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FOCUS

A Film Review

(Incorporating — Catholic Film News)
Organ of the Catholic Film Institute

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69 Sumner Place Mews,

London, S. W.7

306

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THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

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FOCUS

CONTENTS

No. 1

Page

Pie-Crust and Resolutions ... 3

Communism and the Cinema ... 4

By Douglas Hyde

Film Glossary ... 7

By Andrew Buchanan

Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

White Heat 9

Hounded 9

The Great Dover 10

Crime and Punishment 10

A Stranger Walked In 11

The Countess of Monte Cristo ... 11

That Midnight Kiss 11

Come to the Stable 12

Pinky 14

Tell it to the Judge 15

Page

The Forsythe Saga 17

Martin Roumagnac 17

The Reckless Moment 17

The Spider and the Fly 18

The Great Sinner 18

The Romantic Age 19

Innocence is Bliss 19

Look for the Silver Lining ... 19

A Run for Your Money 20

Any Number Can Play 21

Institute Notes 23

New Documentaries 24

Some Films and Strips of Educa-
tional and General Interest 26
By Our Educational Panel

Cover Personality 29

Some Films Reviewed 30

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Telephone: London Wall 1389.

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FOCUS: review

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

^ Vol. HI JANUARY 1950 No. 1

Pie- Crust and Resolutions

We sometimes say that resolutions
are like pie-crust because they are
easily broken. It is no part of the
business of this Editor to play the
moralist; but he may be permitted
to observe that conviction is the
passage to will and that we break
our resolutions so very often because
we are not convinced, consciously
and un-consciously, of the reasons
which underlie our resolutions.

There is no doubt, that at the
beginning of last year, many of our
readers resolved to become members
of The Catholic Film Institute and
“meant” to introduce Focus to their
friends (and non-friends, in order to
ft change them into friends) but some-
how they didn’t, and they didn’t,
because their minds were not
properly “made-up”, they were not
convinced of the importance and
the necessity of The Apostolate of
the Cinema.

The Catholic Film Institute has
received a large measure of sym-
pathy and support from clergy and
laity at home and abroad and Focus
has been spoken of by all sorts of
people in most generous language,
yet (and it is not ungenerous to say
this) the Institute hasn’t the support
it needs for the reason that few
Catholics are convinced of the
spiritual, moral and psychological
power of the Cinema. However, we
are optimistic enough to believe
that Douglas Hyde’s article on Com-
munism and the Cinema will con-
vince many readers that they have
been sleeping while the enemy has
been sowing and reaping.

The beginning of this, the Holy
Year, is a suitable time to CON-
VINCE ourselves that the Cinema
can play, and must play, an
important part in making the world
safe for Christianity. EDITOR.

4

Communism and the Cinema

By DOUGLAS HYDE

In the winter of 1931, I travelled up
to London from the Provinces in order
to join up with the contingents of
hunger marchers who had come to the
capital from all the main industrial
centres.

The Invergordon Mutiny had made
Communists in Britain talk more hope-
fully of the possibilities for Communism
in Britain than they had dared even
dream of before.

Supposing other sections of the Navy
should mutiny too ? Supposing the
police, who had come under the
economy axe, should follow suit ?

When the “workers in uniform”
revolted, the unemployed would soon
join forces with them. The great thing
was to spread a mood of revolt.

After a big Hyde Park demonstration,
in which there were fierce fights
between unemployed and police, the
news was put around that an important
film was to be shown in a room above
a Central London pub.

With a few sailors and a great many
unemployed I went along. The film
was a vl6mm. silent, Battleship
Potemkin. Its story was of the mutiny
of the Tsarist Russian Navy in the
abortive revolution of 1905.

At that moment men were being sent
to jail for making speeches designed to
extend the Invergordon Mutiny, yet
that little film preached, under the
circumstances then prevailing, more
sedition than any speech for which our
members were being imprisoned.

Its message got right home and,
before it had run its course, had the
audience, who fully appreciated its
significance, right on their toes.

The thing to note about it is that
it was not simply the aptness of the
moment of its showing which achieved
this. It was the technical perfection
of the film itself, for it had been
produced by that master of the Soviet
propaganda film, Eisenstein, who is
reputed to have done so much to give
Chaplin his left-wing leanings.

It was in Battleship Potemkin that
Eisenstein first experimented with
photographing a panic-stricken crowd
streaming down a wide flight of stone
steps — towards the camera and death.
Those shots alone were calculated to
send out everyone present more of a
revolutionary than when he came in.

Russia early saw the possibilities of
the small propaganda film and set up a
department in the ’20s linked with the
Communist International, to specialise
upon the work.

The public was less accustomed to
16mm. films then even than they are
today and it was recognised that, if the
public other than the already-converted
were to take to them, they must be
well done.

The small film was, of course, not
only suitable for showing in improvised
halls in those days when no cinema
would accept anything remotely
smelling of Communist propaganda, it
was ideal for showing illegally too.

In every European country was set
up a Communist film organisation to be
the “receiving end” of the Moscow
organisation. It was found, in practice,
that the propaganda worked in two
ways : not only through the obvious
medium of the screen, but also by
attracting people, not necessarily
Communists at all, interested in
cinematography.

By the time that the Spanish Civil
War had begun the British organisation
was well into its stride. Not only was
it receiving and showing Soviet films,
but actually making them as well.
Kino, as it was called, had become more
than a film-showing organisation, it was
a movement, organising a large number
of people stretching from the mildest of
co-operators who liked to brighten up
an otherwise dull co-operative society’s
quarterly meeting with a film (albeit
with a Communist message), to open
and well-known Communists.

When I became Welsh National
Organiser of Spanish Medical Aid (I

5

happened to be in North Wales at the
time) and responsible for the organisa-
tion of a great succession of money-
raising and propaganda meetings, the
first thing I did was to hire the 16mm.
film Defence of Madrid. It had been
made under first by the Hon. Ivor
Montagu, now a producer at Ealing,
and a leading Communist Party
member.

That film — 100 per cent propaganda
for the anti-Franco cause — give me the
entry to places and circles who would
otherwise not have crossed the road to
attend a Communist-inspired meeting.

I took it to practically every town
and village in North and Mid Wales —
and took its message and mine with it.

I showed it so often, and hired the
machine so often, too, that in the
end I bought both an Ensign 16mm.
machine and a copy of the film out-
right to save money.

I remember showing it at a little
inland village on Anglesey where no
film had ever been shown before. And
many of those present had never in
their lives “been to the pictures’’. The
impact, quite naturally, upon their
minds was considerable and I made
converts to the cause in the most
unlikely places.

On more than one occasion I had to
connect up to the local garage’s private

ower plant or even to the one at “the

ig house” of the village, running a
quarter of a mile of flex along the
roadside to do it.

Later a sound film was made which
was also widely shown although, of
course, not on the scale of the simpler
silent one.

The good Communist is always
“apostolic”. And he knows, and has
known for years, the importance of
the film in his “apostolate”.

But the party and the organisations
it created for the work, always insisted
upon films being of the highest possible
quality.

We knew that there was widespread
prejudice against us, which had to be
broken down if ever we were to become
a mass party.

We knew, too, that people with such
prejudices would not be in a frame of
mind where they would be impressed
by a film for which it was necessary, to
apologise.

The faithful few would tolerate

anything provided only that the
message was right. But it was the
others we were after.

One almost unforeseen result of the
party’s activities in film making and
distributing was to produce in time a
number of people, Communists and
their sympathisers, qualified to work
professionally in films and the con-
sequences of that upon the industry and
so upon the public as a whole may have
been almost as important as those
which resulted from the showing of the
films themselves.

An exactly similar but even more far-
reaching development occurred as a
result of the party’s creation and
cultivation of Unity Theatre, which has
not only influenced hundreds of
thousands who have seen its shows
but has, in recent years, maintained a
steady and quite considerable outflow
of its one-time amateurs on to the West
End stage where they have made the
Communist party a force to be reckoned
with among actors.

KINO, as is the way with the party’s
organisations, changed its name from
time, to time and changed its personnel
as well. But it remained substantially
the same in aim and method right up
to the commencement of the war.

When the Soviet Union attacked
Finland and feeling was running high
against the party it was the 16mm.
film which was used to break down
some of that feeling by depicting the
Red Army as conducting a heroic
campaign against adverse physical
and climatic conditions.

But when the Nazi attack on Russia
came and with it widespread support
for the U.S.S.R. and, to some extent
for British Communists as well, the
16mm. film was largely dropped in
the larger cities and its use confined
to the smaller towns.

For the first time there were
opportunities for getting Soviet films
shown under normal cinema conditions.
The Communists are not likely to use
the second best if the best is obtainable
and, useful as they had been and still
were under certain conditions, the
sub-standard films were dropped
wherever cinemas could be prevailed
upon to show the “real thing”.

Biggest success in this direction was
when the Tatler in West London was

prevailed upon to switch over almost
exclusively to Soviet films for exhibition
to the ordinary cinema-going public, a
position it maintained for some years.

That Tatler episode was seen by the
Communist Party as being one of its
biggest successes in the film world,
reflecting the position and influence it
had been able to achieve in film circles
through the early work of KINO and
the other Communist film organisations.

The influence of Communists today in
the film industry is immeasurably

stronger than it could possibly have
been had the party not seen the
importance of the film as a vehicle
of propaganda and for moulding ideas.
And, because it attracted around its
film organisations a body of

sympathisers whose primary interest
was at first in films and film making,
but from whom it was able to win
many converts, the party has today
a formidable hold in the trade unions
catering for film workers, technicians jf j,
and others.

THE ATOM AND YOU

There are still a number of
intelligent people who regard the
cinema as wholly evil. Such
persons are surprised to read these
words of Pope Pius XI : “Good
motion pictures are capable of
exerting a profoundly moral
influence on those who see them
. . . They create or at least favour
understanding among nations,
social classes and races ...” They
are able “to contribute positively to
the genesis of a just social order
in the world”.

Fired with sentiments such as
these, a group, under the inspira-
tion of Andrew Buchanan, has come
together, with the object of
serving humanity by means of the
film. It calls itself “Film for
Humanity” and is comprised of
members of several organisations
such as the Catholic Film Institute,
the Society of Friends, Humanity
Now, etc.

“Films for Humanity” plans to
produce and encourage the distribu-
tion of films in a twofold stream.
First, films -which are made by or
on behalf of any of the component
organisations of the group will in
so far as they express sentiments in
accordance with the aims of “Films
for Humanity”, have the benefit of
the encouragement of the group as
a whole. Second, films which will
be produced by “.Films for

Humanity” for distribution by and
on behalf of the component

organisations.

Of this second group is the first
film to be made by “Films for
Humanity”. It is called The Atom
and You and is a powerful plea by
a well-known American scientist
for the positive use of atomic
energy. Dr. Daniel Posin is one
of those who, having taken part in
the researches which helped to
perfect the ghastly weapon which
slew hundreds of thousands in a
single horrible blast at Hiroshima,
resigned from his post in order to
devote himself to a world-wide
mission of mercy. He pleads for
the release of atomic energy for
medicine and other humanitarian
needs. He has developed a
dramatic demonstration-lecture in
which, by means of voice, gesture
and considerable acting ability, he
makes his audience share some-
thing of the horror of the destruc-
tion and sufferings wrought by the
explosion of the atom bomb. He
is able also to induce us to share his
optimism.

The Atom and You , as a film, has
its limitations, but it achieves its
simple purpose of capturing for a
wider audience the message and
method of Dr. Daniel Posin in a
singularly graphic manner. The
film is available in 16mm. from the
Catholic Film Institute library. It
is two reels, monochrome, and costs
one guinea plus postage to hire.

J. A. V. B.

FILM GLOSSARY

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

No. 12

FILM AND THE CHILD

It is generally agreed' that the
two most important developments
in the history of film during recent
years were the coming of Sound,
and Colour. I suggest a third
development of equal importance
is marked by the production of
films especially for children —
there being greater significance in
this work than some of us realise.

Insofar as this country is con-
cerned, films for children are even
younger than the audiences, but
already they have established
themselves. These productions
are designed to create a true sense
of values; to develop vision, and
to acquaint children with life in
other countries as it really is and
not as misrepresented bv conflict-
ing governments.

In brief, films for the young
entertain and inform in quite a
different way to programmes
made for adult consumption.
Unfortunately, there are not
sufficient children’s films or
children’s cinemas to divert
youngsters from the shows for
adults which they frequent so
regularly to see “U” films un-

attended, and “A” films when
accompanied by adults — the latter
law being one of the greatest
mistakes of all time.

The historian of the future will
list down all the extragavant
educational and child welfare
plans we have evolved for the
dear, children, and he will then
note we permit . and even en-
courage them to feed regularly on
cinema programmes made for
adults! Occasionally, a “family”
film appears which can do no harm
to children even if it does them
little good, but the majority of
adult films are entirely unsuitable
for the young and do incalculable
harm.

Films do not have to be vicious,
questionable or sensational to be
unsuitable. The nice ones were
not made for children and do not
present stories they should
witness. The fact that thousands
of kiddies revel in adult pro-
grammes is the result of filmdom
having discovered the secret of
appealing to everyone from first
to second childhood, thus turning
children into adults and adults

8

into children, which, com-
mercially, is excellent, but
spiritually, not so good.

Recently, I was planning a
classroom film, and the question
arose of making it also suitable
for adults. I thought this would
necessitate two versions, but an
educationalist said that if the film
was made suitable for children of
thirteen, it would be exactly
right for every adult! Unlucky
number, thirteen.

These facts help us to see just
how important are the children’s
films, and what an immense task
confronts their producers, who
have to make more and more films
especially for the young,
sufficiently attractive to draw
them away from the adult pro-

grammes which have become an
integral part of their young lives.

Whatever one may think of
Russia's political structure, it is
worth noting that production and
exhibition of children's films there
is highly and successfully
developed and that no children
under 16 are permitted into O
cinemas showing adult films.
(This was so a few years ago,
and I believe is still the rule.)

Anyone who has seen an
habitual young cinemagoer, over-
flowing with superficial sophistica-
tion, who has lost the freshness
and simplicity of childhood in the
darkness of the cinema, will want
to see the production of children's
films increase as rapidly as
possible for the sake of the future.

International Film Review

The new quarterly organ of the International Catholic
Cinema Office — Towards a Christian Philosophy of the Film.

Number Three now ready. Devoted mainly to the Film
in Britain.

Subscription rates: £i per annum. Obtainable from:
International Film Review, 20 Ovington Square, London,
S.W.3.

Number Four to be devoted to the Italian Cinema. Ready
shortly.

0

9

FILM REVIEWS

By Our Panel of Priests

WHITE HEAT

Starring: James Cagney, Virginia

Mayo, with Edmond O’Brien,
Fred Clark. Director: Raoul

Walsh. Distributors: Warner

Brothers. Certificate: A. Cate-
gory: A. Running time: no

minutes.

The march of crime.

There seems to have been a certain
amount of nervousness about the re-
actions to be expected from this
reversion to the gangster type of
picture. So the publicity quotes James
Cagney as saying that hoodlums remain
the same dumb braggarts, while crime
prevention and detection methods
advance along with science, and
stresses that in real life Virginia Mayo
takes a great interest in Presbyterian
Sunday Schools.

Talking of .Sunday Schools reminds
me that it was immediately after Mr.
Rank’s depressing disclosures that this
film was first shown in this country.
Hollywood, it seems, can set him an
example of economy. Adroit location
work and ingeniously inexpensive use
of studio stages have not prevented
White Heat from being described as
spectacular.

Perhaps I am the wrong person to
review this film, because when I was
young I shouldn’t have wanted to steal
and murder any more after seeing it
than before. But I gather from experts
in juvenile delinquency that its effect
upon some people would be to make
them go straight home and shoot their
mother in the back.

To me, somehow, the whole thing
seemed to have no more connection
with reality than does a detective novel.
I followed the story with a detached and
intellectual interest in the working out
of events.

There were some inimitable Cagney

touches. (The neatness of his way of
dealing with tiresome blondes has an
irresistible appeal for the unchi valrous.)
Margaret Wycherly gave to the part of
his mother an almost Barrymore flavour.
Crime marches on.

Q.

HOUNDED

Starring: George Raft, with Nina

Foch and George Macready.
Director: Ted Tetzlaff. Producer:
Irving Starr. A Columbia Picture.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time: 81 minutes.

A ' sophisticated florist, Johnny
Allegro (George Raft), with a criminal
past but a good war record, helps a
glamorous blonde (Nina Foch) and
becomes involved with high govern-
ment interests which he agrees to
serve, even though this means double-
crossing her. She has a fantastical
husband, Morgan Vallin (George
Macready), who is in a counterfeit
money racket with international
political strings to it. He lives in his
island hide-out and, more than
incidentally, believes in bows and
arrows, being a little mad. So we have
once again the familiar but never
convincing figure of the stalking archer
roaming the island for his human
quarry. Meanwhile illicit love has
been offered and nobly declined, but
the villain’s crash to death and the
government’s rewarding approval of the
quasi-hero will surely lead to the happy
ever after when the story ends.

I cannot call this a fine film. There
is a deal of violence in it which only
seems to make up for a lack of
coherence. in the plot. Sometimes, the
audience had a laugh when none was
intended — which I take to be a bad
sign.

X.

10

THE GREAT LOVER
Starring: Bob Hope and Rhonda

Fleming, with Roland Young,
Roland Culver and Richard
Lyon. A Paramount Picture.
Director: Alexander Hall.

Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time: 80 minutes.

Bob Hope is a comedian. It is his
business to make people laugh. People
will laugh at most tilings if the

comedian is clever enough. But even a
good comedian can only use what the
script writer gives him to work on. In
the present case both have run short
of genuine humour and fun and Bob is
reduced to raising sniggers by

suggestive references and innuendoes.
As the unwilling guardian of seven
American-type Boy Scouts, he runs into
trouble in the shape of card sharpers
and impecunious Russian Grand Dukes
and Duchesses. I find this kind of
thing peculiarly repugnant. Excellent
studies from the two English Rolands
do not retrieve the film from mediocrity.

V.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
(Based on the book by Dostoievsky)

Starring: Hampe Faustmann, Gunn
Wallgren and Sigurd Wallen.
Director: Hampe Faustman.

Producer: Lorens Marmstedt. A
Swedish Film. Distributors:
Film Traders Ltd. Certificate:
A. Category: A. Running time:
80 minutes.

No one will go to see a film based on
Dostoievsky’s “Crime and Punishment”
for a picnic. No one could contemplate
with pleasure his picture of the
nihilistic life of the Russia of pre-
Revolution days. The tragic theme is
presented in the film with unrelieved
gloom. Had the film achieved the level
of a work of art, that would have been
pleasant relief indeed.

For us it suffered considerably because
the spoken word was Swedish and we
had to rely entirely on inadequately
provided sub-titles. We could not so
much as guess the trend of con-
versation.

With such a disadvantage we needed
first-rate acting and good photography
to make this film bearable. We got

neither. With the notable exception of
Zametov (Sigurd Wallen), the
magistrate, we do not meet real people
at all. His duplicity, cunning and
charm made his individual performance
outstanding in contrast to the rest of
the characters who were no more than
types. Rasolnikov (Hampe Faustman)
was not a student as he was supposed
to be, bu^ just a walking, talking and
heavily breathing neurotic. His
mother, brother and sister were mask-
like attitudes, but not people, and Sonia (
(Gunn Wallgren), though pleasantly
far-removed from American stardom,
was also far from being a real human
being.

The photography was mostly in-
distinct. The economy of light was
intended, no doubt, to deepen the
prevailing gloom, but it was overdone.
Praise must be given for the sets which
were simple and realistic, and admir-
able restraint was shown even when
there might have been a temptation to
be more grandiose.

Praise cannot be meted out for the
sound-track, however. The orchestral
background did not seem to bear any
relation to what we were seeing, and -
more than once I thought it was a radio
in a neighbouring building and wished
someone would turn it off. The choral
background to the funeral was
singularly inappropriate, and was pain-
fully like the singers who used to
render the hymns in the “Lift up Your
Hearts” programme of the B.B.C. in the
bad old days before they were sub-
stituted for orchestral excerpts. Why
this sort of background for a Russian
Orthodox funeral ?

We cannot say that this is in any way
an immoral film. The murder of the
pawnbroker by the student is in no way
condoned. His motive — a very in-
sufficient one indeed — is that he thinks
the world would be a better place if it
be rid of “this louse”, and he imagines
that such a “good” act will leave
behind no remorse. Having done the
deed, he realises and is haunted by his 1
guilt and it is only finally, after
persuasion from Sonia, the prostitute,
that he finds relief of mind by con-
fessing his crime to the police and
accepting the punishment due, namely,
deportation to Siberia.

There are other points that were
worth saying : that prostitutes can have
a good side to them, can work un-

11

selfishly and even sell themselves from
a genuine love of a worthless and
drunken father ; that they can, even
while committing sin, retain a deep faith
in God — and Sonia’s was deep ; that a
murderer is capable of doing a generous
deed and may resist the grosser tempta-
tions of the flesh ; that peace of mind
can only come when guilt is admitted
and confessed ; that the respectable are
capable of wicked injustice and cruelty.

But since you know these things
already, you may spare yourself being
harrowed by this film.

G.

A STRANGER WALKED IN

Starring: John Hodiak, Sylvia Sidney,
Ann Richards, with John
Howard, Isobel Elsom. Producer:
James J. Geller. Director:
Richard Whorf. A Renown
Hollywood Production. Certi-
ficate: A. Category : A. Running
time : 81 minutes.

What with other work and making a
retreat I was quite a stranger when I
walked into the cinema. And the names
of Frank Vosper and Agatha Christie
among the technical credits led me to
look forward to an enjoyable thriller.

The film was described as “suspense
drama”. But from the first moment
that the criminal appeared, he seemed
to spare no pains, short of reading the
Wife-Murderer’s Handbook, to make it
obvious not only to the audierlce but to
his wife that he was a notorious wife-
murderer. A police notice said he had
fair hair, but might have died it. So he
"brings out a bottle of dye. And so on.
And so forth. For one wild moment I
thought perhaps he wasn’t the criminal
after all and we had been rather
cleverly led up the garden. Alas, no.

When he started digging a grave in
the cellar, after telling his wife on no
account to go down there, a lady behind
me whispered : “I suppose he’s going
to do her in”. But I had been to the
pictures before and knew that villains
don’t murder leading ladies. And
though he eluded the handcuffs — Scot-
land Yard being nearly as dumb as his
wdfe — he got in the way of a carrier’s
drav and his wdfe-murderiug career was
done, i

Most of this goes on in Devonshire in

1901. So stage rustics group them-
selves about arid talk in the American
idea of dialect, in which Somerset and
Yorkshire get liideouslv intertwined.

Crude. ' Q.

THE COUNTESS OF MONTE
CRISTO

Starring: Sonja Henie, Michael Kirby,
Olga San Juan, Dorothy Hart,
Arthur Treacher Producer:
John Beck. Director: Frederick
de Cordova. Distributors: Eros
Films. Certificate : U . Category :
A. Running time: 75 minutes.

At what point does a perfume become
a stink ? There is a stage at which it
can be called either according to taste.
So too with this film.

Sonja Henie, determined to have a
brief period of gaiety no matter what
the consequences, steals a car and
presents herself at a fashionable hotel
in Sweden as the Countess of Monte
Cristo. She has many anxious moments
but in the end escapes disagreeable
consequences unscathed.

The -perfume is the expert skating,
beautiful settings and touches of
humour. The bad smell is the amoral
nature of the whole proceeding.

The gaiety is often forced. By any
standard it is not a verv accomplished
film. ' T.

THAT MIDNIGHT KISS

Starring: Kathryn Grayson, Jose

Iturbi, Ethel Barrymore and
Mario Lanza. An M.-G.-M.
Picture. Director: Norman

Taurog. Certificate : U. Cate-
gory : C. Running time: 98

minutes.

A Romeo who brings his troupe of
instrumentalists to accompany his mid-
night serenading of a Juliet whose
battleaxe of a grandmother keeps watch
from a nearby window is definitely not
the type of Don Juan a stupid title
might lead one to expect. In fact those
who care for Tchaikowski’s more soul-
ful tunes tricked out as opera will find
this film a not unpleasing musical,
with the accent on music. Mario Lanza
is a new and good-looking tenor who
will inevitable waste a beautiful voice
singing for Leo the Lion. Pity I

V.

12

COME TO THE STABLE

Starring: Loretta Young and Celeste
Holm, with Hugh Marlowe, Elsa
Lanchester, Thomas Gomez.
Presented by 20th Century-Fox.
Director: Henry Koster.

Producer: Samuel G. Engel.

Certificate : U. Category : C.

Running time : 95 minutes.

Fog prevented my attending the
Press Show, but the courtesy of the
management of the Leicester Square
Odeon allowed me to see the film a few
days later, late enough for me to be
already armed with the published views
of the critics. Some of these seem to
be concerned about what they call the
bad taste of “making fun about nuns”.
One can appreciate the kindly and,
indeed, chivalrous instincts of critics
whose idea of nuns is that they exist in
an atmosphere of sadness and dignity.
I hope I am not myself in danger of
irreverence when I find I am not
horrified at a nun driving a jeep with

bravura. Nor am I surprised at the
shrewd unworldliness which we all
know to be the greatest and most
fruitful asset of the race of dedicated
women.

Sister Margaret (Loretta Young) and
Sister Scholastica (Celeste Holm) come
from France uninvited but with some
kind of permission to try and induce
some American bishop to allow them to
found a hospital in fulfilment of a vow
they had inexplicably been allowed to
make. They descend, penniless but full
of childlike and expert faith, upon the
Biblically named parts of New England
and make their abode, willy nilly, as far
as she is concerned, with a delightful,
eccentric, religious artist called Miss
Potts. This character is play'ed so very
tenderly by Elsa Lanchester.

By their simple assurance that every-
one wishes to help them they overcome
the responsible caution of the Bishop
(Basil Ruvsdael), enlist some initial
help from a nearby' composer (Hugh
Marlowe) and his coloured servant
(Dooley Wilson), charm money and land

0

The Sisters talk business • • -

13

from a disreputable character called
Luigi Rossi (Thomas Gomez) ; and
finally, after -some anxious moments
with a series of setbacks, they get their
hospital on the way to realisation.

It is true that there are im-
probabilities in the story, some of them
ecclesiastical. But as for making fun of
nuns, I just cannot see it. For us of the
household of the Faith, anyway, there
are plenty of laughs, but then they
a may be proprietary. The high-powered
vfP simplicity of the nuns gets the laugh
over the astute boys. So far from
making fun of nuns it may be that the
fun is extracted from the non-nuns.

I think the title of the film is a pity.

One thinks automatically of a Nativity
Play and, naturally, even a well
intended and healthy entertainment
such as this suffers from the change in
mental temperature.

Although both Miss Young and Miss
Holm give sympathetic performances,
it must be remembered that it is no
more than their own observation of the
externals of nuns that they can be
expected to follow. Whether real nuns
would react in tlieir way to these
fantastic crises is a matter of opinion.
My guess is as good as yours.

But I did very much enjoy the film —
in spite of this ghastly Hollywood con-
vention of celestial music. X.

Elsa Lanchester
gives a distin-
guished perform-
ance of Miss Potts,
a lovable but
somewhat
eccentric artist

I

l

14

PINKY

Starring: Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barry-
more, Ethel Waters and William
Lundigan. A 20th Century-
Fox Picture. Director: Elia

Kazan. Certificate : A. Category:

B. Running time : 102 minutes.

When a producer makes a film which (
sabotages the Decalogue it is customary
to describe it as “daring”. The correct
word is “unscrupulous”. When a film
is made which upholds the common
decencies of Christian Cliaritv and
Social Justice it is the fashion to use
the word “courageous”. Surely, the
right word is “honest”.

It is a sad commentary on the state
of our civilisation that either of these
words is deemed necessary in such a
context. The fact is that it needs
courage to declare that, whatever our
colour or race, whether we admit
descent from Abraham or Brian Boru,
we are all God’s children. Further, it
is now forgotten that any fool can
break the Ten Commandments : that it
requires fortitude to live a life of
integrity.

Twentieth Century-Fox deserve our
gratitude for making films like
Gentleman' s Agreement and Pinky. We
cannot blame them that they do no
more than state the problems. It
would require real courage, in view of
vested interests, to state the remedies
unequivocally. Christianity is not
popular in spite of the commercial
success of films like Bells of St. Mary’s
or Going My Way. We are, therefore,
at least glad to find the facts of anti-
semitism in Gentleman’s Agreement
and colour prejudice in Pinky, put so
plainly.

Though we are not so face to face
with the problem in this country as
they are in America, it cannot be said
that we are without fault in our f
attitude to human beings whose skin is
darker than our own. I remember a
titled lady who told me that she never
allowed her coloured servants in Africa
to have a saucer as well as a cup, lest
it should “put ideas into their heads”.

When we see Pinky, a “white
negress”, being insulted by white men
because of her race, being made to take
second place in the general store

Pinky agrees to nurse Miss Em

Negro recognises Negro

Accepted by her own . . .

15

because she is not white, being advised
to give up her just claims to property
lest" it inflame white prejudice against
her race, it is as well to let our
indignation cool to reflect that there
are many people in this country who
hate Jews because they are Jews, and
look down on coloured folk because
“they are not like us”.

' Here is an example of the cinema
being used “to favour understanding
among nations, social classes and races”
(Pius XI) and as such we welcome it.
The fact that it is an excellent piece of
film craft, well written, well directed
and well acted only makes our duty in
seeing such films all the more
pleasurable.

Jeanne Crain gives the best perform-
ance of her career as Pinky ; Ethel
Barrymore as a tyrannical old land-
owner with a soft spot for Pinky, and
Ethel Waters as Pinky’s coloured grand-
mother are superb.

V.

TELL IT TO THE JUDGE

Starring: Rosalind Russell and Robert
Cummings. Producer: Buddy

Adler. Director: Norman Foster.

Certificate: A. Category : B.

Running time: 87 minutes.

9

Humour is a funny thing answered
the schoolboy. It is! It is a very
individual thing, also. So much so that
one man’s joke is another man’s poison.
For my part the Marx brothers make
me laugh till I cry (I could harp on
Harpo for hours; for he is my favourite
who often flashes upon my inward eye
and makes all the world look glad).
I can get a lot from the humour of
Danny Kaye and Paul Douglas and
Linda Darnell in Everybody Does It,
(the best humorous film of the year?),
delighted me ; but Abbott and Costello
and Laurel and Hardy and the pie-
throwing comedians give me little
merriment. The film under review (to
me) belongs to the comic-cut school of
humour and I venture to suggest that
but for the face of Rosalind Russell and
her excellent acting there would have
been little to it.

E.

Pinky pleads her cause

The Doctor prescribes . ■ •

Pinky with her boy-friend

The

Command

^Performance

FFiLm

(

Greer Garson and Errol
Flynn, the man she
doesn’t love . . .

. . . Greer Garson and
Robert Young, the man
she does love

0

17

THE FORSYTHE SAGA.

Starring: Errol Flynn, Greer Garson,
Walter Pidgeon, Robert Young,
Janet Leigh. Director: Compton
Bennett. Producer: Leon

Gordon. Distributors: M.-G.-M.

Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time: 113 minutes.

Critics are not born, they are
educated by learning the hard lessons
of being fair, just and objective in
their criticisms. It would be easy to
fall into a trap and become unfair,
unjust and completely subjective

about this film, for the simple reason
that one’s first reaction is to say . . .
pretty good . . . lovely colouring and
all that . . . splendid performance by
Greer Garson . . . runs true to the

book . . . but, so slow and dull.

However we must realise that the
Forsythes were a dull lot who had an
abundance of material things :
property and furniture and servants
and all the things one should have,
my dear, and servants and the correct
chairs and the right pictures, and
wines and cigars and the choicest
foods and the best of everything, yet
nevertheless were poor in the things
of spirit : love, joy, laughter, peace
and spiritual riches. This picture
portrays the Forsythes and their
approach to life, admirably. Errol
Flynn makes a good Soames, a man
of property who possesses all things,
yet possesses nothing. He owns his
wife Irene (Greer Garson), but he does
not possess her heart; he has money
to burn but he cannot buy one drop
of her love, whereas her affections go
out to Bossiney, Robert Young, who
hasn't a penny to bless himself with,
but has charm, imagination and
intelligence.

I recommend this film for its story
value; for its fine portrayal of
characters; and for its wholesome
moral tone. I like the story because
it is allied to life. Such people as the
Forsythes have lived, do live and no
doubt will continue to live; they will
continue to prove also that
worshippers of power and money

become dull and dreary and get no
fun out of life. E.

MARTIN ROUMAGNAC

Starring: Marlene Dietrich and Jean
GaJbin. Director: Georgesi

Lacombe. Distributors: Films de
France. Certificate: A. Category ;
A. Running time: 99 minutes.

Dietrich and Gabin are a team
intended to rouse the passions of those
who look to films for excitement rather
than entertainment. An immoral
intention, but it is not realised. I have
rarely seen sc dull a film. A small-
time builder who is infatuated by a
beautiful adventuress, eventually kills
her, is acquitted and then allows himself
to become a target for the gun of a
jealous rival.

The acting is indifferent, the lighting,
even in exteriors, more artificial than
is customary in French cinema, the
photography, last refuge of the
charitable critic, mediocre.

V.

THE RECKLESS MOMENT

Starring: James Mason and Joan

Bennett, with Geraldine Brooks
and Henry O’Neill. A Columbia
Picture. Director: Max Opuls.

Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 82 minutes.

Wondering what to say about this
film, I feel I cannot improve on the
phrase which heads the publicity blurb :
“She kept a date with DANGER . . .
he came, a MAN of DARKNESS . . .
and closed in on her like the night” !
Reading that, you know what you are
in for. Perhaps it is a little misleading
about a mother who only wanted to
protect her daughter from an un-
desirable association, but finds herself
involved with a dead man and two
blackmailers ! The peculiar ethics
which govern screen crooks induce
James Mason to agree to take only half
the sum demanded ; this because he
likes Joan Bennett more than some-
what. To end the film he confesses to
two murders and commits suicide. It
should be added that Mr. Mason has not
forgotten his Irish accent. It serves to
remind us of Odd Man Out.

V.

18

THE SPIDER AND THE FLY
Starring: Eric Portman, Nadia Gray
and Guy Rolfe with Edward
Chapman, Maurice Denham,
George Cole and John Carol. A
Mayflower Production. Director:
Robert Hamer. Certificate : A.

Category : B. Running time : 95
minutes.

The Police Chief and Gentleman
Crook who mutually admire but fight
each other are characters familiar to me
from many a surreptitiously-read paper-
backed novel in my youth. Even the
denouement, in which the crook and
the cop crack a crib together for the
honour of their country! Still, the
Press synopsis assures us that the story
is based on fact. Maybe. It is, none-
theless, unlikely, in spite of the
excellent work of Eric Portman as the
Police Chief and the particularly pleasing
sets designed by Edward Carrick which
evoke so beautifully the boulevard and
riverside atmosphere of Paris. Also
satisfying to an unusual degree is the
photography of Geoffrey Unsworth. The
firm hand of the director is likewise
evident in many small touches in a film
which, though it has its moments of
tension and a surprise ending, seems
hardly worth the attention of the maker
of It Always Rains on Sunday.

Guy Rolfe is handsome as the Crook
but little more. On the other hand, a
number of small parts stand out for
excellence : John Carol in a double role
during one of which he admirably ex-
presses terror while crossing a roof-
high girder : George Cole as the Police
Chief’s stooge, rendered, for once,
convincingly ; Maurice Denham in one
of his more developed characters as a
pompous War Office Colonel : Edward
Chapman in a lifelike make-up as
Aristide Briand : James Hayter as a
provincial Mayor.

Nadia Grav is a new face on our
screen, a Roumanian actress about
whom it is too early to say whether she
acts or is naturally dumb.

An unusually likely ending demands
that this film should be seen the right
way round.

V.

THE GREAT SINNER
Starring: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner,
Melvyn Douglas, Walter Huston.
Director: Robert Siodmak.

Producer: Gottfried Reinhardt.

Presented by M.-G.-M. Certi-
ficate-. A. Category. B. Running
time : 109 minutes.

It would be difficult to say how many
films have started in a poorly-furnished
garret with the leading actor lying sick
and neglected on his death bed. The
next move is the flash-back, in order to
explain how it all happened. This is a
simple and effective way of doing the
job, and the first few times it seems
clever. But the time has come, one
cannot but feel, for a new solution to
this problem to be discovered.

With that reservation, it can be said
without fear of contradiction that this
is a very good film. Hollywood has
managed to capture the atmosphere of
Europe (the scene is set in Germany)
which is no mean achievement. It is
all tlioroughlv cis-Atlantic if one may-
coin a word. The period, 1860, seems
genuine also ; at least there are no
obvious anachronisms. The acting is
competent. Gregory Peck is as usual
somewhat ponderous and Melvyn
Douglas successfully portrays what is
for him a rather unusual character — the
manager of the Casino. Walter Huston
and Ava Gardner are an excellent pair
as father and daughter and they never
let themselves forget the relationship.
It is, moreover, a careful film in details,
especially in a short sequence showing
the end of a Requiem Mass. Short and
unimportant, it nevertheless showed
great care, even if it had to be called
a memorial service for the benefit of the
uninstructed.

The theme is gambling and the story-
tells of its evil effects and of its
inability to give what the gambler
seeks from it. We see Fedja, a young
writer, drawn into the toils of the
gambling tables by his desire to save
Pauline and her father from the clutches
of Armaud de Glasse, the casino
manager. Fedja wins a fortune and is
in a position to redeem his friend’s
notes, but he has tasted success and
cannot stop himself from risking his
winnings. Thus he loses everything.
He sinks to the depths of human

19

ignominy in satisfying his passion for
gambling, and he even loses the rights
over his whole future literary output.
He finds his soul again in writing the
story of his downfall and we end in the
garret in which we began.

Much in the story is trite, but it is
well told and at no point does it drag.
Certainly a film worth a special visit to
the cinema.

U.

THE ROMANTIC AGE
Starring: ' Mai Zetterling, Hugh
Williams, Margot Grahame,
Petula Clark, with Carol Marsh,
Raymond Lovell and Paul
Dupuis. A Pinnacle Production.
Director: Edmond T. Greville.

Certificate : A. Category: A.

Running time : 86 minutes.

There is a law, I am told, which
prohibits advertising matter which gives
a false impression of what is to be seen
on the screen inside the cinema. The
hoardings which invite you to see The
Romantic Age are certainly breaking
this law with their implications of
underclad schoolgirls in the presence of
doting schoolmasters. The film is
suitably dressed but has little else to
justify a stupid story of a middle-aged
master’s infatuation for a sophisticated
French minx impossibly played by Mai
Zetterling. There is regrettable wastage
of talent. Carol Marsh as a schoolgirl
has little more to do than look wet at a
swimming pool. Petula Clark, who has
developed into a charming young lady,
tries much too hard in a unconvincing
role as a master’s daughter. Paul
Dupuis fails to look like a Chelsea play-
boy. One of the films which make one
think the anti-Ranks have something.

V.

INNOCENCE IS BLISS
Starring: Lucille Ball and William
Holden. Director: Lloyd Bacon.
Producer: S. Sylvan Simon. A
Columbia Picture. Certificate :
U. Category: B. Running time:
88 minutes.

In this film Lucille Ball is the most
incompetent of the stenog. school. She
also has good looks. For these two

qualities she is chosen by William
Holden, as Dick Richmond, to be the
secretarv of his bogus estate agency,
which is only a cover for an illicit
bookie’s business. He regards her
beauty and brainlessness as valuable
assets and uses her charm to foist off
the house seekers, while hoping she
will not rumble the true nature of his
business. In her innocence she commits
the firm to a real property contract
which gives great embarrassment to the
firm and plenty of amusement to the
audience.

A light comedy this, requiring only
slight comment : it is a film you won’t
mind seeing at all.

LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING
Starring: June Haver, Ray Bolger,
Gordon McRae, Charlie Ruggles.
Director: David Butler. Producer:
Jack L. Warner. Certificate: U.
Category : C.

The silver lining of song and dance
(to my way of looking and listening,
gay and genial) runs through this film.
It is just right for this season of the
year ; it propounds no mighty problem ;
it is light and bright and relaxing and
should be accepted as such, and even
though it is a bit sentimental, why-
worry ? A little sentiment, at the right
time, keeps the heart hearty and the
head healthy.

Through flash-backs we follow the
career of Marilyn Miller (June Haver)
who when a smiling young thing of
twelve and still wearing pigtails,
danced her way into the show business
and by force of talent and a sweet

personality captured all hearts (and the
heads of those box office snoopers who
do not wrap up other people’s talents
in a napkin) June made the show
business her career and died in harness.

I don’t like her singing very much
but the rhythm, the grace and the

originality of her dances are delightful.
She is ably aided by Ray Bolger who is
a nice fellow to meet and who can

dance and act. Marilyn’s Paw and Maw

and sisters and Gordon MacRae who
sings, contribute to the film and S. Z.
Sakall, the sentimental old fool whose
face plops all over the place has one
new joke, which is a lemon.

E.

20

A RUN FOR YOUR MONEY
Starring: Donald Houston, Moira
Lister, Alec Guinness and Mere-
dith Edwards. A Michael Balcon
Production. Director: Charles

Frend. Certificate : U. Category :
C. Running time : 80 minutes

approx.

Ealing Studios have done it again.
After a series of comedies starting with
Hue and Cry in London, a dash to
Another Shore in Ireland, a trip to the
Scottish Hebrides for Whiskey Galore
and hack again to London for a
Passport to Pimlico, they have secured
a number of Welshmen to give you .1
Run for Your Money, complete with
Welsh harpers, singers, footballers,
miners and preachers. The fact that
these Cymric types spend most of their
film time in London does not lessen the
Ancient British character of the story.
All the old jokes about the Jones’ exile
to England, the witcheries of London
girls, the tongue-defying qualities of
Welsh place names, and the rest of the
repertoire, are brought in ; but so deft
is the handling of the script (Richard
Hughes, Charles Frend, Leslie Norman)
they all take on new life and produce
true laughter. In spite of the acidulated
references of one or two of the
professionals to “clean British fun”, I
do not remember such honest and
spontaneous laughter from critics for a
very long time.

There is a clean, decent atmosphere
about the Ealing products which

deserves to be more widely studied by
those who claim to know what the
public wants. Of Sir Michael Balcon, the
producer of these films, it would be less
than just to say that he has been lucky
in his films for he is a man with a long
experience of the cinema and has paicf
the public the compliment of studying
their taste. His secret is to aim at first-
class work in all departments : script,
sets, direction, acting. The result is
pure entertainment entirely lacking in
those suggestive and tasteless allusions
which seem to be inseparable from most
of the screen offerings claiming the
title of comedy.

Donald Houston and Meredith
Edwards are two Welsh miners who win
a trip to London and two hundred
pounds between them. Moira Lister is
a confidence girl who tries her hardest
to separate the Jones and their money.
Alec Guinness is a gardening
correspondent who has been told to
look after the two miners for the day
(“How very much I prefer
vegetables!”). If I say that Alec
Guinness is excellent I do not wish to
belittle the ingenuous portrayals of
Houston or Meredith Edwards; it is
only that they seemed to be just them-
selves while Guinness is building up a
character. Moira Lister, too, plays
charmingly and one almost fell for her
line in sudden conversions. Hugh
Griffith as a bucolic and bibbling harper
is magnificent. Joyce Grenfell con-
tributes a gem of characterisation as a
West-West End modiste.

This is a film to see : once, twice and
again. V.

Twm thumbs a lift . . . Barney tries to . . .

21

Any Number Can Play

Starring: Clark Gable and Alexis

Smith, with Wendell Corey,
Audrey Totter, Frank Morgan,
Mary Astor and Lewis Stone.
Producer: Arthur Freed. Director:
Mervyn LeRoy. Distributors:
M.-G.-M. Certificate'. A. Cate-
gory : A . Running time : 102

minutes.

Vice, Dice and Angina Pectoris. As
Charley Enley Kyng, Clark Gable runs
an honest gaming establishment. On
the proceeds he keeps his wife (Alexis
Smith), his adolescent son, his wife’s
sister and her worthless husband in
comfortable circumstances. But
Charley Kyng has Angina Pectoris and
unless he retires, drink, smoke and
tension will finish him off. Very well,
he will go fishing with his wife and son.
But the son, dogged in his college life
by the social stigma of his father’s
despised profession, resents his father,
and will not go fishing. And with their
son in that defiant mood, his wife feels
she cannot go fishing either. So
Charley Enley Kyng, hurt, returns to
his smoke and drink, and even toys
with vice.

After a number of incidents which
stress the rift between father and son,
and the possibility of a rift between
husband and wife, the latter learns of
her husband’s disease and determines
to bring father and child together again
befote it is too late. To do this she
brings the boy to the Casino where a
game of crap is in progress (crap is an
American game played with dice). A
rich customer is having a run of most
astonishing luck. As the game proceeds,
ruin stares Charley in the face. He is
advised to stop the game and cut his
losses. But no; he puts his all upon a
final throw — and wins.

Before he can put his winnings safely
away, the whole party is held up by a
pair of crooks. Now a gambler has no
friends (Charley has said so himself)
and Charley faces the crooks alone,

calling their bluff. But what is this ?
Charley is no longer alone : his son has
left the group of cowering spectators
and stands at his father’s side.
Heartened by this example, others
follow and soon Charley is backed by
a band of friendly customers, faithful
employees and even bv the loser of the
game of crap. The crooks are easily
overpowered and kicked out and the
guests disperse.

Alone with his wife, his son and the
faithful employees, Charley draws and
pockets a card from a pack. He tells his
men to draw for the Casino, against
whatever they can raise. They draw a
nine. A willing loser, Charley goes off
happily with his wife and son. As they
go, his wife takes a look at the card he
has drawn. It was a knave !

So captivating is the charm of Clark
Gable and so exciting are the last
fifteen minutes of this film, that the
adolescent heroics, the cheap sentiment
and the confused thought of it are
forgotten. All the more necessary then,
to examine its moral implications.

Clark Gable as the hero must
obviously have cur sympathy. In
order to get by the censorship he must
therefore be a good man. But as the
proprietor of a gambling hell he might
(if he were not Clark Gable) quite well
be a bad man. His goodness must
therefore be established. This is done
(a) by his charm ; (b) by his honesty ;
the worthless brother-in-law, employed
in the Casino, is blackmailed b}7 the
crooks into using loaded dice on their
behalf, though he knows well enough
that discovery would mean his instant
dismissal; (c) by his kindness; Charley
finds a woman in despair at having lost
her all on a horse (the establishment
includes a Turf Commission Agency),
pretends that a mistake has been made
about the winner and so refunds her the
money ; an elderly and ruined client
feels that his luck is in once more, so
Charley gives him a stake to try again.
When the old gentleman loses and
tries to commit suicide, Charley
prevents him and sends him home in a
cab ; (d) by his generosity ; he gives
the Casino to his faithful employees.

22

The profession of the hero and the
subject of the film is one of which many
filmgoers disapprove. Gambling must
therefore be shown in an unfavourable
light. This is attempted (a) by the
woman and her horse and the ruined old
man (as above) ; (b) by the distress of
the neglected wife who, for comfort in
her loneliness, has to resort to a
memory room in the basement of their
private residence; (c) by the attitude of
the son. He has a grudge against his
father. True, he declares he doesn’t
believe in gambling. But the main
cause of his resentment, as he explains
at great length to a girl friend, is his
father’s ability to do everything better
than he can.

Furthermore, since gambling is not
generally accepted as “a good thing”, it
would be more seemly if the hero gave
it up. . Most conveniently that problem
is settled by the Angina Pectoris. This
is made clear (a) by a medical
consultation ; (b) by an attack which
comes in the nick of time to prevent
Charley from going fishing with Mary
Astor, in consolation for the disappoint-
ment due to the refusal of his wife and
son ; (c) by a second attack which comes
on as Charley stakes his all in the
spectacular game of crap (fortunately a
tablet placed under the tongue provides
speedy relief).

So with the hero on the side of the
angels, with gambling condemned and,
in the end, triumphantly given up, we
can get by the censorship and the
public can enjoy the climax of a wildly
exciting game of crap with a good
conscience.

Or can it ? It is the teaching of the
Church that gambling is not in itself
sinful. In fact gambling is a luxury,
and a luxury is not necessarily a sin.
Those who totally disapprove of
gambling have usually suffered in some
way from its abuse. Paul, the son of the
hero in this film ‘‘does not believe in
gambling”. Had he been able to
analyse what he meant by that, it would
probably boil down to an objection to
being exposed to the ever-present risk
of becoming the son of a ruined man.
A perfectly valid objection, too.

It is, of course, the abuse of gambling
which is sinful. To risk money that is
due for the maintenance of the family
is a sin. To allow gambling to become
a passion is a sin. It prevents one

paying due attention to one’s duties and
plays fast and loose with personality.
It can become an idolatry, as sport can
become an idolatry. And the trouble
with gambling is that it can so easily
be abused, as there can be few7 delusions
so attractive as the hope of getting
something for nothing.

During the course of this film there is
nothing to indicate even an implicit
approval of sinful gambling. That Kyng
runs a place that is open to abuse is
neither here nor there. It is not sinful
to run a decent public house ; it is no
more sinful to run a decent Casino. And
in any case, neither Kyng’s wife nor his
son really want him to run the place and
I am sure we are all very glad that
Clark Gable is able to give it up with-
out loss of face.

But what of the way Kyng gets away
with other people’s money : is not that
sinful ? That question is dealt with in a
scene where a couple w7ho have lost
money come and complain to Charley
and his wife that he has robbed them
of their all. Charley replies with some
justice that if they had been the
winners they would not have given him
much sympathy if he had come
complaining to them.

So far so good. It is not until the
end of the film that art falls foul of
ethics. And how foul ! For the end is
happy. That is to say, the good man is
united to his w7ife and child, the
fortune has been saved, the good
employees are generously rewarded, the
crooks have been put to flight and the
man who staked heavily and lost was
so rich that it really did not matter. It
is an end of which the audience w'ill no
doubt approve. But how7 has it been
achieved ? By Kyng staking everything
he has upon the throw of the dice — and
winning. Suppose he had lost ?

Had Kyng lost, his w7ife and child
would have suffered from his grave sin
of injustice. But his grave sin of
injustice (and please Mr. Film-maker
get this clear) w7ould not lie in his
losing, but in his taking the risk at all.

Kyng should never have gambled to
that extent. When things were getting
out of hand he should have cut his
losses and closed the game. But that
would have spoilt the film. Instead, w7e
go away approving the happy end.
And that will spoil our morals — but
who cares ! W.

23

INSTITUTE NOTES

Films For Humanity

Readers will notice in this issue a
reference to the newly formed Film
Council, Films for Humanity. The
training scheme mentioned recently will
operate under these auspices. It is to
be understood that while our object is
to formulate groups technically trained
to professional standards of efficiency,
we do not invisage the training of
apprentices for the commercial film
market. Many missionary priests are
equipping themselves as technicians in
commercial studios, but their object is
not to enter into competition with
laymen who get their living from film
making, but to make and use films in
accordance with the directions of
“Vigilanti Cura” which insists on pro-
fessional standards when Catholics
make films.

This does not mean professional
standards in film costing. We claim the
right, and we hope to have the ability,
to use film for religious purposes with-
out submitting to the fantastic financial
limitations proper to the commercial
entertainment product.

Science and Religion

Many readers ask us about the Faith
and Fact Films, God of the Atom and
God of Creation. These excellent
pictures made bv the Moody Bible
Institute of Science, Los Angeles, were
reviewed by “Q.” in the May 1948
issue of Focus, page 116. Copies of this
issue are available, price 7d., post free.

Welcome Reading

The letter in the last issue of Focus
from Edward J. Higgins was welcome
reading. It is perhaps not understood
that the kind of regional groups we
have in mind need not consist of large
numbers of enthusiasts. This kind of
apostolate always begins with the few,
like Christianity itself. Where are the
twelve Catholic film apostles ?

Study Week-ends

Study week-ends and Conferences are
already envisaged for Dundee, in
March and at the Scottish Passionist

Retreat House later on. One day
conferences on various film subjects are
to take place at Oxford, in January.
Perhaps persons who are interested in
the regional idea could get in touch
with us. We shall be glad to co-operate.

Film Competition

One primary object in inviting entries
from cinematographers was to give us
a basis for estimating the standard of
efficiency already available among our
Catholic enthusiasts so that we might
judge how near we are to having a
source of supply for our scheme of
vocational film makers. If you have a
film which you have made, do not
hesitate to send it along.

Interest Grows

Very Rev. Fr. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.,
revealed the fact that interest in the
Fatima film has extended to several
countries. He also revealed that the
Foreign Office has bought ten copies of
Crucifers to Walsingham. About the
contemplated “Thomas More” film, he
said that it would be a gigantic under-
taking and would need careful planning.

Monk Makes Film in Tibet

The Catholic Church produces some
very Catholic types. One of the most
unusual must be the Abbe Detry. Pro-
fessional boxer, sailor and explorer, he
turned his mind to the priesthood,
becoming a monk of St. Bernard.

Fr. Detry has now returned from a
tour in Tibet on the boarders of which a
branch of the St. Bernard Monastery has
been founded. In the course of his
travels he managed to make a 16mm.
film, in spite of the well-known dislike
of the Tibetans of photography of any
kind.

The Catholic Film Institute, in con-
junction with the Challenor Club, is
arranging for Fr. Detry to give a lecture
in the course of which he will show
his film. This will take place in mid-
January, probably at Westminster
Cathedral Hall. Please look out for
details in the Catholic Press.

24

NEW DOCUMENTARIES

By J. A. V. B.

OUT OF THE DARKNESS

The Medical Missionaries of Mary
were pioneers among religious con-
gregations in using film professionally
to tell the story of their foundation and
work. Now another group of Irish
Sisters follows their example with a film
which bids fair to emulate the success
of Visitation. This time it is the
Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary,
of Killeshandra, Co. Cavan, and they
have called their film Out of the
Darkness, an apt title, for their work is
to bring the light of Christianity as

well as the benefits of medicine and
education to the dark places and peoples
of Africa.

It is enough now to say that it is a
beautiful piece of work, photographed
by Pat Butler and directed by Desmond
Toomev, two young Irishmen who have
a flair for film making and from whom
we shall expect to hear much more later
on. Mr. Toomev has ideas about the
future of film in Ireland : we hope that
he will go far on the way to realising
them. Thev are in accord with our
own and Out of the Darkness, his first

full-length film, will certainly establish
his reputation as a significant figure in
the field of Irish cinema.

The Catholic Film Institute has been
asked to arrange a London Premiere ,
for Out of the Darkness and it is hoped \
that it may have its first public show-
ing sometime during the. latter half of
January. It is a feature documentary
and covers much ground in its twelve
reels, from the foundation of the
Congregation in Cavan in 1924, to the
profession of some native Sisters in
Nigeria in 1949.

We hope to have the privilege of the
distribution of 16mm. copies of the film.
Please look out for further details in
the Catholic Press.

AT THE SIGN OF THE FLYING
ANGEL

Producers: Selwyn Films Ltd.

Sponsors: Missions to Seamen.

Running time : 20 minutes.

This film, made by Christopher
Radley for the Church of England
Missions to Seamen, is a simply-told

25

and beautifully photographed docu-
mentary account of what that organisa-
tion does for seamen of all denomina-
tions, and might well serve as an
inspiration to our Apostleship of the
Sea to let its own very considerable and
rather wider work be made known to
the vast audiences reached by the
cinema. Should it ever embark on such
a film it is to be hoped that it will pay
more attention to the commentary than
was done in the present film. There are
obvious and unnecessary cliches instead
of the film speaking for itself as it
could so often do. A commentary in
such a case needs to enhance the
visuals not underline them. As a result
the beautiful voice of Anthony Kimmins
is largely wasted.

LOURDES PILGRIMAGE, 1948

Produced and Photographed by
the Rev. F. E. Young. 2 reels,
Kodachrome. Silent. Owners
Scottish Catholic Truth Society,
Edinburgh.

Father Young is one of the pioneers
of the Catholic Film Movement in
England. Last year he was invited by
the Scottish Catholic Truth Society to
provide a record of their pilgrimage to
Lourdes under the leadership of Arch-
bishop McDonald. The result is a
beautiful piece of colour photography
which will arouse nostalgic memories in
the minds of the lovers of Lourdes.

The film records the traditional
exercises of piety, the Bathing of the
Sick, the Procession of the Blessed
Sacrament as well as the Torchlight
Procession and some pilgrims in their
more leisure moments.

If one must find a fault with the film,
it is that it does not live up to the
promise of careful scripting noticeable
in the early scenes. Since it was

inevitably a piece of reporting, perhaps
this is not to be wondered at.

Though not for distribution in the
ordinary way, those interested in this
useful film might do well to ask the
owners for permission to show it outside
the limits of the city for which it was
made.

PEACE WORK

Produced, Photographed and Com-
mentary written and spoken by
Alan Turner. 2 reels, Koda-
chrome. Obtainable: Spa Lane
Mills, Derby.

Mr. Alan Turner’s new film is perhaps
the best possible illustration of the
warning given in “Vigilanti Cura” that
Catholics should employ professional
film makers to make Catholic films if
those films are to succeed.

The most serious criticism must
be of the long captions, taken from
the sayings and writings of Harmel,
which appear from time to time. They
are important to the theme, but their
presentation in tall block letters running
right to both edges of the screen made
them trying to read and so one tended
to disregard them and their import was
lost.

Mr. Turner, speaking at the premiere
of the film, said that one had to visit
Val-des-Bois in order to appreciate its
atmosphere ; but it is the task of the
film maker to convey his own
experience to those, less fortunate than
he, whose only means of participation in
the scenes which have inspired him is
through the cinema, and this task Mr.
Turner has not performed.

It is interesting to compare Peace
Work with his earlier film The Sacrifice
We Offer. In the latter he undertook
to heighten the spectator’s appreciation
of something familiar and he succeeded
because there was no barrier of an
unshared experience between him and
his audience. In his present film his
audience is presented with too great a
task of 'imagination whether it devotes
most of its attention to the pictures or
to the commentary.

Perhaps it is because Mr. Turner,
whose zeal for the film apostolate is so
apparent, so isolates himself in the
making of his films. Collaboration,
dangerous in literature and the drama,
almost impossible in music, and un-
thinkable in printing and sculpture, is
an essential of the cinema.

Michael Leyland.

26

Some Films and Strips of
Educational and General! Interest

By Our Educational Panel

LIBRARIES

Gateway Film Library, 9 Edward Close,
St. Albans, Herts.

Dawn Trust, Aylesbury, Bucks.

G.B.I. Film Library, Aintree Road,
Perivale, Middx.

Common Ground Ltd., Sydney Place,
London, S.W.7.

Wallace Heaton Ltd., 127 New Bond
Street, London, W.l.

British Gas Council, 1 Grosvenor Place,
London, S.W.l.

Petroleum Information Bureau, 46 St.
James Place, London, S.W.l.

FILMS

A ROMAN EPISODE

Gateway, 1 reel, 10 minutes, coloured.
Hire : Silent, 10/-; Sound, 12/6.

An informative film based on excava-
tions at St. Albans and covering many
aspects of social life — the theatre,
costume, religion, etc. The position of
St. Albans in relation to other Roman
towns and roads' is shown and much
useful information is provided by the
comparison of actual remains of the
walls, foundations of buildings, the
theatre, with models of the buildings as
they would appear reconstructed. Close-
ups of the remains of the wall with
“lacing” courses of flat, red tiles in
the main fabric of flint show clearly the
materials used and methods of building
and numerous objects of daily use,
such as pottery, ornaments and bronze
objects are provided by the Verulamina
Museum. The dress of all classes is
shown in the concluding scenes of daily
life and appears to special advantage in
the attractive colours of the film. This
is an interesting production containing
useful and well-arranged material and
would be suitable either as an intro-
duction to or revision of life in Roman
Britain.

Suitability : 13 plus.

MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

Gateway, 1 reel, 10 minutes, coloured.
Hire : as above. ,

This background film of medieval '
life, shows the work, recreations, dress
and buildings of the period, the sound
version, in addition, providing medieval
music played on the pipe and tabor.
Beginning with life on the manor, an
animated plan shows the working of the
three-field system and leads on to
scenes from the villein’s life —

cultivating his strip, gathering fuel and
joining the other village folk in the
dancing and festivities of a Holy Day.
Other centres of medieval life, the
castle and monastery, are also shown,
but more briefly and models are used
to show principles of construction.

This film, like the others, consists
mainly of scenes from a pageant and
gains and loses on this account. While
the setting is beautiful and the cast
large, the choice of incident seems
sometimes determined by what was
available, rather than by what the
subject of the film requires. Something
might have been included of life in the
manorial hall or the holding of the
manor court and more emphasis laid on
the importance of the Church to the
medieval community. As a brief
summary of a number of activities, the
film is useful and conveys a good
impression of the colour and life of
Merrie England.

Suitability : 12 plus.

VICTORIAN HOLIDAY

Gateway, 1 reel, 5 minutes, coloured,
silent. Hire : 5/6.

As a short film, this is more success- (
ful than the last since the aim is to
create an atmosphere and a single
impression rather than portray a series
of connected events. This is extremely
useful for amusements and costume,
some of which will be familiar from the
first pages of the family album. Here
is the penny-farthing and cricket on the
village green, dated with its underarm

27

bowling, and all that is most character-
istic of Victorian dress, little boys in
sailor suits or short jackets with wide
breeches fastened below the knee with
the girls in their straw hats and wide
sashes, the men distinguished by their
top hats and narrow trousers and the
women by a colourful assortment of
feathers, ribbons and posies.

Suitability : 13 plus.

18th CENTURY ELECTION

Gateway, 1 reel, 5 minutes, coloured.

Hire: sound 7/6; silent 5/6.

A brief presentation of all the activities
incidental to an eighteenth century
election — the electioneering speeches,
bribery of voters with money and free
beer, the actual voting procedure and
fights following the announcement of
the result. The film as a whole is
disappointing, chiefly because it tries to
convey too much in too short a time.
The episodes have to be presented
summarily and the result is confusing
and fails to carry conviction.

Suitability : 13 plus.

The “SYMPHONIES IN STONE”
series are the kind of film of which one
does not grow tired. Schools or clubs
which aim at forming a film library of
their own might do well to include
some of these among their early
acquisitions.

Dawn Trust, R.F.325, 1 reel each, sound.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

is truly an “Inspiration Film”. Against
a background of beautiful music, the
architectural and historical glories of
England’s old Abbey are viewed. The
altars, the tombs, the statuary, the
exquisite fan-vaulting are seen, each in
its own setting, and the commentary
if a little rapid, is nevertheless clear,
simple and dignified.

LINCOLN CATHEDRAL

is a worthy companion film to the
above. With the same musical setting
and an equally excellent commentary,
one of the architectural triumphs of
East Anglia is shown to us. It is true
that this film has not the same universal
appeal as Westminster Abbey for the
subject is not so intimately entwined
with English History but it has its own

special value as giving a fine portrayal
of a great Gothic cathedral.

“They dreamt not of a perishable
home

Who thus could build ...”

So quotes the commentator and truly
this film brings home to us the genius
and amazing skill and industry with
which our forefathers built. The
magnificent proportions, the beauty of
sculpture the delicate tracery of the two
rose windows, the Dean’s Eye and the
Bishop’s Eye appear to advantage and
particularly successful are the effects of
light and shade.

Suitability : 14 plus, or adult

audience. General interest.

THE NATION’S WEALTH

British Gas Council, sound. Free loan.

This is an enlightening film, in
colour, with a commentary by Freddie
Grisewood, showing how coke and gas
are produced from coal and how in the
purifying process the raw materials for
a great variety of everyday articles are
obtained — nylons, plastics, dyes, scents,
drugs, D.D.T., fertilisers, etc. A film
of general interest.

FRENCH “U” and LA GARE

Two films for the teaching of French.

G.B.I. Language and Literature

Films. F.513, F.512, sound.

The name of M. Stephan demonstrat-
ing these films is sufficient to indicate
their value.

French “17”. This film demonstrates
a method of teaching this difficult
sound. We see the master in front of
his class. He explains to his pupils
exactly how to make the sound. Then
the boys make it. The failure of one of
them to produce it leads to a further
explanation.

The film is quite useful and could be
profitably used with a first year French
class as a revision of this sound.

La Gare. This second film of the
series is more advanced. Most people
love a station and with two main speak-
ing characters, a departure scene at a
railway station is portrayed with a
background of all the life and bustle and
interest of a French railway station.

Classes may find it difficult to under-
stand the first time unless they are
carefully prepared and their ears are

28

well trained for French sounds. The
film, however, should be very useful and
could be used at the end of the first year
with a good class, or in second year. It
might also be used for revision with a
fourth year class.

FILM STRIPS

REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE
WORLD— DENMARK

N. V. Scarfe. G.G.B. 206. Obtainable
from library of Wallace Heaton.

This film strip is one of the Regional
Geography Series, and is divided into
"four sections dealing with the land and
the animals, the farm, towns and
industries of Denmark. The first two
parts are excellent, giving typical
pictures of the countryside, fertile and
infertile, and emphasising all the main
features of Danish dairy-farming.

The towns’ section has less
opportunity, the best picture being one
of the centre of Copenhagen, and the
only industries shown are the making
of Copenhagen china and shipbuilding,
the latter in rather poor pictures, by
aerial views of the docks.

The strip concludes with two very-
good diagrammatic comparisons of
land utilisation and occupations of the
population in Scandinavia, the Dow
Countries and the United Kingdom.
The whole strip is well constructed and
accompanied by full teaching notes.

THE STORY OF OIL

Petroleum Information Bureau, Free
loan.

This is a strip of 54 frames showing
by picture and diagram the What ?
Where ? How ? Why ? of petroleum,,
its origin, prospecting, mining, refining
and products. It can be supplemented
by samples and mounted photographs
(also free loan), and by wall-charts (4/6
set of 3). Together, these give a working
knowledge of an important subject.

Suitability : 16 plus.

Note. The reviewers apologise to G.B.E.
Library for the mistake made on page
323 of November issue. The present
address is : G.B.E. Ltd., Aintree

Road, Perivale, Greenford, Middx.

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS’ FUND

IF one fourth of the Catholic population in England and Scotland
contributed a penny a day for 240 days The Catholic Film Institute
in England would be able to set up a production unit.

It was the pennies of the Catholic population in France which made
possible the making of the film Monsieur Vincent.

Kindly send donation to:

Rev. J. Burke, 357 Beulah Hill, London, S.E.19.

SUBSCRIPTION RATE

Hitherto there has been no charge for postage on copies sent
to subscribers. Now, however, the increased size of FOCUS has
added to the costs of printing and we are no longer able to continue
paying postage on subscribers’ copies. The subscription rate is,
therefore, being raised to 7s. per annum and all new subscriptions
and renewals will now be charged at this rate.

29

COVER PERSONALITY e.leen herlie

Perhaps no more dynamic young
-actress has crossed the London theatre
scene in recent years than Eileen
Herlie, that smouldering aloof dark-
head, who lives quietly in South
Kensington, and is conspicuous by her
absence at film star parades and
elaborate publicity gatherings.

Born in Glasgow, where she loathed
her safe family job as a stockbroker’s
clerk, and nursed a turbulent dramatic
daemon under her prim office sweater,
she has inherited her Scottish mother’s
striking beauty on the one hand, and
on the other her Irish father’s forceful
personality and indomitable willpower.
But her voice is her own — a magni-
ficent, full-throated possession that
ranges from Sarah Bernhardt’s
“plastered whispers” to the powerful
crescendoes of a well-remembered lady
called Mrs. Siddons. Were Rachel and
the Duse to return to earth, they would
both honour her with their jealousy.
Her large, dark, Irish eyes are
compelling and magnetic when she is
acting; her forceful personality on the
stage dominates her audience ; her
emotions, always under perfect control,
give one the impression of great forces
held firmly in leash by inspired
intelligence. Yet, when making tea —
she always boils it !— she is a strange,
warm, unsophisticated girl who wist-
fully loves the earth — earthy things
and the colourful people who struggle
and suffer. Her life and character
have made her an implacable enemy of
insincerity, theatrical vanity and the
highfalutin’.

During the darkest days of the war,
she decided to leave Glasgow and
come to London. Glasgow was her
birthplace, but it was not a theatre city
and could give her no experience other
than that learned painfully on the
amateur stage. Of this, she had had
her fill. Her parents stood aghast. But
she silenced them with one terrific
speech worthy of any Counsel for the
Defence ! She counted her cash —
thirty pounds, and boarded the Royal
Scot for weal or woe. Thirty pounds
was a meagre sum for such an
adventure, but she had faith — the sort
that moves mountains.

Like all true artists struggling
without help towards their rightful
place, she encountered pain, hunger

and disillusionment, but never despair
or bitterness. I once found her arguing
with an apple-woman at a barrow in
Camden Town. Eileen won — even if
the apple-woman was Irish and knew
Shakespearean invective 1 When I
remonstrated with her, she said she was
rightly deepening her experience of
life. I guessed what she meant later
when I saw her playing “Peg o’ my
Heart” at the Scala Theatre. She was
so charming that she hurt. The critics
grunted appreciably ; they thawed even
more before her later roles at the same
theatre ; but they remained grudging to
the pestiferous newcomer. Who was
she, anyway ?

Then Tyrone Guthrie saw her, and
had the good sense to pack her
peremptorily out of London to the
Liverpool Repertory Theatre to be
leading lady in the Old Vic Company
there. He foresaw in her a star of
the first magnitude. He wanted her to
develop outside and come back.

A year later, she joined the Company
of Four at the Lyric, Hammersmith,
where her acting powers under Murray
MacDonald’s direction, began to flower
in all their rich and profuse promise.
I remember being delighted with the
subtlety of her playing in the
“Thracian Horses”.

Then one night the whole coterie of
critics suddenly and amazingly lifted
their heads from under their arms, or
wherever they keep them, and “dis-
covered” her, as the tragic queen in
“The^ Eagle has two Heads”. A
terrific hullabulla followed. They blew
their trumpets, clashed their cymbals,
mounted their rostrums, clinked their
glasses and emptied their champagne
glasses and their fountain pens. They
would even have strummed their
zithers, had they known at the time
that such an instrument existed ! One
of them even reprimanded me for
taking the Herlie “discovery” so
nonchalantly ! I laughed heartily, and
only the mischievous Eileen saw the
joke !

But her performance in “The Eagle”
was an artistic tour de force. In her
playing, a. very tangible part of the
theatre’s former glory took heart again
and flowered. She demanded her place
in the front rank of dramatic actresses
and received it. By her side at the top.

30

she found only a very few, and none so
young as she who is still on the bright
side of 30.

Her classic performance in “The
Medea” followed. This terrifying test
was presented to her, and she received
it without a tremor. Many actresses
had become “great” the safe way — no
names, no packdrill — but that way was
not the Herlie choice. Again, even
though gravely hampered by a most
imperfect American adaptation of the
Buripidean masterpiece, she projected
his tragic queen into our very beings
and touched us mercilessly with the
classic import of her acting. We left
the theatre limply, conscious of a new
priestess of the dramatic arts.

Sir Alexander Korda’s generous film
contract followed and since then,
millions in Britain and America have
seen Eileen Herlie’s distinguished
portrayal of the Queen in Hamlet.

Her new film, The Angel with the
Trumpet, under Karl Hartle’s direction,
in which she depicts a character
maturing from girlhood into old age,
will win her fresh laurels according
to the wiseheads, when it is released in
the spring.

But a brilliant future for her is
assured. She has in her reserved,
mysterious make-up all of the major
things that matter, including that most
rare of all accomplishments — intelligent
emotionalism. I have heard great
people in the theatre and films speak
of her with high admiration ; I have
heard very little people who are
dwarfed by her personality on the
stage tear her to pieces. With neither
is she much concerned — she has a
mission, and she must be about her
business.

Paul V. Carroll.

SOME FILMS REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this list does
not connote positive recommenda-
tion. Films that are positively harm-
ful are not included here. Readers
are reminded to refer to the full
reviews when assessing a film.

Category A, indicates adults only;
B, adults and adolescents ; C, family
audiences; D, particularly for
children.

Reviewed in “Focus” (Vol. II,
Nos. 10, 11 and 12)

Mighty Joe Young
Mother Knows Best
Prince of Foxes
Pursuit

Red, Hot and Blue
Search, The
Secret Garden, The
Secret of Mayerling
So Dear to my Heart
Streets of Laredo
There was a Land

(B) (341)
(B) (314)
(A) (337)

(A) (340)

(B) (350)

(B) (342)

(C) (316)
(A) (313)

(D) (312)
(C) (350)

Abbott and Costello Meet

Tokyo Joe

(B)

(340)

the Killer

(B)

(346)

Under Capricorn

(A)

(310)

Au Grand Balcon

(B)

(315)

Une Si Jolie Petite Plage

(A)

(348)

Barkleys of Broadway

(B)

(304)

Walking Hills, The

(C)

(313)

Big Steal, The

(B)

(339)

When My Baby Smiles

Chiltern Hundreds, The

(C)

(307)

at Me

(D)

(314)

Crooked Way, The

(F)

(346)

Velvet Touch, The

(B)

(347)

East of Java

(A)

(350)

You can’t Sleep Here

(A)

(316)

Escape Me Never

(A)

(310)

Everybody Does It

(B)

(338)

We Recommend

File on Thelma

Christopher Columbus

(B)

(183)

Jordan, The

(A)

(339)

Hamlet

(B)

(130)

Give Us This Dav

(A)

(336)

Joan of Arc

(B)

(126)

Hasty Heart, The

(B)

(308)

Johnny Belinda

(A)

(42)

Home of the Brave

(B)

(339)

Maytime in Mayfair

(B)

(172)

In The Good Old

Monsieur Vincent

(B)

(230)

Summertime

(C)

(336)

Passport to Pimlico

(C)

(150)

Interrupted Journey, The

(B)

(341)

Rachel and the Stranger

(B)

(70)

L’Aigle a Deux Tetes

(A)

(348)

Scott of the Antarctic

(B)

(14)

Landfall

(B)

(347)

Snake Pit, The

(A)

(159)

Little Women

(C)

(338)

Visitation

(B)

(134)

Ma rius

(A)

(315)

Whiskey Galore

(B)

(220)

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

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(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema )

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Vol. Ill

FOCUS

CONTENTS

No. 2

The Sauce of Criticism ...

Page
... 35

Vocation in the Films

... 36

Bv H. A. C. Connell

The Use of Films For Catholic

Publicity

... 37

By Christopher Radley

Focus Film Course

... 39

Bv Andrew Buchanan
Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

The Doctor and the Girl ...

... 40

Paid in Full

... 40

A Handful of Rice

... 41

It ConcernsTls All

... 41

The Cure for Love

... 42

Sand

... 43

The Rocking Horse Winner

... 44

Tarzan’s Magic Fountain ...

... 45

Task Force

... 45

Holidav Affair

... 46

The Story of a Ring

... 46

Jolson Sings Again

... 46

You’re my Everything

A Stranger Walked In

Bicycle Thieves

The Holy Year Cinema

Pilgrimage

The C.F.I. Annual General

Meeting

Institute Notes

Letters to the Editor

Out of the Darkness

Bv Charles Toomey
My Advice to Would-be Screen

Stars

By Margaret Lockwood
Physical Education Films and

Strips

By Our Educational Panel

Some Films Reviewed

Book Review

The Interval Club

Cover Personalities

Page

. 46

47

48

50

51

52

53

54

56

58

-60

61

61

62

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S.W.l. Michael White, 15 Broad Street Place, London, E.C.2.
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A FILM
REVIEW

FOCUS :

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. Ill

FEBRUARY 1950 No. 2

The Sauce of Criticism

In the last issue, one of
our reviewers said that
critics are not born but
educated in a school where
they must learn the hard
lessons of being fair, just
and objective in their criti-
cisms. Now, what is sauce
for the critic is sauce for the
Editor. Editors, like critics,
are not born, they are
fashioned — and prevented
from becoming old-fashioned
— by the constructive criti-
cism of people who are good
enough to support the press.
Most Editors dearly love con-
structive critics, for it is the
sauce of their criticisms which
gives just that bit of edge
and bite to a magazine, and
% keeps it interesting.

We are not inviting saucy
letters, but we do ask for
the sauce of constructive
criticism. We ask you to
lend us your brains. But

please do not expect us to
avail ourselves of all ideas
sent along. As far as possible,
and as far as they are in
keeping with the policy of
Focus, we shall use your
ideas ; however, you must
always remember that our
pages and our purses are
limited.

A wit once said that all
Editors are either copy-cuts
or copy-cats. This Editor
tries to avoid being a copy-
cat, but he confesses to being
rather savage with his copy-
cuts. No harm is meant.
It is a question of cutting
one’s copy according to the
number of pages that go
between one’s cover. If be-
times you find that your
copy has been cut, keep
calm and count ten before
you decide to cut the
Editor’s throat.

Editor.

36

Vocation in the Films

By H. A. C. CONNELL

To one who lias specialised in the
subject of religion in the films, vocation
seems to be a notable topic in the
cinema of 1949.

I missed Margaret Lockwood as a
novice in Madness of the Heart, but I
gather that I did not miss much. But
there is this to be thankful for that
after consultation with the Catholic
Film Institute, some lines miscon-
ceiving vocation were slightly altered.

The agreeable Come to the Stable was
not calculated to throw much light on
the religious life beyond giving the
correct impression that it is one of
sanctified ordinariness. And taste in
music seems to have become more
liturgical in cinema convents. But the
chief grace of vocation again appears
to be the gift of extracting large sums
of money for humanitarian purposes
from those well endowed with it, of
whatever creed, class or degree of
disreputability. This film trod, a trifle
more securely, the well worn paths of
Going My Way and The Bells of St.
Mary’s.

Winter Meeting broke fresh ground.
An ordinary love interest was suddenly
complicated by the man announcing
that he had always wanted to be a
priest. “A priest!” gasps Bette Davis
and the music swells up into a
melodramatic climax. But once that
concession to conventional values,
regrettable but momentary, has been
made, the matter is handled extra-
ordinarily well. The girl, daughter of
a Unitarian minister, makes no
suggestion of the popular idea of
“wastage” in a dedicated celibate life.
In fact it is she who, after considerable
and sensible discussion, tells the man-
that if he evades his vocation for the
sake of marrying her, his character will
“rot by degrees”. As she was the
principal sufferer and he was rather
inconsiderate and boorish I thought
this distinctly handsome of her. It
might be urged that the level is not

very deep. But that is correct realistic-
ally. Complete comprehension of the
nature of the priesthood is not to be
expected in a non-Catholic girl. It is
also correct artistically, filmically or
whatever is the correct adverb. An
ordinary film is not the place for the
exposition of the profounder elements
of theology. But I consider that the
introduction into a popular film with
a well known star of this conflict
between a pre-existing vocation and a
supervening human love, solved in
favour of the priesthood, marks an
advance in the presentation of religion
in the films and that its broad
educational and propaganda value far
outweighs any minor blemishes.

To forestall criticism I must explain
that I am well aware that the term
vocation cannot be properly applied to
the Protestant ministry. I know the
difference between a priest and a
parson. But there are sufficient
resemblances to induce me to refer, in
a sort of appendix, to Marry Me. We
are accustomed to clergymen in the
films either as animated local colour,
comic relief or convenient objects for
the expression of an outlook opposed
to organised religion. Martin (I can’t
remember his surname) in Marry Me
is one of the principal characters. And
he is neither fool nor knave, neither
mountebank, “hearty”, killjoy nor
hypocrite. I feel that considerable care
must have been taken with this
sympathetic portrayal of the con-
temporary clergyman who, as in real
life, wears sometimes a Roman collar
and sometimes a tie. The girl whom
he eventually marries is somewhat
flabbergasted when the removal of a
scarf first reveals his occupation.
“We’re no worse than other people,”
he says. There was surely meant to
be irony in the remark. But the
audience (I wTas present at an ordinary
showing) gave never a laugh. Indeed
I pictured many of them going home
with a quite new idea for serious

37

consideration ; perhaps parsons aren’t
so bad after all. The idea that
marriage to a virtuous night club
hostess could bring into his life some-
thing more valuable than anything
before ma}7 provoke embarrassment or
derision among some Anglicans. But

clergymen are frequently regarded by
their parishioners — and sometimes by
themselves — more as welfare workers
than either priests or preachers. And
those of us who do not regard Martin
as an official in Christ’s Church may
well find him rather a nice young man.

The Use of Films for
Catholic Publicity

By Christopher Radley

“It’s only propaganda’’ is
commonly said of much of the work
of specialised film producers like
myself, with the obvious suggestion
that there is something discreditable
about our calling.

Unhappily the word “propaganda”
has acquired such odium since the
Communists, Nazis and others of their
kind perverted truth to their own ends
in Press and Film publicity, that the
term has becoming synonymous with
the spreading of lies and half-truths.

It is, therefore, necessary to rehabili-
tate the word by emphasising that it
is the wrong use of persuasion which
is alone blameworthy.

The propagation of truth is and
alwaj’s has been one of the marks of
the Church and indeed, as everyone
knows, one of the oldest Congregations
of the Curia is called “Propaganda
Fidei”.

Everyone who wishes to express ideas
by w’ord or in writing, and this includes
film sponsors, producers and script-
writers, must propagate some views,
and the important thing is solely
whether they be true or false.

So in dealing with the right use of
films in publicity, w'e are considering
honest and truthful propaganda,
whether it be in publicising goods or
the Gospel. As the editor of this
magazine has frequently stated, echoing
the words of the Holy Father, the film
is today the greatest instrument for

influencing people, and must be used
for Christian ends. It has greater
power than the radio because ideas and
facts are more easily apprehended
through the eye than the ear, though,
as in films, sound added to sight has
the greatest effect of all.

Therefore the fostering of the
production of films which will express
Christian values is the duty of all.
Since it is the function of the Catholic
Film Institute to do this very thing,
as a first step every adult Catholic
should become a member of the
Institute and read its organ.

If 50,000 read about the good and
worthwhile films reviewed in Focus
and made a point of seeing only the
best, this alone would encourage
producers to face the risks of making
“feature” films having Christian values.

WITNESSES OF THE FAITH

But to produce films of more direct
propaganda value, such as those
concerned with the biographies of
Saints, much more direct support would
be needed since their potential
audiences would be smaller. Some day,
when the receipts of the Pennv-a-Day-
Fund exceed £100 a day, it will be
possible to film the stories of St.
Thomas More or Edmund Campion, just
as funds to make the epic film Monsieur
Vincent were raised by M. de la
Grandiere in France.

38

Such films would be propaganda of
the most effective kind, by bearing
witness to the stand which the finest
spirits of every age have made in
defence of the Church and her teaching.

Apart from these expensive vehicles
of ideas, can more modest and
inexpensive films be effective in
presenting specifically Catholic ideas
and views to the people, and if so,
can they be made with present
resources? Most emphatically they
can.

The answer lies in the production of
documentary or factual films. That
such films are a valuable means of
information and publicity is shown by
their use on a large scale by industry
and by the State. To a limited extent,
this type of film has been used for
religious information by various
Christian bodies, as, for example, the
film God and the Atom in the U.S.A.,
Your Inheritance and Visitation in this
country. If made with the same
professional precision and quality as is
the case with “feature” or the best
documentary films, and if handled in
such a way that the emotions of the
audience are stirred sufficiently to
apprehend the facts presented, these
films are a powerful means of enlisting
the sympathy of great numbers of
people, who would never take the
trouble to read the same material
presented in print.

Such a film as that dealing with the
Pilgrimage to Fatima, now in produc-
tion, will undoubtedly stir the interest
of many non-Catholics to a new under-
standing of the veneration given by
Catholics to Our Lady.

A MOST PRESSING NEED

But what is also needed is a number
of films which will instruct both
Catholics and non-Catholics in the
Church’s teaching on the great moral
and social questions of the day, such
questions as the duties of employers
and employees towards each other,
and above all the meaning of Education.

Such films should be acceptable
by ordinary cinema exhibitors, and be
in the nature of points of view.

The most pressing need today is to
explain the Catholic position regard-

ing religious education, and for this
purpose the film is the ideal means of
presenting the Catholic case. The film

technique should be similar to that
employed in the March of Time or This
Modern Age series, namely that of
stating the problem and then putting
forward the points of view of both the
secularists and Christians. I say

“Christians” with intention, since the
support of Anglicans and others of our
separated brethren should be sought,
for the problem concerns them as well
as ourselves.

In fact, the Schools problem is the
great problem of today, and one that is
world wide. Somehow all who value
freedom must be enlisted in our
support, so that freedom of conscience
in education ceases to be solely an
apparently “Roman Catholic”
problem, but one that concerns all
men of goodwill.

Needless to say, the making of a film
should be only part of the general
publicity campaign in which the
Catholic Truth Society, the Catholic
Press, and indeed the National Press,
will be used to present the case. Apart
from seeking distribution in the
ordinary cinemas, the film could be
shown at mass demonstrations and in
all parish halls, so that at least every
Catholic could know the facts of the
situation.

PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN NEEDED

Though the cost of making such a
film is small compared with that
required for the cheapest “feature”
film, nevertheless its production
involves costs similar to other forms of
Press and Radio publicity. The great
religious congregations and the leading
laymen’s organisations could play a
great part in raising the necessary-
funds. Each Order or Society could be
urged to contribute a specific sum ^
towards the target figure needed to
make the film and the general publicity
campaign associated with its distribu-
tion. Passing the plate again at this
juncture may seem a heavy new
burden, but incomparably less than
the burden of annually finding vast
sums of money towards the cost of
building new schools.

39

FOCUS FILM COURSE

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

No. I— PURPOSE

Focus readers now know of the
Catholic Film Institute’s admirable
intention of encouraging the formation
of Film Study Groups wherever possible
with the dual purpose of increasing
understanding of the potentialities of
film, and seeking to discover people of
vision and talent wishing to become
efficient film craftsmen in the making
of films of religious value.

Such meetings, if well organised, can
plant the seeds from which may grow
the Group or Groups dedicated to
developing film for religious purposes,
unrelated to professional production.
However, it is essential that every
Study Group should work to a plan
based on a syllabus designed to provide
progressive tuition, otherwise meetings
may easily resolve themselves into
shapeless arguments on the merits or
demerits of current films. It is the
intention, therefore, of this series of
articles, to outline a suggested approach
which, it is hoped, will help Group
organisers, even though they need not
strictly adhere to the proposed lessons
in the Course.

By waj- of introduction, I should like
to stress the need to begin at the
beginning, which does not mean learn-
ing to criticise films at the local cinema.
The film on the screen is the end of the
story, and the reviews by the Panel of
Priests in Focus provide all the
constructive comment necessary on
current productions.

The task of the student is to look
behind and beyond such information,
and learn, first, of the size and
ramifications of the industry in various
parts of the world, and how it is
divided into production, distribution
and exhibition.

Unless and until Study Groups
become fully informed on all aspects of
the medium, and possess a thorough
knowledge of the inner working of the
industry, they cannot hope to help in
the essential task of laying the founda-
tions for a religious film group, capable
and expert enough to make valuable
contributions to the Church and avoid

the mistakes of its professional counter-
part. Neither the developing of one’s
critical faculty, nor the amassing of
technical knowledge is enough unless
backed by complete understanding of
the industry as a whole.

That is why the proposed Study
Groups are going to break new ground,
for they are approaching the subject
fundamentally and systematically. An
organiser needs to devise a blueprint of
the industry which explains the inter-
relation of its several branches.
Production needs to be divided into
features and short films, the latter
being subdivided into theatrical and
non-theatrical channels. The purpose
and application of the Quota Act needs
to be understood and the conditions it
imposes on distributor, exhibitor — and
producer. Production costs should be
analysed, criticised and rationalised by
students, long before any thought is
given to methods of production.

In launching a Group, the organiser
is advised to broadly classify members
— those with and without experience —
and whether they have specialist aims
— -scenario-writing, camerawork, direct-
ing, editing, and so on.

In the next article I will submit a
Syllabus for a six month’s Course, and
will discuss the first subject on the list.
Meanwhile, I should like to suggest
that intending students, whether in
Groups or individually, endeavour to
acquire and study the undermentioned
publications from His Majesty’s
Stationery Office which, collectively,
provide a graphic up-to-the-minute
picture of the film industry in this
country together with full details of the
abovementioned Quota Act.

READING LIST:

Cinematograph Films Bill. No. 26, 1947.

Distribution and Exhibition of Cinemato-
graph Films. (1949.) A Report of
the Committee of Enquiry appointed
by the President of the Board of Trade.

Report of the Working Party on Film
Production Costs. (1949.)

40

FILM REVIEWS

By Our Panel of Priests

THE DOCTOR AND THE GIRL
Starring: Glenn Ford, Charles Cobum,
Gloria De Haven and Janet
Leigh. Director: Curtis Bern-
hardt. Producer: Fandro S.

Berman. Distributors: Metro-

Goldwyn-Mayer. Certificate: A.
Category : A. Running time: 98
minutes.

This film is based on a novel,
originally written in French and then
translated into English, which can
best be described as a much longer and
more “realist” version of The Citadel.
I enjoyed the film much more than the
novel. The story is about a young
doctor whose future is planned for him
bv his father, an eminent surgeon.
This young man disappoints his father
by marrying a patient who is poor and
unable to advance his career. His
sister also breaks with the father and
has an affair with a married man who
eventually desert- her. The reconcilia-
tion between father and son begins
when the daughter dies as a result
of an attempted abortion, and is
completed when both work over an
emergency case brought into the young
man’s humble surgery.

The chief criticism to be made of
this film is that it falls between . two
stools. The psychological reaction of
the younger people to the father’s
dominating personality is rather
obscured by the multiplicity of surgical
operations and other medical details.
The hospital background could have
been introduced much less obtrusively.
Otherwise it is a well-produced and
interesting film.

There is a remarkable discrepancy
between the summary of the story
provided at the Press show and the
actual film itself. In the summary,
the young girl is said to “return in
dire trouble. Attempting to effect a

cure by herself, she brings about an
intractable haemorrhage.” In the film
there is no attempt to describe
pregnancy as a disease and the old
surgeon, a life-long friend of the
family, refuses to perform an operation,
though we are left in doubt whether
his refusal is on Christian moral
grounds or simply because it is against
the law.

Me.

PAID IN FULL

Starring: Robert Cummings, Lizabeth
Scott, Diana Lynn, with Eve
Arden. Director: William Die-

terle. Distributors: Paramount.

Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 104 minutes. .

“Been to the press show?” said the
lady in the tea lounge. “ ’Eart throbs,
I believe.”

At first I thought Jane was going
to have a baby in the car. Then I
thought we were going to see a
Caesarian operation. (We nearly did.)
Of course we saw a flashback.

It was like this. Jane loved Bill, but
Bill thought he loved her young sister,
Nancy, a horrid little thing. So he
married her. Being smart, the wedding
was apparently Episcopalian. So, for-
saking all other they took one another
as long as they both should live. Final
exit of clergyman. Supreme authority
regarding matrimony and morals
resides, it seems, with gypaecologist,
psychiatrist and divorce lawyer. I
must sav the gynaecologist, talked
some excellent sense about the
sanctity of marriage and selfishness.
The curious way in which it was
phrased was significant of a bewildered
attitude. Anyhow, nobody took any
notice.

In due course Deborah is born. But
a few years afterwards Nancy decides
that she would like a divorce.

41

(Grounds? “Because living with you
is dull.”) Bill and Jane get thrown
together. Nancy resents this. Jane
leaves the house so upset that she
absentmindedly runs over Deborah and
kills her. Quite an accident, but Nancy
rather resents it as she can’t ever have
another baby. (Official prohibition by
gynaecologist.)

Nancy’s divorce is granted. After all
Bill can be boring. But Jane wants to
bring them together again. You’ll never
guess how. Jane and Bill think how
wonderful it would be to forsake all
other as long as they both live. Then
they remember that Bill has said that
once before. I was all agog, because
as a rule it’s only me who remembers
such things in films. What about it ?
“They were just words and I didn’t
know what they meant. Nor did
Nancy.” At last we know why explicit
marriage vows are no longer considered
binding. Now that education is
universal, people don’t know what
words (mostly of one syllable) mean.

So Bill and Jane go to Mexico (why
Mexico ?) for a marriage Ceremony. Not
being smart this is apparently not
Episcopalian. And in due course Jane
expects a baby. She also expects to
die. Death after childbirth is hereditary
in her family. (Official pronouncement
by gynaecologist.) And she has the
baby. And she dies, after handing it
over to Bill and Nancy. Now Bill can
remarry his deceased sister-in-law’s
sister. Jane had been like the ham in
the sandwich, between two slabs of her
sister.

Them’s heart throbs.

Q.

A HANDFUL OF RICE
Starring: PoChai and MeYing. A

Svensk Filmindustri Production.
Directors: Paul Fejos and Gunnar
Skoglund. Certificate : U. Cate-
gory : C. Running time : 70

minutes.

A beautifully photographed but some-
what slowly moving factual film telling
the story of the struggle of a newly
married Siamese couple to wrest a
living from the soil. The marriage
ceremony, the beginnings of the fight
with the primeval forces of nature, the
animals, all combine to make a film of
considerable interest for those who

wish to know how people live in lands
afar from civilisation as we know it.

V.

IT CONCERNS US ALL
Starring: Paul Reichhardt, Lily

Broberg, Ilselil Larsen, Lisbeth
Movin and Tom Rindom Thom-
sen. Distributors: Film Traders
Ltd. Director: Alice O’Fredericks.
Certificate : U. Category-. B.

Running time : 96 minutes.

This is a film which is intended to
make people in countries like ours
realise that they have a personal
responsibility, at least for charitably
thinking and speaking, of the mis-
fortunes of those in the former enemy
countries. It may be that we have
the duty of something more than
tolerant speech, but at least there is
no excuse for the Christian to utter
sentiments of hatred for the children
of our enemies. O11 them depends the
future, but their training is derived
from us.

The title is somewhat cumbersome
though it “gets there” in one. The
film is complementary to The Search
which dealt with the plight of the lost
and unwanted children of war-scarred
Europe. The Danish film emphasises
mainly the reaction of the people to
whom the unwanted and refugee
children go. The Swiss film is the
better work, but the Danish picture
also has many merits. It is simple and
simply told. The acting, without
being distinguished, is competent, the
direction is firm, the sets convincing
and well-photographed. Perhaps one
ought to single out the performance of
Ilselil Larsen as Leni, the 13-year-old
Austrian girl who is the cause both of
controversy and eventual contentment
when she goes to live with a Danish
family for rehabilitation. She reminds
one of Margaret O’Brien, but is more
developed and sure of herself. Tom
Rindom Thomsen, also, as Hugo, the
13-vear-old son of the house, gives a
quiet and pleasing interpretation.

This is a film to see for its message
as well, as for its intrinsic worth. Do
not be one of those who say : “I do
not like having to think about these
things!” It was made especially for
vou !

V.

42

. . . a comedy of Lancashire manners

THE CURE

Starring: Robert Donat, with Renee
Asherson, Marjorie Rhodes,
Charles Victor, Dora Ryan, Thora
Hird, and Gladys Henson.
Producer and Director: Robert

Donat. Distributors: British

Lion. Certificate: U. Category ;
A. Running time: 98 minutes.

If I call this corned}- “broad”, I risk
being misunderstood by both the
rigorists and the laxists. It is a film
which our American friends will doubt-
less designate “objectionable” for the
same reason that Henry V and Hamlet
(parts of) were so described. That is
to say, dialogue and situation (parts of)
are “Shakespearean” in their use of the
English tongue and the human body.
Falstaff and Doll Tearslieet are not
considered fit companions for an

FOR LOVE

audience brought up on Mickey Rooney
and Virginia Mayo.

It would, of course, be gross
mendacity to suggest that the
connection of Greenwood (author of
The Cure for Love ) with Shakespeare
(author of Hamlet) is anything more
than a coincidentally similar use of the
same language and gestures. As for
language, there may be some who will
question this connection. My knowledge
of Lancashire (described as “English”)
by one of the characters in the film) is
too slender to allow me to savour all 4
the asides of the salty characters, but ^
I am confident that even those educated
by the B.B.C. will find much to smile
at in this raucous comedy of Lancashire
manners.

The soldier who returns to find his
fiancee apparently still faithful, whereas
he wants an excuse to change over to
his mother’s London evacuee, is the
centre of much intriguing and

43

manoeuvring until he discovers that his
girl’s “fidelity” is the consequence of
being jilted by three war-time boy
friends.

Robert Donat’s soldier is an
endearing gorm and Renee Asherson a
charming Londoner, but the palms go
in my opinion to Marjorie Rhodes and
Charles Victor, both comedians of skill
and experience. The one as a horny
but soft-hearted Lancashire mother, the
other a genial landlord of the local pub

with an eye on the main chance, give
warm and rounded performances. Dora
Bryan and Gladys Henson are a shade
too theatrical as the designing and
blowsy “fiancee” and her mother, but
they, together with the rest of the cast,
will win the approval of the provincials
for whom this film is unblushingly
intended. Its transition from the stage
is an obvious one, but it is none the less
welcome for that.

V.

SAND

Starring: Mark Stevens, Coleen Gray,
Rory Calhoun. Director: Louis

King. Producer: Robert Bassler.
Certificate'. A. Category : B.

Running time : 74 minutes.

Jubilee (a horse) is bound for
California. While en route, the train
catches fire and causes such shock to
Jubilee’s nervous system, that (as
Californians would say) it goes “nuts”.

This horsie keeps its tail and its
“tale” up for 74 minutes. I was

grateful for the vistas of lovely
scenery, but during the rest of the film
I was restive.

For some time I acted as chaplain to
a mental hospital and watching the
antics of the mentally deranged (even
animals) is not my line of fun.

* But please do not be put off by my
personal reaction. In its own line, it
is passably good and has a certain
charm for those who like horses and
heroes and the wide wild open spaces
and a nice bit of rope work. The film
is well 'made. The acting is adequate.

E.

44

The Rocking

Starring: Valerie Hobson, John Mills,
John Howard Davies and Ronald
Squire. A Two Cities Film.
Director: Anthony Pelissier.

Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time : 85 minutes.

Horse Winner

eerie discovery that he can foretell the
names of winning horses by furiously
riding his rocking horse does not make
a very successful film. This fantastic
subject needs either a positively pagan
or superstitiouslv Christian approach.
The latter is the more acceptable to
those who hold that the defects of
Christian belief are at least an

lyi 1

ml Tj

L Jf

. . . John Howard

Davies discovers that
he can foretell the
names of winning
horses

D. H. Lawrence’s unpleasant story indication of a decline from orthodoxy,
about the little boy whose devotion to As it is, the polite indifference to

liis spendthrift mother leads to his either Christian morals or belief

45

implicit in the characters in this story
make the fantastic element the more
irrational.

John Mills’ production is interesting
and the acting of a high quality, but
the direction is never convincing and
the film consequently never comes
alive. It is worth seeing for those who
wish to study the role of the cinema
as teacher of ethics. The censor
insisted that a compensating element
be added to the film, and so the money
which the thoughtless mother has
inherited by the devotion and through
the death of her little boy has to be
devoted to “a good cause”. This, it
seems to me, is to rob the story of its
only trace of ethical value, for without
the contrived “moral” ending it stood
as an awful parable of the empty horror
of materialistic paganism.

However, do not let my remarks
prevent you from seeing an interesting
film, especially if you are among those
who take the cinema seriously. The
acting of John Howard Davies is most
appealing and John Mills adds a
delightful study as a Suffolk groom to
his long list of carefully devised film
characters.

Above all, do notice a perfect _
miniature by Charles Goldner as a
Greek monevlender.

V.

TARZAN’S MAGIC FOUNTAIN
Starring: Lex Barker, Brenda Joyce,
with Albert Dekker, Evelyn
Ankers, Charles Drake. Producer:
Sol Lesser. Director: Lee Sholem.
Certificate : U. Category : B.

Running time : 71 minutes.

If your fancy (and a little bit of what
you fancy is the best medicine) runs to
fantasy and a little playful nonsense,
go ahead and drink as much as you
need from Tarzan’s Magic Fountain.

I promise you that you will not be
poisoned. And if ever you have
dreamed of perennial youth, I promise
you that for 71 minutes you will live
vicariously and gloriously. And if you
like your Tarzans tough, talented and
handsome, Lex Barker will measure up
to your demand. And if you like apes
who do good tricks, you will (as the
lady next door says) “simply adore
Cheta”.

E.

TASK FORCE

Starring: Gary Cooper, with Jane

Wyatt, Wayne Morris and Walter
Brennan. A Warner Bros. Film.
Director: Delmer Davies. Certifi-
cate-. U. Category-. B. Running
time-. 105 minutes approx.

This is a story of war as seen from
American eyes, told in flashback, in
which the technical excellence of
editing and masterly iucutting of
blown-up air-gun film, together with
news-reel shots during the second half
of the film, so captivate the senses as
to obliterate for a time the painful
memories of the earlier half. The story,
told with exasperating tedium, is the
old one about thwarted ambition in
official circles. This time it is the
American Navy’s unwillingness to
regard the training of air pilots and the
provision of air carriers as anything
more than cranky. This provides Gary
Cooper with the opportunity of smiling
his slow smile in navy blue and proving
how nearly the U.S.A. lost the war to
Japan.

The film covers a period of 25 years
during which Gary grows from
whimsical youth to kindly grey hairs.
His wife has the secret of perpetual
youth : only the fashions change.

It is entirely American in feeling and
leaves the Englishman a little lost in
a world in which the war begins on
December 7th, 1941, and appears to be
fought out in the Pacific. Since it was
made by and for Americans, it would
be unbalanced to press the point.

A change to Teclmicolour half way
through, though unexpected, has the
effect of increasing both interest and
tension. The coloured shots of
bursting torpedoes and fighting planes
are most impressive and the brilliant
photography of the news-reel men
creates a sense of actuality hitherto
unmatched in my experience in war
films.

The players are adequate without
being more. Gary Cooper’s pleasing
■personality survives any film treatment.
Jane Wyatt is charming. Walter
Brennan, without a beard or a drawl, is
first class as the stimulating element
in Gary’s career in the Navy.
Altogether, a good film once you get to

46

the war. The noise and the sights of
wounded men may make this film
frightening for some youngsters, hence
the 15 Category.

V.

HOLIDAY AFFAIR
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Janet

Leigh, Wendell Corey, with
Gordon Gebert. Producer and
Director: Don Hartman. Distrib-
utors: R.K.O. Certificate : U.

Category : C. Running time : 87
minutes.

The war widow, wedded to the past,
her beloved small boy, her rival suitors,
both respectable but not equally
“romantic” — these are all signposts
to a well beaten track. And for long
enough the film is commonplace. Not
until Christmas Day is reached does it
really acquire originality and humour
which it never quite loses.

Gordon Gebert is not too unpleasant
as screen children go and the picture
provides an innocent way of passing
the time. But don’t worry if you
arrive quite a bit late.

Q.

THE STORY OF A RING

Distributors: Film Traders Ltd.

Director: Boris Dolin. Photo-

graphy: B. Asmus. Certificate:
U. Category : C. Running time :
35 minutes.

This Russian documentary film tells
of the migrations of birds, particularly
a family of storks, whose story we
follow from the time when an injured
stork is taken in and cared for by a
Ukrainian farmer until, the new family
raised and the yearly cycle repeated,
the nesting place is destroyed in the
war.

The photography is among the most
beautiful I have seen and the script is
so well written that what might easily
have been merely a well-made factual
film becomes an exciting nature story.
This is a film that all children will like
and also any grown-up who is wise
enough to recognise something good.

V.

JOLSON SINGS AGAIN

Starring: Larry Parks, Barbara Hale.
A Columbia Picture. Director:
Henry Levin. Certificate : U.

Category: B. Running time:

85 minutes approx.

Those who cared for the Jolson Story
will not mind if he sings again
especially as the sequel is rather better
than the original. Barry Parks brings
off an astonishing synchronisation to
Jolson’s voice. The story frankly
accepts the fact of the impersonation
and deals simply enough with the later
career of the man whose appalling voice
singing “Sonny Boy” was the signal for
a tidal wave of raucous sound to break
over the cinema screens of the world.

Sentimentality is ladled out gener-
ously, mixed inevitably with the break-
up of marriage and the patchwork of
divorce which is warp to the woof of
modern non-Catliolic life.

V.

YOU’RE MY EVERYTHING

Starring: Dan Dailey, Anne Baxter,
Anne Revere, Shari Robinson.
Director: Walter Lang. Producer:
Lamar Trotti. A 20th Century-
Fox Picture. Certificate : U.

Category: C. Running time:

94 minutes.

This is the sort of film that is always
popular in a modest sort of way, even
if you would not go out of your way
to see it unless you particularly
followed one of the stars who shine in
it. It really has a bit of everything,
from the footlights to the fireside. It is
in technicolor, there is a child star
quite up to standard, and we hear
again some of the old songs that were
popular twenty years ago.

The story turns mainly on the effect
of the introduction of sound films, and
what they did to some of the silent
stars. One of them, Anne Baxter, is
not sorry to be released so that she can
educate her daughter, Shari Robinson,
like other children. But father, played

47

bv Dan Dailey, a song and dance man
who came into his own with the talkies,
is not co-operative, and Shari eventually
makes her name as a star in her own
right. But it all comes right in the
end, with everyone in everyone else’s
arms, a climax brought about mainly
through the machinations of Aunt Jane,
alias Anne Revere. If nothing more
needs to be said that in itself is a
recommendation.

U.

A STRANGER WALKED IN

Starring: John Hodiak, Sylvia Sidney,
Ann Richards, with John
Howard, Isobel Elsom. Producer:
James J. Geller. Director:
Richard Whorf. A Renown
Hollywood Production. Certifi-
cate: A. Category: A. Running
time : 81 minutes.

What with other work and making a
retreat, I was quite a stranger when I
walked into the cinema. And the
names of Frank Vosper and Agatha
Christie among the technical credits led
me to look forward to an enjoyable
thriller.

The film was described as “suspense
drama”. But from the first moment
that the criminal appeared, he seemed
to spare no pains, short of reading the
Wife-Murderer’s Handbook, to make it
obvious not only to the audience but
to his wife that he was a notorious wife-
murderer. A police notice said he had
fair hair, but might have dyed (this
appears as “died” ! ! !) it. So he brings
out a bottle of dye. And so on. And
so forth. For one wild moment I
thought perhaps he wasn’t the criminal
after all and we had been rather
cleverly led up the garden. Alas no.

When he started digging a grave in
the cellar, after telling his. wife on no
account to go down there, a lady behind
me whispered : “I suppose he’s going
to do her in”. But I had been to the
pictures before and knew that villains
don’t murder leading ladies. And
though he eluded the handcuffs —
Scotland Yard being nearly as dumb
as his wife — he got in the way of a
carrier’s dray and his wife-murdering
career was done.

Most of this goes on in Devonshire
in 1901. So stage rustics group them-
selves about and talk in the American
idea of dialect, in which Somerset and
Yorkshire get hideously intertwined.

Crude.

Q-

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS’ FUND

IF one fourth of the Catholic population in England and Scotland
contributed a penny a day for 240 days The Catholic Film Institute
in England would be able to set up a production unit.

It was the pennies of the Catholic population in France which made
possible the making of the film Monsieur Vincent.

Kindly send donation to:

Rev. J. Burke, 357 Beulah Hill, London, S.E.19.

Bicycle Thieves

Starring: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo
Staiola, LllaneUa Carell, Gino
Saltamerenda. Director: Vittorio
De Sica. Producer: Umberto

Scarpelli. Distributors: G. C. T.
Certificate : A. Category: B.

Running time : 90 minutes.

This film has quality and
importance.

(i)

Its Quality

Its quality derives from the nature of
its story, simple and rich in human
interest and told vividly with restraint
and sincerity. It is about Antonio,
an unemployed, who is offered a job,
with the proviso, that he provides his
own bicycle . . . Maria, his wife, makes
the sacrifice of her bed linen and

Antonio “redeems” his bike from the
pawn shop . . . All is about to work
out nicely when Antonio’s bike is
stolen . . . Antonio makes a frantic
search for his bike, but in vain . . .
He is an honest fellow, but rather than
endure the poverty and degradation of
further unemployment he steals a
bicycle. Hardly a story, you may say,
to set the Tiber and the Thames on
fire ; however, the quality of the film
lies in the way the story is used to
expose the social sin of unemployment.
(For those who may wonder “what’s
all this fuss about unemployment”, I
record that today there are nearly two
million unemployed in Italy.)

De Sica, the man who directs the
film, is an artist. Like every true
artist he has something to say and he
knows how to say it. He does not
waste his celluloid : in his hands every

bicycle &nd ^etS

Antonio

redeems

JKM?

50

character comes alive (notice, in
particular, Antonio and Bruno) and
every scene fits into the story. De Sica
understands his problem and his people
to such a degree that we share his
sympathy and understanding. He
avoids sentimentality, but the film
is not without sentiment, which
is restrained and therefore more
persuasive. “Art is to conceal art.”

There are some bitter things in this
film, but the problem is bitter ; one has
to live among the poor, who have had
no chance of education, to realise how
religion and superstition get mixed up.
While the writer of this review was in
Liverpool, an Election was running and
many of our people voted for the
Communists, and when we asked them
why, they told us that they thought
Communists (they pronounced the word
“Commune-ists”) were people who went
to daily Communion. I cannot believe
that De Sica is making any direct
attack on the Catholic religion, but 1
can imagine people who veer to the left
saying, “Ha . . . ha . . . didn’t I tell
you that religion was the dope of the
people”. I would prefer to believe that
the pain of this problem has made De
Sica impatient.

(ii)

Its Importance

Bicycle Thieves is an important film
because it proves that to make a first

class film a lot of money is not
necessary. It cost £9,000 against
£25,000 which is the average cost of a
feature film, yet it surpasses most
feature films. Wherefore 1 am correct
in describing “Bicycle Thieves” as
the triumph of mind over money. Such
a work as this, should give heart to
The Catholic Film Institute which is
poor but eager to make first-class
films.

Bicycle Thieves is important, also,
because it has debunked the star-
system. The box-office returns of this
film prove that the general public
prefer people who can act, to stars who
merely glitter. I am not suggesting
that all our stars are dumb, but it is
well known that many of them are
selected for their face and torso values
and their glamour and glitter.

In this film all the players except
one are unknown amateurs and were
chosen for their dramatic value, so I
hope I am not being funny if I also
describe this film as the triumph of
the unknown over the known.

I thought the biggest thieves of the
piece were Lamberto Maggiorani and
Enzo Staiola. I mean thieves in the
sense that they stole the picture.

This is a film to see and to discuss
and then see again.

E.

THE HOLY YEAR CINEMA PILGRIMAGE

One of the most interesting of the
manifestations during the Holy Year in
Rome will be the International Cinema
Pilgrimage. Catholic members of the
profession, executives, technicians,
players, writers, will come together to
pay their homage to the Holy Father
and to demonstrate their sense of
responsibility as Catholics for the
betterment of the cinema. It will be
a great consolation to the Church to
have the presence of active workers in
this powerful medium and the assurance
that they will endeavour to use this
medium only for good and not for the
destruction of social and- spiritual
values.

The International Catholic Cinema

Office (O.C.I.C.) has been entrusted with
the organisation of the gigantic
witness of faith. The National Centres
in their turn have the task of
organising the pilgrimage within their
own countries. The Catholic Film
Institute, therefore, must do its best to
make sure that the representation from
England is as full and complete as
possible. We hope that all who are
interested will at once make an effort
to plan their year so that they can be
free to join us in Rome during
May 25th-30tli, 1950.

Preliminary enquiries to : The

Secretary, Holy Year Pilgrimage, 20
Ovington Square, London, S.W.3.

THE C.F.I. ANNUAL GENERAL
MEETING

51

The attendance at the A.G.M. was
disappointing ; it was a wet day and it
was in London and it was a week-end
. . . still, we would like to have seen
more of our members and well-wishers.

After the Honorary Secretary had
read his report the Chairman, the
Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.,
emphasised that the greater part of the
work of the C.F.I. was voluntary and
in this connection expressed the thanks
of all present to the Honorary Secretary
and to Mrs. Moultrie for the devoted
work which they performed for the
■Catholic Film Institute. In particular
they owed a special debt to Mrs.
Moultrie for allowing her house to be
used for so long as an office. In
speaking of the urgent need of
spreading knowledge of the work of the
C.F.I. and of its work, the Chairman
appealed to those living outside London
to make every effort to form regional
sections or film societies.

In mentioning the work of the Editor
of Focus, Father Declan Flynn, O.F.M.,
the Chairman said that great gratitude
was owed to him and to the priests who
carried out the arduous and often
distasteful task of film-reviewing with
such loyalty and devotion. An
American priest, with whom he had
recently been talking, was extremely
impressed with Focus and the way it
was doing its work. Yet Mrs. Moultrie
had informed him that of the specimen
copies of Focus which she had recently
sent to the dioceses of Lancaster and
Portsmouth, not a single one produced
any response. It was necessary to
“sell” Focus in the American sense of
the word as well as in the financial
sense.

The Chairman also expressed the
wish that greater use be made of
lectures and conferences which the
officials of the C.P'.I. were willing to
arrange. Much useful work is being
done in this connection, but there is
room for more, and perhaps in this
field there was room for efforts by
members who did not find it easy to
help in any other way. To organise

lectures and meetings was most useful
but it had to be done by those outside
the London area and they' had to see
to it that the officers of the C.F.I. were
invited to give shows or arrange
lectures and discussions. With the
rapid growth of the Film Library, there
was room for greater development in
this direction and he thanked Father
Young in particular for the film shows
which he organised so successfully.

The Chairman also spoke of the
Fatima film and said that the keenest
interest in it had spread throughout the
world. There was no doubt that when
it was realised that the C.F.I. was
producing good professional standard
films, people would be eager and
willing to see them. Ten copies of the
Walsingham film had been bought by
the Foreign Office for use in America.
This was an indication that we could
confidently hope to influence the
cinema-going public to appreciate good
films for their own sake even if they
were markedly Catholic in character;

Father Hilary Carpenter ended by
saying that the C.F.I. could not
continue merely by the efforts of those
on the spot. Unless support from the
provinces was accorded, the C.F.I.
would die out.

The second part of the A.G.M. , open
to the general public, was under the
Chairmanship of the Rt. Rev. Mgr.
G. L. Craven, M.C., Bishop of
Sebastopolis, who deputised for His
Eminence Cardinal Griffin. In speaking
of the necessity for the increase in the
influence and circulation of Focus,
Bishop Craven said that he had been
particularly instructed by His Eminence
to say as much as possible about I'ocus.
It had His Eminence’s highest praise
and blessing. His Lordship appealed
for financial assistance for the C.F.I.
which was, he said, performing a vital
work.

Andrew Buchanan, the well-known
documentary producer, gave an address
on the position of the religious film
which will be given in full in a later
issue of this magazine.

52

INSTITUTE NOTES

“Focus” Film Course Fatima Film

We hope our readers will take full
advantage of the Course which Andrew
Buchanan inaugurates in this issue. It
should be possible to organise small
groups for discussion in many
provincial and other centres who will
make it their business to study the
subject matter of each lecture in the
company of a technically equipped
person. The important thing, however,
is not to rush the Course. It will
probably be possible to make a practical
summary of the Course at a Summer
School later in the year. Write to us
for help if you need it. But it is up
to you to start the ball rolling.

Summer School

We are determined to make this
year’s effort a residential Summer
School. It has been pointed out that a
residential School is so much more
attractive. It is also so much more

difficult to organise. It is too early to
give precise details yet, but we are
aiming at a five day course in the first
part of August, probably in the
Tunbridge Wells area. As far as you
can, please try to keep that time in
mind for the C.F.I. Summer School.

Film Competition

Entries were disappointing. In fact,
only one ! It was probably due to
the fact that the competition was
announced after the summer had
finished. The object of this rush was
to have some idea of the enthusiasm
available for our training scheme. If
we are to take entries as indicative,
that means no enthusiasm. We refuse
to believe that. The competition is
renewed, therefore, and details of the
new conditions will be published in the
next issue. We are looking to our
j readers for the recruits who will keep
the Catholic Film Apostolate alive and
developing.

The long and wearying business of
editing, taking extra shots, writing
the commentary, music, recording, etc.,
is occupying those concerned with the
pilgrimage film. It will be Ma_v before
it is ready for the Premiere. It is not
too early to start organising support for
the film in your district. Remember
what you did to get Monsieur Vincent
shown in places it would never other-
wise have seen.

Film Library

It will be noticed, we hope, that we
are gradually extending and adding to
our Film Library. In addition to our
own films, we are now in a position to
secure any film on any of the well-
known distributors’ lists. We shall be
glad to be of service in this way.

Monk shows his own film

Fr. Detry’s lecture and film show
which was advertised in our last issue
was most successful . . . and unique.

It was impossible to admit the very
many people who came without tickets.

Very Rev. Fr. Hilary introduced
the lecturer.

B.B.C. and The Catholic Film
Institute

On January 23rd the B.B.C.
featured:

A Medieval Disputation on "The
Cinema is the highest form of art".

Very Rev. Fr. Hilary Carpenter,
O.P., Chairman of The Catholic Film
Institute defended this thesis in an
admirable manner. It may be possible /
to give a summary of this “Disputa-
tion” in next issue of Focus.

Focus offers its congratulations to Fr.
Hilary, to Cyril Cusack who introduced
the feature and to Very Rev. Fr. John
Baptist Reeves, O.P. (the objector),
to the Very Rev. Fr. Wykeham-George,

O.P. (Moderator), and to those in the
audience who contributed to this
interesting feature.

53

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

On Behalf of the Girls

Sir,

On receiving the last issue of Focus

1 was requested to write on behalf of
the girls of the Leader’s Group in
appreciation of your magazine. Focus
has proved most helpful in the school,
especially to the Literature Group,
which issues each week a brief review
on the films showing at Newcastle
theatres. Focus itself, is placed on the
notice board and the girls take a great
interest in it.

However, although Focus is greatly
appreciated by the older girls in third,
fourth and fifth year, the younger ones
sometimes find the reviews difficult to
understand fully. Therefore, a simpler
wording of the articles would prove
more helpful to girls of all ages.

Yours respectfully,

Juliana Greenwood.
St. Alovsius’ Girls’ High School,
Hamilton,

Newcastle,

N.S.W.

(Thank you, Juliana, for your nice
words. It would help us considerably
if the older girls would explain the
more difficult bits to the younger girls.
— Editor.)

“Focus” in Berlin

Sir,

You may be interested in the
following excerpt from a letter received
recently from a German student living
in the American sector of Berlin.

“I thank you for the two numbers of
Focus and your offer to send more of
this very good review. I rejoice
particularly that I will know the
scenario of the film, which is very much
spoken of before it is on the screen
(The Divine Tragedy). We were able
to circulate my copies and they who
read Focus felt as enthusiastic about it
as I did.”

Yours faithfully,

Margaret Anderson.

2 Avenue Road, E.7.

Double Service

Sir,

Allow me to take this opportunity
of offering my sincere congratulations
on the consistent excellence of your
review’. It is doing a double -service :

1. By constructive criticism, injecting
necessary bursts of primed plasma into
the reviving body of a great art ; and

2. Satisfying a vital desire by
Catholics and all responsible picture-
goers throughout the world, for solid
and dependable reviews in the light of
the moral law.

This service you are doing well. The
Motion Picture World owes you a deep
debt.

Focus has won enthusiastic praise
from our critics and newspapers here
in New Zealand. Our Catholic
periodicals have regularly repeated
strong recommendations to their
readers to subscribe to ‘‘that excellent
magazine” . . .

Brian Fenton.

43 Morton Street,

Invercargill,

New Zealand.

Yeast!

Sir,

I know that you must have received
many messages of congratulation on
the wonderful work you are doing, in
your strenuous efforts to bring the
Christian mind to the appreciation,
criticism and interest of the film, but
let me add my humble praise and the
confident hope that one day your
institute will be instrumental in leaven-
ing the Film Industry with the
wholesome yeast of Christianity.

(Rev.) P. M. Bohan.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral,

Ballarat,

Victoria,

Australia.

54

OUT OF THE By
DARKNESS CHARLES T00MEY

Making this picture has been an
absorbing and revealing experience
— not a little humbling also. I
have learned a great deal — about
religious congregations, community
life, the nature of the missionary’s
vocation and the stupendous task
that faces the modern evangelist. I
speak, of course, as a layman; the
religious is welcome to smile at the
naivete of these statements since
they will rather less than compensate
for my earlier misconceptions of a
way of life that seemed admirable in
proportion as it was incom-
prehensible. It is difficult at this
stage for one who has never been in
doubt about the non-existence of a
vocation in himself to avoid
sentimentality in one direction or
another. The only unsentimental
people in this respect are religious
themselves.

In common with many Catholics
I tended to regard the religious life
as a counsel of perfection towards
which I was quite unattracted. The
prime requirement seemed to be
holiness (a rather vague quality in
which I was entirely deficient), and
its corollary, a rather humourless
repudiation of one’s humanity. The
religious life demanded such
sacrifices and set such standards
that it almost seemed like spending
one’s whole life outside the con-
fessional accusing oneself of one’s
faults, meditating on the four last
things, living a hard and blameless
life in the hope of eternal salvation.
And while one found cause for

wonder and admiration in the x
spectacle of people submitting to "
such a circumscribing of their
abilities and activities, the very fact
seemed to remove them from the
category of ordinary human beings,
so that one felt it could not really be
such a difficult life for them. At
the same time it was always rather
disconcerting and seemed somewhat
unfair to those of us who remained
exposed to the cares and riches and
pleasures of this world each time we
pondered our own chances of salva-
tion. The religious were always so
depressingly humble in estimating
their own.

Well, I hope I know better now,
thanks to the opportunity which the
making of this picture gave me of
studying the religious state at
relatively close quarters. I hope,
too, that I may be forgiven the
tediousness of this recantation : it is
so silly and illogical to be as
astonished as I was to find some of
the sanest and most balanced, as
well as the happiest and most cheer-
ful and sympathetic people I have
met — some of my most valued
friends also — among people in
religion.

However, I am supposed to be ©
writing about the making of this
picture and not about my own
reactions, past and present, to the
religious state, or the people who
have chosen it. My association with
the Holy Rosary Sisters began the
day I met Sister Maiy Dominic.
That was in Dublin, in July 1947,

55

when I happened to be addressing a
Summer School in film appreciation
organised by the National Film
Institute of Ireland. She was one of
the students attending the course at
the conclusion of which she showed
a film which the Sisters had made
themselves dealing with their
missionary activities in Nigeria. It
fc was a silent, i6mm. film, shot on
reversal stock, absorbingly interest-
ing but considerably worn, too much
so to make it worth the trouble of
trying to take copies of it. Most of
it had been shot before the War and
the Sisters had decided it was time
to replace it. We discussed the
production of the proposed film at
some length. I was invited to assist
in the preparation of the script, and
finally, after further discussion, I
was asked to undertake the produc-
tion and direction of the new film as
well.

Followed seven months’ study of
Nigeria and its peoples, exhaustive
cross-examinations of returned
missionaries and finally there
emerged a treatment and a script —
a very elastic script, for the amount
of material was formidable, and
none of our unit had ever been to
Africa before. The very vagueness
of the African script was a blessing,
for Africa cannot be described, is
never what one expects and is never
quite the same. But we had quite
enough to do in Ireland to keep us
occupied for the time being, so we
concentrated on the Irish sequences.
Sister Mary Dominic became guide,
) philosopher and friend, and finally
unit manager, and in August 1948
we began shooting the Irish
sequences which aimed at giving a
brief history of the Congregation as
well as the factors and the training
that make the missionary. Most of
these sequences were shot at
Killeshandra in the Mother House of

the Congregation. It was the most
pleasant film-making I have ever
done. We literally turned the
Convent inside out, upset everyone’s
routine, made the usual impossible
demands, did the usual amount of
hasty and inconsiderate damage and
failed utterly either to shake the
Sister’s imperturbable calm, or awe
them by our cinematic ju-ju. I
think, of course, it was the vow of
obedience that made my task so
easy and so pleasant, and the result
on the screen so simple and refresh-
ing. It is a great pity it cannot be
incorporated on all studio contracts.

By October we were ready for the
African sequences. I remember well
the murky afternoon our small unit
set out from Liverpool and the
devastating contrast of Lagos when
we arrived there towards the end of
November. The story of our
subsequent adventures is too long to
relate here. In April 1949, just as
the rains were commencing, we
finished shooting our last sequence
and headed back for Europe with
30,000 feet of negative, our camera
out of action, weary, triumphant
and three months overdue.

The film is very largely an Irish
production. It was shot by Pat
Butler, undoubtedly the finest
cameraman in Ireland today, under
difficult conditions throughout. Even
the most rudimentary studio facilities
were unobtainable for the African
sequences which form the major
portion of the film. The camera used
throughout was a Newman Sinclair
Model E. The music was specially
written by Eamonn O. Gallchobhair,
one of our most distinguished
composers, and played by the Radio
Eireann Symphony Orchestra. Co-
operation between the Post Office
authorities on both sides enabled us
to transmit the music from the
Phoenix Hall, Dublin, by P.O. lines

56

to London where it was recorded on
the film under the supervision of
Dennis Scanlan. Three choirs are
featured in the film, the Choir of the
Holy Ghost Fathers, Kimmage,
Our Lady’s Choral Society, Dublin,
and the Holy Rosary Sisters them-
selves. In making reference to these

“Don’t put your daughter on the
stage, Mrs. Worthington, don’t put
your daughter on the stage,’’ is one
of my favourite Noel Coward songs.
Its catchy little tune comes into my
head whenever a woman asks me how
her daughter should start a screen or
theatrical career.

It is a question that comes to me
at least six times a week, by letter,
phone or by word of mouth now that
my daughter, Margaret Julia (known
to all, it now seems, by my nickname
of Toots) has appeared with me in
two films.

The question of whether it was
wise to allow Toots to start making
films at the age of four is often raised.
Personally, I would rather she had
waited a little before starting. It
gave me a great shock to find that
Toots already rated her own fan
mail letters, after The White Unicorn
« — somehow it seems ridiculous that

at five, when her schooling is just

facts, however, it would be un-
gracious to omit mention of the
British Colonial Office and the
Central Office of Information, to
both of whom we owe a debt of
gratitude for information, advice
and. assistance afforded us during
the making of Out of the Darkness.

beginning, she should be receiving
fan letters.

But my hand was forced, because
having seen Toots at the studios with
me, producers felt that only she
could play Margaret Lockwood’s film
daughter. They took one look at her
features and said, “But she’s
extremely like you”. It is something
I can never see myself, except that
we have the same eyes. But they
pleaded with me, saying that
production time would be wasted if
they had to test hundreds of
youngsters, supposed to be like me,
to see whether they could act.

They preferred to risk Toots,
hoping that she could act. I can
assure you that of the two of us in
The White Unicorn I was the more
nervous. At one time I almost dried
up, only to find young Toots prompt-
ing me out of the corner of her
mouth. Everybody agreed that she
had a , natural gift for acting, and

MY ADVICE

TO WOULD-BE

SCREEN STARS

By MARGARET LOCKWOOD

57

appearing completely at ease in front
of the camera.

So my daughter started her acting
career at four and now loves every
moment of filming, although the
crowds that greeted the stars at the
Royal Command Performance made
her grip my hand even tighter and
whisper, ‘‘I don’t think I want to be
a star after all, Mummy ! ”

Now that she has had her fling, so
to speak, I would rather she continued
being a normal little girl, with school
holidays and toys to claim most of
her interests. Later, when she is
better able to judge just whether she
is able to stand up to the strain and
the responsibility that acting brings,
I shall leave her completely free to
choose for herself.

After this training (or alternatively
a couple of years at a good dramatic
school) the question of luck comes
into it. That is why I shall warn
Toots strongly against acting before
she takes the final decision. I shall
say that however good she is, luck
will play an important part in her
career. Therefore she must have a
great deal of determination and
courage to overcome the initial
difficulties that she will have to face.

I seem to have wandered a little in
this advice to mothers who see in
their children the actors and actresses
of tomorrow. I suppose that is
inevitable because my child is so near
my thoughts especially in a subject
like this. Still let me enumerate the
vital points.

First essential is an ability to act.
Then a child should be taught the

importance of good posture, walk,
gestures, health and appearance — the
latter can be influenced in early days,
with good food, hair brushing and
frequent visits to the dentist to make
sure teeth, are straight and strong.

Then at seventeen or eighteen,
possibly a little later, either a couple
of years dramatic training or
repertory work. The latter is heart-
breakingly hard, but the best in the
world. Apart from the actual
training in a wide variety of parts,
juvenile, comedy, character and so
on, the difficulty of keeping up with
a new play every week will be a vital
part in forming character. Repertory
either makes or breaks a would-be
actor.

Then the question of luck. Being
seen in the right places helps. Also
it is essential to look right — as if
there were a possibility of being seen
by a future employer.

For those hoping to specialise in
screen acting, there is good news.
The J. Arthur Rank Organisation has
a training ground for would be screen
stars. This is the Company of Youth,
where fencing, exercise, posture,
elocution and dramatics are among
the subjects in the curriculum.

Young actors and actresses in
repertory are spotted by the
Organisation's talent scouts and, if a
screen test indicates that they have
possibilities, then they are signed up.

It is a hard life but a good one, I
would say to mothers who ask me for
advice, and there is still plenty of
room at the top. But I wonder
whether I have any right to advise
them to take a career that has more
heartbreak in it than perhaps any
other.

Or is my firm “No” to the question
“Do you regret being a star?”
sufficient encouragement for any
future talent?

(By courtesy of the Rank Organisa-
tion.)

Ideally I think the best training for
any actor or actress, whether going on
the stage or screen, is a couple of
years or more in repertory. So many
of our best actors today have
learned their technique this hard way.
Such names as Stewart Granger,
Michael Redgrave, Celia Johnson and
Rosamund John spring to mind
immediately. There are hundreds
more.

58

Physical Education Films
and Strips

By Our Educational Panel

LIBRARIES

G.B. Film Library, Aintree Road,
Perivale, Greenford, Middx.
Common Ground, Sydney Place, S.W.7.

TILMS

ANALYSIS OF AGILITY
EXERCISES

F.646, G.B. I. 1 reel, silent. Hire : 4/6
first day, 1/6 subsequent days;
sound, 7/6 first day, 2/6 extra days.

In this film children of about 7 to
9 years old demonstrate, while a
commentator describes, the steps in
teaching some basic agility exercises.
All the essential points in building up
the movement are shown most clearly
(in slow motion when this is helpful),
the descriptions are brief and to the
point, and come at just the right
moment. Starting with crouch jump,
showing how, with shoulders directly
over the hands, the weight is lifted,
first on the spot, then moving forward,
and later over a low rope, it progresses
to cat spring ; hop, step and jump ;
forward and backward rolls, through
vault and astride vault and finishes up,
with handstands and cartwheels. In
each case it starts from the very easy
stage that every child can attempt, and
•each progression is built on the last
so that confidence and skill develop
automatically until the movement is
finally done over apparatus. To see
this done so well by these children
should certainly spur on any class and
encourage any teacher.

SWIMMING: THE CRAWL

•G.B. I., F.665, FS.665. 1 reel. Hire :

same as above.

The cameras take these shots just
below the surface of the water, exactly
level with the swimmer’s body so that
the poise of the body and each move-

ment are perfectly clear. The film
concentrates firstly on the leg stroke,
with its relaxed knees, in-turned toes
and rhythmic beat, touching on the
variations used by different swimmers,
next the arm movement with its strong
underwater pull to the middle line of
the body, the part the wrist plays in
the stroke and then the slow recovery of
the arms just clearing the water. The
third part shows the head turn for
breathing, done without rolling the
body, on either side, depending on the
swimmer’s preference, but always in
perfect rhythm. It finishes with a
group of people crossing a swimming
pool all doing a beautiful crawl but
showing several personal variations.
This film should be most helpful to
anyone either learning or teaching the
stroke.

TENNIS

H. W. Austin : A personal demonstra-
tion of his style and method of
play. G.B. I., F.575, FM.575. 1 reel.
Hire : same as above.

The outstanding quality of Austin’s
play was always his perfect and easy
style, which makes him the ideal person
to demonstrate tennis strokes and foot
work.

Each stroke is taken in turn and its
essential parts made clear, often in
slow motion. The position of the body,
the preparatory swing, the place of
impact of ball on racquet, the follow- /
through, the transference of weight v
from one foot to the other — the whole
timing is shown in a way only possible
in a film of this sort. Each stroke is
repeated from various angles suffi-
ciently often to leave a very clear
impression. In the part dealing with
service, there is a helpful section on
foot faults and the commentary is
extremely good.

59

PROGRESSIVE TRAINING IN
BALL-HANDLING GAMES

G.B.I., F.620, FM.620. Hire : same as
above.

This is a very comprehensive demon-
stration of how skill with a ball can
be developed according to the age and
capacity of various classes of children.
It starts with games suitable for 4-5
year olds in an Infant School before
they are ready for team games. Their
aim is plenty of action and enjoyment.
Skill increases and the 7-8 year olds
practise in pairs, throwing as well as
catching. The next class shows a
marked development. Their games
require footwork and the ability to
judge the angle and spin of the ball ;
they can throw harder. A class of 8
year old boys are shown starting
football, while girls of the same age
group play skittle ball. The games for
the 9-10 year group aim at developing
accuracy and facility in handling the
ball — a ball and rope relay race is
shown, and lower ball, a useful prepara-
tion for Netball. Towards the end of
the film a rather restricted playground
is shown, every available inch of space
being used to the best advantage with
several different games going on at the
same time. Here the boys of 10-11 play
a very good game of Ringby touch,
while the girls play Netball. There is
a great deal in this film, so much that
to benefit from it fully, it should be
seen more than once, preferably
several times.

CARRIAGE

G.B.I., F.616, FM.616. 1 reel. Hire :

same as above.

A small girl aged about 3 has the
main muscle groups involved in holding
the body erect marked on her in some
dark colour, and she demonstrates how
they work with the easy natural
movements of childhood. As the
commentator points out, very young
children are generally perfectly upright.
It is later, when so many hours of the
day are spent in sitting, at desks, in
buses, at meals, that some muscles
become stretched and weak and others
shortened so that erect posture is no
longer natural and easy. Children are
shown how to counteract these bad
effects while still in their desks, by
Occasionally stretching their legs

straight out in front of them, by
bending the head and shoulders back
over the top of the seat, and by
tautening the slack abdominal muscles.
This is a very helpful film on an
important subject because it has a
bearing on so many others.

OUR NORMAL DAY

G.B.I., C.784, CM. 784. Hire : same as
above.

This is a film intended to appeal to
youths and girls who, having left
school, can so easily lose the physical
fitness they enjoyed there, spending all
their leisure time in cinemas or in
night-clubs. It shows the sort of thing
they might do to improve their health
and enjoyment of life. Keep Fit Classes
of various kinds, athletic training and
sports. The aimlessness, the dreariness,
and the milling crowds of “our normal
day” are presented so realistically (and
rather depressingly) that the remedy
that most immediately suggests itself
is a long, quiet holiday as far away
as possible. But no doubt the weekly
or twice-weekly 'class in pleasant
surroundings, or to music, or more
vigorous according to taste, is a more
likely remedy in the long run.

FILM STRIPS

Common Ground Physical Education
Series, made in collaboration with the
Ling Physical Education Association
and the National Association of
Organisers and Lecturers in Physical
Education.

The advantage of these strips as far
as games are concerned is that each
shot of positions, etc., can be held and
studied. In a moving film, the action
of the players is often too swift to be
of value to a child.

HOCKEY

C;G.A., B.435. Price : 15/-.

The chief value of this strip is that
it gives the progressive stages in
picture of the different strokes used in
the game. This should be of great help
to children who can get a correct view
of a player’s head and body positions
with the correct footwork for each
stroke. The strip also includes
positioning at the beginning of the
game, during a corner, etc., which
would be of use to beginners.

Suitability : all ages.

60

NETBALL

C.G.A., B.177. Price : as above.

This should be quite useful to
beginners at the game as it shows the
more elementary work of positions and
how to play the ball.

POSTURE

C.G.A., B.176. Price : as above.

This strip shows the usual pictures
of comparison between good and bad
positions. There are also some
anatomical diagrams which help
children to realise the importance of a
good posture in relation to their health,
apart from the better appearance it
naturally gives. The treatment of the

subject is very elementary and suitable
for young children.

Physical Education Films and Strips-
reviewed in September, 1948 :

TENNIS. — 3 sound films, made by
Dunlops, Sound Services Ltd.

No charge.

How to improve your Play.

Making the Ball. .

Making the Racket. |j

CRICKET. — Strips, Dawn Trust. 10/-
each.

Wicket-Keeping.

Batting.

SAILING. — Strip, Dawn Trust. Price
as above.

SOME FILMS REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this list does
not connote positive recommenda-
tion. Films that are positively harm-
ful are not included here. Readers
are reminded to refer to the full
reviews when assessing a film.

Category A, indicates adults only;
B, adults and adolescents; C, family
audiences; D, particularly for
children.

Interrupted Journey, The (B) (341)
L’Aigle a Deux Tetes (A) (348)
Landfall (B) (347)

Little Women (C) (338)

Look for the Silver Lining (C) (19)

Martin Roumagnac (A) (17)

Mighty Joe Young (B) (341)

Pinky (B) (14)

Prince of Foxes

(A)

(337)

Reviewed in “Focus”

(Vol

. II,

Pursuit

(A)

(340)

No. 12, and Vol. Ill,

No.

1)

Reckless Moment, The

(A)

(17)

Red, Hot and Blue

(B)

(350)

Abbott and Costello Meet

Romantic Age, The

(A)

(19)

the Killer

<B)

(346)

Search, The

(B)

(342)

Any Number can Play

(A)

(21)

Spider and the Fly, The

(B)

(18)

A Run for Your Money

(C)

(20)

Streets of Laredo

(C)

(350)

A Stranger Walked In

(A)

(ID

Tell it to the Judge

(B)

(15)

Big Steal, The

(B)

(339)

That Midnight Kiss

(C)

(ID

Come to the Stable

(C)

(12)

Tokyo Joe

(B)

(340)

Countess of Monte

Une Si Jolie Petite Plage (A)

(348)

Cristo, The

(A)

(ID

Velvet Touch, The

(B)

(347)

Crime and Punishment

(A)

(10)

White Heat

(A)

(9)

Crooked Way, The

(A)

(346)

East of Java

(A)

(350)

We Recommend

Everybody Does It

(B)

(338)

Christopher Columbus

(B)

(183)

File on Thelma

Hamlet

(B)

(130)

Jordan, The

(A)

(339)

Joan of Arc

(B)

(126)

Forsyte Saga, The

(B)

(17)

Johnny Belinda

(A)

(42)

Give Us This Day

(A)

(336)

Maytime in Mayfair

(B)

(172)

Great Lover, The

(B)

(10)

Monsieur Vincent

(B)

(230)

Great Sinner, The

(B)

(18)

Passport to Pimlico

(C)

(150)

Home of the Brave

(B)

(339)

Rachel and the Stranger

(B)

(70)

Hounded

(A)

(9)

Scott of the Antarctic

(B)

(14)

In The Good Old

Snake Pit, The

(A)

(159)

Summertime

(C)

(336)

Visitation

(B)

(134)

Innocence is Bliss

(B)

(19)

Whiskey Galore

(B)

(220)

61

BOOK REVIEW

Informational Film and Television Year
Book. 1940-50. (Albyn Press, 42
-Frederick Street, Edinburgh, 2;
12s. 6d.)

A reference book which is perfect is,
like the pheonix, a rara avis, but as far
as fallible human co-operation can
make it so, this is it. Technical film
•data, chronicles of the various
organisations, including C.F.I. and
•O.C.I.C. films of the year, who’s who in
documentary, etc., etc., here is a book

which should be on the shelves of any
organisation, college, club, society
which has an interest in non-theatrical
film projection or production. The
faults, mainly of accuracy with regard
to addresses, is a matter for the people
concerned and if they would send in
corrections as soon as detected with
ideas for further improvements in
subsequent issues, the publishers would
be the first to say “thank you”. In the
meantime, congratulations on a useful
and well produced reference volume.

THE INTERVAL CLUB

The Honorary Secretary of the
■Catholic Film Institute had the
privilege of presiding at the Twenty-
fourth Christmas Party, organised by
the Interval Club on Christmas Day.
This must have been surely the most
enjoyable and homely gathering in all
London. After a first-class dinner, the
guests were treated to two beautifully
produced plays, the one a Nativity Play,
the other a one-act comedy by Catherine
Ferraz. Apart from the fact that the
plays were produced and acted by
professionals, the comedy, “Table for
'Two,” was that rare thing, a play
written for professionals, and it was
•clear that the professional audience
present enjoyed all the sallies aimed at
the legitimate victims of the legitimate
stage.

It does not diminish the respect with
which “Table for Two” was received,

to say the piece de resistance was the
Nativity Play, adapted from Long-
fellow’s “Golden Legend”. Long work
and careful preparation must have gone
to the production of this beautiful little
item and the acting, setting and the
carols sung by an excellent choir
combined to provide an entirely
satisfactory Christmas experience.

Such occasions prove, if proof were
needed, that there is abundant talent
of every kind available among our
Catholic theatrical friends. If ever the
Cinema Guild, about which we have
been wishfully thinking for so long,
comes into being, we could do worse
than study the technique which has
made the Interval Club, such a
satisfactory organisation for bringing
together players having their faith and
their professions in common.

* for Catholic boohs go to

the Catholic book centre

140 STRAND, LONDON, W.C.2

Telephone : Temple Bar 3008
* Telegrams : Gallows, Estrand , London

new and
second-hand
Catholic books
in all languages
sent all over
the world

FOR NEWS AND VIEWS OP
CATHOLIC BOOKS READ

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62

COVER PERSONALITIES

LAMBERTO MAGGIORANI
and

ENZO STAIOLA

By

VITTORIO DE SICA
(who directed the film)

(

INTRODUCTORY NOTE
By The Editor

Onr reviewer has described Bicycle
Thieves as the triumph of mind over
money and as the triumph of the
“unknown” over the famous.

It is fair and fitting that Focus
should give pride of place, in this issue,
to two unknown stars : Lamberto

Maggiorani and Enzo Staiola (it is
impossible to separate them) who shine
with a brilliance which is strong,
warm and fascinating. These amateurs
will be remembered when many
professionals are forgotten. But let
Vittorio de Sica, who discovered them,
tell you their story . . .

I have been asked how the idea came
to me to make Bicycle Thieves, and if
I had much difficulty in directing the
two leading people in the film, who
were not professional actors.

I can tell you that Bicycle Thieves
was born of a great desire I had to tell
a simple and human story. I was not
impelled bv any literary idea. I have
simply told the story of the workman
Antonio, his wife Maria and their son
Bruno.

To see is very useful to an artist.
Most men do not want to see, because
often the pain of others troubles them.
We, on the contrary, want to see. Our
one aim is to see.

How many times the workman

Antonio passed close to me : I met him
in the street, at church, at the door of
the cinema while he read the
programme outside. I saw him several
times with his son. In Italy men often
go out with their sons. Children

converse and argue with their father,
become confidants, and very often
become no longer children, but “little
men”.

This, I think, is universal, and that
is why the image of these two beings,
which I always saw united, made me
decide to choose the story of Antonio
and Bruno.

Lamberto Maggiorani, a simple
workman of Breda, was very kind to
me. He left his own work for two
months to lend his face to me. I never
had any difficulty with him. It is true
that for the first few days he had to
overcome a slight fear, which comes to
everyone who is unused to filming. But
afterwards he lived with great truth
and naturalness the part of Antonio,
from whom was stolen the tool he-
needed for living — his bicycle. It was
not hard for me to direct Maggiorani.

Enzo Staiola is the most lovable child
in the world. He is good, sensitive,
intelligent. I don’t think it is possible-
to create a character like that of Bruno
without having the qualities which
Enzo possesses.

He is a poor child, son of refugees,
whom I met by accident. His open,
communicative face appealed to me at
once. His expressions are half comic.
His eyes have a soft and melancholy
look. With his large nose and chubby
cheeks he has the unmistakable look
of a child who has known suffering.

I do not think I have to explain why
I had no difficulty whatever in
directing this child, who my good
fortune enabled me to meet by chance
in the street.

{By courtesy of the Management off
Curzon Cinema.)

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema )

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman-. The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

3. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4.. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

. MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £10.

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Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
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of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote :

“The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.’’

Hon. Secretary :

Rev. John A. V. Burke, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

SUBSCRIPTION FORM

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NAME and ADDRESS to which copies are to be sent:

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Catholic Film Enterprises

46 WILKIES LANE, DUNDEE

Silent and Sound Projectors of all types
16mm. 9.5mm. 8mm.

including

BELL & HO WELL Gaumont 601 16mm. Sound Projector

and

SPECTO 16mm. Silent Projector

Screens Movie-Paks Film Strips

Library of Religious Film Strips

MOBILE CINEMA available for Parish or Schools

LET US SUPPLY ALL YOUR FILM NEEDS

MONSIEUR

VINCENT

(FRENCH DIALOGUE : ENGLISH

SUB-TITLES)

A MOBILE CINEMA UNIT
CAN NOW GIVE A SHOW
OF THIS OUTSTANDING
PRODUCTION AT YOUR
OWN LOCATION
Full particulars from

PERCY W. FOWLER
137 The Glade
Croydon

(Telephone : Addiscombe 6559)

Film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions’’, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour

By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
' INSTITUTE
20 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3

Scriptural Productions

AN INDEPENDENT ORGANISATION DEVOTED
TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION
OF FILMS FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES

Under the Direction
of

ANDREW BUCHANAN

+

PARK STUDIOS
PUTNEY PARK LANE
LONDON

S.W.I5

Tel. Putney 6274/4052

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Film Institute,
20 Ovington Square, London, 8.W.3.

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

FILM LIBRARY

CRUCIFERS TO WALSINGHAM

An Introduction to Our Lady of Walsingham. The Story of the Cross
Pilgrimage.

Two reels. Sound. Music and Commentary. Available in 35mm. and
16mm. Hiring fee: 16mm., £1 Is. Od. a day; 35 mm., copies by special
arrangement.

VISITATION

Andrew Buchanan’s celebrated film on the work of the Medical Missionaries
of Mary. Seven reels. Monochrome. Hiring fee: £5. All profits devoted to
the work of the missions.

THE SACRIFICE WE OFFER

Alan Turner’s film on the place which Mass occupies in the everyday life
of all working people. Four reels. Kodachrome. Hiring fee: £3.

Also available. Silent version. Monochrome. Suitable for instructional
purposes. This Silent Version omits the introductory and final work 6hots
of the colour version. Hiring fee: 30/-.

DOMUS DEI

Alan Turner’s film of the solemn consecration of St. Teresa’s Church,
Princes Eisborough. - One reel. Kodachrome. Sound. Hiring fee: 15/-.

A LEGEND OF NORFOLK

Ee-issue of Arthur Leslie’s successful film on Walsingham. Two reels.
Monochrome. Sound. Hiring fee: £1.

FAMILY AFFAIR

The working out of the spirit of Rerum Novarum in the Ernest Turner
factory at Spa Lane, Derby. Produced and directed by Alan Turner.
Prologue by H.E. Cardinal Griffin ; Epilogue by Father Joseph Christie, S. J.
Four reels. Kodachrome. Hiring fee: £2.

THE VATICAN OF PIUS XII

March of Time. 2 reels. Hiring fee: 15/-.

THE BRIDGE OF THE FORD

Made by Andrew Buchanan for the Medical Missionaries of Mary. The past
and present story of Drogheda. Commentary spoken by Eobert Speaight.
Monochrome. 4 reels. 40 mins. Hiring fee: £2 2e. Od. first day.

THE ATOM AND YOU

Made by Andrew Buchanan. A plea by a well-known American scientist
for the positive use of atomic energy. Sound. Monochrome. 2 reels. 20 mins.
Hiring fee: £1 Is. Od.

FOREIGN FEATURE FILMS

English sub-titles. 16mm. (Also available in 35mm.) Bookings arranged for
MONSfEUR VINCENT. £7 10s. Od. first day.— TO LIVE IN PEACE, £5 5s. Od. first
day.— FARREBIQUE, £5 5s. Od. first day— FOUR STEPS IN THE CLOUDS.
£5 5s. Od. first day.

