1 retaaJl* ** to*? teed A kind of recreative school for * whole family': making cinema respectable, 1907-09 LEE GRIEVESON The New York Board of Censorship u as so. up in New York Cm, fy'909'n the midst of a serie.....„tense debates about the slS function m enema I, met for .he lirs. time m March ol that year and amongst the films reviewed was A Drunkard', Reformation ' (B-ograph,! I, which tells the story of the reformation of a male drunkard brought about by attending a temperance drama a. the theatre. The Ne» York Herald commented: ta unm UK noble young man with the high forehead and the M ne ^ W^ i Z ,I,,U "lm Sh0U,d never be h,s master and tegw life anc« **■ ,n a ^,ul,,ul apartment papered with wandering rose hushes it ££** fil lhal !hc f! Board .»I Censorship lor Moving Piciure **£Sľí ■ ob"15, m I 8° 5 AvenUe ycMcrday, would have reason 10 "****** fjeCI t0 the ,lrsl ßlms which were spread before them. Bui the Ration in th( of the young man, whose life was depicted Ch !L U/1' sudden and so complete thai Professor J™> ^Prague Smith ... and the other censors gathered in the with ri i M0ti0n Picturcs Paten* Company found no bull o, «°Wľd "1C tranSÍlÍOn f™ wickedness ,o goodness ** * S cent; hv" insPected yesterday at the first session of ^ I session , Dn»*arďs Reformation took the lead early " : y, ;"" te.......• the close! I, seemed a pi.y M *" '...... j yUng "*" - he whose history was the subject of the pW* 64 Saeen « 1 Spnng a»! i« on 'A kind of recreative school for the whole tanviy 2 Nlv York Herald. 26 March 1909. P 4 chfl,,M sPra9uc Smith was ihofoundpi .m.! managing director of Now York City s People's Institute, a progressive reform organization otočil .limed to encourage crvic activism, participatory democracv and cultural pluralism The Inslituto was instrumental in establishing the New York Board of Censorship 3 Untitled, unpagmaied newspaper article in Bo« 116, National Board of Review ol Motion Pictures Collection Rare Books enpts Division. New York Public Library (horealter 4 Ibid For more recent readings of this film see Tom Gunning. D W Griffith and the Origins of American A >■ Film the ears at Biograph (Urbana. IL University of Illinois Press, 19911. pp 16 i Roberta Pearson Eloquent Gestures the Transformation of Performance Style in the Griffith Biograph Films [to* . CA University of California Press. 1992) in pan pp 140-43 5 Richard Butsch Bowery b: hoys and matinee ladies the re-gendering of nineteenth century American theater audiences Amencan Quarterly, vol 46 no 3 I1994I. p 375 Mary P Ryan. Cradle of the Middle Class, the Famtly m Oneida County: New York. 'fflO-ř«5{CambiiilflB Cambridge University Press. '«U Stuart Blumin. The Emergence of the Middle Class Social Experience in the Senear, City 1770-Í920 Ikmbndge Cambridge University Press, 1981) Ryan' Ctadle ol the M,ddle Class. " 15 See also Richard Ohman Ml»*} Culture Magaimes. M****, and Class at the Turn ot fa Century ilortn Verso 19*S). P 221 should have ever yielded *n tua ■ ■ ,. -»* rickcy. S,H,. ľ^E"1*" - * h* ■ "■"•'-■ -*f ■• ms C: : ;rfand,c",,ciuded * been threatened by ,hc effect, „, i\ ľ , ía""'y' "*"* tad *« ■» » enacted on the Mage ,he «£ „ "', "^ ^'mT mm ) The elosmg ,nlage madc m pmms of ^^ »£ Las, scene. Coed husband. seatcd . „„^ and girl on his knee . The conjunction of censorship, moral education and images of reformed men and happy domesticity is the focus of this essay, which is premissed on a rather simple question: how did the film industry make cinema respectable'.' Scholars have previously soughi to answer this question by focusing principally on class, suggesting thai the cinema u as made respectable through an appeal to middle-class audiences based on a turn to the forms and names of bourgeois culture in order to uplili cinema's cultural status (and to make more money). Such efforts were reflected in the location of nickelodeons and in the emergence of neu textual forms (principally a new configuration of narrative discourse) Though this locus on class is certainly important, its exclusivity has led scholars to ignore both the gendered nature ol this process of making cinema respectable and the complex imbrication of class and gender in the self-definition of the middle class. -Respectability'. Richard Bulsch has argued «as at it core a gendered concept,' and thus entertainment spaces such as theatre in the mid nineteenth century and vaudeville in the late nineteenth century becam table (and increasim '■-> through a process of 're-gendering :ious effort to an middle-class women who, 'particular!