Source: Arnold Bennett, journal entry 3 August 1927, in Newman Flower (ed.), The Journals of Arnold Bennett: 1921-1928 (London: Cassell, 1933)
Text: Wednesday, August 3rd.
Went to see the “Metropolis” film at the Élite theatre. Sickening sentimentality. Many good effects, spectacular, spoilt by over-insistence. A footling story. No understanding of psychology of either employers or workmen. “Adapted by Channing Pollock.” Good God! What captions. Enough to make you give up the ghost. The theatre was very nearly empty.
Comments: Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was a British writer, best known for his novels of life in the Potteries with its ‘five towns’ that now equate with Stoke-on-Trent. The spectacular science-fiction drama Metropolis (Germany 1927) was directed by Fritz Lang and scripted by his wife Thea von Harbou. Channing Pollock was an American playwright and film scenarist who wrote a revised script for the film’s American and UK release, cut down significantly from its original release length. The Élite Picture Theatre was in St Leonard’s, Sussex.