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3 •

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Editorial 67

Syllogisms on the Cinema

... 68

Modes of Contention

... 70

Focus Film Course

... 71

By Andrew Buchanan

Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

11 Miraculo

... 73

Twelve O’clock High

... 73

The Rugged O’Riordans ...
Neptune’s Daughter

... 74

... 74

Woman in Hiding

... 75

Copper Canyon

... 75

Golden Salamander

... 76

Le Roi

... 78

A Kiss for Corliss

... 78

Miss Pilgrim’s Progress ...

... 78

Not Wanted

... 79

Francis

... 79

The Blue Lamp

... 80

Boys in Brown

... 81

Page

Madeleine 82

The Angel with the Trumpet ... 82

The Mysterious Poacher 83

The Dragon of Pendragon Castle 83

No Place for Jennifer 84

It’s a Great Feeling 85

Buccaneer’s Girl 85

Your Witness 86

Some Films Reviewed 86

German Protestants and Catholics

Intensify Film Action ... 87

The Pope and the Cinema 88

Institute Notes 90

Fetters to the Editor 91

A Visit to a Children’s Cinema

Club 92

By Our Educational Panel .

Book Review 93

Cover Personality 94

FOCUS — Annual Subscription: 7s. (post free). Single Copy: 7d. (post free).

Glasgow agents: Messrs. James Reilly and Co., 81 St. Vincent Street,

Glasgow, C.2.

FOCUS — May be obtained from: The Manager, “The Blue Cottage,”
69 Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7. Telephone: Kensington
6849. Duckett, 140 Strand, London, W.C.2. Telephone: Temple
Bar 3008/9. Catholic Truth Society, 28a Ashley Place, London,
S.W.l. Michael White, 15 Broad Street Place, London, E.C.2.
Telephone: London Wall 1389.

International Film Review

The new quarterly organ of the International Catholic
Cinema Office — Towards a Christian Philosophy of the Film.

Number Three now ready. Devoted mainly to the Film
in Britain.

Subscription rates: £i per annum. Obtainable from:
International Film Review, 20 Ovington Square, London,
S.W.3.

“Indispensable to those who take the cinema seriously."

A FILM
REVIEW

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. Ill

MARCH 1950

No. 3

“You may trifle with, human things,

but hands off Sacred Mysteries'

When I asked a good humoured,
tolerant, Italian priest, what he thought
of Rossellini’s film : The Miracle, he
shrugged his shoulders and said :

“Scerza coi Fanti
La scia i Santi.”

(You may trifle with human things

But hands off sacred mysteries.)

This Italian proverb is a just
comment on the much discussed
Miracle and puts it in its proper place.

In Paisa, Rossellini had his little
joke about the Franciscan Friars, whom
he portrayed as an order of naive men,
so removed from the realities of life
that one of the characters in the film
says : “How can these men judge us
when they are cut off from the world ?”
The implication was obvious. There is
no reason why Rossellini should not
have used the Friars for a story (all
human things are material for an artist)
and no harm was done ; in Franciscan
circles the joke was on Rossellini. But,
there is every reason, of decency and
delicacy, why Rossellini should keep
his hands off the Sacred Mysteries of
the Incarnation and the Miracle of the
Virgin Birth.

It will be argued, of course, that
there is no direct attack on these
dogmas of revealed truth. A direct
attack would be less harmful. The

attack is by implication and juxta-
position which is so cunningly
contrived as to deceive even the elect.
Of what avail is beautiful art if the
heart of the thing is ugly ? There springs
to one’s mind Shakespeare’s words :
“A goodly apple, rotten at the core”.

This is not a review of the film. It
is just a plain statement that the ideas
inherent in this film are repulsive and
irresponsible. Unwholesome food served
in golden vessels does not become any
the less unwholesome. Art does not
cover a multitude of sins. The fact that
many non-Catholics have deplored The
Miracle is proof that Catholics are not
being unduly sensitive in putting it on
the black list. It is nonsense to say
that art has no barriers. And the film
artist is not free to say and do what
he likes.

“We artists in this new medium,”
says Edward Carrick, “have in charge
a trust of enormous value. Upon our
studies, our devotion and enthusiasm
must depend the thoughts and emotions
of coming generations, for the film has
become the most popular of the arts,
and through it millions derive their
entire inspiration and perception of
emotional values. Never before in
history has the artist been in a position
to command such a gigantic audience
. . . never before was he so responsible
to civilisation.”

Editor.

SYLLOGISMS ON
THE CINEMA

An unusual broadcast, but one of
great interest to readers of Focus,
was provided by the B.B.C. in their
Third Programme during January.
The Dominican Fathers staged a
Medieval Disputation in which our
Chairman, Very Rev. Father Hilary
Carpenter, O.P., defended the thesis:
“The Cinema is the highest Form of
Art.”

INTRODUCTION

The proceedings, which took place
before an audience in the Old Hall,
Lincolns Inn, were opened by Cyril
Cusack, who observed that : “Such a
subject might well seem very far
removed from the thinkers of the Middle
Ages and their method of enquiry might
well appear ill-chosen to examine its
claims”. Yet he found, after all, a
certain fittingness both in the method
and in the place of this Disputation, for
“The Cinema,” he said, “is now on trial
as to its claims to be an art, and even
the highest form of art ; and the canons
of art, according to which it must be
judged, are laws as firm and as ancient
as the laws of human behaviour ... In
accepting the honour of introducing this
Disputation,” he went on, “I see myself
invited to hold a watching brief for the
Defendant, the Cinema, with which I am
now so closely associated. Whether the
defendant’s claim, as put forward by
Father Hilary Carpenter, can be
upheld, I do not know ... In any
event I am sure of one thing, namely
that the case will be investigated
expertly and impartially on both sides.”

The Moderator of the Disputation,
Father Kenneth Wykeham-George,
O.P., explained briefly the import and
process of this kind of Disputation,
making a very important point, namely
that “a Disputation is not the same
as a debate”, for in a Disputation “both

parties combine to establish by analysis
some objective truth . . . Its purpose is
to add, if possible, to the permanent
equipment of the mind, that is to say,
not to add to the stock of opinions but
to the building up of truth in each
individual mind.”

DEFENCE

Father Carpenter, in his initial
defence of the thesis, explained what
he meant by “the Cinema” and by
“art”. By the former he meant the
whole production of a film, from
preliminary script to actual projection.
In his exposition of the meaning of art,
he showed that beauty, which is the
essential element of art, is the outward
expression of integrity, that is of truth
and goodness, which must exist in the
artist and is a reflection of the beauty,
that is the truth and goodness, of the
Creator Himself. “To make a work of
art,” he said, “is to catch the reflection
of the beauty of God in the works of
His hands, and to enshrine it.” “There
is,” he observed, “a high kind of
utility in art. Art is not for art’s sake ;
for beauty is significant and therefore
art in its highest form is most
significant. By this I mean that true
art proclaims truth and goodness in a
vivid and vital way, and the artist thus
communicates truth and goodness to his
fellows through their minds and
emotions combined. The more effective
this communication, the higher the form
of art.” But “the true and indeed the
only medium of communication between
rational minds is the imagination . . .
and light and sound are the most plastic
and yet most significant material of all
... to which sense and mind react most
immediately with emotion and thought.”
This medium of light and sound is the
medium of the Cinema, needing only
the artistry of the Director to control it
and thus to produce the finest works
of art.

69

ATTACK AND COUNTER

The official Objector, Fr. John Baptist
Reeves, O.P,, began his attack with a
simple syllogism hinging on the fact
that photography is not the highest form
of art. This was pursued to its logical
conclusion, the Defender being able to
show eventually that the Cinema is
photography with a purpose, namely to
entertain in the fullest sense of the
word, that is to say with an appeal to
both senses and mind.

The Objector then urged that no art
that is controlled by economic con-
sideration is the highest form of art.
The Defender distinguished between
the absolute control of economic
considerations and the further control of
economics themselves by the public
conscience that should maintain in any
civilised community. In reply to a
further objection, the Defender pointed
out that the Cinema is more than
mere showmanship provided that
the Director is a true artist. He
emphasised the important point that it
is the genius of the Director that makes
the film. Father Reeves then maintained
that all the nobler arts are religious in
origin, unlike the Cinema. The Defender
replied that though the Cinema is not
an expression of religious worship, as
are some of the arts, nevertheless it is
a fitting medium of religious truth and
beauty.

The Moderator now took up the
attack in which he endeavoured to show
that the Cinema is not a medium of
truth or of goodness, because its whole
aim is to produce illusion and it is used
moreover to portray evil passions. The
Defender met this attack first by
showing that the illusion is in the
method and not necessarily in the idea
portrayed and then by pointing out
that the portrayal of evil passions is not
evil in itself, provided that its purpose
is to emphasise their evil and not to
incite them in others. He drew
attention to the world of difference
between Duel in the Sun and Cielo sulla
Palude.

THE AUDIENCE ATTACKS

The attack was then continued by our
Honorary Secretary, Father Burke, who
urged that the highest form of art is
productive of the finest works of art,
which is not true of the Cinema. The
Defender distinguished the implication

of the word “productive”, agreeing that
the highest form of art is capable of
producing the finest works of art, and
therefore urging that, though the
Cinema is not actually productive of the
finest works of art, it is nevertheless
capable of producing them.

Dr. Denis Dooley, of Charing Cross
Hospital, then entered the lists with the
objection that the highest form of art
requires that the Director of that art
should be supreme, whereas in the
Cinema the Art Director is not supreme,
which gave the Defender an opportunity
of rejecting the false meaning of “art”
in modern jargon and of pointing out
that, by an anomaly, in the Cinema the
Art Director is not the Director of the
art of the Cinema.

Miss Freda Bruce 'Lockhart followed
with a powerful objection based upon
the need of integrity in any true art
form, an integrity which is clearly
lacking in the complicated medium of
the Cinema. The Defender readily
admitted the need of integrity, but
pointed out that this integrity must be
measured, in a film, by the artistic
integrity of the Director. If the latter
is present, then there will be integrity
in the film he creates.

Mr. Richard O’Sullivan, K.C.,

declared, with obvious conviction, that
the Cinema panders to the lowest
human tastes for the sake of gain, and
therefore could not be the highest form
of art. But the Defender riposted with
the distinction that, though what the
Objector said might be true of many
or even of all films, it still did not
follow that films must be characterised
by this baseness. He gave the example
of two films, amongst many, where this
was clearly not the case, namely
Monsieur Vincent and The Search.

Finally Father Reeves was invited by
the Moderator to make a final objection.
He did so by urging that the
imagination is no true medium for art,
seeing that art is concerned to convey
truth and objective goodness. But the
Defender was able to turn the tables by
showing that imagination is essential
for the transference of truth and good-
ness from one human mind to another,
wherefore an art that used imagination
to the full is the highest form of art.

70

THE MODERATOR SUMS UP

In his summing up the Moderator
judged that the Defender had been
essentially unshaken in the maintaining
of his thesis, but drew attention to the
fact that he had been compelled to word
that thesis more precisely, first by
admitting that the Cinema is not
actually productive of the highest works
of art and secondly by admitting that
it is only potentially and not as yet in
fact the highest form of art.

*

This present precis of the Disputa-
tion inevitably misses the wealth of
thought and the dispassionate but
compelling logic of the procedure.
Nevertheless it gives an outline of the

ground covered and gives some
indication of the high principles
involved in a thoughtful consideration
of the value of the Cinema. We feel
that the Catholic Film Institute has
received indirectly a magnificent
apologia through the able defence of
the Cinema by its Chairman.

*

Editor’s Postscript. — The many
people who “listened-in” to the above
Disputation will be pleased to know
that it received an excellent Press. By
courtesy of the Literary Editor of the
“Observer”, I am able to reprint W. E.
Williams’ comments.

Modes of Contention

By IV. E. WILLIAMS

The Third Programme is often
teased for its modish interest in
antique forms of art, yet in its
rummaging among the Middle Ages
it has discovered a pattern of ex-
pression that might have been created
for wireless. The “Medieval
Disputation’’ which it mounted the
other night is a mode of contention as
different from the average discussion
as Bach is from bebop. The rules of
this lucid, dispassionate exercise call
for two principal contestants, one to
erect and another to dismantle a
series of well-built propositions — this
time on the piquant thesis that “The
Cinema is the Highest Form of Art’’.

The combination of ancient

method and modern topic did not
sound, as one had feared it might,
like an attempt to play Stravinsky
on a clavichord. It was as apt and
valid as any fourteenth-century
scrutiny of matters of fundamental
doctrine. The Dominicans, evidently,
are still trained in this discipline of
logical deliberation, and Father
Hilary Carpenter (doing most of the
work) treated us to a consummate j
exhibition of clear thinking, cool, ^
unemotional, precise. The formula,
no doubt, could easily become irk-
some, but it was a refreshing change
from those slap-dash, raggle-taggle
arguments that proliferate on the
wireless.

71

FOCUS FILM COURSE

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

No. 2— SYLLABUS SUGGESTIONS

To help those intending to form film
study groups, I am going to suggest
a syllabus to cover fortnightly meetings
for six months, constituting the first
half of a progressive Course. The
subjects are merely to guide organisers,
and should not be regarded as
unalterable, for both the knowledge of
individual members, and conditions
vary to such a degree in different areas
that no plan can be completely
acceptable to all. Also I want to make
it clear that this first half of the Course
does not offer lessons in actual film-
making. They will follow in the
second half. The first duty of the film
student is to learn everything possible
about the medium and deal with first
things first.

As readers know, the ultimate aim
of this Course is to discover and
develop individual talent which,
eventually, is is hoped, can be gathered
together to create a religious film unit
or units, capable of producing films of
the highest quality. However, unlike
many groups and clubs formed solely
to make miscellaneous films; the object
here is to regard film as a means to
an end, the end being the projection
of the Christian message on the screen.
That is the ultimate goal; but running
parallel to it is the equally important
task of developing the critical faculty
in an ever-increasing number of people,
to enable them to fully appreciate fine
qualities in films, and to be very
discerning about cinema-going. There-
fore, whether the student is likely to
become skilled in one or other branch
of production, or remain content to
approach film-going in an intelligent
way, the Course should prove
invaluable.

It is surprising how many people,
attracted by the surface-value of
films, begin at the end, and try to rush
into production, believing that the
making of films is the only activity in

the industry. Many possess technical
knowledge, yet know nothing of the
great industrial machine without which
no film could reach the public. Others
know little about vital market
problems, production costs, the impor-
tant part which projection plays, or
even rudimentary facts about negatives,
positives, and the various sizes of film
stock. And yet all these matters are
inter-related to actual production, and
it is the duty of the student, be he
writer, technician or organiser, to learn
all he can about them. Here, then, is
a suggested syllabus :

1 . The Structure of the film industry.
Production. Distribution. Exhibi-
tion. The Quota Act. Audience
statistics.

2. Classification. Feature films. Short
films. Theatrical films. Non-
Theatrical films. Standard and
sub-standard sizes.

3. The shape of Commercial Pro-
grammes. Effect of two feature
films on an audience. Absence of
short films in cinemas. Influence
of films on the public.

4. The News Reel. Its commercial
value. Its limitations. Its influence.
Indirect propaganda. Can it be
improved within the existing
framework ?

5. Fictional versus Factual films. The
importance of natural backgrounds.
Comparison with studio settings.
What is the true function of film ?
Is that function fulfilled ?

6. The film in education. What the
teacher needs to know. What
the producer needs to know.
Commercial problems. Scope and
future of classroom films.

7. Films for children. Distribution
problems. Production problems,
subject-matter. Is it wise to
develop cinema-going in the very
young ? Effect of adult films on
child minds.

72

8. The religious film. Distribution
problems. The realistic approach.
The theatrical approach. Costs.
The need for inspiration.

9. Subject-matter. Adaptations versus
original screen material. Depend-
ence of narration on dialogue.
Pictorial narration. Does dialogue
retard development of the
universal film ? Methods of the
French school. Methods of the
Italian school.

10. Film Music. As a background.
As an integral part of a film.
Comparison of current use of
music with specially composed
orchestral accompaniments to early
silent films. Film Music Copyright.

1 1 . Introducing the film-makers. The
specialists whose work, collec-
tively, results in a film. Scenarist.
Producer. Director. Art Director.
Cameramen. Recorder. Editor.
Laboratory workers.

12. Summarising discussion on the
first eleven lessons, and prepara-
tion for the second half of the
Course.

Observations on the first lesson —
discussion:

The three great branches of the
industry, production, distribution, and
exhibition, are so closely inter-related
that a hold-up of any kind in one sends
repercussions throughout the others.

Why is this so ? Discover and discuss
the main production centres in the
world.

Analyse Britain’s Quota Act and
judge whether it fulfils its purpose,
which is to safeguard British
production, and guarantee it a home
market.

Does the public get the programmes
it likes ?

Can the cinema-goer influence
exhibitor, distributor and producer ?

Is it healthy for a large chain of
cinemas to be owned by one distributing
and producing concern ?

How many members in your group
already know the extent to which poor
projection can ruin the presentation of
a film ?

Consider the implications of the
following statistics :

Three hundred million people
throughout the world go to cinemas
weekly.

There are about 80,000 cinemas in the
world. Approximately 4,800 of them
are in Britain.

About one person in three goes to
the cinema at least once a wreek.

Some, especially young people, go
several times.

One in every four people do not go
at all.

People between the ages of sixteen
and twenty are the most frequent
cinema-goers.

People over sixty go least of all.

The influence of film is greater
than any other medium — greater than
broadcasting. Why ?

Reading list: “Sociology of Film”,
by J. P. Mayer (Faber). “The Film
Till Now”, by Paul Rotha (Vision
Press) .

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS’ FUND

IF one fourth of the Catholic population in England and Scotland
contributed a penny a day for 240 days The Catholic Film Institute
in England would be able to set up a production unit.

It was the pennies of the Catholic population in France which made
possible the making of the film Monsieur Vincent.

Kindly send donation to:

Rev. J. Burke, 357 Beulah Hill, London, S.E.19.

73

FILM REVIEWS

By Our Panel of Priests

IL MIRACULO

Starring: Anna Magnani. Distributors:
Film Traders Ltd. Director:
Roberto Rossellini. Certificate :
Refused by British Board of Film
Censors. Category: Strictly A.

Running time : 40 minutes.

This film has been the centre of much
controversy in Italy where it has been
both praised and condemned. It is
likely to arouse similar contention in
this country. No one as far as I know
has denied that it is extremely well
made and acted. That does not mean
that it is well that it should have been
made, still less that it should be offered
to indiscriminate exhibition. The
British Board of Film Censors are to
be commended for their refusal to give
it a licence.

Those who disagree with this attitude
must try to appreciate the fact that a
Christian country, even when it does not
subscribe to the completeness of the
Catholic interpretation of the mystery
of the Incarnation, necessarily regards
the birth of Christ as something
particularly sacred. Any oblique
allusion to it, therefore, as in this
film, cannot but cause misgiving,
however skilfully or reverently the
allusion is made. It has been said that
other “religious” films, of the Holly-
wood variety are more objectionable on
account of their sentimentality and lack
of taste ; that may be so ; it still
remains- that II Miraculo touches the
Christian faith at a very sensitive
point. An audience of believers may
well appreciate the artistic merits of
the film : they cannot but feel

embarrassment at the implications of a
story in which a simple-minded Italian
shepherdess imagines that the child she
is to bear has St. Joseph for its father.
There is a very wide field of fruitful
subjects for the expression of the great

art of Anna Magnani ; it is not necessary
for her to submit the key doctrine of
Christianity to the speculation of the
curious in this way. Rossellini doubtless
had the best motives in making this
film but there are some things which
are just not done.

J. A. V. B.

TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH
Starring: Gregory Peck, with Hugh
Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard
Mitchell and Dean Jagger.
Director: Henry King. Producer:
Darryl F. Zanuck. 20th Century-
Fox. Certificate : U. Category :
B. Running time: 133 minutes.

The Cinema is said to base its claim
to be a true art-form on its power to
reflect the transcendentals, truth and
beauty. This rather puts the war-film
on the spot since there is little of
beauty in war and so the director has
to be even more than usually

meticulous about his devotion to truth.
Otherwise the result is that the
ordinary people who form the personnel
of a non-professional fighting force are
either glorified to the heights of
unreality or else debased to the depths
of bestiality.

This film, telling the story of an
American Bomber Group in England in
the year 1942, impresses one because

of its real, almost documentary,

approach. We are shown ordinary men
beginning to crack up under the strain
of heavy loss of life and the apparent
futility of the task they have under-
taken. A new Commander (Gregory
Peck) is given the distasteful job of
imposing an iron discipline and
restoring morale. This he does, chiefly
by personal example, and the Group
becomes one of the best on operations.

Gregory Peck gives an extremely
good performance as the Group

74

Commander and the supporting players
are all very competent, especially Dean
Jagger as the middle-aged adjutant.
The strength of the film lies in its
avoidance of all false histrionics and
its sensitive picture of ordinary men
carrying out a duty which is repulsive
to them. There are some very exciting
and authentic looking air battles.
Apart from a slowness of tempo at the
beginning it is a well-constructed and
well-directed film.

Me.

THE RUGGED O'RIORDANS

Starring: John O’Malley, Thelma

Scott. Producer and Director:

Charles Chauvel. Distributors:
G.F.D. Certificate: A. Category:
B. Running time: 77 minutes.

This is not a case of so and so in
The Rugged O'Riordans, but of The
Rugged O’Riordans with John O’Malley
and Thelma Scott, while the most
colourful players, Michael Pate and
Wendy Gibb are not mentioned in the
credits. This is as it should be because
this impressive film front Australia is in
the nature of a documentary, with
commentator and all, sweetened with a
love interest. Basically it is the story
of ally group of pioneers in the wild,
beautiful, heart-breaking and difficult
terrain of the Australian bush. The
story gives a vivid picture of the
difficulties of the early free settlers, of
the colossal labours of such men and of
the faith and fortitude of their women.

It was a true instinct which excluded
the starring of actors, for the out-
standing feature is the exuberant and
all too resilient force of nature : the
wild country, the stampeding untamed
horses, the frightened cattle, the
enveloping vegetation and drought and
tempest as well. The theme is the
reaction of brave and resolute men and
women, their struggles and their
triumph.

There is one criticism I would make
of the O’Riordans which I hope it is not
petty to make. You see, there were
Irish and Catholic. They have a
Catholic-sized family* they have a
tradition of a family united in affection,
interests and work. They have the
decent standards which many good
men, but particularly Catholics, should

have and maintain ; but apart from
childhood’s night prayers, there is no
sign of priest or Mass or Sacraments.
These would not be everyday facilities
under pioneering conditions, but to
have an authentic impression of so high
minded an Irish Catholic family it
would surely be a good thing, almost
a necessary thing, to indicate whence
they derived their moral strength. It
is not a question of making a Catholic
film out of this, but of making a more
authentic film.

X.

NEPTUNE’S DAUGHTER

Starring: Esther Williams, Red

Skelton, Ricardo Montalban and
Betty Garrett. A Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer Production. Director:
Edward Buzzell. Producer: Jack
Cummings. Certificate: U. Cate-
gory : None. Running time : 93
minutes.

Apart from some innocent merriment
between Red Skelton and Miss Garrett,
and for some lavish technicolor, there
is nothing whatever to recommend this
film, and a great deal to condemn it.
It is all about “a guy, a girl and a
bathing suit” — a slender theme which
is nothing more than an excuse for
displaying bathing beauties in very
slender bathing suits. There are
occasional dives and displays, but the
“beauts” and the suits seem to be the
thing, with a particularly sensuous
dance by way of a change.

To feel happy or even comfortable in
such an atmosphere would indicate that
we are well on the way to accepting
some of the worst standards of a pagan
world. Not that there is anything
positively indecent. The Board of
Censors give it a “U” certificate. But
its underlying values are insidious, and
it is the worst type of stuff for the
adolescent who, in such a glamorous
atmosphere, may well be allured into
equating love with lust, and into
thinking the only pre-requisite for
marriage is an over-dose of sex appeal.
Here, maybe, “U” stands for “undress”
or “universally unsuitable”. Anyway it’s
not for vou.

G.

75

Woman in
Hiding

Starring: Ida Lupino, Howard Duff
and Stephen McNally, with Peggy
Dow, John Litel and Taylor
Holmes. A Universal-
International Picture. Director:
Michael Gordon. Certificate : A.
Category: B. Running time : 92
minutes.

If you like a picture which makes
your flesh creep, your hair stand on
end, your teeth chatter, freezes the
marrow in your bones, chills your spine,
catches your breath, makes your eyes
start out of their sockets, brings a cold
perspiration to your brow and generally
leaves you feeling limp, Woman in
Hiding is the film for you. To expect
it to exhibit qualities of coherence and
conviction after it has done all that for
you, is, perhaps, asking too much. In
addition, Ida Lupino, who plays with
her customary craftsmanship, is thrown
in a car over a bridge into a lake from
which she emerges dry, but slightly
dusty ; gallant efforts are also made to
throw her down a fire escape, off a cat
walk and from a moving train, not to
mention the attempt to have her
confined in a lunatic asylum.

The lady's not for leaping
Ida Lupino — Stephen McNally

As the police are dragging the lake
for her body her ghostlv voice
announces with unaccustomed candour :
“No one would believe it!” After that
it seems rather caddish to complain
about entertainment tax.

The general idea is that Selden Clark
wants to gain possession of the Clarks-
ville mill. To attain his end he does not
stop at murdering his boss, marrying
his victim’s daughter and planning her
removal also. To analyse such a story
too closely is not playing the game, so
I shall, as George Robey would put it,
desist.

Howard Duff is charming as the boy
friend who has to be on hand to take
the heroine towards the sunset when
her nasty husband gets his deserts. Ida
Lupino almost convinces one that the
film is important. Together with the
slick editing and some smart camera
work her performance lifts the fflm out
of the rut of ordinary thrillers. As the
nasty husband, Stephen McNally is in
appearance and style a curious mixture
of James Mason and Victor Mature. He
is, shall we say, more Masonic than
Mature.

V.

COPPER CANYON
Starring: Ray Miliand, Hedy Lamarr,
Macdonald Carey, Mona Free-
man, Harry Carey, Jr. Presented
by Paramount in Technicolor.
Producer: Mel Epstein. Director:
John Farrow. Certificate: U.

Category : C. Running time: 88
minutes.

This is a competent Western film in
technicolor. Little more than that need
be said. As usual the mental age of
the audience is assumed to be about 15;
perhaps the film people are right, but
I feel that an occasional scrap thrown
to the plus 15’s could add distinction to
this type of production. Ray Miliand
does well in the lead in this story,
concerned " with an unscrupulous gang
who are victimising a mining town in
the far west.

T.

David (Trevor Howard) reads: “Not by ignoring evil does one overcome it.
but by going out to meet it”

GOLDEN SALAMANDER

Starring: Trevor Howard and Anouk,
with Herbert Lorn and Jacques
Sernas. Producer: Ronald Neame.
Distributors: G.F.D. Director:

Ronald Neame. Certificate : U.

Category: C. Running time: 87
minutes.

It is a tribute to Herbert Lom to say
that it gave me, who am the most
pacific of beings and who considers that
sadism is quite the worst aspect of
most films from the moral point of
view, the utmost satisfaction when
Trevor Howard gave him what those
who are not Nazis used to call
Commando treatment. It was violent
and very unpleasant and left Lom
disabled at the foot of the stairs. It is
the one point in the film which makes
me hesitate at giving it a “C” rating.
Yet I should have been intensely
disappointed if we had not witnessed
this entirely retributive thrashing. It
is a compliment to Ronald Neame,
Director, and Jack Harris, Editor, that
this most exciting of films, dealing with

the adventures of an archaeologist who
runs into contact with a gang of gun-
runners in Algiers, in which violence
is continually suggested, which has the
most exciting escape and manhunt
sequences seen since Manhunt,
manages to last for 80 of its 87 minutes
without letting the audience see
anything more violent than a haggling
scene in an open-air market.

It is this complete economy and
balance in cutting that is the chief
merit on the technical side of a film
which abounds with merits both
technical and artistic. Not a foot is
wasted and there is not a foot too
much. We would willingly see more of
so many episodes and characters and
that is a good thing. The tantalising
street scenes of an Arab wedding :
groom being escorted with dancing
attendants bearing bath towels, soap
and something in a bottle; because “a
bridegroom needs a bath for purity”.
The rascally Aribi, a dragoman with a
fund of epigrams and proverbs which
are, he informs us, “the distilled
essence of my own thoughts” ; the

77

corrupt but benevolent policeman,
Douvet ; the most naturalistic market
scenes, full of atmosphere captured
by a master cameraman ; the priest
outside his church after Mass on
Sunday ; the boar-hunt and the people
setting off in the charabancs, a big fish
struggling on the deck of a small boat :
there are a score or more of these most
enchanting vignettes and flashes.

The cast is surely the most apt since
k the Carol Reed films : each player fits
“ his part like a glove; Miles Malleson
as the policeman ; Wilfred Hyde-White
— always superb — in a juicy part as
Agno, an amiable drunk ; Peter
Copley, delightfully sycophantic as the
dragoman.

But it is the chief players who
deserve the chief praise in this film.
Trevor Howard has developed con-
sistently as a film artist since his small
part as the Squadron Leader in Way
to the Stars. Here he is just perfect
as the archaeologist who changes from
the diffident scholar to a man of action
and comes through the fire of
adversity like the golden salamander
of legend. Anouk, the enchanting

young French girl who manages in
in some mysterious way to look
bewitching in a dirty raincoat and
drab beret with dank hair as I saw her
at Pinewood one day. She has a
personality that needs no grooming ;
may she be spared the ordeal which
doubtless some moronic type will insist
on subjecting her to. Herbert Lorn,
another skilled artist; as the most
brutal of the gun-runners he manages
to make one loathe his complete
command of every situation so that
some primitive instinct demands the
satisfaction of seeing him in pain before
the close of the film. Walter Rilla,
suave and objectionably correct as the
megalomaniac behind the scenes ;
another skilful player, seldom so well
suited to a role as here. All of which
adds up to a big compliment to a
director who has evidently control of
his imagination and his players, so that
he is able to repeat for us the great
experience of the war-days when
practically every British film was a
near masterpiece. What a relief not to
apologise for a native film !

V.

Rankl (Herbert Lom) :
David (Trevor Howard)

78

LE ROI

Starring: Maurice Chevalier, with

Annie Ducaux, Sophie Desmarets,
and Alfred Adam. Distributors:
Films de France. Director: Marc
Gilbert Sauvajon. Certificate: A.
Category: A. Running time: 93
minutes.

Why is it that the word “naughty”
when applied to anything French
conjures up fleeting visions of forbidden
fruits? Somehow, “naughty English”
does not have the same effect ! I fear
it is largely a matter of Victorian
Protestant prejudices about the Catholic
Continent. Not that I wish it to be
thought that Catholic ' continentals are
permitted any priorities with respect to
the Decalogue. It is, perhaps, a matter
of what you believe. Chesterton says
something about those having the Faith
also having the fun. You have to
believe in the Commandments before
you can be guilty of breaking them.
The curious thing is that those who
appear to have least regard for the
teachings of the Church are most
shocked when they are broken.

What a serious introduction to a very
frothy French meringue ! Yes, it is
naughty, but it’s nice and will do most
grown-ups no harm if thev like Maurice
Chevalier and stories about Ruritanian
mouarchs who dally with the wives and
lady friends of the politicians, who are
so busy being ambitious that they have
no time to look after their wives or their
countries.

A bishop in the film takes advantage
of his opportunity to tell the politician
that if he has designs on the kingdom
of Heaven, it is necessary to begin his
campaign of assault at once !

Maurice is a little too elderly for this
kind of thing, but his smile is still
captivating though his waist line is
expanding and his voice diminishing.
Le Roi is a kind of flashback to the
days before equality of rniserv spread to
the French screen. Nobody could be
miserable with the enchanting Sophie
Desmarets and the beautiful Annie
Ducaux to enliven them.

V.

A KISS FOR CORLISS
Starring: Shirley Temple, David

Niven, Tom Tully, Virginia
Welles. Director: Richard

Wallace. Producer: Colin Miller.
Released through United Artists.
Certificate: U. Category: B.

Running time : 88 minutes.

If you have considerable regard for
the love affairs of teenagers you may
find this film enjoyable.

Shirley Temple, who plays the part
of a girl of seventeen, is sentimentally
attached to a youth of about the same
age with a wliiney sort of voice.
Because he proves a trifle fickle, she
pretends to have had a romantic
meeting with a notorious but likeable
scamp, David Niven. For some
unexplained reason this scamp decides
to behave as if this intrigue had really
occurred and consequently many semi-
amusing domestic -ituation-- arise.

T.

MISS PILGRIM S PROGRESS
Starring: Yolande Donlan and Michael
Rennie. Director: Val Guest.

Certificate: U. Category: C.

Running time : 80 minutes

approx.

Why were not the Press invited to see
this film ? It is one of the neatest (and
cheapest) little comedies we have seen
for some time. Is it that it did not cost
enough monev to rank as a West End
offering? But Bicycle Thieves cost a
fraction of the average Hollywood or
Pine . . . ham production and has been
acclaimed by both critics and public.
So it is evident that a film that costs
but little money need not be cheap, nor
will the critics normally fail to
recognise a good thing when they
see it.

A simple idea is the basic element of
most good films. Here we are intro-
duced to an American girl who
comes to a factory in Berkshire on an
exchange scheme for a month. All the
obvious gags about monocles, corn-on-
the-cob, English money, ration books,
cold hot-water and candle-light are
packed into the film, but they are not
out of place. Eventually the girl enables

79

the village in which she lives to side-
track a satellite-town plan by discovering
some of the operative clauses in Magna
Carta, a document about which most of
the English characters are blissfully
ignorant. Says a gum chewing girl in
the factory: “Magna Carta? Tell me
who’s in it and I’ll tell you if it’s any
good ! ’ ’

Yolande Donlan is an enchantingly
“dumb” blonde with some of the most
comical facial expressions I have seen
for a long time. She is the centre of
an efficient supporting cast, including
Jon I’ertwee and Reginald Beckwith.
Michael Rennie is a little too “superior”
as the son of the village grocer, but is
more successful in this than in many
of his other more expensive vehicles.

If you want an amusing evening go
to see Miss Pilgrim’s Progress.

V.

NOT WANTED

Starring: Sally Forrest, Keefe Braselle,
Leo Penn. Distributors: Inter-

national Film Renters. Director:
Elmer Clifton. Certificate : A.

Category : A. Running time : 94
minutes.

This film, which did not get a West
End booking (apart from Studio One,
which ranks it as a Specialist) is Ida
Lupino’s first effort at production. It
is concerned with a young unmarried
mother, a theme which lays it open to
much muddled sentimentality posing as
progressive thinking and yet withal is
not without interest for Catholics.
Though there is some special pleading
for sympathy for the sin as well as for
the sinner, there is also enough counter-
balancing morality to save it from
condemnation.

It is mainly notable for the excellent
performances of its three principal
players. Sally Forrest as the young
mother has a great range of emotional
power ; Keefe Braselle, as a young motor
mechanic who loves the girl, conveys
the innocent devotion of the idealist
most movingly, and Leo Penn transmits
a quite evil impression through his role
as the thwarted but essentially depraved
pianist. With such a group of unknowns
as this, there can be nothing wrong
with American films from the point of
view of potential actors.

The sets are convincing and the use
of exterior location lends it a
documentary flavour which, perhaps,
contributes not a little to its appeal. A
picture for the discriminating audience.

V.

FRANCIS

Starring: Donald O’Connor, with

Patricia Medina, Zasu Pitts, Ray
Collins, John Mclntire. Producer:
Robert Arthur. Director: Arthur
Lubin. Distributors: G.F.D.

Certificate: V. Category: B.

Running time : 91 minutes.

For the benefit of readers who always
jump to pious conclusions, I must
make it clear at the outset that this is
not the life of a saint. Francis is
one of our dumb friends who is not
so dumb, a mule who talks, except
when the obstinacy of his kind makes
him inconveniently silent.

The action takes place in Burma
during the war. But since the war has
been over for some years the picture
has to be given a more up-to-date
frame. (If I may be allowed a paradox,
even the subtleties of the film are
rather obvious.) But I think none the
worse of the Hollywood army because
on this occasion it has taken time off
from winning the war to laugh at
itself. I laughed too each time Donald
O’Connor, after claiming that a mule
had talked to him, was next discovered
enduring occupational therapy under
the care of- Zasu Pitts (rather a
favourite of mine since the days of
silent films). But if anyone is thinking
of casting Patricia Medina in an
oh-la-la part again . . . “Mais, non”.
Thank you, Miss Medina. You have
taken the words out of my mouth.

There is half a line now and again
which might give some offence to those
on the look out for such things, but
on the whole the film is innocent
enough.

In the past an occasional wisecrack
from a camel or a hen has been funny
enough, because the idea was not over-
done. But this joke lasts for an hour
and a half. Therefore . . . (Editor :
Thank you, but this is not the Third
Programme.)

Q-

C. Mitchell (Jimmy Hanley) brings the
■evolver with which P.C. Dixon was shot

om (Dirk Bogarde) carries out his
armed hold-up at the cinema

Andy Mitchell talks to the young crook, Tom,
and his girl, Dianna (Peggy Evans) 4

THE BLUE LAMP

Starring: Jack Warner, Jimmy

Hanley, Dirk Bogarde, Robert
Flemying, with Bernard Lee,
Peggy Evans and Gladys Henson.
Producer: Michael Balcon.

Director: Basil Dearden. Certifi-
cate: A. Category: B. Running
time : 85 minutes approx .

This film has had a great deal of
publicity from the Press and in other
ways. It was known that Scotland
Yard had co-operated in its making. It
was, therefore, with a certain amount
of foreboding that I went to see it, for
publicity has a knack of killing all but
the very best films. I need not have
worried; The Blue Lamp is a very good
film and will certainly prove one of the
most popular of the year.

The authorities at Scotland Yard were
most interested and gave every
assistance to ensure accuracy. I am
told that there is only one oversight :
constables do not hang up their armlets
with their helmets when they report
back to the station ! Still, to the
audience, that is a very small point.
The important thing is that we are
presented with a sympathetic, authentic
and dramatic seini-documentary of the
everyday life of the London policeman.
The monotony, the efficiency, the
discipline, the trustworthiness involved
in being a policeman is faithfully
recorded. Withal, the heroism of the
unarmed guardian of the law fighting
the modern young thug, outcropping of
the war years, is shown in such a
manner as to make us doubly proud of
the men who go round trying our door
handles at night.

The script, by T. E. B. Clarke is a
model of economy and craftsmanship,
the dialogue just right, the humorous

George Dixon (Jack Warner) and Andy
Mitchell go on duty

81

interjections just the right flavour. The
director, Basil Dearden, has resisted any
tenfptation to exploit the situations and
characters (I feared for a moment or
two that the gunman’s “moll” would be
made to fall for the handsome young
cop), they are allowed to tell their
stories in their own way at their own
'peed. Prom a deliberately steady pace
the film works up to one of the most
exciting car-cliase climaxes seen on the
English screen. The capture of the
murderer in the White City during a
race meeting is vividly and convincingly
real and makes me certain in my
judgment that, in spite of the contrary-
opinion of several eminent critics, The
Blue Lamp is every bit as sound and
exciting as The Naked City. One is
English, the other is American, both
are excellent and both tell the story of
the police in a great city in a manner
which is truly characteristic.

The Blue Lamp tells of the man on
the beat, kindly, tolerant, steady-going,
directing children across the street,
finding lost dogs for garrulous old ladies
but also walking unerringly towards
an armed young thug in a cinema
hold-up. Panicking, the thug kills the
policeman and we then see the intricate
machinery of Scotland Yard turning to
bring the murderer to his account.

The cast is an exceptionally fine one.
Not a weak link in the team. It is
difficult to draw attention to any without
seeming unfairness to all. Jack
Warner as the murdered P.C. scores
heavily. Dirk Bogarde in his first
“heavy” role shows that he can really
act and produces a lifelike study of the
modern wide guy who is not, after all,
so smart. Bernard Lee and Robert
Flemying as a Divisional Detective
Inspector and Sergeant respectively
are so convincing, it is hard to realise
they are acting. Peggy Evans makes a
great deal of noise as a stupid girl who
attaches herself to the young crook ;
Gladys Henson as the wife of Jack
Warner, Dora Bryan in a perfect
vignette of outraged feminine fatuity,
Meredith Edwards — but there is not
space to do credit to all the talent in
this film. Go and pay them the
compliment of seeing the film again :
it is worth it. Incidentally, it ought to
make us a little more tolerant and
appreciative of the men who take our
names for parking in the wrong places !

V.

BOYS IN BROWN

Starring: Jack Warner, Richard

Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde,
Jimmy Hanley, Barbara Murray,
Andrew Crawford, Xhora Hird,
Michael Medwin and Patrick
Holt. Director: Montgomery

Tully. Certificate: A. Category :
R. Running time: 80 minutes
approx.

Another film which the Press was not
asked to see. Why? It is well worth
their attention and since it deals with
a Borstal, a problem institution housing
problem boys, it would have made an
interesting comparison with The Blue
Lamp , shown during the same week and
with almost the same cast.

Borstal claims to have about 50 per
cent successes from among boys drawn
from all the worst elements in the
country. “How would Harrow, Eton
and the rest fare,” says Jack Warner, as
the Governor of the Institution, “if
they had to draw- from the same
sources?” This film, taken from
Reginald Beckwith’s play, is a
sympathetic attempt to show the effects
of a reform school upon various types
of delinquents ; of the efforts made by
the authorities to correct criminal
tendencies ; of the reactions of the boys
to the methods adopted.

The cast is remarkably good. Jack
Warner, after his success as P.C. Dixon
in The Blue Lamp , scores heavily in one
of the most serious roles he has hitherto
played. Dirk Bogarde, too, as a most
unpleasantly neurotic type of lad, adds
very considerably to the reputation
which his part as the crook in The Blue
Lamp will have earned him. Of the
others, it is invidious, perhaps, to say
which are the best. They are all good.
Barbara Murray, however, deserves a
hand for her feelingly sketched little
“girl friend”. Michael Medwin, as
usual, is perfect as a spiv — "but I’ve
got me pride!”

The script is compact and the
direction neat : on the whole an

economically made film — and I do not
mean cheap.

V.

S2

MADELEINE

Starring: Ann Todd, Norman

Wooland, Ivan Desny. Producer:
Stanley Haynes. Director: David
Lean. Distributors: G.F.D.

Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time: 114 minutes.

It all happened in 1857 and, under
Mr. Lean’s scrupulous direction, comes
to life again in 1950.

Madeleine Smith was a “nice” girl
with prosperous parents, a pretentious
house in Glasgow, willing servants and
an extraordinarily chivalrous suitor
approved of bv her parents and well
liked by her. Cowed by her father, she
keeps the suitor stringing along while
at the same time . she leads a
surreptitious life of guilt, with a socially
inferior Frenchman, utterly outside her
family circle, regularly visiting her at
night below stairs. This is possible
with the compliance of one of the maids
of the house. The suitor, plus her
family and then the French lover,
become more and more pressing for the
decisive step of marriage. Deceit has
its tensions and the Frenchman has her
love letters to blackmail her with if he
so desires.

When the girl is like a hunted
animal at bay, the lover dies of arsenical
poisoning and we, as privileged
onlookers are aware of a big motive for
murder and also of opportunity, for
Madeleine has had arsenic handy for
cosmetic purposes and likes to give her
lover cups of cocoa. But though the
awkward lover dies, the awkward
letters remain. They do indeed remain
for an official of the French consulate
to hand over to the police, who come
to disturb the orderly, secure lives of
the Smiths of Blvtiswood Square by
arresting Madeleine for murder. She
1 is tried and released— not as innocent
1 but, under Scottish law, with the
charge against her not proven !

There you have the theme, a sordid
one but not romantically preposterous
since original sin leaves its traces in all
of us and one sin leads to others. The
film is at pains to make us echo the
verdict of “not proven”. Ann Todd in
the name part has her tempestuous
1 moments, but retains an ice cold eye.
She is demure, sly, sometimes appeal-

ingly “fly”, often charming. As with
the prototype she wins our pit}', sqjne-
times our sympathy but not our
approval. Nowhere is the worse made
to appear the better cause.

The film certainly is long, but it is
marked by stimulating camera work
and superb direction. The casting is
excellent. The final scene of the trial
in court is somewhat long, but it has
an authentic air about it, and it does
provide opportunities for some character
pastiches by a supporting cast which
seems to be recruited from the B.B.C.
Repertory Group. Well known actors,
such as Leslie Banks and Edward
Chapman, subordinate their outstanding
powers to the balance of the plav as a
whole, while Norman Wooland brings
a pleasing quality of sincerity to the
part of the trusting, disillusioned suitor
and Ivan Desny gives us the French
cad in all his contemporary spivislmess.
Elizabeth Sellars as the compliant maid
gives a performance which marks her
art for promotion.

To sum up we have here a human
and true story, carefully treated, well
acted, well directed. The moral issues
are inherent to the story. Even the
strange, withdrawn, dictatorial Victorian
father cannot force us to make
Madeleine into a heroine. Were it not
for human nature itself she would be
an enigma. How could a girl in such
surroundings behave so ? — that is not
the enigma. The unanswered question
is, was she the murderess ? And in that
sense, Ann Todd, with her winsome
appeal and that cold, cold eye, leaves us
with the enigma of Madeleine Smith.

X.

THE ANGEL WITH THE
TRUMPET

Starring: Eileen Herlie, Norman

Wooland, Basil Sydney.
Producer: Karl Hartl. Director:
Antony Bushell. Distributors:
British Lion. Certificate : U.

Category: A. Running time:

98 minutes.

Eileen Herlie is much too dis-
tinguished an actress to play in this
novelettish story, which is full of

83

cliches and says in a slow rather dull
manner all the things that have already
been said about Austria, Jews, Hitler,
the Nazis and the good old days before
the war.

This story about Henrietta Stein
(Eileen Herlie) who marries into the
famous Alt family of Viennese piano
makers, who lived in an 18tli century
mansion and whose tradition was “to
make music and serve God” has one
virtue : its lack of character emphasises
the height and depth and breadth of
Eileen Herlie’s personality. There is
a quality in her voice, in her manners
in her movements, in her "creative-
ness” in what I would like to call her
“artistic humility” which gives her the
right to be called a great actress.

Apart from a brilliant performance
by Eileen Herlie, everything else is
second rate. It is not very well directed
and the acting is mediocre, with the
exception of Maria Schell who plays
Anna Linden with charm and
sincerity.

The morality of this film is phoney.
It suggests that happiness consists in
“free love” and that the service of God
demands a dull loyalty which kills true
happiness. Henrietta Stein, is a
Catholic, but she ends her sad life by
committing suicide. As she goes to her
self-appointed death she winds her
Rosary around her hands which (to
quote the words of a colleague), “Was
a great misuse of a holy symbol to lend
propriety to an evil act”.

CHILDRENS FILMS

The Mysterious ■ Poacher

When one remembers some of the
rubbish, especially from a child’s
point of view, that is shown on the
public screen and is seen week
after week by children, it is good
to know that films such as this are
made for children. Films like this
can do no harm to any child, even
from the purely mechanical aspect
of the mind sopping up whatever
is presented to it, for here there is
nothing harmful. It is good enter-
tainment, which for children is
educational, and is the screen’s
version of the adventure stories
which have delighted children for
so many years. The catching of a
poacher by a band of children has
great possibilities for excitement
which are fully realised. The
setting of the story helps of course.
It is in an Austrian deer forest, and
bv means of superb photography we
are given a clear insight into the
work of the gamekeeper. The
dialogue is in German, but so good
is the direction of Don Chaffej' that
an English commentary is enough
to enable one to follow everything
without difficulty. It is impossible

to recommend this film too
strongly, and its usefulness for boys
and girls who may be studying
German is obvious. It runs for 49
minutes.

The Dragon of Pendragon
Castle

While lacking the natural advan-
tages of The Mysterious Poacher,
this film does very well with a more
imaginative story about a dragon.
This again is a real children’s film
in which the children have the most
important parts and the grown-ups
more or less look on. If there
are children who like castles
and dragons, and impoverished
aristocrats saved from homelessness
by the adventures of the youngest
generation, then this is the film for
them. The dragon would deceive
anyone who is not too sophisticated
to be beneath deception. The
running time is 52 minutes.

Both these films are distributed
for G.B. Instructional Ltd., by
General Film Distributors Limited.

U.

84

No Place For Jennifer

Starring: Leo Gena, Rosamund John,
Beatrice Campbell and Guy
Middleton, and introducing
Janette Scott. Distributors:
Associated British Pathe
Director: Henry Cass. Certificate:
A. Category ; A. Running time:
85 minutes.

In the prayer which for Catholics
epitomises the mystery of the
Incarnation, are repeated the words
first uttered by an angel : “Blessed is
the fruit of thy womb”. This
benediction is potentially true of every
woman that bears a child. It is the
measure of the degradation of this
> sublime function today that so many
women regard their child as an
unrelieved burden. What was designed
by the Creator as the visible fruit of
mutual love given and taken becomes
for so many the unwanted sign of self-
indulgence.

There is (I think) an unconscious
irony in the words which Leo Genn, as
the father of Jennifer in this film, uses

to Beatrice Campbell, her mother,
when the child at length finds happiness
and security in the bosom of a normal
family : “We must see that the

Marshalls do not lose by this!”
Apparently it does not enter their heads
that it is they who have suffered a loss (
since they were unable to keep their
treasure intact.

The film is little more than mediocre
from the point of view of production
and treatment, but it contains much
that the thoughtful viewer will find
stimulating. Many of its points are
stated bluntly and, some may think,
without taste, but it is, unhappily, all
too true a picture of modern marital
inability to realise the marriage vows.

Little Janette Scott is astonishingly
effective as the little girl whose life is
shattered by the selfishness of her
parents. She gives one of the most
perfect child performances seen on the
screen for a long time.

Beatrice Campbell is hard and brittle
as the mother and Leo Genn gives
the necessary impression of vacillating
instability as the father. The rest of
the cast are adequate.

V.

i

Look out, there!
Janette Scott — Brian Smith

IT’S A GREAT FEELING

Starring: Dennis Morgan, Doris Day,
Jack Carson. Director: David

Butler. Producer: Jack L.

Warner . Certificate : U .

Category : B.

This is just a “light of heart”
picture and is really good fun. A bit
slow to begin with, but when it gets
going all sorts of things happen, and
all sorts of stars— Gary Cooper, Sydney
Greenstreet, Edward G. Robinson,
Errol Flynn, etc. — pop in and out.
There is hope for us all when we can
laugh at ourselves. In this film Holly-
wood laughs at itself with gaiety and
abandon, which is, perhaps, a presage
of better things to come.

E.

BUCCANEER’S GIRL
Starring: Yvonne De Carlo, Philip

Friend, Robert Douglas, Elsa
Lanchester. Distributors: G.F.D.
Director: Frederick de Cordova.
Producer: Robert Arthur.

Certificate : U. Category: B.

Running time: 75 minutes.

This is not the sort of film which
would support Very Rev. Fr. Hilary
Carpenter’s thesis that : “The cinema
is the highest form of art”. It is about
a pretty lady who one day finds herself
aboard a pirate vessel. I got the
impression that everyone in the film
was regarding it as a bit of fun and
I have no doubt that manv “Fourth
Formers” will find it good fun also.
I also got the impression that Elsa
Lanchester is too talented an actress
for this sort of “kids’ stuff”. E.

86

YOUR WITNESS

Starring: Robert Montgomery, with

Leslie Banks, Felix Aylmer and
Patricia Wayne. Distributors:
Warner Bros. Director: Robert

Montgomery. Certificate-. A. Cate-
gory. B. Running time : 95

minutes.

A story about an American lawyer
who comes to England to help defend
his war-time English batman against a
charge of murder, gives Robert
Montgomery the opportunity to have a
lot of fun at the expense of the British
legal system, county families and
English ways of speech. Though not
unkindly meant, one feels that less than
justice is done both to the police and
the lawyers.

The featured players, Felix Aylmer
and Leslie Banks, are perfect in roles
which make no great claims on their
ability. Patricia Wayne, whose first
film this is, is vivacious and pretty, but
has no opportunity to show whether she
is anything else. Wylie Watson,
Harcourt Williams and Jenny Laird give
their customary efficient performances
but it is Ann Stephens who carries off
the palm for an incredibly drawn but
beautifully played character as Ann
Summerfield.

Robert Montgomery, of course, is
quite at home and convincing as the
American lawyer but, if he must direct
and act at the same time, he should get
somebody else to cut his films. He is
much too much in the picture.

V.

SOME FILMS REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this list does
not connote positive recommenda-
tion. Films that are positively harm-
ful are not included here. Readers
are reminded to refer to the full
reviews when assessing a film.

Category A, indicates adults only;
B, adults and adolescents; C, family
audiences; D, particularly for
children.

Reviewed in “Focus” (Vol. Ill,
Nos. 1 and 2)

Abbott and Costello Meet

the Killer

(B)

(346)

A Handful of Rice

(C)

(41)

Any Number can Play

(A)

(21)

A Rim for Your Money

(C)

(20)

A Stranger Walked In

(A)

(47)

Bicycle „ Thieves

(B)

(48)

Big Steal, The

(B)

(339)

Come to the Stable

(C)

(12)

Countess of Monte

Cristo, The

(A)

(11)

Crime and Punishment

(A)

(10)

Crooked Way, The

(A)

(346)

Cure for Love, The

(A)

(42)

Doctor and the Girl, The

(A)

(40)

East of Java

(A)

(350)

Forsyte Saga, The

(B)

(17)

Great Lover, The

(B)

(10)

Great Sinner, The

(B)

(18)

Holiday Affair

(C)

(46)

Hounded

(A)

(9)

Innocence is Bliss

(B)

(19)

It Concerns Us Ail

(B)

(41)

Jolson Sings Again

(B)

(46)

Landfall

(B)

(347)

Look for the Silver Lining (C)

(19)

Martin Roumagnac

(A)

(17)

Paid in Full

(A)

(40)

Pinky

(B)

(14)

Reckless Moment, The

(A)

(17)

Red, Hot and Blue

(B)

(350)

Rocking Horse Winner,

The

(B)

(44)

Romantic Age, The

(A)

(19)

Sand

(B)

(43)

Search, The

(B)

(342)

Spider and the Fly, The

(B)

(18)

Story of a Ring, The

(C)

(46)

Tarzan’s Magic Fountain

(B)

(45)

Task Force

(B)

(45)

Tell%it to the Judge

(B)

(15)

That Midnight Kiss

(C)

(ID

Velvet Touch, The

(B)

(347)

White Heat

(A)

(9)

You’re My Everything

(C)

(46)

We Recommend

Christopher Columbus

(B)

(183)

Hamlet

(B)

(130)

Home of the Brave

(B)

(339)

Joan of Arc

(B)

(126)

Johnny Belinda

(A)

(42)

Maytime in Mayfair

(B)

(172)

Monsieur Vincent

(B)

(230)

Passport to Pimlico

(C)

(150)

Rachel and the Stranger

(B)

(70)

Scott of the Antarctic

(B)

(14)

Snake Pit, The

(A)

(159)

Visitation

(B)

(134)

Whiskey Galore

(B)

(220)

87

German Protestants and Catholics
Intensify Film Action

A “Church and Film’’ study
group composed of Protestant clergy-
men has been formed at Hamburg
under the chairmanship of Rev.
Pastor Wilke, Secretary of the
Evangelical Film Committee for the
British Zone of Germany. The
group organises the showing of
current motion pictures followed by
a critical discussion. It is also
planning to visit film studios and to
make itself acquainted with the
various techniques of film produc-
tion, in order to offer practical
suggestions to Church authorities
and religious organisations.

In the French Zone of Germany,
a Catholic Film Conference was held
recently at Baden-Baden, under the
chairmanship of Canon Semle, Dean
of Rotten burg Cathedral. Six
dioceses were represented by priests
and lay leaders. Father Kochs,
wrhom the Fulda Conference of the
German Hierarchy has put in charge
of the co-ordination of Catholic
motion picture activities, gave a
detailed report, emphasising partic-
ularly two recent developments :

(i) the decision of German film
producers to accept a system of
“self-censorship” under which
Catholic and Protestant Church
authorities would be consulted on
certain matters; (2) the recent
establishment of a Federation of
Catholic Motion Picture Theatres.

The Baden-Baden Conference
adopted a resolution recommending
the production of Catholic docu-
mentary films as well as the establish-
ment of 16mm. film “Archives” in
each diocese.

The “self-censorship” of the
German motion picture industry will
have its headquarters at Bibrich
Castle, near Wiesbaden, in the
American Zone. It will be headed by
a Committee of fifteen. The Chair-
man and seven members of the
Committee will be appointed by the
motion picture industry. The other
seven members will represent the
Ministries of Education of the West
German States, the Evangelical and
the Catholic Church and the youth
organisations.

(From Documentation .)

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88

The Pope and the Cinema

(For the convenience of readers
of Focus, Fr. Declan
O’Sullivan, C.P., has made a
digest of Pope Pius XI’s
Encyclical “Vigilanti Cura”.)

The Encyclical on the cinema,
the ‘‘Vigilanti Cura”, was issued
on June 29th, 1936, and

addressed to all Catholic Bishops.
Two years’ experience of the work
done by the U.S. ‘‘Legion of
Decency” suggested to the Pope
to make known his ideas on a
matter which closely concerned
the moral and religious life of all
Christians.

He had treated of this matter on
three previous occasions: in his
letter on the ‘‘Christian Educa-
tion of Youth” (C.T.S. ed.
p. 43), and in two audiences he
had given delegates of the Inter-
national Federation of the Cinema
Press, in August 1934, and in
April 1936.

On each of these occasions he
had made the point that the
Cinema, being an Art, must be an
educator, something that draws
the best, not the worst, out of
men.

The Cinema Question is one
that concerns all Catholics and not
merely those of the U.S. A. The
screen is meant to be used in such

a way that it helps us to serve
God better. Unfortunately, as
the heads of the industry
recognised, it was being used to
promote evil. ^ They drew up a
Production Code to guide them :
no film was to be made that cast
discredit on any natural or human
law, or that made one sympathetic
to their being broken.

But the Code was ignored. The
‘‘Legion of Decency” was
organised, not to injure the Trade,
but to strengthen the hands of
those who stood behind the Code.
Those who joined the Legion
pledged themselves to boycott
any film which violated the Code,
which violated Catholic moral
principles or proper standards of
living.

Opponents of the Legion
prophesied three results : mediocre
films, financial collapse of the
industry, the boycott would fade
away. The opposite happened:
the released skill and energy was
put into making worthwhile films;
people now went confidently to a
film show knowing it would be
clean, and the Pope relied on the
Legion keeping up its good work.

Recreation is a ‘‘must” in the
world of today. Millions look to
the Cinema for this recreation.

But recreation ought to be
re-creation, something that makes

89

us better; hence films that violate
decency are sources of temptation,
especially to the young, and rot a
nation.

The Cinema appeals to a
passive audience. They have but
to sit back and need do no think-
ing. Their minds are reached by
^ visual as well as auditory means.
Vivid pictures and imaginative
sound, the brightly -lit screen in
a darkened theatre, hypnotise. If
the big things in life, if the sacred
things of love and marriage are
portrayed in a false setting, in a
false light, minds will be twisted.
A twisted set of standards by
which to judge the desirability of
wealth, luxury, justice, truth,
loyalty to the home could easily
be given to the young if such
powerful means as the Cinema
were used. And cinemas are
everywhere.

It is important that no one
incur the curse Our Lord has
pronounced on those who corrupt
the young. It is important that
we see that the Screen is an
instrument of good, not of evil.

How is this to be done?

The ideal thing would be to see
that none but worthwhile pictures
were made. But that is not within
our power, as things are. If films
are made by Catholics, care
| should be taken that they are
made by people who know their
jobs, not by unskilled amateurs.
Hence, we must concentrate on
influencing those who do make
films.

Here, Catholics in the industry
can be real apostles.

Catholic Actionists should be
directed by the Bishops to this
field of the apostolate.

The Bishops should take steps
to impress on the heads of the
Cinema industry how great is
their responsibility, not merely to
avoid making evil films, but in
using the screen’s magnificent
power to be a bearer of light and
a positive guide to what is good.

A yearly pledge to boycott
unsuitable films should be asked
from all their people by the
Bishops.

This presupposes a classified
list showing what films are
suitable, and for whom. An
International List of Worthwhile
Films would be a valuable tool,
but as local conditions dictate
what is most suitable in any given
place, local lists are the most one
can expect.

Such fists should be drawn up
by a National Pre- Viewing Office
to be of any real use. If he has
grave reasons for doing so, any
Bishop can modify such fists for
use in his diocese. The Catholic
Press should carry such fists and
so make them known.

Catholic Film Action should be
on an international scale and the
various National Film Pre-
viewing Offices should inter-
change their lists and ideas.

If the Bishops all over the
world do their share in Christian-
ising the screen, all right-thinking
people, both Catholic and non-
Catholic, will bless1 them.

This is the wish and the prayer
of the Holy Father.

90

INSTITUTE NOTES

Summer School

It is proving somewhat difficult to
find a convent or college willing to take
both ladies and gentlemen under the
same roof. This is not due to an
excess of prudishness but to the lack of
appropriate accommodation under the
same roof for the two sections of
our students. The places that are
accustomed to this work are already
booked up year by year. Our entry
into the Summer School field demands
another location. We are continuing
with our enquiries. If any readers have
brain waves, please pass them on.
Remember, the first week in August.

Film Competition

As promised, we announce a new
Film Competition. 16mm. films, sound
or silent, on any subject, any
(reasonable!) length. Entries to be
sent in not later than September 30th,
1950. The films will be judged by a
jury of experts to be announced later.
Each film should be accompanied by a
registration fee of 10/-. The Catholic
Film Institute reserves the right to
exhibit the prize-winning and any
other films submitted in any way
considered necessary.

Film Library

Readers will notice that our Film
Library is extending. We are glad to
announce that we now have four of the
most celebrated foreign films on our
list, Monsieur Vincent , Vivere in Pace,
Four Steps in the Clouds, Farrebique.
We hope soon to make further additions,
including Bicycle Thieves. We can
book any other film on the major lists
and we ask you to support us by
making use of our services whenever
possible. This is not to diminish the
support of those libraries who advertise
with us or who are located in a region
outside our sphere of influence : we have

a specialist clientele and are introducing
the film to people who have not hitherto .
considered it seriously". ^

Film Shows

We have had the pleasure of arranging
the London Premiere of Out of the
Darkness, the feature length documen-
tary dealing with the missionary work
of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy
Rosary of Killeslirandra. It was
produced and directed by C. Desmond
Toomey and is a great credit to the
Irish technicians who worked on it. We
shall soon have it on our 16mm. list.

In the meantime three special showings
of Out of the Darkness are taking place
at the Hamer Theatre, 113 Wardour
Street, London, W.l, at 8 p.m. on
Tuesday, February 28th, Wednesday,
March 1st, and Thursday, March 2nd.
There will be other showings later in
other places. In the meantime, talk
about this film and begin to make
arrangements in your district to have
it put on at your local cinema as was
the case with Visitation. Admission will
be free. Tickets obtainable from the
Catholic Film Institute, 20 Ovington
Square, S.W.3 (by phone : KEN 6849),
from the Missionary Sisters of the Holy
Rosary of Killeshrandra, at 317a
Portobello Road, London, W.10 (phone :
LAD 2082).

Catholic Film Pilgrimage

The Holy Father has made it known
that he desires the Film Pilgrimage to «
take place in May, 25th to 30th ^
inclusive. We are trying to arrange
plane bookings for a party from this
country and will be glad if any film
technician, actor, scriptwriter, or any
other person connected with the
industry able to join us will let us
know as soon as possible. The fare —
depending on numbers — will be in the
region of £40.

91

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

If you have an opinion to express, a comment to make, an idea to offer,
the Editor will be delighted to hear from you.

Indian Films

Sir,

An interesting point about Indian
films is that they are very particular
about modesty of dress with women.
The barebacked gowns and free and
easy manners, close embracing of
English and American films shock them
out here. Perhaps we have, after all,
something to learn from the Coloured
Races.

Yours,

Anthony Ricards.

Raichur,

S. India.

More Attractive Cover

Sir,

I have been making enquiries of my
friends as to their knowledge of your
publication Focus.

A surprising number do not buy it,
nor do the}' read it.

Why?

They thought it was some kind of
parish magazine. It looks like one,
they explain.

I’ll do my best to correct such
impressions when I encounter them,
but couldn’t you also do something to
help by designing a more attractive
cover ?

Yours,

Victor A. Peers.

36 Golden Square,

W.l.

Error of “O”

Sir,

In my review of Bicycle Thieves in
your last issue, there is an error of
figures . . . £25,000, the cost of an
average feature film should read
£250,000. Since “devaluation” it would
be more accurate to put the cost at
£300,000.

Yours,

E.

After a conference. O.C.I.C. Venice, 1949

92

A Visit to a Children’s Cinema Club

By Our Educational Panel

From Monday to Friday we are all
accustomed to seeing policemen busy
ensuring the safety of schoolchildren
crossing the roads outside their schools.
On Saturday, at a rather later hour, we
see the same work going on but the
venue this time is the crossings outside
the Cinemas. But what goes on inside
the Cinema Club is however unknown
to most adults, so we decided to see for
ourselves what sort of fare is provided
for those eager queues. Armed with the
necessary permission we too joined the
Saturday morning fans. Before the
show started we sat in the balcony and
watched the youngsters coming in. Boys
were certainly in the majority, many of
their more useful sisters no doubt
staying home to help with the chores.
It was strange to form part of so noisy
and restless an audience, but we settled
down to take stock of all we could.

Most noticeable were the efforts of the
management to encourage a sense of
unity and of “belonging” to a club, not
an easy task, expressed in terms of
hundreds of children of varying ages
and united artificially for the purpose of
“going to the pictures”. But the Club
camaraderie was certainly there. All
those whose birthday had fallen during
the week, assembled" on the stage to be
greeted with the birthday song, the
slighter greeting of the girls followed
by the deafening bellow of the boys, all
in the best of good spirits. The
“birthday minors” finally made their
separate exits, each saying a few words
into the microphone en route. The
Cinema Club also has its Club song and
this is sung lustily before departure.

The problem of organising the
exuberant Club members is met chiefly
by the children themselves. With no
attempt at regimentation, order is
achieved in the admission of the
children to their seats, by older boys
acting as stewards, with distinctive
badges to indicate their authority.
These boys are actually elected by the
children themselves and once chosen,
are respected and obeyed. To them falls
the tasks of forming queues for

admission, seeing to lost property and
generally supervising behaviour inside
and preventing violent disorder. As
each child knows the number of his seat
and row in the Cinema, there can be
no rivalry or dispute over particular
places. In this way, a truly democratic
system of representation and delegated
authority works to the satisfaction of
management and children.

The opening film was a Walt Disney
Cartoon showing the exploits of an.
engaging little figure — Goofy — on his
travels to and in Africa. There was
much realty’ useful Geographical know-
ledge agreeably presented and the
audience enjoyed it all. To us, as
educationalists, came a great feeling of
regret that there would be no way of
ensuring that the children retained some
of this useful knowledge. How well we
know the necessity for bringing out the
significance of what is seen and its
relation to what is already known if
even part of it is to be absorbed by the
young mind.

The Cartoon was followed by the
serial Overland Mail, a much,
appreciated Wild West film. Dealing
with the perils of taking mail through
hostile Indian territory, the film had
excitement, suspense and reckless
heroes, and was probably the most
popular of those shown. It was never
alarming for long at a stretch, and in
spite of the blowing up of a bridge
bearing the mail-wagons, a powerful
assault by Indian tribes and the menace
of waterfalls and river currents, the
mail was finally preserved unscathed.
This was an enjoyable and wholesome
film ending on a note of high suspense,
the horses falling headlong into a deep-
chasm with nothing which could
conceivably check their plunge to death
— the audience, however, did not
despair.

The Zoo picture which followed proved
rather long for our adult span of interest
but it certainly held that of the children.
The Zoo family were visited in company
with a three year old, presumably the

son of a keeper, who was happy and
quite unafraid amongst the animals.
He provided the connecting link
between the scenes and made a tour of
the cages for the benefit of the Club
members, ending with a tea party with
the chimps. This was certainly an
attractive way of encouraging the young
naturalist.

The second cowboy film emerges
less successfully from the reviewers’
criticism, and certainly from the
children’s than does the first. The fact
that it was a film of Tim McCoy, a
name honourable in the world of
cowboys, may have led us to expect too
much. The chief defect, however, was
the poor sound track which every so
often reduced the conversation to an
unintelligible confusion of sounds and
left the reviewers, finally, uncertain of
the story and aware of the villains
chiefly through their distinctive cast of
countenance, their sinister air and a
tendency to confer in locked rooms.
Lack of interest in the film was obvious
from the start and could be gauged by
the volume of noise from the floor, an
occasional scrimmage and several
departures. This was a serious fault in
a film of considerable length, especially
when followed by another which also

BOOK

International Film Review. 1949.
No. 3. (Published by the Inter-
national Catholic Cinema Office,
Brussels, pp. 64, 5s.)

The third number of this inter-
national film quarterly has a British
flavour and is varied and full of
interest.

In a message sent to O.C.I.C., the
Archbishop of Bombay stresses the need
for recognising the importance of the
film as a medium for reaching the
masses. His letter is used to introduce
a volume containing many articles
pointing out the obligations which fall
| upon Catholics in this new sphere.
Andrew Buchanan goes so far as to
visualise a future Order devoted to the
production of films.

Topics range from fundamental
problems of the cinema to a history of
Catholics and films in England, from
the Pope and Television to Scott of the
Antarctic. Such well-known names as
Douglas Woodruff, C. A. Lejeune, Fr.

93

proved beyond the comprehension of
the audience.

This next film was a silent Chaplin.
It seems unfair to us, who had enjoyed
his great pictures, that the funny little
man should be introduced to the
youngsters in so poor a film. The scene
was laid in a public park, apparently
in Edwardian days, and included an
amorous couple on a bench. Even
Charlie’s antics with this couple, and
with a nursemaid and a keeper failed
completely to interest the children.
They mostly turned their backs to the
screen and found amusement playing
and scuffling about noisily with their
neighbours. It became evident again
that the children’s own reactions form
the clearest comment on what they see
and we rejoiced to find it such a
healthy one.

This programme was seen just before
Christmas and it was pleasing to notice
how the true spirit of Christmas had
been fostered in the Club members.
Large numbers of dolls and toys had
been brought for distribution in
hospitals. The reviewers were impressed
throughout at the efforts of those
concerned to educate the children in
the wider sense and not merely to
entertain them.

REVIEW

Hilary Carpenter, O.P., Robert Speaight
and Charles Ford, appear among the list
of contributors. Also included is news
of Catholic enterprise from eleven
countries, news items of general
interest and book reviews.

The review is attractively printed on
good paper with an adequate number of
well-produced plates ; notable is a
striking full page of the Anonymous of
the “Divine Tragedy”. What Fr. Lee,
in his review of the first number,
referred to as the slightly exotic flavour
imparted by the misplacement of
inverted commas has not been corrected
and tends to irritate. Otherwise
typographical errors are few and the
whole production gives value for money.
It is a “must” for those who believe
the film to be more than entertainment
— and for tho.se who do not !

From: The Manager, International
Film Review, 22 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3.

Margaret Anderson.

94

COVER PERSONALITY

JACK WARNER

It is an unusual thing for film players
to graduate via the radio to top place
on the screen. Jack Warner is one of
the few whose personality was well
known before the millions who fill the
cinemas week by week had a chance to
get to know his handsome and kindly
features enlarged by the art of film.
His saucy voice with its naughty
inflections; his impudent ogling of the
programme girls in the Garrison
Theatre, his letters from his bruvver in
the Life Guards, his “blue pencil”
interjections and his descriptions of
himself as “a bunger-up of rat ’oles; a
rat ’ole bunger-upper” endeared him to
a vast radio audience in the early days
of the war. Nor was he a one-routine
comedian ; his imitations of Maurice
Chevalier were, in some ways, even
better than their original ! The brother
of Elsie and Doris Waters, the well
known radio comediennes, he changed
his stage name in order not to seem to
shine in reflected glory. There is no
doubt, however, that talented as his two
sisters are, there could be no reason for
saying that he was in any way a
passenger or a plagiarist.

His first film was called The Dummy
Talks, produced by British National
Films in 1943, but 'it was The Captive
Heart, made by Ealing Studios in 1945,
that brought him before the cinema
public and showed that we had a new
film personality of more than average
ability. He played the r61e of a Cockney
sergeant, a role not too far removed
from his cheeky radio conscript, but his
next part, that of the gangster in the
highly successful Hue and Cry, gave
promise of a versatility which has been
verified with each succeeding film.
Dear Murderer, Holiday Camp, It
Always Rains on Sunday, Against the
Wind, the three Huggett films, Easy
Money, My Brother's Keeper, all films
in which his versatility was allowed full
play. His Scotland Yard detective in
It Always Rains on Sunday seemed to
be a part specially made for him, but
so did the suburban householder whose

unimportant life produced crises which
made us feel that we knew him very
well as the man next door. With
Kathleen Harrison he made of the
Huggetts a family as endearing as the
American Hardy family if a little less
socially significant. The escaped
convict in My Brother’s Keeper was
another study which got away from
Warner’s usual style. The curious thing
is that he does not use any heavy
make-up nor disguise, yet contrives,
with his hair combed nearly always in
the same manner, to suggest the
individuality of the characters he is
playing. The spy in Against the Wind,
the engine driver in Train of Events, his
r61e as the pool-winning parent in
Easy Money, were all sufficiently
different to be recognisable as such and
to keep our attention on the part in
question, unlike some other film players
who always appear as themselves with
different names.

I wager, however, that his latest role
is likely to win him the affection as well
as the respect of cinema-goers in the
same way as his “Blue Pencil” soldier
did the radio fans. As P.C. Dixon in
The Blue Lamp, he gives us a roundly
moulded, warm, homely personality
that will become the epitome of all that
is best and most lovable in that much-
respected official, the Copper. Warner
really enters into the heart of the
character and through it into our hearts,
and it is a tribute to him to say that
one feels a sense of loss akin to that
of his fellow characters when, all too
soon in the film, he is killed. After
The Blue Lamp it is instructive to see
Jack Warner as the Governor of a
Borstal Institution, in some ways a
similar role, in other ways poles apart;
he manages to fill out the part in his
own special way and make another
friend for us on the screen. He is a
great artist. We look forward to many
more and varied performances from
Jack Warner.

John Vincent.

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

5. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish ivhen and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £xo.

Privileged Membership, £1.

Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
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of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote :

"The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified."

Hon. Secretary :

Rev. John A. V. Burke, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

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CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

FILM LIBRARY

CRUCIFERS TO WALSINGHAM

An Introduction to Our Lady of Walsingham. The Story of the Cross
Pilgrimage.

Two reels. Sound. Music and Commentary. Available in 35mm. and.
16mm. Hiring fee: 16mm., £1 Is. Od. a day; 35 mm., copies by special
arrangement.

VISITATION

Andrew Buchanan’s celebrated film on the work of the Medical Missionaries
of Mary. Seven reels. Monochrome. Hiring fee: £5. All profits devoted to
the work of the missions.

THE SACRIFICE WE OFFER

Alan Turner’s film on the place which Mass occupies in the everyday life
of all working people. Four reels. Kodachrome. Hiring fee: £3.

Also available. Silent version. Monochrome. Suitable for instructional
purposes. This Silent Version omits the introductory and final work shots
of the colour version. Hiring fee: 30/-.

DOMUS DEI

Alan Turner’s film of the solemn consecration of St. Teresa's Church,
Princes Eisborough. One reel. Kodachrome. Sound. Hiring fee: 15/-.

A LEGEND OF NORFOLK

Re-issue of Arthur Leslie’s successful film on Walsingham. Two reels.
Monochrome. Sound. Hiring fee: Al.

FAMILY AFFAIR

The working out of the spirit of Rerum Novarum in the Ernest Turner
factory at Spa Lane, Derby. Produced and directed by Alan Turner.
Prologue by H.E. Cardinal Griffin; Epilogue by Father Joseph Christie, S.J.
Four reels. Kodachrome. Hiring fee: £2.

THE VATICAN OF PIUS XII

March of Time. 2 reels. Hiring fee: 15/-.

THE BRIDGE OF THE FORD

Made by Andrew Buchanan for the Medical Missionaries of Mary. The past
and present story of Drogheda. Commentary spoken by Robert Speaight.
Monochrome. 4 reels. 40 mins. Hiring fee: £2 2e. Od. first day.

THE ATOM AND YOU

Made by Andrew Buchanan. A plea by a well-known American scientist
for the positive use of atomic energy. Sound. Monochrome. 2 reels. 20 mins.
Hiring fee: £1 Is. Od.

FOREIGN FEATURE FILMS

English sub-titles. 16mm. (Also available in 35mm.) Bookings arranged for
MONSIEUR VINCENT. £7 10s. Od. first day— TO LIVE IN PEACE, £5 5s. Od. first
day— FARREBIQUE. £5 5s. Od. first day.— FOUR STEP8 IN THE CLOUD8.
£5 5s. Od. first day.

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3

Vol. Ill

No. 4

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Editorial 99

The Fatima Film 100

By Hilary J. Carpenter, O.P.

Focus Film Course '.. 102

By Andrew Buchanan

Our Trumpet 104

Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

The Astonished Heart 105

A Chance to Live ... - 106

Long is the Road 106

Adam’s Rib 107

Riding High 107

When Willie Comes Marching

Home 107

Three Came Home 108

The Happiest Days of Your Life 108

Bagdad

Page
... 109

Bitter Rice

... 109

Morning Departure

... 110

The Red Danube ...

... 112

Battleground

,.. 114

Africa Screams

... 114

Out of the Darkness

... 115

Chain Lightning ...

... 115

Stromboli and Volcano

... 116

Luxembourg Gala ...

...- 117

Film Strips as Aids in the
Teaching of Religion

... 119

By Our Educational
Some Films Reviewed

Panel

... 122

Letters to the Editor

... 123

Institute Notes

... 125

Cover Personality ...

... 127

FOCUS— Annual Subscription: 7s. (post free). Single Copy: 7d. (post free).

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S.W.l. Michael White, 15 Broad Street Place, London, E.C.2.
Telephone: London Wall 1389.

International Film Review

The quarterly organ of the International Catholic Cinema Office — Towards
a Christian Philosophy of the Film.

Number Four now ready. Devoted mainly to the Italian Cinema.

Subscription rates : £1 per annum ; single copies 5s. Obtainable from :
International Film Review, 20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3.

Special HOLY YEAR offer. New subscribers for 1950 who are members of
the Catholic Film Institute may have an initial annual subscription for 10s.

Readers of Focus securing two annual subscriptions are entitled to a free
subscription for one year.

“Offers a unique service to students of the film.” — Film Forum.

A FILM
REVIEW

FOCUS :

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. Ill

APRIL 1950

No. 4

The Cinema and Christianity

This magazine has often recorded the
news that there are many Christians in
the world of today who approach the
making of films in the spirit of the
medieval Christian artists who created
their works of art to give honour and
glory to their Creator and to interpret
life in pleasing forms for their fellow-
men.

In his article on the Divine Tragedy,
in the 2nd issue of “The International
Review”, Abel Gance says: “The Divine
Tragedy which purposes to be, by the
Grace of God, at once the most humble
and most heart-searching page of the
Bible in film of the future, will be made
after the manner of the cathedrals . . .
it will be the precious fruit of a group
of artists, moved by piety and
enthusiasm, made so that the people of
the whole world may steep themselves
afresh in the spring of its words and
the light of its images.”

In this country more and more
Catholics are becoming aware of the
part that film can play in re-establishing
all things in Christ ; and the work of
the Catholic Film Institute is growing
rapidly, almost too rapidly. It is
unfortunate, therefore, that just as
Britain is beginning to put into
practice the principles laid down by
Pope Pius XI in his encyclical on films,
» there should appear in “The Catholic
Herald” an article about the cinema
which may create confusion and a
feeling of frustration among Catholics.

Mr. G. C. Norman’s article is not
only untimely, there is much in it that
is untrue. It is, in place, for Focus, the
official organ of the Catholic Film
Institute, to say that Mr. Norman’s

opinions about the cinema do no|
accord with Pope Pius XI’s encyclical
on the cinema.

“Good motion pictures, says His
Holiness, are capable of exercising a
profoundly moral influence upon those
who see them. In addition to afford-
ing recreation, they are able to arouse
noble ideals of life, to communicate
valuable conceptions, to impart a
better knowledge of the history and
the beauties of the Fatherland and of
other countries, to present -truth and
virtue under attractive forms, to create
or at least to favour understanding
among nations, social classes, and
races, to champion the cause of justice,
to give new life to the claims of virtue,
and to contribute positively to the
genesis, of a just social order in the
world.”

It is, in place, for Focus to affirm the
principle that the wrong use of some-
thing which is inherently good does not
make the use of that thing evil in
itself.

What Francis Thompson said about
the art of poetry may be said about the
art of film : “Beware how you misprise
this potent ally ... if you have no room
for her beneath the wings of the Holy
One, there is place for her beneath the
webs of the Evil One : whom you

discard, he embraces . . . shelter her
under the rafter of your Faith; discip-
line her to the sweet restraints of your
household . . . tame her, fondle her,
cherish her— you will then no longer
need to flee Eer. Suffer her to wanton,
suffer her to play, so that she play
round the foot of the cross.”

The Editor.

Fatima Film

the film itself. The main bod}' of the
visuals is concerned of course with
Fatima itself. From a photographic
point of view, these visuals show a
more than ordinary excellence : they
cover the subject with great fidelity and
have already been rough-cut into their
final shape ; and this shape of things
to come, now left in the proved and
artistic <. hands of Andrew Buchanan,
gives promise of 3 documentary of out-
standing excellence.

INSPIRED RENDERING OF

MIME

Gradually the gathering of material
for the Fatima Film is nearing comple-
tion. The difficulties of the project,
which began very early on and con-
tinued tilf quite recently, are regarded
bv those of us concerned in the making
of the film as sure evidence of the
devil’s attempt to obstruct it ; and they
have had the effect of making us all
the more determined to complete it.
"I can well understand the devil trying
to stop this film,” said a friend recently.
“After all it is going to do him a lot
of harm.” There can be little doubt
but that it will be most effective in
spreading far and wide the message of
Fatima and thus help to destroy the
growing ascendency of the emissaries
of evil.

But what interests us for the
moment is the progress and content of

By way of introduction, His Lordship
Bishop Craven will tell the story of the
original Apparitions and his theme will
be vers- dramatically illustrated by a
mime played by the children of St.
Antony’s School, Mill Hill. The idea
of the mime is an inspiration and, even
more surely, the children’s .rendering
of it is inspired. I use the word
advisedly for, under the guidance of the
Franciscan Nuns, these children saw
the whole thing as an opportunity to
do something for Our Lady, to help her
to spread her message to the world.
The little Polish girl, who takes the
part of Lucia, decided to write to the
original Lucia (now a Carmelite) and
ask her prayers. For her consolation
and delight she received an answer
from Lucia who promised to pray
specially for her to Our Lady on the
day the mime was to be filmed. It is not
too much to say that you will see the
happy result of those prayers in the
moving way that part is played.

I was myself at St. Antony’s that day.
It was most moving. The whole mime
was a thing of prayer and very real
self-sacrifice consciously offered by the
children. The little boy who played
Francisco said to me : “My legs have
been hurting me” — “I’m sorry to hear
that,” said I. — “Oh well,” said the little

»

>

By

HILARY J. CARPENTER,

O.P.

Blocks from photos of Fr. McGlynn’ s statue

chap, “you couldn’t expect to be doing
a thing like this without having some
suffering.”

UNDER THE GUIDANCE
OF LUCIA

Though no attempt was made for-
tunately, to show Our Lady during the
mime, a rather special statue of her has
been introduced later in the film. It is
one made by Fr. Thomas McGlynn,
O.P., of the United States and is the
only one of its kind in this country.
It was made under the personal and
detailed guidance of Lucia herself.
As Fr. McGlynn has told us in his book
“Visions of Fatima”, he had made a
statue of Our Lady of Fatima which
pleased him as an artist, and he
obtained permission to take it to
Portugal to show to Lucia. To his
dismay the latter rejected it — not
because it failed artistically (“I know
nothing of art, I’m afraid,” she said),
but because it was not like Our Lady as
she had seen her. “Could we not make
a statue of Our Lady as you saw her?”
asked the artist. “We could try,” said
Lucia. The statue used in the film is a
copy of the one they made. “That is
as near as anyone could get in a statue
to showing Our Lady, as I saw her”
said Lucia. And Fr. McGlynn
discovered rather to his surprise, that
he had also made a work of art without
realising it.

FILM OF BEAUTY AND
POWER

sound are being combined to set forth
this theme in a simple yet most moving
way; and because this theme is
essentially one of profound truth and
goodness, because the visuals and
sound are being presented by expert
craftsmen, and above all because of the
integrity of the artist who will finally
fashion it, Pilgrimage to Fatima will
undoubtedly, one might even say
inevitably, be a film of great beauty as
well as power.

The theme of the film, which is the
theme of Our Lady of Fatima herself,
is summarised in the symbol of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary — a heart sur-
rounded by a crown of thorns — which
Lucia sawT on Our Lady’s breast. This
symbol, taken from the McGlynn
statue, appears at the beginning and
at the end of the film. Visuals and

We have long hoped to be able to
arrange the premiere of the film for
Our Lady’s month of May. This may
yet be possible. Meantime we crave
the co-operation of your prayers that
the thing we do may be pleasing and
useful to her who is called the Help of
Christians.

i.

102

FOCUS FILM COURSE

By ANDREW BUCHANAN
No. 3— THE WAY FILMS VARY

When introducing this Course I
advised organisers of study groups to
draw a chart illustrating the construc-
tion of the industry, broadly divided
into Production, Distribution and
Exhibition. If a poster board is used
and shown at each meeting, it will
be found invaluable for reminding
students of the shape of the industry,
particularly as it should be added to as
the Course proceeds. In this, the
second lesson, additions will be made
to the three main divisions, for both
the sizes of films and their contrasting
purposes are to be discussed.

In the professional industry, films
are divided into two categories —
Features and Shorts, the former
covering all subjects over 3,500 feet.
The usual length of a Feature is
around 9 — 10,000 feet, and as films run
at a speed of 90 feet per minute, it will
be seen that a Feature plays for about
one and a half hours ; occasionally
longer. All films are divided into
reels of 1,000 feet, or less, but not
more. Some commercial short films
such as cartoons are one reel in length,
but most are two reels, the second
being less than 1,000 feet, total footage
being about 1,500. News reels are
under 1,000 feet, often 750 feet. The
commercial cinema programme of today
consists of a first Feature, a shorter
second Feature, a news reel, occasion-
ally a short film, and a few advertising
trailers which, together, play for about
three hours. Groups should discuss
this programme length, and carry out
some research into audience reaction.
Is it too long ? Do most filmgoers like
as much as they can get for their
money ? Is there a desire for a return
to the single feature programme
supported by short films ?

The next division on the chart is
under Distribution, separated into
Theatrical and Non-Theatrical, which
results in two parallel industries
with quite different purposes. The
term, Theatrical, is applied to aJI
commercially-released films in cinemas.
Non-Theatrical covers all films made
for shows unrelated to cinemas, such as
subjects for religious, scholastic,
medical, scientific and industrial
purposes.

Students should here report on their
personal experiences of such shows, and
list down their value, and also whether
presentation was equal to or far below
cinema standards. Were the films
bright and clear, and the sound
perfectly audible ? If not, discuss
whether this was due to inexpert
projection, faulty projectors, unsuitable
acoustic conditions, or halls which
were not properly blacked-out. Later
in the course we will discuss the ways
in w'hich the films themselves can be
the cause of poor visibility and
audibility.

« *

Theatrical films are all on 35mm.
standard size film stock. Non-Theatrical
films are usually on 16mm. sub-
standard stock. Other smaller sub-
standard sizes are 9.5mm. and 8mm.
The organiser should endeavour to
obtain short lengths of film in all sizes
and pin them on to the chart for
comparison.

Standard film is projected through
heavy, permanently - fixed machines
containing high intensity arcs which
throw' a very powerful beam across the
cinema auditorium. 16mm. films are
shown on small portable projectors
containing an electric lamp ranging

103

from 100 to 1,000 watt. It is because
of portability that 16mm. has become
the recognised size for Non-Theatrical
shows. Also, this sub-standard stock is
non-inflammable, whereas professional
films Art on inflammable stock, and the
regulations for fire prevention in
cinemas are numerous and strictly
enforced. The projection box is
completely divided off from the
auditorium, and should the film catch
fire, projectors are shut off in a moment
and iron shutters fall over the glass
apertures in the wall through which
the film is projected.

*

The general assumption is that
16mm. films are made with 16mm.
cameras. In some instances this is so,
but as many professional companies are
producing non-theatrical films, and
prefer working in standard size stock,
the films are first made on 35mm., and
then reduced in the film laboratory
to 16mm. There is a division of
opinion as to whether better quality

is obtained by filming direct on 16mm.,
or by the reduction method.

To conclude this lesson, students are
advised to record the divisions within
the industry for future reference :
Production ; Distribution ; Exhibition ;
Features and Shorts ; Theatrical and
Non-Theatrical ; Standard and Sub-
Standard stock.

The next lesson, No. 4 in the Course,
will be devoted to a study of the
commercial cinema programme, and its
influence over the individual.

*

I should be interested to know of
any Film Study Groups which have
been or are about to be organised as
a result of this Course, and the extent
to which the suggested Syllabus of
Study is proving helpful. If Organisers
care to write to me, I shall be pleased
to advise on any problems they may
have relating to the running of the
Course.

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS

FUND

IF one fourth of the Catholic population in England and Scotland
contributed a penny a day for 240 days The Catholic Film Institute
in England would be able to set up a production unit.

It was the pennies of the Catholic population in France which made
possible the making of the film Monsieur Vincent.

Kindly send donation to:

Rev. J. Burke, 357 Beulah Hill, London, S.E.19.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

£ s. d.

Previously acknowledged 230 8 0

Miss E. Ackerman ... 1 0 0

“Catholic Youth and

Family” (A Durban
Publication) 10 0

Malta Catholic Institute

V. M. Pendleton

Dr. C. B. Burdett Smith

s. d.
14 0
3 0
1 6

£232 16 6

104

Our Trumpet

The original film of The Angel with
the Trumpet was made in Austria. And
it included some excellent and authentic
shots of a bishop officiating at a
wedding. But the accompanying sound-
track was, of course, in German.

The time is past when it was thought
in the studios that “anything does for
church stuff”. And so when it was
decided to incorporate the sequence in
the British film, the person responsible
for the English sound-track consulted a
copy of the Catholic marriage service
used in England. But this is different
in form as well as in language from
that used in Austria.

The procedure adopted to cope with
the ensuing problem was ideal in its
correctness. A Catholic connected with
the studio rang up the Vicar General
of the Archdiocese of Westminster and
asked if a priest might be allowed to
advise on the subject. The reply was
that for the sake of authenticity it would
be as well that a priest should not only
advise, but undertake the matter, and
the inquirer was referred to Fr. Burke,
as secretary of the C.F.I. But he
happened to be abroad at the time, and
eventually, contact was made with me.

My voice seems fated to be associated
with screen bishops. When I assisted
the Director in the scene of the blessing
of the fishing nets in Lisbon Story, he
insisted that the bishop should bless the
people as well as the nets. The actor
whom I had cast for the part of the
bishop had an impressive presence, but
could not sing. So I was asked on the
spur of the moment to sing the blessing
myself. I had to improvise from
memory since I had not included a copy
of the Pontifical among the car load of

ecclesiastical equipment which I had
brought to Elstree. The result was
that the chant was not quite accurate,
though near enough not to cause
comment.

At Shepperton the first task was to
write the script for the short extract
from the marriage service. It was
restricted by the fact that the visuals
were already in existence; we had to
work strictly to their pattern. My ideal
was to produce a translation of the
German which was euphonious and
rhythmical and at the same time
reminiscent of the words familiar to
English Catholics who might see the
film.

We twice saw the piece of film in
question and heard its original sound-
track. The supervising editor had
made a literal translation and he
and I between us produced a version
which was finally satisfactory to us both.
Then I spoke the words before a
recording microphone. A record was
also made of an actor speaking the same
words. But those who recognise my
voice more easily than I do have
assured me that it was used.

Some people who see The Angel with
the Trumpet may think that friendly
overtures and willingness to accept
collaboration from a member of the
C.F.I. should have been met with the
cold assertion that priests should not
encourage films about Catholics unless
the characters invariably live up to
their religion. But that would have
been to invite the rejoinder that not
until all Catholics in real life live up
to the principles of the Church may
we expect to see the same in the
pictures.

Vox Episcopi.

105

FILM REVIEWS

By Our Panel of Priests

THE ASTONISHED HEART

Starring: Noel Coward, Celia Johnson
and Margaret Leighton. Distrib-
utors: G.F.D. Co-Directors:

Anthony Darnborough and
Terence Fisher. Certificate : A.

Category: A. Running time:

89 minutes.

This film demands intelligence and
sympathy in the beholders in order
that it may be appreciated at its true
worth. It is a further indication that
its author has depths of religious
sentiment, which both his admirers
and detractors are unwilling (or
unable ?) to perceive. On the surface
it is a scintillating essay in the best
Coward style on the subject of the
strong man’s enslavement by passion.
It might be called “The Good Pagan’s
Failure”. But it is more. It is a moral
parable. As was said of the parables
in the New Testament, “Those that
have eyes to see, let them see”.

Its title is significant. Astonishment
of heart is one of the curses laid upon
those who reject the commandments
of God. In the Book of Deuteronomy,
Chapter xxviii, we read : “If thou will
he true to the commandments of the
Lord thy God and follow the paths He
has chosen, He will make thee a people
set apart for Himself . . . but if thou
refuse to listen to Him and carrv out
faithfully all the commandments . . .
the Lord will drive thee distracted, all
benighted and crazed in thy wits till
thou will grope thv way at' noon like
a blind man in the dark and lose
thyself”. The Authorised Version
renders the sentence I have italicised
as follows : “The Lord shall smite thee
with madness and blindness and
astonishment of heart”. It follows,
therefore, that the astonished heart is
one who has rejected or tried to live
without God and His commandments.

It has been said that the characters
in Noel Coward’s film are unreal. That
is not my experience. They seem all
too pitifully recognisable in the
contemporary scene. Every priest
has met them : well-bred, pagan,

rationalising their emotional reactions,
somewhat disdainful of the vulgar
eroticism of the herd, despising the
need of religious persons to invoke
supernatural assistance in maintaining
self control, bewildered and humiliated
when they themselves fall victim to the
weakness of unaided nature.

Dr. P'aber is a successful psychiatrist
whose detached and clinical attitude
towards the sexual aberations of his
patients suffers a severe shock under
the calculated assaults of the beautiful
Leonora Vail. Submitting himself, as
he thinks, clinically, to the delights of
an “affair”, he discovers that he is
entangled like any common adulterer
and suffers the pangs of jealousy and
humiliation and frustration like any of
his own patients. Smitten with
madness and blindness and astonish-
ment of heart, he gropes his way like
a blind man in the dark and in the
manner customary with his godless
tribe, he seeks to destroy himself. Plis
wife, devoted and loving but also
ignorant of the supernatural sheet-
anchor she lacks, seeks to rationalise
the situation as merely a form of
biological sickness, sends her husband
away with Leonora “to get it out of
his system”. When he lies dying, she
sends for Leonora, whose name is on
his lips, but she has the satisfaction of
hearing her rival say that the end
came with a reassuring message to his
wife that he was now no longer
submerged in the darkness of
astonishment.

Superficially the film would merit
dismissal, but far from teaching
promiscuity, it points the lesson that
such a way of life is essentially joyless
and miserable. Its main moral weak-
ness is that it carries the suggestion

106

that man is incapable of controlling
his passions. If the implication of the
title that, without divine grace man
must fall, is intended, then this is a
most moral story.

The production is excellent. Beauti-
fully made, finely photographed,
excellently acted, this is a film that
intelligent adults may delight in. Celia
Johnson as the wife repeats the
perfection of her performance in Brief
Encounter. She is a great actress.
Margaret Leighton is an apt foil in the
hands of Director and Scriptwriter.
Noel Coward reveals unexpected depths
of emotional power in the later scenes
of disillusionment. The dialogue is
the usual scintillating and brittle
Coward argot.

V.

A CHANCE TO LIVE

March of Time, No. i. 15th Year.
20th Century-Fox.

If you have half a chance of seeing
A Chance to Live, take it and see it.
Fascinating to anyone, and appealing
especially to Catholics, it traces in an
unaffected and moving way the work
for uncared-for boys that Monsignor

Carroll-Abbing started in a cellar of
Rome, which he called “Shoeshine
Hotel”. This project, with the
financial help of Americans and the
Italian Government, prospered marvel-
lously and developed into several self-
governing republics for boys, which
can now accommodate 2,000 boys and
have already helped nearly 20,000.

We see how the project works on an
individual, Carlo, who conies to Santa
Marinella as an abject and sullen lad,
and we watch his gradual development

into a useful and happy citizen. It is
a pleasant story, reminiscent of the
grand work of St. John Bosco, and of
the modern experiment of ‘‘Bovs’
Town”. The only pity is that the film
is but nineteen minutes long, and
consequently the shots are all too short.
But it would be difficult to find any
other nineteen minutes so packed with
interest and with charm.

G.

LONG IS THE ROAD

Dialogue in Yiddish, German, Polish,
English. English sub-titles.
Directors: H. S. Fredersdorf and
M. Goldstein. Producer: A.

Weinstein. Produced by: IFO-
Intemational Film Organisation.

This propaganda film fails for a
variety of reasons. Its purpose is to
show that the only solution for the long
suffering European Jews is their speedy
admission to Palestine. The skilful
blending of actual documentary shots of
the horrors of Belsen and other camps,
with excellent acting goes a long way
towards arousing our sympathy for
these unhappv people. What causes a
certain reserve is the feeling that this
is in bad taste. Is it really a good thing
to specialise in the suffering of one
section of all those who groaned under
the Nazi terror ? The concentration
camps were not a preserve of the
Jewish race. Over and above that there
is the unhappy impression that the
demand of the film for living space in
Palestine ignores completely the rights
of the Arabs. Two wrongs are never
likely to make a right.

From the technical point of view the
film leaves a great deal to be desired.
The voice of the American commentator
is far too urgent. As a background to
this combination of documentary and
well acted tragedy what is required is
a very quiet and impersonal voice.
What is given is an irritating over-
emphasis. The film suffers from being
too long and this fault is more in
evidence because so much of the
general action of the story has been
presented before in The Search.

J. C.

107

ADAM’S RIB

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katharine

Hepburn, with Judy Holliday,
Tom Ewell, David Wayne.
Producer: Lawrence Weingarten.
Director: George Cukor. Distrib-
utors: M.-G.-M. Certificate : A.
Category: A. Running time:

ioi minutes.

Judged by censorious rule of thumb,
this picture is not very promising. It
contains an attempted murder and a
new aspect of “the unwritten law”.
But because life is regarded as it is,
with a complete and somewhat sardonic
detachment from ethical issues, the
film is less to be condemned than
those which attempt to grapple with
problems and solve them incorrectly.
The lightness of touch displayed is not
without entertainment value for
seasoned minds.

Adam and Amanda Bonner are both
attorneys as well as husband and wife.
And Amanda’s championship of equality
for women leads her to defend a woman
whom Adam is prosecuting. This
situation provides material for comedy,
satire and farce and Spencer Tracy and
Katharine Hepburn rise to such occasion
as there is. But far more amusing is a
character study by Judy Holliday. The
polishing of a good script into brilliance
by her acting is something well worth
seeing.

Q-

RIDING HIGH

Starring: Bing Crosby, Coleen Gray,
Charles Bickford, and Frances
Gifford. A Paramount Picture.
Producer and Director: Frank

Capra. Certificate: U. Cate-
gory: C. Running time: 112

minutes.

The name of the man who made such
outstanding films as You Can’t Take It
With You, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, leads
one to expect something a critic can
take a holiday over. Riding High is a
grievous disappointment. Mr. Capra’s
obsession with money as the prime
cause of discontent in the affairs of
man, is honoured to the extent of an
irascible and ill-mannered old business-
man whose sons-in-law are made the

managing stooges of his various
manufacturing interests. But then the
next son-in-law elect, Bing Crosby,
decides to rebel and go on training the
last horse left in his unsuccessful
stables. This horse, called Broadway
Bill, loves to dance around its master,
carries a pet rooster on its back, catches
a cold through a draughty stable, is
cured in time for the great race, runs
away with a crooked jockey, only to
burst its heart after it has won fame and
fortune for Mr. Crosby, and is then
buried with all the ceremony due to a
loyal friend and comrade. We learn that
Broadway Bill’s life and death are a
great example to American citizens
(human variety) : the only thing they
leave out is R.I.P. and the Dead March.

The ethical code of Mr. Crosby and
his associates is rather curious : when
in need of money to register his horse
in the race, he sends his friends to try
out variations on the confidence trick
with evident success. I hope this is
not intended to do more than entertain
the young idea. Bing, of course, sings,
though he is now a little mature for
the sort of thing they expect him to
do on the screen. The production is
average fair and safe for teen-agers
(doubtful ethics excepted).

V.

WHEN WILLIE COMES
MARCHING HOME

Starring: Dan Dailey, Corinne Calvet,
Colleen Townsend, with William
Demarest. Director: John Ford.
Producer: Fred Kohlmar.

Distributors: 20th Century-Fox.

Certificate : U. Category : C.

Running time : 82 minutes.

In one way it would be true to call
this film a comedy of errors — though
that statement does not imply a slur on
the technique or production. According
to the poster, it is the “biggest parade
of laughs”. There was not one really
funny sequence in it though there were
one or two quite humorous ones. The
whole story is built on a wartime
situation anrl features recruiting,
airfields, furloughs, etc. In order to
justify this five years after the end of
the war, an outstanding plot is required,
or else outstanding performance.
Neither was in evidence here. The
whole thing is rather ordinary, except

10S

for the hero’s four-day adventure which
includes a return trip from America to
France and involves baling-out, hiding
with the Maquis, seeing the launching
of a Y-2, escape by motor launch,
getting hopelessly drunk, and an
interview with the brass-liats in
Washington. However, it is a harm-
less and mildly exciting film. While I
would not recommend it as a top grade
priority, if it is just a question of an
evening out at the cinema, you could
do much worse than spend it seeing
Willie come marching home.

P. F.

THREE CAME HOME

Starring: Claudette Colbert, Patric

Knowles, Florence Desmond and
Sessue Hayakawa. Producer:
Nunnally Johnson. Director:
Jean Xegulesco. Distributors: 20th
Century - Fox. Certificate : A.

Category: A. Running time :

106 minutes.

The cinema is frequently criticised
for providing mere “escapes” from real
life. Here we have the reverse. In
this film we escape from the so-called
“real” world of the superficial and
complacent post-war age into the grim
reality of prison camps from which
there is no escape. For most of the
running time of this film we are
plunged into concentration camps in
which the Japanese held the American
civilians of North Borneo for the
duration of the war. We would like to
think that this is all fiction, but the
film is based on the autobiography of
Agnes Newton Keith, who, with her
husband and small son, were held
prisoners for the greater part of the
war.

In a cast consistently good, Claudette
Colbert and Sessue Hayakawa are out-
standing. The former, with admirable
restraint and sincerity, portrays all the
anguish and heroism of a wife, torn
from her husband and thrust into a
prison camp with her young boy.
Sessue Hayakawa, as the Japanese
Colonel in charge of the camp, keeps
us wondering what lies behind his
oriental expression and politeness. Is
it sinister cruelty, or something more
human ? It is worth while seeing this
film to find out.

And worth while to see how this
moving story concludes. G.

THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR
LIFE

Starring: Alistair Sim and Margaret
Rutherford, with Joyce Grenfell,
Guy Middleton, Muriel Aked,
Edward Rigby and Richard
Wattis. Producer and Director:
Frank Launder. Distributors:
British Lion. Certificate: U.

Category: A. Running time:

' 81 minutes.

If you can accept the basically
disturbing factor of a girls’ school
being inadvertently allocated to share
accommodation with a boys’ college, a
mistake that is by no means impossible
when one considers the peculiarities
which govern the minor departments of
the Ministry of Education you have the
ground for a delicious piece of farce
salted with satire. Alistair Sim as the
Headmaster, a man of tortuous mental
processes, is faced bv Margaret
Rutherford, the Headmistress, a woman
of masterful tenacity of purpose and by
no means over-awed by a mere male.
Between them a state of suspended
belligerency is arrived at when their
self-interest demands co-operation. The
Governors of the Boys’ College choose
to visit the place at the same time as
some of the girls’ parents, anxious to
inspect their offsprings’ new school.
This situation demands a positively
superhuman effort in Box and Coxery.
The boys and girls themselves, faced
with the crisis, temporarily suspend
their own private war in order to defeat
the common enemy.

The cast is superb, with Margaret
Rutherford and Alistair Sim a dead heat
for first place. Joyce Grenfell as Sports
Mistress, Guy Middleton as a Sports
Master with a roving eye and a
gambling instinct, Richard Wattis as a
disgruntled Maths Master and Gladys
Henson as an imperturbable Matron are
particularly worth watching.

Such a plot, of course, has to be
treated with the lightest of touches in
order to avoid danger and it may be said
that, with the exception of one or two
lines that are somewhat riskily allusive,
in this it is successful. Still, I cannot
think why the Censor gives it a “U”
Certificate. Its dialogue and situation is
too spicy to suit adolescent palates, even
though the rough and tumble may give
it the appearance of a school-boy vam.

V.

109

BAGDAD

Starring: Maureen O’Hara, Paul

Christian, Vincent Price.
Producer: Robert Arthur.

Director: Charles Lamont.

Presented by Universal-
International. Certificate: U.

Category: B. Running time:

8 1 minutes.

In Bagdad we have the story of an
English-educated daughter of a Bedouin
tribal prince, who returns to Bagdad
to find her father murdered and her
people a prey to unscrupulous intrigue
between the occupying Turkish power
and rival tribal leaders. It all comes
right in the end, and we fade out on
the lovers embracing under the desert
moon, etc. On the synopsis sheet we
were promised 1,001 pleasures, 1,001
adventures, 1,001 delights. If we had
been given even those, we should not
have complained. As it was, all that
was missing and there was nothing to
take its place.

The film opens by establishing the
mysterious atmosphere of the East with
dialogue in the second person singular,
such as : “Know thou that in future
thou shalt do as I, thy princess,
commandest thee’’. After a couple of
minutes of that, the strain is too much
and it lapses into American, but the
stage is set. The Princess Marjan,
lately come out of England, and so
riding in the desert in the dinkiest little
silk hat and the cutest riding habit of
silver grey, finds a convenient merchant
to supply her with the latest Paris
fashions in evening gowns, and thus
equipped she is able to avenge her
father’s murder. The emphasis is very
much on the right sort of clothes. The
film is full of pleasant little details like
that, but as nothing connects with
anything else, it is impossible to give
an adequate idea of it. If there were
anything in it worth seeing, I would
say, see it for yourselves. But despite
the technicolor and the technical
advice of Mahmud Shaikhaly, this film
is the bottom. Quite honestly it is, I
think, the worst I have ever had the
misfortune to see.

BITTER RICE (Riso Amaro)

Starring: Silvana Mangano, Vittorio

Gassman and Doris Dowling.
Director: Giuseppe de Santis.

Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 103 minutes.

The early films of the Italian
renaissance owed much of their
excellence to the fact that they were
the work of one creative mind. The
Italian film makers now show signs of
falling into the Hollywood and
Pinewood mistake of supposing that
the more people engaged on a film the
better the film. It is a disturbing fact
that six people were engaged to write
the script of Bitter Rice. That is
perhaps the reason why a story which
has intrinsic possibilities of a high
order emerges as a muddled melodrama
quite out of keeping with the character
of the sturdy Italian types who are its
main pre-occupation. It concerns the
annual exodus of Italian girls to the
rice fields in the Po valley. Working
under difficult conditions in water-
logged swamps, the girls live in
insanitary dwellings and dream rosy
and unlikely dreams of marital
conquests and cinematic hereafters.

A jewel thief and his unwilling
admirer board the rice train and the
stolen necklet is concealed in the rice
girls’ quarters. Eventually the jewels
cause the downfall of one girl and the
salvation of another. There are
dramatic scenes of flooding and a
completely unlikely suicide and very
stupid rice-offering tribute to the dead
girl, whose weakness is the main cause
of the disaster. The British censor has
eliminated two of the most objectionable
scenes and the remainder is a photo-
graphically beautiful but filmically
disappointing story of rice, rain,,
robbery and revenge in the flood waters
of the River Po.

Silvana Mangano is obviously more
interesting to the director physically
than histrionically. Vittorio Gassman
is a handsome person in the Mature
tradition. The best work comes from
Doris Dowling and Raf Vallone.

A film for adults who prefer pictures
to films.

U.

V.

Aborning

/departure

If I were in a cynical mood I should
suggest that as John Mills was so
successful in an Antarctic crisis, a
sunken submarine was just where we
might expect to find him next. Again
we have domestic preludes followed bv
a catastrophe for men only. And
different types of people, thrown
together in a solitary and prolonged
emergency, produce a dramatic situation
which is far from original.

|r;ut.-Cmdr. Armstrong (John Mills) is given a packet of
sandwiches by his wife (Helen Cherry)

Starring: John Mills,

Richard Atten-
borough, wdth Nigel
Patrick, Lana
Morris, Peter Ham-
mond. Producer:
Jay Lewis. Direc-
tor: Roy Baker.

Distributors: G.F.D.
Certificate: A.

Category. B. Run-
ning time : 102

minutes.

Lieut. Manson (Nigel Patrick) takes over

The Chief Engineer has to be a
Scotsman and there is bound to be
an Irishman in the crew. The
young man who suffers from panic
(Richard Attenborough) and the cook
so conspicuously devoid of refinement
(James Hayter who deserves more
publicity than has been assigned to
him for an important part very well
played), inevitablv recall Journey’s
End.

Rose Snipe asks her husband (Richard
Attenborough) for more money

But the fact remains that the British
can do these semi-documentary,
emotionally understated films of soft-
pedalled heroism very well. And they
have done it again. I strongly
recommend this first-rate picture. Even
those who are sensitive to tragedy
and/or claustrophobia should not
find it unduly distressing because the
emotional atmosphere is so deliberately
calm.

(

*

>

i

John Mills as Lieut. -Comdr. Armstrong; Richard Attenborough as Stoker Snipe;
Nigel Patrick at Lieut. Manson; James Hayter as A.B. Higgins. Their
submarine, "The Trojan" hits a mine

The end deserves special commenda-
tion from Christians. As the four
remaining members of the crew face
almost certain death the Captain
suggests that they might join in spirit
with the Sunday service in the
dockyard. The cook thinks that for
him it doesn’t seem hardly right, after
never bothering about suchlike, to ask
a person for things because you are in
trouble. The Captain gently replies
that he is sure He doesn’t take that
view. And so, as the film ends, the
Captain is reading the Anglican prayer,
so familiar in the Navy, about lawful
occasions and the rest.

There was unusually little applause
after the film, but I don’t think that was
due to lack of appreciation, but to a
feeling that it would be out of place.
I wrote the above lines before C. A.
Lejeune’s remarks to the same effect
were published. But at the time I
suspected that I was not the only one
who wanted to slip out quickly and
quietly, not because my eyes were moist
with harrowed emotion — a harrowing
situation could not have been treated
less harrowingly— but because I didn’t
want to talk to anyone until the lump in
my throat had subsided.

Q-

Trapped in the submarine

TLhc IRei

A young officer falls in love with a refugee

Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Ethel

Barrymore, Janet Leigh, with
Francis L. Sullivan, Peter Law-
ford, Louis Calhern, Angela
Lansbury. Producer: Carey

Wilson. Director: George Sidney.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time: 119 minutes.

The story of Bruce Marshall’s novel
of occupied Vienna (published 1947) is
concerned on the large scale with the
ineptitude and the stupid as well as
brutal inhumanity of the political
decision that the Soviet authorities
should be helped in the forcible
repatriation of Russian Displaced
persons. O11 the smaller scale it
sharpens to the incident of a “decent”
enough Colonel Nicobar, D.S.O., M.C.,
who finally jibs against this with
surprisingly successful results, but too
late to avert the suicide of a lovely
Russian girl, who lias already been
handed over by him once and then
escaped for a brief spell of liberty.
The story brings in a susceptible young

Walter Pidgeon . . . Robert Corte

oflicer who falls in love with the
refugee, as well as certain well-drawn
army types, including the General from
the War House, the Brigadier, that
“dim bull”, Colonel Omicron, and
the A.T.S. officer, Audrey Quail, a
concupiscent half-wit.

Nicobar and his Staff are billeted on —11
a convent where, despite his own lazy
scepticism, he makes great friends of \j]
Rev. Mother Auxilia, with her simple,
business-like faith. It is this friendship
which gradually narrows down the
challenge to injustice and scepticism
alike.

It is interesting to see how this long
but not tedious film follows the book.

It does so extraordinarily faithfully.

This fidelity I found, with one

exception, fascinating and pleasing.

Much of my pleasure there is probably
due to the inspired casting. The

The Russian Colo I*'

^Danube

exception is that the dramatic content
is really complete with the death of the
girl and the awkward protestations of
regret from the British officers
concerned. All the fun of Nicobar’s
promotion and the disconcerting arrival
of Mrs. Omicron are by way of anti-
climax.

Walter Pidgeon gets into the skin of
Colonel Nicobar. Ethel Barrymore
knows what she is doing as Mother
Auxilia, even when forcing the
embarrassed Nicobar to take her to
Rome by air so that she can have a
talk with the Pope about the condition
and needs of the world. Janet Leigh’s
part of the young Russian girl is
appealingly lovely. Peter Lawford is
the nice young major, and Angela
Lansburv plays Audrey Quail, whose
part has been expanded into that of
quite a nice girl really. Francis L.

The Russian refugee is given “sanctuary”

Sullivan fits Colonel Omicron like a
large sized glove. The Russian Colonel
is not caricatured by Louis Calhern out
of all semblance of humanity.

The direction has many good
moments. I liked particularly the
tension as Colonel Piniev strode slowly
up and down the convent chapel,
searching the faces of the nuns to
discover the hiding Maria Buhlen, while
the soft murmur of the community
prayers goes on without interruption.

The film has the wit, the compassion
and the anger of the novel. The
compassion is challenging, the anger
corrosive. It could, I fear, be
construed as an attack on British
stupidity. It could, but unjustly. It is
rather a salutary and, indeed,,
uncomfortable exposure of what Mother
Auxilia calls “the brutality of men who
denv God”, whether explicitly in the
case of the Russians or implicitly in
the case of others nearer home.

Perhaps, therefore, it is as well that
this British story comes from Holly-
wood, for the Americans are apt
nowadays to be more realistic and less
inhibited about these things than we
are. Don’t miss The Red Danube.

X.

Angela Lansbury . . . Peter Lawford

114

BATTLEGROUND

Starring: Van Johnson, John Hodiak,
Ricardo Montalban, George
Murphy. Director: William A.

Wellman. Producer: D o r e

Schary. Distributors: M.-G.-M.

Certificate : A. Category. A.

Running time ; 121 minutes.

This film records, without undue
emphasis', the heroic part that the
Americans played in the last war at
Bastogne. It is beautifully made and
directed and there is a pleasing fresh-
ness and originality about it. I found
it interesting, sometimes thrilling, often
humorous and often poignant. The
soldiers in the picture are no picture
soldiers, they are tough guys with
hearts of gold and no two of them are
alike. Battleground is good cinema.

“What’s the point of showing a war
film at this date?” someone said to me
after the press show. “What’s the point
of writing history and recording heroic
deeds,” I replied. We owe it to these
men who “carried on” and faced
unimaginable hardships with courage
and with humour, to record in the
modern language of film their heroic
deeds. There is a quiet grandeur and
nobility about this film and I thought
the climax, when the sun shines and
sky is filled with planes bringing relief
was superb. This is a war-picture with
a difference.

E.

AFRICA SCREAMS

Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello.
Producer: Edward Nassour.

Director: Charles Barton.

Released through United Artists.
Certificate : U . Category : C.

Running time : 80 minutes

approx .

So far as I am concerned Abbott and
Costello are not so much an acquired
taste as an out-worn one. Children will
find the film amusing. Abbott and
Costello among the lions and savages
of Africa.

T.

When Relief Comes

In Snow-man’s Land

115

Out of the Darkness

Writer, Producer and Director: C.

Desmond Toomey. Certificate \
U. Category : C. Running time :
70 minutes.

When I asked a friend the other day
if he had seen the new Missonary film,
Out of the Darkness, his immediate
rejoinder was “No. Is it the same
film ?” By which he meant, is it a
replica of that other very fine
Missionary film, Visitation, which made
such a great impression nearly three
vears ago ?

Inevitably Out of the Darkness, which
also describes Missionary work in
Nigeria, recalls Visitation and invites
comparison with it. But there is a
fresh element introduced into this new
film in the form of a narrative interest.
The story of the village chief’s daughter
who wants to become, first a Catholic
and then a Missionary Sister, and of
the determined opposition of her father
to both projects, is sufficiently well done

New Missionary Film

Owing to popular demand the film

Out of the
Darkness

will be shown agajn at the

HAMMER THEATRE,

1 1 3 Wardour St., W.l .
at 8 p.m. on

April 19-21, 24—27
and May 1 — 5. all
dates inclusive

Doors open 7-30 p.m.

Admission free Silver collection in
aid of the Missions

to hold the interest throughout. These
Africans seem to be natural actors, and
there is no suggestion of artificiality in
the unfolding of the simple story.

The film gives a good idea of the
training which the Sisters undergo at
the Mother House at Killeshandra and
later on of the magnificent educational
and medical work which they are doing
in Nigeria. There is much beautiful
photography, including a particularly
imaginative shot of a clothing at
Killeshandra. The commentary, spoken
by three different commentators, is
good, although some may share my
own opinion that the introduction of a
feminine voice is a mistake.

Unfortunately at the first showing the
sound left much to be desired, but I
am told that the theatre was partly
responsible for this and that it is
better in a different theatre.

This film should not be missed.
Those who saw Visitation will not, I
think, feel that they are being treated
to a slight variation on the original
theme. Rather will they find that their
interest is held from start to finish and
they will once more be filled with
admiration and gratitude at the work
which these devoted and selfless women
are accomplishing.

M. M.

CHAIN LIGHTNING
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor
Parker, with Raymond Massey
and Richard Wharf. Director:
Stuart Heisler. A Warner Bros.
Production. Certificate-. U.
Category : D. Running time :

very long.

Jet propelled aircraft leaving loving
fleecy streams in their wake, American
Air Force officers, big business and
invention (in that order) in aircraft
production, tough heroics and rather
irrelevant love, Bogart, Eleanor Parker
and Massey — and you have all to be
remembered in this film of action. It
reminded me of that excellent magazine
of mv vouth, the “Boys’ Own Paper”.

X.

116

STROMBOLI AND VOLCANO

A CLARIFICATION

There has been much mischievous
publicity connected with Roberto
Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman. It has
been stated in the press that their
latest film, Stromboli, is to be banned
on account of the undesirable publicity
which has been associated with their
names. With these reports goes the
statement that the Vatican (sic) has
banned Catholics all over the world
from seeing Volcano, the Italian film
starring Anna Magnani.

The Vatican is not in the habit of
making judgment about films, bad or
good. The proper office erected to
deal with films in Italy is the
Centro Cattolico Cinematografico,
which, like the Catholic Film Institute,
is affiliated with the O.C.I.C. The
C.C.C. has condemned Volcano but
such condemnation does not operate
outside Italy. In accordance with the
directives contained in the Film
Encyclical of Pius XI, it is explicitly
stated that each country must arrange
for its own system of film classification.
Volcano, therefore, will be treated on
its merits in each country. It may well
be that in England, for instance, the
British Board of Film Censors will
demand deletions which will make it
unobjectionable from our point of view.
The various National Film Offices
affiliated with the O.C.I.C. keep each
other informed as to the length and
category of the films produced in their
country. In this way it is easy to see
whether the complete film is being
offered to the public.

In the case of Stroniboli, a letter
from the American Catholic Legion of
Decency informs us that they have
placed it in their category of films
considered Morally Unobjectionable For
Adults. This assures us that it is

morally satisfactory whatever may

remain to be said about it on artistic
grounds.

While the technical merits of films
may in certain cases be excellent and
their moral content satisfactory, it does
present us with a difficult situation
when the private behaviour of persons
like Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman are
given extensive publicity ; there is a
measure of scandal that cannot be
dismissed. Public opinion needs to be
encouraged to resist this salacious
appeal to its lowest instincts for cheap
sensationalism. It is a pity that other-
wise quite reputable film critics are
willing to repeat and print items about
film stars, particularly Catholics who
have abandoned their loyalty to the
Church which are, of their nature, quite
unlikely to be true. So the story that
Ingrid Bergman is to be received into
the Church. This is not impossible, but
it is at the moment unlikely and a
condition would be that she would need
to dissociate herself from her present
partner. Catholic Film Action has a lot
to do before the wishes of Pius XI are
realised. Prayer is necessary for those
who are deluded by the glamour of
film publicity.

J. A. V. B.

for Catholic books go to

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140 STRAND, LONDON, W.C.2

Telephone : Temple Bar 3008
Telegrams : Gallows, E strand, London

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second-hand
Catholic books
in all languages
sent all over
the world

FOR NEWS AND V1EW9 OF
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**************

117

LUXEMBOURG GALA

O.C.I C. Award to “SCOTT OR THE ANTARCTIC”

For the second year in succession the
charming city of Luxembourg has been
the scene of a ceremony which
illustrates the constructive approach of
the International Catholic Cinema Office
to the art of cinema. On February 3rd,
in the presence of a distinguished
gathering of diplomats and the
presidents and secretariats of more than
49 international Catholic action groups,
presided over by the Co-adjutor Bishop
of Luxembourg, Charles Frend, the
director of the film Scott o) the
Antarctic, received the Special Diploma
awarded to this film at the Venice
Festival last year.

In making the presentation, Father
John A. V. Burke, the President of the
International Jury nominated by
O.C.I.C. said : “There are several

happy coincidences which link this
beautiful country of Luxembourg with
the prize film, which we are to see here
this evening. The Luxembourg Society
in London, of which I am proud to
be a member, has its offices on the
embankment of the River Thames and
its windows look out upon a sailing
ship that has been anchored there for
many years. The name of this ship is
“Discovery” the vessel in which Robert
Falcon Scott made his first momentous
journey to the Antarctic.

“Coming, as I do, from a country that
has always been proud to boast of the
courage and persistence in the cause
of humanity of men like Robert Falcon
Scott, it is but natural that I should
express the admiration which people in
Britain have for Luxembourg and its
Grand Ducal Family as a result of their
courageous persistence in the same
cause during the last World 'War.

“In a world in which materialistic
totalitarianism tends to grow ever
larger and to engulf human rights and
liberties, it is an inspiration to be
presented with the story of a man like
Scott who, against great odds and
moved by the deepest spiritual con-
victions, was able, at the cost of his
life, to contribute by his scientific
discoveries as well as by his personal
example so much that is for the good
of humanity.

“To be able to present by means of
the cinema, a film like Scott of the
Antarctic is a great reponsibility

and a great achievement. It is a great
responsibility because it involves the
impressions and ideas received by a
vast audience all over the world. It is
a great achievement because to make
such a film — and to make it well — one
needs to be endowed with something of
the same vision and tenacity of purpose
as the men depicted on the screen.

“It is for reasons such as these that
Pius XI states, in his Encyclical Letter
on the cinema, that films are both the
most dangerous as well as among the
most beneficial instruments that science
has placed within our grasp today. It
is as a result of the desire of Pius XI
that the Church should do all in its
power to promote good motion pictures
that the Office Catholique International
du Cinema (O.C.I.C.) has instituted the
practice of offering a Special Diploma
at the major film festivals, a Diploma
dedicated to the film which most
contributes to the moral and spiritual
betterment of mankind.

“It will be understood by those who
are familiar with the teachings of the
Encyclical and the efforts of the
O.C.I.C. that only films of the highest
artistic value are considered good
enough to be the vehicles of ethical and
spiritual impressions such as the Church
wishes to see encouraged.

“It will also be understood that1 the
O.C.I.C. makes no narrow confessional
interpretation of its terms of reference
when awarding its Diploma. The best
possible from whatever Christian source
it may come. In the case of Robert
Falcon Scott we have an example of
one of the best types of English
Protestant, a man of deep spirituality,
with a character that is an inspiration
and an encouragement to all.

“The film Scott of the A ntarctic fulfils
in an admirable way all that is regarded
as most desirable by the O.C.I.C.
Technically speaking it was a tour de
force, and the adventures of the team
that went to thp Antarctic for the
purposes of the exterior location work
required in the film are not unworthy to
mention in the same context as those
of Scott himself. Over all the film
moves the spirit of Robert Falcon Scott
and it is a tribute alike to John Mills,
who played the role, and to Charles
Frend, who directed it, that, after

118

seeing the film, one experiences the
conviction that one has lived with and
known and loved the man himself.

“Of Charles Frend let me say this : he
is representative of the best in a school
of film production which, during the
war and since, has made some of the
finest British films ever known. The
Ealing Studios has never been content
with the tawdry or second-rate. Whether
the subject has been comedy like Hue
and Cry or A Run For Your Money or
high drama like San Dernetrio, London,
the film has always betrayed the marks
of a man and an organisation inspired
by high ideals in the art and craft of
cinema. It is only right that I should
here mention Sir Michael Balcon, the
Executive Producer of Ealing Studios,
who has given to the world an almost
unbroken succession of first-class and
intelligent films, of which Scott of the
Antarctic is by no means the last. We
tender our grateful thanks to Sir
Michael Balcon for making it possible
for Charles Freud to be here tonight to
receive our applause, and it is with the
greatest pleasure that 1 hand to him
the Special Diploma of the Office
Catholiquc International du Cinema for
his magnificent and beautiful film, Scott
of the Antarctic.”

In reply, Charles Frend said: “I am
deeply conscious of the honour which
you have accorded Scott of the
Antarctic by the presentation of this
Diploma, and on behalf of all of us
who made the film I thank you.

“It is a matter of great satisfaction
to me as Director because it shows that
in one respect at least the film has
succeeded in its purpose, that of
emphasising the true importance of
the Scott story. To superficial observers
Scott might seem to have failed in two
ways. He failed to get to the South
Pole first and he failed to bring his
party safely home. But the true
importance of the story is not the race
to the South Pole, important though it
seemed to be at that time nor the fact
that a Norwegian got there first instead
of an Englishman. Nor is the vital
point Scott’s failure to return safely,
despite his skill and experience as an
explorer. Scott and his companions
were not supermen — indeed they were
very human and made many mistakes —
but when they found themselves face to
face with death, their characters stood
the test : and this is the vitally
important point of their story. Scott
himself wrote in his diary : ‘Things

have come out against us. And,
therefore, we have no cause for
complaint, but bow to the will of
Providence, determined to do our best
to the last.’ The fortitude of these
men transcends national boundaries.
We remember them not so much
because they were Englishmen as
because they added new dignity to the
the history of humanity.”

The distinguished audience received
the film with warm and enthusiastic
applause and were evidently moved by
its powerful impact.

C

FR. BURKE . . . CHARLES FREND

119

FILM AND STRIPS AS AIDS IN THE
TEACHING OF RELIGION

By Our Educational Panel

LIBRARIES AND AGENCIES

Catholic Truth Society, 38/40 Eccleston
Square, S.W.l.

Religious Films Ltd., 6 Eaton Gate,
S.W.l.

Dawn Trust Ltd., Aylesbury, Bucks.
Drummond Young, 8 Randolph
Crescent, Edinburgh.

Visual Information Service, 168a
Battersea Bridge Road, S.W.l 1.
Dominican Picture Apostolate, Blooms-
bury Publishing Co., 34 Bloomsbury
Street, W.C.l.

Apostolic Picture Network, Park
Cottage, Portsmouth Road, Thames
Ditton, Surrey.

Editions Lumina, 5 Rue Ferou Paris,
Vie.

Editions du Berger, 4 Rue Cassette,
Paris, Vie.

Common Ground Ltd., Svdney Place,
S.W.7.

The Catholic Film Institute, 20
Ovmgton Square, S.W.3.

A. STORY FILMS FOR THE
TEACHING OF DOCTRINE

Night Prayers: C.T.S. 2.

The Morning Offering: C.T.S. 5.

Sunday: C.T.S. 17.

The Gift of Faith: C.T.S. 25.

Hiring charges : 4/- per reel (except
Sunday : 5/-).

Each of these short silent films uses
to a greater or lesser degree, the story
method of bringing home an important
lesson in the way most readily
assimilated bv young people. The two
first, with their small boy actors, will
appeal on almost all counts, and older
as well as younger boys and girls can
enjoy the fun while learning to
appreciate the importance of the
spiritual life and the means given to us
of keeping our lives in touch with the
supernatural.

Sunday shows us a Catholic family
and is an excellent practical lesson on
the 1st Commandment of the Church,
and brings out the happiness which

ought to be connected in the child’s
mind with God’s day. The treatment
of the eldest son, a typical adolescent,
is rather unsympathetic, but juniors will
enjoy it. The all but fatal accident to
the small boy is attributed to the fact
that his big brother has missed Mass,
and the lack of connection between the
two events will not escape the notice
of critical youth.

The Gift of Faith, the story of a
conversion is less convincing but it
gives an interesting demonstration of
the reception of a convert into the
Church. It is a pitv that the young
convert is rather gloomy in appearance
and dress, for the film does not give
the impression that there is matter for
rejoicing in the bestowal and reception
of the gift of Faith.

B. SCRIPTURE BACKGROUND
FILMS

The Synagogue

R.F.7C. Religious Films Ltd. Sound.
2 reels. Hiring charges : 6s. per
reel.

“2,000 Years Ago” is a group of films
on the life of Palestine ill the first
century, and other titles include The
Home and The School. The first reel
is devoted to an excellent reconstruction
of the synagogue, and is successful in
giving fresh meaning and immediacy
to New Testament descriptions ot
Christ’s work. Yet it is quite objective
in approach and no effort is made to
create emotional atmosphere. Nor are
Gospel characters introduced, but
ordinary people are shown doing what
Christ and His Apostles did. The
second reel deals admirably with the
Passover, and details of Our Lord’s
words and actions at the Last Supper
become more meaningful as the solemn
ritual is celebrated. This is an excellent
film, and there is a lightness of touch
about it which makes the actors seem
very human and real people.

Suitable for older juniors and seniors.

120

Where Trod the Twelve

R. I". 1012. 2 reels. Silent. Hiring

charges : 3s. per reel. Religious
Films Ltd.

This silent film is a successful attempt
to “realise” the Gospel story by means
of scenes from life as it was and is lived
in the Holy Land. The countryside,
houses, streets and market places
“where trod the twelve” come alive.
The trades of village carpenter and
fisherman are shown and well known
spots connected with Our Lord’s life
are included. The second part of the
film is a commentary in pictures
on Our Lord’s teaching in discourse
and parable. There are shots
illustrating the meaning of “good
measure pressed down”, the beauty of
the “lilies of the field”, and the parable
of the Good Samaritan becomes an
exciting drama. The film closes with
views of the scenes of Our Lord’s
Passion, Death and Resurrection. This
film can be recommended for all ages
from about 10 upwards.

Simon Peter, Fisherman

Dawn Trust, D.C.F.20. Hire : Sound
£1 5s.; Silent 17s. Time: 32

minutes.

This Dawn Trust film gives an
unusual view of the figure of St.
Peter. Here we see him before and
immediately after Our Lord has called
him. He is seen as strong, patient,
tender and gracious, and these qualities
are exhibited in his treatment of his
young wife, who is dismayed and
distressed by the change she notes in
him after he has met the Master. She
is clinging and affectionate and does not
want to see their family life disturbed.
Simon Peter has to be firm, almost
severe, in renouncing home life and
finally departing in the Master’s
company.

Naturally, in a film devoted to a
disciple, Our Lord appears compara-
tively little. He is seen with the
crowds and with the few He is about
to choose as His own, and at the
bedside of the sick. He is reverently
depicted, austere and detached yet
obviously winning strong men to leave
all for the sake of His company.

The scenes of home life and country-
side are excellent ; the costumes are
good and the characters on the whole
simple and natural in movement and
manner. The only exception is

Simon’s wife, who in appearance and
behaviour is more dramatic than her
prototype was likely to be. Of St.
Peter the criticism might be made that
a more mature and sophisticated
character is presented to us than that
of the disciple of the Gospel.

St. Paul’s Years of Apprenticeship

Dawn Trust, D.C.F.22. Hiring charges
as for Simon Peter, Fisherman.

This is the second of a group on the
life of St. Paul, of which the first deals
with the conversion. In this film Paul’s
brief sojourn at Damascus, his
unsuccessful attempts to win over his
former allies to his new faith, and his
departure to the wilderness for prayer
and solitude are related against a
background of sufficientlv realistic
scenery.

If the character of the fisherman
Peter has been rendered too complicated
and modern in the film devoted to him,
the tendency here seems to be to
over-simplify the brilliant but difficult
character of Saul. On the whole the
film fulfils well its claim to adhere
closely to the Bible story, though the
interpretation of some of the minor
characters does not always ring true.
But it is a reverent and interesting
film, and has had success in use by
Army chaplains during and since the
war. Its appeal, therefore, would
probably be to the older pupils in
Secondary Schools.

C. TWO STRIPS ON THE MASS
The Sacred Actions

By Fr. Hubert McEvov. Pictures by
Drummond Young. (Accompanying
book is published by Oliver and
Boyd.) Price : £1 Is. May be

obtained from The Catholic Film
Institute.

This strip accompanies the author’s
Mass Book for children, and is an
adaptation and simplification of the
film The Sacrifice We Offer , and the
book of the same title. The latter are
probably known to most of our readers,
and the present strip is found most
useful as the basis of a series of lessons
to study and explain the actions of the
Mass step by step. Close-up photographs
of priest and server are excellent and
full of reverence, and show exactly what
is happening at any stage in the
progress of the Mass. To help young

121

people to concentrate effectively, Father
McEvoy divides the Mass inito short
time sequences ; at the beginning of each
important stage we are told how many
minutes we have for, e.g., preparation
for sacrifice, or for thanking God. The
strip can perfectly well be used
independently of the book, but if the
teacher, at least, has a copy of the
text she will be greatly aided in
building up appropriate instruction and
in enriching for the children the
significance of the pictures ; the book,
however, is designed to be the personal
property of the individual child for use
at home for quiet reading, and at Mass
in lieu of a child’s Missal. The strip
could be used with older juniors, and
both strip and book would also be
appreciated by senior pupils.

The Mass for Little Children

By S. N. D. V.I.S.2259. 20 frames.

Price : 7s. 6d. from the Catholic

Film Institute.

This is a carefully planned teaching
strip in which the doctrine of the
Christian Sacrifice is clearly yet simply
worked out. It consists of 8 pictures
linked by explanations, with prayers
and verses designed to fix in memory
the main points to be remembered. Our
Lord’s wonderful deeds, His miracles,
are exemplified in the changing of
water into wine at Cana, and in the
feeding of the 5,000. These in turn
typify the great Miracle of the Last
Supper, when Our Lord changed bread
and wine into His Body and Blood,
and told His apostles to do the same.
On Calvary Our Lord is shown offered
in Sacrifice, and the remaining pictures
relate the Mass to Christ’s oblation and
to our own offering of self with Him to
God. This should be a very useful strip
for the teacher of infants and young
juniors, and in experienced hands
would lend itself to various methods
of use.

D. OTHER CATHOLIC FILM
STRIPS

Bishop Challoner

Catholic Truth Society. 2 reels. Hiring

Charges : 2/6; price 10/-.

A knowledge of the Catholic past and
of England’s fight for the Faith so often
stops short at the more spectacular
period covered by Monsignor Benson’s
books, that any attempt to familiarise

Catholics with the work of an English
Bishop to whom we owe so much is
to be welcomed. The strip is the work
of a real historian, and an expert on
the period. Much of it is composed
of contemporary prints and of
reproductions of original documents and
title-pages of the various works
published by Bishop Challoner. The
notes which accompany the strip are
more than usually necessary to explain
the pictures, and the utility and
interest of the film would be much
enhanced by being handled by someone
thoroughly versed in the subject. The
type of illustration used and in fact the
general mode of treatment is not really
adapted to younger children, who
cannot assimilate a mass of pictorial
detail, but it would be useful for boys
and girls of 14 and over, as well as for
adult groups.

Good Tidings of Great Joy

Dominican Picture Apostolate. 24
frames. Colour. Price : 12s. 6d.

This strip, described as a first
venture, is produced by the Picture
Apostolate, whose books and picture
publications must be well known to
Catholic teachers. It is planned as a
forerunner to a complete series of
strips to cover the matter contained in
their series of Outline Books. The strip
deals with the childhood of Our Lord
in a series of brightly, but on the
whole, not too crudely, coloured
pictures. The first frame is an
attractive “picture map” representing
the scenes of the Gospel bv appropriate
small groups placed upon a map of the
near East. The remaining pictures take
through the story from the vision of
Zachary to the return to Nazareth after
the Finding in the Temple. The gospel
reference is given for each picture. The
scenes and figures are adapted to the
child mind, being simple and homely
and of the type to evoke questions ; little
children would probably enjoy telling
the stories of the pictures to each other
in class. In a few instances something
of desirable dignity has been sacrificed,
and in one or two cases Our Lord’s
features are weak and childish without
being childlike. The strip is very well
planned, and would provide matter for
a series of lessons. It errs, possibly,
in trying to fit in too much, and
perhaps the inclusion of St. John the
Baptist’s story may be a bit confusing

122

for the age group for which it is
intended.

St. Mary’s Farm

Apostolic Picture Network. 40 frames.

Price : 6s. 6d.

This strip produced for the Southwark
Catholic Rescue Society by the Apostolic
Picture Network, tells something of an
interesting venture in land training
undertaken by the Society in an effort
to solve the problem of vocational
training for the boys under their care.
The life and work of the farm are
shown in excellent photographs (those
of the animals are outstanding in
quality) of stages in the day’s toil — not
omitting the other aspects of life at
St. Mary’s, where the boys’ spiritual
welfare and their comfort and happiness
are also matters of importance to those
in charge. The film’s primary purpose
is to demonstrate the Church in Action
with the S.C.R.S. doing on behalf of
us the corporal works of mercy. The
conclusion is that such a work deserves

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FOCUS wishes
all its friends
and contributors

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$ a joyful. Easter $

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our interest and practical support.
Apart from this main purpose, the strip
could well be used to arouse interest
in and knowledge of farming as a
satisfying way of life.

ERRATA : G.B.E. Silent Films.

Hiring charge : 5/6, not 4/6 as
stated in last issue.

SOME FILMS

NOTE. Inclusion in this list does
not oonnote positive recommenda-
tion. Films that are positively harm-
ful are not included here. Headers
are reminded to refer to the full
reviews when assessing a film.

Category A, indicates adults only ;
B, adults and adolescents ; C, family
audiences ; D, particularly for

children.

Reviewed in “Focus” (Vol. Ill,

Nos. 2 and 3)

A Handful of Rice

(C)

(41)

A Kiss for Corliss

(B)

(78)

Angel With the Trumpet

(A)

(81)

A Stranger Walked In

(A)

(47)

Bicycle Thieves

(B)

(48)

Boys in Brozvn

(B)

(80)

Buccaneer’s Girl

(B)

(85)

Copper Canyon

(C)

(75)

Cure for Love , The

(A)

(42)

Doctor and the Girl, The

(A)

(40)

Francis

(B)

(79)

Golden Salamander

(C)

(76)

Holiday Affair

(C)

(46)

II Miraculo

(A)

(73)

It Concerns Us All

(B)

(41)

It’s a Great Feeling.

(B)

(85)

Jolson Sings Again

(B)

(46)

Le Roi

(A)

(78)

REVIEWED

Madeleine

(A)

(82)

Miss Pilgrim’s Progress

(C)

(78)

Neptune’s Daughter

(74)

No Place for Jennifer

(A)

(84)

Not Wanted

(A)

(79)

Paid in Full

(A)

(40)

Rocking Horse Winner,

The

(B)

(44)

Rugged O’Riordans, The

(B)

(74)

Sand

(B)

(43)

Story of a Ring, The

(C)

(46)

Tarzan’s Magic Fountain

(B)

(45)

Task Force

(B)

(45)

Twelve O’ Clock High

(B)

(73)

Woman in Hiding

(B)

(75)

You’re My Everything

(C)

(46)

Your Witness

(B)

(86)

We Recommend

Come to the Stable

(C)

(12)

Johnny Belinda

(A)

(42)

Passport to Pimlico

(C)

(150)

Rachel and the Stranger

(B)

(70)

Scott of the Antarctic

(B)

(14)

Snake Pit, The

(A)

(159)

The Blue Lamp

(B)

(80)

The Search

(B)

(342)

Whiskey Galore

(B)

(220)

123

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

If you have an opinion to express, a comment to make, an idea to offer,
the Editor will be delighted to hear from you.

Your Witness

Sir,

I notice that your reviewer writes :
“Patricia Wayne, whose first film this
is . . . etc.” This statement is not
strictly correct. It is true that it is the
first film in which Miss Wayne has
performed under that name but, as
Patricia Cutts (she is, I believe, a
daughter of pioneer British film
Director Graham Cutts), she has, to my
knowledge, played in one other film —
and there may be others. Moreover, she
has a background of about 2yi years of
repertory theatre experience.

I recently saw the film I have just
mentioned — a British “second Feature”
entitled The Adventures of P.C. 49
(based on one of the episodes broadcast
by the B.B.C.) — in which Miss Cutts
was aptly cast as Archie’s fiancee, Joan
Carr. I would wish it were possible
for “V.” to see it, because I feel that
he would then be prepared to state that
not only is Miss Wayne “vivacious and
pretty”, but can, when given the
opportunity, act.

Reverting to “V.’s” review of Your
Witness, in particular the final
paragraph, I venture to disagree with
his opinion that Robert Montgomery “is
much too much in the picture”. . How
could he avoid being much in this
picture when the central theme of the
film’s story revolves around -Adam’s
anxious endeavours on behalf of the
man who had saved his life ? I,
personally, find Bob Montgomery’s
acting so polished and entertaining that
I do not easily tire of his presence on
the screen.

Yours,

L. Coudurier.

108 Bessborough Road,

Harrow,

Middlesex.

Greatly Surprised

Sir,

I read your March Editorial (on The
Miracle) with great interest, but your
attitude to the film in question greatly
surprised me. Many responsible critics
have reviewed this film and saw in it

none of the vicious implications which
you have detected in it, and I seem to
remember that in a recent edition of the
B.B.C.’s feature, “The Critics,” C. A.
Dejeune, who is surely in the forefront
as far as taste and critical perception
are concerned, declared that she found
The Miracle a beautiful and moving
experience.

Religion is a powerful force in human
beings, and is not a study of its chance
effect on a simple-minded peasant quite
justifiable, especially as in this case it
is generally agreed that the treatment
of the story is adult and artistic ? This
film is not likely to excite as much
derision amongst audiences as did some
of the American films about “religious”
subjects, films which were usually
childish and sometimes downright silly.
Any such films, however, do less harm
than the spate of sickeningly cruel and
unnecessarily coarse films to which we
are now subjected and which you would
do far better to criticise with the utmost
severity.

Yours,

Haroed Gerry.

“Cliff-View”,

East Church Street,

Buckie,

Scotland.

Constructive Criticism

Sir,

You have asked for constructive
criticism. I hope you are snowed under
with it, because it would prove the
amount of interest taken in Focus
and the C.F.I.

The contents of Focus being of a high
standard demand a magazine more
professional in make-up than it is at
present. Although more money would
be expended in producing such a
magazine, the increase would be
compensated by the increase in its
circulation and influence.

A potential reader judges from his
first impression, therefore the appear-
ance should always receive great
attention. The size of the magazine
should be reduced by one inch to the
more square shape of, for example,

124

“Readers Digest”, and the present
colour scheme entirely changed. The
first issues of this year had very
unattractively dull covers. In fact a
new design should be considered, unless
a new choice of brighter colours proves
in itself sufficient.

And now to the lay-out of the
contents. The advertisements dispel
rather than compel because little or no
use is made of design or illustration,
the}- are just arrangements of words
(often too many). Many of the titles
need more boldness than they enjoy
at present. Some by way of variety
could be improved bv a sketch or an
illustration, or a designed block in the
case of some regular features.
Typographical experts could possibly
suggest a happier choice of type ; some-
times very small at other times so well
spaced out that one gains an impression
of spreading out to fill space.

As for the material published, it is
the duty of all Catholics in the cinema
and “lay” world to contribute articles
of a suitable nature in order to ensure
at all times an extremely high standard
by virtue of a healthy competitive spirit.

I hope this letter causes neither
dismay among the gallant team of
people responsible for publishing Focus
nor a crop of well-wishers to denounce
my "lack of appreciation”, but rather
to stimulate ideas and — above all —
action among both the publishers and
readers towards producing a copy of
Focus which will compel people to
demand it ! Even poor material, when
well-dressed will attract, far more so
will good material well-dressed. Focus
has good material — it has a duty to
present it attractively.

Yours,

W. D. Appleby.

York.

{ All very true and constructive. We
must see what we can do about
it.— Ed.)

Covering “Focus”

Sir,

It is sad to think that our cover,
designed by one of the best-known
West End advertising artists, should
remind your correspondent of a parish
magazine. Personally I have never
come across so enterprising a parochial
journal. However, if there is an outcry
against the cover we could do something
about it. In the meantime, let us hope
that people interested in films are a

little more adventurous and get as far
as turning the pages.

Yours,

J. A. V. Burke.

Art for Out

Sir,

With the guilt of only comparative
legibility on me I must pass in the
notice of the film "Madeleine” , the
description of Miss Todd as “fly”
instead of “fey”. But I must offer to
correct the printed statement that Miss
Sellers “gives a performance that marks
her art (instead of out) for promotion”.
Your readers might imagine that the
notice was dictated. That I should not
like very much.

Yours, X.

Sir,

I would like to bring to your notice a
blight inaccuracy which appeared in
the March issue of Focus and which
you must have overlooked ; I mean the
first paragraph of the review by “V”
of the film No Place for Jennifer. “V”
says : “ . . . the words first uttered by
an angel : ‘Blessed is the fruit of thy
womb’ ”. As far as I know (and which
I have now confirmed through “The
Students’ Catholic Doctrine” by Rev.
Charles Hart, B.A.), the words
“Blessed is the fruit of thy womb”

were spoken by Our Lady’s cousin,
St. Elizabeth.

Please excuse me for interfering with
your work, but I could not let the

above pass without notifying you.

I would also like to take this
opportunity to thank you whole-
heartedly for the really splendid work
you and your team of reviewers are
doing. You do not know how eagerly
I look forward to receiving your
monthly review ; perhaps it may be
possible that, in the not too distant

future, we might start getting it

fortnightly. I have all the copies of
Focus since the first issue and always
consult them before I go to see a film.
May God continue to guide and help
you in jour noble work so that you
may, in return, guide and help us in the
selection of the correct film.

Yours,

John Ellul.

Hamrun,

Malta.

( Thank you for being such an
observant and devoted reader. You
are quite right. — Ed.)

125

INSTITUTE NOTES

Film Competition

The C.F.I. Film Competition is now-
open. 16mm. films, sound or silent, on
any subject, any (reasonable!) length.
Entries to be sent in not later than
September 30tli, 1950. Each film should
be accompanied by an entrance fee of
10s. The Catholic Film Institute
reserves the right to exhibit the prize-
wanning and any other films submitted
in any way considered necessary.

Film Show

By the time these lines are being read
we shall have had the first of what we
hope will be a series of film shows for
members of the C.F.I. designed to
bring members together in friendly
contact as well as to provide an
opportunity to see worthwhile films of
classic reputation.

On Passion Sunday, March 26th, we
are showing Dreyer’s Passion of Jeanne
D’Arc. The Challoner Club, London,
which will be the venue of our
meeting, is not very large ; the success
of this first show' will dictate whether
a larger room need be considered. It
is clear that only members in the
London area will be able to come, but
there is no reason why members in
other districts should not emulate our
example. Our plea for Regional
Organisation of the C.F.I. still remains
to be implemented.