} and mothers can, designations of respectablity'.5 Furthermore, historians h shown how the self-definition of the middle » in the USA throughout the nineteenth cennry was ted on nonons o domeJicitj and gentility which were dosel ;ned with .deahzed oToto/feminfnity as.........^T^^^ I class'. Mary Ryan observe, '.......U ... ^ - - ^ domestic- values and My P"**«^ ^Uks, unproving «^•^^.Et^ ......— tracts, magazines such as man fiction.' . imininih as moral guardianship JSSTÄSÍÍ3.....e.......,........i.....- iv softer 'tfiei 65 Screen 42 I S,« ?00t lee 6n, lis 57 »f ■ , ■ ' «»fc Ne n ' i Siting einem« 66 ' * ř * »f 'MM v ^^^ "U 1« -v L^k^H ' n J a pi r" 1 J .1 Im '"owfw «ta* far ŕ» ■ . iblr f "im interests *f t|. ■ """"í- defended fe U» Juvenile l^eatuc mmJ i R S Sy™**. lid. ta BI«, Indu . ^ *■"**-* - •gtdby K «HÜ908. „s, and« '"* -n .Ih- hin, „Klu, ™emltself and v «i «^ (mpan m, have come > hour aim w mi^^^P,v rreid, and ' ' Tmcrs and. at times, even l ample, in late ľ Of Where the 'saloon in nnti social in its effects on the Fan Orrin Cocks, the Advisoo Secretary to the National Bo Soid *^ ... I......i,** «n.i i\i. tilii*v I w \ J. I rntiAtkaM iL . * " ill I ensorship, moving pumu s -1' the uhol,. , of iMlilv* » Ifintions Hi, » * * weboařS...... focused National Board ol Censorship actually conducted invest earlj 1910s to trj to prove thai saloons were closing dow"!? "I,llc oľ nickel theatres," and took action to stop the film rcprcs" Us< drunkenness, producing a Special Bulletin m i 9 is uimi^i"1'"""1 "I thai In view ol the growing sentiment throughout the • UVl'"1''1 opposing the theme ol drunkeness in slapstick comedies i placed m .i position where u must take action; — ' ,c B will N01 PASS "DRUNK" COMEDIES'." I Ik- rhetorical positioning ol cinema as what V;k.-Iu«| i 1915 termed a 'substitute foi the saloon' clearly drew 0ll"ľ ^'u "' cultural struggle ovei drink which had been reanimated |l ''"''^ nineteendi centurj b) the contests ovei cultural authority il '! "l" accompanied industrialization.111 Concerns about saloons eme 1 from both Protestant elites and female evangelisi traditions f86' respective!) on the cultural practices and 'styles of living'ofTh"' increasing!) ( atholic working classes and. in the Feminist camnť for temperance on practices of masculinity (and theii effect ori " domesticity).11 is n number ol historians ol women haw suggested traditions ol female evangelism were transformed in the Inte ' nineteenth centur) into a broader social moralit) centred on the á ■'*" honu values ľhus organizations such as the Women\ ChMd" ^perance Union (W< rU) became focused on reshape ""•«uhnit) in line with the'feminization'ol middle-class culture «« suppression of roughness, increased restraint, emo.....ml self. on,rol ""d so on).a No doubt this was in part based on a 'ľ"l'Kťml1 "■"l,"> id * separate spheres and the 'cult ol «»X. butfemal, mgelism went beyond these ideological '"ľ" V''" hat was considered the'women's sphere' , ; ' '""'""^'" "k' P"WiC Groups of women began ' ; V ,fmothe--h......and dom......ity to include in H. : I1l,,;o,"1Ni;:,u-.....' ....."' «"d family lire that until then had Zü^Tr d0main °f vo'"ntary work.» The WCTU's \uZ\ •in P^iculnr, led to campaigns against the boistemu, mľľ; nim waMo'curb the self-assertive, ij,;;,;1'.......u* of ** s»'°on, to support and p,.....ctthe ivnn.nl.u to Ihľrľon ""'''""' "" immiíII,ml w,,,km" "u" "' i ,i 'moral —.... , «ole'TSlľľ ľUmCr *" condc™ation of cinema '-I.....- moméľS; i......~ *.....* ..... broader process .1 i Cinemn '" 'll!'nl'lll"-v sPuce existing recrem i 8 '"'u "IK'"M sho"1'1 lv •.....ni'd ulll'ľ' publi, decision aYC,,ViUeS SUCh nS the ,he<....."ul m'"K.....'''...... «as an ihc lVcrnmental intervention ,b In the si bo Hnatmnti DP IB *] ..