WOMEN AS FILM CENSORS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15698, 18 September 1916, Page 8

WOMEN AS FILM CENSORS.

(By Heron-Maxwell. the wellknown novelist, in the London "Daily Mail.")

There are many postg that men can fill better than women; there are some that only men can undertake; bnt to neither of these classes does that of film-censor belong, and it 6eems as if this wholly modern appointment is especially fitted to the pre6ent-day woman, and she particularly qualified for success in it. ' v *

The mind of a ohild is a camera obscura, where email reproductions of passing tilings jostlo one another, 6ome so transient that they are gone from the mirror before their reflection is realised, others swift but strong, leaving sharp impressions, others again glow and protracted, making a. firm and lasting picture for- .the mental eye. . A man trained in boyhood to cover emotional traits, to quell tears of rage or. pain" to dissemble excitement, and to hold himself well together is i-pt, when he grows up, to Ainderrato the sensations wliich needed this check, and to think that his son will keep thom under the surface, wher Q they do not greatly matter, as he did. lie forgets how often, or how very nearly h© found the precept of not allowing his young impulses to be influenced failing in practice; ho ignores the temptation that a boy experiences to imitate what i 6 daring, exciting, and' interesting, without pausing to decide whether there is evil or good in it. He •undervalues the sensitiveness of this fresh, untarnished brain-plate, which, though masculine, has_ not yet attaihed the virility to throw 6ft what is harmful, and this in spite of having been a bov himself. And with regard to his little daughter's receptivity to outward and visible signs ofkthings that are best not dwelt upon—crime and vice wearing attractive labels and and that may destx-oy her inward spiritual grace—he is very much in tho dark. Ho. thinks that she will understand little and remember less. He can discriminate easily and decisively between the films that aro ennobling, educational, or harmlessly amusing and tho out-and-out corrupt play which, except for a few touches of sickly virtue, exploits the worst passions of the human heart. But with the numerous grades and shades of undesirable featurings, his si<iht is sometimes not minuto enough. His condemnation is balanced by a stirring incident, a crowded scene, a sensational punishment, or a deathbed repentance. He takes a broadview that roduces certain points in tho plav to a proportion that is too 6mall. There are some episodes in screendramas that should bo inspected through a peephole, with a powerful light concentrated on ,them and no mitigating surroundings leading up to 'or away from them, as one lias looked at Jan Van Beer's pictures in Bond street, or other artists'work in foreign galleries. It is the only way, becanso of an intrinsic quality of suggestion, to. get their full ofFect. A fine-drawn liiic of criticism is needed here, and a critic who can detach vision from experience and tho mature level of memory and mental digestion" resulting from it; a critic who with a guiding intuition and insight can enter into a child's mind, with its limitations and sts paradoxically wide horizon, and see with a child's eyes.

It is the mother-sympathy that can do this, the knowledge of and the faculty of noticing children's susceptibilities that are in every feminine woman, whether the littlo ones are her own or other people's. The thoughts oF youth are long, long thoughts, but a woman follows them with less effort tli3n a man because her imagination tends that way; and she is less trammelled by tho idea of what the child, according to rules and precedents, ought to think. Besides she h<p watched daily, hourly, the opening of this budding mind as a gardener sees baby-flowers unfolding to the sun or dew and withering in the- wind or rain. She is aware of every kink in the new petals.

The most natural and plausiblo children in fiction hav n been created by women authors. There are. of course, such masterpieces of pen-painting as Paul Dombey. Littlo Jo, Johnny, tho •'minder." with his tender little legacy of n "kiss for tho boofrn? lady," and other moro or lesß known studies of babyhood and youth by* other men writers. But for each of them one can think of a dozen littlo living pictures that owe their beinjj to a woman's subtlo draughtsmanship. Tho feminine film censor must, be of this calibre; cultivated, intuitive,! critical, sympathetic, -unbiased, anct humorous. There need bo no question of her superseding censors of the other , sex ; breadth of aspect counts, and latitude of appreciation as well »s obser- | vation of detail and capacity for entering fully into children's ideas. There j was never a time for successful collaboration of sexes as that which

has now arrived, induced by the nhshirkable teachings of wax —war vlucli has gripped the world and shakia it with such ruthless energy that thaoan of women has mingled with of men, and the feminine poraV of view permeates solid masculine decision* as a wholesome leaven fermenting, effervescing, sparkling, restraining,.up. lifting! ItJ is at all events certain that tits censorship of plays which are to be shown to youthfnl audiences will be more rigorous when women advise, because they know children's ways and works, with the causes, and results, more intimately than men. Education is a training of tastes by many other methods than book-lore, and if our youthfnl playgoers are taught to like or even tolerate "the low and base, they will grow down to it, instead of rising gradually upwards to the higher lovels of amusement. The very titles of numerous sensational dramas shonld be signposts of danger to any lover of -children, while posters "pander to a craving for excitement that is becoming a marked characteristic of Englinn boys and girls.■ If they are to grov up healthy aad sound, fit in mind and body, capable <>f heroic, solf-*acrificing deeds for - * duty's sake, like their splendid fathers whoso exploits are formmgthe _most magnificent moving panorama in the world, " they must be sheltered now from this pernicious influence of bad suggestion.The guardianship of" the women .is needed as supplement to that of- tho men. , • _____