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Dag Films was dissolved in 1932 due to the commercial failure of its productions and the increasing competition from other companies, such as Olympia Films, Din-Drits Films, Skouras Films, and Foivos Films. A number of movies of 1932 to 1935 failed in their attempts to coordinate sound and image. The last film made on Greek soil was in 1934. New studios with sound facilities were needed. In their absence, movies had to be sent either to Germany or Egypt for sound to be added. The failure of the local industry to produce its own talking movies led to a failure to compete successfully with the influx of movies from Hollywood.

As a result, the industry totally collapsed for several years, and between 1936 and 1938 a number of Greek movies were made in Egypt, where well- equipped sound studios existed and which Greek traveling players often visited. The rightly renowned historian of Greek cinema Yannis Soldatos calls 1935 the year of “the clinical death of Greek cinematography.”34 _The

period is usually referred to as the Egyptian Triennium due to the circum- stance that the very few movies produced then were filmed in Egypt by an international crew with foreign directors and cameramen.

One of the factors fueling the crisis in cinema was the political insta- bility following Venizelos’ fall from government in 1932. A number of unsuccessful military movements took place, while a hung parliament became increasingly unable to solve the looming social crisis that fed the rise of communism and the challenge of fascism. In August 1936, General Ioannis Metaxas seized power and established a military dictatorship with a fascist ideology akin to that of Benito Mussolini. Metaxas imposed strict censorship on all media, exiled many important intellectuals and imposed an unprecedented 70 percent state tax on all “public spectacles.” This crippled the industry and made the production of feature films almost impossible.

Between 1937 and 1939, a total of seven Greek language movies were produced in the studios of Cairo and Alexandria. From this “Egyptian period,” The Refugee Girl (I Prosfigopoula, 1938), directed by the Italian Tongo Mizrahi (1905–1986) and containing scenes filmed on location at Athens, Tempe, and Meteora, was an immediate success—and it can still be enjoyed because of its fast narrative rhythm, suggestive photography and memorable music by Kostas Yannidis. The story of an Asia Minor refugee being married off to a wealthy provincial landlord who later deceives her for an aristocratic woman resonated immediately with the urbanized villagers in Athens, so much so that it was

screened regularly until the 1950s. This melodrama deserves more attention for its depiction of the refugee experience, rural and urban psychology, and the divide between social classes. Despite its technical problems, it shows a distinct sense of editing, camera angle and interior mise-en-scène; Mizrahi was a master of narrative sequence, black and white contrasts and montage. Actress Sophia Vembo became famous for the songs in the film (“a magnificent phono- film,” according to the credits). Two years after the Italian invasion of October 1940, Vembo adapted an oriental song and transformed it into a patriotic hymn. Mizrahi’s other Greek films Dr Epaminondas (1937), When the Husband is Away (Otan O Sizigos Taxideuei, 1938), and Captain Skorpion (Kapetan Skorpios, 1943) are not as good—but still were praised for their narrative pace, which was to influence many Greek directors after the war.

The last movie produced in Egypt Little Agnes (Agnoula, 1939) by the Italian-Egyptian director Alevize Orfanelli (1902–1961) was another successful melodrama. Its poster proclaimed, “At last . . . A GREEK MOVIE which will atone for the sins of all previous Greek films . . .” In reality it did not. The historical context and the political circumstances were not favorable. Orfanelli made one more film in Greek, Engagement with Problems (Arravon met’ empodion, 1937), and another after the war, as the director of photog- raphy for Nikos Tsiforos’ Wind of Hatred (Anemos tou Misous, 1954). Greek directors returned to the Egyptian studios between 1951 and 1954.

During the Metaxas regime, the dictator actively promoted only the production of documentaries and “journals” which glorified his tours around the countryside as the “Father of the Nation” and which propagated the life and works of the Fascist Youth Organization (EON). It is estimated that around 450 such short films were made in a period of four years. The regime even imported 75 projection machines for public screenings of the movements of the dictator and his party through reels showing uplifting orations by Metaxas or the sporting activities of his youth organization. These short films were screened after imported feature films, in order to make a stronger impression on the viewers. It seemed that the regime was constructing its own visual history by promoting “the realism of true life,” as the dictator declared. A notorious 1937 law established a committee, comprised mainly of army and police officers, to oversee the ratings for films: films were classified as “appropriate, inappropriate, or strictly inappro- priate for minors.” Many people accused the cinema industry of fostering immorality, criminality, and even physical ailments, especially “in young people or women, who fall more easily and more deeply under the influence of such spectacles.”35

Taking the medical advice of academics, the Committee suggested that going to the cinema had dangerous effects on the optical nerve, created respiratory problems, and spread contagious diseases. If any person, parent or friend, was caught by the police escorting minors, under 15 years of age,

to the cinema, they were sentenced to up to six months imprisonment. “Appropriate” movies were those that “had a content promoting the elevation of the spirit through self-sacrifice, heroic deeds, the protection of public health, and the propagation of public hygiene.”36

Despite the fact that a similar law was first implemented in 1930, the connection between mental and physical hygiene with regard to the cinema became the dominant theme in state propaganda, under the Metaxas dicta- torship. In May 1938, the regime organized the first ever conference on cinematography in Athens in an attempt to regulate the industry and control its production. Later that year, a long documentary by Maurice Novak, Greece of 1938 Speaks . . . (I Ellas tou 1938 Omilei) announced triumphantly that it had solved the problem of sound. It was a compilation of various newsreels, but it was very popular due to its successful synchronization of sound and image. It was also the only film produced in the country in the Metaxas era.

Meanwhile, Greeks enjoyed American films, which held the primacy in attendance. And the number of cinemas in the capital had increased to 26 with another 60 open-air summer venues. The grand cinemas Palace and Rex were built and their opulence and magnificence have left an indelible mark on public memory. Famous architects constructed lavish and, in some instances, architecturally experimental venues throughout the country. An overall number of 280 cinemas were recorded throughout Greek territory by the end of 1939.

Because of its increasing popular appeal, the 1937 Metaxas law on cinema imposed such strict rules regarding what could be said and depicted on screen that competent screenwriters did not wish to submit their work to extremely austere censorship and risk the prospect of being arrested or exiled. The concept of “thinking nationally” (ethno-conviction, ethniko- frosini) became the dominant ideology of the state—whatever was against the official version of the Nation was to be banned—especially everything that was, according to Metaxas, of communist inspiration. Between 1935 and 1943 only a handful of narrative feature films were made on Greek soil.