„,.....i Ctol MimUsfom ^ m mmpntotw ot Am- INowYwfc ..i |i 13 j, ,. >l|hll)fV „Mill, IM >i ./wnu Jwmal ^l 3B.no K1998) ;; v, ■ n I.....hKundRobi 1 iiity ind Hon ■ii.-. [Autumn 1994) 21 Qn Irao« Rinn mh Shell' '-"cA i ^oAwi i N.I I 79 LucyFra Worid lt\t.i\ M i nv3 ■■» n Mr, 190 M Ah >W ■, ul \piil «ton 31 I iily '■ 1 1 32 i II 1 \\ 1 1 ' n f ' |)| ' S U Maud 1 hi 1 nli8n cinc™ with the horn Ihe indusUy drc^ on feminiľľPP0SCd l0*c saloon n Ä-^l^Ä...... '";;'"•■.....'«=■..........*•-........,;, '";"""........«•-.*..... Ulis MMlCUV WilS liirlK . . -.............Auiía.................................. nudience- ^««iy«Khj 1907 «hľľJ.........""'"^....... 'ndex had attributed the booiľin' Íl............"M..........""- Patronage [oQ women and children' 2 w""" ľ""1'1....."' "" simi,arlJ ......:d that'mothers kl I ľ, restf»'hou,....... „ s,,,,,, ,MVI ; llt";,r,;,HIU"luiu '.....^that'M...........^c^tl^TT"..... accounte and recreation surveys iZXZl ..... ........—í........................i.....iJSÄSr; Sc,h0l"rs hnvc also rece""y shown how fan culture increasingh 1 ltered ,0 y°ung women in the 1910s.« Reform stri...... domesticating' cinema thus meshed fortuitous!) with the commercial interest in catering to femali audiences as central playe.....the new culture ol consumption I Ik,, is evidence to suggesi Hi.uiIk.ih, managers not onl) understood, bui also exploited, the laci thai women look n prominent role in famil) decision making fhe managers of one theatre confessed to women Wi warn and your patronage, foi wh nd, so will follow the husbands ami sons'." h is also the ma audii is viewed with considerabh u • those eliti reform group m an ideolog) ol separate sphi which is in • -i ihm women cinema goers were, indeed, incrcosmglj nnp.ni.mi Foi th< industrj Press reports from newlj op nickel theatres and moving-pictui palaces between 1907 and 1910 announced intentions to i especiallj to the patron women and childn lo I im li especiall) ladies and childn id promisi children's resorts] in cam Vt th< wlubiun.....h Eugene Cline were ass« business in tin would come to theatres patronized b hildrcn ľh« proprietors of the Swann M ' Chi« o in 190 ,o assert that *Th, poli. «he hoU "'; fem......e as the | ľa......n mining tk-. always carefully selected will, .he vie.......to«! * 69 39 81 8561 71 B2C 7 34 4 8618 9775 81 04 55 64 38 8967 55 02 13 7423 09 &y«n.vol34TO 1(1993) jarot Stwga ft*f Worm ftyuüMQ Sexualit* m tony American Cmema (Minneapolis. MN University of Minnesota Press. 1995t lauren RabinowitJ. for the love of Pleasure Women Movies, and Culture m Tum-of the Cemm Chicago (New Brunswick, NJ Ruigers University Press. 1998t Stamp. Mow Struck farts 35 Clippings Book. Providence, fll UtO :'fl and ß'iou The 1906, Volume I quoted in David Nasaw. Going Out the Rise and fytfc Amusements (Cambridge. MA. Harvard Universu 1993). p 163 press release from Worcev Nickel Theatre, quoted in Roseruweig. Eight Hour* What Wt 198. Oes Atones Register and Leader \ July 1907, i, Ihe Red Rooster Scare, p 67 36 Eugene Cime, quoted tn Abel The Red Rooster Sane p 67 37 Charles F Moms. A beautiful pt I March 1909 p 66 38 y, I ill-en Bowser The ■ '.....Il/fli HttMSHIB ess 19M). pp 45-6 39 On the ma iighted I r ii 1910, p Bo.' I 40 "" ,f'; .een ind Jour, 'ma ■n he Am,. Industry, second odiiion of h ) Female theatre-owners were also frequently singled out lor the trade press for the air of respectability they brought to f** business The discursive production and promotion of cinema as - heterosocial space had a series of material effects, includinľí innovation of lighted theatres (to counter the possibility 0f j, behaviour and, in particular, harassment by men) and the intr 7*' of restroonis und nurseries.39 This latter development, along w^th'0" improved ventilation, perfumed deodorizers, mirrored comma' rom female consumers.40 Exhibitors initiated matinee showings t«".