FEARS IN FILMLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20722, 15 November 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

FEARS IN FILMLAND.

HOLLYWOOD UNHAPPY.

n V SI ATA NO A

The quarrel between New Zealand and Filmland—meaning by tho latter name the powerful kingdom of which Hollywood is tho capital—has given tho picture-going public a chance to form some opinions of its own about tho business that ministers to its pleasure. Thero has been reminder of the colossal nature of tlie industry on which the prosperity of that kingdom rests, yet it has been revealed that all does not go as well as it did. Iho industry is great indeed, one of the greatest in a country given to doing things on a bold and lavish scale. It is great in more than size. An influence of an almost unique order has been exercised by it, for it has founded a new voguo in stagecraft and in social habits. Given its opportunity by the pictureloving zest in every child of man, it has turned round and fostered that zest for its own ends. " Things seen," said Tennyson, " are mightier than things heard. John Richard Green, although a maker of books, was sure that " one walk through Normandy is worth all the books in the world." On the sure basis of a universal instinct the cinema has been built. But it lias become an agency for its own aggrandisement by clever feeding of the instinct, and this achievement, if measured merely as a commercial proposition, has eclipsed most other business ventures, of our age. And to the doings of Hollywood in Filmland most of this success must be attributed.

Nevertheless, in Filmland there has been many a troubled brow of late. Thinkingcaps have been put on, and it is understood that certain magnates, once accustomed to sleep well, have gone to bed in them. A feverish interest in the real world has displaced concentration on the mimic performed before the camera. Legal contracts have had more attention than of yore, though then it was considerable. More wonderful still, a spirit of pessimism has clouded the outlook in many a promoter's offico wont to be the scene of much jubilation. A Changing Market.

The causa of Hollywood's unhappiness is doubtless manifold. Troubles never come singly. Some anxiety has been occasioned by tho ventures of other countries in developing the industry that has poured such large profits into American pockets. In particular, activity in British studios and factories has threatened the supremacy of Filmland. No more than threatened, for British enterprise has been neither as vigorous nor as successful as its promoters hoped it would be. One good film does not make a cinema summer, nor can a hundred. There is only a nascent rivalry as yet. But Hollywood .expects it to grow, and is perturbed. In adjacent States, for Filmland has practically put an extra star in the American flag, and should be deemed a territory with individual rights, tho products of its days and nights are not in such demand as they were. Receipts of exhibiting theatres have fallen off to an alarming degree. There has been registered a loss in children's patronage, an ill omen for the immediate future as well as the pressing present. Wild West thrillers have somehow lost their charm for boys and girls; perhaps they were bound to become blase on a surfeit of those. And Broadway revues and sophisticated plays are not for them, they realise, whatever Filmland may have thought. Old picture goers are manifesting an unexpected boredom, and producers are frantically busy trying to devise something novel to win back their ardour. Two years ago, song writers were hurrying from everywheie to get lucrative engagements at Hollywood; now they are as eager to get away, for the demand for their wares has fatally waned. For this slump in American patronage there is a partial cause, no doubt, in economic depression in the United States, but it is not by any means an adequate explanation. What is undeniably evident is a depression in Hollywood itself, due mainly to a happening of a somewhat surprising sort. It is the " talkie, its own creation, that has struck Hollywood the most damaging blow. Technical Problems, For a while this innovation, though it meant vast outlay, promised to bring fortunes to the producers. It was a novelty, and novelties are a sure draw. Even in the foreign market., outside the bounds of English speech, the sound films were at first, welcomed. Now tho people of foreign lands refuse to listen, in a cinema, lo any language but their own, and native film's, in several largo European countries, are driving out the allAmerican article without mercy. Hollywood tried to hold this market. Films in English were made the bases of others having the same action but spoken parts in various languages. Ibis device failed; there was too often a telltale lack of agreement between the words heard and the movements of the actor's lips, and the public, although easily fooled; does not like to find out that it is being fooled. Next, versions in foreign languages were made at the time when a film was being produced in English; when a scene was 1 shot, the Englishspeaking cast gave place to others, say French, who went through the same scene while the cameras were still in position. To cut down the expense of several casts, actors were employed who could speak at least one other language besides English, or the dialogue was taught, word by word, to English-speaking players, and they " parroted " it in the foreign tongue without knowing what they were saying.

This method has been continued, but it. also is proving disastrously expensive as well as unsatisfactory. In the earlier times of the silent, films, the captions could be translated into all required lang uages for a mere £2OOO or so; nowadays the average picture which costs £40,000 or £50,000 when completed in English will necessitate about another £15.000 for each foreign version. On a dwindling foreign market this expense is prohibitive. Frankenstein Yet Again.

The making of a separate silent version of each new " talkie," with a view to sending this to foreign countries, has been tried. It has failed, because the technique for a silent film is quite different from that for a " talkie." The whole thing must be done again, as though no talking version was being made, and again expense has proved unwarranted in the presence of a falling market overseas and no market at'all in America. So Hollywood, compelled to look to Eng-lish-speaking countries for its returns, is realising how large a part of the once open world is now closing against it, and it is the creation of the " talkie" that has wrought the mischief—a Frankenstein experience that is not likely to he given by Hollywood any painful representation on tlio " silver screen," either silent or spoken. It should be realised in English-speaking countries that Hollywood's anxiety about contracts is impelled by urgent business reasons that do not always appear to the naked eye. What the eventual position may be it is impossible to say, even in Filmland, where the unexpected has happened; but behind much now being said are facts of great weight and influence.