HUNDRED CINEMAS REFUSE WAR TRAVESTY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 206, 19 November 1927, Page 23 (Supplement)

HUNDRED CINEMAS REFUSE WAR TRAVESTY

AMERICAN FILM BANNED BRITISH INDIGNATION The outcry against the showing in Great Britain of the American film-travesty of the work of the Royal Air Force in France, entitled “War Hawks,” is spreading among cinema exhibitors, according to a London correspondent. As a result of the exposure of this film by “The Daily Mail," Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, Limited, who own the New Gallery Cinema, Regent Street, W., and approximately 100 cinemas in other parts of the country, have refused to show the picture. The company, of which Mr. James V. Bryson is the head In this country, he says, has added a crowning insult to the British public by announcing the release date of “War Hawks” as November 12 (Armistice week). There has been an attempt also to foist the film on the cinema exhibitor as British, a phrase in one of the company’s advertisements stating, “It’s British through and through.” The distributors of “War Hawks” have been guilty of the worst possible taste on other occasions. They were responsible for arranging an escort of territorial troops for an American film when it was brought by Mr. Bryson to this country, an action which resulted in the Cinematograph Exhibitors’ Association refusing to exhibit the film. This company also endeavoured to get exhibitors to send telegrams to their members of Parliament protesting against the provisions of the Cinematograph Films Bill, which seeks to impose a compulsory percentage of British films in British cinema programmes.