The Influence of the Cinema on Children and Adolescents: An Annotated International Bibliography

115. Ayfre, Amédée. L'enfant personnage du film. [ "The child in films"]. In: Vie enseignante, Paris, ( 91), November 1954. Italian edition: Il bambino protagonista di film. In: Maestri, Rome, September 1955.

The author of this article studies from concrete examples taken from various films, the role of childhood in the making of films and various producers' concepts of how to portray children; the child evoking nostalgic memories of the past, as an active moral protagonist, or as portrayed in neo-realist film.

116. Dale, Edgar. The Content of Motion Pictures, New York, MacMillan, 1935, 234 p.

A content analysis of 1, 500 feature films (500 from each of the years 1920, 1925 and 1930). Ten categories were made: crime, sex, love, the comic element, mystery, war, children, history, travel and social propaganda. In 1930, love (29.6 per cent), crime (27.2 per cent) and sex (15 per cent) were the most important subjects, i.e. a total of 72 per cent of all subjects. 16 per cent were taken up by comedy, and 8.6 per cent jointly by mystery and war. Only one out of 500 films was a children's film; in 1930 there were 7 historical and 9 travel films, but not one social propaganda film. An average of one crime film was seen each month by those who visited the cinema once a week. In nearly two-thirds of all cases, adolescents find crime films unattractive. Of 115 crime films shown in Columbus ( Ohio) cinemas, murder techniques are shown in nearly every film, actual murder in 45, attempted murder in 21, and revolvers were used in 22 films. Sex films show: extra-marital relations, seduction, adultery, procuring, illegitimacy, prostitution and bedroom jokes. Romantic love films have for subject: melodrama, courtship, love, flirting, difficulties in marriage, historical romances.

117. Jones, Dorothy B. "Quantitative Analysis of Motion Picture Content". In: Public Opinion Quarterly, Princeton University, N.J., ( 6), 1942, p. 411-428.

An analysis of 100 grade "A" and "B" films, distributed in the United States of America in 1941‐ 1942. 188 actors and actresses portrayed leading characters in these films (126 men and 62 women). Three out of five leading characters were shown as adults in economically comfortable circumstances, free from parental control; suitably married, and with limited social and economic responsibilities. Nearly half were wealthy or well-to-do, 17 per cent were poor or needy, 80 per cent belonged to the middle-class; only 8 per cent were titled and 11 per cent had distinctly come down in the world. Two out of five were Americans and seven out of ten unmarried. The main behavioural motives were: love (68 per cent); fame, reputation or prestige (26 per cent); security, health and economic independence (16 per cent); the fulfilment of vague needs, described as "way of life" (14 per cent); money and material goods (10 per cent); "to do one's duty" (9 per cent). These percentages overlap as some characters had expressed more than one predominant wish. 60 per cent saw their wishes realized at the end of the film. 10 per cent did not reach their goal and 14 per cent had their wishes only partly fulfilled.

118. Mirams, Gordon. "Boy meets Girl - on the Screen". In: New Zealand Listener, Wellington, 31 ( 788), 27 August 1954, p. 6-7.

A survey of the pattern of romantic behaviour among young people portrayed on the screen, based on a detailed analysis of 300 feature-length films from the United States of America and Great Britain.It was found that 73 per cent of these 300 films dealt specifically with the topic of boy meeting girl and "falling in love" . In 68 per cent of the films in this category, it was a case of "love at first sight", if not at first glimpse. Analysis of the circumstances in which romantic first meetings are shown taking place reveals that 69 per cent of them depend on an unusual situation - such as the boy rescuing the girl from danger - which the average young person would have little chance of encountering in real life. Only 31 per cent arise from meetings in normal or probable circumstances.

119. Mirams, Gordon. "Drop that Gun". In: The Quarterly of Film, Radio and Television, Berkeley, Ca., VI ( 1), Fall 1951, 19 p.

A preliminary investigation of the occurrence of crime and violence in 100 feature films. These contained a total of 659 cases of crime and violence, i.e. an average of 6.6 per film. Only 14 films were entirely free from these two factors. Among the crimes were 168 murders or attempted murders, of which 73 happened in 17 Westerns (not every

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