THE CINEMA IN WAR AND PEACE.
112
Extracts from The Ypres Times Cinema Supplement.
By G. A. ATKINSON, M.B.E.,
Film Critic of the Daily Express," Sunday Express," and British Broadcasting Company.
The cinema entertainment has been called the poor man's trip abroad," which it
is the pulpit of the masses," which it may be and the anodyne of Art," a subtle
phrase with a streak of truth in it.
The cinema has been called many other things, but I understand that this is a respect
able journal. Superior people affect to despise the cinema entertainment. Their faces,
when you mention this democratic pastime, assume the expression of one who has dis
covered a leak of gas. Oh, no! We never go to cinema theatres," they say, except
to see that funny manwhat do they call him oh, yes!Charlie Chaplin! The children
are so fond of him! Children are very useful, even in superior circles.
The truest description of the cinema entertainment is that it is our greatest national
safety-valve." It casts such a wide net over the population that it is, in fact, a barometer
of national well-being. Prosperity in the cinema is an indication of prosperity in indus
trial Britain, and if I were Prime Minister I should study statistics of cinema attendances
with not less affection than does the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
This function of national safety-valve the cinema theatres fulfilled admirably
during the War, and they continue to exercise it not less admirably in Peace. We saw
that during the recent General Strike, wheri the cinema theatres, with official co-operation,
made special arrangements to carry on as usual, despite the intricate transport problems
involved. They even lowered their prices, in some of the districts most affected, in order
to take idle people off the streets. There is a sense in which it might be said that the
War discovered the cinema. It certainly discovered Chaplin, who was practically unknown
when the War began, but became a kind of symbol of the nation's determination to turn
the dark cloud inside out." Chaplin and the Kaiser shared equal honours in the Army.
The popularity of the one and the unpopularity of the other were the obverse and reverse
of the same medal. Military authorities began with the assumption that the cinema indus
try was of the non-essential category, and in some districts it was proposed to close
the cinema theatres altogether, but Authority opened its eyes when it saw troops going
into action carrying effigies of Chaplin, and clamouring for Chaplin and other films to be sent
out to them. The public at home turned to the cinema entertainment not as an anodyne
of Art," but as an anodyne of anxiety. A visit to the cinema was an outlet alike for the
mood of sorrow and the mood of rejoicing. The Government soon began to realise what
a magnificent propaganda instrument lay ready to its hand in the cinema industry. Our
4,000 cinema theatres became unofficial recruiting stations and centres for charitable
and other organisations in connection with the War. There sprang into existence a special
Government Department, formed to supply films for the entertainment of our soldiers and
sailors, in training and in action, and to organise a supply of films to show the public at
home, and the world in general, what Great Britain was doing in the War. This Depart
ment emerged from the War with the reputation, it is said, of being the only Government
Department that had been able to show a profit! Britain's splendid topical war films,
obtained at great personal risk by the operators concerned, went all over the Empire,
and the Department crowned its many triumphs by bringing here the great American
producer, Mr. D. W. Griffith, to make, with British official co-operation, the celebrated
film, Hearts of the World," which did much to convert American public opinion to the
side of the Allies. There could be no praise too high for the work during the War of the
Government's Film Department, which has now become a permanent institution.
The British film-producing industry, which led the world in 1914 in quality if not in
quantity, was early classified as a non-essential business. That classification was partly
