Cheaper and Better

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23263, 4 February 1939, Page 18 (Supplement)

Cheaper and Better

headers in British Films What They Would FIRST CLASS PICTURES AT REASONABLE COST

Although several creditable British pictures have been produced during the past few months, the British tilm industry as a whole is still on the verge of mental bankruptcy, writes J. Danvers Williams in the London Film Weekly. When the big British producer Bets out to make a firstclass film he as often as not spends a fabulous amount of money importing talent and star-names from America and the Continent —then wonders why ,tiie profits do not justify his expenditure.

WHEN he sets out to make a film cheaply he does not seem to bother much about the story or the way it is treated. Occasionally, it is true, a director like Michael Powell or Carol Reed manages to turn out a picture of -the calibre of "Edge of the World" or "Bank Holiday" for £20,000 or '£30,000, but, for the most part, cheaply-made British films are badly devised, badly made, banal. Yet some of the greatest films iim screen history have been made for £30,000 or less. 1 interviewed some of the more interesting people employed in British films, to discover what, given £30,000, they would do with it. I went to see Carol Reed and dis- * covered that he would make a film version of Daphne Du Maurier's "I'll Never Be Young Again." "Of course," said Carol, "under existing conditions I should never be allowed to embark on this picture, for it, has an unhappy ending. "Tho work of any director making pictures in this country is conditioned absolutely by tho happy ending. I am sure that this is a wrong-minded policy and keeps many intelligent people out of the cinemas, for whatever the circumstances of a story the end is inevitably the same, boy gets girl. Unhappy Ending "The story of Til Never Be Young !Again' is about a young man who believes himself to be a great poet. He meets a woman pianist and persuades her to live with hhn in Paris in extreme poverty while he writes his masterpiece, a great poetic drama. "When he has finished it he returns to London. He soon discovers that, not only stage-producers, but even his best friends, consider it an unimportant work-'—and, at last, he has to admit it himself. "He goes back to Paris to discover that the woman, though she still believes him a genius, has fallen in love with someone else. "He watches her depart, realising aeutelv that he has no greatness within hiini and that, through his own foolish egotism, he has lost the one thing that would make life tolerable." Wendy Hiller's Views Knowing Carol Reed's eye for subtle characterisation, I suspect that, were he allowed to handle this subject in his own way, he would make a fine film. Certainhr his little- picture, "Bank Holiday,"'possessed all the qualities of humour and perception which distinguish the artist from the mere scriptshooter. ' ' _ Wendy Hiller was the person I went to see next. "There is only one picture that I really crave to make," she told me, "and that is a film-version of 'Love on the Dole.' I am convinced that if this subject were bravely handled it woula become, the British counterpart of 'Street Scene' or 'Dead End.' "When this play was first running m London, several film companies approached the authors for the screen rights. Most of these offers fell through because the companies in question wanted to dilute and soften the story. 'As the authors pointed out, unless it were filmed as it stood, the companies • might just as well find new material. Diluted, 'Love on the Dole' would lose all its power and virility. "Offers still come in from time to time, and it is to be hoped that if we stand out long enough someone will eventually contract to make an undiluted film version of the play." When I asked Anthony Asquith what he would make if he were handed £30,000, he replied, "A film of 'Lord Jim.'" Asquith is the man who, more than anyone else, must be credited with the success of "Pygmalion.'"' It was he who co-ordinated all the talent employed in the picture and turned this difficult Shavian comedy into a smooth and dynamic motion-picture. Film of Conrad Novel

what ha would do with his hypothetical £30,000, was characteristic. "I would make a film of 'Precious Barie,' he said "This novel by Mary Webb has always fascinated me. She has such an immense grasp of the country, Shropshire, in which the story is laid, and of the phvchology of tho characters with whom sho deals. Tho book vibrates with life.

"I would ask Robert Donat to come into the picture on a co-opcrative basis r.nd recreate the part of Kester which lie played on tho stage. "-This is one of his favourite characterisations and I think that he would willingly come into the film if contracts permitted him to'do so." Batter still, since Victor Saville has Robert Donat under contract, why doesn't he include this novel in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's future line-up, assigning the direction to Powell ? He would make a splendid job of it, especially if he were allowed to photograph the picture in the open-air. Apart from tho people already mentioned. who are all intimately connected with the film industry, there arc lots of other individuals —writers particularly —who would be pleased to lend their tale:nts to tho screen. J. B. Priestley's Views Priestley, for example. When I rang him up he said: "Certainly. I should be only too willing to co-operate in the production of cheap and intelligent films, especially if I were allowed to deal with subjects which I consider significant, ■

"British producers are the most timorous, most unprogressive set of men it is possible to imagine. They waste their

"It is a wonder to me," said Asquith, "that this subject has not been screened long ago. 'Lord Jim' is one of the finest novels in the English language and is particularly suited to the screen —much more so, in ray opinion, than 'Crime and Punishment' or 'Anna Karenina.' "This story of a young Briton who, in a'moment of emergency, 'fails in his duty,' then spends the rest of his life in a self-imposed penance endeavouring to salve his own conscience, is one of the most penetrating character studies in literature. "Besides this, 'Lord Jim' nas plenty of action and is set against suitably filmic ' backgrounds—sea, ships and Eastern ports. "What a fine sequence it would make when the officers of the Patna, thinking that she has been holed, desert their ship, leaving their cargo of Chinese pilgrims to perish. "With a handful of competent actors/' said Asquith, "I could make this picture quite cheaply, photographing most of the sea scenes inside the studio by means of process shooting." The last director I interviewed was Michael Powell, who made "Edge of the World." Powell, is an extremely competent artist. Some vears ago I saw a film, "Pied Ensign, which he had made in three wepks for about £4OOO. Though obviously, cramped and cheaply made it was remarkably stimulating. Powell is at his best with open-air subjects. Hl3 reply, when I asked him

money bringing across from Hollywood stars: whose names are poison to the box-office.

"They copy American methods and filch ideas wholesale from the theatre. A new idea is anathema to them.''

Again, why not ask Denis Johnston, author of the most highly-praised play to b 2 seen in London during the oast few years—"The Moon in Yellow River" —to co-operate in the making of motion-pictures ? This young man has long been interested in the screen.

Hci visits cinemas, making copious notesi on public reaction and even took a job scripting down at Elstree —yet, in spite of the fact that he is considered by many of the critics the greatest of our younger playwrights, he has never been invited to do an entire scenario. Then there is T. S. Eliot and W. H. A'uden, who wrote "The Ascent of F. 6": and artists like Wyndham Lewis and istanley Spenser who could be approached to design sets and backgrounds. Such co-operation with the best contemporary brains would not only benefit the film industry; it would do the artists good as well. - It would give them a definite function in lil'e sind would prevent them from producing, too often, books and paintings in which only scholars and the highest of highbrows are at present interested.