“FILMS DON’T MAKE CRIMINALS.”

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 27, 2 February 1937, Page 9

“FILMS DON’T MAKE CRIMINALS.”

LOr.D HEWAT DEPENDS THE ( CINEMA. **on what grounds other than prejudice can you base the view that ths cinema makes criminals of young persons?” asked Lord Hewart, the Lord Chief Justice, speaking in London at the annual dinner of the British Kinejnatograph Society. “It is oommonly stated that when adventures of passion and crime are portrayed before young people they tempt them to a life of orime,” Lord Hewart declared. “There is something lo be said for Bill Sikes and all his kind, and the criminal who exhibits heroio qualities may naturally be a more popular figure in fiction than the persons whose fea.ures and piety remain unimpaired and unattractive from the first page to the last. “Vet it is seldom suggested that children who read works of this kind —many of them to be numbered among the classics of literature—are thereby encouraged to entertain evil designs or Indulge in criminal practices.” Wrongdoers Laid Low. Every film of crime or adventure possessed the common feature that tho criminal was brought low. Why should it be suggested that these things were harmless in books, but harmful on the screen? Lord Hewart said that film producers had been resorting less and less to stories of a cheap or ridiculous kind. “British films, I am informed and oelieve, have been given a lead in this wholesome direction,” he went on. “The so-called ‘instructional’ films, the frankly humorous films the historical films, Mr Walt Disney’s cartoons, the news pictures—all these play an increasingly Important part in the programme. “The result is that In British cinemas to-day there are offered to tho public wonderful and magnifloent photography, acting and dramatic ef-