THE "MOVIES"

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 37, 12 August 1921, Page 8

THE "MOVIES"

TO TBI BDITOIt.

Sir,—The editorial article in your issue of 9th August, ; headed "Train Grimes, Filmed or Eeal," is; certainly a rather remarkable contribution to the discussion that is popular just now, i.e., "The, Influence of the Motion Picture on Morals!" , The! article maintains that -the "extraordinary one day's record of crime" in the United States, of which the cable informed us, was undoubtedly due to the fact that the "movies" have qarefully shown how the "hold-up" is effected, and that [the creation of a' certain class of picture fijm is a. likely agency for developing cr/minals. . • Sir,'l am old. enough to remember the time.'when "movies"' were *not in Lexistence, but I cannot go back to the beginnings .of train robbers, "hold-ups, 1, 1 and other allied crimes. As a- boy, I read of the exploits of Dick Turpin—' from what motion picture did /he, Jack Shepherd; and others learn the art of the "hold-up"? And still further back, bold Robin Hbod and his merry men executed some clever "stunts" in the way of "hold-ups," etc. Did they learn the methods from the "movies", pf the day? And how about Abu Hassan and the Forty Thieves? The mention s of the "Forty Thieves" leads us to > expect, from the logic of the article in'l question, that we may look for violent outbreaks of robberies and kidnapping by bands of organised juveniles, or even erst: while respectable citizens, as the result of the long seasons of "Chu Chin Chow."

Further, still pursuing the logic of the ■argument, the scenes of, conspiracy, rebellion, and cold-blooded murder, as unfolded by Allen Wilkie and his company in "Julius Caesar," will surely arouse the Bolshevism latent in the heart of many an up till now unoffending New Zealander; and will not the "careful showing" of how easy it is to murder and'then lay'the: blame on others, as revealed by- Mr. "Wilkie' in "Macbeth," prove "likely to be a 'recruiting' agency for criminals"? "Nonsense," you will t&y. Not more so than your article, I submit. , ".

: The motion-picture industry is out of the swaddling-clothes stage, and is of some importance in the world—the most popular form of entertainment to-day, and surely it is time the press recognised that fact—-and not make sweeping, not to say foolish, statements which carry no conviction whatever, but rather to deal with a big thing in a big way, and with a constructive spirit of dignity and logic. —I am, etc., , PAUL LATHAM. , 10th August. [Oar correspondent's notion of dignity and logic—not to say wisdom—is to assert or imply that because crime did not originate in' the moving pictures, the moving pictures cannot be guilty of encouraging and increasing crime. His next logical effort is to argue that stage crime justifies film crime. Justification by process or precedent is doubtful even where an exact parallel exists, but to draw a parallel between a Shakespeare tragedy and the film tragedies is to enter a sphere of logic in which we are willing to allow our correspondent to wander alone.—Ed.]