The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Film Catalogue rHE Educational Screen is interested in the entire field of visual instruction, and believes heartily in the use of all sorts of visual aids. It is the purpose of the school department to print every month a list r current releases in non-theatrical films. It does this for the benefit of the acher who has not the time, nor perhaps the accessibility to exchanges, to tther this information for himself. HE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE (Universal) Just as we were about to conclude that > good could come out of the "chapter ay"—judging by the two historical rials previously released—Universal re- nins itself in this production and dem- istrates to our entire satisfaction that an isode presentation can be something sides a mere thriller. If the remaining els measure up to the definite achieve- nt of the first two episodes, this pro- -ction is nothing short of a remarkable ning of Defoe's classic. The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is ry wisely limited to twenty-four reels, ereby avoiding much of the deplorable adding of the previous thirty-six reel nbjects—a distortion which in this case tauld inevitably spell disaster. Even r ith this briefer treatment, later "chap- >rs" do bring in something for wWich )efoe must not be held responsible—the laboration of the activities of the seven- ten Spaniards marooned near Crusoe's iland, and the introduction of the white irl, the descendant of the Spaniards. It » doubtful, however, if even these digres- ions could spoil the fine sweep of the ction. This production had a scenario care- illly constructed with an eye to dramatic alues, a direction which makes every cene count, and sets which add rather lan detract. The interiors of Crusoe's English home leave nothing to be de- ired, and the views of the ship and the dand itself are splendidly done. Even nthusiasm must admit one exception, owever. Crusoe's surroundings on his rst night of terror on the island might have been photographed in a conserv- atory. Much of the conviction which the pro- duction carries is due to the fine quality of the acting which Harry Myers puts into his role of Crusoe. At the outset he is the somewhat dapper "swashbuckling" seventeenth century youth, with a ro- mantic fondness for the sea, who after returning from his first wanderings to find his old home deserted and his sweet- heart wooed and wed by the friend in whose charge he had left her, sets out again, on desperate adventure bound, his vessel an English privateer. Some years later he appears as the bent and lonely outcast, laboriously making his garment of goatskin, and constructing from the same material his crude bag and sun- shade. The acting has its great moments. There are pitched battles, as real as those on any pirate ship, when Crusoe defies the mutiny of the crew, and tears the black flag from the mast. There is the kneeling Crusoe, offering his prayer of gratitude on the shore of his lonely island, with his makeshift raft beached on the sands behind him. And there is the strange figure making his oddly contrived calendar—the cross in which he notches off the days and months, fearful that he lose track even of time. And finally, his discovery of the human footprint in the sand. Myers has caught the spirit and made it live—as vitally on the screen as in the youthful imagination of everyone who has fallen under its spell. May the ensuing chapters live up to the promise of the first two. 151