Evening Post. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1926. FILMS AND THE EMPIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 122, 19 November 1926, Page 8

Evening Post. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1926. FILMS AND THE EMPIRE

Armistice Day brought us an unpleasant reminder of one aspect of a great subject with which '*it is understood" that the Imperial Conference has been dealing, and on which it is to be hoped that it will have something effective to suggest. An American film, "The 'Unknown Soldier," had been scheduled for exhibition in Armistice week, and a large deputation, headed by Lady Cowan, waited on the Home Secretary to ask him to prevent it. Prepared in the United States and primarily for American consumption, it was inevitable that the film should not underestimate the American contribution to the defeat of Germany. That the unknown hero is an American is not in itself an offence, since every nation is entitled to its own unknown soldier, and there is no necessary implication that he won the war. But that the film in question is both historically false and nationally offensive may be inferred from the emphatic declaration of the deputation that "it was entirely an American picture, misrepresenting the most moving episodes of the war," and that it "outraged British sentiment." In a country which is as stolid and pachydermatous as the United States is sensitive and thinskinned, a country which is perfectly familiar with the fact that all the Allied and Associated nations, and especially the one that was the last to come in, had more to do with the winning of the Avar than itself, and which has never displayed any "swank" in the matter at all except that of indifference, a war picture which outrages public sentiment must be pretty bad. That so stalwart -a patriot as Sir W. JoynsonHicks would have intervened if he could may be taken for granted, and his answer that he had no legal power to do so is therefore quite beyond challenge.

Whether the presentation of the American film "Just Suppose"' would reveal the impotence of Britain to protect herself against what might be a still more painful shock to public sentiment, we cannot say. The law which protects-Royalty from insult-would .presumably suffice to prohibit an exhibition in which the mannerisms "of the Prince of Wales are ridiculed in a most offensive fashion, and he is pictured as falling off his horse and—whether by way of a redeeming point or to illustrate a still more disastrous fall does not appear—as marrying an American girl. The British exhibitors to whom this vulgar and disgusting film has been* offered have cabled to America "requesting" that it should not be produced, and the fact that their outraged loyalty had to sing small and veil its indignation under the guise of a polite request is highly significant. The exhibition of this picture is doubtless covered by the terms of contracts which their American overlords could enforce if they found it to their interest lo do so, and if the British Courts did not hold the contracts to be illegal as contrary to public policy. The Americans have almost a monopoly of the film market of the world, and even on British soil the boast that "Britons never shall be-slaves" does not apply to this matter. The Britisii exhibitors are the bond-slaves and the blind slaves of the American companies. Under the system of blind or block booking they are compelled to buy American films in advance, to buy pictures which they have not seen and which may not yet be in existence, to take the good and the bad without discrimination since to accept what they do not want is the only way of getting what they do want. Under this system hundreds of undesired and undesirable films -.arc scattered all over the Empire and all over the world, and so far all the resources of un-American mankind have been unable to provide a

remedy

The dependence of the Empire on foreign supplies for more than 90 per cent, of its requirements in regard to what is at once the most popular form of entertainment and one of the most powerful instruments of popular education is indeed, as Sir Robert Donald says,

"palpably painful and humiliating." In an article on "Films and the Empire" which made a timely appearance in the "Nineteenth Century" on the eve of the Imperial Conference, he marshals the facts in a manner that completely justifies both epithets. In this department America dominates the world as completely as it does in the matter of war debts, and the cause is in large measure the same—-the start which she was able to get over other nations whose wealth and enterprise were monopolised by the war, while for more than half the time America was merely looking on. Making the most of this advantage with characteristic energy, America had before the expiry of the two years of inflation which followed the Armistice "built a world organisation and created vested interests in every country." Her position has since been so commanding that she has been able to practically monopolise the world's trade. The report of the Joint Trade Committee on British Films is quoted by Sir Robert Donald as saying: "Every American film after a run in a home market four or five times as large as our own (according to the number of theatres), or six to eight times as valuable (according to the box office receipts), is available to be offered for sale in this country with its negative costs having already been covered." Thus it is that, after doing a great business in the .20,000 theatres of their own land, the American producers are able to undercut all competitors in foreign markets and to draw from 25 to 30 per cent, of their profits from this source. The greater part of the revenue comes from the British Empire. While Britain supplies her Dominions and colonies with about 2 per cent, of their pictures, America's share is between 90 and 95 per cent. Canada's position is of course particularly hopeless. In Ontario, says Sir Robert Donald, "a strong line has been taken by members of the Legislature, against American' pictures, but such protests are ineffective, as there are no alternative pictures obtainable." From Australia and New Zealand American producers are drawing a net revenue of £22,520 a week. In addition, they have obtained at least 90 per cent, of the market. It is a sorry tale, but there is fortunately ground for believing that there are better times ahead. "The stranglehold of the United States on the world's supplies/is weakening," says Sir Robert Donald, and in England there is a steady improvement. It is to be hoped that the Imperial Conference will seize the opportunity for concerted action.