DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 23, 19 April 1927, Page 14

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

THE WEST (Copyright, 1927. J IT has been the fashion among dramatists and novelists to dip into the past as well as to reach forward to the future. Indeed, while there have been a few men like ‘'Wells and Bellamy, who have sketched the possibilities of the future, the greater number of them have gone into the past for their material. When Wagner composed his operas he went back to the Nibelu ngenlied and the primitive records of Teutonic exploits. ’ Homer in his day reached into the past of Hellenic history or tradition. America’s West is already fast vanishing. It is colourful and interesting. It contains a type of life that is,peculiar only to this country. [ It particularly appeals to us all because of its adventurous spirit. The Western plays are ideal from the movie fan’s standpoint. They • contain interest of the most pure and undiluted kind. They are adventurous but clean. There is no tragedy nor sex appeal in them. There is none of the complication of our modern artificial life, but the direct and clean - appeal to our love of adventure, that love which all of us feel, no matter how ' sedentary our occupations. From the movie fan’s standpoint the Western films are ideal. They supply exactly that thing that one goeso to the movies for---exeitement, l amusement and interest. They leave no tang of regret in the mind alter they have finished. There is never anything but the pure enjoyment of l action. i Perhaps the life of the old-time West is best adapted to give us what ’ we want. Those men were simple and direct. Their justice was swift r and their emotions were close to the surface. I Recently I attended a Bill Hart film. The house was full and the street in front of the house was full. The audience was manifestly delighted with the representation. j American films, they say, are overrunning the world and of all films that we produce the Western are the most American. The pony express was commonplace enough in its time, but now it is [ picturesque. The time may come when people will look back on railroad r trains as being picturesque figures.