The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 7

LITERARY SECTION THE AGE. SATURDAY. JANUARY 15. 1049 CINEMA and CIVILISATION In the TIME of the TERRIBLE LIZARDS scnooL SECTION THE STORY OF THE DINOSAURS IMPORTANCE OF THE FILM CRITIC At present the film's-universal mission is to satisfy our hunger for diversion. But "there is far more than entertainment involved 1 in the anatomy of the" film, and the critic is unreal who does not recognise in the cinema the synthesis of all the arts.

By. P.LJ.W. Towards the end of last century a Mexican sheep herder in Wyoming, U.S.A., wanted to build himself a hut. Timber was scarce, but many acres of his sheep run were strewn with huge fossilised bones and fragments of bones. So the sheep herder tied together some bundles of these bones and set to work to build an imitation log cabin with them.

tory. Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews: "The finest dinosaur footprints in America are from the Connecticut Valley. The estuary was subject to great fluctuations of water level, stretches of the flats being left dry and again covered by turbid water which deposited mud on the bottom. "During the dry periods dinosaurs wandered along the muddy shores, leaving behind them hundreds of tracks of many different kinds and sizes.

Strangely enough, they all lead from west to east, as if the animals were following a well-defined route their feeding grounds. Some of tracks show clearly where a dinosaur squatted down to rest, or walked slowly on all fours, touching just the toes of the front feet to ground like a kangaroo." Flesh-Eating Dinosaurs Some of the dinosaurs were vegetarians; others were flesh-eaters (or carnivores One of the best known the latter type was "Allosaurus," men," Meyer Levin feelingly describes this resistance to the apparently per petual hypnosis of mediocrity. Levin writes: "Just often enough to keep a man from giving up religion, some small miracle comes along. A lot of our sourpuss commentators who are reputed to look on pictures through the jaundiced eye of intellect are really soft soulers with an anxious love for the cinema: we go along protesting that the tripe doesn't really count, and keeping alive the little flame of faith in the movie as the art with the lar gest common denominator. And every once In a while a film quietly made slips through the mill, and we realise that we have seen a picture that demonstrates that our own theories are quite possible, quite possible." Fortunately, a number of brilliant men have turned to film criticism; even Bernard Shaw recently extolled the achievements of the profession.

As a result, an Increasing body ot public opinion is gathering around the better informed critics. Compared with the vast swarms of escapists who have turned to the cinema as a necessary drug, the ranks of the converts to sound criticism may be very thin. But it Is certain that time Is with the critio and his followers, and in the end the weary round of cinema visits will receive Its just reward. If there Is a short-cut to better films. It is by giving full credit and publicity to good direction.

Directors should be known and honored far above the stars. They alone can create great art, and Alrred Hitchcock himself has told us that they need more freedom of the kind that only enlightened audiences can give them. "The most bizarre of all dinosaurs were the Steeosaurus, or plated lizards. From the end of the tail to the neck ran a series of large thin sharp-edged plates standing on edge." (By courteBy of tiie Chicago Natural History Museum.) proximately the same size, but are I to 50 lb. of body In a man; and of placed alternately along the back, an 1 lb.

of brain to 45,000 lb. of body In arrangement not known to occur In a big sauropod. The horned dino-any other animal. The ridiculous saurs, though weighing only about little head housed a brain so tiny 10 tons, had brains as Dig as Dlplo-that the creature must have had the docus or Broniosaurus, so that they absolute minimum of Intelligence." i were probably the cleverest of the A curious feature of these dino- bigger dinosaurs. The palm for saurs was that the spinal cord be- i brainlessness goes to the stcgosaurs.

tween the hips became enlarged to a Professor Lull has shown that the mass 20 times the size of the brain. I weight of their brain was about FEW YEARS LATER THE spot at which this sheep herder had worked became 1 famous In the U.S. as the site of "Bone Cabin Quarry." Bone Cabin Quarry Is situated among some of the finest dinosaur beds In the world, extending through the States of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and parts of Alberta In Canada. These beds have furnished many of the best skeletons of dinosaurs (pronounced known to us, although remains of these huge prehistoric creatures have been discovered on all the six continents. As early as 1877, when the first waves of settlers were beginning to spread over the western prairie States of the U.S., dinosaur' bones were already being discovered In these regions.

