1937-02-13 — Page 10

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, BATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1987.

Novel lanterns prepared for the Coronation by the General Electric Company. They are on display in

Chater Road.

What would

you do if

-You were awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of some one moving about downstairs? Would

you

(a) pull the bedclothes over your head?

(b) go quietly down and investigate?

(e) go noisily down and investigate?

-You discovered that a person whom you disliked intensely had been instrumental in doing you a good turn? Would you--

(a) Modify your opinion

him?

(b) Feel more embittered? (c) Retalisté?

of

វា

You were with a party of frienda and one of the company made

Would you-- laughing-stock of you

(a) Get "hot under the collar,"

but say nothing?

(b) Try to score off your tor-

AN IDEAL SEVERAGE

4 COMPLETS FO

TINE

mentor at the first oppor- tunity?

(c) Go off bearing a grudge

agulust film?

-You were asked by an amateur poet friend for your opinion of one of his poems? Would you---

(n) Praise it out of politeness? (b) Tell him the truth, even if

the poem were poor stuff?

(e) Sny that you have no car

for poetry, not even Keats

Are You Taste Blind?

LIVERYONE knows about

Ecolour blindness, but waste

blindness" has only just begun to be investigated.. It has been found that many people cannot common ingredi- taste certain

ents of everyday food.

Take soup: does it surprise you that your wife or husband grumbles at the plate which you find very pleasant? Perhaps he or she is un- able to taste creatine, which is un of all lean meat,

important park on the other hand,,|

You may be

to detect a single crystal of it.

This accounts for the fact that there is no disputing about fastes; the same plate of soup will taste different to different people,

In the some way with

baby's bottles: you buy a new rubber nipple; the baby refuses it while an other baby accepts it readily; why? It probably is made of rubber con- tulning para-ethoxy-phenyl-thio-

an

and. If so, one baby in

carbainide, ten will reject it for its bitter taste, while the other nine cun no more taste it than spell i

to

some

Skilled cooks are sometimes found

be "tasie-blind," and in hotels they are subjecting applicants to teste tests before employing them.

Before facing

the weather- fortify the

OVALTINE

TONIC FOOD BEVERAGE

system

i.

Rainy season is always an anxious time. Coughs and colds are prevalent and there is 'always the risk of epidemics of influenza and other infectious illnesses.

Fortify the system against the threats of unsettled weather by the regular use of

'Ovaltine."

There is nothing to equal 'Ovaltine' for giving strength and vigour and for building up the system to resist infection.

'Ovaltine' is not a mere mixture of powdered malt, milk, powder, dried eggs and cocoa, but an original product prepared from home grown produce malt extract, fresh, creamy milk and new-lald eggs. No other food supplies to the same high degree the health giving food elements extracted from these best of Nature's foods.

Remember there is only one 'Ovaltine' there is nothing to equal it and nothing "just as good"

Remember, there is MORE in

'Ovaltine'

-more-in Health- giving ingredients -more in Quality ~more in Value

BRITISH FILMS will SURVIVE

says P. L. Mannock

N

OTHING can extinguish the British film. Mil- lions want to see our own stories, put on the screen with our own stars. There have never been enough good pictures made to meet the demand.

We have huge new studios, and technicians equal to those of Hollywood. No foreign star, Indeed, thinks it beneath his or her dignity to work here. More- over, the law protects the Indus- try by compelling every British cinema to show £ British feature Alm for every four foreign ones.

Why, then, are several pro- duction concerns in peril of financial collapse?

There is only one outstand- ing reason.

This important, fascinating, and complex industry has been for far too long the happy hunting-ground of financial promoters.

Vast cums have been raised in the City by loans from banks and insurance companies by men who have thereupon appointed them- selves as amateur Bam Goldwyns, in charge of the spending of extravagant amounts,

As distinct from the older- established studio concerns, these new companies have come into existence on the crest of a gold- rush..An egomanka set in.

On the theory that Hollywood sometimes made successful million-dollar films, and that we must do the same, they persuaded themselves that the one vital re- cipe for picture-making was to spend with light-hearted freedom. The investing companies rolled on these mer far too much; but there 1s something glamorous about the entertainment business which seems to dull..the normat sense of commercial caution.

