Thames Star THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1934. INFLUENCE OF THE CINEMA.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 19272, 29 November 1934, Page 2

Thames Star

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1934. INFLUENCE OF THE CINEMA.

"With mnMoa towards non*; with charity for all; with firmnao* in the right; as God give* ua to •ee the right.”—Lincoln.

Mr. John .Drinkwater’s views about the cinema ought to be worth having. He has a long experience of the English stage, he knows something about the problems and methods of the film industry, and he has had excellent opportunities for watching the development of public taste.* Perhaps his views would be worth having if he kept them to the ground covered by his own first-hand knowledge. But when he says that the discovery of the cinema has been “an unmitigated curse to mankind” and that “nothing has done so much to vulgarise the world’s taste,” he dissolves away his few morsels of truth in a flood of prejudice and ignorance. In England the cinema may have hurt the provincial theatre and demoralised the acting profession. There is, however, much to be said on the other side; and, in any ease, England is not the world. There are many countries —New Zealand is one —where, before the coining of the cinema there were not more than half a dozen goqd plays produced in a year, and those only in the larger towns. Now, thanks to the talkies, most of the inhabitants of those countries can see a play with some artistic value every week of their lives. In the early stages of its development the film- industry had shoddy standards and. undoubtedly did much to vulgarise taste. But in the last few years the breakings of the American monopoly has produced an amazingly rapid improvement in methods of production, in acting, and in the type of play chosen for production. It is hopeless to attempt to strike a balance between past evils and present benefits; but there can be few doubts or misgivings concerning the future.