THE “TALKIES.”

Hokitika Guardian, 8 February 1930, Page 8

THE “TALKIES.”

EVENTS OF THE YEAR

SAN FRANOISCO, January 2

Undoubtedly, when the history of tlie year 1929 comes to be written by the theatre historian of the future, he

will mark it as the year in which the most revolutionary event in the story of the film took place. There is no denying that the advent of the talking picture has been the most sensational occurence in the entire theatrical world during the past twelve months, in the opinion of expert observers of the U.S.A. and Canada.

To put the matter concisely, and in the most picturesque manner, the control of the the film industry has passed out of the hands of the people who formerly owned it and into the hands of the electrical industry.

If the electrical industry had not come to the aid of the film industry in the nick of time, the latter, which had been riding to a fall for a long timfi with a persistent steadiness would have crashed to the bottom, bringing down in its collapse a score of affiliated industries.

The salvation effected, as Mr E. G. Faulkner, editor of the “Film Review,” points out in a recent article was of a ruthless character, since it involved extensive destruction. Producers, he says, “ have had to scrap all the old methods, the theatre owners have had to spend millions in new equipment, with the knowledge that it is quite possible that these will have to be wasted, through the introduction of a much bigger picture and screen—a wider film—with colour and stereoscopic pictures, all of which are now ready to be sprung upon the world.” Neither the film industry nor the general public was in any way prepared for the “talkies.” The inevitable result was confusion, waste, unnecessary expenditure and heavy losses, j From the beginning there was no standardisation, and there is none to-day. The prospects are for further extensive scrapping, waste, and losses. , Although the number of types of talking pictures lias decreased from seventy ! at the beginning to fifteen to-day, and j although these are rapidly being re-1 duced further, until a standard type; or at best two standard types seem j to be well in sight, there is no sign j that the hold-up system which has de-' veloped out of the industry’s change of control will lessen.

| ENORMOUS INVESTMENT. j During the past year some 5400 theatres in the United States have been equipped for the “talkies,” 210 in Canada, 500 in Britain, and 50 in France representing a total investment on the part of the theatre owners of 120 million dollars, repayable on the average over a ten-year term. ! There remain in the United States some fourteen thousand theatres unequipped because of the present exorbi-

! taut cost, . some- three thousand similarly situated ,in Britain, and forty thousand, throughout the world. An important' direct result of the advent of the “talkies” is that many thousands of first-class—and otherwise —musicians have lost their jobs and have not been able to find any other form of employment. The earlier form of talking pictures, particularly with song and dance, won a very large,public quickly, but there is little doubt that the novelty to-day does not possess the drawing power it. did. In the opinion of many able critics, the standard is not being kept up, and the number of good talking j pictures at the close of 1929 was not | equal to that of the good silent films in 1928, a fact which may be realised both in New Zealand and Australia, Moreover, the language problem is giving producers a great deal of ground for apprehension. If developments I render necessary a further revolutionary scrapping of equipment to permit of the installation of the latest screen can tell Incidentally the introduction sound apparatus, then the outlook for the future will be somewhat complex. This is, perhaps, the only instance in the economic history of the modern world where one industry has completely gobbled up another within the brief period of twelve months. Whether the film industry will prove too indigestible a meal for the electricity industry in the long run, only the future with colour and stereopticon as well as of the “talkies” has meant the demand for some hundreds of highly cultured Englishmen who have been hurriedly drafted into lucrative positions at Hollywood owing to their perfect enunciation of the Anglo-Saxon tongue free fromjthe baneful Yankee twang and slang. As a result the average “talkie” now being purveyed in these United. States affords a- striking lesson to Americans in the fine points of good elocution and is materially aiding the growth of international good feeling between America and Britain, a subject which lias gained tremendous impetus by the recent visit to the U.S.A. of Mr Bamsav MacDonald of Great Britain.