Film Course

We hope that many of you are
making use of Andrew Buchanan’s Film
Course as a stimulant to Catholic Film
Action. Many people ask us what does
the C.F.I. do ? The tone in which the
question is put often suggests that it
is imagined either that our activities
are restricted to free cinema show's on
Press Day, or that there is nothing we
can do to alter the course of cinema
history.

The answer to the question really
implies a consideration of what we can
induce you to do. If only a
comparatively small section of the

community were trained to know' what
makes a good film and how it can be
secured, our time would not have been
wasted. All beneficial legislation and
reform is the result of a few people
with vision and drive who knew what
they wanted. Twelve men once over-
came and impregnated a monster far
larger than the Cinema Empire. They
had the help of the grace of God as
well as a vocation. We claim that
nothing short of a sense of vocation,
both in the making and using of films,
is required in order that, ultimately,
the cinema, the most powerful of all
propaganda media, be harnessed in the
cause of Christianity.

Summer School

It has been a difficult task trying to
find accommodation for our Summer
School. As past experience seems to
insist that a Residential School is
desirable our efforts have been to that
extent restricted. We have now
succeeded in securing accommodation,
at the Convent of the Assumption,
Ramsgate, which, with the co-operation
of a neighbouring Prep. School, will
be able to provide for the needs of about
50 students. The only material
difference to be noted is that the date
for the Film Summer School is now
August 8th-12tli inclusive.

We had hoped to have prices and
tariff details ready before going to press
with this issue, but all members will
be circularised as soon as possible, and
we hope for loyal support this time to-
help us do our best to give you what
you want.

The Course will be delivered by well-
known personalities and will have both
a theoretical as well as a practical side.

Please make your initial reservations
as soon as possible.

Holy Year Film Pilgrimage

At the Executive Committee of
O.C.I.C. at Luxembourg, plans were
announced' for the Holy Year Catholic
Film Pilgrimage. It is to take the form

126

of an international congress of Catholic
members of the cinema industry. At
the request of the Holy Father it will
not be restricted to Catholics, but is
open to any well-intentioned person who
regards his part in the film world as in
some sense a vocation.

An interesting programme is being
arranged and it is hoped that the Holy
Father will make a special pronounce-
ment on the cinema.

The Congress-Pilgrimage is being
arranged by O.C.I.C., but each national
film centre is asked to organise a
delegation from its own country. We
hope that members of the industry,
from whatever department, will consider
the possibility of joining us so as to
provide a really representative British
delegation. All details in the first case
to be had from the Secretary, Congress-
Pilgrimage, 20 Ovington Square, S.W.3.

The dates of the Congress-Pilgrimage
are May 26tli, 27th, 28th. The Place,
ROME.

Film Lectures

Lectures have recently been given by
the Hon. Secretary as follows : Italian
Films, to the Italian Club, Oxford ; The

Cinema and Parental Responsibility, to
the County School Parents’ and
Teachers’ Association, Tunbridge
Wells; Introducing Catholic Film
Action (together with a film show) at
Beckenham ; The Moral Aspects of
Some Recent Films, to the Digby
Stuart College, Roehampton, and the
introductory Conference to a Course of
Film Appreciation, which the C.F.I. is
organising for the Southern Region of
the Association of Convent Schools.

We are glad to do what we can to ^
help in this and other ways to ™
propagate the Catholic viewpoint on
films. In the London District expenses
are negligible, but journeys outside that
area involve expense and, if it is
necessary to be away for a night, the
question of a priest supply becomes
necessary. We have no subsidy of any
kind and the sole source of income is
that derived from our members and
friends and the sale of Focus and the
commission on film rentings. This does
not allow honoraria to be paid to our
lecturers. If, therefore, intending
organisers will bear this fact in mind,
it will make things easier in many i
ways.

MONSIEUR

VINCENT

THE TOUR OF A MOBILE
CINEMA UNIT WITH ABOVE
FILM IS BEING ARRANGED
IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS

DEVON, CORNWALL,
DORSET, HANTS.:

May 1st to MAY 12th

NORTH WALES:

May 15th to May 26th

Full details from

PERCY W. FOWLER
137 The Glade
Croydon, Surrey

(Telephone : Addiscombe 6559)

Film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions’’, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
20 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3

127

COVER PERSONALITY1

BEATRICE CAMPBELL

About two years ago came a letter
to our office expressing the wish that
we should publish a photograph of an
actress called Beatrice Campbell. The
letter as well as the lady came from
Belfast but the connection was purely
coincidental. The writer was but one
of many devoted admirers of a talented
actress whom we in poor benighted
England, as yet knew only as a name
in film publicity lists as a “discovery”.
When, a few months ago, I had the
pleasure of meeting Beatrice Campbell,
I was able to number myself among her
admirers and even to join the number
of those who levelled threats at the
head of the Editor unless he consented
to publish her picture.

You see, in the meantime I had
been following her career in British
films and realised that here we had
a potential star of considerable
magnitude. Like many another
successful actress, Beatrice Campbell
had early ambitions on the stage. At
the age of four she was taught by her
lawyer father how to address a jury in
a murder trial ! That was when she
decided she wanted to be able to sway
people’s emotions the way lawyers and
actors do ! She has played in many
plays and films since then, but she
regards herself as still a student of her
art, and her ambition now is to act as
well as Bette Davis, her favourite film
star. It would be insincere to say
that she already acts as well as her
model, but at least one can say that
she has the same determination and
the same talent and that experience
will do the rest.

Beatrice Campbell has definite views
about most things, including the state
of the British film industry at the
present time. It would not be discreet
to repeat all that she thinks, but it is
instructive to notice that she considers
that the principal artistic weakness of
the native industry is its failure to
study its budding actresses^ Too mueh

publicity and too little experience
makes for bad film performances. Too
much tendency to stereotype make-up
and appearance ; too little study by
cameramen of the peculiarities of
physiognomy and lighting require-
ments of individual actresses : these

are some of the points about which
Beatrice Campbell has decided views
and will talk long and intelligently.

Her most recent pictures have been
No Place for Jennifer and Now
Barabbas. In the latter she gave a
fine performance as the girl who came
to break off her engagement with her
imprisoned fiancA It stood out even
with such competition as that of
Kathleen Harrison. Her study of the
hard, ambitious, selfish wife and
mother in No Place for Jennifer was a
considerable success, but the story
suffered from poverty of script and
development : nevertheless it was clear
that Beatrice Campbell, given the right
material and under the right direction,
could reach great heights.

Her first film was Wanted For
Murder, with Eric Portman in 1945.
Shg played the part of a slatternly girl
with such conviction that her next
three roles were similar; in Meet Me
At Dawn , Odd Man Out (though her
part wTas also out when the film was
released!) and Ghost's of Berkeley
Square. This latter film was an
amusing affair with Felix Aylmer and
Robert Morley, which has had far less
than its due meed of success. Other
films featuring Beatrice Campbell have
been The Hangman Waits, Things
Happen at Night, My Brother Jonathan
and Silent Dust. She is next to be seen
starring with Alec Guinness in J. B.
Priestlgy’s screen story Last Holiday.

Ten films in four years is good going
and -we look forward to many more and
many better films worthy of a talented
actress.

- . . Jons Vincent.

SUBSCRIPTION FORM

I wish to take out a subscription to Focus for years(s) beginning

with the issue, and enclose remittance value

NAME and ADDRESS to which copies are to be sent:

To: The Manager, Focus, The Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

Please make remittances payabk to The Catholic Film Institute. The
annual subscription is 7/-, post free.

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

I wish to become a member of the Catholic Film Institute, and enclose

remittance value for year(s) subscription.

NAME

ADDRESS

Subscription rates: Life Member £10.

Privileged Member £1.

Ordinary Member 10/- per annum.

Subscribers of £1 and upwards are entitled to receive all new pamphlet
publications issued during their year of membership, together with a
monthly copy of Focus. Ordinary Members receive Focus.

Please return completed form to The Hon. Secretary, Catholic Film
Institute, 20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3. Kindly make cheques,
etc., payable to The Catholic Film Institute.

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President: The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman: The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

5. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £10.

Privileged Membership, £1.

Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
pamphlet publications. Ordinary members receive a monthly copy
of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote :

“The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.’’

Hon. Secretary:

Rev. John A. V. Burke, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

Scriptural Productions

AN INDEPENDENT ORGANISATION DEVOTED
TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION
OF FILMS FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES

i

Under the Direction
of

ANDREW BUCHANAN

*

PARK STUDIOS
PUTNEY PARK LANE
LONDON

S.W.I5

Tel. Putney 6274/4052

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers). Ltd., for The Catholic Film Institute,
20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3.

HOLIDAYS 1950

THE CATHOLIC
HOLIDAY GUILD

has holiday centres in KESWICK
in the Lake District and near
LLANGOLLEN, North Wales.
Both centres are easily accessible
by road and rail, are close to the
local church, and are open all the
year round. Terms:

May 20th to October 7th, 1950,
£4/17/6 per week

Bemainder of year (except
Christmas, New Year and Easter)
£3/15/0 per week

For brochure apply to the Booking
Secretary F . 46 De Yilliers Avenue,
Liverpool, 23, enclosing a stamped
addressed envelope.

EARLY BOOKING IS ADVISABLE.
SPEND YOUR HOLIDAYS WITH
CATHOLIC COMPANIONS.

Film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book ‘‘The
Sacred Actions”, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
20 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3

FILM STRIP

FATIMA TO-DAY

Coloured pictures from the film

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

with explanatory leaflet.

36 Frames. Price : 15s.

Ready early May

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
20 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3

“MAGNIFICAT”

THE WORK OF THE
FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF
THE DIVINE MOTHER-
HOOD AT HOME AND IN
THE MISSIONARY FIELD.

A DELIGHTFULLY INTER-
ESTING AND INSTRUC-
TIVE FILM IN COLOUR.

Running time : approx. 60 mins.
Sound. Hiring Fee : £3.

F rom u

PERCY W FOWLER
137 The Glade
Croydon, Surrey

(Telephone : Addiscombe 6559)

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

FILM LIBRARY

CRUCIFERS TO WALSINGHAM

An Introduction to Our Lady of Walsingham. The Story of the Cross
Pilgrimage.

Two reels. Sound. Music and Commentary. Available in 35mm. and
16mm. Hiring fee: 16mm., £1 Is. Od. a day; 35 mm., copies by special
arrangement.

VISITATION

Andrew Buchanan’s celebrated film on the work of the Medical Missionaries
of Mary. Seven reels. Monochrome. Hiring fee: £5. All profits devoted to
the work of the missions.

THE SACRIFICE WE OFFER

Alan Turner's film on the place which Mass occupies in the everyday life
of all working people. Four reels. Kodaehrome. Hiring fee: £3.

Also available. Silent version. ■ Monochrome. Suitable for instructional
purposes. This Silent Version omits the introductory and final work shots
of the colour version. Hiring fee: 30/-.

DOMUS DEI

Alan Turner’s film of the solemn consecration of St. Teresa’s Church,
Princes Risborough. One reel. Kodaehrome. Sound. Hiring fee: 15/-.

A LEGEND OF NORFOLK

Re-issue of Arthur Leslie’s successful film on Walsingham. Two reels.
Monochrome. Sound. Hiring fee: £1.

FAMILY AFFAIR

The working out of the spirit of Return Novarum in the Ernest Turner
factory at Spa Lane. Derby. Produced and directed by Alan Turner.
Prologue by H.E. Cardinal Griffin; Epilogue by Father Joseph Christie, S.J.
Four reels. Kodaehrome. Hiring fee: £2.

THE VATICAN OF PIUS XII

March of Time. 2 reels. Hiring fee: 15/-.

THE BRIDGE OF THE FORD

Made by Andrew Buchanan for the Medical Missionaries of Mary. The past
and present story of Drogheda. Commentary spoken by Robert Speaight.
Monochrome. 4 reels. 40 mins. Hiring fee: £2 2e. Od. first day.

THE ATOM AND YOU

Made by Andrew Buchanan. A plea by a well-known American scientist
for the positive use of atomic energy. Sound. Monochrome. 2 reels. 20 mins.
Hiring fee: £1 Is. Od.

FOREIGN FEATURE FILMS

English sub-titles. 16mm. (Also available in 35mm.) Bookings arranged for
MONSIEUR VINCENT. £7 10s. Od. first day.— TO LIVE IN PEACE. £5 5s. Od. first
day— FARREBIQUE, £5 5s. Od. first day— FOUR STEPS IN THE CLOUDS,
£5 5s. Od. first day.

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

20 Ovington Square, London, S W.3

Vol. Ill

No. 5

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Editorial

Page
... 131

The Patient Needs a Blood

Transfusion

... 132

By Lyn Lockwood

Focus Film Course

... 134

By Andrew Buchanan

“Passion de Jehanne d’Arc”

... 135

By Freda Bruce Lockhart
Are Film Critics Really

Necessary ?

... 136

By Gabriel Fallon
Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

Dancing in the Dark

... 139

Appointment with Danger

... 139

Stars in my Crown

... 139

Young Man of Music

... 140

The Big Wheel

... 140

Under my Skin

... 141

The Inspector General ...

L. 142

They Were Not Divided ...

... 144

Should Parents Tell?

... 146

Bride for Sale

Page

146

Oh, You Beautiful Doll .

146

All the King’s Men

147

Outpost in Morocco

147

Moonrise

148

Bridge of the Ford

148

The Beautiful Blonde
Bashful Bend

From

149

Black Magic

149

Always Leave' them Laughing ...

149

The Dancing Years

150

Les Parents Terribles

150

Geographical Films

151

By Our Educational Panel
Vatican

154

Some Films Reviewed

154

Letters to the Editor

155

Institute Notes

156

Book Review

157

Cover Personality

158

Out of the Darkness :
Premiere

Film

159

FOCUS — Annual Subscription: 7s. (post free). Single Copy: 7 d. (post free).

Glasgow agents: Messrs. James Reilly and Co.. 68 Gordon Street, Glasgow, C.l.

FOCUS — May be obtained from: The Manager, “The Blue Cottage,”
69 Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7. Telephone: Kensington
6849. Duckett, 140 Strand, London, W.C.2. Telephone: Temple
Bar 3008/9. Catholic Truth Society, 28a Ashley Place, London,
S.W.l. Michael White, 15 Broad Street Place, London, E.C.2.
Telephone: London Wall 1389.

FATIMA FILM

Will be shown at the Odeon Cinema, Forest Gate, London, E.7, on Sunday,
June 18th, at 2-15 p.m.

Price of Tickets: — 3s. 6d.; 2s. gd. ; 2s. 3d.; is. gd.; is. 3d.

Apply to: The Friary, Forest Gate, London, E.7.

A FILM
REVIEW

FOCUS

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. Ill

MAY 1950

No. 5

Quotation

The other day I was talking to a
priest about the Importance and
Necessity of a Catholic Film
Institute. He listened, kindly and
courteously, and pulled from the
bottom drawer of his desk a com-
fortable looking “common place’’
book, ripped a page from it, handed
it to me, as he said: “This might
interest some of your readers’’. It
was an extract from an article on
“The Faith and the Cinema”, which
Mr. McDonald had written for “The
Month” in December, 1922. Here
it is . . .

The external structure of the
Church is based upon the principle
that is applied in the Cinema. A
means of instruction that has only
been appreciated by psychologists
and advertisers in recent years has
been utilised persistently throughout
the history of the Church, which,
recognising that man is not as a rule
capable of purely abstract thought,
has been careful to provide him with
images and symbols that bring home
to him the great truths of his religion.
For the mind loves pictures and will
assimilate illustrated truth with
remarkable ease . . . Why not, then,
a Film Evidence Guild? The means
to be employed have been indicated
at least in part by Mr. Belloc, who is

a stout champion of the Cinema. He
advocates for the purposes of secular
education, the production of a num-
ber of short films which would show
developments in constitutional
government, architecture and the
general life of the people. One, for
instance, might show London Bridge
at various periods of its history,
another the form of government in
this country throughout the
centuries. A third (and this is more
to our purpose) might show pictures
of worship in St. Paul’s.

1. — The sacrifices that took place
on the site of St. Paul’s in pagan
times.

2. — Pictures of the Mass in early
Christian days and before the
Reformation.

3. — Illustrations of a modem
service (as a contrast) .

That such a film would be an
admirable lesson in apologetics is
certain and the use of judicious sub-
titles would help to make it con-
clusive, if it. were supplemented
by a short historical picture showing
why a radical difference exists
between the pre-Reformation and
the post-Reformation act of worship.

(“Month”, Dec. 1922, McDonald)

132

THE PATIENT NEEDS A
BLOOD TRANSFUSION

[Lyn Lockwood, the author of this topical and interesting article, is
a film script-writer. He and Bernard McNabb created the script for
the film : It’s Not Cricket ]

The crisis which descended with
startling suddenness upon the British
film industry a year ago has now
reached its peak.

At the moment of writing, the large
Denham and Pinewood studios, for the
first time since they came under the
control of J. Arthur Rank, have not a
single picture in production between
them. Furthermore, the Film Finance
Corporation, brought into being to help
the independent producer, has
exhausted its funds without noticeably
improving the situation and without
being able to look forward to a profit
on the majority of its various invest-
ments.

This very unhealthy state of affairs
cannot be attributed entirely to compli-
cated financial set-ups or production
extravagances. While it is true that a
large amount of money has been lost
chasing the American will-o’-the-wisp
market with expensive prestige pictures,
it is unfortunately equally true that a
good deal of money has been lost, and
is now being lost, on economical films
designed primarily for the home market
—films which should, with average
success, have shown a profit.

It is this slumping average return
from box offices all over the country
that is in the main responsible for the
present production stagnation and that
has led to the demand for a remission
of entertainment-tax to the producer.

Two 3'ears ago, when the industry was
expanding to meet the 40 per cent
quota, the film designed for the home
market was being produced on a budget
round about £100,000. So marked, how-

ever, has been the downward spiral of
receipts that producers are now trying
to make pictures of international class
on the same figure of £100,000, while
more modest productions are being
budgeted at £60,000.

This decline in returns from the
cinema means only one thing— lack of
interest on the part of the public. And
here we approach the core of the
present problem.

An industry, in order to survive, has
to maintain a continual flow of new
blood, new ideas and fresh experiments.
This is particularly true where the
commodity being produced is entertain-
ment, but on examination we find that
the British film industry is, of all
industries, the least inclined to experi-
ment with new ideas and new blood.

It is a regrettable fact that anybody
with ambitions for a film career has to
overcome, in this country, a slough of
apathy that would daunt anyone with-
out the constitution of a rhinoceros.
Occasionally a new star is born — but
only very occasionally and then prob-
ably by accident.

In the last five years the British
studios have produced one young
woman with genuine star qualities in
Jean Simmons. There are, of course, a
number of starlets, but these, though
the are able to look decorative at the
bedside of that very sick man, the
British film industry, are hardly likely
to revive the patient.

In the same period three star men
have heen launched on film careers —
Richard Todd, Michael Denison and
Trevor Howard. In fact, since produc-

133

tion started expanding with the return
to peace, our two biggest organisations
have between them managed to produce
only four star personalities capable of
attracting people to the cinema. This
is a staggeringly bad record. Of the
rest of the small handful of big star
names, some started their careers
during the war years, but the majority
commenced more years ago than they
care, I imagine, to remember.

Where directors are concerned it is
the same story — -a small handful of top-
flight men and none of recent develop-
ment. As for screenwriters, their
struggle for recognition is probably the
hardest task of all.

Here is the root cause of the plight
of our studios. They have been trying
to do too much with too little. The
industry, in fact, is suffering from a
famine.

Even with the present reduced quota
of 30 per cent we have to find fifty
films a year to satisfy the requirements
of the three big circuits. With the

material at their disposal our producers
are hard put to turn out entertaining
and interesting pictures to the extent
of half that number.

If British films survive the current
crisis, there must be a whole-hearted
attempt on the part of our producers
to go and find new talent — --whether it
is acting, directing or writing — and,
having found it, to encourage it with
all the means at their disposal.

‘The unlimited supply of new
personalities is not confined to
America, where the producers, though
disturbed by periodical slumps, are not
faced with major crises because they
realise that their success depends on the
ability to keep their studios provided
with a constant flow of new material.

British producers must adopt the
same attitude of mind, or they will
eventually succumb once and for all.

The patient needs a transfusion
urgently — and a financial transfusion
is not the answer.

Lyn Lockwood.

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS

FUND

IF one fourth of the Catholic population in England and Scotland
contributed a penny a day for 240 days The Catholic Film Institute
in England would be able to set up a production unit.

It was the pennies of the Catholic population in France which made
possible the making of the film Monsieur Vincent.

Kindly send donation to:

Rev. J. Burke, 357 Beulah Hill, London, S.E.19.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

£

s.

d.

£

s.

d.

Previously acknowledged

230

8

0

V. M. Pendleton

3

0

Miss E. Ackerman

1

0

0

Dr. C. B. Burdett Smith

1

6

“Catholic Youth and
Family” (A Durban

J. F. Maxwell 1

1

0

10

0

£233

17

6

Publication)

Malta Catholic Institute

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134

FOCUS FILM COURSE

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

No. 4— THE CINEMA PROGRAMME

More than twenty-eight million
people go to the cinema regularly every
week in this country, and the majority
are well below middle-age. I advise
students to debate whether this is a
good, bad, or harmless habit, remember-
ing that, as a general rule, the cinema
does not offer cultural entertainment.
The majority of commercial films tend
to create a sense of wrong values, and
there is evidence of their influence in
almost every walk of life. Perhaps it
can be summed up as a concentration
on superficialities, and an ignoring of
fundamentals — the making-up of the
face being regarded as of far greater
importance than the making-up of the
mind. The influence of film on the fair
sex is hypnotic, and has resulted in a
stereotyped appearance — hair, lips,
eyes, scarves, shoes, manicure — all
shaped on star lines — surface-sophistica-
tion having reached every village within
reach of cinemas. On the young male
population a similar kind of influence is
apparent, frequently undesirable — an
influence which goes deeper than the
wearing of terrifying ties, and suits cut
to fit apes. There have been, and always
will be, debates as to the extent to
which the cinema is responsible for
juvenile delinquency, and the present
vogue in gangsterism. Sometimes, the
cinema emerges blameless, and all
kinds of alternative reasons are given
as the causes for crimes and immorality,
but the arguments are not conclusive,
and I suggest students should thrash
out this question, for it is a fundamental
one of the very greatest importance.

There is no doubt, of course, that the
exciting mixture of glitter, glamour,
girls, and guns creates mental restless-

ness and over-stimulated emotions, and
offers an alluring alternative to life in
drab overcrowded homes. There is also
no doubt that the spiritual and mental
development of the individual is not
advanced by film-going.

Unlike theatregoers, filmgoers are
usually not selective. They go to see
the pictures, and not to see a picture. It
is true, however, that news of a poor
film spreads through a locality like a
forest fire, and attendances drop, but
this does not often occur. Incidentally,
what is regarded as a “poor” film by
many film-fans is frequently a
particularly fine production, but lacking
the usual entertaining ingredients. The
great “prestige” films, the few and far
between religious films,, and the cream
of the Italian and French productions
do not usually secure wide release
because distributors know they would
not be successful. Why ? Because film-
goers have been brought up on produc-
tions shaped on a formula which is a
certain money-spinner. The inspiring,
thought-provoking, imaginative, poetic
kind of film just has no place.

Older students will remember the
single-feature programme — one long
film supported by several short ones,
which was superseded some years ago
by the double-feature programme, now
the vogue in all but about 300 of
Britain’s 4,700 cinemas. This drastic
change was not the result of public
demand, but of the industry itself. The
public has little or no influence over
distributors or producers. Now, the
double-feature programme is very
popular. People get a lot for their
money. Their powers of endurance are

135

astonishing — to sit through and enjoy
three hours’ entertainment without a
pause.

Is this too long ? Would a single
feature and a number of contrasting
and informative short films form a
better programme ? It is interesting to
note that by instituting the double-
feature show the industry has, in some
ways, cut its own throat, for it involves
too great a strain on studios, and a
shortage of worth-while films is inevit-
able. In this country the shortage is
with us now.

Lastly, I suggest students trace the
main reasons for cinema-going, and the
factors which most influence people to

see this or that film. Remember, cinema-
going is now a habit. It has long ceased
to be a “treat”. The majority are drawn
by the stars, and not by the stories in
which they appear. Few people care
who write film stories. Reviewers’
opinions in the national press influence
about 20 per cent of filmgoers — the
popular write-ups and not the
intellectual analyses, being closely
followed.

The biggest problem facing all who
have the welfare of humanity at heart,
and who realise the tremendous
possibilities offered by film, is, how
can the intellectual and moral level of
the cinema programme be raised?

“PASSION DE JEHANNE D’ARC”

On Passion Sunday, at the Challoner
Club, the Catholic Film Institute put
on the Danish director, Carl Dreyer’s
Passion de Jehanne D’Arc, a master-
piece with which to launch the
Institute on the second stage of its
two-fold mission. Like other organs of
Catholic Film Action, the Catholic Film
Institute must fulfil a dual function.
First it must foster positive Catholic
film production, although in this
country the numerical and financial
poverty of the Catholic population has
restricted this to more or less parochial
scope. The second and longer-term
objective is to rouse Catholic opinion
into film-consciousness, into recognition
of the enormous resources of the
cinema for good or evil as Fr. Hilary
Carpenter emphasised after the show
on Sunday. Too many of us are busy
seeing only the evil in the cinema and
leaving it at that. (Though those who
use it to exploit moral corruption or
dangerous political propaganda do not
leave it.)

Catholics, trained as we are to
distinguish between the man and his
office, the sinner and his sin, should
surely show a nicer discrimination than
we often do between the cinema as a
medium and its abuse in practice. The
Catholic Film Institute could hardly
have chosen a better example than
Dreyer’s Passion de Jehanne D’Arc to
illustrate the cinema’s capacity for

treating a noble, indeed a sacred theme
on the highest level.

The technique of elaborate use of
close-up, the photography of unmade-
up faces against light backgrounds,
was revolutionary twenty years ago. It
came still as a revelation to the many
who had never seen this film before,
and comfortably stands comparison
with the same director’s more recent
Day of Wrath. La Passion de Jehanne
D’Arc is as powerful today as when it
was made not only because of Dreyer’s
extraordinary use of the camera, but
also because of Mme Falcone tti’s
extraordinary performance without any
of the accepted external assistance of
make-up. But on Sunday the film was
above all significant as an illustration
of the cinema’s power to treat a noble
theme nobly, to treat it not in the
terms of the novelette or the child’s
coloured history primer or even of the
drama, but in terms of motion picture
which challenge comparison with the
great masters of painting.

If the Catholic Film Institute can
discover more such connoisseur’s
pieces to show its members it will
greatly speed up the work of enlighten-
ing those Catholic intellectuals who
dismiss the whole cinema with scorn
from a vantage point of either
intellectual or moral complacency.

Freda Bruce Lockhart.

136

Are Film Critics Really
Necessary?

[Gabriel Fallon — actor and producer, Abbey Theatre, Dublin ; actor,
script writer, guest producer, Radio Eireann ; foundation member,
National Film Institute, Ireland; foundation member and past president,
Catholic Stage Guild, Ireland; drama critic “The Standard”;
contributor on film and drama to Irish and American periodicals —
convinces us that film critics are really necessary]

What a question! Let’s see what
a few more questions will do to it.
Are drama critics really necessary?
Are art critics really necessary? Are
critics really necessary? What is a
film critic anyway? Surely one of that
vast audience of film-goers thronging
the world, who is privileged (if
privileged is the word) to think aloud
about the cinema.

Should we think about the cinema?
Do you think about it? Or are you a
member of one of those two great
groups who wrap up thought in such
blankets as “The Cinema is all wrong;
away with it” or “The Cinema is all
right; leave it alone”. Well, if you’re
not; if you happen to be one who
habitually does a spot of thinking about
the Cinema you have probably arrived
at the point of concluding that there is
a right Cinema and a wrong Cinema.
In other words you have begun to be
a film critic. So much the better for
the Cinema.

THINK AND TALK

Believe it or not, the Cinema needs
millions of film critics; millions of
people who will think about the
Cinema, who will talk about the
Cinema; in other words, millions of
people who will refuse to take the
Cinema lying down. Of course it
doesn’t follow from this that you should
grow a beard, wear corduroy pants,
and talk all montage. There’s nothing
to prevent you from doing that if you
want to; indeed you might be doing
worse in this mad world of ours. No.

in the beginning you needn’t do any-
thing more than say: “I liked this; I
didn’t like that”. And, mark you,
that’s criticism. Don’t be afraid of
your opinions, and don’t be ashamed
of them. And go on thinking about
the Cinema.

After a while you’ll find yourself
saying: “I liked this, because, etc.”
and “I didn’t like that, because, etc.”
Now you’re going places. So keep on
talking. Don’t be afraid to talk. Bore
people about the Cinema. That will
make them talk back about it. And
then you've got them thinking. Don’t
be ashamed to talk about the Cinema.
Think of all you’ve endured at the
tongues of golf and bridge fiends. And
consider this. You can’t afford
expensive hobbies. But it costs nothing
to talk about the cheap ones. So talk
about yours.

SAY IT OUT LOUD

Where is all this leading to, you
may ask. And the answer is: it’s
leading to millions of film critics. So
what? Well, listen to what those who
know have to say. First of all Mr.
Gilbert Seldes, author of “Movies for
the Million”.

“I should like it very much if you,
the readers of this book, would
occasionally get very angry with the
producers of moving pictures, because
you, and millions of men and women
like you, have spent millions of pounds
on the movies.”

And now the distinguished film
critic, C. A. Lejeune:

137

Well there it is for you. You control
the box-office. You pay the piper.
Should you refuse to call the tune?
Think of the many times you
exchanged your hard-earned money
for an admission ticket only to shuffle
home two hours later thinking: “That
was pretty rotten bilge, anyway”.
Well, from now on, say it out loud.
Tell your neighbour; tap at the
Manager’s Office on the way out and
kindly inform him; get your pals to
do likewise. That’s what C. A. Lejeune
wants you to do, to start becoming
film-critics. Why not do more? Why
not drop a line to the local news-sheet,
telling all and sundry about the type
of programme we happen to be getting
down our way? Your action will very
likely encourage others to do likewise.
At all events you will have made other
Cinema-goers think; you will be train-
ing potential film critics.

THE PRIMAL FUNCTION OF
CRITICISM

Read all the film criticism you can
lay your hands on. You will find,
after all, that these good people, people
like Dilys Powell, C. A. Lejeune and
the film-critics of Focus, are simply
cinemagoers like yourself trying to
talk to you about the Cinema. Listen

Gabriel Fallon with Eileen Herlie

to them. But have your own views.
Don’t let them do your thinking for
you. I’m pretty certain they don't
want to. They just want to make you
think — for yourself. That is, or ought
to be, the primal function of criticism.

Ah, yes, film critics are really
necessary. They are necessary to help
us to sift the right Cinema from the
wrong Cinema, necessary to make us
behave intelligently about the Cinema,
to keep us from turning into sheep.
They are necessary to protect us from
ourselves and from those who wax fat
on our sheepishness. They are
necessary to protect us from cranks,
money-grubbing cranks, aesthetic
cranks, even moral cranks. They are
necessary to sustain us in being
Cinemaddicts and to restrain us from
becoming Cinemaniacs. And the more

“The exhibitor is just like any other
sort of salesman' — he stocks his shop
with the goods that seem most likely to
appeal to the majority of his customers,
and then waits for further orders. So
don’t blame him if he doesn’t show
exactly the films you want to see.
Don’t just drift along putting up with
films you know to be bad. Make a
point of finding out the quality of
various brands of films, just as you
find out the quality of different brands
of stockings or groceries, or type-
writers. Learn to know which films
are the most reliable. Then place your
order with the exhibitor. Tell him
exactly what films you want to see.
Remember that the box-office controls
the studio all the time, and you — not
the critics — not the exhibitors, but you
— control the box-office.”

!

138

there are of them the safer we’ll feel.
That is why so many professional film
critics, at least once in a lifetime, write
articles crying out for millions of
colleagues.

We are living in an age in which
many of us are compelled to turn to
the Cinema in order that (as someone
has so well put it) “the heart may be
enabled to go on". This may indeed
be a tragic comment on our civilisation,
but it will not serve us to turn our
backs upon it. Those of us who can
find relaxation in books, in the theatre,
in art, those of us to whom it has been
given to dwell in comfortable surround-
ings would do well to consider how
readily the tired machine-minder, the
frustrated apprentice, the dejected out-
of-work, the harassed mother, the
lonely slum child, compelled to choose
between the sordid circumstances of an
overcrowded tenement and the plush
comfort of an evening at the Cinema,
will rush to the latter in search of the
only poetry they are ever likely to
know. Yes. poetry, which might so
easily be poetry.

POETRY FOR THE MILLIONS

Yes, poetry. This most attractive
form of recreation, the product of our
highly industrialised and mechanised
life, is capable of being moulded, under
right conditions, into poetry for the
people. It is cheap, it is comfortable,
it is continuous; it is an escape from
what we are pleased to call reality; it
is undoubtedly a palliative. It is at
the same time a most vivid and subtle
medium of entertainment. By reason

of its potency in influencing the masses
it has become one of the major
influences which for good or evil are
shaping the civilisation of today and
tomorrow. But there is nothing in man
or in the Cinema to prevent the
Cinema from becoming, except to
incorrigible cranks, a very acceptable
form of poetry.

At this point I cannot forbear to
draw your attention to that daring
paragraph by The Editor in the April
issue of Focus in which he transfers
the words of Francis Thompson on the
art of poetry to the art of the film.
But why daring, in a world not wholly
consisting of aesthetic snobs? Yes,
the Cinema is truly the poetry of the
people and as such is entitled to the
prayerful and protective words of the
poet. “Suffer her not to wanton."
Amen.

You cannot keep the people from the
Cinema any more than you can keep
the Cinema from the people. Some-
thing has been done to prepare the
Cinema for the people- — censorship and
professional criticism have played their
parts — but little, far too little, has been
done to prepare the people for the
Cinema. Schools have a big
responsibility. Film appreciation and
discussion groups are needed — more of
them; to turn out critics, non-
professional, every-day, honest-to-
goodness, outspoken critics; millions of
them.

Very well, then — are film critics
necessary? Really, dear Editor, I
don’t think you ought to have put the
question!

Gabriel Fallon.

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139

DANCING IN THE DARK
Starring: William Powell, Mark

Stevens, Betsy Drake, with
Adolphe Menjou and Jean
Hersholt. Twentieth Century Fox.
Technicolor. Director: Irving

Reis. Producer: George Sessel.

Certificate : U. Category : B.

Running time : 92 minutes.

Here we have a film definitely outside
the ambitious class, not a semi-
documentary, with no imperious
message. It is, however, entertaining
and healthy. The efforts to get a good
girl into the highlights of Hollywood
are rewarded without any massive con-
centration of chorus girls or “hot” jazz
bands. Mr. Powell and Mr. Menjou are
well served bv their material and the
heroine, Miss Drake, is earnest and
charming without physical exploitation.
The story doesn’t matter. The laughs
are there.

X.

APPOINTMENT WITH DANGER
Starring: Alan Ladd, Phyllis Calvert,
Paul Stewart, Jan Sterling.
Producer: Robert Fellow's.

Director: Lewis Allen. Presented
by Paramount. Certificate : A.

Category-. B. Running time:
89 minutes.

The original idea of the film was
probably worthwhile, but I think all
sorts of warring cliches were
subsequently introduced. It has become
like an old sock darned with stray bits
of wool.

Alan Ladd, a Post Office detective, is
given the task of tracking down the
murderer of one of his colleagues. An
indispensable witness is a nun, Phyllis
Calvert, who in consequence becomes
the target of murderous attacks. Alan

Ladd is the type of man who thinks that
everybody has a “pitch”, but in the end
he admits that Sister Phyllis is not in
her job from motives of self interest.

T.

STARS IN MY CROWN
Starring: Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew'.
Producer: William H. Wright.

Director: Jacques Tourneur.

Distributors: M.-G.-M. Certificate:
U. Category : C. Running time:
89 minutes.

“Will there be any stars in my
crow'n ?” is the refrain of the favourite
livmn of sincere, manly, ex-service
(American Civil War) Parson Gray. His
religion is somewhat revivalistic, but it
is not treacly or goody-goody. And the
film takes it at its face value,
sympathetically and without satire or
derision.

Walesburg, where he lives, is a small
southern town and the favourite
pastime in that part of the States then,
as now (cf. Intruder in the Dust), was
lynching negroes. And again it is
Juano Hernandez who just escapes.
There is an epidemic of typhoid too,
and a small bov who yells in the most
realistic and ear-splitting way I have
ever yet encountered in a film. But for
the most part this is a tranquil picture.
The elegant belles of Walesburg could
never incur the charge of unladvlike-
ness, unless it were for the way in
which they w'aste no time in making
soft eyes at the newly arrived minister
and doctor. And so some might find
the film dull. But I couldn’t help
feeling well disposed tow'ards its gentle,
old-fashioned, Puritan atmosphere as I
came aw'ay fr-om the press show and
saw the people queueing up at the next
cinema for Bitter Rice, to see the sturdv
Silvana Mangano taking part in an
armed foursome in a slaughter-house.

i

140

YOUNG MAN OF MUSIC

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall
and Doris Day, with Hoagy
Carmichael and Juan Henandez.
A Warner Brothers Picture.
Director: Michael Curtiz.

Certificate: A. Category : A.

Running time: 105 minutes.

This film is based on the story of
an American boy with an urge to
express himself in music. but the
music that needs to come out of him
is not the soothing diatonic melody that
satisfied the youthful Mozart. It is a
harsh, atonic, surrealistic expression of
interior combat which, in spite of its
primordial characteristics, definitely has
something to say and grips the interest
and imagination of even so conservative
a music-lover as yours truly. The
instrument chosen for this “House
Party” type of musical auto-psycopsy
is the trumpet which makes it, I fear,
rather hard on the ears of the audience,
who are assailed for nearly two hours
with the brassy self-expression of Rick
Martin. Still, it is an interesting film
if only for the lesson, probably
unconsciously proffered, that not by
bread (or music, or self-expression)
alone does man live. Man tends
naturally to his Maker, and if he does
not know who his Maker is then he
tends to replace Him with an idol of
his own fashioning. If he deliberately
rejects his Maker he still has the urge
to put something false in His place.
This leads to his destruction.

Perhaps Kirk Douglas and his
employers have not realised the
implications of the story they tell hut
there they are The acting of Douglas
is powerful and intense and his efforts
with the trumpet convincing. (The
trumpet is actually played by Harry
James.) A special word of praise is
due to Juan Hernandez as the gentle,
kindly negro who teaches the boy all
he knows about trumpet-playing and is
then betrayed by his protege. An
unusually sensitive performance is also A
given by Orlev Lindgren as the young *
Rick.

What a pity there seems to be no
other way out of difficult marital
situations in this kind of film save
divorce. A modicum of thought before-
hand would in most cases have
prevented the false union to begin with.

THE BIG WHEEL

Starring: Mickey Rooney, Thomas

Mitchell, Michael O’Shea, Spring
Byington. Producer: Samuel

Stiefel. Director: Edward Ludwig.
Distributors: United Artists.

Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time: 92 minutes.

The background for this story is a
car-racing track and you see speed gone
mad, and you, of course, get your
thrills but I couldn’t (somehow) accept
Mickey Rooney as a car-racing champ.
This picture helps us to understand
(a) why young men go in for this dare-
devil sort of sport; (b) what suffering
their parents and loved ones endure on
their behalf when they are dashing
around the track, breaking their necks
and sometimes breaking records. Why
do young men go in for this dangerous
sport ? Is it for sport and for mere
love of adventure ? If we are to
believe Mickey Rooneys there is nothing
more to it than to hit the “dough” and
get rich quickly which rather takes all
the sport out of it and robs the racer of
his glamour.

In search of music

E.

141

UNDER MY SKIN

Starring: John Garfield, Micheline

Prelie and Orley Lindgren. A
Twentieth Century-Fox produc-
tion. Director: Jean Negulesco.
Producer: Casey Robinson.

Certificate: A. Category. A.

Running time : 85 minutes.

What more could you want ? A story
bv Ernest Hemingway about horses
and love. John Garfield as a crack
jockey and tough guy. Micheline
Prelie, French, neat and charming,
ideal for him to make love to, and
perfect for close-ups when she croons
“a la mode”. Orley Lindgren, a really

talented young kid aged eleven who
acts with enthusiasm, but motherless,
tossed to and fro with his jockey father
— the very thing for patches of pathos.
Scenes in Italy and Paris. Plenty of
horse racing. And some thuggery-
headed by Luther Adler. What more
could you want ? The ingredients are
there, but it turns out to be just
another film such as we have seen
before.

Young Lindgren puts up a splendid
performance. He could have been

precocious, but wasn’t. His laughter,
smiles and tears are quite winning.
You will certainly like him.

G.

The Inspector General steps in . . .

The Inspector General

Starring: Danny Kaye, Walter

Slezak, Barbara Bates, Elsa
Lanchester. Producer: Jerry
Wald. Director: Henry7 Koster.
Distributors: Warner Bros.

Certificate : U. Category. C.
Running time : 102 minutes.

G. K. Chesterton’s remark that
only the thoroughly humble man can
enjoy a joke reminds us that there
is some sort of affinity between
laughter and humility. It is well
to realise that Creators of Laughter
are important people. Who will
deny that a laugh is as good as a
tonic and sometimes better than a
sermon? Like the priest and the
poet, The Creator of Laughter has it
in his power to so condition our

minds that we see ourselves as others
see us.

In this satire, Danny Kaye makes
us laugh at the humbug, the egoism,
the stupidity, the cupidity, the
duplicity, the sychophancy that can
exist in certain councils which are
supposed to care for the public; but
— and this is the point — by implica- jj
tion he makes us laugh at ourselves
and makes it possible for us to
“laugh out’’ of our own systems our
own stupidity, cupidity, humbug f
and what not. The purpose of drama w
is to cleanse the heart. To cleanse
the heart, by laughter, is the purpose
of humour, also.

It would be absurd to label Danny
Kaye as a man with a message. It
would be equally absurd to label
him as just a “funny-man’’. He is

Fire

... at the Banquet

an artist in his own right; and in this
film we see the wide range of his art:
satire, humour, mimicry, wit, clown-
ing, just ordinary knock-about good
fun. Danny Kaye is no mere
copyist. He works hard the whole
time he is on the screen. And how
he works! Notice how he uses his
whole mind, heart and body. In
one sequence he even makes his ear
suggest an idea! He is a man of
tremendous vitality, but he is not
overpowering. He is versatile and
can jump from the ridiculous to the
poignant with discretion and
dexterity.

The story is about an illiterate but
good-hearted fellow (Danny Kaye)
who is mistaken for The Inspector
General who is coming — incognito —
to visit the town of Brodny, with its
corrupt town council. I will not
spoil your night out by revealing any
of the numerous and humorous
adventures that come his way.
Danny Kaye is (of course) the big
laugh; but he is helped, admirably,
by the whole cast. Barbara Bates
who plays Leza, the scullery maid,
deserves a special word of praise, for
her pleasing manners and rich voice.

The film is beautifully made and
beautifully directed. Technicolor
adds to its charm.

Warmly recommended.

The Inspector and the Scullery Maid

E.

Starring: Ralph Clanton, Edward

Underdown, Michael Brennan,
Helen Cherry, Michael Trub-
shawe. A Two Cities Film.
Writer and Director: Terence

Young. Certificate : A. Category :
B. Running time: 102 minutes.

This film reminded me of the best of
the British war-time efforts. It has a
worthwhile tale to be told, the semi-
anonymous cast which gives freshness
and conviction to parts placed and the
factual approach which lifts the whole
thing out of the make - believe
atmosphere of the average fictional
film. The result is a sense of the true
value of the cinema when it is being
used to depict subjects that do not
violate adult intelligences.

That it is not quite in the same
standard as The True Glory , Desert
Victory , The Way Ahead or San
Dcmetrio, London is due to the fact
that, since the end of the war, the
urgency and need to use the film as an
instrument for the country’s benefit has
disappeared and film-makers are back
again into the competitive rut which

THEY WERE

causes them to think of what will
please the public rather than what
makes a first-class film. (It is no
reflection on individual directors to
speak thus : they are all too conscious
of the outside factors which prevent
them making their films completely to
their own sense of artistic integrity ;
the fact remains that consideration for
the public often causes a film to be
spoilt.)

Thus, They Were Not Divided leaves
one with the impression that it was not
quite certain in which direction the film
was to develop. The story of the i
discipline which makes a Guardsman f
what he is (and incidentally, brought
them back from Dunkirk still equipped
and looking like soldiers) becomes the
saga of the friendship of an American
and an Englishman which, again, we
gather, symbolises the unity in all
essential things between America and
Britain. It then turns to the tedious
uncertainty and aimless meanderings of

lor makes a complaint

DT DIVIDED

tank life in wartime. Interspersed, are
idyllic moments with Helen Cherry,
who plays the rather hysterical wife of
the English Captain in a manner which
I can only describe as highly artificial.

Nevertheless, this film is a fine piece
of work and one which makes us think
with hope again of the future of the
native product. It is a film to see
several times for the sake of the
beautiful playing of the handpicked
cast. Particularly to be praised are
Ralph Clanton, an American stage
actor whose pleasantly modulated voice
I and subdued acting remind us that the
L .S.A. is not all Mickej' Rooney ;
Edward Underdown for a convincing
understatement as the English Captain ;
Stella Andrew for a tenderly conceived
role as the girl who marries the
American, and Michael Trubshawe, a
gentleman with an outsize in facial
shrubbery, and a native ability to
convey character in undertones. His
Tank Major is a joy. Also deserving

C.S.M. makes a remark

of mention is R.S.M. Brittain who plays
himself most frighteningly. It is a
relief to audience as well as to recruits
when this mighty Guardsman gives a
reassuring wink to his parade-ground
victims.

The film was made mainly on
location in Germany, which evidently
gives it something of its factual
flavour. It is a blessed relief to be free
of the artificiality of • studio lights
for once.

Catholics with sharp eyes will be
interested to notice that the little New
Testament which Helen Cherry gives
to her husband as he leaves for the
front (he is, perhaps, the non-Catholic
half of a mixed marriage ?) is a product
of the Catholic Truth Society and bears
the Imprimatur of the late Bishop of
Southwark. It is a pity that the same
care for detail was not observed in the
case of the Irishman who demurs, when
asked to bury his dead companion,
because he is not a Catholic ! This
kind of absurdity could be so easily
avoided !

Do go to see They Were Not Divided.
It will do you good.

Waiting to leave for France

V.

146

SHOULD PARENTS TELL?

Distributors: Eros Films. Produced
in U.S.A. Category : A. Running
time : 70 minutes.

About this film two things are
evident. First, it is a badly scripted,
poorly made, timorous attempt to stem
the spread of V.D. by means of screen
moralising. Second, whatever good
effect this second-rate film might have
hoped to achieve among intelligent and
balanced cinema audience's is vitiated
by the unscrupulous and sensation-
mongering publicity that has been
given it. Unscrupulous because it
misleads people as to the nature of the
things they are to see depicted on the
screen ; sensation-mongering because it
.seems to exploit tragic and serious facts
of life in an entertainment programme.
Such films should be given special
showings to selected audiences. It is
extremely distasteful to have them
included in normal programmes at
commercial cinemas.

The film tells of the unhappiness
which conies to a young married
couple and the maladjustment which
results from ignorance as to the need
of mutual understanding and considera-
tion necessary between husband and
wife. In a fit of pique the husband, it
is implied, seeks consolation in bawdy
company. Later, the child that is
born to his wife dies, infected with
V.D. The wife’s parents allow their
younger daughter, aged 17, to entertain
a large number of jitterbugging young
friends of similar age, but do not think
she is old enough to be enlightened as
to the facts of life when, as a
consequence of this indiscriminate
friendship, the younger daughter finds
herself in a condition which an
unqualified surgeon attempts to
■“remedy” at the peril of her life. The
curious thing here is that the young
man responsible tearfully insists that
he loves the girl, but nobody takes the
trouble to point out that his action was
neither loving nor tolerable. A doctor,
who figures in the film as a kind of
chorus, could have been used to much
effect if only the screen-writers or
sponsors or both knew just what they
wanted to say and had the courage to
say it unequivocally and with a certain
foundation of natural morality (to say
nothing of the demands of Christian
teaching : though the name of the

Creator is frequently invoked by various
characters).

The film is tricked out spasmodically
with a few biological diagrams which
could add little, I imagine, to the
knowledge of the average adolescent
and only serve to hold up the action
of the story.

A film which has little value and is
not to be compared to the much more
useful and honestly made Birth of a
Baby, shown under the same auspices
but with the same objectionable
publicity some years ago.

V.

BRIDE FOR SALE

Starring: Claudette Colbert, Robert

Young and George Brent, with
Max Baer, Gus Schilling and
Charles Amt. An R.K.O. Radio
Picture. Director: William D.

Russell.' Certificate : A. Category:
B. Running time: 87 minutes.

A light-hearted coined}- about an
ex-WAC who becomes an income-tax
consultant with the object of choosing
a satisfactory husband. Her employer
induces an old college friend to lead her
up the garden, but it is the men who
come off second-best when the ex-WAC
has used ju-jitsu, guile and a very small
engagement ring to lead them bv the
nose. An uncomplicated film in which
all do well what is expected of them,
i.e., to entertain.

V.

OH, YOU BEAUTIFUL DOLL
Starring: June Haver, Mark Stevens,
S. Z. “Cuddles’’ Sakall. Director:
John M. Stahl. Producer: George
Jessel. Presented by 20th Century-
Fox in Technicolor. Certificate:
U. Category : B. Running time:
94 minutes.

“Cuddles” Sakall composes an opera
full of beautiful arias. Since it has never
been performed he is very poor. Mark
Stevens translates the arias into jazz,
just a difference of timing, you know.
Consequently, “Cuddles” finds himself
rich and popular.

T.

147

ALL THE KING’S MEN

Starring: Broderick Crawford, Joanne
Dru, John Derek, and Mercedes
McCanibridge. A Columbia
Picture. Director: Robert Rossen.
Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time : 109 minutes.

It is a curious convention which
demands that any similarity to living
or dead historical character in films be
regarded as accidental or coincidental
particularly in a film like All The
King’s Men, which is clearly based on
the life of Huey Long, the notorious
Governor of Louisiana, who seemed
likely to have become the Hitler or
Stalin of the U.S.A., but for an
assassin’s bullet.

Taken from the prize-winning novel
by Robert Penn Warren, it is a story
which seems to demand more attention
for what it says than how it says it.
Yet it has to be admitted that here is a
film that ranks high from the point of
view of technique and acting as well as
being the vehicle of a modern parable
that grips the imagination and stirs the
emotions strongly. The saga of a well-
meaning man who begins political life
by fighting corruption and becomes
Governor and Dictator of the State by
means of corruption and merciless
suppression of all opposition, it scores
mainly as a result of a largely
unfamiliar cast, honest acting and
skilful direction. The handling of the
vast crowds that are inseparable from
this kind of political film are an indica-
tion of the power of the director. As
in Enfants de Paradis , the ability to
make a crowd look and act like some-
thing alive instead of a large stage
chorus as in the De Mille tradition,
marks out the man who made the film
- as a first-class director. Nevertheless, I
would not have ranked All The King's
I Men as cinematically more important
than The Third Man, either from the
point of view of acting or story treat-
ment. The American film smashes its
way across the imagination ; the British
film insinuates itself into the intellect.
However, it is All The King's Men
which gets the yearly Oscar.

This is a film which is basically
religious in that it teaches that man is

degraded and corrupted by the selfish
use of power. The doctrine of Willie
Stark, the Governor, is pure Lutheran
heresy : viz., that man is essentially
corrupted and incapable of good. He
has a variation on this to the effect that
good can come out of evil, but it is
Willie Stark who decides what is good
and what is evil. When eventually he
is killed by a bullet from the brother
of the woman he has seduced, he dies
still unable to see that what he did was
evil and a puzzled “Why?” is his last
word.

There are a number of cinematic
cliches to which we have become
accustomed in this type of political
debunking film : the reporter who

writes what his paper will not publish ;
the girl who is converted to the opposi-
tion camp and then disillusioned when
the idol’s feet of clay are discernible, the
candidate who tears up the set speech
given him by his backers, etc. Still,
the film is very acceptable and enter-
taining, too. The acting of all the
principals is excellent with special
emphasis on the work of Mercedes
McCanibridge, Broderick Crawford and
John Ireland.

V.

OUTPOST IN MOROCCO

Starring: George Raft, Marie Windsor,
Akim Tamiroff. Producer:
Joseph H. Ermolieff. Director:
Robert Florey. Released through
United Artists. Category: B.

Running time: 80 minutes

approx.

George Raft is a captain in the
Foreign Legion and helps very
considerably- in quelling a riot by an
Arab tribe. It seemed to me that
there was much reckless courage
accompanied bv neglect of elementary
precautions. But none the less it
sustains interest quite well. 1 am
always thrilled at the sight of a
military expedition weaving its way
through barren and dangerous territory.

T.

14S

MOONRISE

Starring: Dana Clark, Gail Russell
Ethel Barrymore. A Republic
Picture. Director: F rank

Borsage. Certificate: A. Cate-
gory : A .

place as the teacher in such a milieu
but is, presumably, a concession to the
demands of producers with an eye on
fan mail. Still, she acts well which
half overcomes her glamour.

This is a film which is well worth
hunting for.

V.

A film which the Academy Cinema,
Oxford Street, has rescued from
oblivion ; one of a growing number of
more than average good films which,
mysteriously, do not get a press show-
ing in the ordinary way until some
enterprising critic playing the now
fashionable game of “hunt the picture”,
runs it to earth in a distributor’s office,
American trade paper, or suburban flea-
pit.

Not a great picture but a very good
one with evident qualities of sincerity,
simplicity in theme development,
thoughtful camera work and firm but
fluid direction and acting above the
average.

A boy whose father was hanged has
grown up embittered and a result of
gibing and sneering endured to break-
ing point has himself killed a man. He
is not suspected but conscience and the
humane understanding of the local
sheriff and the girl whom he loves
eventually bring him to give himself up
to face his trial.

There is harshness as in the opening
sequences showing in impressionistic
fashion the gallows which claim his
father and a baby’s cradle across which
their shadows fall. There is tenderness
as in the scenes with an old negro
hermit in the woods. There is acute
observation of character in the dance
hall scenes, the small town gossips, the
fair scene (almost French in its vivid
capturing of atmosphere, reminding
one of the last sequences of Panique).
There is humour as well as pathos.
There is tension.

Dan£ Clark gives the best perform-
ance of his career as the embittered
killer. Rex Ingram is magnificently
dignified as the old negro. Allyn Joslvn
(whose face still reminds one that he
played Hitler in one of the war-time
melodramas) is warm and human as the
sheriff. Henry Morgan as a deaf mute
who is befriended by and befriends the
wanted man, gives a curiously moving
performance. Gail Russell is out of

BRIDGE OF THE FORD
(The Story of Drogheda)

Producer: Andrew- Buchanan, for the
Medical Missionaries of Mary.
Director: Henry Cooper. Photo-
graphy: George Fleischman.

Commentator: Robert Speaight.

Certificate: U. Category: B.

Running time : 40 minutes.

Available in 35mm. and 16mm.
from C.F.I.

This documentary survey in film of
the city of Drogheda was frankly made
as a programme mate for Visitation , the
outstanding missionary film made for
the Medical Missionaries by the same
producer. Consequently, one has the
impression that it is being lengthened
out to fill a certain time rather than
that it is telling a film story as
economically and concisely as need be.
So many facets of the ancient city are
touched upon : archaeological, historical,
economic, social, religious, any one of
which one would have liked to see
developed at some length, but time does
not permit more than a glimpse in
some cases.

The camera work is beautiful and the
commentary covers a lot of ground, and
is well-spoken by Robert Speaight.
Some shots of the reliquary of Blessed
Oliver Plunkett are of unusual interest,
as also are some of the municipal
treasures shown. This film is a useful
companion to a feature film and
suggests a similar survey of many
another city, both in Ireland and in
England. It would be a good thing to
have films of this kind perpetuating
the historical features of all the
interesting and ancient monuments of
our countrv.

V.

149

THE BEAUTIFUL BLONDE
FROM BASHFUL BEND
Starring: Betty Grable, Cesar Romero,
Rudy Valee. Writer, Producer
and Director: Preston Sturges. .

Distributors: 20th Century-Fox.

Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time: 77 minutes.

It seems to me that a film actress
who — to a large extent — depends upon
the exposition of her legs for success
has no great ability. I may be colour-
blind or just plain stupid but my re-
actions were mostly negative. The
blonde is not a bit beautiful but she is
very bash-full : when she is not shout-
ing or shooting someone or other she
is bashing something or someone
about.

E.

BLACK MAGIC

Starring: Orson Welles and Nancy
Guild, with Akim Tamiroff and
Margot Grahame. Distributors:
United Artists. Director: Gregory
Ratoff. Certificate: A. Category:
B. Running time: 100 minutes.

A bout of ’flu prevented my presence
at the Press Show of this film. My
duty as a critic demanded that I see it
later. I paid some of the money which
the Government allows us to spend for
ourselves in order to fulfil my duty.
I am now wondering what steps could
be taken against the distributors for
accepting money under false pretences !
Duty is a high price to pay for sitting
through incoherent, pretentious, pre-
posterous, fantastic, fifth-rate rubbish
such as this. It is adding insult to
grave injury when duty compels the
additional cost of coin of the realm.

Dumas was, of all novelists, the most
material - minded mass - producer ot
pseudo - historical romances. The
producers of Black Magic, have far
outdone the inventive M. Dumas. They
have take his implausible plot about the
charlatan who hypnotised the court of
Louis XV and left only the names of
the characters by which to recognise
them. Any event in the film which
bears a faint resemblance to the novel
from which it was adapted, owes such

resemblance to a lapse of memory on
the part of the screenwriters.

One wonders what vestige of integrity
or sense of artistic responsibility is
left to a man of Orson Welles’ ability
when he allows himself to be used in
this ridiculous fashion. Never was
rotten ham so indifferently presented to
a jaded palate. One asks whether
or not some sea-change has been
suffered by the actor who played and
made Citizen Kane, The Magnificent
Ambersons or even Lady From
Shanghai. 'lhese wells are running
dry : or maybe, they were never really
very deep ? Or perhaps — unpleasant
thought — this is the measure of his
contempt for the cinema-going public.
In that case, the audiences have it in
their own hands to apply the remedy.

V.

ALWAYS LEAVE THEM
LAUGHING

Starring: Milton Berle, Virginia Mayo,
and Ruth Roman. Producer:
Jerry Wald. Director: Roy Del
Ruth. Distributors: Warner Bros.
Certificate: U. Category: A.

Running time: no minutes.

Once again we have the hackneyed
story of how a talented comedian
(Milton Berle) rises through failure
and disappointment to the fame he well
deserved — and all through the en-
couragement of the girl (Ruth Roman)
who believed in him. The inevitable
happens, just as it does when a
cannibal eats a missionary : “You can’t
keep a good man down”. We are given
the customary glimpses of music hall
turns, the usual peeps behind the
scenes into the dressing rooms where,
unsurprisingly, there are lots of
chorus girls making-up. And there are
occasional flashes of express trains,
just to let us know the show has moved
on.

Some of the “numbers” were good
enough to raise some spontaneous
laughter from the press audience (an
accomplishment indeed!), but these
items were chiefly from the early part
of the film where our comedian was
doing the old-fashioned clap-trap funny
man stuff, and doing it exceedingly
wrell. It is the humour we used to see
which we are now supposed to have

150

grown out of. But once Berle became
the great and accomplished comedian,
modern style, he seemed less funny and
barely raised a laugh. Is that because
we are unappreciative, or because
American humour is not our cup of
tea ?

G.

THE DANCING YEARS
Starring: Dennis Price, Giselle Preville,
Patricia Dainton, Antony Nicholes.
Producer: Warwick Ward.

Director: Harold French. Distri-
butors: Associated British-Pathe,
Ltd. Certificate : U. Category :
B.

As far as I know, Ivor Novello does
not desire his works to be anything
other than superficial, colourful, lavish,
pseudo-gay, pseudo-romantic with lots
of frills, flounces and frivolity. “Let
the people forget” seems to be the
Novello philosophy of life. The word
escapist has been badly overworked,
but it best describes The Dancing
Years. A nice sub-title would be :
Flight from reality. For abou^ ninety
minutes we are danced into a world
which is unreal, so unreal that you
Mould almost think that life was one
long reel of fun and games.

The people we meet are painted and
aggressively gay (much too aggres-
sively gay to create verisimilitude) ;
they make li ve lightly and (of course)
have no regard for the sacrament of
marriage and keep alive the lie that
artists are “a people apart”, un-
disciplined and perpetually unfaithful
to their partners.

Giselle Preville looks well and acts
well, but I got the impression that she
M'as not at home with such light stuff.
Dennis Price gave me a similar impres-
sion. But Patricia Dainton, the
nineteen-year-old Scottish born actress
who plays Grete is very real and
displays real talent and radiates charm
and sincerity. This young lady is well
worth noticing.

I would not be such a prig as to
pretend that a little escapism is not
(sometimes) good for the soul. No one
in his or her right senses would believe
that this musical play is a true
interpretation of life and for tired
minds the picturesque shots of the
lake-side village of St. Wolfgang, the

colourful costumes, the light of heart
songs and the smooth, rhythmical flow
of pictures will act as a tonic.

E.

LES PARENTS TERRIBLES
Starring: Jean Marais, Josette Day,
Yvonne de Bray, Gabrielle

Dorziat and Marcel Andre.

Distributors: Studio One Distrib-
utors Ltd. Director and Screen-
writer: Jean Cocteau. Certificate:
A . Category : A . Running time :
98 minutes.

This is a disturbing film. Not only
is it decadent from the literary point
of view, but even considered as a piece
of camera work, it suggests the mind
of a man who is uncertain of himself.
Starting with a curiously' surrealist
shot of a man’s eyes seen through a
binocular-like contraption (it transpires
that the man is an inventor and this
one of his gadgets) we are then whisked
up by a giddy-making crane shot to get
a view of a woman collapsed over a
wash-basin while the man runs-
franticallv about calling for his sister-
in-law who is, apparently accustomed to
dealing with the poison-taking habits of
his wife. The camera then descends
to stage level and for the remainder of
this morbid study of neurotic middle-
agers and unbalanced youth gives us
the impression of a play being
photographed.

It is a trick with high-brows to use
high-falutin’ v'ords to disguise low
habits. Oedipus-complex, say’s the
dictionary is a psvchoanalist’s term for
an infantile fixation on the mother.
Freud assumed that self-control wTas
impossible. In this film it is clear that
what Jean Marais most needs is a boot
well-applied to a posterior position;
then he might have thought better of
running to his mother’s bed for a bout
of hysterical weeping. The cause of the
tears ? He has discovered that his
fiancee is having an affair with his
father. Need I say more ? The
brilliant acting of the two elderly
women and the charm of Josette Day
coupled with scintillating dialogue
cannot divest this film of its objection-
able odour. It stinks.

V.

151

GEOGRAPHICAL FILMS

By Our Educational Panel

LIBRARIES

Central Film Library, Imperial Institute,
S.W.7. After July 31st : Govern-
ment Buildings, Bromyard Avenue,
Acton, W.3.

L.C.C. Library.

Foundation Film Library, Brooklands
House, Weybridge, Surrey.

SOME AGRICULTURAL FILMS

OF THE BRITISH ISLES

These films aim to put over British
farming to the general public, and
succeed very well in making the layman
appreciate the highly skilled nature of
the work, and the scientific organisation
and mechanisation on which it is based.
They take us behind the scenes and
make us understand the significance of
our book knowledge

Many of the commentaries are in
dialect which, while giving local colour,
is not always easy to follow by ears
attuned to B.B.C. accents; and much
incidental “music” has to be endured.
However, the films are full of
geographical interest and are especially
useful for 15 vears and over.

Winter on the Farm

C.F.L. Sound. U.K.384. (15 minutes.)

This provides an eye-opener for
townsfolk who only know the country
in summer. We tour a large “mixed”
farm in Dorset, along with the farmer
on his daily round of inspection — the
dairy cattle which need attention day
in, day out; the sheep in the folds for
the beginning of the lambing season ;
the daily cartage of winter feed for
both cattle and sheep ; the work of
hedging, and ditching, and clearing of
drains ; the fertilising and the

ploughing of the land; the repair of
farm machinery and a thousand and
one jobs which belong to this season
of preparation and maintenance.

Spring on the Farm

C.F.L. Sound. U.K.385. (15 minutes.)

This film is photographed in Hereford
and continues the work of preparation
with the sowing and rolling, and
explains the purpose of the various
operations and the use of the different
machines. The contribution of research
stations to agricultural progress is
emphasised.

Summer on the Farm

C.F.L. Sound. U.K.386. (12 minutes.)

The main interest in June is the hay
crop, especially when as here, in
Lancashire and Cheshire, dairy-farming
is of prime importance because of the
proximity of the industrial population.
Modern machinery takes care of the
heaviest part of the work and leaves
the farmer more time to deal with his
green vegetables, root crops and small
fruits which are likewise destined for
the industrial towns. These towns
depend on the farms, but the farms in
turn depend on the towns for the extra
seasonal labour required.

The Crown of the Year

C.F.L. Sound. U.K.387. (19 minutes.)

This fourth film of the series photo-
graphs the grain harvest in East Anglia
in great detail, giving close-ups of all
the machinery in action so that we
townsfolk get a real insight into the
mysteries of the reaping, binding,
loading and threshing machines. The

152

harvesting of the root crops follows and
then the Harvest Festival, after which
the ploughs go out at once to the
stubble fields, the crop rotation plans
are made, and the preparations for the
next year are already begun.

Make Fruitful the Land

C.F.L. U.K.884. Colour. (17 minutes.)

The constant intensive use of our
land raises the question of the
preservation of its fertility through the
centuries. In earlier years the “three
field system” was followed and this is
ingeniously shown by models of Saxon
times. In the 18tli century scientific
crop rotation, the Norfolk “four course
svstem”, displaced the earlier method
and increased production without
exhausting the soil. Modern machinery
aids maximum output from this
intensive farming system.

Fenlands

C.F.L. U.K.732. (19 minutes.)

This film shows how 300 years of
land-drainage have completely changed
the face of the land from deserted fen
to intensively cultivated farmland. The
wild-fowler is still there, but the main
interest is grain, vegetables, sugar-beet
and fruit which are sold in nearby
market towns or in London. The
prosperity of this richest of England’s
farmland depends on constant vigilance
over the whole complex drainage
system.

Cornish Valley

C.F.L. U.K.579. (17 minutes.)

Very good views of coastal scenery,
rock structure, wind-swept uplands and
deep sheltered valleys, are followed by
details of life on a small family farm
in one of these self-sufficient valleys,
where outside help is not available and
mechanisation is not practicable because
of the difficulties of relief.

The Downlands

C.F.L. U.K.794. (17 minutes.)

These Downlands stretch from Dover
to the Cotswolds and Mendips, and

were the homes of ancient man, whose
traces remain in Stonehenge and
various fortifications. The dominant
interest has always been sheep-rearing,
but cattle are today supplanting sheep,
and there is now arable farming on
lower ground. The introduction of

modern machinery simplifies the work
and solves the labour problem.

Britain’s Livestock

C.F.L. U.K.1143. Colour. (20 minutes.)

Excellent photographs of the chief
breed of cattle make recognition easy,
and show the results of 200 years
of intelligent breeding, which has
increased production in meat and in
milk, while maintaining the excellence
of the herds. Our pedigree stock is
consequently in great demand the
world over and forms one of our
leading exports.

Suitability : 15+ .

Hill Sheep Farm

C.F.L. U.K.1126. (19 minutes.)

This excellent film of the Scottish
Highlands together with The Crofters,
makes a very good contrast to the
foregoing films of England by showing
the greater difficulties of the rugged
environment, the less attractive
conditions of life, the absence of
mechanisation, and the self-sufficiency
engendered by these isolated regions.

Hill Sheep Farm shows the Highlands
as the natural breeding ground of the
sturdiest British flocks, which when
crossed with the bigger lowland breeds
produce the world’s finest animals. All
phases of the sheep-farmer’s work
throughout the year are shown in most
interesting fashion so that we come to
appreciate the highly skilled nature of
this exacting job.

The Crofters

C.F.L. U.K.550. (24 minutes.)

Here we see the many interests of
an isolated community, necessarily
resourceful and self-reliant, among the
wild and barren mountains of the

153

Northern Highlands. The sheep
round-up is excellently photographed
and gives a very good opportunity to
see the character of land which has
been heavily glaciated.

East Anglia

L.C.C. Silent. Colour. Also : Foundation
Film Library. 416. E. 2. Hire :

11s. first day.

This film makes a regional study of
East Anglia and so differs from the
previous ones in scope and purpose,
but agriculture is still the dominating
theme.

It is well executed in colour, giving
panoramas of the sweeping countryside,
and showing soil conditions — the
underlying chalk topped by the glacial
drift ; and the utilisation of the heavier
soils for wheat, the lighter for barley,
the poor sands for timber.

The leading crops are shown in some
detail for recognition purposes, and
likewise pedigree stock. In addition,
the Broads, the fishing ports, the
packet station of Harwich, the
manufactures of Norwich are all shown
systematically with frequent maps for
localisation.

It makes a good revision film for
seniors, the absence of sound being
most conducive to the study
atmosphere ; but the particularly
subdued colouring, though true to
nature, makes a perpetual twilight.

FOUR ORDNANCE SURVEY
FILMS L.C.C.

This is an extremely good series on
map-reading (1 inch to 1 mile) made
as Army Instructional films, but quite
within the scope of all map users,
hikers, scouts, guides as well as
students.

Conventional Signs is of general
interest, while the others are of
specialised interest in the inter-

pretation of contours.

They all set out to teach, and they
do it most effectively, with the result
that the map comes to life.

Map-Reading. Conventional Signs

This is of interest to anyone who
motors, cycles or walks in the country
with a map. It is designed as an
introduction to the intelligent reading
and interpretation of Ordnance Survey
Maps. It shows the value of scale,
lays particular emphasis on the
classification of roads in relation to
width, surface and traffic, and
gradually reduces the features of the
whole countryside to appropriate
symbols. Contours are not considered.

Suitability : 13+ .

Contours, Hills and Slopes

This gives a very clear and simple
demonstration of the meaning of
contours through actual photographs
and 'animated diagrams; it confines its
attention to the simplest hill forms,
and to types of slope — uniform, convex
and concave.

Suitability : 13+ .

Contours, Spurs and Re-Entrants

This continues with the interpretation
of contour maps of hillier country than
that shown previously, and country cut
into by many rivers. It concentrates by
means of animated diagrams on the
representation of the resulting spurs
and re-entrants.

Suitability : 14+ .

Intervisibility of Points

This gives a very clear exposition by
contour reading, simple section draw-
ing and photographs of the question
of intervisibility. It emphasises the
interference caused by local features
which do not appear on the map,
e.g., mounds, hollows and hedges, so
that actual, reconnaissance is often
necessary. These reconnaissance photo-
graphs are a great help in filling in the
details round the bare bones of the
map and in making it come to life.

Suitability : 14+ .

154

VATICAN

This is an interesting film enterprise
■which, it is hoped, will contribute to
the Holy Year intention of unity
-among all men of goodwill in the
battle for the survival of religion.
Hans Neiter O’Leary, the Producer,
is a Protestant who went to Rome with
the idea of making a film that would
tell in pictures something of what the
Vatican stands for in the history of
civilisation and, more recently, its
contribution to peace and the welfare
of mankind. Made in technicolor, it
includes a personal appearance of the
Holy Father as well as ceremonies in
St. Peter’s and a tour of the Vatican
Art Galleries.

For the first time, permission was
obtained to bring into the Vatican
Palace, the complicated apparatus for
providing electric power for the lights
and camera. Every precaution was
taken to avoid damage to the priceless
art treasures as a result of heat and

thermometer tests were taken every
few minutes to ensure that the
temperature was correct.

Hans Neiter O’Leary, in an interview
with the Holy Father, pointed out that
he was a Protestant whereupon the
Pope said, “But I am here for you
too!” The team was composed of
Italians and Englishmen, among the
latter being Cyril Knowles, camera-
man, a Catholic, and brother of
Bernard Knowles the well-known
Director. Mr. O’Leary (the son of a
Lutheran father and born in America)
told me that he insists that all
personnel accompanying him on such
a mission should be persons of real
religious sympathies even though they
may not necessarily be Catholics. He
considers that it is not possible for a
man to enter into the religious spirit
of such a film unless he himself is
moved by deep religious convictions.

The film will be released to the
major circuits by Easter. 16mm.
copies will be available shortly after-
wards for non-theatrical distribution.

SOME FILMS REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this list does
not connote positive recommenda-
tion. Films that are positively harm-
ful are not included here. Readers
are reminded to refer to the full
reviews when assessing a film.

Category A, indicates adults only,
B, adults and adolescents; C, family

audiences ; D, particularly

for

children.

Reviewed in “Focus”

(VOL.

III,

Nos. 3 and 4)

A Chance to Live

(106)

Adam’s Rib

(A)

(107)

Africa Screams

(C)

(114)

A Kiss for Corliss

(B)

(78)

Angel With the Trumpet

(A)

(81)

Astonished Heart, The

(A)

(105)

Bagdad

(B)

(109)

Battleground

(A)

(114)

Bitter Rice

(A)

(109)

Boys in Brown

(B)

(80)

Buccaneer’s Girl

(B)

(85)

Chain Lightning

(D)

(115)

Copper Canyon

(C)

(75)

Francis

(B)

(79)

Golden Salamander

(C)

(76)

Happiest Days of $our

Life, The

(A)

(108)

11 Miraculo

(A)

(73)

Le Roi

(A)

(78)

Long is the Road

(106)

Madeleine

(A)

(82)

Miss Pilgrim’s Progress

(C)

(78)

Morning Departure

(B)

(110)

Neptune’s Daughter

(74)

No Place for Jennifer

(A)

(84)

Not Wanted

(A)

(79)

Out of the Darkness

(C)

(115)

Red Danube, The

(A)

(112)

Riding High

(C)

(107)

Rugged O’Riordans, The

(B)

(74)

Three Came Home

(A)

(108)

Twelve O’Clock High

(B)

(73)

When Willie Conies Marching

Home

(C)

(107)

Woman in Hiding

(B)

(75)

Your Witness

(B)

(86)

We Recommend

Come to the Stable

(C)

(12)

It’s a Great Feeling.

(B)

(85)

Johnny Belinda

(A)

(42)

Passport to Pimlico

(C)

(150)

Rachel and the Stranger

(B)

(70)

Scott of the Antarctic

(B)

(14)

Snake Pit, The

(A)

(159)

The Blue Lamp

(B)

(80)

The Search

(B)

(342)

Whiskey Galore

(B)

(220)

155

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

If you have an opinion to express, a comment to make, an idea to offer,
the Editor will be delighted to hear from you.

No Place for Jennifer

Sir,

The point I wished to make is not
negatived by my stupid lapsus calami
which placed the words “fruit of thy
womb” on the lips of the Angel. That
they are found in the Angelical Saluta-
tion at all elevates the conception of
maternity to celestial planes and helps
to make all selfish use of marriage
peculiarly odious.

With reference to Your Witness : may
I venture to remark that the polished
acting of Robert Montgomery is not in
question ; it is the disproportion and
theatrical tempo produced by

deliberately slow cutting that I

deplored. It is not easy for the

director star to view his film with the
same artistic detachment of the director
to whom all the players are pieces in
a moving tapestry. The fact that Adam
is the central character in Your Witness
does not alter this fact. On the other
hand, in Lady in the Lake in which
Montgomery was also the central

character and the director, we had to
look in a mirror to catch a glimpse of
him !

As your correspondent infers, I had
overlooked publicity information about
Patricia Cutt’s change of name. How-
ever, referring to Trade Press reviews
of The Adventures of P.C. 49, I am
not encouraged to think that as
Patricia Wayne, she has yet mastered
the art of acting

As for “second features”, it is, I
believe, part of your policy eventually
to cover all films offered for public
entertainment. This will entail more
space and greater support for Focus. I
trust that both may be forthcoming.

Yours faithfully,

V.

A.B.C.

Sir,

Having felt for some time that
improvements might be made in Focus
I would like to take the opportunity
which your February editorial gives of
offering my criticisms.

Could you not (a) start a 16mm.
section — there are many of us who long
for that ; (b) have a series of articles
describing Catholic film action around
the country. It is very helpful to be
able to contact others working for the
same ends. We might be able to help
each other ; (c) give frequent reviews
both of foreign films actually in this
country, and of films which would be
good to bring to this country in order
that members of film societies should
agitate accordingly.

Yours is a review with such great
possibilities that you will forgive a
well-wisher for a few assaults, only
intended to help you on your way — not
to get in it.

Yours,

Peter Hastings.

46 Wilkies Lane,

Dundee.

(a. 1 could, if I could get a zvriter to
handle this feature.

b. I shall be delighted to publish
news about any Catholic Film
Centre.

c. Is already in operation. — Ed.)

Sir,

Your readers may be interested to
know that the March of Time
documentary A Chance to Live which
I reviewed for you in the March Focus
has received the Academy Award,
tying first place for the best docu-
mentary of the year.

Gaudia Paschalia.

Yours,

G.

Power Cut

Sir,

It is “dim bulb”, not “bull”. (X’s
review of The Red Danube— Focus for
April.)

Yours, etc.,

“15 Watts”.

Liverpool.

156

INSTITUTE NOTES

C.F.I. Summer School

The place : Convent of the Assump-
tion, Ramsgate, Kent. The time :
August 8th — 12th inclusive. The fee :
£2 10s. Od. inclusive for members of
the C.F.I. (non-members £2 15s. Od.).
Accommodation for 50 students,
dormitory and full board. Ladies will
be housed in the convent ; gentlemen in
a nearby prep, school. Priests have been
offered private accommodation through
the courtesy of Reverend Mother.

Please make your reservations as
soon as possible. Other details as to
times, route, etc., will be sent out in
due course.

The names of lecturers will be
announced later. It is hoped that a film
of the Summer School may be made in
which the students will take an active
part.

Film Competition

The following well-known people
have kindly consented to act as adjudi-
cator for the Film Competition : Miss
P'reda Bruce Lockhart, Film Critic;
Andrew Buchanan, Producer and
Director ; The Very Reverend Hilary
Carpenter, O.P., Chairman of the
Catholic Film Institute and Lyn Lock-
wood, Screen-writer and Dramatist.

You are reminded that films, silent or
sound, on any subject, may be
submitted. Entries to be sent in not
later than September 30th, 1950. This
is your opportunity to help us to select
teams of technicians who will enable
the work initiated by Andrew Buchanan
in the production of worthwhile
religious films of professional standard
to continue.

Film Show

As will be seen from the account
contributed by Miss P'reda Bruce Lock-
hart, the showing of Carl Dreyer’s
Passion of Joan of Arc at the Challoner
Club was a successful venture. We did
not expect so many enthusiasts to
support us and the room was, as a
result, rather overcrowded. Next time,

it is evident, we must look for a larger
projection hall.

We hope to secure for showing a
number of the Italian art films which
have received such warm praise from
the Festival audiences. Suggestions
from members as to the films they
would wish to see will be welcomed. Be
it remembered however, that our
primary object is film appreciation and
only secondary edification and enter-
tainment ! It is not impossible, of
course, to secure all three at one go, but
the films which will enable us to satisfy
this desideratum are rather few in
number.

Film Course

We have isolated enquiries from
various parts of London and the
provinces as to whether a Catholic
Film Appreciation Group exists within
striking distance of the enquirer’s
neighbourhood. The answer is usually
“not yet”. We want to help in the
formation of such groups as much as
we can but the initiative must come
from you. If you will let us know what
the chances are of a room to speak in
and what you want to do, we will come
and try to start you off. A large number
is not necessary for a Film Stud}’ Group.
Eight or a dozen enthusiasts is better
than fifty passengers.

In the meantime do use Andrew
Buchanan’s articles as a basis of study.
Do not hesitate to write to him if you
have any problems. He is only too
anxious to be of service.

Film Lectures

Lectures have recently been given
at Wokingham, Sevenoaks, Rotherhithe
(with a film show), Bath, and during
the C.A.G.O. Training Course at Upper
Norwood, London.

Holy Year Film Pilgrimage

The World Congress-Pilgrimage of
Catholic film personnel which takes
place at Rome, May 26th — 28th, has
been thrown open to members of the

157

C.F.I. A plane has been chartered and
the pilgrims will join the represent-
atives of Catholic Film Action from
many other countries together with
well-known personalities of the film
world to hear the Holy Father’s address
on the problems of the cinema and to
take part in the various devotions
arranged for the Congres. Visits to an
Italian studio and contacts with Italian
film people are arranged.

Bv the time these notes appear it will
be almost too late to receive further
bookings, but last-minute arrangements
may be possible in exceptional cases.
Details from The Secretary, 20 Ovington
Square.

International Film Review
Translators Needed

Several of the panel of translators
who have kindly helped us in the past
have had to withdraw their services
•owing to pressure of other work. We are
very grateful to them for their help. We
now have need of the services of other
persons capable of and willing to under-
take translations of articles about film
matters from French and Spanish into
English.

It is necessary to point out that such
articles are often of a technical nature
and need to be put into readable
English, which is not at all as simple

as it may sound. As the primary purpose
of the International Film Review is to
help to develop a Christian Philosophy
of the Cinema it is clear that the articles
need to be of some considerable literary
excellence in their own right, so to say.
To help us to achieve this is to do a
work of great importance. Modest
honoraria can be paid if desired. Please
help us to make known the Catholic
principles of sound film art by means
of the Review which the Holy Father
has recently described as indispensable
to the work of Catholic Film Action.

The Sacrifice We Offer. A Version
for Children?

It has been suggested that it would
be useful to have a version of Alan
Turner’s successful film on the Mass
specially commentated for children.
Mr. Turner has agreed to ask Father
Hubert McEvov to write another com-
mentary with this end in view if the
demand justifies it. We shall be glad,
therefore, to hear from our readers on
this subject.

Alan Turner recently had a letter
from the Apostolic Delegate in which
His Grace expresses The Holy Father’s
pleasure at the initiative which resulted
in such a useful film being made and
conveys the Holy Father’s Blessing to
all concerned with the film.

BOOK REVIEW

Designing for Films. Edward Carrick.

(The Studio Publications, 18 / -.)

What a pleasure it is to read a
technical book by an author who is a
master of his art and also possesses
the gift of revealing the secrets of his
-art in attractive prose ! I found
Designing for Films revealing and
refreshing. It belongs to the “How to
do it” series and gives us a clear
understanding of the work of film
designing ; it is a mine of authoritative
information and should serve as a text
book for professional and amateur film
makers. This is not just a theory
book. It tells you how to do it in a
most interesting way. Edward Carrick
covers such subjects as : Conception

and design, planning and execution,
colour, materialisation of things, the
plasterers, the wood-workers, the
painters, backings and trick-shots, the

property department, film effects.

Although this book is written
primarily for the practical mail, it
should not be missed by the film critic,
by the man in the street who is not
quite sure whether film is an art 'or
an industry, by the ever-increasing
number of filmgoers who desire to take
their films intelligently.

I notice in the March issue of Focus
that Andrew Buchanan has re-
commended certain books for those
who are following his film course.
Among his list I would include Edward
Carrick’s Designing for Films. As this
is the sort of book which the reader
will want to keep for reference and to
re-read it is not expensive. It is
beautifully produced, there is a design
and a dignity about it which will please
all booklovers.

F. D .F.

158

COVER PERSONALITY

JOSEPH CALLEIA

Joseph Calleia is tough on and off
the screen. He has a long stage tradi-
tion. He loves his work and is in
every sense an adventurous person.

He was bora on August 4th, 1887, at
Rabat, Malta. As a small boy, Calleia
loved music though to become an actor
was his greatest ambition, so much so
that he played “theatres” in his back-
yard. Today, music is still his hobby.
He wrote semi-classical variety hits
which were published in New York and
London. “My heart is calling” and
“Pidelai” are his latest musical
creations.

As a youth he studied engineering.
He was a pupil at St. Ignatius’ College
for one year and he graduated to St.
Aloysius’ College where he appeared in
everv stage performance organised by
the Jesuit Fathers. It was at this time
Calleia turned his mind to the stage,
and decided to try his luck in England.
His father opposed him, his mother
encouraged him in every way to take
up a stage career.

In 1914 Calleia left Malta for good and
went to England where he stayed for
two years. In 1917 he left for his
promised land, the United States of
America where he believed that
success awaited him. He joined up as
a chorus boy in Jerome Kern’s musical,
“Have a Heart” which was his first
step to success.

Calleia needed a professional name.
He couldn’t use the name of his father
who had opposed him ; so he adopted
his mother’s maiden name Spurin. Thus
equipped he staged a vaudeville act
impersonating Harry Lauder. Two
vears’ hard work followed, with the
distinguished producer Otis Skinner
from whom he learned much and for
whom he appeared in a play “Pietro”.

From now on he was in demand and
appeared in dramatic plays, notably
“The Broken Wing” which had a long
run in New York. When the play had
toured America it was presented at the

opening of the Duke of York’s theatre
in London in 1922. Calleia was present.

It was a great success and applauded
by every newspaper. His father read
the notices and was so pleased that
when his son returned to Malta to visit
him before going back to America (now
his adopted country) he said to him :

“Joe, can’t you use my name?” This
was a surprise to Joseph, for he never
expected his father who had opposed
him to manifest such approval.

Joe replied : “Well, I’ll see what can
be done about it”. For he had now
become well known on the stage as
Joseph Spurin. However, to please
Pop, he became Joseph Spurin Calleia.

When “The Broken Wing” had com-
pleted its London season-, Calleia spent
two years studying opera and gave
several concerts in New York. “An
artistic success but a financial flop,”
said Calleia. He continued his musical
studies and discovered that these helped
enormously as an actor.

Now came “Zanda the Great”, with
Alice Brady. This was followed in 1925
by a musical called “Princess Flavia”.

In 1926 he became actor-manager in a
play called “Broadway” which ran for
two years in New York. Then followed
a play for Gilbert Miller “The Front
Page”, which ran for two years and
“The Last Mile”, which ran for 18
months. This was in 1932.

Joseph Calleia was now very well
known. Now came “The Grand Hotel”,
which played for two years, and “Ten
Minute Alibi” which ran for one year, ^
and a play called “Honeymoon”. ^

Calleia’s big chance came in 1935,
when he was playing in “The Small
Miracle”, which ran solely on his
performance as the gangster. Offers
poured in from Hollywood. To hit the
screen, Calleia signed a contract for two
years with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. “I
was miserable the whole time,” he said.
However, Hollywood had claimed him

159-

and he appeared in a succession of tough
roles which brought him success.

He starred in Public Hero No. 1 ; Man
of the People; Tough Guy; Sinner Take
All; His Brother's Wife; Riff Raff;
Exclusive Story; Badman of Brimstone ;
Badman of Wyoming ; Sworn Enemy;
After the Thin Man; Full Confession.

In 1936, he wrote a film script for
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer called Robin
Hood of Eldorado. This film concluded
his contract. He then decided to free-
lance. He believed very definitely that
an artist should be a freelance. To
Calleia, art is an international thing,
a gift to be used freely for a better
understanding between people.
Calleia’s first film as a freelance was
Algiers with Hedy Lamarr and Charles
Boyer. He regards this film as one of
his best roles. It enabled him to break
away from gangster parts for a time.
Oddly enough, he was strictly' on the
side of the law here, for he plays the
r61e of a police inspector. This role

won him the Critics’ Award in America.
Since then he has worked for most of
the American Film Companies. His

films include : Algiers ; Five Came Back;
The Gorilla; Marie Antoinette ; Juarez;
My Little Chickadee ; The Golden Boy;
The Glass Key; The Monster and the
Girl; Sundown; The Jungle Book; The
Cross of Lorraine; For Whom the Bell
Tolls; The Conspirators ; Gilda; Dead-
line At Daivn; The Beginning or the
End; They Passed This Way; Vendetta;
Personal Column; Lured; Noose; The
Noose Hangs High; After Midnight and
Palomino.

In 1948, he flew to England to appear
in Edward Drvhurst’s production Noose
in which he co-starred with Carole
Landis and Derek Farr.

Since then, he has appeared in several
stage plavs such as “All My Sons” and
“Until the Thaw”.

Quite recently he appeared in the
following films: Vendetta, with Faith
Domergue, After Midnight, with

Alan Ladd and Wanda Hendrix, which
was followed by Palomina, with
Beverly Tyler.

Joseph Gaber of Rabat.

Out of the Darkness : premiere

The world Premiere of the new
missionary film, Out of the Darkness,
took place at the Institut Francais,
through the courtesy of the French
Embassy, on February 27th. The
occasion was graced by the presence of
the Apostolic Delegate, Mgr. Godfrey,
who made it clear that he was present
as the personal representative of His
Holiness and in this way added yet
another sign of the approbation with
which the Holy See regards Catholic
Film Action. His Grace also took
advantage of the opportunity to praise
the heroic work of the Sisters of the
Holv Rosary of Killesliandra whose
pioneering efforts in Nigeria this film
illustrates.

Among the distinguished audience
were many members of Religious
Orders and the Diplomatic Corps. We
were particularly glad to have with us
Dr. Andre Ruszkowski, the indefatig-
able and ubiquitous General Secretary
for External Affairs of the Office Catho-

lique International du Cinema. Dr.
Ruszkowski was on his way back from
Dublin where he had delivered a most
interesting lecture on The Light and
Shade of Religious Films. We hope to
have the privilege of publishing this
lecture in due course.

Out of the Darkness has had a
successful run at the Hammer Theatre,
Wardour Street, London. It is to be
shown at various centres in and around
London before making its way through
the country. The Sisters of the Holy
Rosary of Killeshandra will be grateful
for any initiative which can be under-
taken to enable them to show their film
either at a public cinema or in other
places. The proceeds of the showings
are all to be devoted to the work of the
missions. The film is available in 35mm.
and 16mm. Information from Catholic
Film Institute, 20 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3, or from the Sisters of
Holy Rosary of Killeshandra, 317a
Portobello Road, London, W.ll.

SUBSCRIPTION FORM

I wish to take out a subscription to Focus for years(s) beginning

with the issue, and enclose remittance value

NAME and ADDRESS to which copies are to be sent:

To: The Manager, Focus, The Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

Please make remittances payable to The Catholic Film Institute. The
annual subscription is 7 /-, post free.

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

I wish to become a member of the Catholic Film Institute, and enclose
remittance value for year(s) subscription.

NAME

ADDRESS

Subscription rates: Life Member £10.

Privileged Member £1.

Ordinary Member 10/- per annum.

Subscribers of £1 and upwards are entitled to receive all new pamphlet
publications issued during their year of membership , together with a
monthly copy of Focus. Ordinary Members receive Focus.

Please return completed form to The Hon. Secretary, Catholic Film
Institute, 20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3. Kindly make cheques,
etc., payable to The Catholic Film Institute.

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema )

President \ His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

j. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £10.

Privileged Membership, £i.

Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
pamphlet publications. Ordinary members receive a monthly copy
of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote :

“The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.”

Hon. Secretary :

Rev. John A. V. Burke, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

FILMS FOR HUMANITY

An independent, non profit-making organisation contributing
towards the spiritual welfare of humanity through film

Sir John Stewart-Wallace, C.B., Chairman
Andrew Buchanan, Managing Director

Gerald Bailey, M.A. Rev. John A. V. Burke

Lt. Cdr. H. Ronald Hardy Hugh J. Schonfieid

Alfred Torrie, M.A., M.B., D.P.M.

Advisory Council

Catholic Film Institute
Churches’ Council of Healing
Crusade for World Government
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Society of Friends’ Peace Committee
Humanity Now

National Association for Mental Health
Theosophical Society
World Citizenship Movement
World Congress of Faiths

*

Administration :

Parliament Mansions, Abbey Orchard St., Victoria St

London, S.W.1.

Production :

Park Studios, Putney Park Lane, London, S.W.15

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers). Ltd., for The Catholic Film Institute,
20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3.

Film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions’’, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
20 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3

FILM STRIP

FATIMA TO-DAY

Coloured pictures from the film

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

with explanatory leaflet.

36 Frames. Price : 15s.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
20 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3

ADVERTISING SPACE
TO LET
apply

20 OVINGTON SQUARE,
LONDON, S.W.3

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

FILM LIBRARY

CRUCIFERS TO WALSINGHAM

An Introduction to Our Lady of Walsingham. The Story of the Cross
Pilgrimage.

Two reels. Sound. Music and Commentary. Available in 35mm. and
16mm. Hiring fee: 16mm., £1 Is. Od. a day; 35 mm., copies by special
arrangement.

VISITATION

Andrew Buchanan’s celebrated film on the work of the Medical Missionaries
of Mary. Seven reels. Monochrome. Hiring fee: £5. All profits devoted to
the work of the missions.

THE SACRIFICE WE OFFER

Alan Turner’s film on the place which Mass occupies in the everyday life
of all working people. Four reels. Kodachrome. Hiring fee: £3.

Also available. Silent version. Monochrome. Suitable for instructional
purposes. This Silent Version omits the introductory and final work shots
of the colour version. Hiring fee: 30/-.

DOMUS DEI

Alan Turner’s film of the solemn consecration of St. Teresa’s Churoh,
Princes Risborough. One reel. Kodachrome. Sound. Hiring fee: 15/-.

A LEGEND OF NORFOLK

Re-issue of Arthur Leslie’s successful film on Walsingham. Two reels.
Monochrome. Sound. Hiring fee: £1.

FAMILY AFFAIR

The working out of the spirit of Rerum Novarum in the Ernest Turner
factory at Spa Lane, Derby. Produced and directed by Alan Turner.
Prologue by H.E. Cardinal Griffin ; Epilogue by Father Joseph Christie, 8.J.
Four reels. Kodachrome. Hiring fee: £2.

THE VATICAN OF PIUS XII

March of Time. 2 reels. Hiring fee: 15/-.

THE BRIDGE OF THE FORD

Made by Andrew Buchanan for the Medical Missionaries of Mary. The past
and present story of Drogheda. Commentary spoken by Robert Speaight.
Monochrome. 4 reels. 40 mins. Hiring fee: £2 2e. Od. first day.

THE ATOM AND YOU

Made by Andrew Buchanan. A plea by a well-known American scientist
for the positive use of atomic energy. Sound. Monochrome. 2 reels. 20 mins.
Hiring fee: £1 Is. 0d.»

FOREIGN FEATURE FILMS

English sub-titles. 16mm. (Also available in 35mm.) Bookings arranged for
MONSIEUR VINCENT. £7 10s. Od. first day— TO LIVE IN PEACE, £5 5s. Od. first
day.— FARREBIQUE, £5 5s. Od. first day.— FOUR STEPS IN THE CLOUDS,
£5 5s. Od. first day.

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3

Vol. Ill

No. 6

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Page

Editorial

163

Last Holiday

179

Is There Any Hope For The

164

The Reluctant Widow

No Man Of Her Own

179

180

Film Industry ?

Guilt Is My Shadow

180

By Sidney F. Wicks

Champagne For Caesar

181

Melchior In Movieland

167

Ambush

181

By Lyn Lockwood

Jour de Fete

181

The Capture

182

Focus Film Course

169

East Side, West Side

182

By Andrew Buchanan

The Ballad of Berlin

182

If It’s A Good Film — See It

Thd Dividing Line

183

Again

170

The Stratton Storv

183

PaDer Chain ... ... - ...

184

By .John A. v . Burke

Some Films Reviewed

184

FILM REVIEWS

By Our Panel of Priests

Crying For I he Moon

185

Chance Of A Lifetime

172

By John-Baptist Reeves, O.P.

One Way Street

172

More Religious and Geographical

Retour A La Vie ...

173

Films

186

Prelude To Fame ...

On The Town

174

175

By Our Educational Panel

South Of St. .Louis

175

Institute Notes

189

State Secret

177

Cover Personality '.

190

Holy Year

178

Letters To The Editor

191

FOCUS — Annual Subscription: 7s. (post free). Single Copy: 7d. (post free).

Glasgow agents: Messrs. James Reilly and Co., 68 Gordon Street, Glasgow, C.l.

FOCUS— May be obtained from: The Manager, “The Blue Cottage,”
69 Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7. Telephone: Kensington
6849. Duckett, 140 Strand, London, W.C.2. Telephone: Temple
Bar 3008/9. Catholic Truth Society, 28a Ashley Place, London,
S.W.l. Michael White, 15 Broad Street Place, London, E.C.2.
Telephone: London Wall 1389.

International Film Review

The quarterly organ of the International Catholic Cinema Office — Towardstf
a Christian Philosophy of the Film.

Number Four now ready. Devoted mainly to the Italian Cinema.

Subscription rates: £1 per annum; single copies 5s. Obtainable from:
International Film Review, 20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3.

Special HOLY YEAR offer. New subscribers for 1950 who are members of
the Catholic Film Institute may have an initial annual subscription for 10s.

Readers of Focus securing two annual subscriptions are entitled to a free
subscription for one year.

“Offers a unique service to students of the film.” — Film Forum.

A FILM
REVIEW

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. Ill JUNE 1950 No. 6

"ribute to our Chairman

There was a time, during its
growth, when The Catholic Film
Institute in this country did not
know whether it was on its head or
on its feet. Then, Very Rev. Father
Hilary Carpenter, O.P., came along
and put the Institute firmly on its
feet and created a new spirit. In
every way Fr. Hilary is a big man;
we feel that he is big enough to
accept a few words of tribute. Where-
fore, our Editorial space, this
month, has been turned over to our
Hon. Secretary who writes . . .

We cannot let this opportunity
pass without offering to our revered
Chairman, our warm felicitations
upon his re-election as Prior Pro-
vincial of the English Dominicans.
It is an opportunity, also, to express
to Father Hilary our devoted affec-
tion and gratitude for the unstinting
way in which he has placed his time
and his talents at the disposal of the
Catholic Film Institute. Indeed, we
have every reason to be grateful for
his devotion to our needs in addition

to his arduous duties as Prior Pro-
vincial. It is not easy to think what
we should do were he to be with-
drawn from us. It is not too much
to say that the Catholic Film Institute
has come to depend very much upon
his wise guidance and direction.

\ V

From the days when with
our “Father Founder’’, Father
Ferdinand Valentine, Father Hilary
played a considerable part in mould-
ing the original policy of the Film
Society, through the period when,
as Editor of The Flarepath, he con-
sistently advocated the need for con-
structive Catholic Film Action, till
the fortunate day when we were able
to compel him to take his proper
place at our head, he has done more
than any other individual known to
us to propagate the wishes of Pope
Pius XI that good films be promoted
and it would be difficult to estimate
the debt which the C. F. I. owes to
him.

J. A. V. B.

164

IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR THE
FILM INDUSTRY? By SIDNEY F. WICKS

Editor’s Note. — When I wrote to
Sidney F. Wicks, I was unaware of
his illness. With his customary
courage and courtesy he replied that
he would dictate the article to his
Secretary and that I would have it
without fail.

Sidney F. Wicks is a man of wide
culture and experience. His article
goes to the heart of the matter. The
points he makes demand attention.
He is well known, particularly in the
North of England as Author, Editor
of three newspapers and Lecturer.
For some years he has been working
on a book about St. Francis of Assisi.
* * * *

I am dictating this article during a
regime in a nursing home, under
which I am forbidden to use my eyes:
that is to say I may neither read nor
write. So that at least for a week
I shall not be subject to the lust of
the eyes. I may not even look at
pictures, and as for the abhorrent
device for killing home life —
Television — this, of course, is taboo.
I am, therefore, in the right mood
to talk about the Cinema and the
Film Industry. The Editor has asked
me to say something positive about
the future of the films, and it may
be that, through this enforced policy
of the shut eye, I may be given
inner light.

ON THE DOWNWARD PATH

I imagine it was a retrograde step
when pictures were made to move
and the Cinema was called the

Movies. When a child looks at a
picture, his imagination builds up the**-'
past life and behaviour of the^P"
characters, and gives him a vision of
their future, so that when a picture
is made to move the imagination
suffers. A further downward step
was taken when pictures not only
moved but spoke. The child looking
at a picture book depicting the story
of Cinderella can compose for himself
what the Prince is saying when he
gazes at the crystal slipper upon
Cinderella’s lovely foot.

The latest step on the downward
path is to make balloons issue from
the characters in pictures telling the
child what they are saying. I
suppose in a children’s comic Juliet
would be depicted leaning over the
balcony with a balloon issuing from
her mouth containing the sentence :

“I love you”. This seems to be
leading nowhere, but it gives me
confidence as a Dictator.

FILMS AND THE CHRISTIAN
ETHIC

Proceeding on the absurd assump-
tion that we can effect a speedy
improvement in the quality of films, f
I should like to say that I do not^-
believe in religious films. By
religious films I mean those which
obviously set out to do a little good- ;
natured propaganda for the popular
conception of Christianity. As a
Catholic, I suspect films which are
full of monks and nuns, and bells

165

ringing and censers swinging. The
strategy of the Christian ethic is not
to nag the world into faith or to
reduce divine miracles to the status of
a fairy tale. The Holy Catholic Church
is not to adopt the role of a fussy
Moses ever coming down from a toy
Mount Sinai with propagandist leaflets
hot from the press. The Christian
ethic aims at permeating society so
that its underlying loyalties are
Christian, with all the currents of its
being set to God. God may not even
be mentioned, but He is an
assumption which permeates all
Society’s life. No, we do not ask for
religious films but for films which spring
from the subconscious reverence for
Christian Ethic and Faith. The
appalling thing about most films and
certainly nearly all of our modern
novels is that they do not seem to be
aware that Christ lived and died
nineteen hundred years ago or that
there is a Holy Law which holds the
destiny of man in its hands. In
short, they are pagan. No, not even
pagan, for paganism had its decent
rites and sanctions. What we have in
most films and novels is a paganism
arising from a civilisation which,
some time or other, has denied the
Christian Faith.

WE MUST FACE REALITIES

How, then, are we to secure a new
order in the film industry? The hope
that by cultivating a critical faculty
amongst Christians which will put the
fear of God into the Cinema box
office is futile. It ignores the colossal
fact that the people who flock to the
picture houses do not go because
they have chosen to patronise any
particular film. The visitation of the
picture houses is a mass habit and
people will go to the pictures)

whatever the nature of the film to be
shown.

We must face realities, even the
elementary reality that no human
effort can rise higher than its source.

It is not necessary for me to say what
the source of the Film Industry is
like, and if it is supposed that either
Hollywood or its English equivalent
can send up Christian pictures

“As effortless as woodland nooks
Send violets up and paint them
blue.’’

If you are in any doubt about this,
study Film Publicity. I am ready to
declare that no worse publicity is put
forth than that which the Film
Industry perpetrates. Study the
pages of your provincial city
newspapers and see the screaming
sensational slogans which call
attention to the weekly programme
— clutching hands, staring eyes, with
some oft-divorced star masquerading
as an innocent maiden swooning in
the arms of some Dago Spiv. Even if
the film happens to be good, or
innocuous, by accident the slime of
the Publicity Man will poison it. It is
this last point of the box office which
indicates the original source. What
I am getting at is that only a
Christian civilisation, alive with
Christian Music, Literature and Art,
can produce the films which answer
to the ethical demands of the Catholic
Church.

BEING IS MORE POTENT THAN
DOING

These statements are sweeping, and
the accusation is a railing one. I do
not forget that there are signs of
moral uneasiness in the Film
Industry, and that good films are
sometimes produced in a mood of
undefined penitence. I think that

166

amongst those employed by the Film
Industry are many who would be
glad if their masters would give them
something better to do.

Is all this, then, a counsel of
despair? If it were only that, it were
an ill thing to publish it in Focus,
with its constructive aims and its
educational purpose. I have written
(or dictated) in this way because I
think we must face realities before we
can progress in our task. To get busy
is not always the first thing to do.
Being is more potent than doing.
Prophecy must come before the event
and vision must be prelusive to reality.

By all means let us create a critical
faculty amongst Catholics so that
they may know the difference
between the good film and the bad.
There must be a public waiting for

the better days ahead. We must
educate our people into praying and
longing that an art so big with
potentialities of good and ill shall be
at long last dominated by the
Christian Faith By all means let
Catholics applaud a good film and
vociferously abhors a bad one. No
righteousness comes unless we hunger
and thirst after it. If you were to ^
corner me and demand that I should
declare what I believe to be the most
constructive thing we can do to
regenerate the Film Industry, I
should be forced to reply — Give your
whole love and loyalty, your soul and
your strength to the building up of the
Holy Catholic Church that she may
create a civilisation from which shall
arise a film industry consonant with
our faith.

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS

FUND

IF one fourth of the Catholic population in England and Scotland
contributed a penny a day for 240 days The Catholic Film Institute
in England would be able to set up a production unit.

It was the pennies of the Catholic population in France which made
possible the making of the film Monsieur Vincent.

Kindly send donation to:

Rev. J. Burke, 357 Beulah Hfll, London, S.E.19.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

£ s. d.

Previously acknowledged 230 8 0
Miss E. Ackerman ... 10 0

“Catholic Youth and
Family” (A Durban

Publication) 10 0

Malta Catholic Institute 14 0

£ s. d.

V. M. Pendleton ... ... 3 0

Dr. C. B. Burdett Smith 1 6

J. F. Maxwell ■: 110

£233 17 6

C

I see that Atlantis has popped up
into the news again . . .

The legend of the fabulous continent,
which was engulfed in a day and a
night to disappear beneath the waters
of the Atlantic, has fascinated men for
centuries and centuries. The legend
was old when Plato wrote about it ;
its origin is shrouded in the mists of
antiquity; someday, perhaps, its truth
will actually be established beyond all
doubt.

All of which brings me to Melchior
Meltis, the equally fabulous Director,
who has been specialising in disasters
— both historical and financial — most of
his life.

It was Melchior who produced that
super-colossal picture, The Big Sink,
about the island in the South Seas that
disappeared after a volcanic eruption.

This island was reconstructed on the
lot of Havoc Prods. Inc. at the trifling
cost of one million dollars (£250,000
before devaluation). It was battered
by a studio - engineered tidal - wave
(£50,000 worth) so effectively that it
sank in 20 minutes 5 seconds dead.

It took a little longer than this to
sink the backer, who was last seen
selling shoelaces outside Grand Central
Station. Melchior, who is possessed of
an unsinkable, cork-like personality,
however, rode the disaster with his
usual ease and survived to boost the
sale of a lot more shoelaces.

Naturally the subject of Atlantis is
one that is very dear to his heart and
he has been trying unsuccessfully for
years to get it filmed — the epic of the
South Sea island being regarded as just
a curtain-raiser to get his hand in.

A couple of years ago the subject got
as far as the top executive of a
Hollywood studio. This gentleman
turned it down eventually on the
grounds that swimming pictures were
no longer box-office and that he couldn’t
get Esther Williams on loan from her
producers anyway.

When Atlantis got into the headlines
again, Melchior, who had exhausted
every avenue in Hollywood, decided to

promote the idea in this country. Now
Melchior, living in a cloud-cuckoo land
where slumps and financial crises pass
him gently by, had no idea of the state
of the British film industry, but he did
manage to get an interview with a
junior executive who, through a mis-
understanding, thought he was there to
discuss some other picture.

The interview, I understand, went
something like this :

Executive : Good morning, Mr. Meltis !
Meechior : Goot mornink. Vat is dis ?
No carpet ? You havink it
cleaned ?

Executive : Not so loudly, Mr. Meltis,
please ! Our senior executives are
rather touchy about the absence
of a carpet.

Melchior : Let us forget about the
carpet and talk business.

Executive : Now about this picture . . .
We think it’s a good idea. It’s
possible that a steamship company
might put up the junior money
for you. We, ourselves, would
guarantee 70 per cent of your
production costs, provided you
brought the picture in on a budget
of, say, £60,000 — ■

Melchior : £60,000 ! Are you expectink
that I should sink a continent on a
budget of £60,000 ?

Executive : I beg your pardon, Mr.
Meltis ?

Melchior : £60,000 ! Elephant feed !
Executive : Elephant feed ?

Melchior : Dot is vat it cost to feed
the elephants in my production of
Hannibal Goes West. The whole
picture cost four million dollars.
My, vat a prestige job dot vos !
Executive : Don’t say the word

“prestige” so loudly, please, Mr.
Meltis. Our executives —

Melchior : You are knowink the

legend of Atlantis, of course ? It
vas a mothical continent —

168

Executive : Mythical . . . What ! ! Did
you say something about the
sinking of Atlantis ?

Melchior : Naturally ! Dot is vat I
am here for, ain’t it ?

Executive : There must be some

mistake. I thought you were
producing a film about a steamship
company called Transatlantic.

Meechior : You are wronk. I am here
to discuss mit you the film based
on the sinkink of Atlantis. My,
vat a production ! Vat a box-office
sensation ! Vat a disaster !

Executive :• Don’t say that word so
loudly ! Our senior executives —

Melchior : You have some ready-made
islands in this country lyink around
vat I could sink, maybe ?

Executive (mopping his forehead) :
Well, there’s the Isle of Man —

Melchior : Ah ! Vould it be easily
sinkable ?

Executive (wildly) : I don’t know.

We could ask the Governor.

Melchior : Send him a telegram right
avay. Now about stars . . . ?

Executive (very wildly) : We might
be able to borrow Margaret
Lockwood . . .

Melchior : Who is dis Margaret

Lockwood ? Never mind ... It
is all right mit me as long as she
can swim. I do not believe in
usink doubles.

Executive (chewing his tie dis-
tractedly) : I’ll ask somebody.
Melchior: Fine! Vat a picture you
are goink to get . . . “Thunderink
across the screens of the voild,
comes Vatcrlogged, the biggest
production of the age ! Mit a cast
of thousands ! See the deluge vat
wrecked a continent and the love
of a man for a beautiful woman ! ! !
See the biggest disaster in the
history of the voild from the
safety of a comfortable seat ! ! ! !
Y’ou simplv gotta see Vater-
logged ! ! ! ! !”

At this point the junior executive
collapsed under his desk, jittering and
foaming at the mouth. He was
subsequently removed to a nursing
home.

Melchior, at the moment, is besieging
the Ministry of Town and Country
Planning in search of a surplus island.
He is reported to be unusually subdued
in manner.

Which shows what a bureaucracy will
do to the toughest constitution.

Lyn Lockwood.

C.F.I. SUMMER SCHOOL

(August 8th — 12th inclusive)

at

The Convent of the Assumption, Ramsgate

Film Appreciation — Fundamentals of Film Technique
Projection Class — Camera Class — Film Strip

Lecturers will include Andrew Buchanan, Edward Carrick,
Lyn Lockwood, W. J. Igoe, J. A. V. Burke

Accommodation is limited to 50 places and applications will be
dealt with in rotation

Inclusive fee for lectures and full board : £2 10s. od.
(Non-members : £2 15s. od.)

All enquiries should be addressed to :

Secretary, Film Course, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7

169

FOCUS FILM COURSE

By ANDREW BUCHANAN
No. 5— THE NEWS REEL

Don’t take the news reel for granted.
Take it to pieces, and learn more about
it. Although the smallest film made,
it has the widest circulation of all. It
is produced with remarkable speed in
an industry noted for the slowness
of production tempo. News reel
technicians have the toughest of all
jobs, and are both highly skilled and
courageous. The cameramen have to
film in all weathers — rain, snow, even
fog. The3r cannot wait for blue skies.
The organisation behind them is geared
for speed. Special laboratories keep
the way clear to develop and print all
negatives without delay. If, sometimes,
you see photography which is not up
to standard, remember that nothing
can be staged, or rehearsed, and that
filming in any light is not very easy.

A news reel rarely runs for more than
eight minutes, being around 700 feet in
length. Into that brief period, three,
four, and sometimes more subjects have
to be packed. Occasionally, special
longer features are included, but
usually a sequence is 100-150 feet.
Editors know just how to select and
assemble scenes to present the high-
lights of a story, and cleverly suggest
we are seeing a comprehensive survey,
whereas .little more than pictorial
headlines are shown, for the time
factor does not permit of detailed
analysis. A great many regular film-
goers regard the news reel as a sort of
animated interval. They watch it
rather as they glance at the pages of
an illustrated paper, rarely pausing to
read or think. Sometimes a sequence
arrests the attention. More often the
reel passes in one eye and out of the
other. News reels are criticised, both
in and outside the industry. They are
said to be monotonous ; lacking in

originalit}-, and so on. This is not
entirely fair. They have to cover
annual events, and intersperse them
with current stories which can be
covered in just over a minute each.
When subjects are scarce, they may
include items which are not news in
a topical sense, but which assume a
certain urgency by appearing with
current items.

There are five news reel companies
in this country, working on a rota basis
when filming important personages,
each in turn producing the interview
or ceremony, and supplying duplicate
negatives to the other four.

Is the news reel adequate ? As
commercial and programme space
reasons compel it to remain short, it
cannot be expected to do full justice
to the stories it covers. Would it be
better to plan longer, analytical reels
to deal comprehensively with one or
two .subjects, than superficially with
four or five ? We are always being
shown the effect of this or that
occurrence, but never the cause.

Is the news reel impartial ? It
claims to be. It is not always
successful. Each country’s news reels
are national in shape and viewpoint.
There is no international screen news,
transcending national and political
barriers, nor is there any religious news
reel addressed to mankind as a whole.

The news reel cannot claim to
benefit humanity nor to contribute
to world • peace. Indeed, when
harnessed to opposing belligerent
nations, it becomes a ferocious and
compelling propaganda weapon.
Incidentally, propaganda is not allowed
in the cinema, one is told. It is
allowed, however, or maybe the word
should be enforced when it is propa-

170

ganda to strengthen existing conditions
in this, that, or any other country, in
which case it is not regarded as
propaganda, but “important imforma-
tion”. It is the other kind of

propaganda which is not allowed — the
kind which seeks to tell the other half
of the story. What people do not see
or hear, they do not miss, of course !

By a combination of well-assembled
visuals, and commentaries which go
beyond what is seen, the news reel is
capable of forming public opinion to a

surprising degree, and all who take
films seriously should study the
technical make-up of this little film
with the big circulation. Naturally,
the news reel is content to show ns
what is going on in the material world
around us, but it would be a wonderful
help to millions if sometimes it would
remind them that life is incomplete
without the constant influence of the
spiritual factor. That is the kind of
news which is forever topical, yet so
often overlooked.

IF ITS A GOOD FILM-

SEE IT AGAIN!

By JOHN A. V. BURKE

Some weeks ago, at a lecture which
I was giving, a man made the remark
that only lunatics went more than once
to see the same film. He was making
an attempt to counter my assertion
that cinema at its best is a true art
form. He said that intelligent people
went again and again to see a good
play; they read the classics of literature
over and over again, but “only a
lunatic ever went to see a film again” !
It is obvious that the answer to this
curiously prejudiced attitude is that few
people pay a second visit to a poor
play or read again a second-rate novel
and that it is the quality of the play
or book that attracts, not the fact that
it is a play or book. So with the
cinema, granted that there is a greater
proportion of films than plays, the
number of films that are shoddy and
worthless are bound to be greater too.
But no one can truthfully deny that
there have been many films of great
beauty that have been seen again and
again bv persons of intelligence and
discernment, films like Nanook of the
North, Louisiana Story, The Over-
landers, The Red Shoes, The Passion
of Joan of Arc and others, to mention
only those whose appeal is primarily
pictorial. There are, of course, many
others whose appeal is dramatic or
religious that have been worthy of
repeated visits, films like Hamlet,

Henry V, Rembrandt, Mutiny on the
Bounty, Monsieur Vincent, Song of
Bernadette, Open City, Brief Encounter.
It is idle to say that the content of
such films can be absorbed in one
viewing. It is pure philistinism to say
that thej' are not worth another visit.

If it is prejudice on the part of the
Philistines to think that no film is
worth a second visit, it is economic
lunacy on the part of the exhibitors to
make it virtually impossible for a good
film to be seen again. Yet that is the
prevailing position. The distribution
of films is geared to such a mechanical
rhythm that unless you manage to see
the film of your choice during the week
or three days that it is in your neigh-
bourhood, you have to all intents and
purposes lost it. It is possible, of
course, to travel to another district,
but even then, such is the machine-like
method in which films move round the
circuits, you have only two weeks to
make up your mind and arrange your
evening appointments.

It is curious that exhibitors have not
yet realised that there is a vast
untapped audience waiting to be
induced to see worthwhile films.
This audience, consisting mainly of
people over 35 years of age, have
been so repulsed by memories of sub-
human offerings in the cinemas over
the past 29 years that it takes more

171

than two weeks to persuade them to
risk another wasted evening in the
company of the latest Hollywood heart-
throb or Denham decadent. If there
is merit in a film, reliable critics
and friendly recommendation will
eventually break down resistance, but
bv that time the film is beyond reach.

But there is another prejudice to be
overcome before exhibitors can be
made to revise their booking arrange-
ments. It is the curious reaction on
the part of many otherwise intelligent
film-goers to what they call “old”
films. They cannot bear to think that
their neighbourhood gets the “latest”
films too late. “Oh, that’s an old
film”, is often the reaction to a
suggestion that such and such a film
is worth seeing.

If it is_a good film it is worth seeing
again. It does not matter whether the
film was produced last season or last
decade. If it rvas good, then it is good
now and has much to offer for a second
or third viewing. It is like listening
to a gramophone record. You cannot
absorb all there is to be heard and
appreciated in one audition. So with
a film. A film like Henry V or They
Were Not Divided yields much pleasure
and instruction the second or third
time it is viewed.

As in the case of gramophone
records, so too with films, there is such
a thing as technical improvements in
reproduction as the years go by, but
there are not so many films nowadays
that are all that much better,
artistically and technically than some
of the classics of the past. Rembrandt ,
for example, is a film that is a master-
piece which has been curiously

neglected even by the film societies.
The acting of Charles Laughton is
probably the best thing he ever did
and the art direction and the scripting
well above average with a really
inspired use of lighting for camera-
work. Wuthering Heights, Rebecca,
The Four Feathers, The Little Foxes,
Jezebel, are all films that I would
willingly look at again.

However, what I am trying to suggest
here is that the present system of
circuit distribution is militating against
the best interests of the cinema. The
thoughtful audience will not be press-
ganged by saccharine publicity into
seeing a film. The moronic types will
go to see anything. But even the
number of morons is apparently
dwindling sufficiently now-a-days to
make the exhibitors look a bit worried.
It is only commonsense that the films
which have already cost so much
money should be allowed to reap some
more by judicious distribution, based
on the intrinsic worth of the film.
Repertory cinemas in each town may
be the answer. Best of all, the
realisation at the production end that
adult films will eventually bring out
adult audiences. The adolescents will
presumably grow-up one day and in
the meantime, Children’s Entertain-
ment Films are catering for intelligent
children.

But the present audiences have a job
of work to do. They must tell their
cinema-merchants what they want and
whether they want it again or not. So
much, in the last analysis, depends on
the people who pay to see the pictures.
If only they would wake up to their
responsibility and opportunities !

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********

CHANCE OF A LIFETIME

Starring: Basil Radford, Bernard

Miles, Niall MacGuiness.
Producer and Director: Bernard
Miles. Distributors: British Lion.
Certificate: U. Category: B.

Running time : 89 minutes.

Exasperated by the unco-operative-
ness of his workers, the owner and
managing director of an engineering
works (Basil Radford) suggests that
they run it themselves. His outburst is
taken literally and the film portrays
the result.

My ignorance of industrial matters
can be gauged by the fact that on
returning home I had to get a
dictionary and look up the word
“ratchet”, much bandied about early in
the picture. And economics have
always struck me as important rather
than comprehensible. So perhaps I am
wrong in thinking that the problems
posed by this film may be a little over-
simplified. The conclusion is that the
owner, for all his old school tie, is a
pretty good sort after all and that
though he has something to learn from
the workers, they have quite a lot to
learn from him. Everybody ends up
happily, even the Communist agitator
(his political affiliation is unmistakably
indicated rather than explicitly stated)
eventually learns to laugh at himself.

When I heard that this picture had
been “pushed” by the government, I
wondered if it was going to advocate
nationalisation. But no. If it is
propaganda for anything, it is for
increased production. That’s O.K. by
me. We can’t produce too much. Or
can we? I wouldn’t know. That’s
economics.

Q-

ONE WAY STREET

Starring: James Mason, Marta Toren
and Dan Duryea, with William
Condra and Basil Ruysdael. A
Universal-International Picture.
Director: Hugo Fregonese.

Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time: 75 minutes

approx.

Here is a film with many entertaining
qualities; an unusual variation of the
theme of the crooked doctor’s
rehabilitation, credible dialogue,

beautiful Mexican scenery, a plot
suitably varied by suspense and
romance and competent acting and
direction. Yet it is marred on the.
one hand by unconvincing character
development and on the other by the
fatalism whiah it preaches. The con-
version of the doctor from gangster to
humanitarian, albeit rather sudden, is
welcome. All the more pity, therefore,
to suggest that the fates reck nought
of morals. True, the film could as
easily be used as a sermon to teach
the urgency of conversion, “for ye
know not the day nor the hour”.

There are some interesting characters
including a priest (it is doubtful
whether he is intended to be a Mexican
or not, but his garb reminds one of
Henry Fonda in The Fugitive) who
helps in the conversion, and a little
Mexican boy, unnamed, who shows
great ability.

James Mason, I thought, had more
opportunity for acting than has come
his wav for a long time. It is hardly
his fault that the doctor was so lacking
in probability. Marta Toren is a
suitable foil to Mason and Dan Duryea
rather less objectionable than such
characters usually allow him to be.

V.

173

RETOUR A LA VIE

(Return To Life)

Starring: Louis Jouvet, Patricia Roc,
Bernard Blier, Noel-Noel and
Serge Reggiani Distributors:
Film Traders Ltd. Directors:
H. G. Clouzot, Georges Lampin,
Andre Cayatte and Jean Drey-
ville. Certificate : A. Category-.
A. Running time: 120 minutes.

World War One was ten years ended
before the debunking literature began
to appear. All Quiet on the Western
Front and Journey’s End were among
the most discussed pieces of the early
thirties. World War Two is not so
long buried before the cinema produces
examinations of motives and characters,
ideologies and movements calculated to
make us feel that the cataclysmic
upheaval which we so recently
experienced was more than usually
unnecessary. The Germans have given
us Ballad of Berlin, in which we see
the unaccustomed and healthy sight of
Germans laughing at themselves,
though I grant the laughter is some-
what wry. Italy, with Vivere in Pace
and Angelina, have shown us that the
dupes of Mussolini are learning the
hard way to social sanity. Now France
comes along with a document which
preaches tolerance and patience and
humility and the evident need of

ernard (Leo Lapara) tells the disabled Girard
-ouis Jouvet) that he is pushing his dislike
of the post-war world too far . . .

brotherhood among men if civilisation
is to remain.

It is particularly pleasing to have a
French film which preaches the need
of tolerance towards Germans for
France, of all nations has most bitterly
suffered from the excessive militarism
of her northern neighbour. Retour a
La Vie is not only a good sermon, it
is also well composed. The five
episodes which make it up are,
inevitably, of unequal quality, but each
in its turn and in its own way
contributes something to the total
theme of the film. Each one, even the
least satisfactory (and that is largely
a matter of taste) is wrell above the
average in good French film technique.

The first and the last deal with the
impact upon the conscience of French-
men, of a liberation which places
Germans in their power. Louis Jouvet,
as a cripple who finds a wounded Nazi
in his hand's, and Serge Regnani, as a
returned prisoner w:ho brings a German
girl-wife to his village, represent the
opposite poles of national bitterness
and national tolerance. Both are
pow'erful arguments in their separate
ways, but the first falls into the trap
(perhaps excusable under the stress of
the occasion) of making the Frenchmen
give the Nazi an overdose of morphia
to prevent him further suffering at the
hands of the “liberating” Maquis.

The link between the five pieces is
that the chief character in each is a
prisoner-of-war returned from Germany.
The most cynical, and for me the most
pleasing, is the episode in which Noel-
Noel is received by a delegation at the
Gare D’Orsay and made the recipient
of a speech and a statuette as a result
of being the 1,500,000th prisoner to
return. But he finds his home occupied
by strangers, his girl gone off with
somebody else, his performing dogs
having forgotten their tricks and his
treasures destroyed. Nevertheless he
learns that life must begin again and
he sets off with a bouquet and great
hope to find romance and a new home.

The remaining two episodes mark the
extremes of the macabre and the light-
hearted. In one, a family squabbles
as to who is to tell Aunt Emma that
while she was in Dachau, her name
was forged in order to secure her share
of an inheritance, the w'hile she lies
corpse-like and uncaring in the next
room. In the other, a returned barman

174

finds himself called upon to pretend to
make love to a company of jaded
W.A.C.s.

This film abounds in technical
felicities in the best French tradition.
I will select two : rare examples of
symbolism used in film : one is where
a flock of geese follows after a
chattering delegation of outraged
villagers ; the second, a most happy

Prelude to Fame

Starring: Guy Rolfe, Kathleen Byron
and Kathleen Ryan, with Jeremy
Spenser. A Two Cities Film.
Director: Fergus McDonell.

Certificate : U. Category : B.

Running time : 88 minutes.

The burst of applause that punctuated
the Press Show of Prelude To Fame
was not directed at the film. Seldom
have I sat through a more tediously
unconvincing script or listened to less
intelligent dialogue, or watched adults
on the screen who seemed so weary of
their existence. The applause was a

composition in which a water-sodden
jacket drips its tattoo of reconciliation
on to a drum which has recently been
used to express hatred. Two masterly
touches There is no room to do full
justice to a first-class French film. I
have no hesitation in calling it a
basically religious piece which any
adult would do well to see and ponder.

V.

tribute to the inspired and sensitive
acting of a little boy of twelve, who
succeeded in convincing us that he
both understood the music he was
conducting and had the orchestra that
played it under his control. Jeremy
Spenser is another of those talented
youngsters with which the British
studios abound. If only the Screen-
writers, Directors and adult players
were half as capable and conscientious.

The cameraman and the editor
deserve credit for beautiful photo-
graphy neatly assembled, though some
of the cutting was so sharp as to
suggest some extravagant discarding of
takes.

The story of the little Italian boy
with an astonishing gift for musical
analysis plus a prodigious memory,
who is adopted by an ambitious and

175

unscrupulous Englishwoman, anxious
to be known as a patron of music has
now provoked three films. The French
version has had to change its title
owing to similarity to the British film.
With the little Italian prodigy, Pierino,
playing his real life role, it would
make an interesting comparison with
Jeremy’s performance. I fear that
one’s credibility in such youthful
maestros must be diminished by the
very fact that Jeremy could so easily
similate genius! The third version,
with Bobby Henrey as the child
conductor, seems now to have been
shelved. This, too, would provide an
interesting comparison. It is my view
that Jeremy is the better actor for
Bobby, in Fallen Idol, had Carol Reed
to direct him.

The Italian characters and dialogue
were pitifully inadequate. All with
B.B.C. accents. But the sentimentality
of the story, in addition to the pathos,
and perfection of Jeremy Spenser is
almost certain to win this film box-
office distinction. The child has a
curious resemblance to Orson Welles.
Alas, when he was conducting his
orchestra, I could not help thinking of
Orson weaving his hypnotic spells in
Black Magic !

V.

ON THE TOWN

Starring: Gene Kelly and Frank

Sinatra. Directors: Gene Kelly
and Stanley Donen. Producer:
Arthur Freed. Certificate : U .

Running time: 98 minutes.

Even if you don’t like musicals, this
is really a very good one, splashed
vigorously about New York in the wake
of the U.S. Navy in the persons of
Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules
Mursshin let loose for a day. Their
pursuit of girlish youth and beauty
narrows down to a search for Miss
Turnstiles, so named for the month by
the City Underground and portrayed
by Vera Ellen. With the aid of an
amorous taxi driver, Betty Garnett,
and a very photogenic anthropologist,
Anne Miller, they are eventually all
united on top of the town via the
Empire State Building. Their journey
there is via such unlikely places as the
Natural History Museum, which their
passage somewhat enlivens.

Naturally, the story is interspersed
with much song and dance of all
descriptions, including some interesting
ballet sequences in the modern
surrealist style. The old-fashioned leg-
show stuff gets little respect from this
film, as every time a chorus appears,
they inform us they are about to
depart, and do so. It .as a pity the
fruity-voiced docker who opens and
ends the nonsense of the day had no
further part in the proceedings. Good
entertainment for most people.

P. P. F.

SOUTH OF ST. LOUIS
Starring: Joel MoCrea, Alexis Smith,
Zachary Scott, Dorothy Malone.
Director: Ray Enw'right. Certi-
ficate : U . Running time : 90

minutes.

I always enjoy a Western film with
cowboys and the open prairie and the
bad men. The cowboy and his life
make a romantic appeal to all of us,
although, no doubt, his life is far from
being such as the cinema portrays.

This film unfortunately is not
cowboy's and bad men, pure and
simple. It is set in Texas at the time
of the American Civil War and so gets
all mixed up with soldiers and guerillas
and espionage. This immediately put
the cowboys out of their traditional
setting, and when they got mixed up
in gun-running it was the end for me.

The story was hopelessly complicated
and its geography' was as difficult to
follow as the plot. Everyone seemed to
go without let or hindrance from a
town held by Federal troops to one held
by Union troops, and there seemed to
be nothing easier than to smuggle guns
from Mexico into Texas in large wagon
loads. The whole film is like that,
unreal, stilted and artificial, far too
complicated to follow, without a
running commentary, and very long
drawn out. The only thing which

livened it up for a few minutes was
the introduction of a Lancashire cotton
merchant 'complete with authentic
accent. This was so startling in a film
set in Texas that it did rouse some
interest, but we were soon back with
intrigue and gun-running and civil
wars, broken friendships, and very
very complicated geography.

P. P. F.

Operatini
Marlowe
confronts I
Stepanek (
(Jock Hal
of 1

STATE

Trapped in a
refuge hut high up
in the mountains
of Vosnia's Police
State, John

Marlowe and Lisa
( Glynis Johns )
come face to face
with their captors.

t

_

Dr.

r g e o n.
as Fairbanks)
Revo (Karel
Col. Galeon
with exposure
umplicity

ves from the Dictator
State of Vosnia

ECRET

Starring: Douglas Fairbanks, junior,
Glynis Johns, Jock Hawkins.
Producers: Frank Saunder and

Sidney Gilliat. Certificate : U .

Running time : 104 minutes.

Films of violence are only too
prevalent in our day, and the well-
known American type gangster film,
with its tough-guys, its killings,
brutality and violence, is only too
commonplace. That is why it is so
refreshing to see a film such as this,
for here we have a masterly production,
which has one hundred times the
suspense of a cheap gangster film, and
yet contains no violence. That, of
course, is where the whole success of
the film lies. I cannot remember
seeing a film in which the suspense is

so well maintained, and maintained
almost to the final fade-out. The whole
time there is the threat and suggestion
of imminent violence, and yet we never
see violence on the screen. Nor vet
does the film consist of a series of
monotonous narrow escapes from well-
nigh impossible situations. It flows
smoothly, logically and swiftly to its
final climax.

Perhaps, however, a word about the
film itself. It takes place in an
imaginary Police State, such as is all
too familiar to us today. An English
doctor (Douglas Fairbanks) is asked to
go there to demonstrate his surgical
skill, which he does. He finds to his
horror that the person on whom he is
operating is the dictator, who shortly
after dies. Because of this he is not
allowed to leave the country and is
threatened with liquidation. The rest

178

of the film is then concerned with his
attempts to escape, aided by Glynis
Johns, who plays the part of a variety
actress in a music hall.

greatest use has been made of natural
settings, all of which add to the air
of suspense and reality.

If you want a thrilling film which

"Do you recognise this wallet?"

The story is simple, but one feels all
the time that it is so true to life.
There is not a single character in the
film whom one can criticise adversely.
Everyone plays his part magnificently.
The camera work is very fine, and the

combines good acting and good
direction, this is one to which you
should go. It has also its moments of
subtle humour which go to make this
one of the finest films I have seen for
a long while. P. P. F.

HOLY YEAR

Produced by Associated British-Pathe.

Commentator: Wilfrid Pickles.

Certificate: U. Category: C.

Running time: 18 minutes.

Associated British - Pathe have
established a reputation for the
imaginative use of news-reel stock in
the form of historical cavalcades. We
remember The Peaceful Years, which
commented upon the political and other
happenings in the years between the
wars. Now they have applied the
same method to give us a tribute to
Hoi}- Year. With scenes drawn
from the Coronation of Pius XII,

the Consistories, Beatifications, the
inauguration of the Holy Year and
other Papal occasions, they have linked
reports from other countries, notably
the Holy Places in Palestine, Lourdes
and pilgrimage centres in Austria to
make a most welcome contribution to
the list of films which deal sympathetic-
ally with the efforts which the Church
is making in its own best way to the
cause of true peace. A thoughtful
commentary is admirably spoken by
Wilfrid Pickles. This is a little film
for which we say “thank you” to the
producers and which, I hope, will be
suitable welcomed around the countrv.

V.'

179

LAST HOLIDAY

Starring: Alec Guinness, Beatrice

Campbell and Kay Walsh, with
Bernard Lee, Wilfrid Hyde-
White, Muriel George and Helen
Cherry. A Watergate Production,
distributed by A.B.P.C. Ltd.
Director: Henry Cass. Certificate :
U. Category : B. Running time:
89 minutes.

It is some time since J. B. Priestley
treated us to one of his film sermons.
Like G. B. Shaw, he uses the stage
(and the screen) as a pulpit. Like
G.B.S. he has a knaCk of creating
characters, but he does riot seem
always successful in bringing them
together in dramatic unity. Each of
them stands out as a vignette, pleasing
and clever in itself, but bearing little
essential relation to each other or to
the plot in which they are conceived.

Sheila (Beatrice Campbell) has reason for
courting George Bird (Alec Guinness)

In Last Holiday he uses the idea of a
young man given a few weeks to live
who decides to have a really good time

• at a fashionable sea-side hotel, as the
peg on which to hang criticisms of
social conditions, class distinctions, the
parliamentary system and morality in
general. But he does not give us much
hope for the future. His Utopias are
all in the clouds In fact, one feels
that there is not much to be said
against a good dose of old-fashioned
Christianity, if only somebody would
have the courage to say so 1

Alec Guinness is master of himself
as the young man. For once we are
allowed to see him as he is, and the
sight is quite pleasing. Beatrice
Campbell, in her most important part so
far, plays well but one feels that neither
the camera nor the Director have quite
got the measure of this intelligent
actress. A galaxy of hand-picked
“characters” (as distinct from
“character actors”) make this a sure
success for the puppet-show which
Priestley has assembled. There are
obvious exceptions : Wilfrid Hyde-

White, Bernard Lee, Esme Cannon ;
these are artists who can play any role
convincingly.

Last Holiday is, then, a film which
is worth watching both for what
Priestley says (though you need nqt
agree with it) as for the way he says it.
The final fatalistic twist to the story
seems a little unnecessary, but has its
point. y

THE RELUCTANT WIDOW
Starring: Jean Kent, Guy Rolfe and
Julian Dallas, with Paul Dupuis,
Kathleen Bryon and Jean
Caddell. A Two Cities Film.
Director: Bernard Knowles.
Certificate : A. Category: B.

Running time: 87 minutes.

An apparently well-bred governess is
not above marrying a man on his death-
bed in order to prevent his brother
inheriting. In addition to a house
infected with sliding doors, secret
panels, mysterious strangers who prowl
the midnight hours and creepy knick-
knacks of all kinds, she also inherits
a Secet Document which, if it fell into
the hands of Napoleon, would mean
incalculable harm to Britain. Most of
the film time is spent by various
characters hunting the document.
Needless to say, Britain is saved and
all ends well after the usual trimmings
have been experienced. A sword duel
between Guv Rolfe and Julian Dallas
(an interesting and talented newcomer)
is more than- average good. Jean Kent
proves once again that she could act if
only she had the chance. She does not
get it here. Still, this is a film for
those who, as one Trade Paper
expresses it “seek action and romance
without subtlety”.

180

NO MAN OF HER OWN

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, John

Lund, with Jane Cowl, Phyllis
Thaxter, Lyle Bettger, Henry
O’Neill. Producer: Richard

Maibaum. Director: Mitchell

Leiser. Distributors: Paramount.
Certificate: A. Category : A.

Running time: 97 minutes.

Expectant but unmarried mother
Helen Ferguson makes friends on the
train with also expectant Patrice
Harkness and her husband. Patrice
puts her wedding ring on Helen’s
linger in case it might go down the
drain. At this moment the coach
turns upside down. Result of an
accident, I fancy. Mrs. Harkness ?
She died. Air. Harkness? He died.
Miss Ferguson? Not a hope, brother;
she is Barbara Stanwyck and she gets
oil with a Caesarian operation (all the
rage on the films now).

The wedding ring has names in it.
So everybody, including the Harkness
parents, who have never seen even a
photo of Patrice, assume that Helen is
she. Even when she absentmindedly
writes her real name and says she has
never before heard her supposed
husband’s favourite tune, that doesn’t
shake them, so Helen hasn’t the heart
to disillusion them, though she hates
taking their money. As they have

plenty, it conies in handy all the same
when the real father of her baby turns
up and starts blackmail. He is as
nasty a piece of work as could be and
has a mistress who isn’t given a name
in the cast, but is just called Blonde,
with a capital B. So many people want
to murder him that when lie does get
murdered the criminal takes a bit of
sorting out. But to save unpleasantness
Bill Harkness, the other son, drops the
body from a railway bridge on to a
train. We do not see, but are told
that in the course of this proceeding
the head came off. (“Watlier
gwuesome.”) But Bill is a nice guy
and he marries Helen and they live
happily ever after.

Actually the film is not quite as silly
as it sounds. It has touches of tender-
ness and of character, but these are
somewhat stereotyped.

GUILT IS MY SHADOW
Starring: Patrick Holt, Elizabeth

Sellars, Lana Morris and Peter
Reynolds. An Associated British-
Pathe Film. Director: Roy

Kellino. Certificate: A. Category:
B. Running time: 87 minutes.

I11 these days' of film depression it
is a welcome sign to see new teams
of technicians getting together to
write and direct native efforts. Roy
Kellino and Ivan Foxwell between
them wrote, produced and directed
Guilt Is My Shadow. I wish I could
say that the result was entirely
satisfactory. It has many merits : a
simple story, exterior locations making
use of the beauties of Devon scenery,
new and interesting players and a
moral sincerity which is altogether
praiseworthy in view of the watering-
down of ethical standards which is
customary in so many modern films.

The weaknesses seem to me to be
mainly two : with the exception of

Peter Reynolds and Elizabeth Sellars,
the placers do not bring life to their
characters ; the director -would appear
to have been unable to bring any
enthusiasm to bear upon a useful
script. It lumbers along from one
sequence to another, as though they
had no vital connection born of the
story they are telling.

The story is not without plausibility.
A young wastrel on the run from the
London police • comes to his uncle’s
Devon farm, where he soon wearies of
country life and talks himself into a
job as a mechanic at the village garage.
His deserted wife joins him and his
uncle gives shelter to both. The uncle
discovers that the wife is a decent,
faithful partner to a worthless husband
and when, in self-defence, she kills the
husband, he conceals the crime. But
conscience and the arrival of the
dead man’s mother precipitate a
denouement which is satisfactory if
over-melodramatic.

The film is worth a visit if only for
the sake of watching Peter Reynolds.
With proper handling, he could be a
very useful dramatic actor. Elizabeth
Sellars does not quite live up to the
promise she gave in Floodtide, but
that, I think, is mainly the fault of
the director.

O.

V.

181

CHAMPAGNE FOR CAESAR
Starring: Ronald Colman, Celeste

Holm, Vincent Price, Art Link-
letter, Barbara Britton. Producer:
George Moskov. Director:
Richard Wharf. Released through
United Artists. Certificate : U.

Category : C. Running time : 98

. minutes.

I think 3Tou will enjoy this farce,
despite the fact that it sags a little in
the middle like a well fed dachshund.

Ronald Colman is a genius, a walking
encyclopaedia. He enters a quiz
programme sponsored by Vincent Price
to boost his brand of soap Ronald
refuses to accept his winnings. Instead
he insists upon appearing again on
subsequent weeks on the understanding
of doubling the stake or losing all.
This procedure captures the interest of
the public, so that as week by week
the stake mounts ever higher, the sale
of the soap likewise soars. Vincent in
the end finds ' himself in a terrible
dilemma.

Ronald Colman plays his part with
easy assurance, and Vincent Price
scores a notable hit. In a comedy of-
this sort the clowns most engage our
attention and so the women are over-
shadowed. Caesar, by the way, is a
parrot, quite unnecessary to the theme,
I thought, but what does it matter ?

T.

AMBUSH

Starring: Robert Taylor, John Hodiak
and Arlene Dahl, with Don
Taylor and Jean Hagen. An
M.-G.-M. Picture. Director: Sam
Wood. Certificate: U. Category:
B. Running time : 89 minutes.

The drum roll that announces this
film, mingled with the roar of the
M.-G.-M. lion really tells us all we
need to know about it. When the
visuals began to show corpses and a
departing posse of Apache Indians, I
was quite hopeful that we were to see
something different. But then the
credit titles began to creep over the
screen and I knew we were in for the
mixture as before. Ambush is a
pedestrian yarn about stuffed shirt
professional soldiers fighting Indians

who have escaped from their Reserva-
tion and are ravaging the territory.
The civilian scouts help the soldiers to
track down the Indians ; there is lots
of whooping and fighting and tracking
and love-making in between whiles,
and the ladies get the men the}r
really love, because the others are
conveniently killed off in time. Robert
Taylor looked rather nice in a beard for
the first ten minutes, but then his fans
demanded that he appear stream-lined,
which was not half so convincing.
John Hodiak and the others ride like
anything and the scenery, as is usual
with Westerns is magnificent and makes
up for a lot that is lacking otherwise.

V.

JOUR DE FETE

Starring: Jacques Tati, with Rene

Wheeler, Guy Decomble, Paul
Frankeur, Santa Relli, Maine
Vallee, Rafal, Beauvais, Del-
casson. A Fred Orain Production.
Director: Jacques Tati. Distrib-
utors: Films de France. Certifi-
cate : U . Category : C. Running
time : 100 minutes approx .

Ici on parle franjais, but it is the
universal language of laughter which
prevails. English sub-titling is there
in discreet moderation, but a generation
which can understand the comic strip
can surely follow four de Fete without
language intervening.

Tati, something like General de
Gaul, something like Charlie Chaplin,
plays the part of a tall, gangling
village postman, whose solemn serious-
ness and rudimentary cunning survive
the fast moving series of misadventures
which bring laughter past boiling point.
After helping in the erection of the
showmen’s booths for the fair in the
village, he gets a peep at an American
film glorifying the U.S.A. postal
service. The greater part of four de
Fete shows our village postman with
his double jointed bicycle taking up
the challenge to emulate and, indeed,
to surpass American efficiency in postal
delivery.

It is not just up-to-date Keystone
Comedy. The laughter is not just
from the so called stomach. The farce
has its satirical touches which flash
dancing gleams of delight to the
intellect. X.

182

THE CAPTURE

Starring: Lew Ayres and Teresa

Wright, with Victor Jory,

Jacqueline White, Jimmy Hunt,
and introducing Edwin Rand.
Writer and Producer: Niven

Busch. Director: John Sturges.
Distributors: R.K.O. Radio

Pictures, Ltd. Certificate : A.

Category: B. Running time:

91 minutes.

A fugitive, exhausted and wounded in
the arm, lands up at Fr. Gomez’. Fr.
Gomez is not easy to put into a
category. He is neither the ever so
cute, big brother type of priest, nor is
he of the gentle shepherd variety —
the main choice that seems to lie
before the men of Hollywood. So
uncharacterised and impersonal is he
that it is obvious that a priest fits in
here as the convenient listening-in
device for the elaboration of flashbacks
to show us how an American manager
of an oil refinery in Mexico can, within
a year, come to be the hunted man that
he is.

The real bad man of the story is
obvious immediately we catch sight of
his jolly, consequential entry. But it
takes about an hour before our
suspicions are confirmed. The hero-
fugitive had come to share our
suspicions, but it is rather a “hunch”.
He has little more evidence than we
had fifty minutes earlier.

The nemesis : theme is well conceived
and maintained. If you are really a
good man you should think before you
shoot in case the man you’ve got covered
is so wounded already that he really
can’t raise an arm. Or else you may
regret it as Lin Vanner (Lew Ayres)
does.

One small point : in the course of
the flashback Lin marries the widow of
the man he’d shot. As the scene is
laid in Mexico, the wedding takes place
in a Catholic church, before a native
priest for whom the Latin is said very
well, but, beaming all over, he leans
over the altar rail and gives the happy
pair a real good North American
fraternity handshake. Not quite our
mode, I thought.

A good supporting picture with some
delightful photography. X.

EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, James
Mason. Director: Mervyn Le Roy.
Producer: Voldemar Vetluguin.

Certificate: A. Running time:
108 minutes.

I was quite looking forward to seeing;
this film with James Mason, as his per-
formances have been above the average
in some films. But this one was a great
disappointment. Barbara Stanwyck
plays her part well as the wife of an
unfaithful husband. But James Mason’s
part of the unfaithful husband could
have been played by any amateur.
Probably the story itself was respon-
sible for this, since it is an unsavoury
and immoral story of unfaithfulness,
the answer to which is divorce,
culminating in murder done solely' out
of jealousy, the whole judiciously
flavoured with scenes of American high
life in very expensive bars, where men
with lots of money play with very
expensive women.

The whole film left a rather nasty
taste in the mouth, for which its low
moral standards were quite obviously
responsible. The only thing which
gave it any uplift at all was the fact
that the wife is not unfaithful to her
husband, even though there is every
opportunity and, so the film would
teach us, every excuse. But even so,
one is left with the sneaking suspicion
at the end of the film, when she leaves
her husband, that she is going straight
off to set up another little home for
two. I would not recommend this film
in any respect to anyone, and perhaps
enough said.

P. P. F.

THE BALLAD OF BERLIN

Starring: Gert Frobe, Aribert

Wascher, Tatjana Sais, Ute
Seilish. Director: Robert A.

Stemmle. Distributors: London

Films. Certificate: U. Category :
B. Running time: 77 minutes.

This is the story' of Otto Nobody, the
German equivalent of Strube’s little
man. He returns to bombed Berlin
after what seems to have been for him
an unhappy and involuntary war, to
find that, while others can make shift

183

to live, he cannot. There he is, starved
and miserable, bartering his salvaged
pre-war glories for the miserable rations
that go to those who know only the
white market.

The story is not a tragedy so much
as a great deal of cynical fun about
tragedy. Conventions, opportunists,
black marketeers, militarists, civil
servants, down-at-heel limitations of
cafe society — all find their way,
humorously enough, into the adven-
tures of the bewildered Otto. He gets
the worst of an argument with two
arm-chair strategists planning the next
war and wakes to find himself firmly
nailed down in his coffin. Ersatz may
kill, but it cannot bury. The doctor
was too underfed and hurried to
diagnose properly and the undertaker’s
limitations leave Otto on the floor
while the mourners depart with the
superstructure of his coffin to the
cemetery.

The happy solution solves very little
but makes one or two suggestions
which, I fear, most people will have
heard before. A great deal of symbolism
and dream life is employed to help
things out, but there is little of the
subtlety normal in American, British or
other Continental studios. There is
much good fun in the film and good
photography, but the moral points are
underscored too heavily for our tastes.
It is a pity that Otto’s loneliness and
need for a happy marriage should be
translated almost exclusively into terms
of sex.

J. C.

THE DIVIDING LINE
Starring: Macdonald Carey and Gail
Russell. Director: Joseph Losey.
Distributors: Paramount. Certi-

ficate: A. Category : A. Running
time : 83 minutes.

If it is a fair test of the worth of a
film by asking how much will be
remembered a month after yon have
seen it, then, I fear, this film will not
pass the dividing line between the
average and the outstanding. But that
is not to say that the film does not
interest you at the time, or that it lacks
exciting moments — there are plenty of
these. Nor is it to say that the photo-
graphy fails because some shots are
exceptionally fine, especially those of
the chase. The acting, too, is

consistently good, with special credit
to Lalo Rios, who takes the part of an
irresponsible youth of Spanish origin.

