Judge — June 20, 1931 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

i i | ie Russians continue to send us *T bese propaganda, ‘This week we received two batches: “A Son of the Land” and some news els called “The Five-Year Plan.” The one so-called dramatic picture, “A Son of the Land,” is an attempt to dramatize irrigation as a relief from and neither the story nor the action is comparable to the tribal dramatization in * Over Asia” or th in “Old and > In fact, “Son of the Land” a naive attempt to sell Soviet gov- ernment, [ doubt that even Ham Fish or Senator Sheppard or even the pres- idential secreta effective prop I cannot by natives of picture is the Mohammedan religion Storm nechanical cestasy is such iat could consider it nda. Furthermore, ieve for one minute the Turkestan (for whom the intended) will be swept joyously from their feet by the film, nor can I picture them hanging their prophets, grabbing pick axes and building dams with the sheer joy be trayed by the Soviet actors who made the picture. I can believe Russians, and I anything of think movie propa- ganda has aided the government as much as the thousands of pamphlets ind books written by Trotsky and his boy friends during the long. years from 1905 until the great revolution, but [think a farmer must always be a farmer, whether he lives in Alsace and worships the golden ea or in the Black Forest, where he spends his I sure time trying to hex his brother-in law, or even in South Dakota, where he spends his evenings trying to get Aimee Semple MePherson en the radio. And if Tam right, it will take more than a few movies to convince a ‘Turkestan farmer that Mohammed that his father knew noth ta world pro at is more important the mule. Oo" city editors, publishers and college professors have, after Europe and Asia long ago gi ot over JUDGE UID GING THM = YRS By PARE LORENTZ their first discovered Russia, Thus even such a naive document as “A Son of the Land” shod newsreel such as” seare, Plan” may frighten them into long editorials and scare-heads, Actually, neither picture is worth a nickel as prop. ida to anybody exeept a Rus- sian politician, As pictures they have valt nd T have an idea that when the Five-Year Plan either makes or br 2 wh nkers get down to figures and decide just how rtant Russian manufacturing ean r the next decade, the frightened editors will discover that all this so- called movie propaganda is really the wistful production of harassed artists. “Old and New" was a dull picture, but it was directed by an artist, and he worked so hard to dram. his propaganda the propaganda took on importance. But Director Eisenstein is not interested in cream separators or the Russian state n na few sober bs irks so much as he is in pictures. So with the dire of “The End of St. Petersburg the director of “A Son of the I Get rid of the bankers who have made our own directors produce what amounts to propaganda, get rid of the British M. P.’s who harass able Eng- lishmen, get rid of the childish Rus- sians who think farmers, North Ca linians and Turkestan Mohammedans can be moved by the same childish Recommended “City Lights*—Chaplin rt acting of “City Streets —The om Miss a Sydney the year Sy The Front Page—Almost too good true t musical satirical y Frenc “Le Million"—A comedy by the knows how to m: “The Public Enemy"—The toughest and neatest gang picture of the WV 1 ha ¢ excitement, and vou will discover 4 f movie directors who have ne rst in world problems other than aft of making When that day comes Russian directors will make the best pictures in the world and they will not deal with ictures, power dams. “Die Marrese Farcon’ le irritating movie pro cedure. As it is taken from the Dash ie Hammett thriller, you might bx justified in expecting the producers soften the character of the det ve in American. ftictio Spade (tough in the sense that he has the carnal and social ective and not he Maltese Fal Sam Spade. is another toughest Sam instinets of a museum piece) on” had more than It had a patholo; killer. It had the usual pace and sullen glow. N expected a mystery fall of faney women and, above all, a sanctimonious hero. But no. The yxducers kept Sam Spade intact. They let him de! the noblest emotion of them all and take to bed in order to colleet evi dence. They let him si to the gallows, picture sets, innocent 1 the heroine And Ricardo Cortez furnished even another surprise, be cause he made an able Sam Spade Dudley Digges, one of the best and most ne, actors on the American stage, gave an exciting performance. Bebe Daniels was almost good, which is better than she has been for several thousand feet of celluloid. Yet, with all this to recommend it, “The Maltese Falcon” is only fair entertainment. simply because the director used fade outs, dissolves, other known devi so what should h been melodra matic scenes fell harmlessly to the studio floor, and never once was there any chance for the audience to get excited. The adaptation was faithful but utterly unimaginative. The direc- tion was the worst of the season. (Continued on page comicbooks.com