WHAT MAKES FILMS POPULAR?
Why do people go to the moving pictures? Mr. Gilbert Seldes, the American critic, has just thrown the British film world into agitated discussion hy ha^arding the revolutionary and astounding opinion that they go to see — moving pictures. Whereas, of course, everybody supposed they went to see stars. Mr. Seldes has been doing some research work on this matter, and he has come to the eonclusion that the film malces the star far more oft'en than the star makes the film. When Rudolph Valentino, for ■ example, appeared in the "Eour orsemen of the Apocalypse ' ' he was compar&tively unknown. Yet this film grossed far more than did any of his subsequenf pictures made after he had become one of the three most famous screen players in the world, • It seems ten films that have obtained more than £600,000 in gross rentals succeeded without the strength of having a star name in the cast. Furthermore, it is significant that nearly half of them should be what is loosely called "epic," a picture made on a lavish scale, stressing the lif e of a people or community rather than the adventures of an individual. It would almost appear as if people will go to a super-film even if it is a film of supers.
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Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 61, 4 December 1937, Page 10
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215WHAT MAKES FILMS POPULAR? Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 61, 4 December 1937, Page 10
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