Evening star., 1928-12-09
FLASHES
FROM THE
BY c. E. NELSON.

into Congress. They are to
claim a share of the legiS-
u lator'S attention for some
months to come, according to
present planS-but what the men
on the Hill do to the pictures will
have little interest for the fans.
On the other hand, the producer,
the distributor and the exhibitor
future proceedings. The movies
are getting big; they are growing
up, reaching a mans estate, and,
therefore, they are supposed to
call for special attention from the
makers of laws.
There are number of bills
dealing with the picture industry
now pending, but they may not
receive attention during the pres
ent short session. Several of the
bills are concerned with Federal
censorship and control, while
others have to do with the repeal
of the prize fight film law. Prob
ably the most important of the
control bills is the one introduced
by Senator Brookhart Of Iowa.
This prohibits block and blind
booking and discrimination. Other
bills have been introduced by
Representatives Hudson of Mich
igan, Celler of New York and Can
non of Missouri Senator Walsh
of Montana has introduced bill
which provides for an investiga-
ton by committee of the Senate
of the cases which have been
brought by the Government deal
ing with the activities of the film
boards of trade. Also, the Lank-
ford bill provides for the closing
of theaterS in the District of
Columbia on Sundays. This latter
measure was the subject of many
hot words during the last session
of Congress.
A number of measures ask for
the repeal of the law which pro-
hibitS the interstate movement of
prize fight films. None of these
were given much consideration
at the last session.
X X Y X
A FTER viewing the photoplay
attractions of the various
Washington theaters during the
past week, one is inclined to the
opinion that the silent drama"
is not discarded. It may be that
the SynchroniZed musical score
will accompany a great many new
pictures, but it would seem that
the all-talkies are not to be every
day attractions. The silent pic
ture has won a place in the en-
tertainment world; it cannot be
thrown out in light and easy
manner. Canned music may take
the place of orcheStraS, but the
canned dialogue will never en-
tirely diSplace the silent picture
and its printed titles.
Carl Laemmle's Nationwide ef-
fort to find out just where the
public stands in regard to noisy
and silent pictures has brought
about, as yet, no definite result
no result by which one might de-
tern1ine whether the public wants
silence or strange voices. Letters
have been pouring in upon the
president of the Universal or
ganization, some of them predict
ing big things for the talkieS,
others stating that the path was
leading back toward the silent
drama. After all, it sums itself
down to practical point: If the
talkieS are an improvement over
the silent pictures, they will be
acceptable to the fans. II they
are not, it will be a case of thumbs
down, regardless of the millions
spent by the movie producers in
equipping new sound studios and
what not.
THE Fox organization comes out
with the announcement that
1t will produce a daily news reel.
The step will come gradually,
however, and the daily will not
be on the screens before next Sep
tember. Beginning last Saturday,
three Fox Movietone reels are
being made each week In Feb
ruary, this will be increased to
four each week, and in April there
will be five, if present plans go
through. The sound and sight
equipment will require IS Movie
tone trucks, and these will be
scattered all over the world.
X x
THE Hudson bill for Federal CEN
sorship of motion pictures
which is being supported by
Canon william Sheafe Chase, is
probably the most drastic Of all
the censorship bills that have
been proposed. It provides fol
a Federal motion picture commits
sion, which will have absolute
power to censor motion pictures
of all kinds. According to the
bill, the commission is to be com
posed of the commissioner OF
education, ex-officio, and SlS
others Gncluding two women), tC
be appointed by the Secretary OF
the Interior. After appointment
the six commissioners are sup
posed to serve for life, which
places them on an equal plane
And the commission will be re-
sponsible to no single person fol
its action or its expense. 1t vii
not depend upon Congress for ap-
preparations. Even the PreSident
of the United States will not have
the power of control over it, once
it has been established and II
good running order.
Tho hill 1aatl1raIlV will hi