SCRAPPING THE POOR FILMS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 November 1920, Page 3

SCRAPPING THE POOR FILMS

BETTER ONES COMING. The main cause of the exhibition of so many bad pictures in the kinemas lies in the fact that six out of every ten films shown are booked by exhibitors without seeing them. Public opinion with regard to these pictures is having a decided effect upon the policy of kinema exhibitors, scores of whom have, during tlie past few days, been in communication with owners of fine pictures asking for the earliest dates on which they can show them, and expressing a determination to pns the “junk” on the shelf. One London firm has had 50 such inquiries. “LOOK BEFORE YOU BOOK.”

It is now realised that the new policy f the kinema public is to be held, is, ■ I ‘Look hefore you book.” The system 1 ,* booking from 50 to 100 pictures with- j iut seeing any of them has been adopt- j ■u by several English producers in self- ; lefence. If they had not done so, they ■ mild not have carried on their busi- -- less. One firm has already nearly 3,000 lookings of a number of pictures which ,ave not been made. ■ Many exhibitors, however, alarmed at ...e attitude of tlieir public in regard to ;he poor quality of so many pictures, - ire now covering themselves in booking Jocks of pictures by the proviso that Ley are “subject to view,” This means that if they do not think the- pictures suitable for their public they will refuse r. take them. The flood of had pictures in this country had an extraordinary effect in holding up the best of the American and home productions. Pictures which were great successes in the United. States during last winter and spring, and will ‘ne shown here some day, have not yet been exhibited to file buyers so that unless there is a general scrapping of the poor stuff English patrons will not see the American successes of 1919 until 1922. English pictures now being made will he held up until well into 1922.. j GEE AT PICTURES DELAYED. j This country could, if free to choose the best, provide the best film entertainment in the world. Instead of doing that, British kinema exhibitors have al r lowed themselves to he crowded out with pictures many of which have had very little showing! in the United States, and some none at all. . I The kinemas here are divided roughly into three.. grades. Jn any one town the best film produced is not shown at more than one kinema in what is called the “first, run.” This first booking bars every other kinema in the town. For the second run, months afterwards, another kinema in a different part of the town will book it, but no other will show it. This barring system limits the exhibition of the best films and opens the gates to floods of rubbish. Tt is holding up for more than a year two of the greatest pictures ever produced in the British Empire—Australia’s first picture, “The Sentimental Bloke,” and one of England’s best, “Nothing Else Matters.” LABORATORY AS KINEMA THEATRE. The effect of the kinema on the mind of the child is one of the points to he examined by a scientific committee, of which Professor Spearman, of University College, London, is chairman. The committee is to begin work next week. “We are going to experiment psychologically,” said Dr Spearman, to a Daily Mail reporter yesterday, and our aim is t j discover the uses and abuses of the kinema'. My own laboratory lias been converted into a kinema theatre, and there we are going to conduct the experiments. We shall report to the Education Committee 0? SKe Kinema CVmission.”