British History On Screen

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 42, 13 November 1936, Page 14

British History On Screen

AMERICAN' filmgoers are rebelling against the big-scale Hollywood films based on British patriotic .subjects. Men like Frank Lloyd, who made such a success of “’Cavalcade” that he has been given other British stories to film, are being bombarded with letters of protest from all over the United States.

“Hollywood made ‘Mutiny on the Bounty,’ ‘David Copperfield,’ and ‘A Tale of Two Cities.’ Why do . you never give us American history?” “Leave English history to the English and let us put the United States on films for a change.”

“England can do stories like ‘Rhodes’ and Tudor Rose’ and they are fine from England, but such movies should never be made in Hollywood.” These are typical extracts from the letters Frank Lloyd has received, and he has capitulated to the strong wave in favour of American film sentiment. “On the other hand,” he said to a film correspondent recently, “we must

be careful not to react too violently because we must cater for the British Empire market.” Fredric March thinks Hollywood cannot film English history. “Hollywood,” he said, “does not seem able to recapture the richness of history. . “Mary of Scotland,’ in which I appeared with Katharine Hepburn, was foredoomed to severe criticism because at times in spirit and voice it was modern Hollywood and not mediaeval Britain.

“Hollywood is not old enough to recapture history. It is a modern manifestation of life as the film is a modern manifestation of art.”

TRENE DUNNE is appearing in “Theodore Goes Wild,” for Columbia, and the popular Bing Crosby is making “Pennies from Heaven” for the same company. Madge Evans is Bing’s leading lady in the film.