“FLICKS” AND “FANS”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4220, 6 December 1939, Page 5

“FLICKS” AND “FANS”

APPEAL OF FILMS. “Do you go to the movies on purpose, or because you can’t help it? Do you know why you go? Many film fans don’t know, and would be surprised if told. You can get a whole lot more out of your film-going if only you can get to the bottom of your motives and understand what you’re after,” writes Miss Elizabeth Cross in “You and Practical Psychology.” “They’re shrewd psychologists those movie people! Even the quietest, most sedate film has a thrill, otherwise it wouldn’t be a success,” Elizabeth Cross goes on to write. “If you don’t notice any violent cxciteI ment you can be sure that the story is based on one of our fundamental underlj’ing instincts, and that we have the satisfaction of seeing the whole affair come to a good conclusion. That’s another important point, the satisfactory ending. Mind you, it needn’t always be a ‘happy’ ending in the conventional sense, but it must make us feel that the job has ended correctly, leaving no loose ends. In our own lives we have to wait so long before) any incidents or affairs can be concluded satisfactorily (if they are ever really ended at all); we have no clue to the finale of our story, no promise that things will come right, in the cnid, even though we may have a certain faith that they will. The movie can do all that for us and send us forth cheered up and ready for a fresh struggle. So we can easily understand that the movie to-day supplements literature, or even takes its place in certain cases.”