Cinderthriller

News of the latest blockbuster movies, from James Bond (with his vodka martinis "Shaken and not stirred") and Harry Potter to Aragorn and the Ents, reminds me of cinematic moments (and figures) of the past.

"It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true," said the American President, Woodrow Wilson, on seeing D. W. Griffith's film Birth of a Nation in 1915. By Sunset Boulevard in 1950, however, there were suggestions that the impact of the cinema might have dwindled. "You used to be in pictures. You used to be big," said Joe Gillis, to which Norma Desmond responded tartly, "I am big. It's the pictures that got small."

The era of "big pictures" would certainly have included 1939, and the American Civil War epic Gone with the Wind, of which the author Margaret Mitchell commented dryly at the premiere "If we'd had as many soldiers as that, we'd have won the war!" A number of key figures of the period had a nicely judged sense of their own skills. "All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl," said Charlie Chaplin, while Alfred Hitchcock commented on audience expectation: "If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach." Sam Goldwyn had clear views on the purpose of a film: "Pictures are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western Union."

Cinema has contributed a whole stock of phrases and sayings to the language, from "the usual suspects" to ""Make my day!" Perhaps one of the most enduring figures of all time, however, is Mickey Mouse. He even impinged on the consciousness of King George V, not normally thought of as a keen cinema-goer. Asked which film he would like to see while convalescing, the King replied (with his own hallmark simplicity): "Anything except that damned Mouse." Walt Disney in his last illness was to reflect, "Fancy being remembered around the world for the invention of a mouse!", but the truest assessment of Mickey's enduring power may have come from Disney's rival Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM: "We've got more stars than there are in the heavens, all of them except for that damned Mouse over at Disney."

Printer friendly version