The American Cinema — and How Did It Develop? The Duty of the Arab Cinema in Serving the Renaissance

Some claim that the inventor of the motion picture was a Frenchman; others claim it was Thomas Edison, the famous American inventor. It is well known that Edison introduced great improvements into the cinema in America, so we may say that he deserves great credit for the cinema, if not all the credit.

At the beginning, films were silent, and there were no great film companies. Likewise the renaissance of acting in America was weak, while in France and Germany it stood at the peak of its glory. The American cinema remained in this condition until the year 1925, when it began to develop and improve little by little. The present Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer company did not exist in those days; it was two independent companies. Then the owners of these two companies, Mr. Goldwyn and Mr. Mayer, came to an agreement and founded the first giant company in the United States under the name "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer." Yet for all the efforts this company expended, it could not match the German companies with its films, for these were sweeping the markets.

Around 1928 the talking picture was invented. The horizon widened for acting, and the number of actors began to grow. I recall that the first talking film put out by the "Paramount" company was "The Love Parade," with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. The other companies put out several more films, and matters went on in this way until 1930, when the color film was invented. The first film of this kind shown in Cairo was "No, No, Nanette," acted by A. Neagle, the English actress. The whole world was stirred at that time by this great invention.

The film companies began to put out color films. During the Second World War, coloring developed until it became a marvel of beauty and magic, and most films were produced in natural colors. The director of the Fox company has declared that 75 percent of postwar films will be in color. And I have read in certain American magazines that scientists have arrived at the invention of the film in relief — that is, we shall see the actors of the film as though they were performing on the stage before our very eyes, and we shall even smell the scent of the flowers if the scene is set in a garden. This is without doubt the greatest revolution the cinema has known, or may ever know.

No films of value were produced in the era of the silent cinema, nor were there outstanding actors. Among the most famous actors of that era were Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino. The silent films did not concern themselves with drama, but directed their efforts toward comedy more than toward any other branch of acting. But with the appearance of the talking films, America seized the opportunity and began to attend to the branches that had formerly been neglected. It produced drama, melodrama, tragedy, comedy, and historical, musical, and revue films. Thus the cinema advanced in America and took wide strides; acting became no less important than any other branch of the fine arts, and a special city was founded in America under the name of Hollywood, devoted to the film industry, which has today become one of the most important industries in the United States.

In the years of peace, the subjects of films were adapted from historical events — such as "Marie Walewska," with Charles Boyer, which turned on the life of Napoleon.

With the entry of the United States into the war in 1940, a great revolution took place in the American cinema. For the first time the cinema was used for propaganda: the companies began putting out films beyond counting to spread propaganda against Nazism. And war films came pouring down like a rushing torrent throughout the war days, until people grew weary of them.

So much for the war films. As for drama, tragedy, comedy, and the revue, nothing was neglected, and exceptional stars appeared in Hollywood during the war and distinguished themselves in every kind of cinema. In drama, Greer Garson and Ingrid Bergman became famous. In comedy appeared Abbott and Costello, who rivaled Laurel and Hardy, and Mickey Rooney, who took part in the series of films about Judge Hardy's family, and Red Skelton, and many others. In the revue, the graceful actress Betty Grable distinguished herself, and Carmen Miranda, Alice Faye, Gloria DeHaven, and June Allyson.

And lately there has been produced in Hollywood a series of films portraying a side of the life of the Arabs in olden times. The subjects of these films were adapted from the old Arab tales, such as "The Thousand and One Nights." "Dunya"