This is a film with a message. Just
as Pinkey showed up the unjust
treatment of the coloured people in the
States, so this film reveals how, in a
small American town, the poor peasant
Spanish population is deprived of
justice through the prejudice of the
so-called “better” classes.

Bv the way; I could not help
wondering why the hooligan wreckers
of the newspaper offices, who did their
work with utmost thoroughness, should
have overlooked the manager’s depart-
ment and have left it intact. Perhaps
it was because those managerial
surroundings were just the sort of
background for a little love scene
between Macdonald Carey and Gail
Russell.

G.

THE STRATTON STORY
Starring: James Stewart and June

Allyson, with Frank Morgan and
Agnes Moorhead. An M.-G.-M.
Picture. Director: Sam Wood.

Certificate: U. Category: B.

Running time : 100 minutes.

A simple story told in the way
Hollywood knows so well how, about
the country boy with dreams of top-
ranking base-ball who meets the one-
timer, who teaches him all he knows
and then watches his pupil make the
grade to the top. Meantime he has
married a sweet little girl who gives
him confidence as well as first-class

A happy family

184

cookies and who cheers him to victory
as well as mending his clothes. When
he loses his leg in an accident, it is
she who leaves their baby to teach
him how to walk again. A clean,
unpretentious, neatly-made film with
adequate performances from all con-
cerned. Whether one would get more
fun if one understood baseball, I
cannot say. To judge by the expression
on June Allvson’s face, I guess I
missed something !

V.

PAPER CHAIN

Produced by G.B.I. for Wiggins
Teape & Co., Ltd. Running
time : 20 minutes.

This film seems longer than it is
because so much is packed into its two
reels. The whole process of the
conversion of rags or wood pulp into
paper is shown as it is carried out
today in the mills of Wiggins Teape

and Co., who have been making paper
since 1761. The film is both enter-
taining and informative. The opening
sequences, depicting a paperless world
in which the father of a family sits at
the breakfast table reading the latest
news summary off an engraved stone
tablet, whilst stone “letters” are
dropped through the letter-box with a
resounding crash, are most amusing
and arouse fascinating speculations as
to how our bureaucrats would have
contrived to run such a world. The
serious business of depicting the varied
and complicated processes of paper-
making, which is the film’s main
concern, is done in such a way as to
make the various stages of production
comprehensible to the audience, and
the film never lapses into dullness.
Designed primarily for sales propa-
ganda, Paper Chain will be of interest
to all (and they must be legion) who
have ever wondered how paper is made.

M. M.

SOME FILMS REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this list does
not connote positive recommenda-
tion. Films that are positively harm-
ful are not included here. Readers
are reminded to refer to the full
reviews when assessing a film.

Category A. indicates adults only;
B, adults and adolescents; C, family
audiences; D, particularly for
children.

Reviewed in “Focus” (Vol. Ill,
Nos. 4 and 5)

Adam’s Rib

(A)

(107)

Africa Screams

(C)

(114)

All The King’s Men

(B)

(147)

Always Leave Them

Laughing

(A)

(149)

Appointment With

Danger

(B)

(139)

Bagdad

(B)

(109)

Battleground

(A)

(114)

Beautiful Blonde From

Bashful Bend, The

(A)

(149)

Big Wheel, The

(B)

(140)

Bitter Rice

(A)

(109)

Black Magic

(B)

(149)

Bride For Sale

(B)

(146)

Bridge of the Ford

(B)

(148)

Chain Lightning

(D)

(115)

Dancing in the Dark

(B)

(139)

Dancing Years, The

(B)

(150)

Happiest Days of your

Life, The

(A)

(108)

Inspector General, The

(C)

(142)

Lcs Parents Terribles

(A)

(150)

Long is the Road

(106)

Moonrise

(A)

(148)

Morning Departure

(B)

(110)

Oh, You Beautiful Doll

(B)

(146)

Out of the Darkness

(C)

(115)

Outpost in Morocco

(B)

(147)

Red Danube, The

(A)

(112)

Riding High

(C)

(107)

Should Parents Tell ?

(A)

(146)

Stars in My Crown

(C)

(139)

Three Came Home

(A)

(108)

They Were Not Divided

(B)

(144)

Under My Skin

(A)

(141)

When Willie Comes Marching

Home

(C)

(107)

Young Man of Music

(A)

(140)

We Recommend

Come to the Stable

(C)

(12)

It's a Great Feeling.

(B)

(85)

Johnny Belinda

(A)

(42)

Passport to Pimlico

(C)

(150)

Rachel and the Stranger

(B)

(70)

Scott of the Antarctic

(B)

(14)

Snake Pit, The

(A)

(159)

The Blue Lamp

(B)

(80)

The Search

(B)

(342)

Twelve O’Clock High

(B)

(73)

Whiskey Galore

(B)

(220)

Crying For The Moon

By JOHN-BAPTIST REEVES, O.P.

Am I asking the film-makers for
something that they cannot or should
not give ?

Let me tell you what I want so that
you may tell me whether I should or
should not want it. Or if it is a lawful
thing to desire, tell me why I never
get it.

I want the films to revive for me, as
I believe only films can, a pleasure that
I enjoyed in childhood and can rarely
recapture now : a pleasure so exquisite,
so ecstatic, that to ask for more — as I
did then, and do still — is asking for
heaven itself and nothing less. I want
the films to help me to see visions, to
dream really delightful dreams : to

show me things that my bodily eye has
never seen, and — if they must add
sound — to let me hear music and voices
such as my physical ear has never
heard. I want to see new kinds of
things and hear new kinds of sounds :
the kind of things that come to you in
your brightest dreams, and have not yet
come to me in mine.

Surely our dream-worlds, our fairy-
lands, are quite different, not merely
from the common every-day world, but
from one another’s. If you asked me
to make a film for you, which would
you thank me for more : things that
anybody can see in plain daylight, or
things that I cannot point to because
I only see them in dark, dark rooms,
or when my eyes are tight closed ?

Oh, I know that films have other
uses : they can show us real things as
we can never see them. I know all
about nature films and travel films, and
I am more thankful for them than I
can say. But they are best when they
are serious. They are part of one’s
education. But who wants to be
educated all day long, and all night
too ? We all want entertainment, and
lots of it. We all need lots of it. It
is the one thing the film-makers seem
most anxious to give us. But for me
at any rate, most of their efforts are
an awful flop. They nearly all seem to
forget that the place for seeing films
is a dark room.

You would think that most film-
makers when thej' were very young,
were afraid of the dark. And their
foolish nurses calmed them by flattery,
telling them that this was because they
were so sensitive and had so much
imagination : taught them to pray to
the good Lord to deliver them from the
creep}' and crawly things that go plop
in the dark. The poor spoilt darlings
never had the marvellous story of
Genesis explained to them, so that
their creative genius was starved at
birth. The very first thing in creation
is darkness. The good Lord, the
original Creator, Who made us all to
be creators after His image and likeness
chose darkness as the perfect stage for
the revelation of His greatest wonder,
Light. Surely that is a tip worth more
than a gold mine to the film-makers.

Too much imagination ! Too sensitive !
What rubbish ! Have you never heard
about the old Irish bards, and how they
cultivated the genius of the most
imaginative and sensitive people the
world has ever known ? They locked
themselves and their young pupils in
pitch-dark cells for weeks on end, and
never came out until they had conceived
those “Visions” that are amongst the
greatest wonders of the ancient world.
You may say that since then the
sensitive imagination of the Irish people
has run away with them. But you must
not say that they have been unhappy
in the realms of laughter and tears
into which their fancy has led them :
the fantastic realm of faerie, and the
, infinitely more fantastic kingdom of
- Jesus Christ — more fantastic because it
is not of this world, but more real
than anything in this world. Unless
you go into the dark to discover all the
possible worlds that can be born there
you will never discover where this
world stands in the hierarchy of worlds
real and unreal, of God’s creation and
your own. You must create world after
world of your own otherwise you will
never learn to appreciate the wonders
of God’s world. You will be in it, and
not of it. As a definition of hell that

186

is good enough for the most fastidious
theologian. It explains why there is so
much that is hellish in the cinema. Too
little imagination. Too little appre-
ciation of the dark and of the wondrous
world of light that can come to life only
in the dark. A light that never shone
on sea or land until search-lights and
night - bombing became fashionable.

LIBRARIES

Dawn Trust, Ltd., Aylesbury, Bucks.
Editions Lumina, 5 rue Ferou, Paris,
Vie.

Editions du Berger, 4 rue Cassette,
Paris, Vie.

Common Ground, Ltd., Svdnev Place,
S.W.7.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ltd.,
Britannica Films Division, 211
Piccadilly, London, W.l.

E. DAWN TRUST GEMSTRIPS

In earlier issues of Focus, articles
from this panel devoted to the teaching
of Religion have drawn attention to
various Dawn Trust Film Strips (see
July, 1948, and March, 1949). Within
the last year Dawn Trust have
experimented with a new line which
they call “Gemstrips” — designed to
serve two purposes, viz., individual use
by children by means of a small patent
device called by the unattractive name
of “Dawnstrip Viewer”, and for use in
projectors, especially with very young
children. Each gemstrip consists of 12
pictures, selected to give the essentials
of the story, and generally taken from
the full length strips. They are
intended, in the words of the advertise-
ment, “to leave the Teacher complete
scope for telling these well known
stories”. This invitation to literary
license of interpretation of the Bible

(God help us.) I am quite willing to
discuss films with you as “a new
medium of artistic expression”, but
only as long as you stick to the notion
of artificial and fantastic light conjured
out of artificial and fantastic darkness.
That notion is elemental, fundamental.

( Reprint fro'tn an early edition of
“ Catholic Film News”)

text seems to the reviewer to underline
a fundamental weakness which in over
emphasising feeling and imagination
would appeal to a sympathy where
objective fact merges too easily with
fancy’s play. However, in the hands
of the right teacher any such danger
could be successfully overcome, and is
more apparent in some strips than
others. Some of the titles are :
Christmas with the Holy Family; A
Boy is Cured; The Prodigal Story;
Great Events; and a set of seven strips
with one viewer can be purchased for
£1.

F. TWO STRIPS FROM COMMON
GROUND

(a) The Spread of Christianity,
Pt. i, CGA/B 497.

(b) Lives of Great Christians Series:
Albert Schweitzer, CGA/B 295.

(a) a series of six strips covers
Christian History from the 1st to the
20th century. Although the series
contains interesting and rare material
brought together by a professor of
Glasgow University and is masterly in
its use of sketch maps, it would
probably not commend itself to
Catholic teachers; but Part I (A.D.
29-500), The winning of the Roman
Empire, contains nothing controversial,
and could be used to supplement a
course in Church History ; it is

MORE RELIGIOUS

AND

GEOGRAPHICAL

FILMS

By Our Educational Panel

187

doubtful whether the remainder of the
set would suit the needs of a Catholic
school.

(b) Albert Schweitzer. The Author
of two important books on Schweitzer
lias contributed to this series and
prepared notes to accompany the
pictures which give us an insight into
the versatility and great courage of this
doctor, who was also a missionary and
an expert musician, as well as a
| profound thinker and writer on
Theology. If we cannot accept his
theological position we can admire his
sincere and wholehearted devotion to
Our Lord which issued in deeds of
mercy. It is this last aspect of his
life work that the strip aims at bringing
before us. v

G. FRENCH STRIPS

English Catholics have much to learn
from the producers of material for
Visual Education in the field of
religion. For this reason it is worth
while going to the trouble of obtaining
some examples. Though supplied with
French commentaries and captions,
many of them could be used with
classes making a study of French and
with others also if the teacher can
translate straightforward French. A
few chosen to indicate variety Of treat-
ment are mentioned here.

St. Bruno et les Chartreux

Editions du Berger, 9053, 9054.

This is a good example of a series
of “Saints who founded Orders”. The
first strip is devoted to the life story
of St. Bruno, and the pictures are
excellent; the second strip shows us in
clear drawings and photographs some-
thing of the life and spirit of the Order
of Carthusians today : the Church

living and influencing world history.

St. Louis, Roi de France

Histoire de l’Eglise ecrite par les
Saints. Editions du Berger, 9041.

This is taken from another very
good series on Church History.
Contemporary pictures and modern
reconstructions of the scenes of the
King-Saint’s life are skilfully blended.
This strip would be most useful as an
adjunct to a study of the Europe of
the later Middle Ages.

Les Actes des Apotres

Editions Lumina, Bloud et Gay.

A very extensive library of strips is
issued under this name. The New
Testament is covered in great detail.
This deals with the early life and
conversion of Paul; it has lively
pictures in strong colours which will
pppeal to the youthful mind.

Le Loup de Gubio

is an attractive example of black and
white line drawing and silhouette in
pictures that tell a story without need
for elaborate explanation.

A New Educational Film Library.

Britannica Films Division

A selection of those films reviewed
below are distributing 16 mm.
sound films for classroom use. These
are ten minute films with a clearly-
spoken commentary, and cover a
wide variety of subjects, including
Geography, Science, Biology, Hygiene,
Social Studies, Athletics, etc. Films
may be hired or copies purchased
outright. Catalogues and all informa-
tion may be obtained on application to
Britannica Films Division, Encyclo-
paedia Britannica Limited, 211
Piccadilly, London, W.l.

Industrial Provinces of Canada

No. 125. Hire : 7s. 6d. first day, 2s. 6d.
each subsequent day.

This begins with a map showing the
position of the provinces Ontario and
Quebec. A short summary of the
historical development follows explain-
ing the settlements of French and
British and the rapid increase in
population since 1900. The provinces
attract tourists and holiday makers and
there are pictures showing the beauty
of the “thousand islands”, lakes and
streams, and the joys of winter sports.

After this we see the serious work
of the provinces fur-trading, agriculture
(dairy and mixed farming), fruit
growing, and manufactures (lumbering,
paper making, manufacture of farm
implements, food preparation, textile
manufacture). The importance of water
power is emphasised here. There

188

follows a survey of the different
minerals obtained here— gold, silver,
copper, nickel, asbestos. The film
concludes with pictures of transport
and communications, including export
routes, and towns.

The film is very good, particularly
in the use of maps at the beginning to
show exactly where the places are. It
contains a vast wealth of material,
enough for many lessons.

Prairie Provinces of Canada

No. 143. Hire as above.

First a map shows the extent of the
Prairie Provinces. The different regions
are shown, wheat belt, forest and
tundra (also by maps). A historical
outline shows the importance of fur
trading in first attracting the white man
and hjs eventual settlement there.

From this point the film concentrates
on wheat production in the south of
the prairie provinces. All aspects of
the wheat farming are dealt with,
growth of the wheat, machinery used
(binder and giant combine), transport
via Winnipeg, the Great Lakes to the
St. Lawrence, there to be shipped to
Europe.

The film finishes with a general
account of the geography of the prairie
provinces — other crops grow-n such as
oats and barley, the fattening of pigs
giving us our Canadian bacon, and the
reversal to pasture lands of areas where
soil erosion threatened. Finally the
film explains how development has
been linked up with the building of
the railways.

The film is very good, particularly
in the pictures of farming processes
like ploughing, which are so difficult
to explain to children without moving
pictures. Again this film contains a
considerable amount of material and
w'ould be suitable for the revision of
the w-hole geography of the Prairie
Provinces.

Argentina

No. 144. Hire as above.

The first part of the film deals with
life in Buenos Aires, where live one-

fifth of Argentina’s people. By
following the daily lives of two citizens,
a packing plant employee and a grain
broker, the film shows that the city
is chiefly concerned with the meat
packing industry and the trade in grain.

The second part of the film deals w ith
the pampas region, with its wheat
growing, cattle and sheep rearing, with
good pictures of the gauchos.

The film ends by showing the
dependence of the city on the products
of the pampas.

The film is good and does emphasise
the importance of Argentina’s
agricultural production. Sometimes
the rapid change of scene is difficult
to follow'.

Cotton

No. 397. Hire as above.

This film traces the story of cotton
from the cotton boll to finished fabric.

It begins in the cotton field, shownng
the process of cotton picking either by
hand or by machine. The cotton next
goes to the gin w'here the seeds are
extracted. The cotton is then pressed
into bales and taken to the mill, where
we see all the processes of manufacture,
carding, combing, spinning and
weaving.

The film is very good indeed,
although it w'as not really clear how
the cotton picking machine worked.

Mosquito

No. 359. Hire as above.

This gives the life cycle of the
common mosquito and the malaria
mosquito, showing the places where
they are likely to breed.

We are shown the various methods
that are being adopted to combat the
mosquito — such as the draining of
swamps and the filling of ponds with
the natural enemies of the mosquito.

It is an excellent film, from the point
of view of either science or geography.

189

INSTITUTE NOTES

C.F.I. Summer School

Arrangements are now nearing the
final stages. I hope that we shall have
an encouraging number of students.
We are doing our best to provide an
interesting programme and we do ask
for the support of our members and
friends to make this Summer School a
success. Past years have indicated that
residential summers may prove more
attractive than non-residential courses
organised in London. It remains to
be seen whether this is true. We do
depend very much on this Summer
School to be able to form an estimate
of how successful our future plans for
an independent, professionally com-
petent production unit for religious
films and films for humanity are going
to be. Do please help us to help you.
Make the Summer School part of your
holiday.

Film Competition

Another effort on our part to discover
what talent may be latent or
unrecognised is the Sub-standard Film
Competition, which is now open.
Andrew Buchanan has very generously
offered a prize of £20 to the person
whose film is judged to be the best,
technically and imaginatively. As we
announced last month, the following
well known persons have consented
to adjudicate : Miss Freda Bruce

Lockhart, Film Critic; Andrew
Buchanan, Film Producer and Director;
The Very Reverend Hilary Carpenter,
O.P., Chairman of the C.F.I. ; and Lyn
Lockwood, Screenwriter.

A Prize Plaque will be awarded to
the winner of the competition and
diplomas to the runners-up.

Mr. Buchanan thinks that it may
encourage people to submit film entries
if a definite subject is indicated. He
suggests, therefore, that a film
depicting or encouraging the idea of
Peace or Humanity or possibly a
religious film depicting the contribution
made to human well-being by such

organisations as the S.V.P., the
Y.C.W., Ex-Prisoners Aid, etc., etc.
Once again we appeal to you to help
us to realise our ambition of a really
worthwhile team of technicians making
really worthwhile films for humanity.
This Competition will greatly assist us
in planning for the future. But we
cannot do it without you.

Film Course

The Southern Region of the
Association of Convent Schools is
continuing its Course in Film
Appreciation. Nearly 300 nuns of every
Order and Congregation known to
education assembled at a cinema in
Wardour Street, London, on April 20th
to see the film I Remember Mama,
shown through the courtesy of R.K.O.
Radio Pictures, Ltd. Afterwards at
the Sacred Heart Convent, Hammer-
smith, lectures were delivered by Lyn
Lockwood on Screenwriting, and
Andrew Buchanan on Production and
Direction. The next session will
include a lecture on Art Direction and
Designing for Films by Edward
Carrick, the well known Art Director.

Report from Bournemouth

We have received this report from
one of our most active supporters in
Bournemouth :

“On Sunday, May 7th, Abbot Upson
gave a film show in the Corpus Christi
Guildhall, Boscombe (Bournemouth),
under the auspices of the C.P.E.A.
The films shown were those taken by
Abbot Upson during his tour of North
America, As sure as God’s in
Gloucestershire, a day in the life of a
Prinknash monk, and a film on the
formal re-opening of Pluscarden Priory.
The show was enthusiastically received
by a crowded audience.

“The Boscombe C.P.E.A. has been
holding regular monthly showings of
films of Catholic interest for the past
18 months, and it is hoped that some
useful work has been done in bringing
to the parish such films as Visitation,

190

Monsieur Vincent, The Sacrifice We
Offer, Don Bosco and others of this
type. Focus has been on sale at these
shows, and sales have increased from

the original dozen a month to three
dozen. The chief difficulty foreseen
regarding these film shows is lack of a
sufficient supply of suitable films.”

COVER PERSONALITY

GLYNIS JOHNS

Her personal success in State Secret
has brought the name of Glynis Johns
unforgettably before the public eye.
Though not necessarily her best role, it
is certainly her most important one and
will serve to establish her reputation
as an actress of outstanding ability and
charm.

I first saw Glynis Johns when, at the
age of 17, she caught the public fancy
for her enchanting stage performance
as the younger daughter in Esther
McCracken’s phenomenally successful
Quiet Weekend. Her quaint, elfish
personality, her curious husky squeak
of a voice fitted the part perfectly but
it was difficult to imagine her in more
mature roles. I next saw her as the
pathetic little German girl in 49 tli
Parallel. A small part, but it remains
fixed in my memory as one of the
outstanding character studies of that
very well-acted film. The voice was
still the quaint, childish lisp that
intrigued us in Quiet Weekend, but the
character using it was different : we

realised that its owner was an actress.
Memory next shows us an M.-G.-M.
film called Tartu, starring Robert
Donat as a British intelligence officer
masquerading as a Gestapo agent in
Rumania. The workers in the factory
are sabotaging the arms they are
supposed to be manufacturing. Among
the girls employed in the factory
is Glynis Johns. In an unglamorous
overall and headkerchief, she still
contrived to attract attention for a
dramatic and moving performance as a
girl who gets shot as a saboteur.

I am writing away from reference
books so cannot say whether I am
omitting any of the films in which
Glynis Johns has appeared, but I
certainly recall her work in Perfect

Strangers. This was directed by
Alexander Korda and starred Robert
Donat again, with Deborah Kerr and
Ann Todd : quite a powerful cast; yet
still the memory shows me Glynis
Johns as a perky little Wren trying to
comfort Deborah Kerr. In this film she
added to her repertoire of characterisa-
tions : hitherto the screen had asked
her to be solemn and sad ; here she had
the opportunity to be amusing as a pert
little modern feminist with a special
line in repartee. The next film that
comes to mind is This Man Is Mine,
based on the play A Soldier For
Christmas. Again Glynis Johns has a
pert, cheeky role as the housemaid who
joins the N.A.A.F.I. and competes with
her former mistress’s daughter for the
favours of the Canadian soldier whom
the family has invited for Christmas.
This was not a very good film and
Glynis Johns’ part in it was not better
than average. Anyone could have
played it. Frieda, the controversial
film about the R.A.F. pilot who marries
a German girl who helped him to
escape, gave her an opportunity to vary
her style : the previous two films had
tended to stereotype her. As the sister
of the pilot, unwilling to accept her
German sister-in-law too easily, she
again showed variations in her talent
for stealing scenes even with the
competition of experienced players like
Flora Robson and Mai Zetterling.

Her trick of capturing scenes was
exemplified again in the delicious
performance she gave as the debutante
in An Ideal Husband. The Edwardian
costume seemed to suit her puckish
charm to perfection. Then follows
Dear Mr. Prohack and Miranda. The
latter was something quite specially
suited to her. As the Mermaid who

191

came to Town and moved in the best
circles, she had full scope for her
fairy-like personality and when, at the
reception after the Press Show, she was
present to talk to the critics, I was
not the only one who found himself
surreptitiously glancing to see whether
she really had a tail ! It was on this
occasion that her matter-of-factness as
a talker first impressed me. She was
not at all the usual glamorous,
artificially reserved film star, waiting
) to be caught by the camera. She talked
freely and wisely about her work on
stage and screen and showed herself
to be truly mistress of her craft. Again
in Venice last year at the Film Festival,

“Focus” and Gambling

Sir,

We find Focus extremely helpful to
the Films Team of the Young Catholic
Students Movement, who use it in
preparing their reviews for the benefit
of the whole school. It is also most
useful during the Religious Discussion
period in class, e.g., the review of
Any Number Can Play formed the basis
of a discussion of gambling. Many
other reviews have been used in the
same way.

Focus is a publication which I would
like to see in every Catholic home,
particularly where there are young
pepple. I think it is invaluable in
helping to develop the “Catholic mind”
on films.

Sr. M. Paue.

St. Anne’s School,

Temora,

New South Wales.

Film Revivals

Sir,

Would it be possible for you to
introduce a list of film revivals and
where they are being revived and
when ?

Many thousands of people who have
missed a film when it was showing at
the Central London cinemas or want to

she was quite at her ease among the
Continental film celebrities but seemed
so much more real and natural than
they. Watching her at work in the
Dolomites on location for State Secret,
one realised that here was an actress
who, though she might be considered
by some as rather limited by voice and
physique, was capable of impressing
any role she plays with that indefinable
quality called personality so that
though one may forget the names and
faces of almost all the normal “stars”,
one never forgets the parts played by
Glvnis Johns.

John Vincent.

see it again have no way of finding out
what films are on at which cinemas
except the Central (very expensive
ones).

As far as I know there is no present
source of information regarding what
films are showing outside the centre
cinemas usually quoted in the daily and
weekly papers, and many of the old
pictures are better than what is being
turned out today as far as I am
concerned.

Yours faithfully,

L. G. CUEEETON.

20 Palace Court,

London, W.2.

BOOK REVIEW

“Children in the Cinema”, published
this week price Is., is on sale through
W. H. Smith’s bookstalls. It sums
up the recent report and comments on
points of importance and interest
to parents.- It reprints the photos of
fright from “Picture Post” and contrasts
these with others showing children’s
joy — what the cinema could and should
be for children if there were more good
films. Readers are advised to order
their copy now.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

If you have an opinion to express, a comment to make, an idea to offer,
the Editor will be delighted to hear from you.

SUBSCRIPTION FORM

I wish to take out a subscription to Focus for years(s) beginning

with the issue, and enclose remittance value

NAME and ADDRESS to which copies are to be sent:

To: The Manager, Focus, The Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

Please make remittances payable to The Catholic Film Institute. The
annual subscription is 7/-, post free.

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

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remittance value for year(s) subscription.

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Subscription rates: Life Member £10.

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Subscribers of £1 and upwards are entitled to receive all new pamphlet
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monthly copy of Focus. Ordinary Members receive Focus.

Please return completed form to The Hon. Secretary, Catholic Film
Institute, 20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3. Kindly make cheques,
etc., payable to The Catholic Film Institute.

==.- i-.:

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

j. To further the cause of Christian culture hy means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

3. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £10.

Privileged Membership, £1.

Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
pamphlet publications. Ordinary members receive a monthly copy
of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote :

“The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.”

Hon. Secretary :

Rev. John A. V. Burke, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

Scriptural Productions

AN INDEPENDENT ORGANISATION DEVOTED
TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION
OF FILMS FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES

e

Under the Direction
of

ANDREW BUCHANAN

*

PARK STUDIOS
PUTNEY PARK LANE
LONDON

S.W.I5

Tel. Putney 6274/4052

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publi shers). Ltd., for The Catholic Film Institute,
20 Ovington Square, London, 8.W.3.

PRICE

An excellent film

■ ■ ■

HOLY YEAR

says the CATHOLIC HERALD

With scenes specially filmed in The Vatican and
in Rome and a message spoken in English from
His Holiness Pope Pius XII.

The meaning and history of Holy Year . . . the
birth of Christianity in Bethlehem . . . the glories
of Rome . . . the pilgrimages . . . the creation
of Cardinals.

Described by

WILFRED PICKLES

Distribution by Associated British-Pathe Ltd.

“It is an excellent film in every way, comprehensive
in treatment. Catholic in spirit, taking the historical
as well as contemporary view of the Holy Year . . .
I think it is safe to say that never before have there
been such intimate pictures of the Holy Father in
St. Peter’s . . . hearing his voice speaking to them as
it were face to face . . . does not side step the knotty
problem facing Christianity in the world today.’’

— Catholic Herald.

Ask Your Local Cinema Manager About It

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

FILM LIBRARY

CRUCIFERS TO WALSINGHAM

An Introduction to Onr Lady of Walsingham. The Story of the Cross
Pilgrimage.

Two reels. Sound. Music and Commentary. Available in 35mm. and
16mm. Hiring fee: 16mm., £1 Is. Od. a day; 35 mm., copies by special
arrangement.

VISITATION

Andrew Buchanan’s celebrated film on the work of the Medical Missionaries
of Majy. Seven reels. Monochrome. Hiring fee: £5. All profits devoted to
the work of the missions.

THE SACRIFICE WE OFFER

Alan Turner's film on the place which Mass occupies in the everyday life
of all working people. Four reels. Kodachrome. Hiring fee: £3.

Also available. Silent version. Monochrome. Suitable for instructional
purposes. This Silent Version omits the introductory and final work shots
of the colour version. Hiring fee: 30/-.

DOMUS DEI

Alan Turner’s film of the solemn consecration of St. Teresa’s Church,
Princes Risborough. One reel. Kodachrome. Sound. Hiring fee: 15/-.

A LEGEND OF NORFOLK

Re-issue of Arthur Leslie’s successful film on Walsingham. Two reels.
Monochrome. Sound. Hiring fee: £1.

FAMILY AFFAIR

The working out of the spirit of Rerum Novarum in the Ernest Turner
factory at Spa Lane, Derby. Produced and directed by Alan Turner.
Prologue by H.E. Cardinal Griffin; Epilogue by Father Joseph Christie, 8.J.
Four reels. Kodachrome. Hiring fee: £2.

THE VATICAN OF PIUS XII

March of Time. 2 reels. Hiring fee: 15/-.

THE BRIDGE OF THE FORD

Made by Andrew Buchanan for the Medical Missionaries of Mary. The past
and present story of Drogheda. Commentary spoken by Robert Speaight.
Monochrome. 4 reels. 40 mins. Hiring fee: £2 2s. Od. first day.

THE ATOM AND YOU

Made by Andrew Buchanan. A plea by a well-known American scientist
for the positive use of atomic energy. Sound. Monochrome. 2 reels. 20 mins.
Hiring fee: £1 Is. Od.

FOREIGN FEATURE FILMS

English sub-titles. 16mm. (Also available in 35mm.) Bookings arranged for
MONSIEUR VINCENT. £7 10s. Od. first day.— TO LIVE IN PEACE, £5 5s. Od. first
day.— FARREBIQUE, £5 5s. Od. first day.— FOUR 8TEP8 IN THE CLOUD8
£5 5s. Od. first day.

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3

Vol. Ill

No. 7

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Editorial

Page
... 195

Where Do We Go From

Here ? 197

By Lyn Lockwood

Focus Film Course ...

198

By Andrew Buchanan

Rome and Reality ...

200

By Fr. John Preedy
Fuji Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

Odette

... 203

In a Lonely Place

... 204

So Long at the Fair

... 205

Mrs. Mike

... 205

Father is a Bachelor

... 206

Wabash Avenue

... 206

Deported

... 206

Page

The Big Lift 206

The Eagle and the Hawk ... 207

Key to the City 207

Stage Fright 208

Adieu Leonard 211

Dance Hall 211

And Baby Makes Three 211

In the Name of the Law 212

Louisa 212

Father of the Bride 213

Some Films Reviewed 214

Children and the Cinema ... 215

Letters to the Editor 219

Films for the Teaching of

Science 220

Cover Personality ... ... ... 223

FOCUS— Annual Subscription: 7s. (post free). Single Copy: 7d. (post free).

Glasgow agents: Messrs. James Reilly and Co., 68 Gordon 8treet, Glasgow, C.l.

FOCUS— May be obtained from: The Manager, “The Blue Cottage,”
69 Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7. Telephone: Kensington
6849. Duckett, 140 Strand, London, W.C.2. Telephone: Temple
Bar 3008/9. Catholic Truth Society, 28a Ashley Place, London,
S.W.l. Michael White, 15 Broad Street Place, London, E.C.2.
Telephone: London Wall 1389.

International Film Review

The quarterly organ of the International Catholic Cinema Office — Towards
a Christian Philosophy of the Film.

Number Four now ready. Devoted mainly to the Italian Cinema.

Subscription rates : £1 per annum ; single copies 5s. Obtainable from :
International Film Review, 20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3.

Special HOLY YEAR offer. New subscribers for 1950 who are members of
the Catholic Film Institute may have an initial annual subscription for 10s.

Readers of Focus securing two annual subscriptions are entitled to a free
subscription for one year.

“Offers a unique service to students of the film.” — Film Forum.

A FILM
REVIEW

FOCUS

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. Ill JULY 1950 No. 7

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

(i)

Today, the character of a child is
made or marred, to an extent which
is not universally recognised, by the
light and sound and atmosphere of
the cinema, for all the world’s
children love picture stories. But,
t there are pictures and pictures. If a
child is brought up on trashy picture-
stuff, all that it will contribute to the
world later on will be a trashy and
empty mind If the child-mind is
stuffed with mucky pictures, what
great chance has it later on when it
must face the devil, the world and
the flesh? Child minds doped with
anti-Christian or anti-social film
stuff are not likely to make sound
Christians or sane citizens. Dark,
dangerous, dirty thoughts placed in
the sub-conscious minds of young
children, through the subtle medium
of films, is hardly what the Divine
Doctor of souls and minds has
ordered.

“Whosoever shall scandalise one
of these little ones who believe in Me,
it were better for him that a mill-
stone were hanged about his neck
and that he be drowned in the depths
of the sea.”

It is a coward’s way out to argue
that under the circumstances it

were better had the cinema never
been bom. The fault lies not in the
cinema qua cinema; but in the
indifference and sometimes stupidity j
and negligence of parents and those
in authority. No parent would give
its children tainted food to eat; but
there are lots of parents who '
couldn’t care less what sort of films
their children digest.

(II)

One swallow does not make a
summer. One or two letters do not
prove a point; however, two letters
received from Mrs. Bower will
underline the argument of this
editorial and strengthen the plea for
action made by Mrs. Bower in this
issue. I have omitted names and
addresses:

(a) From a cinema attendant

“. . . I have read your report on
the Children Cinema shows on
Saturday mornings. I myself am a
cinema attendant. I am shocked
and disgusted at the wicked and
brutal films they are showing to
children. ' We watch the reactions
of these children and believe me it is
something terrible. Three weeks ago
the children saw a picture called
Home Sweet Homicide. It is all
about ghosts and kidnapping. You
could not hear the picture; they

196

were shouting and crying. We had
to go round and calm them down.
There is another picture called
Little Accident. If you would get the
chance to be with the children when
these two pictures are shown you
would get a shock. Mothers would
(I am in favour of X films) not
let their children see them if they
saw them themselves. It’s about
time they stopped showing these
kinds of films to children which must
play on their minds when they retire
at night. There should be a law to
stop adult persons taking children
into the cinema who are not their
guardians and leave them there on
their own. There is a boy of 9 years
of age. He comes to thus cinema 6
nights out of 7 from 5 o’clock to 9
in all category of films. The manager
knows. Why is that child allowed
in?”

(b) From an ex-approved school boy

”... I wonder if you mind an ex-
approved school boy taking the
liberty of writing to you? I thought
of doing this after reading your article
on films and children. How right you
are in believing films can cause

delinquency. I should know. I am
now 22 and endeavouring to live
down my juvenile past which I
wholly attribute to gangster films
and the like. I had a good home
(except for being “bunged off” to
the pictures too often). I certainly
had no need to steal. It’s incredible
looking back now and remembering
how I used to watch the screen for #'
new angles and then try them out, j
seeing the film again if necessary.
Although I spent two periods at the
same approved school after various
short days at remand homes and of
course probations I never attempted
to sell or even use the stuff that I
stole.

“The danger years for a -child
seeing films are from 13 to 16. The
present (ruling) where an under 16
cannot see an A film unless with
parent is a good one if carried out.

Alas, cinemas have been allowed
get away with it. Some con-
scientious cinemas have done their
duty and have proved that the
the system can and has worked but
they have only suffered financially
for their trouble ...”

Editor.

CINEMA BROADCAST

The Text of the Medieval Disputation
Broadcast from Lincoln’s Inn on January 23rd, 1950

THE CINEMA IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF ART

is published in the June issue of
BLACKFRIARS

Price 1/1 post free

From: The Manager,

Blackfriars, St. Giles, Oxford

-

197

There are two Latin words which are
going to become increasingly familiar
as the months pass, and which might
well be addressed to the British film
industry :

“Quo Vadis ?”

At the moment the industry stands
at a fork in the road. Ahead of it are
two paths— one a long and uphill affair
leading to a revival of British films, the
other a short-cut beset with dangers.
To put it more plainly, the industry is
faced with a choice of making British
films or Anglo-American films.

Now a recent Treasury Report, which
the general public may have missed,
was very illuminating. It stated that
the amount of money earned by our
films in the American market in the
year ending April, 1949, was a little
under £400,000 — about half the sum
that one very successful Hollywood
film can earn in its own market. I
do not know how many films it took
to earn this amount, but even if we
put the figure as low as ten, it means
that the average per picture was no
more than £40,000. On this basis, the
average amount a British film can earn
in the huge American market is about
one-third the average amount it can
earn in its own smaller, heavily-taxed
home market.

Whether these disappointing figures
are due to American allergy to British
films or to unfair distribution, is
outside the scope of this article, but
it seems that we might do very well
to concentrate exclusively on films
made entirely for our own audiences
and budgeted within the home market
limits, regarding anything we can get
from America as a surprise present.

This,' of course, is the hard way.
Handicapped by lack of money and lack
of confidence on the part of investors,
we shall have to re-build a crippled
industry, developing our native talent
— a thing at which we have not been

conspicuously successful — and standing
on our own feet.

The other way is easier, but abounds
in snags. For there is a trend, both
on the part of the Government and
private enterprise, to encourage the
Americans to use their frozen earnings
in financing pictures in this country.
This is a prospect that contains some
alarming possibilities.

There are two things that can be
said in its favour : firstly, it will create
work for a large number of unemployed
technicians ; secondly, it will secure
for us a better release than our pictures
have hitherto had on the other side
of the Atlantic, as the Americans,
naturally, will want to see their invest-
ments distributed in as wide a market
as possible

On the other hand, while our studio
Trade Unions will not permit a
Hollywood Director to work in this
country if the job can be done a3
efficiently by a British counterpart,
there is nothing, as far as I can see,
that can stop the infiltration of
American stars and writers, who will
displace our own people.

The danger is, therefore, that we
shall become a sort of Hollywood
annexe, because these Anglo-American
films will, of course, be tailored to
make them attractive to American
audiences. There is always a chance
that the Americans will use their frozen
credits in the production of films
designed for the British market, but
it is a very faint one, and it is to be
hoped that a paternal Government will
not consider making this step
compulsory by reviving the renter’s
quota, which was responsible for the
awful pre-war quota quickie.

The next few months will show us
what the future path of the British film
industry is to be.

Lyn Lockwood.

198

FOCUS FILM COURSE

By ANDREW BUCHANAN
No. 6— FICTIONAL VERSUS FACTUAL FILMS

To the undiscriminating pleasure-
seeker, theatre and cinema are jHst
alternative providers of entertainment,
the main difference being the prices of
admission. Nor is this surprising, for
the cinema is forever borrowing
material from the theatre, and the
lighter side of the latter, bent on
countering the encircling competition
of cinemas, concentrates on in-
creasingly extravagant productions to
[ entice the filmgoer into the shabbier,
less comfortable, but more dignified
theatre auditorium.

To the pleasure-seeker, it’s all
entertainment, whether live or photo-
graphed. Can then, film claim to be
an independent medium of dramatic
expression, and what can it do which
other media cannot?

Think, for a moment, of any perfectly
constructed, well-written play. It is
presented in, say, three acts, within the
confined limits of the stage ; each of the
three scenes, or maybe only one,
consists of a three-sided set, and we
witness the drama unfolding through
the missing fourth wall.

Now assume that same play is
adapted to the screen, not necessarily
because it offers good film material, but
because it has proved a winner on the
1 1 stage, and/or its author’s name is a
household word. If the film version is
produced entirely within a studio, what
will be the chief difference in
presentation compared to the stage
version? First, we shall observe
pictorial emphasis. Whereas on the
stage the characters remain life-size, of
course, and indeed seem very small in
a large theatre, on the screen they will
be larger than life and, in close-ups,
they will be enormous. Secondly, we

shall notice how the camera moves
from room to room, person to person,
following, probing, revealing. Now
when we watch a stage play, we control
our eyes, looking where we wish, but
when we look at a film, our eyes are
guided by the camera, and we look
through the lens, which makes viewing
very easy. The camera draws our
attention to this or that point at the
right moment so that even a person of
dull intelligence need miss nothing
essential. Such effortless looking
provides one of the main reasons for
the cinema’s popularity.

Another reason is the amplification
of the human voice. Today, we rarely
encounter the inaudible screen actor,
whose voice is carried to every corner
of vast interiors via loud speakers,
whereas inaudibility in the thbatre is
not rare.

It would seem then, that film wins
this first round, but actually it loses,
for it has no real right to present
dramatic material which was conceived
for the legitimate theatre and which
consequently depends upon dialogue,
for film’s primary function is to tell
its stories pictorially. If and when it
does, it is justified in claiming to be
an independent medium. When,
however, it borrows its material from
other established media, and restricts
pictorial movement in so doing, film is
not doing justice to itself, even though,
as I have said, camera mobility enables
stage play to be dissected, magnified
and given a flow impossible on the
stage. On the other hand, the stage
play, seemingly imprisoned within
three walls, is a complete form of
dramatic art. It does not need to
borrow from other media.

199

Film comes into its own when it
presents material especially written
for it, and when it escapes from the
studio. Think of the cramping effect
on a medium capable of presenting the
natural backgrounds of the world,
which is confined to studio settings.
This truth is being realised more and
more, and you will notice that the
most successful films are usually those
which present drama or comedy in
actual settings, both exteriors and
interiors, thus blending the factual
with the fictional.

This world is a very uneven sort of
place — a mixture of cleanliness and
dirtiness, tidiness and carelessness,
beauty and ugliness, and in the film
world, there are many brilliant art
directors, but none can compete with
reality. Producers in this country are
successfully weaving stories into the
natural scene more and more
frequently. It is an art which has long
been apparently in French, Italian and
Russian films, their success being

largely due to naturalness. They are
not too highly polished, nor lit with
that hard, even brilliance which often
makes a scene resemble a shop window
with a population of over or under-
dressed wax women.

Such natural films capture the
raggedness of life : its light and shade.
They do not over-dramatise events, and
they reveal the charm of the rural
scene, the drabness of the back street,
the cool beauty of architecture in
simple, unselfconscious fashion, and
people and backgrounds become one.
Rife is never idealised nor glamorised,
and so is more beautiful.

Look, then, for those moments when
film reveals its wonderful ability to do
those things of which other media are
incapable, and assess, from time to
time, whether this great visual medium
is moving towards artistic and dramatic
independence, or being imprisoned
within the costly walls of the film
studio.

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS

FUND

IF one fourth of the Catholic population in England and Scotland
contributed a penny a day for 240 days The Catholic Film Institute
in England would be able to set up a production unit.

It was the pennies of the Catholic population in France which made
possible the making of the film Monsieur Vincent.

Kindly send donation to:

Rev. J. Burke, 357 Beulah Hill, London, S.E.19.

f

» for Catholic book s go to

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i 140 STRAND, LONDON, W.C.2

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ROME AND REALITY

AN ACCOUNT OF THE
INSTITUTE PILGRIMAGE -

CATHOLIC FILM
By Fr. John Preedy

Twelve of us set off from Bovingdon
airport on the morning of May 25th.
We were the tremulous backbone of
the Catholic Film Institute Pilgrimage
to Rome and we were to be given a
stiffening by Fr. Burke, Miss Freda
Bruce-Lockhart and others who were
already in Rome.

NO TIME FOR SIESTAS

A strenuous three days were spent
combining the main spiritual purpose
of our journey with the Catholic
Action inherent in the activities of
the Film Congress, described else-
where. Even if the Hotel Continentale
had been a quiet place, there was no
time for siestas. Mad dogs may have
been asleep in the noonday sun, but
Englishmen, together with other film
zealots from Belgium, Brazil, France,
Holland, Ireland, Spain and the rest
were abroad and about. The Italian
counterpart of our own Institute
scored highly in their planning of
meetings, expeditions and refreshment
for their guests.

As Congress members we had the
privilege of a special tribune for
one of those extraordinary public
audiences the Holy Father has
initiated this year in St. Peter’s.
The whole idea of these was an
inspiration of genius and the Holy
Father somehow leaves on the vast
gathering an impression of fatherly
informality. He gives each group its
individual recognition and then speaks
in various languages to the whole
mass of which the group is a well-
contented part. The scene has often

been described in recent months and
it need not be attempted here.

The Jubilee visits to the four
Basilicas were made in the formal
manner. These we carried out with
the members of the Congress.
Genuflecting at the Holy Door and
led by cross-bearer and acolytes we
entered each Basilica, serpentining
our way to avoid collision with other
pilgrim groups on the same mission.
These great Christian churches, devoid
of our Oh! so prim and respectable
benches, were like vast business houses
or a Stock Exchange where the
business was repentance and pardon,
loyalty to our Catholic Faith, and the
well-being that comes with union in
a common purpose. We would say
our Litanies and sing our Salve Regina
and it would be no disturbing
distraction that others, many others,
could be heard singing their Adoro Te
or Heilige something.

WHIT SUNDAY CANONISATION

Then there was the Whit Sunday
canonisation of Ste. Jeanne de Valois.
We of the English contingent of the
Cinema Congress arriving at St.
Peter’s before 6-30 a.m., found our
reserved places already annexed by
others — and the proceedings were not
to begin until 8 a.m. However, we
were insinuated into “standing
places’’, where we had a perfect view,
though from afar, of the Papal Altar
with which we were in a line. We
waited, a small island of northerners
amid oceans of French pilgrims. In
the melee at the entrance they had
had their share of Gallic fire; their
practical folding chairs and picnic
bags had the sharp edges befitting

Fr. Little and Fr. Masterson

202

weapons of offence. But now these
same people were so hind and
generous in giving our little group a
turn of rest off our feet. While
waiting they sang their hymns and
we were able to hum the one which
went to the air of “Auld Lang Syne”.
The canonisation and the Papal Mass
were unforgettable experiences, and
we were truly participants and not
spectators. We were almost glad we
had lost our privileged places in case
we should have been tempted into the
attitude of spectators. Somebody, the
other day, speaking about the slow
progress of the cause of our English
Martyrs and the blame that lies on
us for not taking up their cult
fanatically, said that it would be a
good idea to do a deal and pay a few
French people to start praying to
them and invoking their aid. That,
he said, would do the trick. I
thought of this in my vigorous,
practical, prayerful French surround-
ings on this canonisation morning.

MOVING SIGHTS

For men and women of all nations
it took what seemed hours to get out
of St. Peter’s. I saw an African in
coloured dress and a gold or gilt
crown on his head. He had to have
the common touch, for it was his fate
to jostle in the crowd with us lesser
mortals. Incidentally, one of the
noticeable and moving sights of our
short time in Rome was the
pilgrimage from Central Africa.
Native priests and laymen were
certainly conspicuous by the uncon-
cealed happiness on their polishecj
ebony faces. No colour bar here.
Next after the Holy Father the most

sought after personage was a smiling
African bishop as black as your hat.

We had our amusements too. It
was amusing to have a cup of coffee
and a doughtnut, intimidatingly
known as a “bomba”, for breakfast;
it was fun to watch the others trying
to cope with spaghetti; there was
humour in the situation when three
of us entered into a council of war
to find the best way of saying in
Italian: “Where is the Trevi

Fountain, if you please?” only to find
that the lady replied: “My, I’ve been
trying all afternoon to find someone
in this city who speaks Italian”. It
was all kindly, innocent, ridiculous
fun, bubbling up as relief to the
deep charged emotions we were
experiencing. And if anyone says that
religion is of the Intellect and the Will,
let him be in Rome with any sense of
history in his soul and try and leave
the emotions out. Just let him try.

LAST ACT

On the night before we left, our
party was happy to give a modest
dinner in honour of Fr. Connell, who
had been throughout so generous and
helpful in guiding us in the ways
we should go, and of Mrs.
Moultrie, who was the young mother
rather than the governess of the little
flock she had succeeded in gathering
together for this pilgrimage. There
followed a race to the Colosseum,
where our last act together was the
quiet saying of the Rosary amid the
embattled memories of the early
martyrs; and in the morning, a rush
to get Mass and Communion, then
delays and finally the flight from
Rome, and reality.

FOCUS INDEX

A complete index of FOCUS: A Film Review, Vols. I and II,
is now available. Copies may be obtained from the Manager,
Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7, on receipt
of stamps to the value of ljrd.

203

ODETTE

Starring: Anna Neagle, Trevor

Howard, co-starring Marius
Goring, Peter Ustinov. Producer
and Director: Herbert Wilcox.

Distributors: British Lion.

Certificate : A. Category : A.

Running time: 123 minutes.

Herbert Wilcox and his team may
well be proud of the production of
Odette. Stars and supporting cast can
look back upon a job well done and a
cause well served. It must be very
satisfying to bear a part in something
worth while. And this film is worth
while.

With deft touches and without over-
loading, the story of Odette makes
clear the challenge to the dignitv of
man and reveals the spiritual qualities
that alone maintain this dignity
inviolate. Colonel Maurice Buckmaster
re-lives on the screen his war job of
director of these French operations in
which Odette was so surprisingly
involved. At the beginning he vouches,
as far as human memory can be relied
on, for the truth of the incidents that
follow.

The story of Odette Sansom who by
her courage and devotion won the
George Cross is familiar to most.
Anna Neagle plays the part of Odette
with honesty and with no concession
to physical glamour of any kind. The
original conflict between her duties as
a mother and the call to more than
patriotism is poignant. The emotional
difficulties of her choice are not
wallowed in but are indicated with
sure, steady strokes in a telephone
conversation to their convent school
and by the way her heart is shown to
be with them in her subsequent con-
versations with her associates on the
job in hand. .She is trained and briefed
for her mission into France. She is
also equipped. The question of those

lethal tablets, which in fact she carried
but never used, is one which I should
very much like to see argued on the
moral plane. The modern persecutor’s '
assault on the mind, including the will,
of one who resists is so ruthless, so
dangerous in its scientific precision
that capture and interrogation may
lead to the incrimination and death of
others and setbacks to the cause at
heart. Courage is no longer the only
factor. But while it is lawful to give
your life for your brother, you cannot
take your own life by direct means.
Yes, I should like very much to see
this question of lethal tablets argued.
Anyway, in the case in point, Odette
was able to withstand mental and
physical torture for over two years and
keep up her “I have nothing to say”.

Trevor Howard gives a notable
performance in the part of Peter
Churchill, the chief of Odette’s action
group. He himself states in a television
interview that he made no attempt to
impersonate Churchill, but used his
actor’s right to interpret the part he
was given to play. It was a wise and
proper decision thoroughly justified by
results.

Peter Ustinov as Arnaud, the radio
operator, provides what comedy there
is in a study of grumbling devotion, a
type familiar in every band of heroes.
Marius Goring is the German High
Command Intelligence Officer who ■
hates Nazism, has to co-operate with it |
as a soldier, yet regards himself in no 1
way responsible for its excesses. It is !
not an unsympathetic study.

The film is full of authentic Catholic |
touches which will attract readers of i
Focus. It is not that the Church is !
being exploited to add sentimental |
appeal and baptise the box office. This *
has been done so often, and how ;
disappointing and embarrassing film
Catholicism can be. No, it is a j
question of elementals and of the fact 1
that in elementals in our western
world, the Church can never be very i

204

far away. Here it is, plumb in the
middle of everything. Odette was a
Christian mother — evidence provided.
Prayer is not a desperate affair for
emergencies — that 'comes out well.
Odette has what all Christians should
have, the power of stripping away
hypocrisy. Henri (Goring) is not
allowed to get away with self-
exculpatory regrets. He may regret,
but also he must accept responsibility
and blame. Before her interrogation
and probable torture, a German priest
is kind and comforts her and she
re-acts as to a priest and not as to a
representative of the enemy. After
her torture he again sees her and
speaks as a compassionate priest
should. She asks as one condemned
to death if she can have Mass
(presumably in hen cell, otherwise I
cannot understand his reply). He
tells her that the authorities would
never permit that; he is only allowed
to comfort the dying. Whereupon she
remarks that this can only be because
the Nazis are afraid — a profound
observation since the only thing that
evil does fear is goodness. We have
had evidence before of the priestly
kindness of German priests in these
dreary prisons and it is good to find
that Odette encountered it herself,
and that the incident should have been
considered worth telling. Then, again,
towards the end of her imprisonment
the panicking Prison Commandant has
tried to pin responsibility for Odette’s
welfare on to her hitherto harsh
wardress. The name of Churchill
could make a difference to the fate of
whoever bore such a responsibility.
The wardress becomes hysterical at
the approach of the American forces
and begs Odette to intercede for her.
She is the mother of three children.
Odette tells her calmly that she also
is the mother of three children.
Raving with fear she asks Odette what
shall she do, to which comes the
scathing yet pitiful reply : “Have you
forgotten how to pray?”

There is no hatred of Germans as
such in the film, though I should not
care to be a German seeing it. What
the film lays bare is modern man’s
fatal ease in passing on responsibility
as long as he has an order to do
whatever it may be. In fact it is
the Germans who are under examina-
tion. But unless we realise that there

are laws over-riding those of the
State, the High Command, the party,
the Trade Union, or the firm, we are all
just as likely to find ourselves acting
against conscience because “it is an
order”. Once that comes in as the
accepted thing, then it is simply a
question of degree, for in kind we
are one with the irresponsible Nazis,
Gestapo and the rest. This for me is
the compelling lesson of the story of
Odette. Human Responsibility flows
from Human Dignity.

The film has integrity both of
purpose and in execution. In a way it
is high level dramatic commentary.
Perhaps it is a little too long. Two
hours lived with the heroes should not
be too much, but I found it so.
Artistry, one thinks, left to itself
would have shortened it, but sincerity
came along and demanded that this or
that should not be left untold. It is
very nearly a great film with a
memorable performance of an Anna
Neagle a long way away from Park
Lane.

X.

IN A LONELY PLACE
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria

Grahame, Frank Lovejoy.
Director: Nicholas Ray. Producer:
Robert Lord. Distributors:
Columbia. Certificate: A. Cate-
gory: A. Running time: 93

minutes.

Sense, suspense, good acting and an
intelligent script are features of this
film. It has the entertainment value
of a thriller plus an interesting analysis
of a complex character : Dixon Steel
(Humphrey Bogart) who is a queer
mixture of charm and brutality, gentle-
ness and violence, selfishness and
generosity.

There is always a reason why we
behave badly. This film endeavours to
expose the cause of Steel’s mental
trouble; but it in no way suggests a
cure. I got the impression that the
film was rather on the side of Steel,
who throws more than his weight
about, just because he hasn’t got
what he wants most — literary success.
Naturally speaking, what Steel required
was a sock on the jaw. Supernaturally

205

speaking, lie needed to say his prayers
and do a bit of penance, for there are
some devils in the mind which can
only be cast out by prayer and fasting.

The argument of this film seemed to
me to be that a man finds mental peace
and becomes a decent fellow when he
fulfils his ambitions which, of course,
is arrant nonsense. “Cromwell, I
charge thee, fling away ambition . . .
by that sin fell the angels.’’

However, this film provides some-
thing to think and argue about.
Humphrey Bogart plays the neurotic
Steel with realism. Gloria Graliame
gives a distinguished performance of
Laurel Gray, the girl who loves Steel
and is prepared to cleave to him. The
old cliches are avoided. The drama is
not spoiled by a false ending. It is, I
think, worth seeing.

E.

SO LONG AT THE FAIR
Starring: Jean Simmons, Dirk

Bogarde, with David Tomlinson,
Honor Blackman, Cathleen
Nesbitt, Felix Aylmer. Producer:
Betty E. Box. Directors:
Terence Fisher and Antony
Darnborough . Distributors:
G.-F.-D. Certificate: U. Cate-
gory: B. Running time: 83

minutes.

This film has been rather badly
received. And indeed it is uninspired.
A variation on the same theme as The
Lady Vanishes, it lacks! tension and
just peters out. And there is some-
thing too matter-of-fact about Jean
Simmons’ acting.

But the picture has redeeming
points. People supposed to be French
talk to one another in French with
good accents instead of in conventional
broken English. The period is that of
the Paris Exhibition in 1889 and so
black waistcoats are very properly seen
with tailcoats and white ties. (But in
the hospital sequence I think I spotted
a statue of the Little Flower — who was
in fact still alive in 1889). Some
people near me complained that there
was “no romance”. Knowing what
they meant by romance I thought this
an advantage.

Perhaps the can-can would come into
the category of “lascivious dances”

which features in those questionnaires
issued to put ideas into the heads of
Catholic critics in some parts of the
Continent. Otherwise the film was
remarkably free from anything to
which objection could be taken.

Q.

MRS. MIKE

Starring: Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes,
J. M. Kerrigan, Angela Clarke.
Producer: Edward Gross.

Director: Louis King. Distrib-

utors: United Artists. Certificate:
A. Category: B. Running time:
100 minutes.

It was a pleasant surprise to find
that a film, which did not promise
anything out of the ordinary according
to the synopsis, turned out to be
definitely superior. What a relief to
get away from the sophisticated Circes
(glamour girls) of Hollywood society,
from the artificial trivialities of so-
called civilisation to the simple,
straightforward life as God meant us to
live it.

The plot, too, is very simple. A
Canadian Mounted Policeman gets to
love a city girl and she marries him,
going to live in a north-west frontier
post. The rest of the film concerns
the happiness, trials and adventures
of their early married life. Such
gangrenous sores as adultery, divorce
and triangle-love are refreshingly
absent from this film. It has moments
of supreme beauty, both as regards
mountain scenery, and as regards the
depths of human emotion. It is finely
acted, and lias nothing of that self-
conscious smugness so often seen in
film stars. It is by no means lacking
in adventure, and not one moment of
the film could justly be called dull.
Yet it is a documentary film in the
sense that it gives a realistic account
of the actual life of a northern mounted
policeman, which makes us think, and
perhaps brings home to us for the first
time that there are people whose
lives are fuller, happier, deeper than
many of ours, although they have to
do without many modern luxury-
necessities. If you want to understand
what I mean, don’t miss this film.
You’ll be glad you went.

P. F.

206

FATHER IS A BACHELOR
Starring: William Holden, Coleen

Gray, Mary Jane Saunders and
Charles Winninger. A Columbia
Picture. Directors: Norman

Foster and Abby Berlin. Certi-
ficate: U. Category: B. Running
time: 80 minutes approx.

We are so often told that people go
to the cinema to be entertained : so
what ? For Catholics even entertain-
ment has to be reasonable — up to a
point ; but the point seems to be a long
way down the scale of what intelligent
people will put up with. Anyhow,
here is a film that is frankly
sentimental, in which child appeal and
romantic appeal share the honours. A
minstrel singer comes across a family
of young orphans and is cajoled into
fathering them. The result is a series
of situations that are quite unlikely,
faintly entertaining and would have
been suitable for the family, but that
some jokes are made at the expense
of elderly ladies in the marriage
market. It is never easy to decide to
what extent such jokes are merely bad
taste or bad morals. This example
seems to be mainly bad manners.

V.

WABASH AVENUE
Starring: Betty Grable, Victor

* Mature, Phil Harris. Director:
Henry Koster. Producer: William
Perlberg. Distributors: 20th

Century - Fox. Certificate: A.

Category: A. Running time:

93 minutes.

This is one of the films that ought
not to have left the shores where it
was made. It is a cheap, empty
comedy, played round the all-too-
familiar triangle theme. It features
Betty Grable’s voice in several variety
songs, some of which are just bearable,
others not. Nearly all the action of
the film takes place in low-class down-
town night clubs, which doesn’t exactly
heighten the interest. There are a few
scenes which are quite amusing, but
this does little to atone for the
\apidity of the whole film.

DEPORTED

Starring: Marta Toren, Jeff Chandler,
Claude Dauphin, with Marina
Berti. Director: Robert Siodmak.
Producer: Robert Buckner. A

Universal-International Picture.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time: 89 minutes.

We must first decide whether
virtuous and worldly-wise contessas do
fall in love with oafish Americanised
Italians — even if the}- are unaware of
Sing-Sing backgrounds. Once we can
get over that this is an interesting film
for adults.

The scene is laid in Tuscany and we
are assured that the film was made
extensively in Italy. Nearly all the
players are American speaking Italians
and the whole thing swings along with
all their natural vivacity. Briefly, it
is yet another tale of bad man making
good, helped along by the failure of his
bad plans and the success of the kindly
assumptions of good people.

Marta Toren, whom I’ve not seen
before, makes a good job of her
unlikely circumstances and does it all
with quiet charm. Jeff Chandler, as
the just slightly Simian deportee, and
Claude Dauphin, in the role of a quiet
and understanding detective, do good
work. But, above all, I advise film-
goers to look out for Uncle Atnando,
as played by Silvio Minciotti. They
will treasure him as I did.

X.

THE BIG LIFT

Starring: Montgomery Clift, Paul

Douglas. Cornell Borchers.
Director: George Seaton.

Producer: William Perlberg.

Distributors: 20th Century-Fox.

Certificate: A. Category: B.

In so far as this film records the
part America played in the air-lift
during the days of the Russian
blockade, it makes some contribution
to film journalism ; apart from that I
don’t think it has any great merit.
Something better could have been made
of such a subject. I agree with the
fellow who said that the Big Lift is a
big let-down.

P. F.

F.

207

THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK
Starring: John Payne, Rhonda

Fleming, Dennis O’Keefe.
Director: Lewis R. Foster.

Producers: William H. Pine and
William C. Thomas. Distributors:
Paramount. Certificate-. A.
Category: B. Running time:

86 minutes.

This is a not unreasonable story told
in teclmicolour which records lovely
scenery. The acting is fair to middling
and there is enough uninhibited
patriotism to please the Americans and
make the British uncomfortable. The
hard riding and good shooting are a
jov to behold. American girls
(especially when they are playing
Mexicans) are unbelievably tough.
This particular heroine gets shot with
a six shooter at a range of five yards.
Believe it or not, when justice has
been done, she shows every sign of a
complete recovery. But the conventions
have their place and this film cries out
for a happy ending.

J. C.

Film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions’’, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
20 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3

KEY TO THE CITY
Starring: Clark Gable, Loretta Young,
Frank Morgan. Director: George
Sidney. Producer: Z. Wayne

Griffin. Distributors: M.-G.-M.

Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 98 minutes.

This is a well worked out comedy
with plenty of amusing situations and
plenty of laughter. Clark Gable and
Loretta Young have no difficulty in
keeping the ball of fun rolling. How-
ever, there are bits, in bad taste, which
could have been left out.

E.

THE CHILD AND FILM
CONGRESS

In conjunction with the present
meeting of UNESCO in Florence a
special international congress on the
cinema for children is being held.
Italy, Belgium, France, Switzerland,
Austria, Egypt, Mexico, Venezuela, the
Argentine, Canada, Israel and Salvador
are officially represented.

FILM STRIP

FATIMA TO-DAY

Coloured pictures from the film

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

with explanatory leaflet.

36 Frames. Price : 15s.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
20 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3

Strong in suspense and comedy

STAGE FRIGHT

Starring: Jane Wyman, Marlene

Dietrich, Michael Wilding,

Richard Todd, Alastair Sim,

Sybil Thorndike, Miles Malleson
and Joyce Grenfell. Director:

Alfred Hitchcock. A Warner
Brothers production. Certificate :

A. Category: A. Running time:
no minutes.

Superlathes are rarely found in film
reviews. Among critics “it isn’t
done” (not often, anyway) to show
enthusiasm. That is
left to the blurb, the
adverts and the
trailers, who traffic
unashamedly in these
tilings. But when
there is spontaneous
and enthusiastic
appreciation at a
press show, whatever
they may write sub-
sequently for the
papers, you can be
pretty sure you are
up against something
good. This thriller-
comedy provoked
keen tension and un-
controllable laughter,
and at the end there
was a crescendo of
applause which must
have made Mr.

Hitchcock feel as
Handel must have
done w hen his
Hallelujah Chorus
received its ovation.

Had not Mr. Hitch-
cock already made
his name as a pro-
ducer — Thirty-nine
Steps and The Lady
Vanishes were his —
this film would have
done it. Here, once
again, superlatives
are appropriate, but
you need a full
orchestra to sound
them.

As we hope you
will not fail to see
this film, we are
not going to risk Jane Wyman, Michael Wilding, Alastair Sim

spoiling such very good fun by telling
you all about it. Of the murder, you
must find out for yourself. Of the
romance, you must use a little guess-
work. What we can promise you,
without giving away any of the game,
is brilliant dialogue and superb acting.
It is true of all the major parts : Jane
Wyman as the student of dramatic art,
natural and apparently artless as she
was in Johnny Belinda-, Marlene
Dietrich, just right as the musical
comedy actress, a little foreign and
- very deep, dictatorial, charming and
sinister; Michael Wilding as the most

210

amiable and well mannered of
detectives such as any decent girl
would fall for ; Richard Todd as the
man suspected of murder, for whom we
become so concerned and sympathetic.
But the excellence does not remain
with them — the minor parts are
perfectly cast and magnificently
executed. Alastair Sim and Sybil
Thorndike gi\e an interesting and
amusing study of an elderly husband
and wife who cannot hit it off and
have to live separated most of the time.
Who could have been more typical of
all the “Nellies” who are cockney maid
servants than Kay Walsh ? Who could
have been more appalling that Miles
Malleson as the “Bibulous Gent”?
Appalling he was, and appalling he was

meant to be. And who could have

been more frightfully priceless than
Joyce Grenfell as the lady shooting
gallery attendant at a charity garden
party ? A grand team this, and what
fun !

This is all very well unless a critic
must criticise. Is it his job to find
fault ? If so he has a hard job here.
He could say that the plot was a
trifle far-fetched. But what does that
matter ? He could sav that this sort
of thing has been seen many times
before. But it is done with originality
and never more brilliantly. He could
complain that Miss Deitrich’s song was
a little suggestive, but even that was a
clever satire on that sort of thing.
What, no criticisms ? Not one ! G.

211

ADIEU LEONARD
Starring: Pierre Brasseur, Charles

Trenet, Carette and Jacqueline
Pouvier. Distributors: Film

Traders Ltd. Director: Pierre

Prevert: Certificate : A. Cate-
gory: B. Running time : 73

minutes.

For the first twenty minutes of this
film the audience of press critics was
laughing unrestrainedly. Then the
laughs died away and only feeble
risible reactions marked its develop-
ment. Another example to prove my
contention that rarely can a comedy
maintain its laughter-level for more
than two reels of film. Consequently,
if the film is to last for nine or ten
reels, it has to be filled with something
that is often far from funny and
generally detracts from the real merit
of the comedy.

Leonard is a little Chaplinesque
(Monsieur Verdoux vintage) French-
man who, as a result of his wife’s
extravagant patronage of the arts and
artists, is driven to crime in order to
maintain his family. Flis ineffectual
attempts to commit robbery land him
in the hands of a blackmailer, who
tries to compel him to kill an unwanted
relative who turns out to be a rather
lovable lunatic.

Carette as Leonard and Charles
Trenet as the guileless fool, are a
pleasing pair and the film, though not
the highest flight of French comedy,
is suitably entertaining for this hot
weather.

V.

DANCE HALL

Starring: Donald Houston, Bonar

Colleano, Natasha Parry, Jane
Hylton, Petula Clark and Diana
Dors. A Michael Balcoln Produc-
tion. Director: Charles Crichton.
Certificate-. A. Category-. B.
Running time". 80 minutes
approx .

It is surprising what films can do
to one’s education. In the past two
years I have become quite knowledge-
able about cycling clubs, dirt-track
racing, speedway racing, dog racing,

and how to become a ja?z trumpeter.
Now I feel my education is completed
for I know what goes on inside those
imposing edifices labelled “Palais de
Danse”. Ealing Studios, faithful to
the London scene, have introduced us
to a composite version of all the
“Palaces” you ever saw and placed
within it a selection of liabituees,
including the “nice young things”
from the local factory as well as the
“dance hall wolf”, who thinks he is
irresistible. Add to this two first class
dance bands (or should I call them
“orchestras”?), Geraldo and Ted
Heath in charge, a series of love
stories, a smashing fight in the mud
and the rain, a ball-room dancing
competition and what more could you
expect ?

All the youngsters named above look
attractive : one or two of them also

try their hand at acting, but it is not
that sort of film so all you have to do,
if you like dance halls, is just to sit
and look. It will not do you any harm.
Come to think of it, one young married
couple get into a marital scrape and
talk of divorce; that is silly: divorce
is not a cure for anything, least of all,
marriage. But they think better of it,
and so should we.

V.

AND BABY MAKES THREE
Starring: Robert Young and Barbara
Hale, with Robert Hutton, Jane
Carter and Billie Burke. A
Columbia Picture. Director:
Robert Lord. Certificate : A.

Category: A. Running time : 84
minutes.

A sense of humour is an intangible
quality about which it is dangerous
to debate too dogmatically. What may
be a fit subject for humour is, on the
other hand, very largely a matter of
good taste. Of all subjects, that of
maternity and child-birth seem to me
to require the most delicate touch if
the treatment is not to be dismissed
as being in definitely bad taste. In
my view, tilts film belongs to the latter
category.

A young woman, whose divorced
husband is seeking a suitable partner
to enable him to claim part custody of
their unborn child, becomes jealous of

her ex-husband’s second choice. In
order to frighten off her successor, she
pretends that she is expecting triplets.
This has the result of scaring her own
second choice in the matrimonial
stakes, as well as causing her husband’s
fiancee (who has discovered the truth)
to publish this startling story in the
press. In fact she has been told that
she is not to have a child at all. Her
eventual reunion with her ex-husband
is accomplished to the tune of
rejoicings that baby will not, after all,
make three.

The old-fashioned mutterings of her
medical uncle that marriage should be
for always are not enough to counter-
balance the completely materialistic
and basically unfunny attitude of the
wife and her friends towards the most
sacred functions of man and wife.
These things can be smiled at, but only
safely when they are supported by the
Faith.

The acting of the principal characters
is as efficient as you would expect them
to be.

V.

IN THE NAME OF THE LAW
(In Nome Della Legge)
Starring: Massimo Girotti, Charles

Vanel, Saro Urzi and Jone
Salinas. A Lux Film. Director:
Petro Germi. Certificate : A.

Category : A. Running time :

103 minutes.

This film is regarded by the Italian
critics as only just inferior to Bicycle
Thieves. Though it has similar
merits : down-to-earth realism, no con-
cessions to studio conventions, a raw,
bleak camera work that accentuates
its actuality, it does not, in my
opinion, reach the peak of tragic,
factual integrity attained by De Sica’s
conscience-searing commentary on the
present scene.

It is unusual among modern Italian
films in that it not only poses a
problem : the difficulties of life under
the Maffia, in which the strongest arm
wields the law ; but also proposes the
solution : that no one may claim to be
a law unto himself ; there can be only
one law in a well-governed State, that
administered by the State for the
people.

The story concerns the efforts of a
young magistrate to establish law in a
district in Sicily in which corruption
and the rule of the Maffia have made
a mockery of justice. The film
begins grimly and continues to the
end on the same grim note. The
young magistrate, sombrely played by
Massimo Girotti, clings to his post in
spite of temptation, intimidation and
attempted murder. The leader of the
Maffia, played with great dignity by
Charles Vanel, eventually acknow-
ledges the right of law and offers his
services to hand over a criminal “in
the name of the law”. This final
conversion of the Maffia comes a little
too readily to be entirely convincing,
but it puts the seal on what is, in fact,
a welcome lesson in the need of law
and order as a requisite for the well-
being of the community.

This is certainly a film to be seen
by those interested in the development
of the Italian post-war cinema.

V.

LOUISA

Starring: Spring Byington, Edmund
Gwenn, Charles Coburn.
Director: Alexander Hall.

Producer: Robert Arthur. A

Universal International Picture.
Certificate : U. Category : C .

Running time: 90 minutes.

As a piece of unpretentious light
entertainment this picture succeeds
very well. Although Ronald Reagan and
Ruth Hussey are billed as stars, the
picture really belongs to the three
players referred to above, who show
extremely well what can happen when
an elderly and charming widow
receives the attentions of two elderly
and no doubt equally charming men.
It causes great embarrassment to the
lady’s son and daughter-in-law, but
particularly to her granddaughter,
aged 17, who, having her fourth boy
friend in tow, knows all about love and
thinks her grandmother should know
better. This is real family entertain-
ment, and the family atmosphere seems
quite genuine. One feels (though who
can tell these days ?) that the director
must himself be a happily married man.

U.

213

Father of the Bride

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Joan

Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don
Taylor. Producer: Pandro S.

Berman. Director: Vincente

Minnelli. Presented by M.-G.-M.
Certificate : U . Category : C.

Running time : 92 minutes.

As I left the cinema I heard one
woman exclaim, “Wasn’t it nice”.
And another reply : “Wasn’t it

lovely”. Although spoken in the
strangulated accents of refinement, the
words will be typical of the reactions

of the Mrs. Browns and Mrs. Smiths
the world over.

No bullets, corpses or marriage
tangles in this film ! The appeal is
simpler and deeper — the marriage of a
young man and young woman. It is
seen through the eyes of the bride’s
father, a successful and almost
femininely articulate lawyer. There is
plenty of comedy, yet the primary
appeal, that will make people want to
see it again, is that it is about a
wedding : everybody loves a wedding.
People will stand for hours to watch
one, they will distract themselves with
worry preparing for one and they will
pawn their estate to pay for it. In
their impecunitv they will blame the

214

cost of living, the vagaries of race-
horses or the longevity of Uncle Potts;
but never the cost of the wedding.
Mutatis mutandis, as the lawyer said
when he was told that he was eating
lamb cutlet ; no doubt the same could
be said of funerals.

The father (Spencer Tracy) learns
over the evening meal that his

daughter (Elizabeth Taylor) is in love
and is going to marry somebody of
the name of Buckley. He conjures up
in his mind all the young men who
have been paying court to his daughter
and each prospect disturbs him

profoundly : which of them could it

be ? There follow the preliminaries of
marriage : the visit to the prospective

in-laws and so on. It ends with the
marriage (I appreciated the slow jig of
the bridesmaids up the aisle) and the
wedding reception with its air of
alcoholic gaiety. On such occasions I
have thought of the man who cracked
a bottle of champagne over the head
of a fellow guest saying, “Consider
yourself launched,” and have half
expected to see it happen again.

Spencer Tracy plays his part
superbly. Joan Bennett has com-
paratively little acting to do as the
mother, but she is every bit as real
as Tracy. Elizabeth and Don Taylor
are well cast as the young people who
are the cause of all the turmoil.

T.

SOME FILMS REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this list does
not connote positive recommenda-
tion. Films that are positively harm-
ful are not included here. Readers
are reminded to refer to the full
review when assessing a film.

Category A. indicates adults only;
B, adults and adolescents: C. family
audiences; D, particularly for
children.

Reviewed in “Focus”

(VOL.

III,

Nos. 5 and 6)

All The King's Men

(B)

(147)

Ambush

(B)

(181)

Always Leave Them

Laughing

(A)

(149)

Appointment With

Danger

(B)

(139)

Bagdad

(B)

(109)

Ballad of Berlin, The

(B)

(182)

Big Wheel, The

(B)

(140)

Black Magic

(B)

(149)

Bride For Sale

(B)

(146)

Bridge of the Ford

(B)

(148)

Capture, The

(B)

(182)

Champagne For Caesar

(C)

(181)

Chance of a Lifetime

(B)

(172)

Dancing in the Dark

(B)

(139)

Dancing Years, The

(B)

(150)

Dividing Line, The

(A)

(183)

East Side, West Side

(A)

(182)

Guilt Is My Shadow

(B)

(180)

Holy Year

(C)

(178)

Inspector General, The

(C)

(142)

Jour de Fete

(C)

(181)

Last Holiday

(B)

(179)

Les Parents Terribles

(A)

(150)

Moonrisc

(A)

(148)

Morning Departure

(B)

(110)

No Man of Her Own

(A)

(180)

Oh, You Beautiful Doll

(B)

(146)

On the Town

(175)

One Way Street

(A)

(17?)

Out of the Darkness

(C)

(115)

Outpost in Morocco

(B)

(147)

Prelude to Fame

(B)

(174)

Reluctant I t'idow, The

(B)

(179)

Rctour A La Vie

(A)

(173)

Should Parents Telit

(A)

(146)

South of St. Louis

(175)

Stars in My Crown

(C)

(139)

State Secret

(177)

Stratton Story, The

(B)

(183)

Three Came Home

(A)

(108)

They Were Not Divided

(B)

(144)

Under My Skin

(A)

(141)

Young Man of Music

(A)

(140)

We Recommend

Happiest Days of your

Life, The

(A)

(108)

Passport to Pimlico

(C)

(150)

Red Danube, The

(A)

(112)

The Blue Lamp

(B)

(80)

The Search

(B)

(342)

Twelve O’clock High

(B)

(73)

Whiskey Galore

(B)

(220)

215

CHILDREN AND THE CINEMA

By the Hon. Mrs. Robert Bower

Mrs. Bower, former National President of Britain’s Union of Catholic
Mothers, was the only Catholic of the British Government-appointed
committee to study the problem of child attendance at the cinema. She
refused to accept the committee’s general finding that films are not
primarily responsible for the delinquency and moral laxity of children
under sixteen and that deeper, subtler and more various influences
are at work.

Here is my chance, and I am going
to take it in a big way, to say thank
you first and foremost to the Catholic
Film Institute, and in particular to
its officers and the brilliant Editor of
Focus and the panel of priest
reviewers, whose excellent reviews I
could pass around to my colleagues
with such pride and confidence; I
thank them for all the unknown help
they gave me in the many problems
that confronted the Committee which
has just issued its report, after more
than two years’ work, on the various
"aspects of the problems affecting
children who go to the cinema.

Let me give just one example.
When we were considering Category
X, namely the creation of a category
for films such as those about white
slavery and euthanasia and also those
films which were both brutal and
sadistic and, therefore, unsuitable for
children, how valuable it was to be
able to refer to those review's which
appeared from time to time, placing
it beyond doubt that there were films
which should never have been made
because of their sadism or other
^ equally grave moral reasons ! Apart
from the reviews, the varied and
. excellent articles appearing in Focus
often threw fresh light upon some of
the problems troubling the Committee.
The famous “Disputation” broadcast
last January, highlighting as it did in
cogent argument, the power of the
cinema for good, and its capability of
reaching a high art form, leads me

straight to my final tribute to
Very Rev. Father Hilary Carpenter,
O.P., Chairman of the Catholic Film
Institute. The excellence of this
broadcast made him my friend in
need. Once I discovered that I was
the only Catholic member, it added
greatly to my responsibilities, the
more so when I found myself alone
in dissent, on the power and effect of
the cinema being greater than my
colleagues were prepared to admit.
Fr. Hilary’s broadcast was a powerful
weapon put into my hands.

In this brief article, I have asked
myself a question : What do I consider
to be the most valuable work the
Committee has done? I would say
without hesitation “focussing” public
opinion on the crying need to cater
specially for children in a proper
manner, by disclosing that this is not
done by just providing children with
what are called special children’s
shows, exclusive to children, and held
at different times to the ordinary
cinema. What matters most is what
children see at these shows. The
Committee found that “many
deplorable films were being shown”.
On this point a cinema attendant has
written to me this week as follows :
“I am shocked and disgusted at the
wicked and brutal films they are
showing to these children, we watch
the reactions of’ these children and
believe me it is something terrible . . .
we had to go round and calm them.”

In my opinion the pitch of fright

216

No film should be made which does this

caught in the Picture Post photo-
graphs is not uncommon but a fairly
common occurrence. In real life a
mother instinctively shields her child
from the sight of a road accident, and
how right this is, is shown by
children at these films covering their
faces with their hands or their coats
or otherwise getting their heads down
when the strain is too great.

The problem of finding the ways
and means to provide children with
the films that they should see is a
tremendous one. Public opinion has
been "focussed”; it has now got to
be roused. The readers of Focus
can play a vital and important part
in this "rousing”. At least the
recommendation of the new Category
X needs no money; it needs only
legislation to stop children from seeing
the worst of films. The most moving
of all pleas in support of this category,
as well as anxiety about advisory A,
has reached me from an ex-approved
schoolboy, now a man who has made
good. He writes that he had a “good
home” only that he was “bunged off

to the cinema too often”. He never
sold or disposed of anything that he
stole, his interest consisted in imitating
“new angles” seen on the films; he
saw some films twice to make sure how
to do it. Even his escape from the
approved school was “film inspired”.

He would like to see not only
Category X but Advisory A, as at
present, rigorously enforced.

Readers of Focus are just the ones
who should put before their local
M.P.s the need and urgency to
implement the report; but first study
the report and become familiar with
the recommendations. I have tried
to make this possible and simple in
my booklet "Children in the Cinema". 4B
It will be a handy book to pass to
M.P.s and I would like to see them
getting a ' steadily growing, not
spasmodic, pile of letters and copies
of this booklet to urge them to do
their stuff and to do it quickly. As
regards money, at least the tax that
children pay should be refunded for
the making of suitable films for them

217

Children need plenty of fun and laughter

to see. That would be a start. 1
wrote that it would be a tragedy of
great social consequences if the Rank
Organisation were to cease the
production of special films for
children; before the printer’s ink had
dried that tragedy had happened.
Not, however, before the secret
of making and testing children’s
reactions to film incidents had been
brought ^ to perfection by infra-red
photography. There is much, so
much, for Focus readers to do.
Apathy to be overcome, new support
to be obtained. Let me give you an
example in what way this can be
done; after reading only the skeleton
I script, and with only the possibility
of illustrations, W. H. Smith made a
place for my booklet on or through
their bookstalls and opened other
channels for me. From the passages
marked in red ink, it was plain to
see that it was the realisation of the
children’s crying need, their RIGHT
to be better and happily provided
for, without being frightened or

scandalised, that had won the day.
Will Focus readers please make this
cause their own, and start right now
to prepare for the fray? It will be
a long struggle. I shall be very glad
to hear of any constructive suggestions
and action taken by readers.

I hold a set of ten photographs taken
for our Committee but which were not
seen by me until after the report had
been published and my booklet had
been printed. They are of the greatest
possible interest as to the power of the
cinema and are taken by infra red ray
and show what the children are
seeing. I want to publish these in a
second edition of my booklet and
Focus readers could help to make this
speedily possible if only a thousand of
them would order a dozen copies and
get permission to sell them at church
doors. The first edition republishes
the pictures of fright from Picture
Post. Orders of over a dozen may be
obtained at the wholesale rate of 9d.
each from Johns Ltd., Printers,
Newport, Mon.

218

Here we see film being used for a good purpose

C.F.I. SUMMER SCHOOL

(August 8th— 12th inclusive)

at

The Convent of the Assumption, Ramsgate

Film Appreciation — - Fundamentals of Film Technique — Projection Class
Camera Class — Film Strip — Daily Film Shows — Discussion Group

Lecturers will include Freda Bruce-Lockhart, Andrew Buchanan
S. Ackroyd, Lyn Lockwood, W. J. Igoe, J. A. V. Burke

Residential accommodation limited to 50 places
Inclusive fee for lectures and full board:

C.F.I. members, £ 2 10s. od.; Non-members, £2 15s. od.

Fee for non-residents: members, 10s.; non-members, 12s. 6d.

(Lunch available if required)

All enquiries should he addressed to :

Secretary, Film Course, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7

♦

I

219

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

If you have an opinion to express, a comment to make, an idea to offer,
the Editor will be delighted to hear from you.

Every Good Wish!

Sir,

We are all of the opinion that Focus
is one of the best film magazines
published in the English language.
Your reviews are just; and in nine
cases out of ten correspond with our
own views of the films we have seen —
mostly 16mm. prints distributed for
the Navy and the Army.

With every good wish for the
success and wide distribution of your
publication,

Very sincerely yours,

Albert J. Cooney, S.J.

Principal,

Wah Yan College,

Robinson Road,

Hong Kong.

Grateful Thanks

Sir,

As this country is celebrating the
Feast of St. Jeanne D’Arc all this week,
it is perhaps not inappropriate to recall
that it is thanks to Victor Fleming’s
film of Joan that a good many film-
goers are aware of the great saint.
And what of the inspired portrayal by
Ingrid Bergman ? The film is still adver-
tised in Orleans at the moment. Yet
the Pharisees are busy pointing their
fingers and raising their hands in pious
condemnation. Drawing an extreme
parallel, it is true, St. Jeanne herself
knew much about the mercury called
popularity. At least one C.F.I. member
offers his grateful thanks for what he
considers the film experience of 1950,
and has remembered Miss Bergman at
Orleans on St. Jeanne’s Feast Day and
at Rouen today.

Vincent C. Griffiths.

Rouen.

Focus Format

Sir,

May I reassure your correspondent
W. D. Appleby by saying that the

Editorial team responsible for Focus
are only too acutely aware of its
typographical and other shortcomings.
You, as Editor, can bear witness that
each of our meetings is an occasion for
dreams of future splendour. Two
things prevent our dreams coming to
pass : lack of financial support;

comparative lack of interest on the part
of the Catholic cinema-going public.
Perhaps the two are reducible to the
latter. If only those who frequent the
cinemas regularly would realise the
power they could wield, if they would
help to make Focus the really
influential organ of film opinion that
it might be !

Meanwhile, we keep our heads above
water (just about) and try to reach as
many of the public as we can by means
of personal recommendation. Of
course, we know that the fan magazines
have glossy covers and count their
readers in tens of thousands, whereas
we are still counting in thousands, but
then, most of their readers are of the
nit-wit variety who like to be told the
colour of Betty Grable’s hair and the
number of husbands used up by Rita
Hayworth and what make of dentifrice
is favoured by Alan Dadd. I suppose
that there will always be more of that
kind than of those for whom we
conceive that we are writing, but even
now, if each of our present readers
were to obtain one other we should be
able to dp some of the things your
correspondent envisages.

I do not agree about the size of
Focus. I think it should be larger
rather than smaller. The colour
scheme adopted during the past few
months is the result of the
recommendation of an expert in the
psychological impact of certain colours
upon uncertain customers. Unfor-
tunately not all our expert friends are
in agreement !

Yours faithfully,

J. A. V. Burke.

220

FILMS FOR THE TEACHING

OF SCIENCE

By Our Educational Panel

LIBRARIES

British Electric Development Associa-
tion, 2 Savoy Hill, W.C.2.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 211 Piccadilly,
W.l.

G.B. Instructional, Ltd., 1 Aintree
Road, Perivale, Greenford, Middx.
Gateway Film Library, 9 Edward Close,
St. Albans, Herts.

What is Electricity?

British Electric Development Associa-
tion. 16mm. Free Loan. (13
minutes.)

Part I illustrates the outstanding
discoveries which led to the develop-
ment and use of the “electric current”.
Part II provides the answer to the
question in the film’s title — and does
so very competently. The conception
of matter as consisting of atoms, each
in turn consisting of a nucleus and
revolving electrons, leads on to the
idea of electric current as a movement
of electrons. The function of copper
as a conductor, especially the reason
for its suitability, is particularly well
brought out.

Electro-Chemistry

B.E.D.A. 16mm. Free Loan. (19
minutes.)

This film starts with the considera-
tion of the parts .of a new bicycle
lamp owned by a fifteen-year-old boy.
The plating on the lamp is the starting
point for explaining, in terms of
electrons, the ionisation of salts in
solution, and the behaviour of the ions
under the influence of an electric
current. Primary and secondary cells
are explained and the production of
aluminium and the refining of copper
by electrical methods.

Suitability : Grammar and Technical
Schools, 15+ ; General interest, 16+.

Mechanisms of Breathing

Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 234 UC.
Sound. 1 reel. Hire : 7s. 6d. first
day, 2s. 6d. each subsequent day.

As the name suggests, this film is
concerned with the function and
significance of breathing and with the
mechanisms employed by the body in
carrying out this vital process.

The anatomy of the respiratory
structures and the path of inhalation
and exhalation are first shown,
together with the mechanical factors
which operate in gaseous- exchange.
Then, by means of animated diagrams,
the part which the blood plays in
respiration is illustrated. Moving discs
represent the red corpuscles and the
role of diffusion in the passage of
oxygen and carbon-dioxide between
blood and lungs is extremely well
shown.

Still using the same method of
illustration to very good effect, we
are shown how the muscles and
nerves concerned in the respiratory
mechanism are controlled by the
unconscious part of the brain. Lastly,
some derangements of the respiratory
machinery, such as pneumonia and
suffocation from drowning or carbon-
monoxide poisoning are dealt with and
the use of artificial respiration is
illustrated.

The film is very useful as giving a
good general picture of the process of
respiration. It deals only with external
respiration and neglects internal A
respiration and the release of energy, ^
but the title of the film does not
justify us in expecting a fuller
treatment.

Body Defences Against Disease

Encyclopedia Britannica, 232 UC. j
Sound. 1 reel. Hire : as above.

This film first deals in a general
way with the social and economic

221

problems caused by disease and then
shows in some detail how disease
bacteria may enter the system, and the
three lines of defence within the
body, viz., the skin and mucous
membranes, the lymphatic system and
the production of anti-bodies. The
structure of the skin is very well shown
and also the process of phagocytosis.

Useful for Biology, Physiology or
Hygiene Teaching to Seniors. 14+ .

Care of the Feet

Encyclopedia Britannica, 130. 1 reel.

Sound. Hire : as above.

This film is somewhat like a
“cautionary tale”. Distressing
abnormalities of foot physiology are
shown with much technical detail of
foot anatomy and weight distribution.
The treatment of these disorders is
dealt with and the importance of well-
fitting shoes is emphasised.

Not suitable for general use in
school. Possibly useful for work on
deportment in Physical Education ;
would interest some adults or seniors
taking specialised courses in Hygiene
or Anatomy.

Exploring the Universe

Encyclopedia Britannica, 161 UC.

Sound. 1 reel. Hire : as above.

This film is concerned chiefly with
the distant stars and nebulae. It w’ould
require much preliminary reading or
/discussion, but would have an appeal
for some Sixth Formers.

Atomic Energy

Encyclopedia Britannica, 370. Sound.

1 reel. Hire : as above.

This is a really useful film. With
.animated drawings it explains the
■concepts needed for the understanding
of the structure of the atom. It
shows clearly the differences between
•electronic or chemical energy and
nuclear energy and explains the three
known ways in which energy is
released : natural radio - activity,

-nuclear synthesis, and nuclear fission.
Finally it brings out very clearly the
relationship between atomic energy
from the sun and the chemical energy
stored in photo-synthesis and released
in combustion.

Useful for Grammat and Technical
^School, 14+ ; General Interest, 16+.

Simple Machines

Encyclopedia Britannica, 251. Sound.

1 reel. Hire : as above.

Man is shown employing simple
machines like the inclined plane, the
lever, the wedge, the screw and the
pulley to do work. The fact is
emphasised that industrial machinery
of all types is made up of such simple
machines.

One of the most useful things in this
film is the clear illustration of what the
unit of work — the foot pound — means.

Suitable as an introduction to
mechanics or for revision purposes.
Grammar and Technical Schools, 12-16.

Fundamentals of Acoustics

Encyclopedia Britannica, 260 UC.

Sound. 1 reel. Hire : as above.

This is a most interesting and useful
film in which the sound track
admirably illustrates the principles
conveyed visually. Good use is made
of animated diagrams. By this means,
the rather intricate structure and
functioning of the ear is shown very
simply and clearly.

Then by another animated basic
diagram the sensitivity of the human
ear is explained. The range of both
frequency and volume are shown in
the diagram and while the commentator
speaks, changes in the pattern can be
noted when low and high frequencies
are in turn eliminated. The differences
in the patterns for band music, both
distant and near, are also observed.
Lastly, the film considers the action of
sound waves indoors. The influence
of hard, non-absorbent surfaces is
contrasted with that of soft, absorbent
surfaces.

Suitability : Grammar or Technical

Schools, 15-18.

The Life-Story of a Tadpole

G.B.I., F 727. Sound. 1 reel. Hire :
7s. 6d. first day. Also : L.C.C., 64.

This is a condensed and more
elementary treatment of the two-reel
film “The Life History of the Frog”.
Mating of the male and female frogs
and spawning is shown and then
development of the tadpole until
metamorphosis is complete and the
tiny frog begins its life on land.

'fhe photography is excellent and

222

the commentary clear and simple.
Emphasis is well laid on the changes
which occur in the feeding habits and
method of respiration during the life
history.

Suitability : Juniors, or as a revision
for Seniors.

The following G.B.I. productions are
at present only produced in 35mm.
copies, but will later be reduced to
16mm.

Light

I. First Principles of Reflection. (9
minutes.)

II. Spherical Mirrors. (11 minutes.)

III. Refraction. (5j4 minutes.)

IV. Lenses. minutes.)

The presentation is extremely clear
in all parts and they would prove a
very useful aid to teaching.

Suitability : Grammar and Technical
Schools, 14+ .

Sound

I. Introduction to Sound. (9 minutes.)

II. Sound Waves. (9 minutes.)

III. Speed of Sound. (6 minutes.)

IV. Musical Notes. (11 minutes.)

In the second reel the difference
between transverse and longitudinal
waves and in the last reel the part
played by overtones in music are
particularly well brought out. Much
use could certainly be made of this
film.

Suitability : as above.

Circulation

L.C.C., 38. Sound. 2 reels. Also
G.B.I., FC 992.

This is a complementary film to
Breathing and Blood in the same series.

It is an excellent teaching film and
shows very clearly the structure of the
heart and the mechanism by which the
double circulation is maintained. Very
good use is made of animated diagrams.
The “jerky” flow of blood in the
arteries and the smooth flow in the
veins is illustrated in an amusing way;
crowds of people dismounting from
successive buses and all streaming
towards the same turnstile, represent

the discontinuous fkw of the arterial
blood whilst the turnstile represents
the capillary system through which,
after a certain amount of hold up, a
smooth and continuous stream emerges.

Useful for revision work or as an
introduction to heart structure and the
circulation of the blood.

Suitability : Grammar and Technical
Schools, 14+ .

Black Tin

Gateway, D 117. Sound. 1 reel.
Hire : 7s. 6d. first day, 2s. 6d. each
subsequent day.

This film shows the processing of
the tin ore, cassiterite, into the tin
oxide or black tin.

The historical aspects of tin mining
in Cornwall are indicated by shots of
an outcrop and old engine houses.

A diagram of rock cross section
showTs the position of the veins of tin,
and there is a model of a mine shaft.

Having seen the various types of
drills being tested above ground and
stills of their use in the mine, we are
shown the huge pump which drains
the mine.

The processing begins with the
crushing of the ore by jawbreakers.
We follow the ore along to the Frue
vanner, where valuable materials are
separated from the worthless by
virtue of their difference in density.
Wolframite, and other magnetic
materials of approximately the same
density as tin, are separated from it
by passing the ore through successively
stronger magnetic fields. Diagrams are
given for both methods.

The black tin, produced by roasting
the “tin concentrate” remaining after
these processes, is packed into bags.

This film is useful because of the
detailed treatment of the standard
methods of mineral separation; but the
subject must be w'ell prepared before-
hand for full understanding.

Very good notes available.

Suitability : Sixth Form Science.

CORRECTION

The Cover Personality for the
May issue of Focus was written by
Joseph Galea. — The Editor regrets
the misprint.

223

Cover Personality spe^er

This should really be an article about
Jeremy’s mother, for it is she who
emerges as the sane, wise, unemotional
guide and friend to a talented little boy
who might so easily take the wrong
path, artistically and ethically, were he
not also fortunate in having so talented
and devoted a mother.

When I met Mrs. Spenser and Jeremy
at the flat of a mutual friend, I was at
once struck by the fact that Jeremy is
so level-headed, and a l'ittle conversa-
tion with Mrs. Spenser soon made me
aware of the source of this quality. He
is also a polite and well-mannered boy,
willing to turn at once from the kittens
with which he was delightedly playing
to answer the possibly wearisome
questions I put to him. On the other
hand, while his mother and I were
discussing Jeremy in particular, and
films in general, he continued quietly
to absorb himself with a toy. It is a
tribute to the way he has been brought
up that he did not, as so many other
children in similar circumstances would
have done, interrupt our conversation
with precocious and self - centred
remarks.

I asked Jeremy whether he preferred
the films to the stage in view of the
fact that he and his elder brother
David Spenser have done a deal of
broadcasting. He was quite definite
about his preference for the cinema
though David, on the other hand,
prefers the stage and radio. David,
by the way, was the original William
in the B.B.C. “Just William”. Jeremy
takes a very professional interest in the
technique of film making and had a
number of very intelligent things to
say about the film which has brought
him fame. He enjoyed making it very
much and though he is not really as
proficient on the piano as the film
made him appear to be, he is genuinely
interested in music and took a great
deal of trouble in learning the music
by heart, as well as the appropriate
gestures in conducting it. It is very
much to his credit as an actor that he
conveyed the impression that he was
actually in charge of the orchestra and
really interpreting the music. In fact*
his skill in this direction may very

well lead one to suspect the genuine-
ness of the other young gentlemen
who, during the past two years, have
astonished the musical world with their
prodigious feats in wielding the
conductor’s baton !

Jeremy is twelve years old, and prior
to his appearance in Prelude to Fame
played small parts in Anna Karenina-,
Kind Hearts and Coronets, The
Dancing Years, The Spider and the
Fly and Portrait of Clare.

He is being educated by his mother,
who is a trained teacher. He was, for
a time a pupil at the Westminster
Cathedral Choir School. He is a Boy
Scout, though, as he told me, film
work does not leave him a great deal
of time to attend Patrol and Troop
Meetings. He has algo written some
novels which, he hopes, will soon be
published. I hope Jeremy will not
be too annoyed with me if I suggest
that it might be a good thing to wait
until he is a little older before he
perpetuates his literary efforts in print.
One’s standards become more critical
as one grows older and it is often the
case that one can be profoundly
ashamed of the things that fond
parents have preserved from the early
davs of one’s artistic flowering !

One always feels a certain anxiety
at the fate waiting for child film actors.
The life of the studio is so unreal and
so far removed from what is normal
or balanced, that it is no surprise to
learn that as they grow older and
find themselves less in demand, they
get into temperamental and artistic
difficulties. This is much more the
case with American film children. The
life in Hollywood is much more
artificial than it is in this country.
Nevertheless, it is true to say in both
cases that if a talented child retains
his sense of proportion and eventually
makes good as an adult player, it is
very largely due to wise home
guidance. This, I am sure, is what
makes it certain that Jeremy Spenser
will have an interesting and creative
career as a child actor and will later
develop into an adult player worth
watching.

John Vincent.

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Please return completed form to The Hon. Secretary, Catholic Film
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THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema )

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

j. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £io.

Privileged Membership, £ 1 .

Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
pamphlet publications. Ordinary members receive a monthly copy
of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote :

"The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.’’

Hon. Secretary :

Rev. John A. V. Burke, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

FILMS FOR HUMANITY

An independent, non profit-making organisation contributing
towards the spiritual welfare of humanity through film

Sir John Stewart-Wallace, C.B., Chairman
Andrew Buchanan, Managing Director

Alfred Torrie, M.A., M.B., D.P.M.

Catholic Film Institute
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Humanity Now

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London, S.W.1.

Park Studios, Putney Park Lane, London, S.W.15

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers). Ltd., for The Catholio Film Inatitute,
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Administration :

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Catholic Film Institute

16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Titles include :

Crucifers to Walsingham
A Legend of Norfolk
Visitation

Out of the Darkness
Rome of the Pilgrims
Monsieur Vincent
Farrebique
To Live in Peace

Four Steps in the Clouds
The Sacrifice We Offer

( Silent Version also
available )

Family Affair

The Atom and You

The Vatican of Pius XII

All particulars from the Librarian,

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• ••••0*<*'********«o»* ••••••

t • 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 r

Film Strips on the

FILM STRIP

Mass

FATIMA TO-DAY

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Coloured pictures from the film

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions’’, by Father

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

with explanatory leaflet.

Price £1 Is. Od.

36 Frames. Price : 15s.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE

CHILDREN

THE CATHOLIC FILM

20 Frames. Colour

INSTITUTE

By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE

20 Ovington Square,

20 Ovington Square,

London, S.W.3

London, S.W.3

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President: The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

x. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

3. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of pirns.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £10.

Privileged Membership, £1.

Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
pamphlet publications. Ordinary members receive a monthly copy
of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote :

"The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified."

Hon. Secretary :

Rev. John A. V. Burke, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

Vol. Ill

No. 8

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Editorial

Page

227

Fanny

Page
... 243

Ax Urgent Appeal for Catholic

Winchester ’73

... 244

Action

228

Ellem

... 244

Focus Film Course

230

Three Husbands

... 244

. Bv Andrew Bucliauau

My Daughter Joy

... 245

Ruy Bias

... 245

"Parents and Films

231

By Major Arthur A. McLoughlin

Bitter Springs

Tony Draws A Horse

... 246
... 246

Film Reviews

The Vatican

... 248

By Our Panel of Priests

Stromboli

... 248

Treasure Island

235

My Friend Irma

... 249

No Sad Songs For Me

238

The Adventures Of Ichabod

Some Films Reviewed

... 249

And Mr. Toad

238

O.C.I.C. General Council

Annie Get Your Gun

239

Meeting, Rome

... 250

Kuksi

240

Institute Notes

... 252

The Lady Takes A Sailor
Sands Of Iwo Tima

241

241

Cover Personality

... 253

Night And The City

242

Letters to the Editor ...

... 255

Cairo Road

243

Book Reviews

... 256

FOCUS — Annual Subscription: 7s. (post free). Single Copy: 7 d. (post free).

Glasgow agents: Messrs. James Reilly and Co., 68 Gordon Street, Glasgow, C.l.

FOCUS— May be obtained from: The Manager, “The Blue Cottage,”
69 Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7. Telephone: Kensington
6849. Duckett, 140 Strand, London, W.C.2. Telephone: Temple
Bar 300 8/9. Catholic Truth Society, 28a Ashley Place, London,
S.W.1. Michael White, 15 Broad Street Place, London, E.C.2.
Telephone: London Wall 1389.

International Film Review

Quarterly organ of the International Catholic Cinema Office

Subscription rate: £1 per annum
Obtainable from:

“International Film Review”, 20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3

The only trulv international film review dealing with the Cinema on a Christian
basis Specimen copy on application

FOCUS : REVIEW

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. Ill

AUGUST 1950

No. 8

Negative and Positive

(i)

There is a sequence in the film .
Odette which seems to lay bare the
heart of Nazism and, by implication,
one may suppose, lays bare the
heresy of Communism. When
Odette has suffered torture in a way
that only the truly noble can suffer
torture, she is visited by the Catholic
prison chaplain, a German, who asks
her whether there is some little
service he can render her; she replies
that she would like him to say Mass
for her, /whereupon he affirms that
such a request would never be
granted by the authorities. Odette
looks the priest in the face: “Are
they so afraid of God’’, she says
with biting emphasis.

Today, men who hate God because
they fear Him, gloomily and openly
strut across the world. It is not
surprising that their gloomy gospel
has penetrated the cinema. The
other day it fell to my lot to review
a film which was stiff with hate and
fear; at no time was there even a
glimmer of any of the Christian
virtues of charity, love and tolerance
and the story concludes with a cruel
murder.

(II)

Some time ago I received a letter
from a reader of Focus who
describes himself as: “A friend of
The Catholic Film Institute’’.
Among other things he writes “ . . .
I believe that The Catholic Film
Institute will really get going when
it goes into production, and when
it does go into production I believe
that it will receive the support of
every Christian in the country’’.

“When it goes into production.”
By those words I presume our friend
means when The Catholic Film
Institute begins to make films.

We are pleased to announce that
The Catholic Film Institute in this
country has made its first full-length
factual film which records in simple
and telling film-language the
amazing facts of Fatima.

It will be reviewed in due course,
but I will be permitted to say that in
a world grown musty and morbid
with materialism, this supernatural
film-story is like a breath of sweet,
clean air. It has something to say.
It reminds us that we have been
given a supernatural weapon which
if used will bring peace to the world.

Editor.

228

An Urgent Appeal
For Catholic Action

At the recent General Council meeting
of the International Catholic Film Office
held in Rome, it was regretfully
decided that unless there can be a very
definite increase in the circulation of the
English edition of the International Film
Review, it must cease publication.

This is a double tragedy. It is sad
to think that the only truly international
film review should be unable to find
enough English readers to keep it going;
it is even more distressing that the only
review really attempting to develop the
Christian philosophy of the art of film
should be unable to find enough Catholics
interested in the religious and artistic
aspects of the cinema to support its
modest requirements to keep it in
existence. \

Let it not be thought that the
International Film Review is just one
more in the large list of glamorous
cinema publications. It is the only
journal seriously approaching the
problems presented by the cinema, both
morally and artistically, from an inter-
national point of view. It has recently
been honoured with a series of recom-
mendations from personalities of the
highest competence in every walk of life.

From Mgr. Montini, of the Vatican
Secretariat of State, we received the
following letter. Addressed to the
President of the International Catholic
Cinema Office, it reads as follows:

“You are not unaware of the warm
interest with which the Holy Father
follows the work and development of the
O.C.I.C. Recently, on the occasion of
the General Council Meeting of your
Office in London, it was my pleasure to
confirm this attitude which the Head of
the Church has towards you.

“But an organisation such as yours
owes it to itself to have a special publica-
tion at its service, and at this time, as
the International Film Review enters its
second year, I am able to tell you that
the Holy See sends encouragement to
your work and hopes for the develop-

ment of your periodical. This review,
with its fine format and serious content,
aims, in effect, to respond on the inter-
national plane to the need that you have
felt to express with faith and knowledge
the Catholic point of view in the
problems which the development of the
cinema has set the world of today. . . .
One cannot but hope that, while in no
way supplanting national publications,
your review is obtaining the circulation
that is merited by the cause it serves.”
From the two ladies who are, without
doubt, the most influential film critics in
this country we have pleasure in
publishing these testimonials. C. A.
Lejeune, of The Observer, writes: “I am
very happy indeed to have the chance
to say a few words about International
Film Review. In my opinion it provides,
together with Focus, a more sensible
assessment of film values than any other
magazine at present obtainable in
English. What I like so much about it
is its sanity. It is wise without being
priggish; neither writes ' up nor writes
down; but manages to impart and invite
intelligence without ever falling into the
trap of abstraction.

“No other review, to my knowledge,
provides such a full and balanced
picture of the state of film in the world
today, and I particularly like the care
it gives to the needs of children in the
cinema. A really splendid job.”

Miss Dilys Powell, of the Sunday
Times, writes, “I have read International
Film Review with interest and am
impressed by the range of the material
and the high standard of its criticism.
It seems to me that the serious student
of the cinema should find much here
which he cannot afford to neglect.”
From our English Hierarchy we have
had many encouraging letters. May I
quote as typical the letter of the
Bishop of Menevia. His Lordship says:
“May I say how important it is that the
English-speaking Catholic world should
have as much information as possible.

229

from a Catholic standpoint, of the work
of the cinema. For that reason, I
welcome the International Film Review
and I hope that it will succeed in
capturing the attention not only of the
Catholic educational world, profession-
ally speaking, but of all the clergy,
teachers (religious and lay) , and of all
those whose work influences and directs
Catholic life and thought.

“The film is undoubtedly one of the
greatest formative influences in modem
society and I feel that we as Catholics
have not yet realised its tremendous
possibilities as a christianising medium.

“The International Film Review
should do very much towards enlivening
our interest; and quickening our
enthusiasm in the ‘Apostolate of the
Film’.’’

After these eloquent and generous
tributes from such exalted sources, will
you allow this invaluable contribution
to Catholic film culture to disappear for
the want of a little energy and
enthusiasm?

There are two main reasons why it has
been difficult to bring the English edition
to the circulation point necessary as a
minimum for publication: (i) the Board
of Trade regulation forbidding periodicals
printed in English in Luxembourg to be
imported into this country in bulk;
(2) the unwillingness of American
Catholic film interests to advertise the
review. The first difficulty might
possibly be overcotne if the review could
be printed in France (it is impossible to
print it in England: the cost would be
prohibitive for so small a circulation) .

The second difficulty derives from the
policy of our friends in the States who
are afraid that a Catholic review dealing
with the artistic merits of films might
detract from their single-minded purpose
of providing a purely moral guide to films

and allowing no consideration of any
other kind to deflect them. That, of
course, is entirely a matter for the
U.S.A. It becomes evident, therefore,
that if this review is to be saved for the
sake of those who think that Catholics
have something to contribute to the art
of cinema along the philosophical and
artistic line also, it is for Catholics in
England to rally round loyally and do
all they can for the review.

Recently the C.F.I. printed and
distributed more than 5,000 copies of a
leaflet entitled Dare We Ignore the
Cinema? It advertised the International
Film Review as well as Focus and went
to every priest, convent, school and
educational centre in the country. The
result has been deplorably disappointing.
If only every convent and college bought
one copy of the International Film
Review it would be enough to save the
English edition. Is it too much to hope
that our educational authorities are
sufficiently awake to the dangers and
possibilities of the cinema to accept the
Holy Father’s invitation to see that this
review “is obtaining the circulation that
its cause merits”?

It may be that £1 per annum is too
expensive for the purses of those who
realise the need of Catholic Film Action.
Can we not then hope that several
persons with similar interest may take
out a collective subscription? Until the
Board of Trade alters its regulations, or
until the review can be printed in
France, we cannot show the English
edition in bulk (though the Board of
Trade will allow you to have as many
copies in French or Spanish as you
wish!). But we can promise that a
specimen copy will be sent gratis to you
if you will send us your name and
address. Do please help this important
work for the bettering of films to
continue.

for Catholic boohs go to

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iDuckettl

Catholic boohs
in all languages
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230

FOCUS FILM COURSE

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

No. 7— THE EDUCATIONAL FILM

Today, “visual aids” in education
receive such prominence that it would
be excusable to regard them as new,
whereas films for educational purposes
have been in circulation during the last
twenty-five years. However, it is only
since the last war that serious steps have
been taken in this country to equip
schools with projectors, and supply
them with the right kind of teaching
films, and film strips.

Unexpectedly, the educational film
bristles with problems. First, there is
the film-maker’s attitude towards it. If
he has wide technical experience in
making films for public consumption, he
will probably regard the production of
an educational film as the simplest job
in the world, but unless he has studied
the art of teaching, he will find it the
most difficult, because it needs to be so
simple. In this specialised field, it is
not enough to be technically proficient.
Indeed, many usual practices must be
forgotten, for the teaching film demands
neither swift tempo, clever camera
angles, trick effects, nor dramatic
lighting. Instead, it needs to be presented
slowly. Every scene must be straight-
forward, and, above all, the film should
never be overloaded with facts and
figures, for these cannot be easily
memorised. On the other hand, the
teacher should learn as much as possible
about film production, and how to
present teaching films to the best advan-
tage. Apart from mastering projection,
there is the question of introducing a
film so that it becomes an integral part
of a lesson, and not an additional
novelty. Also, giving a talk after the
film has been shown, with or without
the aid of a film strip (which recapitulates
the important points seen on the screen),
needs very careful planning.

Some teachers still regard film as an
intruder into the classroom which seeks

to make them redundant, whereas it can
never be more than an aid to teaching.
It is true that whilst a sound film is
being projected, the teacher loses touch
with the pupils, but the link is re-
established when the film is discussed
immediately after being seen. In some
ways, the silent film is superior to the
sound film, for it enables the teacher to
describe the action whilst it is being
projected.

Today, there is a plentiful supply of
teaching films for all age groups, and they
are giving a new meaning to geography,
natural history, botany, many technical
subjects, and any lessons which require to
be demonstrated. Film can, by the
employment of actual scenes, slow motion
photography, and animated diagrams,
illustrate and simplify lessons in a
wonderful way. Religious instruction by
film should be the next development.
I am not in favour of films which
present Biblical stories in the theatrical
manner, though they have their uses.
It is the factual film which is going to
be of the greatest service to religion.
Church ritual, history, training for
various Vocations, religious events in
other lands — all can be clarified by film.
It is important, too, to realise that whilst
an eminent authority on this or that
subject cannot be expected to visit
schools all over the country, he can, by
appearing in or describing a film,
actually enter every classroom possessing
a projector.

Unfortunately, the educational film is
the Cinderella of filmdom. Though its
financial position will improve in the
future, when all schools have projectors,
and all teaching authorities and teachers
are conscious of the value of film, today
production is not a good proposition
because returns are so small. Added to
this, educational films have to be made
within the commercial industry which is

231

in no way concerned with the purpose
for which a film is produced, and applies
the same high costs to all subjects.
Consequently, films for the classroom not
only cost more than they should, but
earn less than all other films.

In time it will be realised that films for
this most important purpose should be

made by groups of trained educational
film-makers, unrelated to the main com-
mercial industry, working on an
economical scale proportionate to the
educational market. The teaching of
religious and secular subjects to future
generations by film must not be hindered
by commercialism.

No. / — A Positive Approach to the Cinema

Parents and Films

By Major Arthur A. McLoughlin

i

SPOTLIGHTING THE PROBLEM

As the Roman Catholic father of four
children I have been most interested in
the recent Departmental Committee
Report and publicity given to the
subject of children and films which
has spotlighted this vital matter
particularly for those who had never
before considered it. Fortunately for
me, as a parent, I have always
appreciated the good and bad potential
of films, especially for children and
have long exercised supervision and
control in regard to the film-going
habits of my own family. One of the
many matters mentioned in the Depart-
mental Committee’s Report and one
which has been seriously exercising the
minds of the authorities in post-war
years is the sad decline in juvenile
morals and the blame for this state of
affairs is being laid at any convenient
door where, in theory at least, it can
conceivably belong.

Thus, at a recent juvenile delinquency
conference in one of the home counties,
delegates advanced their theories as to
I the cause ; practically everything was
suggested including “Dick Barton”,
comics and, of course, films, and the
whole provided an exhaustive list of
causes. Dealing with possible remedies
one lady delegate, herself a parent,
suggested that tax be taken off
television sets to encourage parents to
buy them as a counter-attraction to the
cinema for their children. Perhaps the
most practical, if revolutionary,

remedy suggested by a delegate, how-
ever, was that parents should be really
held responsible for the behaviour of
their children. In this way, it was
suggested, a juvenile arraigned before
a Court would have his parents with
him and they would be required to give
an account of their stewardship in the
upbringing of their child.

In cases similar to the "ex-approved
school boy” referred to in last month’s
Focus, one can imagine the magistrate
asking the parents “why was this boy
allowed to go to the cinema so often ;
why was he continually allowed to see
the type of films he did ?” I feel sure
that if the principle of this suggestion
were generally applied today it would
do more to bring down the high
incidence of juvenile crime and low
morals, whatever the cause or causes,
than anything else I have yet heard
suggested.

THE FIT PERSONS TO
SUPERVISE CHILDREN’S FILMS

In regard to the effects of the film on
children the Departmental Committee
Report stated that “One of our hardest
problems was to define and measure the
effects”. I am not surprised. In fact,
I think it* quite impossible to gauge
accurately the effects of the film in
general on children as a whole. The
mental make-up and character-forming

232

machinery of children are delicate and
complex things which can vary greatly
as between children ; the home life and
other factors concerning the individual
child also enter into the matter. There-
fore, a film which was quite harmless to
one child might well have an adverse
effect on another.

If it is at all possible to decide
accurately the likely effect of this type
of film, or that one, on any particular
child, surely only the child’s parents,
who are in an unrivalled position to
know and understand him intimately,
can do this. I consider that if my wife
and I are not fit and proper persons to
supervise our children’s film-going
habits, we have no right to the status
and privilege of parenthood. The fact
that films, unsuitable for juvenile con-
sumption, are produced and that
children can gain admission to see
them is no excuse. Most parents
would never dream of allowing their
children to get hold of bad books or to
keep bad company, yet many are
apparently quite indifferent to the films
their children see.

Emotionally, I find that my children’s
reactions to certain types of scenes in
films are no different to those they
exhibit at certain “scenes” in other
forms of entertainment which they
enjoy. At a Speedway Meeting, for
example, I have seen them hide their
eyes from an impending crash or avert
their gaze from the starting line when
the riders are lined-up for the start of
some important race such as a cup final.
The excitement when their favourite
rider figures in a very close finish is
only equalled by their tenseness and
anxiety when lie is involved in a
collision. At the circus they know and
have exhibited fear for the safety of the
high-level tight-rope walker and
trapeze artistes ; they are clearly
relieved when the lion tamer emerges
safely from the cage and everything is
soon forgotten anyway as they laugh
uproariously at the antics and patter of
the clowns.

There is an important point to be
remembered here, however, and that is
that speedway meetings are held only
once a week at each track and the
circus is normally only an annual event
but the cinema is available every day
and there are lots of them.

FILM-SAFETY CONSCIOUSNESS

Although it has long been realised
that film-going was developing into a
normal feature of everyday life for
many people, including children, it was
a surprise to learn from the Departmen-
tal Committee Report that as many as
“Nine out of ten (about 6,000,000)
children of school age in Great Britain
go to the cinema from time to time and
more than half (about 4,000,000) of
them do so at least once a week”.
Disquieting, however, was the informa-
tion “that out of a total population of
7,000,000 children between the ages of
5—15, there are 1,250,000 who attend
twice a week and 550,000 three times or
more often”.

Over-indulgence by children is to my
mind the greatest source of possible
moral danger emanating from films
because repetition increases enormously
the power of an already powerful
medium. The ex-approved schoolboy it
will be remembered was “bunged off to
the cinema too often” and he saw some
films twice in order to perfect a new
“angle”.

That some good parents, who would
never wilfully expose their children to
any suggestion of danger, do unknow-
ingly expose them to the great moral
and other dangers resulting from in-
discriminate over-indulgence in film
programmes is illustrated by this case :
A Catholic, and exemplary mother I
know allows her children to go to the
cinema twice or three times a week,
mostly unaccompanied, because, to use
her own words, “It’s safer for them
there than playing in the busy streets”.
Safer ? I wonder. This good lady is
definitely road-safety conscious but
what about film-safety consciousness ?
Certainly, as things stand today,
children will only get what is good from
films (and there is a lot of good to be
had) providing their cinema-going is
carefully supervised as it should be.

There is therefore a much needed job
of work to be done in bringing this
matter to the attention of all parents
and what better form could this take
than by publicising the work of the
Catholic Film Institute? This needn’t
cost a lot of money for even if it were
restricted in activity to a talk (or a
letter read from the Cardinal or the
Bishop) from the pulpit at each Mass
in every Catholic church throughout

233

the country with membership forms
and appropriate literature available at
the back of the church it would, I am
sure, prove very successful. Notices
could be sent to the newspapers ; special
talks given to local organisations and
local film committees or groups set up.

In this connection it would be a good
thing, where possible, if a specific priest
could be placed permanently in charge
of the work of each parish and apart
from all else he could keep the matter
in front of parishioners by talks from
the pulpit at regular intervals. Later,
perhaps, funds could be raised to
purchase a projector and then film
appreciation could really go ahead with
the aim of every parent becoming a film
critic.

LATEST LINK IN THE CHAIN
OF VISUALS

The Church has long employed
“visuals” in her work and modern film
is really the latest link in the chain
started by her centuries ago. Our Lord
Himself surely “illustrated” His work
on earth by means of the parable and
in so doing provided the subject for
many pictorial illustrations which con-
tinue to influence and instruct children
today. Then in 1223 St. Francis
produced the first Christmas crib in the
open air at Greccio and the wonder of
the first onlookers can have been no
greater than that of modern children
seeing the crib for the first time. The
crucifix, holy pictures, Stations of the
Cross and stained glass windows are all
“visuals” which the Church still

successfully employs.

I would like to see more religious
films. My own children are usually
very impressed by a religious or super-
natural film or scene, e.g., the final
scene of Joan of Arc where the
Saint is succoured in her last moments
at the stake by the sight of the

Crucifix, created in them a new interest
( and respect for the reproduction of the
Crucified Christ. In Hamlet they

were quick to note, and were duly
impressed by the fact, that Laurence
Olivier would not attack his intended
victim because he found him kneeling
in prayer. They have made reference
to these two incidents several times

since. On the other hand they have

been equally quick to notice that their
hero or heroine in the film goes to bed
or rises in the morning without saying
prayers and the unsaid “Grace before
meals” also proves difficult for parents
to explain away. Small actions like
these may escape the notice of or seem
too trivial to producers but they would
do a tremendous amount of good if
they could be performed, particularly
by children’s favourite stars.

Another thing which children seize
upon is the case where, for example, a
star appears as a “bad-egg” in one film
only to be cast in a “goody-goody” or,
worse still from this point of view, a
religious role in the next. Once
children know a star is a Roman
Catholic in real life he can do no wrong
in their eyes ; whether he knows it or not
therefore he has a very great respon-
sibility on his hands in this connection.
Thus, I have heard my children stoutly
defend any criticism of Bing Crosby,
however mild, because “Bing’s a
Catholic” they say ! Spencer Tracy,
too, is “the tops” because of his many
roles as a priest.

Children today are becoming much
more perceptive in regard to films, no
doubt as a result of living in this age
when visual aids, especially sound
films, form part of the normal equip-
ment of schools. At Brighton College,
for example, in addition to the normal
educational sessions provided, the pro-
jector is used to screen a weekly pro-
gramme comprising a full length
feature with supporting films.

THE REAL ANSWER TO THE
QUESTION

The real answer to the question of
children and films, and one which
would relieve parents of much
responsibility in the matter, would be
the provision of a continuous supply of
good films of all types with a children’s
interest for all ages. A sad blow,
although it is to be hoped not a lethal
one, to any hopes for this happy state
was the recent announcement of the
suspension, for economy reasons, of the
fine work of the Children’s Entertain-
ment Section of the J. A. Rank
Organisation.

It is obvious that with today’s high
salaries and costs in film production,
children’s films can only be made at a
loss unless stars and technicians accept
reduced rates of pay for this work in

l

234

view of its importance. We cannot
hope in the present state, it seems, to
produce special children’s films at any-
thing like the low cost (£3,000) of the
first effort of Denmark. The progress
of Russia is even farther beyond our
immediate reach for, according to a
recent report, Moscow possesses some
30 special children’s cinemas to which
adults are only admitted if accompanied
by children ! Films are shown to two
age groups— under 11 and 11-17 years;
only the best artists and producers are
employed in making films on science,
travel, adventure and fairy stories.
What a wealth of possibilities if only
we could have the same set-up ! But
who knows, perhaps it will come one
day as the result of the Committee’s
recommendation that experimental
cinemas be established on similar lines
in large centres ?

Apart from such long - term
possibilities parents would undoubtedly
like to see the recommended categories
of the Departmental Committee in
operation soon. These are as follows :

Category “X” (including the
existing “H”) from which all
children would be unreservedly

excluded; Category “C” which
alone might be shown at Children’s
Cinema Exhibitions ; and two
advisory categories for all other
films to which children would have
unrestricted admission, i.e.,
Advisory “U” for family entertain-
ment, and Advisory “A” preferably
for adults.

The other recommendation which I,
as a parent, would like to see working
in the near future is the one suggesting ^
fuller information and wider publicity ™
for the public regarding the nature and
category of films, for this is one of my
main difficulties. If parents would like
to see these and the other recommenda-
tions of the Departmental Committee
implemented they should follow the
suggestion of the Hon. Mrs. Robert
Bowers in last month’s Focus and
impress upon their M.P.s and others
the urgency of these matters. But
even in the unhoped-for event of no
action being taken as a result of the
Report the grave responsibility of
parents in this matter is the same as
it always was and they must accept it
however difficult it may be.

The Editor has invited a number of persons of widely differing occupations to
contribute to this series, which discusses the cinema from a constructive angle.

C.F.I. SUMMER SCHOOL

(August 8th — 12th inclusive)

at

The Convent of the Assumption, Ramsgate

Film Appreciation — Fundamentals of Film Technique — Projection Class
Camera Class — Film Strip — Daily Film Shows — Discussion Group

Lecturers will include Freda Bruce-Lockhart, Andrew Buchanan
S. Ackroyd, Lyn Lockwood, W. J. Igoe, J. A. V. Burke

Residential accommodation limited to 50 places
Inclusive fee for lectures and full board:

C.F.I. members, £2 10s. od.; Non-members, £2 15s. od.
Fee for non-residents: members, 10s.; non-members, 12s. 6d.
(Lunch available if required)

f

All enquiries should he addressed to :

Secretary, Film Course, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7

FILM REVIEWS

By Our Panel of Priests

TREASURE ISLAND

Starring: Bobby Driscoll, Robert

Newton, and Basil Sidney, with
Walter Fitzgerald, Denis O’Dea,
Finlay Currie and Ralph Truman.
An R.K.O.-Walt Disney Produc-
tion. Certificate: U. Category:
C. Running time : 96 minutes.

Chesterton says of Robert Louis
Stevenson that “He did for the penny
dreadful what Coleridge had done for
the penny ballad. He proved that,
because it was really human, it could
really rise as near to heaven as human
nature could take it.” He puts into
Treasure Island all the elements that
our parents and teachers and
magistrates and psychologists have
warned us are bad and dangerous for
the young mind and, with a boy at
hand as touchstone, produced the
immortal adventure story that is the
model for all such yarns. What matter
if the author has used ideas and
characters from other sources, the
parrot from Crusoe, the skeleton from
Poe, the stockade from Fennimore
Cooper ? It is the alchemy of
Stevenson’s art that transmutes these
elements into the pure gold of a
literature that is entirely his own.

Any film-maker presuming to take
these pages for a script has to answer to
an ageless jury of youth if they be not
treated with respect. Our tolerance
permits the excision of certain scenes
and one or two characters, but we
demand that the spirit of the adventure
remain intact. That spirit is not
satisfied by an actor cleverly disguising
one leg, swear he never so blood-
curdlingly, nor by a precocious boy pre-
tending he is Jim Hawkins. The spirit
of this book requires in the reader and
in the audience a willingness to submit
to a world of make-believe as to
actuality. It demands in the actor the
power to speak and to act the lines and
situation as if ham were the normal diet
of first-class players.

It is satisfactory to report that Walt

Disney has captured the atmosphere of
Stevenson’s map, and that Robert
Newton has the right, slightly
theatrical, command of the crafty mind
of Silver and of his colleagues to
enable the audience to accept the film
as a true version of the story. The
colour is admirably suited both to the
story’s intrinsic demands and to
Disney’s cartoon conception of it.
Indeed, at times, one has the impres-
sion that the cartoon has come to life.

Newton’s Long John is the authentic
article. Memories of Wallace Beery in
the part are pleasant but Beerv’s claim
to the role was based on a reputation for
amiable roguery rather than any skill for
understanding or interpreting this
particular and highly individual rogue.
Newton’s special brand of eye-rolling,
neck-twisting, leering villainy fits Long
John like a glove and the oily inflection
he imparts to the well-known phrases
adds the last touch to the Silver we
have always imagined.

Bobb\? Driscoll, somewhat young for
the part, nevertheless succeeds in
interpreting the reader’s own terrors
and exaltations which it is the role of
Jim Hawkins vicariously to undergo.
His American attempts at West of
England accent are not successful but
it does not matter : the general impres-
sion of “shiver-my-timbers” articulated
in a variety of vaguely Western voices
by the remainder of a British cast is
legitimate enough.

Basil Sidney’s Smollett, Walter
Fitzgerald’s Squire, Ralph Truman’s
George Merry', Denis O’Dea’s Doctor
Livesey and Finlay Currie as Billy
Bones are all broadly-played versions of
the familiar characters. John Laurie’s
Blind Pew lacks the blobd-curdling
accompaniment of the stick tapping on
the road and Geoffrey Wilkinson’s Ben
Gunn is too shrill for all tastes. Still,
these criticisms will not prevent children
of all ages and both sexes taking this
film to their hearts and thoroughly and
uninliibitedly enjoying what is, in fact,
a magnificent piece of bravura.

V.

1

-

Robert Newton gives
a remarkable perform-
ance of the crafty-
minded Long John
Silver

* *

After the last bullet in
the stockade battle has
inflicted severe injury
on Captain Smollett
(Basil Sydney), Dr.
Livesey (Denis O’Dea)
administers medical aid

There is nothing like a
}pipe and a pint to help
:the other fellow to see
your point of view

238

NO SAD SONGS FOR ME

Starring: Margaret Sullavan, Wendell
Corey, Viveca Lindfors, with
Natalie Wood, John McIntyre,
Ann Doran, Richard Quine.
Producer: Buddy Adler. Director:
Rudolph Mate. Distributors:
Columbia. Certificate: A. Cate-
gory: B. Running time: 88

minutes.

“When .1 am dead, my dearest,

Sing no sad songs for me.”

I got as far as that on my own
because we had to put it into Latin
verse at school. And from information
kindly supplied by Fr. Burke I learned
that the poem was by Christina
Rossetti. Intrigued by the faint aroma
of culture given off by the title, I
wondered what the film would be
about.

I might have known. We are now in
the epoch of “only so long to live”
films. “Charming, intelligent Mary
Scott” (see Synopsis) has only ten
months. And charming Margaret
Sullavan endeavours heroically, if
unsuccessfully, to portray the progress
of the lady’s cancer.

By those whose only idea of entertain-
ment is what Betty Grable does all this
will be dubbed depressing. But this is
not a depressing film. Its makers
clearly desire to make a contribution to
a philosophy of life which can extract
the sting from such a situation. And
it is to be commended for what might
be called, in the terminology of
O.C.I.C., its positive values. There is
an admirable calmness and absence of
bitterness. In the absence of any
reference to God or the Cross and with
only one brief hint of eternity such a
subject is obviously at a disadvantage.
But the underlying philosophy is not
necessarily materialistic; the treatment
is as compatible with the outlook of a
believer as with that of an unbeliever.
This is ingenious, perhaps consciously
so.

The picture is also an essay in
emotional undertones, unusual in
American films. This is a tendency to
be encouraged and any other treatment
of the theme would have been
intolerable. But it has the limitations

of its qualities and there were times-
when the tragedy of Mrs. Scott left one
rather cold.

Q.

THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD
AND MR. TOAD

A Walt Disney production in
technicolor. Sung and told by
Bing Crosby and Basil Rathbone.
Distributors: R.K.O. Radio.

Certificate: A. Category : B.

Running time ; 68 minutes.

The title is apt to obscure the fact
that this film consists of two stories
joined by the slenderest of threads,
first the adventures of Toad, from
Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the
Willows”, and then the tale of Ichabod:
Crane by Washington Irving.

A number of critics have been very
pleased with this Mr. Toad and his
irrepressible and irresponsible pre-
occupation with the newest and fastest
forms of transport. But there has been
a dissenting judgment which suggests
that Disney has not quite made the
grade. With this I am inclined to
agree, largely, I think, because I am
irritated by American efforts to be just
too, too terribly English (or, in the
case of MacBadger, Scottish).

Ichabod lias earned little commenda-
tion. Visually a period piece, its
sound track has been adapted to
contemporary taste by the insertion of
“close harmony”, and boo-boo-booing.
(But those who think that Bing Crosby
should stick to golf will be relieved to
know that he does not sing much.)
Katrina, who is courted by Ichabod,
the gaunt schoolmaster, is a sort of
sophisticated Snow White. Horrifies
are represented by the headless
horseman. Personally I can never
think of this celebrated apparition
without recalling with a chuckle the
late lamented Moore Marriott and his
leering enthusiasm for the ’eadless
’orseman, but young children should
be spared a potential nightmare.

The word Ichabod has associations
with departed glory And this is not
vintage Disney.

Q-

"Anything you can do I can do better”

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN

Starring: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel,
Louis Calhern, J. Carrol Naish,
Edward Arnold and Keenan
Wynn. An M.-G.-M. Picture.
Director: George Sidney.

Certificate-. U. Category: C.

Running time : 107 minutes.

It is becoming increasingly rare to
find a film that can be recommended
for family audiences. Such films have
to have something more than merely
harmless morality. They need to be
able to bind the family together in
common enjoyment so that at the
subsequent inquest on the film, each
member can relate his own particular
enjoyment to the family pool. Such
films are not necessarily superior from
an artistic or technical point of view,
but they must have a quality of fun and
pathos which lifts them above the
common rut of escapist entertainment.
Annie Get Your Gun is such a film. It
is a technicolored translation into film
of the highly successful stage presen-

tation which drew large and delighted
audiences to Coliseum. It is not,
from the film point of view, an out-
standing piece of work; indeed, it
seems, from what I am told by devotees
of both media, to have missed many
opportunities for film expression and to
have been content with a more or less
straightforward translation to the
screen. It emerges as an honest to
goodness musical comedy with catchy
tunes, pleasing colour and amusing
antics from Betty Hutton who bids fair
to provide a feminine gender to Danny
Kaye.

The characters are historical in the
sense that there was a lady sharp-
shooter called Annie Oakley who
travelled with Buffalo Bill and Big Chief
Sitting Bull and who did appear before
Queen Victoria, much to that eminent
lady’s astonishment. But one does not
go over a film like this with an
historical toothcomb. One is content
with and grateful for the amusement
and pleasure it provides.

V.

240

KUKSI

Starring: Arthur Sanlay, Suzy

Banky, Nicholas Gabor, Ladislas
Morvath. A Mafirt-Radvanyi
Production. London Films
Presentation. Certificate: A.

Category: A. Running time:

ioo minutes.

This Hungarian film when shown on
the Continent bore the title It
Happened in Europe. It depicts with
pathos and, one feels, with terrifying
exactitude what happens to the home-
less and often nameless children scat-
tered by war as they come together for
self protection. They are like animals,
yet, as individuals, they come under the
influence of natural leaders from among
their own number who direct them in
the struggle for survival. But the
leaders are barely adolescent and are
themselves unformed.

In this film we have such a haphazard
band of pathetic hooligans wandering
over what apparently is Hungary. By
masterly cutting we are shown the
implications of the human waste arising
out of the material waste of war. We
have the legs of the goose-stepping
Nazis, the wheels of the deportation
trains, the feet of the children churning
up the dust of the endless roads,
trudging along the cracked surface of
the parched fields and racing to the
shallow, tired streams for water. We
see the animal scrambles for what food
thej- can steal from one another and rob
from the farms. Naturally they are
hunted from the countryside where self
protection is the rule for the farmers
who do not worry about the children’s
problems. At last after a hard fight
with suspicion of a kindness they can-
not understand they are given a sense
of community — their own community to
begin with before they reach the larger
issues. The band has its own tragi-
comedies and its own tragedies ; but we

leave it with a note of hope and possible
peace.

At first I was puzzled by some of the
undertones of the production. The
famous old musician who befriends the
children arouses them to a regard for
responsible liberty by gradually teach-
ing them the “Marseillaise”. I may be
a “fascist heart” for saying so, but this
grqat song of liberty has often been the
incantation of revolutionaries who have
overturned one tyranny and substituted
another. Was this almost mystical
treatment of such a secular thing as
the “Marseillaise” a softening up for the
“Internationale” ? I W'ondered. Was
Communism being subtly indicated by
the restraint on the individualism of
these children, leading them away from
self into the well-ordered community ?
But checks on the individual for the
good of all are a mark of civilised
society and do not pre-suppose the
negation or violation of individual
rights which Communism imposes. So
that was all right.

Then subsequently I discovered that
Hungary was fairly free when the film
was made in 1945, and that this produc-
tion was actually chosen for presenta-
tion and discussion at a Cine Forum
directed by the famous Pere Morlion,
O.P., at Bologna, in 1949. At this
discussion the central theme of Kuksi
was formulated as follows : “At every
difficult moment, in all times of stress
(such as war, misery, injustice), child-
ren carry within themselves an inner
force w-hich may come to the open and
manifest itself, leading them on the
right road if this force meets in others
a kindness great enough to awaken
spiritual energies”.

In spite of this judgment from the
most respect-worthy quarter, I still have
a faint feeling of regret that the kind-
ness displayed is, according to the
evidence submitted by the film itself,
no more than lofty liumanitarianism.

The acting of the principals is note-
worthy. The performance of the
children is something to see, and
wholly admirable. There is no difficulty
in following the story as the sub-titling
is excellent. You will probably be
thrilled by the music which has its own
part in conveying emotion — and by the
dramatic silences as well.

X.

The nice lady (Jane Wyman) who loves a sailor (Dennis Morgan)

THE LADY TAKES A SAILOR
Starring: Jane Wyman, Dennis

Morgan, Tom Tully. Director:
Michael Curtiz. Producers:
Warner Brothers. Certificate :
U. Category : B. Running time :
103 minutes.

This is a “likely” film, though the
story is not so likely. But it is more
likely you will like it, this almost
farcical romantic comedy. Here Jane
Wyman shows she is as adept at comedy
as *in the heavy stuff. We have not
forgotten her moving performance in
Johnny Belinda and now she moves us
to laughs. Of course she is one of the
nice girls and therefore loves a sailor
(Dennis Morgan), “and you know what
sailors are”. Or do you ? Not this one,
as he is a very unconventional one
indeed. And as for Tom Tully, who is
a bit of a crook and a private tec, and
better at opening safes than sardine
tins, maybe he steals the film. In fact
he does. But you must see for yourself
how he does it.

G.

SANDS OF IWO JIMA

Starring: John Wayne, John Agar,
Adele Mara, Forrest Tucker.
Producer: Herbert J. Yates.

Director: Allan Dwan. A

Republic Picture. Certificate-. A.
Category : B. Running time :

108 minutes.

Let us tread softly here. The film
is dedicated to the bravery of the men
who captured Tarawa and Iwo Jima,
two islands in the South Pacific, from
the Japanese. It brings home very
effectively the pitiless nature of modern
war. There is a note of authenticity
which makes it all very real.

But the story into which these events
are woven is patchy and hackneyed.
Further, the direction is poor and the
acting, apart from that of John Wayne,
indifferent. But perhaps I am being too
critical — I expected a very much higher
degree of care with so noble a
dedication.

The story, concerns a tough sergeant
of the Marines (John Wayne) who is
hated by the recruits he trains for his
ruthless efficiency. But in the course
of events they learn to respect him and
he in turn becomes demonstrably more
human. T.

242

London background

Night and the City-

starring: Richard Widmark, Gene

Tierney, and Googie Withers,
with Hugh Marlowe, Francis L.
Sullivan and Herbert Lom.
A Twentieth Century-Fox Film.
Director: Jules Dassin. Certifi-

cate: A. Category: B. Running
time : ioi minutes.

When Jules Dassin made The Naked
City, the critics wrote excitedly about
the air of actuality which was given to
the film by using the streets and
bridges of New York as the background
for a thriller. The critics are not so
vocal about the merits of the technique
when the city used is London. Maybe
it is because they know London better
than they know New York and detect
a certain atmosphere of pseudo-

Rogues agree to differ

documentary. It is a good thing to use
actual scenes where possible ; Bicycle
Thieves demonstrates how effectively
this can be done : but there must be
integrity if the film is to be real.
Night and the City is excitingly and
interestingly made, but it is fake
throughout, from the use of the London
scenes as background to the choice of
characters that people it and the
motives they express.

Richard Widmark is impressive as a
spiv always on the edge of working a
large scale racket. He runs through
London by night in a perfect fever of
sightseeing. His last fatal jaunt in
flight from his enemies takes him from
Soho via the Festival of Britain site
near Waterloo to Hammersmith over a.
bridge that should have led him to the
City. Francis L. Sullivan is a night-
club keeper whose premises seem to be
situated either in the Criterion or
London Pavilion Theatres. The camera
has a habit of looking up at him from
the ground, which, in view of his bulk,
has an odd effect without much signi-
ficance, for he does not prove to be a
very big or frightening person. Herbert
Lom is the menacing one. He, we-
gather, controls all-in wrestling all over
London. His father (magnificently"
played by a gentleman with the soda-
syphonic name, Zbyszko) favours the-
classic Greek wrestling. When
Widmark corners classic Greek and
Zbyszko dies as result, Herbert Lom’s-
filial devotion puts a thousand pounds
on Widmark’s head, dead or alive.
Then we see what London’s underworld
really can do. Every newsvendor, taxi-
cab driver, pedlar and street musician
seems to be in league with Lom to hunt
Widmark. A taxi tour stops all round
Piccadilly Circus and picks up hints
from every corner.

There are ladies in the film, of
course. Gene Tierney loves Widmark.
in spite of himself, but she is left with
Hugh Marlowe to console her when
Richard is dumped unceremoniouslv"
into the Thames. Googie Withers
moves majestically through the film as
the discontented wife of Mr. Sullivan,
and Maureen Delany dresses hideously
as an old hag in charge of a boat house
at Hammersmith.

If you do not know London and are
not worried about things like accents
or probability, you may be entertained
bv this film. It has lots of characters

243

who seem to have slipped out of
Dickens and lost their way. It seems
always on the verge of becoming an
important picture, but like Mr.
Widmark, it wants to get too much into
too little space and time.

V.

CAIRO ROAD

Starring: Eric Portman, Laurence

Harvey, Maria Mauban, with
Harold Lang, Coco Aslan, Karel
Stepanek, John Bailey, Martin
Boddey, “Camelia". Producer:
Aubrey Baring. Director: David
Macdonald. Distributors: Associ-
ated British-Pathe. Certificate :
A. Category: B. Running time :
88 minutes.

The first reviews of this film w'ere
quite devastating. But when Sunday
came it was gratifying to find that mv
own more favourable line was confirmed
by both the great ladies.

Admittedly there are weaknesses.
Eric Portman is supposed to be Colonel
Youssef Bey and few people look less
like Colonel anybody Bey than Mr.
Portman. Harold Lang is supposed to
be an international crook masquerading
as a common Englishman ; the
masquerade is so complete that there is
no hint of an international personality.
(All the same, though I don’t
remember seeing Mr. Lang before, I
very much hope to see him again.)

The picture is a thriller about hashish
smuggling, based on actual cases in the
files of the Anti-Narcotics Bureau and
the unit spent seven weeks in Egypt —
and did a good deal of work in the
time. I found this documentary
approach satisfactory. It is sometimes
pleasant to get away from the studios
and from the boy-meets-girl formula.
And it is pleasant too to have no hesita-
tion in classifying a film as “B” rather
than “A”. Some alleged attacks on
vice are too apt to portray the
fascination of vice. Here there is
notable restraint ; all unpleasantness is
kept off-screen. And those who are
looking for yashmaks, Oriental dances
and the compositions of A. W. Ketelby
must look elsewhere. Though we are
“introduced” to “Camelia”, the
Egyptian artiste, the introduction is not
followed up ; she gets coshed quite early

on. It is the galloping camel corps
which steals the picture.

Q-

FANNY

Starring: Pierre Fresnay, Raimu,

Charpin, Orana Demazis and
Alida Rouffe. Producer: Marcel
Pagnol. Director: Marc Allegret.
Distributors: G.C.T. (Distributors)
Ltd. Certificate: A. Category:
A. Running time: r20 minutes.

The French have the secret of
presenting films which, while involving
situations and ideas which are contrary
to good morality, are, nevertheless,
rendered inoffensive to adult audiences
by reason of the implicit recognition of
Christian standards of conduct. British
or American films, using the same
situations, ignore the sources of
morality and their pictures become, as
a result, dangerous. It is the denial
of Christian values, the false
philosophy, that makes so much modern
cinema pernicious.

This film was made in 1932 and is the
sequel to Marius (reviewed in Focus,
November 1949) which told of the
Marseillais bartender who ran away to
sea. Fanny is the girl with whom he
leaves an unborn baby and the present
film concerns the efforts of her mother
to induce her to marry Panisse, a rich
sailmaker who, having no children of
his own by his first wife, is willing to
father the child. The marriage takes
place and then Marius returns from sea.
His father, however, sends him back
again before he can disturb the happy
family b}' his presence.

This outline gives no idea of the
richness of observation and dialogue
(sometimes extremely salty) or the
perfection of acting which the film
contains. Raimu, now, alas, dead,
established his reputation in this film,
as Cesar, the father of Marius. It is a
large, warm-hearted, humorous per-
formance and should be seen by all
who value first-class acting. The story
and the dialogue alike are too
sophisticated to be either palatable or
understood by those who seek only
drugs at the cinema.

Perhaps the Curzon Cinema will put
us more in their debt by letting us see
the third of this trilogy. V.

244

WINCHESTER '73
Starring: James Stewart, Shelley

Winters, Dan Duryea, Stephen
McNally. Director: Anthony

Mann. Producer: Aaron Rosen-
berg. A Universal - International
Picture. , Certificate : U. Cate-
gory: B. Running time : 92

minutes.

It appears that the Winchester ’73
rifle was greatly valued in the Wild
West of ’76. The thing to do if you
saw one was to stroke it and then look
i down the barrel. Janies Stewart wins
' a particularly7 fine specimen in an open
shooting competition. He shot so
amazingly well with an old rifle that I
shouldn’t have thought that he needed
anything better.

However the prize is promptly stolen
from him by a jealous competitor.
James spends the rest of the film
chasing him. During the chase the rifle
passes into the hands of various other
bad men, each of whom in turn gets
1 killed. Was there meant to be a moral
hidden here somewhere ? In the end
James catches up with the first
scoundrel, who turns out to be his
brother, and kills him in a shooting
duel. Whether to get the rifle or to
avenge the murder of his father is not
too clear.

A stupid film, but relieved, in fact
, made tolerable by some good acting and
L open-air cavorting. Yes, there’s a
I battle with Indians as well. A problem :
r in view of the killing pace of those
[ times, how did some of the characters
; manage to live long enough to develop
those fine bushy beards ? T.

ELLEN

I Starring: Robert Young, Betsy Drake,
with John Sutton, Henry O’Neill,
Florence Bates, Morris Camov-
sky. Producer: Mort Briskin.

Director: James V. Kern. Distrib-
utors: United Artists. Certi-

ficate: A. Category. A. Running
time : 90 minutes.

Good old paranoia ! When you don’t
know what else to make a film about
S there is always that. And w7hen a man
I loses all the things he loves, one after

another, fiancee, horse, dog, statue,
picture, rosetree, house — well, some-
body7 is obviously paranoiac. But who ?
That is the problem. After a while I
began to suspect everybody in the film
of being bats. But in the end the
perpetrator is discovered. Having
admitted his guilt, he fires a revolver
at one girl because he imagines she is
another. After that I thought he would
be put away in a nice home for
paranoiacs. Not at all. He and every-
body else live happily ever after
because this has “served as a catharsis
which purged him of his mental
twists”. What’s that? You don’t
believe it ? Then you had better get a
psycho to see to your psyche. Q.

THREE HUSBANDS
Starring: Emlyn Williams, Eve

Arden, Howard de Silva.
Producer: I. G. Goldsmith.

Director: Irving Reis. Distrib-

utors: United Artists. Certificate :
A. Category ; B. Running time:
80 minutes.

As a satire on the American way of
life this is a really successful film,
showing that the Americans can laugh
at themselves with less conceit than
the English. The performances by the
various players are adequate, although
the parts themselves are not very
exacting. Though a satire, it was not
written by Oscar Wilde. The outstand-
ing performance is that of Eve Arden,
as the former popcorn-selling wife of a
self-made man. She combines the
stridency7 presumably necessary to the
selling of popcorn with the chic peculiar
to American women, and really seems
to be the only player to overdo her part
just that little bit that the piece
demands.

It is regrettable that the story7 begins
in Hollywood’s usual screen Heaven,
consisting of rolling clouds and solemn
voices. From here Maxwell Bard
(Emlyn Williams) looks down on his
friends who get themselves more and
more embroiled in the tangle resulting
from letters he left when he died. It
is all cleared up when the will is read,
after the three couples concerned have
learned their respective lessons. But
it could all have been done without the
heaven. Although one can tell funny-
stories about heaven, it seems in bad
taste on the screen. U.

RUY BLAS

MY DAUGHTER JOY

Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Peggy
Cummins, and Richard Greene,
with Nora Swinburne, Walter
Rilla, Finlay Currie, James
Robertson Justice, Ronald Adam,
and David Hutcheson. Producer
and Director: Gregory Ratoff.

Distributors: British Lion.

Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time: 81 minutes.

As I left the Press Show of this film
I had an interesting chat with the
manager of the cinema. Like many of
his kind he had a low opinion of the
public taste in films. Also like many of
his kind he had little idea that any
responsibility for the deplorably low
level in films rests with those who
exhibit them. He asked whether the
Church had much influence on the
cinema. I suggested that the influence
of the Church was not to be measured
so much by the number of films which
are condemned as by the growing sense
of discrimination now noticeable among
those who hitherto would have
been content to pay to see rubbish
rather than to see nothing.

This introduction is not intended to
indicate that My Daughter Joy is not
worth paying to see. On the contrary,
though it has superficial glamour and
looks, at first sight, like the mixture as
before, it has certain qualities which
make it both entertaining and worth
considering. It tells the old tale of the
man who grows rich and thinks that his
riches give him the right to rule the
world. The discovery that his daughter
on whom he dotes and in whom he
hopes to perpetuate his ideas is not, in
fact, his daughter at all, overturns his
mind and he ends in splendid isolation,
still dreaming that he rules the world.

