N his wire from Hollywood last Sunday, Douglas Churchill touched lightly upon the feeling of complacence underlying the producers' expressions of worry over the effect of the European war on the American film industry, writes Mr. Frank S. Nugent in "The New York Times." They were anxious about the foreign market for American pictures; they felt economies would have to; be practiced; they withdrew a few heavily budgeted product us T: from their schedules.
But they recalled, at the same time, that what Lawrence Stallings so prophetically called "the first World War" had given Hollywood its opportunity to take world film leadership, Prior to 1915, the American picture industry was a puny brat living on a diet of one and two reels.
Germany, Italy and Sweden were the flourishing film makers; France was not far behind. The war changed all that.
Hollywood was a war baby, One can only surmise what might have happened to our film industry had there been no such war, or what form the American' screen might have ' taken had it ween- forced to march, step by step, wita the uariterruptedly foreign studios. Whose influence might ultimately have pre-
Annabella, Olivier, Oberon, Donat, Lockwood and Darrieux among the players. There have been scores of technicians, writers and composers. Anglo-American production companes have been formed by which a "Pygmalion" and a "Citadel" can be filmed in England, a "Nurse Edith
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.