Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1934)

November 17, 1934 MOTION PICTURE HERALD II NAIVE CRITICS AND STATESMEN Soviet Approves MacArthur-Hecht Plan to Make Feature in Russia (Continued from preceding paqe) gestlon of a jarring note that is, we subnrtit, not perfect art, even if they did run through the worshipful fingers of Dzega Vertof. The reverential attitude In which Mr. Sennwald placed The Times Is well epitomized In his remark: . . . Vertof arouses a similar emotion of hearbreaking nostalgia by his employment of the empty bench in the park where Lenin used to sit in the last days of his life. The opinion of The Times, as set down by its ordained screen observer, is that: Certainly "Three Songs About Lenin" is an event in the cinema, and its director blazes a trail into the infinity which represents the undiscovered possibilities of the camera medium. His technical skill in weaving this impassioned document out of a variety of pictorial strands, using the film library as effectively as he uses the studio and the open countryside, is of vast importance to the art of the cinema. It is more than obvious that if Mr. Sennwald's report on this "trail into the infinity" were indeed correct the news editor of The Times, surely should have put it on Page One of that issue of November 7. The Times is a fancier of discoveries and it would seem that the sizeable progress into the territory of anybody's Infinity would rate as news fairly high even alongside "Little America" and the frosty chirps of Admiral Byrd. ^ t ^ HE attentions of The Herald Trib/ une also make the approach under a stock heading, a shade more positive than The Times. The Tribune flatly says "On the Screen," followed by the by-line of Mr. Richard Watts, Jr. If only Mr. Whitelaw Reld could see his paper now. Mr. Watts appears to have slightly more sympathy with the theme than its execution, in spots, although holding it to be quite a picture as pictures go. He says, in The Herald Tribune of November 7: In "Three Songs About Lenin" the Soviet cinema pays its heartfelt, passionate, almost hysterical tribute to the great Russian leader. . . . It is a series of victory chants, alternating with cries of mourning, demonstrating the lyric enthusiasm of the ruling proletariat for its sainted chieftain. . . . . . . Unquestionably it is an earnest and an often eloquent picture, replete with all that crusading zeal that makes the Hollywood films seem pallid studio exercises. Nevertheless, I am forced to doubt that "Three Songs about Lenin" is quite the masterpiece that some of its enthusiasts have termed. . . . The account of the picture that Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht, young American producers under contract to Paramount for a series of features, will bring to the screens of this country a firsthand motion picture record of life as it is lived in Red Russia. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Josef Stalin, High Commissar, already has given its approval to the producing of the features and there remains only the question of remuneration for the pair before they travel Europeward. The Soviet will work "very closely" with Mr. Hecht and Mr. MacArthtir to be sure that its economic machinery and social life are depicted as running strongly and smoothly. The hero probably will be Paid Mtini (Muni Weisenfreund) and the heroine, Helen Hayes, who in private life is Mrs. Charles MacArthur. Confirmation of the negotiations — which were known to have been underway for some weeks — was made Tuesday in New York by an assistant to V. /. Verlinsky, head of Amkino, the motion picture distribution agency in the United States. The general impression along Broadway is that other American producers also will travel to Russia to engage in Soviet-sponsored production. Some of the socalled "new tendencies" in Soviet film production are explained in has been set down in the Cameo theatre program reveals much of the mood of the work, and I can do no better than quote it. It says: "First Song — 'Under a Black Veil My Face.' The East. A veil of darkness. Then slowly— light. Out of ignorance and superstition toward the new ctilture the East is moving. Second Song — 'We Loved Him' — Death has come but Lenin cannot die. The people of Russia remember. Third Song — 'In the Great City of Stone' — Lenin has given us life. He has given us courage. He had led us to victory." The new Russian film is a striking motion picture, but it is not as good as Ambassador Bullitt thinks it is. Which reminds us that Ambassador Bullitt, the New Dealer tied up with recognition of Russia, Mr. H. S. Wells, whose business is making copy, and Mr. Will Rogers, whose business Is making cracks at any cost, have all been quoted In advance publicity as considering "Three Songs about Lenin" a great achievement. As Kinematograph Weekly, London trade journal, by Huntly Carter, staff writer. He describes "Love," one of the newest Russian films, as depicting the passion that was formerly personified by the "Five-Year Plan." In the picture, explained Mr. Carter, the daughter of an eminent Soviet scientist refuses to accept a Bolshevist with whom she is in love because she thinks he is too deeply in love with the Plan. To her it is the man who personifies love, not the Plan — and therein lies the "new tendency" in Soviet screen entertainment. In other words, according to Mr. Carter, they are taking sex OJit of the Plan and its machinery and putting it into human beings — truly a radical departure for the U . S. S. R. Mr. Carter had interviewed on the Continent M. Chujin, head of Mejrabpomfilm, one of the Soviet-controlled prodiiction subsidiaries, and out of the discussion came evidence that the Soviet is substituting its old idea of a closed market for its films with a new plan for widespread trade in motion pictures with principal countries. Mr. Carter added that "the mass agitation picture . . . seems to have dropped otit of future Soviet program schedules." The Soviet is most "interested in the sale of their pictures abroad," said Kinematograph's writer. economists and statesmen, we know them, and as experts on the motion picture they are nearly as naive as Mr. Sennwald. OW appertaining to Mr. Watts and his subdued criticisms, It is to be observed that he says "I am forced to doubt." There are evidences currently at hand to Indicate that this phrase Is, In his use, no mere stereotype. He seems to have doubted against his will. We find revelation of his spirit and Intent, by turning to page 14 of the November issue of New Theatre, organ of The League of Workers' Theatres. The generally acute and unbiased intelligence of the editorial policy of this publication is keynoted In the same Issue by a scream which classifies "No Greater Glory" as "Columbia's prowar film." In the Nciv Theatre Mr. Watts writes, with considerably more boldness than in the Herald Tribune, under the title of "Hollywood Sees Pink." He thrills his readers with the charge that: "The most frank and vicious anti-radical propaganda (Continued on follotrinp page, column 1)