I AM GLAD to see the Queen has decided not
to attend this autumn's Royal Film Show. It was a worthy idea originally : to select a film of the year for royal patronage, and to stage a showing which would bring in several thousand pounds to the Cinematograph Trades Benevolent Fund. If the Queen now declines the invitation, and the fund suffers, it is nobOdy's fault but the cinema industry's. For years now, those responsible for selecting the film have chosen it not on its merits (usually it has been a stinker) but—in effect— on its failings. The industry did not even bother to hide its determination that the publicity atten- dant on a royal film show .would help to rescue the wretched film from failure. I have never been able to understand why the Queen's advisers allowed her to lend herself to this form of plugging for so long; surely it would have been simple for them to insist that the film was chosen by an independent body?
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