Filins, as an industry, present unique characteristics. They are not, and never can be, a standard- ised product., When a film is completed, the result is a mile or of celluloid covered two

with marks.

It may be worth £1,000,000 or it may be worth ninepence. No for- mula can exist for stabilising the

Permanent Waves

We use the finest Cluster Curl oil of Lavender, non-ammonia solution. .HAIR-DRESSING MANICURE & FACIALS EXPERT TREATMENT:

MODERATE PRICES Appointment Tel. 57122..

SUI LAN BEAUTY PARLOR.

523, Nathan Road, Kowloon,

COUNT THE

"TELEGRAPHS"

EVERYWHERE

value of the result. It can only be approximated; for it is more than a manufactured article.

The more or less co-ordinated brains of hundreds of people have been doing something which must be always creative, and is very often artistic.

The Investor must therefore al- ways regard such a business (or art) as highly speculative--unless reasonable reliance can be placed on the right men who run it.

Showmanship, temperament and Judgment of public tastes are not the least vital items of the mental equipment of such men; and they must also: unless they are prepared to face the reckoning of financial disaster, have p.oper business or- ganisation which keeps, a proper check on waste and other leakages to which the industry is peculiarly susceptible.

The best films are made by organisations which use experts fully without ever being at their mercy.

In other words. by pro- ducing chiefs with genuine experi- ence, Imagination and grip of realities—and the greatest of these realities is production costs,

Financial interests. in

my opinion, have been often inex- cusably careless in this respect.

Too frequently they have ad- vanced large sums without satisfy- ing themselves about those who were to spend it. This is not so much investment as gambling.

It is only fair, however, to point. out that the expansion of the in- dustry has considerably outgrown the supply of these best qualified to control it. Irving Thalbergs, Sam Goldwynıs and Darryl Zanucks do not grow on trees,

There has also been a shortage of highly skilled British techni- clans-although this fact has been too frequently urged as a reason for importing foreign assistants,

This shortage of studio experts. was admitted a few months ago by Mr. John Maxwell, chief of the Elstree studios, in his evidence before the Board of Trade Com- mission on Films.. "I have been engaged in the production of pic- tures since 1928, My own com- pany has tried to increase the number of pictures beyond the 20 or so we handle each year, but has

TEST ANSWERS

Current Affairs

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(1)

4;(1;

4 3 (21)

(2)

5 (12)

1

(22)

3

(3)

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2 (14)

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1

(5)

3 (15) -3 (25)

2

(0)

4 (10) 2 (26)

*

(7)

1 (17)

5 (27)

3.

(0)

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5.

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2. (20)

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2

Weck-End Problems

PROBLEM 1 MARMALADE'S DANK Jemmison robbed the bank.

PROBLEM I

A QUESTION OF ODDS. There are three black balls left in the bag, and one white

one.

Death of Captain Pelotti

There is every reason to sup- had been that Pelott! pose murdered. The statement, de- signed by his murderer.te "prove" his suleide, was signed with scrawling F. Pelolt!" but no where in the room, or on Pelotti's person, could be found a pencil or fountain pen. The murderer (ποίη as it subsequently trans- pired, Manezzi) had unthinking. fy returned his pen to his pocket- after signing the Pelotti "contes sion." Murderers do things like that.

Millions want to see our own stories put on the screen with our own stars.

found it impossible to get the talent and skilled personnel neces- sary to do so."

If this is so, what happens when an almost meteoric expansion of the industry takes place? For in 1020 we made 08 feature films in this country. In 1936 we made. the record number of 222.

must Obviously, money

get poured into the wrong hands. One studio squanderer will spend as much as six sensible production chiefs, and the El Dorado resolves itself into a spectacular production burst, a few very expensive and probably very elaborate films which can never recoup their cost. and a mass headache for every- body concerned.

The biggest tragedy is, of course, the bad reputation that the Alm business receives in the City. This reacts on the sensibly-conducted studios.

