AustLit

'I cannot claim the full title of Movie Fan, as I find myself being entertained by the wrong things. The comedy of Mr Chaplin, the sweetness of Miss Pickford, the fatness of Mr Arbuckle - none of these enthral me. But I do enjoy the pomp and ceremony of the American pictures - the prodigious lists of people associated with their production: exotic names lettered in the most beautiful script...And the plots are an unfailing source of entertainment. If you are able to consider the plot of an American picture...you will often find that it is amazingly guileless in its broad conception, and diabolically sophisticated in its detail. A story which would shock a writer of Parisian farce presents no obstacle to the titanic innocence of an American scenario-writer.'