No Screen For Problems

In the screening of social problems the Americans are not so honest as in other matters. However, much the same could be said about most other film-making countries. Nevertheless, despite studied avoidance of sensitive issues, e.g., the negro question, Hollywood has at times shaken off its qualms and produced a "Grapes of Wrath"—the pitiful saga of the exploited fruit-picker in California—a picture which it would be very difficult to excell in acting ability, direction and general purpose. One might counter perhaps with "Love on the Dole" but the final taste in the mouth left by the latter was one of depression, of morbid submission to the conditions surrounding the characters while "The Grapes of Wrath" ended on a note of challenge with more than a hint of rebellion.

My generalisations proceed from a weekly attendance at the theatres [or cinemas?—Ed.] and from the impressions constantly received from viewing the different films of different, countries. The first essential of art' is verisimilitude, i.e., the device of art should truthfully represent what it sets out to portray. Bearing this essential in mind I think that despite its lapses into nauseating sentimentality, crude melodrama and bedroom comedy, Hollywood achieves a more reliable standard of performance than any other film center. Sometimes it even embellishes its consistency with a masterpiece In the European Tradition. Someday perhaps it will summon up enough courage to give the critics what many of them have sought—a searching exposition of the negro question.

B. J. O'meagher.