What’s Wrong with the Movies? by Aleister Crowley in Vanity Fair, Jul 1917.

“If only a man could found a ‘Famous Authors Film Producing Company’ and give the authors a fair chance and a free hand, and then employ real artists for the costumes,—a real tailor for the men’s clothes;—real decorators for the indoor sets; real ladies to look after the manners of the actors, and real architects to design the houses, he would be able to take up the whole of Liberty Loan out of his first year’s profits.” [via]

Consider also:

  1. “Several times, of late, I have seen films where the tinkers had improved a good novel out of existence. The beginning, end, and middle of the story had been dexterously amputated or ‘arranges.’ We were not informed of the relationship existing between the various characters; the motives for their acts were utterly obscure. A ‘situation’ would ultimately arise–and then, instead of a denouement, the film stopped suddenly! One felt as if one had somehow got into a lunatic asylum.”
  2. “These preposterous people do not understand that they insult the public and make themselves ridiculous in the the bargain when they offer to ‘improve’ Victor Hugo; to bring Dumas ‘up-to-date’; to put ‘punch’ into Ibsen; or to ‘alter’ history a bit in order to give Joan of Arc an earthly lover.”
  3. “But his successors have not his willpower. To-day every inartistic man in a movie production must needs have a finger in the artistic pie. Some of their suggestions may possibly be good, some bad; but the unity and coherence of the author’s conceptions are lost, and the outcome is a muddle. Ne sutor ultra crepidam. Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
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  5. “See the wealthy New York man of fashion, dressing for a dinner at Mrs. De Peyster Stuyvesant’s! See how deftly he shoots on his detachable cuffs and snaps on his elastic tie. See how charmingly he wears his derby hat with his evening coat. He even retains it, possibly fearing that it may be stolen in Mrs. Stuyvesant’s drawing room, which is, of course, furnished in the manner of the gentlemen’s lounge on a Fall River boat.”