Jf wfis nhnufc t.hls time that thft Mexican sheep herder built part ot his cabin with tne fossilised bones of Fossil toes of a giant dinosaur still to the the of 2 oz." of light construction, Is Imposing, being about 4 feet In length. Armed with large sharp, recurved teeth, the longest of which project 5 Inches from the Jaw, this Is perhaps the most savage mouth the surface ot the earth has ever known. "Not only the teeth, but the hind limbs of Tyrannosaurus could have been used as weapons of offence. To see two such animals locked in a Arm embrace, using the hind legs after the manner of cats, would have been a stupefying experience. There can be no doubt that the tyrannosaurs were complete masters of their world: yet they existed for only a short period, and probably were not numerous." Triceratops Among the last types of dinosaurs were the ceratopsians, or horned dinosaurs, of which the best known Is Triceratops.

the "Three Horned "No other creature that lived was New York.) a match for the Tyrant Reptile," writes Dr. Andrews, "unless, perhaps, it was the three-horned Triceratops. He was a massive beast, 20 feet long, weighing perhaps 10 tons, and with a skull which projected backwards over the neck like a fireman's helmet. "The neck, of course, Is the most vulnerable point of almost any animal; and, when the Triceratops threw up his head, bringing Into fighting position the three great horns, it also brought the helmet down on the neck, covering It like a shield. Even the Tyrant Reptile would pause before launching itself on those murderous weapons reinforced by the defensive armor." Stegosaurus Another curious creature of the time was Stegosaurus, the "Roofed Lizard," which several writers describe as "the most bizarre of all dinosaurs." Many complete skeletons of Stegosaurus have been found among strata of the Upper Jurassic, of Colorado and Wyoming.

Andrews, "they i According to Dr. tiny heads, in position at Bone Cabin Quarry, Wyoming, in 1898. (By courteity of the American Museum of Natural History, Extinction IMany scientists believe that the smallness of the dinosaurs' brains accounts to some extent for their owners' eventual extinction. After a reign of over 100,000,000 years, the huge creatures disappeared completely from the earth; by the end of the Cretaceous, about 65,000,000 years ago, none was left. In a period of momentous geographical changes, when the climate "Perhaps the most savage mouth the surface of the earth has ever known." A skull of Tyrannosaurus, four feet in length.

(By courtesr of the American Museum of Natural History, New York.) was becoming colder, when mountains were rising, and the marshes and swamps in which the dinosaurs had fed were being drained, the great reptiles, which had barely enough brain to know to eat when they were hungry, were completely unable to change their habits to meet the changed conditions. "They who had been monarchs of the earth perished miserably and obscurely of hunger and cold." Recent Fiction Tl HERE CAN BE NO DOUBT that the film medium is unique. It is equally expressive of actuality rand fan tasy, and it can tap all the resources of literature, science, history, philosophy, and even religion. Music, color, sound and movement can be combined with endless diversity, and a director of genius can create a film which, despite complicated collaboration, has Individuality and a powerful message. A conservative lntellectualist once sneered at the cinema In these terms: "You can't photograph a man's mind." The answer Is: "Neither can you describe it in words, paint It, model It or set It to music." But In the film we have achieved a technique of expression which in speed and range can surpass even the most brilliant thought.

Although dynamic, flexible and subtle, the film Is the most easily intelligible of all the arts, for It is received within the limits of pre-dlrected light and sound. Of course, the vast majority of the men, women and children who visit the cinema every week most definitely seek diversion, relaxation, amusement and excitement. Safe Recipes The producers of Hollywood and London, having to risk sums ot money which utterly eclipse the expenses of all other arts, understand well enough the safe recipes for the popular taste. But so many things can go wrong with the cooking of the established fare that few producers will tempt fate by concocting a new dish. Those who courageously experiment and succeed sometimes do more harm than good, for their delicacies may be variegated ad nauseam by the whole industry for considerable periods.

