Hollywood's Use Of Current Events

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 298, 13 September 1941, Page 5

Hollywood's Use Of Current Events

JfT was a number of years back that Hollywood suddenly discovered current events, and nobody since then has ever accused it of lagging behind the times. At one time the ink wag hardly dry on the story of a political scandal or the blood hardly dry on a deceased gangster before Hollywood had three reels of a new film on the subject finished. .

Hollywood was well-meaning and industrious, but its method had obvious faults. The chief defect was that thought was sacrificed for speed The pictures were accurate enough presentations of current events, but they were shabbily made, with an entirely insufficient amount of pains taken with the elements of good drama. Since that wild period Hollywood has reformed,' to a certain, extent.- It is a little less fascinated by spot news. But current events still have the same enchantment. At present the European background is Hollywood’s chief source of material. Since the outbreak of hostilities there has been an outbreak of movies exploiting the drama of the troubled continent. To date, with a few exceptions, the old trouble has recurred. The films have been all background with little story, less plot and no point. As is usual, the great ■ leveller, the movie audience, stepped in to set things right. People stayed away from these pictures in great numbers. The producers realized what they should have known all along—that the story was the important thing, the background the embroidery. In fairly quick succession, “Foreign CorrespoAient,” “Escape,” and “Arise, My Love,” made excellent capital and . excellent entertainment by using the European scene as a setting rather than as the motif.

“So Ends Our Night,’’.the new LoewLewin film starring Fredric March, Margaret Sulla van. and Frances Dee, is a product of the times. But its quality is that of a drama, in these times c.r any times. The story is of four people in love, a theme universal in any age. Wheii, as in “So Ends Our Night,” the movies effect the meeting of an eternal theme with contemporary events, they fulfil that function for which they are better suited than any other cultural medium and provide entertainment and commentary on the times.