**1 luxurious decoration and uniformed attendants, was borrowedfj department store interiors, themselves carefully designed to an ^ to female audiences (often half-priced), competitions such as baby photograph contests, free gifts of teddy-bears and perfume, spac baby carriages and. more generally, made a conscious effort tô ° °ľ transform the rowdy space of nickelodeons to polite standards of decorum." Such changes signalled a clear attempt to cater to wo .is decision-makers in the new culture of consumption, while simultaneous!} assuaging reform and governmental anxiety about cinema by creating a public space that was homely, blurring the boundaries between public and private space and reconciling the seemingly contradictory cultural formations of respectability and consumption Given this context, we might profitably re-examine the location ol nickelodeons. Were theatres located (like department stoi along u hat historian Stuart Blumin calls an 'axis of respectability", in thoroughfares, for example, that were well lit?42 Theatrical temperance dramas proliferated in the mid nineteenth nturj in conjunction with a reformation ol" the cultural status of theatre that was. historians Richard Butsch and Bruce McConachie «t, aligned with ideals of education and with appeals to women and family audio» gnifiers of respectability." The creation of museum theatres in the 1840s was an important development within this reformation pi s. Such theatres featured lectures on a variet) 111 cducaimn.il and moral topics but could also he used for the presentation ol moral dramas', beginning significantly with the temperance drama 77», Drunkard Oi the Fallen Saved (1843), whic ■» described ai the tune as a •moral domestic drama'.« Hie ploj u" ''" mo« than one hundred performances at a time when theatres P,cally chan8ed 'heir bills every night, and was chosen b) P.T. •'"»„„ to open the Anna„,,„ M,ls0lim m New York in ISIS. useum theatres and moral dramas cul across dass formations by ™8 'deals ol entertainment and 'instruction', and set in process acceptance ol theatre as n source of education and morality and, 70 en 421 ;001 tee Gneveson M (ol lht, „,,,, plates a H,sW of Move to&umn m ttn- United totes (Madtson. VW Un.vers.ty of SWP.Mov+StwdGiris.p.n Musser The Emergence of c p 432 Douglas Gomerv, i s lho rnov.« corno io Mtlwaukee. MMukee History, vol 2. no 1 (Spnng 19791. p 23. Roseniwcig. Erght Hours for Wliat We Will pp 204-15. Hansen, Babel and Babylon, pp ?&"69 42 Diumin. The Emergence of the Middle Class, p 238 43 Butsch, 'Bowery b'hoys and mjiineo ladies' 44 Quoted m Rah.ll The World of Melodianw p 242 45 On this see Parker R Zellers. The cradle of varielv Ihfl concert saloon'. Educational Theatre Journal, vol 20 (December 19681 46 Ihere were films with drunkenness and temperanco as themes prior lo 1908. such as The Drunken Acrobat (Biograph. IB96), Came Nation Smashing a Saloon (Biograph. 1901). Drunkard and Statue (Pathe, 1904). and The Moon iowr (Pathe, 1906). bul iheso ware principally comic Ihe transformation of the then of drui'i s from comedy to melodrama speaks to a larger transformation from a risquo and potentially immoral cinema to a cinema closely mtncated with moral disco iom Guiiiniiij I opium den to ■litv moral discourse and Ihi film process in i I tnd Text, no 30 mbei November 1988) 1. It 11 son to H H bbi i it U 11 The 4? od in turn, the differentiation o| r. 1________________________ theatre still closely linkcd ,' "***»* theatre from ,. --------- —•.............: SÄ::;': r........- if...... promulgate ideals ol instruction ""* "......."*d on n r "t emema as dis,,,:;: ; :^.......« "*...... Th« .s home out not only by theZŠ2.....'"'^ " ">- v......., spectators ,„ ,hc lrade - £"** appeals ,„ k,lu,. proliferation of filmed temper 2 V "^ * *« some of which had dine« theatrical^eÍV"......~* N.ghts tn a Bar-room il^yA^n'*?^ '" and Drink (Pathe, 1909) itself. CníeľZ 1^......Drínk tradition and on the thematic rcPer ľ °" *" *" ^P^ Father andDrunkara^Z^BT5^ (Biograph, ,909). The Dninkar*sT«e\ £**■ Did (Biograph, 1909). The Expiat.......