PICTURE IN A PRISON

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

PICTURE IN A PRISON

t “OVER THE HILL.” SCREENED AT LONG BAY. Steel door after steel door was opened and then locked behind the party of pressmen who had come to Pons Bay Penitentiary to witness, in company with 400 prisoners, the lirst screening in New South Wales of a new ilim—“Over the Hill” (says the Sydney Morning Herald). The party passed through courtyards and quadrangles, where innumerable men in shapeless prison suits were busy trying to make an apparently spotless place more than spotless. At last, after traversing a dimly-lit corridor, the visitors found themselves in a One church, built in the very heart of that vast congeries of buildings. A dozen convicts in the front pews were at choir practice. At the organ sat another convict, and he, .too, was singing as he accompanied his fellow choristers. No warden was present. A smiling nun had charge, and with a gesture she stopped the 'singing as the party approached. Across the’ archway, leading to the altar a large while cloth was hung. Quickly tile organ was pushed to one side and a piano was dragged into position, Long files of convicts, mostly •‘lifers” and long-sentence men, were now streaming quietly into the pews. In vain one glanced over those 250 faces to find the “typical” criminal face. The crowd was similar lo- any other crowd to be seen in any other picture show, but was, of course, tinguishable by the clothes. Up in the gallery, where some of the pressmen were accommodated, 150 women convicts were seated, invisible lo the men below. Encircled by quaker bonnets of white linen, many of the faces were those of old women or of women prematurely old. There were faces seamed with sorrow, faces beautiful, faces set in immobility ol hopelessness—but among them all could be seen hardly one face that could be called repulsive. Suddenly the church was plunged Into darkness. From the projecting machine in the women’s gallery a beam of light flashed, and the story of “Over the Hill” began. At first —oomplete silence, except for the faint whir of the machine and the mellow notes of the piano. But long before half of the simple .Story of unquestioning mother-love had been unwound tears were gleaming on many faces, men and women alike. One especially noticeable feature of the. audience was that it always applauded in the right places. How the prisoners clapped when the mealymouthed son was brought to boolf for ills perfidy! How they cheered when the outlaw son, who had nobly gone to gaol to save his father from disgrace, was restored to his mother’s arms! The lesson of the film is—Go straight; no other way pays in the long run. And if Professor Gustave le Bon be right in saying that the psychological reactions of a crowd to a film or play are an exact index to their collective moral stratus, then this crowd of criminals at Long Bay is certainly not deficient of the principle of good. They raptuously applaude'd the triumph of virtue, and their indignation at the temporary triumph of wickedness was as spontaneous as it was hearty. , The Governor of flic Penitentiary (Mr George Steele) at the conclusion of the screening, thanked the proprietors of the Union Theatres for the afternoon's entertainment. His eulogy of the picture was received with deafening applause.