CRITICS’ FAILURE

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1935, Page 8 (Supplement)

CRITICS’ FAILURE

PHOTOGRAPHIC IGNORANCE. HARDLY SUPERIOR TO “FAN.” The field of cinematography has been woefully lacking in intelligent study by the men and women of the nation’s Press who constitute the final seat of judgment — the critics. It is striking but true that their collective knowledge of true cinema photography is hardly superior to that of an interested fan. Such, at least, are the studied opinions of Joseph August, veteran Columbia Pictures cinematographer. “Frequently critics mention one or two striking scenes in a picture as being ‘excellent shots’,” he says, “To the cameraman that is just the reverse. “If a scene is so striking photographically that it stands out in the picture then it is bad. It is bad because it is so striking that the audience is arrested by the photographic scene. Therefore it distracts their minds from the story being told in motion picture, breaks UP the continuity, and leaves an impression which lacks uniformity. “The audience, just as the critic did, will go home remembering the photographic effect achieved in that one or two—shots, and the power of the picture as a whole will often be destroyed. Frank Cr~ -a’s great success is largely due to his uncanny ability to get true photographic excellence into his films. “Although it is not generally known

the cinematographer carries on his shoulders as much responsibility for getting a good picture as does the director. While the latter is responsible for acting, the cameraman must carry continually the idea of the picture as a whole. He must continually plan for and be certain that lighting and backgrounds are correct to maintain the thought, feeling, tempo and atmosphere of the picture as a whole. This is more difficult than one would think because all motion pictures are shot in separate scenes, a bit at a time, and then put together in the cutting room.”

Two full-length pictures are to be presented at the King’s Theatre to-day. Love tangles and marital mix-ups form the ingredients of the hilarious situations in “The Kanas City Princess.” “No Escape,” in the main concerns the flight from the police of a rubber planter, who, although innocent, is accused of murdering his partner.

FILMS AT HAWERA. . “Times Square Lady,” to be shown at the Grand Theatre on Tuesday tells of the coming to Broadway of a simple country girl, albeit a dazzling blonde and a quick thinker, to inherit half a dozen sporting enterprises which her dead father had run at a handsome profit. The managers of the various concerns plan to trick the girl into selling her holdings to them for next to nothing.

“Devil Dogs of the Air,” the attraction at the Grafid Theatre on Saturday, deals with the romantic and dare-devil exploits of members of the aviation corps of the U.S. Marines. The story concerns a cocksure youngster who joins the corps and tries to tell the officers what it is all about.

“The Richest Girl in the World” to be shown at the Opera House on Tuesday presents a novel interpretation of the age-old maxim that money cannot buy everything. Dorothy Hunter’s riches could not gain her love. So she “gives" her wealth to her secretary-companion, and by exchanging identities tried to find love.

In “The Wedding Night” to be shown at the Opera House next week a famous and sophisticated author has a troubled romance with a simple farm girl. “Ten Dollar Raise.”

“Ten Dollar Raise” is described by Hollywood's critics as a tender, different story that vividly translates the heartaches of a romance that is perishing through lack of money. Edward Everett Horton and Karen Morley have the principal roles.