“HANDS OFF HOMER”

Evening Star, Issue 19893, 15 June 1928, Page 7

“HANDS OFF HOMER”

SAYS SIR lAN HAMILTON One of the three, greatest stories ’in the world has not yet reached the films, and General Sir lan Hamilton prays it never will, through Hollywood, ft is Homer’s ‘ Odyssey ’ that ho would save from ignorant hands (says the American ‘Literary Digest’). Ignorant he thinks us: probably having never heard that ‘ Helen ’ as modernised by Professor Erskine has already emerged on the silver sheet. The hero of the Dardanelles is eager to see thegreat epic on the screen, but.he stands in fearful dread of an American version. “By one of those ponderous experiments with which the Almighty sometimes diverts the course of history, the most potent instrument for influencing public opinion has fallen into the hands of a. country better educated in modernities than Europeans, but innocent of the classical tradition. Of c ourse, the movies are a money-mak-ing enterprise, and one wonders how much Oxford and Cambridge will be consulted by the British cinema interests. Our benighted state is thus visualised by Sir lan, writing in the 1 Manchester Guardian ’;—

“Homer is quite a common Christian name in the United States. Homer Lea was an historian—there arc thousands of Homers walking about God’s own country, but Homer the poet is to them unknown. Hollywood is doing exactly what wc should do if we stood in its shoos. It tries to gauge the taste of its public so. that it_ may give them what they want, and it does so most successfully. But it cannot quite, in grand film, eater lor the_ taste ot ite public so that it may give them what they want, and it does so most .successfully. But it cannot quite, iu grand film, cater for the taste of the European. If we want to see ‘Helen ’ on the films wc must first inspire the mind of the British public with a wish to see her, and then pray that our own film companies may supply the goods. “The Odyssey is a lovely story. That, the Iliad, and the story, of Joseph, are the three greatest stories in the world. But it holds out too many temptations to the sex-appeal people. Hollywood would make a holy mess of ‘‘Ulysses.” “Circe” would come out strong in the prologue, turning her drunken sailor lovers into pigs. Wo all feel shy when wc think of how Calypso would behave, and of Ulysses in bathing drawers being flung by the sea at the feet of Nnusicaa playing ball with her maidens on the shore. Ulysses would never get back to Penelope.” One wonders at the temerity of the general (says the American writer), for ho goes on to supply practically a scenario which some facile writer may string together before the British have learned to compete technically with Hollywood ;

“1. The captions will have a- pull over other captions, as they will be lines of fi»3 poetry. There is a prospective -I,iberal candidate for Manchester who would do this job well.-

“ 2. Besides the fierce fighting round the ships and -the firing of some, ot them, besides the duel between Hector and Achilles, have the night, raid by King Diomed and Ulysses when they .steal the horses of King Rhcsos, have the fantastic • battle between Achilles and the. River Scamandcr.

“".Also the scene between King Priam and Achilles when ,thc father comes to beg for tV body of his son, and end on the funeral of Hector.” Sir Jan incites to turning the camera crank by writing oat the beautiful picture of the parting between Hector and Andromache'. Then he bethinks himself: ‘But, for the Lord’s, sake, ho elose-ups P-