Film Society

Barracks square in York, £231 was made. The show was first held at the permanent Harrogate ground in 1951, and the development which seemed to interest members most was the erection of the members' bar which had once held the record for being the longest bar in the world!

At the second meeting we were given a talk on the development and effect of chemical weed killers. The speakers were Mr. Powell and Mr. Mead of I.C.I. (Plant Protection) and they illustrated their talk by three sets of most interesting slides which showed the effect of Chromoxone, a new weed killer which could double the productivity of unworkable land. A very powerful argument over the effect of these weed killers on bird life proved to be the climax of the meeting.

At our third meeting we had a talk on horses by Mr. G. N. Sutherland, an eminent veterinary surgeon. Mr. Sutherland divided his talk into three parts—the evolution of the horse, the history of the horse, and the veterinary approach to the horse. Mr. Sutherland devoted most of his talk to the thoroughbred and told us of the import in 1680 of the three famous Arabian horses, Byerly Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin, from which all modern blood stock has developed. Mr. Sutherland emphasised the importance of the tendons, especially in racehorses, and told us of the wonderful development in the veterinary approach to the horse. This meeting was very well attended and enjoyed by all, especially the racing enthusiasts who swelled our numbers.

The last meeting of the term consisted of a visit to Mr. Bowman's butchering establishment in York. Mr. Bowman, assisted by Mr. Holgate, showed us the techniques of cutting and grading a beast and we thank them both very much indeed for taking the time and trouble to prepare the very interesting and useful demonstration. Members were particularly surprised by the large bruises on a sheep's back, caused by maltreating the wool when handling a sheep.

C.J.S.

THE FILM SOCIETY

There has been a rare opportunity this season to compare the work of Harold Lloyd and Charles Chaplin. When on Christmas Day, along with twenty million other people, I saw "The Gold Rush" on television, I thought I found something Homeric almost, in the simplicity and dignity of the film. When Mr. Stuart Keen on 9th February, after a brief introductory talk on Chaplin, presented "The Circus" with great skill and panache to a mixed audience of Senior School and Junior School boys, I felt that it was right to say that in the history of the cinema Chaplin occupies the same place and enjoys the same status as does Homer in the history of Western literature. From the moment when he entered the film, shuffling in past the camera to take his place at the edge of the crowd round a circus booth to the time when the circus, that microcosm of life, moved on and Charlie sadly, yet with a defiant twitch of his cane, left in the opposite direction to face whatever else life had to offer, the joy of the audience was unconfined.

It was noticeable that neither Chaplin nor Lloyd got much help from the camera which in the main merely recorded. "The World of Harold Lloyd" was very enjoyable, but the humour was of a more obvious kind— runaway trams, adventures involved in climbing a sky-scraper. The best 22