Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-05-28


and the frankly German director, Lubitsch,
all interspersed with unwelcome comparisons
of the German film and the typical American
production. 49,
The next German film, Deception" has
earned an almost equally favorable reception.
Here is a sample of the sort of thing which
the American movie ranks finding so de-
pressing:
Deception by an odd paradox, is Ger
man picture about English history. 1t tells
the story of Anne Boleyn, the second charmer
is the sextet of wives of King Henry VIII
Both as an historical and as human docu-
ment. it is magnificent. Lubtisch (the d.
rector) brings history to life and turns dead
and gone figures into human beings. 1t is
an old saying that the public does not want
historical dramas and that no one will go to
see costume plays. But Deception has
proved that the public is ten times more in
terested in an historical drama than they
in the average brand of treacle handed
out by directors who have neither educational
background nor imagination. The picture de-
fies another rule of routine production: it
ends tragically The only quarrel those who
saw it had with the picture was that it ended
too soon. Most of them would have been
happy if Lubitsch had gone on and filmed
the rest of English history.
German Propaganda Again
1t was Immediately after this that the old
wartime cries of German propaganda" be-
pointed on that deception was really moth
ing more than scandalous episode in Eng
lish history; that the Germans had deliber-
ately selected Henry VIII for perturbation
because he was tyrant and lbert1ne and
ate venison dipped in gravy with his fingers.
Anne Boleyn had been represented not as the
scheming vixen history paints her, but as
merely weak and cruelty sinned against
woman. Huh" said the American picture
people vindicatively, eve notice that the
Germans stick carefully to the history of
other nations. They don't dare film any of
their own"
To this charge the defenders of the films
retort that even if they do contain propa-
ganda (Which they do not grant, there is
nothing to prevent the French and British
from retalating in kind An investigation of
German monarchs would probably yield a
rich harvest of lurid material which the
American public would be only too delighted
to review, they point out. Furthermore, the
first French film to reach us, "J'Accuse," is
frankly propaganda picture, depicting som
of the worst phases of the late war. The
soft pedal is placed on German brutality, it
is true. There are no seductions of
mutilations of infants in the picture, but it
is plea for sympathy for the French
ton, which is struggling so bravely to re-
cover from the desolation of the war.
But propaganda Or not, the champions of
the foreign films declare that they are
welcome relief from the average American
movie which is largely 6syoid of artistic
merit. While Gypsy Love-" the sctest Pola
Negri film, does not live up to the high
standard set by the first foreign pictures, the
majority is said by those who have seen them
to be exceptionally good. In many respects.
it cannot be denied, the European directors
are ahead of our directors over here. For
instance, nothing has yet been produced in
this country to compare with the artistic sets
designed by a noted European modernist for
'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" It could
easily be done in Hollywood. We have plenty
of artists in this country who could achieve
equally good results. But the fact remains
that it has not been DONE
The moving picture people themselves are
willing to admit this. 1t is not the artistic
merit of the new foreign films to which they
object nor of which they are jealous. They
have been eagerly viewed by actor and di-
rector folk, who are always open to sugges-
tons for improving their own work. 1t is
the cost of the pictures which they resent-a
cost with which the American industry can
not begin to compete. In this way they see
real danger which threatens the livelihood
of over $4,000 American bread-winners and
which eventually may turn this nation from
the worlds greatest producer of films into
its greatest film buyer.