Shanghai audiences, like fellow enthusiasts elsewhere, go more for screen personalities than for pictures themselves. Kay Francis has tremendous drawing power in Shanghai. Local women, it is thought. go to pictures in which she is starred simply to see the creations which she wears. But her name on a billboard is enough to fill a Shanghai cinema. The women also go in their crowds to see Robert Taylor and Dick Powell, but the same attractions which flutter the feminine heart turn the masculine one as cold as stone. These two are not at all popular among the Shanghai males. Errol Flynn, on the other hand, is a personality who appeals to men and women alike.
Titles mean a tremendous lot to the Shanghai cinema-goer, and however good a picture may be an unfortunate title will dampen all hopes of its being a success locally.—The type of picture which appeals most to Shanghai audiences is the musical burlesque. while as far as cartoons go Popeye and Mickey Mouse are neck and neck to win the most favour from local fans.
Shanghai Chinese: are gradually coming back in larger numbers to showing foreign films. The naturally were a great blow to local cinemas, as a knowledge of English is necessary to follow the picture. Chinese form seventy per cent. of cinema audiences! They find it easier to understand the dia logue of British pictures than Ameri can pictures, and sometimes there are angry faces to be seen among Chinese leaving after a show. There is nothing more exasperating than to hear chuckles from others when the joke is not clear to oneself, and when a comical situation depends upon the dialogue and not upon the actions of the players, then there are many dissatisfied members of the audience.
The "Blot Out" Man 4
Most local cinemas have a special man on their staff to remove offending dialogue from the sound track. There is naturally much in the average picture which could give offence to members of one nationality or another represented (fu Shanghai, and when a word or a phrase Is "condemned." the keen eyes of the blot-out man search through the sound-tracks for the pattern which represents the offending portion. Then it is carefully removed.
Shanghai audiences are "coddled" much more than they are in other places. There are no continuous performances given at local cinemas, with long queues stretching out into the streets who may not see the picture until half of it has been shown. And Shanghai audiences are usually very punctual about arriving at the cinema,—although there are a few diehards who would not think it worth going to a show unless they could make an individual entrance just when everyone else is settling back comfortably into their seats. Pictures are often shown in Shanghai before their premiere in America. owing to the fact that much time is spent in the United States in publicizing a flm before it is shown.
"Taboo" in Shanghai are romances centring around the boxing ring or the football field. Local audiences are bored by them. On the other hand, there must be a news reel and a cartoon in the programme. That is one point on which Shanghai cinema-goers are ver;
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