Etiquette On The Screen

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21034, 9 February 1940, Page 8

Etiquette On The Screen

Cinema ...

Snapshots

The influence of the films is apparently affecting the manners of people, and we are all acquiring social graces we should never have learned otherwise. That, at any rate, is the firm conviction of Miss Enid Bennett, who has returned to the screen after an absence of eight years, in David O. Selznick’s “Intermezzo, A Love Story,” which stars Leslie Howard and Ingrid Bergman. “What books of etiquette and looks of scorn have not been able to do,” declared Miss Bennett, “the movies have succeeded in doing.” They may not have made Lord Chesterfields and Emily Posts out of all of us, but they are rubbing on a little social polish—and they are doing it painlessly. To begin with, the social grace of most film actors is without reproach. It has to be. A screen favourite would as soon fall dead as pick up the wrong fork before the cameras, for the public has become aware and very critical of any breach of the amenities. Oh no, a social error on the screen is unthinkable! And as a guarantee that no blunders will be committed, almost every selfrespecting studio keeps at least one etiquette expert on hand to catch the slightest error in good taste. As a result, patrons of motion pictures are daily treated to lessons in good manners—that is if they go to the right pictures.” If, therefore, you believe you have caught out a screen actor in a social “gaff,” you are probably wrong. For example, there is one scene in “Intermezzo” in which Leslie Howard appears in tails—and with a soft shirt! A style of dress not to be recommended, but perfectly right in the film. Leslie Howard is playing the part of a concert violinist, and concert violinists wear soft collars because they make it easier to tuck the fiddle under the chin!