EMPIRE FILMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21599, 21 March 1932, Page 7

EMPIRE FILMS

STRONG INFLUENCE FOR UNITY LONDON, March 10. “The day is coming, if it is not already here, Avhen British films aviu mean more to the Empire than. the British Navy.” Such is the remarkable appeal to improve British films quoted as having been made to Dr Thomas Wood, Mus.D., ( -by an Australian in Derby, W.A. , . In a letter dated January 27 from the steamer Mafella, at Singapore, Dr Wood, Avho toured Australia last year, adds: “ As a result of my wanderings in Australia and New Zealand during the last tAA'o years, I have seen kinemas everyAvhere, and realise the general neglect of the British and also Empire viewpoint, Avhich is a pity sentimentally and a tragedy politically. The kinema might be a link as strong as the press and as vivid as broadcasting. “English filmgoers must insist upon clean humour and plots suitable to children and adults alike. If wg tolerate foreign extravagances, proclaiming whites as merely degenerate half-wits, wo shall some day pay a bill on which there Avill be no discount.

, “ The Australian’s dictum might seem extravagant,” says The Times in a leading article, “ nevertheless) the kinema is more powerful than any influence except religion, yet Britain, owing to lack of conviction and forethought, has scarcely begun to use that power. “ It is not Pharasaical to believe that British films are slightly superior morally and intellectually to American, despite the Australian's disturbing hints. Some British films are less wholesome than-they should be, however.”