Religion: Bible Films

The idea of the Religious Film Trust won quick approval: to retell biblical stories in pictures with mechanical word & music accompaniment; to make sound-pictures of famed metropolitan ministers in action; to present such sound-picture programs in churches, Sunday schools and other religious assembly halls.

Production is to start this winter in Palestine. A troupe of religiously mixed actors is to leave Manhattan in October. On schedule are 100 two-reel stories, some with dialog, some without. Some titles: “Abel, the Shepherd of Eden,” “Joseph, the Vizier of Egypt,” “David, the Shepherd King,” “Ruth, the Widow of Moab,” “Isaiah, the Poet-Prophet of Israel.”

Reproduction mechanics are simple: while some Bible films are projected an operator works a melodeon at a speed to make sense with the picture. More complicated and more expensive, some films will themselves operate synchronized sound machinery, such as high-class cinema houses now have for their talking pictures.

The business aspect of the project is attractive: 100,000 U. S. churches and other religious institutions are probable customers. Ministers and laymen have been buying stock in the Religious Film Trust. Last week the Trust had thus enough funds to warrant a contract with the Acoustics Products Co., affiliation of the Sonora Phonograph Co.

While the producers will seek veri-semblance in these films, as everyone knows, it will be impossible for them to reach exactitude. In biblical times, for example, the Eden region along the Euphrates was luxuriant and productive; canals made it fertile. Now the region is barren, where not swampy.

P. L. Deutsch, president of both the Sonora and Acoustics Products companies and promoter of Religious Film Trust, last week promised: “With the exception of the leading characters, native hordes and tribes will be employed and will wear their native garb, which has undergone no change in thousands of years.” He was in error. Although Arabians still wear no underwear under their burnooses, they now wear socks and Boston garters.