FILMS AND THE STUDIOS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 544, 22 December 1928, Page 23

FILMS AND THE STUDIOS

SCREEN STORIES—the world's enormous yearly output of screen plays and the constant cry of film producers about the difficulty of obtaining suitable motion picture material, there are still countless untapped sources of film plots. Naturally enough, America has been combed for literary talent much more thoroughly than Britain. Hollywood has snapped up authors residing in the United States, and has sent its call across the Atlantic. Stories in periodicals such as the “Saturday Evening Post” are utilised as rapidly as they are printed. In England, however, the wealth of plots and stories lying dormant has been scarcely scratched. The fields of England, the mountains of Scotland, and the lakes of Ireland are the principal settings of these tales, and unique scenic beauty is awaiting the camera. Films relating to British life, work and customs have yet to be filmed. Although America has set the example by presenting pictures based on all forms of sport in the United States, ice have yet to see a film with the game of cricket or Rugby football as its background.

Despite the numerous American college films, Britain has not attempted to make a picture dealing with English university life. There is romance aplenty in the coal mining industry—thrills without number underground. The railways of England are world famous and their history goes hack to the first days of steam. There is the romance of shipbuilding in the great English and Scottish yards; the daily perils of the North Sea fishing industry.