In 1941 the musical film 'Nice Girl' was released. It was American made at a time before America had entered the Second World War- but the war still cast a shadow over its script. In the US version of the film, the final scene concludes with the song 'Thank You America'. But for the British release (which New Zealand also saw) the song 'There Will Always Be An England' was added, performed under the Stars and Stripes as well as the Union Jack.

Britain was under the terror of bombing raids and the threat of a Nazi invasion. While America was not fighting alongside Britain at the time, they were about to start supplying ships and arms to the war effort under the 'lend-lease' scheme. 

When the slide was screened during intermission in New Zealand, the war was both terrifying but also far away. The attack on Pearl Harbor gave the British Empire an ally in the form of the USA- but it also brought the war to the Pacific. By the end of 1942, Japanese submarines were sighted in New Zealand waters. Films like this did a lot for morale!

Released on the 20th of October, 1933 'The Way To Love' is a Hollywood movie starring Ann Dvorak and Maurice Chevalier. It's plot revolves around carefree drifter who has to save a beautiful performer who is threatened by her partner in a knife throwing act.

This film is one of the last of the 'pre-Code' Hollywood films. These were made between the introduction of the sound 'talkies' in 1927 and the enforcement of the moralistic 'Hays Code' in 1934. With the expanded possibilities of adding dialogue to films (and the need to keep audiences paying during the Great Depression) Hollywood gravitated towards sensationalistic plots with sex appeal, violence and drama.

In response to these films many US states threatened to make their own individual censorship laws meaning that multiple 'cuts' of a single film would have to be made. In response, Hollywood adopted their own, internally enforced moral code which headed off this threat.  The Hays Code would be enforced until the 1960s. 

This film was screened in Foxton on the 4th of August 1934. The 'Manawatu Times' had the following write up on it...

MAURICE CHEVALIER'S “THE WAY TO LOVE”

Bringing new songs and new smiles as a handsome guide of a Parisian tourist agency, Maurice Chevalier Is playing at the Foxton Town Hall to-night in his newest starring Paramount picture, "The Way to Love.” With him are Ann Dvorak and Edward Everett Horton. Maurice takes us on a tour through Paris where he knows all the beauties both scenic and human. His adventures supply all with a delightful hour's entertainment. The new songs he introduces are "It’s Oh, It’s Ah!”, "I’m a Lover of Paree,” “In a One Room Flat” and “The Way to Love.” A selected list of short subjects includes the Mickey Mouse cartoon “Mickey’s Orphans.” 

The theatre was the 'Coronation Hall' and it still stands in Foxton today as the home of the MAVtech Museum. It is still a working cinemas as well! This slide would have been screened during  other films to advertise 'The Way To Love'. Soon to be released features were known as 'coming attractions'. The projectionist has written the day the film was to play in removable ink at the bottom of the slide. 

The slide mount was made by 'Consolidated Film Industries' which was a company specialising in making projection grade copies of films as well as advertising slides- so they probably made this slide too! 

This 1932/1933 British musical comedy featured a hapless journalist, a millionaire and a lie about being married which quickly gets out of hand. Musical farces like this were popular in the early 1930s as they made full use of the recently invented sound cinema systems (popularly known as 'talkies'). 

And cinemas needed every advantage they could get! The Great Depression cut household incomes to the bone, and regular cinema visits needed to be justified. Enter the 'double feature'- two films played back-to-back with a single admission price. One of the films in this double billing was a 'B-movie' made with lesser talent and a small budget and served as the warm-up act to the better-known main feature.

In New Zealand, cinemas had to show a minimum percentage of British films- a rule found in many places in the Empire. This led to the 'Quota Quickie' - a low budget, poorly made British film produced in the knowledge it would be needed to fill the quota. In Britain some of these films had such a bad reputation that they played to empty cinemas while the cleaners prepared for the next film. Viewer beware!   

This slide advertised 'Sleepless Nights' on the cinema screen and still has the hand-written notes showing the next screening time. It wasn't a 'Quota Quickie' with ads in the papers calling it a 'Fast and Furious Fun Frolic' and recommending that 'if you are human.... you'll love it!' But not if you were a young human- although there were no legal restrictions the Censor recommended it for adults.