Edward G. Robinson repeats his
well-known performance as the tough
man, this time with certain overtones
of refinement. His cool, detached
certitude of success is admirably
suggested. Peggy Cummins gives just
the right amount of over-acting
necessary to outline the character of the
pampered capricious daughter. Nora
Swinburne, Finlay Currie and James
Robertson Justice contribute satis-
factory performances to a film that is,
in spite of its gloss, not without
thought-provoking moments. V.

Starring: Jean Marais, and Danielle
Darfieux, with Gabrielle Dorziat,
and Marcel Herrand. Director:
Jean Cocteau. Distributors:
Films De France. Certificate :
U. Category: A. Running time:
104 minutes.

Victor Hugo is doubtless more trust-
worthy as an historian than Dumas,
though it is known that he was not above
quoting “authorities” who were as
much creations of his imagination as
were his characters. Ruy Bias appears
to have been an historical personage but
I have been unable to verify the details
of the story as presented in this film.

It tells of the intrigues of a displaced
police chief to involve the Queen of Spain
in a scandal by foisting an unknown poet
on the court as a grandee. The poet
eventually becomes Prime Minister as
well as the Queen’s lover and all ends
in murder and suicide.

The film is beautiful to look at but
has little else to recommend it, even as
a collector’s piece. Cocteau’s technique
grows more and more bewildering.

An atmosphere of irreverence and
mockery pervades the film and it is not
easy to see why it has a “U” certificate
from the Censor. Two scenes of
questionable taste in church involve first
a disguised police officer and his quarry
indulging in the antics of father con-
fessor and penitent in a confessional
box, and secondly, Jean Marais per-
forming a Douglas Fairbanks escapade
on the chandeliers in the church while
the terrified congregation run shrieking
around the building. These episodes
have no compensatory balance in story
development and seem to be merely
relics of Hugo’s anti-clericalism.

Jean Marais’ acting in a double role is
tedious. Danielle Darrieux is cool and
charming but the acting honours go to
Gabrielle Dorziat as the Lady-in-Waiting.
This grand actress always adds distinc-
tion to any film she plays in no matter
how inferior it may in fact be. What a
a pity such players cannot play a
greater part in the choice of the roles
they perform.

V.

246

BITTER SPRINGS
Starring: Tommy Trinder and Chips
Rafferty, with Gordon Jackson
and Jean Blue. Producer: Michael
Balcon. Director: Ralph Smart.
Certificate : U. Category : C.

Running time : xoo minutes

approx.

This is the third film which Ealing
Studios have made in Australia. The
first, The Overlanders, was an outstand-
ing technical and artistic success in the
factual-fictional style. The second,
Eureka Stockade, a dismal failure on all
counts. With Bitter Springs, we are
back again to the integrity of purpose
and skill in technical achievement
which distinguished the first effort in
the Antipodes.

To a cameraman’s first desideratum,
glorious scenery and a marvellous light
is added a sound job of scripting (W. P.
Lipscombe and AI. Danischewsky) and
economical and firm cutting — perhaps
almost a little too abrupt on occasions
(Bernard Gribble). The story has the
great merit of simplicity in outline and
basic probability. A sheepfarmer’s
eldest son leaves the family homestead
along the Australian coastal belt, round
about 1900, in order to find new sheep-
countrv inland. The troubles of dealing
with the shortage of water and the un-
willingness of the Aborigines to
welcome white interlopers near to their
precious water holes provide the
dramatic theme round which the action
is built.

The ethical and political problems
touched on in this film are very topical.
Not only the special problems of the
colour question but the wider question
of human tolerance. The skirmishing
between the whites and the blacks; the
fear and misunderstanding leading to
unnecessary bloodshed on both sides
have a very up-to-date ring about them.
In the end the sheeptarmer is brought
to realise that “Fighting don’t get you
; nowhere”, and he agrees to try to bring
the blacks into his scheme as co-
operators on a soil that is fruitful
enough for all.

The acting is most satisfactory, allow-
ing for and even because of a certain
gaucherie on the part of the Australians
' which mav arise from unfamiliarity
with film work but strongly suggests
actuality in a sphere they are

accustomed to. The Aborigines in many
cases steal the picture. Little Nick
Yardley (you will remember him as the
youngest boy in Bush Christmas) scores
heavily. There is one enchanting
episode in which he has a game with a
baby kangaroo that is strongly
reminiscent of the best Disney. Another
scene in which he is the solitary white
among a crowd of little black boys test-
ing their skill as marksmen with spears
is also pleasing. Chips Rafferty, after
his debacle in Eureka Stockade is back
again doing what he knows how and is
most impressive as the sheepfarmer.
Tommy Trinder manages to look quite
in place with his Cockney sales-talk to
a horde of menacing and non-under-
standing blacks. He gives evidence too
of an ability to deal with serious
situations that might be exploited more.
Jean Blue is very convincing and has
great dignity as the sheepfarmer’s wife
and Nonnie Piper is pleasing if not very
important as the daughter. Gordon
Jackson repeats his performance as the
typical “God-fearing Scot, wanting no
truck wi’ wimen”. He should avoid
being typed too strongly .

This film demonstrates again the
potentialities for technically fine films
which Australia offers. There is no
shortage of interesting subjects. I
suggest, for a start, the perusal of
Archbishop Ullathorne’s biography —
“From Cabin Boy to Archbishop”. It is
full of film material.

Recommended.

V.

TONY DRAWS A HORSE
Starring: Cecil Parker, Anne Craw-
ford, Derek Bond, Barbara
Murray, with Mervyn Johns,
Edward Rigby. Producer: Brock
Williams. Director: John Paddy
Carstairs. Distributors: G.F.D.

Certificate : A. Category. A.

Running time : 91 minutes.

Once we have survived the heavy
humour of the impropriety in the kind
of horse that young Tony drew on the
surgerv wall, wTe witness this
thoroughly English farce racing along
to a well-deserved win.

The doctor father (Cecil Parker) is
outraged by the precositv of his child.
The psychiatrist mother will not have

247

her son straight-jacketed by convention
and insists on his right to self-
expression. A first-class row, appar-
ently the culminating one of many,
follows, and with regrettable threats to
seek divorce, she returns to mother
(Barbara Everest) and arrives amid all
the feminine turmoil over the prepara-
tions for her sister’s wedding. The
following morning, in order to clear her
mind and enjoy fresh air she goes for
a drive with her future brother-in-law
(Derek Bond), lands up fifty miles away
at Newhaven and forces him to accom-
pany her on a day trip to Dieppe.
There they become caught up in an
exuberant French wedding party which
does the round of bars and bistros —
very funny sequences these with Derek
Bond being a very nice young English-
man being very English. They will
gradually wake up to reality- and the
mess they’ve got themselves into. But
meanwhile her father, seeking relief
from wifely rule, has become amusingly
“tight” in company with a foreign
lecturer, also “tight”, who is due to
address a street corner audience on
behalf of a queer temperance society
called “The Waterbriglits” and lands
up in a police station. And in the
meanwhile the deserted husband has to
cope with Tony who has been expelled
from school on account of his drawings
there. He comes to “The Battlements”,
the home of the “in-laws” in search of
his by now Diepped wTife to discuss this
latest enormity with her but primarily
to find out what has become of her and
this by now suspect Tim (Bond). The
trippers have tried to telephone from
Dieppe about -what has happened, but
everything remains very suspicious. In
the end with the help of a chartered
plane and French officials they are
brought back. The wedding, after some
last minute anxieties due to young
Tony, comes off at last. Clare (Anne
Crawford) will not allow her husband
to spank Tony but only because,
blessed thought, she is looking forward
to doing so herself.

There are many good lines, so many
that the laughs rather crowd and one
misses some. Cecil Parker, irreproach-
ably Harley Street, is amusingly
serious, for in farce there has to be
someone who is the dignified victim
of circumstance. Miss Crawford plays
an uproarious part which she never
allows to get out of hand to the point

of stridency, though whether psychia-
trists should be quite so irresponsibly
feminine is another matter. I hope that
is a compliment for so it is meant. I
liked the sweeping idiocy of the
masterful mother, including her con-
soling advice when told of her grandson
Tony’s expulsion from school : “There
are plenty of good schools. I’ve heard
of one called The London School of
Economics.” Mervyn Johns I liked too
as her rebelling husband. There is a
gem of a performance by Edward Rigby
as the caustic grandfather at “The
Battlements”. I’ve already said some-
thing about the nice young man of
Derek Bond. Finally, I always feel sorry
for the heroine’s sister in these plays.
To be a heroine’s sister is like being a
Bishop’s secretary or the better sort of
curate, all of them jobs calling for self-
effacement. So if Barbara Murray is
colourless as the precarious bride it
must be because she wras meant so to be.
Farce must have its victims.

X.

16mm. Advisory Service

We have for some time been
thinking out ways and means of
assisting the large number of
16mm. enthusiasts who, we feel,
form the backbone of the Catholic
Film Institute. As our readers
must know by this time, we aim
ultimately to produce a body of film
technicians who, though amateur in
status, will be professional in
standard and will have a vocational
approach to the whole question of
the use of film by Catholics.

As a further step in this direction
we hope shortly to devote a section
of Focus to the needs of the sub-
standard enthusiasts. In the mean-
time we have secured the services
of a panel of sub-standard experts
who have agreed to answer the
technical queries of any of our
readers who may care to take
advantage of their services. If you
have a problem connected with
16mm. projector or camera work,
send it 'along to Sub-standard
Service, Blue Cottage, Sumner
Place Mews, London, S.W.7.
Questions will be answered in a
subsequent issue of Focus.

248

THE VATICAN

A Seven-League and Phoenix Film
Production. Directors: Guiliano

Tomei and Hans Nieter. Distrib-
utors: Columbia Pictures.

Category : C. Running time : 45
minutes approx.

There have been many films dealing
with the Vatican and St. Peter’s made
this Holv Year but none, I think,
either so excellent in technical achieve-
ment or so beautiful in conception as
the subject of this review. Hans Nieter,
a producer-director, well known for his
series of travel films, The I Vorld
Window series in technicolor, is a
technician with an unusually acute
sense of his responsibility as a maker
of films. Not only does he consider
that they should be as imaginatively
beautiful as possible, but also that they
should contribute in some measure to
the well-being of mankind.

It was on this basic notion of the well-
being of mankind that he set about
making his film on the Vatican. He is
a convinced Lutheran but he also
recognises the power for good that is
symbolised in the person of the Pope.
He feels that the Vatican enshrines the
only really effective resistance to the
destructive forces of Communism
which are threatening spiritual and
material civilisation alike. His film,
therefore, attempts to assess the
civilising and spiritual achievements of
the Catholic Church as seen in the
Vatican : the work of the Secretariat of
the Vatican, its administrative tasks,
the artistic and cultural storehouse of
its museums, the diversity in unity of
the different rites and liturgies that are
practised under its aegis ; the inspira-
tion that radiates from the person of the
Holv Father himself.

The commentary was written by Hans
Nieter and is beautifully delivered by a
group of first-class speakers, thus
obviating the monotony so often ex-
perienced in films with a lengthy com-
mentary even when the speakers have
attractive voices. It must be admitted
that the Protestant Hans Nieter has
permitted himself an exuberance of
praise and appreciation of the subject of
his film which would be impossible for
Catholics to utter or even hear without
some little embarrassment. It is perhaps

all the more valuable that it should be
so. There is just one inaccuracy in
describing the rite of Low Mass which
is, of course, quite excusable in one who
is not a Catholic. For my part, I could
wish that there had been a little more
insistence on the fact that the Holy
F'ather represents Christ and that that
is the true reason for the devotion that
i§ paid him. It is, happily, also true
that the present Pope is a man of God
in his own right also and in that
capacity has a tremendous influence on
those who come in contact with him.

About the photography and colour, no
praise is too high. It is one of the most
thrilling films from that point of view
that I have seen for many a long day.
Columbia Pictures are to distribute the
film and it will be available in 35mm.
and 16mm. I suggest a campaign for
its showing in public cinemas to be
started by all interested readers of
Focus.

J. A. V. B.

STROMBOLI

Starring: Ingrid Bergmann, with

Mario Vitale, Renzo Cesana, and
Mario Sponza. Distributors;
R.K.O. Radio Pictures. Producer
and Director: Roberto Rossellini.
Certificate'. A. American Legion
of Decency rating : Morally

Unobjectionable for Adults. Run-
ning time : 81 minutes.

For reasons best known to themselves
the distributors of this film did not
show it to the Press. The crazy
mechanical system which sends films
round the circuits regardless of public
taste or desire makes it difficult for me
to see this film without chasing it all
over London. Other film engagements
make this impossible. I cannot, there-
fore, give you a personal estimate of
the film. Suffice it to say that the
American Legion of Decency have rated
it as “Morally unobjectionable for
Adults”. Some Americans with whom
I was speaking recently in Rome
assured me that the film is a technical
and artistic flop. I do not think you
need worry unduly if you miss it.
Probably the only reason people want to
see it is on account of the sensational

I

249

and unwholesome publicity which the
antics of its star aifd director achieved
in the national press. One thing should
be made clear. The Vatican has not
banned it, so this piece of inaccurate
publicity need not worry you. The
appropriate authority dealing with films
in Italy is our opposite number, the
Centro Cattolico Cinematografico, and
they have not, as far as I know, seen
the film. Whatever the moral or
artistic merits of a film, it is, surely,
highly distasteful that publicity such as
has recently been used to boost this film
should be tolerated bv decent folk.

J. A. V. B.

MY FRIEND IRMA

This is a harmless story about two
girl room mates, one of whom is very
anxious to marry a millionaire Irma,
the other room mate, is a feather-
brain who does a thousand stupid
things that are anything but likely to
realise this happy consummation. After
some singing and dancing, near suicide
and drunkenness, there is a happy
ending for the two girls. The film is
so silly that no one is likely to be
affected for better or worse, but you
never can tell.

J. C.

SOME FILMS REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this list does
not connote positive recommenda-
tion. Films that are positively harm-
ful are not included here. Readers
are reminded to refer to the full
review when assessing a film.

Category A, indicates adults only;
B, adults and adolescents; C, family
audienoes; D, particularly for

children.

Reviewed in “Focus” (Voe. Ill,
Nos. 6 and 7)

Adieu Leonard (B) (211)

Ambush (B) (181)

And Baby Makes Three (A) (211)

Ballad of Berlin, The (B) (182)

Big Lift, The (A) (206)

Capture, The (B) (182)

Champagne For Caesar (C) (181)

Chance of a Lifetime (B) (172)

Dance Hall (B) (211)

Deported (A) (206)

Key to the City

(A)

(207)

Last Holiday

(B)

(179)

Louisa

(C)

(212)

Mrs. Mike

(B)

(205)

No Man of Her Own

(A)

(180)

Odette

(A)

(203)

On the Town

(175)

One Way Street

(A)

(172)

Out of the Darkness

(C)

(115)

Outpost in Morocco

(B)

(147)

Prelude to Fame

(B)

(174)

Reluctant Widow, The

(B)

(179)

Retour A La Vie

(A)

(173)

So Long at the Fair

(B)

(205)

South of St. Louis

(175)

Stage Fright

(A)

(208)

State Secret

(177)

Stratton Story, The

(B)

(183)

Wabash Avenue

(A)

(206)

Dividing Line , The

(A)

(183)

Eagle and the Hawk, The

(B)

(207)

We Recommend

East Side, West Side

(A)

(182)

Happiest Days of your

Father is a Bachelor

(B)

(206)

Life, The

(A)

(108)

Father of the Bride

(C)

(213)

Passport to Pimlico

(C)

(150)

Guilt Is My Shadow

(B)

(180)

Red Danube ,_ The

(A)

(112)

Holy Year

(C)

(178)

The Blue Lamp

(B)

(80)

In a Lonely Place

(A)

(204)

The Search

(B)

(342)

In the Name of the Law

(A)

(212)

Twelve O’clock High

(B)

(73)

Jour de Fete

(C)

(181)

Whiskey Galore

(B)

(220)

250

O.C.I.C. General Council pentecost
Meeting, Rome /950

Other pens will have given an account
of the Congress-Pilgrimage which the
International Catholic Film Office
organised in Rome at Pentecost. It is
for me to give a short r6sum6 of the
business side of the meeting. Owing to
the fact that Holy Year demanded our
presence in Rome, our discussions were
somewhat telescoped in order to leave
time for the pilgrimage exercises and the
other events of the Congress.

Representatives of 23 nations having
Catholic Film Centres gave the needful
international aspect to the gathering.
For the first time we were able to
rejoice in a full complement of vice-
presidents at the Executive meetings,
for both the U.S.A. and Latin America
were moved by the fact of the Holy
Year to make the big effort needed to
send their vice-presidents to meet the
European delegates. Father P. J.
Masterson, Executive Secretary of the
American National Legion of Decency,
and Professor F. Soneira, of Uruguay,
were given a particularly warm welcome.

No new member countries had asked
for admission to O.C.I.C. this year but
at the next General Council it is hoped
that Australia will apply for formal
admission. Canada also, which has
hitherto been unable to participate fully
in the deliberations of O.C.I.C. owing
to problems of organisation will be ready
to ask for normal membership.

It was announced that the next
General Council meeting of the Inter-
national Catholic Film Office will take
place in Lucerne, opening on Friday,
May 25th. The theme of the discussions
will be the part played by the film critic
in educating the public. It is hoped that
a distinguished representation of film
critics from various countries will find
time and opportunity to attend the
General Council Meeting in order to
contribute their experience and views to
the common cause.

The Appeal to the Industry which was
formulated at the General Council in
London last year and promulgated by
the Executive Committee in February
this year has had very gratifying results.
Members of the Industry in most

countries this side of the Iron Curtain
have expressed their agreement with its
suggestions.

The Enquiry which was made among
Catholic members of the industry asking
for information and suggestions as to the
best methods of assuring a wide distri-
bution to films of Catholic interest, has
likewise had a satisfactory result though
it is hoped that those countries which
were unable last year to find an oppor-
tunity to make the enquiry will do so
as soon as possible in order to complete
the researches which O.C.I.C. has
undertaken in this connection.

The progress of the International
Review was reported upon. This has
been most disappointing as regards the
English edition and it was decided that
unless there is speedy evidence that the
Review can show signs of increasing
circulation in English-speaking countries
the English edition will have to be
discontinued. The two main causes for
the lack of support for this Review which
the Holy Father has spoken of as
indispensable to the formation of a
Christian philosophy of the film, are

(1) the Board of Trade regulation
which prohibits the importation in bulk
into this country of periodicals printed
in hard currency areas. Consequently
copies have to be sent into the country
against individual subscriptions and
people are apparently unwilling to sub-
scribe unless they see the Review in bulk.
In this connection it was decided also
that specimen copies could be sent to
anyone making a request for them.

(2) The difficulty of finding an agent in
the U.S.A. to handle the distribution of
the Review. It was hoped that America
might provide the major share of the
sales of the English edition.

The Venice Film Festival. O.C.I.C.
were once again invited to send a jury
to the Film Festival at Venice during
August and September, and to award a
prize to "the film contributing most to
the spiritual and moral betterment of
mankind". O.C.I.C. were also invited
to organise a Conference to study
Children and the Cinema to take place
at Venice immediately prior to the

.

<

251

Festival. Father Leo Lunders, O.P.,
was nominated to organise this
conference.

The O.C.I.C. Jury was formed as
follows: Dr. Charles Reinert (Switzer-
land), President; Rev. J. A. V. Burke
(Great Britain); Father Leo Lunders,
O.P. (Belgium); Signor D. Fabri (Italy);
Senorita Etchegoyen (Uruguay); Mr.
Rasmussen (Denmark), and a French
film critic will also join the O.C.I.C.
Jury if they are at liberty.

Reference was made to the Inter-
national Catholic Union of the Cinema,
an organisation which gained some
publicity in the Catholic press of the
world and had caused some confusion of
mind among those who are aware of the
work of O.C.I.C. This group was formed
somewhat hastily in Rome by a number
of technicians who wished to improvise
an international union of Catholic
cinema technicians. After representation
from both O.C.I.C. and the Italian Centro
Cattolico Cinematografico, the promotors
very willingly agreed to work in accord
with O.C.I.C.

It was announced that Dr. Ruszkowski,
General Secretary for External Relations
of O.C.I.C., has been invited by the
American Army of Occupation in
Germany to make a lecture tour during
the autumn to talk on the question of
the Catholic position with regard to
film activity.

The increasing importance of television
was commented upon and the demand
that is frequently made among Catholics
that O.C.I.C. should concern itself with
this work. Dr. Bernard, the President,
pointed out that the international
organisation devoted to radio, namely
U.N.D.A., was the group mainly con-
cerned, but urged all members of O.C.I.C.
to make whatever efforts possible
eventually to bring about an inter-
national meeting of persons interested in
television.

The events of the Congress Pilgrimage
have been commented upon elsewhere,
but it may complete this account to
mention briefly the addresses given at the
opening and closing of the Congress.
Signor Andreotti, Minister of State in the
Italian Cabinet, spoke at the opening
session of the Congress. He made a
special plea for a constructive approach
to the problems presented by the cinema.
Necessary as moral classification is, he
said, it is only one aspect of the

important work of Catholic film action.

The closing session of the Congress was
marked by a number of speeches in
various languages by technicians and
actors who testified to the spiritual
values of the cinema. Messages were
read from Eric Johnson, of the Motion
Picture Association, from Walt Disney,
from Irene Dunne and Sam Goldwyn.

Walt Disney declared that the fight
for the better film must be carried on
with the intensity of a crusade. Irene
Dunne, who had made her pilgrimage to
Rome the week before the Congress
opened, regretted her absence owing to
studio demands in England but sent a
long document affirming her conviction
that the motion picture industry, with
its obvious potentialities for good has,
in fact, recognised the need to develop
the spiritual values implicit in the
medium. Many workers in the industry
are anxious to be worthy of the respon-
sibility and duty falling them. “I have
always striven to guard its power to
present good, clean entertainment,” she
said, “and in my difficulties I have
always found that my Faith played the
greatest part.”

Cyril Cusack, the well-known Irish
actor, added to the Pentecostal note of
the Congress by opening his remarks in
Gaelic, saying that he was proud to be
an Irish actor and placed his work at
the service of the Catholic Church.
Speaking in English, he said that it was
the most important duty of the Catholic
to see that his work was truly informed
with the Catholic spirit. It was a fallacy
to suppose that the film actor is
completely subservient to the director.
There are times when it becomes his
duty not to do as he is told; that is
when what he is told to do conflicts with
his conscience as a Catholic. Then there
are two courses open to him. He can
refuse to play the part and so lose his
job, or he can discuss the matter with
the director from the moral point of
view. The director will usually see that
it is better to adjust the script to suit
good morality, for what is immoral is
also often imperfect artistically. When
what is shown in the film is evil posing
as good, there is no alternative but for
the actor to protest. Mr. Cusack gave
several examples illustrating the kind of
action he had mentioned. He concluded
by saying that the Catholic has the duty
of taking positive action against
immorality.

J. A. V. B.

252

INSTITUTE NOTES

Cri du Coeur

Our staff is, as usual, overwhelmed
with the demands on its time and ability.
It is in the nature of things that Catholic
organisations working for the betterment
of man should do so against the grain.
It is no less true in the case of the
organisation concerned with that most
hydra-headed power, the cinema. As
well as the indifference of those who
think that there is nothing to be done
with the cinema save to ignore it, there
is the more exasperating attitude of
those who think that we have cornered
a nice little monopoly in cheap enter-
tainment. It may be as well to state
quite categorically that there are no
perks of a financial or other nature for
those who have found themselves called
on to implement the demands of the
Papal Encyclical on Films. It is
because we are convinced that the film
is a power for good that must not be
neglected and because we are also
convinced of its ultimate artistic and
religious potentialities that we continue
the heart-breaking and head-aching task
of trying to “promote good motion
pictures” in all the varying aspects that
these words of the Pope suggest.

Our sole financial support is the
generosity of our members, the circula-
tion of Focus: A Film Review, and the
proceeds of the hire of the films in our
gradually growing film library.

Our most valuable asset is the moral
support and kindliness of a host of
friends, both clerical and lay. Without
that we should simply cease to be.

Regional Societies

We are glad to announce that Swanage
Catholics have organised their own

Catholic Film Society. It was founded
last winter and has had four film sessions
during which Monsieur Vincent.
Visitation and Don Bosco were shown.

The Hon. Secretary and Treasurer is m'
Mr. P. H. Day, of Fairholm, Northbrook
Road, Swanage. Our warm welcome to
this enterprising group. May others
speedily follow suit.

In this connection, may we be allowed
to point out that there is not a sufficient
number of purely Catholic films available
in this country to enable such societies
to continue if they insist on showing
only “religious” films. There are a
large number of other commercial films
of a satisfactory nature which it would
be well worth any such society’s time
to show. After all, it is presumed that
one of the objects of such a society is
to advance the appreciation of film.

This cannot be done without a study of
the best films from all sources. Any-
thing we can do to help in this connection
we shall be glad to do.

Lectures

Father Burke had the privilege of
lecturing to the students of the Venerable
English College while in Rome on the
recent Catholic Film Congress. His
subject was Catholic Film Action and
the part to be played in it by the clergy.
He had a very attentive and well-
informed audience and the interest
shown augurs well for the future of this
important department of Catholic Action
in England.

Lectures have also been given to the
C.P.E.A. at Ipswich and to the Catholic
pupils at Harrow School.

FOCUS INDEX

A complete index of FOCUS: A Film Review, Vols. I and II,
is now available. Copies may be obtained from the Manager,
Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7, on receipt
of stamps to the value of l^d.

253

Cover Personality Senna

On May 24th, 1923, there was born
to the McKenna family in St. James’s
Park, Falls Road, Belfast, a daughter
who was christened Siobhan. Her father
was a Lecturer in Mathematics in the
Technical School; her mother had been a
buyer for Millinery; both hailed from
Cork; neither of them had any relatives
on the stage. And even when the older
red-haired Ann won a number of medals
for elocution and recitation, the art of
acting was never thought of, or
mentioned, in the house. All Siobhan
McKenna wanted to think of was her
speciality at school, at the age of five,
the making of raffia handbags for her
mother (who still treasures one); in after-
school hours her chief pleasures were
swinging off lamp posts, making mud
pies, following the Orange men on parade
wildly excited by the wild excitement of
their drums, and visiting all possible
wakes in the neighbourhood! Then came
the memorable day for her first Holy
Communion, and Siobhan McKenna went
with her bouquet of flowers and a candle
to the altar, in a frock specially cut
down for the occasion, from the
Confirmation dress of the elocutionist and
reciter of the family, the red-haired Ann.

Today Ann McKenna is a dentist, and
her sister Siobhan is the distinguished
actress of the stage and films.

The years between have the secret. In
1928 the family moved to Galway, a
town that Siobhan says she loves best
of all. Her father had been appointed
to the Chair of Mathematical Physics.
He is an ardent lover of the Irish
language, so he quickly secured for his
two children a native speaking Nanny.
The two girls grew up as fluent Irish
speakers.

In Galway there is an Irish theatre
1 called the Taibhdearc; it is this theatre
which really became the cradle of
Siobhan McKenna’s genius. She never
missed a play there: she never went to
the cinema. Small wonder, as she
herself told me, that seeing plays is still
her chief delight; a film must be a very
good one before she goes to see it. The
Taibhdearc is still her favourite theatre,
and the Abbey a good second.

When Siobhan was fourteen years she

went to St. Louis’ Convent in Monaghan,
where she spent three years. From the
first term, to her great surprise, she was
put in charge of play production, but
she did not neglect her studies, and
thanks to the wonderfully specialised
teaching, where the arts were by no
means neglected, Siobhan won an
entrance scholarship to the University.
She rejoined her parents in Galway in
1939. In her first year at the University
she did science and arts. She suspected
her father wished her to be like himself
a mathematician, but in her second year
she dropped science. He accepted her
decision stoically when she pointed out
that her interests lay in literature.

While studying at the University,
Siobhan, the inveterate playgoer, crossed
the footlights at the Taibhdearc to act
in translations, by Professor Liam
O’Briain, of masterpieces by Shakespeare,
O’Casey and Moliere. Today, Miss
McKenna pays high tribute to Dr.
O’Briain, her greatest guide. At lectures
he would put on record^ of Bernhardt in
scenes from Phedre, and the young
actress felt a great desire to play Phedre
some day. Then came the part of Lady
Macbeth, and the seventeen year old just
took it in her stride. Today Siobhan
McKenna laughs at the idea; but it was
all so serious then. She was being
brought hopelessly, helplessly, almost
unknown to herself, into being a part
of the theatre itself. As Siobhan herself
expresses it, acting had taken hold of
her. Before the University student knew
it, Walter Macken was asking her to take
up acting as her profession, and Walter
Macken was then producer-actor-manager
of the Taibhdearc. Siobhan shook her
head. A second temptation came from
Liam O’Briain: the lead in an adaptation
oL a play by Jean Jaques Bernard — and
at the Abbey in Dublin. Which was it
to be? A play at the Abbey would
mean a B.A. with second-class honours
rather than first which was what Siobhan
wanted as much as anything in the world
after three years’ studying. The struggle
ended in a win for the University.
Siobhan studied and stewed over her
books for three months of the 1943
summer. With first-class honours in her

254

bag she arrived in Dublin in the autumn,
determined to forget the stage and secure
a travelling scholarship to France.

But then something happened. An
invitation arrived one day asking her to
an audition at the Abbey theatre. The
result of that audition is history.
Siobhan McKenna returned from her
audition and wrote to her father that
she was forsaking studies for the stage.
And Dr. McKenna knew Siobhan had
crossed the Rubicon.

At the Abbey she acted with such
renowned actors as the late F. J.
McCormick, Cyril Cusack, M. J. Dolan,
Denis O’Dea (who later became her
husband), and Eileen Crowe. These are
only a few of the names of the people
who helped her, besides the producer,
Frank Dermody, who still remains her
favourite producer. Her first Abbey
part was that of a French maid, a comic
role in a translation of Molifcre’s
Le Bourgois Gentilhomme. Her first
English part was that of Monica, a tragic
role in Joseph Tomelty’s The End House.
There followed parts in Irish and English
plays, in comic and tragic r61es, in plays
written by Paul Vincent Carroll, Yeats,
Tomelty, Molloy and O’Casey.

In 1947, after four years at the Abbey,
Siobhan McKenna crossed over to

London for her first film Hungry Hill,
in which she took a small part. Then
back to Dublin she came to marry
Denis O’Dea. After the honeymoon she
went to London again to act with
Maureen Delaney and Liam Redmond in
Paul Vincent Carroll’s The White Steed.
It was about this time that Lance
Comfort was looking for a girl to play
the lead in Daughter of Darkness. He
went along to see her in Carroll’s play,
and came around to ask her to take the
lead in his film. The shooting of the
film took from April to September, due
mainly to Cornwall weather. It was a
long time. But it launched Siobhan
McKenna right into the front row of the
screen's greatest dramatic actresses.
The critics and the public acclaimed her
unanimously.

When Siobhan returned to Dublin she
acted in Ferdinand and the Dragon at
the Abbey and followed it with Mary
Rose. Then in 1949, Mila Parelli was
dropped from an almost completed film
The Lost People, and Siobhan McKenna
was sent for. She completed the six
months’ work in that film in ten days:
a histrionic tour de force that sealed
her place in filmdom.

More plays followed: Berkley Square
at the Q, with Douglas Montgomery:

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS

FUND

IF one fourth of the Catholic population in England and Scotland
contributed a penny a day for 240 days The Catholic Film Institute
in England would be able to set up a production unit.

It was the pennies of the Catholic population in France which made
possible the making of the film Monsieur Vincent.

. Kindly send donation to:

Rev. J. Burke, 357 Beulah HH1, London, S.E.19.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

£ s. d.

Previously acknowledged 233 17 6
F. G. Fitzpatrick ... 10

Miss E. O. Searle ... 10 0

Mrs. T. McDermott

£ s. d.

1 1 0

£235 19 6

255

Fading Mansions at the Duchess with
Michael Gough, Liam Gaffney and George
Relph, and a five week run of Countess
Cathleen in a hoped-for one week run at
the Abbey.

This summer Siobhan McKenna worked
on a new film. South African Story, with
Dennis Price and Jack Hawkins. It will
be her fifth film. Sometime she hopes
to play a journalist in a film — preferably
a theatre critic, and Siobhan says she

>

would play it sympathetically, because
she once wanted to be — a journalist!
But her ambitions are still all tied up
with the stage. The records of the divine
Sarah that Siobhan McKenna cherished
in college were not cherished in vain:
that same University graduate is now
being spoken of as the future Irish
Bernhardt with a conviction that holds
little doubt.

Sean O’Rahilly Mahony.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

If you have an opinion to express, a comment to make, an idea to offer,
the Editor will be delighted to hear from you.

Films and Delinquency

Sir,

May I trespass further on your
columns to make it clear in what way
I differed from my colleagues as regards
films being a cause of delinquency ?
Through telescoping their conclusion
when introducing me to to your readers,

I fear a wTrong impression of my
rejection must have been given.

Juvenile delinquency existed, of
course, long before the cinema was
invented, as well as the ‘‘deeper,
subtler and more various influences”
which my colleagnes rightly say “are
at work”. Lack of religion and parental
control, bad housing, low mentality are
some examples. The problem before
the Committee was not to what extent
this complex of other influences caused
delinquency, but quite simply, whether
and to what extent the cinema con-
tributed. This is where we parted
company.

My colleagues stated that as a result
) of various statistical enquiries and
opinions, “The results do not in our
judgment fasten on the cinema any
primary share of responsibility for
delinquency or moral laxity ...” They
| w'ould go no further than suggest in
their final sentence, “That Society
however, cannot overlook the likelihood
! that the cinema is a factor in this
complex of moral and social forces

. . . ” Based on a psychological con-
clusion, going deeper, as The Times
put it than “court-room evidence”, I
stated that “the conclusion is in-
escapable that it is an ‘important con-
tributory cause’ when too many bad
films are seen”. In this, I was taking
the strong warning given by my
colleagues and myself to parents and
the cinema industry, upon the effects of
fright on what we summed up as “well-
attested evidence”.

Ex-approved schoolboy whom I have
already mentioned wholly attributes
his juvenile past “to gangster films and
the like” after first blaming his parents
bunging him off to the cinema too
often. “And how I should know,” he
says from his own bitter experiences
and desires as a result to help. “When
I see kids lapping up films they should
never see, how I feel for them. I can
see myself all over again very often.
And responsible people say films can
have no effect. What dangerous ana.
absolutely false talk.”

I would be very glad to hear from any
Focus readers who consider I am
wrong in stating that the cinema con-
tributes to juvenile delinquency when
too many bad and unsuitable films are
seen which must condition the mind as
well as suggest ways and means of
action.

Yours truly,

Henrietta Bower.

256.

BOOK REVIEWS

Plan for a Christian Factory. By

Alan Turner, 2 /-. Spa Lane
Mills, Derby.

This modest little book is an intro-
duction to the important social experi-
ment initiated by Leon Harmel at Val-
des-Bois in France. This good Catholic
industrialist played no small part in the
preparation, by example and precept, of
the social encyclicals of Popes Pius IX
and Leo XIII, and his factory system is
now a model for all industrialists —
Catholic and non-Catholic — who wish to
try to put into practice the principles
of social justice as they apply to factory
working conditions.

Though this booklet has little reference
'to the cinema, it cannot but be of the
greatest interest to most of our readers
and particularly members of the Catholic
Film Institute who are aware of the
important part that films can play in
promoting social justice. Mr. Alan
Turner will surely be well known to our
readers for his devoted efforts to use the
film for precisely this purpose. His films
Family Affair, The Sacrifice We Offer
and Peace Work — the latter particularly
concerned with the Harmel system at
Val-des-Bois — must have done untold
good to large audiences hitherto ignorant
of the manner in which daily work and
Christian charity can be integrated into
a way of life that must be the normal
road to sanctity for the vast majority
of layfolk.

J. A. V. B.

MOVIE PARADE
A Pictorial Survey of the World

Cinema. Studio Publications,
30/-. .

The older generation of filmgoers will
find this book absorbingly interesting.
First published in 1936, it has now been
brought up-to-date and contains nearly
seven hundred photographs from the
world’s best films, starting with the first
fictional picture^— The Great Train
Robbery (1903) — and ending at the
1948-1949 period.

The authors of this book, Rotha and
Manvel], are deeply interested in film-

making— the former, of course, being
well-known as a producer of documen-
taries, the latter as a writer about the
cinema — but they have no illusions
about their subject. Here are some
extracts from a frankly-written
introduction:

“The fiction film is a great medium
subjected by its costliness to the lower
forms of exploitation for easy profit.
Only rarely can the artist break through
unscathed by considerations of wide
appeal to his comparatively illiterate
audiences. . . . Too often purely

meretricious personalities are exploited
by publicity into stardom. ... In
Britain over 25,000,000 cinema seats are
sold a week, and yet a quarter of the
population never sees a film. This
quarter contains only too many people
whose patronage could do a great deal to
raise the standard of films, which at
present, in America and Britain
especially, are designed primarily for
adolescents.’’

That the last sentence is true of
British films, anyway, is demonstrated
by the small number of stills representing
them in the Sociological and High
Comedy sections of this book. These two
contain the more adult examples of
movie-making, yet Out of sixty photo-
graphs from outstanding films in the
Sociological section there are only four
from British pictures concerned with
this theme, and I cannot think of any
omissions on the part of the compilers.

About the statement concerning “easy
profit” I am not so sure, for in 1949
the majority of British productions —
despite their preoccupation with the
adolescent — failed to recoup their costs,
let alone make any profit. On this
showing, it may well pay our producers
to woo that part of the population who,
unless the latest Carol Reed picture is
showing in the neighbourhood, are
conspicuous by their absence.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book
— price 30s. and well worth it — both to
those with early memories of the cinema
and those who are too young to have ever
seen a silent film.

Lyn Lockwood.

\

<

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Scriptural Productions

AN INDEPENDENT ORGANISATION DEVOTED
TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION
OF FILMS FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES

Under the Direction
of

ANDREW BUCHANAN

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FOCUS ON
GREAT PICTURES!

The finest achievements of the screen — inspired
in the making, inspiring in the seeing— are now
available to home, club, church hall and institutional
film users. A few of the many:—

“THE KING OF KINGS”

The famous DeMille film of the Life of Christ

“BOYS TOWN”

Starring Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan

“THE SEARCH”

The International Prizewinner ; available early 1951

FOR FULL DETAILS PLEASE APPLY TO MR. F. BOUD

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THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliate with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman: The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

j. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £ 10 .

Privileged Membership, £1.

Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
pamphlet publications. Ordinary members receive a monthly copy
of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote :

“The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.”

Hon. Secretary:

Rev. John A. V. Burke, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

Vol. Ill

No. 9

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Page

Editorial

... 259

A Ticket to Tomahawk ...

... 273

Focus Film Course

... 260

Gun Crazy

... 274

By Andrew Buchanan

The Furies

... 274

A Classic of Cinema History

... 262

Abbott and Costello in the

By Hilary Carpenter, O.P.

Foreign Legion

... 274

The Teacher and the Cinema

... 264

Fancy Pants

... 274

By Margaret Anderson

Trio

... 275

Book Reviews

... 266

Rocketship X.M

... 275

Film Reviews

Some Recent Documentaries

... 276

By Our Panel of Priests

The Great Sara Allgood ...

... 279

The Wooden Horse

... 267

By Gabriel Fallon

Have I Lived Before? ...

... 270

Films and Strips Useful in

THE

Sylvia and the Ghost

... 270

Primary School

... 282

Sunset Boulevard

... 270

By Our Educational Panel

Portrait of Clare

... 271

Coyer Personality

... 285

Panic in the Streets

... 272

Letters to the Editor

... 286

Waterfront

... 273

Some Films Reviewed

... 288

FOCUS — Annual Subscription: 7s. (post free). Single Copy: 7d. (post free).

Glasgow agents: Messrs. James Reilly and Co., 68 Gordon Street, Glasgow, C.l.

FOCUS— May be obtained from: The Manager, “The Blue Cottage,”
69 Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7. Telephone: Kensington
6849. Duckett, 140 Strand, London, W.C.2. Telephone: Temple
Bar 3008/9. Catholic Truth Society, 28a Ashley Place, London,
S.W.l. Michael White, 15 Broad Street Place, London, E.C.2.
Telephone: London Wall 1389.

International Film Review

Quarterly organ of the International Catholic Cinema Office

Subscription rate: £1 per annum
No. 5 — Holy Year Number — now available
Obtainable from:

“International Film Review’’, 20 Ovington Square, London, S.W.3
The only truly international film review dealing with the Cinema on a Christian
basis Specimen copy on application

FOCUS : REVIEW

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. Ill

SEPTEMBER 1950

No. 9

Salute to the Antipodes

As these lines are being written, the
Catholic Film Institute Summer School
is in progress at Ramsgate. A full
account of the proceedings will appear
in a later issue of this Review. For
the moment we are moved to reflect on
the peculiar implications revealed by a
consideration of the territorial origins
of our students.

May we say at once that we have
seldom been privileged to meet a more
delightful group of people than those
who have honoured us with their
company this week. We are happy to
meet persons who have hitherto mostly
been names at the end of letters and
to know that they and the other
students who have come to our
School are so devoted to the idea and
ideals of Catholic Film Action.

The peculiarity we refer to is that
though there are students from
Manchester, Liverpool, Dundee, Derry,
Cornwall, Barrow-in-Furness, only two
come from the London area, and one
of these is a Polish refugee from
Warsaw ! We have also a young man
from New Zealand, via Paris, whose
presence gave us the greatest pleasure
and gratification. About him, more
later.

On previous occasions, too, we have
noticed that the larger proportion of
our audiences have come from distant
parts of the country. Does that mean
that Londoners do not appreciate film
appreciation ? Or do not need it ? Or
merely that prophets have no honour
in their own part of the country ! Be
the reason what it may, we are
- exercised in mind about the fact and
would be glad to have the views of our
friends as to the cause of this apparent
boycott of the C.F.I. by Catholic
London.

To return to New Zealand : our

young friend from the Antipodes
represented, though he knew it not,
an astonishingly large and enthusiastic
proportion of the Catholics of

Australia and New Zealand, who are
aware of the importance of the Catholic
attitude to the cinema and are working
very hard to further it.

There are, we are told, some 1,000,000
Catholics in Australia and some 200,000
in New Zealand. Not a very large
number but, in proportion to the total
population of these countries, a larger
slice of the population than is the case
in England. Nevertheless, the amount
of intelligent enthusiasm shown
towards the aims and objects of
Catholic Film Action is out of all
proportion when compared with similar
enthusiasm in this country. We do
not pretend to know the reason for
this; we are only grateful that' such
encouragement comes to us from our
friends on the other side of the world.

It is, perhaps, invidious to mention
names when so many are praiseworthy,
but we feel sure that we shall be

excused if we pay particular tribute to
the efforts of Mr. J. C. Reid, M.A.,
who is President of the New Zealand
Film Institute and the author of
“Catholics and the Films”, a
remarkable little brochure which out-
lines the constructive approach to the
cinema which Mr. Reid, in company
with so many other students of the
film, regards as the traditionally
Catholic and necessary one. Then,
too, tribute must surely be paid to

Miss Elizabeth Cape, President of
the Catholic Film Centre, Sydney,
Australia. To her and to her associates
we owe a special debt of gratitude. At
all times and in all manner of ways,
the}' have shown their appreciation of
the efforts which we in London are

making to implement the late Holy
Father’s demand that Catholics aware
of the significance of the cinema should
do all they can to “promote good

motion pictures”. They have been
loyal and consistent supporters of

{Continued on page 261)

FOCUS FILM COURSE

By ANDREW BUCHANAN
No. 8-CHILDREN’S FILMS

Students of film need never be at a
loss for a debate whilst there are any
children and cinemas in the world, but
I hope they will try to go one better
than some of the probing experts who
regard young people as laboratory
specimens.

For a variety of reasons which need
not concern us here, film has a way
of turning the most simple questions
into complex problems. For instance,
whether films exert a good or bad
influence over young minds, and what
kind of subjects are the most popular
with children, are questions which have
engaged committees for many long
months on intensive investigation,
rather as if children were a new inven-
tion. I suggest, therefore, it might be
wise to start with a clear desk, and a
perfectly open and detached mind.
Think, for a moment, of toy shops and
children’s books. Recall, too, children’s
plays and pantomimes, and their special
radio hours. Since parents first learnt
to shape wood, they have been making
toys for their children, and for centuries
they have invented little tales and
fables for them, whilst those with
creative ability have produced
children’s stories and plays which bring
delight to each new generation. Now
the charming simplicity of stories
written for the young is not a quality
to be discovered by a research
committee.

I cannot imagine that the author of
Peter Pan began by grading and card-
indexing children into groups, and
recording their reactions to this or that
situation.

Today, however, the child is
dissected; its grins are measured; its
tears are put under the microscope. It
is photographed by infra-red rays in
the dark whilst it watches films, regis-
tering horror at horrible scenes, and
laughter at funny scenes, which gives
committees a lot more work, of course.
If only the kiddies would register
horror at the funny scenes, and laugh

at the horrible ones, the experts would
get into a terrible tangle.

The student would do well to
remember that children rarely find
their way into theatres presenting adult
plays, and that there is a world of
difference between books and plays for
adults and those for children — but there
is little if any difference between films
for adults, and films for children,
judging by the thousands of youngsters
who visit cinemas. Why? First,
because the cinema does not cater for
a very high standard of intelligence.
Secondly, because it is too accessible.
For years, parents have been taking
children to cinemas, but not for the
sake of the children. The experts admit
this state of affairs is undesirable, but
consider that the grading of films is
the best solution ; that most U films
are suitable for children, and that if
parents take their offspring to see A
subjects, they are to blame.

I was one of the people within the
industry who gave evidence before the
Committee investigating this subject,
and I expressed the opinion that
children should be barred entirely from
all commercial cinemas, because films
made for adults cannot be suitable for
children.

Film has won the day, however, for
the experts have come to the conclusion
that the cinema is not responsible for
juvenile delinquency, lack of discipline,
savagery, and so on; instead, lack of
parental control, poor living conditions
and the war are blamed. I entirely
disagree. The latter reasons are con-
tributory factors, of course, but the
cinema is the greatest influence on
children (and adults, too), and it is not
a good influence.

To help to counteract this, the special
children’s film shows on Saturdays
were launched in recent years,
programmes consisting of selected films
from the industry, and a small, but
increasing number of features and
' shorts especially produced for children.

261

which unfortunately are not going to
be made in future because they do not
pay. Consequently, programmes will
be made up of any available films
regarded as suitable for children, but
not made for them in the first instance.
There has never at any time been any
suggestion of stopping the publication
of children’s books and periodicals, or
the production of children’s plays.
Only films — because they are too costly
> to make and show in cinemas. Because
the industry is not sub-divided to cater
for maximum commercial production
and distribution, and limited specialised
production and distribution, on different
levels. There are a great many talented
writers, artists and craftsmen who
devote themselves to creating books
and plays for children, and I suggest
their aid should be enlisted for making
children’s films on 16mm. (not on
standard size film), at minimum costs,

SALUTE TO THE ANTIPODES

— Continued

Focus and the International Film
Review, and though we look forward
to the day when they will we able to
produce a Review which will reflect an
entirely Australasian Catholic film
consciousness, we are grateful that,
until that time, they are prepared to
take a lot of trouble to support the
efforts which we are struggling to
continue in this country.

Another name that must be
mentioned is that of R. Richardson, of
Wellington, New Zealand, who has
initiated a film importing organisation
and who writes the most friendly and
constructive letters to us and is a
constant encouragement. Father F. M.
Chamberlin, of Victoria, is another
enthusiastic friend whose efforts we
value very highly. There is Frank
Murphy, of the Melbourne Advocate,
t whose writings encourage and cheer us
with the knowledge that, no matter
what the difficulties and snags we may
be encountering in the country of our
origin, our purpose is understood and
seconded by mam’ supporters Down
Under. ^

We have mentioned the possibility
that Australia may produce its own
Catholic Film Review. As members of
the Office Catholique International du
Cinema, we were very glad to learn

to be shown, not in cinemas, but in
halls everywhere.

All praise is due to the great
pioneering plan for children’s special
shows in large cinemas on Saturday
mornings, but it was handicapped from
the start by being an integral part of
the commercial industry.

Hence my suggestion for a simpler
approach, in ordinary halls where sub-
standard films may be shown.

The non-theatrical (16mm.) network
which has been built up, not only in
this country but throughout the world,
for showing governmental and
specialised films, exemplifies what can
be done in this field, apart from
cinemas, and how people in all areas,
remote and otherwise, are reached.
What has been achieved for the
enlightenment of adults can be done
for chidren, thus offering them a
substitute to the commercial cinema.

during the recent General Council
Meeting of this Office in Rome, that it
is likely that Australia will apply for
full membership of O.C.I.C. next year.
Only an accident prevented us having
a delegate to represent Australia at the
Cinema Congress, and the President
and General Secretariat of O.C.I.C.
were very gratified to know of the
enthusiasm of the Catholics of this
great Dominion in the cause of Catholic
Film Action. We in England shall
welcome warmly this strengthening of
the English-speaking voice on the
Council of the International Catholic
Film Office, which, in view of the size
and importance of the British Film
Industry, is so necessary and useful.

The international approach to the
problems of the cinema represented by
the publication of the International
Film Review is particularly urgent in
these days of growing intolerance of
Catholic culture. It is all the more to
be regretted, therefore, that inadequate
support of the English edition of the
I.F.R. may bring about its disappear-
ance. May we hope that in this field,
too, our friends in New Zealand and
Australia will prove to be the far-seeing
supporters of Catholic Film Action
who will save this very valuable organ
of intelligent Catholic thought.

To all our friends in the Antipodes,
on the part of the Catholic Film
Institute in London, a warm, “God
bless you’’ and “Thank 3rou” !

262

A Classic of Cinema History

By Hilary Carpenter , O.P.

There is a very ancient musical
axiom with a paradoxical flavour which
is still current in liturgical chant
books : Pulchritudo cantus in pausis
consistit — The beauty of singing lies in
the pauses. This is the musical
rendering of the basic principle of all
art, and it could be applied to visual
art in this form : The beauty of the
picture lies in what you don’t see. This
negation covers both what is excluded
by the frame and what is included
within it. A frame, whether it be the
edges of a canvas or the limits of a
cinema screen, is the delimitation of an
area of light, which area becomes a
picture when it is partially and
intelligently occluded by shadows of
greater or less intensity; only thus can
the necessary contrasts be produced to
make light significant in the pictorial
sense. It is true to say, therefore,
that visual art is the ability to control
shadows, and this is pre-eminently
true of cinematographic art.

It is elementary to observe that there
can be no actual exercise of art without
craft. Every artist must be a
craftsman, or at least have the mental
ability to control the necessary
craftsmen. For this reason, the history
of the Magic Shadows of the cinema
screen is of prime importance to all
who would take an intelligent interest
in the art of the cinema. By the same
token, the recent volumel by Martin
Quigley, Jnr. will undoubtedly rank as
a classic of cinema pre-history, 4 more
especially as the author has the rare
gift of combining the fruits of scientific
research with a very readable style of
presentation, and shows great aptitude
of choice in pictorial illustration — none
of which is perhaps surprising in the

1 “Magic Shadows— The Story of the
Origin of Motion Pictures.’’ By Martin
Quigley, Jr. (Georgetown University Press,
Washington, D.C., 1948; S3. 50.)

gifted Editor of the Motion Picture
Herald.

It has been the aim of men since the
dawn of history to reproduce
mechanically the functions of the
human eye in order indefinitely to
extend in space and time the power of
the eye itself — and especially the
power of the eye to see things in
motion. The first real step forward in
this direction and the basic essential
element in its present day ' perfection
was the discovery and making of a
lens; and it is historically certain that
lenses for magnification were in use in
Babvlon 700 years before Christ.
ABSIT OMEN.

From this point on Mr. Quigley
traces the history of the lens through
Aristotle, Archimedes, Euclid, Ptolemy,
Alhazen, to the “magic” of the
Franciscan friar, Roger Bacon — a magic
that was none the less effective and
scientific for being “all done with
mirrors”. (He might also have seen
the germ of the “talkies” in the
Dominican St. Albert the Great’s
talking automaton which so startled
St. Thomas Aquinas.) From then on
the development of the “magic
shadows” was significantly ecclesias-
tical ; the Church was unwittingly in
process of Christianising Babylon — and
the process is by no means complete !
It was the priest Leone Alberti who
developed the camera lucida and also
the vastly more important camera
obscura (the immediate forerunner of
the camera) which was perfected
considerably by his disciple, the famous
Leonardo da Vinci. It was, however,
a layman, the Neapolitan Giovanni
Battista da Porta, who was the first
commercial showman of the magic
shadows — “a boy- wonder who would
have felt at home in modern
Hollywood,” says Martin Quigley.

Considerable advance in the making
and use of lenses was made by a

263

German priest, Johannes Kepler, and
a Jesuit colleague, Christopher
Schiemer. But the principle of
projection was discovered by the real
father (or, at any rate, grandfather) of
the cinema, a German priest named
Kircher, who put on a “premiere” for
high ecclesiastics in Rome just over
three centuries ago to demonstrate his
“magic lantern”.

The search for movement in pictures
was given great impetus by two French
priests, Abb6 Nollet and Abbe Guyot,
while their discoveries were commer-
cialised, often unscrupulously, by
laymen. Nevertheless, it was two
laymen, Plateau, a Belgian scientist,
and Roget, author of the famous
Thesaurus, who first put motion into
pictures. The former, indeed, was
amongst the martyrs of science, for he
sacrificed his own eyesight that future
generations might see pictures in
motion. It remained for an Austrian,
Baron General Franz von Uchatius, to
combine the Kircher projector with
the Plateau principles of motion in
pictures, and the cinema was born. Mr.
Quigley’s lucid description of the
apparatus and its use in all these
developments makes absorbing reading.

From Austria the ball passes again
to France and also to England with
the epoch - making discovery of
photography by Daguerre and Talbot,
but immediately afterwards the
United States entered the field with
the system of printing photographs
on glass slides perfected by the
Langenheim brothers of Philadelphia.
Backwards and forwards between the
Old World and the New passed the ball
of development in motion pictures,
until Marcy of France and Edison and
Eastman of the United States, the
theorist and the practitioners, combined
to produce the prototype of all film
movie projectors. From that time it

was merely a question of overcoming
practical difficulties and perfecting
apparatus. Mr. Quigley follows the
efforts of the pioneers in various
countries with fascinating assiduity
until Edison perfects his Vitascope in
1895, and the magic shadows at last
reach the cinema screen.

“And thus the motion picture, like
many another achievement of the
human heart and hand and mind, has
come down to us as the result of
incalculable effort on the part of
many ... It is the creation of men of
many centuries and many nations and
from these diversities of time and
persons it has gained its amazing
power, its universal appeal. ”2

We have given only the most
sketchy precis of this learned and
fascinating book, but perhaps enough
to indicate both its interest and its
importance. Notwithstanding the
technical perfection attained in the
apparatus, the cinema has not yet
justified the devotion and labours of
its pioneers through the centuries.
Their aim was, as we have said, to
reproduce the functions of the human
eye and to extend their scope in an
almost unlimited degree. But in the
perfecting of this production one thing
tends to be forgotten ; the human eye
is the organ of the human intelligence.
It looks out upon a world of reality
and is made to see the goodness and
truth that lie in beauty. That is what
is to such a large extent lacking in
the modern cinema; but it is something
that the cinema is capable of, and
worthy of ; and Martin Quigley’s book
is peculiarly valuable in illuminating
the mind to a better appreciation of
both the capability and the worth of
these magic shadows.

2 “Magic Shadows”; p. 161.

FOCUS INDEX

A complete index of FOCUS: A Film Review, Vols. I and II,
is now available. Copies may be obtained from the Manager,
Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7, on receipt
of stamps to the value of ljd.

J

264

No. 2 — A Positive Approach to the Cinema

THE TEACHER and the CINEMA

By Margaret Anderson

Responsibility and Education

More than half the children of school
age in Great Britain go to the cinema
at least once a week. In the previous
article in this series, it was pointed out
that the ultimate responsibility for any
ill-effects which may result rests on the
parents who allow this to happen ; there
is also, however, a duty regarding the
cinema which falls more and more
upon the teacher in loco parentis. This
is an age which realises that children
are more than minds to be instructed
in the three R’s and that education
embraces the spiritual, mental and
physical health of the child as well as
his intellectual achievement. The care
of the whole child has brought new
duties to the teacher ; his work is to
prepare that child to become a full
member of the community and to live
his life as completely as possible. Of
that life, for the majority of people,
the cinema is one of the most constant
factors.

As an aid to teaching in the class-
room, the film is extremely valuable ;
its power outside has to be appreciated.
The Russians early recognised the
importance of film as a medium for
propaganda. The use of both sight and
hearing means that there is less strain
on each sense, and conscious effort is
reduced. This easy assimilation can
produce a passive state of mind where
thought is unnecessary, and one in
which the subject is readily influenced.
Children with their unformed minds
- and greater susceptibilities are even
more easily impressed. Two years ago
a light engine and a goods train were
derailed by boys who had seen a train
derailment “on the pictures”. Young
children are not able to distinguish
between truth and fiction on the screen;
it is all real to them and becomes part
of the phantasy world in which they
live. What they see is too often
violent or horrifying.

Physical Effect on Children

In the Report of the Departmental
Committee on Children and the Cinema,
there is a complaint of the lack of
direct evidence of the ill-effects of
frequent visits to the cinema ; but
teachers know of the lethargy and in-
attention that is alwaj-s apparent in
cinema habitues, particularly those who
go during the evening and then come
to school with dull eyes. I know of
intelligent children who have become
slow because their mental and physical
energy has been sapped by late nights
and over-stimulation of their emotions
at the cinema. Physically, the Saturday
Club is an obvious improvement, but
unfortunately so much of the material
presented is unsuitable and defeats to
some degree the purpose of what is
taught in school. False standards are
shown which temper the mind of a
child over a long period and condition
it to false values, as the Hon. Mrs.
Bower points out in her Memorandum
to the Report. If parents are not going
to apply sanctions (and to many it is a
convenience that children are out of the
way, no matter what they are seeing)
then it is for teachers to tackle the
trouble.

What the Teacher Needs to do

The misuse of the cinema is all the
more deplorable because of its

potentiality for good. In an ideal State
the Children’s Cinemas would be run
on a non-commercial basis by voluntary
local committees, showing films

specially made for the purpose, pro-
viding all that children enjoy and what
they might be encouraged to enjoy.
We can hope, at least, for legislation
whereby all films to which children are
admitted, whether accompanied or not,
would have to be passed by a panel of
parents and teachers. Difficulties in
procuring this can be overcome if there

265

is sufficient agitation and support for
the proposed Central Committee, and if
Members of Parliament are canvassed.
The best weapons are facts, and it is for
teachers to carry out research on a large
scale. They know their pupils, they
understand growing minds, and they
have a wide understanding of child-
hood ; their initiative and co-operation
is essential if real evidence is to be
collected and used.

Apart from obtaining statistics and
psychological data, good work can be
done by the class teacher holding
informal discussions of the local films
of the week. Junior children especially
are completely frank about their likes
and dislikes and will readily discuss
their reactions to what they have seen
at the cinema. Film clubs where
children are able to see versions of
suitable entertaining films are already a
feature in some schools, and they pro-
vide a basis for comparison with those
shown at the local “pictures”. The
teacher should be able to recommend
particularly good general releases about
which he has read in reliable reviews.
A critical attitude will gradually
develop if children know that what they
have seen will be discussed in class or
in a film group. It will help the
younger ones to realise that the cinema
world is unreal ; they will gain a more
objective approach.

Cine Clubs and Courses

For older pupils in all types of
secondary schools, apart from the
showing of 16mm. versions of good
films, more can be done to stimulate
interest in the technical side of film-
making; talks bv cameramen, make-up
experts, electricians, dress designers,
“extras”, an occasional director or
producer, could do a great deal towards
making children critical in the full
sense of the word, teaching them to
select that which is worthwhile, and to
discard that wffiicli is not. Some schools
have even made successful films of
their own. In my local borough, a
group of secondary modern girls and
boys wrote two scripts and filmed them,
using their school as a set and the
other pupils as extras. It was interest-
ing to notice that the theme of both
was of right triumphing over wrong.
Seniors might also investigate cinema-
going habits as part of their social
studies. Emphasis all the time needs

to be on changing the passive attitude
to the film to one which is active and
creative.

In the past, the antipathy of some
teachers to the attendance of children
at the cinema has tended to make it a
vaguely illicit pleasure ; bringing it into
school will de-glamorise it, and a more
balanced sense of proportion may
result, but before they can deal with
the question adequately teachers must
themselves be instructed. They should
take advantage of courses and lectures
on film-making and' appreciation such
as the summer school being held at
Bangor this year, and should read good
critical and informative publications of
which Focus and the International
Film Review are suitable examples.

The Place of Film Appreciation

In the training of future teachers the
colleges have a great opportunity to
give a lead in the serious study of the
cinema. No training college would fail
to give courses in Art, Music or
Literature ; no training college can afford
to neglect the cinema. Pioneer work
has been done by the Sacred Heart
nuns in their two colleges at Roe-
hampton and Fenham where a scheme
has been worked out in order to make
an intelligent approach to the film.
Critical appreciation is trained by
means of a knowledge of technique,
history and aesthetics generally. The
students have seen and discussed
various types of films, have considered
their social implications and have done
practical work in the form of visits to
Children’s Cinema Clubs and observa-
tions upon them. At one of the colleges
a child audience was asked to write an
“appreciation” and much was learnt
from their efforts ; the other college has
been visited by Fr. Burke who discussed
the ethical aspect of some recent
films, and there the “Critic and Film”
series of the British Film Institute has
been used. The principal of the
northern college writes :

“I happened to overhear a conversa-
tion between two girls one afternoon
which ran like this :

‘Been anywhere?’

‘The flicks. Rotten show.’

‘Oh, hard luck. We enjoyed it
hugely; we knew how to criticise.’

After that (continued the principal)
I knew something had to be given to
every set of students.”

266

That nun is a member of an en-
closed order.

The good work must spread to all
Training colleges and training depart-
ments so that all future teachers will be
able to deal with the cinema in relation
to life.

This will take a long time, however,
and the problem is urgent. Teachers
already in the schools must get to work
and plan a campaign. The first thing
to do is to go to the Stationery' Office or
to the Public Library and read a copy
of the Report. Then act.

BOOK REVIEWS

The Cinema 1950. Edited by Roger
Manvell. A Pelican Book, 2s. 6d.

This is the first volume of what is
intended to be an annual survey of the
cinema, replacing the former Penguin
Film Review. Like its predecessor, it
is extremely interesting and very good
value for the money. There are twelve
articles ranging from Robert Flaherty’s
reminiscences of his film-making to an
entertaining satire on film critics by
Peter Ustinov.

A particularly useful essay is that
by Leonard England in which he
challenges the popularly-accepted idea
that cinema-goers are, on the whole, an
unintelligent lot. If not flattering, the
conclusions Mr. England arrives at are
at least less devastating than many a
sociologist would have us believe.

An inset of 122 well-chosen stills
make this modest volume a fascinating
book of reference.

J. A. V. B.

Film. By Roger Manvell. A Pelican
Book, 1950, 2s. 6d.

Roger Manvell’s volume, here given
a new edition and very much enlarged,
has become a veritable classic of film
appreciation. It contains so much that
film enthusiasts ought to know about
the most popular of the arts, that, at
the price, there is no other volume to
replace it as a text-book for study
groups.

Everv aspect of the cinema is touched
on including, of course, the vexed
question of censorship. In this
connection, I feel that we have a
legitimate moan to make that Dr.

Manvell ignores the constructive work
of the Office Catholique International
du Cinema. Like all other com-
mentators, he mentions the American
Legion of Decency and its negative but
necessary classification of films. He
does not allow to other national film
centres the credit they undoubtedly
deserve for their important constructive
work in the field of film. May we hope
that in a subsequent edition of Film,
this omission will be remedied ?

J. A. V. B.

Moira Shearer. By Pigeon Crowle.

Faber & Faber Ltd., 21s.

Admirers of Moira Shearer will find
much to interest them in this beauti-
fully illustrated book with its 47
photographs of the star in various roles.
It is a story of years of hard work
during which each new opportunity was
grasped and made the most of and
which were finally crowned with well-
earned success. Like every true artist,
Moira Shearer is her own sternest critic
and is far from satisfied with her own
attainments. It is, perhaps, character-
istic that in 1948, at the time when
public acclamation of her performance
in The Red Shoes was at its height, she
should say in a broadcast : “I think
more than anything else in the world I
would like to be able some day to dance
Giselle really, well. To be in fact a
great ballerina — some day”. The book
ends with the departure of the young
ballerina for America with the Sadlers
Wells company, with “the years of
endeavour, of achievement and fulfil-
ment” behind her and every prospect
of a still more brilliant future ahead.

M. M.

267

FILM REVIEWS

By Our Panel of Priests

THE WOODEN HORSE

Starring: Leo Genn, with David

Tomlinson, Anthony Steel.
Producer: Ian DaJrymple.

Director: Jack Lee. Distributors:

British Lion. Certificate-. b.
Category: B. Running time:

ioi minutes.

The Wooden Horse was one answer
to the prisoner’s perpetual problem :
How can I escape ? But it was inspired
by an incident thousands of years ago.
The Greeks got into Troy by concealing
soldiers in a wooden horse. Peter
(Leo Genn) and John (Anthony Steel)
decide to get out of Btalag Luft III by
a similar method. The German guards
are not suspicious when a vaulting-
horse is constructed out of Red Cross
boxes, because they • know that tlfe
• English are mad; and wliat could be
madder than that underfed airmen
should wish to spend hours day after
day vaulting it? They do not guess
that the two men are concealed in the
horse each time it is carried out and
back, that a tunnel is being bored to
freedom, that the entrance shaft is care-
fully covered over with boards and soil.

This ingenious device enables the
tunnel to be started fairly near the wire
fence. The suspense is appalling. The
field-glasses of the German guards are
continually focused on the horse and
there are a thousand chances of a slip
leading to detection. The sand has to
be disposed of : it is carried away in
little Irags made out of trouser-legs.
There is the awful moment when the
sand is discovered . . . and another
when Peter is buried by a sudden
subsidence . . . and all the time the
vaulters are getting weaker and almost
have to give up . . .

The whole thing is fantastic and
would be quite incredible — except that
it actually happened. The film, which
is an adaptation bv Eric Williams from
his own novel, is so convincing that it

has something of the quality of a
documentary. It gains enormously from
the extreme simplicity and expert
handling of the story. The acting is
superb. Leo Genn and Anthony Steel
as Peter and John, and David ’-a
Tomlinson as Phil, who takes charge of
the vaulting and is, allowed to escape
with the others, can hardly be over-
praised. I defy you to see this film
through and not be almost maddened
by the tension. TbA

It is arguable 'that it might have been
better to diaye- ended the story with the
actual escape frepn the camp and not
to have gone on to Liibeck, Denmark,
and finally Sweden. But in that case
we should have,.* missed the admirable
performance of Lis Lowert as Andre,
the French worker who arranges for the
fugitives to meet Sigmund, their
Danish rescuer. 1: may be felt too that
the occasional touches of camp humour
are rather banal-Tbut surely that is as
true as . the rest.

Forgive me fdr moralising, but the
picture has, for • me anyhow, a very
topical message. At the present
moment the world situation seems
grimly hopeless and we think of the
horrors of atomic warfare and ask when
rather than whether. Well, here is a
true account of the victory of human
ingenuity over an apparently baffling |1
problem. Here is the triumph of
human courage in the face of
apparently overwhelming odds. It cost
a good deal : physical endurance and
psychological strain over a long period.

It needed the unselfish co-operation of
all the prisoners. But it succeeded.

If you like a thoroughly good film,

The I ]'oodcn Horse is one that you
simply must see. And I need hardly
add, you must see it through from the
beginning. But if you are an ex-P.O.W.
and don’t want to be reminded of your
experiences, you had better stay away.

It is all far too realistic !

J. R. W. D.

(I) John and Peter (Anthony Steel and Leo Genn) discuss plans for escape

(2) The Wooden Horse is carried out (David Tomlinson and Leo Genn)

270

HAVE I LIVED BEFORE?

(Ballongen)

Starring: Nils Poppe. Producers:

Svensk Filmindustri. Director:
Nils Poppe. Category : A.

This Swedish film, shown privately
to the critics, is a disappointing, dull,
vulgar essay on the theme of incarna-
tion. It is composed of six episodes in
which Nils Poppe is the central
character and ranges from a Viking
scene to a circus piece. They are of
uneven quality and are enlivened only
by the whimsical and Chaplinesque
clowning of Poppe. He is worthy of
better material. Perhaps he will allow
someone else to direct his next film.

The entirely materialistic conception
of the Creator and the Hereafter is,
perhaps, to be expected from the
decaved Protestantism of Scandinavia.

V.

SYLVIA AND THE GHOST
(Sylvie et le Fantome)

Starring: Jacques Tati, Louis Salon,
Odette Joyeux, Pierre Larquey,
Francois Perier, Jean Desailly,
Claude Marcy. Director: Claude
Autant-Lara. Producer: Ecran

Francais and Andre Panleve.
Distributed by Film Traders, Ltd.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 93 minutes.

This fantastic French film tells of a
girl of sixteen who has a romantic
preoccupation with the long dead
subject of a portrait, Alan de Francignv
(Tati), who had been in love with her
grandmother. To. soften the blow of
the sale of the picture her father, the
Baron (Pierre Larquey), calls upon
theatrical agents to supply him with
a ghost who will convince the young
lady that the spirit of Alan has not
departed with his portrait.

A young admirer and a young house-
breaker are assumed also to come from
the agency and the ghost potential is
tripled. But this is too easy. There is
the genuine ghost to be reckoned with
as well. A ball in Sylvia’s honour is
wrecked one way and another between
the lot.

The tender, ridiculous father, the
rather coarsely aristocratic mother
(Claude Marcy), that absurd tragedian

and ghost specialist from the Paris
stage (Louis Salon), the tough robber
(Francois Perier), the honest
undeclared suitor (Jean Desailly), and
of course the genuine, non-speaking
ghost as well as the comic manservant
— all revolve round the solemn little
Miss who, fortunately, is cured of her
romanticism at the end.

It is the French mixture of mockery
and tenderness. The English titling
is well done, but the standard of
elocution is so good that no real
difficulties are presented to those of us
who travel light with no more than our
schoolbov French.

X.

SUNSET BOULEVARD
Starring: William Holden, Gloria

Swanson, Eric von Stroheim.
Producer: Charles Brackett.

Director: Billy Wilder. A Para-
mount Picture. Certificate: U.

Category: B. Running time: no
minutes.

The surprising thing about this film
is that the writers have provided such
an interesting story on rather a trite
subject and that it has been put on
the screen very convincingly by the
producer. It deals with the penultimate
act in the drama of one of the great
stars of silent days, Norma Desmond,
played excellently by Gloria Swanson,
who, having been thrown on the rubbish
heap with the coming of the talkies,
dreams herself mad preparing for the
great come-back. Living in luxury on
Sunset Boulevard, she writes a script
of her life, so long and impossible that
when she learns that nothing will come
of it, she is driven to murder.

Gloria Swanson has been in the
business long enough to have proved
her talent, and certainly the stars who
can survive their own decade and play
on into another and then another, few
as they are, do shine out with a
brilliance exceeding the popular
favourites of a particular day. The
other parts are quite adequately played,
and it suits the piece that they should
be dominated by the star who has stood
the test of time. This film has one of
the best produced endings I have seen
for a long time, and it is as well
perhaps that the last act of the drama
is left to our imagination.

U.

Ralph Hingston (Ronald Howard) and his young wife Clare (Margaret
Johnston) enjoy a picnic by the river

PORTRAIT OF CLARE

Starring: Margaret Johnston, Robin

Bailey, Richard Todd. Producer:
Leslie Landau. Director: Lance
Comfort. Presented by Asso-
ciated British Pictures. Certi-
ficate: U. Category: B.

Running time: ioo minutes.

This is a typical film of a novel, in
this case one by Francis Brett Young.
It is also typical of the novelist, though
none the worse for that. He is well
known as a specialist in these family
affairs, with a little twist that makes
the story. As a result of its origin
there are too many characters, who all
get in each other’s way. They have
nothing to say in the film, though in
the book they would have some more
) or less important place. There are
twenty-nine characters listed in the
cast, but it is difficult to remember
more than a dozen of them.

But apart from such criticisms, it
must be admitted that this is a very
competent film based on the principle
that it is wrong to marry except for
love. Whatever the morality of such
a principle may be, one can admit that
marriage will seldom be successful with-

out love, especially in these days of
great personal freedom. It will perform
a useful function if it makes those
young people who see it careful before
they rush into wedlock.

Margaret Johnston plays her part
with customary distinction. As Clare
she has married very young and has
been widowed within six months as a
result of a fishing accident. She broods
over her loss, and suffers much, being
the daughter of the landed gentry,
because of bad relations with her
in-laws, who are nouveau-riche.
Eventually she marries again for the
sake of her son, and finds only
unhappiness because she does not love
her husband. Robin Bailey as the
husband, the lawyer Dudley Wilburn,
plays an ungraceful part very well. He
parts from his wife at last, and she
has to wait an unspecified time until
she is free to marry Wilburn’s cousin,
Robert Hart (Richard Todd), with
whom she has fallen in love. In her
old age Clare can pass on the value of
her experience to her grand-daughter.

This should be a popular film,
especially among those who like to see
some good interior photography.

U.

272

Richard Widmark and Barbara Bel Geddes

PANIC IN THE
STREETS

Starring: Richard Widmark, Paul

Douglas, Barbara del Geddes.
Director: Elia Kazan. Producer:
Sol C. Siegel. A 20th Century-
Fox Production. Certificate : A.
Category : B. Running time :
95 minutes.

Our interest in a film will depend on
the measure in which we can identify
ourselves with the characters and
events depicted. “How about interest
which is aroused by scenery, music or
intellectual considerations?” you may
say if you are in a combative mood, as
1 hope you are. From that searching
criticism I take refuge in the
philosophic concept that in knowing
something, that thing becomes in some
sense part of us, and that therefore
scenery, music and so on can only be
appreciated in so far as we can interpret
them in terms of ourselves, or if you
like in terms of our experience. This

is exemplified by the boredom of
children with adult plays. They can
understand action but not the subtleties
of life that come with maturer
experience. It explains why it is
easier to be enthralled with drama
among English people than with the
emotional upheavals of Eskimos ; why,
too, a modern setting has an easier
appeal than a medieval or ancient one.

These approaches to the mind are
easier, but not necessarily better. It is
good for us by a process of comparison
and judgment to understand conditions
outside our particular experience. Films
should not be considered simply as a
method of turning Sunday’s tough
meat into a highly spiced but twice
dead rissole for Monday’s dinner. If
the cinema is to survive as an art, it
should seek the substance and not be
content with the shadow. To consider
it merely as a form of escapism is to
sign its death warrant.

By these standards this excellent
thriller must be considered shallow. It
is very well done, but could have been
so very much better. It has such a
theme as could have raised it to the
immortals, but in the desire for excite-
ment it misses life and thus its own
immortality.

But at least it illustrates how atten-
tion is grasped. With a certain

detachment we see a murder in the
slums of New Orleans. With awakening
interest we learn that the victim was
suffering from a dread and virulent
disease. With real concern we realise
that there is an absence of clues as to
the identity of the murderers and that
they are probably carriers of a fatal
germ that will cause wholesale

Richard Widmark and Paul Douglas

273

contagion in a matter of hours. It is
here that I think the film sidesteps real
life. The medical officer, a man of
dynamic personality, played by Richard
Widmark, persuades the authorities to
adopt an unlikely procedure, and then
in a highly individualistic way tracks
down the murderers. The film ends
with a typical hunt of the murderers
along the water front.

I recommend the film. It is well
worth seeing.

T.

WATERFRONT

Starring: Robert Newton, Kathleen

Harrison and Susan Shaw.
Producer: Paul Soskin. Director:
Michael Anderson. Certificate :
A. Category-. A. Running time :
80 minutes.

This film is at best mediocre. The
brilliant acting of Robert Newton and
the able support of the other members
of the cast deserve a better story and
a more pleasing production. Having
seen the film, I left the cinema feeling
miserable and glad of one thing, that
being that it was over. The story is
quite sordid, presumably true to life,
but that need not necessarily be a
favourable characteristic. It is a sad
and familiar tale of a family thrust
into poverty and tragedy by the vicious
neglect of a faithless father, a tragedy
which culminates in the violent crime
of murder. The settings, whether
interiors or exteriors, are dull and
depressing. One has to pass alternately
from the fogbound wintry dockside and
slummy streets of Liverpool to the
equally squalorsome rooms of the flats
where the characters live. There are
one or two heartrending scenes which
are worthy of the acting, but the story-
starts on a dreary note, continues to
grow drearier and ends on a sad note
of doubt, as though the life of a sailor
must needs be one of faithlessness.

The film’s one romantic element,
namely the love of the upright daughter
for a young ship’s engineer, a love
almost thwarted bv the added distress
of this keen young man’s two years of
unemployment, is crowned by their
marriage on his finding a ship. Even
this is ill-fated, because it happens to

be the ship on which the father
served. At their parting when he sails,
the girl recalls her mother’s sufferings
and ponders over the possibility of a
repetition in her own life, so that the
film ends on a note of dread and doubt.

Fans of Robert Newton will want to
see the film for the excellence of his
performance. It seems out of place,
however, that the Cockney accent
should predominate rather than that of
Merseyside.

To sum up : there is not much in this
film to please you if you are out for an
evening’s entertainment. Above all,
young people should be dissuaded from
seeing it, for it contains nothing to
enlighten or entertain them. There is
quite enough that is sordid in real life
without its being served up on the
screen and piesented as entertainment
for the public.

J. R. C.

A TICKET TO TOMAHAWK
Starring: Dan Dailey, Anne Baxter,
Rory Calhoun, Walter Brennan.
Director: Richard Sale. Producer:
Robert Bassler. Colour by
Technicolor. Certificate-. A.
Category : B. Running time: 89
minutes.

This is the first time I have seen Dan
Dailey — after all, I am only a small
time critic — yes, I insist, that is all.
However, the point is that it was a
happy surprise to discover that he is
a genuine comedian. He has
personality, acting ability and a fine
sense of the ridiculous.

It is a preposterous story of course.
A train has to make its first run on a
newly-built railway to Tomahawk
within a given time else the concession
will lapse. It gets through, despite
villainous rivals, whooping redskins
and the absence of about forty miles
of track. Anne Baxter renders
assistance a.s the quick-shooting deputy
sheriff. The film is lighthearted and
interest is well sustained. In part it is
a skit on current Westerns. There is
very occasionally a tendency to allow
one of the lesser characters to raise a
cheap laugh.

T.

274

GUN CRAZY

Starring: Peggy Cummins, John Dali.
Producers: Frank and Maurice

King. Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Released by United Artists.
Certificate: A. Category: B.

This is not a jolly film. Peggv
Cummins, a fun fair pistol expert, is
defeated in a shooting competition by
John Dali. Thereafter they marry.
Peggy is gun crazy and persuades John
Dali to adopt with her a life of robberv
at the point of a revolver. They have
many exciting escapades, but
eventually retribution overtakes them.

It is all very competently done,
though there is little subtlety or power
of characterisation.

Aristotle, I think, makes the point
that drama provides a legitimate outlet
for dangerous emotions. If you are gun
crazy, even in the depth of your sub-
conscious, see this film. It will cure
vou for life.

T.

THE FURIES

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Wendel
Corey, Walter Huston. Producer:
Hal Wallis. Director: Anthony
Mann. Distributors: Paramount.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 109 minutes.

I fail to see what contribution this
sort of film makes to life, art or human
happiness. It is stiff with hate and
stinks of morbidity. It is about a

savage feud which exists between land
and cattle owners ; all the characters
are endowed, of course, with film
pseudo-toughness, which means that
they are rude and rough and coarse in
word and deed. In one sequence (to
give but one example) Vance Jeffords
(Barbara Stanwyck) flings a large pair
of scissors at Flo Burnett (Judith
Anderson) , which slashes her eye and
disfigures her for life. Believe me, it
was good to get out of the Plaza to
breathe some clean air and to talk to
some decent, normal people.

This film is notorious for its rhythm
of cruelty. It concludes with a murder
which was a dirty murder, in the sense
that the victim, T. C. Jeffords, the
cattle baron (Walter Huston), was shot
in the back by a woman called Mother
Herrara.

E.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN THE
FOREIGN LEGION

Starring: Abbott and Costello, with
Patricia Medina, Walter Slezak,
Douglas Dumbrille. Producer:
Douglas Arthur. Director:
Charles Lamont. Certificate : U.
Category: C. Running time:

100 minutes.

FANCY PANTS

Starring: Bob Hope and Lucille Ball,
with Bruce Cabot, Jack Kirk-
wood. Technicolor. Producer:
Robert L. Welch. Director:
George Marshall. Certificate : U.
Category : C. Running time: 92
minutes.

In both films the story is pre-
posterous. In the first, Abbott and
Costello are served up in the worn out
sands of the desert, which have grown
cold long since. In the second, Bob
Hope has better material, which he
dominates with his usual exquisite
timing.

Foreign Legion has nothing to
recommend it. Watching it seemed a
waste of years.

Fancy Pants, preposterous though it
be, has a logical beginning, middle and
end. It opens with a curiously garden-
party setting for a Gentleman and
Players cricket match. It ends with Bob
and his hoydenish girl friend (Lucille
Ball) in flight from the town of Big
Squaw, New Mexico. For the middle
we have Bob acting as an American
actor (not a very good one) who has to
act as an English butler whom inex-
orable circumstances force into play-
ing the part of an English peer in Big
Squaw. Concentric circles of acting, if
you like.

We can take it when Bob comes all
over English. And it says much for the
Americans that they are relied on to
laugh at the funny side of social
climbing American women. It is as
simple as that. But they have laughed
at that sort of thing before, very often.

We can respect the logic of lunacy
without admitting its conclusions. All
we do about it is to question the
premises when it seems worth while.
But here we have another triumph of
Hope over experience.

Don’t be put off bv the fancv title.

X.

275

TRIO

Producer: Anthony Darnborough.

Directors: Ken Annakin and

Harold French. A Sydney Box
Production for Gainsborough.
Certificate-. A. Category : B.

Running time : 91 minutes.

This film is a repetition of the
Quartette experiment, though for some
l reason it stopped at three ; it was
probably simply that three stories in
this case filled the time that cinema
patrons demand for the feature film. It
begins, as did Quartette with an ex-
planation in Somerset Maugham’s
familiar manner, as much as to say :
“Don’t blame me if you don’t like it.
These boys asked me if they could do
it, and I don’t like to disappoint them.”
So the boys got on with the job and
produced Trio, which is simply three
short films shown one after the other,
in the pattern of the aforesaid
Quartette. I do not know whether a
“Duet” is contemplated, but if so, the
sooner it is over and they get back to
the principle, one story equals one
film, the better. Three ones make
three, and they will never really make
one.

1 — The Verger

Starring: James Hayter and Kathleen
Harrison.

These two players are not what one
would normally call great, judging by
what we have seen of them. But in the
character parts which they usually
play, how perfect they are ! One can
almost see that Albert Foreman cannot
read and write, which is really the point
of the story. And Emma, who becomes
his wife, never overplays herself as the
shopkeeper’s wife. But the story is too
slight even for one-third of a film.

2 — Mr. Knowall

1 Starring: Nigel Patrick and Anne

Crawford.

Mr. Maugham claims to be nothing
more than a storyteller, in the old
tradition that begins with Chaucer. But
he does that uncommonly well, and
with the spoken word one avoids those
tantalising bits of bad writing which
sometimes blotch his novels. Nigel
Patrick as Kelada, the man who knows

everything, is outstanding. By a
pleasant little twist, Mr. Maugham in
this story turns a character which one
would normally detest into one for
which one is compelled to have a
sneaking regard.

3 — Sanatorium

Starring: Jean Simmons and Michael
Rennie.

Dramatically this is easily the best of
the three and the quality of the play
is maintained throughout. It is the
only one of the three in fact that has
the makings of a full-length picture.
Evie Bishop and Major Templeton (we
never seem to get as far as Christian
names with the Major) are fellow-
patients at a T.B. sanatorium. In the
midst of the little personal dramas of
the other patients, these two gradually
fall in love and decide, after hearing
the doctor’s verdict that marriage will
mean death for one and permanent ill-
ness for the other, that happiness is
more important than a long life.

It may be simply that this being the
best of the three one forgets that one
has seen three films, but I feel that this
is the inevitable result of this experi-
ment. One’s impression of the whole
will depend on the last item, which is
not satisfactory. Somerset Maugham
has written any number of full-length
stories. Let some of these be filmed.

U.

ROCKETSHIP X.M.

Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen,
John Emery, Noah Beery, Jnr.,
Hugh O'Brian, Morris Ankrum.
Producer and Director: Kurt

Neumann. An “Exclusive”
Lippert Production. Category :
B. Running time : 70 minutes.

A film that tries to record what
happened in the attempt of a Rocket-
ship to go to the moon and back is
dependent for its success on the
imagination, credulity and capacity for
emotional strain of the audience. The
scientificallv-rhinded, on the look-out
for defects, might be sceptical, while
the lovers of the fantastic, especially
children, would have all the emotional
thrills they could want. Certainly it
would be difficult for the average film-
goer to remain quite calm when the

276

crew is rendered unconscious by the unable to help, begin their flight back

rocket’s velocity owing to an error in to earth. Before they hurtle to

the fuel mixture. destruction, owing to shortage of fuel,

When the crew recover it is they are able to make radio contact

discovered that they have gone right with headquarters and record some

out of their course and are making for information.

Mars on which they land. Here they All the actors play their parts well,
discover relics of a high state of The possibility of controlling world

civilisation brought to an end by atomic affairs from another planet so as to

blast. Two of the crew are killed by prevent war and the effects of atomic

huge stones hurled by the savages they blast on Mars fit in with a modern

meet. The two sound members of the mood.

crew and a third who is wounded and W.

Some Recent Documentaries

THE STORY OF THE POPE

Documentary, with commentary
written and spoken by Rt. Rev.
Mgr. Fulton Sheen. A Cornell
Film. Distributors: Exclusive.

Certificate : U. Category : C.

Running time : 45 minutes

approx.

This is an excellent film essay on the
life of Pope Pius XII. With material
derived from news reels, library stock
and film specially shot for the occasion,
a very pleasing outline of the life and
work of His Holiness has been
assembled. There is an introduction
spoken by Cardinal Spellman and the
beautiful commentary is written and
spoken by Mgr. Fulton Sheen. The
film was made for the American market
so that it is not to be wondered at that
the accent is strongly American. How-
ever, this in no way detracts from the
merit of the film for English Catholics.
I strongly suggest that local Catholic
organisations make a point of asking
their local cinema managers to show
this film. There will be a shorter
version available for those exhibitors
who think their public will not take the
longer one but it is well worth anyone’s
while to see the full version.

'l'he story is one that even non-
Catholics must find of interest in its
description of the events that led up to
the consecration of Mgr. Pacelli as
bishop, then later his elevation to the
College of Cardinals and finally his
coronation as Pope. One shot, of which
I have a still, showing the Pope as
Nuncio in Berlin distributing food and
clothes to the Germans, was omitted
when I saw the film at the special show
arranged for the Catholic Press. This is

a pity : for it illustrates most forcefully
the fact that the Church knows no-
distinction of race or creed where the
mercy and charity of God are con-
cerned. The commentator does make
the point that the Pope invited soldiers
of every nation to the Vatican during
the war, and there is a moving scene in
which soldiers of various countries,,
some wounded, are waiting to be
received by the Common Father of
Christendom. V.

W. B. YEATS: A Tribute

Directors: John Desmond Sheridan

and George Fleischmann.
Commentary spoken by Cyril
Cusack. Poetry spoken by
Michael MacLiammoir and
Siobhan McKenna.

“I know these places. I am made
of them, deeper than words ...”

Thus a younger Irish poet meditating
on his birthplace ; and if what he says
is true of his kind then this beautifully-
photographed panorama of the natural
backgrounds of Yeats’ life is a brief
biography of the man himself. For
what the makers of this most attractive
little film have done is to string
together, to the tune of some of Yeats’
more famous, happy and peaceful
lyrics, the beauties of Coole, of Lisadell,
of Innisfree ; and of the scores of other
pieces of Sligo (and occasionally
Dublin) whose names and shapes
always haunted the poet’s mind.

It is true that there is here little
enough of Yeats the nationalist, the
spiritist, or the undone romantic : the
Yeats of the film is the Yeats of the
Edwardian anthologies, and some may-
think a poor relation of the angry, peer-

277

ing, and often shocked “weather-worn
Triton amid the streams” of the
twenties and thirties; Yeats of the
epitaph. Well, I suppose that the
answer of the producers (The Cultural
Relations Committee and the National
Film Institute of Ireland) is that they
never intended anything so personal.
What they have done is by any other
standards a handsome tribute. It was
a mistake, perhaps, to take an almost
slothful tempo for both the pace of the
camera’s pans and tilts and the speed
of speech in the commentary and verse ;
certainly a fault to maintain it so con-
stantly. Audiences need waking up
every so often. All three speakers are
well-chosen. But George Fleischmann is
the chief artist of the film. Somehow
as his camera glides like a lightning
seagull over the waters of the West, he
has sucked in and distilled the sad and
peaceful loveliness of that siren
country. Nobody will see this film with-
out wishing to go there. G. T.

THE MAGIC TOUCH
FROM THE GROUND UP

Crown Film Unit Productions. Made
by the C.O.I. for the Economic
Information Unit. Running
time : io minutes each.

Since the end of the war scientists
have discovered how' new' materials and
new processes can be used to increase
our export trade and to supply some of
the things W'e previously had to
import. The Magic Touch , an
attractive film with excellent photo-
graphy and lucid commentary, shows
some of the ways in which we are be-
coming self-supporting. The harvest-
ing of young grass, subsequently dried
over furnaces and used as cattle fodder;
the use of marginal land, hitherto left
waste, for growing timber; the harness-
ing of our rivers for hydro-electric
schemes ; the use of the surplus heat
produced at Battersea Power Station for
heating a big block of flats on the
other side of the river ; the production
of detergents (soap substitutes) from
petroleum ; the by-products of seaweed
and the extraction of magnesium from
sea water are all described. Of
interest to schools and general
audiences.

One-fifth of the national income is
being invested in rebuilding, modern-
ising and expanding the productive

machine by which we live. From the
Ground Up shows some of the results
of this expenditure. It touches upon
the electrification of the coal mines,
the building of new rolling mills and
blast furnaces, the modernising of our
railways, the rebuilding of our cities,
the mechanisation of farming and the
building of new generating stations.
Although less well photographed than
The Magic Touch, this film, too, will
be of interest to most classes of
audiences. The commentator’s com-
placent statement : “We all of us have
plenty of money to spend nowadays”,
is liable to provoke derisive laughter,
but this is a minor blemish.

“ The Magic Touch ” and “ From the
Ground Up” are available in 16mm. on
free loan from the Central Film
Library, Government Building, Brom-
yard Avenue, Acton, IF. 3. M. M.

WATCH YOUR STEP

Produced by Basic Films for the
C.O.I. 12 minutes.

Aside from deliberate non-observance
of factory safety regulations, many
industrial accidents are caused through
plain thoughtlessness, and this applies
to the building industry as well as any
other. This film shows how some of
these accidents are caused, and how
they could have been avoided. A neat
and concisely made job, but mainly of
value to those working in the trade.

J. A.

CARE AND MAINTENANCE OF
PLANT

Produced by Basic Films for the
C.O.I. ii minutes.

The modern builder uses mechanised
equipment unknown, and possibly
unnecessary, to the Eskimo erecting an
igloo. But cranes, bulldozers and other
machinery need oil, water and grease,
and a concrete mixer usually works
more efficiently if cleaned out after every
shift. This short and well made film
shows workers in the building industry
how to take care of the machinery they
use, and how, if they don’t, not only
does the machinery suffer, but also
their fellow'-workers who have to wait
and lose their bonuses while the
damage is repaired. Excellent for
those concerned with the job, but of
little interest to anyone else.

J. A.

278

THE TASK BEFORE THE
BUILDING INDUSTRY

Produced by Basic Films for the
C.O.I. 22 minutes.

Oue of a series of three films
primarily designed for operatives work-
ing in the building industry, this film
surveys all aspects of building from the
familiar bricklayer with a trowel to his
equally skilled counterpart handling
the latest mechanised equipment. New
methods of spraying cement, trenching,
and clearing sites with bulldozers are
shown, along with glimpses into the
modern system of training the builders
of the future.

Unlike so many films designed for a
specialist audience, this film is of
interest to the layman, and the wide
range of activities covered by the build-
ing industry should be of value to
students at senior and technical
schools.

On the whole well designed, some of
the camera shots leave a certain
amount to be desired, particularly the
shots taken from a moving train ; it is
preferable to be able to see quite clearly
what is happening. And what did

happen when a certain train pulled up
at a station ? Did the cameraman get
thrown out on his head on the
platform ?

J. A.

ERRATA

Faulty proof-reading gave a “C” to
the recent Bing Crosby film Riding
High. It should have been a “B"
classification.

It has been pointed out that our
reviewer may have overlooked the fact
that Bing Crosby played a character
waiting to marry a woman who tvas
waiting for her divorce decree to come
through. We are assured that he
included it in his reference to “doubtful
ethics”, though he is of the opinion
that in England, the question of the
immorality of divorce is more obvious
than the other financial immoralities
accepted in this film. He therefore
considered the cautionary note with
reference to the confidence trick the
more necessary and sufficient.

Categories were omitted in the case
of four other recent films. State Secret ,
B (177); East Side, H'csf Side, A (182);
On the Town, B (175); South of St.
Louis, B (175).

I

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS

FUND

IF one fourth of the Catholic population in England and Scotland
contributed a penny a day for 240 days The Catholic Film Institute
in England would be able to set up a production unit.

It was the pennies of the Catholic population in France which made
possible the making of the film Monsieur Vincent.

Kindly send donation to:

Rev. J. Burke. 357 Beulah Hill. London, S.E.19.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

£ s. d.

• Previously acknowledged 235 19 6 Mrs. M. Semple ...

Major R. C. F. Gerard,

M.B.E. 10 0

£ s. d.
1 0 0

£237 9 6

279

The Art of the Actor — /

■■

| The Great Sara Allgood

■■

By Gabriel Fallon

Sara Allgood

rHIS is the first of two articles
by Gabriel Fallon, the well-
known Irish dramatic critic. Mr.
Fallon has been called the Agate
of Ireland. Comparisons are not
always wise and in any case it
would be truer to say that Mr.
Fallon is entirely himself. Still,
the comparison may help our
readers to understand that they
have here the reflections of a
writer 'who understands and loves
and can describe the art of the
theatre as can few others.

He has chosen as his subjects
two great Irish players. His
analysis of the art of Sara All good
may enable some of our readers to
appreciate better the work of this
outstayiding actress of stage and
screen as well as to throw a light
on the skill which she has brought
to her parts in many a film like
“How Green Was My Valley”,
“The Keys of the Kingdom” or
“The Young in Heart”.

The next article will deal with
the work of Barry Fitzgerald.

The Power of a Voice

“Gee! Is that Sara Allgood?” said
a young American visitor, on seeing
her portrait in the vestibule of the
Abbey Theatre. “I’ve heard a lot
about her.” “Of course you have,”
said Lennox Robinson, “I don’t think
we’ve ever had an actress to compare
with her.” No, I don’t think we’ve
had.

The most remarkable thing about
Sara Allgood is not (as you might
imagine) her very beautiful voice, deep-
toned, rich and vibrant ; it is her use
of it. Few realise the arduous and
constant training necessary to achieve
that perfection of control which can

freeze the hearts of the hearers with
a single note. It is a voice which
possesses the rare quality of retaining
its smoothness throughout the entire
gamut of expression. Harshness is
stranger to it even in its highest
emotional stresses. (Now that I come
to think of it, I have never heard her
shriek.) Consider the power of this
voice alone. Analyse it (if you can) as
it reaches out to those tense white
faces to which, in Yeat’s Kathleen Ni
Houlihan, it? carries in memorable
cadences the simple story of the poor
old woman whose four green fields had
been filched from her. Mark the
intonations rising to compelling

2S0

prophecy as (her identity but half
revealed by the subtle quality of Miss
Allgood’s art) she proclaims that
“many who are red-cheeked shall be
pale-cheeked for her sake”. Listen to
it now as it passes to a chant that has
a strange, unearthly luminous quality
about it. The old woman, an old
woman no longer, moves across the
threshold, but the spell of the voice
holds us still : “They shall be

remembered for ever.” How many
torches of nationality have been kindled
and rekindled at this flaming talent
that leaped from beneath the dark
hood of her Kathleen Mi Houlihan ?
Such is the power of the stage in the
possession of a great artist.

The Personality of the Actor

It has been said with truth that
acting at its finest is a confusing
hypnosis ; that the flames and fire of a
Duse, the haunt and magic of a
Bernhardt, are such in their effect that
they disarm even the most discerning
critic and defy analysis. Indeed, this
argument has been used in an attempt
to deny to acting the status of an art.
It would be so easy to say : “Acting is
not an art. Sara Allgood is a great
artist who happened to be an actress.”
Miss Allgood herself would, I know, be
the very first to affirm that acting is an
art in evert- meaning of the term.
There is a quality whereby the images
of things absent are so represented to
the mind that we seem to see them with
our eyes and have them present before
us. This quality. — the quality of
imagination. — may be so thoroughly
developed by the actor that he will have
complete power over his emotions. The
thorough development of the imagina-
tion (which is the whole secret of the
art of acting) will eventually lead to
the point at which, the imaginative
chord being struck, the whole physical
nature of the actor will respond. This
gift of imaginative sympathy Miss
Allgood possesses in a very high
degree. The result is confusedly appre-
hended by an audience as “charm”,
“magnetism” or by that never-failing
word, “personality”.

“A Few Moments Pause”

That Miss Allgood’s art as an actress
does not lie in her voice alone, or in

her ability to use that voice, is amply
illustrated in what must be counted
as a supremely great moment in one
of her greatest roles — Juno, in

O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock , a
portrayal in which she has never been
surpassed. In Act III, after a scene
of guffawing humour between Joxer and
Captain Boyle, with the audience ready
to titter upon the slightest provocation,
Juno answers to the author’s simple
directions : “Mrs. Boyle enters : it is
apparent from the serious look on her
face that something has happened. She
takes off her hat and coat without a
word and puts them by. She then sits
down near the fire, and there is a few
moments pause.” That is all. Sara
Allgood’s entrance will not easily be
forgotten by those who saw it. It is
no exaggeration to say that her
appearance literally compelled the
audience to quiet, and held it for long
after in a frozen silence. She never
failed in this, no matter how boisterous
the audience had been. Not a word
was spoken by her. She did not even
sigh. Her movements were few ; she
made no gesture. On the contrary, she
seemed to have shrunken from the
effects of her inward consciousness.
Juno simply comes home again, but, in
that coming, the art of Sara Allgood
makes tragically memorable the words
in which the author has portrayed the
scene : “She then sits down . . . and
there is a few moments pause.” One
feels instinctively in the presence of
great tragedy.

Economy of Style

Perhaps the most notable quality in
her acting is the quality which is to be
found in the work of all great artists —
economy in the use of the instruments
of her art. One single gesture taken,
one look, one tone, where the less
talented will take six or seven and use
them to less effect. Her emotion, even
that surging emotion which she
expresses in Riders to the Sea, is
curbed with a magnificent restraint. I
turn to my diary for the following
account of my experience as a young
actor playing a “walk-on” part in
Synge’s one-act tragedy. It is as near
as description can go to the effect of
being on the stage with Sara Allgood.

“Chapeaux bas ! Enter Miss Sara

281

Allgood. Maura has gone over and
knelt down at the head of the table.
The women are keening softly and
swaying themselves with a slow move-
ment. Cathleen and Nora kneel at the
other end of the table. The men kneel
at the door. A rich deep throbbing
voice welling up from an abyss of
sorrow. The drip, drip, drip through
the tense silence of the water with
which you had drenched the sail cloth.
i ‘They’re all gone now ... ’ Some-
' thing that clutches the heart inside of
you and freezes the very marrow in
your bones as you kneel there in a white
bawneen on a stage that is a stage
no longer. The voice rises, billows,
falls and rises again. ‘ . . . and there
is nothing more the sea can do to
me . . .’ You hear behind you the
deep anger of the Atlantic surge
strangely menacing its way through
the Abbey scene dock. The drip . . .
drip . . . drip is slower now. The

vocative sorrow rises and falls, falls and
rises and is silent. You hear the voice
of Nora whispering, ‘She’s quiet now
and easy ; but the day Michael was
drowned you could hear her crying out
from this to the spring well.’ The
tension holds and spell is still
unbroken. Then with a lift as of a
ninth great wave the voice rises to its
final cadence : ‘They’re all together

this time, and the end is come.’ The
stage is drowned beneath a deluge of
falling waters. ‘May the Almighty God
have mercy on Bartley’s soul and on
Michael’s soul . . . and may He have
mercy on my soul, Nora, and on the
souls of everyone who is left living in
the world.’ A long time after that you
hear the voice of the stage-manager
shouting ‘Clear stage, please,’ and
somebody kicks you and tells you to
get up. Great art is like that. What
is more, it defies analysis.”

“The Heart Warm and the Head
Cool”

Unrestrained emotion is not acting;
it is nothing more or less than emotion
without restraint, often a matter for a
doctor. ‘‘For my part,” said Joseph

Jefferson, “I like to have the heart
warm and the head cool.” This is a
quality essential to great acting, which
Sara Allgood possesses to a remarkable
degree. I have frequently tested it on
the stage, and in moments of greatly
expressed emotion have spoken to her
in that soft ventriloquial whisper which
is so often a necessity in stage
situations, and which even the sharpest
member of an audience fails to detect.
She has always responded, being in
perfect possession and clear control of
her “non-acting” self, that self which
Coquelin calls No. 1. On one occasion,
in a tragic scene which called for no
speech on her part, she not only
answered me, but carried on a conver-
sation (as such conversations are
carried on, with long intervals between
the remarks) while she audibly sobbed
and real tears (not film ones) coursed
down her cheeks. The conversation
was not altogether foreign to the play,
but it had no part in her characterisa-
tion; nevertheless, the sobbing and the
tears swept on ; nor did they abate till
her scene in the play was over. .

Sara Allgood has played in most of
the world’s great capitals, and at one
time seemed likely to settle down in
London. There she made many
appearances on the British screen and
played in one of the first talkies
directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Then
Hollywood sent for her; and there she
lives under Californian skies while she
still retains her name in the Dublin
Telephone Directory (a gesture to call
her back, perhaps). Her parish priest,
Rev. Fr. Conlon, while holidaying in
Dublin, told me that she is one of the
most popular persons in Hollywood and
a great Catholic. Monsignor Devlin
had the same story to tell. But we who
know her so well accept that as
commonplace. She still corresponds
with her old colleagues but from the
tone of her last letter I wouldn’t say
that it’s likely that she wants the Abbey
or that the Abbey wants her. More’s
the pity. For she was one of that
talented band, the first Abbey
Company, which compelled James
Douglas to write : "We have at our
doors a dramatic miracle, and many of
us know it not.”

282

Films and Strips Useful in
the Primary School

By Our Educational Panel

LIBRARIES

G.B. Instructional Ltd., Aintree Road,
Peri vale, Greenford, Middx.

British Instructional Ltd., Film House,
Wardour Street, W.l.

Common Ground, Sydney Place, S.W.7.

(All Silent)

Milk

G.E.I. FS.732, 1 reel, 3 to 4 mins.

This is one of a series of short films
showing the sources of some staple
foods, very suitable for town-bred
children who sometimes have extra-
ordinary misconceptions on this
subject. A herd of milking cows are
seen grazing in the meadow and
returning to the byre to be washed and
milked. Then the sterilisation,
bottling, delivery and consumption
finish the story. The sterilisation
process is not obvious to the uninitiated
and the teacher is advised to get clear
on this point before the children
demand the explanation. There are
simple clear captions, and the short
running time allows for two showings
with questions and discussion between
them in a normal class period.

Other titles in this series are : Fish
from the Sea, Beef, Mutton, Hen and
Eggs, Fruit from Trees, etc.

Roots

G.B. I. FS.808 1 reel, 7 mins,
is the first of a series which show, very
simply, the functions of the various
parts of a plant and lead to a final
summing up in the Germination and
Growth of a Plant. The method of
magnifying and speeding up might be
confusing to children, and these two
devices which greatly aid the exposi-
tion, should be carefully prepared
beforehand. Possibly the best use of
these films is as a revision, in the last

year of primary school life, of what has
been previously and slowly observed in
classroom experiments with beans in
blotting papei, etc. Roots shows, very
clearly, the growth and development of
the roots, steadying and feeding the
plant, and relates the underground
activity to the growth of the seedling
above the soil and to the changing
seasons. There are a few simple
captions and plenty of time is given
for the slower readers to grasp them.
A Teacher’s Pamphlet (G.B. Film
Library, price 9d.) summarises the
series, which covers also stems, leaves,
flowers, pollination and seed dispersal.

The Fishmonger

G.B. I. FS.947, 10 mins.

“A Junior Activity film based on
Exploration of the neighbourhood and
its workers” — and excellent for its
purpose. The direct method of asking
butcher, baker and candlestick maker
all about their life and work has met
with gracious and kindly response, but
this is likely to fail as activity methods
become, as they should do, the normal
thing, and our daily wrorkers feel that
they must get on with their own rather
than the teacher’s job. Films of this
kind come to the rescue : here the
children are taken through the fish-
monger’s day without trouble to him-
self. Billingsgate occupies a good half
of the running time and very interest-
ing subject matter it makes presented
thus to the visual sense alone. The
business of fishmongering is fully and
pleasantly shown with detail and live
incidents suggesting profitable lines of
further study. A helpful pamphlet
accompanies the film and can be bought
separately. The series also includes The
Sewerman, The Postman and The
Policeman.

283

Wild Rabbits

FS.4688, 5 mins.

and

Bees

FS.4587, 5 mins.

Produced by G. B. Instructional Ltd.,
with the co-operation of the National
Committee for Visual Aids in Educa-
tion. These are two delightful little
nature study films ; the first shows
rabbits in their natural surroundings;
taking cover, eating, drinking, clean-
ing, etc., with plenty of time given to
observe behaviour and ‘ physical
features; the second, of bees, in a
.garden hive, is not so clear in detail or
so easily followed but would be never-
theless very valuable as the living
illustration to lessons on the bee for
junior children.

These two films are not coloured but
this does not appear as a disadvantage
for their lively attractiveness immedi-
ately transports one to field or garden ;

16mm. Advisory Service

We have for some time been
thinking out ways and means of
assisting the large number of
16mm. enthusiasts who, we feel,
form the backbone of the Catholic
Film Institute. As our readers
must know by this time, we aim
ultimately to produce a body of film
technicians who, though amateur in
status, will be professional in
standard and will have a vocational
approach to the whole question of
the use of film by Catholics.

As a further step in this direction
we hope shortly to devote a section
of Focus to the needs of the sub-
standard enthusiasts. In the mean-
time we have secured the services
of a panel of sub-standard experts
who have agreed to answer the
technical queries of any of our
readers who may care to take
advantage of their services. If you
have a problem connected with
16mm. projector or camera work,
send it along to Sub-standard
Service, Blue Cottage, Sumner
Place Mews, London, S.W.7.
Questions will be answered in a
subsequent issue of Focus.

whereas in the series Junior Educa-
tional Adventures the colour, so
important to children, has troubled one
adult : are the foxgloves in Scotland
a tint of vermilion ? But this is an
unfair beginning to a review of
Through the Woodlands (G.B.I. FSC.
4517, 1 reel), a very natural and

instructive nature ramble, which ends
in a study of trees being felled and
transported and new young trees being
nurtured to replace them. This film
might serve to interest children in the
craft of nature observations. To the
Top of Ben Nevis (G.B.I. FSC. 4508, 1
reel) , gives a very good idea of
mountainous country and shows some-
thing of the wild loveliness of Scotland;
it ends with shots of rock-climbing
which proved of much interest to
London children of 9 and 10 to whom it
was lately shown. Both these films
come under the general heading of
Junior Activity films in which series
each film represents the experience of
a boy or girl with companions during
a holiday and the principal character,
about 10 years old, tells what was seen
and done — the narration being con-
veyed by short, well-presented captions.
(See Focus, October 1949, for review of
Following the River, a sequence in this
series.)

The Fireman

B.I.F. ES.42, Running time: 11 mins.
Hire : 6/- one day, 1/6 each sub-
sequent day.

“People Who Help Us Series.” This
film shows the daily routine at the fire
station and gives a good general view
of the fireman’s duties and respon-
sibilities. The principal figure is the
driver of the fire engine; he is seen
arriving at the station, on parade, at
lectures, caring for his equipment,
answering a call (the fire being of a
mild nature and easily mastered, ' does
not evoke fear) and finally ending with
a cup of tea. A clearer view of his
personal equipment (one could only tell
from the notes that it was an axe he
wore at his belt) and how his engines
worked would have added much to the
interest but probably too much to the
length, which is just within the limits
of classroom usefulness. At any rate it
was much appreciated by children vary-
ing from 6 to 10 years of age, especially
the greasy pole ; and the excellent and
exhaustive teaching notes suggest ways

284

of getting the maximum amount of
observation from the children. In this
series is also The Engine Driver, The
Postman and They Bring You Fish.

The Ugly Duckling

27 frames, in colour, Common Ground
(Series : Fairy Tales of Other

Lands) .

Hans Andersen is great literature and
one’s first reaction to this title' may be
“What a pity!” Translation from
language to language rarely satisfies,
and transportation from one medium to
another is a yet more delicate operation
in which loss is bound to occur. But
Mary Crittall has adapted this story
(in short passages to correspond to the
pictures) with much skill and retains
both the charm and spirit of the
original. The pictures are conceived in
the same spirit and great care has been
taken to be faithful to Danish back-
ground. The colouring is bright but
pleasant and harmonious, never crude
and the result will certainly prove a
class “picture-book” very popular with
the sixes, and sevens.

FILM STRIPS

The Story of Writing

B.I.F. 114, 7/6 to buy, not for hire

The temptation in illustrating this
subject would be to put too much on
one strip, but this has been avoided. A
well-selected group of 17 pictures show
the main stages in the development of
writing, from the cave drawing to the
modern alphabet, and could serve as
the starting point of study in many
directions. A specially interesting
sequence is six frames giving the story
of the letter A. The other topics dealt
with are Picture Writing, the Rosetta
Stone and" the development of some
Roman forms.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

Until further notice all communica-
tions for the Catholic Film Institute
should be addresed to : The Blue

Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London,
S.W.7.

Catholic Film Institute*

16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Titles include :

Crucifers to Walsingham

Four Steps in the Clouds

A Legend of Norfolk

The Sacrifice We Offer

Visitation

( Silent Version also

Out of the Darkness

available )

'Rome of the Pilgrims

Family Affair

Monsieur Vincent

The Atom and You

Farrebique

The Vatican of Pius XII

To Live in Peace

Holy Year

All particulars from the Librarian ,

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE,

20 OVINGTON SQUARE,

LONDON,

S.W.3.

285

Cover Personality GENN

The writing of these cover notes is
not always an easy thing. Some readers
think that we are following a mistaken
policy because we do not attempt to
copy the glamour magazine example
and publish what one friend called
“heart throb” pictures. On the other
hand, another friend has announced
that we are writing for “a public that
does not exist”. So what? The point
is that our cover personalities are in-
tended to stimulate interest in film
personalities who are something more
than pin-ups, whether male or female.
We have an idea that all too little is
written about film players who are
really worth while and far too much
about persons who are employed
because their physiognomy pleases the
passing fancy of some impressionable
magnate. We shall continue to hope
that readers are mainly composed of the
more intelligent types who realise that
worthwhile films require worthwhile
actors as well as worthwhile stories.

Leo Genn, in spite of the implica-
tions of the above paragraph, has all the
qualities looked for in the popular
glamour star. Fortunately he has
managed to avoid the restricting em-
brace of the fans and so has remained
free to develop a career on stage and
screen which has contributed not a
little to the prestige of British players
in both media.

The quality which at once suggests
itself as most characteristic of Leo
Genn’s work is its unselfishness. His
part in The Wooden Horse is a good
example of what I mean. This film
demands above all else that the actors
work as a team. There is no room for
stars. It would have destroyed the
balance of the story to let one man
. gather limelight more than another.
I Yet the part of Peter (Leo Genn) is the
leading r61e and it would have been so
easy for Genn to steal the camera.

Leo Genn has been on the London
and New York stage since 1930. His
films date from 1937 when he made
Jump for Glory for Criterion, Cavalier
of the Streets for Paramount, The Rat
for Wilcox, and The Drum for London
Films. In 1938 came Kate Plus Ten

and in 1939 Ten Days in Paris for
Columbia.

Like so many other British film
actorsj Leo Genn first began to make
his personality felt across the screen as
a result of the sincerity which he
brought to bear upon films concerning
the war. He was featured in Contra-
band in 1941 and then spent several
years with the Forces until 1944 when
he played in The Way Ahead for Two
Cities. Then followed the first of the
films in which his admirers began
actually to look for his name among the
credit titles. His part as the Herald in
Henry V created a great impression
which was justified by his next appear-
ance in Caesar and Cleopatra. This
film was so filled with first-class actors
playing small parts that it may well be
that Leo Genn will not be remembered
save by the enthusiasts. However, his
next role, as the surgeon in Green For
Danger, will certainly come to mind for
its cool, detached efficiency, a mark
noticeable also in the best-known of his
film-parts, that of the doctor in Snake
Pit opposite Olivia de Havilland. He
contributed considerably to the air of
documentary authenticity which this
film achieved, though the outstanding
performance of Miss de Havilland, not
unnaturally, caused the high standard
work of her colleagues to lose some-
thing of its due reward with the critics.

Leo Genn remained in the U.S.A. to
fulfil several Broadway acting engage-
ments. He also made two other films
which have not, so far, been seen in
this country; Mourning Becomes
Electra and The Velvet Touch. His
most recent British film, apart from The
Wooden Horse, was No Place - for
Jennifer in which he appeared with
Beatrice Campbell. Once again, the air
of competence and unselfishness is
noticeable and makes one more than
ever convinced that the best films are
those in which a good story is played
by a team of first-rate actors without
emphasis being wasted by star head-
lines and overlighting. He is at
present in Rome working with many
other British film players in the heavily
publicised M.-G.-M. production of Quo
Vadis ? John Vincent.

286

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

If you have an opinion to express, a comment to make, an idea to offer,
the Editor will be delighted to hear from you.

Children and the Cinema

Sir,

Important and urgent as is the work
for better cinema conditions for
children to which the Hon. Mrs. Bower
has devoted her talents, I feel that it
should not be overlooked that there is
more than one approach to the problem,
even fiom the Catholic angle.

I wish it to be clearly understood that
the question of children and films is, in
my view, almost the first in the order
of importance from the point of view of
Catholic film action but I fear lest the
enthusiasm generated by some of our
friends may tend to obscure rather
than to illumine the roots of the
problem. In spite of the particular and
undoubtedly interesting examples
which can be produced to show that
certain children have nightmares after
film-shows or experience fright while at
the cinema, this does not necessarily
prove the danger of the cinema for
children. Nor are the pictures, now so
widely publicised, evidence that would
convince a court of anything more than
that children (and adults) often react
with expressions of fear to plays and
other situations which, in their complete
context, they actually enjoy. I have a
photo, taken at a convent school, of a
number of children watching a Punch
and Judy show. There are expressions
of horror on the faces of many of the
children at the sadistic exhibition they
are witnessing. This does not, how-
ever, prove that Punch and Judy is
harmful for children (though I
personally have vivid recollections of
nausea when watching these puppets as
a child).

At the Departmental Committee,
before which I was invited to appear,
the terms of reference demanded
“evidence” of the effect of films upon
children. This, I maintain, it is ex-
tremely difficult to provide, at least in
the sense in which the word is used by
lawyers. What we and other interested
persons can do, parents, magistrates,
physicians, teachers, is to provide

“opinion” : quite a different, but very
valuable thing.

The only persons who can give true
evidence are the children themselves,
Even here, of course, due allowance ^
has to be made for emotional and other
circumstances which colour or modify
their accounts. Thus, though the
letter from the ex-reformatory boy,
quoted by Mrs. Bower, is extremely
interesting, it is not, of course, proof
that films cause delinquency, but only
that this boy found example in the
films he chose to see. In like manner,
many another lad might find himself
watching points on social behaviour
with benefit to himself and others.

The root cause of child delinquency
is and always has been unsuitable home
conditions. Other delinquents there
are, from refined homes, but these
demand radically different remedial
treatment from that meted out to the
unfortunate victims of circumstances.
Films are, of course, like so many
other things, an occasion of
delinquency.

The problem of children and the
cinema revolves round another
important point, that of parental
responsibility. The majority of
children are pleasant, law-abiding
personalities, like their parents. The
majority of films made and shown are
quite unsuitable for children to see,
mainly because they are too
sophisticated in texture. It is the
responsibility of the parents to control
the cinema fare offered to their
children. Until parents are themselves
more aware of the kind of films avail-
able, understand more of the processes
involved in criticising films, little, I
fear, will be done. One thing is sure.
Films are not, in themselves, bad.
They are a legitimate diversion. They
are, indeed, as Pope Pius XI said,
"capable of exercising a profoundly
moral influence upon those who see
them”. But in order that they may be
“bearers of light and a positive guide
to what is good” a great deal of effort
is needed from Catholics in general and

' ^

287

parents in particular. That is why the
Catholic Film Institute exists in this
country and why Focus— A Film
Review is published. Let us turn our
minds to the problems involved but let
us not be induced too easily by
emotional considerations to bypass the
basic problem, namely, that films of all
kinds, as well as those for children,
need to be understood and appreciated
by Catholics in order that Catholics may
k have the right to demand the films they
W want to see.

There are many more issues involved
in this question, of course. Perhaps our
readers will continue the debate. It
will be a useful thing to do.

Yours faithfully,

John A. V. Burke.

Sir,

I should like to let you know how
much I appreciate your magazine
Focus, the only film magazine in
English which gives a balanced and
intelligent appraisal of films.

... I have used it constantly with
discussion groups in film appreciation,
and found it not only helpful, but most
essential. Focus is an admirable text
for members of film discussion and
appreciation groups.

I consider that this magazine should
be in the hands of all parents, priests,
teachers, youth group leaders,
librarians and all who train, direct and
guide young people . . .

Wishing you all success,

Yours sincerely,

Brigid Redmond,
County Librarian,
Wicklow County Library.

Sir,

I imagine brickbats rather than
bouquets constitute a large proportion
of your post, so I feel impelled to tell
you how much I appreciate the film
reviews you record, and also the index
to them, which you have just

circulated.

In passing, I was extremely
interested to note the reactions of your
reviews to two recent war films. They
Were Not Divided and Battleground. I
agree entirely that the latter film had a
truer quality, and is a better mirror of
the real thing ... in its lack of false
heroics.

Yours sincerely,

D. B. Wallace.

Film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions’’, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
20 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3

CAVALCADE FILMS LTD.

OF

87 Bishopsgate,
London, E.C.2.

are willing, in addition to their
own productions, to undertake ji
any work of a SPONSORED
nature, 16 or 35mm., black and
white or COLOUR. We should
be pleased to advise, offer, and j|
submit free of charge an
approximate budget relating to j
any subject you may have in
mind.

Available Shortly

The Story in Colour of

OBERAMMERGAU

2S8

SOME FILMS REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this list does
not connote positive recommenda-
tion. Films that are positively harm-
ful are not included here. Headers
are reminded to refer to the full
review when assessing a film.

Category A, indicates adults only;
B, adults and adolescents; C, family
audienoes; D, particularly for
children.

Reviewed in “Focus” (Vol. Ill,
Nos. 7 and 8)

Adieu Leonard (B) (211)

Adventures of Ichabod and

Mr. Toad, The (B) (238)

And Baby Makes Three (A) (211)

Annie Get Your Gun (C) (239)

Big Lift, The (A) (206)

Bitter Springs (C) (246)

Cairo Road (B) (243)

Dance Hall (B) (211)

Deported (A) (206)

Eagle and the Hawk, The (B) (207)

Louisa

(C)

(212)

Mrs. Mike

(B)

(205)

My Daughter Joy

(B)

(245)

My Friend Irma

(A)

(249)

Night and the City

(B)

(242)

No Sad Songs for Me

(B)

(238)

Odette

(A)

(203)

Ruy Bias

(A)

(245)

Sands of Iwo Jima

(B)

(241)

So Long at the Fair

(B)

(205)

Stage Fright

(A)

(208)

Stromboli

(A)

(248)

Three Husbands

(B)

(244)

Tony Draws a Horse

(A)

(246)

Treasure Island

(C)

(235)

Vatican, The

(C)

(248)

Wabash Avenue

(A)

(206)

Winchester ’73

(B)

(243)

Ellen

(A) (244)

We Recommend
Happiest Days of your

Fanny

(A)

(243)

Life, The

(A)

(108)

Father is a Bachelor

(B)

(206)

Passport to Pimlico

(C)

(150)

Father of the Bride

(C)

(213)

Red Danube, The

(A)

(112)

In a Lonely Place

(A)

(204)

The Blue Lamp

(B)

(80)

In the Name of the Law

(A)

(212)

The Search

(B)

(342)

Key to the City

(A)

(207)

Twelve O’clock High

(B)

(73)

Kuksi

(A)

(240)

Whiskey Galore

(B)

(220)

Lady Takes a Sailor, The

(B)

(241)

Wooden Horse, The

(B)

(267)

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61

Sir John Stewart-Wallace, C.B., Chairman
Andrew Buchanan, Managing Director

Gerald Bailey, M.A. Rev. John A. V. Burke

Lt. Cdr. H. Ronald Hardy Hugh J. Schonfield

Alfred Torrie, M.A., M.B., D.P.M.

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CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President: The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman: The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture hy means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

5. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £10.

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Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
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“The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.”

Hon. Secretary :

Rev. John A. V. Burke, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

Vol. Ill

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Editorial 291

Focus Film Course 292

By Andrew Buchanan
A Priest Looks at the Cinema ... 293

By John Preedy

Gala Month 296

Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

The Milkman 297

Mister 880 297

The Heiress- 298

Rogues of Sherwood Forest ... 298

Caged 299

The White Tower 299

Saddle-Tramp 300

Cargo to Capetown 300

The Gunfighter 301

Tarzan and the Slave Girl ... 301

Broken Arrow 302

Page

Colt .45 302

The Black Rose ; 303

Shadow of the Eagle 304

Destination Moon 305

Union Station * . . . 305

The Miniver Story 306

Thumb-Nail Reviews 307

Some Recent Documentaries ... 307

O.C.I.C. Venice Festival Award 308
The Genius of Barry Fitzgerald 309
By Gabriel Fallon

The C.F.I. Summer School, 1950 312

Institute Notes 314

Letters to the Editor 315

French Films and Strips 316

By Our Educational Panel

Some Films Reviewed 319

Cover Personality 320

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FOCUS : REVIEW

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. Ill OCTOBER 1950 No. 10

WHAT OF RELIGIOUS FILMS?

It is frequently assumed by friendly
but innocent enquirers that the business
of the Catholic Film Institute is solely
to concern itself with the making
and/or distribution of religious films.
This is to start a very large red-
herring. Pages and pages would need
to be covered to express all we think
about religious films. It would be
necessary in the first place to define
“religious” films. It would then be
found that while Going My Way is not
a religious film but a film about
religious people, The Broken Arrow, for
example, is a basically religious film,
though the characters are mainly Red
Indians and white Americans attempt-
ing to find a formula for living
peaceably together.

It is not our purpose to pursue that
line of discussion here. We would like
to direct our readers’ attention to the
Focus Film Course article in this issue.
Mr. Buchanan has been campaigning in
favour of the truly religious film for
many a long year now. He has not
given up hope that one day there will
be a stream of religious films reaching
every corner of the country as there is,
in fact, a continuous stream of secular,
not to say pagan, films reaching every
corner of the country today.

Before that dream becomes a reality,
much thought and true sympathy must
be given to the aims and objects of the
Catholic Film Institute. It is sad that,
so far, little repercussion with regard
to the excellent articles in the Focus
Film Course has been noticed among

our readers. It is clear that there is
still a large section of the Catholic
community, clerical and laic, unaware
of the problems presented by the film
in the world today. Still less,
apparently, are they aware of the
Catholic answer. After all, people get
the films they deserve.

Among the films about religious
people, of course, there is a growing
number of pleasing presentations like
Going My Way, Bells of St. Mary’s,
Come to the Stable or Song of
Bernadette, which, whatever their
merits artistically, or from the point of
view of good taste, can at least be said
to be helping to break down prejudice
in the minds of a large number of
people otherwise unacquainted with men
and women who wear dog-collars and
wimples.

We are glad to notice that the
enterprising firm of Ron Harris are
adding new titles to their list of films
of this kind and we are sure that our
readers will take note of this fact and
act accordingly. The Story of the Pope,
of course, is another matter altogether
and we cannot too strongly urge that it
be shown by all our readers who possess
projectors.

In this connection, the M.-G.-M. list
of classical films should not be
overlooked. .They are the answer for
a long time to come to the harassed
schoolteacher trying to build up
programmes. The M.-G.-M. list at
2s. fid. a copy is valuable reading for
those with schoolchildren to cater for.

FOCUS FILM COURSE

By ANDREW BUCHANAN
No. 9— THE RELIGIOUS FILM

I am sure you have often watched
newspaper vans careering along,
weaving in and out of traffic, hurling
bales of the latest editions at street
vendors and dumping piles at news-
agents, almost without stopping.
Thousands of these vans in all big
cities supplement the work of the paper
trains, distributing newspapers to
everyone, everywhere.

The press had a monopoly of news
until film-news appeared, soon followed
by radio, spoken news being not only
the fastest, of course, but also capable
of being the most dangerous. I mention
these facts because upon high-powered
distribution depends the spreading of
every kind of message to the man-in-
the-street. Most of us take the
newspaper and the news-reel for
granted. How it gets into the letter-
box or on to the screen is not
our concern. But behind successful
distribution is highly organised
machinery. Film depends utterly upon
distribution. Copies of a feature film
or news-reel are circulated to hundreds
of cinemas simultaneously. Hundreds
of thousands of newspapers are read
daily, nightly, by vast numbers of
people who never open books -at all.

The influence of press, radio and
news-reel is not solely due to simple
presentation and smooth, easy-to-read
writing. It is also due to continuity
of output. Day after day after day.
The impact is terrific. Therefore, the
proven rule to reach and influence a
maximum number of people is to
widely distribute a continuous supply.
There is neither a continuous output of
religious films, nor wide distribution.

Let us not, therefore, think too much
at this juncture about subject-matter,
nor become pre-occupied with the
respective merits of fictional and factual
religious films. Instead, we should
concentrate on the great problem of
circulating films of spiritual value. The
true religious film which does not

sacrifice essentials to meet the demands
of the box office cannot secure
commercial cinema release, of course
[Monsieur Vincent being an exception).
What then ? We turn to non-theatrical
distribution methods and find well-
organised networks for showing
governmental and industrial films, but
few outlets for religious films.

The Catholic Film Institute has long
seen this problem and is, as you know,
building up its own system for showing
the films in its growing library,
employing, wherever possible, 16mm.
projectors in convents and schools, and
by hiring small theatres in London for
private performances.

But the impact is not strong enough.
The newsreel is still far ahead. The
problem, which is really two-headed,
must be overcome. On the production
side is the need for a continuous series
of short films which, for want of a
better description, may be called
religious news-reels, to appear regularly
and keep the torch burning whilst
other short and feature films demanding
slower construction are being made.
On the distribution side is the need for
a census to be taken of 16mm.
projectors, both privately owned and
possessed by organisations, which are
available for religious film shows.
There is urgent need, too, for a
projection van equipped to show films
in remote parts, carrying its own
electric power so that the religious film
may reach villages still lit by candles
and oil lamps. At present, there are
many such mobile cinemas, employed
for industrial and governmental
purposes, but very few for religious
work.

And so the next time you are almost
bowled over by a dashing newspaper
van, remember it is part of a giant
distribution system, in competition
with, but also strengthened by, the
news-reel and radio news. Do not rest

293

until there is also a continuous supply
of religious films being distributed far
and wide, carrying the Word of God
to millions as incessantly as is the
word of man today. The urgency of
the matter becomes apparent when we

realise that the result of continuous
and widely distributed news and views
of a political and material nature is
that an astonishingly large number of
people have come to mistake the word
of man for the Word of God.

No. 3 — A Positive Approach to the Cinema

A Priest Looks

at the Cinema

By

JOHN PREEDY

The Pope and Films

Before daring to write this article I
took another look at the encyclical
letter of Pius XI, significantly opening
with the words Vigilanti Cura (with
vigilant care). The Pope sees (none
better) the dangers of the film used
with bad intent or sordid motive ; he
indicates what could be done for good
by this powerful invention and he
praises the good which has already
been done, and done, be it noted, by
the ordinary commercial film industry.
He even deprecates bungling amateur
attempts to make motion pictures on
worthwhile themes. Let it be done
professionally he says. Those who
dedicate themselves to the noble cause
of raising the standard “must make
full use of the technical ability of
experts and not permit the waste of
effort and of money by the employment
of amateurs”. The Pope was no
Puritan scattering condemnations all
over the place and damning films as
evil. He is firm about evil films, but
he praises the good ones and
encourages all to improve the standard.
“Why,” he says, “should there be a
question merely of avoiding what is
evil ? The motion picture should not
be simply a means of diversion, a light
relaxation to occupy an idle hour; with
its magnificent power, it can and must
be a bearer of light and a positive
power to what is good.” He goes on
to outline a policy for the Bishops to

seek to bring into line criticism, public
opinion and the co-operation of the
film industry.

It would, therefore, be nonsense for
a priest to condemn the cinema
wholesale, and certainly this priest will
make no such attempt.

Public Taste — Reflected or Moulded

The motion picture is an inescapable
part of contemporary life. It is an art
and so validly subject to criticism. It
is also an industry sensitive to the
murmurs of an oracle called Box Office,
which regulates demand and supply.
This modern industry does show signs
of responsibility in spite of unpre-
dictable aberrations. And it is with
these aberrations that one wonders, as
one does of the popular press, are these
values and these current opinions being
reflected or moulded ? The answer is
terrifying either way, except that
aberrations are perhaps aberrations.
But the fact remains that too many
films have a background of cruelty to
the point of sadism, of violence, of
promiscuity possibly veiled in the rags
of divorce, or of near nudity in what
are delightfully called “musicals”.
Often you find futility in plot and
construction balanced by fatuity in the
acting; sometimes you discover a slick
vulgarity which offends good taste
rather than morals. If the Box Office
could get away with it, there might be
the possibility for a vulgar and

294

commonplace mind, perhaps quite free
from evil intentions, to have, through
this “magnificent power”, a thoroughly
disproportionate effect upon the process
of soul corruption of millions. And
Box Office can get away with it unless
the patrons or customers develop and
exercise the critical faculty in effective
ways.

Articulate reaction needed

As every secular priest knows, many
exhausted workers and tired wives find
their one relaxation in their regular
visits to the local cinema. The
programme doesn’t matter to them. It
is their night to go and they go “to be
taken out of themselves”. It seems
hard to tell these people that they
should rouse themselves to evaluate
what they see, to break themselves of
their regularity, to study the advance
criticisms of the films they are to be
shown, to have and consult their own
files on the worthwhileness of this or
that producer, whose work has up to
then been futile, vulgar, insincere or
demoralising. What are these poor
people to do ? Is it to be simply a case,
if they be Catholic, of the priest being
asked to tell them ? Instructed
Catholics should not be — I was going
to say at the apron strings — dependent
all the time and for everything on the
priest. They should be able to sum up
a situation and act accordingly. I
think that regular patrons affronted by
a particular film should “have the
guts” to tell the' management either
verbally or by letter. If this should
happen with even a few customers, the
effect is certain. Box Office is
barometric in its sensitivity. It knows
that for everyone who registers a
complaint there are many who share
the resentment, but have not the energy
or else forget to say what is on their
mind. But it still remains on the mind,
and Box Office does not like that.
Even if the cinema be the modern
version of a “tied house”, showing
only the firm’s films, the customer’s
reactions are noted and passed higher
up. You see, customers talk, and
other people may be influenced against
the goods and against the studio !

Dope Addicts —

It seems to me that the real
education of a useful critical approach

must be insisted on, but not so much
among the relaxed and bemused regular
“twice - a - weekers”, those whose
condition I have described, I hope
sympathetically. The most we can
expect from them is an occasional
“grouse” as above. For the most part
they are going to be there from force
of habit and because they want to
escape from the rigour or the monotony
of their daily lives. It would not

matter to them if others succeed in
improving the “dope” they seek. They
would possibly not notice any improve-
ment. With all the warmth, comfort,
expectation and excitement of their
cinema, mighty organ and the
Dagenham Girl pipers thrown in, it
would just be a case of “We can’t

improve the wrapper so we’ve improved
the commodity”.

Like the tiresome old man at the
party, I have purposely thrown out the
word “dope”. Which reminds me of
a sympathetic master at one of our

Public Schools who used to ask the

senior boys : “Seen any good dopies
lately?” It became part of the
conversational currency of the school to
say “dopies” instead of “movies”,
“flicks” or “the cinema”. I should
imagine that with this prophylactic
slang in mind and on lips few of
those boys could grow up to confuse
reality and mirage, life and the films.
They would be inclined rather to seek
out where the dope was, even in films
they had enjoyed.

— or Critics

From this experience I agree with
any who say that the chief hope of
getting an informed critical approach
to the film lies with capturing the
minds of the young. It’s their minds
which have to be pitted against their
senses. Turn their minds away from
all this shoddy star business and film-
fanning. They can be diverted into
interest in the story, the technicalities
of production, and what the actors
make of their parts. Actors ? Parts ?
Yes, they are only men and women
acting a part, and how they do it
is of more interest than their
personalities. There is a quite flattering
exhilaration in taking things to pieces,
in solving or in thinking we are solving
a problem. Is there anything false in
this film ? What is cheap about it ?
What of playing down to the unworthy

295

is in it ? Do people (foreigners,
Catholics, rich people, artists, nuns,
bus drivers) really behave in this way
or would they in such circumstances ?
Do the girls really admire bounders
and smart-alecks like this talkative,
easy-smiling, taking-it-all-for-granted
hero ? And so on. Why, in the right
hands, with a little steering, the
Youth Club or even the School Film
Society could find film criticism

I enthralling as a game. Unformed as
w their minds are, they can at least grasp
that the film may have all the answers
except when you have all the questions.
And with a parallel growth of their
religion and their life they should be
able to detect not only what is in bad
taste and inartistic, but also what is
false and bad. In all this strange
combination of seeking out the good

and having quick reactions to the bad,
the Catholic Film Institute is

deliberately carrying out the recom-
mendations of Pius XI, and it aims at
making us film conscious instead of
unconscious patients from whom the
film industry can get no reactions.

I cannot imagine a critical film-goer
becoming overpowered by star-worship.
I remember visiting a former house-
maid who was intent on leaving
her husband because he was not Clark
Gable — and not in the sense that he
“was no Clark Gable”, but literally.
The poor girl had really become

infatuated with the lighted shadow of
a man playing a part which had arisen
in the imagination of another man no
one knew, who had written the part.
As a priest I cannot help finding
. something unhealthy in the glamour
and advertising and the bobbvsoxing.
It’s all too much strumming on the
one theme, and that theme best left
alone.

“Catch me the little foxes”

To sum up, I think settled-in, regular
relaxation-film-goers must at least be
^ encouraged to utter their grumbles in
the right quarter. It seems we can
ask no more from them. They are
practically dope-addicts by now. (But
I am interested to hear that Father J.
A. V. Burke has had several successful
lectures to the Catholic Parents’
Association on film appreciation and
criticism. Whether he is optimistic or
I pessimistic, I really don’t knpw.) I
see a wide field well open for training

the critical instinct in the young, for
teaching them the economy of
discrimination. After all, we can see
only so many films in our one life,
and a bad or silly one is a waste of
opportunity and a waste of the function
of enjoyment. There are so many good
films and there could be so many more
if it was clear that we had no time
for the bad or even for the shoddy.

Before I conclude I must say how
very much impressed I was by the
previous articles in this series. Major
A. McUoughlin, writing on Parents
and the Cinema, and Margaret
Anderson, dealing with the Teacher
and the Cinema, both stress the child
angle in this matter. Both point to
someone’s responsibility for the child’s
soul inhabiting that little body there
in the cinema. Major McLoughlin pins
the responsibility firmly where it
belongs, on the parents. Margaret
Anderson steps into the breach, and
breach of responsibility there is, and
says : “If parents are not going to

apply sanctions (and to many it is a
convenience that children are out of
the way, no matter what they are
seeing), then it is for teachers to tackle
the trouble”. She gives interesting
examples of the fostering of film
appreciation in schools.

This particular priest looking at the
Cinema agrees with the forward play
of Major McLoughlin and admires
unreservedly the half back line of
Margaret Anderson and her colleagues.

So we are back to film appreciation
and criticism again. To be forearmed
is the thing, forearmed and trained.
In a fog the luminous studs on the
highway keep you on the road, unless
you want to wander off into a ditch.
And that you can do in broad daylight.
You can go to the devil without the
cinema. But if you like an occasional
“flick” add your weight to the Catholic
Film Institute, and you too can train
your sight to the studs in the road.
But you probably do belong.

New Catholic Film

It is not too soon to ask your cinema
manager to . book Heaven and Earth
(Sorcier du Ciel), the story of St. John
Baptist Vianney, which is having its
London Premiere this month. Remember
it was your insistence which brought
Monsieur Vincent to vour local cinema.

296

GALA MONTH

TWO FIRST-CLASS FILM OCCASIONS

The month of October is to be a
special one from the point of view of
the Catholic Film Institute. Two Film
Premieres in one month is quite a
record.

One will be a Charity Premiere for
the benefit of the Y.C.W. The other will
be the long-awaited premiere of
Pilgrimage to Fatima.

The film of the life of the Cure d’Ars
which was shown privately to the
General Council of the International
Catholic Film Office last year in London
is now to be generally released
throughout England. Under the
English title. Heaven and Earth, it will
begin its career at the New Gallery
Cinema, London, on October 5th.
Through the courtesy of Films de
France and the J. A. Rank Organisation
the proceeds of the Premiere will be
devoted to the work of the Young
Christian Workers.

A Premiere Committee under the
Chairmanship of the Marchioness of
Lothian, has been busy organising the
details connected with the selling of
tickets. Georges Rollin, who plays the
part of St. John Baptist Vianney, is
coming from France to be present at
the Premiere, which will be presided
over by His Eminence Cardinal Griffin.

Tickets are available, priced
£3 3s. Od., £2 2s. Od., £1 Is. Od. and
10s. 6d., and may be obtained from the
Y.C.W. , 106 Clapham Road, S.W.9, or
members of the Committee.

We hope that all members of the
C.F.I. will support this Premiere, both
for the sake of the Y'oung Christian
Workers, for whose benefit it is being
held, but also because the Premiere
itself is a recognition of our work and
position and its success will mean other
similar occasions later on.

Pilgrimage to Fatima

It is hoped that this Premiere will
take place on October 22nd, but, owing
to restrictions imposed by the L.C.C.
on Sunday performances, it has not yet
(as we go to press) been possible to
secure a theatre. The Premiere will be
under the patronage of His Grace the
Apostolic Delegate. Full details will be
published in the Catholic Press.

The film will also be shown at the
Hammer Theatre, Wardour Street, most
evenings, at 8 p.m. during the following
weeks. For details see Catholic Press.

There will also be a Special Gala
performance of Pilgrimage to Fatima
at the Odeon Cinema, Forest Gate, on
Sunday, October 22nd, at which His
Lordship Bishop Beck will preside.

Other special showings will take
place at various cinemas throughout
the provinces during the course of the
winter and spring; details will be
published in due course.

for Catholic boohs go to

the Catholic booh centre
140 STRAND, LONDON, W.C.2

Telephone : Temple Bar 5008
Telegrams : Gallows, E strand, London

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297

THE MILKMAN

Starring: Donald O’Connor and

Jimmy Durante. Director:
Charles T. Barton. Producer:
Ted Richmond. A Universal-
International Picture. G.F.D.
Release. Certificate: U. Category :
B. Running time: 87 minutes.

A man in his thirties, or in middle
age or beyond, may well have forgotten
his childish ambitions to become an
engine driver, a fireman, a cowboy, a
pirate or a highwayman. Perhaps,
after all, he has turned out to be a
stock broker, or a dentist, a baker, a
bank clerk or a pawn-broker. How
oddly are youthful ambitions shattered,
and how rarely, if ever, are they
attained ! However, in this film we
find a boy’s ambition attained in adult
life. A queer and rare ambition you
may say — to be a milkman. But see
for yourself if it really is so rare. Go
down any back street of any city or
suburb and you will find the milkman
is the centre of a mob of young
admirers. Who is it that dispenses to
small boys free rides in a van ? The
milkman. Who confers upon an
aspiring seven-year-old the dignity of
a job with wages on Saturday mornings
and on holidays? The milkman. Who
disperses gaiety each morn along
the dullest of streets? The milkman,
with a smile, a whistle and a song, to
the accompaniment of the music of
jangling bottles.

You can well imagine, then, that in
the States, where everything is so
very super-dooper, the job of milkman
is modernised, mechanised and
glamourised. Dressed in hospital
white, equipped with an all-in electric
van, a milkman’s “jarb” is worth two
of any engine driver’s. But when the
milkman is none other than Jimmy
Durante, what boy could fail to make
a hero of him ? Nor can we marvel
that Donald O’Connor, even though his
father is boss of a huge rival milk

syndicate, determines that nothing will
stand in the way of achieving his
ambition to be a milkman, just like
Jimmy. And does he do it ? Yessir,
with a song and a dance.

The story may be feeble stuff and the
script a trifle thin, but these two great
entertainers make the most of their
chances and give a good time to all.

G.

MISTER 880

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Dorothy

McGuire, Edmund Gwenn, with
Millard Mitchell. Producer: Julian
Blaustein. Director: Edmund

Goulding. Distributors: 20th

Century - Fox. Certificate : U.

Category : C. Running time : go
minutes.

I call this an enjoyable film. The
prologue suggested one of those well
documented studies in criminology, but
that must have been a sly skit. The
picture is not a detective thriller either,
though it is about an endearing old
man (Edmund Gwenn, of course) who
goes in for a bit of rare but persistent
counterfeiting on a small scale and
baffles the Secret Service. It is a
“comedy-drama” which reveals a
considerable amount of unobtrusive
intelligence, observation and humour.
The ethics too are rather neatly
adjusted.

Note the ingenuity of an incident
outside a shop, seen but not heard
through the shop window.

The cinema industry cannot be
expected to confine itself to master-
pieces. But ft would do well to
supplement them with films of this
sort rather than with pretentious and
expensive rubbish.

If you want to spend a spare hour
and a half pleasantly, you might do
very much worse than go to see
Mister , 880.

Q.

Olivia de Havilland in "The Heiress”

THE HEIRESS

Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Mont-
gomery Clift, Ralph Richardson,
with Miriam Hopkins, Mona
Freeman, Vanessa Brown, Selena
Royle. Producer and Director:
William Wyler. Distributors:
Paramount. Certificate : U.

Category: B. Running time :

1 15 minutes.

The publicity supplied to me states
that this picture won five Academy
Awards, but does not specify them.
So I will make my own.

First an Award to Paramount for
venturing beyond the usual range to
give us a story of a hundred years ago
and never provoking a titter with the
laboriously expressed admiration of a
verbose courtship. Secondly one to
Olivia de Havilland for her study of
the shv, uninteresting heiress to whom
love brings radiance and suffering gives
poise. And a third to whoever is
responsible for leaving us in uncertainty
for some time as to whether her suitor
is a disinterested lover or a mere
fortune hunter, instead of “planting”
the truth in the minds of the audience
before it is realised by the girl.

It is not necessary to suppose, as the
synopsis does, that the unusual ending
has revenge as its motive. Though
love can survive disillusion, prudence

Ralph Richardson and Olivia de Havilland in
"The Heiress”

may yet effectively dissuade from
marriage.

The infrequent change of scene is a
reminder that the film is based on a
stage play.

I am always interested to see the
romantic stars of the past when they
emerge in middle aged parts after a
long disappearance. And here is
Miriam Hopkins as aunt and widow.

Q-

ROGUES OF SHERWOOD FOREST
Starring: John Derek, Diana Lynn,
with George Macready, Alan
Hale. Producer: Fred M. Packard.
Director: Gordon Douglas.

Technicolor. Certificate : U.

Category: B. Running time: 80
minutes.

The most shattering thing about this
film is the disavowal contained in the
handout synopsis. I give it word for
word : "The characters and incidents
■portrayed and the names used herein
are fictitious and any similarity to the
names, character or history of any
person is entirely accidental and
unintentional

Was it a joke or a serious attempt to
disarm angry criticism ? I still can’t
decide. The names concerned happen
to be those of King John, Stephen
Langton and certain of the English
myth about Robin Hood’s merry men,
while the incident of Magna Carta
comes about through the various
goings on.

Much against the grain I found some
degree of interest in the fancy , dress
acrobatics of a son manufactured for
Robin Hood. John Derek was the player.
And the galloping horses were superb.

299

Incidentally I’ve never seen so many
men with arrows sticking out of them.

I hesitate to give even a “B” to the
film because of the occasional whiff of
sadism amongst all the gallant
encounters. Otherwise it is colourful
and adventurous enough.

X.

CAGED

) Starring: Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moor-
head, Ellen Corby, Hope Emerson,
Betty Garde, Jan Sterling.
Producer: Jerry Wald. Director:
John Cromwell. A Warner
Brothers Picture. Certificate: A.
Category: A.

The American urge for self accusation
continues to develop. It will be a sad
day for that great country when film-
goers begin to judge the American way
of life by what is depicted on the
screen. Granted that this is a fair
representation of American ways in
American prisons, then here is all the
material required for the perfect retort
to all this talk about liberty and
democracy. It appears to be at root a
political problem which the film
indicates without doing more than
reveal the running sore which the
problem has created. The spectacle of
human moral and physical decay is
never entertaining and seldom edifying.
To the average film-goer, there will be
horror in plenty and no entertainment
whatever. The question remains
whether this dramatisation of sheer
misery has any value and is fit material
for the screen. The problems indicated
are sociological and psychological,
requiring for their solution cold
objective treatment. That sort of
treatment is scarcely possible when the
emotions have been harassed by this
well-made film. It could be said that
| emotional disturbance is necessary to
f move the intellect and will into
appropriate action. Even if that is
true there must be selection of those
to whom the appeal is to be made.
General release is an appeal to a far
flung audience little likely to offer a
constructive opinion and most unlikely
to benefit in any way from the
frustration, cruelty and sadism depicted
here.

Marie Allen (Eleanor Parker) enters
an American State Prison as a fairly
normal type who is not very sure why
she has arrived there at all. The
Superintendent (Agnes Moorhead) is
humane, progressive and kindly, but
entirely frustrated in her work by
politics without and corruption within.
All the acting is of a high standard,
especially that of the matron, Hope
Emerson. The sensitive Marie Allen is
most convincing as we watch the
system, helped by the terrible flotsam
and jetsam of our modern society, kill
her moral sense and turn her into a
hard, shiny, brassy woman of the
underworld. There is one superb piece
of photography and drama when the
imprisoned women release all their pent
up affections on a tiny kitten in the
dead of night, turning into raging furies
when the object of their love is removed
by authority. No light touch appears
anywhere in the film so that it is a
relief to step out into God’s warm
sunshine again. I shudder to think
what it would be like to walk out from
it into the cold dark fog of a north-
country winter night. I think I would
ask for my money back — at least the
entertainment tax.

J. C.

THE WHITE TOWER

Starring: Glenn Ford, Valli, Claude
Rains, Oscar Homolka, with Sir
Cedric Hardwicke, Lloyd Bridges,
June Clayworth, Lotte Stein.
Producer: Sid Rogell. Director:
Ted Tetzlaff. Distributors: R.K.O.
Radio. In technicolor,
Certificate : U. Category : B.

