The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-02-10

barred from modern life by some reform
or other, but at the last minute a eau
tlous reformer usually inserts a provso
in his favor. The present bill does not,
as 1t now reads, mention Shakespeare
historical plays nor other phases of
history We are told, however, that it
Is not intended to legislate the French
revolution nor Richard II. out of the
silent drama.
Whether Shakespeare gave England
| bad name by advertising the murders
committed by her kings and bandits is
a neglected point of Shakespeariana.
Time throws veil of romance over his
| torical characters. Hence the vogue Of
| our staggering highwaymen, of pioneer
days, who in reality were sordid and
| unromantic figures.
The criminal in real life is no more
dashing than grocer or blacksmith
Pictured as he really is, he Is not a
suitable subject for popular romance,
| but only for some great work of realism
such as Galsworthys Justice" Usual
| ly, therefore, the criminal of the movies
wears evening clothes and all the graces,
| and is about as true to life as a coro-
| neted duke would be in soviet. Still
| the public gets the undesirable thrill
and is satisfied.
In satisfying the desire for thrills in
this way the film producer, consciously
or not, is promoting crime, claims Rep
resentative Harreld
THE crime of bank robbing is on
the increase" he states, land the work
is done largely by young men"
Representative Harreld quotes vari-
Gus instances of criminals being made
! heroes of boys and young men
| "One bank robber in Oklahoma was
convicted and served in the penten-
tiary, and then ran for governor of the
state. He had quite a following, too
Later he was in moving picture por
| trayng himself as a hero.
Another bank robber was pardoned
| by the governor and Immediately went
into moving pictures to advertise his
criminal achievements"
From the pictured exploits of these
and similar notorious characters. Repre-
| sentative Harreld believes that young
men often get the idea of burglary. De-
| tailed perturbation of crime is always
| censored wherever censorship is en-
ployed but some of the blood and thun-
| der films are never passed by a board
| 1t is impossible to prove conclusively
| either the evil effects or the harmless
| ness of such pictures. The producers
say that villainy always pays the pen
| atty, and that therefore the crime pic
ture is intensely moral The State Bar
association of Oklahoma says that the
child or even the grown person, seeing
| a crime by picture, may be so impressed
with the ease and daring with which
| the theater without fully realizing the
penalty The burglar usually either re-
forms or is last seen behind the bars
but it is only an accident that he is
discovered, and the wouldbe bank rob-
| Der reasons that he will be more lucky
Now and again an incident occurs
which is traced directly to film melo-
drama Such an episode was the TRACE
| dy of the young man who saw photo
play in which a character dramatically
committed suicide by asphyXiation. The
| boy, feeling depressed Immediately
went home and initiated the hero
| death down to the last detail Of fare
well notes. stuffing windows and key
hole, and turning on the gas Then he
assumed the position which the actor
| had taken and awaited the effects Of
the opison. These examples are not
numerous. but reformers can reel off
enough of them to show that in some
cases, at least, the effects of picturza-
| ton of crime are serious. Anyway,
| Oklahoma is worried over the influences
OF our popular heroes with q doubtful
past and the result Of the. campaign
may be a federal law with $4,000 fine
for the producer or anybody else con-
cerned in the traffic of criminal film.