“MOVIES” IN PRISON.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 August 1922, Page 6

“MOVIES” IN PRISON.

ENTERTAINMENT FOR CONVICTS. AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT, It was a strange picture show that a Daily News reporter saw the other day, for with the exception of a pressman colleague and those producing the pictures, the audience was composed of sixty or seventy convicts. The lights had been turned out in a spacious dome-shaped room, and when the reporter entered it through a large iron-railed door there was a chill and a strange silence, and as he walked on the bare stone floor the sound of his footsteps carried a harshness. There was no merry laughter and chatter which greets one in the orthodox “picture palace,” and the strangeness of it all left one rather cold. Then from a dark corner came a burst of music from an organ in peals which were as merry as an organ is capable of producing, and a sheet of light splashed the improvised screen. That was better.

Then, as the light mereased with the showing of the picture, and one’s eyes became focussed to pick out the surroundings, it did not seem such a weird place as first impressions gave. It was a real picture, the music was bright, and soon came a few chuckles, which presently grew into that laughter one had missed. The audience, bare-headed and dressed in khaki tunics and white trousers, with their white caps in their hands., sat around on rows of forms, and they gave complete attention to the story which was being told by the film. The reporter sat by a group of convicts. and the types were many and strange. There were fresh-complexioned young men, others who had reached middle life, and some whose grey hairs showed they were not much younger than one bright-eved, smiling old man whose shaggy beard was white. And as one watched these faces closely following the picture, it was difficult to believe they were convicts. There were little scraps of conversation here and there, laughter in plenty when the picture called for it. and wrapt attention when the story took a more serious turn. For the time being, at least, they were happy. It was a splendid picture, and engrossed in it perhaps they had forgotten their own situation and all it meant, but the genuine delight which it gave should serve to satisfy the authorities that the coming of the movies is going to <Jo much to brighten prison life.

This scene was witnessed by the press* man in a gaol where pictures were shown for the first time. But though the innovation is unique in these parts, it would seem that the “movies” have lately found a new world in which to spread their powers of entertainment, for in some cities of Australia picture shows are being employed as part of the scheme of things which is designed to brighten the lives of those men whose wavs have led them to confinement behind the cold, grev Avails of a prison. For the present it is a light form of entertainment which helps to quicken a clock which goes round very slowly, but it may he the thin edge of the wedge of a reformer who sees in the pictures a factor in reforming convicts. The somewhat r.eckless young son of the member of the movie family —whose life is a whirl of shootings and robberies —is often blamed for tainting the mind of youths and setting them on paths of crime, and perhaps this new phase may result in the more sober members of the movie family—whose lives are real, refreshing stories —coming on the scene to repair the damage done bv the aforesaid younger brother. However that may be. it would seem that authorities with advanced views are‘not going to deny picture entertainments to convicts, and the move is one which will be watched with interest. Much, of course, will depend on the pictures shown. The picture which was shown in the case above described told the story of the self-sacrifice and heroism of the “black sheep” of a family, who. through his regard and reverence for the mother who so devotedly loved him. became the “best of the bunch.” To shield his father’s name and save his mother suffering, he goes to prison on, a false charge of horse-stealing; and then, when remorse had killed the father, and all the rest of her family had failed her. the “black sheep” comes to her rescue and support. A sweet subsidiary love interest is afforded by the romance, dating from their school days, of “the black sheep” and the village, belle. It was a good picture, with the influence of Mother strongly developed.