Last year at least £1,500,000 was thrown

British away in studios owing to careless prodi- gality, the main cause of which was lack of due care in the pre- paration of Alms before they started. For there is only one really costly ingredient in making Dims, and that is time-the hold- ups during fantastic overhead costs,

Another cardinal error, of which some of our normally cautious pro- ducers have been guilty, is some thing which I can best describe as the masterpiece complex."

Impressive, high-flown subjects have been chosen without proper regard for their box-office possi- bilities. On them has been spent, in cach case, enough money to inake at least four, sound, clever,

Man-Made

HELL

TSUSHIMA

By A. NovikofT-Triboy (Allen and Unwin, 108.) TSUSHIMA, May 27, 1905, was the first big naval battle of modern times-and perhaps the most horrible battle of all timo.

Twelve Russian battleships, eight cruisers. nine destroyers, and a litter of auxillaries, had called 10,000 miles to fight the Japanese.

In the Straits of Teusblma the two flects met. And within a few hours the Russian ships had been pounded into annihilation. One cruiser, three destroyers staggered into Vladivostok, three cruisers fled to Manila, three battleships surrendered.

The rest were smashed and sunk with all their crews. The Japaneno fleet was hardly damaged.

It was a great buman sacrifice to tito Incompetence and brutality of the eld regime, Everything, except the un-. liappy men, in the Russian fleet was ralten. The ships were bad. the guns were bad, the ammunition was bad. Officers were incapable bullies, train- Ing was hopeless, plans non-existent. It was an, Armada incapable of fighting.

For the Japanese the battle was target practice, For the fusions a long agony, preluding certain and horrible death.

Novikof-Priboy's "Taushilma" is the simplo vivid human story of that tragedy, relentlessly told by one who escaped alive from the Inferno.

A terrible book, but a great book. One of the greatest of books over written About war reorzelessly truthful, a record of man-made hell

entertaining alms. Some of these films have cost more than the en- tire capital of many of the former successful flm companies.

Why are they made? Partly be cause of the westhetic enthusiasm of directors and stars for a great author or a historie personality: partly because the studio chiefs are apt to become so self-centred. basking in an atmosphere of mutual admiration, that they lose their judgment regarding what the mass of picturegeers find accept- abic.

It is often urged that such big spending is necessary to get our nims into the United States. But except in the case of Alexander" Korda, who. makes pictures destined for actual American halls. marketing our films across the Atlantic is hardly ever successful. Bome of the costliest are no better for the extra cost; and only an occasional pleture makes roal money on the other side of the Atlantic for the British producer.

Thus it is that British films are going through a crisis.

"England is producing too few good films," declared Mr. Joseph M. Schenck, in an interview with British United Fress, before the present crisis arose.

Promoters Infest the producing ranks of the industry, and their backers are due for some severe Anancial losses. But Britain will recover from these ' growing pains just as Hollywood did. Then she, will make good pictures which will draw more profits from audiences in the States than in Britain itself. "Right now England has only two film-producing organisations of the first consequence. Both pro- duce for external markets. They ace learning and improving.

"But the British public lacka confidence in its own films. The reason is that most of the pro- ducers are putting out too many weak pictures.

The promoters in charge have no knowledge of the business, and no ambition to acquire it. Their ono desire is to grab as much proft as possible of other people's money. This is what hurts British films,

Cashing on the efforts of one or two successful com- pantes, they are getting a lot of people to invest in them-which is unfortunate. We had the same thing in Hollywood; and many lost money. But we learned our lesson, I hope they learn from our experi-

A good British picture is better business in Britain than an Ameri-

ence.

can pleture of equal worth. We fall about 10 per cent. short of meeting British tastes; but a British film of equal quality, can give them 100 per cent, of what they want."

Our studios will. weather tho storm. The industry will not only survive. It will be eventually strengthened.

Economy-not cheeseparing-and a more rigid check on inefcient control-will in time restore nan- cial confidence, which has been undermined, I fear, largely because of the semi-romantic, highly- coloured atmosphere of the busi- ' ness having blinded investors 'of their due sense of caution. Before long, the present shock, which will certainly lead to reform, will prove to be a blessing in disguise,

The bottom has not fallen out of the British film industry. A serious leak or two will have to be plugged, that is all, by one or two, skippers- who seem to have fallen asleep at the wheel despite warnings.

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