Granted the emphasis on entertainment: granted the low level of majority taste; granted the bread-and-butter problems of those who make our films. It remains true, nevertheless, that the cinema is an art practically without limitations, especially since color stereoscopy has passed the experimental stage. And this art is the most powerful agent that exlsU for Influencing the future of civilisation. Such words are strong, but the conclusion seems to be Inescapable when all the factors are considered. What is being done to educate the world to an understanding of this Immensely Important new art which may also be the Instrument of our destl'uy Having regard to the magnitude of the subject, the answer must be: "Practically nothing." Apart from the trivialities of movie fan publicity, very few periodicals are devoted to the film, and those that exist are inclined to be somewhat "precious." The "Penguin Film Review" Is an attractive exception.

Popular studies of film appreciation are not numerous, but the best of them are listed In Roger Manvell's "Film" (Pelican Book), except, of course, Ernest Llnd gren's brilliant "The Art of the Film, recently published. In the words of Manvell, "The film now knocks at the gates of the unl- that prove the writer's insight Is keen and her avmnathv deeo. The book has a fine clarity, characters stand out In bold relief against the city background and are convincing and dramatic. The reader never loses consciousness of the teeming life in the background, yet there are only a few roles to be played to tell the story. The book was first published In French In Montreal.

rpHE MOST ATTRACTIVE FEATURE of Henrietta Drake-Brock-inan's collection of short stories "Sydney or the Bush" Is the view presented of the West Australian outback. In such stories as "Smoke Signal," which tells of the evacuation of a station homestead during the war, there is the feeling of distance and of space. With such ease is this effect obtained that the reader feels the author Is writing of a place she knows Intimately. She Is equally at home, however, in the city setting. She writes, for Instance, of the crippled man who, cut off from the romance of the sea-faring life he craves, realises he knows romance from the human angle when he copes with a strained matrimonial situation that develops at his amusement stand on the beach.

The book Is divided into three sec tions, of which the most impressive are the tales In the first section dealing sympathetically and poignantly witn the case ot the half-caste. There Is the piteous story of the aboriginal woman whose white-skinned child dinosaurs which had lived In those a magnificent skeleton of which was parts perhaps 100,000,000 years ago found In Wyoming, and now stands or more. in the American Museum of Natural But while the most spectacular dis History, coveries of dinosaur skeletons were The remains of Allosaurus have made in these western States of the been discovered in rocks of the from 1877 onwards, the name rassic period, which beean somewhere dinosaur Itself goes back a century before this to the time when huge footprints and scattered bones were found in the Weald, In southern England. Footprints An English scientist, Sir Richard Owen, recognised that these footprints and bones were the relics of some huge prehistoric reptiles, and he it was who the term "delnosauria," from the Greek words delnos, terrible, and sauros, a lizard. From that time evidence of the long relen of the dinosaurs accumulated steadily, some of it taking the form of discoveries of dinosaur footprints.

In 1836, for Instance, a Dr. James Deane pointed out to a Profes sor Edward Hitchcock, of Amherst, about 150,000,000 years ago, and by a curious chance, there have been found in the sama strata the remains of other dinosaurs which show signs of mutilation by a huge flesh-eating creature of some kind. The skeletons are often deeply scratched and scored by tooth marks, and at times the whole tail has been bitten off. A Jaw of Allosaurus was compared with the tooth marks on some of these mutilated skeletons, and was found to fit exactly, the teeth of Allosaurus corresponding perfectly with the deep scratches. Tyrannosaurus Rex These flesh-eaters continued to flourish throughout the Age of Reptiles, till the appearance of Tyrannosaurus Rex, the "King of Tyrant terrible engine of destruction that ever Uvea, and other scientists seem to be In agreement.