Running time : 98 minutes.

Why do people risk their lives to
climb mountains ? The question is
often asked and for a moment I thought
this picture was going to thrash the
matter out. But somebody obviously
remembered that the purpose of a film
is entertainment and everything got
bogged down again.

A party sets out to climb the White
Tower, an ' unsealed mountain in
Switzerland near “Kandermatt” (which
is not Andermatt). Besides the guide
there is a cosmopolitan lovely, an
American airman, an alcoholic French

300

writer, an elderly English scientist and
an aggressive German.

The highest peak I have actually
climbed is Helvellyn (3,111 feet). In
Switzerland I adhere strictly to the rack
and pinion school of mountaineering.
And so I am not in a position to judge
how well the atmosphere of ropes and
ice axes is conveyed. But one thing
definitely provoked my scepticism ; the
guide had no idea how much he was
going to be paid.

What interests me most at the top
of Pilatus or the Rigi is the view, and
I wish we could have seen a bit more
from the White Tower. But nobody
seemed to care about scenery. Perhaps
the blizzard stopped all that. After
seeing that blizzard I am more than
ever determined to stay content with
Helvellyn. I fear that I shall never
cry “Excelsior!” except to a taxi
driver in Rome, if someone offers to
pay my expenses at that hotel.

I am told that in the novel (by James
Ramsey Ullman) there was more
symbolism. But even in the film
svmbolism keeps poking out a coy but
unmistakable head. Especially at the
end, surely. The girl had to decide
between the summit and the American.
And she chose the American. That is
the trouble in a svmbolic nutshell.

Q-

SADDLE-TRAMP

Starring: Joel McCrea and Wanda

Hendrix, with John Russell, John
McIntyre and Jeannette Nolan. A
Universal-International Picture.
Director: Hugo Fregonese.

Certificate : U. Category: B.

Running tune: 76 minutes.

Why do producers so unblushingly
duplicate film stories? Two “rocket-
ship” stories within a fortnight of each
other, and now Saddle-Tramp, the story
of a ne’er-do-well who adopts a family
of orphans and settles down, within a
month of Father is a Bachelor, the
story of a ne’er-do-well who adopts a
family of orphans and settles down.
The difference is that one is in black
and white and has lots of riding and
fighting, whereas Saddle-Tramp is in
technicolor and has lots of riding and
fighting !

I liked Joel McCrea as the roving
cowhand with a neat little theme song
and an urge to get to California. I
wish he did not use the expression
“creeping creepers” quite so often. It
is the corruption of a name which
means very much to Christians.
Perhaps he and the many people who
will see this film have not appreciated
that fact, but there it is.

Also, I wish they did not have to
introduce so many quick-fire cross cuts
of bleeding faces when the hero and
villain have their inevitable fight to
the death. I know it is now the

fashion and that we have been through
a commando-fought war, but still, there
is such a thing as sadism and young
people can be given an unhealthy
excitement by such things, to say
nothing of the sensitive youngsters to
whom such things are nauseating.

Otherwise, a pleasant if unpretentious
film which, but for the points I have
mentioned, could have increased the
pitifully small number of films that can
be called family entertainment.

V.

CARGO TO CAPETOWN

Starring: Broderick Crawford, Ellen
Drew, John Ireland. Producer:
Lionel Houser. Director: Earl

McEvoy. Distributors: Columbia
Picture Corporation Limited.
Certificate: U. Category: B.

Running time: 84 minutes.

It is quite certain that this is a
picture which Dr. Edith Summerskill
would hesitate to recommend to the
teaching profession. There is more than
enough of good hard slugging in it —
possibly just enough to give the doctor
some ammunition for her next hint to
mothers and teachers of the country.
Of course we like our sailors tough, but
a suggestion that the first faint glimmer
of pure intellect is not entirely beyond
their scope would increase our
admiration for them. The main
difficulty about the film is that most
people will feel that they have seen it
before. Steve Conway (John Ireland)
has to get his ship through a very bad
storm and he knows quite well that her
engines are not what they were. To
complicate matters, he has shanghaied

his crew and there is a girl aboard.
The girl loves Steve’s friend and chief
engineer, Johnny Phelan (Broderick
Crawford), who never manages to
convince us that he is not the better
match of the two. Why she eventually
swings round to fancy Steve is just
another of those unpredictable things
about women and romance. Anyway
there is the storm, the crew and the
very emotional complication. The
acting is very good, the photography
fairly good, the plot so well known
that the audience has to wait until the
celluloid catches up with it.

J. C.

THE GUNFIGHTER

Starring: Gregory Peck, Helen

Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean
Parker. Producer: Nunnally

Johnson. Director: Henry King.
Distributors: 20th Century-Fox.

Certificate : A. Category: C.

Running time : 85 minutes.

This is the film that will banish for
ever the idea that morality cannot be
exciting. It has not got a single
ingredient that Zane Grey has not
given the world long ago, but it is first
class entertainment. Jimmie Ringo

(Gregory Peck) is a good-bad man in
the grand old W. S. Hart tradition
whose past persists in complicating his
present. He has good reasons for
riding into the rather up-stage town of
Cayenne, but such is his fame for speed
on the draw that his very presence is
enough to outrage the ladies, provoke
the embryo Ringos to risky insolence
and disrupt the whole educational
system of the place. Millard Mitchell
makes a magnificent Sheriff and
Jimmie’s presence is obviously the
greatest headache he has ever known.

As the film proceeds, we gather that
Sheriff Mark Strett has had quite a few
headaches in his day and not all of
them on the right side of the law. As
the terrible morning wears on he looks
more and more like a worried U.N.
delegate watching Mr. Malik than the
very tough customer he shows himself
to be at the end. There is a great deal
of sharp action and sustained tension
in a restricted space, and although
knowledge of current Hollywood policy

Gregory Peck as Ringo in "The Gunfighter"

makes it clear that Ringo cannot be
allowed to get away with anything,
Gregory Peck and Millard Mitchell act
so well that interest does not flag till
the very end. The nature of the plot
excludes the lovely photography that
Westerns normally give, but the story
is so good and so well acted that nobody
will mind. The ending appears as an
unnecessary tailpiece, although we
cannot quarrel with the sentiment it
expresses.

J. C.

TARZAN AND THE SLAVE GIRL
Starring: Lex Barker, Vanessa Brown,
Robert Alda, Denise Darcel.
Producer: Sol Lesser. Director:

Lee Sholem. Certificate: U.

Category : B. Running time: 74
minutes.

Tarzan, with the strength of a gorilla
and the instincts of a gentleman,
continues his adventures. He rescues
girls taken captive bv a mysterious
tribe. They receive instead inoculation
against a mysterious disease.

Lex Barker makes a more convincing
Tarzan than many of his predecessors
in this role. I thought, however, that
some of the scenes were more brutal
than they need have been, and for this
reason would hesitate to recommend
the film for children.

T.

302

Ji ebra Paget, Jeff Chandler and James Stewart
in "Broken Arrow"

BROKEN ARROW

Starring: James Stewart, Jeff Chandler
and Debra Paget. Producer:
Julian Blaustein. Director: Delmer
Daves. Distributors: 20th

Century - Fox. Certificate : U.

Category : B. Running time : 80
minutes.

This film tells a story, and tells it
simply and directly, with occasional
touches of humour, and in beautiful
scenery and colour which leaves
nothing to be desired. The story is
interesting, and never once do we lose
the thread of it, as we usually do in
Westerns, where the pace is too

furious and everyone shoots everyone
else several times over — or so it seems.
Here we are held to the story, jand
though things get exciting enough,
they never get out of control and leave
us in bewilderment. A white man
(James Stewart) attempts to bring
peace between his people and the
powerful Red Indian tribe headed by
Chief Cochise (Jeff Chandler). Once
there is a footing of goodwill, peace
becomes a possibility but, owing to bad
men in both camps, only after much
perseverance and overcoming many
obstacles. Peace can be more difficult
than war.

The issues become somewhat com-
plicated when James Stewart falls in
love with the most beautiful girl of the
tribe (Debra Paget) and then, according
to a quite beautiful Red Indian rite,
marries her. But the colour question
is not allowed to offend pious American
eyes, and the poor girl is killed in her
husband’s arms before the problem
becomes too acute.

This is the very thing schoolboys
love to read, and just the thing for the
screen. Grown-ups may find it a trifle
naive in parts, the dialogue stilted
here and there, and English audiences
(knowing no better) may even condemn
the uncultured American accents of the
“civilised” white man and the perfect
dulcet tones of the English spoken by
the unlettered Red Indians as being
quite unreal. On the other hand, those
in the know may say that in this, at
least, the film is not too far from
realitv.

G.

Jeff Chandler and James Stewart in
“Broken Arrow”

COLT .45

Starring: Randolph Scott and Ruth
Roman. Director: Edward L.

Marin. A Warner Brothers
Production. In technicolor.
Certificate \ U. Category : C.

This thorough - going Indian and
cowboy film will be appreciated by all
children under 90 and by families of
all sizes who like this soft of thing.
It is, however, very much like any
other such film ; the pace is fast and
furious, the gun play terrific, the
scenery delightful and, mercifully, for
once, love interest is lacking.

G.

303

Hair Styles in Cathay, 1266 A.D.I
Tyrone Power and Cecile Aubrey in
"The Black Rose”

THE BLACK ROSE
Starring: Tyrone Power, Orson Welles,
Cecile Aubrey and Jack Hawkins,
with Michael Rennie, Finlay
Currie, Herbert Lom and Mary
Clare. A 20th Century-Fox Film.
Director: Henry Hathaway.

Certificate : U. Category : A.

Running time : i2r minutes.

This film is distinguished by beautiful
scenery and photography (Jack Cardiff),
interesting music (Richard “Warsaw
Concerto” Addinsell) and an engaging
little French actress (Cecile Aubrey)
last seen (in Venice) in the beastly
Clouzot film Manon.

For the rest, it is another of the Olde
Englishe essays which frozen sterling
has induced American producers to
make in English studios. The Black
Rose begins with scenes in and around
Warwick Castle, c. A.D. 1266, and
introduces us to a democratically-
minded King Edward (the third of
that name presumably, though the

credits are discreetly silent) who pleads
for the life of Walter of Gurnie (Tyrone
Power), a surly Saxon with an
American accent and a hatred for
Normans. In the twinkling of an eye,
after a scientific pep talk from Friar
Roger Bacon (admirably suggested by
Henry Oscar) the scene changes to
Antioch where Walter and his buddy,
Tristram the Bowman (Jack Hawkins),
who is so quick on the draw that he
can split another man’s arrow at *200
yards, enter the service of Bayan
(Orson Welles), a military leader
carrying spoils to Klmbla Khan.

Among the girls being carried to
decorate the Khan’s harem is Maryam
(Cecile Aubrey), known as the Black
Rose because she has blonde hair (dark
at the roots) and speaks with a French
accent, being the daughter of a
Crusader and an infidel woman. She
wants to go to England because she
believes in miracles and thinks all
Englishmen are as beautiful as Tyrone
Power.

Tristram’s prowess with the bow
gives Bayan ideas about conquering the
world with English yew, until he is
side-tracked into contemplating blowing
up Rome with gunpowder. They all
have lots of fun and games, especially
Walter, who is made to walk a rope on
either side of which is a forest of
gleaming and very sharp swords as well
as a lot of nice men with spears ready
to turn him into mincemeat if he so
much as wanders from the straight
and narrow way. Eventually Tristram
is . killed and Walter comes back to
England with news of explosives,
printing presses and directional
compasses. Bayan, to prove that he,
too, knows something about the Old
School Tie, sends Maryam to England
and Walter, where they both settle
down to produce Englishmen who will
speak like 'B.B.C. -melt.

The teehnicoloring is impressive.
The acting is not. I was surprised that
Friar Bacon, being the guest of Finlay
Currie and Tyrone Power — both, I am
told, Catholics — did not think of
saying “Grace Before Meals”, when
they sat down to dinner in Warwick
Castle, c. A‘.D. 1266!

The horrid impaling scenes make this
film, in my opinion, unsuitable for
youngsters.

V.

304

Valentina Cortesa as Tarakanova in
"Shadow of the Eagle”

SHADOW OF THE EAGLE

Starring: Richard Greene and

Valentina Cortesa, with Greta
Gynt, Binnie Barnes, Charles
Goldner, Hugh French and
Walter Rilla. Producer: Anthony
Havelock Allan. Director:
Sidney Salkow. Distributors:
British Lion. Certificate : U.

Category: A. Running time : 92
minutes.

As the screen fades we read : “A
Valiant Film. The End.” I fear
that this has more significance than
the producers intended. . Such an
unconvincing bit of swashbuckling
cloak-and-daggery has not come my
way for a long time. Richard Greene,
unimpeded by the most enveloping
cloaks, despatches his adversaries by
every conceivable and inconceivable
method of cut and thrust known to
swordplay. When distance makes
contact difficult, he aims his sword
through the heart of his foe with an
unerring skill which would make the
“Elephant and Castle” Darts Champion
green(e) with envy! Then, though

the scene is set in eighteenth century
Venice, he is not above a little
commando stuff now and then, with a
few sadistic cosliings and bashings to
complete the modern note. Further,
he has a special line in pocket
explosives which, when swords and
fists are no longer available, enables
him to bring the castle walls tumbling
as he rides to safety and the sunset
with his lady in his arms.

There is, of course, a public for this
sort of thing and this time they will
get their money’s worth. Apart from
the absurdity of the script and the
banalitv of the dialogue, the photoplay
is really superb. Largely taken on
location in Venice, here is an excellent
example of the use of masking and
screening devices as applied to
actual locations, which produce some
convincing allusions of antiquity. The
lighting, too, is worthy of a better
cause. Great use is made of light and
shadow in passages and under bridges,
and great staircases and arresting vistas
across the Piazza San Marco and the
canal lend this film a distinction to
which it is otherwise not entitled.

The story is the oft-screened one of
the Empress Catherine of Russia’s
attempt to destroy the pretender to her
throne. The history is phoney, but
the names are authentic.

Binnie Barnes looks the part of the
Empress but does not act it. Valentina
Cortesa (there seems to be some
indecision as to how her name should
be spelt) acts the part of the Pretender
but is certainly too charming and
beautiful to look it. Richard Greene is
a dashing Count Orloff (did I say
dashing?). Charles Goldner looks and
acts selfconsciously as “the cruel and
ambitious police chief”, General
Korsakov. And well he might, for he
is a good actor.

We are treated to a Valiant Film
speciality in liturgy in the shape of a
“five-o’clock Mass” which consists, as
far as one can see, in a secret choir
singing magnificently in a deserted
basilica, what time the fair princess
reads her prayer-book, alone, in front
of the High Altar !

A vulgar exercise in the art of
osculation renders this film distasteful
where it might only have been puerile.
This and the brutality of some scenes
makes it unsuitable for voungsters.

V.

DESTINATION MOON
Starring: John Archer, Warner

Anderson, Tom Powers, Dick
Wasson and Erin O’Brien Moore.
Producer: George Pal. Director:
Irving Pichel. An Eagle-Lion
Film. Certificate : U. Category :
B. Running time : 91 minutes.

While watching this film with its
1 apparently expert juggling with figures
and physical laws, I was reminded of
the lecture by an eminent physicist
who was talking about the age of the
world and when it would come to an
end. At question time a Cockney got
up and asked : “Did you say 30,000,000
years or 3,000,000 years?” “I said
30,000,000 years,” replied the eminent
physicist. “Coo!” said the Cockney,
“vou give me a fright! I fought you
said 3,000,000!”

I must admit that in spite of the fact
that my superior self was airily
dismissing the figures and facts so
convincingly thrown off by the screen
scientists when assembling their space-
ship, I felt a considerable rising (or
sinking ?) of the interior when one of
them fell off the projectile and floated
about in space ! The mere thought of
such interplanetary journevings gives
me vertigo.

This is, of course, a big tribute to the
technicians responsible for this film-
story of a group of American scientists
who attempt to send a space-ship to
the moon. Whatever the merits of the
film as intelligent art, film appreciation
and what have you, it cannot be denied
that here is an extremely well-made
piece of pseudo-scientific film fantasy
which will delight all readers of
H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar
Rice Burroughs and the modern
representatives of the scientific-fiction
school.

Though the obvious crack comes to
mind when one reads that the screen-
| play is by a gentleman with the name
of Rip Van Ronkel, there is nothing
sleepj’ or intrinsically impossible about
the expedition here described. Indeed,
the film succeeds, by means of an
ingenious cartoon sequence, in explain-
ing to one person at least, far more
than he previously understood about
the force of gravity.

Inevitably there are moments in such
a film as this when one’s sense of the

Four Men on the Moon

(A scene from “Destination Moon”)

absurd is given plenty of scope. One
such is when a member of the crew,
now standing on the surface of the
moon, solemnly says : “In the name of
God and on behalf of the U.S.A. I
claim this territory for the benefit of
mankind!” I hope I am not guilty
of undue levity in finding this rather
grotesque.

Technicolor gives this film a great
advantage over its rival rocketship
story. Incidentally, it is very much
better acted and far more credible. I
would place it in Category C were I
not uncertain as to how children will
react to the somewhat terrifying
implications of being shot off into
space.

V.

UNION STATION

Starring: William Holden, Nancy

Olson, Barry Fitzgerald, with
Lyle Battger, Jan Sterling.
Producer: Jules Schermer.

Director: Rudy Mate. Distrib-
utors: Paramount. Certificate:

A. Category: B. Running time :
81 minutes.

Union Station has its own staff of
detectives. ' And these professionals
were ably assisted by an amateur,
Joyce Willecombe, when her boss’s
daughter was kidnapped. Perhaps I
am stupid, but it was a long time

306

before I realised Joyce’s connection
with the family. I prefer to have the
characters sorted out more clearly. The
kidnapped girl, being blind as well,
should have elicited sympathy, but
alienates it by whining too much. To
tliose who have seen The Third Man,
another underground criminal hunt can
hardly fail to be something of an
anti-climax.

Barry Fitzgerald plays a com-
paratively small part of the type he has
made his own and in which he
incidentally stands up for the helping
power of prayer, and especially the
Mass.

This film has earned considerable
commendation in the press and may
well be seen by those who have no
objection to seeing a man trampled to
death by cattle or to a certain
cynicism regarding the methods
employed by the police to extract
information. If I were a member of a
board examining the picture, I should
vote for its graduation, but not with
tlie highest honours.

Q.

The best of "The Miniver Story"
(Walter Pidgeon and Cathie O’Donnell as
father and daughter)

THE MINIVER STORY
Starring: Greer Garson, Walter

Pidgeon, John Hodiak, Leo Genn,
with Cathie O’Donnell. Producer:
Sidney Franklin. Director: H.
C. Potter. Distributors: M.-G.-M.
Certificate : U. Category: B.

Running time : 104 minutes.

It really is a pity that so healthy a
film as this should have such obvious
faults. First, it is caught up in what
seems to be a cycle of “only six months
to live” stories, and people going to
the cinema may not care to have their
emotions harrowed all that much.
Again, the transatlantic influences on
this British Film Quota offering strike
a false note in the picture of English
village life. It may be regrettable, but
it is none the less true that, while
comfortable upper middle class people
have a proper respect for their grocer,
their opportunities for social inter-
course on really easy terms are few.
Even good, affectionate and sensible
parents like the Minivers would not
positively promote a marriage between
their daughter and the quite charming
and officered grocer’s son. At least not
without a minor heroism. And in that
case we should have witnessed the
overcoming of the barrier of their
prejudices. I am sorry to say it, but
any account of village life in England
lacks authenticity if it ignores this
fact. And another thing. This General
Brunswick that the Miniver girl dotes
on has none of the marks of a senior
British officer. And I don’t refer to his
passion for music and painting, but to
his manners. Even Commando training
fails to explain his striding about
banging with a ruler at his first meeting
with a lady. Nor does it explain his
shouting and raving at her and his
general lunatic behaviour.

Apart from these strictures, the
only fault I can find in the film is a
certain slowness.

However, it is good to have a film
which depicts and exalts strong and
lasting conjugal love. The funny, shy
little family conferences between
husband and wife, their protective
anxieties for their children, the
tenderness, the fumbling implications
of loyalty, the family jokes and the
bluffing exaggerations which deceive

307

no one — all these hold up a polished
mirror to family audiences.

Greer Garson gives her warm, sincere
rendering of the wife, and Walter
Pidgeon, Canadian accent and all, still
acts in the English manner and with
a sincerity equal to his partner’s.
Cathie O’Donnell depicts very prettily
the 'hurt and pathos of calf love. Leo
Genn, whom I suppose it would be
wrong to blame personally, fills the
part of the remarkable General
Brunswick.

X.

Thumb-Nail Reviews

For various reasons the following
films were not reviewed in Focus when
they originally appeared. To complete
our lists as far as possible, the
following brief particulars are supplied.

THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR
Leading Players: Dean Stockwell,

Robert Ryan. Certificate : U.

Category: B.

Anti-war propaganda story of boy
whose hair turns green, so that he may
attract attention when preaching his
doctrine. Inconclusive but sincere.

NEVER FEAR

Leading Players: Sally Forrest and
Keefe Braselle. Certificate : A.

Category: B.

Girl dancer contracts infantile
paralysis. Despairs of cure, but is
encouraged to fight by devoted husband.
Intended to reassure general public
with regard to polio outbreak.

CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN
Leading Players: Clifton Webb,

Jeanne Crain, Myrna Loy.
Certificate: U. Category: A..

Comedy of eccentric father of large
family. Basically sound, marred by
occasional questionable dialogue.

Some Recent Documentaries

ROME OF THE PILGRIMS

A Catholic Film Institute Production
in Kodachrome. Distributors:
Catholic Film Institute. Running
time: 20 minutes.

Every year, for the past four hundred
years, there takes place on the third
Sunday after Easter the Pilgrimage of
the Seven Churches. Rome of the
Pilgrims, produced by Arthur Leslie
for the Catholic Film Institute, has for
its theme the story of this pilgrimage,
and in following the pilgrims, some of
the story of Rome. From the wide
range of material shown it is evident
that the producer has exercised
considerable care and thought in
planning this film. The diversity of
shots include, among the many
churches, the magnificent basilicas of
St. John Lateran, Sante Croce, Santa
Susanna, Cardinal Hinsley’s titular
church, and of course St. Peter’s itself.
We see the English and the Scots
colleges, students of the German
college in their long scarlet robes, the
private gardens of the Vatican, the
Apostolic Palace, and the lovely Piazza
Di Spagna and San Silvestro. There
is an atmosphere of restraint and
dignity throughout — and just occasion-
ally of humour, as in the shot of the
overloaded bus with apparently as many
passengers attached to the outside as
in — kept there presumably by that
special force of gravity peculiar to the
Roman omnibus !

From a technical point of view the
film is unfortunately marred by a lack
of colour balance and . srhoothness in
camera operation, while in the copy
reviewed, the otherwise excellent
commentary was almost inaudible. In
spite of these defects, however, the film
remains one of real interest and value
to all Catholics, and particularly to
those who have not had the opportunity
of visiting the Eternal City. J. A.

FOCUS INDEX

A complete index of FOCUS: A Film Review, Vols. I and II,
is now available. Copies may be obtained from the Manager,
Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7, on receipt
of stamps to the value of 1yd.

308

THIS IS BRITAIN— HEALTH

Running time : 9 minutes. A Crown
Film Unit Production. Made by
the C.O.I. for the Board of Trade.

I am not going to waste words on
this latest cine-magazine production by
the Crown Film Unit for the Board of
Trade. It is excellent, and that is all
there needs to be said about it, except,
if you have a chance to see it, do so.
Three items are shown, all concerned
with health. The first is about the
Harvard Hospital near Salisbury where
volunteers go to act as guinea pigs for
research into the common cold. The
second shows the Ministry of Pensions
artificial limb-fitting and welfare centre
at Roehampton. And finally there is a
short, interesting sequence on how
hvpodermic needles are made.

J. A.

One Use for Detergents
(From “The Magic Touch", reviewed in
September FOCUS, page 277)

O.C.I.C. VENICE

As we go to press we receive news
of the films that have been crowned at
the Venice Film Festival. A full
account will appear in our next issue.
F'or the moment we are glad to learn
that, once again, a film with Pierre
Fresnay in the leading role merits the
award of the International Catholic
Film Office. Jean Delannov’s Dial a
Besoin Des Homines (God Has Need of
Men) has caused some controversy on
account of its thoughtful approach to
a difficult subject, that of the need the
people have of priests in order that

THE NEW COUNCILLOR

Running time : 20 minutes. A Crown
Film Unit Production. Made by
the C.O.I. for the Ministry of
Health.

As the title itself indicates, this film
is intended to give an insight into the
work and responsibility of a borough
councillor, and through him the
functioning of local government
generally. A sound idea, for far too
many of us tend to think of the local
council as a mysterious body which is
always putting the rates up, but never
by any chance bringing them down ;
and although we know there are such
officials as Sanitary Inspectors, Medical
Officers of Health, etc., their functions
are often obscure.

The New Councillor opens well. We
are shown shots of a local election in
progress, candidates canvassing, the
polling booth, secrecy of the ballot, and
finally the newly elected candidate
taking his seat at his first council
meeting. So far, so good — but then
what happens ? We have four principal
characters, the councillor, his mother,
the Town Clerk and a reporter, each
one of whom has a distressing tendency
to address any one of the others as a
public meeting, in whatever corridor of
the town hall they happen to meet.
There is a vast amount of what I can
only describe as speechifying, through
which it is true, some aspects of local
government become apparent, but
which is nevertheless tedious. However,
even with its shortcomings, it is still
a useful film, both for general audiences
and senior schoolchildren. One final
point — is it too much to expect of the
Crown Film Unit that the sound track
of the councillor’s election speech
should be in sync? J. A.

FESTIVAL AWARD

they may understand God’s message to
the full.

It is ironic that, as the result of some
nervousness on the part of one or two
Italian critics, the local Communist?
went into print with a welcome to Dieu
a Besoin Des Homines as a courageous
“anti-clerical” film. It would have
been worth a lot to see their faces when
they read that this film had been
crowned by the O.C.I.C. as a film
“capable of contributing to the moral
and spiritual betterment of humanity” !

309

■a

II The Art of the Actor — 2

II THE GENIUS OF BARRY FITZGERALD

■a

aa

■a

By Gabriel Fallon

■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■■ ■ ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■aaaaaaaBan

Barry Fitzgerald

“A Butler . . . R. Barry”

I remember returning from London
in 1919, from a theatrical season which
held such memorable performances as
Robert Lorraine’s Cyrano de Bergerac,
Maurice Moscovitch’s Shylock, William
J. Rea’s Abraham Lincoln, and J. M.
Kerrigan’s never-to-be-forgotten Jimmy
Caesar in Mr. St. John Ervine’s John
Ferguson. The first group of Abbey
Players had long since left the Abbey
and by that time the finest actor of the
second group, the great Fred
O’Donovan, had followed them. Things
seemed a little dead there. I went to
see a performance of The Good-Natured

Man. It was quite a good performance
as performances go. There was an
excellent (though for the Abbey a
rather “stagey”) Mr. Croaker, played
by an actor who was then a newcomer
to the theatre — Mr. F. J. McCormick.
But it was the playing of a very small
part, indeed — the part of a butler with
scarce half a dozen lines — that captured
and held my attention. Here was a
performance that was something more
than “acting”. Here was work that
amongst much that was commonplace,
little that was good, had, to my mind,
a touch of genius in it. It was a
performance that succeeded in putting
Goldsmith’s play completely out of my
mind in order to plant a drunken butler
there instead. I do not believe that I
have ever seen a production which,
from this point of view, showed such
a lack of balance. The work of the
playwright had vanished, only the
actor’s remained. Who was this man ?
My programme simply said : A Butler
. . . R. Barry.

Some time afterwards I was in the
position of being able to survey the
Abbey from a new and, I suppose, a
more privileged vantage point, that of
the stage itself. I immediately made
inquiries about my friend the butler.
In my simplicity I had expected him
to be the talk of the place. I had great
difficulty in tracing him. Nobodv
seemed to think much of the fellow.
“A small part man,” they told me.
“Will Shields is his name.” Some
weeks afterwards I met him. To my
great surprise, I found that he was
utterly indifferent to the glamour of the
theatre. He was anything but “stage-
struck”. He was barely interested in
the place. 'Were it not for the fact
that his brother, Mr. Arthur Shields,
was stage-manager at the Abbey, it is
questionable if the theatre would have
seen him at all. “Golf, now . . . that

310

was a great game . . . but the theatre !”
He openly preferred the company of
plus-four men to actors, and professed
to be — and actually was — much more at
home on the first tee than in the green
room. And although his reputation on
the stage was destined to outweigh by
far his reputation on the putting-green,
he responded far more readily to the
grip of his golf-stick than to a stick
of Leichner’s grease-paint.

A Natural Comedian

And so for quite a long while a
certain Hr. William Shields played
small parts when called upon to do so.
Frequently he was “not available”, how
frequently I well remember, since it fell
to my lot, as a similar “general utility”
actor, to take his place with far greater
enthusiasm, if with less distinction.
But there was one Abbey Director, at
least, who was watching this man’s
work with a belief in his genius. The
credit of taking Barry Fitzgerald from
the ranks of the small-part actors and
lifting him right up to leading roles
must be recorded to Lady Gregory. I
do not think that he relished this
advancement. It meant harder work,
longer rehearsals, more time away from
his beloved golf. Then, quite suddenly,
i reputation laid its hold upon him.
Audiences rocked with laughter at his
acting in The Dragon; packed houses
roared at his portrayal in The Lord
Mayor. His name quickly moved from
lip to lip. “Have you seen Barry

Fitzgerald in ?”

Some of his colleagues were, I think,
a little surprised at this sudden access
to fame, but, I give you my word for
it, no member of the Abbey Company
was as much surprised at it as Barry
Fitzgerald himself. Then audiences
demanded — with that quiet insistence
with which audiences can so effectively
make known their wishes in the theatre
— to see their favourite in leading comic
roles. The fact that he could do some
very effective serious work (his Captain
Shotover in Heartbreak House, for
instance) was very quickly forgotten.
A roar of laughter greeted his
appearance in every part. He liked to
think that he could play tragedy. He
had a cherished longing to play
Richard III, and would, I feel, have
played a splendid Richard to any
audience unfamiliar with his gift for

comedy. But audiences that knew
him would have none of it. I remember
telling him that I believed I could make
a sudden and substantial fortune for us
both by the simple process of writing a
series of dramatised adventures of
Barry Fitzgerald as a Dublin tram-
driver, a plumber, an insurance agent,
a bread-van driver, a fire-brigade man,
a deep-sea diver (and with a sudden
flash of insight he suggested one
himself) — an Abbey Actor !

Much of his genius lies in this, that
it is Barry Fitzgerald and not the part
that matters. The last time I saw hint
at the Abbey (and again from the front
pit) was in Flecker’s Hassan. He, who
would have made an excellent Chief of
Police in the play, was reduced to a
three line parti There he lay, full in
the Abbey moonlight, a snoozing
beggar on the hard cobbles of Bagdad.
The ascending curtain had hardly
revealed him when the audience began
to laugh. Every subsequent movement
produced laughter still much louder
than the last, until a seemingly
indolent (but carefully considered)
scratch evoked a roar that lasted a full
minute. If the tinselled settings of the
play had attempted to give us some-
thing of the “glamorous East” illusion,
Barry^ Fitzgerald’s scratch brought us
to earth again and showed us the real
Bagdad. There he was, and one— well,
one just laughed at him ! The audience
hardly gave him an opportunity of
saying his lines. They laughed and
laughed. He stumbled over his words.
They laughed again. He laughed
himself (a risk which even the most
reputable actor dare not take with
them at times). But they only laughed
at his laughter.

Elusive Genius

The critic who attempts to consider
Barry Fitzgerald as anything other than
a superb comic genius is bound to get
into difficulties. Barry Fitzgerald
cannot be explained. He is not a great
actor in the sense that the early Abbey
players were great actors. But if he
is not as great, he is greater. It is
futile to attempt (as some do) to
compare his work with the splendid
acting of the late F. J. McCormick.
These things are simply not com-
parable. Although both men were
working in the same medium, had

311

worked in the same theatre (very often
in the same play), there was a whole
wilderness of difference between them.
F. J. McCormick created his characters,
building with care and pains and
infinite skill until the full artistic
conception of his part was ready to be
put on like a cloak, a cloak which
frequently hid the physical appearance
of McCormick himself. But Barry
Fitzgerald is Barry Fitzgerald, and not
all the grease paint in the world could
paint away this uproarious personality.
Were he to hide himself away from us,
we would immediately demand that he
become Barry Fitzgerald again. This
is not to deny him the creative ability
of the artist; far from it. It is simply
that the creative process of Barry
Fitzgerald is far more subtle. Artists
like him always provide stumbling
blocks to the critics in the theatre.
They seem to break all the rules of the
actor’s art and to succeed only by
breaking them. If that isn’t genius of
a very special kind — then what is ?

Hollywood’s Lack of Perception

When Barry Fitzgerald went to
Hollywood it was whispered that he
was a possible rival to Charles Chaplin.
Whoever was responsible for that
whisper had sensed Fitzgerald’s real
value. In actual fact his progress in
films was slow. Despite excellent
small-part work (as in John Ford’s
direction of The Long Voyage Home )
it was not until he was seen as the
elderly parish priest in Going My Way
that his name was heard on the lips
of the many. Incidentally, the
following story may interest those who
saw him in that part. During the
shooting of the film, Barry had
occasion to bless himself. Some of
those present observed that the act was
not carried out with that ease which
is common to Catholics. There were
whispers in every corner of the set.
Sensing that something was wrong,
Barry revealed to the utterly astonished
studio that he was not a Catholic.
Many of those who have seen his
performance in the film have refused
to believe it.

When he returned to Dublin in 1946
on his first holiday from Hollywood,
Going My Way had just finished a long
run. I had the rather frightening
experience of being with him when he
was mobbed in a restaurant. I think

he was frightened too. “Heavens
above, this is terrible, Gaby,” he said.
“Of course, it’s all so well intentioned.
But why can’t it be like the old days
when you and I could slip in
here for a snack and a little quiet
conversation?” Last year, on a hush-
hush flying visit, he took the precaution
of wearing a cap and having a neatly-
trimmed beard so that those who
thought they saw me dining with
Professor Joad were woefully mistaken.

Despite the many film roles in which
he has appeared since he left the
Abbey Theatre, I don’t think that
Hollywood has yet found the real value
of this ex-civil-servant, for he is one
of that great primal fraternity in the
theatre, a type that in such a deep real
way represents the theatre itself. Like
Chaplin, Barry Fitzgerald is a clown.
He would be just as much at home in
a circus, a music-hall, a harlequinade.
He might very well have stepped right
down to us from the Commedia dell ’
Arte itself. When he appeared on the
London stage some of the more
perceptive critics — particularly Ivor
Brown and Charles Morgan — quickly
sensed this fact. Some recently
proffered contracts from French Studios
have sensed it too. It may be too late
now, for he is talking of retiring. All
he wants, he tells me, is a little golf,
an occasional part in the Abbey, and a
quiet place in the country. Knowing
something of his laissez-faire nature,
his tendency to take what comes, I
doubt if he will reach these things.
One thing is certain. Comic geniuses
are all too rare, and when the Abbey
Theatre let Barry Fitzgerald go, it lost
its hold on much laughter.

Change of Address

As we go to press we have to vacate
our office at 20 Ovington Square,
London, S.W.3. Pending the finding
of new permanent accommodation, will
readers please note that until further
notice all correspondence for the
Catholic Film Institute should be
addressed to : The Blue Cottage,

Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7.

312

THE C.F.I. SUMMER SCHOOL, 1950

The devastating roar of the American
jet-planes from the nearby Manston
Aerodrome which punctuated the
lectures could not diminish the interest
with which the students, drawn mainly
from the North of England, followed
the points made by a first-class team
of speakers at the Convent of the
Assumption, Pegwell Bay, Ramsgate.

We are particularly grateful to our
lecturers who almost all came to
Ramsgate in spite of difficulties of
ill-health or urgent business elsewhere.
We are conscious of the importance of
this practical expression of sympathy
with the aims and objects of the
Catholic Film Institute.

We must also mention our feeling of
obligation to the nuns, whose
magnificent attention to our animal
needs at all times was overwhelming.
Food in plenty and beautifully prepared
was available from breakfast till the
cup of coffee which followed the end
of the nightly film show. We are most
grateful to Reverend Mother and the
Community for all they did to make
the Summer School the success it was.

The nightly programmes of films were
projected with quiet efficiency by Mr.
P. J. Fowler and Mr. Gajdowski. To
both these gentlemen we owe a warm
“thank }'ou”.

The writer takes advantage of this
opportunity also to express the
appreciation felt on all sides for the
unremitting and generous service of
our Assistant Honorary Secretary, Mrs.
Margaret Moultrie. In a thousand little
ways she makes herself indispensable
to the smooth working of the C.F.I.
and at Ramsgate, as elsewhere, her
presence made all the difference.

The purpose of the Summer School
was to outline the main heads under
which the study and interest of the
members might be most usefully
focused. It is clearly impossible to do
justice to any one subject in such a
Course. It is hoped, therefore, that
our students will feel stimulated to
initiate similar courses in their various
parts of the country. Anything the

Catholic Film Institute can do to
assist such ventures will be gladly
contributed.

An introduction in this sense was
made by Father Burke at the opening
of the Course. He also, at a later
session, deputised for Clifford Evans,
who was to have talked on the
Contribution of the Actor. Father
Burke spoke about Film Music and
illustrated his remarks with extracts
from film music on gramophone records.

The part of the scriptwriter was dealt
with .by Mr. Lyn Lockwood, who
prefaced his remarks by saying that the
cleavage of outlook between those who
regard film-making as an industry and
those to whom it is a profession, is
based on financial considerations and
renders the development of the cinema
as an art almost impossible. Mr.
Lockwood explained the part which the
screenwright is called upon to play in
the making of fictional films and
showed that until there is a satisfactory
recognition of the status of the screen-
wright there can be little hope of
really outstanding work for the screen.
Some of the best British films of the
war and post-war periods were precisely
those in which director and screen-
writer were a team or, better, where
the director and the screenwright were
the same person. He suggested that
critics should show a more alert
attitude to the work of the scriptwriter.

Andrew Buchanan lectured on the
development of Documentary film. He
told the story of factual film from
the days when the funeral of Queen
Victoria was considered a masterpiece
of reporting, till the present day. The
newsreel has shown little perception of
its power of penetration since then and
the field has been won by the
entertainment fictional film made in the
studio under conditions of artificiality
and glamour.

There is so much more the factual
film can do to widen man’s experience.
Films dealing with social conditions,
slum clearance, delinquency, food
distribution and so on, not to mention
films about other countries. Showman-

313

ship in the presentation of news came
with the March of Time series in the
late thirties. But here is danger.
Propaganda and misrepresentation of
the facts is not unknown to the makers
of the factual film. Films are used to
foster hatred where they should and
could be used to encourage brotherly
charity.

The non-theatrical movement by
which 16mm. films were sent round the
countryside to inaccessible places was
the answer, Mr. Buchanan said, to
those who would use the film for good
purposes. Used by those who have
international vision, the documentary
film could be the greatest aid to
religion and education and help to
bring about international understanding.

The work of the art director, the man
who designs the sets against which the
fictional films of the studio are made,
was outlined by Edward Carrick, the
well-known art director and author.
With the aid of a series of excellent
slides, he traced the development of
art design in films from the early
influence of the stage tradition to the
present day, when the most alert and
imaginative designers help to mould
the visual atmosphere of a film by a
proper attention to movement within
the film.

Miss Freda Bruce Lockhart lectured
on the contribution of the critic. She
insisted that though it was possible for
a film critic to ply his profession
without special academic qualifications,
it is imperative for good film criticism
that the positive qualifications of
perception, literary ability, a sense of
values and a firm belief in the power
of the film to present such values, be
possessed by anyone pretending to
write about films.

Since, also, the critic sits, perforce,
through much that defies this faith, he
must also have sufficient hope to
sustain him against the rare days when
his faith is justified, as it was in
varying degrees recently by Panic in
the Streets, Letter From an Unknown
Woman and The Dividing Line.

Miss Bruce Lockhart made a
particular appeal to Catholic film
critics to preserve their integrity in
face of films that are called Catholic.
Technically bad Catholic films, how-
ever worthy they may be in intention.

are more regrettable in their effect on
the non-Catholic audience than a bad
gangster or a bad Bob Hope film. The
telling of a story about a saintly
heroine is not enough to make it a
good film if, technically, it is not sound.

The place and purpose of film strips
was dealt with by Dr. Stephen Ackrovd,
who made it clear that film strip has a
special function of its own within the
realm of educational aids. He also
made the point by means of illustrations
with a film 'strip projector, that strips
need to be as carefully scripted as do
motion pictures.

Mr. W. J. Igoe, the dramatic critic,
in his lecture, the Catholic Approach,
developed the point that many films
which are glamorously attractive,
fail as compared with the stage
because they lack craftsmanship. He
exemplified Top Hat, in which the legs
of Fred Astaire, the principal reason for
watching this film, were often invisible
in his black trousers against the dark
background. On the other hand, there
was the rare moment in Annie Get
Your Grin, where the scruffy and
diminutive Annie is looking up into the
face of the six-foot sharpshooter, when
the camera really does put one into
the place of the character in question.

Analysing, in particular, three films
with a Catholic interest, Mr. Igoe
insisted that Brighton Rock and The
Third Man, as films, failed to transmit
the sense of doctrine which Graham
Greene brought to his w'ritings.
Monsieur Vincent, however, achieved
the miracle of transmitting, through the
exquisite artistry of Pierre Fresnav,
the supernatural charity evoked by St.
Vincent de Paul in the XVIIth century.

The programme of films which ended
each day’s lectures wTere intended as
a survey of the possibilities of film
from the point of viewT of the amateur,
who is determined on professional
standards in his use of film for religious
purposes. The Ten Best Amateur
Films of 1949, though unequal in
quality and thematic material, demon-
strated what can be done by individuals
and groups who are prepared to study
their medium and their instrument.
Four Steps in the Cloud is an excellent
example of the Italian method of using
exterior locations with economic effect.
A series of religious films included the
C.F.I. Crucifers to Walsingham and

314

Ave Maria, a charming Italian film
depicting a village procession to a
shrine of Our Lady in Abruzzi. Abbot
Upson’s beautiful, silent, coloured
film, As Sure As God’s in Gloucester-
shire, aroused the greatest enthusiasm
with its well-chosen sequences showing
the life of the Benedictines at
Prinknash Abbej\ The Atom and You,
the Films For Humanity lecture film

on the question of atomic power,
demonstrated a further use of film as
propaganda. The beautiful photography
of The Passionate Friends, by David
Lean, set a standard for imaginative
and poetic camera-work even in
professional commercial films.

It is hoped that some of the lectures
given at the Summer School may be
printed in Focus at a later date.

INSTITUTE NOTES

Hierarchy Centenary Congress

The Catholic Film Institute has been
invited by the Committee of the
Hierarchy Centenary Congress to
produce a souvenir film of the Congress
celebrations.

Monsieur Vincent

By the courtesy of C. V. Bargate,
Esq., the Catholic Film Institute was
enabled to show the famous French
film Monsieur Vincent to the Little
Sisters of the Poor at Portobello Road,
London, on the occasion of a special
gathering of the Sisters at the end of
a Retreat. The film was much
appreciated and the Sisters, whose
work of charity is so similar to that
initiated by St. Vincent de Paul,
savoured to the full the implications of
the film with its demand that super-
natural charity impregnate all social
and rescue work undertaken for the
poor.

Dr. Andrew Buchanan

We are delighted to learn that the
International Academy has awarded to
Andrew Buchanan, the well-known
Producer and Director of factual films,
the Honorary Degree of Doctor of
Literature in recognition of his work in
writing and lecturing on films. Rarely
has an academic honour been more
richly deserved and we hasten to
offer to Dr. Buchanan our warm
congratulations. Readers of Focus will
know bv experience the characteristic
claritv and lucidity which distinguishes
his writings.

Film Competition

We have so far received few films for
our Film Competition. It will be
remembered that our purpose in
announcing the Competition was to
discover latent or unrecognised talent
among the amateur cinematographers
who are members of the C.F.I. or
readers of Focus.

They must be aware by now of our
hope to be able to form groups of
students willing to study the technique
of film-making and so provide the
recruiting basis from which to
develop our plan for an independent
professionally competent production unit
for religious films and films for
humanity.

This year must have stimulated many
possessors of cine-cameras to record
their pilgrimage, holiday, or other
interesting occasion. Do let us see
what you have done. It will help us
immensely.

There is a prize of £20 for the person
whose film is judged the best,
technically and imaginatively. A prize
Plaque will be awarded to the winner
and diplomas to the runners-up.

The work of the S.V.P., the C.P.E.A.,
the Y.C.W., etc., suggest many
interesting subjects for amateur film-
makers.

C.F.I. Abroad

The Chairman of the C.F.I. (Very
Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.) and the
Editor of Focus : A Film Review (Rev.

315

Father Declan Flynn, O.F.M.) are both
travelling in the U.S.A. They left us
in July and will return towards the end
of October.

We take this opportunity of offering
to our absent Editor our warm
appreciation of the time and energy
which he so unstintingly devotes to
Focus and the Catholic Film Institute.

Both he and Father Hilary Carpenter
are taking advantage of their visit to
the United States to arouse interest in
the work of the Catholic Film Institute,
and we know that our readers and
members will wish to join us in
expressing our grateful thanks to them
both and in wishing them a successful
trip.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

If you have an opinion to express, a comment to make, an idea to offer,
the Editor will be delighted to hear from you.

Children and the Cinema

Sir,

It seems to me that the most Catholics
can do to prevent unwholesome films
from being a source of child-
delinquency is to promote a critical
attitude in our children towards the
cinema. I do not think that mere
banning does any good. I met one
young C.O.M. at the time when No
Orchids was being turned down by
councillors all over the country, who
went out of her way to see this film and
told me, “She couldn’t see anything in
it, and didn’t know what they were
making all the fuss about”.

The Redemptorist Fathers of Bishop
Eton, Liverpool, are doing their best
in this direction in their new children’s
publication, “Playtime”, which is
reaching an ever-growing number of
children in our schools, especially in
larger towns and cities, and in which
I am delighted to find Father Burke of
Focus writing about films. May I hope
that these articles will continue and
explain in a “grown-up” positive way,
what the various films stand for. Their
poison is so often innocuously
presented. For instance : “This film
glorifies the break-up of the family, the
division of parents and children —
divorce.” “That film, gambling, sloth,
covetousness,” or whichever of the
seven deadly sins is involved, so that
there is no mistake about it.

Many children go to unsuitable films
because their parents want to go and
cannot leave them at home. Box office
returns in large towns must, therefore,
be often misleading. I wonder too

whether the possibility of unemploy-
ment in the film industry had anything
to do with the vague findings of the
Hon. Mrs. Bower’s colleagues, and
whether the cinemas would ever be
reformed from above. Educate the
children’s taste now, and I believe we
are nearer to the solution.

Yours truly,

Violet Sparrow.

Bishop’s Stortford.

Long or Short Films

Sir,

Your reviewer, “U”, is surely
somewhat cat-alier in his remarks on
the length of films. It may or may
not be a good thing to string three
films together under one title as has
been done with the Somerset Maugham
short stories, but it is clear that many
a “feature length” film has been ail
too painfully padded to bring it to the
required length for quota purposes.
There is a place and (I believe) a
public for the short film, whether it be
factual or fictional. The mechanical
curse of the double feature and three
hour programme has killed many a
contribution to the art of cinema.

Incidentally, Somerset Maugham had
been already well-served in feature-
length film. The Moon and Sixpence,
Rain, Of Human Bondage and The
RazorJs Edge are titles that at once
spring to mind.

Yours faithfully,

Edmund Barry.

316

FRENCH FILMS AND STRIPS

By Our] Educational Panel

LIBRARIES

Educational Foundation Film Library,
Brooklands House, Weybridge,
Surrey.

Service du Cinema de l’Institut
Francais du R.U., Queensberry
Place, South Kensington, S.W.7.

Common Ground, Sydney Place, S.W.7.

Filmostat, La Projection Nouvelle, 29
rue des Favorites, Paris XV.

Lumina — Bloud & Gay, 5 rue Ferou,
Paris Vie.

Editions Film^es, 15 rue d’Argenteuil,
Paris Ier.

British Instructional Films Limited,
Film House, Wardour Street, W.l.

Catholic Truth Society Film Library, 40
Eccleston Square, S.W.l.

vocabulary are simpler. We see la
Famille Martin packing up and starting
on their car journey to the Loire
country, where they are to spend the
summer holidays. Hurried departure,
Mr. Martin leaves the lunch-basket on
the pavement in front of the Garches
villa. He makes up handsomely by
offering a substantial lunch to the
family at a way-side cafe. This gives
the opportunity of increasing the
vocabulary of gastronomic terms.

V

Histoire de Poissons

(As above.) CY.3, 1 reel.

La Famille Martin, settled in the
little town of St. Aiguan-sur-Loire, are

FILMS

La Famille Martin

Educational Foundation Film Library.
CY.l. Sound. Hire: 7s. 6d. per
reel.

An interesting and informative film.
The children would get a vivid
impression of French life, the family,
the house and home, customs and
travel; they get also a bird’s eye view
of Paris, see some of its renowned
thoroughfares and the life of an airport.
All this would give them a desire to
become better acquainted with France
and French. The acting is good so
that the story can easily be followed
without much knowledge of the
language, but all the time the children
would be hearing French spoken by
natives and so would catch something
of the intonation.

Suitability : 15.

Depart de Grandes Vacances

(As above.) CY.2, 1 reel.

This film may have more appeal for
younger children as the story and

Film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book ‘‘The
Sacred Actions”, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
Blue Cottage,

Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7

317

•seen enjoying their holiday pursuits :
fishing, swimming, marketing; and
study for the unsuccessful candidate in
the June session of the Baccalaureat.
Mr. Martin, who has promised to catch
•a carp for Mr. le Cure’s dinner, once
more gets the worst of it (which seems
rather a pity) and returning empty-
handed has to buy the required fish on
his way home.

Here again the vocabulary is easier
k .and spoken deliberately and clearly at
" a slower pace. The French teacher
would do well to use Histoire de
Poissons and Depart de Grandes
Vacances before he undertakes to show
La Famille Martin, i.e., Le Retour de
Madeleine.

Suitability : 13+ .

L’Institut Frangais du Royaume-Uni
■has a good film library on which
teachers of VI Form French would
be well advised to draw. The
film Librarian will send a complete list
on application. We give a few titles
below; they are sufficiently suggestive
of the cultural value of the films : "La
Comedie Populaire avant Moliere”,
" Dans la nuit des temps”, ‘‘Vaison-la-
Romaine”, " Promenade sur la Seine” ,
“ Versailles et ses Fantomes” .

Vaison-la-Romaine

15 minutes. 1 reel. Hire : 4s.

This market-town of the south of
France shows, through the film, three
different aspects and ages of town

building.

What might be called the modern
town was really built in the Carolingian
period, round the monastery and under
the inspiration of the monks. Just
near by are the splendid remains of the
ancient Roman town. Then beyond the
river and up the hill we are shown
the ruins of the fortress in which the
townsfolk took refuge in the time of the
invasions. Later, when tranquillity and
peace were restored, the inhabitants
came down again and cultivated the soil
which yielded, and still yields, a
splendid harvest of vegetables and
fruit, which is sold in the market as
well as being the chief industry of the
inhabitants.

The commentary is spoken clearly
and not too quickly so that the film

should also be useful for students of
Latin sufficiently' conversant with
French.

Dans la nuit des temps

15 minutes. 1 reel. Hire : as above.

The film shows us the schoolboys
who, when playing truant, discovered
the famous Lascaux (Dordogne) caves,
and returned in haste and excitement
to tell their schoolmaster. With him,
and a taper, they go back to explore
more fully, and it proves to be a very-
interesting discovery. These primitive
drawings of the stone age exhibit
wonderful accuracy and skill. The
animals are always represented moving
as the hunter saw them, and they are
wonderfully alive.

La Cathedrale

15 minutes. 1 reel. Hire : as above.

A pilgrim to Chartres (representing
each and every Christian on his way
through life) travels through “Lh
Beauce”, the country dear to Peguy,
and arrives in view of the cathedral.
Still following him, we see all the
different aspects of the famous shrine,
exterior and interior. Close-ups of the
sculptures lead us to admire the great
variety of expressions on the faces
carved in stone. The photographs are
magnificent and very artistic. This is
a beautiful film.

L’Evangile de la Pierre

French and English versions. 20
minutes. 1 reel. Hire : as above.

Another beautiful film. We have here
illustrated through the stone-work of
Rheims Cathedral the wonderful story
of our Redemption.

La Comedie Populaire avant Moliere

15 minutes. Hire : as above.

Should prove useful for revision of
Moliere. To benefit by it the children
should be well acquainted with the
social background of the times.

Haute-Seine

15 minutes. Hire : as above.

An interesting journey from the
source of the river to Paris, passing
through Bar - sur - .Seine, Troyes,
Montereau, the historic part of Paris
along the borders of the Seine.

318

STRIPS

La Famille Dubois

Common Ground. C.G.A.567, with
notes. Sale : 15s.

These 36 frames take us through the
day of a middle-class French family
and introduce us to the French way of
living, which is one of the aims of this
new series — though the French do live
in houses and do use blankets on their
beds. We go to different shops and
places with the various members of the
family and we even pay a visit to “La
Loge de la Concierge”, without which
knowledge of the Parisian way of life
would be very incomplete indeed.

The notes provide the teacher with a
ready-made vocabulary and questions,
which can easily be adapted to the
needs and interests of the particular
children arid their age-group.

Suitability : 13+ .

First Impressions of France

C.G.A.568, with notes. Sale : as above.

A diagram showing the different
routes to France opens the strip — which
is going to take us via Newhaven-
Dieppe — on to Paris where we see
different street-scenes aiming at giving
us “first impressions”. The strip ends
with pictures of road signs, French
money and French stamps. The road
signs are written in English, which
seems a pity-, even though the
traveller will usually find that general
directions are given in French, English
and German.

This second strip appears at times as
repeating the first, and we now look
forward to a third strip giving us
aspects of French life in the country
or in a small provincial town.

Suitability : 13 to 15.

Les Petites Souritones

Editions Film^es. No. 76, Les Mefaits
de la D^sobeissance. No. Ill, Huit
Jours aux Sports d’Hiver.

The adventures of two little mice —
good and dutiful Grisette and untidy
and wayward Friquette — wrere much
enjoyed by children of 10. There were
many questions about the interesting
pictures and good vocabulary work was
made enjoyable and lively.

Les Fables de La Fontaine

Editions Filmostat, series of 6 strips.
Strip No. 6405 : Le Meunier, son
Fils et l’Ane; le Corbeau et le
Renard.

This is one of the series. Children
have found it delightful and the teacher
says : “It proved very useful to keep
up zest and interest in the class whilst
they were learning the fable by
repeating the verses as the pictures
appeared and moved on.”

Le Loup de Gubio

Ed. Lumina, Da. 8. 25 frames.

It always seems good practice to hear
a well-known story in a foreign
language, when simply told, and, as in
this case, delightfully illustrated by
drawings of St. Francis, the Wolf, the
little town and its folk dressed in their
thirteenth century costume.

Paris

Ed. Filmees, Nos. 54-58.

Very interesting strips to be used
preferably with older girls interested in
art as well as in the Geography and
History of the French capital.
Nos. 54, Le Coeur de Paris, and 55,
La Rive Droite, are especially to be
recommended.

Film as a help to the teaching of
Religion :

Jordan Valley-

Produced by British Instructional Films
Limited, distributed by B.I.F. and
C.T.S. Hire : sound 15s. per day,
silent 15s. per day.

This is an outstanding example
among Scripture background films, and
deserves a warm w-elcome from teachers
and all who are concerned to make the
New Testament story better known and
understood. Aerial photographs, maps
and details of landscape and of life as
it is still lived in Palestine are
skilfully combined so that the meaning
of the Scripture words is brought home
to us with fresh poignancy. The film
does not attempt to teach theology
directly^, but, accepting the traditional
interpretation of the facts of Our Lord’s
life, provides us writh just that amount
of topographical detail which is needed
for grasping the implications of the

brief descriptions contained in the
Gospels.

Commentary, picture and Bible text
are closely related throughout the film.
There is no preaching, but there is
reverence and respect, and the result is
a beautiful film.

The language of the commentary is
simple and straightforward, so that the
film could be used with quite a young
audience as well as for adults.

ds various people have suggested
they would like short notices of new
religious, or other, films, we propose in
future to add these, to be reviewed in
full later.

Your Film Show

The C.F.I. Projection Unit is
available for film shows within the
London area. Owing to some
misunderstanding on the part of some
of our friends, we ought to point out
that we are not in a position to offer
this service gratuitously. Moderate
charges must be made to cover costs
and recoup depreciation on our Bell
Howell Gaumont 601 projector and films.

Enquiries to Catholic Film Institute,
Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

SOME FILMS REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this list does
not connote positive recommenda-
tion. Films that are positively harm-
ful are not included here. Readers
are reminded to refer to the full
review when assessing a film.

Category A, indicates adults only ;
B, adults and adolescents; C, family

audienoes ; D, particularly

children.

for

Reviewed in “Focus” (Vol.

III,

Nos. 9 and 10)

Abbott and Costello in the

Foreign Legion

(C)

(274)

Adventures of Ichabod and

Mr. Toad, The

(B)

(238)

Annie Get Your Gun

(C)

(239)

A Ticket to Tomahawk

(B)

(273)

Bitter Springs

(C)

(246)

Cairo Road

(B)

(243)

Ellen

(A)

(244)

Fancy Pants

(C)

(274)

Fanny

(A)

(243)

Furies, The

(A)

(274)

Gun Crazy

(B)

(274)

Have I Lived Before ?

(A)

(270)

Kuksi

(A)

(240)

Lady Takes a Sailor, The

(B)

(241)

My Daughter Joy

(B)

(245)

My Friend Irma

(A)

(249)

Night and the City

(B)

(242)

No Sad Songs for Me

(B)

(238)

Panic in the Streets

(B)

(272)

Portrait of Clare

(B)

(271)

Rocketship X.M.

(B)

(275)

Ruy Bias

(A)

(245)

Sands of Iwo Jima

(B)

(241)

Stromboli

(A)

(248)

Sunset Boulevard

(B)

(270)

Sylvia and the Ghost

(A)

(270)

Three Husbands

(B)

(244)

Tony Draws a Horse

(A)

(246)

Treasure Island

(C)

(235)

T rio

(B)

(275)

Vatican, The

(C)

(248)

Waterfront

(A)

(273)

Winchester ’73

(B)

(243)

Wooden Horse, The

(B)

(267)

We Recommend

Broken Arrow

(B)

(302)

Happiest Days of your

Life, The

(A)

(108)

Red Danube, The

(A)

(112)

Story of the Pope, The

(C)

(276)

The Blue Lamp

(B)

(80)

Twelve O’Clock High

(B)

(73)

Vatican, The

(C)

(248)

Wooden Horse, The

(B)

(267)

320

Cover Personality

OUR LADY OF
THE FILMS

Our cover is occupied this month by
the little girl who mimes the part of
Lucia in the Introduction to our film.
Pilgrimage to Fatima. She is
deputising also for Our Lady, for we
would wish to have the Blessed Mother
preside over our magazine this month,
which is not only the month of the
Rosary, but also the month in which
our film about Fatima is to be offered
to the public, with its invitation to
listen to the message of Our Lady
about the Rosary. It seems to us not
unsuitable, then, that we should give
this space this month to her who is
called Stella Maris, the only woman we
know who ever had a true right to be
called a Star.

We hope that none of our devout
friends will be shocked that we invite
Our Lady to accept a corner in our
magazine, usually given over to film
actors and actresses. We think that
she would not disdain to smile on them
and pray for them and love them, too.
They do not all know how great is
their responsibility for the things which
are seen on the screens of the world,
but, for the most part, those whom we
like to picture here are giving their
talents and their time, through the
medium of film, for the entertainment
of tired and unhappy people. This is
not a very elevated or spiritual
occupation, but it is not an unworthy
one.

We think that we have been allowed
the privilege of co-operating with Our
Lady in the use of that same medium
for the purpose of spreading her
message, given at Fatima thirty-three
3’ears ago. Our film is not a super-
film ; it is not an entertainment film,
but it is an honest film and we have
tried very hard with photography and
words and music to make an instrument
by means of which Our Lady will be
able to reach many more people than
she would have reached, even bj" the
printed page or the broadcast word.

The art of the cinema is “photo-
graphy” : writing with light. Light

is, of all God’s material gifts to man,
the one he can least afford to lose.
The worst thing that ever happened to
•God’s creatures was the misuse of

Light. Lucifer, the Angel of Light,
became the Angel of Darkness. Into
that darkness, which is sin, Satan has
tried to drag man ever since. Our
Lady’s special function is to hold aloft
the New Light “that enlightenetli
every man that cometh into this
wTorld”.

It is, surely, not without divinely
permitted significance, that the most
diffused of scientific toys should be the
camera, which is useless without light.
It is also significant that this
instrument should have been hitherto
used mainly for the sake of people
who have little regard for the light.
(I do not say “by”; I say “for”.) That
means that the Angel of Darkness has
had, so far, most benefit of the use
of the instrument which needs light in
order to be of use to anyone.

This state of affairs we are trying to
remedy. We are sure that Our Lady
wfill lend us her prayers and her
patronage to this end. She knows so
much about light. How gladly she
used it in order to see her own beauty
reflected, as on a screen, in the eyes
of the Child, who was her God and her
Son, when, in Chesterton’s lovely
words :

“Earth and sky changed places for
an hour

And heaven looked upwards in a
human face.”

She who is called the Mirror of
Justice, because the Son of Justice
saw Himself reflected in “the only
glass that would not break with that
unbearable light”.

Yes, she knows a lot about light and
she will surely be pleased to lend us
her support in using light to the glory
of God and the benefit of man. “In
thy light shall we see light.”

John Vincent.

For Sale

Super Half Moment Screen 10ft. x8ft.
Unused. Can be seen. Cost £60.
Offers. C.F.I., Blue Cottage, Sumner
Place Mews, London, S.W.7.

SUBSCRIPTION FORM

I wish to take out a subscription to FOCUS for year(s) beginning with

the issue, and enclose remittance value

NAME AND ADDRESS to which copies are to be sent:

To : The Manager, FOCUS, The Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7.
Please make remittances payable to The Catholic Film Institute. The annual
subscription is 7/-, post free.

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

I wish to become a member of the Catholic Film Institute, and enclose

remittance value for year(s) subscription.

NAME

ADDRESS

Subscription rates: Life Member, £10; Privileged Member, £1; Ordinary

Member, 10/-, per annum.

Subscribers of £l and upwards are entitled to receive all new pamphlet
publications issued during their year of membership, together with a monthly
copy of FOCUS. Ordinary Members receive FOCUS.

Please return completed form to The Hon. Secretary, Catholic Film Institute,
The Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7. Kindly make cheques,
etc., payable to The Catholic Film Institute.

Catholic Film Institute

16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Titles include :

Crucifers to Walsingham
A Legend of Norfolk
Visitation

Out of the Darkness
Rome of the Pilgrims
Monsieur Vincent
Farrebique
To Live in Peace

Four Steps in the Clouds
The Sacrifice We Offer

( Silent Version also
available )

Family Affair
The Atom and You
The Vatican of Pius XII
Holy Year

All particulars from the Librarian,
CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE, BLUE COTTAGE,
SUMNER PLACE MEWS, LONDON, S.W.7.

Scriptural Productions

AN INDEPENDENT ORGANISATION DEVOTED If.
TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION
OF FILMS FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES

Under the Direction
of

ANDREW BUCHANAN

PARK STUDIOS
PUTNEY PARK LANE
LONDON

S.W.IS

Tel. Putney 6274/4052

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Film
Institute, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7.

We do not specialize in the production of religious
films but we do believe sincerely in the necessity
of bringing Christian ethics into films in these times

RECENT PRODUCTIONS

‘VATICAN’

A feature documentary in Technicolor
‘ASSISI’ in Technicolor
‘SICILIAN RHAPSODY’

in Technicolor
IN PRODUCTION

‘CROSS, STAR AND
CRESCENT’

A feature documentary in Technicolor

Director of Production —

HANS M. NIETER

SEVEN LEAGUE PRODUCTIONS LIMITED

Kent House,

87, Regent Street,

London, W. I.

SUBSCRIPTION FORM

I wish to take out a subscription to FOCUS for year(s) beginning with

the issue, and enclose remittance value

NAME AND ADDRESS to which copies are to be s§nt:

To: The Manager, FOCUS, The Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7.
Please make remittances payable to The Catholic Film Institute. The annual
subscription is 7/-, post free.

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

I wish to become a member of the Catholic Film Institute, and enclose

remittance value for year(s) subscription.

NAME

ADDRESS

Subscription rates: Life Member, £10; Privileged Member, £1; Ordinary

Member, 10/-, per annum.

Subscribers of £l and upwards are entitled to receive all new pamphlet
publications issued during their year of membership, together with a monthly
copy of FOCUS. Ordinary Members receive FOCUS.

Please return completed form to The Hon. Secretary, Catholic Film Institute,
The Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7. Kindly make cheques,
etc., payable to The Catholic Film Institute.

Catholic Film Institute

16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Titles include :

Crucifers to Walsingham
A Legend of Norfolk
Visitation

Out of the Darkness
Rome of the Pilgrims
Monsieur Vincent
Farrebique
To Live in Peace

Four Steps in the Clouds
The Sacrifice We Offer
(Silent Version also
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Family Affair
The Atom and You
The Vatican of Pius XII
Holy Year

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Vol. Ill

No. 11

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Editorial 323

Focus Film Course 324

By Andrew Buchanan
The Doctor Looks at the Cinema 325
By Dr. Denis Dooley

Book Review ... 328

The Pattern of Irene Dunne ... 329
By Crosby Lockwood

Institute Notes 330

Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

September Affair 331

Fortunes of Captain Blood ... 331

Le Sorcier du Ciel 332

Flesh Will Surrender 333

Manon 333

Seven Days to Noon 335

No Way Out 338

The Asphalt Jungle 339

The Jackpot 339

Page

Gone to Earth 340

The Woman in Question 341

Senza Pieta 341

Cage of Gold 342

A Life of Her Own 342

Bright Leaf 343

Three Little Words 343

Convicted 344

My Blue Heaven 344

Let’s Dance 344

Duck Soup 344

Q-riouser and Q-riouser 345

Venice Film Festival 346

Bv Kathleen Rowland

Return to the Cinema 348

By Kathleen Ciantar
Film Strips for the Teaching of

English 350

By Our Educational Panel

Letters to the Editor 352

Cover Personality

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FOCUS: review

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. Ill

NOVEMBER 1950

No. 11

AMATEURS AND PROFESSIONALS

In the world of art there is a curious
snobbery which condescends to the
practitioner who is not paid for his
work. “Only an amateur” has come to
have a meaning which implies that
excellence of performance is impossible
unless one is earning one’s living by
means of one’s art. If words mean
anything, “amateur” should indicate
one who is devoted to his art and

master of it. However, there is
nothing to be gained by quibbling over
the word : its inaccurate sense is

accepted currency and we can but try
to avoid the results of paying too much
attention to it.

This is particularly necessary in the
world of film. There is an over-
weaning adulation of the technician
who is making his living by his craft
and not sufficient recognition of the
part which has been played in the
development of cinema art by men

who wrere amateurs. Robert O’Flaherty,
maker of some of the most beautiful
films of all time, was an amateur.

It is artistic, imaginative standards
rather than payment which is the
governing factor between w7hat is
excellent in film and what is second-
rate. When the Film Encyclical refers
to making use of the technical ability
of experts and not wasting time and
money with amateurs, it is clearly not
intended to convey that the vast
financial transactions customary with
the film industry are necessary before
the Church can hope to use film

efficiently.

We refer to this matter because there
is a considerable misunderstanding
among some of our friends as to our
intentions with regard to film-
production. We have insisted strongly
that only the best is good enough for
Catholic film makers and users. This
does not exclude the efforts of the
w’orkers in sub-standard film. We
should be singularly unperceptive
were we to ignore the first-class work
in 16mm. and other sub-standard
gauges which has been produced by
both professional and amateur
cinematographers. We do, however,
make a strong plea to amateur film
makers of all kinds not to try to
exceed what the instrument they use
is capable of. There is no merit in
trying to emulate the tricks of the
studio camera if your instrument is a
simple 16mm. camera. The important
thing is not how complicated the
camera you use but the range and
power of the imagination which is
behind the camera.

The “Ten Best Amateur Films of
1949”, shown during the C.F.I.
Summer School, are evidence enough of
the artistic achievement possible to
cinematographers who are masters of
their instrument and recognise its
limitations as well as its potentialities.

To our readers, therefore, who are
the possessors of sub-standard movie-
cameras we would say : “Make

yourselves masters of your instrument
and there is no limit to the artistic
service you may render to the world
of worthwhile film”.

324

FOCUS FILM COURSE

By ANDREW BUCHANAN
No. 10-SUBJECT-MATTER

Has it ever occurred to you that film
depends almost entirely on other
media for its subject-matter ? Most
commercially - successful productions
have been adapted from novels or
plays; only a comparative few are
original screen stories.

Does this matter ? From some points
of view, not at all ; from others, it
matters a great deal. Consider, for
instance, a successful film such as The
Heiress. Who is bothering because it
began life as a story written by Henry
James before cinemas existed? Who
was Henry James, anyway ? asks the
young filmgoer. Then the story was
turned into a play, and now it is a
film !

Thjs habit of borrowing and adapting
material provides critics with lots of
opportunities to draw comparisons
between stage and screen characters
which are of no interest to the
average film - fan, who is seldom
a theatre-goer and rarely a reader.
Either a film is good, or bad. Where
its story originated just doesn’t matter.
That is the attitude of the least critical
film goer. Others are drawn to
adaptations of stage successes and/or
best-selling novels because their titles
are so familiar. Often, the name of a
book, play, or author is of more value
to producers than subject-matter.

This has always been so. In silent
film days, Oscar Wilde’s plays were
filmed and the action was interrupted
every few minutes by captions splashing
his epigrams all over the screen.
The interesting point is that in the
silent era people thought film had
reached its ultimate form. Then
talking pictures appeared, upset
everyone’s calculations, and once again
film was considered to have reached its
finest and final shape. How could
there possibly be another kind of film,
people ' say, for few' bother to look
ahead, being content w’ith the shape of

films today. And yet, behind the
scenes, small groups are forever
experimenting on new approaches to
production — seeking wrays and means to
make it unnecessary for this wonderful
visual art to be so dependent not only
upon novels and plays, but upon the
spoken word. Here is the reason. The
p.lay depends on human speech, the
novel on the written word, and film,
when permitted to flow’er to its fullest
extent, upon picture language. When
dialogue is the main form of narration
on the screen, as it is today, the
spoken word restricts the visual flow.
Nor is this overcome by the numerous
skilful ruses adopted to keep visuals
on the move whilst dialogue has its say.

The fundamental point is that in true
motion picture construction, visuals
should supersede w'ords as the form of
narration, and although this means
in certain ways employing silent
film technique, it also means
employing sound in new ways.
The film of the future will almost
certainly be as different to the talking
film of today as is the latter from the
silent film of yesterday. People are at
work on a formula for wedding visuals
to illustrative music and natural
sound, with a minimum of human
speech — a form of story-telling that
would be universally understood.

We need to remember that at the
peak of silent film production, film
was becoming the greatest universal
medium ever known, needing no
translation. The introduction of speech
confined the circulation of films to those
countries speaking the tongues in
which they were made. There are
hundreds of different words in as many
tongues for Man, Dog, Tree, but
pictures of a Man, a Dog, or a Tree
are immediately recognised by all, or
nearly all peoples. Have you not felt
how inadequate is the spoken word
when watching a film in a language
you do not speak — characters chattering

325

away whilst sentences flash on and off
the bottom of the screen to help you
to understand what they are saying ?

What a travesty of true film-making.
A series of visuals can explain a
situation more vividly and swiftly
than it can be described by dialogue.
Film deserves to be independent of
literature and drama. It has its own
great contribution to make. It is true
that film adaptations of classic works
have introduced great writers to film
audiences, but to the discerning, the
adaptation can never be completely
satisfying, for whilst film can bring the
action of a plot, the characters and
dialogue passages to the screen, it
cannot bring literary value, and

without this no book is of value.
Further, every reader’s visualisation of
a character in a book is a personal
mind-picture. When he sees that
character brought to life on the screen,
the character becomes a stranger.
Film is great enough to have material
created for it. It needs shaping with
universal vision. Think of the
universal gifts bestowed on man —
Christianity, Nature, Music, Sculpture,
Painting — all transcending national
boundaries. Freed from speech, and
no longer dependent upon the written
word, film can find expression in a
universal picture-music language which
shall link the peoples of the earth
together in understanding.

| No. 4 — A Positive Approach to the Cinema

The Doctor Looks At The Cinema

By DR. DENIS DOOLEY

- This is too large a subject for me
to say all I would like to in the space
allotted to me. I therefore confine
myself to one or two aspects only.

As a doctor, I must think of the
effect of the films on the health of the
person attending them. The health of
the body and the health of the mind.
If I follow the classical definition of
health as being “Mens Sana in
Corpore Sano”, I should really mention
the health of the mind first as being
of prime importance, but I reverse the
order, as the effect of the cinema on
the health of the body can be dealt
with so easily.

The modern cinema is usually large,
clean and well ventilated. Watching a
programme through can be a pleasure,
which, distracting the mind from its
routine round of anxieties and troubles
produces a salutary effect on the
complex mechanisms and workings of
the body.

Occasionally one does come across
overcrowding in cinemas which is
open to criticism, for such might well
be the cause of the dissemination of

diseases, especially of the upper
respiratory tract.

There is a duty of parents to see
that their children do not spend hours
every week in cinemas with stuffy
unhealthy atmospheres, when their
time could be so much better spent
playing games in the local park.
There is, of course, a serious
responsibility of cinema proprietors to
see that their halls are adequately
ventilated and clean.

A Healthy Mind

Before dwelling on the effect of films
on the mind, it might be a good thing
to dwell for a moment on the
significance of a healthy mind, which
surely means a sane mind, or sanity.
Now sanity is akin to sanctity, which,
according to St. Thomas, means the
integration of the human personality.
To be sane,- I must try to become a
saint, which means to become a real
man, to become whole, and what Pius
XI called “Uomo completo”.

To attain this end, I must take all

326

my faculties and powers and develop
them to their utmost. I must take my
ability to think, and indeed, to
criticise ; my ability to draw out of
myself what is in me, and my faculty
of being able to add to this in order to
grow ; and I must develop these and
all my other powers to their highest
degree. When I have done this, I shall
have a sane healthy mind, I shall
become a personality and maybe a
saint, which is all that really matters.
Now to whatever extent films and
cinema-going help towards this end,
they are surely good, and to be
encouraged for the education and
entertainment of the old and young.

The Hollywood Personality

The Hollywood meaning of person-
ality, however, is a far different thing.
The Hollywood personality is surely
the shadow of a real personality. I am
reminded of the story which tells of
a race of men who lost their shadows,
and who dared not go out in the sun
for fear of being laughed at. The
theory being that a man and his
shadow are a fundamental unit which
alone demand respect. Now whether a
man loses his shadow' when he loses
his soul, I do not know, but I do
believe that the man w'ho loses his soul
is a shadow of a man ; and furthermore,
that all one sees at the films are
shadows of men, and therein lies the
danger that film-goers will and do fall
in love with these shadows.

An Influence for Good

But films can have a tremendous
influence for good on the community.
The value of films for didactic and
educational purposes is obvious. The
showing of pictures about the life and
peoples of other countries should have
no other but good effects. The outlook
is broadened and the mind is filled with
valuable information. But on a broader
basis these types of films, and others
dealing with the daily lives and doings
of bigger and better men than ourselves,
have a tremendous value in the
development of the imagination, which
is of supreme importance. In a strict
scientific sense, imagination is the
power of the mind which enables it to
form images of objects not present to
the senses; but I use the word in -a
much broader sense, meaning that
inward, penetrating, intense, know-

ledge, which fills and satisfies the soul.
It involves a sense of awe and wonder,
and an intense realisation of truth, and
it is the birth of a power to communicate
to others the thrill or deep experiences
that one has experienced oneself. A
person whose imagination is cultivated
in this way is a better person than
before.

We must have more films which have
this effect on film-goers, films which
extol and inculcate the virtue of
courage and appreciation of holiness.
We must have more films which are
an inspiration to increased action ; for,
action, we are told by the psychiatrist, is
the remedy for brooding, anxiety and
concentration on self, hypertrophy of
the ego, exaggerated introspection, and
in general for the dangers attending
an ill-guided internal life.

The Proper Use of the Cinema

I am sure Cardinal Newman would
have praised the proper use of the
cinema to cultivate the mind, and its
use “to open the mind, to correct it,
to enable it to know, and to digest,
master, rule, and use its knowledge, to
give it power over its own faculties;
application, flexibility, method, critical
exactness ; sagacity, resource, address
and eloquent expression”, and in fact
the value of the film when properly
used in the pursuit of a liberal
education ; for such a training will
help produce a healthy mind and, as
Lowell said, “To a healthy mind the
world is a constant challenge of
opportunities”.

But alas how many of one’s patients
are suffering from psychosomatic
complaints which are primarily brought
about by a frustration and dis-
satisfaction engendered by the machine-
made phantasies of the films.

The Jesuits are wise in wanting their
pupils at an early age — as the mind
of the young can so easily be
influenced. I am not going so far as
to say that the recitation by the child
of nursery rhymes such as “Three
Blind Mice”, with all its subtle
implications of cruelty, will explain
away the cruel acts of the man ;
although some psychiatrists will uphold
this thesis. But I say that films which
pander to the lower passions and
appear to accept as permissible the
excesses which proceed from their
misuse, are a menace; and have serious

327

effects on the minds of the young and
immature adult. They are the breeding
ground of many of the neuroses and
other upsets which are the cause of so
much unhappiness in the world today.
There is something to be said for the
theory that the first things we
remember do influence our outlook on
life, and therefore the way we live our
lives. And as we grow, vivid incidents
leave vivid impressions, which have an
influence for good or evil on our minds.

And since so many of these impressions
are left by films it is important that
they are not evil ones for fear our
souls begin to believe in them.

“The highest Faith makes still the
highest man

For we grow like the things our
souls believe

And rise or sink as we aim high
or low;”

CARDINAL MINDSZENTY ON THE SCREEN

As we go to press, a private showing
of Treason the film of the “trial”
of Cardinal Mindszenty, is arranged for
the benefit of the C.F.I. A full review
will appear in our next issue but we
cannot refrain from urging all our
readers to make certain of seeing this
courageous effort to tell the world the

truth about the great Hungarian
Primate.

Written by a Catholic and produced
by a Jew, this film was made in face
of strong efforts to sabotage it. What-
ever the critics may say about it in this
country, it is a film to be demanded at
all your local cinemas.

POWERFUL DRAMATISATION OF THE
STORY THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD !

“TREASON”

Certificate : A

THE STORY OF THE INFAMOUS TRIAL
OF CARDINAL MINDSZENTY

COMMENCING NOVEMBER 3rd.

FOR TWO WEEKS ONLY
LONDON PAVILION P,aRcusLY

328

_ . *

BOOK REVIEW

Visitation. The Story of the Medical
Missionaries of Mary. By Andrew
Buchanan, 5/-. M.M.M., Drog-

heda, Ireland.

Andrew Buchanan has added an
important Preface to this new edition
of his book of the film. An interesting
step in the direction of true religious
film making was achieved when he
completed Visitation for the Medical
Missionaries of Mary. He demonstrated
that religious films could be made (and
as the author would insist, should be
made) in a completely professional way
at a cost which is within the reach of
the religious organisations desiring to
make use of film for the spreading of
their ideas. His view is that films
destined primarily for the propagation
of religious belief and practice should
not be subject to the ordinary
commercial routine, but, since their
normal distribution will also be non-
theatrical, should be available to such
religious organisations at a cost which
represents the offering of the services
of men (and women) dedicated, as to
a vocation, to the use of film.

This book proves, as His Eminence
Cardinal Griffin writes in the Foreword,
“beyond a doubt, the necessity of
having skilled and fully trained
technicians in the making of religious
films — a point on which great emphasis
is laid by Pope Pius XI in his
Encyclical Letter on the use and misuse
of films”.

It is true that the only group known
to ns at the moment possessing both
the ideals and technical ability to put
this papal injunction into practice is
Scriptural Productions, Mr. Buchanan’s
own independent organisation for the
production and development of religious
films, but it is one of the objects of
the Catholic Film Institute to bring
into existence, with Mr. Buchanan’s
indispensable assistance, many such
groups.

The second necessary step in the
formation of such a group devoted to
the production of truly religious and

independent films is to secure the
means of distribution. The Preface
which Andrew' Buchanan contributes to
this new edition of his book describes
the pioneering venture of Mother Mary
Martin in getting her film seen by
thousands of people independently of
the commercial distributors. As the
Author points out, “Producing a film
is one problem; distributing it is quite
another and, in its utterly different
way, just as difficult. To combine both
production and distribution with
success, the Medical Missionaries have
added an inspiring page to the history
of film.”

To allay suspicions that here is an
attempt to sabotage trade unions, it is
necessary to insist on the fact that we
claim the right to use the medium of
film in the service of religion wuthout
violating the province of the commercial
concern in the same w'ay that other
material things are used by and
for religious organisations without
upsetting the balance of trade. It is
all a question of vocation. The Medical
Missionaries have a vocation which
embraces the use of all proper means
in the service of humanity.

Fortunately for the expression of
their ideals in film, they have found
in Andrew Buchanan, a layman, wTho,
though not a member of the Body of
the Church, is clearly dedicated to this
service in the use of film. May his
and their example stimulate Catholics
to offer themselves and their talents to
the same end so that what Pius XI
called “the most powerful means of
influencing the masses”, may be given
its fair chance of serving mankind in
a positive wTav for good.

Even if you have already a copy of
this book, you should obtain and read
this new edition, both for the sake of
Buchanan’s valuable new Preface and
also because you will be assisting the
Medical Missionaries in the devoted
work for which, as a religious
Congregation, they exist.

J. A. V. B.

Irene Dunne

The Pattern of
IRENE DUNNE

By Crosby Lockwood

Irene Dunne received me in her suite
at Claridge’s just before sailing. The
appointment had been promised and
then postponed and finally seemed
impossible : but Miss Dunne was

anxious not to disappoint us and
interrupted her last-minute arrange-
ments in our favour.

The first lasting impression to pass
on is of a woman who is “tres grande
dame” and that is to say, is it not,
simple, direct and friendly ? I dare not
describe her frock, but she was wearing
the hat you see in the picture and it
is a hat to make a young man sigh
with despair, soft and infinitely
bewitching, enhancing the personality
and delighting the beholder. Let me
tell you it is a white satin cloche with
the crown covered in spider-web lace
and set off with a grey-tipped ostrich
feather and long stem sticking out at
the back.

Her visit to England had evidently
been a great success. Still, for so
sensitive an actress, there must have
been a certain diffidence in accepting
the role of Queen Victoria in The
Mudlark. Would the British take
kindly to an American star m such a

part? Well, any diffidence had clearly-
been triumphantly overcome by all the
friendliness she met amongst us and
by her own charm and sympathy. But
only, I think, to a Catholic would she
have said that her first thought on
reaching London was to go to the
Jesuit Church in Farm Street round
the corner (“just the same as our
churches at home, of course”) to put
the whole enterprise under Divine
protection. “Then too,” she added, to
my surprise, “there are dangers one
faces in making a film — those enormous
arc lamps, the heavy equipment, the
intricate system of electric wiring —
hardly ever do we get through without
some mishap or accident. A little
time ago I had what might have been
a serious fall tripping over wires.”
This aspect of film-making had never
occurred to me, but it is real to
Miss Dunne and, just before our
conversation, she had been round to
the church on a farewell visit, with her
15-vear-old daughter, to say “Thank
you”.

But naturally it is the artistic and
spiritual aspects of the film that mostly
concern Miss Dunne. The inspiration
of her art is its opportunity to get
across to us all the good and happy
and noble things of life. She is
convinced that the film industry as a
whole, with its vast power for good or
ill, does appreciate the need to meet
the deeper demands of the human
spirit. And perhaps these demands are
more clamant now than at any other
time in the world’s history. Speaking
of screen work she said : “Many of us
in the film industry, not only the stars
but also the leading producers in
America and Europe, are anxious to be
worthy of the responsibility that falls
on us. And this is only to be done
bv setting a guard on the power of the
pictures, by presenting clean and
wdrolesome values, and by maintaining
a sound moral standard of entertain-
ment for the tremendous audience that
is the family of the cinema.” We both
felt this was almost a sermon and
laughed together, and Miss Dunne
concluded : “Motion pictures are

becoming increasingly conscious of the
debt the}' themselves owe to Christian
and spiritual values and you can see
this from the efforts made to
concentrate on more humane and
cultured pictures, from the emphasis
laid on right and justice, and from the

330

continuous interest in films of a
religious character.”

I had found for Miss Dunne a small
bas-relief in plaster of Our Lady, a dear
and youthful Virgin, under thick glass;
and Miss Dunne was very pleased with
it. Of no intrinsic value, it is an
example of Bohemian work of perhaps
a century ago and happily it seems
that Miss Dunne already has a
larger piece of similar workmanship
representing the Holy Family and this
is framed and centred on her wall at
home.

I must just add a Comment on the
recent visit to Rome. “This has left me,”
she said, ‘‘with unforgettable memories
and has brought home, as nothing else
in my life, the spiritual grandeur of

our Faith and the need to uphold
everywhere in our work and our
thoughts its message of good will and
its hopes for the peace of the world.”1

And now it was time to go and at
that moment a friend arrived to say
‘‘bon voyage” and she was carrying a
baht- girl of about a year old. One
glance at Irene Dunne’s face as she
welcomed that baby sent me awav
along those cushioned corridors of
luxury with the reflection that here
after all is the heart of the matter, a
woman’s heart. But, for every woman’s
heart there are times of doubt and
difficulty and I shall not forget hearing
this great lady, whose name and fame
ring across continents, say “in such
times my Faith has never failed me”.

INSTITUTE NOTES

North of the Border

The C.F.I. paid its first visit to
Scotland recently when lectures were
given at a week-end Catholic Film
Conference arranged at Dundee
University. We have nothing but
admiration for the group of keen
young Catholics who organised the
conference. In addition to a series of
interesting films, including Monsieur
Vincent, The Last Chance and The
Passion of Joan of Arc, a very
comprehensive exhibition of Visual
Aids was provided at which projectors,
strip projectors, sound - recorders,
epidiascopes, screen and other kinds of
apparatus were demonstrated.

The group makes itself responsible
for a mobile cinema unit, a production
unit and is very active in introducing
Foccs to the various contacts made.

Regional Groups

This provides an opening for another
appeal to interested Catholics in the
great provincial centres to let us know
of their efforts and enterprises for
Catholic Film Action. What a few
enthusiastic Catholics in Dundee can do
can be done by Catholics in Flngland.

Perhaps we need to make it clear
that our aim is to act as a co-ordinating

centre of Catholic film activity in the
country. We do not wish to set up a
film-dictatorship. Unless we know
what is being done in the Provinces,
however, we cannot fulfil our objectives.
We hear from time to time of most
interesting achievements in cinema-
tography on the part of priests and
laymen. If they would only let us into
the picture we could be of great
service mutually.

Congress Film

The Hierarchy Congress provided
some exciting material for our
cameramen. We saw the first rushes a
few days ago and we feel confident
that an important contribution to
Catholic film records will be the result.
A film such as this must be something
more than a news-reel : careful

research for historically interesting
antiquities, contemporary cartoons,
together with an imaginative build-up
of the available material should enable
us to bring out a film that will be
useful to look at years hence. Above
all, careful editing and commentary is
necessary. It will, therefore, be some
months before we can hope to have the
Congress film ready, but it will be
worth waiting for.

331

FILM REVIEWS

By Our Panel of Priests

SEPTEMBER AFFAIR

Starring: Joan Fontaine, Joseph

Cotten and Franfoise Rosay.
Producer: Hal Wallis. Director:
William Dieterle. Distributors:
Paramount. Certificate : A.

Category : A. Running time:

105 minutes.

This insignificant piece is exactly the
kind of thing which the title would
lead you to expect. Set, for the most
part, in or around Florence, the love
affair in question concerns David
Lawrence (Joseph Cotten) an American
business man, and Manina Stuart, a
concert pianist played bv Joan Fontaine.
A plane on which they w'ere thought to
have been passengers crashes in the
Mediterranean and David and Manina,
taking advantage of their reported
decease, decide to settle down in a
villa near Florence. The fact that the
former is a married man with a wife
and son in New York causes some
misgivings — particularly on Manina’s
part — but these are quickly and easily
overcome. When Manina suggests that
perhaps they ought to reveal the truth
and return to their former lives, Davi<3
replies, “Fate has saved us from death
and offered us a new life ; the only
question we have to ask is ‘are we in
love?’ ” Yes, it was as easy as that
apparently. Later, when Manina is
told that what they are doing is selfish,
cowardly and wrong, she answers, “Is
it wrong because we are happy ?” and
that seems to be the only criterion she
applies to the morality of their
arrangement to live together in
Florence.

I think we are intended to feel
sorry for David’s ever-loving wife who
carries on manfully at home in New
York, but even so, divorce is taken so
much for granted as a justifying
formula that one cannot be entirely
happy about this film.

There are some good shots early on
of Rome, Naples, Pompeii and other
Italian cities, and some excellent music
at the end when Manina plays at a
Carnegie Hall concert in New York.

Joan Fontaine is an attractive and
intelligent actress and she gives a
good performance here, but it seems a
pity that her talents should be wasted
on a film of this kind. Personally, I
found it tedious. You may perhaps
stick it out until the hundred and fifth
minute merely to discover whether or
not they decide to part, but as you
probably won’t bother to go at all, let
me tell you that they do.

F. A. M.

FORTUNES OF CAPTAIN BLOOD

Starring: Louis Hayward, Patricia

Medina, George Macready.
Producer: Harry Joe Brown.

Director: Gordon Douglas. A

Columbia Picture. Certificate : U .
Category: C. Running time:

90 minutes.

Blood in all directions — Blood dashing,
Blood gallant, blood flowing. Ninety
minutes of duels sandwiched with
drinking and lovemaking. The
conventional pirate crew, the broad-
sides of shot, the beautiful woman in
distress won by the reckless bravado
of an Irish buccaneer. Plenty of
swords are crossed, plenty of cannons
fired, plenty dared and plenty done.

If you are fond of these stories, you
will enjoy yet another one. But if von
have seen many, or any, you will know
the story already. Anyhow, Billv
Bragg, played by William’ Bevan, will
make you chuckle, for it is the best
characterisation in the film.

It’s good of its type and pleasantly
whiles away a weary hour and a half
in clean uncomplicated story-telling.

M. H.

332

LE SORCIER DU CIEL
(Heaven and Earth)

Starring: Georges Rollin and Alfred

Adam, with Alexander Rignault.

Director: Marcel Blistene.

Distributors: Films de France.

Certificate : U. Category. B.

Running time: go minutes.

This film version of the life of St.
John Baptist Yianney will certainly
give rise to a great deal of discussion
about the success or otherwise of screen
hagiography. We have now had a
sufficiently large number of film
biographies to be able to assess both
merits and weaknesses. Monsieur
Vincent, Song of Bernadette, Don
Bosco, Maria Goretti, St. Francis of
Assisi, Father Damien; these are a
varied enough assortment to have
covered most aspects of the manifesta-
tions of sanctity among mankind and
to allow us a judgment.

In the first place, the film biography
of a saint can be criticised from the
same technical standards applied to
other “lives” : Madame Curie, Queen
Victoria, Pasteur and others have been
subjected to the treatment and at once
it is evident that a prime weakness in
■each case is that the film is not really
capable of covering a whole lifetime
adequately. It becomes an essay in
make-up and tottering senility on the
part of the actor rather than an
exposition of the motivating forces
which governed the life ; a question of
endurance rather than of enlightenment.

In the case of the saint, another
difficultv arises in addition to the
histrionic and artistic one of expressing
heroic sanctity. There is always a
moment in the life of the saint in
which the “theme”, so to term it,^ of
his special relationship with God
becomes apparent. The rest of his
story is the ordinary one of persons
and" places, of temptations and
achievements which belong to any of
the heroes and heroines of God. The
problem of the film-maker, who
attempts to give us the life of a saint,
is to pick out and to focus for us
preciselv those moments. To some
extent it was done in Monsieur Vincent
and almost inevitably in Maria Goretti,
but all the other films mentioned suffer
from the film defect of trying to say
too much.

An additional obstacle over which
Lc Sorcier du del has not been
completely successful is the almost
impossibility of expressing in visual
form on the screen the growth of
interior holiness. In Monsieur Vincent
this process was "externalised” in the
works of charity which were the
outward result of the supernatural
charity so superbly suggested by-
Pierre Fresnay. In Le Sorcier du Ciei,
it is not Georges Rollin’s fault that the
essence of a life which centred and
grew in holiness in and around the
Confessional has i^ot been satisfactorily
transmitted across the screen. Instead,
the scriptwriter has concentrated on
the diabolic obsession which was an
astonishing feature of the life of the
Cure D’Ars and which gives a certain
theme to the film but which also
distorts the life of this particular saint.

This is not to say that the film is
without merit or usefulness from a
Catholic point of view. I am sure that,
in many ways, it will prove to be more
popular than Monsieur Vincent, mainly
because it presents the life of the
saint in the more popular terms of the
older-fashioned saint’s life. There is
no question that Georges Rollin,
who plays the part of the Cur6
with an affectionate devotion, has
put a great deal of work into the
characterisation both on the spiritual as
well as on the physical plane. He took
the trouble to make a Spiritual Retreat
before essaying the role, and, apart
from the happv accident of his physical
resemblance to John Baptist Viannev,
there is a great deal of skill in his
presentation of the character. A warm
humanity seems to radiate from him
and he has the most charmingly
disarming smile, both in his eyes and
on his face. He is evidently sincere
in his portrayal and it should be most
acceptable to Catholic audiences who
are tired of the usual run of gangster
and psychopathic films. I suggest that
a demand be made for it at your local
cinema.

It is a pity that the producer did
not make it clear by' means of a
prologue, first, that the story is an
historical one and, secondly, that the
dancing which the Cure so passionately-
denounced, was the obscene and
disgusting exhibitions derived from the
licentiousness of the Revolution.

V.

333

I

FLESH WILL SURRENDER

Starring: Aldo Fabrizi. Producer:

Marcello d’Amico. Director:
Alberto Lattuada. Distributors:
G.C.T. Italian dialogue with
English subtitles. Certificate : A.
Category : A. Running time: 93
minutes.

Gabriele D’Annunzio’s novel, on
which this film is based, is called It
Delitto di Giovanni Episcopo, which
might be suitably rendered as John
Bishop’s Crime. Why it should be
necessary to call the film Flesh Will
Surrender passes comprehension. If the
title means anything relevant, it means
that even a worm will turn.

Episcopo is a good, respectable but
spineless civil servant who allows
himself to be imposed upon by a black-
guard and contemptuously cuckolded
by his wife. Truly Italian, he has a
great love for his young son and when
the blackguard is about to strike the
boy he sticks a knife into him.

In spite of D’Annunzio’s flamboyant
and irreverent paganism and the fact
that the setting is Rome and Tivoli
around the turn of the century, the
film is surprisingly free from anything
anti-Catholic. Though we are meant to
feel sympathy with the killer — indeed
Aldo Fabrizi’s portrayal of his character
seems the raison d’etre of the film — it
is not sympathy with a rebellious,
unrepentant murderer but rather with
a normally kind and gentle man
suddenly goaded to homicide as a
consequence of parental love and
humbly willing to make reparation.

One sequence could have been
omitted without detriment to the story,
though doubtless it 'would be claimed
that it contributes to the characterisa-
tion. It is suggestive in the strict sense
of that abused word and its partial

reticence none the less involves playing
to the gallery of sensuality.

The film has received critical
approbation for its technique. To me
something about the visuals and a

certain rawness of the soundtrack had
a suggestion of the old-fashioned and
unsophisticated. But in these days

some relief from hypersophistication
in the cinema need not be always

unwelcome.

O.

MANON

Starring: Cecile Aubrey, Serge

Regnani and Michel Auclair.
Director: H.-G. Glouzot. Certi-
ficate: A. (L.C.C.). Category:

A. Running time : 95 minutes.

Abbe Antoine Francois Prevost, who
died at the age of 66 in 1763, wrote on |
many subjects of a romantic nature.

Of the 39 volumes of his works,
published in 1806, the best known is
“Manon Lescaut”. This famous story
has attracted the attention of musical
composers, among whom the best-
known are Massenet and Puccini. As
a result of these efforts a glamorous
mantle has been thrown over the
history of a Parisian courtesan who
preferred riches and soft-living at all
costs to honour and decency.

It was left for Henri-George Clouzot,
the distinguished French director of
Le Corbeau and Quai des Orfevres, to
strip away every vestige of seemliness
and propriety from the fable in his
film version of the story, the
film which so unaccountably took the
Grand Prix at Venice in 1949.

Setting the scene in France, 1944,
Clouzot makes his Manon a gold-
digging collaborationist, his Des
Grieux a Maquisard who passes with
surprising suddenness from Resistance
to Black Marketeering when his trollop
sheds a few crocodile tears. Death
comes to the lady at the hands of a
posse of Arabs, who shoot her down
in company with a band of Jewish
refugees on their way to Palestine.

The most objectionable final sequence
has been cut from the version tolerated
by the L.C.C. Other shots too, from
the macabre funeral procession of
dead hostages, have also been cut
since the film was seen in Venice.
Nevertheless, in spite of this trimming
it remains the most decadent piece of
cinema to have been seen in London
for a long time.

Apart from some impressive shots of
refugees in tine vessel and trekking
over the desert — always a sure thing
for the cameraman — the technique
and acting is second-rate. Political
manoeuvrings seem to have won it its
distinction at Venice and the possibility
of cashing in on sensational publicity
appears to have brought it to England.

V.

1

Fear of atom bomb destroys atomic scientist in a bombed church

Symbolism in Film

The man whose bomb would destroy London stands behind a prehistoric monster

335

SEVEN DAYS TO NOON

With: Barry Jones, Olive Sloane,

Andre Morell, Sheila Manahan,
Hugh Cross, Joan Hickson and
Ronald Adam. Director: John

Boulting. Distributors: British

Lion. Certificate: A. Category :
B. Running tune: 94 minutes.

After the Press showing of this
intensely gripping and beautifully
photographed film, I ventured to
congratulate Director John Boulting on
a really excellent piece of work.
Almost gloomily he murmured, “I am
not satisfied with it!” Since I was
still feeling well nigh breathless with
pent-up excitement 1 could but admire
the diffidence of the artist who never
admits perfection.

Built, like all successful films, round
a simple idea followed logically to its
conclusion, Seven Days To Noon is
embellished with a series of closely
observed and accurately reproduced
cameos and vignettes which bring the
film to astonishingly vivid and
authentic life. Made on location in
London’s streets and thoroughfares,
this is certainly the most successful of
the attempts to bring the camera out
of the studios. The opening shots of
trains arriving at Waterloo, of the
early morning crowds moving, ant-like,
across London River’s bridges, are
most impressive. The convoys of
buses and army lorries used for the
evacuation scenes were handled with
complete assurance and the crowds
made to play their parts with
convincing sang-froid.

Any film made by the Boulting
Brothers is sointhing more than an
exercise in photography. Thunder
Rock, Pastor Hall, Fame is the Spur,
Brighton Rock, are all more or less
successful attempts to discuss a moral
problem. If they do not also present
an answer this is only to sav that easy
answers to difficult questions are
not often convincing answers. Seven
Days To Noo)i poses the question
of the morality of the use of
atomic bombs. Some people are
almost certain to say that the film has
political propagandist undertones. I
think that the Boultings were primarily
captivated by an enthralling and
original version of the “chase” theme,
but once having accepted it they
worked honestly through the pattern

implied by an eminent scientist who,
through religious scruples, steals a
uranium bomb and threatens to blow
Parliament and the centre of London
to smithereens unless, by noon on
Sunday, the Prime Minister has
promised that all work on atomic
bombs shall cease.

There are a number of symbolic
touches in the film : the scientist,

standing behind the skeleton of a
prehistoric monster in the Natural
History Museum, listening to the Prime
Minister’s broadcast; the crazy man
being shot by a fear-crazy soldier as he
emerges from a bomb-ruined church in
which he has been praying ; a religious
text, “The Wages of Sin is Death,”
eventually abandoned by the man who
carried it.

All have worked so well to make this
the British film of the quarter. First,
perhaps, the screen-writers, Frank
Harvey and Roy Boulting for their
first rate job-of-work from Paul Debit’s
original story. Then the direction and
camera-work and the magnificently-
timed cutting of the film, from a
leisurely beginning to an absolutely
terrific last few minutes.

Then, of course, the acting of a
hand-picked cast : no stars but all

actors. Barry Jones, Olive Sloane,
Joan Hickson, Andre Morell give
magnificent performances and succeed
in creating and maintaining
recognisable characters. Hugh Cross
and Sheila Manahan, too, as the young
couple necessary to the story but not
overburdening it, are admirable. A
multitude of small part players, too,
have to be praised for excellent work
in a film which it will pay you to see
again and again. I will wager that the
tension will not diminish even after the
third dose.

Two adverse criticisms : in a film so
consistently free from stage cliches, it
was irritating to see the parson
answering the detective backwards
from down stage. Query : do Church
of England parsons ever have
moustaches ?

Second : I cannot believe that

English people would, even in the
circumstances depicted, leave their
pets pathetically whining and mewing
on the station platforms and the empty
street.

Last bouquet, and a big one, to John
Addison for' intelligent and interesting
film music. V.

SEVEN DAYS TO NOON

Goldie (Olive Sloane) is caught as she is about to examine Professor Willingdon's bag

NO WAY OUT

Richard Widmark and Linda Darnell

chard Widmark "is very good at being bad"

NO WAY OUT

Starring: Richard Widmark, Linda

Darnell, Stephen McNally and
Sidney Poitier. Producer:
Darryl F. Zanuck. Director:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
Certificate-. A. Category-. A.
Running time ; 102 minutes.

This film is what it sets out to be
— an unbiased presentation of the
colour problem. Is it better than
Pinky ? That is hard to say, but I
think it is. Anyway it is very different.
The film is neither pro white nor pro
black, but simply pro good, wherever
the good is, and if it is anti anything,
it is anti prejudice from whatever
quarter. Wherever the colour problem
is acute, as it is in America, it will
cause many searchings of heart and,
we hope, many acts of contrition and
reparation. It shows that there are
injustices on both sides, even though
they may be heavily weighted on one
of them, and that there is “no way
out’’ except that of charity and mutual
understanding. Those of us on this
side of the Atlantic, where the problem
does not jostle us at every turn,
may find in this film a story well told,
without mawkishness and layers of
sentiment.

The problem is presented in vivid
black and white. A young and brilliant

newly qualified negro doctor (Sidney
Poitier) is taken on the staff of a
county hospital by the senior M.O.
(Stephen McNally). His first job is an
emergency call to the prison ward
where two crooks, who are brothers,
are suffering severe injuries through
being shot in the legs by the police.
The young doctor makes a hasty
diagnosis that one of them has a
tumour of the brain, and as he is
carrying out a spinal test the patient
collapses and dies. The other (Richard
Widmark), who has a pathological
hatred of coloured people, accuses the
doctor of murder. So the story begins.
But there we will leave it for you to
see how the plot develops and speeds
on to a dramatic close. There is a
particularly tense moment when the
coloured doctor, who has been wounded
by the maniac, attempts to save the life
of his would-be murderer by making
a tourniquet to stop the flow of blood
from his leg. Cold perspiration breaks
out on the darkie’s face. It may break
out on yours as you witness it.

Here, then, is good serious enter-
tainment, but the emphasis is on the
word “serious’’. It would have been
better for a few lighter touches. Even
in the most serious symphony there
are lighter motifs. There are changes
of key and tempo, and each
instrument plays, before it is finished,
more than one tune. Human nature is
complex. We act variously and often
surprisingly in different moods and
circumstances. There are many facets
to our personality. Here one felt that
each character (with one notable
exception) had only one reaction anil
only one thing to say. In Richard
Widmark ’s part that was right. He
was a monomaniac. There was no let
up from his being bad — bad through
and through. And, if I may say so,
Mr. Widmark is very good at being
bad. Sidney Poitier was sincere and
impressive as the dark doctor. One
could not but admire his simple
dignity. Had the script allowed him
to show a sense of humour — and there
were opportunities enough, especially
in the scenes at his home — we would
have been captivated by him. To
Linda Darnell alone was given the
chance of playing a complex character
— an unattractive one indeed — and she
does it very well.

G.

339

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
Starring: Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe,
Jean Hagen, Louis Calhern, John
Mclntire. Producer: Arthur

Hornblow, Junior. Director: John
Huston. Distributors: M.-G.-M.

Certificate : A. Category : A.

Running time ; 105 minutes.

Except for the Police Commissioner
(John Mclntire), we encounter no one
for the first 45 minutes who is not a
criminal, and even then it is merely
the sickly wife of a shady lawyer. We
are in the jungle world of crime, where
all are predatory. We see and hear the
crime being plotted and the incipient
burglars and double-crossers amongst
us have the advantage of seeing how
it is done. We see also the police
triumphing, though, possibly for
security reasons, we are not shown
their lines of reasoning. They just
appear at crucial moments until all
the gang are accounted for. We, like
the criminals, never know what the
police will do next. For the most part,
we watch events from the criminals’
uncertain angle of vision. Towards the
end the police chief gives a pep talk
to the Press, so that they may know
that without the rule of law and the
work of the police all that remains is
the law of the jungle.

The master criminal, known as “Doc”
(Sam Jaffe), is an imperturbable
reasoning machine with no moral
concepts. He is very polite, too, in an
old fashioned German way. With two
exceptions, the rest of the criminals are
excitable Latin types. The exceptions
are the killer (Sterling Hayden) and a
double-crossing lawyer, very smooth
indeed (Louis Calhern).

The gentle sex includes (a) a girl on
the fringe of the criminal world (Jean
Hagen), who has the probably
ennobling quality of being in love with
the killer ; (b) the smooth lawyer’s

sickly and colourless wife (Dorothy
Tree) ; and (c) his mistress, politely
called his girl friend (Marilyn Monroe),
who calls him Uncle Lon.

And I do not forget that there are
also a criminal private detective (Brod
Dexter) and a criminal lieutenant of
police (Barry Kelley).

The only outsider of consequence in
this rogue’s gallery is the sobbing
wife of a dying gangster.

It is a sordid story, set for the most
part in squalid surroundings. The
whole thing is against crime, but these
are just bad men from stock. There
is none of that struggle between good
and evil in the criminal himself, little
of the alternation of good with bad to
make us believe that these are real
persons. It is when these factors come
into play that we can be moved not
just to a state of excited interest but
iuto a condition of mind where
compassion has comething to say
whilst avoiding any false hero worship.
The kind of thing I mean may be clear
if I mention films such as Brighton
Rock, Odd Man Out and The Informer.
Compared with them, The Asphalt

Jungle is just another tale of cops and
burglars. Very definitely Category

“A”, I think.

X.

THE JACKPOT

Starring: James Stewart, Barbara

Hale, James Gleason, Fred Clark.
Producer: Samuel G. Engel.

Director: Walter Lang. A 20th
Century-Fox Film. Certificate :
U. Category : C. Running time :
87 minutes.

James Stewart wins prizes to the
value of 12,000 dollars in a radio quiz
competition. Prizes, like birthday
presents, can be a source of
embarrassment This embarrassment
for James Stewart becomes desperation
when he realises that the Income Tax
authorities regard such awards as loot
and subject, therefore, to tax to the
extent of 7,000 dollars. That’s a bit
thick, don’t you think ?

The film is not so much an indictment
of American radio salesmanship as a
good humoured commentary on some
of its repercussions.

The direction is particularly good.
James Stewart acquits himself very well
indeed in his light comic part. Barbara
Hale is likewise very good. I was
delighted to see that the two children,
although precocious by our standards,
are yet well behaved and obedient.
The other day a priest told me that
parents are the last people on God’s
earth that ought to have children.
Perhaps he had been seeing too many
films.

T.

GONE TO EARTH

Starring: Jennifer Jones, David

Farrar, with Cyril Cusack.
Producers and Directors: Michael
Powell and Emeric Pressburgher.
Distributors: British Lion. In

technicolor. Certificate : A.

Category : A. Running time:

no minutes.

Having read in The Times liow
masters of fox hounds had refused to
co-operate in the making of this film,
I expected a strong attack on hunting.
There is not so much of that, but rather
an essay in parallelism.

Hazel Woodus is in a sense identified
with her pet fox. The story is adapted
from the book by Mary Webb and life
as viewed by this lady novelist seems
to consist in innocent creatures, such
as women and foxes, being pursued to
their doom by vile manhood. Even
when they do a lot of damage to
husbands and chickens, our sympathies
are still meant to be with them rather
than their victims.

Squire Reddin is a menace to the
woman-fox equation. We are left in
no doubt from the start that he is a
bad man. Not only does he call foxes
vermin. (And that means he is
contemptuous of women too. See ?)
Believe it or not, he actually says :
“Vermin. Ha-ha-ha!’’ And he gallops

Jennifer Jones as Hazel Woodus

after Hazel right in the middle of the
count}' fair, making the poor girl quite
conspicuous. Sensuality, that’s what
he is, always popping up and lurking.

True spiritual love is the Rev. E.
Mars ton. Hazel marries him. (Separate
bedrooms.) But one day she is
missing. She is at the Squire’s. (Not
separate bedrooms.) The elders and
deacons of her husband’s chapel don’t
approve of this. They like hounding
women and watching fox hunts. They
do both on the same day. And
remember, Hazel has a pet fox which
she carries in her arms. (A bit smelly
I should have thought.) And there is
a disused shaft that people can fall
down and get killed. And the title of
the film is Gone to Earth. There you
are.

That sort of catastrophe would not
have happened with the pack I used
to follow, but then they were not
hunted by a lady novelist. The master
would soon have roared to the
huntsman and wliippers-in : “Can’t you
see it’s the Woodus girl with her blank
pet fox, you blank fools ? Call your
blank hounds off ; this is a hunt, not
a blank circus.” And anyway hounds
would have lost the scent from the
moment she picked the fox up.

But the test of realism is out of place
in a film like this. And so it is no
use asking if a Baptist minister’s
mother would have knitted on Sunday
in 1897 and exuded a classiness more
characteristic of the vicarage than of
the Nonconformist manse, or if the
minister would have dressed like an
undertaker seven days a week. The

341

film, its producers have stated, is a
work of art. And it may be so.
Certainly there is much to be seen
which pleases the eye, including
scenery in Shropshire and Wales.

Jennifer Jones has earned commenda-
tion for a remarkable performance.
That the big part of a Baptist minister
on the Welsh border should be played
by a fervently Catholic Irishman might
not at first sight seem to indicate ideal
casting. But that our good friend Cyril
Cusack should typify integrity and
spiritual values is fitting enough.
If he felt, as I did, a certain
uucomfortableness in the Baptism scene
and the application of the text about
“other sheep” to the animal kingdom,
the invariable sincerity of his acting
enabled him to conceal it. Esmond
Knight and Hugh Griffith played
character parts most memorably.

Judging by my experience the
hounds would have given tongue like
anything when suddenly baulked of
their prey. But at the end of the film
they stood around the hole strangely
silent. They seemed a bit perplexed.
So did the critics.

Q-

THE WOMAN IN QUESTION

Starring: Jean Kent, Dirk Bogarde,
John McCallum, Susan Shaw.
Producer: Teddy Baird. Director:
Anthony Asquith. G. F. D.
Distribution. Certificate: A.

Category : A . Running time :

88 minutes.

This film tells of the investigations
which followed the discovery of the
strangled body of Astra, who had
worked as a fortune-teller and added
to her earnings through her men
friends. The story of her life is
unfolded as the Superintendent
conducts his examination through a
series of flash-backs. This gives Jean
Kent a chance of showing a many-sided
character ; to her charwoman (Hermione
Baddeley) she is exquisitely refined, to
her sister (Susan Shaw) she is a cruel
slut, to the owner of the pet store
(Charles Victor) a soft, warm-hearted
creature, to the sailor (John McCallum)
untrustworthy and insincere, to Bob

Baker (Dirk Bogarde) lazy and sensual.

The story of the friendship of the
young and beautiful Astra with the
middle-aged Mr. Pollard, whose exacting
wife had been bedridden for nine years,
is the highlight of the film. The growth
of Pollard’s infatuation, his lending of
money and doing of favours, his fury
at being deceived and rejected when he
had been promised marriage, is
extremely well done.

I enjoyed the film very much because
it is the sort of thing that could easily
happen. Both characterisation and
dialogue ring true to life. The stars
give an excellent performance, though
Jean Kent oscillates too exclusively
between angel and devil. The
supporting roles, especially Dana
Morris as a feather brained witness, are
played well. Anthony Asquith under-
stands the comedy and tragedy of life,
and conveys it admirably through his
characters. I found myself wishing he
could have had a more noble theme for
the display of his great talents.

W.

SENZA PIETA

Starring: Carla del Poggio and Johnny
Kitzmuller. Director: Alberto

Lattuada. Certificate: A.
Category : A.

Not all Italian films made in the
open air are good cinema or good films.
Senza Pieta, which has Carla del
Poggio to lace a largely local cast, is
neither nice to look at nor much of a
credit to its country of origin ! The
story of a street girl who is the
occasion of the degradation and death
of an American negro soldier has too
much racial prejudice about it to be
entertaining and is too badly put
together to allow our sympathies time
to crystallise.

When I saw this film in Venice two
years ago, I thought that it would not
reach London owing to its anti-
American and colour prejudice, but
here it is, as large and as unwholesome
and as unsatisfactory from the
cinematic point of view as ever. Not
a film to be' added to your collection
of Italian or any other kind of films.

V.

342

CAGE OF GOLD

Starring: Jean Simmons, David

Farrar, James Donald, with
Herbert Lom, Bernard Lee,
Gladys Henson, and introducing
Madeleine Lebeau. Producer:
Sir Michael Balcoln. Assistant
Producer: Michael Relph.

Distributors: G.F.D. An Ealing
Studios Production. Certificate:
A. Category: A.

Saddened and revolted by the sugary
sentimentality of recent publicity to
which this young woman has been
subjected, I was mentally unprepared
for the considerable dramatic quality
of Jean Simmons’ work in Cage of
Gold — which only goes to show that
even the vulgarians cannot give a soft
edge to an industrial diamond.

The story written for the film by
Jack Whittingham is avowedly melo-
dramatic. Therefore highlights and
deep shadows are to be expected in plot
and characterisation.

An “experienced” Bill Glennon
(David Farrar) deliberately revives in
Judith (Jean Simmons) a passion for
him which had its origin in a painful,
unacknowledged, adolescent devotion
in the days when he was a Battle of
Britain pilot frequenting her father’s
financially impressive mansion. When
the story opens she is a serious young
portrait painter loved by a good young
doctor, Alan (James Donald). So, with
the chance meeting with Bill, which
instinct prompts her to avoid, the
terms of the melodrama are set :
infatuated but nice girl, bad man,
good man.

Bad man very quickly marries and
deceives nice girl, abandoning her
shamefully on the morning after a
refreshingly dreary registrar’s office
wedding. When the newspapers report
her husband’s death in an air crash,
she marries the doctor. But the report
of the death is false, and after two
years bad man turns up again, suave
and with a menacing line in blackmail.
She takes a pistol with her when she
goes to have it out with him. We see
nice girl pointing pistol at bad man
and then running down the stairs.
The young doctor arrives through the
dramatically useful London fog, having
been summoned by bad man, who says
that “our wife” is in the room with
him, with all implications intended.

He sees the distraught Judith stumbling:
through the fog and hastens to confront
Bill. But he finds bad man shot dead
and the pistol lying beside him. Under
police interrogation both girl and
doctor accuse themselves separately of
the murder, each thinking the other
guilty. But in the end, almost
miraculously, it becomes clear to the
police that it is Bill’s Parisian life
which has caught up with him. The
murderer is not the nice girl after all,
and certainly not the doctor.

This is the story in the simplest
terms I can find, but the working out
of the plot takes us for considerable
lengths of film to Paris, which gives-
every opportunity of observing the
degeneration of a former hero of the
Air Force. We see him as a currency
smuggler, a racketeer and a blackmailer
to whom the affections of women are
so much raw material.

The acting is of a high order
throughout, and the three principals-
act inside plot and characterisation.
The camera work seemed, if it be not
an impertinence by now to say it
of Ealing Studios, really first class.
The cutting, besides its dramatic
effectiveness, has an economic value,
the film on these occasions speaking
for itself without words, and more
effectivelv.

, X.

A LIFE OF HER OWN
Starring: Lana Turner, Ray Milland,
Tom Ewell, Louis Calhern, Ann
Dvorak. Producer: Voldemar

Vetluguin. Director: I s o b e 1

Lennart. An M.-G.-M. Film.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 108 minutes.

The streets are of beaten gold. The
buildings tower in might and splendour,
encrusted with gems and precious
stones, living with a thousand lives in
the strength of the day. And there is
heard in those streets, caressed with
the fragrance of dreams, the cry of
children. They have travelled a weary
path, lead on by urgent voices, desire
lifting their feet; but they have not
found the city of God, they have not
found their Father’s home. And there
is heard in that deceiving city the cry
of children.

So Hollywood has discovered that the
echo of the human heart is not

343

comforted by fulfilment of ambition,
nor succoured by illicit love.

Lana Turner achieves success as a
model. It is an empty triumph. She
breaks her heart with love for a
married man (Ray Milland), and he,
poor cad, does likewise. A glimpse is
given of the way out. A desperately
inadequate glimpse, but God can use
human courage.

It is a slow and painful film for a
Catholic to see. Well done, yes, quite
well done.

T.

BRIGHT LEAF

Starring: Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall,
Patricia Neal. Producer: Henry
Blanke. Director: Michael Curtiz.
Certificate: A. Category : A.

Running time : no minutes.

In a long course of film-going I do
not remember ever having seen
anything worse than this. The
photography is undistinguished and the
characters a nasty, sordid lot, none of
whom seem capable of ever acting
from decent motives. Brant Royle, the
hero (Gary Cooper), is determined to
smash Major James .Singleton (Donald
Crisp), the tobacco king of this part
of the world (we are somewhere in
America in the year 1894), from motives
of revenge, and to marry his daughter
Margaret (Patricia Neal). To attain
these ends he stops at nothing, not
even the betrayal of those who help
him in the process. The Major objects
to such conduct, as well he may, and
expresses his sentiments by an attempt
to shoot his rival; when this proves
unsuccessful he disgustedly commits
suicide. Daughter Margaret thereupon
marries Royle and departs with him
and a most remarkable amount of
luggage for a world tour lasting, we
are given to understand, a year, during
which she keeps the police informed of
her husband’s doubtful business deals,
thereby gradually ruining the business
aforesaid. When taxed with this
unwifely conduct she delightedly
admits it and tells her husband that she
only married him in order to see his
face when he found her out. At this
taunt Mr. Cooper starts throwing things
about and eventually sets the house on
fire.

Truly a charming lot of people !

There is, of course, the one good
woman, Sonia Kovac (Lauren Bacall),
who has loved Royle through the years.
But when lie marries someone else and
consumes, as the film progresses, ever
greater quantities of drink (nature
unspecified), her love peters out. And
who can blame her ?

Sordid, unpleasant trash !

T. C. F.

THREE LITTLE WORDS

Starring: Fred Astaire, Red Skelton,
Vera-Ellen, with Arlene Dahl,
Keenan Wynn, Gloria de Haven.
Producer: Jack Cummings.
Director: Richard Thorpe.

Distributors: M.-G.-M. In techni-
color. Certificate : U. Category:
B. Running time: 102 minutes.

Et in Arcadia Ego. Even I — in a
suit of Etons — have danced to music
from the Arcadians. And so I am not
prejudiced against the history of
popular songs. This film deals with
some which belong to the post-
Arcadian epoch, by Bert Kalmar and
Harry Ruby, ranging from Where did
von get that girl ? to Three Little
Words. The former is a product of the
vintage of 1919 or thereabouts. The
fashions didn’t look quite in period to
me, but I suppose the costumier is
ahvays right.

Compact little Vera - Ellen is a
dancing partner not unworthy of the
perennial Fred Astaire. Red Skelton
gives a performance which satisfies by
its vitality. Arlene Dahl is the sort
of girl that nice men would whistle at,
except that nice men don’t whistle at
girls.

But the picture is too long for the
material available, especially as the
music is not up to the standard of
Irving Berlin, Gershwin, Kern or Cole
Porter.

I must confess at once to an
abysmal ignorance of the private lives
of Messrs. Kalmaj and Rubv, who seem
to have had a capacity for mutual
estrangement only paralleled by Gilbert
and Sullivan. Were their matrimonial
affairs as idyllically monogamous as in
the film ? I hope so. Did thev fit with
such precision into the accepted pattern
of show-business pictures ? I wonder.

I need not remind you what the three
little words are. It’s love that makes

344

the disc go round. (With acknowledg-
ments to the reader from whom I have
borrowed that last crack.) Q.

CONVICTED

Starring: Glenn Ford, Broderick

Crawford, Millard Mitchel and
Dorothy Malone. Producer:
Jerry Bresler. Director: Henry

Levin. A Columbia Picture.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 91 minutes.

Ninety-one minutes of screen time
equal five years of convict time, gaoled
behind bars. Quite long enough too,
especially when it’s not deserved.
Blessed relief in wise crack and dry
humours of the convicts, in the
benevolence of a humane governor
(Broderick Crawford), and in a
restrained and not uncharming affair
between Glenn Ford, as the falsely
convicted, and Dorothy Malone, as the
governor’s daughter, and a happy
ending. Nicely done, maybe, but it’s
sombre all the same. O.

LET'S DANCE

Starring: Betty Hutton, Fred Astaire,
with Roland Young, Ruth
Warwick and Lucille Watson.
Director: Norman McLeod. A

Paramount Picture. Certificate:
U. Category: B. Running time:
1 12 minutes.

Film has one great advantage over
the stage. It enables every member of
the audience to follow with fascinated
wonder the intricacies of Fred Astaire’s
footwork. There is no one to equal
him in the fantastic celerity and style
of his eccentric dancing. Let’s Dance
is by no means the best of his films,
but it makes up for a large number
of recent weary imitations of his
manner.

Betty Hutton is not his peer in
footwork, but in her own department
of vocal and physical contortionist she
is alone. She is an able foil to Astaire
in a number of dances, the most
amusing of which is a burlesque of the
hard-shootin’, hard-drinkin’ cowboys.

The story in this kind of film
does not matter. It concerns the
efforts of a wealthy Society woman to
keep her grandchild from the influence
of his actress mother. It is harmless

on the whole but, like so many of this
species, shows a regrettable contempt
for truthfulness'. Lies are regarded as
a legitimate means to any end. The
fact that it is a comedy does not
lessen its effect. V.

MY BLUE HEAVEN

Starring: Betty Grable, Dan Dailey,
David Wayne, Jane Wyatt and
Mitzi Gaynor. Producer: Sol C.
Siegel. Director: Henry Koster.
Colour by Technicolor.
Certificate: U. Category : A.

Running time: 96 minutes.

My Blue Heaven is a lively musical
with some slick dancing and spirited
singing of rhythmic rather than
tuneful numbers by that competent
(incomparable ?) pair Betty Grable and
Dan Dailey. The fun, however, was
spoiled by the mawkish story, which
had it not been told delicately would
have been positively offensive. It was
unsuitable for this kind or any other
kind of film. In addition, every
member of the female team has to come
out leg before the wicket. I suppose
there must be a public for this sort
of thing, or we would not be getting
it. But I hope there is a much larger
public, to which readers of Focus will
belong, who would prefer to have their
fun — such very good fun — without
lapses into legism. G.

DUCK SOUP

Starring: The Marx Brothers. Certi-
ficate: U. Category: A.

This is a re-issue of what is termed
their funniest and most original
comedy. Perhaps time has staled it,
perhaps I am right off the Marx beam.
Perhaps it always was a bit tedious
anyway. T.

C.F.I. Lectures

The Hon. Secretary has recently
lectured to the Sword of the Spirit
Group at Southwold on Catholic Film
Action, to the C.P.E.A. at Boscombe on
Parents and the Cinema and to Catholic
Teachers at Aberdeen, Edinburgh and
Glasgow on the Catholic Approach to
the Cinema.

Lectures were also given at St.
Peter’s College, Cardross, followed by
Carl Drever’s Passion of Joan of Arc.

345

Anglican Mass Film

We think it advisable to point out -
to Convents and other groups which
hire films and strips that there is a
.film strip on the Mass put out by a
Church of England film library which
is liable to mislead some people into
thinking that it portrays the Catholic
liturgy. In spite of the beautiful
vestments and altar equipment and the
faultless movements of celebrant and
server, it is a picture of the Anglican
Eucharistic service. Only the frames
which show the server receiving the
chalice at the hands of the “priest”
give any indication that it is other
than what its title suggests.

Your Film Show

The C.F.I. Projection Unit is
available for film shows within the
London area. Owing to some
misunderstanding on the part of some
of our friends, we ought to point out
that we are not in a position to offer
this service gratuitously. Moderate
charges must be made to cover costs
and recoup depreciation on our Bell
Howell Gaumont 601 projector and films.

Enquiries to Catholic Film Institute,
Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

Q'RIOUSER AND Q-RIOUSER

In response to a number of requests
I have had another nightmare.

I dreamed that I was a producer
who had decided to make some films
of nursery rhymes. To be sure of a
“U” certificate I consulted the censors
in advance about one film and received
the following reply :

“Dear Rev., Sir or Madam,

“With regard to the proposed film
The Cat and the Fiddle we must point
out that although no objection would
be taken in this country to the word
‘cat’, it must be excluded if you have
the American market in mind. Also,
we have recently received a communica-
tion issued jointly by the Treasury and
the Board of Trade recommending that
any reference to fiddling should be
omitted from films in future as liable
to encourage dishonest and unpatriotic
behaviour.

“We also regret to inform you that

the synopsis as submitted by you
violates the censorship regulations in
quite a number of respects. But if
you can see your way to amend it as
follows, we should consider issuing a
‘U’ certificate. (We have omitted the
opening, viz ‘Hey-diddle-diddle,’ as it
seems to have no meaning and is
presumably an error in typing.)

“ ‘The domestic pet and the violin.

The girl friend jumped over the
moon.

The little gentleman dog laughed
to see such sport

And the dish took the spoon out
to lunch.’

“Yours faithfullv,
p.p. DREAMLAND BOARD
OF FILM CENSORS,

(Signed) Honi Son.

“P.S. — This board is entirely fictitious
and any reference to any actual board
is merelv malicious.”

Q-

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the world

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346

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

By KATHLEEN ROWLAND

Owing to pressure of work due to
the absence of Chairman and Editor in
America, it was not possible for the
Honorary Secretary to take his part in
the work of the O.C.I.C. Jury at Venice
this year. Miss Kathleen Rowland, the
Universe Film Critic, kindly consented
to deputise for him. We are glad to
be able to reprint here the account she
wrote of the Festival for the Universe.
We hope to be able to deal more at
length with the O.C.I.C. Prize Film at
a later date.

Communist critics attending the
Venice Film Festival, misled by the
apparently religious titles of many
Aims submitted, protested at this
“propaganda”. But in spite of the
titles — San Francesco, Give Us This
Day, La Prima Communione, Dieu a
Besoin des Hommes, Our Daily Bread,
Once a Thief, My Father's House,
Hallelujah — most of them are spiritually
superficial, either not intended to be
more so or failing in their aim. Of
the more significant ones there is a
danger in their very success, and their
subtleties are liable to misinterpretation
by the ill-disposed and the ill-informed.

Dieu a Besoin des Hommes (God
Needs Men), the most controversial
film shown during the festival, set a
problem for both Catholics and
Communists. The Catholics have found
their solution and the Office Catholique
International du Cinema has awarded
it their annual prize for the film that
most contributes to the spiritual and
moral betterment of mankind.

Two days before this award was
announced, an Italian Communist
newspaper had hailed the film as
brilliant, basing its approval on artistic
values and on what it interpreted as
an anti-clerical exposure. I would
have liked to remain in Venice for
another two days to see what the
Communist comment was on this award
that must have disconcerted them as
much as it would surprise.

New Role

Pierre Fresnav, known and admired
here mainly for his superb portrayal of

St. Vincent in the French film
Monsieur Vincent, is the star of Dieu a
Besoin des Hommes. His performance
in a role completely different is as
powerful and as sensitive, and
although it is by no means a one-man
film, he dominates the screen as he did
with his interpretation of the saint of
charity.

He plays a young fisherman, sacristan
of the .church on an island off the
Brittany coast. It is a tiny, ingrown
community that at the time of the film
(about 100 years ago) subsists largely
on organised murder and looting.
Great stacks of smouldering seaweed,
built on the shore, would lure ships
on to the rocks and the wreckage
yielded rich treasure trove to the
villagers.

The priest, after appealing and
condemning in vain, despairs of
converting them and carries out his
threat to leave them. Ignorant and
hard in their almost primitive isolation,
the people yet have a clear and strong
sense of the need of a religion with a
full sacramental system.

Conflict

They force the sacristan to open the
church for them, to lead them in
hymn-singing and to preach and they
refuse to believe that he has no power
to administer the Sacraments. The
sacristan is torn between an honesty
that compels him to withstand at least
the people’s pressure to make a travesty
of giving absolution and an exultation
that glories wonderingly in the
mysteries of religion that now seem so
strangely close to him.

A murderer trustingly confesses his
crime and asks for absolution. A
woman whose baby is born in the boat
taking her to the mainland, in terror
of the pain of death, confesses that
her husband is not the child’s father
and in her agony seizes the sacristan’s
hand and despite his refusal to give her
“absolution”, traces the Sign of the
Cross on her forehead.

Gradually the sacristan gets a sort of
sense of vocation. Painfully, he learns
to write in secret, and in the empty

347

church he goes through the motions of
the Mass. He mobilises the whole
village into repairing the church roof,
torn off in a storm. He will not marry
the girl who loves him.

But alone in his realisation of what
the true priesthood is, he still has the
humility and generosity to try to get
a priest for the confused flock. The
one he visits is a hard careerist,
already comfortable in a mainland
parish.

When the Bishop finally sends this
same priest to the island, the sacristan
shows him how things are in the
parish with no resentment at the new
pastor’s unyielding scorn. When the
priest refuses, with undue harshness,
to give Christian burial to a suicide,
the sacristan is with the people when
the whole village goes down to the
shore and the fishing fleet puts out to
bury the poor wretch at sea, dignified
at least with their own passionately-
sung hymns and an urgently voiced
Ave Maria. Then they sail back and
make for the church and a true Mass
once more.

No one disputed that this is a
supremely well-made film, but the
wisdom of the way in which its
message was conveyed was queried.
According to God’s redemptive
plan, sinful man will turn from
Him but cannot rest away from
Him, and through man’s double
betrayal and need of Him, He chooses
to exercise His Divine mercy.

Astonished

One group of Italian journalists,
approaching the film in a severely
practical way, looking at it through the
lens of contemporary problems, feared
that it might be interpreted as an
attack on the priesthood or on
Catholicism in general. There was
even a question that the French would
be asked to withdraw it. This would
have caused deep offence as they were
astonished at the doubts raised and
could see no reason for the disquiet.

Eventually a special prologhe was
written to point out that this is an
historical film and not intended to be
a reflection on any contemporary state
of affairs ; doubters were reassured and
a brilliant and inspiring film received
the praise it deserves.

The Office International Catholique
du Cinema qualified it'- award by

pointing out that none of the films in
the festival exactly fitted the purpose
of the award, but that for its many
excellent qualities Dien a Besoin des
Hommes has been chosen. The Grand
Jury also gave it a prize.

Of the other films shown at the
festival it is difficult to generalise
apart from the single, inescapable
conclusion that the standard was
surprisingly low.

Blank

No British film as such received an
award, though the music of Gone to
Earth won a prize. Morning Departure,
The Blue Lamp and Seven Days to
Noon were well received and State
Secret enthusiastically, but its scope as
a film aiming solely at straightforward
light entertainment was too narrow to
allow of consideration for a prize. Lea
Padovani won the prize for her
performance in Give Us This Day.

The startling choice of The Dancing
Years was a source of embarrassment
to the English contingent and of
considerable amusement to delegates
from every other country. After
seeing three incredibly slow, over-
acted and one crudely coloured Mexican
films, the British raised their heads
again.

The Spanish films made heavy going
as did the Swedish and German ones,
particularly Epilogue and Frauenartz
Dr. Praetorius.

Disneys

The Americans had sene two
charming Disneys, Cinderella and
Beaver Valley, which were awarded.
September Affair and Once a Thief
were average. All the King’s Men,
Caged and Asphalt Jungle ruthless,
realistic and dynamic in the manner
now adopted so successfully by
Hollywood when it is unearthing its
own national scandals.

Eleanor Parker got a prize for her
performance as a first offender in
Caged and Sterling Hayden for his
study of a quiet, competent and
incurable criminal in Asphalt Jungle.

As much controversy was raised by
the presentation of Orpheus in Venice
as when it was shown in London,
Cocteau apparently having the same
effect abroad as on his French
co-nationals ; one either loathes him or
admires him with no reservations.

34S

Justice est Faite, awarded the first
prize, was to me a wordy stud}' of
mercy-killing, clearly argued and well
acted but lacking in dramatic and
visual appeal. La Vie Commence
Detnain, an episodic and over-simplified
story, showed what sort of Brave New
World the leaders of French thought
today envisage. La Ronde, cynical,
heartless, clever and amusing, treated
the theme of the round of love with
a light Gallic touch that took the
offensiveness out of a tricky subject.
Of the old F'rench films revived, Le
Jour Sc Leve and Les Enfants du
Paradis were the most welcome.

From Israel

It was depressing to see modern
Swedish productions after watching old
Greta Garbo achievements such as
Margherita Gauthier. .

Of two Israeli films, My Father’s
House treated post-war problems in a
touching but over-sentimentalised way,
whereas Out of Evil, with the same
integrity, had more power.

The Italians proved again unequalled
in human values. How is it that they
never lose that warmth no matter
whether the theme be trivial or tragic ?

Max Ophuls, one of the guest
directors in Venice, says the answer is
in the Italian people themselves. “Just
look around in every street ; there are
50 million born actors in Italy; the
worst ones go on the stage.”

Certainly the delicate acting of the
children in Domani e Troppo Tardi, a
study of adolescent awakening, can
never have been surpassed. One of the
few comedies, La Prima Comunione, got

a runner-up prize, with Aldo Fabrizi
(now Italy’s most lauded star) as the
harassed father who loses his little
girl’s First Communion dress at the
eleventh hour. Donne Senza Nome,
which received the Selsnick award for
the film that contributes most to mutual
understanding among the peoples of the
world, was to me the most heart-
rending film shown at the festival and,
indeed, one of the most edifying ever
to examine the miseries of war’s
aftermath.

The horrors depicted of a women’s
displaced persons’ camp are offset by
the way in which most of the inmates,
not unnaturally saintly, still rise nobly
above their personal tragedies so as to
help one another in a way that
exemplifies practically the brotherhood
of man in the fatherhood of God.

One short, unexpectedly delightful
Belgian film was Visite a Picasso.

Rossellini’s much-discussed Stromboli
left a fashionable public enthusiastic
(they had paid a guinea each for their
seats and in return, in addition to the
film, saw Ingrid Bergman sweep in on
Rossellini’s arm), but the critics
remained cold.

Even the critics, however, seemed
predisposed to admire his San
Francesco and it was with genuine
disappointment that most admitted its
failure to get near the subject. Visually
arresting, it nevertheless was lacking
altogether in the spirit of St. Francis,
gave no indication of the contemporary
world background that had made his
extremes necessary and over-simplified
to such an extent that he and his monks
seemed not childlike but childish.

RETURN TO THE CINEMA

By KATHLEEN CIANTAR

This is the story of why one person
stopped going to the cinema and, later,
became a film-goer again — this time,
a selective one.

Like most schoolchildren, I was a
confirmed film-goer from the moment
I saw my first film ; the chief
attraction was the serial. This never
failed to hold me enthralled ; week
by week I suffered agonies over
the fate of the heroine, a fate which
always came near to death — or worse.

Even when I had outgrown the
serial stage, the habit of “flicking”
remained and I can remember as an
undergraduate averaging two or three
shows a week. No doubt psychologists
would say that this was expediency
and escapism ; expediency, because the
theatre, which I would have preferred ;
was more expensive ; and escapism,
because the group of fellow students
with whom I went found the prospect of
three hours in a cinema more pleasant

349

than three hours in a science laboratory
—and, naturally, I agreed with them.
The strange thing is that I cannot
remember a single film of this phase
which I didn’t enjoy; which means that
in our opinion, there were at least
100-150 good films produced each year!

When I came down and lost the
constant companionship of my group
of fellow-wastrels, I found that the
cinema no longer attracted me, au
contraire, it rather revolted me. The
films I saw were so trashy, pseudo-
glamorous and often immoral that I
didn’t notice the occasional good ones.
I became ashamed of the fact that this
was the type of film that I had
previously enjoyed. Maybe it’s possible
to enjoy even trash in the right
company, when one can laugh at rather
than with the film — or maybe I am just
excusing myself for what was a severe
lack of discriminating power !

It wasn’t long before I became a
complete cine - cynic and refused
invitations to the cinema, considering
myself rather superior, “No, I never
go to films, thank you, they’re all so
stupid!” I was condescending enough
to tolerate the fact that most of my
friends still went, but I was glad of
the excuse — actually true — that I
always developed a headache in that
“foul atmosphere”.

Then, after wallowing in this self-
righteous attitude for five or six years,
I was, one evening, enveigled into
going to see a film ! It was such an
unusual event that I can still remember
every detail of the evening - — the
weather, what I wore, the strange
feeling of going into the cinema ; of
course, I was going to see something
dreadful — all films were dreadful — in
spite of the assurance of my companion
who had already seen the film during
its London run. It was Brief Encounter.

When we eventually emerged into the
cold November drizzle and stood
waiting for our ’bus, I felt exultant;
not the “I-told-you-so” kind, but the
"Good-heavens-it-caw-be-done” kind. I
had actually seen a good film; one with
a very real theme, portraying some of
the pitfalls which await even the best-
intentioned people. It made no pretence
of glamour; the heroine, at one point,
appeared shopping in the rain wearing
a mackintosh and a scarf turban.

I don’t want to give a review of this
particular film, but I mention it as
being, for me, the beginning of sensible
— or anyway, more sensible — film-going.
Presumably this was not the only good
film which had been made.

Since this memorable occasion, I
have enjoyed several films : some for
their light-hearted fun, wit or humour ;
some for the talent of the artists; some
for the magnificence of the photo-
graphy ; some for the excellent
portrayal of a good theme and some for
their educational value.

The fact that I have seen no really
bad films during this present phase is
not due to any vast improvement in
the standard of films being made, nor,
I hope, to my lack of discrimination,
but more to the fact that I now learn
something about a film before I see it.

Nowadays, when the cinema is what
it is, an enormous power for good or
evil, it is surely our duty to society to
do what we can to sway the direction
of this power towards the good : a

most pleasant duty, as it entails
enjoying and appreciating one of the
finest forms of art.

I have just realised that the Holy
Father knows what he’s talking about
when he says : “The motion picture has
achieved these last years a position of
universal importance among modern
means of diversion.” He also says
that : “Good motion pictures are

capable of exercising a profoundly
moral influence upon those who see
them”. Furthermore he points out
that : “It is necessary to influence the
production of all films so that they may
contain nothing harmful from a
religious or moral standpoint”, and that
there need be no question of merely
avoiding what is evil. “The motion
picture should not simply be a means
of diversion, a light relaxation to
occupy an idle hour : with its

magnificent power it can, and must, be
a bearer of light and a positive guide
to what is good.” Finally, lie directs
that in each country there be set up
“a permanent national reviewing office
in order to be able to promote good
motion pictures”. I suppose that is
what the Catholic Film Institute exists
for and perhaps we ought to give it
more of our .support in the work it is
doing, to bring about the realisation of
the Holy Father’s words.

350

Film Strips for the Teaching
of English

By Our Educational Panel

The film strips mentioned below
belong to a series produced by Ernest
J . Tyler and distributed by Educational
Productions Ltd., 17 Denbigh Street,
Victoria, London, S.WM. They are
made from the stills of famous films
with the permission and co-operation of
the J. Arthur Rank Organisation. They
are excellent photographs of scenes,
incidents and people full of character
and vitality. Pictures taken from
life have a great advantage over
reproductions of other pictures which
in some strips differ in style one from
another and so present an incongruous
representation of a book or play. Each
strip is accompanied by notes which
consist of extracts from the work
pictured as well as an account of events
sufficient to give a more or less
complete story. Sometimes scenes or
chapters are entirely omitted or
summarised very briefly without a
frame to illustrate them. The editor
states emphatically that the strips are
not meant to replace, but to illustrate,
the literature being read in the school.
The ways in which they may be used
for English lessons will be suggested
as several of the strips are considered
briefly.

Hamlet

This strip contains 50 frames of
excellent stills from Sir Lawrence
Olivier’s production of the play.
Little more than this need be said
about the quality of the pictures which
show the magnificent settings of the
court scenes and the dresses and
features of the actors : they bring the
play to life as the film did. The notes
are arranged to read as a story or as
a play with the dialogue describing
each picture set in brackets. The
foreword tells which speeches are
available on His Master’s Voice records.
Hamlet is not an easy play to teach.

Where it is studied intensively in a
VI form or acted in a dramatic society
these pictures could form subjects for
discussion as well as a convenient
revision scheme. But they might be
of even greater value with pupils who
would not get as far as reading Hamlet
in class, e.g., in the Modern School.
Such pupils would learn the story, hear
or read (according to their capacity)
the significant passages and this might
lead to discussion of some aspects of
the problems the play presents. After
this there is every hope that they
would wish to see the film or a stage
representation of the play and be able
to enjoy and appreciate it.

Henry V

There are 54 pictures specially
printed for the strip from the L.
Olivier production of the play. These
are supplemented by views of sixteenth
century London which give an idea of
the city as Shakespeare knew it, and
of the situation of the Globe Theatre.
These in themselves -are valuable for
the History teacher or for anyone
wishing to place the plays in their
context of time and background. The
strip is further enhanced by the
historical correctness of the dresses,
armour and weapons shown. As in
Hamlet appropriate H.M.V. records are
listed; these include the First Chorus,
“Once more unto the breach”, “Upon
the King” and “This is called the
feast of Crispin” and several others.

As Henry V is a play often taken
with middle forms in a Grammar School
the pictures of it are likely to prove
most useful. They will appeal to boys
especially as they show several views
of camp life, both grave and gay, and
besieged cities, as well as the battle-
fields where Welsh bowmen stand in
line ready to shoot or horsemen canter
across the plains. There are views of

351

the English and French courts which
are historically accurate. The book of
words gives a clear, brief version,
either by summarising the scene
illustrated by the picture or by
suggesting the appropriate speech to
be read or heard on the gramophone.
The strip is in every way a useful
adjunct to the study of the play.

Oliver Twist

(45 frames)

The story is given in the notes
largely in Dickens’ own words. But we
not only hear and read of the vile
slums of late eighteenth and nineteenth
century London, we also visit them in
this admirable selection of pictures
from the film. A good deal of social
history is contained in the early
pictures as in the early chapters of the
novel : the farming out of young
children, life in the Parish Workhouse
or in the narrow, sordid streets through
which small boys sometimes escape
from gaol or live with cruel, inhuman
masters have to be seen to be believed.
The later scenes are equally realistic
and are well chosen to illustrate the
story evenly throughout.

Great Expectations

(47 frames)

As in Oliver Twist the story is told
generally in the words of Dickens.
Frequently these novels are heavy
going for children on account of their
length and language used. By first
showing a strip of Great Expectations
the teacher v/ould be certain to arouse
interest : the “fearful man all in

coarse grey with a great iron on his
leg” shown in the second frame
would set the story going. Miss
Havisham’s house, breakfast room and
garden are full of suggestions, as are the
London scenes later. The river,
prison and criminal court arouse very
different feelings but by now the
children’s interest in the characters
should support them through these
scenes. Appropriate passages might be
read as the pictures are shown, but
perhaps a better way might be to run
through all the pictures with comments
by the teacher and children before
beginning to read the extracts.
Subjects like the making of a gentleman
and vicissitudes of Pip’s fortunes and
love might be gathered from the

pictures and woven into a story in the
children’s words, after which the
extracts or the whole book could be
read with more appreciation of
Dickens’ art and power.

Treasure Island

(45 frames)

The photographs are reproduced by
permission of R.K.O.-Walt Disney
Productions Ltd. R.L.S.’s vivid
descriptions spring to life for quite
young children as they see these
excellent pictures. The early frames of
the Admiral Benbow and the queer
customers who gather there, and the
streets of Bristol are followed by
graphic scenes at sea, the “Hispaniola”
with her sails and the murderous sea-
men, and lastly very good shots of the
island with tropical vegetation, the
stockade and the pre-historic looking
Ben Gunn. The end of the story is
not clear from the pictures as' it is
not meant to replace, only to augment,
the book. It is a strip well worth
adding to any collection of school film
strips.

It may be useful to summarise the
advantages to the teacher from the use
of these film strips :

1. They recall the film and show
what makes a good film. Thus they
provide material for discussion on
technique. They re-capture what
passes so quickly in the film.

2. They make a valuable revision of
the play or novel by letting the
children see and hear the chief scenes.
They bring the ends together, fore-
shorten, and so help them to grasp the
work as a whole.

3. It might be possible to use them

as a welcome variation on context
questions. For example, if the scene
showing the Artful Dodger leading
Oliver to Fagin’s den were put on the
screen the children could describe
the event and say where it comes in
the story. The events between two
pictures could be given as written
exercises : the significance of a picture
with respect to the whole play could
be asked for : speeches suitable to

appearance and gesture of a character
could be given. And many other
useful exercises will certainly suggest
themselves as the strips are used.

352

SHORT NOTICES
Religious Film Strips

Low Mass

By John Gilliek, S.J. 80 pictures
(double frame) 12s. 6d. Obtainable
from : The Film Strip Secretary,
Heythrop College, Chipping Norton,
Oxon.

A really excellent strip— outstanding
in value from every point of view.
Many of the photographs are those
which appear in the book “The
Breaking of Bread”, by Father
Coventry.

Lourdes

B.I.F., No. 184. 36 frames. Price 10s.

Obtainable from British Instruc-
tional Films, Film House, Wardour
Street, W.l.

Good photographs of the town, of
places connected with St. Bernadette
and of typical incidents which occur in
the course of a pilgrimage make this a
useful strip. Does not attempt to be
“devotional”, but arouses interest.

N.B. — Both these strips will be
reviewed in full in the next issue.

Xext month’s article : “ History :

Filins and Strips”.

The

Catholic Film Institute
Production

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

will be shown at the

HAMMER THEATRE

113 Wardour St., W.l
at 8 p.m. on

November 1st— 3rd, 6th,
7th, 13th— 17th, 20th-

24th, all dates inclusive ♦

Doors open 7-30 p.m.
Admission free Collection

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

If you have an opinion to express, a comment to make, an idea to offer,
the Editor will be delighted to hear from you.

Brickbats and Bouquets

Sir,

I wonder why your correspondent,
D. B. Wallace, should assume that
brickbats constitute the larger part of
our postbag ? His welcome compliment
however, is none the less acceptable
for having this back-handed com-
pletion! As Secretary of the C.F.I., I
can assure him that most of our letters
are complimentary ones, but we prefer
to publish the brickbats when they are
reasonable on the grounds that only
good can come from the honest
expression of contrary points of view.
We welcome all criticism and do our
best to benefit by it.

The only criticisms we are inclined
:o resent are those which are merely

destructive and give us no credit for
the thought and labour which is, in
fact, behind all our efforts.