Ľ2 m , ' ř™?s*w...... u ,„,,,;,:::,;:,. r; Slave to Drink (Kalem, 1910). and Effecting a Cm raph 1910). These films were closelj linked to industrj rh« about famil) values and the distinctions between nickel theatres and saloons. They could be seen as self-consciously attempting to appeal to female audiences (at least to what the industrj assumed women wanted to watch i. and to a 'respectable' audience more generally, both through a validation ol the educative cultural function ol cinema - these films u ere often advertised as lessons' or 'sermons'* and through their representation of the dangerous effects ol male drinking on the family. The arl\ and overtlj intervened in Ihe moral debate about the cinema, internalizing external debates through d thematic emphasis on the reformation ol masculinirj as metonymii for the reformation ol cinema itself. The reformation ol masculinirj in the temperance filmcami principáli) through the actions or sacrifice of a child I......»I« the film Fathe, and Drunkard tells the story of a satlor returmng home to his wife and g son but then his drunken gambling• 1 .......*» J '' ^ , , ..--.................mwn rouahly aside He runs to get hts mothet the saloon but is throw, ÍC ľ?'° IľhľsTI but on their return he fall.........»«*«- fc battling for life.'«he n.........*££*£ child. "The las« scene sh.....^'f^^ smashes the liquor bottle m nesdj ww ^ ,...... rhe family is reconstituted ■ ~ Mú ,„,,„, drunkard to lather, as ,. « 71 ,,,,.:: • I« 6«*«" 65 80 B3�� 11 «*¥**« KSK*1 ■ m p^ «f ptfure ho*« may pott byl Se* K*V »»"■ "" Wooer 1909 P SÄ V*-; g October 1901 "P "*"»* „Ptosen and4/>^ ftpfcoruwn as Iňemost pcM«rful (empBfanc« lesson e«* propoÄWaft powerful sermon on the evils of the oto* habfť IfieMcw^g flrtuwHtr. <*»• p m Bowser fed i Brograpr ÉWenns 77» A/. Hlrť 31Jury 1901 P IK m See tne review m 71» Moving Pctte Worid. 11 January 1908. p.28 49 brJ P-Ä 50 See Ejumng, f <"** rftr 0$ «nor/ Abraff* and. (or a 1st of US. p. 149 n 25 51 Tha concept of 'allegiance oVa- wort of Murray h En&g Q&zctt n and the - i (Oxford Oxford Unn - IB6-ZZ7 par 52 ■ 909 BrSp* 53 JheMc; June 1909 , 5« '- I eetngdetai' Rah/!' /7»ttbr*jV.VfcfooYa-pp 244-6 On the turn y* 909, np 55 I have come across rust one t ŕ,*ch the drunkard was a woman- Converted, distnbuied by :lComp, released m January 1909 lite Mm was lev.ewed m Tht i ' ■■* ■■■"- ''January 19) ^ 13 March 1909 p3(tf 56 See the....... iheMovtng Picture World, 20 february 1909 P 212 and 6 March 1909 p 268 amplifies the neu emphasis on narrative closure thai Was eme , us cinema from 1908: the reunited Family embraces, Scemi * ,j.u,ic .i similar reconciliation in the space oi the Sm 8 50 seeking to auditorium t What Drink Did tells a similar slory. The film opens with a ha fainiIj seated ..round the breakfasl table. The father plays wilh ** two daughter and, u i.e.. leaving lor work, hugs both them and hls ^ife a, work kettles of beei are brought in al lunchtime and he j coaxed into taking o drink. Aller work he is pressured to g0 for ,(S dnnk bj his colleagues and, though reluctant, joins them. Scenes 0f him drinking are intercut with scenes «.I Ins wife and children at home, with the wife clearly becoming increasingly concerned. This contrasl edil intervenes to comment on events, making clear to the audience the effects of drinking on the family and setting jn p|ace a structure oi allegiance1 with the moral position oi the mother." The intrasl attendant upon the man's dunking becomes clearer after the lather returns home, u hen the family rush to greet him but arc brushed aside, and further the following morning when the father ignores his daughters in a clear contrast with the opening of (he ß]m •The blight of rum', the bulletin notes, 'changes the stamp of nature turning the heretofore good-tempered man into a veritable demon',0 Following work the ne\i day he initiates the drinking, and one oi the daughters is sent to look for him. The father brushes her awa) [Wjce and when she returns again pushes her over. At this, the barman gets angrj and in a scuffle is hit by the father; the barman gets a gun and shoots but accidentally kills the daughter. The father, at the front of the frame, cradles her in Ins anus; in his distress he attacks his friends. The close oi the film moves forward in time. The man leaves work and is asked if he will go for a drink. He declines and arrives home, where the wife and remaining child are now dressed in