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Show Of Movies and Books TF ONE is given to pessimism about the course of the hu- man race many conditions which have come up lately, would give that person . plenty of reason to believe that mankind was on the high road to hell. Overlooking the little furore currently being kicked up over the bad influence of children's "funny" books, it seems that there is much more cause for alarm over moving mov-ing pictures and books. The two are closely related, because be-cause most books which become best sellers due to their abundance of sex and crime, are quickly snapped up by movie moguls to be made into cinemas. For instance, a choice best seller known as "Kiss the Blood Off My Hands," was recently made into a movie which will probably break box office records. Now showing show-ing in Salt Lake is another movie which should be boycotted, boy-cotted, even if for only the type of advertising it is using to attract gullible customers. The title is "Unfaithfully Yours," and the lead line in the ad tells us that, "Some women are born for .kissing . . . some for MURDER I" If one follows the cinema ads he will find that there is I a definite trend in the direction of glorifying sex, murder and violence. The film may not necessarily bear out the strident claims of its advertising, but that does not matter as long as the public will pack the house every night. All of us could eliminate what is becoming a major problem just the same way we could solve most of our pressing problems, i.e., through the influence overwhelming overwhelm-ing public opinion. If writers knew that they couldn't harvest a fortune by writing a filthy or morbid novel, there , wouldn't be so many who would attempt it. If movie producers pro-ducers were made to understand that the public wants and needs films that will make life more enjoyable and constructive, we wouldn't be harassed by a flock of immoral im-moral moving pictures. The only bright spot in the whole firmament to save many of us from becoming incurable pessimists is that when a really good book or movie comes along it usually smashes box office records. Lloyd Douglas' "Big Fisherman," Fish-erman," for instance, was 1948's number one best seller, even though it was not published until November. You would think that that kind of a record would prompt more writers to turn to wholesome thoughts. Many of them, however, are still probably laboring under the age-old falsity that it's harder to deal with good than with evil. |