Film Society

For the last meeting of the term Gibson brought two more films from the Massey-Harris-Ferguson Organisation. The first was called "Towards One World" and showed the application of modern machinery to agriculture in various parts of the world, and the second, called "Complete 'Control", showed the versatility of the Ferguson tractor and tackling.

This term has been one of the most successful in the Club's history and the average attendance has been 39 out of 50 members. D.S.A.

THE FILM SOCIETY

It is becoming increasingly difficult to select a programme of films to present to a schoolboy audience without repeating a film shewn to a previous generation. Fewer films are, in any case, being made, and far too many of those that are made, are so needlessly obsessed with violence as to render them unsuitable. It would appear that the commercial film industry bears within itself the seeds of its own destruction. "Pride and Prejudice" was shewn here some six years ago; it may not be very good Jane Austen, but at least it is not violent; the glorious gusto of the acting of Edna May Oliver (Lady Katherine) and Melville Cooper (Mr.—sic !—Collins) fully justified its revival.

There is a good deal of violence, of course, in "Shane", but one accepts the fact that violence was an inherent part in the life that a Western seeks to portray. One does not object to violence as such, only to an obsession with it. "Shane", under the direction of one of Hollywood's big names, G. W. Stevens, was never meant to be just an ordinary Western, and it was interesting to try and see where the master hand revealed itself. Perhaps one instance will serve. One of the small settlers, for whom our sympathies were invited, had been killed and The Lord's Prayer was being recited over the open grave. Sentiment here, which might so easily have got out of hand, was beautifully handled : the camera cut from a general view of the scene to a shot of loose brushwood scurrying in a whirl of wind and dust round the feet of the mourners— a touch of desolation this—then from the faces of the children present who obviously didn't understand what it was all about, to the dead man's dog that equally obviously did. Indeed a most masterly sequence ! In retrospect, at least, compared with this kind of filmmaking, our third film "The Maggie", competent enough by its own standards, seems very second rate.

The last film we shewed was "Kind Hearts and Coronets" from Ealing Studios, directed by Robert Hawer, and we might as well 27