"The skull," writes Professor Raymond, "although I SOME NOTABLE FIRST NOVELS versifies, academies and schools. It calls for the attention of all those responsible for the intellectual future ot mankind." There are sociologists who claim that the film, though very different In kind, Is "a potential force of the same order of magnitude as the atomic bomb." Colossal Audience The colossal International audience which seeks to kill timj casually at the cinema will continue to be Indoc trinated In the wrong way until education becomes real enough to teach the history, technique and art of the film. The teacher who strives to illumine ALFRED HITCHCOCK. Shakespeare for the adolescent mind is not deterred because the bulk of the world's reading Is pulp. Nor should our schools ignore the "Tenth MiiFe" because she is mostly worshipped by commercial men leading a slar- parade.

It must not be forgotten that many men and women who would ocherwire have been the poets and artists of thi twentieth century have In fact ex pressed themselves through the film And there are great musicians today who score mainly for motion pictures because they can create In them the subtle magic which blends and intensifies all the other arts. In the absence of an organised education for the cinema, the him critic becomes a very important factor in educating the taste of a practically unlimited public. Optimism Important The display advertising of the film industry surely often reaches the absolute limit of ballyhoo. The money spent on publicising Duel in the Sun (generally estimated at 2,000,000 dol.) was partly an attempt to defeat the major critics, whose condemnation of the film was correctly anticipated by the producers. But the real burden of the conscientious critic Is the vast number ot commonplace films which must be "sat out." It is here that optimism Is so important.

In that exciting an thology of Anglo-American film crl- I tlclsm "Garbo and the Night-Watch- i turns against her; that of the man who humtliiited himself to cel. money to take a girl to the talkies and finds her flirting with another man, and that of the vengeance of the natives when they think that a man who tried to amuse a baby has bewitched him. The author moulds her stories easily and they move along at an even pace, seldom high-lighted, but always very readable. JEWEL GIBSON PRESENTS AS her first book one endowed with humor and freshness. "Joshua Beene and God" Is set In a small Texan village, where, assuming his father's place as patriarch of the village, Joshua keeps a firm hand on the people.

He believes that In the woods God appears In wralth-llke form and speaks to him. He answers Joshua's simpler questions, but Is wayward on more complicated issues, and Joshua Interprets His words to suit himself. On his 69th birthday Joshua realises that his allotted span is nearly passed. There Is still a great deal to be done to foster his own Church of Christ and "fix" the Baptists and the Holy Rollers. The first move is made when the school board, mostly Baptists, want to displace a half-caste boy and set at the head of the school the daughter of one of them.

He plans a resurrection which, for a time, works very nicely, and even when he Is found out he copes with the result. The whole book Is a study of Joshua, a rarely amusing and entertaining person. the 'Leeta May' by two hours, completing the passage across Bass Strait in 18 hours. This is probably the fastest time on record for vessels of the 'Defender' class. "Just seventy years ago my late father, Captain Richard Leggett, ln-the yacht belonging to Professors Plranl and Andrew, of the Melbourne University, made the run across from Three Hummock Island to the Heads In 14 hours.

She was very fast for he sailed her to victory in 1878 and 1879 in the Portland Cup, which was the blue ribbon of the yachting world in those days." "Defcnrtcr." ij i the dinosaurs made evolutionary his-had tory, they remained very backward In that birdlike footprints were to be i Reptiles," about 70,000,000 years after seen on flagstones which were betng I Allosaurus. Whereas Allosaurus was used for local footpaths. Since then only 34 feet or so In length, Tyran-the footprints of many different nosaurus was nearly 48 feet, types of dinosaur have been dis- Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews has covered, and have furnished valuable i described Tyrannosaurus as the most suggesting that the brain did little 1 except work the Jaws, while "tele graphing" sense impressions along the spinal cord to the nerves in the hip region, which worked the hind legs. This suggestion gave some people the Impression that Stegosaurus and other dinosaurs had two brains, an idea which a Chicago journalist, the late B.

L. Taylor, put into verse as follows: Behold the mighty dinosaur, Famous In prehistoric lore, Not only for his power and strength But for his Intellectual length. You will observe by these remains The creature had two sets of brains One In his head (the usual place), The other at his spinal base. Thus he could reason "a priori" As well as "a posteriori." No problem bothered him a bit, He made both head and tail of It. So wise was he, so wise and solemn, Each thought filled just a spinal column.

