Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-10

Ut Is a wide-open secret that the
Aim business has not been pros
pering to any appreciate extent
4 of late, and the financial wizards
who control the industry are hard
at work trying to think up aliois with
which to kid themselves. Almost any
exclamation for the slump will serve
anv explanation, that is, which does
not; involve the admission that 1t may
be due to the lamentably low quality OF
the entertainment that Hollywood has
been providing.
The novelty of sound having worn
off, the motion picture is now return
ing to the groove Tor chute in whlch
it was travelling dismally three years
ago. 1t is becoming once more. as 1t
was in the last days of the silent era,
q steady flow of monotony.
The movie moguls are trying to hold
the support of their FESTIVE and M
creasinkly discerning public by feeding
them limitations of limitations of imi-
tations.
A study of the production schedules
of the various leading companies indi-
Gates that during the forthcoming sea-
son we are going to see some dozens
of carbon copies of all the pictures that
were even mildly successful last season.
Or perhaps we'll have sense enough not
to see them. Perhaps we'll prefer to
seek diversion by watching flagpole-
sitters, who, at any rate, make no pre-
tense that there is an element of va
riety in their act.
Almost anything is preferable to Will
liam Powell in another murder case,
Warner Baxter as another accented
bandit or the latest proxies for Moran
and Mack in another war.
THERE is. Of course, much under
standable exultation among those
who darby predicted that talk would
ruin the screen. They are saying that
the industry's only hope is to return at
once to the manufacture of silent pic
lures, with printed subttitles and musi-
cal accompaniment.
1t seems hardly likely that salvation
can be achieved as easily as that. The
silent screen was dying a natural death
back in 1927. when the Vitaphone and
Movietone arrived to deliver the final
blow. 1t was affiicted with the same
form Of rigor mortis which is now de-
vitalizing the vocal screen
The trouble. then and now, was not
with the motion picture Itself, which
remains worthy and honorable me-
0ium. The trouble was, and is, with
those who guide the motion pictures
destinies. They have persisted in the
belief that the films they produce are
articles of commerce instead of works
of art. That is the sole reason why
their periods of prosperity have been
80 distinctly temporary-breaks of phe-
nomenal luck rather than deserved
trlumphs of achievement
shall not attempt to define the
term work of art" To 60 into defini-
tons Is to get into difficulties. But it is
reasonably safe to say that a work of
art is the result of an enthusiasm-and
that is just what most movies silent or
sound aren't They are the works of
tired, bored, dulled men.
The proof of this rule is to be found
In the exceptions. AS current example:
"All Quiet on the Western Front" which
Is defyh-g the present slump and piling
up colossal profits.
"An Quiet on the Western Front"
was not ground out in the usual man
ner in the Hollywood mills It was not
part of production schedule" ar
ranged in a paneled New York office.
1t was produced by two young en-
thusiaSts, Carl Laemmle, jr., and Lewis
Milestone. The older, wiser, cooler and
therefore less imaginative brains of the
business advised them that they were
insane to try anything so completely