grej - in contrasl to the white at the opening of the film - and the family hug one another. The man kneels, cries and holds Ins child This sombre conclusion, carried through the mise-en-scene and in the titrasl with the opening of the film, makes plain the dangerous effects of drinking and. in turn, 'how men should be'. The Moving Picture World re noted that 'A moral lesson is taught in this excellent Biograph film', and, further, that The film could be used to advantage by religious and temperance organisations'.53 The Essanay version of the classic temperance drama. Ten Nights in a Bar-room, tells a similar story, with the drunkard's child fatally hit b) a missile thrown at the drunkard, who subsequently reforms.54 Hie reformation scene was critical to most of these films, which SU; ,hi11 >l certain type of masculinity was problematic and needed to be brought into line through the dictates of domestic ideology. Tin , , Minister, or, the Drunkard's Daughter ends , ' ,he drunkard 'now a reformed man1, restored to his estranged daughter« In The Ilono, 0J the Slums, the 'hero' spends his time al t'een 4? I Spring 2001 lee Gneveson A kind oi recreative school lor the whole tamto «rang iram » rel">l0us S-nť -d »old well bo L by n**» organ,*,.*-,, n m ,hs sav,ng grace of ' „.eyp-eacb The Moving /MW World 20 February 1909. o 203 « fron»* Bdll-un (or A Change of tm m Bowse- led), Biograph Bulletins, V ,33 59 Biograph Bulletin for A Orvnkari' ■'■■■'" 'nation in Bowser (ed I. Biograph Bulletins. p 77 K> Gunning DW Griffith and the OngmsotA '., rf/ra Him, pp 162-71. Poarson. Eloquent Gestures, pp 140-43 dupes a ä ceremony, but at the saloon while his wife families do no. end up ,lke „^ ^J*n Army ,0 ensure «forms and also J0,ns ,he Salvationu£V»« «*■ *» taľ the story of a son of 'indulge* %£*'* <*■* »/Ctcu wrong crowd. 'Drinking Is always^ JI"8^ "P «* the bulletin intones, -and the head and toZ J"* ^ «" alcohol are never norma, and the beinľ^T * the fum« of oftt.mcs falhng into a morass of m° * TV**** country gir, lnl0 going th ™ * „,,„ .- t,, ^ d after speaking to his motherľe £££*"* persuades the girl to marry him for real ^ hÍS Ways ** A Drunkard's Reformátům k \n conscious of these nlmľľ Z 7lTT ^ Se'f" commercia, context. The him ^ S^'ST,,-home and contrasts this with a shot of Ätít* wo spaces are contrasted through parallel editing, which ^a temporal sunultane.ty but spatial differentiauon, and sou upf structure of allegiance with the moral Posi,lon of the suffer^ mother. The lather returns home and d.srup.s the domestic space frightening the wife and daughter w.th his drunken violence. He is however, persuaded to take his daughter to die theatre to see a temperance drama, repents and returns home, in the words of the Biograph Bulletin, 'a changed man' as a result of 'the psychological influence* of the play on the audience.53 The film's final shot shows the family together, bathed in the light from the hearth. The space of the saloon and the theatre thus pivot around the domestic space, with the saloon threatening it and the theatre upholding it The theatrical space is one where fathers and children can be together safely. This is a moment when cinema was clearly drawing on an association with theatre and its shift into the realms of respectability. This representation of the positive -psychologk.il influence of drama responds to criticism of the social and psychic functioning of moving pictures, utilising filmic discourse - parallel editing, implied point of view, shot/reverse-shot, lighting - for the presentation of film as an educational and moral medium For Tom Gunning and Roberta Pearson, both of whom offer insightful readings ol A Drunkard's Reformatio», this is linked to •«« PJ»^ character and to the use of structun«,rf 'identification *£ fences are effectively aiignec[^^^i..... behaviour as opposed to others. A £«^* proce..... this in process, with «he ^^ ^^ot sequence cutting between the play and the drunkard »««*• itionthal point-of-view/re,.......^ J^^S......1.........