They Call Me Carpenter | Page 3

what it's like."
"Well, you can't go in; we're here to shut up this show!"
I had stepped to one side as I spoke, and he caught me by the arm. I
thought there had been talk enough, and gave a sudden lurch, and tore

my arm free. "Hold on here!" he shouted, and tried to stop me again;
but I sprang through the crowd towards the box-office. There were
more than a hundred civilians in or about the lobby, and not more than
twenty or thirty ex-service men maintaining the blockade; so a few got
by, and I was one of the lucky ones. I bought my ticket, and entered the
theatre. To the man at the door I said: "Who started this?"
"I don't know, sir. It's just landed on us, and we haven't had time to find
out."
"Is the picture German propaganda?"
"Nothing like that at all, sir. They say they won't let us show German
pictures, because they're so much cheaper; they'll put American-made
pictures out of business, and it's unfair competition."
"Oh!" I exclaimed, and light began to dawn. I recalled Dr. Henner's
remark about producing a great many ideas out of a very little food;
assuredly, the American picture industry had cause to fear competition
of that sort! I thought of old "T-S," as the screen people call him for
short--the king of the movie world, with his roll of fat hanging over his
collar, and his two or three extra chins! I though of Mary Magna,
million dollar queen of the pictures, contriving diets and exercises for
herself, and weighing with fear and trembling every day!

III
It was time for the picture to begin, so I smoothed my coat, and went to
a seat, and was one of perhaps two dozen spectators before whom "The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" received its first public showing in Western
City. The story had to do with a series of murders; we saw them traced
by a young man, and fastened bit by bit upon an old magician and
doctor. As the drama neared its climax, we discovered this doctor to be
the head of an asylum for the insane, and the young man to be one of
the inmates; so in the end the series of adventures was revealed to us as
the imaginings of a madman about his physician and keepers. The
settings and scenery were in the style of "futurist" art--weird and highly
effective. I saw it all in the light of Dr. Henner's interpretation, the
product of an old, perhaps an overripe culture. Certainly no such
picture could have been produced in America! If I had to choose
between this and the luxurious sex-stuff of Mary Magna--well, I
wondered. At least, I had been interested in every moment of "Dr.

Caligari," and I was only interested in Mary off the screen. Several
times every year I had to choose between mortally hurting her feelings,
and watching her elaborate "vamping" through eight or ten costly reels.
I had read many stories and seen a great many plays, in which the hero
wakes up in the end, and we realize that we have been watching a
dream. I remembered "Midsummer Night's Dream," and also "Looking
Backward." An old, old device of art; and yet always effective, one of
the most effective! But this was the first time I had ever been taken into
the dreams of a lunatic. Yes, it was interesting, there was no denying it;
grisly stuff, but alive, and marvelously well acted. How Edgar Allen
Poe would have revelled in it! So thinking, I walked towards the exit of
the theatre, and a swinging door gave way--and upon my ear broke a
clamor that might have come direct from the inside of Dr. Caligari's
asylum. "Ya, ya. Boo, boo! German propaganda! Pay your money to
the Huns! For shame on you! Leave your own people to starve, and
send your cash to the enemy."
I stopped still, and whispered to myself, "My God!" During all the
time--an hour or more--that I had been away on the wings of
imagination, these poor boobs had been howling and whooping outside
the theatre, keeping the crowds away, and incidentally working
themselves into a fury! For a moment I thought I would go out and
reason with them; they were mistaken in the idea that there was
anything about the war, anything against America in the picture. But I
realized that they were beyond reason. There was nothing to do but go
my way and let them rave.
But quickly I saw that this was not going to be so easy as I had fancied.
Right in front of the entrance stood the big fellow who had caught my
arm; and as I came toward