J. A. V. Burke.

Subject for a Catholic Film

. Sir,

... I could not help comparing it
( The Wooden Horse) with the Jesuit
Father Gerard’s escape from the Tower.
He has left us the thrilling story in his
own words and a new edition of this
autobiography is soon to appear.
Treated as deftly as The H'ooden Horse,
what a wonderful film it would make.
What a subject for a Catholic
production unit !

J. R. Wingfieed-Digby, S.J.

Cover Personality Donald

Readers sometimes write to express
astonishment that, as Focus is the
organ of the Catholic Film Institute,
not all the personalities featured on our
cover are Catholics. There is no
particular reason why they should be.
Though we are delighted to learn that
such and such an actor or actress is a
member of the Church our primary
object in mentioning them is to let our
readers know that we think our cover
personalities are contributing something
valuable to the art and craft of Cinema.

It would be easy but, we think, not
very constructive, to co"py the policy of
the “fan magazines” and show-
glamorous blondes and crinkly-haired
Tarzans. We still think that our
readers, in the main, wish to be
informed about films, not to use them
as potential wall-coverings or dope for
day-dreaming.

This month we introduce an actor
whom we consider to be one of the most
promising of the younger British group
who are demonstrating that, given
reasonable stories, imaginative camera-
work, adequate direction and a proper
understanding of the British ethos as
well as the power to express it in
cinematic terms, there is no reason
why international critics should not
acclaim the British school of film as
they do the French or Italian or
Swedish.

James Donald, who was born in
Aberdeen, studied under the famous
Michel St. Denis, the brilliant French
producer, at the London Theatre Studio.
His career at Edinburgh University
gave him that poise and polish which
is the characteristic of so many of the
the best British actors. The Old Vic,
too, had its part in forming him as it
has formed so many other distinguished
members of the stage. That in addition
to tours in Noel Coward plays, provided

the all-round ability for character
portrayal which marks the competent
stage actor as contrasted with the girl
or boy who comes to the film-studio on
the strength of a beaut}- competition or
the fact of a successful career in
advertising hair cream. The latter
tyros may, in fact, develop into
efficient actors, but the chances are
against them, whereas the actor who
has gone through the mill of stage
training with first-class players always
has something worthwhile to show the
director of films.

James Donald entered films in 1942
in In Which We Serve. This was
followed by Went The Day Well and
San Demetrio, both produced by Ealing
Studios and both films in which the
careful casting and excellent team-work
militated against any particular actor
being featured where all were so good.
This was also the case, to some extent,
with The Way Ahead, directed by Carol
Reed, on which our Reviewer said :
“The film is a triumph of good team-
work and, at the close, you feel that
between the actors, honours are even.”

Service in H.M. Forces and periods
of stage work hyphenated James
Donald’s next films. Broken Journey,
in 1948, was his first featured role and
confirmed the judgment of some
discerning critics that given a credible
part (which was not the case in Broken
Journey) he could rise to the heights.
The opportunity was, in some measure,
provided by The Small Voice in which,
with Valerie Hobson, he turned in a
very pleasing study of a husband on the
verge of making shipwreck of his
marriage. His latest film, Cage of
Gold, strengthens our opinion about an
intelligent actor who is capable of the
best, if it be offered him.

John Vincent.

FILMS FOR HUMANITY

An independent, non profit-making organisation contributing
towards the spiritual welfare of humanity through film

Sir John Stewart-Wallace, C.B., Chairman
Andrew Buchanan, Managing Director
Gerald Bailey, M.A. Rev. John A. V. Burke

Lt. Cdr. H. Ronald Hardy Hugh J. Schonfieid

Alfred Torrie, M.A., M.B., D.P.M.

Advisory Council

Catholic Film Institute
Churches’ Council of Healing
Crusade for World Government
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Society of Friends’ Peace Committee
Humanity Now

National Association for Mental Health
Theosophical Society
World Citizenship Movement
World Congress of Faiths

Administration :

Parliament Mansions, Abbey Orchard St., Victoria St.

London, S.W.1.

Production :

Park Studios, Putney Park Lane, London, S.W.15

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Film
Institute, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7.

COLUMBIA PICTURES

The Smallest & most Colourful State in the IVorlsI

*VW! .IS***. ®

Colour by
TECHNICOLOR

t f ^5ooaO'w0!Vw°

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the issue, and enclose remittance value

NAME AND ADDRESS to which copies are to be sent :

To: The Manager, FOCUS, The Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7.
Please make remittances payable to The Catholic Film Institute. The annual
subscription is 7/-, post free.

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remittance value for year(s) subscription.

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Subscription rates : Life Member, £10 ; Privileged Member, £1 ; Ordinary

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Subscribers of £l and upwards are entitled to receive all new pamphlet
publications issued during their year of membership, together with a monthly
copy of FOCUS. Ordinary Members receive FOCUS.

Please return completed form to The Hon. Secretary, Catholic Film Institute,
The Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7. Kindly make cheques,
etc., payable to The Catholic Film Institute.

Catholic Film Institute

16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Titles include :

Pilgrimage to Fatima
Rome of the Pilgrims
Holy Year

Crucifers to Walsingham

The Sacrifice We Offer
( Silent Version also available)
Monsieur Vincent
Farrebique
To Live in Peace

A Legend of Norfolk

Bookings can be accepted now for Hans Nieter’s beautiful
colour film THE VATICAN

All particulars from the Librarian,

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE, BLUE COTTAGE,
SUMNER PLACE MEWS, LONDON, S.W.7.

Vol. Ill

No. 12

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page Page

Editorial 355

Focus Film Course 356

By Am’ ew Buchanan

The JFilm and Ennui 357

By J. J. Curie

Sub-Standard Service 358

Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

Two Flags West

... 359

Mr. Music

... 359

Pilgrimage to Fatima

... 360

City Lights

... 362

Treason

... 363

The Elusive Pimpernel ...

... 364

The Glass Menagerie

... 364

Harriet Craig

... 366

Macadam

... 367

Girl of the Year

... 367

The Mudlark

... 368

The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady 370

Three Secrets 370

The Wolf of the Sila 370

Return of the Frontiersman ... 371

If You Feel Like Singing ... 371

The Woman With No Name ... 371

After the Storm 372

Pagliacci 372

The Magnet 372

La Beaute Du Diable 374

Woman on the Run 374

Emmet Lavery’s “First Legion”

to be Filmed 376

B\- William H. Mooring

Augustinian Film 377

Book Review 377

Institute Notes 378

Letters to the Editor 379

FIistory Teaching Aids 380

By Our Educational Panel
Cover Personality

FOCUS — Annual Subscription: 7s. (post free). Single Copy: 7d. (post free).

Glasgow agents: Messrs, dames Reilly and Co., 68 Gordon Street, Glasgow, C.l.

FOCUS — May be obtained from: The Manager, “The Blue Cottage,”
69 Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7. Telephone: Kensington
6849. Duckett, 140 Strand, London, W.C.2. Telephone: Temple
Bar 3008/9. Catholic Truth Society, 28a Ashley Place, London,
S.W.l. Michael White, 15 Broad Street Place, London, E.C.2.
Telephone: London Wall 1389.

International Film Review

Quarterly organ of the International Catholic Cinema Office

Subscription rate: £1 per annum
No. 5 — Holy Year Number — now available
Obtainable from:

“International Film Review”, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London,
S.W.7. The only true international film review dealing with the Cinema
on a Christian basis. Specimen copy on application.

FOCUS: kevfi^

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. Ill

DECEMBER 1950

No. 12

Cbe Spirit of Christmas

'“THE spirit of Christmas is
enshrined in Our Lady’s mag-
nificat which is a song of gratitude,
joy and exultation. Christmas is,
therefore, an appropriate time to
express my gratitude to all readers
of Focus for their kindness,
co-operation, support and sympathy
during the past year.

It is the people who read this
publication who are the important
people. You can get an Editor any
time. It is not so easy to find a
public. Anyone who has had
experience in a publishing business
is aware that the public can kill or
crown a publication. The letters of
goodwill and constructive criticism
which we receive from various parts
of the world lead us to believe that
Focus will live to a ripe (and we
hope wise) old age.

At this joyful season (although it
is very cold) I take off every hat I
possess to our reviewers who are a
most considerate and gentlemanly
body of men. The reviewers are the
life blood of Focus. I wish
A., B., Cf, V., Q., and all the rest
of them, a very Happy Christmas

and much wit and wisdom in the
year to come. It would be an
impertinence to offer any sort of
thanks to our Manager for we both
paddle the same canoe; but I give
her a special Christmas salute. I
also wish to express my gratitude to
the many people who have written
for Focus. during the past year and
I want to say that every encourage-
ment is given Jo new writers who
have something to say about the
cinema. My best wishes also to the
committee of the Catholic Film
Institute, most especially to our
Reverend Chairman who has to bear
the heat and the burden of the years.

Christmas is the feast of Truth
. . . “And the WORD was made
flesh and dwelt amongst us’’. Truth
is the revealed word of God and
God’s word must be the last word on
any subject. To tell the Truth is
the most important thing in the
world. Focus endeavours to spread
the light and the music of Truth
through the light and the sound of
the cinema. In this sense Christmas
has a special significance for mem- •
bers of the film Apostolate.

Editor. •

FOCUS FILM COURSE

By ANDREW BUCHANAN
No. 1 1— FILM MUSIC

One may listen to music consciously,
as at a concert, or unconsciously when
it provides what has become known as
“background” for a film. In the
former case, all one’s .attention
is given to the music ; in the
latter, the music plays a secondary
part to the scenes we are watching,
and if it has been sensitively scored
and recorded we may well remain
unconscious of having heard it at all.
Sometimes, background music is so
loud it dominates a film and distracts
attention from the visual and/or verbal
narration, but one should blame the
recorder, not the music.

The discovery that music brings films
to life and heightens their dramatic
values was made in the days of the
silent film, when cinemas employed
orchestras as in theatres, and entire
programmes were scored with suitable
music. In London’s leading cinemas
surprisingly large orchestras were
resident, and music was specially
composed to accompany films, the
orchestral parts being .sent out with
copies of the films when the subjects
were generally released. 'To view a
silent or even a talking film before
music has been added is known as
seeing it “cold”. Music warms up a
film in an astonishing way.

Equally astonishing is the fact that
it rarely seems out' of place. For
instance, we well know that orchestras
are not usually to be found on mountain
tops, in coal mines or playing during
a surgical operation, and yet when
music accompanies such scenes on the

screen it becomes an integral part of
the film and, though we may not
realise it, is giving dramatic emphasis
to the sequences.

Disney’s cartoons have always
exemplified the supreme importance of
music in film. Here indeed is a
universal language. The combining of
music with film reached great heights
at the peak of silent film presentation,
and then it was ousted by dialogue,
but not for long. It crept back, first
in musical and vocal films, spectacular
dance shows, and so on, and later in
background form, which I have
described. However, it is only in
recent years that certain producers
have found in music wedded to film a
new language capable of lifting the
medium out of the national mould into
which it has become wedged.
Ambitious features made in this country
have employed specially composed or
adapted music as never before, in such
subjects as The Red Shoes and, due
shortly, Tales of Hoffmann, in which
music can be said to provide the actual
foundations upon which the film is
constructed.

Until one has wrestled with film,
spending hours cutting and editing
visuals, it is difficult to realise the
extent to which a sound track full of
dialogue restricts and governs the flow
of visuals, whereas scenes containing
a minimum of human speech can be
freely assembled to create maximum,
pictorial values, and when music is
added to the result, film truly- flowers.

FOCUS INDEX

A complete index of FOCUS: A Film Review, Vols. I and II,
is now available. Copies may be obtained from the Manager,
Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7, on receipt
of stamps to the value of ljd.

357

A Positive Approach to the Cinema
| No. 5

THE FILM AND ENNUI

By J. J. CURLE

The more civilised a nation is, the
more things its members must not do.
That is unfortunately the essence of
modern civilisation. The rules may
not, in many cases, be codified, but
they* are none the less absolute and
their infringement always brings
censure or some form of social
punishment. The savage, on the other
hand, is comparatively free in the
sense that, though he has only a
limited horizon, the sanctions on his
conduct are mainly ones which he can
observe without too fierce repression of
his natural instincts.

Art is, to a great extent, the
civilised man’s answer to this limitation
on his freedom. He wishes to escape
to a world where the logic of the mind
or the heart can be followed
unhindered from its premises to its
conclusions. If this path is artificially
bent, or straightened so as to arrive
at easily appreciated conclusions which
do not genuinely follow from the
premises used, such art is called
escapist— but all art is in essence an
escape. Art is an attempt to condense
experience into a form in which
inessentials are pared away and the
central core of meaning alone remains.
It is, in fact, a means of short-
circuiting irrelevance, chaos and all the
inadequacy and frustration of everyday
human life. But this escape is not
negative in its effects. It is a stimulant
and by its aid we break out, not from
life into dreams, but from the prison
of the walled-off ego into life. Through
the arts we learn to see and hear and
feel over a wider range and with
sharpened faculties to penetrate deeper
into the amazing variety of life and
our own consciousness.

With bad or dishonest art, however,
the core is lacking, and the paring away
of detail reveals not riches but poverty.
In a book whose action does not spring

from character no complete feeling of
identification arises between the
author’s creations and the reader. The
intelligent find such a book “unreal”
because it lacks this central integrity,
while to the less intelligent it is unreal
as experience by the mere fact of
being a book — of imposing itself on
them through print from an external
object held in the hand and therefore
“separate”. In painting and music
bad art has the same effect. For the
intelligent it betrays, whether they can
pin-point it or not, a lack of some
central core of unity, while to the
unintelligent or unperceptive . all
painting and music are external
experiences with only literary or
descriptive, not personal meanings.
Tliat is to say the listener to music,
the viewer of paintings or the reader
of books do not expect to live at the
pitch of what they see or hear or read.
Therefore, if what they choose is weak,
it is a weakness they inspect rather
than a weakness which inhabits them.

But the cinema has found a way to
penetrate the unintelligent and the
unperceptive so that it is no longer,
like the other arts, objective — an
alternative to life, but subjective — life
itself. This it does by the use of four
means. It presents itself in a dark
place ; it presents itself in a large
size ; it uses emotional rhythm
both in its cutting and its accom-
panying music, and it bases itself
on living detail. Darkness rules out
everything except the viewer and the
screen and cancels the distance between
them, thus establishing ' a relationship
which, while still objective, is almost
as close as that of the foetus to the
womb. The large size of the picture
and the rhythmic cradling of its sound
accompaniment and composition create
a hypnotic effect in which the viewer
slides imperceptively from objective to

I

358

subjective participation. And the air
of reality outside of which the self
starts to doubt the evidence of its
senses is maintained by the “realism”
of the detail which corresponds to what
the lower self accepts as life. When
therefore the film lies about life it does
not put a lie before the viewer but
inside him. When it makes a false
simplification it makes the mind of the
lazy accept that falsity as truth. The
parts — the details — have registered on
the mind as true to experience,
therefore the conclusion— the sum of
the parts — must also be true and
experience, if correctly divined, must
be this conclusion.

But the film, even if bad art, is still
art and therefore a condensation,
showing no parallel to all the less
important hours of which our life is
mainly composed. Therefore, if the
film is our subjective standard life,
these in-between hours are not life at
all but only the evidence of our
incomprehension or of some objective
hindrance which prevents us having a
truly rich existence. The more the film
tends to become the standard the more
its “subjects” become dissatisfied with
their normal existences discounting
their in-between hours, using them
only for dreams not for action.

Thus there is gradually produced in
large sections of the population a drug

effect in which thought (which respects
passivity) is discounted and even action
becomes merely its own sensations
robbed of their purposes. As with all
drugs the dose has to be steadily
increased to remain effective — and at a
certain point it ceases to be effective.
The final result is then a permanent
ennui or desolation in which life is
found to be unreal by the standard of
film life and therefore not worth living,
while the film life is found to be
unreal and therefore unobtainable.

There is no glib answer that one can
give to the problem of what is to be
done about this tragic progression.
Theoretically the circle can be broken
into either by giving a better education
to the public which will lead to a
demand for better films, or by making
better films and thus leading to the
improvement of taste. But the film
being primarily a commercial
proposition and the product of many
talents, few of which are artistic, these
alternatives provide only Utopian or at
any rate very long-term answers. There
is another possible answer that has been
tried before and may hold the key, and
that is to retreat from naturalism, to
take the film with its unrivalled
fluidity out of the realm of actuality and
into the r.ealm of reality. But there, I
don’t suppose that would be box-office
— though there was Hamlet.

Sub-Standard Service

If you have a problem connected with
16mm. projector or camera work, send
it along to Sub-Standard Service, Blue
Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London,
S.W.7. If an immediate reply is
required, send stamped, addressed
envelope. Questions will be answered
in a subsequent issue of Focus.

Q. I have in my possession an
Amprosound 16mm. Projector. The
picture is excellent, very clear and a
pleasure to look at. The trouble is
with the sound. The sound system
works by excited lamp, then
transmitted to the amplifier. Lately
someone has tampered with the exciter
lamp lens and it has lost, as a
consequence, all the sharpness of the
sound . . . My difficulty is how can I
know how to set the lens properly, and

is there any instrument or special film
to test the exact sound as regards
clarity and sharpness ?

I have ordered a lens from America,
but Malta is 'a sterling country and
we cannot pay dollars. In case I
cannot obtain such a lens from America,
could I find the agents of the Ampro
machines in England, and could they
supply me with such a lens ?

Rev. Lewis Darmanin, O.P., Malta.

A. For maximum efficiency of sound
the exciter optical system should be
set at 5,000 cycles. The agents for the
Amprosound Projector in this country
are Messrs. Simplex-Ampro Ltd.,
167/169 Wardour Street, London, W.l.
They are well stocked with spares,
and can send any parts required
immediately.

TWO FLAGS WEST

Starring: Joseph Cotten, Linda

Dam ell, Jeff Chandler, Cornel
Wilde, with Dale Robertson, Jay
C. Flippen, Noah Beery, Harry
von Zell, John Sands, Arthur
Hunnicutt. Producer: Carey

Robinson . Director: Robert

Wise. Distributors: 20th Century-
Fox. Certificate : U. Category :
B. Running time-. 92 minutes.

Scene: Obscure fort on U.S.A.

frontier. ‘

Time: Last year of American Civil
war.

Background music: Dixie , generally
played slowly and in minor key. (See
“Time” above.)

General idea: Confederate prisoners-
of-war are released in order to help
fight Indians (Red).

Nice men: Joseph Cotten and Cornel
Wilde, one from South and the other
from North, but both regular Americans.

Nasty man: Jeff Chandler. But he
does lay down his life for the others.

Glamour: Linda Darnell in smart

Yankee uniform with riding skirt.
Widow of the Nasty man’s (see above)
brother. Her brother-in-law “likes to
have her around”. But he “makes her
feel unclean”.

Very nasty men when wantonly
provoked: Indians (Red) ad lib.

Worth seeing (as always): Covered
wagons, wide open spaces and galloping
horses.

Special feature: Long and bloodv
battle. Fire and slaughter and how.
Too realistic for Category “C”. But
normal bloodthirsty schoolboy will revel
in every minute’ of it. Can’t help
feeling that whoever gave “U”
certificate must have a boy of his own.
When nasty man (see above) leaves

fort to give himself up to Indians (Red)
be prepared for bloodcurdling whoop
from latter, or you may jump right out
of your seat like lady in front of me.

Spiritual Bouquet: Very happy

Christmas to all kind readers from Q.

MR. MUSIC

Starring: Bing Crosby, Nancy Olson,
Charles Coburn, with Robert
Stack, Tom Ewell, Charles
Kemper, Marge and Gower
Champion. Producer: Robert L.
Welch. Director: Richard Haydn.
Distributors: Paramount.

Certificate-. U. Category : B.

Running time: 114 minutes.

You have all heard the sounds
emitted by Bing. Have you ever
speculated as to their origin ? This
film begins by letting us in on the
secret. They first happen when he is
asleep.

Mr. Music is the title of a play
which takes a lot of composing. But a
secretary, whose devotion to duty
obliges her to live in and wThose sense
of propriety requires that a comic aunt
should live in too, and several guest
artists for the opening night insure
that the show eventually goes on. One
of the guest artists is Groucho Marx.
It is perhaps unfortunate that the only
vulgar moment in the film, which he
provides, should also be the most
cleverly funny.

If you think that the children won’t
be bored by nearly two hours fictional
demonstration of how song composers
work and don’t wTork, there is no
reason why you should not take them.
The only harm the film could do would
be to put romantic ideas into the heads
of stenographers.

Q.

Portuguese children fulfil Our Lady’s request

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PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

A Catholic Film Institute Production

TT is the film critic’s job (and
responsibility) to find out what a
film is trying to say, then to judge
whether what is being said is good, bad
01 indifferent. What is being said, the
doctrine which informs a film, is
the most important part of a film.
But, the manner in which ideas are
expressed is important too; it is part of
the critic’s duty to determine whether
the ideas in the film have been
expressed in the best possible manner.

(I)

THE SOUL OF THE FILM

In the film under review we see
cinema being used for the noblest of

purposes; to record and spread the
amazing facts of the supernatural
appearances of Our Lady at Fatima.
If the facts of Fatima are true, and
we know that they are true, they
should be shouted from the house-tops;
every medium of spreading ideas
should be used to inform the world
that in our time God has spoken
through His mother, who has revealed
to us a way of peace. It is fitting
that the cinema which is the most
popular medium of reaching the
masses should be used to help the
world to understand Our Lady’s
message. Those who have made this
film have done something worth while.

. . . the vision

No false emphasis has been used in
presenting the facts. The film works
up to a climax in such manner that we
are persuaded that the one weapon
which will destroy Communism which
is endeavouring to destroy Christianity
is . . . The Rosary. The soul of this
film is wholesome. To a mad world
it teaches a sane philosophy.

(II)

ITS MANNER OF EXPRESSION

There are some lovely and moving
moments in this film; nevertheless I
do not think that it has been presented
in the best technical and artistic
manner.

The film’s good points. There is a
quality about the acting of the child
who plays Lucia in the introductory
mime which is surprising and
most pleasing. The sequence in
which we see the pilgrims waving
goodbye to Our Lady is both pictur-
esque and moving (this is a fine piece
of film reporting) . The script is
^ dignified, it at no time surmounts the
W visuals. Fr. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.,
the commentator, sounds like a man,
you can hear what he is saying, he has
a rich, round, resonant voice and he
speaks with an obvious, but un-self-
conscious sincerity. The photography
is very good.

Its weak points. It seems to me that
the creators of this film worked with-

. . . the miracle of the sun

out a shooting-script, which is like
trying to build a house without a clear
clean-cut plan. Better planning would
have given us better editing and there
would have been less wastage of
celluloid.

It was a nice idea to ask His Lord-
ship Bishop Craven to introduce the
film; but he does more than introduce
it, he becomes a major character in the
film. Three minutes on the screen
would have been adequate for His
Lordship, then Fr. Hilary should have
taken over and the mime, which was
a good find, should not have been
allowed to suffer interruptions. I also
think that boys should have been used
to play the male parts in the mime if
only for the sake of credibility.

CONCLUSION

In spite of some obvious technical
and artistic weaknesses this is a good
and an important film. What I said
about it after I first saw it some
months ago I say again . . . "In a
world grown musty and morbid with
materialism this supernatural story is
like a breath of sweet clean fresh air".

Already Pilgrimage to Fatima has
made its appeal to many people’s
hearts. And when all is said and
done, man’s heart is more important
than art.

Declan Flynn, O.F.M.

362

Charlie meets a millionaire (Harry Myers)

CITY LIGHTS

Starring: Charles Chaplin, Virginia

Cherill, Harry Myers, Allan
Garcia and Hank Mann. Written,
Directed and Produced by Charles
Chaplin. Distributors: United

Artists. Certificate : U. Category :
B. Running time : 85 minutes.

Chaplin devised this film as “a
comedy romance in pantomime”.
Resisting the challenge of the talkies,
he deliberately set about making a
silent picture, convinced that
pantomime was universal and better
suited to his style. The few captions
that are necessary to help the story are
brief and to the point.

Looking at it again after 20 years one
is struck by the fact that though
filmieally it is unadventurous and asks
no more of the camera than to register
his antics, the old magic of the screen’s
greatest clown is still powerful and

easily survives the competition of the
modem mieroplionic school.

It will be interesting to note the effect
of the film on those youngsters who
have never seen a vintage Chaplin.
Before the film was halfway through,
the press show was a gathering of
giggling and roaring Chaplin fans.

The story is basically sentimental
and tells of the love of a tramp for a
blind flower-girl, who is eventually
cured as a result of the tramp’s efforts
to earn money for the purpose. She
does not recognise her benefactor in the
tattered being to whom she offers a
coin.

The comedy is a clever mixture of 4K
slapstick and satire and the traditional v"
pathos of the clown who gets slapped.

There is the vulgarity at certain points
inevitably associated with a film by
Chaplin, but it is never of such a
nature as to make the film morally
objectionable. In any case it seems to
me that the essence of true Chaplin
situations is such as to be fully'
appreciated only' by alert adults. V.

363

TREASON

Starring: Paul Kelly, Bonita Gran-
ville, Richard Derr and Charles
Bickford. Director: Felix Feist.
Distributors: Monarch Film

Corporation. Certificate : U .

Category: B. Running time: 86
minutes.

This film was made with the object
of trying to inform the general public
of the truth behind the “trial” of
Cardinal Mindszenty. Considerable
efforts were made by interested parties
to have the film suppressed. It is to
the credit of the producers, a group of
Jewish and non-Catholic Christians that

the script was eventually made into a
moving picture.

It is entirely without “frills” and
deals factually with the arrest and trial
of the Cardinal and the methods used
to try to discredit him in the eyes of
the world.

Charles Bickford gives a quiet but
forceful study of the Cardinal. Paul
Kelly as an Ulster-born American
journalist gives a competent picture
of the newspaperman who thinks that
“liberty is everybody’s business” and
tries to unravel the secrets behind the
facade offered to the public. Bonita
Granville as a Jewish schoolteacher
who resists the attempts to Sovietise her
country, makes up the third of the
denominational characters required to
give the film the broad appeal it is
intended to have. V.

Cardinal Mindszenty (Charles Bickford) is arrested for treason

364

THE ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL
Starring: David Niven and Margaret
Leighton, with Jack Hawkins,
Cyril Cusack, Robert Coote.
Producers and Directors: Michael
Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Distributors: British Lion. In

technicolor. Certificate : U.

Category : B. Running time:

109 minutes.

Ve are told that it is from a romance
by Baroness Orczy, and the operative
word is “from”. There is, of course,
nothing sacrosanct about the works of
the late authoress in question, but in
Sir Percy Blakeney what she gave to
our English myth was a romantic
figure who cloaks his heroism under an
affectation of inanity which, however,
never lapses from dignity. The

Pimpernel of a few years back, with
Leslie Howard in the title role,
preserves this air of dignity.

In this version by Powell and
Pressburger we have a very different
conception. The Pimpernel of David
Niven brings in a new mixture in the
style of Bob Hope (wisecracks) and
Douglas Fairbanks, senior (swinging
acrobatics). Admittedly it is all very-
amusing as well as thrilling, unless you
have some degree of nostalgia, not so
much for the Orczian Pimpernel, but
for the age at which you were able
to glow with simple-hearted admiration
for the admirable English nobleman
triumphing over French revolutionaries
far from admirable. It was a happy-
excess of one Englishman being a
match for ten Frenchmen and of
knavish tricks confounded. As a child
will suffer no deviation in the unfolding
of a familiar tale, so I like my
Pimpernel according to the book — just
as 1 stand by Dream Days and The
Golden Age.

Other comparisons with the Howard
film are inevitable. I seem to
remember Merle Oberon’s Lady'
Blakeney as more animated than this
one of" Margaret Leighton. Cyril
Cusack, with perfect timing of word
and gesture, gives a performance tvhich
does not suffer by comparison with
Raymond Massey’s mastery of the part
of the sinister Chauvelin. Whoever
seeks to portray the Prince Regent in

future will have the interpretation of
Jack Hawkins to haunt him either into
imitation or difficult avoidance.

The outdoor scenes, both in France
and at Bath, England, are very
pleasing. For one who is ever delighted
by the Palladian magnificence of Prior
Park, it was a memorable moment
when one recognised the colonnaded
terrace, looking down again at the
fairy setting of the temple. The studio
sets are not always quite convincing,
particularly that of the sequence
reminiscent of the Colonel Blimp film.
You will know the one I mean when
you see the film, as you almost
certainlv will.

. X.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Starring: Jane Wyman, Kirk Douglas,
Gertrude Lawrence, Arthur
Kennedy. Producers: Jerry Wald
and Charles K. Feldman.
Director: Irving Rapper.

Distributors: Warner Brothers.

Certificate : U. Category : B.

Running time : no minutes.

Besides first-rate acting by- the stars,
both individually and as a team, there
is a welcome quality- about this film for
which I cannot find the exact name ;
perhaps “humanity” is the nearest
word. The mother who has come
down in the world, with her everlasting
reminiscences of her girlhood in a
southern State, of high society- and
suitors galore, with her nagging, her
semi-medical claptrap, her pretentious
stupidity and exasperating repetitions,
is a dreadful and ridiculous woman.
No wonder her husband walked out one
day- and never came back. No wonder
her son is always answering back and
her crippled daughter, whose hobby is
collecting glass animals, does not find
her easy- to confide in. .

Yet all the time Gertrude Lawrence
makes us feel that she is really devoted
to her children. And for all their
bickering there is a real bond of
affection between the three remaining
members of the family. They are all
likeable people, even the mother. And
when in answer to her pray-ers a
“gentleman caller” at last materialises
to take some interest in lame Laura, he

365

. . . Jane Wyman
scores another
success in a
character study of
an unusual, shy girl
called Laura

too is essentially likeable, for all liis
gum - chewing, bumptious normality.

The theme of a shy, unusual girl
being “brought out” by the kindly
interest of a man is obvious enough.
But here it is developed with
exceptional skill. In the dance hall
particularly, words — and silences —
acting, facial expressions, the way
the camera is used, even the
particular tune played by the baud,
combine to produce a sequence which
is very good indeed. Just before and
after the moment when Laura says :
“The smoke has got into my eyes”,
my sentiment - resistance, hardened
though it is against frequent crude
onslaughts in the cinema, gave way
completely and it wasn’t smoke that
was in my eyes. Perhaps this was

intensified by the fact that I anticipated
the girl’s subsequent disappointment.

The film notably weakens itself by
its final hint of a conventionally happy
ending in the more remote future. For
the “gentleman caller” was actually
someone whom Laura had previously
known and secretly cared for and I do
not believe that a girl of her type would
have transferred her affection. To some
who have nothing but “the pictures” to
provide them with a philosophy of life
this film may be of real value. But
whereas “lame dogs” and “ugly
ducklings” are rightly encouraged to
hope for real happiness even in this
life, it is wiser and less deceptive not
to identify it necessarily with “meeting
somebody else”.

O.

366

HARRIET CRAIG

Starring: Joan Crawford, Wendell

Corey. Producer: William Dozier.
Director: Vincent Sherman. A

Columbia Picture. Certificate : A.
Category-. A. Running time : 94
minutes.

tile love of a husband who is under-
standing and kindly. She has got all
she wants — except happiness. Her
relentless persuit of self estranges her
from all her devoted friends, • and
finally even from her husband (Wendell
Corey). Money, luxury, power bring
her no peace, and eventually confine
her in the narrow cage of a hell of
loneliness.

Do not think, however, that because
this could be called a sermon in film
on the text : “It is more blessed to
give than to receive,” it is mere
moralising, and therefore not worth
seeing. On the contrary it is a most
fascinating study of real life. Harriet’s
character is not an exaggeration. She
can he found, only too often, where
wealth abounds and where wives are
deliberately childless. Her pursuit of
self makes her ugly, lonely and

Scenes from “Harriet Craig”

This film, which is a rather obvious
adaptation of a play, is a character
study rather than a story. Nothing
very much happens, but one is
introduced to people whose traits and
reactions are of absorbing interest.
The central figure is Harriet Craig
(Joan Crawford) who is an attractive,
masterful, possessive and selfish
woman, who in spite of getting
everything she wants is a miserable
woman indeed. Reared in impoverished
circumstances, she has, by force of
personality, charm, and an iron will,
obtained wealth, a beautiful home and

367

wretched. Has self-seeking ever done
otherwise ?

Nor is this film just a one man — or
rather a one woman — show. All the
characters are worthy of close attention,
and their personalities are shown up in
their reactions to and their contrast
with the dominant figure. Mrs. Frazier
(Fiona O’Shiel), as a gentle, thoughtful
young widow, is a happy and balanced
person who has learned to bear trouble
with gVace and poise. Mrs. Flarold
(Viola Roache) is a woman of dignity
wlio patiently bears with the
unreasonableness and injustice of her
mistress. Clare (K. T. Stevens),
Harriet’s neice, is a decent straight-
forward girl who is always generously
eager to help. And Mr. Craig is a
reallv devoted husband who does
evervthing possible to make his wife
happy. Their patient and long suffering
service of Harriet goes on until it can

go on no longer — until, being thwarted,
she perpetrates injustices too gross to
be borne.

This is a film to be seen, not only
because of its salutary content, but
because it is quite superbly acted.

MACADAM

Starring: Fran£oise Rosay, Paul

Meurisse, Simone Signoret and
Andree Clement. Director:
Marcel B'listene. Supervised by

Jacques Feyder. Distributors:
Film Traders, Ltd. Certificate:
A. Category: A.

If your taste is for thieves’ kitchens
in Montmartre, in which crime is
suitablv punished and virtue not very
satisfactorilv rewarded Macadam may
be worth a visit. Fran?oise Rosay
lends distinction even to crime, and
it is interesting to watch her faithful
interpretation of the mind and
environment of character.

She is the mistress of a shabby hotel
which is the centre for all manner of
illegal transaction and clientele. Only
her" daughter (Andree Clement) feels
out of piace and longs for a moral life.
The plot is worked out with finesse and
that observation of psychological detail
which makes most French films so
much more actual than the glossier
products of other lands.

GIRL OF THE YEAR

Starring: Robert Cummings, Joan

Caulfield, Elsa Lanchester,
Melville Cooper. Producer: Nat
Perrin. Director: Henry Levin.
Presented by Columbia Pictures
in technicolor. Certificate: A.

Category: A. Running time:

87 minutes.

Joan Caulfield abandons her career
as teacher in an old fashioned college
. for the sake of life with real people,
i.e., night clubs, etc. Robert
Cummings gives up artistic painting in
order to concentrate on sketching
partially dressed glamour girls. Any
comment ? No.

36S

THE MUDLARK

Starring: Irene Dunne, Alec Guinness
and Andrew Ray, with Beatrice
Campbell, Finlay Currie, Anthony
Steel and Raymond Lovell.
Director: Jean Negulesco. A 20th
Century -Fox film. Certificate :
U. Category: C. Running

time: 98 minutes.

The fact that Irene Dunne is an
American should have no part in
swaying one’s judgment of the quality
of her performance as Queen Victoria.
After all, it was an Englishman,
Alexander Knox, who was chosen for
the role of President Wilson. If,
therefore, I say I was disappointed
with Alias Dunne’s portrayal, it is
purely because I think she was miscast.
About her competence there can be no
question ; she is a superb actress. The
screen, however, makes visual demands
which the stage cannot, and in the case
of an almost contemporary figure such as
the Queen, so well-known to many
living people as well as being familiar
through portraiture to everybody in
the country, the cinema audience is
apt to lose the illusion of actuality if
tire central figure is as unlike the
veritable personage as Irene Dunne is
unlike Queen Victoria. She is too
naturally charming, her features too
refined to allow us to accept her easily
as the dumpy, petulant-looking, rather
unattractive lady who gave her name
to the last century. On the stage, yes;
Miss Dunne would have got away with
it. The screen could not disguise
her self-conscious movements and
expression or the unnaturally stilted
tones which the uncomfortable make-
up doubtless had much to answer for.

The story of the little mudlark
whose affection - starved soul sought
satisfaction in seeing the motherly-

looking lady whose medallion had
come into his possession lends itself
admirably to film treatment. The
various episodes which make up this
lad’s pilgrimage from the muddy
flats of the Thames around Wapping
to the noble castle on the Thames at
Windsor to see the Queen are
unusually well-balanced in a neat
script by Xunnelly Johnson from the
book by the American Catholic novelist
Theodore Bonnet. It is a tribute to
the film to say that, written by a man
who has never seen England, scripted,
directed and the principal parts acted
by Americans, it yet conveys the
authentic “feel” of Victorian London
in spite of the rather too-pervasive
fog.

Alec Guinness as Disraeli gives one
of the finest performances of his career.
His physical resemblance to the man
is uncanny. His psychological grasp
of the character lends the physical
likeness complete authority. His
speech in the House of Commons, a
6 or 8 minute uninterrupted “take”,
is one of the great moments of film
acting.

Andrew Ray, the eleven-year-old son
of Ted Ray, was a fortunate choice for
the title role. His perky, frail,
insouciant Cockney is just right. The
director must have found him a
willing co-operator. In so far as a
little boy can really be expected to act
naturallv Andrew Ray was that boy.
Being the son of his father he'ma\’ be
expected to appear on the screen again.
That is a pity. He has established
himself as the Mudlark and we shall
always see that pathetic little face
looking for his Queen, whatever other
role he may play.

A film to see and enjoy.

V.

The Queen (Irene Dunne) is not amused

370

THE DAUGHTER OF ROSIE
O GRADY

Starring: June Haver, Gordon

MacRae, with Gene Nelson,
James Barton, Cuddles Sakall.
Director: David Butler. Distrib-
utors: Warner Brothers. In

technicolor. Certificate: U.

Category: B. Running time:

107 minutes.

Here are excellent acrobatic dancing,
good stage dancing and singing. Also
old fashionedness, stage Irishmen and
all that. As each glimpse of the obvious
was obviously impending, an elderly
woman near me registered tremendous
enjoyment. Who am I to say her nav?

But don’t think that such films are
mere entertainment. In this and
others like it I seem to detect a
message too. We have been wasting
our lives, you and I. We have missed
the greatest thing of all. We ought to
have been in vaudeville. Q.

THREE SECRETS
Starring: Eleanor Parker, Patricia

Neal, Ruth Roman, with Frank
Lovejoy, Leif Erickson, Ted de
Corsia, Edmond Ryan.
Producer: Milton Sperling .
Director: Robert Wise. Distrib-
utors: Warner Brothers.

Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 100 minutes.

The sailor’s second string, the
racketeer’s mistress and the woman
who found she was pregnant two weeks
after her divorce, all sent their
■children to the same adoption home on
the same day. (What a commentary on
contemporary ethics that a woman who
has a child by her husband should hush
the fact up because they have already
hustled through a divorce.)

Four years later the press reveals
that a boy from the home, admitted on
the same day as these three
■“unwanteds”, is stranded on a
mountain, the only survivor of a plane
accident. The home refuses to disclose
his parentage and each mother is
anxiously convinced that the boy is
hers. Blood is thicker than adoption
rules. The situation is worked out
rather artificially.

For the benefit of those who imagine
that the principles of Christian

morality were invented by priests to
make life more difficult for Catholics I
should like to point out that if the
three women had observed them by
abstaining from illicit relations and
divorce they would not have had all the
unhappiness portraved in this film.

Q.

THE WOLF OF THE SILA
(II Lupo Della Sila)

Starring: Silvana Mangano, with

Amadeo Nazzari, Jacques Sernas
and Victor Gassmann. A Lux
Film: with Italian dialogue and
English subtitles. Director:
Duilio Coletti. Distributors:
Archway Film Distributors.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 75 minutes.

The trade papers list this film as
“fair Italian offering for specialised
audiences”. The manager of the
cinema at which it was press-shown
assured me that it contained the highly
seasoned mixture which the public
palate apparently appreciates.

For my part, I found the film, after
a quick-fire opening sequence, tedious,
noisy, melodramatic and quite
unconvincing. I was reminded of the
man who said : “Every Italian is a

born actor ; the worst ones go into
films.” Certainly we have seen some
very poor efforts in recent months.
After Vivere in Pace, Bicycle Thieves
and Angelina we have been spoilt for
second - feature offerings from Italy.
Then, too, the tendency to underline
physical contours at the expense of
story development and acting ability,
so noticeable in Bitter Rice, indicates
a lamentable deterioration into mere
commercial film-exploitation away from
the art of cinema.

The story is a version of the vendetta
theme so beloved of Italians. A girl
whose brother and mother die as a
result of the family pride of the local
“squire” sets out to seduce both the
squire and his son. There is much
shooting and several unnecessarily
suggestive scenes before the requisite
“happy end” is reached. Incidentally
the squire carries his family pride to
the other world for it causes him to die
with a lie on his lips. Is not this
subversive to good morality ? Or do
you think people will not notice it?

<

371

RETURN OF THE
FRONTIERSMAN

Starring: Gordon MacRae, Julie

London, Rory Calhoun, Jack
Holt: Producer: Jack L. Warner.
Director: Richard Bare.

Presented by Warner Bros, in
Technicolor. Certificate ; U.
Category : C.

There was once a film magnate who
had twenty horses. Hour by hour he
sat watching them in their paddock.
And as he sat lie was puzzled, for those
fine young horses were restive and
fretful. But he was not idle as he
sat there day by day : he was chasing
an idea. At last he got it : he leapt
to his feet and shouted, “Let’s make
a film, them there ’orses need some
exercise.”

T.

IF YOU FEEL LIKE SINGING

Starring: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly,
Gloria De Haven. Producer: Joe
Pasternak. Director: Charles

Walters. A Metro-Goldwyn
Mayer Production. Certificate :
U. Category : B. Running time :
109 minutes.

Judy, they tell me, is an older and
plumper Judy, but there is no doubt
that she still has all the vim, pep and
sparkle of former days, and has a
growing maturity as an actress as well.

This musical is all the better for not
being set up-stage and in the dressing-
rooms land night clubs of Broadway.
Instead it all takes place in the
technicolored fresh air at Judy’s farm
and in Judy’s barn; for you must know
that Judy is a farmer — no ordinary
farmer, but a “master” or “mistress”
farmer, whichever it is. Anyway she’s
gotta farm, it’s hers, and she owns it.
And she’s for standing no nonsense
when a show company descend on her
to use her premises for rehearsals and
to accept her hospitality. They must
go. Well, if not, they must at least
earn their keep by working on the
farm. You should see the well-meaning
efforts of these sophisticated players in
grappling with farm work, and all the
consequent horse - play, dog - play,
chicken-plav, pig-play and cow-play.
(Do not laff or larf, O gentle reader
from Bootle or Battersea, for what sort

of fist would YOU make at milking a
cow?) Give us “techni-smell”, or the
scent organs Mr. Aldous Huxley once
spoke of, and we would feel we were
right “down on the farm” ourselves.

Mr. Kelly — whose dancing is superb
and whose love-making is better than
tolerable — after much drilling of his
team put up a great show. But at the
last moment his leading lady walks
out on him, and Judy, who, you must
know, has never before put foot on
stage (!) fills the part as if she were
born to it. And, of course, she was.

G.

THE WOMAN WITH NO NAME

Starring: Phyllis Calvert and Edward
Underdown, with Helen Cherry,
Richard Burton, Anthony
Nicholls, James Hayter, Betty
Ann Davies, Amy Veness,
Andrew Osbom. Producer:
John Stafford. Director: Ladislas
Vajda. Distributors: Associated

British-Pathe Ltd. Certificate-. A.
Category-. B. Running time :
120 minutes.

This is an unhappy story with a
pleasant ending. Our old friend
amnesia provides the main prop of the
plot, helped out by a curious lack of
frankness on the part of people who,
in normal circumstances, would be
expected to reveal their thoughts to one
another. Amnesia is not in itself
boring, but we have seen it work its
way out in G.I.s and others too often not
to feel that we have been here before.
Dreams and flashbacks also come into
it and there is a frustrated, jealous
woman whom the audience find out too
early. I fear this is just another essay
in psychology which Associated British-
Pathe have made less well than the
Americans used to do. Yvonne Winter
(Phyllis Calvert) loses her memory
during the bombing of London and
marries a young pilot while she is still
in that condition. Then things begin
to happen which a reviewer cannot
mention without spoiling the story for
anyone who is going to see the film.
Suffice it to say that the acting is good
and some of the shots rather beautiful.
As casual entertainment it should be
quite successful, but there would be no
point in going out of one’s way to
see it. J. C.

372

AFTER THE STORM
Starring: Nicholas Stuart, Marte

Harell, Adrienne Gessner.
Producer: Willy Wachtl.

Director: G. Ucicky. A Cordial-
Gamma Production. Certificate :
A. Category'. A. Running
time : 89 minutes.

No section of the public, I think, can
possibly enjoy this very unsatisfactory-
film. There is some creditable acting
by Marte Harell and Adrienne Gessner,
and some good background music of
the symphonic kind, but the story
falters and finally peters out. An
American officer stationed in
Salzburg after the war falls in love
with a fair pianist, upon whom he
lavishes luxurious gifts. She had just
escaped from her deportation to
Germany, and cannot full}- reciprocate
the American’s advances because of the
memory of an old lover who had been
reported dead these last three vears.
Unfortunately he returns — a broken and
neurotic man — on the very day of her
engagement to the American. Her
suicide ends the film — which had been
going on already far too long — and
everyone in the film, and in the
audience, is left very unliappv.

G.

PAGLIACCI
(Love of a Clown)

Starring: Tito Gobbi and Gina Lollo-
brigida. Director: Mario Costa.
Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time : 70 minutes.

This is the most successful of the
series of filmed operas which we have
had from Italy. Its simple plot and
compact setting lend themselves more
easily to film adaptation than did Barber
of Seville or Rigolctto. Nevertheless it
still suffers from the cramping
conventions of stage traditions, and the
outsize gestures and facial movements
customary in the opera-house lean
dangerously near to the comic when
transcribed for the screen.

The singing, as such, is superb.
Tito Gobbi gives new meaning and
pathos to the well-known Prologue by
his careful interpretation of the words.
He doubles the role of Silvio, the
somewhat colourless lover of Nedda,
and Tonio, the deformed clown. This

provides him with an opportunity for
two markedly different characterisations.

The part of Nedda is satisfactorily
played by a beautiful girl, Gina
Lollobrigida, about whom it is difficult
to be sure whether she really sings or
is badly dubbed. The unsatisfactory
dubbing is noticeable with some of the
other characters, too.

If this were not grand opera one
would feel compelled to comment on
the low moral tone of the piece.
Apparently one can get away with
adultery and murder so long as one
sings about it. V.

THE MAGNET

Starring: Stephen Murray, Kay

Walsh and William Fox. An
Ealing Studios Film. Director:
Charles Frend. Certificate: U.

Category : C. Running time : 85
minutes approx.

It is a rare and refreshing thing to
hear the uninhibited laughter of young
children at a Press Show. It is the
greatest tribute a director could desire
and though Charles Frend would agree,
I am sure, that not all films about
children are necessarily films for
children, he will, surely, have felt as
happy as I did to hear the young film
players laughing at their own antics in
The Magnet even though some of them
were too young to savour the full
implications of T. E. B. Clarke’s
screeu-plav.

Charles Frend told me that the
children, particularly William Fox,
were very easy to deal with. On the
other hand, I am sure that much of the
successful naturalness of the youngsters
in this film was due to Frend’s patience
and understanding. T. E. B. Clarke,
too, deserves much praise because it
was primarily his success in reporting
the atmosphere of boyish behaviour
and methods of thought as demon-
strated by a group of endearing young
Merseyside urchins. William Fox and
Michael Brook, Jnr., two more-refined
urchins from the South, fitted into the
Liverpool picture admirably, but I
think that many will agree with me
that we could have done with a larger
dose of Merseyside urchinry.

The story is a simple one about a boy
in quarantine because of scarlet fever
who, by means of guile, induces a

373

William Fox in happy mood

smaller boy to give him a large magnet.
Conscience-stricken at evident signs
of divine displeasure he tries to get
rid of the magnet. This he finds
easier thought of than accomplished.
Eventually, he is convinced that the
police are after him for the death of the
little owner of the magnet. In fact, the
magnet has been the means of
collecting enough money to buy the
local hospital an iron lung.

The fun is consistent and the sly
digs at psychiatric diagnosis and
practice (the boy’s father is a
psychiatrist and thinks he knows what
is disturbing his son) will please many
who, like the reviewer, have been
wearied with pretentious essays in
cinema psychology. Stephen Murray

and Kav Walsh are suitably restrained
as the parents of the boy. Meredith
Edwards scores a notable triumph as a
hospital appeal-manager with a yivid
imagination. William Fox is delight-
fully real and unprecocious. I am
glad to learn that he does not wish to
make any more films. I hope he is
allowed to have his way.

The camera-work is as unpretentious
as it should be in a film of this kind
in which self-conscious work with lens
and angles would have distracted one
from the essential naivety of the
action. Altogether, a pleasing piece of
entertainment for young and old in
which the wise will have the largest
share.

V.

.

374

LA BEAUTE DU DIABLE

Starring: ]\Iichel Simon and Gerard
Philippe, with Simon Valere and
Nicole Besnard. Director: Rene
Clair. Distributors: G.C.T.

(Distributors) Ltd. Certificate :
A. Category: A. Running

time : 95 minutes.

When the director of Sous Les Toits
de Paris , A Nous La Liberia and Le
Chapeau dc Paille d’ltaiic makes a
film, it is an event. When the subject
of the film is the Faust legend the
event becomes an occasion. It is not
enough to say, as M. Clair said at
the Press reception, that the critics
must decide whether he has succeeded ;
we want to know why he chose this
subject and why he modified it, as he
did. A man of his intelligence would
naturally realise the significance of the
Faust story at this juncture : the man
who desires knowledge and power, not
in order to serve his Creator or his
fellow creatures but that he may be
equal with God — the temptation that
led to Original Sin. It is, perhaps,
why atomic physicists seem nowadays
attracted to Communism, because they
imagine that the Marxian dialectic
relieves them of the necessity of belief
in and therefore service of God. Did
M. Clair see the appositeness of his
parable to the state of mankind today' ?
Faust knew how to make gold and so
established himself as supreme ruler, but
when men went to count their riches
they found nothing but dust.

The Marlowe and Goethe versions
have evidently been studied, but Rene
Clair has given us an entirely original
slant on the traditional story though it
must be admitted that the “happy-end”
rather weakens it. The first half of
the film is brilliantly conceived. The
second half is tedious and discursive
and at moments descends to the banal,
especially when Mephistoplieles,
hitherto having had the ability to appear
any'where at will, has to pant short-
breathedly down steep stairs to
retrieve the fatal parchment which has
fluttered through the window to the
angry' crowd below. Nevertheless,
there are so many' moments of fine
acting and intelligent cinematography

that we are willing to overlook the
cloven hoof, even from M. Clair.

The story’ is set in the mid-
nineteenth century and w'e are
introduced to a doddering old professor
W’ho is haunted by a handsome pupil
w'ith horned hair and a cynical
disregard of the professor’s prestige.
The handsome pupil eventually' takes
the place of the aged professor by
means of a neat device w'hich assumes
that it is the devil within us whom we
must restrain. Faust is given youth
again and Mephistoplieles canters
around in the guise of the old professor
profoundly shocking his academic
colleagues by his lecherous and
abandoned attitudes.

Michel Simon is superb as the old
man and later, Mephistoplieles. His
diabolic gracefulness of movement is
something quite extraordinary. Gerard
Philippe, too, in his two equivalent
roles, gives a masterly performance.
Particularly' fine is his rapturous
excitement as he savours the physical
delights of a youthful body' again ;
athletic movement, the pangs of
hunger and the admiration which his
good looks arouse in all around him.

The moral of the story is as valid as
the Faust story ever was, though one
fears that the unbeliever w'ill be given
no reason to alter his suspicion that
religion is superstition and the
believer will have to impose his owm
orthodox interpretation on to a frame-
W'ork capable of several variations.

La Beaute Du Diable is a film for
all those who take delight in excellent
work in the best French tradition.

V.

WOMAN ON THE RUN

Starring: Ann Sheridan, Dennis

O’Keefe, Robert Ferris, Ross
Elliott. Producer: Howard

Welsch. Director. Norman Foster.
A Universal International Picture.
Certificate: A. Category: B..

Running time : 77 minutes.

A man witnesses a murder. When
the police arrive he runs away. Don’t
ask me w’hyT. The police, the murderer,.

375

the wife and a dog are then in full cry
after him.

An obvious but unappreciated
difficulty of a reviewer is that he must
give different counsel to different
people. I shall attempt to satisfy all
classes.

Massa damnata : You will follow, as
best you can, with rapt attention this
thrilling drama and will love the
fearful noise and meretricious suspense
with which it concludes.

Alfred Hitchcock : See this. It will
make you feel good.

Psychiatrists : You will find this an
object lesson in sub-human behaviour.

Born leaders, Conductors of Green
Line buses, Matrons of Hospitals,

Professors of Canon Law and the Jockey
who rode Gaynet Rock in the
Cambridgeshire : See this twice if

possible; It will keep you out of
circulation for a while.

Bishops and other exalted ranks :
Don’t bother, My Lords.

Parish Priests : Odeon seats are

usually quite comfortable.

Highbrows and other miscellanea,
including those who delight to-
discourse on lighting and cutting and
depth and all the other jiggery pokery :
I do not presume to advise; I doff my
cap in solemn respect.

The gentle reader : See advice to-

Bishops.

T.

The colour film made
under the auspices of the
Catholic Youth Council
of the Archdiocese of
Birmingham

ROME PILGRIMAGE

will be shown at

Westminster Cathedral
Hall

at 6-30 and 8-30

on

DECEMBER 6th

Admission Free

Silver Collection

film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions’’, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
Blue Cottage,

Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7

376

EMMET LA VERY’S FIRST
LEGION TO BE FILMED

By William H. Mooring

(Reprinted from The Tidings, May 26th, 1950)

There is room at the Inn.

The famous Mission Inn at Riverside,
California, for the purpose of a Holly-
wood movie, temporarily becomes a
“Jesuit Seminary".

The First Legion, already staged in
fifteen languages and played in France,
post-war Germany, Belgium, Austria,
Czechoslovakia, Eire, England, the
Scandinavian countries, the United
States and many other places, at last is
being translated to the screen.

Emmet Lavery, its author, describes
it as “frankly, a piece of melodrama,”
but believes it may help, by popular
appeal, to focus upon faith in present
times of doubt and confusion.

Douglas Sirk, a Lutheran married to
a Catholic, is directing the picture. For
many years he had wished to film it.
Last year he visited Switzerland and
found it running successfully to crowds,
largely non-Catholic. He later arrived
in Vienna to find it equally successful
there. He decided it must be filmed at
once.

BOYER HEADS CAST

With producer Josef Lucachevitch,
formerly in French movies, he arranged
private financing and chose an impressive
cast headed by Charles Boyer, who plays
Father Marc Arnoux (the character was
called Father Aherne in the stage play
but an Irish name wouldn’t go with
Boyer's French accent) .

Instead of constructing movie sets,
Douglas Sirk took over the Spanish Art
Gallery at Riverside’s Mission Inn and
converted it into a seminary common
room, transforming bedrooms imme-
diately above the gallery into cells for
the priests. Results on the screen should
prove at least realistic.

The story has undergone few
changes. It introduces a false “miracle”
and a true one. It risks, too, a situation
in which two Jesuit priests threaten to

break their vows and leave the Order.

Lavery has always admitted that these
two characters represent the rare excep-
tion to the rule and serve merely to
prove that the higher one reaches in the
service of God the more difficult the way.

Of course in the end both priests find
peace and contentment in the Jesuit
Order.

There is Father Tom Rawleigh, played
by John McGuire, who majored in
scholastic philosophy at Santa Clara and
played quarterback in that university’s
football team in the middle ’30s. He
seems an excellent choice for the young
priest who still remembers a girl he once
knew.

Then there’s Father John Fulton,
musician and poet, played by Wesley
Addy, brought newly to the screen from
Broadway. Father Fulton renounces his
music as a necessary sacrifice and
later realises that he cannot get along
without it and that God does not ask
him to do so. This part likely will
start Wesley Addy on a serious screen
career.

VARIETY OF CHARACTERS

Charles Boyer, long noted as a
lomantic screen hero, says the character
of Father Arnoux, who gave up a great
career as a lawyer to become a Jesuit
priest, provides for him “a welcome
opportunity to play a worthwhile r61e
at a time when people everywhere need
to contemplate more seriously their
spiritual responsibilities”.

When The First Legion is finished
Boyer will go to France, there to “dub”
French dialogue into a copy intended
for European release.

Walter Hampden is cast as a world-
travelled Jesuit leader, wise and good.
Leo J. Carroll is cast as the stem but
kindly rector of this Jesuit seminary,
called in the film St. Gregory’s.

William Demarest is seen as a visiting
parish pastor, Monsignor Carey, who
brings humorous "outside” opinion
within the walls.

H. B. Warner, the Christus in de
Mille’s King of Kings, plays the invalid
Father Sierra who, through the
connivance of Dr. Morrell, a fallen
Catholic, becomes the centre of con-
troversy as the victim of a false
"miracle” .

The doctor is played by Lyle Bettger,
recent Paramount discovery of whom big
things are expected.

With George Zucca as Master of
Novices, Taylor Holmes as St. Gregory’s
Vice-Rector, and an assortment of
scholastics headed by Richard Mayer,
supposedly a Jewish convert, and
Clifford Brook, an Anglican become
Catholic, the cast presents a colourful
variety of religious characters.

UNUSUAL FILM EXPECTED

It is too soon to say whether or not
The First Legion will prove a great

377

motion picture. It already is certain
that it will be an unusual one.

There is no attempt to follow Holly-
wood formula. In fact it is totally
ignored in a screenplay which has in it
only one feminine character: a young
cripple girl who is the subject of a true
miracle.

Technical details are under supervision
by Monsignor John J. Devlin, long
associated with the Legion of Decency,
and by two Jesuits, Father Thomas
Sullivan and Father John E. O’Dou.

Whatever the final result may be,
present signs are promising.

Allowing that the screenplay, for the
purpose of balancing argument,, intro-
duces certain situations which may
arouse discussion among Catholics, The
First Legion will have been brought to
the screen with honest intentions and
greater caution than is usually exercised
by a mixed company to whom heavy
investment must remain at least one of
the primary concerns.

BOOK REVIEWS

Films and You. A Young Catholic
Students’ Publication, 252

Swanston Street, Australia.

Price is.

This booklet, published by the
Catholic .Students’ Movement of
Australia, discusses the Catholic attitude
to films from every point of view — moral
aesthetic and technical, the last only
incidentally. The power of the cinema
for good and evil, the motives that
inspire the producer and the film-goer,
statistics and effects are analysed so as
to be of practical use to the Catholic
film fan. A particularly pleasing thing
about the book, is the acceptance of,
and quotation from various statements
in the Popes, bishops and different
Catholic books and newspapers. It
includes an article by William
Higginbotham of the Film Guide,
Father Maine, S.J., Gabriel Fallon and
the Chaplain of the Youth Movement in
Australia. The article “What to look
for at the pictures” is especially good.

The book deserves to be put into a

stouter cover. At present it is flimsy :
forty-eight pages, wire stitched with a
paper back.

Pilgrimage to Fatima. The Book of
the Film. By Very Rev. Hilary
Carpenter, O.P. Pp. 31. Price 2/6.
The Blue Cottage, Sumner Place
Mews, London, S.W.7.

Those who wish an excellent
synopsis of the story of Our Lady’s
appearances at Fatima should invest
in this little pamphlet by Fr. Hilary
Carpenter.

The tremendous devotional success
of the film will no doubt move many
to desire some sort of record of it.
There are 26 photographs in the little
book, some of them stills from the
film, and the leading ideas behind the
inception of the film, its purpose and
significance are expertly discussed.

The reader can thus retain a short,
accurate account of the details of the
original miracles at Fatima and the
evolution of the wide-spread devotion
to Our Lady. F. A. K.

378

INSTITUTE NOTES

Pilgrimage to Fatima

The season at the Hammer Theatre,
Wardour Street, London, has been most
successful from the point of view of
the many people who have crowded
each evening to see Pilgrimage To
Fatima. Though we have had to put
on extra showings each evening it has
not prevented people having to be
turned away because of lack of room.

The collections taken at each
performance just about cover the cost
of hiring the cinema, so we should be
glad if friends in parishes around
London, and the provinces too, would
arrange to have the film shown in their
district and so enable us to distribute
it and also secure some money with
which to carry on the work which
Pilgrimage to Fatima has started.

It is clear that films with a definitely
religious purpose are capable of
stirring people to spiritual endeavours
and though the most enthusiastic of
us would not claim that Pilgrimage to
Fatima is filmicallv first class, it has
most certainly been made the
instrument of bringing many people
already to a deeper awareness of the
message of Fatima.

Regional Film Centres

Pressure of work has caused us to
postpone reports of several interesting
conferences and contacts until next
issue. While our Hon. Secretary was
in Scotland he met with considerable
enthusiasm for Catholic film action
among both clergy and laity. He was
particularly glad to be able to view

Priests For Scotland, a four reel,
Kodachrome account of the history and
development of the Scottish seminaries.
It was made almost entirely by Father
John McKee, B.A., of Blairs College,
Aberdeen, and is an excellent example
of what can be done by a person with
a camera, an idea and lots of
imagination and patience. We hope to
give more details about this film later'.

It is evident that there is an
abundance of interest in the
possibilities of Catholic film action up
and down the land. We need the
first difficult steps to be taken in order
to start a chain of reaction on
films that could harness them for
Christianity.

Your Film
Show

The Catholic Film
Institute projection
unit is available for
film shows in the
London area

Moderate Charges

Particulars from

Blue Cottage, Sumner

Place Mews, London,
S.W.7

379

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

If you have an opinion to express, a comment to make, an idea to offer,
the Editor will be delighted to hear from you.

Cover Personality

Sir,

On reading your “Cover Personality”
item of September, I was very interested
to see you have been having criticism
of your choice of worth while stars.

I would like to let you know that I,
for one, am very appreciative of these
pen pictures and am sure your critics
— the (un) constructive “public that does
not exist” type — are very much in the
minority.

Heaven forbid that you should write
“heart throb” sketches . . . Your
article on Leo Genn was very
informative and factual. I particularly
remember also, your very fine articles
on Pierre Fresnav, Jean Simmons, Cyril
Cusack, Glynis Johns and Valli.

If you have left out any Catholics
suitable to your Cover Personalities,
please include them. One last request.
When you can, write about a director
instead of the stars ; we hear too little
about them.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Small.

Kilkeel, Co. Down.

An Opinion from America

Sir,

. . . Our opinion of Focus is very
high. We believe that it is the finest
Catholic film review on the market.
We would like to take this opportunity
to congratulate you and everyone
involved upon the truly magnificent job
you are doing. That God will bless you
in this work is our sincere prayer.
Sincerely in Christ,

Geoffrey Gaugham, O.S.B.
The Grail, Indiana, U.S.A.

Wrong Echo

Sir,

Those of your readers who proceeded
as far as the second paragraph of my
review of A Life of Her Own in your
last issue, were probably mystified by
a reference to the . echo of the human
heart which Hollywood have discovered.
The word should have been ache not
echo. No doubt my bad writing was
at fault. T.

St. Anthony’s,

5 Garratt Road,

Edgware,

Middlesex.

H Christmas Suggestion

Give your friends a subscription to
FOCUS for Christmas. The annual
subscription is 7s., post free.

If desired, a greetings card can be
sent with the first copy.

fKw wKiS

HISTORY TEACHING
AIDS

By Our Educational Panel

LIBRARIES

N.C.V.A.E. Educational Foundation
Film Library, Brooklands House,
Weybridge, Surrey.

G.B.I. Filni Library, Aintree Road,
Perivale, Middx.

Common Ground, Sydney Place, S.W.7.
“Gateway” Film Productions, 84 Powys
Lane, Palmers Green, N.13.

Dawn Trust Film Library, Aylesbury,
Bucks.

Daily Mail School - Aid Service,
Carmelite House, E.C.4.

B. I.F., Film House, Wardour Street,

W.l.

C. F.L. Central Film Library, Imperial

Institute, S. Kensington, S.W.7.

FILMS

Beginnings of History

N.C.V.A.E., No. 211, A1 (sound), 5
reels. Hiring charge : 7s. 6d. per
reel first day, 2s. 6d. additional
days, or £1 complete.

This film is a long one, but apart
from some unnecessary preliminaries,
there is not a dull moment in it. The
story is confined to our own island, and
this, though it limits the sources to be
drawn upon, makes it possible to
present a connected account of the
beginnings of our civilisation. There
are five reels to the film, which can be
hired separately.

The first reel attempts to give some
idea of the capacities and limitations of
primitive man by showing some of his
weapons, and by a visit to the Zoo, and
then passes on to give an account of
life in the Old Stone Age showing his
cave dwellings, his tools and his
drawings. Useful maps are given of
the movements of the ice.

The second reel describes life in the

New Stone Age, giving glimpses of the
beginnings of the domestic arts, such
as sowing and grinding corn, and the
burial customs of the earlier period,
with remarkable pictures of a Stone
Age Village in the Orkneys.

The Bronze Age is illustrated in the
third reel. It opens with a clever
demonstration of the processes of
smelting and casting in bronze, and
many pictures are given of the
implements and jewellery of the Beaker
Folk and of their famous megaliths
and temples, especially those at
Stonehenge and Avebury.

The fourth reel deals with the Age
of Iron. Examples are given of the
early British camps found all over
England and Scotland, and there are
detailed pictures of Maiden Castle.

In the last reel there are interesting
pictures of life in the reconstructed
farmstead at Woodbury, which bring
the story to a close.

This film is to be recommended from
every point of view. The idea of
development is conveyed and sense of
continuity maintained, while the story
of the past is reconstructed without
recourse to the imaginary and
sensational drawings which often
disfigure our school text books. The
film held an audience of university
students but is clear enough to be
followed by all but young children, if
taken in small doses.

Medieval Castle

G.B.I., No. F.4710 (sound), FM.4710
(mute) 2 reels. Hiring charges :
Sound 7s. 6d. per reel first day,
2s. 6d. additional days; Mute 5s. 6d.
per reel first day. Is. 6d. additional
days.

It would be difficult to improve on
this film for a complete and interesting

381

survey of the development of castle-
building in the Middle Ages. Excellent
photographs of medieval castles are
skilfully combined with animated
diagrams, necessary for illustrations of
methods of defence and attack. Perhaps
the most important and satisfying
feature of the film is the emphasis
throughout on the reasons underlying
•changes in structure and, therefore,

| development in style. The building of
| round keeps, wall-towers, gate-houses
and concentric walls are shown as the
I defensive countermeasures gradually
; evolving to meet new methods of
siege and assault.

The film surveys the changes in
i military architecture, century by
•century, from the simple Norman motte
and bailey castle to the elaborate
I concentric castles of the thirteenth
I century, and provides interesting
j details of the castle’s chief defensive
I features : embrasures, defensive

I hoardings, etc., and the importance of
| natural features in determining site.
Methods of. siege warfare are fully
illustrated as providing the explanation
of changes in military architecture,
and vivid diagrammatic illustrations
show siege-engines, trebuchets and
rams at work.

Some detail is also given of the castle
as a residence and diagrams and
photographs of the domestic parts of
the buildings lead up to beautiful
photographs of fourteenth and fifteenth
century residences which retain only a
few external traces of their military
origin. The film would be valuable for
children of eleven and upwards both in
its own right and as a means of
revising the medieval period.

Houses in History

N.C.V.A.E., No. 241, A1 (sound), 1 reel.
Hiring charge : 7s. 6d. first day,
2s. 6d. additional days. Also from
C.F.L., UK. 762, no charge.

There are some good photographs in
this film, but it is too scrappy to be of
much use, and leaves one doubting
whether this is really a subject which
lends itself to filming in view of the
number and popularity of well-
illustrated books about houses that are
available. One cannot help feeling
that much better results could be
•obtained by showing pictures on the

epidiascope ; or better still by having
a good selection of books on the class-
room shelf or in the library, a method
which might also help to develop the
children’s taste for such books.

Civil War in England

G.B.I., F.4578 (sound), 4 reels. Hiring
charges : 7s. 6d. per reel first day,
2s. 6d. additional days.

The making of films for history
teaching is subject to some limitations,
especially that of cost. As is obvious,
a full-scale descriptive film of the
Civil War would be an expensive affair
and out of the question for teaching
purposes. As a substitute the use of
diagrams and drawings has been
enlisted in this case, with fairly
satisfactory results. Some of the
animated drawings are rather wooden,
but the diagrams and commentary are
clear and helpful.

Suitability : 13+ .

Stuart Britain

“’Gateway”, No. A. 21 (sound), B.21
(mute). Hiring charge : 12s. 6d.
first day, 5s. additional days.

This is a most successful film. It is
short, yet in twelve minutes manages to
convey an authentic picture of life in
Stuart times as seen through the eyes
of an elderly Royalist country
gentleman, who has lived through the
Civil Wars and the Great Plague. He
is shown at supper with his wife and
an old acquaintance whom he has
chanced to meet on his daily walk, and
their conversation touches on many
matters of political and social interest.
The pictures are pleasant and the detail
correct, as is the idiom, if a little
laboured. The accompanying notes
are excellent and indispensable to the
mute version.

STRIPS

Digging for History

Daily Mail School-Aid Service. Price :
12s. 6d. 46 frames.

The particular value of this strip is
its capacity for rousing interest by the
liveness of its contact. It provides an
introduction to the study of the past
through archaeological field-work, and

382

shows a broad selection of ancient sites.
It begins with a section on the history
of archaeology in this . country,
illustrating by picture and diagram
the work of the archaeologist from the
early amateur and treasure hunter to
the modern air - photographer. The
second section is devoted mainly to a
study of the excavation of the pre-1900
B.C. Kentish long barrow, Julieberrie’s
Grave, followed by a set of photo-
graphs of comparable sites which yet
required different method. The film
frames deal with the Sutton Hoo Ship-
Burial from O. G. S. Crawford’s
photographs which make an immediate
impression.

The educational value of the strip lies
partly in the clear statement and vivid
illustration of the pretision and
meticulous care which the field-
worker exercises. The strip is of use
in the teaching not only of History but
of Latin and Geography and touches
two widely differing groups; the keen
youngster whose attention is all on the
pictures and for whom the diagrams are
too detailed, and the senior with an
interest in stratigraphy and the part it
plays in the assessment of evidence,
who is provided with detailed diagrams
of stratification at Maiden Castle, for
example, and to whom is offered a
possibility of field-work. The strip is
accompanied by comprehensive teaching
notes which both merit and demand
careful preparation.

The Village

( Medieval Life Series)

Common Ground, C.G.A.577. Price : 25s.

This is an attractive, gaily-coloured
strip of great value in bringing one
aspect of the medieval period to life.
Beginning with a plan of a medieval
village and illustrations of the three-
field and strip systems, details of land
cultivation, harvesting, and threshing
are given before showing the village
craftsmen and the lighter side of
manorial life. From the pictorial
aspect alone, the strip makes a
strong appeal to the imagination, but
in addition each frame contains
abundant detail for observation and
comment, especially the interior of the
manorial hall, the church and the
villeins’ huts. Seven excellent pictures
show recreations of the time— archery,
wrestling and even whip and top — but

there is nothing to show that there
were holidays because there were
Holydays. In this connection,
proportions within the strip could well
be adjusted — only three of the thirty-
two frames have any bearing on the
religious life of the time, and there is
little to suggest the fusion of religion
and life in the Middle Ages.

This otherwise valuable film-strip
perpetuates the now “exploded” theory
that balks of unploughed and therefore
wasted land separated the strips in
the open fields. It is more generally
accepted that boundary stones and
double furrows marked changes of
ownership. This film strip is most
useful for teaching1 revision purposes
and is suitable for children aged 11 + .

The Chantry of Richard Beauchamp,
Earl of Warwick

Common Ground, CGA.483. Price : 15s.

As one of the series of Historic
Records, this film strip aims at
presenting both a record and
interpretation of the past, by means
of valuable and generally inaccessible
material of a visual nature. This film
strip of one of the loveliest English
chantry chapels has admirably
succeeded in this purpose.

The magnificent bronze effigy of the
Earl in full armour lying high on the
Purbeck marble tomb and surrounded
with figures of mourners and angels
is presented in a setting which is in
itself of great beauty — the fifteenth
century fan-vaulted chapel with stone-
carving, metal-work and carved stalls
of the same period and the whole lit
by the wide East .window. The chief
interest lies in the effigy itself and in
the perfection of craftsmanship
revealed in the noble, dignified
features of the knight and the
precision of the smallest details of his
armour. In fact, the strip provided
opportunities for close study which
visitors to the chapel do not enjoy.
One can see here the fine character
of the head and hands and every
minute detail of the suit of plate
armour, the buckles at the wrist, the
shoulder-pieces fastened to the breast-
plate with rivets and the great crested
helm. The mourners standing in
niches round the tomb ■ also provide a
wealth of material for study.

This is a magnificent film strip

383

which does justice to its subject
and will stimulate the imagination and
deepen understanding of the past.
The interest of the armour, heraldic
devices and architectural features of the
chapel make this film strip more
suitable for older children, from 15
upwards.

The Field of the Cloth of Gold

Common Ground, CGA.458 (in colour).

Price : 25s.

This film strip, like the previous one,
is a notable addition to the Historic
Records Series and being itself in
colour, can more successfully suggest
the colour and richness of its subject.
The material for the strip is provided
by the paintings at Hampton Court
celebrating the meeting of Henry VIII
and Francis I of France at the Field
of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. The
strip is cleverly built up from scenes
from the two paintings, the
Embarkation and the actual- Field of
Cloth of Gold, and the details are
presented in such a way as to suggest
movement and progress — the departure
from Dover, Channel crossing and
progress beyond Calais to the meeting
place. The strip is, indeed, full of
action and movement — the painter has
given life to every corner of his
canvas and every scene is convincing
and real. The sailors can be seen at
work on board the ships, unfurling
the sails and climbing the rigging and
one is given a vivid impression of the
activity surrounding the historic
embarkation and meeting.

The elaborate detail of the painting
reveals to perfection the characteristic
features of the sixteenth century
galleons, masts and sails and details of
rigging and intimate glimpses of
activities on deck, the drummer boy
in action, the piles of cannon-balls
and powder barrels. The splendour of
the occasion is stressed by the pennons
and streamers of gold flying from
masts and bell-tents and more
especially by the dominating figure of
Henry VIII in cloth of gold and
ermine, surrounded by his entourage
and with the Sword of State borne
before him.

The colours of the strip are faithful
to the rich, dark tones of the paintings
and suitable for this “view of earthly
glory”. For its details of shipping

and everyday activities and for display
of pageantry this film strip would be
of value for children from 13 upwards.

TWO STRIPS RECOMMENDED
FOR TEACHERS OF RELIGION
Low Mass

By John Gillick, S.J. 80 double frames :
12s. 6d.

This strip, a short notice of which
appeared in the last issue of Focus,
can be recommended unreservedly.
The Heythrop Film Strip Secretary
modestly suggests that though not
perfect it might help to fill a need; it
certainly goes a long way to supplying
a realistic and genuinely moving
presentation of the rites and prayers
of the Mass in a convenient visual
medium. The aim is perfectly simple
— to provide a complete set of pictures
on the rite of Low Mass, of a kind that
lend themselves equally well to
devotional, liturgical or dogmatic
treatment. The strip is very
moderately priced, for in its 80 double
frames there is ample material for a
whole series of lessons or illustrated
lectures. It would be difficult to find
any fault with the art of the camera-
man responsible for the pictures. His
choice of just those significant instants
when mystery and wonder seem caught
and held in the slightest movement of
the priest’s hands make the viewing of
the strip a spiritual experience ; while
the meaning of the sacred words which
the priest must utter come home to us
with new force as we see his eyes
turned to the open pages of the missal
or gazing on the paten and chalice.
Each individual picture is an artistic
whole, yet there is a continuity and
development which calls for a response
in the mind of one who studies the
structure of the Mass with the aid of
these pictures.

The wide range of material covered
by the strip can only be indicated here
by reference to its four divisions :
Part I, “The Preparation of our Souls”,
covers the Mass of the Catechumens ;
Part II, “The Preparation of the
Matter”, includes the Offertory;
Parts III and IV are titled “The
Sacrifice” and “The Communion”.
None of the 80 frames is lifeless or
static; priest and server are always in
action and one gets the illusion of

384

purposeful movement and forgets the
limitations of the “still” picture.
Titles are provided on an accompanying
leaflet instead of on the film. Here
too the choice of words is significant
and serves to heighten the
inspirational value of the strip. It is
difficult to give precision to this
statement without direct reference to
the pictures themselves, but perhaps
an example may serve. Frame 30 :
“Lavabo inter innocentes” shows the
priest and very small server in close
co-operation in the performance of a
symbolic action in which all the people
too are called to play their part.

There is nothing in the strip which
makes it too difficult for use with even
very young children ; but its appeal,
because of its sincerity, is not limited
to any age. Those who have the task
of training boys to serve on the altar
would surely welcome this strip as an
aid. The little server is seen almost
throughout, in a subordinate but
important role. His movements are
natural yet dignified, and his serious
intentness is an unspoken sermon, for
it shows a genuine and intelligent
participation, not a meaningless
exercise.

The majority of the photographs
here collected have appeared in Fr. J.
Coventry’s recent' book “The Breaking
of Bread” (Sheed & Ward) and the
study of this by the user of the strip
would provide much information and
guidance as to methods of treatment.
The strip can, however, stand alone,
or be used in conjunction with the
words of the Ordinary of the Mass or
any text book in use. It will be a
valuable addition to any film strip
library or private collection.

This strip cannot be purchased from
Heythrop College as previously stated.
For suppliers’ address see next issue.

Lourdes

B.I.F. Films, No. 184, 36 Frames.

Price 10s.

It is not really an easy task to make
a successful film or strip on a subject
such as this, and certainlv it would be
almost impossible to make anything
that would come near to satisfying
those who know and love Lourdes.
The line of approach adopted in this
strip is therefore probably a wise
■choice. It does not attempt to evoke

an atmosphere, but is a straightforward
attempt to tell objectively in pictures
what a pilgrimage to Lourdes is really
like. It is practical and informative
rather than devotional or theoretical,
but either as an introduction for
intending pilgrims or as a reminder of
past experience it should serve its
purpose well. The quality of the
pictures is a bit variable, and those
showing crowds and processions are
less successful, since it is difficult to
get an effective “still” picture of a
crowded moving scene.

The subject is grouped by four
sub-titles : The Town ; St. Bernadette ;
the Basilica and Grotto; The Blessing
of the Sick. Brief notes which

accompany the strip explain quite
adequately the significance of each
picture. The strip can be recommended
for Catholic schools or for clubs.
There is no jarring note either of
sentimentality or of lack of reverence,
and the teacher who knows his Lourdes
well will be able to create for his
audience, with the help of these
pictures, something of his own
conception of the inner meaning and
spirit of the Lourdes of Our Lady and
of Bernadette.

Pilgrimage to Fatima
and Holy Year

A MOBILE CINEMA UNIT
CAN NOW SHOW THESE
TWO FILMS AT YOUR OWN
LOCATION.

OTHER PROGRAMMES
CAN ALSO BE ARRANGED 4

Full particulars from

PERCY W. FOWLER
137 The Glade
Croydon, Surrey

(Telephone : Addiscombe 6559)

Cover Personality calvert

However loug one spends in the
atmosphere of the film studio and no
matter what good intentions one has
of making allowances for the harrowing
and unnatural life which film work
imposes upon its slaves, it is always
with a warming emotion of surprise
and pleasure that one comes across the
fcare cases of the genuinely unspoiled
player in films. By all the standards
Phyllis Calvert is one such. A friend
who knew her some years ago, when
she was working with the Malvern
Players Repertory Company, describes
her as “natural and unspoilt off the
stage and most attractive and
friendly’’. Further details inform us
that she has a charm that is something
beyond mere prettiuess and that no
photography does justice to her
glorious auburn hair and that she has
a complexion that needs no assistance
from make-up.

This air of friendliness transmits
itself acros? the screen and, added to
competence as an actress, makes it all
the more surprising that she has had
so little real opportunity for worth-
while work in films. It is often said
that British films have no actresses
comparable with the front-ranking
American names. That is not really
true. It is, surely, that we have not
taken the trouble with scripts and
direction and camerawork that provide
that background against which the
great names are built up. Phyllis
Calvert has all the qualities necessary
for great work, bur until film producers
make it their business to study their
actors and actresses as craftsmen
rather than box-office marionettes,
she is not likely to find much use for
her talents.

She had appeared in five films such
as George Formby’s Let George Do It
land Charley’s Big-Hearted Aunt with
1 Arthur Askey before her work in
Kipps, opposite Michael Redgrave,
made the critics comment on the
excellence of her playing. I still
regard her performance as the little
maidservant in H. G. Wells’ story
as the best opportunity she has
had to present a really rounded
characterisation. It rang true in a

way that some of her subsequent parts
have not. Then followed The Young
Mr. Pitt, with Robert Donat, in a
colourless role, and Uncensored , with
Eric Portman, a story’ of the Belgian
Resistance which, in spite of its
direction by Anthony Asquith, received
little of the support which I think it
merited.

It is now almost a thing to be
ashamed of to have appeared in Fanny
by Gaslight, but Phyllis Calvert
survived it and lived to make 2,000
Women, and the fabulous Madonna of
the Seven Moons, in which she played
a dual role to all intents and purposes,
a schizophrenic Roman matron who in
certain seasons became a wild gipsy
brigandess. A fantastic story’, but she
made the best of it and added to her
prestige. In 1945 she made They Were
Sisters, starring with James Mason and
Anne Crawford and Dulcie Gray, in a
pleasing if unexciting story of the
married life of three sisters. In this
film she was most herself, I think,
possibly due to the fact that her
husband in this film was her husband
in real life, Peter Murray Hill. Men
of Two Worlds came before the
preposterous Magic Bow, and this
was followed by The Root of all Evil.
Then came a period in America under
a kind of lend-lease arrangement
between the Rank Organisation and
the American studios.

Her Hollywood experiences did her
no good as an actress. It almost
seemed as if she were deliberately
miscast and her talents wasted. Time
Out Of Mind and My Own True Love
were for Universal-International and
Paramount respectively.

A spell back in England produced
Broken Journey and The Golden
Madonna, a lush, Italian-laced story
about a missing masterpiece, again
neither of them outstanding.

Phyllis Calvert has now withdrawn
from contracts with film companies and
is following the wise if unusual course
of looking for parts that are really
worthwhile. In this we can but praise
her integrity and wish her every
success.

John Vincent.

Scriptural Productions

AN INDEPENDENT ORGANISATION DEVOTED
TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION
OF FILMS FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES

Under the Direction
of

ANDREW BUCHANAN

+

PARK STUDIOS
PUTNEY PARK LANE
LONDON

S.W.I5

Tel. Putney 6274/4052

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Film
Institute, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7.

<7)>CZ>Z&

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman ; Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

3. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of pirns calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
pirns of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £10.

Privileged Membership, £1.

Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
pamphlet publications. Ordinary members receive a monthly copy
of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote:

"The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.”

Hon. Secretary:

Rev. John A. V. Burke, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

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16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Titles include :

Pilgrimage to Fatima
Rome of the Pilgrims
Holy Year

Crucifers to Walsingham

The Sacrifice We Offer
( Silent Version also available)
Monsieur Vincent
Farrebique
To Live in Peace

A Legend of Norfolk

Bookings can be accepted now for Hans Nieter’s beautiful
colour film THE VATICAN

All particulars from the Librarian ,

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SUMNER PLACE MEWS, LONDON, S.W.7.

Vol. IV

FOCUS

No. 1

CONTENTS

Editorial

American Memories

By Declan Flynn, O.F.M.

A Critic Looks at the “Fan”
By W. J. Igoe
King of Cartoonland

By Alan Keenan, O.F.M.
Focus Film Course

By Andrew Buchanan
Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

King Solomon’s Mines

Frenchie

I’ll Get By

All About Eve

Crisis

The Clouded Yellow
Cinderella

Page

3

4

10

12

13

13

14
14

14

15
18

Page

To Please a Lady 18

Tripoli 19

She Shall Have Murder ... 19

Between Midnight and Dawn ... 19

The Naked Heart 20

Highly Dangerous 21

For Heaven’s Sake 21

Two Weeks With Love 21

The Men 22

The Man on the Eiffel Tower ... 22

Frightened City 23

Monkey Business 23

Harvey 24

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye ... 24

Pretty Baby 25

All Quiet on the Western Front 25

Fatima in Focus 26

Latest Documentaries 27

Religion : Films and Film Strips 28

Cover Personality

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FOCUS: review

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. IV JANUARY 1951 No. 1

FOCUS AND THE FUTURE

FOCUS enters its fourth year of
publication. It does so with a
happy heart 2nd a firm will. Those
who ought to know have passed the
verdict that its general condition is
sound. They are of the opinion that
it is fulfilling the purpose for which it
was created : to focus attention on the
positive powers which films possess to
minister to life, art, religion and
happiness. Nevertheless, they have
offered some sensible and creative
criticisms.

Undoubtedly, the way in which a thing
is presented is important, so important
that many friends would like Focus to
appear a little smarter . . . with a better
“make-up”, as they say in the trade.
Focus has its dreams. Until a fairy
godmother arrives it must deny itself
the pleasure of a complete New Look.
Who knows what the future may
bring ? In the meantime, it will
endeavour to be more professional in its
“make-up”.

Focus respects criticism. It invites
criticism. For it is creative criticism
which makes its work grow stronger.
But, it would be a fool if it absorbed
all criticisms. It is not a sponge.
Focus does accept the criticism that
more emphasis should be placed on The
Apostolate of the Film. Elsewhere in
these pages you may read a beautiful,
strong prayer which is said by Catholics
and Christian-minded people in
Hollywood. Focus would like to see

this prayer become the future prayer
of all members of the Catholic Film
Institute in this country.

In the future it will be well to
remember these words of Our Holy
Father, Pope Pius XII . . .

“The natural tendency of fallen man
towards earthly things, his incapacity
to comprehend the things of the spirit
of God, is, unfortunately, furthered in
our day by the complicity of all that
surrounds him. Often enough God is
not denied, He is not blasphemed, He,
as it were, does not exist. The
propaganda for an earthly life without
God is open, seductive, continuous.
It has been rightly observed that,
generally, even in the movies classed
as morally unobjectionable, the players
live and die as if there were no God, no
redemption, no church. It is not our
purpose now to question intentions ;
but it is nevertheless true that the
consequences of such neutral film
productions are already widespread and
profound . . . Add to this, deliberately
intended and wicked propaganda for
excluding God from the family, society
and the State. It is a torrent whose
filthy waters seek to penetrate even to
the Catholic fold. And how many have
already been contaminated 1 With their
lips they still profess themselves
Catholic, but they do not realise that
their conduct factually belies their
profession. There is no time to
lose ...”

Editor.

4

AMERICAN MEMORIES

No. 1: Hollywood Catholics

By

Declan Flynn, O.F.M.

IT is interesting to record that
Theodore Bonnet author of The
Mudlark, the novel from which the film
now running in London was made, is a
practical Catholic. He is tall, broad
and bronzed and a delightful fellow to
talk to. He lives in Hollywood. So
realistic are his descriptions of persons,
places and things of London during the
reign of Queen Victoria that one would
suppose he had spent a long time in
London and its environs. Bonnet has
never been to England. He got to
know his London through books, photo-
prints and intense research work.

Like many other authors and
artistes he has a strong devotion to St.
Francis of Assisi; he told me that he
would like to see a film made of St.
Francis, but he believes that the Disney
technique is the only one that could do
justice to a film about such an attractive
saint. I gathered that he and a writer
friend have approached Walt Disney
about the matter. Some years ago I
remember Fr. Hugh McKay, O.F.M.,
talking to me with enthusiasm about
the same project. Perhaps there is
something in the idea. I wonder what
a certain friar whom I met in Santa
Barbara and who worked with Disney,
would think of this project !

Catholic Film Actionist

I hadn’t been long in Los Angeles
before 1 received a telephone call from
a gentleman with a clear, unmistakable,
English accent. It was Bill Mooring.
He gave me a warm welcome to the
Wild West. “ ... If I can do any-
thing at all for you, let me know . . .
consider me at your disposal”. I was

grateful for such a gracious offer for it
is difficult to get around the suburbs of
Los Angeles : Hollywood, Beverley Hills,
Culver City, etc., without a car and a
guide. Earthquakes have made it
dangerous to build subways. Bill and
his charming, sweet-natured wife were
most kind and hospitable.

The Moorings live in a cream-coloured
bungalow, a stone’s throw from the icy
blue waters of the Pacific, where the
sands gleam like silver and where you
see colours in the sky, particularly
at sunset, which no painter could
create.

Once Hated Church

Bill is a film critic, feature writer,
lecturer and an internationally
recognised authority on motion pictures ;
but what is more important, he is a
refreshing conversationalist and a most
agreeable companion. His Catholicism
sticks out a mile. He is not in the
least aggressive about his religion, but
you soon become awrare that his faith
is the raison d’etre of all he does and
says and writes and thinks. It was not
always so. There was a time when Bill
hated the Catholic Church with a great
hate. Strange to relate he found the
faith in Hollywood. He first went to
Hollywood in 1932 at the invitation of
the late Winfield Sheehan, then head
of Fox studios, to w'ork on the
Academy winning film Cavalcade. It
was the example of the talented
Catholic actress Una O’Connor, who
was playing in the film which forced
him to examine the claims of the
Catholic Church.

5

To find the faith in Hollywood should
cause no great surprise, for in
California the faith lingers like a song.
The old Franciscan missions — white,
adobe brick buildings constructed in the
Spanish style by the Indian converts,
under supervision of the padres, — are
living records of the burning faith of
the intrepid Junipero Serra and his
missionaries who discovered and
civilised this part of the world in the
eighteenth century and implanted the
seeds of the living faith.

California and Catholicism

It is a rich and rewarding experience
to visit California where (now) orange
groves and lemon groves and orchards
heavy with all kinds of luscious fruits
and plentiful prairies and fields burst-
ing with vegetables and other fields
bubbling with oil abound, and then, to
“think back” to the days before the
coming of the friars when it was in-
habited by barbarians who lived in
wigwams and subsisted on seeds,
acorns, rodents, coyotes, snakes, crows
and lizards and who accepted poly-
gamy as the general rule. California is
a rich, glorious part of the world. But
its chief glory is the glory of its
Catholic tradition.

Its power and its glory are enshrined
even in the lovely musical names of its
towns and townlets : Santa Barbara,

Santa Juan Baptista, Santa Clara, Santa
Juan Capistrano, Santa Monica, Santa
Gabriel, San Diego, San Francisco and
so on.

To drive through the colourful towns
of California is to recite, automatically,
the litany of the saints.

Planted the Cross

Even Hollywood evokes memories of
the Catholic past, of those days when
Fra Junipero Serra discovered this spot
and, as was his custom, planted the
holy wood of the cross and beneath its
shadow offered the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass.

It is not too fanciful, perhaps, to
think that the spirit of Junipero Serra,
whose cause is about to be introduced,
broods over Hollywood. Not far away
a river called “Portiuncula” trickles by
and as most people know Portiuncula
is the cradle of the Franciscan Order

and St. Mary of the Angels, of which
Dos Angeles is a corruption, is a spot
dear to the heart of St. Francis.

The Church and the Stars

Hollywood is not as pagan as it is
painted. Every Wednesday evening,
film stars, Catholics and non-Catholics
of Christian principles, may be seen
helping Fr. Peyton to produce his
Family Theatre programme, the purpose
of which is to help to christianise the
world through the modern medium of
films. The Family Theatre is a green
painted wooden bungalow-like building
situated at the summit of Sunset
Boulevard. It dominates the interest-
ing but straggling town of Hollywood
and calls its people to prayer; no one
can miss the words on its hoarding :
“The family that prays together, stays
together”. This theatre is a beehive of
industry : the script-writers, freelance
writers, secretaries, typists, telephonists
have no time to waste. The day’s work
is ended at five, when the staff fore-
gather in the chapel and say the
Rosary.

Hour of St. Francis

There is another Catholic pro-
gramme created in Hollywood in which
the stars play a prominent part.
It is called “The Hour of St.
Francis”. The creative mind behind
this programme is a Franciscan Friar,
Fr. Hugh Noonan, O.F.M., who started
the venture on a shoe-string. The
purpose of this weekly programme is
to bring to the world via the radio the
glad tidings of Christianity. The fact
that it is heard on 600 stations speaks
for itself. I can best describe the
nature of this programme by saying
that it is the dramatisation of a short
story which has punch and powder in
it with a Christian philosophy which is
not laid on with a trowel and yet
which is in no way watered down to
suit the crowd.

I was present in the studio on one
occasion when a programme was being
made. Playing in the programme were :
Dan O’Heilihy, movie star and late of
the Abbey Theatre, Dublin ; Pat
McGeehan who is one of the best radio
announcers in America; Howard Culver
who runs his own daily programme ;
Vic Perrin, Pat Kelly, a Catholic

6

producer and Programme Director at
radio station K.F.I., N.B.C. ; Bob
Mitchell, director of the famous
Mitchell Boys’ Choir.

The Cast Prayed

Before the cast went on the live radio
they said this prayer :

O God, Divine Master, who has
taught us in the great Drama of Thy
Life and Death the eternal purpose
of living, grant us to play our little
hour on this earthly stage that we may
never in deed, word or gesture shame
our calling, but may fashion out of
tears and laughter a deeper truth for
life and a brighter hope of heaven.
Who livest and reignest, God, world
without end. Amen.

Then Fr. Kenneth, O.F.M., who is
Fr. Hugh’s assistant, gave the cast his
blessing. There was some introductory
music. Then we heard Pat McGeehan’s
rich voice saying : “This is the Hour
of St. Francis bringing you a design for
peace . . . featuring Dan O’Heilihy as
John Hawes in The Great Heart of Cat
Island.”

Chance to do Good

After Jeanne Crain (she is a
Catholic) had featured in one of these
programmes she said : “Many people in
this profession are most interested in
doing something good, but there are so
few opportunities. The Hour of St.
Francis is one such outstanding
opportunity to do something good.
Many of us are most anxious to co-
operate in helping this programme
achieve its wonderful purpose.”

Included among guest artists in this
programme have been : Dennis Day,
Pat O’Brien, Ann Blyth, Joan Leslie,
J. Carrol Naish, Jane Wyatt, Charles
Laughton, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson,
Ann Jamieson, Macdonald Carey,
William Lundigan, Steve McNally,
Ruth Hussey, Paul Kelly, Wallace
Ford, Roddy McDowall.

Not all who are invited to appear on
The Hour of St. Francis are Catholics
but they all represent in their lives the
best of Christian values.

(To be continued)

FILM SHOW

The Catholic Film Institute
Productions

Rome of the Pilgrims
Crucifers to Walsingham
and

'Pilgrimage to Fatima

will be shown at

Westminster Cathedral Hall
Ambrosden Avenue, S.W.I

At 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
on '

JThursday, February 8th.
Admission Free— Collection

♦

FILM STRIP

FATIMA TO-DAY

Coloured pictures from the film

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

with explanatory booklet

36 Frames. Price : 15s.

(Post free 15/3)

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE

Blue Cottage, Sumner Place
Mews, London, S.W.7

7

A Positive Approach to the Cinema, No. 6

A Critic Looks at the “Fan”

By W. J. IGOE

IN his witty essay, “Confessions of a
Book Reviewer”, the late George
Orwell consoled himself for the
depravity, as he saw it, of his chosen
craft with the thought — “However,
everyone in this life has someone else
he can look down on, and I must say,
from experience of both trades, that the
book reviewer is better off than the film
critic, who cannot even do his work at
home, but has to attend trade shows at
eleven in the morning and, with one
or two honourable exceptions, is ex-
pected to sell his honour for a glass of
inferior sherry”.

The occasional film critic brings a
more dispassionate vision to the
screen. Orwell’s picture is overdrawn,
relies too much on comic shadows, like
a Giles’ cartoon in which the tenements
are windowless, the inhabitants only
dwarfish little boys destined for Nazism
of some sort and a dandelion never
reflects the sun in gashed and bare
backyards. For one thing the sherry is
good.

Upholstered Gloom

Yet there is something of truth
in the mood of the paragraph, some-
thing claustrophobic, that characteristic-
ally was Orwell’s and the thing he had
in common with the mass-intellectuals
whom he stimulated. When my
colleague leaves England on her annual
holiday and I deputise at the movies,
my regard for her deepens appreciably.
Each morning immediately after break-
fast, and on occasions, being but
human, after the night before, I am en-
cased in upholstered gloom, warmed
gently like a haddock for a gourmet,
hundreds of shafts of blank colours or
light and shade merging in an image
and a disintegrating blare of sounds
strikes and gushes, in jets, at me; I
feel that if this were, as they say, my

steady job, I should have to re-
organise my life. I should have to
abandon the world; to maintain, even
in its present patched-up way, my soul
intact, I should need to place myself,
each week-end, under the care of an
aged, and consequently exquisitely ex-
perienced, retreat master. I might
have to take extra vows of some kind,
become a saint, an aspiration I
presently take in a halting stride, rely-
ing on the grace of God reaching me
through the ordinary channels.

During this period of three weeks,
when I don’t choose my own movies,
I get the impression that the film, off-
spring of science and industrialism, is
made without regard to the purpose of
art and the nature of those who com-
prise its audience. In a word, I find
the cinema inhuman. At the same time
I like movies and believe that the
cinema is potentially as great an art as
any. The trouble commences, I
believe, outside the cinema itself,
primarily in the audience, which in-
cludes those who make the pictures,
and in a system of values which the
film, a traditionless medium, inherited
in a period when Protestant culture had
touched a nadir of banality un-
precedented in history. Let us examine
the way in which a film is brought to
the attention of the public and its
nature and presentation in the theatre.

He 'Likes Knitting!

We hear of films firstly by way of
publicity sent out by the film
companies. Most film critics avoid read-
ing it. Mainly it is composed of stuff
about the private lives of film actors
and actresses. Mr. Errol Snooks, we
are told presently working on the new
film Atomic ■ Hearts, collects postage
stamps, cigarette pictures, likes

8

knitting and has a wife who loves
cooking. Miss Pamela Pompom,
presently on location in Liberia for the
Warnamount epic Passioti Sabotaged, is
fond of “highbrow” reading and when-
ever she can escape from service to her
public dashes off to her chalet in
Beverley Hills to browse in the works
of Mr. John Steinbeck, Mr. Aldous
Huxley and Miss Katherine Windsor;
she loves history too. This inane
gossip bears, of course, no relationship
to the facts of Miss Pompom or Mr.
Snooks who are, most often, decent
people trying to save money to
educate their children or, occasionally,
common “heels” whose good looks ex-
tracted them from the honourable
service of Joe Lyon’s customers and a
blacking factory. But it reflects what
the film companies believe their
audiences wish their film actors to be ;
it is, as I wrote, stuff. It goes into the
“fan-magazines”; the newspaper critic
drops it on the office floor.

His next ration of publicity comes at
the press showing of the pictures when
he is given a synopsis which includes
lists of actors and technicians and an
outline, in basic English, of the story.
This synopsis is illustrated by “stills”
and reduced reproductions of posters to
be displayed throughout the country as
enticement to the “fan”. And this
brings me to one of the main sins of
the moving picture industry.

Emphasis on Sex

The average cinema poster seems to
be designed for the sole purpose of
arresting the attention of oversexed
morons. Often it bears scanty relation-
ship to the film it advertises ; more
often it selects a brief incident from
that film, distorts it into giving an
impression that belies the nature of
the picture and so misleads the member
of the audience. One could enumerate
examples by the score. I should like
to refer to two that are on display at
the moment. The film version of
Henry James’ beautiful novel “Wash-
ington Square”, retitled The Heiress,
is being advertised by a poster display-
ing Mr. Montgomery Clift nuzzling tne
shoulders of Miss Olivia de Havilland
who appears to be swooning ; this gives
a false impression of the picture which,
insofar as it keeps to the book, deals
with spiritual values and where it

departs from it becomes old-fashioned
melodrama. The other example occurs
in the poster for Treason, the film
based upon the persecution of Cardinal
Mindszenty, in which a young woman’s
figure is spread-eagled next to the face
of the actor who plays the part of the
Hungarian primate. The fact that the
figure is, for once, fully clothed is
beside the point. The hint of “sex”
is there and was deemed a necessary
part of advertising by the sales- jJ
organisation of the film company W
involved. From such posters we may
deduce the film-makers’ values and
their assessment of the motivating
“tastes” of their audience.

The impression is reinforced when
one enters the cinema. If I may make
a comparison with the theatre, I shall
refer the reader to the most popular
branch of entertainment on the stage
— the vaudeville house. When we
attend one of Mr. Val Parnell’s pro-
ductions at the Palladium we know
exactly what we are going to see. Mr.
Parnell has an excellent service of
publicity and his posters give a list of
the names of his artists and brief
accounts of their talents, for acrobatics,
crooning, playing the zither or being a
“funster”. These are not prose-poems,
but tell the truth. When we
enter the theatre we may buy a
further programme which gives us, in
precise detail, notes on the show.

No such service is supplied at the
movies. In most cinemas there is a
supporting programme of short features
which seldom are shown to critics and
are presented arbitrarily, according, I
suspect, to the bare needs of demand
within the bare terms of supply.

Sheeplike Fans

Currently, for example, at the Odeon
Theatre, Leicester Square, The Mudlark
is being screened ; when the writer
attended a public showing of this picture
it was the third item on a programme A
which included two short features, one ™
of which was designed to inform me
that Britain is supreme in the air, and
the other, that Rayon is a splendid
fabric for making young women’s clothes.

I am pleased by the news the first film
conveyed, without necessarily believing
it, and I was extremely bored by the
spectacle of airplanes swooping across
the screen for fifteen minutes,

9

presumably demonstrating the truth of
the claim. In the second item I had no
interest; yet I sat through it in the
sheeplike mass of film fans whose
apathy permits such impertinences on
the part of the management.

As a theatre-goer I know that if Mr.
Parnell (who since he is part of an old
and living tradition would not think of
insulting his patrons in this way) were
to lecture us on the aircraft industry or
tell us that Messrs. Austin Reed’s
shirtings are excellent, there might be
a riot in the Palladium. He certainly
would go out of business. But not the
movie-maker, for unlike Mr. Parnell he
has made not only his show ; he has
manufactured his audience and it is,
if we may judge from the evidence,
docile to the point of being sub-human
and a prey to the appetites which are,
to say the least of it, on an animal level.

It all gets back to the audience and
film appreciation, as such, the reader
will note, has not been mentioned in
these notes. I have confined myself to
matters of common good taste, which
are inseparable from morals. The
great problem which faces, I believe,
the Catholic filmgoer, who always
should be the film critic on his own
behalf, is the influence of the mass
modern mind, in his fellow-members of
the audience, in the film makers and
in the natural dynamic of the medium ;
he must keep his head, and it must be
his head, not mine, or any professional
critic’s head, or even his parish priest’s
head, but his own. Its contents must
be shaped into an instrument capable
of appreciating God’s truth and
distinguishing it from the tawdry
rubbish that all popular art, in varying
measures, attempts to sell in our day.

Catholic Approach

The title of the series in which this
article will appear is “A Positive
Approach to the Cinema” and on the
subject a critic, I suppose, should have
something to say. Critical principles
are not easily formulated but I believe
we take from the cinema what tve
bring to it, enriched if the film is good,
diminished if it is bad and we succumb
to its violent blandishment. One
must, therefore, as a Catholic, I
suggest, bring a Catholic mind, an
adult and consequently discriminating
mind with an appreciation of man’s
dignity, which is our own, and man’s

weakness, which is our own, and man’s
wickedness, which is our own, the
realisation that we, potentially, are
capable of committing all the sins and
yet are destined for salvation. We

must meditate with clean minds and
clean hearts and if the cinema helps us,
then it is good ; if it opposes our
meditation then it must be made
clean.

What is a film, anyway ? Like all
works of art it is merely an assembly
of detail, in sound and picture. And
this mere thing may be great, as it was
in Monsieur Vincent, City Lights and
Birth of a Nation. When we think of
the saint in the first of these, that
bent figure walking in the village of
pestilence, hear the heavy boots tread-
ing on the silence, as He brought the
Mass, when we recall Chaplin, the
clown in the battered garments of a
bank clerk, wandering bravely on the
skyline, and, in the Griffith’s master-
piece, recall the great sweep of battle
across the meadows of America, we may
be sure that the film has much to say,
to man at prayer, the man who would
laugh, and the man who thrills to
history.

When “Fans” Grow Up

All this it may say, more often, when
film audiences become adult in mind
and heart.

What can Catholics do ? Be more
positive I am asked ! Well, they can
try, occasionally, in the darkness before
the screen lights up, to say a Gloria;
the exercise has a startling way of
putting Hollywood in perspective.
They can read the Papal Letter on the
cinema, with their minds wide-open so
that they may digest it ; then they can
read all the Papal Letters on questions
of our day ; this will put the world in
which we live into startling perspective.

The next, the second essential, I
believe, for us is to support and sanely
criticise the Catholic Film Institute,
encourage and aid it, spiritually and
materially, to establish in London and
through its branches in the country,
repertory cinemas where the best films,
from Griffith to Carol Reed, can be
seen and discussed so that we, all of
us, may familiarise ourselves with a
medium of art the Pope has ordered us
to make gooc(. It is, therefore, I would
say, simply a duty.

10

WALT DISNEY

DISNEY is 49 this December. When
he was five, a man named Bray was
making animated cartoons for use on
the screen. The first patent was taken
out for them while he was still at
school in Kansas City. But the film
cartoon will always be associated with
his name.

Real Life Animals

It was not so much that he developed
a new technique of cartoon making as
that he refined and improved exist-
ing ones. Elis first venture was in 1923,
but by 1917 Max Fleischer had been
turning out cartoons free from the
jerkiness of earlier efforts. Disney
brought a new artistic insight into
cartoon making. His first major
character was Mickey Mouse. This was
based on a live mouse he had caught in
the studio, tamed and observed. All his
cartoon animals are based on real life
observations of animals. This gives his
cartoons their realism. Maybe this
explains why the Tailwaggers Associa-
tion of Hollywood awarded Pluto a
bronze fire hydrant as the most
promising dog actor of 1940. People
think of Disney’s animals as real
animals. His cartoons are as alive as
that.

Three other factors helped to make

KING OF
CARTOONLAND

By

Alan Keenan, O.F.M.

him king of cartoonland. They were his
use of sound, colour and continuity. In
favour of sound it is well known that
Steamboat Willie, made in 1928 was the
first animated sound cartoon. He
received also in 1941 a medal from the
New York Schools of Music for his out-
standing services to music ( Fantasia
was made in 1941). He next linked
sound and colour in his “Silly
Symphonies”, begun in 1929. The last
factor of continuity, of smoothness in
the features he made, came increasingly
through experience gained and refine-
ment of technology. Thus in 1938 his
studios developed the multiplane
camera; in 1940 they received the award
from the Society of Motion Picture
Engineers for outstanding achievement
in motion picture technology; and in
the following year the Irving Thalberg
award for consistent high quality
productions.

He Loved to Draw

So far we have presented the evidence
for Disney’s mastery of sound, colour,
action and realism. But what makes his
genius is his artistic mastery of these
elements. This leads us on to Disney,
the man.

When he was a small boy he loved to
draw and he drew very well. No
member of the family on his father’s or

11

mother’s side had hitherto shown any
artistic inclinations. His brothers all
became business men. At high school
Tie developed two talents which were
both significant. The first was his
drawing and the second was an aptitude
for photography. He also studied
cartoon work at night in the Academy
of Fine Arts. After the first world war
came his next significant step which
was a job doing work for farm journals,
drawing farmers and contented cows.
When he was nineteen he got a new
job, making animated advertising films.
His interest in photography had not
waned. His boss let him take home an
old movie camera and he began ex-
perimenting at home making his own
animated cartoons.

Left His Job

The idea came to him of leaving his
job and forming his own company for
the production of animated cartoons of
fairy tales. Fifteen thousand dollars
went into the formation of this
company which was at Missouri. But
the firm which had been distributing
for him went bankrupt. He decided
that Hollywood offered the best
opportunities and considered how he
could get from Kansas City to Holly-
wood. For since the company crash he
had no money. This is what he did.
He made a song film for a theatre
organist and used the money he got to
bify a second-hand movie camera. With
the camera he photographed Kansas
babies and sold the films to delighted
Kansas mothers. That paid his rail
fare to Hollywood. In Hollywood he
hawked a cartoon around the studios.
The studios referred him to their New
York offices. The cartoon was sent East
and Disney prepared like Kathleen
Mavourneen to wait for years or maybe
for ever for a New York assignment.

Hungry Genius

He got one. But for five years he
languished, a hungry genius, in a
Hollywood penthouse. Then Mickey
Mouse was born and his fortunes
changed. Distributors buzzed around
him. They made tempting financial
offers to sell his idea to them. But
Disney refused. He rightly penetrated
their box office motives and, artist as
he was, clung fast to his individuality
and to his ideas.

People have tried to interpret his

ideas in terms of art form and aesthetics.
But Disney will have none of them. He
creates what he thinks the common man
will like, but of course he creates
uncommonly well. He firmly refuses
to belong to an artistic set, to walk in
the cloudy heavens and claim the
esoteric fellowship of the few. In many
ways he is the happy extrovert. He
seems a humble man, devoid of the
pride which sometimes goes with the
deeply artistic imagination. He is not
the least eccentric and this is no mean
achievement to a man of his creative
originality.

Lost Vision

As in all forms of art there is in
Disney’s work a quality of what may
be called redemption, a restoration of a
vision we sometimes seem to have lost.
F'or example, there was in Bambi a
scene of a leaf falling in autumn. The
leaf fell slowly with that haunting
motion which is the ghost of summer.
Disney showed it to us not as seen from
below but as seen from above, falling
to meet its reflection in a blue
forest pool. In Fantasia numbers of
people got an insight for the first time,
perhaps, into the beauties of the
“Pastoral”. There was the heart-
warming quality of the little puppet boy
in Pinocchio ; there are the millions of
children who laughed at Grumpy and
loved Snow White. That is the quality
of redemption.

Uncanny Realism

Finally we may note that the critics
have questioned the integrity of
Disney’s practice of introducing live
actors into cartoon films. The}' say you
cannot mix two such separate mediums.
I suspect this criticism. The modern
talkie is a mixture of two mediums
anyway, as people are finding out in
their reaction to the Chaplin films in
the recent revival. Opera is a fusion
of mediums and to a certain extent so
is television. Perhaps the critics were
really reacting against the unrealism
of live actors when seen in contrast
against the uncanny realism of Disney’s
cartoon animals. For myself I would
like to see it put to the test. I would like
to see Thumper the Rabbit and Charlie
Chaplin co-starred together, with
Charlie, perhaps, as a dipsomaniac and
Thumper as a miniature Harvey.

12

FOCUS FILM COURSE. No. 12

How Much Have You Learnt 1

asks ANDREW BUCHANAN

We now complete the first half of the
Course without having entered a film
studio, peered at cameras, or discussed
stars, because we have dealt with first
things first and devoted our study to
the size and shape of the industry. Before
proceeding with the second half, which
is going to deal with film production,
I advise the student to test his
knowledge to date. By now he should
know the ramifications of the industry,
why it is divided into three interrelated
groups; how all films are classified as
features or shorts, and how their
distribution channels are divided into
theatrical and non-theatrical and why.
Without such knowledge the student is
ill-prepared to explore the world of
film-making. There are already far too
many people who know too little about
film fundamentals and who rush into
production before being able to tell the
difference between negative and
positive, or, more important, how films
can regain the money which has been
spent to make them. That is why we
have been solely concerned with the
structure of the industry until now, and
why the student should also be able to
answer the following questions :

How many cinemas are there
(approximately) in the world ?

And how many in Britain ?

How many millions visit the world’s
cinemas weekly, and how many go in
Britain ?

What is the average age of the
habitual filmgoer ?

Why does film exert a more powerful
influence than radio ?

What is the size of standard film—
and of sub-standard ? How many sub-
standard sizes are in use ?

What is the running speed of film in
cinemas ?

Why are so many films which appear
on sub-standard film first produced on
standard size film and reduced?

Can projection both make and mar a

film ?

Was the double-feature programme
introduced into Britain by public
demand ?

What is the average length of : a
feature film — a short film — a newsreel ?

If a play is presented both on stage
and screen what would be the most
obvious difference in presentation ?

Is there any one factor preventing
film becoming a universal medium of
expression ?

Are original screen stories preferable
to adaptations of novels and plays ?

Is non-theatrical distribution highly
developed ? Which kind of organisa-
tions use it to a maximum degree ?

Are educational films successful in
classrooms ? „

Will educational films eventually
supersede teachers ?

Has the production of special films
for children been successful, and if not,
why not ?

Can you define the fundamental
difference between films produced in
France, in Italy and in Britain ?

Can music be more than a background
in films ?

Is the religious film making
progress ?

Is there a difference between a
religious film and a film about religion ?

The above questions have been picked
at random from the subject-matter of
previous chapters, and if the student
can answer all or nearly all of them, he
is ready to learn about the making of
films. But he should never lose sight of
the important fact that the underlying
purpose of this Course is religious.

First, it is designed to increase the
critical faculties of the filmgoer ;
secondly, to urge the formation of film
discussion groups to develop film
appreciation ; thirdly, to encourage
spiritual values on the screen by
increasing a demand for them, and
fourthly to steadily advance the plan of
forming producing units composed of
men and women who have become
technically and artistically proficient in
film-making and who are filled with the
inspiration to devote themselves to
creating films which shall proclaim the
Christian Message ceaselessly.

13

ipa&iffia saigas w

By our Panel of Priests

KING SOLOMON’S MINES

Starring: Deborah Kerr, Stewart

Granger. Richard Carlson.
Producer: Sam Zimbalist.

Directors: Compton Bennett and
Andrew Marton. Distributors:
M. - G. - M. Certificate : U.

Category : B. Running time :

102 minutes.

I do not consider it my business to
say whether this film accords with
Rider Haggard’s classic novel, for a
film and a novel are different mediums.
I do consider it my business to say,
right away, that this is a rattling good
movie. It moves and moves all the
time. There is not a hitch, as far as
I could see, in the rhythm of its move-
ment, sequence glides into sequence,
like cloud gliding into cloud. Its
superb colouring makes it a lovely
thing to look at and to my mind there
is nothing wrong w'itli its story value.
It is full of lively' and interesting
characters and the element of suspense
is held to the end.

Men Will Be Boys!

To accompany Allan Quartermain and
his adventurers on the most hazardous
African Safari of Quartermain ’s career
. . . through growling jungles and in-
fested swamps . . . across rivers and
rocks . . . over snow-capped mountains
. . . to see them nearly trampled to
death by a stampede of animals ... to
see them deserted by their frightened
bearers and betrayed by the white man,
Smith, is an exciting experience (a
boyish experience, if you like, but men
will be boys!). The acting is good and
the whole thing with one exception, has
the quality of verisimilitude. Deborah
Kerr is the flv in the ointment.

I have often sung the praises of
Deborah Kerr, a most distinguished
actress, but this is not her sort of film.
She doesn’t act or look or even pose as
a woman who has undertaken this
dangerous journey as an act of repara-

tion for the wrong she has done her
husband, Henry Curtis. Despite her
“frightful experiences” in the jungle,
she always remains as well groomed
and as meek as one of those nice girls
who believe they are being tough when
they go for a picnic into the country.

In this film Deborah is just playing
a game. From the beginning one
knew, of course, that Deborah would
succumb to the tough charms and the
rugged arms of Stewart Granger.

E.

FRENCHIE

Starring: Joel McCrea and Shelley

Winters, with Paul Kelly, Elsa
Lanchester, Marie Windsor, John
Russell and John Emery. A
Universal - International Picture.
Director: Louis King. Certificate :
A. Category : A. Running time:
80 minutes.

The credit notes tell us that Frenchie
gives us “the ‘shocking’ Shelley
Winters in her first technicolor film”.
The screen shows us a glamorous young
lady in the overdressed fashions of the
late nineteenth century ; to my mind,
more capable of suggestiveness than the
frankly utilitarian styles of the modern
miss. The story demands that Miss
Winters conduct a gambling saloon
called the Scarlet Angel in the course
of which she arouses the chivalrous
emotions of all the cowpunchers and
goldminers for miles around. The
result is that the owner of the gambling
den on the next territory comes over to
buy her out. He gets shot by the law-
abiding sheriff, Joel McCrea. You can
guess why.

The film is pretty to look at and for
those who like Wild West yarns which
are not too wild, doubtless entertaining.
The most shocking thing I saw was a
catch-as-catch-can fight between two
women — a revolting sight even when it
is intended to be funny, as in this case.

V.

14

I’LL GET BY

Starring: June Haver, William Lundi-
gan, Gloria de Haven, Dennis
Day. Producer: William Perlberg.
Director: Richard Sale. Presented
20th Century-Fox in Technicolor.
Certificate : U. Category : B.

W'm. Shakespeare : What fools these
mortals be.

Dr. Johnson : In a theatre an orange
may have a purpose other than that for
which it was primarily designed.

Captain Cook : . . . a vast continent,
strange and unsuspected of the
ancients.

Sir Walter Raleigh : Overmuch

weavel in the biscuit occasioned lack of
appetite among the crew.

Oliver Cromwell : Cut them down in
the name of the Lord.

Wall St. Financier : If the moon were
a balloon, I’d bounce it.

Pithecanthropus Erectus (Does that
fox you ?) : Wait here baby, I need a
drink.

T. : Forgive the levity, these films
take me that way. A song plugger
plugs his songs and gets the lady. I
enjoyed the back-chat, but oh ! the
songs !

T.

ALL ABOUT EVE
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter,
George Sanders, Celeste Holm,
with Cary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe.
Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck.

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
Distributors: 20th Century-Fox.

Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time : 138 minutes.

Don’t be put off by the running time;
nor by the fact that this is a film which
takes nearly all that time to depict how
Eve came to win the Sarah Siddons
award for acting. From the very
beginning, when George Sanders speaks
a kind of prologue-commentary, there
is wit and satire in abundance, good
line after line unflaggingly. Towards
the end the interest rather shifts from
dialogue to drama, to the unveiling of

the egotistic scheming and ruthless
exploitation of friendship by which Eve
has secured her success.

The theatre has not spared itself.
Indeed I can imagine indignant pro-
tests from those who are impervious to
wit and satire, calling the film an
insult and a libel on an honourable
profession. Mr. Mankiewicz has written
an original script as well as directing
the picture and it is a brilliant piece of
work, astringent without being ex-
cessively bitter, and definite, if
implicit, in its moral attitude.

The actress who is not so young, the
dresser who speaks her mind, the
dyspeptic and Semitic producer, the
ambitious understudy, the caustic critic,
the posing and prosing of the theatrical
profession — what could have been so
hackneyed is here so live and individual.

But this is not a film for me to write
about ; it is one for you to see, and
listen to.

Q-

CRISIS

Starring: Cary Grant, Jose Ferrer and
Paula Raymond, with Signe
Hasso, Ramon Novarro, Antonio
Moreno, Leon Ames and Gilbert
Roland. An M.-G.-M. Picture.
Director: Richard Brooks.

Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time ; 95 minutes.

This story of an eminent American
brain surgeon who is kidnapped to
perform an intricate operation on the
dictator of an unspecified Latin American
country has obvious similarities with
State Secret but it has also equally
obvious differences. I imagine that
in any case, the films were made quite
independently of one another. State
Secret was an escape story whereas
Crisis is much more an excursion into
the minds of dictators.

Cary Grant as the surgeon is allowed
a wider scope for serious character than
is usually his fate. Jose Ferrer, whom
most readers will remember as the
Dauphin in Fleming’s Joan of Arc,
gives a really brilliant study of the
egotism which brings some men to the
tyrannical leadership of their fellows

15

and sustains them into thinking that
they are conferring a benefit by their
iron discipline.

There is some interesting ex-
terior photography in which the camera
has fixed for us impressions of crowds,
open squares, scenes of people at
prayer, the beginnings of revolution
and a final sequence in which the dead
dictator is dragged ignoininiously by the
heels that has much of the feeling and
not a little of the merit of the much-
praised early Russian films.

V.

THE CLOUDED YELLOW

Starring: Jean Simmons, Trevor

Howard and Sonia Dresdel, with
Barry Jones, Kenneth More,
Geoffrey Keen and Maxwell Reed.
A Betty Box Production.
Director: Ralph T h o m a s.

Certificate : U. Category: B.

Running time : 95 minutes.

This is a film which sets out to
entertain an easy-going public prepared
not to enquire too closely into the
probabilities of the story of a girl
wdiose strange behaviour is put down
to the fact that she found her parents
dead when a small child, apparently
having committed suicide. When an
ex-Secret Service man comes ’ to
catalogue butterflies at the country
house where she lives, it needs little
experience in the ways of cinema to
know that all sorts of things are going
to happen and that all kinds of people
are going to act strangely. They do.
The Secret Service man leads the girl
and the police and the Secret Service
a fine dance and chase all over the
north of ^England, thus giving us a
chance to see some fine scenery. I
enjoyed it all : both the chase and the
scenery.

Unemployed Secret Agent!

Trevor Howard has given up being a
doctor ( Brief Encounter ; So Well
Remembered ; Green for Danger;
The Passionate Friends) and after a
spell in the Army ( The Third Man) has
taken to cataloguing things : antiques

in The Golden Salamander and butter-
flies in the present case. The Clouded
Yellow is the name of a specimen
having some symbolic connection with
Jean Simmons, apparently. Needless to
say, Trevor Howard manages to con-
vince us that he is really an out-of-
work M.I.5 type, for he is an
exceptionally competent actor. He

even helps us to overlook the

incongruities in the screenplay. Jean

I revor Howard . ■ • Jean Simmons

Simmons still leaves me puzzled. Is
she or is she not an actress ? The
direction in this film is not a fair test;
for the actors, with one lamentable
exception, are all clever co-operators
with, perhaps, the slightest tendency
to overplay in the case of Barry Jones
and Sonia Dresdel Miss Simmons
wears what appears to be a brunette
version of her Ophelia wig. Later she
uses her own urchin-cut coiffure and
comes to life. Still, the part calls for
some peculiarly inane expressions
which, perhaps, lets her out.

There is a peach of a scene in which
Trevor Howard is being interviewed by
an Appointments Officer, brilliantly
played by Richard Wattis.

Not For Children

Though the Censor gave the film a
U Certificate, there is a rather un-
pleasant scene at the close of the story
where a man chases the heroine over a
station roof with a meat hook and then
falls and is run over by a train. Not
to be seen, therefore, by impression-
able children. Otherwise, good value for
vonr entertainment tax.

V.

FILM OF

Cirii

The invitation arrives

The midnight hour has struck

Good fairy to the rescue

The ugly

MONTH

diet”

£f\..

u .

(Reviewed overleaf )

t>art . . .

The castle of her dreams

>all

. . . leaving Cinderella to her dreams

The slipper search ends

18

CINDERELLA

A Walt Disney film in technicolor.

Distributors: R.K.O. Radio.

Certificate-. U. Category: D.

Running time : 74 minutes.

When the British present a fairv
story in dramatic form they usually —
though I have not forgotten The Glass
Slipper — pad it out to great size with
broad humour, topicalities and music-
hall turns, and call it pantomime.
Walt Disney has avoided the pitfall of
excessive length and has successfully
used as his supplementary matter the
doings of the sort of artificial animals
with which his name is specially
connected. And it is in this sphere
that Cinderella is at its best. Two
sequences have the quality of ballet
and are most enjoyable : when

Cinderella is dressed by the mice, first
in her neat working clothes when she
gets up in the morning — she is never
in rags as I thought she ought to have
been — and then in the ball dress which
her sisters will not allow her to wear.
And Gus, the mouse, is a real
acquisition to the ranks of Disney
characters.

A comparison with Snow White is
inevitable. Indeed, one has the feeling
that some of the cast of the earlier film
are playing again. So, Snow White is
Cinderella. Prince Charming repeats
his role. The Wicked Queen is the
Stepmother. (A bulldog from a short
cartoon has been metamorphosed into
Lucifer, an odious cat. And Pluto plays
the small part of Bruno.)

Those who saw Snow White when it
was re-issued, already realised the
advance which has been made with the
years from some of its technical
crudities. And Cinderella is wisely
free, as Snow White was not, from the
intrusion of the horrific. (One wee
thing near me was momentarily in
great distress, but only because
Cinderella had no dress to go to the
ball ; presumed familiarity with the
story could not allay the immediate
poignancy — an unconscious and en-
dearing tribute to dramatic effect.) The
music by David, Hoffman and
Livingston has tuneful moments, but
can never hope to rival Churchill’s
score for Snore White.

Disney is said to have used Perrault’s
version. But the opening words are not
quite as I remember Perrault. “Once
upon a time in a faraway kingdom . . .”
says the film. But I felt that it was
not far enough away from U.S.A. The
courts of kings in fairy tales were
meant to be wonderful and fascinating.
I have no objection if, like real courts,
they7 have a comic side. But here they
seem almost entirely ridiculous. Text
and action suggest that Cinderella
could think of nothing better than
marrying a prince But one critic
described Disney’s Snow White as “a
Hollywood cutie’’. And I certainly
felt that his Cinderella would really
have regarded her adventures as
regrettably undemocratic and that the
perfect ending would have been to find
that the prince was not a prince at ail
but Robert Taylor or Van Johnson in
disguise.

Q-

TO PLEASE A LADY
Starring: Clark Gable and Barbara
Stanwyck. An M.-G.-M. Picture.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 90 minutes.

There are some things connected
with the physical manifestations of the
love of man for woman which are too
intimate for the highway publicity-
provided by the screen. Though a little
wandering around studios soon teaches
one that the physical contortions
necessary for the unfortunate actors to
“register” the appropriate degree of
intimacy in osculation are entirely
phoney, it is all the sad<Jer to think
that they go through such revolting
embraces because the producers think
that is what the public wants.

The story is of two middle-aged
persons, tile one a gossip-column
writer, the other a racing motorist,
who both have in common a desire to
get to the top regardless of the feelings
of others. To see the two middle-aged
plavers who fill these roles trying to
satisfy what the producers say the
public wants leaves me with a sick
feeling. What some people will do for
money.

V.

19

TRIPOLI

Starring: Maureen O’Hara, John

Payne and Howard da Silva,
with Philip Reer and Grant
Withers. A. Paramount Picture.
Director: Will Price. Certificate :
U. Category : B. Running time :
96 minutes.

One advantage of “historical” films is
that they induce the conscientious
critic to check the facts. Thus a film
which tells me that American navy
boats were engaged in keeping the
Mediterranean free in 1805 sent me to
my American history books. Alas, I
could find no corroborative evidence. It
is true that Britain was blockading the
coasts of France during the war with
Napoleon and America resented the
resulting lack of freedom but there is
110 mention of this in Tripoli. Maybe
we are taking it too seriously. It is a
technicolorful dose of Maureen O’Hara
as a French Countess with an Irish-
American accent who is trying to induce
the deposed Pasha Hamet to marry her
but is saved from such a fate by the
bad manners of John Payne as an
American Marine Corps lieutenant.

The colour is fierce and so is the
fighting. The trade papers would
describe this film as “entertaining fare
for undiscriminating patrons”. And so
do we. V.

SHE SHALL HAVE MURDER

Starring: Rosamund John, Derrick de
Marney, Mary Jerrold, Felix

Aylmer. Producers: Derrick de
Marney and Guido Coen.

Director: Daniel Birt. Distrib-
utors: Independent Film

Distributors Ltd. Certificate :
U. Category-. B. Running
time : 90 minutes.

This is a “Whodunit” with a welcome
touch of originality. Someone in a
solicitor’s office in Kensington “dunit”.
Who? We are kept guessing right up
to the end, which is a big point in the
film’s favour. We are also able to
accept as real people the various
characters who work in the office and
who become involved in the crimes,
which is another point in the film’s
favour.

I thought the acting was very good
indeed ; perhaps it is not ungenerous to

suggest that Derrick de Marney is
inclined to overplay and to say that it
would have been better for the audience
if he didn’t attempt to speak when drink-
ing pots of beer; after all, people do
like to hear what a fellow is saying.
Rosamund John as the girl who is
writing a novel and Felix Aylmer as
the dry-dustv-absent-minded solicitor
are particularly good. There is also
some good by-play. For instance : the
copper who takes evidence from
Dagobert (Derrick de Marney).

Not much money, I imagine, was
spent on this film. There is a look of
technical cheapness about it which
means that all the credit must go to
the players, for the thing does get
across. E.

BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND
DAWN

Starring: Mark Stevens, Edmond

O’Brien and Gale Storm, with
Donald Buka, Anthony Ross and
Gale Robbins. Director: Gordon
Douglas. A Columbia Picture.
Certificate : A. Category : B.

Running time : 89 minutes.

Gordon Douglas also directed James
Cagney’s latest exercise in sadism but
although this film, too, deals with
gangsters and policemen, there is a
minimum of brutality for its own sake
and while there is no lack of excite-
ment, it has a healthy flavour and the
moral of the film is that even police-
men have to learn and practise
restraint. For, as Gale Storm says to
Edmond O’Brien, after his best friend
has been killed, “An embittered police-
man is a dangerous person”.

The story is an uncomplicated one
about two men in the Radio Patrol
who love the same girl; who do their
duty; who run the risks that help to
keep the public safe in bed o’ nights ;
who, finally, run an escaped murderer
to earth as efficiently and relentlessly
as the medical squad would isolate a
dangerous germ.

The film neither calls for nor
receives anything extraordinary in
the way of acting but it is a fast-
moving, brilliantly photographed yarn
about cops and robbers, made with the
competence and elan customary with
Hollywood products of this kind.

V.

THE NAKED HEART

Starring: Michele Morgan, Kieron

Moore, Franfoise Rosay.
Producer: Nelson Scott. Director:
Marc Allegret. Distributors:
British Lion. Certificate: U.

Category ; B. Running time :
96 minutes.

I do not subscribe to a popular belief
that any fool can play the film critic ;
but I do believe that any film critic can
plav the fool, or make a fool of himself.
In coming to the rescue of this film
which the critics have pitched over-
board, I may be making a fool of
myself but (at least) I have my reasons.
In spite of patches of bad scripting,
some bad acting (the sequence in which
the doctor visits the dying mother is
very bad) and a queer mixture of
accents, I found a certain charm,
cleanness and catholicity about this
picture. It is a love story with a
difference. With this difference that
love is not made out to be all powder,
paint and passion, but something that
is mysterious, deep and spiritual.

The story centres around a pretty,
idealistic, Catholic girl, Maria

(Top Left) After rescuing the Suprenants jK
Francois (Philippe Lemaire) is
congratu lated.

Top Right) Maria with her father and
Robert, who loves her.

‘Bottom Left) Mother explains to daughter
that love between man and woman has
to be made.

Chapdelaine (Michele Morgan), just
home from convent school, who finds
herself caught up in the mesh (or
mess!) of several loves. This, of course,
is nothing new, but the situation is
handled in a way which, for the film-
world with its pseudo-love and pseudo-
sex, is new and quite extraordinary.

The idea at the root of this film is that
love is a mystery (note the simple yet
profound advice which the priest offers
to Maria); something spiritual; some-
thing that a couple “make” for them-
selves, day by day, by mutual loving,
forbearance, service and so on.

If all mothers explained to their
daughters what Laura Chapdelaine
(Franfoise Rosay) explained to her
daughter, (Maria, there would be fewer
broken hearts and broken marriage
vows. It was only when Maria’s heart
had been stripped naked by suffering
that she learnt the true meaning of love
and married the right man.

This is a film which could have been
and should have been so very much
better. It is obvious that something
went wrong somewhere. I cannot
believe that such a good director as i
Marc Allegret is to blame. Perhaps it
was a question of too many minds
wanting to have their own way ? How-
ever, there is nothing wrong with the
exterior photography which is exciting :
the camera operator, Robert Walker,
deserves full marks. I think many
people overlook a banal script when the
heart of a film is clean and Christian.

E.

21

HIGHLY DANGEROUS
Starring: Margaret Lockwood and

Dane Clark. Written by Eric
Ambler. Producer: Anthony

Darniborough. Director: Roy

Baker. A Two Cities Film.
Certificate: U. Category: A.

Running time : 88 minutes.

This film is in some ways very much like
State Secret, but it is a too devitalised
and dehydrated version of that exciting
film about the penetration and escape
from a police state to do anything else
but disappoint. The story is of a lady
doctor (Margaret Lockwood) — or rather,
“entomologist”, to be exact, which
means a bug, germ and insect
specialist — who has to enter a police
state in order to capture specimens of
insects which were being bred for war
purposes. There were plenty of
opportunities of the film to live up to
its name of Highly Dangerous, but
none were taken. No situation was
quite plausible and no audience will be
sufficiently gullible to get the thrills it
is supposed to.

The last minutes of the film were
switched over, Hitchcock fashion, from
thriller to comedy and although no one
turned a hair for the first eighty
minutes of the film, not a few had a
good laugh or two in the remaining
eight, where the humorless horrors of
a real police state were contrasted with
our own somewhat aggravating and
amusing customs, police and rationing
regulations. On this side of the iron
curtain we are still free to laugh.

G.

FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE

Starring: Clifton Webb, Joan Bennett,
Robert Cummings, Edmund
Gwenn, with Joan Blondell, Gigi
Perreau, Jack La Rue, Harry von
Zell, Tommy Rettig. Producer:
William Perliberg. Director:
George Seaton. Distributors:
20th Century-Fox. Certificate :
A. Category: A. Running

time : 86 minutes.

The worst that can be said about this
film is that it might encourage in those
who know no better the idea that angels
are mythical or alternatively that they
are semi-human. But let us be
thankful for small mercies. In spite of

the title there is no attempt, as in some
other films, to portray any region other
than earth. And though Clifton Webb
and Edmund Gwenn are no angels
except in name they are on the side of
the angels.

Their mission is to save a childless
marriage from breaking up. Mr. Bolton
maintains that he and his wife belong
to the theatre and for that reason must
postpone having a family. Mrs. Bolton
is not so sure. The senior angel aptly
describes the idea as “unmitigated
hogwash”.

Before the angels triumph some
amusing sidelines are introduced. Jack
La Rue provides a good burlesque of a
film gangster. The way in which plays
are financed is - heavily satired. Better
still is Charles Lane’s portrayal of a
tax inspector.

Mr. Gwenn’s individuality is wasted
as he is merely a feed or foil to Mr.
Webb. And what was it about Joan
Bennett that somehow suggested
Margaret Lockwood ?

Against the sound moral basis of this
comedy must be set a lack of delicacy.
The Boltons’ marriage may have been
made in heaven but it seemed to be
thoroughly earthy.

Q.

TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE

Starring: Jane Powell, Richardo Mont-
batten, Louis Calhem, Ann
Harding. Producer: Jack

Cummins. Director: Roy Rowland.
Distributors: M.-G.-M. Certi-
ficate: U. Category: B.

Running time: 92 minutes.

This is a sort of skit on love’s young
dream. It is an unpretentious little
piece which I found amusing. The
children who appear gave me a good
deal of laughter.

E.

IN THE WORLD

* There are 100,000 picture theatres

* Admitting 235 million patrons
each week.

* 146 million pounds capital are
invested in films every year.

* The film industry comes only
third in economic importance.
After wheat and coal and before
the motor car industry.

22

THE MEN

Starring: Marlon Brando and Teresa
Wright, with Everett Sloane,
Virginia Farmer, Jack Webb and
Richard Erdman. A Stanley
Kramer Production. Director:
Fred Zinnemann. Certificate :
A. Category : A. Running time:
90 minutes approx.

This is a very good film spoilt by a
silly, catch-penny title. It is made by
Fred Zinnemann who gave us The
Seventh Cross and The Search. It is

Marlon Brando and Teresa Wright

produced by Stanley Kramer who pro-
duced Home of the Brave, like The
Search, an O.C.I.C. prize-winner. It is
evidently, therefore, worth looking at
on its pedigree value alone. It will not
let you down. It is an honest, un-
sentimental, harrowing story of what
happens to men who have to re-adjust
their lives after the war has left them
paralysed from the waist down
(paraplegics is the technical definition
of such cases). The most impressive
portrayal in the film is that of Everett
Sloane as the doctor in charge of the
hospital. He gives us an almost
embarrassingly realistic picture of the
problems which face the medical pro-

fession ; the difficulties they are up
against arising from the impatience of
the patients, the sullenness, the over-
optimism, the despair. He states some
welcome truths about the role of the
doctor, truths which modern material-
ism all too readily diminishes.
Although there is much cynical
comment and some rowdy by-play, this- -
is basically a religious film ; one which
focuses attention on purpose in life.

Tenderly Convincing

It does not give us any cheap miracles-
of healing for a happy ending; instead
it gives us a lesson in humility and
forbearance in the lines with which it
closes. Ken, who has resisted all
attempt on the part of his wife to share
his burden, is asked by her : “Do you
want me to help you?” Quietly and
with something more than resignation,
he says: “Yes, please!”

Teresa Wright as the girl who-
marries Ken, is tenderly convincing
and without any studio tricks. Marlon
Brando as Ken is, perhaps, too
mechanically resentful, but he is
admirably surrounded by a bunch of
cheery patients, some of them real, and
all of them good actors. Perhaps the
doctor and the patients shout a bit too
much in public in the wards, but,,
when you see the film, you will think
they have some excuse. All the more
pity, therefore, to let the publicity
posters and the inept title lead serious
cinemagoers to think it less good than
it is.

V.

THE MAN ON THE EIFFEL
TOWER

Starring: Charles Laughton, Franchot
Tone, Burgess Meredith, Robert
Hutton, the city of Paris, with
Jean Wallace, Patricia Roc,
Belita. Producer: Irving Allen.

Director: Burgess Meredith, f

Distributors: Independent Film.

In Ansco Color. Certificate: A .
Category: B. Running time: 82
minutes.

Here is a sad waste of talent. I fear
that, like me, you will be unmoved
until towards the end of the film. Not
even the city of Paris, listed as a star
and appearing as frequently as the

23

others, seems to be giving its best.
When one of the characters — perhaps it
is significant that I can’t remember
which — sat down at perhaps the very
table at the Cafe des Deux Magots from
which I like to contemplate St. Germain
des Pres, I just wasn’t thrilled. I
merely felt that Clark Gable ought to
be dropping in for a chat with the other
two about the good old days on the
Bounty.

The story is from Georges Simenon’s
“A Battle of Nerves” and Charles
Laughton is Inspector Maigret. The
preposterous inefficiency of one of his
assistants provides a little comic relief.
To indicate that they have the Roman
Catholic religion in France, some choir-
boys in cottas and red cassocks walk
along the pavement. The occasion is
a little obscure but as far as I could
make out they were singing “Oh, what
the joy and the glory must be” from
Hymns Ancient and Modern.

The end is unexpected and for once
an anticlimax is commendable. Another
original touch is that no one speaks
either French or broken English.

The film is not contemptible but it
misfires and is hardly above second
feature standard.

Q-

FRIGHTENED CITY
Starring: Evelyn Keyes, Charles

Korvin, William Bishop.
Producer: Robert Cohn. Director:
Earl McEvoy. Certificate: A.

Category : B. Running time ; 75
minutes.

Although I have suggested that this
film should go into category “B”, no
type of person is going to gain much
from seeing it. Apparently the
Americans believe in vaccination like
most others. This thin tale is the
vehicle for a long-drawn-out exhorta-
tion to go in for the big scratch in a
spirit of social responsibility. The
background of life depicted in the film
is so sordid and uninspiring that the
exhortation loses point. Without being
unduly superior it is difficult to avoid
the impression that there is something
to be said for plagues. In any case it
is difficult to understand what all the
excitement is about. Glasgow had an
outbreak of smallpox not long ago and
coped with it without undue inter-

ference with the national life. Accord-
ing to this story a woman jewel-
smuggler (Evelyn Keyes) brings small-
pox into the U.S.A. Her private life
is involved in the usual eternal triangle
and there is murder besides plague in
the air. The rest of the story is
occupied with the endeavours of mayors
and doctors to vaccinate the city and
find the jewel-smuggler who is spread-
ing disease. The only possibility of
a plot would be in the lives of the few
supporting characters and they are far
too dull for us to care whether they are
shot or not. They are shot and we are
not surprised to find that the city is
saved.

J. C.

MONKEY BUSINESS
Starring: The Four Marx Brothers.

Director: Norman McLeod.

Presented by Paramount Pictures.

Category: B.

A Catholic speaker in Hyde Park
once read a passage from a book deal-
ing with social problems and then
challenged his Communist heckler to
tell him whether the quotation was
from Karl Marx or from a Papal
Encyclical. The heckler guessed
wrong.

Is the following from a Marx
Brothers’ film or from “Vigilanti
Cura” ?

“Half my kingdom for half a horse.
No, on second thoughts, threequarters
for a quarter. Twenty per cent
discount and the rest on account. No
offers — then reverse the charges.”

“You’ll not make a monkey out of
me.”

“I know, don’t tell me. You haven’t

any.”

“Say, Capn., you maka mistake bad.
I sing a song, no.”

Oof, oof, bang.

“Never mind the children, bring me
to the women.”

If the Marx fan thinks it comes from
the Marx Brothers, he will applaud it.
If he thinks it comes from the Pope he
will ignore it. That is one of my
complaints. Marxism is a religion.
You can’t argue with a devotee.

But in ally case why pick on me to
review a Marx Brothers’ re-issue twice
in two months.

T.

24

HARVEY

Starring: James Stewart, with

Josephine Hull, Charles Drake,
Cecil Kellaway, Jesse White,
Victoria Horne, Wallace Ford and
Peggy Dow. Producer: John

Beck. Director: Henry Koster.

A Universal-International Picture.
Certificate: U. Category: A.

Running time: 104 minutes.

It may be some disadvantage for
purposes of comparison, not to have
been able to see the play but it does
leave one free to approach the film with-
out preconceived ideas.

For their enthusiasm and in their
occasional disregard for much that
the world looks upon as practical, the
saints were often held to be mad. So
much so that the saint in the making
is often dismissed as unusual or
abnormal and necessarily, therefore, at
least a little mad. Here in this film we
have no attribution of motive such as
explains the saint to us. Elwood P.
Dowd (James Stewart) drinks a lot and
is welcome in all the “low joints”. He
is welcome because he is harmless but
also because he is invariably kind and
considerate to the most ordinary of
men. It is his invisible companion,
Harvey, a six-foot-tliree rabbit who has
taught him about life and people. It
is an innocent delusion and the result
is the spread of amiability through the
impact of a completely selfless man on
the lives of the hustling, worried
mortals that he meets.

Gentle Lunatic

The well-sustained comedy revolves
round the impulsive attempt of his
sister to get him into a “home”. The
consequences are of the farcical order.
Finally the ultimate question is posed :
shall the gentle lunatic be given an
injection which will change his
character into that of just another
ordinary man who is reputed sane.

It is a highly amusing film but also,
I think, a good one in the moral sense.
It is useful sometimes to query the
validity of what the world is apt to
regard as strength and success. And it
is useful, too, to ponder awhile, even as
the result of a comedy, over this
question of medical or surgical inter-
ference with human personality.

James Stewart gives a wholly charm-
ing portrayal of Elwood P. His serious-
ness is never mock seriousness. His
features give an expression of con-
fident and friendly awareness of
Harvey. Josephine Hull as the sister,
Veta Louise, gives a grand perform-
ance in the bustling manner, a ripe
subject for the slings and arrows. Peggy
Dow intelligently provides the beauty
in the mixture. But all the team play
up well.

Although the film is certificated U, I |
cannot give it a B category because of
the degree of frankness in the
description of the kind of questions
that psychologists ask. Anyway,
children would be happier if they saw
the gigantic rabbit, but, of course,
nobody does.

X.

KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE

Starring: James Cagney, Luther

Adler, Ward Bond, and Barbara
Payton. A Warner Brothers
Film. Director: Gordon Douglas.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time: 100 minutes

approx.

One of the trade papers ingenuously
says of this film that the “characters
are extremely well served by their
players, notably James Cagney in an-
other of his studies in vicious brutality,
complete with unabashed violence to
femininity”. As it is mainly concerned
with how very nearly an escaped
convict came to blackmailing a
detective inspector and holding the
State to ransom, it is a little naive to
have the film listed as essentially moral
on the grounds that the crook is
eventually killed, thus proving that
crime does not pay. Crime may not
pay but sadism, apparently, does, to
judge by the affluent position of the j
gentleman concerned in the production 1
of such uplift.

Incidentally, a case for the socio-
logical enquiry. Having missed the
Press Show, I had to see this film some
days later. At eleven o’clock in the
morning, the cheaper part of the
cinema (my part) was filled with young
men around twentyish who all laughed
delightedly and hysterically whenever

25

James delivered doses of his celebrated
“unabashed violence”. Who were these
young gentlemen and why were they
able to indulge their craving for
sadism at eleven o’clock in the
morning ?

Anyway, you have been warned. If
you like seeing people knocked about,
this is your film.

V.

PRETTY BABY

Starring: Dennis Morgan, Betsy

Drake, Edmund Gwenn, Zachary
Scott. Producer: Jack L. Warner.
Director: Bretaigne Windust.

Certificate-. U. Category: B.

Rtmning time: About an hour.

Here we have a harmless nonsense
which is none the worse for raising
I smiles rather than laughs— you can, if
you wish, hear the dialogue that way.

Betsy Drake has the ideal comic part
insofar as , she has to be the sweetly
earnest ingenue who inndcently sfets in
motion the whole preposterous series of
mishaps. The advertising business of
Sam Morley (Dennis Morgan) and Barry
Holmes (Zachary Scott) hangs on their
handling of the sales campaign of
Baxter’s Baby Food and, more than
incidentally, on the fatherly, almost
maudlin, infatuation of Cyrus Baxter
(Edmund Gwenn) for Patsy Douglas
(Betsy Drake) who has a doll which he
believes is her child. He is touched
I for good1 and all because she has named
it Cyrus Baxter Douglas.

We won’t go into the complications of
I the story. The acting is spirited all
I round, but it pained me to see and hear
! an actor of Edmund Gwenn’s parts in
this piece of effervescent nougat.

The music has a nice line in sardonic
! humour and in that provides an
' astringent quality which could, if
necessary, deflect the shafts of a hostile
| critic. A handy little bit of insurance,

’ maybe ?

By the way, after a night of office toil
with her boss, Patsy finds her belated
! homecoihing “clean somehow, not
\ mouldy as usual but kinda spiritual”.
Part of a satire ? I don’t know, but I
have my suspicions and I’m keeping
them to myself. I find it “kinda
spiritual” so.

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN
FRONT

Starring: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim,
Raymond Griffith, Slim Summer-
ville and John Wray. Director:
Lewis Milestone. Distributors:
Eros Films Ltd. Certificate: A.
Category : A . Running time :

ioi minutes.

It is a sad commentary on the times
we live in that this film, from Erich
Maria Remarque’s famous novel, first
shown in the early thirties, and then
acclaimed as a searing commentary on
the futility of war, should now arouse
suspicions lest it be used as part of
the subversive campaign to undermine
Western morale! It seems so sad and
so senseless that even Catholics now
find themselves having to think twice
lest their advocacy of peace be liable
to dangerous interpretations.

Glory of War

The story of seven German school-
boys who are pursuaded by their school-
master that war is gloriously coloured
with pomp and circumstance and who
rapidly discover that it is grim and
demands something more than
patriotism, retains its power as a
document against war without, I think,
being more subversive than, say,
David Jones’ In Parenthesis, the war
book which above all others puts the
point of view of the man in the trenches
into its proper perspective.

The film, as a film, wears less well
than the story it tells. The emotional
sentimentality is pitched in a key which
even Hollywood would now think
extravagant. There is some beautiful
camerawork amid the brutality and
carnage. The bitterness of the observa-
tion is sharp but there is compensation
in the warmth of the human relation-
ships of the varied characters. Lew
Ayres’ tenderness as the young leader
of the schoolboys is offset by the
gruffer affection of Louis Wolheim’s
veteran scrounger.

The film is by no means one for
young or impressionable people but it
should make interesting viewing for all
who are not afraid of thought mixed
with their entertainment.

X.

V.

