Shorter Films

Radio Record, 3 June 1938, Page 28

Shorter Films

|N view of the complaint in last week's ‘’Record’’ about the excessive length of some pictures these days, it is interesting to note, from a recent issue of the ‘British Film Weekly,"’ that steps are to be taken to make pictures shorter. "Nicholas M. Schenck of M-G-M lately visited Hollywood,’ states this paper. ‘’The ‘Hollywood Reporter’ discloses that he spent the whole of one meeting with M-G-M’‘s producers discussing the matter. He vehemently expounded the reasons why something must be done to keep films short. And he wisely pointed out that the place to do it is in the writing. Mr. Schenck’‘s words tend to be law. So we may be most truly thankful to him... As a general rule a subject which needs great length is not a suitable screen subject, while to give a normal subject great length means it is either bloated or incompetent. It was time that somebody stopped this competitive million-dollar meandering. It is fitting that M-G-M, who first launched length as a bold experiment should be the first to see that it must not become a habit."