Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1927-07-21
MOVIES UPLIFT AND CHEER

The movie like any other good
thing can be misused. depending to a
great extent on the type of people
who are in the business. In the main
it is enlightening and entertaining.
OF course anything can be overdone,
chasing to shows every night or every
other night would be too much of it.
There is a happy medium which is
well to strike. Wonderful pictures
have been produced that are worth
going miles to see, they are upbuild-
ing and enlightening. There are also
the cheap ones, not only cheap in
price but cheap in quality. Wonder
full things have been accomplished
in the movie industry and 1t has
given people of moderate means an
opportunity to see and get familiar
with much that was reserved more
for the wealthy through operas and
the like in bygone days.
The Duluth Herald published a
good editorial on movies recently
which follows:
'Aldous Huxley, writer, globe trot-
ter. and ultimate sophisticate, saw an
American cinema, as he names the
movie, in Java before a crowd of the
natives of that country. He was dis
gusted, and declared that the cinema
as given in that far-off land and in
other distant places is so bad that it
should cause the placid natives to
rise up and smash all American
things and people within their reach.
at is just barely possible that the
Javanese were not disguised or anger
ed. 1t is equally possible that Hulk
ley was the only one present who was
disturbed.
pie everywhere. Remote crowds of
all colors understand them. They
probably do not think that all Amer
leans at all times rushing about
on spirited steeds, rescuing fmperiled
maids, racing with railroad trains,
making ardent love, or saving the old
homestead from the mortgage. Per-
haps these placid peoples understand
as well as enjoy. Certainly they do
not agree with Huxley.
1.-The movie is not so bad. The
news reel, part of all movie shows.
is fine. 1t illustrates important hap
penings in all lands. 1t shows all
sorts of peoples and the way they
live 1t transports the observer far
from home. 1t shows the seas with
their ships to inlanders and the depth
of the continent to seagoing people.
There is always a slapstick COM
edy. No one takes it in earnest. 1t
is a jolly exaggeration, just as Mr..
Huxley's walls are. 1t is probable
that the Javanese, for instance, take
them as they are intended. They are
not too sophisticated.
Here Mr.. Huxley may interrupt
and say: The news reel and the COM
edy are all right. The horror is in
the five-reel feature But are these
features so bad? Certainly they pre-
sent many lovely scenes. They show
farms, palaces, skyscrapers. forests,
seas, tropics, ice fields. They show
beggars, kings, workers, peasants and
miners. They present women in all
phases of beauty. They are enjoyable
and they comfort. ....
But more, they teach manners and
morality. Virtue is always rewarded
on the screen. Vice is always pun
ished. Faithful beauty reaches hap
piness and the true and ardent lover
always wins the prize. No one thinks
these presentations are perfect, and
yet could any of the critics do better?
If so they have the chance. Il
"The movie improves constantly.
Extension table kisses are no longer
featured. Undue freshness is taboo.
In the higher-priced movie theaters
the crowds are usually self-restrained,
but even here pleasureable emotions
sometimes find expression when peril
to the good passes; while in the fif-
teen-cent shows cheers and clapping
are often heard when virtue is re-
warded and evil plans are shrewdly
baffled. The movie in the main is
not bad at all"