Shanghai cinema audiences ha peculiar idiosyncracies. For instance, where audiences in other parts of the world would laugh up-Toariously, grip tightly to their seats, or go into ecstases over the attractions of their favourite star, the Shanghai cinema-goer maintains bored and slightly blase demeanour. stated the publicity manager of a big local cinema in an interview with the "North-China Daily News" yesterday. Chinese and Foreigners alike are terrified of showing enthusiasm in public, even if they cannot be seen, and so they save up their feeling about the show until afterwards when they are filing out of the cinema. This is, perhaps, fortunate; as watchful cinema managers can stand in a dark corner and watch their reactions, judging thereby the box office possibilities of a particular film. The manager of one local cinema has a&"secret door" from which he emerges stealthily on to a balcony, and eagerly scans the faces of the departing crowds.
But the seeming lack of enthusiasm on the part of Shanghai audiences is only artificial, and in Teality they enjoy their pictures just as much others do., But they have another failing which is also heart-breaking to those who are straining to tap their wants in the matter of celluloid entertainment. According to the spokesman interviewed yesterday, they are very often incapable of distinguishing between a good and a bad picture. When a film which is having first-class runs in the United States comes to Shanghai, it is often greeted by rows of empty seats. And when a picture which is definitely second class comes along, the crowds simply flock into the theatre.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.