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Show MOVIE IS NEW WAR WEAPON, SPURS FRENCH PATRIOTISM; . UNCLE SAM SHOULD USE IT (Special dispatch from C. C. Lyon, Standard's Correspondent with General Gen-eral Pershing's Army.) PARIS, Oct. 27. Next lo men and munitions, common, every-day movie pictures are a most -influential factor in winning the war for Franco. While the Frenchman and his gun aro killing off the Germans at the front, the French government is us-Ing us-Ing the movies to keep up the pep ; and morale of the civilian population. The other ovening, in a large movie house in Paris, I witnessed the unusual un-usual sight of the entire audience arising en r'asse and in a frenzy of emotion shouting "Kill the cattle" by "cattle" meaning 2 Germans. A young French otricer with me turned and said: "After this demonstration can anyone any-one doubt that France will slick to the finish in this war?" On the screen had been thrown an official government movie showing the ruthlessness of the Germans in destroying French cathedrals and works of art in the war zone. Not content with merely destroying a church, the Huns had mutilated, evidently with axes and sledgehammers sledgeham-mers a statue of tho Savior, chopping off an arm and a leg. The village in which this sacrilege had been committed had no sooner been retaken by the French than official" of-ficial" movie photographers got busy; and now, in every city and hamlet in France pictures are showing the exact ex-act extent of ravages. I The French government, early in j the war, found that printed publicity I concerning the doings of the army was not sufficient to keep up to a high pitch the interest and enthusiasm enthus-iasm of "the folks back home." The resort to movies brought Instantaneous In-stantaneous results. The population j was able to see for itself every Im- portant movement on the front. And now, they flock by the millions to the movies hwere. at least once a week, th.e government puts on its "official war pictures." "There's no getting away from tho fact that you havo to believe tho movies," said the French lieutenant again. "Just now we're overlooking 110 opportunities to convince tho French people that the Germans havo lost their fighting spirit, are badly fed and poorly clothed in a word that they arc whipped." Practically every big news story printed in the French newspapers is supplemented by moving pitcurea. Tho other day stories were printed of hundreds of German soldiers quit-1 ting cold in their trenches and surrendering sur-rendering to the French after practically prac-tically no resistance. This might sound "fishy" if tho movies didn't come along and show the German prisoners being marched march-ed to tho rear of the French lines. They were a sorry looking lot tlfin and gaunt from hunger and sleepless nights. But as thoy marched they were almost gay with smiles and laughter, as if to say to their French captors: "We're mighty glad we're alive and don't have to right any more.' Tho government has a veritable army of movie photographers. They swarm everywhere. Nothing of historical his-torical importance escapes them. President Poincare visited the American Am-erican troops recently and everything he did was "caught" by the French photographers; alighting from tho train at American headquarters and shaking hands with "Le General" Pershing, reviewing the American troops; kissing a French general on both cheeks, and finally waving goodbye good-bye from the train platform as he left on his return to Paris. After being first shown to tho French people, all these movies are indexed and filed away for future generations gen-erations to look at. If the American government doesn't follow the French example it will bo making a serious mistake. It is encouraging en-couraging to note that a beginning has already been made and that a special photographic bureau has been established. A movie photographer Is attached to the American army, but as yet his activities are small compared with those of the French movie men. |