London, Feb. 25.
Unquestionably however much the public may be attracted by the names Of great stars, the most important person in the making of a successful picture is the director, and it seems to be in directors that the British studios are mainly lacking. In this field the two main hopes in all of what might be called the modern period of English pictures have been Hitchcock and Wilcox, Of the two, Hitchcock seemed to be the more promising, His action was quicker and he was more alertly inclined to experiment But, somehow, Hitchcock does not seem to have fulfilled his early pro-e. He has developed a formula of camer: angles and realist observation. So his greater pictures afford an impression of jerkiness without vitality. Herbert Wilcox has a very different technique, much slower and with less inclination to studio experiment, Of late years he has fastened hi: career to the rising star of Anna Neagle almost as exclusively as Von Sternberg attached himself to Marlene Dietrich, One has to admit that he has been justified in his faith, Anna Neagle is almost the only female star of the first magnitude who has come out of British studios.
Her efficient range from Nell Gwynn to Queen Victoria pronounces her as an actress of reliable accomplishments, So far as money-making is cerned, probably the most suc efforts of the English studios been in field of broad comedy. chief comedians have been Gra ie Fields, Jessie Matthew Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls, The pictures in which these highly successful stars have appeared have had no artistic value and contributed nothing to the progress of the cinema, but on the whole they have been money-makers, Most likely they have succeeded because they have been a direct inheritance from the characteristic English music-hall humour So far as feature films are concerned, one has to admit a certain number of outstanding successes, but even the best of them betrayed something approaching paralysis so far as speed and cutting were concerned, That paralysis or inertia seems to represent the great mystery of the British studios, It may have climatic cause as it seems to afflict some of the most gifted directors when they come to England from America or the European continent. Undoubtedly, the British public is conscious of it and even yet suspicious of a British film as first-class entertainment,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.