The Pickwick Film
SIR.—As a journalist and an aspiring film-critic, though not necessarily a " highly intelligent " one, may I make a plea for Miss Graham. Intelligence is a gift of nature and reading merely an exercise of that intelligence. To imply that one is not intelligent because one is not " well read " is therefore nonsense, and to imply that one is not intelli- gent because one has not read Pickwick Papers is fantastic. Apart from that, however, there is a very great argument in favour of your film-critic. Most film-critics go to a picture which uses a book as its basis with a prejudice which overrides any merit which the film may possess. They have read the book and have their own idea of what should be included in the film and how it should be treated. A critic who has not read the book is much more likely to give an unbiased account of the film's qualities and to judge it as a film rather than as a film of a book. Miss Graham was one of the few critics who gave the film, Pickwick Papers, the attention it deserved. Most critics wrote a curt little note at the end of their columns saying: " If it had to be done, it might have been done worse." In writing that she had not read Pickwick Papers, Miss Graham was not, I am certain, " taking evident pride" so much as announcing a very good reason why she should 'Be " sent to criticise " the film.—Yours faithfully,
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