Cinema: Board Overboard

Most cinemagoers would probably say, if asked, that every U. S. motion picture has to be passed by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. Hollywood knows better. Since 1919 the industry has paid almost $1,000,000, at the set reviewing-charge rate of $6.25 a reel, for the sweeping imprimatur, “Passed by the National Board of Review.” To better cinema groups, women’s clubs, educational organizations and to some State and municipal legislatures, this O. K. has signified a tested product. And the industry, well aware that few films submitted ever fail to pass, has been more than happy to pay the modest reviewing charge for this sort of testing.

But the board indulges in other activities for which it receives no stipend: e.g., the annual selection of outstanding films and performances. In this unsubsidized function, the board says what it thinks. Of 1937’s pretentious crop, it found unpretentious Night Must Fall the best. Of 20 films mentioned, ten were foreign-made. Leading the performers was French Harry Bauer, in the Prague-made The Golem; high up was Soviet Nikolai Cherkassov (Baltic Deputy). Hollywood’s 14-year-old Jackie Cooper made the list; the industry’s 1937 darling, Mr. Paul Muni, did not.

Last fortnight Hollywood’s loudest mouthpiece. Editor Martin Quigley’s Motion Picture Herald, announced that the industry did not intend to continue paying reviewing charges to such a fickle outfit. As proof that Hollywood means what it says Editor Quigley cited In Old Chicago, which had the board’s cachet, did not choose to run it.