If one brain found the pressure strong. It passed a few ideas along. If something slipped his forward mind, Twas rescued by the one behind. And if In error he was caught, He had a saving afterthought. As he thought twice before he spoke He had no judgment to revoke.

Thus he could think without congestion Upon both sides of every question. Oh, gaze upon this model beast, Defunct ten million years at least. Palm for Brainlessness This poem Is no doubt In many respects merely flight of fancy, but it contains a small element of truth. For no account of the dinosaurs could be complete without some mention of one of their most striking characteristics smallness ot brain. As the epic British work "The Science of Life" tells us: "But though one respect the development of brains.

The average weight of whlte man's brain is about 3 lb. No dinosaur, not even the 40-ton sauro-pods, had a brain weighing over 2 lb. "That means a ratio ot 1 lb. of brain From the buyer's viewpoint confu sion Is increased by the curious fashion in which the recording companies have been marketing their wares since the war ended. Many technical have been published in specialist magazines extolling the virtues of the new wide-range recordings which are now being regu larly Issued.

But the companies seem to have tacitly entered into a conspiracy of silence, for no systematic attempt has been made to acquaint the public of the advantages offered by the new methods. Consequently the record buyer is largely in the dark, not knowing If the latest recording of his favorite musical work Is by the new process or not. Also no distinguishing method has been adopted for labelling the new-system records; the only way in which they can be spotted at a glance is by studying the matrix numbers, the numerals printed In small type on the record label, apart from the catalogue number. The Wrong Approach Compton Mackenzie, editor of the "Gramophone has recently published a letter from an obviously self-opinionated person who claims that reviewers of that excellent journal concentrate upon the music to the exclusion of technicalities. His pompous letter hurls an abuse at critics who have given all their time to studying music.

He would, one feels, be well content If the music were ignored altogether in favor of a lengthy technical analysis centred upon the repro duction This is obviously wrong; the solution Is to And the happy medium Therefore, In these articles, equal consideration will be given to the music and to the recording, at the same time Informing readers If the discs under notice are made by the wide-range system or not. JUNIOR BOOKSHELF "ijJTAY FOR THE WINTER," BY Marjorie Sankey CTederlck Muller Is a story of life in Canada as seen by two young English children during the years of the last war. An entertaining, well-written lovel for both sexes (ages 0 to 14). (RANES FLYING SOUTH," by N. Karazln, Is a new title In the series of Puffin Books for older readers.

A family of cranes, hatched and fledged In Russian marshes, takes part In a migration to South Africa. The story is told by one of the birds. From it we learn of their feelings, their methods of obtaining food, and their fight for survival in which discipline within the flock plays a great part. The book holds the reader's full attention, and will be greatly enjoyed by all young Nature lovers. FAR LESS PROFESSIONAL "thriller," and for much younger children, "The Zoo Mystery," hy Fajr King (Frederick Muller finds Its setting In the London Zoo.

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AND.tADK Si 2nd FlOOf. AJUn'j, 374 ColttW lUtet, CA, evidence of the manner In which the creatures walked when alive. I According to the Director, of the American Museum of Natural His- 1 'So other creature that lived was shows Recorded Music a match for the Tyrant Reptile, unless perhaps it was the three-horned Triceratops." The picture a (en-ton Triceratops advancing to attack Tyrannosaurus, the Tyrant Reptile. (By courtesy of the Chicago Natural History Museum.) CRITICISM of BASS STRAIT KETCHES "THE TIN FLUTE." (William Helnrmano London. Toronto).

'Rvrwmv on THE by Gabrielle Boy iwetouuwic, by H. Drake-Brockman (Ansus and Robertson, Svdney. London). "JOSHDA BEENE AND OOD," by Jewel Gibson (Eyre and Spottlswoode, London). A FIRST NOVEL AND WINNER nf the Prix Femlna, Gabrielle Roy's book "The Tin Flute" has for its setting the French industrial quarter in Montreal.

