From Motion Picture Herald, April 22, 1933, 17.
The business of motion pictures is being run by individuals displaying the mentality of children, according to D. W. Griffith, “old maestro” of production. While scores of executives from both coasts have been fighting the Battle of Hollywood, trying to figure ways and means of putting the industry on a sound operating basis, attempting to solve problems through numerous “conferences,” talking about dictators to oversee all production, and physical distribution mergers, the maker of The Birth of a Nation, Way Down East, and Intolerance from his apartment high up in the Park Central Hotel, New York, snaps his fingers and says: “There is only one problem to be considered, drooping box-offices.”
Surveying on his right hand the Broadway scene and on his left, a broad expanse of the Jersey shore and the North River, D. W. spoke still with the authority of a master of matters pertaining to the industry, its foibles, and its good and not-so-good points.
“I say that the industry is in the hands of children because they have made no particular steps forward technically since the inception of sound,” he declared. “They do not consider their public, and their stories in nine cases out of ten are so badly constructed that if a person happens into the middle of a show he is completely lost. There is no possible way in which he can make head or tail out of the plot, and if he sits through the rest of the bill until the picture starts again, there have been so many disturbing influences in the meantime that it is out of the question for him to pick up the threads of the story from the end, where he started, back to the beginning. It’s ridiculous on the face of it. How long would a magazine, which started its stories at the end and worked back to the beginning, survive? What would happen if a theatrical producer decided to start the evening performance with the last act first? The theatre-going public simply wouldn’t stand it.”
And this, Mr. Griffith believes, is only one of the many problems which have a direct bearing on falling grosses. He feels that the star system should be partly done away with and that ultimately good stories, competently produced and acted, with less emphasis on the players will prove more consistent box-office winners.
“Of course, I realize that stars draw many persons,” the producer said, “but the fact remains than in view of the current desire on the part of producers and distributors to readjust the earning power of stars in proportion to lower average grosses, they might well give a little more thought to creating stories in which the players are secondary. By so doing they would partly solve the star problem. How many people today can remember what players appeared in The Birth of a Nation, Hearts of the World, Way Down East, The Covered Wagon [1923], The Big Parade [1925], The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse [1921], that have taken their place in screen history as among the greatest successes of all time?
All motion picture theatres should present their shows on a time schedule, Mr. Griffith said, as patrons then would be able to see a complete performance without the disturbing influence of interrupted thought. He added that these schedules should be widely publicized in theatre advertising, that it is not the business of the picture patron to find out for himself what time the picture goes on.
“This interrupted thought does not apply to musical pictures or comedies where the plot is of minor importance,” D. W. said. “But as long as drama is the backbone of the entertainment business, a considerably amount of time and thought should be given to this phase of it. I have stood in front of many theatres and heard people coming out say, ‘How miserable motion pictures are getting.’ And why do they say it? Simply because they have been unable to assimilate all of the value the picture has to offer.”
Mr. Griffith belittled the oft-expressed opinion that, because of the depression, it is impossible for pictures to make big grosses.
“Good pictures will always make money,” he said, “and roadshows could be just as successful today as they ever were. Of course, you must have the picture for this, and quite frankly, there hasn’t been a single ‘legitimate’ roadshow attraction in the past two years.”
Asserting that there is an insufficient amount of experimentation in film laboratories today, Mr. Griffith pointed out that it took years to build up the technique of the silent film and that with the inception of sound a completely new technique had to be devised. He feels that the industry has not made much progress in the development of the new art, with due allowance for generally unsettled conditions.
“There should have been a glimmering of a new process of some nature by this time,” he declared. “So far there has been none, and with radio an ever-increasing source of competition and worry, it’s high time Hollywood began to do something about it. Radio has made gigantic steps forward in every respect, far greater in proportion to the length of its existence than has the motion picture.”
Talking of the days when roadshows were reaching the height of popularity, and business all over the country was booming, Mr. Griffith pointed out that Way Down East grossed $1,380,000 in the first five and one-half months of its roadshowing. And he is convinced that the same thing can be done today.
“But where, oh where are the stories, the showmen, and the ability to put them across,” he asks.