NO RULES IN ENTERTAINMENT

Evening Star, Issue 20985, 26 December 1931, Page 11

NO RULES IN ENTERTAINMENT

NOTED DIRECTOR’S DICTUM (By Ernst Lubitsch.) Rules are for scientists, not for motion picture producers. That is my invariable answer to the frequent question. What rules govern the making of a successful screen play? There are no rules. Tire moment, entertainment is measured by a yardstick it ceases to be entertainment. We are continually hearing that this or that type of picture is dead; that the. public will have no more gang " pictures, no more Westerns, no more musicals. There is no basis for these so-called “rules.” Noi do they state facts. It is perfectly true that the public tires of certain types of pictures. But that is not because of the particular subject matter; the real reason is that the pictures themselves are bad —they are not entertainment. Within the past year we have seen many examples of this. Not so long ago we were told that westerns were in disfavour; people no longer went to see them on the screen. Then along came a good western, and the entire world rushed to see it. The public had not stayed away because of the type of picture, but because of the inferior quality of its predecessors. Just at the moment there is much discusion about the probable fate of musical pictures. We hear that the public has tired of screen musical comedies, operettas, and similar varieties of celluloid entertainment. The . same thing applies here that applied in the case of westerns. Last season saw a huge crop of indifferently-made musical pictures on the screen of the world. Most of these were only fair; some were below that level in entertainment value. The public, always a keen judge of entertainment, refused to accept this screen fare—not because it was musical, but because it was not up to the standard of amfisement which the public demands. In other words, the “ rule ” about musical pictures means just exactly nothing. A good musical production will make box office history; a bad one will always be a flop. Because I believe this so strongly, I iiad no hesitancy in launching into the direction of ‘ The Smiling Lieutenant ’ starring Maurice Chevalier. The Eicture is studded with musical numers. If the “ rule ” were in force, it would be foredoomed to failure. At the risk of being considered somewhat egotistical, I maintain that ‘The Smiling Lieutenant ’ is destined to please screen patrons and find favour at the box office. There are many reasons for my optimism in regard to ‘ The Smiling Lieutenant.’ First of all, the picture has as its star one of the few players who combine musical ability with a motion picture personality. Maurice Chevalier stands alone in the degree to which he combines these two unusual talents. Secondly, I believe we avoided the common error in the matter of songs which play so important a part in this production. In . the past, too, many songs were written with an eye on the sheet music sale and with too little attention paid to the song’s purpose in the story. This resulted frequently in slowing up or stopping the progress of the action, and consequent boredom for the audience. In ‘ The Smiling Lieutenant ’ every song definitely advances the action and tells the story. Oscar Straus, the famous Viennese composer, has kept this thought in mind in creating the original melodies, and Clifford Grey has carried the idea to its logical conclusion in his lyrics. The result, I believe, will please all types of theatre-goers. But if motion pictures were made by rule, as chemical formulas are evolved, ‘ The Smiling Lieutenant ’ would never have reached the screen. Rules are for science, not for entertainment.