- allows a form of access to the chart ^ psychological enabled by an acting style that leans ^^ nol dellI1ea.,on ol character. The film is. then, i 73 Screen « I Spring 2001 le. CnW». ■ «^totf»^ 4 81 0 5 91 ^ph a film with a moral lesson, "but a film one of who* ^ thai /ift* can be moral: thai watching an ed.fy.ng drama Jľ> «1 , :. WP D u thai nim i"» *~ " _ ~ - *» —«-»a cg-» . £*ff*f effect on the specutor - ^ ^e I„ addition- given the context outl.ned here, I would arg^ ^ can be more precise about the rhetorical parameters of this ** transformative effect: it is a male spectator who is represented * being reformed by edifv ing drama - becom.ng. commentators „^ a -changed man", a reformed man": because it is. insistently. ^ male drunkard in these temperance dramas who must be reformed« " ZZľZ MasculimtN is the problem and the -moral orientation" of lhe ^ posirions the spectator in a structure of alleg.ance with the suffer^ ^ v. omen and children. Male spectatorship m A Drunkard s * Reformation, we may say. involves the man opening himself l0 ^ instruction of women fand children) and this mirrors the position of the industry itself at this moment in cinema history. The more general historical emergence of a moral structure in the narrative proc s central to Cunning's influential reading of the emergence around 1908 to 1909 of what he terms the •narrator • m'. for Gunning a critical precursor to the slightly later emergence of classical narrative conventions.83 Gunning argues that the transformation of American cinema from a "cinema of attractio to a cinema of "narrative integration" involved a 'conscious movement into a realm of moral discourse'.64 The particular narrative configuration of American cinema emerged in close conjunction with >f morality and respectability linked by Gunning to the (here raiher amorphi middle class, and this was reinforced with the em T censorship institutions (principally from 1909) which channelled film 'towards an imbrication of narrative development and moral d landardizing formulas of acceptable content and narrative i 'opment.B For Gunning, the interweaving of formal and mstituiional | this moment set in play the conditions which jal Hollywood cinema. II the abo utlinc of the importance of gender to conceptions of pectabilitj fj into this argument, we can understand the Importal lered discourses to the moral discourse ol the u,Rm'' "' nan ration. In the examples above, narrative up with reform discourse which, in tum, is linked W ""-' idco,° n reformers and their emi i nl roles as nou ' in s move into the realm of moral dlscoui then, perhap ire closely aligned to early feminisi discourse than has huh il/C(j. || this is the case il may"1 "lm ; a ri- nealogy ..I classicism. No doubt further '"'"" ,k " to be undertaken in terms ol narrative and hematic analysis „i films iron, ,1ns period and into the 1910s, and, "J particular int. omplexities ol structures ol alignment and »"eg'ance, bul the above analysis may suggest thai what emerges Bi K «"«Wing outsci Of classicism is a narrative system thai is ■»««i lÄGtiíMw, 4 tí remuve school to. the »Kto t* S7 '■■-' -' * .__wr Out* ^^ Hcme g UJť- 13B71P 224 See abo ,^/BteWSW jxfemt&xatDWGrtm ixt** frfi* »■ ****=■ T999 «IwenRat» 'cmptaHons <*plea*L todeons. *»u»nent pB'i ihr sights o"ema* Camera Obxm p es pan. * $e> Arteas H^nen. After the G** O»* MoáBmom. Mass tuti** Postmodernism n Mrtmilaf pp a.^ Arm Dor,. 4* Krb order ■ Frequently in films of ihľ* ** ^^P^raboD of «w^ narrative. Future wort: ^ „ IO?«ner by ihc ap-^ •uit won; „^ . ^^ v* has suggested that presenung cinema as respectable was tľľľ * *" ______ «I- A^,^ ™ ..T^rr6 was t0 differenüatc enema from die pan of the of was a z^^^^tZZL-- s* could be reformed. This mean, „. *££^ ^ and enema texts, exemplified here bv , evefc J, Sp*Ce but suggesting more ge^, ^ c^^^^l in «he context of gendered norms of respec*^ T^^ľ no doubt also mandated by the fi,m ^ „ ,ng ^ the importance of women audiences, not just as signifk respectability but also as paying customers. Once under ,hc process was less about respectability and more about commercial imperatives, and it is worth noting that the importance of female audiences underscored a series of developments )n the following years: the serial-queen