FILMS, AMERICAN AND BRITISH [To the Editor of Tim SPECTATOR.]
Snt,—May I make one or two observations on the " protest " of Mr. J. B. Williams occasioned by my article on American films ? If the British public is as fond of English films as Mr. Williams suggests, then the problem of giving Elstree aid against Hollywood as aid was given to Oxford against Detroit should be easy. That it is difficult I gathered from the long correspondence in The Times, but it appears that I was wrong. When I suggested that many of the arguments against American films were animated by xenophobia I was aware that I should be told about the British ethos. May I point out that alarmed concern for the national ethos is a common characteristic of Mr. Williams and these purifiers of the national life of various continental countries whom I mentioned ? Odd as it may seem, this concern with the national ethos seems tome-the thin,edge of a dangerous wedge.
I had hoped that there were a few cabin:ties left in Europe, like France and England, which had enough confidence in their national ethos to let it stand a draught without fearing an immediate and fatal attack of pneumonia. If Mr. Williams will look at Ireland he will see a country as anxious over the• dangers of English damage to her ethos as he (or The Times) can be over Americanisation. Would he like to move from protecting English films to protecting English books, songs and dances as the Gaelic League would like Mr. de Valera or Irish public opinion to do ? Why, for example, should not the light music industry of London (quoting the wise friend of Pletcher of Saltoun) .ask for effective protection against the competition of Mr. Cole Porter and Mr. Benny Goodman ?
But even if the English ethos needs hot-house conditions to survive, what does the average English film do to help it ? As I suggested in my article, the average English film represents as exotic a world, from the point of view of the average film- goer, as does the average American film. Piccadilly is as remote from Bolton or Bridgeton as Times Square. Does Mr. Williams think that the Briton's ethos is helped by seeing Mr. Jack Buchanan and weakened by seeing Mr. Fred Astaire ? Most American and nearly all British films that I have seen express the ethos, not of America or Britain, but of the fantastic region that an American critic of Hollywood has named Purilia. A few American films are about America, how many British films are about Britain ? I pointed out in my article that this state of affairs was not necessarily the fault of the film industry and I rejoice to see that South Riding has been filmed ; the choice of such a book is significant and welcome. , But if. Mr.. .Williams, by national ethos,, means old-fashioned patriotic, flag-waving, who can wave the Union Jack with more vigour than Hollywood ? But, as your film critic point a out, it gets into difficulties when it is necessary to wave both the, Union Jack and Old Glory in the same picture. , . D. W. BROGAN. Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
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