Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-13
American Pictures Do
Not Give Clear View of
American Civilization
But the British Have Mistaken Idea That They
Reproduce Stories of Our Daily Life
Unfairness In a Recent Attack.
By E. de S. Melcher.

the writing oracles print us as a
land of emotional demons because
some of our films have flung wide
the hinges of their imagination
and depicted life as it certainly
ISN'T anywhere. then let US see
what his country has to show for
all his celluloid antics.
In the first place, although few
of his films have been shown over
here, most Of them are not only
stodgy but crude, and not only
crude but supErabundantly I'M
imaginative. And then many of
his best authors, bluShing at the
thought of such publicity fearful,
really, that their works" might
be mishandled by the cinematic
shears, have escheWed the
studios, leaving only the shabbiest
material available. Then. again,
it is no native hallucination that
his best actors have long since left
the mother studios to swim
gentle breaSt-stroke in the limpid
Californian waters. Although
rumor has it that these same
studios are perking up, and that
one gentleman of American eX-
traction is planning to do great
things over there, as far as en-
tertainment is concerned, the
Piccadilly output has been furi-
ouSly mediocre - and one can
easily understand why Mr.. Chaplin
prefers his adopted Hollywood
bungalow.
JUST the same, who ever thought
of damning brother Englishmen
because his movies are bad? And
in the same breath why take
America to task because a few
misguided films have squeezed
themselves out of hollywood in
unseemly shapes? E!en if some
of these films are admittedly lop-
! sided, aren't our native movie
goerS the first to say so? Don't
they get as mad about them and
rip them all over the whole coun-
try and get more thoroughly
aroused than do their oceanic
neighbors? The days of the
Serpentine Theda BaraS, the I'M
draped "vamps'' who winked
themselves into oblivion. the COM
edieS in which foodStuffS came
hurtling out of every corner, are
no more.
JUST to prove that there is still
some hope for our civilization.
the following is a list of recent
films recommended to thu post
vacationist who is lookiih for
something to do, and also for those
who believe that we are sliding
fast down that thorny road to
perdition:
Bad Girl - Which is neither
cheap" nor vulgar" even if 1t
concerns two Third" avenue peo-
pie who might never be seen on
Picadilly Circus;
Alexander Boosting
the services of George Arliss. A
thoroughly dignified and delight
full film, which could never have
been made in jolly England;
The Miracle WOman-With Bar
bara Stanwick as an evangelist
who breaches and prayS, and pays
and pays;
Waterloo Which proves
that even London has pavement
ladies who improve through the
vision of "love."
An American Tragedy-Which
has a court room scene in it worth
visit alone-and one smile by
Sylvia Sidney that will just kill
you;
Susan Lenox; Her Rise and Fall
in which the two great G's of
the M-G-M forces, Carlo and
Gable, sizzle as no two are said to
have SiZZled before;
Merely Mary Ann-For roman
ticists Of all ages who still be-
lieve that Cinderella was comely
lass who lost her footwear at the
ball;
POlitics-Dressler and Moran, and
that's enough. -