Screen Audiences More Critical

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 151, 23 March 1934, Page 16

Screen Audiences More Critical

JtfODERN screen audiences are far more critical of their entertainment than any stage audience every was, 'and for this reason motion picture actors and actresses have to “watch their step” to a greater extent than they did in the theatre, according to Frederic March of Paramount, who has played for years in both mediums. March declares that theaverage film fan has a far more observant eye and detects flaws and incongruities more quickly than his sophisticated, stage lover. “The reason seems to lie in the fact that motion pictures are essentially intimate,” March pointed out between scenes of Paramount’s “Design for Living.” “The ability of the camera to pry into life with its all-revealing closeups, which unmask every facial expression, has made its public unusually discriminating. The stage audience is forced to depend more or less on suggestion. If we depict a waterfall on the stage, we do it by means of an off-stage sound of running water, and a reference to the waterfall's proximity in the dialogue. Picturegoers, however, will not stand for this deception. If the action or background of the story calls for at waterfall, they want to see and hear it. The same applies to other objects which are shown every day on the screen, but which can only be suggested on the stage. Thus it is that the films have constantly set new standards of entertainment.”