Cinema Quarterly (1934 - 1935)

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girl, and after various adventures reaches Washington. The first shot of his arrival shows him jumping off a freight car and facing a N.R.A. poster on the wall of a station shed, over which the dome of the capitol is visible. In Washington he finds a true friend and the future saviour of his down-trodden people : the supreme official for all Indian reservations, whose self-sacrificing struggle for the rights of his exploited wards has so far been frustrated on every side by the graft and iniquity of the powerful interests who are opposed to his aims. The case of our hero provides this official, for the first time, with tangible proof on the basis of which he can proceed to clear up this morass of graft and iniquity. The description so far given of this film would suffice to indicate its character, were it not that one exceedingly important point of the Roosevelt campaign is put across in a highly effective manner in the subsequent section of the story. For, while the senate inquiry initiated by our hero's friend is in progress, the assaulted undertaker dies of the wounds inflicted by the hero, who is thus taken back to the reservation area in order to face a murder trial. Everything depends on the production of his sister as a material witness, and, of course, this girl is kidnapped by the racketeers. Once this becomes known, the Indians, who have been roused from their previous lethargy by the fight put up on their behalf by their countryman, gather their forces and storm the gaol. But at this point the hero, once he is released, uses his entire influence to persuade them of the folly of mass action, arguing that, by taking this course, they merely expose themselves to the machine-guns of the authorities. He then proceeds, with the help of his faithful attorney, to look for his kidnapped sister. Naturally she is found in the end. The corrupt officials and racketeers are duly punished and the hero is installed as the new, honest, administrator for the reservation area — after which it is clearly his duty to marry the heroine. This most exciting film, built up with all the speed and tension of the Hollywood thriller, thus put a number of very important points of Roosevelt's propaganda campaign across wide masses of cinema-goers. By selecting the economically entirely insignificant group of exploited people represented by the Red Indians, it could safely go to extreme limits in showing the full degree of their exploitation. Imagine the results if its subject had been the American Negro — not to mention the white working class. . . . The suffering of these people is shown to be due, not to any inherent feature of the social system in which they are forced to live, but to corruption and graft on the part of influential racketeers. The solution of their ills can be brought about by a strong man 199