a' readxxxessVfor^war 'sacri&ce in"the public mind. It made a great hero of :a*stupid-old" Xnan,.who sneaked his way into the army,' whose blunders cost the lives of several comrades, but who carried* hjs 'old. Napoleonic. bugle and died with it in- hds liand.. The last shot !was of. the batlered .bugle, shining in the* bloody. mud. .. Th© old sentimental nonsense. . .

' Upon 'inquiry, ; I found.: that. many •people who-had ; worked on this picture would have liked to make an anti-war film. "And as -.far as - the American market goes," I was told, Vit wouldn't have mattered. But you can't risk an anti-war film in Europe. : And there' s 40 per cent of your gross.?' . , And there, very .simply, is th© story. Americans, paying- the .heavy share of the movie-inaker's income, would . accept anti-war films.. Poreign countries, paying the lighter share, dictate the policy. • . ■ -"The Lost Patrol",- for instance, was banned in Hungary because "it is of.a pacifist type, and also shows the horrors of war." Japan has a rigid censorship against any scenes ' uncomplimentary to soldiers. "The Man Who Reclaimed His Head" jvas banned in Persia because it was "anti-militaris-tic". • And, of course, anti-militaristio pictures are not welcome in Germany and Italy. But couldn't a producer ignore the foreign market and give us something designed for America? -asks Meyer Levin. Couldn't 'he make a profit without Japan, Persia,1 Hungary, Germany and Italy? He probably could, but it wouldn't be as big a profit. Our movie- magnates have no desire to waste money on a.film that is going to be censored. It is better to find out in advance what might he objectionable and conform to it. The most flagrant caso was, pf course, M.G.M's. abandonment o.f "It Can't Happen Here" at the threat of the German Government to ban all pictures emanating from the same studio. Warner Brothers had the right to "The Forty Days of Musa Pagh", a literary classic. Turkey protested because the story recaled the atrocious treatment of the Armenians by the Turks. Now, Turkey has only about 100 motion picture houses and is a negligible factor. England, however, is friendly to Turkey. and England is Hallywood's best customer. So "Musa JOagh was dropped."