FILMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 January 1922, Page 4

FILMS.

PLAYERS WITH IDEALS

(.By Artliilr Weigall, au'tiibr of the Influence of the Kinematograph on National Life).

Lbfrftofr, NbV. 20

The Arbiicklc scandal lias led td a good deal of hostile criticism of the iililVs; and iio matter What lUay be the result of tile trial width lias just oflfeiie(l, the World Will not easily bVerltidk the facts Which Jiilvte beefi Already admitted. It is to be remembered, liowbVel - , tlidt whenever precipitate a lid overwhelming wealth comes to & groitp Of i&bple unprepared by breeding or education to receive it, the wildest orgies ensue. Rough miners who have suddenly made their fortunes in gold have turned their mining-town into an inferno; soffie of the profiteers who acquired their wealth during the war have painted the cities red in every country; and it is not altogether surprising that some of the weaker-minded celebrities of Los Angelos, egged on by Prohibition, _ Have sometimes drunk themselves into a bestial condition. We have to blaine the kinema boom rather than the untutored, idiotic victims of it. tt must not be thought, however, that those poor creatures, suddenly transformed by ebullient wealth from dregs into scum, are in any way representative of the film world. There are a great man.V jnen in the industry Who have realised the mighty power for good which is in their hands and after their own lights, Dave dedicated themselves, as it were, to the service ot the world through the hineina. CHAPLIN AND FAIRBANKS. I know no mail who is more deeply enthralled by the problems of humanity than Charlie Chaplin; and I shall not scon forget the long conversation I hue with him on those kind of subjects. Douglas Fairbanks is another case w point. His face was alight wda enthusiasm as he spoke to me the ot night of the power of the films to bring peace and good will to the world. “Take Russia,” for instance, be said “If the films could show us what is going on in Russian homes just now and could help us to realise teat the Russian mother is impelled by the same instincts as an English or American mother, and has the same hopes and fears we should understand the tragedy they are going through and should t-oii; fine our hostility to the right quarters. ’ “War cannot exist where tlierb ns understanding,” he went on, “and the films bring understanding in a degree altogether beyond the possibilities of the w ritten or spoken word. They provide tile touches of nature which make the whole world kin; and while tlie diplomats are talking away at. Wasliingtc.n, we screen-actors can gel right at the hearts of the peoples themselves and tea'll the nations to sympathise with one anotner.” Mr Walter Wanger, who is shortly to open Covent Garden Opera House as a kinema theatre, is another young American who, under a debonair exterior, controls a mind rod-hot with ideals and aspirations in regard to the education of the masses by means of the films. You may find him any evening engrossed in Blue-books, L.C.C. reports, or royal commissions; and five mnutes’ conversaton will reveal the passion of earnestness behind his quiet words.

RESPONSIBILITY AND POWER. Among Englishmen concerned in this wonderful industry- there are _ already many men of wide vision and high aim ; and 'the speeches at the many trade functions which take place each week reveal earnest and usually lincore efforts to raise the tone of films in general. Steadily the brains of the iiulWstry ate becoming oortsciohs of its world-wide power; and the senate nf responsibility increases on all sides. This being so, one does not give much attention to scandals such as that which lias disgusted lis recently. They are the,backwash of a wild phase that is, nearly finished with.