Second-rate Pictures Not Wanted

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23773, 28 September 1940, Page 7 (Supplement)

Second-rate Pictures Not Wanted

OUTSPOKEN EXHIBITOR the public nor the exhibitors want the B-class pictures. Their joint views are that these pictures are best described' by the great Australian adjective beginning with the same letter," emphatically stated an exhibitor in a recent exchange. "Mv own personal opinion is that if producers spent the same amount of money on 26 pictures a year instead of on £52, they would turn out better stuff which would please the public and show better box-ofTice receipts as well as giving extra playing time," he added.

Too many mediocre pictures were being boosted up with advertising which gave the public a false valuation of the film, was another opinion. "The public soon assesses the real entertainment value of a picture, and if it is not up to standard all the advertising in the world will not put it oyer. "This has been proved time and time again; but in spite of the obvious lesson to be learned. B-class pictures are still being churned out, and attempts made to put them over as real .box-office 'naturals.'

"The difficult thing to understand is whv the practice continues. In the long run, we all lose by this policy of overselling; and, further, it makes the public wary of being caught a second time."