THE MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 170, 19 July 1924, Page 23

THE MYSTERY.

They take a first-class Btory by a man who knows his Job, A tale that makes you laugh and cry and thrill and choke and sob, And tliey Rive it to a bozo with a solid i\ory knob— And they wonder " What's the Matter with the Movies?" The dumbbell looks It over and " adapts It for Ihe screen." Producer and Director tear and rend It, scene by scene, And tbe Siar deuittnds more changes—knowla. naught of what they mean. And they wonder " What's the Mutter with the Movies?" They cry nloud for "Action." which they seek to brine abont By adding fires and shipwrecks and by throwing loplc otlt, And they plan an Aztec temple and an ancient pageant rout. And they wonder " What's the Matter with the Movies?" ' They spend a million dollars (fully half of it is waste), For they have a bt-ap of money which they substitute for taste. And they do a Super-Feature with all common senile erased. And they wonder " What's the Matter with the Movies?" And when tbe author's story has been trampled cold and fiat. Leaving nothing but the title—and quite often changing that— They call in tbe Exhibitors to have a tarn at bat— And they wonder " What's the Matter wiih the Movies?" They spend All Kinds of Money, and they take All Kinds of Pains, Then marvel that the public's old enthusiasm wanes. For they've planned and schemed and laboured — using everything but Brains— And they wonder " What's the Matter with the Movies?" —8.8., " Life."