The reader has a vivid picture of Its rowdy railways and grey canals, Its snow, rain and spring sunshine, and its poor in thelr narrow apartments. It is 1040. The war so far is "phoney," and men are still on the dole Enlistment solves so many problems of Lazarlus Lacasse, a builder by trade, who chases success with a constant flash of Ideas that do not work out; of his wife. Rose-anna, worn by poverty and by child-bearing, and of his daughter, Florentine, whom life has taught to be shrewd and hard. In the army men recover their manhood and their ideals, and they fight for a better world.

The author unfolds her plot delicately. Long passages make the bacR-ground of Montreal real. There are patches of lyrical writing, and some PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED GOLLANCZ. Lonaon. steel Power.

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H. Chlsliottn; 10A. Australian Son; a Lift of Ned Kelly, by Max Brown; 1X8. Some gramophone enthusiasts feel that the technical, as well as the musical, qualities of a record should be noticed in reviewing. Recorded music has characteristics that do not apply to a concert performance, and discs vary widely.

By J.M, heavy bodies, short legs and long tails, armed on either side near the tip with three-foot spines. From the end of the tall to the neck ran a series of large, thin, sharp-edged olates standing on edge. "These plates are In pairs of ap- MUSIC the stimulation and psychic affinity generated by an audience united In the enjoyment of a great musical work. And since recorded music Is a simulation of the original, then gramophone records should be reviewed with an eye to their technical qualities so as to let the enthusiast know whether or not the particular disc Is a good reproduction. For the Record Buyer Knowledge and appreciation ol music have increased greatly over the past ccuple of decades, and It can be assumed that the man who owns a radiogram and who buys records will take the trouble to find out something about the music he plays.

Also, there Is now a large and continually growing musical literature; books about composers and artists are readily to be had and are widely read. Lovers of gramophone music to borrow Compton Mackenzie's apt word) are literate beings who like reading about their favorite composition. need, In addition to a consideration of the music, honest Information about the technical qualities of a recording. There are so many duplications ol major works nowadays; Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, tor example, Is available In several different recorded versions; the gramophlle becomes easily confused and wants to know if, say, Furtwangler's record of the work Is a better reproduction and performance than Koussevltzky's, "In the article by 'Seafarer' (Literary Supplement, January 1) mention is made of the record trip of 18 hours across Bass Strait made by Captain W. E.

Leggett In the ketch 'Defender, but It was stated that the date of the trip was unknown," writes Mr. George R. Leggett, of Elm-street, Hawthorn. "This passage," he continues, "was made in November, 1923, when the sj). 'Hillmeads' and ketch 'Leeta May' left Duck River, being followed by Defender1 two hours later.

'Pioneer Shipping of Tasmania' reported: the 'Defender' created a record by defeating the steamer by three hours, and The ketch THE BEST RECORDINGS enable us to hear portions of the music with more clarity than is generally experienced under live conditions, while other discs the mediocre and downright poor examples are a menace because they falsify the sound of an orchestra and give an Inaccurate impression of the music. It may be added that there are still lr too many poor and distorted recordings in circulation. But a record made under proper scientifically controlled conditions can offer one certain dvantage not obtainable at a performance, our Ideal record places us In the best listening spot, whereas a concert we are at the mercy of we acoustics of the hall, or we may seated too near the orchestra. The recording orchestra, howevei, has played In a hall having the Inestimable advantage of correct acoustic treatment. Microphones are Judiciously placed so that each section ol orchestra comes through with Sflual value and by correct microphone Placement sounds that might be wean Performance are clearly heard on ine disc.

By the same token, of course. ver-zealous distribution of microphones during a recording session will cause exaggeration and false tonal "lues, but that Is another story. Aeouifie Treatment It will be appreciated that gramophone records have faults as well as "Hues that do not apply to an actual performance. For one thing, the dy- I namic range of sound produced by a full orchestra has to be toned down considerably for domestic consumption, otherwise the volume would be deafening in an average-sized room. The volume of sound must be restricted, but not necessarily the quality.

With the aid of modern Improvements In recording technique reproduced music can give one a very close illusion of actuality, but It Is not, and probably never will be, as good as the real thing. We shall continue to miss W. FURTWANGLER..