SATIRE ON SCREEN

Taranaki Daily News, 20 April 1935, Page 8 (Supplement)

SATIRE ON SCREEN

HOLLYWOOD’S NEW INTRODUCTION MIRRORS LIFE MORE CLOSELY. Of all the various types of film which Hollywood has introduced to us during the past year or so, the one which has had, and will have, the most farreaching effect is the satiric picture. Hpllywood has always had a sense of fun and an appetite for joking and pure farce; but when it learnt to chuckle at its own and other people’s follies, instead of assaulting them with heavy drama, it discovered a sense of humour more subtle, and more closely bound up with real life, than it had ever turned to its service before.

Ranging beyond the entertainment world, “Convention City” exposed with mirth that racket so dear to the hearts of American business men, the sales convention which is just an excuse to get away from wives and have a riotous time. “Design for Living,” of which Noel Coward’s title and general theme alone were retained, satirised among other things young American artists who Eve in Paris, American business men, American house-parties . and modem young women whose ideas about romance exceed their experience. Other satirical films are promised us during the, new season, chief among them being ‘ Babbitt,” a new screen version of Sinclair Lewis’ mordant gibe at Rotarians, Elks and United States business men in general. The brilliant screen satires from pion-eer-minded producers have shown that humour and laughter are large components in life’s drama; and they have taken the tip. They have realised that although a satire may laugh at life too much to present a true picture, there has been too little laughter in their own dramas; and although it is easy to see the truth beneath the laughter, it is not so apparent beneath gloom and heavy emotion.

One of the earlier and best examples of films which owe something to satire was “Dinner at Eight,” with its brilliant and complex interplay of shrewdly drawn characters. Much more recently we have had “Everywoman’s Man,” which is the only genuine and original boxing story retold according to the new method. Other films which have profited by the 1 sons taught by screen satire are “The Stranger’s Return, “The ( Thin Man,” “Should Ladies Behave?” ; “Uncertain Lady” and “It Happened One | Night.”