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Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 12, No. 8, July 27th, 1949.

Laurels To Hollywood Commercialism

Laurels To Hollywood Commercialism

I hand Hollywood the rather greasy palm in the commercial cinematic competition because Hollywood above all else is honest with itself. Unlike the British film industry, it does not produce one pearl and much paste and claim that the lot is the genuine oyster. It rarely strives consciously to be artistic—when it does it flops—for its executives are shrewd enough to know that a materialistic people like the Americans have little capacity either for producing or appreciating a film of piercing artistic inspiration. Instead they rely on a consistent standard of competency on which the average movie-goer of today can rely. The Americans have achieved much by this honest recognition of their limitations—and have not received the praise they have deserved. A "Way to the Stars" is all very acceptable when it comes, but I thank heaven above for sparing me from the acutely class-conscious efforts of the British film in between the master-pieces—the pattern is depressing and unoriginal—Oxford-accented heroes, 'ingratiating servants, tacit suggestions of the superiority of the English way of life, the interplay between the upper class and the lower class, and, worst, of all, minor characters who look and talk as if they had just been borrowed from the local repertory show. They make an unpleasant contrast to the accomplished American minor character players. These are true artists, craftsmen in their own right, restrained, natural, giving the impression that they have been pressed into service as they strolled around the set chewing gum. Men like Frank Faylan, William Bendix, Gene Lockhart, and Dan Duryea are counterparts of genuine hunks of humanity known in our own life. Women may recoil from the fish-like expression of Duryea but that is the very proof of his reality as a character—the instinctive reaction of any normal person who might happen to meet him unexpectedly.

To regain the main road again, I must reiterate my gratitude to the Americans in providing an entertainment to which I can generally turn confidently when the Press has informed me that there are no masterpieces around demanding to revive my Hollywood-drugged soul.