AMERICAN PICTURE FILMS

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21026, 30 November 1933, Page 7

AMERICAN PICTURE FILMS

TO THE EDITOB 0> TH« PRESS Sir,—l am not unduly biased against "Yankee" Alms, though the American dialect and the barbarous "Yankee" intonation always grate unpleasantly on me, but last night I saw and listened to m Christchurch such an exhibition of "Yankee" boorishness and hopeless vulgarity that I hope you will spare space to publish this protest. The grossly offensive portion of the entertainment to which I and all those around me took the strongest exception was the preliminary section of the programme—the curtain raiser, as it were. It depicted scenes from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and a raucous American voice droned out the accompanying narrative. In the scene depicting the death of little Eva, the horrible voice strikes in "Here you see Little Eva; she's just about to kick the bucket"—that gives a hint of the quality provided. To many of us this sort of thing is not only an outrage on our good old English tongue, but also «an outrage on decency. We have not yet reached the stage of American civilisation which would set us to play the buffoon in the presence of death. It was an outrage to our recollections of our brave young days when we read the story first r.nd v/tre better for reading it. I protest very strongly against this kind of thing. Whoever is responsible should see that in the interests of good English and good taste such rubbish is not unloaded on the people of New Zealand.—Yours, etc, PICTURE FAN. November 28, 1933.