Life, 1928-01-26 · page 28 of 34
Life — January 26, 1928 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page critiques Hollywood's handling of religious and racial themes in 1920s cinema. **"The Circus"** (left column): A brief, admiring review of Charlie Chaplin's latest film, praising his return to simple slapstick comedy as his finest work. **"Race Prejudice"** (right column): The author criticizes filmmakers—particularly Cecil B. DeMille—for sanitizing the Crucifixion narrative in biblical epics like "The King of Kings" and "Ben-Hur" to avoid offending Jewish audiences. The author argues that by minimizing the mob's role (as depicted in the Gospels), filmmakers strip the story of its universal moral significance about how crowds turn against prophets throughout history. Notably, the author's self-deprecating reference to identifying as a "Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan" is sarcastic—acknowledging how such criticism might be misconstrued. The point appears to be advocating for historical/biblical accuracy rather than racial blame.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“The Circus’? HAT, I ask you, is the use of trying to review Charlie Chap- ©? What can I say about it or him that hasn't already been said? John Keats once opened a book and wrote a sonnet about it that is more beautiful and more important than the book itself. But I am not Keats (and if any one informs you that I am, tell him he’s crazy); I could fill this and other pages with ravings about “The Circus,” and I couldn't give you a glimmering of an idea of its quality. Perhaps I could branch out and advance the theory that comedy, at its highest, is closely akin to tragedy. But no—it scems to me that even that has been said before. Suffice it that Charlie has gone back to the elementary principles of custard pie comedy, and has proved that it is in this simplified, unpre- tentious form that his genius is most thoroughly at home. He is once more the jaunty little vagrant who wandered aimlessly down the long highroad in “The Tramp,” who be- d stray waifs in “A Dog’s and “The Kid,” who inadvert- ently captured the Kaiser and won the Great War in “Shoulder Arms.” In my estimation, “The Circus” is Charlie’s best picture. Furthermore, it’s every one else’s best picture. This is all that I intend, or need, to say. Race Prejudice I reviewing “Ben-Hur” and “The King of Kings” I expressed re- gret that the producers of these pic- tures were so absurdly careful to gloss over events leading up to the Crucifixion, in an obvious attempt to spare the supposedly tender sensi- bilities of the Jewish race. In “The King of Kings,” in particular, Mr. De Mille went out of his way to establish the fact that the guilt for the death of Christ was assignable to a few typical Hollywood “heav- ies,” who carried out their foul plans without the knowledge or approval of the rest of the Hebrew people. Now comes word that Mr. De protests Mille has received many from Rabbis and Jewish relayed through Will H. H: that in response to thes to add a prologue to “The King of Kings” which makes the case even stronger. THis is a painfully difficult sub- ject to discuss, and in mentioning it I know that I identify myself as a Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan. But it seems dreadful to me that the whole on of the Crucifixion should be deliberately suppressed be- cause of racial sensitiver “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multi- tude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. “Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.” Thus reads the Gospel according to St. Matthew. The unmistakable in- ference in this, as in the other three Gospels, is that while Christ's be- trayal may have been plotted by Caiaphas and the other chief priests, and executed by Pilate and the cen- turions, it was the multitude—the mob—that turned on their $ with the words, “Crucify Him ened, in this instance, h mob; but what of that? It was the same mob that turned on Joan of Arc, Themistocles, Savo- narola, John Huss, Columbus, Dan- ton and many other prophets. It was the same mob that suggested the guillotine for George Washington during the second term of his presi- dency. ther, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” That is not to be applied to members of the Jewish race alone. It is for all hu- manity. O depreciate the importance of the mob in the story of the Cruci- fixion is to rob this story of its eternal significance. With which utterance, I shall step down from the pulpit and return to the balcony seat wherein I belong. R. E. Sherwood. A Texas Steer. The biting wit of Will Rogers in an otherwise toothless comedy of politics in Washington. The Dove. Norma Talmadge in a moderately gripping melodrama about a country that looks like Mexico, but isn't. Man Crazy. Those who sce this will be moderately well entertained. Those who miss it won't miss much. West Point. Can't some one think up a new character for William Haines? This one is a very bum imitation of “Brown of Harvard” and “Slide, Kelly, Slide.” Serenade. Adolphe Menjou about as usual in an exceptionally graceful farce- comedy. Man, Woman and Sin. Back-stage in a newspaper office, with John Gilbert as a dumb reporter. Get Your Man. the boys a good look. Uncle Tom's Cabin. The old hokum on a grand scale, with real bloodhounds chasing Elica across real ice. The Gaucho. Douglas Fairbanks does some superior stunts in a distinctly in- ferior picture. Clara Bow giving Recent Developments The Girl from Chicago. Melodrama of a familiar stamp. Love. It isn't as good as “Flesh and the Devil,” which wasn't so good, My Best Girl. Will Mary Pickford never grow up? Jesse James. Fred Thomson in the} canonization of a famous bandit. Quality Street. Not Marion Davies’ best, nor yet her worst. Sunrise, The Student Prince, The High School Hero, The Garden of Allah, and Wings. All recommended comicbooks.com