cycle of the 1910s, the growth of fan magazines directed at female readers, the emergence of powerful female stars such as Mary Pickford, the increasing presence of women scriptwriters from 1913 onwards, and the proliferate women-aimed discourses surrounding him stars through the 192 There is no doubt that this appeal to women special and shaped the encounter of women with cinema in various ways and drew on deeplj r P"01^ emkrr roles ias. of course, did no .omen's mn.i Women were addres entrenc hed cultural const™ '' amusements the enema so! status as object of * "dol Rabinowitz describ Rabinowitz describes and objectificati **wYort Simil Samp'5 recent bool «...v. wwj—--------- n 11... (||ľ about K.lh women - ľ j,u„..i- interest ol women in action-adventur. noted ho« criti »* centurj used feminin.i launched cultural passivit) and de» 75 Screen 471 Spr«g ?» 71 4/r. Douglas. Txrüe Hcr< Wt^p Kttpfartan * ff» 1320s (New Yort Farn* Skws and fcrou l« Q Lam* Ab flw o/ôjce /í^AtífřJwn *tí tf» ToRRbPMÄ« fr Amme*» brttaon toc* n, ol the theatre and a corresponding 'remasculinjľľ "" 0, various cultural practices, including the cinema in Richard ^ 72 account Clearly, the process described in this ari.de is but one elemem [hc nl. omplex and shifting trends thai saw the production of °f cinema as respectable and profitable, and we need to think funhe about the shifting positions oi class, gender and the economy and particular, about the friction between laissez faire capitalism and ''" patriarchal ideology, It ma) also be necessarj to pay more attention to the broader reform context for understandings ol masculine jn this period and to examine discourses about not only temperance bij aNo sexuality. On the evidence so far I would argue that it was the regulation ol masculinities even more than femininities that shaped cinema's move to classicism.73 tarier versions of this paper «re delivered at the Screen Studies Conference and the Society for Cmema Stufet Conference My thanks for help with it go to Vanes i Roberta Pearson Murray Smith Shelley Stamp. Hanfe Wasson and especralfy to Peter Kramer and r- 76 —«'*■.*, u.*.«. ...„„ recreative school lot the whole family' t Carlos Monsiváis. All the people came and did not fit onto the scn»i notes on the cinema auďence m Mexico in Paulo AniomoParanaguáledlMe. 0n^ (London British Film ■""Mute. 1995). p 151 If looks could kill: image wars in Maria Candelaria ANDREA NOBLE lnl,s.,,n1y,,nedessay-Al,lhepeop,cameanddIdno,fílon1o the screen . Mexican cultural critic Carlos Monsiváis outlines the impact that the cinema had upon Mexican society. In particular Monsiváis is concerned with cinema's role in ihe modernizino ' processes at work in the first half of the twentieth century, as the State sought to redefine national identity and make the transition from a predominantly rural to urban. Catholic to secular, and pre-modern to modem cultural/political entity. In the face of the uneven social, cultural and economic effects of these processes, the role of cinema v. as crucial: "With hindsight, we can see the basic function of the electronic media at their hrst important moment of power: they mediate between the shock of industrialization and the rural and urban experience which has not been prepared in any way for this giant change, a process that from the 1^4(K modifies the idea of the nation'.1 The suggestive title ol Monsiváis s essaj obliqueh signals the importance of the cinema's role as cultural mediator: one that was. moreover, predicated on a screen-spectator relationship 'All the people came and did not lit onto the screen' indicates .1 screen-spectator relationship that promoted spectator,..! idendfication with a repertoire ol new and traditional images associated with 'Mexicanness' (lo meccano) thai were played out onscreen Given that spectatorship is death a ke> issue lor an understanding ofthe intersection between «he reconfiguration of Mexican-"-«J £22. in the twentieth centur, and the parallel develop* n«of the cinematic industry, how might we offer an account of the specificities »I Mexican spectatorship? •■»e tan " M*0 b*Maa 77 Sen». 42 1 Spnng 2001 And,