LONDON TASTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 134, 8 June 1929, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON TASTES.

SILENT SCREEN PREFERRED.

Movies are changing character so rapidly that it must be hard to get definite information about the preference of large audiences. By the time votes are taken, questionnaires sent out and replies compiled, the dernier cri of the movies may sound quite different. But a large cinema syndicate of London has just taken a census of what its audiences prefer. Of the 250,000 who voted, 16 per cent go to the movies twice a week and 14 per cent oftener. The results may therefore be taken as the voice of true movie fans.. On the subject of the talkies, the rote of the men was fifty-fifty. The women voted 70 per cent in favour of the silent movies. This may be interpreted as an indication that men are more progressive than women, and are quick to adapt themselves to innovation, or, on the other hand, it may mean that women are more exacting in their tastea and prefer the finished quality of the silent movies to the rasping deficiencies of the talkies.

Another unexpected result of the vote showed that 38 per cent of the voters preferred unhappy endings. Everyone is familiar with the soft-hearted girl who goes cheerfully to the theatre, well , supplied with handkerchiefs and sympathy. But no box office would ever have credited the statement that nearly half of its customers buy tickets hoping for a picture with a sad finale.