THE MOVIES

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15041, 14 September 1922, Page 7

THE MOVIES

e GERMAN RIVALRY. . AN AUSTRALIAN’S VIEW- • • After four months spent in closely observing the moving picture industry in Los Angeles and New York, Mr Vaughan C. Marshall, ex-president of the Victorian Kinerna Exhibitors’ Association, has returned to Sydney. “While I was away," remarked Mr Marshall, “I met all the prominent personalities of America’s fourth biggest industry, and to-day I feel more enthusiastic than ever concerning 'the future, of the kinerna.” f , Mr Marshall feels that this future is "assured by the "tightening up" of American censorship by Mr William Hays, a former Postmaster-General, who has been engaged by the big producing organisations to superintend the industry in a general way, so as to eliminate any objectionable features of the kinerna, to make it a greater educational medium, and to elevate the moving picture in the estimation of the better-class patron. “To sum up the present position of the industry,” added Mr Marshall, “there is to be a general improvement, and to bring this about many factors will combine. The producers have seen the fallacy of paying absurdly high salaries to tiieir ‘stars’ and leaving little money over for anything else, so in future the money is to be expended more judiciously. More money is to be paid for the stories, so that a higher standard will be attained, and also there is to be more attention paid to detail. I saw ‘Robin Hood’ being photographed, and this picture will be a magnificent spectacle with a strong historical and educational interest. It will cost approximately 1,000,000 dollars, and 700 people will appear in the principal settings. People here have no idea as yet how the business is being elevated every day in America. The lower-grade picture, that has aroused so much criticism, is to bemo more. The music and the ‘incidentals’ at the big theatres are attracting larger audiences than ever before, and the taste of the public is being cultivated. For instance, in the Capitol Theatre, New York, with a seating capacity of 5300, a scenic was the star picture for a fortnight. The orchestra and the organ and other effects were wonderful. To-day America, in the sphere of kinerna production,, has only one rival, Germany. The first German picture to be screened, ‘Passion,’, was a wonderful success, and although subsequent films have not reached sucii a pinnacle of favouritism,' there is no doubt that Germany is to be America’s only serious competitor.”