"THE TALKIES."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20272, 4 June 1929, Page 8

"THE TALKIES."

Much of what, the Director of lulu cation in New South A\ ales has to say about the conference discussion at Vancouver on the development and influence of the cinema is of deep interest to many in this country. The need to make censorship a positive rather than a negative factor, so that it may have a directive effect instead of a limiting veto, is among the points well worth practical consideration. Of even greater importance at the present time, however, is the question raised in connection with the coming of the "talkies," as those films which synchronise sound with sight are being generally called. This question concerns the desirability of checking the possibly baneful influence of films associated with American speech. No wholesale indictment can be brought, perhaps; but it is virtually certain that films primarily produced for the American public will be characterised by American pronunciation and accent, and these things, with all due respect, to our friends in the United States, who doubtless think our speech to be in need of improvement, do not harmonise with our ideas of good spoken English. It is true that, content to have talking films dealing with American life, the British public must expect to have the American language, which is somewhat akin to English, used in conjunction with the scenes and action depicted: "this is in accordance with the "unities" of which literary criticism rightly makes much. It may be true, also, that the speech of American actors is not any more objectionable as a defiler of "the well of English" than the American wording of screen titles to which cinema habitues have become accustomed ; this spoken American may easily, indeed, be less pernicious from the point of view of an educator of British youth. But there is little room for doubt that this invasion of American speech, judged from the standpoint of those desirous of seeing a high standard of snoken English attained and kept by British boys artd girls, is to be repelled as a menace. Children of all ages are instinctively imitative, and this fact furnishes a basic reason for safeguards. These may be supplied by censorship, but help from that quarter is not to be optimistically expected : there arc difficulties in the way, as censors will realise quite as fully as will renters and exhibitors The hope of rescue lies rather in the encouragement of British-made films, in the production of which actors able to use the Kind's English are employed. The "talkies," therefore, seem destined to furnish a further and very forceful argument for measures to ensure an increasing supply of British films for British people.