ENGLISH WRITER'S CRITICISM OF MANY SCREEN CONVENTIONS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 425, 9 January 1933, Page 7

ENGLISH WRITER'S CRITICISM OF MANY SCREEN CONVENTIONS

"Only foolish mouse makes nest in cat's ear!" You do not need to be told wno said that; it wa's the latest (but not, I f'ear, last) Inscrutable Film Oriental given to uttering obvious proverbs with the unctiousness of the latter-day Confucius, says an English writer in an apt criticism of screen eonventions. Most of us could think of a better wisecrack in two minutes, but the most trite cliche is supposed to take on a peculiar portentousness when put inta the mouth of an "inscrutable Oriental." It is a convention inherited from nrtTrol arirl FTIP Tf; ha.s liad

its day. The bore of a Chinese who . combines the wisdom of a second-rate Solomon with the severity of Uriah Heep is no longer a novelty. A be-whiskered policeman shoulders his way through the film crowd and says, " 'Ere! What's all this abaht?" That was a joke years ago; it is a convention to-day and one which ignores the fact that the educational standard of the Metropolitan Police is higher than in most callings. The policeman of to-day is no longer past middle-age, and — as for whiskers — most young constables are clean shaven. The millionaire lives in palatial s]ilendour. S'oft-footed butlers appear at the summons of an ivory-and-silver bell-push, tea is wheeled in across sumptuous carpets, guests are shown to enormous rooms decorated in expensive futuristic manner. 'On every hand are evidence of enormous and ostentatious wealth. But then screen millionaires do not conform to real-life standards. Eight millionaires out of ten, even American ones, live in a state of comfort below that enjoyed by an ordinary middle-class family. They like to boast how they exist on two app'les and a biscuit and a glass of water every day and enjoy three hours' sleep in a shed with no front. The other two live the lives of miserly recluses. Yet the screen knows only those who dwell in opulent splendour. The father or guardian is going to die in the last reel. He obligingly gives due warning by clutching at the region of his heart and staggering to his feet in reel two. Did you ever see anyone clutch at his heart and stagger to his feet in real life? It is simply .another convention of the movies. At one time all movie telephone operators and typists chewed gum. Children expressed delight by rapidly jumping up and down and clapping their hands. Death was signified by an onlooker taking off his hat (often before anyone had made even a cursory examination of the :supposed corpse) . "We have outlived those days, but how long are we to suffer cowboys who (apparently) do not work and villains who smoke eternal cigarettes but never a pipe. The talkies, strong, virile off-shoot of the silent film and the stage, can be nearer reality than either, but they must get rid of the thunderstorms which politely refrain from kicking up a din while anyone is speaking, and the houses at which the postman calls only when he has a letter necessary for the unravelling of the plot. The screen of to-day must rid itself of these tiny bnt irritating shibboleths it has inherited from its elder sisters, and go forward to giving us drama which has the unmistakahle impress of complete reality.