The Washington herald., 1920-12-05
Q THEATER OFFERINGS OF EARLY DECEMBER
Will Films Lead Attack
On New Reform Effort?
Possibility of Real Test of Strength Between
Puritan Element and Motion
Picture Forces.
Bv EARLE DORSEY.

DORSEY.
for later castigation or congratula- |
tion. as the case might be.
The circumstances, however, are
not ordinary and being extraordin-
sry, 1, for one, am slow to concede
what might appear to be the self |
evident victory of the reformers in
their second crusade Of the century. |
The extraordinary circumstance is. |
of course. the bare possibility that
the amusement interests. marshalled
and captained by the movies. may
become SO thoroughly frightened
that they will be scared into a fight |
That is the focal point of the situ-
alton and one might as well con-
attention on that one point, |
since such tiresome and futile ef-
forts as appeal to reason. fair play.
morality. the Spirit of '76 or the
sacred rights of the democratic min
ority have little or no weight with
a modern moral crusader when the
madness Is upon him. Nor is there
the slightest value or merit in ar-
ban preachers, Protestant, Catholic
or Jew. raising dissenting voice
to the contrary. The reformer snaps
his fingers at cities and always,
working on the theory that AL
bany dictates to Manhattan and
that the yokel can always be
made to see the proposition as
something to his own moral inter
est, be goes direct to the soil, works
the denizens thereof into mad /
frenzy and within a fortnight. 90
per cent Of the membership of the
House of Representatives and 30
per cent of the Senate Is quivering
in its Sunday clothes, confusedly
asking the reformers what II fs
they wish.
-HE issue. then, being a carefully
planned, well financed. intelli-
gently directed Indictment of
the countryside against the latter's
age-old and inveterate enemy, tn.
dweller in cities, there Is q strong /,
and thoroughly fascinating possi-
bility that the movies, frightened at
last into resistance, may go to the
mat with the radical clergy in a
vast and complicated struggle to Sc
duce, for opposing purposes, the
peasantry of a numerous nation
II is true, of course, that the
movies have never done any notable |
scrapping in the past. They have re-
sisted, in Little Lord Farntleroy
fashion, such sporadic but not vital |
inroads upon their art as a yarie- /
gated censorship that makes II, gem |
orally speaking. immoral for the 4
vamp to roll her eyes upward in
one State while a downward roll
is banned in another. 1t Is true that
the pictures have never, up to this
time, shown any evidence OF the vast
and allegedly incalculable strength
that lies inherent in them as a dis
seminator of propaganda. It is
quite true that even today the
ficker-drama seems heavily intent
upon propitiating some nameless but
potent evil deity, of pleasing the
proletariat on the one hand and
currying favor from the scornfully
llterate on the other. It has, as
suredly, spent much time and money
in a rather abased effort to convince
a large and growing group of high
paid hack writers that it Thoroughly
understands the art of assimilating
a literary course-dinner and il has
Always seemed unnecessarily fearful
OF its nickelodeon past while beg
glng crumb of praise from the
%aple OF the older arts.
A LII this, beyond doubt, is true
~ but it has little relation to
the future of the pictures. 1t
mas always been cheaper, in the
opinion of the magnates, to submit
TO mild censorship than to fight for
the virtual immunity enjoyed by
the stage art Censorship, its only
real menace so far, has been half
neartedly enforced and submission
has always been less expensive than
a thoroughgoing, finish fight at a
tune when victory, itself might cost
too dear.
In the present instance, however,
the situation is more dangerous.
more far-reaching. Those behind
the making of pictures would prob
ably submit to a nationwide Sum
day closing ordinance but it Is in
conceivable to think they are blind
to the fruits of a submission that
would only sharpen the reformer's
lust for further conquest through a
Federal censorship.
For this reason, then, there is
an interesting possibility that the
movies may, in the forthcoming
crusade, throw their old backward
ness and shyness to the winds and
undertake to settle the matter Of
just how strong an influence lies in
herent In a strip of celluloid. The
clerical domination of America-and
/ hasten to exempt such members
OF the clergy as unquestionably op-
pose the whole program of the
church politico-moral activity-has
been steadily growing and IL Is in
evitable that at some time or other
IT'S oattle-line should clash with
that of some other powerful but
hardly more material influence in a
hight that will leave both somewhat
Scared. to say the least.
.AIoW how will the movies light,
IN granting that they will?
All. there's the question,
Whenever that campaign is mapped
out, the picture-makers should be-
gin to think early and often. am
nowise sure the photoplay, as an
institution, has reached the point
where its Intelligent leaders can
make themselves heard about the
din 1t Is nowise certain that COM
plete harmony, or even an effective
harmony, can be worked out defi-
nitely enough to insure a decent
showing in fight of any size.
For one thing, complete subseryi-
ence of personal interests to a COM
mon end must be attained at the
start. The movies should be able
to muster a corps of expert psy-
biologists. for something Of the psy-
oh ofD 1af -