26

FATIMA IN FOCUS

During the month ending November
24th, 1950, Pilgrimage to Fatima was
shown to enthusiastic audiences at the
Hammer Theatre in Wardour Street.
So great was the demand for admission
that extra showings had to be arranged
and then, during the last week, another
small cinema across the road had to be
hired to take the overflow.

Every type and condition of person
has come to see the film : university
students, nurs: s, ladies from Poplar
and ladies from Millwall, groups of
parishioners arriving in coaches, queues
of schoolchildren ; people accustomed to
normal cinema attendance, people who
seldom or never darken the brilliantly
lighted doors of the commercial
cinema. Most of them have gone away
thoughtfully; some with eager
enquiries as to the best way to get to
Fatima itself. One dear old lady from
East London, overwhelmed by the
penitential exercises of the devout
Portuguese peasants at the Chapel of
the Apparitions, was muttering as she
went out : “Not much chance of people
like us getting to heaven!” She did
not realise that she, too, in her own
way, was being inspired to do some-
thing for Our Lord. Another charming
but naive lady was telling her
neighbour that “they always have
Roman Catholic pictures at this
cinema!”; to which her companion
replied, “I wonder if they have thought
of asking Mr. Crosby; he sings quite
nicely, too!” As for “Roman Catholic
picture” : it just happens that we have
been associated with the showing of
three Catholic films at the Hammer
Theatre : Visitation and Out of the

Darkness in addition to Pilgrimage to
Fatima.

Quite young children have watched
the film with obvious interest and
attention though we had thought of it
as rather above the heads of the very-
young. Apparently all schoolchildren
are familiar with the story of the
happenings at Fatima and, once it is
explained that the film they are to see
is not an entertainment film or meant
to amuse and that the people they will
see on the screen are real and not

actors, they enter into the spirit of
what is, after all, a film sermon.

In spite of the unusual element of a
priest showing them to their places
they accept the cinema atmosphere
unconcernedly. One infant, before *
the film began, asked, “Do you sell ice-»
cream in this cinema?” A pity we had
not thought of that one. We might I
have made some profit !

Wardour Street is accustomed to un-
usual sights but even the most blase of
the habitues blinked when they saw a
stalwart nun, umbrella erect, holding up j
the already congested traffic while her
crocodile of chattering charges crossed
the road !

We shall show the film again after
Christmas in London. We hope that
parishes will perhaps arrange to have
the film shown, preferably in an
ordinary cinema, in their own district.
This is easier from many points of
view and avoids the disappointment of
those who come a long way only to find
the Hammer Theatre crowded out.

ADDENDUM

Treason

It has been pointed out that, to
complete the inter-denominational note,
it should be noticed that the screen-
play of T reason was written by the well-
known Catholic American playwright,
Emmet Lavery. Thus, with Jewish and
non-Catholic Christian assistance at the
production ends, we have a good
example of what can be done to over-
come the opposition of political vested
interest to the making and showing of
a film which proposes to tell the truth
about a matter of vital importance to
all people concerned with the mainten-
ance of personal liberty.

<1

Lest anyone think our use of the term
“non-Catholic-Christian” pedantic, may
we say that “Protestant” no longer
accurately describes all those Christians
who do not belong to the Catholic
Church.

27

LATEST

DOCUMENTARIES

A Colour Tour of Rome and
the Importance of Family Life

ROME PILGRIMAGE

This is a colour film (Kodachrome)
made under the auspices of the
Catholic Youth Council of the Arch-
diocese of Birmingham by Frs. D.
Hickling, P. Corrigan and M. Corrigan
with three cameras. It runs for more
than an hour and gives an unpre-
tentious, sometimes jerky but generally
enjoyable account of the Birmingham
Catholic Youth Pilgrimage to Rome in
August 1950, including quite a bit of
sightseeing and a visit to Assisi.

From an artistic and technical point
of view the most memorable shots are
some of the Fountain of the Tortoises
and a close-up of pillars in the cloisters
of St. Paul’s.

But the film’s outstanding achieve-
ment is to have defied the lack of light
in St. Peter’s and made a unique
souvenir of one of the big audiences.
These occasions have given something
quite unprecedented to the Holy Year
of 1950 and their very essence has been
successfully put on record here.

There are frequent captions, so the
film could be used without sound, but
a tape recording is also available, con-
sisting mostly of a commentary by Fr.
S. Copsey. The absence of background
music and an agreeable impression of
extempore turns the picture into an
informal lecture. For the audience
sequence what seems to be direct sound
is ingeniously used with very great
effect.

The title may cause some confusion
with Rome of the Pilgrims, but each of
the two titles is in fact precisely apt for
the individuality of each picture.

H. A. C. C.

“A FAMILY AFFAIR”

A Crown Film Unit Production.

Running time : ii minutes.

All will agree with the point made
by this excellent "short”, viz., that the
family is the normal place for a child
and that no Home can be as good as a
real home. If only Government
Departments were as keen on uphold-
ing the importance of the family. If a
child is for any reason deprived of his
own family life, then the next best
thing, if adoption is not feasible, is a
good foster-home. Entry into a
Children’s Home should be the last
resort. It is true, of course, that there
is a “hard core” of children (the Local
Authorities have about 10,000 of them)
who are not suitable for fostering and
for whom, therefore, Homes will always
have to be provided.

A Family Affair is frankly an appeal
for foster-mothers for children under
the Councils, but it ought not to be
forgotten that there are at least as many
children looked after by the various
voluntary societies. Unfortunately there
are far too few Catholic foster-mothers
and the danger lies in the Local
Authorities placing Catholic children in
their care in non-Catholic foster-homes
and so there may arise a new source of
leakage.

Perhaps this film with its delightful
shots of attractive children in pleasant
foster-homes as contrasted with rather
grim-looking Homes — -the date of one
over the door is 1848 — may start a train
of thought in the minds of those who
had not previously thought of having
a foster-child. They might even have
one for keeps.

F. J. D.

28

RELIGION: FILMS
AND FILM STRIPS

A Survey of material
already reviewed in
FOCUS 1948 - 1950

By our Educational; Panel

This month’s article contains notices
of some recent films and strips, but for
the convenience of new readers and
others we are grouping under suitable
headings the names of all those which
have been reviewed in the educational
section of Focus during the past three
years, to enable hirers and purchasers
to select more readily from the available
material according to their particular
needs.

LIBRARIES

appropriate to the action; the words are'
in English and occasionally the choice of
key-phrase is unexpected. The strip was
made “specially for Roman Catholics”,
but lacks something of the character
and quality of a film based on a well
defined pedagogical plan. The technical
quality is good but not outstanding; the
narrow pictures are slightly irritating
as they give the impression that part of
the picture has been cut off.

Suitability; 11+ and upwards.

Catholic Truth Society, 38-40 Eccleston
Square, S.W.i.

Religious Films Ltd., 6 Eaton Gate,
S.W.i.

Dawn Trust Ltd., Aylesbury, Bucks.
Common Ground, Ltd., Svdnev Place,
S.W.7.

The Catholic Film Institute, Blue
Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, S.W.7.
Hulton Press, Educational Dept., 43-44
Shoe Lane, E.C.4.

A. FILMS AND STRIPS ON THE
MASS

The Mass

Film Strip. Goatherd Productions.
Available from Dawn Trust, Ltd.
Price 1 os.

This strip is one of several produced
lately which portray in photographs the
main actions of the Mass. The pictures
show the priest as he would be seen by
one who stood close by his side during
the progress of the Mass, and would
enable the teacher to make clear to
children the significance of those actions
and gestures which so often are seen — if
at all — at a distance which makes it
almost impossible to follow the Sacred
Actions. Most of the. important moments
of Low Mass are shown, though many
gaps would have to be bridged by a
spoken commentary: each picture has a
caption from the prayer of the Missal

Films on the Mass

Celebration of Mass. 2 reels silent.

C.T.S. Reviewed July 1948.

My Sacrifice and Yours. 2 reels silent.

C.T.S. Reviewed July 1948.

The Sacrifice We Offer. Colour, Sound.
Catholic Film Institute. Reviewed
March 1949.

Strips

The Sacrifice of Jesus. 2 parts. French
captions. Dawn Trust. Reviewed
March 1949.

The Sacred Actions. Catholic Film
Institute. Reviewed March 1950.
Low Mass. Fr. Gillick. Heythrop
College. Reviewed December 1950.
The Mass for Little Children. S.N.D.
VIS. Reviewed March 1950.

B. DOCTRINAL SUBJECTS

Films

Sick Call. C.T.S. Silent.

February 1948.

Night Prayers. C.T.S. Silent.
April 1950.

Morning Offering. C.T.S.

Reviewed April 1950.
Sunday. C.T.S. Silent.
April 1950.

The Gift of Faith. C.T.S.
Reviewed April 1950.

Reviewed

Reviewed

Silent.

Reviewed

Silent-

29

Strips

■Ordination of a Priest. C.T.S. Reviewed
July 1948.

Nouveau Catechisme des Dioceses de
France. S.E.F. Reviewed July
1948.

C. SCRIPTURE (Stories and
Background)

Films

The Day’s Work

2 reels (sound). Religious Films Ltd.,
(made by G.B.I.) . R.911. Hiring

price 15s. first day.

This is one of the series "Two
Thousand Years Ago" designed to meet
the needs of schools or of youth clubs
and to help in making the Bible back-
ground less remote for twentieth century
people. The name of Mary Field as
•director gives assurance of good quality,
understanding and sympathy, without
sentimentality or crudeness of presenta-
tion. The skill with which the meaning
of well-known sayings of the Bible is
illustrated in the small everyday happen-
ings shown on the screen is a striking
feature of these films. The carpenter is
proud of the good workmanship in the
ox yoke, made so that it will not gall
the beasts' shoulders; the potter seeking
perfection of form breaks the half-
moulded vessel and reshapes it on his
wheel. This film and the others of the
series should be a real help to all who are
concerned to build up a sympathetic
knowledge and understanding of the
sacred scripture in the minds of the
young.

“Which Will Ye Have?”

Religious Films Ltd. 4 reels. Hiring
price 30s.

In this film the theme of Barabbas, the
robber released by Pilate, is used to give
a faithful and reverent account of the
trial and death of Our Lord. The figure
} of Christ is not shown on the screen,
but His voice is heard replying to
Caiphas and to Pilate and speaking to
Dismas, the Good Thief. The bitter,
but cunningly concealed, hatred of the
Sanhedrin, the fanatical outbursts of
the mob, the growing fear and distress
of Pilate are all convincingly portrayed.
In spite of the fictional character of the
story woven around Barabbas, who is
made the leader and companion in chains

of the good thief, the Gospel narrative
is faithfully rendered and the real mean-
ing of the Crucifixion is never obscured.
The final sequences when Barabbas in
an agony of repentance creeps to the foot
of the Cross and learns from Mary
Magdalen who Christ is and what His
death means, is not the most successful
part, and introduces a note of artificiality
which is absent from the remainder — but
the "message" of the film spoken in the
words of the converted Barabbas, is one
that is worth while attempting to give:
"He has died for me; now I must live
fftr Him".

Suitability: Senior schoolchildren and
youth organisations.

Naaman the Leper

Religious Films Ltd. R.F.102. Hire
12s. 2 reels.

This is not simply a biblical film, as
the title might lead one to suppose, but
is a sermon based on the incident of the
cleansing of Naaman, and applied to the
spiritual life of the modern layman. It
consists of photographs of the actual
preacher addressing an audience
(apparently) in a cinema; and these
shots alternate with rather crude line
drawings illustrating the narrative por-
tions. This is rather disconcerting, but
the main purpose is not narration of a
story, but its application. The film is
evidently intended for members of the
Church of England, or for a wider
audience of "good living men". The
concept of Faith here falls far short of
what Catholic theology means by this
virtue, and the conception of religion
gives little hint of the possibilities of a
life of grace built up by sacraments and
centred on the sacrifice of Christ.

The Prince of Peace

C.T.S. R-799 (or G.B.I.) . 3 reels.

Hiring price 22s. 6d.

Based on a Nativity Play by Lois
Shiver, this film shows the events of
Our Lord’s Birth and early life from
the Annunciation to the Flight into
Egypt. It is not a Catholic production,
though obtainable through the C.T.S.;
the Scripture words, therefore, do not
correspond with the version familiar to
the Catholic child, but apart from this
the film can be commended for Catholic
audiences as a sincere and faithful, if not
a deeply moving, presentation of the
Christmas story. The acting is good,
and so are the- music effects, which com-

30

bine with well designed scenery to create
the appropriate atmosphere in Temple-
court and Palace, on the hills or in the
cave. The study of Herod is clever,
but too sophisticated for young children;
the veiled cruelty and evil in the face
of the effeminate, almost pretty, old man
would puzzle them. This is rather
obviously a film version of a stage play,
but perhaps in dealing with so familiar a
theme this is not a disadvantage. The
film would be appreciated by older
schoolchildren, and is also suited to adult
audiences.

Other Films

Prodigal Son. 2 reels. Sound or Silent.
Dawn Trust. Reviewed March 1948.

No Greater Power (Zaccheus) . Sound
or Silent. Dawn Trust. Reviewed
March 1948.

Who is my Neighbour? 3 reels. Sound
or Silent. Dawn Trust. Reviewed
March 1948.

Jairus’ Daughter. 3 reels. Sound or
Silent. Dawn Trust. Reviewed
March 1949.

The Unfaithful Servant. Sound or Silent.

Dawn Trust. Reviewed May 1949.
Simon Peter Fisherman. Sound or
Silent. Dawn Trust. Reviewed
April 1950.

St. Paul’s Years of Apprenticeship.
Sound or Silent. Dawn Trust.
Reviewed April 1950.

The Synagogue. 2 reels. Religious

Films. Reviewed April 1950.
Where trod the Twelve. Silent. 2 reels.
Religious Films. Reviewed April
1950.

Jordan Valley. British Instructional

Films. 2 reels. Reviewed October
1950.

Strips

(Picture Post Film Strips. Educational
Department Hulton Press.)

The Life of Christ

Part I. — The Birth and Boyhood of
Jesus. 25 frames.

Part II. — Jesus the Teacher and Healer.
20 frames.

Part III. — Jesus the Saviour of the
World, 22 frames.

25s. the set: 9s. each.

The Story of Jesus

Colour. 22 frames. 18s.

(i) The Life of Christ. The material
consisting mainly of excellent modern !
photographs both of people and of the
countryside, has been very skilfully I
selected. Each picture is chosen not 1
merely to illustrate the character of the I
land or the people, but for its significance I
and relevance to some incident or saying
related in the Gospels. Part I covers |
mainly, though not exclusively, thejl
countryside of Nazareth and Bethlehem M
and the scenes which must have been
familiar to the Holy Family, Part II
provides a background for the Teaching
and Miracles of the Galilean Ministry I
while Part III is concerned chiefly with j
Judea and the scenes of the Passion,
Death and Resurrection of Christ. Each I
strip is provided with carefully compiled I
notes which call attention to interesting
details and make the connections between
present day scenes and happenings in
the life of Our Lord. For the assistance
of the teacher scripture references are
given, but the writer of the notes
emphasises rightly that these are only
suggestive of one possible line of :
approach. The strips would repay care-
ful study and preparation on the part of
the teacher and would be of value to a
class which was making an intelligent
study of the Gospels. The doctrinal con-
tent is fairly vague, probably adapted
for “agreed syllabus’’ teaching, but
though the individual teacher will feel
the need to amplify in certain directions
there will be no false impression to con-
tradict. Thus although the Divinity of
Our Lord is not stressed, yet the
Resurrection and the Ascension are
assumed to be historical facts.

(ii) The Story of Jesus: A colour

strip also edited with notes by Mr.
Trevor Hughes is planned on lines
similar to the above, though as the range
is wider there is less detail. The colour
photography is good and lends additional
reality to Eastern scenes. This strip
could be well used, like those in the other
group, as a commentary on the text I
being read in class, or conversely, 7
individual work on the suggested refer-
ences might be done as preparation for
the showing of the pictures; and this
method would greatly increase the value
of the lesson.

The four strips would make a useful
addition to the Film strip collection of
any school, but particularly in the
secondary stages.

31.

Other Films

I Old Testament History. C.T.S. (A
series with French Titles.) Reviewed
July 1948.

Life Miracles and Teaching of Jesus.
Bloud et Gay. (French Titles.)
Reviewed July 1948.

Gospel Stories. Dawn Trust. (Series.)

Reviewed July 1948.

Manger to Cross. Dawn Trust. Set of
three. Reviewed July 1948.

Boyhood of Jesus. Dawn Trust. Reviewed
March 1949.

A Certain Nobleman. Dawn Trust.

Reviewed March 1949.

Paul's Early Life. Dawn Trust.

Reviewed March 1949.

Story of Joseph. S.P.C.K. VIS.

Reviewed February 1950.

The Passover Lamb. S.P.C.K. Reviewed
February 1950.

David the Shepherd Boy. S.P.C.K.

Reviewed February 1950.

Actes des Apotres. Lumina. (French
captions). Reviewed June 1950.
Good Tidings of Great Joy. (Dominican
Picture Apostolate . ) Reviewed
April 1950.

D. CHURCH HISTORY AND
LIVES OF SAINTS
Life of St. Paul

Cathedral Film Strips. Dawn Trust.
5 parts.

Five strips of good photographs of
tableaux portraying incidents in the life
of St. Paul. The pictures are circular
insets in a rectangular frame, which
borders appropriate maps with relevant
places and routes well marked. The class
“Quiz” at the end of each strip is an
added interest.

The strips can be used with profit with
children of 11 years who are too young
to read “The Acts of the Apostles” or
as a summary for those who already know
“The Acts”.

I St. Joan of Arc

C.T.S. In 2 parts.

Together with the lecture notes
(abbreviated for children of 11 plus)
these two strips provide an easy means
of presenting, for the first time, the
history of the Maid. Though the photo-
graphy is not perfect, the material photo-
graphed is well chosen from works of art
and historic buildings.

Films and Strips

Life of St. John Bosco. Salesian Fathers,
Battersea. Sound Film. Reviewed
November 1949.

Lives of the Saints. C.T.S. series.

Reviewed July 1948.

Bishop Challoner. C.T.S. series.

Reviewed April 1950.

Story of Bernadette. Dawn Trust.
(French.) Reviewed March 1949.

St. Bruno. Editions du Berger.
Reviewed June 1950.

St. Louis Roi de France. Editions du
Berger. Reviewed June 1950.

Histoire du Christianisme. S.E.F.
Reviewed July 1948.

Spread of Christianity. Part I. Common
Ground. Reviewed June 1950.

Albert Schweitzer. (Lives of Great
Christians) Common Ground.
Reviewed June 1950.

E. VARIOUS TOPICS
Fatima Today

Colour strip. Produced by Catholic Film
Institute. Price 15s., with booklet.

Many thousands of Catholics of all
ages will have seen the feature film “Pil-
grimage to Fatima” and will be glad to
have this strip consisting of “stills”
depicting scenes from the film taken on
location in Portugal. But the strip can
be recommended on its own merits apart
from its value as a memento of the film.
Consisting of 33 frames, it shows us the
chief places connected with the appari-
tions; the shrines that have arisen round
the Cova da Iria, the basilica, the chapel
and the hospital; the village streets; the
country scenes; windmills and humble
cottages, the same houses in which the
children lived. Close ups are given, not
of the chief human characters of the
story, but of those near to them who still
live nearby, the aged parents of Francisco
and Jacinta, and the sister of Lucia.
These and others are mingled with shots
of the pilgrimages, including the arrival,
the penitential exercises and the prayers
of the pilgrims who come in thousands
not only from every village and hamlet
in Portugal but from all over the world.
The notes, which presuppose some know-
ledge of the main facts, are interesting
and help to bring out the message of
Fatima which is the message of prayer
and penance. Fatima Today succeeds in

32

doing what its makers have aimed at —
it gives us vivid glimpses of a privileged
land where Our Blessed Lady is deigning
to speak to men on earth, and visibly
fulfilling her role of co-operation with her
Divine Son in drawing all things to Him-
self.

The Story of our Bible

Common Ground. C.G.A. 539.

Religions of the World: Islam

C.G.A. 279.

Strip Texts. 15s. each, with notes.

The quality of the reproductions in
these two strips is excellent, especially in
the first which has fine photographs of
ancient Manuscripts and versions of the
Bible. The subject is the Bible in
England, but the origins are traced back
to the Hebrew, and through early
Christian and Medieval times. The plan
and execution are of very high quality,
and the notes are full and give interest-
ing details. Due credit is given to the
work of Bede and others in the section
called “The Bible comes to Britain”,
but it is rather strange to find the famous
phrase "to be ignorant of the scriptures
is to be ignorant of Christ” attributed
to Wycliffe. The stress is on the Bible
as a great literary heritage — unique
perhaps in its influence on the life and
character of Englishmen; but the idea of
a transcendent value or of Revelation as
the Word of God is almost entirely
absent; it even leaves one wondering
whether the Bible’s importance is as a
means of promoting science and civilisa-
tion in less enlightened parts of the
world.

Both this strip and the one on Islam
would be useful if used judiciously, but
in a History course, rather than in
Scripture. Both need interpretation by
a well-informed Catholic in order that in
a few instances a false impression may
not be given.

Suitability: older pupils in secondary
■schools.

Voice of the Deep

Pact and Faith Films, 12 Queen Anne’s
Gate. Sound. Colour. Terms on
application.

One of a group of films produced by
the Moody Institute of Science, Los
Angeles, The Voice of the Deep claims

to be the first colour-sound film made of
under-water life. These films have as
their admirable purpose to bring before
the public the moral and spiritual impli-
cations of modern science. In an earlier
film this has been carried out in reference
to the Atom bomb, and the present film
offers us an interesting and informative
account of experiments which led to the
discovery that under-water life in the
oceans is not completely silent; the
erroneous assumption being due to a
faulty interpretation of known facts.
Using this as analogy — making a test,
discovering a fact, and drawing a con-
clusion— we are led to consider that a
similar mistake can be made in the realm
of the spiritual, by ignoring important
elements in the problem. Natural know-
ledge is sufficient for attaining truth in
the natural order, but to conclude that
there is no reality outside this realm is
to ignore the possibility of knowledge of
a different order — Faith — which enables
us to know of the existence of a spiritual
world .

The film has excellent points, and its
technique might be adapted for Catholics
working in this field. The tone is sincere,
and the language, whether dealing with
scientific or spiritual matters, is simple
and non-technical, while good photo-
graphy gives interest and variety. The
concept of Faith here expressed is not
the full Catholic doctrine, but neither is
it a false idea; it errs by omission, and
gives no hint of the necessity of Baptism
for the beginnings of the life of Faith in
the Christian.

Other Films

God of the Atom. Moody Institute.
Reviewed May 1948.

God of Creation. Reviewed May T948.

Film Strips

St. Mary’s Farm. Apostolic Picture Net-
work. Reviewed April 1950.

Dawn Trust “Gem Strips”. Reviewed 4
June 1950.

SPECIAL NOTICE

With reference to the film strip Low
Mass by John Gillick, S.J., (reviewed
in December issue) , all enquiries should
be addressed to the Film Strip Secretary,
Heythrop College, Chipping Norton,
Oxon., until further notice.

Cover

Personality

Michele Morgan

Michele Morgan was born on Leap
Year Day, February 29th, 1920, at

Neuilly-sur-Seine, her real name being
Simone Roussel.

From childhood she had determined
to follow an acting career and as she
grew up she saw little or no prospect
of developing her talents in her home
town. So, at the age of fifteen,
accompanied by her young brother, she
ran away to Paris, there to start her
career, having completed her education
at a school in Dieppe. In Paris she
studied under the distinguished master
of acting, Rene Simon. At the age of
seventeen her charm and ability won
her one of the acting “plums” of the
year, that of the leading r61e in
Gribouillc, opposite that famous idol of
the French public, the late Raimu.

Other successes followed fast, and she
will long be remembered for the
sensitive, well-balanced and intelligent
performances she gave in such pre-war
films a- Ovage, Lc Quai des Brumes, Le
Recif de Corail, La Loi du Nord,
Remorqv.cs and Untel Pere et Fils, the
last of these being the French version
of Heart of a Nation.

By now, Michele’s fame had spread
far beyond the borders of her own land
and the seal was set on her successes by
her performance in that triumphant
prize-winning production La Symphonic
Pastorale.

It was for her acting in this brilliant
picture that she was designated as the
Best Actress of the Year when it was
shown at the Cannes Festival of 1946.

Hollywood also brought her success
in such pictures as Joan of Paris, Two
Tickets to London, Higher and Higher,
Passage to Marseilles and The Chase,
but like many other sensitive and
artistic people she found that Holly-

Jack Watling and Michele Morgan in
"The Naked Heart”

wood can impose restrictions in matters
of policy and personal approach to roles
that can effect adversely the reactions
of any artist who is essentially
individualistic.

But even if Michele’s professional
experiences in America were not one
hundred per cent satisfactory so far as
her own high standards are concerned,
her stay in the States certainly brought
her great personal happiness. It was
while she was in Hollywood that she
met a tall, broad-shouldered, American
actor, William Marshall, and it was not
very long before the two fell in love
and married. Now they are the parents
of one child, are together whenever
possible and are a continual refutation
of the cynical adage that insists that
Hollywood marriages are even shorter
than they are sweet.

Today, Michele Morgan is headed for
new triumphs for she is under long-
term contract to Loudon Film Studios
for whom she will be making pictures
both in this country and in France.

As Julie, the typist at a foreign
embassy in London, in the Carol Reed
production, The Fallen Idol, made at
London Film Studios, Sliepperton, she
co-starred opposite Sir Ralph Richardson
who played the butler with whom she
was in love. In The Naked Heart which
will soon be released, she plays the part
of Maria Chapdelaine.

FILMS FOR HUMANITY

An independent, non profit-making organisation contributing
towards the spiritual welfare of humanity through film

Sir John Stewart-Wallace, C.B., Chairman
Andrew Buchanan, Managing Director

Gerald Bailey, M.A. Rev. John A. V. Burke

Lt. Cdr. H. Ronald Hardy Hugh J. Schonfield

Alfred Torrie, M.A., M.B., D.P.M.

Advisory Council

Catholic Film Institute
Churches' Council of Healing
Crusade for World Government
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Society of Friends’ Peace Committee
Humanity Now

National Association for Mental Health
Theosophical Society
World Citizenship Movement
World Congress of Faiths

Administration :

Parliament Mansions, Abbey Orchard St., Victoria St.

London, S.W.1.

Production :

Park Studios, Putney Park Lane, London, S.W.15

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Film
Institute, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7.

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President: The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

;. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.
2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

j. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

q. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture . architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

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Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
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Hon. Secretary :

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16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Latest Editions:

CHRISTIAN FACTORY. How the Church’s Social
Teaching is put into Practice at the Harmel factories.
Made by Alan Turner.

Pilgrimage To Fatima ; Rome Of The Pilgrims ; Holy Year.
Titles Include :

Monsieur Vincent; Farrebique; To Live In Peace;
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A Legend Of Norfolk.

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Vol. IV

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Editorial 35

American Memories 36

By Declan Flynn, O.F.M.

Key to Married Happiness ... 39

The Script-Writer’s Role ... 40

By J. J. Curie

Synthetic Characters 42

By William H. Mooring

Catholic Premieres 44

The International Film Review 45

Introducing the Film-Makers 46

By Andrew Buchanan
Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests
The Toast of New Orleans ... 47

Samson and Delilah ... ... 48

Into the Blue ... ... ... 50

The Secret Fury .. 50

Ha’penny Breeze 50

The Undefeated ... ... ... 52

Branded 52

Page

So Young, So Bad 52

Walk Softly Stranger 53

I Shall Return ... ... ... 54

Where Danger Dives 54

Born to be Bad ... ... ... 54

The Big Store 55

Time to Lose 55

Continental Films

Volpone 56

Jofroi 56

Life Begins Tomorrow 57

Plus de Vacances pour le Bon

Dieu 57

Documentaries 58

By J. A. V. B.

Geography 59

By Our Educational Panel

Items of Interest 61

Pope Speaks on Public Opinion 62

Book Reviews 63

By J. A. V. B.

A Slight Cask of Treason ... 64

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Revue Internationale du Cinema

Organ of International Catholic Film Office

Number 7 — American Number — Contributions by Irene Dunne, Eric Johnson,
Martin Quigley, Darryl Zanuck, W. H. Mooring, and others
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REVIEW

FOCUS :

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. IV FEBRUARY 1951 1N0. 2

“LIFE BEGINS TOMORROW”

This film has been heralded as the
most significant film for fifty years.
The critics have hailed it as . . . “This
ferociously exciting film . . . splendid
and terrifying” . . . “The Highlight
of 1950” . . . “More interesting ideas
than 500 others” ... “I went to see
it and I cried at a miracle” . . .
“Deserves thunderous applause” . . .
“A stimulating film,” and so on.
When I came out from the Cameo-
Polytechnic, Oxford Circus, the other
evening the commissionaire was
shouting : “Queueing up for all seats
for all prices . . . house full . . .
queueing up, ONLY.” An icy wind
[ was blowing. A long line of people
several hundred yards long, was
stretched on either side of the theatre.

Life Begins Tomorrow is indeed a
remarkable and in some respects an
exciting film with moments of real
inspiration ; nevertheless it is a
dangerous one, because it preaches,
with great power, a material philosophy
of life in which science is Lord of all
it surveys and in which man is a cross
between a machine and a higher form
of animal.

This world would be a poorer place
without the aid of science ; its
contributions to life and happiness are
staggering and the Church and all men
of good will have always encouraged
and blessed its work, inasmuch as it
serves Truth. Science commits a
serious sin, however, when it rises up
and says I will not serve ... I will

be Lord and Creator of life. I will
control its beginning and its end.

“By that sin fell the angels

It will be a sorry day for the world
if science gets too big for its test tubes
and assumes Divinity. People who
are steady in the Christian Faith will
suffer no harm from this film; indeed,
we who call ourselves Christians may
become betters ones, when we realise
what life will be like if the
existentialists and the pagan psycho-
analysts, biologists, artists and writers
really get going.

By all means let us use science to
improve our way of life, our health,
our homes, our bones, if needs be our
brains, but for God’s sake (and I speak
most reverently) let science keep its
head or the heads of us all will be
blown off with hydrogen bombs and
science itself will be out of a job.

This film tells us in terrifying film-
language what will happen to us if
modern science is used for negative
purposes : the real danger of modern
science will come not from science
itself, but from its misuse by

materialists who will prostitute it.

I am an average man who believes
in progress and who can be thrilled
by the wonders of science, but I cannot
understand why we cannot have the
blessings of science and heaven too.

Editor.

36

AMERICAN MEMORIES

No. 2: Films and Friars

By

Declan Flynn, O.F.M.

The Royal Command Performance is
always a splendid affair. The King
and Queen honour this film-show with
their presence ; distinguished film-stars
travel 7,500 miles from Hollywood to
join their Majesties; crowns and gowns
glitter . . diamonds flash . . . pearls

sparkle ... all the newspaper men are
copy-happv ... all the bobby-soxers
are star-happy. Few people are aware
that beneath the glamour and the
glitter, there shines the gold of a quiet
story of benevolence . . .

“Hands Across the Sea” Gesture

Some years ago, Mr. Joseph Breen,
a Cathoiic and the Production Code
Administrator in Hollywood’s Johnston
Office, visited Britain. While over
here he got to know that the British
Cinematograph Benevolent Fund was
depleted and that many who relied on
it were in distress. When he returned
to Hollywood he made plans to help
his separated brethren, with the result
that, every year, a contingent of
Hollywood film - stars crosses the
Atlantic to London with the single-
minded purpose of assisting the King
and Queen to raise funds for the only
charity which assists the sick, the poor
and the needy of the British Film
Industry.

It is pleasing to record that this
“hands-across-tlie-sea” gesture, which
imparts Christian Charity and creates
good-will between two great nations,
was inaugurated by a Catholic.

Mr. Joseph Breen (everyone calls him
“Joe”) is the sort of man you would
expect to have a generous mind; he is
built on broad lines, there is a look
of health and happiness about him, he
laughs easily and possesses that
gracious gift which makes a visitor
feel perfectly at ease. When I arrived
at his offices I found him poised

between several telephones, engaged
in a transatlantic conversation concern-
ing The Mudlark and the Royal

Command Performance. As soon as he
was through, he stretched forth a large
hand of welcome. He was really

delighted to hear that the British

Catholic Film Institute (about which
he is well informed) had made a film,
Pilgrimage to Fatima. “Wouldn’t it
be swell,” he said, “if we could get
the message of Our Lady of Fatima
through the commercial movies . . .
have you got a print with you ? I’m
anxious to see it.” I told him I had,
whereupon he pressed a button and
ordered the movie-theatre to be
prepared.

“Focus” in Hollywood

He spoke in warm, generous terms of
the work of the Catholic Film Institute
and declared himself an admirer of
Focus, with the qualification that he
didn’t agree with everything we
said . . . “Anyway,” he chuckled, “you
are quite a hero with the guys around
this office.” He pressed some more
buttons, four stalwart young men
entered in and for about twenty

37

minutes we talked Focus. “What we
like about your priest reviewers,” one
of them said, “is that you all seem to
really like pictures ; you don’t nag, you
see the good in them, you say what
we believe.”

There was a knock at the door. We
were informed that the operator was
ready to show Pilgrimage to Fatima.
In a small movie-theatre where the
dominating colour is red : red carpet,
red plush arm-chairs, where all films
f are screened and censored before
public release, I sat with Mr. Breen
and other executives and viewed the
film for the tenth time. As I watched
the familiar story unwind itself I
wondered what these gentlemen, so
well versed in all things pertaining to
films, would think of our first effort . . .

Their reactions were honest, friendly
and sympathetic. Mr. Breen said he
liked the film, but he didn’t think that
it would find any sympathy in the
commercial theatre ; he thought its
interest would be restricted to thos.e
working in the 16mm. field. Before we
parted he said : Give my congratula-
tions to Fr. Hilary Carpenter and Mr.
Andrew Buchanan.

Franciscan Beacons

Along the golden length of California,
the old Franciscan Missions, with
their massive white walls and
picturesque Spanish towers, shine like
beacons and attract visitors from all
parts of the world. Some Englishmen
are amused because Americans refer
to these missions, founded in the
eighteenth century, as “old” missions.
I have no authority for saying this ;
but I have wondered whether the term
“old” is used here affectionately rather
than chronologically ... in the sense
that the Englishman speaks of Old
Tom or My old pipe or My old dad.
Anyway, the old Spanish Friars are
remembered with affection by the
II American people ; to them the Old
Missions are hallowed spots which
enshrine the saga of a great missionary
enterprise, and record how the Padres
taught the Indians to plant and
cultivate trees, to irrigate the land, to
tan leather, to make soap, to bake
tiles, to love music, to love God, to
appreciate God’s lovely material gifts,
and to live for and long for His better
gifts in heaven.

Fr. Hugh Noonan, O.F.M.. Director of “The
Hour of St. Francis”, discusses the
production with Paul Kelly

Picture of Pentecost

Of all the missions, San Juan
Bautista is probably the richest in
relics. Fixed to a wall of the church
is a box-like pulpit from which Fr.
Arroyo is said to have preached to the
Indian converts in thirteen different
native dialects ! Beside an old English
music-box probably donated by the
explorer, Captain George Vancouver,
there is a dusty-looking dove-cote that
once adorned the church ceiling and
from which was released at Pentecost
a white dove, which hovered over
the kneeling Indians below in
commemoration of the descent of the
Holy Ghost upon the Apostles ! So you
see that long before the coming of the
movies, the Church was teaching her
lessons in pictorial language !

I was fascinated to see mass music
in picturesque volumes, faultlessly
written, with each voice indicated in
a different colour, so that some might
raise their hearts to God in red notes
of love, while others might sing their
sorrows in notes of blue. Again it is
interesting to observe that long before
the coming of the psychoanalysts who

3S

Fr. Kenneth Henriques, O.F.M.. discussing a script with Charles Laughton

(now) teach the value of colour in the
healing of the mind, the Catholic
Church was using the medium of
colour to refresh and solace men’s
souls.

Religion on a Ranch

Not far from this old mission there
is what I would like to call a
Modern Mission. It is a ranch, rich
in bird-song and radiant with the
poetry of nature ; along its leafy
avenues, which look like the
aisles of a Gothic cathedral, the
Stations of the Cross are erected ;
further afield there sparkles a lak£, on
this lake is an island whereon, in
exquisite statuary, the story of Fatima
is commemorated ; at the foot of a
range of mountains and facing
“Fatima” there is a white, wooden,
ranch-house which the Franciscan
Friars have converted into a Retreat
House, where every week-end of the
year about fifty men rest their minds
and bodies and nourish their souls
with prayer, meditation and the
Sacraments. The Friars who conduct

the Retreats do the minimum of talking.
They let Christ dwelling in the taber-
nacle in the little chapel ; the silence of
the mountains ; the imagery and the
surrounding beauty ; the drama
depicted in the Stations of the Cross ;
die pictorial re-creation of the super-
natural story of Fatima, do most of the
preaching. For fifty hours these men
“keep the silence” and like it. At meals
a book is read. Often a religious film,
such as Monsieur Vincent, takes the
place of a conference, for a good film
can stir a man’s faith.

Birth of a New Idea

It was here that I first met Fr. Hugh «
Noonan, O.F.M., who created the
weekly radio programme called “The
Hour of St. Francis”, which I have
already spoken about. Fr. Hugh is a
well built man of about fifty. He is
gifted in many directions, but he
wears his gifts lightly, humbly, and
without fuss. He is a restful and
refreshing person to meet and can
impart the impression that his time is
all vours. I am told that his

39

programme ranks among the very best
on the American radio. I have heard
several of them and I can understand
why; for, like every true artist, Fr.
Hugh can make the old sound new,
he can bring the dead to life, he can
impart ideas in an interesting manner.

He told me that it was while serving
in the Army as a chaplain that he
realised the positive possibilities of the
radio. When he was demobbed he got
| permission to take up this form of
work, and approached the radio
production experts. “Not a chance,”
they said. “Radio is the most
expensive business in the world. You
have no experience, no trained
personnel and, most of all, you haven’t
any money . . . Every radio programme
must have big money — rich sponsors,
wealthy organisation.” When he
replied that he felt sure he would get
the moral and financial support of all
Franciscan Tertiaries in America they
shifted the accent to No Experience.
“ ‘The Hour of St. Francis’ is a swell
idea but it hasn’t got a chance,” they
said. However, Fr. Hugh went ahead.
I have already mentioned that his
weekly programme is heard every week
on 600 stations in which the film stars
of Hollywood take part. In my

picture above you see Fr. Hugh
discussing his programme, with Paul
Kelly, a Catholic film star.

St. Francis on Broadway

Fr. Hugh has worked so hard that
he has been ordered away for several
months; but the work still goes on,
for he has a very intelligent and
enthusiastic assistant in Fr. Kenneth
Henriques O.F.M., whom you see, in
another picture, discussing a script
with Charles Laughton. Charles
Laughton has a tender devotion to St.
Francis of Assisi. In one of the
programmes he gave a reading from
“The Flowers of St. Francis”; on
another occasion he featured in the
programme, “Visit to Assisi”.

I understand that he is planning to
produce, on Broadway, the Little Plays
of St. Francis, by Laurence Housman.

“The Hour of St. Francis,” which
does such big work, has a very small
staff. It consists of two friars and a self-
less, most capable secretary : Juanita
Vaughan, who will tell you that she
is doing the best job in the world.

(To be continued)

KEY TO MARRIED HAPPINESS IS BABIES,

SArS DENNIS MORGAN

Maybe you think a Hollywood film
star is the last one to give hints on
marital bliss ? But Dennis Morgan, of
Warner Bros., is certainly qualified
enough : he has been married 15 years.
His key to the happy married state is
— babies.

“It’s simple,” he declares. “More
kiddies, less arguments!”

Morgan has three children of his
own. “The bride and I hit many a
snag in our early days,” he confesses.
“I was working for peanuts and my
bank balance was the kind that drives
romance out through the window. But
we were both so busy hanging out
washing that we never had time for
harsh words.

“A lot of good people drift apart
because they lose mutual interests,”
Dennis points out. “That’s where

babies take the No. 1 spot. Figuring
out how much baby-food is going to
end up in the baby and how much on
you takes the place of wondering where
to go to dance. And trying to master-
mind juvenile schemings calls for a
husband-wife briefing that would put
the combined Chiefs of Staff to shame.
All of this brings two people closer
together, and as the children get
bigger so does the couple’s affection
for each other.

“Trouble with a lot of marriages
today is that the participants think
they haven’t got enough money to
start bringing children into the world.
As any parent knows who has
weathered the storm, the time is never
right, so have ’em anyway.”

( From “Warnergra m s ” . )

40

A Positive Approach to the Cinema, No. 7

The Script-Writer’s

By J. J. CURLE

Role

<

The human situation is always the
same, a mixture of bewilderment,
frustration, terror and exaltation.
Provided that the script-writer under-
stands that these are the well-springs
of the actions of all his characters, then,
however unusual the setting of his
work, however unfamiliar its technique,
he will be able to help his audience.

“Help” may seem an odd word to
use in this context, but it is the only
final one. For though tragedy may

“purge with pity and terror” and comedy
“amuse”, there is still behind these
explanations the great “why”. Why
use a Shakespeare to do what life is
constantly doing unaided ? Why use a
Sheridan to create effects that can be
achieved by the sight of a man slipping
on a banana skin ? The answer is
surely that the script-writer has
compassion for the human situation.

What he has to offer us is the

realisation that in crur central and

superficial magnificences and futilities
we are not alone. It is all one whether
he does this by means of tragedy or
comedy.

is frequently this mingling of the
comic and the tragic.

There are those who try to
deprecate tragedy in saying that it is
morbid and leads to sterile inaction or
who scorn comedy as evidence of our
inability to share the tragedy of others.
In fact the two are as essential to the
human situation as night and day, and
any change in that situation that
eliminated one would automatically
eliminate the other. If our sensibilities
were suddenly to be extended to the
point at which we each saw all the
sorrows of the world in true perspective
there could be no more comedy but
equally there would be no more
tragedy, for we should see that the loss
of one was always the gain of another,
we should see only a flux, not a series
of blows and rewards. Equally, if we
managed so to alter the world that
everv man attained his ideal and there
were no more tragedy, we should have
cut away together with this normal
disparity between effort and achieve-
ment the very root of comedy —
incongruity.

Aspects of the same thing

Tragedy and comedy are only two
different aspects of the same thing.
Tragedy is man’s failure to compass
his desire. Comedy is the spectacle of
his attempt — ■ the spectacle of the ant
setting out to climb the alp. Tragedy
is the more universal of the two
approaches because though everyone,
by the mere fact of being alive, must
feel, not everyone knows how to
observe. At the same time comedy,
dealing with surfaces and appearances
only, makes fewer demands on the
sensibility of an audience and is
therefore the more popular. Just as the
great clown conjures tears through
laughter, so in the greatest plays there

- Providing the Facts

The script-writer ought not, there-
fore, to take sides, but should use his
gifts in whichever of these two fields
suits him best or, if lie can, in both.
His job is to help by presenting
human predicaments honestly, not so m
that people may learn by the answers ^
he provides, but so that they may see
the exact shape and scope of the
problems with which they- are
confronted. The play is to the viewer’s
private difficulties as a chart is to a
sailor. In itself it solves nothing, but
it shows that others have passed that
wav and it provides the facts from
which conclusions may be drawn and
upon which action may be based.

41

Such conclusions will not necessarily
be the same in real life as they are in
a film, because the film is not only
a truth but an observable shape. As
the human mind cannot judge
quantity and quality of experience
simultaneously, and as we do not feel
in ourselves what sand is while we are
walking over it but only when we stop
to lift some in our hands, cupping it
into a globe self-sufficient and static,

I so an aspect of experience can only
be understood in a film when it has
been isolated. What is shown in a
film must within its limits be true —
and if it is true it will by implication
suggest the wider all-embracing truth,
but unlike life it must keep within
those limits, avoiding all excursions
and irrelevances. Life has a lifetime
in which to make a total effect. It can
afford to build with a mass of tiny
separate details a shape that will
eventually become clear. The film-
wright has only two or three hours and
— even if he had the time to show it
- — he has no knowledge of life’s final
shape. He therefore usually takes as an
arbitrary conclusion with which to
justify the course of his film
retrospectively the attainment of love
or death — two moments of life at which
the self is transmuted to something
new. What is put before us in comedy
is the objective spectacle of how men
face life and what we learn from
tragedy is the subjective knowledge of
how they face death.

Comic and Tragic

The two selves, the comic and the
tragic, are part of each of us and of
all our situations. There is, therefore,
no reason why both should not be
present in a film so long as they do
not confuse its impact. Many devices
have been used to prevent the two
fusing in a chaos where the point of
view — subjective or objective — ceases to
be clear. Contrasted main and sub
I plots; the aside with its extension, the
soliloquy ; the alien observer in the
guise of fool, chorus, good or bad angel
or second self, moral or amoral, are all
devices that have served this purpose
from the age of Greek drama through
Elizabethan times to our own day in
which they have been “re-discovered”
by Eliot and O’Neill.

The script-writer’s task is not
exclusively either to plait or to separate

the threads of tragedy and comedy,
but to ensure that no part of whatever \
central truth of the human situation
he builds on is omitted, obscured or |
contradicted by the material he uses
or the way in which that material is
handled. He must work to a moment
of climax, to a release of laughter or
tears, and this moment will only prove
a release to liis audience if it springs
directly from what has preceded it.

It is not a process in itself but only
the culmination of a process. The
film in fact must be like a whirling
gaseous star in which each atom obeys
the law of its separate truth, where
each is constantly radiating energy,
yet where — though everything is
insubstantial — the observer sees not
chaos but a well-defined shape — a
shape made up of its parts not
arbitrarily imposed upon them.

Question and Answer

The film must be both question and -• 7
answer. That is it must, by showing
truth, imply criticism and, by having a
shape, isolate an experience so that the
mind can grapple with it. That a film
should represent the real world is
unimportant. That it should represent
the reality of its own situation is
essential. Like a fable it discusses
situations under a disguise of events
and must be capable of interpretation
on twro levels at least. But, unlike the
fable, its situation must spring from
the writer’s very being for, if it comes
only from his brain, it will come only
from the brains of his characters and
— their senses being unstirred — they
will never live with human warmth.

Pilgrimage to Fatima

The Book of the Film may
be had from
THE BLUE COTTAGE,
SUMNER PLACE MEWS,
S.W.7. Price 2s. 6d.

42

Synthetic Characters—

Critic’s Chief Peeve*

By William H. Mooring

A lady writes that she never permits
a movie critic to influence her choice
of entertainment “because the
individual critic sees so many movies
he becomes blase”.

She thinks he then overlooks much
good to be found in any film he
reviews.

She invites me, as a test, to set down
some of my personal peeves and
preferences. “Then” she says, “I
shall know whether too frequent
exposure to movies has clouded your
critical judgment.”

I do not know whether or not I am
blase. I do know I am frequently
bored. I see an average of 6 films a
week. Although I often nod or yawn
I have never knowingly been caught
snoring.

This does not mean I have no peeves.
I have many.

Enough of Western Types

I am, for instance, thoroughly weary
of- seeing one after another of Holly-
wood’s leading male stars play
“cowboys and Indians”. I wish they’d
start a Hollywood cycle of Eastern,
Northern or Southern films. Anything
but Westerns. By now I can scarcely
look a Technicolor mountain or a steer
steak squarely in the face.

I wish the “top stars” for one lovely
experimental year, would swap among
themselves, the “typical” roles in
which each repeats his or her own
stereotyped routines. Better still, get
the Hollywood writers to scrap the
whole lot and give us a new set of
movie characters drawn from life rather
than memory of bygone box office hits.

* Reprinted from “The Tidings", Los
Angeles, Cal.

I wish, when making a film like The
White Tower, which is Paul Jarrico’s
adaptation of the James Ramsey Ullman
novel, the movie people would stick to
the subject which in this case is
mountain climbing.

Especially when they have the
magnificent French Alps to shoot at, I
wish they’d cut out silly, romantic
clinches on ice-covered ledges. I know
they may have Alida Valli and Glenn
Ford in the cast, but need these lovely
young people take time out from their
climbing to keep falling into each
other’s arms ?

I wish sometimes we might meet on
the screen a young American who is
outwitted by foreign competition. We
know well enough that American youth
is on its toes. Does Hollywood have to
go on suggesting it is always on some-
body else’s as well ?

In a motion picture like The Big Lift
which shows the American Air Force in
Berlin, it would not have hurt to have
the R.A.F. around too. They were
there, you know.

In any movie whatsoever I maintain
that a woman’s face would be welcome,
before Factor.

I wish I might see strong, feminine
eyebrows growing untransplanted, their
ov’ner’s unashamed. A few pairs of
feminine lips with no apparent
relationship to New England sausages
wouldn’t be bad either.

Ghosts of Children

My preferences call out for just one
good film about so-called “planned
parenthood”. Perhaps introducing a
couple going on in years who, after a
young lifetime of “wise” planning, now
face an old age with the ghosts of the

43

children God once held waiting for
them.

Even if they had one or two children
they think about “all the others”.
What would they have been like ? What
talents would they have shown ? What
problems and blessings brought home ?

I would like to see Hollywood skip that
other Third Man they are looking for
among Graham Greene’s mysteries and
set about filming “The Heart of the
Matter” instead. His Mr. Scobie was
not the first, second or third man to
die by his own hand with sorrow in his
heart and contrition on his lips. Even
in a story w'hich gave evil so many
points over good, the drama, if well
integrated and morally sound, would
echo the truth that right is right and
wrong is wrong. I prefer not to be
nudged into realisation of the fact in
every last movie reel.

I would like to hear via the screen,
from the great author who said that you
cannot have sinless drama about sinful
man. Where, by the way, is Gilbert
K. Chesterton in the stream of movie
inspiration ?

I tire of seeing stories such as Leo
Brady’s “The Edge of Doom” get
pushed clear over into literary oblivion
by writers who do not understand what

they are about. I wish Sam Goldwyn
could buy Philip Yordan’s “Anna
Lucasta” and give it to Brady to adapt
by way of reprisal. That might indeed
return good for evil.

Synthetic Stuff

Most of all I ■ tire of films in which
synthetic Hollywood characters go
through the mechanical game of
tangling up their own emotions in order
that someone else may come along on
a pretext of untangling them, get
everything inextricably messed up so
that an unhappy climax must in
desperation be fobbed off as the “happy
ending”.

Whenever I assume that a screen-
play involves human types I naturally
look for mistakes and failures. It is not
human mistakes and failures which dull
my long hours in the movie theatre.

It is the fact that while making them,
human characters are seldom seen
attempting anything that matters.

Too many of them are shown
wasting their time, instead of living.
They waste a lot of mine, too.
Especially if there are many people like
the lady who suspects all critics of
being blase.

PENNY A DAY FOR [240 DAYS

FUND

IF one fourth of the Catholic population in England and Scotland
contributed a penny a day for 240 days The Catholic Film Institute
in England would be able to set up a production unit.

It was the pennies of the Catholic population in France which made
possible the making of the film Monsieur Vincent.

Kindly send donation to:

Rev. J. Burke, 357 Beulah Hill, London, S.E.I9

44

CATHOLIC PREMIERES

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

After disappointments and difficulties,
the Premiere of Pilgrimage to Fatima
was arranged for Sunday, October 22nd,
at the Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury
Avenue, London.

The occasion was graced by the
presence of the Apostolic Delegate,
Archbishop Godfrey, who presided, and
His Excellency the Portuguese
Ambassador accompanied by Madame
Ulrich. By a fortunate accident, the
date of the Premiere was late enough
to allow us to have Father Hilary
Carpenter with us, just returned from
America. Father Carpenter spoke
about the place of the truly religious
film in the world of cinema. The
Apostolic Delegate then introduced
the film and spoke of the meaning
of Fatima as the latest of the
three famous apparitions of Our Lady
in modern times, each with its message
of warning and demand for a more
Christian way of life.

SORCIER DU CIEL

The London Premiere of the French
film, Sorcier du del, took place at the
New Gallery Cinema, Regent Street,
London, on October 5th. It was
played for the benefit of the Young
Christian Workers through the courtesy
of Films de France and the J. Arthur
Rank Organisation.

His Eminence Cardinal Griffin, the
Patron of the Premiere, was unable to
be present. His Lordship, Bishop
Myers, deputised for His Eminence
and received the distinguished audience
which included members of the
Diplomatic Corps as well as Bishop
Cowderoy, of Southwark, and Bishop
Parker, of Northampton.

Georges Rollin, the French actor
who plays the role of St. John Baptist
Vianney, came specially from Paris to
be present for the Premiere. Richard
Todd, Nadia Grey and Jeanette Scott
were among the audience who were
presented to His Lordship in the foyer.
Dr. Wand, Bishop of London, also

honoured the Premiere with his
presence and sat next to Bishop Myers
during the performance.

The Marchioness of Lothian was
Chairman of the Premiere Committee,
John Davies, Esq., Vice-Chairman and
Secretary, Miss K. O’Donnell, M.B.E.

THE MASTER CALLETH THEE

The film-pageant devised by the
Filiae Matris Bonae Concilii and
produced by Andrew Buchanan is
shortly to have its Premiere. With a
Commentary written by the F.M.B.C.
and spoken by Robert Speaight it is
an interesting attempt to use film to
stimulate vocations to the Religious
Life.

The F.M.B.C. are a group of women
whose work is to guide young girls
and women into the form of religious
life to which they may be most
suited. At the house in Claverton
Street, near Westminster Cathedral,
weekly Retreats and Conferences are
held at which girls are able to pray
about and discuss the matter of a
religious vocation. The film, The
Master Calleth Thee shows a young
girl in her journey to find her true
calling, with the lure of the world
on the one hand and the dedicated
service of God in religion on the
other. She passes in review all the
well - known Religious Orders and
Congregations, most of which have a
part in the film by proxy. Girls from
Convent Schools and girls in business
gave up their time and (in the case of
the business girls) their holiday in order
to take part in this film apostolate.
They appear in the habits of more
than forty different religious
congregations. For their parts they
were coached by nuns from the various
convents.

The film will be distributed and
shown by the Filiae Matris Bonae
Concilii from whom all information
about the film mav be obtained.
Address : F.M.B.C., ' 27 Claverton

Street, London, S.W.l.

45

The International Film Review

Revue Internationale du Cinema.

Organ of International Catholic
Film Office. Number 7. American
Number. Contributions by Irene
Dunne, Eric Johnson, Martin
Quigley, Darryl Zanuck, W. H.
Mooring and others. English
editions of Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4,
and the Holy Year Double
Number 5-6 still available.
Subscription rate: per annum.

Obtainable from : Revue Inter-

nationale du Cinema.

It is much regretted that in spite of
all the efforts made by the officers of
the Catholic Film Institute in England
and good friends in Australia, Malta
and other places the minimum number
of subscriptions necessary to support an
English edition of the “International
Film Review’’ have not been forth-
coming.

An enterprise such as was involved
in publishing the three editions of the
“International Film Review” in English,
Spanish and French, represented a
large act of Faith based on the
conviction that a periodical of a serious
character was necessary to help to
realise the mandate of Pius XI in the
Encyclical Vigilanti Cum, “Promote
good motion pictures”. From the
purely business point of view it was
probably an unusual undertaking ;
nevertheless two or three persons had
confidence enough ill the goodness of
the cause and the enthusiasm of the
Catholic body to sink a considerable
amount of capital in the enterprise.
This confidence lias, at least as far as
the Pluglish-speaking countries are
concerned, proved to be misplaced. Not-
withstanding the excellent reception
given the Review by leading
personalities of ' the world of Cinema
and by this specialised press, we have
to announce that the English edition
of the Review must now cease, at least
temporarily.

We have, however, to consider the
interests of those who have given us

their support and helped to spread the
doctrine of Christian Cinematography
taught in the pages of the “International
Film Review”. We think that the
majority of those who have honoured
us with subscriptions for the English
edition will gladly accept to continue
with the French Edition which will be
available from the same distributors as
heretofore. Those whose subscriptions
have been taken out since the Review
began may care to complete their
subscriptions by taking back numbers
of the English edition of the
Review. Those who do not wish to
have a foreign language edition may
have their outstanding subscriptions
refunded on application. We hope,
however, that at least some of these
latter may be willing to regard their
subscriptions as a donation to the work
of Catholic Film Action.

It will be understood, we are
confident, that this work of Catholic
Action, like so many others, is based
largely on voluntary efforts. It is,
therefore, true that the ordinary means
of publicity have not been available.
It may well be that as time goes on
the number of subscriptions from
English-speaking countries will indicate
that there is a large enough group of
readers to warrant a new effort being
made to bring back the English edition.
This w'e promise to do as soon as the
support available makes it an

economical proposition. In the mean-
time, we express our gratitude as well
as our disappointment to those who
have so loyally supported our efforts,
and we offer our sincere congratulations
to the Catholics of Western Germany
who have, as a token of their interests
in the problems presented by the
Cinema, undertaken, on their own
responsibility to -produce a German
edition of \vhat the Holy Father termed
an “indispensable” organ of expression
for those who realise the potentialities
of the cinema in the world today.

John A. V. Burke,

Editorial Board of the Revue
Internationale du Cinema on
behalf of the Office Catliolique
Internationale du Cinema.

46

FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. No. I

Introducing the Filni'Makers

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

Having completed our study of the
nature of the film industry, how it
operates, and its influence on mankind,
we are justified in turning attention to
actual production, and so I am going
to introduce you to the specialists
whose work, collectively, composes a
film. First, we will meet them all
together and then, mouth by month,
study the work of each separately at
close quarters.

But before they appear on the scene
I want to finally dispel what still seems
to be a widespread illusion — that films
can be made by anyone, almost
anyhow. You would be astonished at
the number of unqualified people, both
inside and outside the industry, who
plunge into production, full of the kind
of confidence which only inexperience
can create. Result : financial and

technical collapse, and film falls into
disrepute. If this Course did nothing
but prevent a continuation of this
practice it would be doing a great
service to all, and particularly to those
seeking to employ film increasingly for
religious purposes. Think of the years
of study and practice needed to master
music, painting, writing. And so it is
with film-making which demands an
overall knowledge of every technical and
artistic branch involved before one can
specialise in a particular department.
If you are not a builder, would you try
to build a house ? You would not
know how to draw up the plans,
j’ou would probably overlook the
toundations, and the walls would
refuse to meet the ceilings. Similarly,
if you start to build up a film without
a plan, it will surely fail.

Who then is the planner of films ?
The Producer, who selects, or visualises
subjects for development. Who is the
. architect who draws the plans ? The
Scenarist whose first sketch is known
as a Treatment which describes
everything that will be seen and heard
in the proposed film. The scenario
will be evolved from the Treatment.

Who actually lays the foundations and
builds the . film upon them, brick by
brick, scene by scene ? The Director.
And who are the key specialists
working by his side? The Art
Director, equivalent of the interior
decorator, of course; the Cameraman,
or Lighting Expert, who captures
everything visible, and the Sound
Recorder, who captures everything
audible. Who is the person who
merges all these results into a unity ?
The Editor, who assembles hundreds
of scenes and sounds into a continuous
story in accordance with the plan
written by the Scenarist.

We shall therefore meet the
Producer, Scenarist, Director, Art
Director, Cameraman, Sound Recorder
and Editor, in that order. Later, we
shall visit the Players, the Make-Up
Department, the Property Shop, the
Musicians and also some Documentary
Units which do not require studio
facilities.

Sufficient now to emphasise once
again to the student that every film,
long or short, must be produced to a
plan, on solid foundations, by
experienced people, for there is no
short cut to successful film-making, as
we shall learn.

FOCUS FILM COURSE
PRIMER

By Andrew Buchanan

Handbooks comprising intro-
ductory articles on all the lectures
comprising the first series of the
Focus Film Course are now
available, price Is. 6d. nett.
Obtainable from More House, 53
Cromwell Road, London, S.W.7, or
from Blue Cottage, Sumner Place
Mews, London, S.W.7.

47

By our Panel of Priests

Category A, indicates adults only; B, adults and adolescents ;
C, family audiences; D, particularly for children

Mario Lanza . . . Kathryn Grayson . . . Carrol Naish

THE TOAST OF NEW ORLEANS

Starring: Kathryn Grayson, Mario

Lanza and David Niven with J.
Carrol Naish and Clinton Sund-
berg. Director: Norman Taurog.
Distributors: M.-G.-M. Certi-

ficate: U. Category: B. Running
time : go minutes.

There is something relaxing about
the lionest-to-goodness musical film.
So long as the singing is good of its
kind, the acting not too outrageous,
the decor pleasing and the direction
firm and competent, one does not ask
too much of the story for probability.

The Toast of New Orleans is such
a film. Kathryn Grayson and Mario
Lanza both have pleasant voices in
the operatic tradition and are able
to sing the less important ditties
with an attention which lends them
unaccustomed dignity. Both singers
are, I fear, in the manner which is
usual nowadays with voices of every
quality, over-amplified. Mario Lanza’s

tenor has something of Gigli’s ringing
tone without that great man’s
regrettable tendency to sob at every
opportunity.

The story tells of a Louisiana
fisherman who has acquired a perfectly
trained voice by singing native
chansons aad who is discovered by an
operatic impressario (quietly played by
David Niven). The idea is that he
should be paired off- with the

impressario’s other protege, Kathryn
Grayson, and sent on a tour of the
world-famous opera houses. Unfor-
tunately, Mario’s well-trained voice is
not matched by his social graces. The
stresses and strains involved in putting
this little matter right occupies the
rest of the film with the usual
gaucheries at table and in restaurants,
at which Mario’s uncle (J. Carrol
Naish) loudly assists, to the evident
amusement of the audience.

A film which you can sit back to
enjoy with an easy conscience.

Starring: Hedy Lamarr, Victor

Mature and George Sanders, with
Angela Lansbury and Henry
Wilcoxon. A Paramount Picture.
Producer and Director: Cecil B.
DeMille. Certificate : U. Cate-
gory: B. Running time : 128

minutes.

What is one to make of a film with
a title like this, produced by C. B.
DeMille and having Hedy Lamarr and
Victor Mature in the chief roles ?
These very facts at once rob it of all
hope of being taken seriously. Vet
the subject and the much-publicised
source of the story demand critical
attention.

The Holy Bible has much to answer
for (if I may say so without
irreverence) but it ought not to be held
responsible for the circus built around
the Nazarene whose strength was his
weakness by the gentleman who
produces only masterpieces. True,
Holy Writ is here pieced out with the
literary assistance of Messrs. Jesse L.

SAMSON

Lasky, Jnr., Frederick M. Frank,
Harold Lamb and Vladimir Jabotinsky.
The result is a script in which Delilah
becomes the younger sister of Samson’s
Philistine wife and finally repents of
her treachery, to die with Samson in
the collapse of the Temple of Dagon. ’
Other curiosities are the family of
Samson which seems to include a boy
named Saul who has an engaging j
habit of slapping Samson on the back
and only just refraining from saying :
“Ah, gee! Samson!” Samson,
incidentally, prophesies that the lad
will be the first king of Israel. This
bungles up Biblical chronology some-
what to say nothing of adding a new
name to the list of Prophets.

Still it must be admitted that we are
given full value for our money in the
spectacular episodes of Samson’s
career. Unfortunately, the slaying of
a thousand with the jaw-bone of an ass

DELILAH

has been imitated before by gentlemen
like Errol Flynn, Douglas Fairbanks or
Richard Greene who used fists, swords
or non-stop repeating pistols. The
collapse of the Temple is a new one
even for Errol Flynn, for all his
experience in Burma, and its slow-
motion crumbling does not waste a
moment of shrieking, body-squirming,
limb-crushing thrill. Nice stuff for the
“U” audiences, this.

We are not allowed to see Samson
carrying off the gates of Gaza. Not,
l imagine, that the effects man would
have had any special difficulty, but it
might have been awkward to explain
the reason for Samson’s visit to the
place. Nor does he kill the thirty
Philistines whose new clothes he needs
to pay his bets; he leaves them feeling
rather chilly. Again, the uncomfortable
business of the burning foxes is
avoided by letting Samson have a

rehearsal for the Temple destroying
scene by throwing burning pillars
around in his father-in-law's house
when, justifiably annoyed that his wife I

has been lent to somebody else, he lays
about him. The Bible tells us that I
Mrs. Samson was burned by the
Philistines, but here she is impaled
with a spear : so much quicker, and
it looks nicer.

No one objects to the old-fashioned
spectacular thriller, but it is rather
nauseating to have this ponderous
parading of the Bible in Gothic ,
lettering, as if a religious epic were
being offered to an intelligent public
instead of which we are given Hedy
Lamarr as a scantily-dressed bobby-
soxer cheering on her favourite lion-
killer ; Victor Mature as a Danite
Tarzan whose hair grows in accordance
with the supposed requirements of his
film fans, leaving his chin and chest
innocent of adornment; George

Sanders, wearing a neat line in up-to-
the-minute Philistine uniform with an
accent recently heard, out of Oscar

Samson being tormented in the temple of Dagon

50

Wilde, via Oxford, in All About Eve.
Really, gentlemen, it is asking too
much. Doubtless the crowds will
swallow it, but so long as they do not
call it a “religious” film, I shall
survive the temptation to be sick.

V.

INTO THE BLUE

Starring: Michael Wilding, Odile

Versois, Constance Cummings,
Jack Hulbert, with Edward Rigby.
Producer: Michael Wilding.

Director: Herbert Wilcox.

Distributors: British Lion. Certifi-
cate: U. Category: B. Running
time : 83 minutes.

The blue is the sea and nobody
actually goes into it. But on it in a
yacht goes everybody named above
except Herbert Wilcox, who is
definitely there in spirit. The original
destination was Oslo, but the course
had to be changed to Havre-Rouen-
Paris-Monte Carlo.

Odile Versois is an intermittently
attractive newcomer, Jack Hulbert is
an “oldcomer” welcomed back to the
screen, and Constance Cummings is
always exactly right in this film, which
might provide adequate entertainment
for an unexacting mood.

Q-

THE SECRET FURY

Starring: Claudette Colbert and Robert
Ryan with Jane Cowl and Paul
Kelly. An R.-K.-O. Radio
Picture. Director: Mel Ferrer.
Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time: 85 minutes.

This is a disappointing film, filled
with improbabilities, yet with sufficient
power in it to keep one, more or less,
unwillingly glued to one’s seat till the
unsatisfactory conclusion.

It disappoints because, starting off
with a very promising comedy
situation, that of the groom who has
difficulty in gaining access to his own
wedding reception, it moves on to
drama when a guest holds up the
ceremony with the revelation that the
bride is not free tp marry and then
fizzles out after a set of the most
unlikely circumstances are supposed to
account for the bride’s inability to
remember a previous wedding. En

route she is tried for murder, then
confined in a lunatic asylum, from
which she conveniently and quite
impossibly breaks out, armed with a
pistol to bring this complicated
business to an end.

Not Real Life

Still, it has Claudette Colbert, and
maybe it was intended to let her .
admirers see her run the whole gamut j
of dramatic expression, which she does, ^
from the initial light-comedy opening,
through dawning incredulity, fear,
uncertainty, terror, neurosis, mental
instability, lunacy, reawakening sanity,
and sudden cure, to the screaming
exhibition when she finds herself in
the attic with the other lunatic who is
trying to force her to kill himl

Robert Ryan is nice and Paul Kelly
is not : which is the way they are

supposed to be. Even so, I find it
difficult to believe that they would be
either so nice or so nasty in real life.
But then, of course, this is far from
being real life. Which is why you,
dear cinema-goer, I suppose, will pay
to see it.

V.

HA’PENNY BREEZE

Starring: Gwyneth Vaughan, Don

Sharp, Edwin Richfield. Director:
Frank Worth. Distributors:
A.-B. Pathe. Certificate: U.

Category: C. Running time:

72 minutes.

It is, I conceive, part of the duty
of the critic to praise courageous
effort as well as to indicate merit or
the contrary. In days when
meretricious ostentation gets away
with so much, merely because it
emanates from Hollywood or Pinewood,
and has the right name on the
production lists, it is both a pleasure
and a responsibility to applaud j
incentive and independence even
though there are faults to mar first
efforts.

Ha’penny Breeze is a simple tale of
two voung men who come back from
the war to find their old fishing village
crumbling and the trade gone else-
where. The village folk have other
jobs in the factories and the like,
Eventually the villagers are induced to
lend a hand to convert an old smack

51

into a yacht so that it may compete
in a local race. After various difficulties
are overcome, the yacht is finished and
though it does not win the race, the
enterprise shown by the young people
brings them an order for the designing
and building of a new boat and the
film ends with the prospect of the
village returning to life.

Remarkable First Effort

The film itself provides a story for
a film. It was made by three young
men, Frank Worth, Don Sharp and
Darcy Conyers, who were determined
that films could be made, as in Italy,
bv seeking natural subjects for stories
to be filmed in their natural
surroundings and, most important of
all, that they could be made at a

fraction of the cost usually associated
with studio productions. Starting
with practically nothing in their
pockets, their enthusiasm and
persistence, in addition to certain
native qualities of skill and artistry,
enabled them to produce, not a prize-
winning film, but a remarkably pleasant
first effort. It is rather loosely
constructed and somewhat too
ingenuous but it has authenticity and
the characters it has collected among
the villagers show promise of a more
disciplined discrimination in future
efforts. The photography is delightful
and the acting none the less pleasant
for being in the documentary style.
Here is a film to ask for when you
are tired of streamlined screen
sophistication. ^

Independent team on location

52

THE UNDEFEATED
Starring: Gerald Pearson. Commenta-
tor: Leo Genn. Director: Frank
Dickson. Distributors: A.-B.

Pathe. Certificate i U. Category'.
B. Running time: 35 minutes.

This semi-documentary tells the
story of the men whose war disablement
problems have to be solved not onlv
in the departments of the Ministry of
Pensions but also in the minds of the
men themselves. Their social
readjustments are as difficult to bring
about as the more prosaic phvsical
readjustments of limbs and bodies.

Played by Pensioners

The characters in the film are plaved
mainly by the pensioners themselves

The Undefeated

and with a fine sense of dramatic
understatement. The chief role is
given to Gerald Pearson, a parachute
officer who lost both legs and won the
Military Cross at Monte Cassino. His
performance is deeply moving and
most effective. His screen “voice” is
provided by Leo Genn.

Such a subject compels comparison
with the Hollywood film on the same
subject, Tile Slcn. The American film
was a very good film, but there is no
doubt in my mind that the more modest
British effort is very much more
effective. Its air of detachment and
the careful avoidance of emotional
overplaying, a fault into which The
Men fell notably, lifts it to a higher
plane altogether.

V.

BRANDED

Starring: Alan Ladd, Mona Freeman,
Charles Bickford, with Robert
Keith, Joseph Calleia, Peter
Hanson, Selena Boyle, Tom
Tully. Technicolor. Paramount.
Producer: Mel Epstein. Director:
Rudolph Mate. Category: B.

Running time : 94 minutes.

Beautiful scenery is the main feature
of Branded. The storv is another

modification of the theme of bad man
making good. Once we allow for
improbabilities we find our interest
engaged up to the hilt. Alan Ladd does
well as the handsome and sullen
impostor who puts everything right
before he marries the girl. " X.

SO YOUNG, SO BAD

Starring: Paul Henreid with Catherine
McLeod, Grace Coppin, Cecil
Clovelly and Anne Francis. A
United Artists Picture. Director:
Bernard Vorhaus. Certificate: A.
Category: A. Running time : S
83 minutes.

What do producers hope to
accomplish by films which deal with
prisons, reformatories, orphanages,
mental homes and the like ? In the
present case there is more evidence of
sordid curiosity than of reforming zeal.
We are treated to the efforts of a soft-
hearted and somewhat unprofessional
psychiatrist who is certain that he can
iron out the misunderstandings and
complexes which, he says, really bring
girls to reformatories.

His methods are not very profound. •
Having prescribed occupational therapv
( which is mumbo-jumbo for light work)
he does not bother to find out that a
sadistic matron interprets it as fourteen
hours potato-gathering and twelve-hour
periods in a subterranean laundry. The
results are revolutionary in the wrong jj
sense and the remedies applied by the -
matron include fire-hosing and solitarv
confinement. A suicide and a break-
out are two of the climaxes. The
psychiatrist is allowed to take charge
of the reformatory only after the time-
serving Warden and the sadistic
Matron have nearly won over the
Trustees during the course of a curious
enquiry' in which the accused conducts
the investigation.

53

The acting of three unknown girls,
Anne Francis, Rosita Moreno and Anne
Jackson, is worthy of a better cause.
Paul Henreid is completely convincing
as the kind of psychiatrist who would
be put in charge of a film reformatory.
Grace Coppin, likewise, could only be
found in film-land. Real-life sadists
are much more subtle.

Unconvincing

For the rest, there is a weak mixture
of sentiment and cruelty without
anything strong enough to make us
believe either in the facts of the story
or their psychological cure.

V.

WALK SOFTLY STRANGER
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Valli, Spring
Byington, Paul Stewart. Producer:
Robert Sparks. Director: Robert
Stevenson. A Dore Schary
Presentation. Certificate: A.

Category : B. Running time:

81 minutes.

Some films make you rise in your
seat, others make you sink back more
deeply. This film belongs to the latter
category.

Can a wastrel renounce his ways to
become a useful and honourable man ?
Indeed so. Can a social butterfly, cut
off from her gaiety by cruel accident,
turn from embitterment to become a
simple and loving maiden ? Indeed so.
Does this film indicate the struggle
these reformations imply ? Indeed no,
and again no, no, no. Dramatically,
therefore, negligible. Another
Hollywood omelette made without eggs.
Smoothly synthetic, no doubt, but
without nourishment

Valli, as the crippled heroine,
beyond flashing her eyes and sitting
pretty, has no chance to show her
ability as an actress. The rest of the
cast act commendably well. Direction
and camera work unobtrusively good.
Script medium. One passage I
remember because of its theological
flavour. A shady character says to
Cotten, -“Shall I be seeing you again?”
He replies, “If, as some people say,
there is an after life, I’ll meet you
down there.” There is humour in that,
I know, but also a revealing glimpse
of the superficial mind of the film-
maker. T.

FILM SHOW

The Catholic Film Institute
Productions

Rome of the Pilgrims
Crucifers to Walsingham
and

Pilgrimage to Fatima

wid be shown at

Westminster Cath:dral Hall
Ambrosden Avenue, S.W.I

At 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
on

Thursday, February 8th.
Admission Free— Collection

FILM STRIP
FATIMA TO-DAY

Coloured pictures from the film

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

with explanatory booklet

36 Frames. Price : 15s.

(Post free 15/3)

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
Blue Cottage, Sumner Place
Mews, London, S.W.7

54

I SHALL RETURN
Starring: Tyrone Power, Micheline

Prelle, with Tom Ewell. Producer:
Lamar Trotti. Director: Fritz

Lang. Distributors: 20th Century-
Fox. In technicolor. Certificate :
U. Category -. B. Running time :
104 minutes.

It was General MacArthur who
returned to the Philippines, just as it
said on the cigarette packets. And the
Resistance Movement brought out the
coca-cola which it had saved to
celebrate victory.

But before that we are shown “the
greatest personal story to come out of
the Pacific”. Chuck Palmer (Tyrone
Power) and seven others belonging to
U.S.A. Motor Torpedo Squadron 3,
come out of the Pacific and have quite
a time in the guerilla war on Leyte.
Nothing comes amiss to Chuck. He
can set up a radio transmitting station
and perform an abdominal operation,
all without previous experience. After
the husband of Jeanne (Micheline
Prelie, a sort of French Bebe Daniels)
has been bumped off by the Japs, her
friendship with Chuck “warms into
love”. It looked as if the chill had
been off from the start.

Some films are classified for adults
only. This should be for adolescents
only. They would enjoy its series of
wartime adventures, but there is little
to interest the adult mind.

Q-

WHERE DANGER LIVES

Starring: Robert Mitchum, Faith

Domergue, Claude Rains.
Producer: Irving Cummings,

Junior. Director: John Farrow.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

When a doctor falls in love with one
of his patients who is mad and who
already has a husband, he is asking
for trouble. In this picture Robert
Mitchum is the doctor and Faith
Domergue is the mad woman ; they
meet trouble (as they say in America)
“plenty”.

The direction is the chief virtue of

this film ; it is so well directed that
it becomes a sort of psychological
thriller. While in progress one hardly
sees the faults for the thrills. It is
when one sits back and thinks, that
one realises how faint is the story ; a
fellow like Mitchum, who goes around
in a semi-alive fashion and has a
melancholy voice and a melancholy,
surly manner might find his way into
a hospital as a psycho-pathic patient,
but not as a doctor. Faith Domergue
acts her ugly part of lies, cunning,
deceit, murder, selfishness and the rest
loudly and realistically. In the
short time in which Claude Rains,
Domergue’s husband, is allowed to live
he performs with distinction.

There is always some sort of moral
in John Farrow’s films. I imagine the
moral wrapped up in this morbid, well-
directed story is that crime doesn’t
pay or that the truth will out.

E

BORN TO BE BAD

Starring: Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan,
with Zachary Scott, Joan Leslie
and Mel Ferrer. Producer: Robert
Sparks. Director: Nicholas Ray.
Certificate: A. Running time:
94 minutes.

Christabel (Joan Fontaine) appears
on the scene as the timid country
cousin, arrived in the big city to take
over Donna’s (Joan Leslie) job as
secretary to her rich uncle. The
retiring secretary is about to marry
wealthy Curtis (Zachary Scott), but
Christabel, in her sanctimonious way,
starts poisoning the mind of Curtis
against Donna. In fact, this blushing
rose is deadly, and Gobby (Mel Ferrer),
an artist friend of Curtis, describes her
as being “as helpless as a wildcat”. |l
The same Gobby sums up Christabel "
neatly as “Lucretia Borgia and Peg CP
Mv Heart”.

Cliristabei, however, while trying to
hook the goldfish, Curtis, does really
fall in love with a budding author, I
Robert Ryan. She marries the money-
bag, while trying to keep her lover
dangling on the line. The lover, alas, ]
proves uncooperative and refuses the

53

life of adultery. To escape the
company of her husband as much as
possible, she becomes an enthusiastic
socialite, but the strain of acting as the
devoted wife is too much and Curtis
eventually discovers where her heart
lies.

Jibe at Morals

The plot of this film is well-worn,
but the acting is competent and the
script is fresh. The debonaire Mel
Ferrer just about steals the show.

The wickedness of Christabel is laid
bare, but she manifests no sense of
guilt or repentance. The final shots,
her eviction from the home of Curtis,
reveal her as the perfect cynic. She
will take nothing to remind her of dear
Curtis — well, nothing except a car-full
of furs and jewellery. Another
significant jibe at modern morals is
given in the final scene, when Gobbv
puts a higher price ticket on
Christabel’s portrait — as the divorced
wife of a social personality her stock
has gone up in the city.

To the viewer the bad woman is a
bit too obviously bad, and although the
message is got over that marriage for
money does not mix with an illicit
liaison, still one is left with the
impression that to have tried and
failed can be quite profitable.

N.

THE BIG STORE
Starring: The Marx Brothers.

Certificate : U. Category : B.

Running time : 65 minutes.

Either you like the Marx Brothers or
you do not. The recent spate of
reissues has included many of the
vintage Marx. The Big Store, made
in 1941, is one of the more amusing in
the true Marx style. There are longer
periods of real fun in this film than
in any since A Night at the Opera.
The title sufficiently suggests the story.
There is a charming interlude with
Harpo playing some Mozart and
Schubert, arrayed in eighteenth century
costume, in which with the assistance
of a series of mirrors he plays duets
and trios with himself. He is always
my favourite and there is a large dose
of him in this film. Still, it is a pity

that these talented brothers are not'
allowed to be funnier in shorter films.
Comics cannot sustain nor the audience
endure the honour necessary for a
feature-length film.

V.

TIME TO LOSE

Starring: Malt Butter, Twixy Cleger,
Selina Floof. Producor: Abe

Czwycxhorse. Director: Ed.

Custard Brown. Distributors:
Vampire Films: Certificate: A.
Category: B. Running time:

go minutes.

I have for many years now, in an
eventful and I humbly trust not
unuseful (though assuredly not gainful)
life, on train journeys, on bottoms of
buses and on backs of envelopes — you
know the usual patter — been composing
a film script. It’s good, it’s gigantic,
it’s box office.

It runs like this. Moving camera
slowly descends from great height. It
hesitates drunkenlv over a silent city
in which all sleep but prowling G-men
and hungry cats. It comes to rest on
an apartment — taken from top-side, side-
side and upside down — in which two
lovers embrace in agonising love. “I
love you,” ‘‘I love you too,” “Then
stop biting my ear,” and so on. Camera
lingers over set of chessmen — classy
touch.

The script then goes on to tell of a
misunderstanding over a misunder-
standing. Alas, the finest china is but
clay. The hero becomes involved in
the spidery intrigue of a beautiful
woman dressed in sequins night and
day. She is a spy. The hero lies his
way out manfully and informs the
G-men. They send out a special agent,
guess w'ho ? — the heroine. The beautiful
spy escapes, swimming strongly in a
shark infested sea. Reconciliation of
lovers, lapping waters, moonlight, soft
music, “I love you,” fade out.

But my labour has been vain. After
seeing Time to Lose I realise that my
script can never be produced. It would
be plagiarism.

But on reconsideration, would this
bother the film world ?

T.

56

CONTINENTAL FILMS

VOLPONE

Starring: Henry Bauer, Louis Jouvet,
Fernand Ledoux and Jacqueline
Delubac. Director: Maurice

Tourneur. Distributors: G. C. T.
(Distributors) Ltd. Certificate:
A. Category : A. Running time :
98 minutes.

Ben Jonson is reputed to be the
greatest of English dramatists except
Shakespeare. This French adaptation
by Jules Romains and Stefan Zweig of
his well-known play is probably the
first and only example of his work
which the majority of English
cinema and theatre audiences will have
the opportunity of judging.

Despite the fact that the screen-
wrights have added a prologue and
changed the denouement, the piece
remains stagey and is chiefly
interesting as an example of how a
theatrical museum exhibit can be
transferred to the screen so that its
peculiar flavour is kept intact. The
decor by Jean Perrier and Andre
Barscq is in keeping with this foible
and the photography, mainly in soft
focus, has that curious quality of
lithograph}- customary to pre - war
French films, which, in this instance,
lends special charm to the medieval
costumes and sets and the occasional
exteriors of Venice.

The acting of Henri Bauer and Louis
Jouvet is likewise deliberately stylised
and its theatricality strengthens the
impression that one is regarding an
antiquity brought to the screen for the
purpose.

The film was made in 1939 and is a
variation on the theme used by
Shakespeare in Timon of Athens, of
the corrupting influence of avarice,
leading its votaries to utter degradation.

The story is sufficiently summarised
bv Ben Jonson himself in the acrostic
with which he introduces his play :
“Yolpone, childless, rich, feigns
sick, despairs,

Offers his state to hopes of several
heirs,

Lies languishing : his parasite

receives

Presents of all, assures, deludes;
then weaves

Other cross plots, which ope them-
selves, are told.

New tricks for safety are sought;

they thrive : when bold,

Each tempts the other again, and
all are sold.”

In the dedication to his play, Jonson
castigates contemporary playwrights
for that ‘‘their natures are inverted ...
that now, especially in dramatic, or as -•
they term it, stage poetry, nothing but -j
ribaldry, profanation, blasphemy, all
license of offence to God and man is
practised”. One may be excused for
thinking that some of the faults he
chastises in others still stick to his own
efforts. Volpone is a cynical, satirical,
lecherous piece which is for adults and
students, presumably, saved by its
classical descent. V.

JOFROI

Starring: Vincent Scotto, Henri

Puopon and Annie Tionin. Pro-
ducer: Marcel Pagnol. Director:
Rene Pagnol. Distributors:

G. C. T. (Distributors) Ltd.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time: 54 minutes.

This is an excellent example of the
French ability to take an anecdote (it
is little more) and to transmit it to the
screen in visual terms. There is no
wastage. The characters are few but
essential. The scenery is there for the
taking. The script is neatly and
economically contrived so that after
careful rehearsal, the cameraman can
take over under the supervision of
director and leave little footage to lie
sadly on the cutter’s floor. The cost
is negligible compared with . the
fantastic overheads customary else-
where. The result is a modest but
vastly entertaining piece of cinema.

Marcel Pagnol made Jofroi in 1933.

( Marius and Fanny came in 1931 and
1932 respectively : an interesting ^

comparison.) Alas ! not even the "
French have the same unsullied
simplicity in film-making. There are
signs that they too, have been touched
with the corrupting finger that has
mummified the majority of films from
other countries.

Still, it is not to be thought that,
in order to capture the secret of
French film-making at its best one has
only to imitate its method and take a

57

small team to a pastoral location with
a peasant fable in script form. There
is required in addition that special
quality of artistic sensibility, of
humanity, of realism which, notwith-
standing the fact that many French
films are bad technically and ethically,
all the best French films possess.

Jofroi is an old peasant who, though
he sells his orchard to his friend
Fonse, will not allow the newcomer to
cut down the fruit trees, now sterile,
which he planted so many years ago.
When his friend promises to leave the
fruit trees intact in return for the
income from the old man’s annuity, he
is still not satisfied. He is afraid that
the trees will be uprooted after his
death. He threatens suicide vHiich
causes poor Fonse to be blamed for
pestering the old man. Eventually
Jofroi dies from natural causes and
Fonse is free to pull up his trees — but
he leaves a few of them standing in
memory of the old man who loved

them so much.

A charming little film, amusing and
refreshing for its simplicity and

technical integrity. V.

LIFE BEGINS TOMORROW
Starring: Andre Labarthe, Jean-Paul
Sartre, Daniel Lagarche, Jean

Rostand, Le Corbusier, Picasso,
Andre Gide, with Jean-Pierre
Aumont. Producer: Armand

Rubin. Distributors: Blue Ribbon
Films and Cameo-Polytechnic.
Certificate-. X. Category: A.

By now most people know that
existentialism is materialism with the
lid off, and that Jean-Paul Sartre, one
of its chief exponents, has made it
perfectly clear : “that God is dead”

and that man is master of his own fate.
This well-made, lively documentary
preachfrs in quite an unabashed manner
a material conception of life. Point is
given to its purpose by introducing
that very fine young actor, Jean-
Pierre Aumont, who becomes a sort of
symbol of a golden scientific new
world.

The film opens with Jean-Pierre
trying to thumb a lift to Paris. The
people of the dull past pass him by . . .
presently a helicopter swoops from
the sky and a mysterious person,
Andre Labarthe, flies him to Paris.
From now on, Andre Labarthe, in a
courteous manner, forces himself on

this young man who has come to see
the sights of Paris. He begins by
jeering at him for wanting to see such
dead things as churches and museums
and the catacombs when all around
him “miracles” are happening. Jean-
Pierre falls for the clap-trap and allows
himself to be introduced to Jean-Paul
Sartre, who appears on the screen in
person. Sartre gives Jean-Pierre a
long existentialist sermon, which is a
mixture of heresy and half truths,
which he swallows whole and which
changes his conception of life.

The young man must be thoroughly
indoctrinated so we soon find him
having a friendly chat with the psycho-
analyst, Daniel Lagarche, who, of
course, washes out the whole idea of
original sin and makes the sub-
conscious mind the scape-goat for the
sins of the world. Jean-Pierre has an
amazing gift for meeting celebrities.
Now we find him chatting away with
Jean Rostand, the biologist, about the
future scientific world where sex
transformation in animals and human
beings are a current event, and where
artificial insemination, fatherless
children, test-tube pregnancy are
accepted facts of the world.

Jean-Pierre certainly goes to town.
He meets all the so-called leaders of
modern thought . . . Le Corbusier, in
one of whose dream-flats he sleeps ;
Picasso, the modern painter, and
Andre Gide, the writer.

The film ends with a crowd of
youngsters cheering Jean-Pierre as he
climbs in a helicopter. Cheering, I
suppose, a new convert of Jean-Paul
Sartre and Co. E.

PLUS DE VACANCES POUR LE
BON DIEU

Starring: Armontel, Laurence Aubray,

Balpetre. Distributors: G.F.D.

Running time : 82 minutes.

This film is from the play by Paul
Armont and Paul Vandenberghe,
“Boys, Girls and Dogs”. It is about
a gang of kids who begin kidnapping
dogs for fun and are so successful that
they continue to kidnap more and more
dogs for money. Wealthy people will
pay large sums to regain lost dogs.
Whether this piece is meant to be just
a mere farce or whether it has some
sort of sociological axe to grind, I
couldn’t quite make out. I found it
only mildly amusing. E.

58

DOCUMENTARIES

THE FAITH IN WALES

Produced by Christopher Radley.
Commentary spoken by Ben
Williams. Category : C. Running
time : 20 minutes.

The film as a missionary aid has not
yet been thought of enough by Catholic
authorities. This beautifully photo-
graphed story of the first church in
Great Britain to be dedicated to Our
Lady of Fatima indicates what could
be done to stimulate our ignorant
people with enthusiasm for the glories
of the ages of Faith.

Making use of the monuments and
ancient sites once dedicated to the
service of God in Wales, the story of
the growth and decay of the Catholic
Faith is outlined. The work of the
Methodists in stemming the utter
decay of religion is .touched on and
the conversion of a pre-existing
building into the Catholic Church at
Bala is described.

Credit to Christopher Radley

Though some of the earlier scenes on
the l^kes and in the mountains are,
perhaps a little long-drawn-out, the
film as a whole is carefully edited and
nicely balanced in a pleasantly
composed whole which does great
credit to the producer. Mr. Radley
will be remembered for his film
Actions Not Words made for the Holy
Child Sisters of Mayfield some years
ago as well as for the interesting and
instructive films, Your Inheritance and
Mission to Seamen, made for the
Church of England. Religious Orders
and others interested in the idea of
film to tell the story of their
activities might well consider the
implications of Faith in Wales. It
shows what can be done.

CHRISTIAN FACTORY

Produced by Alan Turner. 16mm., 2
reels. Running time : 19 minutes.
Obtainable from Spa Lane Mills,
Derby, and Catholic Film Institute.

It is an important part of the work
of the Catholic Film Institute to foster
a constructive attitude towards film
as a powerful means of propaganda.
Catholics need make no apology for
using a word which has come to have
an ugly sound for they, more than

most, understand its true meaning.

To propagate truth is one of the
reasons of the existence of the Church.

The fact that politicians have misused
this beautiful word does not prevent
the Church continuing to use the word
and to suit its action to the true
purpose of the word.

To use film for propaganda purposes,
therefore, is, with us, to make a film 1
which will help to spread under-
standing of some facet of the Faith. In
this sense, the work done by Alan
Turner is of importance. His films are
never intended merely to fill up a
space in a programme ; they are made
with a definite purpose, that of
shedding light, in the literal sense, on
the social teaching of the Church.

Leon Harmel,

Apostle of Christian Practice

His latest effort is Christian Factory,
which introduces to English-speaking
audiences the factory at Val de Bois in
France, where Leon Harmel, of blessed
memory, worked out his system of
co-operative and Christian endeavour
in accordance with the mind of the
Church. It was, indeed, largely due
to the counsel and practice of Leon
Harmel, that Pope Leo XIII came to
crystallise in unforgettable phrases, the
mind of the Church in this matter.
Alan Turner is doing a great service
to students of Catholic social
philosophy in thus bringing to their
notice the labours of a great apostle of
Christian social practice.

Mr. Turner speaks the commentary
to the film and outlines the basic
tenets of Catholic social teaching.
Meanwhile, we are taken on a tour of
the factory and introduced to the
present members of the Harmel family
and to many of the factory committee
during their celebrations on the Feast
of Corpus Christi. The film makes an 4
admirable centre-piece to a discussion
or conference on Rerum Novarum and
should prove popular with all those
who want to know what can be done
to put the Social Encyclicals into
practical effect. Together with Mr.
Turner’s other films, particularly
Sacrifice We Offer and Family Affair, a
very useful study period could be
organised.

J. A. V. B.

59

From Our Educational Panel

GEOGRAPHY

LIBRARIES

G.B.I. Film Library, Aintree Road,
Perivale, Greenford, Middx.
Common Ground Ltd., Svdney Place,
S.W.7.

FILMS

The Seasons

G.B.I. Sound film in colour with
teacher’s notes.

This film is composed of three short
films which can be shown separately or
in sequence.

1. The Round World and the

Sun’s Rays.

2. The Earth and its movement

round the Sun.

3. Seasonal changes in Temperate

Regions.

The first shows the effect of latitude
on temperature, the second shows the
rotation and revolution of the earth
and the effect produced on temperature
and on ,the length of day and night.
The third shows the changes of
temperature through the year in
temperate latitudes as contrasted with
the tropical and arctic regions. The
whole film shows a rotating and
revolving model of the globe, with
arrows for emphasis since no words
appear on the screen, as it is meant
for international use.

These films do not aim to be
exhaustive but only to show those
features which are so difficult to
demonstrate especially simultaneous
rotation and revolution ; they do not
aim to teach so much as to make a
summary of the teacher’s lessons and
consequently should be worked into the
scheme of lessons and not shown
haphazardly. They are worthy
successors to Latitude and Longitude
and Day and Night.

Age 14 and over.

Tropical Forest Village

G.B.I. F. 4657. Hiring price : 7s. 6d.;
mute version, 5s. 6d.

This short film gives a very
sympathetic study of the rhythm of
native life on the Congo forest edge
where “shifting agriculture” is
practised and a complete shift is

shown — the clearing of the new ground,
the use of wood-ash as fertiliser, the
building of new huts, the family
removal, and the various types of work
done in a self-sufficing community.
The seasonal rhythm is followed by the
diurnal rhythm as the daily work is
followed by a night of dancing.

Suitable for all ages.

The

Salmon Industry of British Columbia

G.B.I. F.978. 1 reel. Hire : 7s. 6d.

This film was made to be a little
different from others on the same
topic; it emphasises the physical basis
of the industry and explains the life-
cycle of the salmon by an animated
diagram. This is followed by a most
remarkable shot of the surge of salmon
up the rivers and waterfalls.

All sequences are taken from the
Namu canning factory, located on the
map, from which boats set out in pairs
and with their sieve-net encircle the
fish. Back at the factory the fish are
unloaded onto a conveyor belt, pass
through the Iron Chink on to the
canning room and into the steam-
cooker — the whole process completed
in 24 hours.

Suitable for all ages.

STRIPS

North Ireland

C.G.A. B.561. Regional Geography
of Ireland, Part I.)

This strip is designed for class use
up to 16 years and is accompanied by
a wealth of notes suggesting topics for
juniors and seniors.

The 46 frames deal with the six
counties of Northern Ireland and the
aim is to show it as an important
physical region with its focus on the
Lough Neagh Basin, its surrounding
mountain masses crossed by route-
ways which have linked Belfast with
its hinterland and made it the great
port. This is brought out by good
maps at intervals.

The section on scenery is particularly
good and shows by excellent photo-
graphs examples of a rejuvenated
peneplain, raised beach, fault, ship

60

platform, volcanic region and of several
glacial features, so that both deep-
seated earth movements and erosional
factors are shown to influence the
diversity of the countryside. This
diversity is emphasised in the farming
section.

The industrial section reminds us
that this part is more heavily
industrialised than the rest of Ireland,
and that the main manufacturing
centre and outlet is Belfast.

Suitability : 1 1 and over.

West Central Scotland

and

East Central Scotland

C.G.A. B.481 and B.482.

The aim of these two film strips is to
show where and how the people of the
Central Lowlands live, and the
geographical background which controls
their lives. The introductory physical
map in each is sufficiently extensive to
show the chief features of relief and of
communications, of the neighbouring
Highlands and Southern Uplands as
well as of the Central Lowlands, and
to emphasise the contrasts between
these regions with the advantages all
in favour of the Lowlands.

West Central Scotland : The five

frames devoted to the countryside and
types of farming in Ayrshire and the
Clyde Valley give some idea of the life
of the rural population and in the
absence of climatic maps give a good
indication of the weather. The nine
frames on coal, iron and steel show
that this region was influenced early
by the Industrial Revolution ; the map
shows the location of the coalfields, and
the pictures show the type of work,
and conditions of work in the old
collieries and in the oldest iron works,
and also the conditions of life in the
old miners’ houses, and in the towns
huddled round the works.

Other industries shown are cotton,
tobacco, carpets and sugar. Industry
is not easily shown in film strips but
these pictures are well chosen.

The rest of the strip deals with
Glasgow and the Clyde. Glasgow
developed as a market town at a
natural route centre, but now is a city
of 1,000,000 inhabitants due to
industrial development ; the significance
of its river is well shown in good views
over its docks and shipyards, and
over its playgrounds too.

The final frame, a population map,
epitomises the whole strip — the

dominance of the West Central
Lowlands over the high land to north
and to south, arid also over its eastern
counterpart.

East Central Scotland : Several

frames, introducing a certain amount
of physical geography, show that the
Lowlands are by no means a plain
since there are many igneous masses
and isolated volcanic necks which are
more resistant than the sedimentaries
which compose the lower land ; and
others suggest such topics as faultings,
raised beaches and glaciation.

The farming section clearly shows
the effect of the drier climate in the
Eastern Lowlands upon the crops and
animal husbandry.

Industrially the east is shown to be
relatively less important than the
west but the pictures of the new deep
colliery in Fifeshire, both above and
below ground, suggest the future of
the coal industry will be east rather
than west. The light industries,
textiles, paper, printing, preserves and
the fishing industry are adequately
shown.

Much importance is attached to the
reason for the development of towns
other than industrial centres, and so
the strip ends on the all-important
question of transport.

The two strips together give an
excellent account of the Lowlands as
the home of 75 per cent of Scotland’s
population.

Age : 1 1 and over.

Exploring the Landscape —

Snow and Ice

C.G.A. B.542.

This strip is one of a series designed
to make a “pictorial dictionary” for
the 8 to 11 years group, of the more
common geographical terms used in
describing landscape.

It begins with a snowstorm in a
street, and then takes the children
further afield, outside their own
experience, to a blizzard in the
mountains and so to the snowfields and
resulting avalanches and glaciers.
Then the scene is the arctic wastes
with their icebergs, pancake ice and
icefloes. And finally comes the effect
of snow and ice in disrupting land and
water transport.

61

Items of Interest

Focus Film Course

We are glad to be able to announce
that the first of two series of twelve
lectures on the subject of film has been
inaugurated at More House, 53
Cromwell Road, London, S.W.7.

The lectures take place at fortnightly
intervals at 3 p.m. on Saturday
afternoons. The February lectures are
on the 10th and 24th of the month.
They are under the supervision of Dr.
Andrew Buchanan and are organised
by the Catholic Film Institute.

The lectures are open to all who are
interested in studying the development
■of the cinema, both as an industry and
as an art. The speakers will be drawn
from all sections of the industry in
addition to Dr. Buchanan and Father
Burke, who will jointly be responsible
for the introductory talks.

Each lecture will be followed b)T an
open discussion and it is hoped to make
these occasions a forum for all those
who wish to see the cinema used for
the benefit of humanity.

The fee for the full course of twelve
lectures is one guinea (£1 Is.).

Individual lectures, 2s. 6d.

Prospectus and all details from Film
Secretary, More House, 63 Cromwell
Road, London, S.W.7.

Record for Fatima Film

Over 3,000 people from all parts of
London were present at an afternoon
showing of the film : Pilgrimage To

Fatima in the Croydon Cinema, on
January 21st. The film was introduced
by Fr. Christie, S.J., who is one of the
film-reviewers for this publication.

Full credit must go to Mr. David
Murphy, the Catholic publisher, who
was the creator and the sole organiser
of this successful undertaking, from
which the Catholic Film Institute
will gain a goodly sum which it
badly needs. Many thanks and
congratulations to David Murphy.

We hope that the example of David
Murphy w'ill inspire many more of our
friends to go and do likewise.

“Murder in the Cathedral”

A Studio Exhibition of sets,
properties and costumes used in the
G. M. Hoellering production of the
film version of T. S. Eliot’s Murder in
the Cathedral, opened for the press by
the Bishop of London, Dr. J. W. C.
Wand, on January 19th, at St.
Stephen’s Church, Avenue Road,
N.W.8. Short addresses were delivered
by Mr. T. S. Eliot, Rev. John Groser
and the Rev. N. A. Perry-Gore (Vicar
of St. Stephen’s).

The film version of Murder in the
Cathedral has been produced and
directed by G. M. Hoellering. Mr.
Eliot has written a number of entirely
new scenes especially for the film.
He himself plays the part of the
“Fourth Tempter” in the film.

After a long search for a suitable
actor to play Archbishop Thomas
Becket, Mr. Hoellering one Sunday
heard the Rev. John Groser preach in
church, and immediately realised that
he had found the right man at last.
He offered him the part and, after
consultation with his superiors, the
Rev. Groser accepted. Other parts are
being played by ikark Dignam, Niall
McGinnis, Alban Blakelock, George
Woodbridge and Beryl Calder.

For the production of his film, Mr.
Hoellering obtained the vicar’s
permission to use the former Church
of St. Stephen’s, in St. John’s Wood,
as his studio. Inside this church sets
were erected, showing Canterbury
Cathedral and its adjacent buildings as
they appeared in the 12th century. All
sets, costumes and properties were
hand-made (even the material for some
of the dresses was hand-woven) after
models in various museums and
collections, so as to achieve the
maximum faithfulness to the style of
the period.

The world-premiere of Murder in the
Cathedral will take place later in the
year, and the film will be distributed
throughout the United Kingdom by
Film Traders Ltd.

62

Pope Speaks on Public Opinion

“To stifle the opinions of citizens, to reduce them forcibly to-
silence is, in the eyes of every Christian, an outrage on the natural
rights of man, a violation of the order of the world as established
by God.”

“Where public opinion fails to manifest itself, where it does not
exist at all — whatever the reason — this must be regarded as
something vicious, a malady, a disease of social life.”

“Would you dare to state with assurance that the majority of
men are apt to judge and appreciate facts and trends at their true
value, so that opinion is guided by reason!’ ’

“In all it is and does, the Catholic Press must set up an
insuperable barrier to continuous retreat, to the dissipation of

conditions fundamental to healthy public opinion.”

“The press has an eminent role to play in the formation of
opinion, not by dictating or regimenting it but by serving it
usefully.”

“ Catholic journalists will always refrain from ‘making opinion.
Better, they will aspire to service it.”

“Because the Church is a living body, something would be
wanting in Her life if public opinion were lacking.”

“The Catholic writer will know how to guard himself against
mute servility as well as against uncontrolled criticism .”

The above statements were made by the Holy Father when he
addressed the International Convention of the Catholic Press at
Vatican City.

63

By J.A.V.B.

Church and Film. Bi-monthly

magazine of the British Churches
Film Council. December- January
1950-51. is..

We are glad to notice this magazine,
both because it is a good thing to have
Churches of whatever denomination,

taking a positive interest in film and

also because there is much practical
information as to the use of film in
religious circles which will surely be of
use to our Catholic schools and

parishes.

The present issue carries reports of
various conferences as well as a com-
plete review coverage of new religious
films and strips, some of which might
well be of use to our readers.

The Editor seeks to know whether
notes on secular films generally
released would be acceptable to his
readers. I would suggest that it
cannot but be a good thing for any
religious periodical to take a con-
structive view of the films which take
the largest number of people to the
cinema. In this way it is possible
gradually to awaken and develop a
sense of responsibility in those of our
people who frequent the secular
cinema.

Children and the Cinema. By J. C.

Ward. The Social Survey. Central
Office of Information, 10s. 6d.

This is a roneod publication of some
100 pages giving statistical charts and
analyses based on an enquiry made in
October 1948 for the purposes of the
Departmental Committee set up by
the Home Secretary to study the
question of children and the cinema.

Like all such publications, it is a
bewildering and unprepossessing mass
of figures and tables which at first
sight are rather repelling. However, it
is well worth while delving into

the matter provided. The overall
impression is that children are much
more intelligent and have a more
positive reaction to the cinema than is
generally conceded by social workers in
this field. Granted that statistics are
apt to mislead the untutored, and that
one can misinterpret regional findings,
there is, on the whole, a healthy tone
about the answers of most of the
children which leaves one with the
conviction that if only they can be
guided in film appreciation as they
grow through adolescence to maturity,
there is a not-inconsiderable hope that
the cinema of the future will be more
in accord with what all workers for
Catholic Film Action desire. Certain
it is that on parents primarily, it rests
to ensure that the cinema does not
harm their children.

Spotlight On Films. By Egon Larsen,
pp. 301. Max Parrish, London,
15s.

The author calls his book a “Primer
for Film-Lovers” and though one may
not agree that it is the best book of
its kind that has ever appeared, it is
certainly entertainingly written and very
agreeably produced. In a Foreword,
Sir Michael Balcon writes that Egon
Larsen had the intention “to tell the
story of the development of the film as
an art; secondly, to follow up the
course of present-day film-making^
through all its fascinating stages; and
thirdly, to outline the mutual influence
of the film on mankind and vice-versa
in various countries”.

It was to enable him to achieve the
second part of his scheme that he
sought and obtained the assistance of
the technical staff of Ealing Studios.
This is the most successful part of
the book. By means of illustrations
in photography, line-drawing and
quotation, he manages to provide as.
satisfactory a guide to what goes on in

64

a studio as can be expected within the
107 pages he allows himself for this
purpose.

The first part which traces the
history of the cinema is marred by
irritating comments of a political
character which appear every now and
then in the text. It is also wearying
to have the interpretation of political
angles in films underlined, in the
manner of E. W. and M. M. Robson in
“The Film Answers Back”. One
realises the power of the film as a
propaganda weapon, but in a “Primer
for Film-Lovers”, one could do with
rather less of the Left-Wing pleading
with which the author interlards his

otherwise pleasingly-written narrative.

The third section, subtitled “You and
the Film”, follows the customary
course of essays on the influence of
the cinema. One does not look for
original theories in such a book as
this and it would be unfair to blame
the writer because the ideas he throws
out are not developed. Suffice it to say
that “Spotlight on Films” is a handy
and nice-looking volume for those who
want to gain sufficient knowledge f
a£>out film-making to be able to talk
intelligently on the subject. Like all
spotlights, it tends to throw its subject
somewhat out of context here and
there.

A Slight Case of Treason

A correspondent has expressed
astonishment that we urged people to
see the film, Treason, in spite of what
the critics might say about it. Our
friend misunderstood our reason for
this short-circuiting the verdicts of the
professional critics. It was not based
on disregard for the canons of
criticism ; rather the contrary, for we
were fairly sure that dislike of the
film would flow from unwillingness or
inabilitv to see that what this film was
trying to say was more important than
the way it said it. It tried to tell
something of the truth about the
internal state of a country which it is
now expedient to ignore.

The Trade Press gave it adequate
welcome as a film worth seeing.
“Stern yet showmanlike political
melodrama, semi - documentary in
treatment, reminding all that freedom
of thought, speech and deed is barred
behind the iron curtain . . . Topical
to say the least . . . Potential box-
office ‘turn-up’ ” (Kirie Weekly).

Contrast this with the following,
from the organ of an organisation

which is subsidised to teach
appreciation of film as an art : “Its
interest, however, is considerable, as
an example of what can happen when
a film exploits contemporary political
events, basing its appeal solely on
prejudice, and so, in fact, damaging its
own cause”.

Pius XI spoke of the power of the
film “to champion the cause of
justice”. Here is an example of a film,
made by a team of Jews and Christians,
against all manner of sabotage, trying
to do just that. Treason was made
with the object of trying to spread the
truth about the persecution of truth
in Hungary. The secular press critics
have failed to understand or have been
unwilling to admit that the “trial” of
Cardinal Mindszenty was a judicial
farce.

It is not claimed that the film is an
outstanding piece of film art. But we .
do suggest that the opposition to the I
film was based on something other
than critical sensitiveness to poor
cinematography.

Cover

Personality

Spencer Tracy

The Catholic Stage Guild of Ireland
presented their Statuette of St.
Patrick, awarded for the screen actor
of the year, to Spencer Tracy. This
award, one of six which the Catholic
Stage Guild offers each j'ear to
outstanding members of the allied
dramatic arts, was conferred upon
Spencer Tracy by a jury enlisted from
various countries. The Catholic Film
Institute had some part in this award,
since its Honorary Secretary is a
member of the panel asked to advise
on the award. The choice of Spencer

Tracy was unanimous.
Mr. Tracv is one

of

the

few

actors who,

without

the

arts

of

glamorisation

which

assist

the

careers of many well-known names of
screen and stage, achieve front-rank
fame purely on personality and hard
work. His entry into the world
of film from the world of stage was
untrumpeted. It dates back twenty
years, since when not a year has
passed without Spencer Tracy appear-
ing in a leading role, in some way, off
the beaten track. That is a testimony,
not so much to the intelligence of the
producers of the films as to the fact
that, whatever the r&le, however trite
or unbelievable, Tracy has always
L managed to bring to it some quality
of personality which invested it with
an often undeserved merit.

It mav interest readers to have
some of his outstanding films.
Beginning with Up The River (1930)
we have Young America and Society
Girl (1932), Dante’s Inferno (1935),
Fury , San Francisco (1936), Captains
Courageous , Big City (1937), Boys Town
(1938), Stanley and Livingstone (1939),

Edison, Boom Town and Northwest
Passage (1940), Men of Boys Town and
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), The
Seventh Cross (1944), Thirty Seconds
Over Tokyo (1945), The State of the
Union (1948).

His more recent films are probably
better remembered by our readers,
though they have not been better films.
The flair for comedy which he has
lately exploited in the films with
Katherine Hepburn and in this year’s
Father of the Bride illustrate another
side of a versatile talent. It is,
perhaps, just as well that he has not
been too obviously “typed”, or had
films devised as “vehicles” for him.
Nevertheless, it is true, I think, that he
has not been too well served by the
script-writers. The films that stand
out in one’s mind are those in which
he has impressed his characters upon
them rather than those which were, of
their character outstanding. So, for
me, Captains Courageous is memorable
for his playing of the Italian seaman
who understands and befriends the
snobbish little boy, played by Freddy
Bartholomew. In this film one realised
how little make-up had to do with
Spencer Tracy’s character-parts. Their
conviction and strength came from
within.

For that reason, it has always seemed
to me that he is the most convincing
of the many film “priests” who have
made their uncertain way across the
screen. Of his priest roles, the most
pleasing is that in San Francisco ;
before it had become film-fashionable
to put favourite film stars in Roman
collars to capture the approval of the
sentimental. The air of casual routine
which he managed to bring to his part
carried far more weight than the
laboured efforts to appear priestly
whicli we have had from some more
recent wearers of the celluloid band.

Of his other film parts, Stanley, in
Stanley and Livingstone, the Major in
Northwest Passage and the adventurer
in Dante’s Inferno stand out among
his best.

Born in Milwaukee in 1900, he is
still as great a favourite as when he
first attracted attention as an actor
and still as youthful in spirit and as
mature in judgment. He is a
conscientious craftsman who plays his
piece without fuss or temperament. A
fine actor and a good man.

John Vincent.

Scriptural Productions

An Independent organisation devoted to the development
and production of films for religious purposes

Under the Direction
of

ANDREW BUCHANAN, D.Litt., Ph.D., F.R.S.A.

Recent Productions include

^VISITATION

CRUCIFERS TO WALSINGHAM
PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

Now in Production

THE MASTER CALLETH THEE

(Filiae Boni Matris Consilii)

CATHOLIC ENGLAND

(Including a record of the Hierarchy Centenary Congress)

PARK STUDIOS
Putney Park Lane, London,

S.W.I5

Tel.: PUTney 6274 & 4052

■

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Film
Institute, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7.

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

j. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of pirns.

q. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £10.

Privileged Membership, £1.

Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
pamphlet publications. Ordinary members receive a monthly copy
of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote :

"The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.”

Hon. Secretary :

Rev. John A. V. Burke, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7.

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Subscribers of £l and upwards are entitled to receive all new pamphlet
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Please return completed form to The Hon. Secretary, Catholic Film Institute,
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etc., payable to The Catholic Film Institute.

Catholic Film Institute

16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Latest Editions:

CHRISTIAN FACTORY. How the Church’s Social
Teaching is put into Practice at the Harmel factories.
Made by Alan Turner.

Pilgrimage To Fatima ; Rome Of The Pilgrims ; Holy Year.
Titles Include :

Monsieur Vincent; Farrebique; To Live In Peace;
Crucifers To Walsingham ; The Sacrifice We Offer;
A Legend Of Norfolk

Bookings can be accepted now for Hans Nieter's colour film

THE VATICAN.

All particulars from the Librarian,

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE, BLUE COTTAGE,
SUMNER PLACE MEWS, LONDON, S.W.7.

Vol. IV

No. 3

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Editorial

American Memories

By Declan Flynn, O.F.M.

The Sociologist Looks at the

Film

By l'haddeus Kidd, O.F.M.
More in Sorrow than in Angf.r

Letters to the Editor

The Producer

By Andrew Buchanan
Film Reviews

Bv Our Panel of Priests

Page

67

68

72

75

77

78

Holy Pilgrimage 1950

... 79

The Affairs of Sally

... 80

Kim

... 80

Murder Without Crime ...

... 81

The Last of the Buccaneers

... 82

The Mating Season

... 82

Watch the Birdie

... 82

The Breaking Point

... 83

The Long Dark Hall

... 84

Page

Pandora and the Flying

Dutchman ... ... ... 84

711 Ocean Drive 86

The Flame and the Arrow ... 86

The Franchise Affair 87

Transcontinent Express ... ... 87

The Dark Man ... ... ... 88

Blackmailed ... ... ... ... 88

The Man Who Cheated Himself 89

Battle of Powder River 89

Love that Brute ... ... ... 89

The Hunchback of Notre Dame 90

Grounds for Marriage 90

Continental Filins

Sunday in August 91

Cesar 91

Cenerentola 92

The Paris Waltz ... ... ... 93

The Wanton 93

Biology Film Strips and Films 94

By Our Educational Panel
Item of Interest 96

FOCUS — Annual Subscription: 7s. (post free). Single Copy: 7d. (post free).

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Bar 3008/9. Catholic Truth Society, 28a Ashley Place, London,
S.W.l. Michael White, 15 Broad Street Place, London, E.C.2.
Telephone: London Wall 1389.

Revue Internationale du Cinema

Organ of International Catholic Film Office

Number 7 — American Number — Contributions by Irene Dunne, Eric Johnson,
Martin Quigley, Darryl Zanuck, W. H. Mooring, and others
English editions of Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and the Holy Year Double
Number 5-6 still available
Subscription rate: £1 per annum
Obtainable from:

“International Film Review”, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7. The only true international film review dealing with
the Cinema on a Christian basis. Specimen copy on application.

FOCUS: revf,'elS

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. IV

MARCH 1951

No. 3

THE WORK GOES ON FOR YOU

Focus Film Course

There will be only one lecture in this
series during March. It will be on
Saturday March 10th, at 3 p.m. and the
subject will be The Commercial Cinema
Programme. It will be delivered, we
hope, bv Edward Carrick, the famous
film designer.

The lectures aim at providing a
complete survey of the film industry,
as a preliminary to a study of
production and appreciating films in
two further series of lectures. It is our
view that any person wishing to be
well-informed about the power of the
cinema (and with those in charge of
children this is a duty) must acquaint
himself with the ramifications, both
commercial and functional, of the
cinema.

The Syllabus (post free from Blue
Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London,
S.W.7.) may serve as a basis for
a similar course in other parts of the
country.

Summer Film Course

Pressure of work in other directions
will prevent us organising a Summer
Course this year. Apart from the
expense involved, which is considerable
and hardly ever recouped, our available
staff will be occupied with the film
section of the Festival of Britain
Catholic Exhibition, which we have
been invited to support. This takes
place in London during the middle of
August.

If some of our members care to try
the organisation of a Course elsewhere,
we shall be glad to applaud their
efforts and would be willing to do what
we could to support them.

Lecture and Film Show

We were able to hold a Film Show
at Westminster Cathedral Hall on
February 8th in aid of the C.F.I.
funds. At two performances we
collected £20, which after expenses,
left us with the welcome sum of £13.
The films shown were Rome of the
Pilgrims, Crucifers to Walsingham and
Pilgrimage to Fatima.

Lectures and film shows have been
given at Thornton Heath on behalf of
A.C.T.U. at Bayswater, and on behalf
of St. John’s and Elizabeth’s Hospital
at Cavendish Square Convent, London,
and at the John Fisher School, Purlev.

National Film Institute of Ireland

We are delighted to learn that the
Irish Hierarchy has designated the
National Film Institute of Ireland to
represent Ireland on the General
Council of O.C.I.C. as an affiliated
member. Congratulations ! The more
moral support for the constructive
approach to the problems of promoting
good motion pictures the better, and
we are sure that Ireland, with its
sound moral and cultural sense, will be
a tower of strength in the deliberations
of O.C.I.C.

68

AMERICAN MEMORIES

No. 3: Hoiv Red Is Hollywood ?

By

Declan Flynn, O.F.M.

I remember with delight mv visit to
the Metro-Goldwyn-Maver studios, a
little cosmos of its own, in Culver City,
whose white shining buildings cover a
space of 170 acres, wherein you get the
“feel” of great creative activity,
artistic planning, order, co-ordination
and accomplishment. In this picture-
world everything and everybody
appears to be really alive, which, I
suppose, is as it should be, for ideas
are the most alive things in the world ;
after all what are films but the
pictorialisation of ideas, the expression
of life in a most popular medium ?
Film artists are people who bring
“stills” to life.

This visit was arranged for me by
Mr. Mervvn McPherson, who has
always been a good friend of the
Catholic Film Institute and who has
accorded me, as editor of Focus, many,
kindnesses and courtesies. I was
received cordially by Mr. Bob Vogel, his
opposite number in Culver City.
After a chat and so on I was placed in
the kind keeping of Frank Sherlock,
a handsome young Catholic fellowj
who for the next six hours was my
guide, encyclopedia and friend.

Demonstration Against Communism

“Guess you’ve come on the right
day, Father,” said Frank, as to the
beat of innumerable typewriters we
zigzagged our way through thick

Dore Schary explains the principles underlying
the demonstration

Red Skelton, Louis B. Mayer, Jane Powell

69

carpeted corridors into a wide open
space where the sun was shining
goldenlv and where palm trees like
green (lags were lluttering gaily.
Suddenly a siren sounded. Like
I clockwork, doors from all angles
I swung apart . . . stars, straight from
| the sets, in colourful costumes,

| workmen, artisans, artists, producers,
directors, script-writers, camera-men,

I 3,000 people from all stratas of the film
world, in disorderly order, began
walking towards a square in front of
1 the Irving Thalberg building, which is
I the M.-G.-M. executive building.

It might have been a rehearsal for
some gigantic film saga. In point of
fact it was a demonstration against
Communism. It was the launching of
a “Crusade of Freedom”. Frank
Sherlock told me that similar
demonstrations were being held at the
same time in all the other studios in
' Hollywood. He put me into a position
| where I could see all that was going
on. The facade of the Irving Thalberg
building, which was erected in

Louis B. Mayer speaks to his employees

Thalberg’s honour, was draped with
the American Colours. On the
platform there were representatives of
all branches of the Motion Picture
Industry. Louis B. Mayer was there, of
course, and Dore Scliary (Vice-
President of all M.-G.-M. productions),
and Arthur Freed and Jack Cummings
and Joe Pasternak, who is musical
producer for the life of Caruso, which
at the moment is being made. Among
the stars were Jane Powell, who is a
practical Catholic, Ann Blythe, Jean
Kelly, David Brian, Fred Astaire, Red
Skelton, Dorothy Kirsten, a new
metropolitan star-artist who is playing
in the Caruso film.

General Eisenhower Talks

The demonstration opened with a
relayed address by General Eisenhower.
Among other things he said :

“Communistic aggression, inspired by
fear, carries with it the venom of those
who feel themselves to be inferior.
This accounts for the depth of their
hatred, and the intensity of their thirst
for pow'er.”

“To destroy human liberty and to
control the world the Communists use
every conceivable weapon : subversion,
briberv, corruption, military attack.
Of all these, none is more insidious
than propaganda.”

“The Crusade for Freedom will
provide for the explanation of Radio
F'ree Europe into a network of
stations. They will give the simplest,
clearest charter in the world : Tell the
truth. For it is certain that all the
specious promises of Communism to
the needy, the unhappy, the frustrated,
the down-trodden, cannot stand against
the proven record of democracy and
its day by day progress in the
betterment of all mankind. The tones
of the Freedom Bell, symbol of the
Crusade will echo under vast areas now
under blackout.”

70

Demonstration against Communism in Hollywood

“In this battle you and I have a
definite part to play during the
Crusade. Each of us will have the
opportunity to sign the Freedom Scroll.
It bears a declaration of our faith in
freedom, and of our belief in the
dignity of the individual who derives
the right of Freedom, from God. Each
of us by signing the scroll pledges to
resist aggression and tyranny wherever
they appear on the earth.’’

The General then asked all to sign
the Scroll of Freedom and to give a
donation to help on the work of Radio
Free Europe.

Dore Schary Explains

“When you sign the Freedom
Scroll,” said Dore Schary, “this is
what vou declare.”

I believe in the sacredness and
dignity of the individual.

I believe that all men derive the
right of freedom equally from God.

I pledge to resist aggression and
tyranny wherever they appear on
earth.

He then pointed out that the
purpose of the Radio Free Europe was
the eventual piercing and destruction
of the Iron Curtain.

“R&dio Free Europe is devoted to >
the cause of reaching inside men’s
minds and hearts. The objective is to
destroy the intellectual Iron Curtain
with the Big Truth about the Big Die.”

Louis B. Mayer then spoke in a
fatherly extempore way and re-affirmed
the truth that of all men of good will
who loved democracy and the Christian

71

standards of living should fight in the
crusade against Communism.

Atmosphere of Sincerity

My pictures give an idea of the lay-
out of this Crusade ; they cannot
convey its psychological and spiritual
atmosphere. There was present that sort
of atmosphere of sincerity which is
generated by a people who are in
sympathy with ideals which they are
demonstrating. I felt that all these
people hated Communism and that
there was no great fear of it poisoning
the wells of the film industry.

Freedom of the Movie City

After an American lunch I was, so
to speak, given the freedom of this
fascinating movie-city. A sort of
electric “jaunting car” runs from
block to block and you are free to hop
on and off as you please. Frank
Sherlock took me everywhere. Apart
from the usual departments that are
to be seen in any film studio, M.-G.-M.
run a school, a hospital, a restaurant,
dentist apartments, bars, shops and
soda fountains. Everyone was most
friendly and most anxious to impart
information on his particular interest.
Perhaps because I am woefully if not
wilfully deficient in mechanical
matters, my admiration went out
mostly to those men in the departments
where light and sound are married so
deftly and so magnificently.

In one of the studios we saw and
enjoyed some shooting of a film called
The Royal Wedding, in which Fred
Astaire and Jane Powell star and
dance. Fred Astaire was causing great
amusement with a real live monkey
which co-stars with him ! The director
was not easily satisfied, he made them
repeat again and again this particular
dancing sequence.

All that I saw on this particular dav
last .September made me realise more

than ever the power of the cinema,
and affirmed my belief that the
Apostolate of the Cinema is a timely
and important one.

Before I left I had a long chat with
Frank Sherlock. He told me that most
people in Hollywood lead a normal
life ; he seemed rather amused at the
still current idea that sin and cinema
must necessarily go hand in glove.
He showed me photos of his wife and
children and then asked me if I would
like to see the church which he and
his family attended. The Church of
St. Augustine’s stands on the high-
road and dominates the M.-G.-M.
studios. In one of the side chapels I
noticed a statue of the Little Flower,
St. Teresa of Lisieux, which had been
donated by a well known film star. It
was in this rather plain little church
that Ingrid Bergman used to hear Mass
every morning while she was making
her Joan of Arc film.

Your Film
Show

The Catholic Film
Institute projection
unit is available for
film shows in the
London area

Moderate Charges

Particulars from

Blue Cottage, Sumner
Place Mews, London,
S.W.7

72

A Positive Approach to the Cinema, No. 8

THE SOCIOLOGIST LOOKS AT THE FILM

By THADDEUS KIDD , O.F.M.

“Far better a grain of gold than a
ton of fantasy” could sum up the
attitude of the contemporary sociologist.
It might be considered common sense
to say, and almost everyone who has
written on the films has said, that the
film exercises an immense influence
on society. But common sense is not
sociology. Sociology is the scientific,
objective study of social phenomena.
America now leads the world in
sociological research, and the tendency
there is to concentrate on restricted
sections of social life, examining the
problem minutely from different angles
— economic, psychological, biological,
etc. From such a study of a very
limited field, as for example a factory
or a small town, one can arrive at a
fair picture of the object.

Beyond Accomplishment

How can the sociologist possibly
tackle such a vast subject as the films,
a world-wide sociological fact ? In
England alone 25 million people attend
the cinema every week, as well as
some 13 million children; America has
85 million weekly attenders. There
are one hundred thousand cinemas all
over the world ; London alone has 400.
The cinema industry now ranks as the
third largest industry in the world.
How can one stud} such a social
phenomenon satisfactorily ? In order to
isolate the film influence on society,
one would obviously require a profound
knowledge of the myriad other factors
that contribute to culture, and this for
every country in the world and for the
different districts in each country.
No w'onder, therefore, that the research
of the Inter Departmental Committee
on ‘‘Children and the Cinema” carried
out in Great Britain, which had as its
specific object the influence of the
cinema on children, evaded giving an
answer to this very question in its

Report. And note that this research
was limited to one country and to one
section of the community.

The Report, however, did help to
establish the temerity of some
sweeping generalisations that are so
often heard and taken as a priori
truths, as, for example, that the films
are the cause of so much juvenile
delinquency. On questioning those
best able to answer such a question,
viz., heads of approved schools, chief
constables, probation officers, etc., it
was found that the relationship
between film attendance and juvenile
crime was not something that could be
taken for granted. Six hundred of
these qualified observers thought there
was a connection and six hundred and
eight thought there was not. Even
statements made by children them-
selves, to the effect that their
undesirable actions were due to what
they had seen on the films, were found
in cases to be worthless. Commenting
on these statements, the Report says :
“When some of these allegations were
investigated bv the research students
to whom they were made, they turned
out quite baseless as evidence against
the cinema . . . similar behaviour
followed other and different forms of
excitement and of recreation.”

American Attempts

Has the sociologist attempted any

scientific research work in this

domain ? He has, and as we might
expect, this work has been carried on
chiefly in the United States. The

work done is minute in view of the
vastness of the subject, but these
modest, controlled studies do at least
contribute something of an answer to
the question of film influence on social
conduct.

73

The bulk of research on motion
pictures was carried out by the
American Committee on Educational
Research of the Payne Fund. Note
that these tests were carried out on
children, who are obviously more
impressionable than adults. The Payne
investigations lasted for four years, and
the results were published in twelve
volumes. Two of these research
workers, Holaday and Stoddard,
concentrated on an interesting point,
which adults often forget in assessing
the influence of films on children, viz.,
how much of the film does the child
actually see ? Their research showed
that out of a possible one hundred
items, adults note 87.8 per cent of the
items; children between 14 and 15,
80.9 per cent; children between 10 and
1 1 observe 65.9 per cent and youngsters
between 7 and 8 only see 52.5 per cent
of the items.

Unexpected Results

May and Shuttleworth studied care-
fully selected groups of 516 frequent
child movie-goers and 543 infrequent
child movie-goers, to find the effect, if
any, of frequent cinema attendance
on conduct. Their findings were
interesting and sometimes unexpected.
On the question of criminals, for
example, it was found that many
popular conceptions of the child’s
view of the film criminal were
unfounded. The children did not
think that criminals were brave,
courageous, nervy individuals who
were honourable in their way. They
did not think that gang leaders were
good-looking, generous, etc. These
child film fans believed that criminals
were finally brought to justice and
punished. They thought that many
criminals did reform and become
decent citizens.

On studying film influence from the
point of view of sex, it was found that
the movie children did not tend to
believe in early marriage, nor did they
believe that marriage is usually
unsuccessful. They did not think that
successful marriage depended on
financial income. These children were
of opinion that women exerted a strong
influence in helping criminals to
reform ; they also, however, tended to
expect and justify assaults or rudeness
to women. Of the total number of
comparisons made between the movie

and the non-movie groups, consisting
of a great variety of tests, significant
differences favouring the non-movie
group appeared in about 8 per cent,
while about 2 per cent favoured the
movie group, and in the other 90 per
cent there was no noted difference.

Attitude tests, given before and after
films, demonstrated that it is possible to
change children’s attitudes by showing
them a single film produced for the
purpose of giving that effect. One
very noticeable example is given by
Peterson and Thurston in “Motion
Pictures and Social Attitudes of
Children”, where it was revealed that
the film, The Birth of a Nation,
produced a marked expansion of the
anti-negro attitude. However, tests
given at later intervals to find out the
persistence of these effects, revealed
that, in general, opinions tended to
revert to initial attitudes. In other
words, the film is but one out of a
multitude of factors helping to
determine our social attitudes and
manner of acting. A recent doctorate
thesis presented at Catholic University,
Washington, has as its conclusion :
“As yet it is impossible to isolate the
effects of the movie experience from
other factors operating in the
individual’s life. It seems to operate
rarely as a prime factor, but rather
frequently as a subsidiary or

aggravating component.”

Two Way Traffic

Like any other sociological fact, the
film both influences and is influenced
by society. The influence of society is
usually summed up in Box Office.
Film making is a means of earning a
livelihood and the more numerous the
admission tickets sold the better the
livelihood. Like any other manufacturer
the film maker must give the public
what it wants. He holds a sensitive
finger on the pulse of public opinion
and is quick to respond to changes in
demand. For example at the beginning
of the war, contrary to what one might
have expected, the “escapist” film
went out of vogue. Public taste moved
towards “realism”. Realistic films
were therefore provided : In Which We
Serve, The First of the Few , The Way
Ahead, etc. American producers were
not slow in following this British lead.
The film influence is not one way

74

traffic. One might say that the film
public indicates the direction in which
it wants to be influenced, and it does
that by buying tickets or not for a
particular type of film.

The situation is different where film
making is not a means of earning a
livelihood, but is an instrument in the
hands of the State. Where the film
becomes the express tool of an
ideology, and where it is allied to the
press and the radio, so that counter
influences are almost smothered, the
influence of the film is greatly
enhanced. A glance, for example, at
some recent Russian films leaves no
doubt as to their propaganda import :
The New Home, dealing with the
reconstruction of villages destroyed by
the Germans; The Young Guard, on
the heroism of Soviet youth around the
Don region; The Brandenburg Gate,
portraying the entry of Russian troops
into Berlin; The Mystery of the
Oceans, dealing with the exploits oi
Soviet submarines. In such an all-
embracing propaganda setting, it
becomes even more difficult to resolve
our problem, for how is one to isolate
the influence of any one of these
factors ?

A vast amount of scientific research
must be done in this infant branch of
sociology. Without this data, film

moralists are like spinners devoid of
their fabric. Kay Mander, in her
review of J. P. Mayer’s book “Sociology
of Film”, sounds a timely rallying
cry : “Far too long, consideration of
the film in relation to society has been
left to the moralisers and reformers.
It is time that objective studies were
made, to answer conclusively the false
assumptions about the influence of
films on children, on morals, on
political outlook, in fact on social
behaviour generally . . . the bulk of
the work remains to be done.” To
hope to answer conclusively such
assumptions is indeed a tall order. It
cannot in fact be satisfactorily
achieved, but modest contributions, in
the form of exact regional observations
and, where possible, controll ed
experiments would take us some way
along the road towards an answer to
the sociological influence of the film.
With such information, among other
things, the task of those responsible for
labelling “A” or “U” would be
facilitated and would bear more
relation to reality.

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS

If one fourth of the Catholic population in England and
Scotland contributed a penny a day for 240 days, the Catholic Film
Institute in England would be able to set up a production unit.

To date £250 has been contributed which has been expended in
part payment of the films Rome of the Pilgrims and Crucifers to
Walsingham . There are many other religious subjects waiting to be
treated if only we can obtain the money. It was the pennies of the
Catholic population in France which made possible the making of the
film Monsieur Vincent.

Please send a donation to Rev. J. A. V. Burke, 357 Beulah
Hill, London, S.E.19.

75

More in Sorrow than in Anger

A very distinguished gentleman who
is a member-founder of a well-known
group of Catholic Actionists some
months ago reduced me to a state
of gibbering impotence. Amiably
mentioning our modest organ of
publicity, Focus, he said, “I suppose
one of the Hollywood film producers
subsidises it for you ?” When I had
recovered I tried to explain the sad
truth ; but by that time he was gaily
lamenting the difficulties which “real”
Catholic Action groups have in keeping
alive and I could not bring him back
again to a consideration of the C.F.I.

Other friends and acquaintances
have during the past year made
similar statements, all bearing the
implication, more or less delicately
expressed, that those of us who spend
our time at the hub of the C.F.I. are
having a whale of a time and,
doubtless, making a nice little
something “on the side”.

Only a Deficit

I suppose it is hard for the readers
of the daily press, with its inevitable
coupling of fantastic wealth with film
enterprise, to understand that an
organisation with the fascinating word
“Film” in its title can be other than
comparatively penurious with several
millions of pounds in the bank.

Workers in the field of Catholic
Action, however, might have been
expected to appreciate the reality of
the situation. No Catholic organisation
known to us has any wealth to spare.
Most of them are struggling bravely to
maintain their works of charity or
expediency on a budget that would
make a miner think himself well-off.
The C.F.I. is in no different case to
the majority; with the exception that
it has not even a budget, only a deficit !

The work which the C.F.I. is trying
to do is demanded by the Holy Father.
In order to do it, the support of as
many Catholics as can be brought to
realise the urgency of a positive
Christian attitude to the cinema is

needed. At present this number is
painfull}' small. The general public
has been so indoctrinated with the
idea that films must be glamorous and
film reviews exotic that a review such
as Focus, which attempts to evaluate
films according to a Christian yardstick
necessarily finds itself competing on
unfair terms with magazines which
deal mainly sensual appeals to
adolescents.

Most of our members understand that
they are being asked to assist in an
apostolate which Pope Pius XI said
will inevitably “involve a certain
expense for Catholics of the various
countries”. They realise that their
subscriptions help to keep the C.F.I.
in existence. Unfortunately there are
too few of them. Readers of Focus
who are not members of the C.F.I. are
also helping to keep the Apostolate of
the Film in existence, but they will
surely realise, if they reflect a little,
that there can be no profit in producing
such a periodical unless there is a very
large circulation.

At the present figure, 6,000 copies
per month, Focus still has a larger
circulation than any other similar film
review, but whereas other organisations
which seek to uplift the film are
subsidised at Government level or by
private donations, the C.F.I. has no
such support.

Dare We Ignore the Cinema?

We are particularly disappointed
that our appeal to parishes and
convents and colleges made by means
of a circular last year, when 8,000
copies of “Dare We Ignore The
Cinema ?” were sent out all over the
country had so little result. We
thought and still think that every
school and college in the country
might take out at least a corporate
membership subscription to the C.F.I.
In view of the fact that those in charge
of children have a special responsibility
towards their charges with regard to
the cinema, we feel that we have a

76

special claim on their support and
understanding.

There are many other works in
which the C.F.I. is involved which,
of their nature, are unproductive.
Consultations with regard to films,
censorship points, reading of scripts
submitted by studios, arranging
lectures and film shows : this kind of
work demands an office and staff for
which, at present, there is no income.

We are, at the moment, negotiating
for some rooms to serve as permanent
offices. The rent required is very
modest, but modest as it is, we shall
find it extremely difficult to meet. We
have trespassed far too long on the
generosity of one or two devoted
helpers. Our Chairman, our Hon.
Treasurer, our Hon. Secretary have all
prejudiced their health and their
homes in an effort to keep the C.F.I.
alive. We all believe it to be of vital
importance. Will you who read this
article consider the matter too ? Can
you do any more to bring us new
members . . . new readers . . .
volunteers for the many menial tasks
which must be done but cannot be paid
for, save in the realisation that a good
work is being done.

How “Focus” Readers Can Help

Will each reader of Focrs do three
things? (1) Get a new reader; (2) Pass
their copy to at least one other non-
reader; (3) Discuss the reviews of

films in Focrs and be willing to
understand that we are not dictating
what films they should see but trying
to give enough information to form
their own judgments.

One further favour : you should be
willing, occasionally, to stay away

from a film that is valueless even
though, negatively, its morals are

sound.

If we could double our circulation
we could improve the form and

content of “Focus”. At the moment,
it is due mainly to the forbearance of
our printers that the thing appears at
all.

Will you do something about it?
Thank you.

FILM STRIP

FATIMA TO-DAY

Coloured pictures from the film

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

with explanatory booklet

36 Frames. Price : 15s.

(Post free 15/3)

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
Blue Cottage, Sumner Place
Mews, London, S.W.7

O.C.I.C. GENERAL COUNCIL

This year’s gathering of the
General Council of the Office
Catholique International du
Cinema will take place at
Lucerne, Switzerland, from May
25th to 28th.

The theme of discussions will
be the “Film Critic and His
Public”. It is hoped that many
distinguished critics, both
Catholic and non-Catholic, will
be present. The Swiss Govern-
ment is taking a lively interest in
the meeting and the Municipality
of Lucerne is placing many
facilities of a cultural and
recreational character at the
disposal of O.C.I.C.

If there are an}- of our
members able to be present at
Lucerne for the General Council
we shall be glad to hear from
them.

John Vincent.

77

Letters to the Editor

Fatima Film Shows

■ Sir,

In order to avoid misunderstanding
I on the part of members of the C.F.I.
and readers of Focus, will you allow
me to correct a misapprehension which
your report on the showing of the
Fatima Film at the Davis Theatre,
Croydon, may give rise to?

First of all, the C.F.I. does not,
unfortunately, benefit from the showing
of the Fatima film, at least, not
materially. You see, we are under an
obligation to see that the film is shown
and though, ultimately, we hope that
the selling of the rights of the film to
other countries may bring in a sum
sufficient for us to think of some profit,
at the moment, the sums recouped
from shows such as those at the Davis
Theatre hardly cover the cost of other,
showings and the expenses connected
therewith.

For example, the Premiere at the
Palace Theatre involved an expenditure
of £160 for the use of Theatre, etc.
The collection taken on that occasion
amounted to £75.

At the Davis Theatre, after the
hiring fee, organiser’s commission,
advertising and printing expenses, etc.

I had been met, rather less than £50
remains of the £142 collected and this
has to go straight into the Fatima
Fund.

At the Hammer Theatre, the
collections usually amounted to enough
to pay for overhead costs, but little
more. As the film has to be serviced,
and Customs and other officials make
large demands on any attempt to send
a copy of the film abroad for viewing
I purposes, there is, you will appreciate,
j little left out of the collections to
I provide the “goodly sum” which the
| C.F.I. indeed “badly needs”!

The C.F.I. itself is, financially,
I considerably the worse off as a result
I of efforts expended on the Fatima film.
But this, as a correspondent said to

us, seems to be the way the Lady of
Fatima has of letting us share in the
penance she spoke of !

Yours faithfully,

John A. V. Burke,

Hon. Sec. C.F.I.

Sir,

In the review of The Big Store
(February, page 55) your printer has
turned “humour” into “honour”.
Perhaps this note will help your readers
to understand that I made no
imputations against the honour of the
Marx Brothers, which I am sure is life
long, only the suggestion that even
tliev cannot be expected to be funny
for too long at a time.

I have the honour to be, etc.,

V.

Sir,

As a number of people seem to be
under the impression that we used
existing records for the choral music
used in the film Faith in U'ales, I
should like to stress the fact that all
the choral music, and there was no
other, was recorded at the Church of
Our Lady of Perpetual Succour,
Trefriw, in North Wales.

Not only did the Welsh-speaking
choir give their services, but the
choir-master, Mr. Bert Williams, also
contributed the solo part in “Land of
Our Fathers”.

I think this choir may take it as a
compliment that their efforts have
been mistakenly attributed to some
disc-recorded professional body of
singers !

It may be of additional interest that
Mr. Williams is a member of the
“Church of Wales” and choirmaster of
their local church, who has for some
time been helping the Catholic priest
to train his choir.

Yours faithfully,

C. A. Radley.

78

FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. No. 2

THE PRODUCER

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

Behind every great output of
furniture, frocks, fish hooks or films
there is a planner. However large or
small an organisation, it cannot
function smoothly unless its output
is perfectly planned and, equally
important, unless the work of all
employed is co-ordinated. Insofar as
films are concerned, the planner is the
Producer who usually keeps well
behind the scenes. At the highest
level he is responsible for the entire
output of films from a large studio, or
group of studios, which may be
turning out six or more feature films
simultaneously.

What qualifications does such a man
require ?

He needs to possess many qualities
obtainable only by having worked his
way up through the various technical
departments involved in production.
Maybe he began as a clapper-boy, an
assistant to an assistant, or in the
script department, and he has almost
certainly directed films himself.
Without such thorough all-round
knowledge of film-making he would
be quite unable to pass judgment on
each day’s takes which he has to view
regularly. Upon his- word depends the
approval or rejection of every scene.
Consequently, he has to be a judge of
direction, camerawork, recording,
acting, decor and editing. Moreover,
lie has to control the speed at which
films are being produced, iron out
disputes, place stars under contract and
plan the subjects which will constitute
the output for the following year.
Needless to say, in addition to all
these duties, he is responsible for
expenditure.

The Producer is the man who
invariably selects subjects for
production, and upon his judgment will

depend the financial success or failure
of the entire organisation. This
involves far more than a superficial
knowledge of current literature and
plays. Vision is essential, and an
ability to see stories, w-hether original,
or in book or play form, in visual
terms. It is the Producer we have to
thank for bringing us dramas and
comedies set in distant places ; for
re-creating past periods, and for
building up stories out of contemporary
situations — red tape, shortages,
gangsterism, and so on. It can be
seen, therefore, that he is the man at
the wheel, steering the huge ship
across the stormy seas of film-making.
He has been likened to the composer
of a symphony, but he more closely
resembles the conductor of a great
orchestra (all the instruments in which
he can play). He is a rare being,
combining the astuteness and
organising ability of a business
executive with the vision of an artist,
and the soul of a showman. There are
lots of Producers in the film-making
centres of the world, but the truly great
ones may be counted on one’s fingers.

FOCUS FILM COURSE
PRIMER

By Andrew Buchanan

Handbooks comprising intro-
ductory articles on all the lectures
comprising the first series of the
Focus Film Course are now-
available, price Is. 6d. nett.
Obtainable from More House, 53
Cromwell Road, London, S.W.7, or
from Blue Cottage, Sumner Place
Mews, London, S.W.7.

79

smsa suryasiw

By our

Panel of Priests

Category A, indicates adults only; B, adults and adolescents ;
C, family audiences; D, particularly for children

HOLY PILGRIMAGE 1950

Producer: Edmund Reek. Director:

Anthony Muto. Distributors:
20th Century-Fox. Certificate :
JJ . Category-. C. Running time :
42 minutes.

This not very happy title has been
substituted for the original Holy Year
1950, presumably to prevent confusion

in this country with Holy Year, the
picture popularly and conveniently
known as the Wilfred Pickles’ film.
Holy Pilgrimage MCML is the
American counterpart and “features”
Cardinal Spellman. But though
intended for Americans it is free from
the sort of Americanism which the
English find uncongenial and there
is nothing about the excellent

1

jtr%-

so

commentary by Fr. R. I. Gannon, S.J.,
to grate on our ears.

The course of the Holy Year is traced
from its proclamation on Ascension
Day 1949 — when among tile ecclesiastics
present Abbot Langdon, O.S.B., will
be easily recognised by his many
friends — to the procession in St. Peter’s
Square on Corpus Cliristi 1950. After
a remarkable sequence showing the
opening of the Holy Door, we see shots
of a Papal High 5Iass, but there the
appearance of the late Mgr. Respighi
makes it clear that this is a flashback.
The swearing-in of Swiss Guards and
the grounds of Propaganda College and
some of its students are interesting and
unusual items in a film.

Holy Pilgrimage MCML is being
shown in some cinemas in the
provinces, but at the time of writing it
has not been booked by the circuits nor
has it been seen in London. And it
has not the popular, elementary,
undenominational appeal of the Wilfred
Pickles’ film. But many Catholics who
know Rome might prefer it, for
whereas Mr. Pickles is himself a
visitor who conducts other pilgrims,
Fr. Gannon is a host who welcomes
them. The picture is a valuable
contribution to the film record of the
Holy Year. The measure of its success
is the nostalgia which it induces.

H. A. C. C.

THE AFFAIRS OF SALLY

Starring: Lucille Ball, Eddie Albert,
with Carl Benton Reid, Gale
Robbins. Director: Llovd Bacon.
A Columbia Picture. Certificate :
U. Category : B. Running

time: 85 minutes approx.

This stunting running farce could
have been very funny for about half
an hour. The “shriekingly funny”
has, it seems to me, to be short and
snappy, for the mind just cannot be
kept empty for 85 long minutes.

It may be that the sponsors of The
Affairs of Sally could not synopsise
whatever story there is since there was
no synopsis provided for the punctual
critic. But the series of possibly over-
prolonged stunt sequences show Lucille
Ball as very well adapted for this type
of comedy. There are two murders to
keep the fun fast and furious.

X.

KIM

Starring: Errol Flynn, Dean Stock-

well, Paul Lukas. Director: Victor

Saville. An M.-G.-M. Picture.

Certificate : U. Category : C.

Running time: 112 minutes.

Those of an older generation who,
like myself, have known (and maybe
loved) "Kim” since boyhood da vs,
cannot, I think, be quite happv about
this film : in the transition from

printed page to screen the magic of the
book seems to have been lost.
Obviously no effort has been spared :
the film (or parts of it) was shot in
India itself, the technicolour is
admirable, the scenery magnificent, the
acting of a very high standard. And
yet it just hasn’t got there.

Deviation from the Original

Compression is of course unavoidable,
perhaps also on occasion deviation
from the original story. But I cannot
for the life of me imagine why the
authors of the screen play should have
found it necessary to kill off two of
the most lovable characters, the Lama
and Hurree Chunder, for apparently no
reason whatever. Those who have
read the book will remember how the
Lama eventually finds his River of the
Arrow, falls into it in a trance and is
rescued by Hurree. The book concludes
with the Lama announcing the great
news to Kim : ‘‘He crossed his hands
on his lap and smiled, as a man may
who has won salvation for himself and
his beloved.” A fine ending, you will
agree, and incidentally Kipling’s ; but
it does not suit our authors, who make
the Lama fall dead as he sees his long-
sought river in a mirage. And having
thus disposed of him they have
invented a new ending in which Kim
is left with Mahbub Ali on a horse,
dangling a watch which Colonel
Creighton has presented to him for
services rendered. \Ve are also left
somewhat in doubt as to Kim’s future :
is he going to join his father’s regiment
(an idea he consistently abhorred) or
take up the ‘‘Great Game”, in other
words join the Intelligence Service ?
There should be no sort of uncertainty
on this point ; surely the book’s whole
raison d’etre is to demonstrate Kim’s
gradual training for the ‘‘Great Game”.
As to Hurree, he is only allowed two
very brief appearances before he gets

81

| murdered half-way through the film.

There are also other deviations from
: the storv which seem to me
unnecessary, but I will not enumerate
| them here : anyone sufficiently

interested has only to read the book
before or after seeing the film.

Much to Enjoy

I would like though to stress another
point. Kipling (who after all should
know) tells us that the Lama was
“dressed in fold upon fold of dingy
stuff like horse-blanketing and ... on
his head was a gigantic sort of
tam-o’-shanter”. This seems fairly
: clear, but the producer of the film has
I seen fit to dress him in a red cassock-
like robe, surmounted by a kind of
M.A. gown of the same colour, and a
red hat, transforming him in fact into
a Renaissance Doge. Why on earth ?

All the same there is much to enjoy
in this film. I have already mentioned
the beautv of the scenery, the crowds
of men and beasts on the Great Trunk
Road are magnificent, if only we were
| given just a little more time to feast
our eyes on such a medley of colour.
The acting is, as I have said, of a high
order. Errol Flynn gives one of his
very best performances as Mahbub Ali,
the red-bearded horse dealer and no
inconsiderable personage in the “Great
Game”. The Lurgan Sahib of Arnold
Moss is beyond praise. I liked
Reginald Owen’s Father Victor, and
was thankful that the somewhat
objectionable parson, Bennett, had
been cut out. Paul Lukas’ performance
is beautiful, once one has become
definitely reconciled to the fact that
I he is a Doge and not a Lama.
Nevertheless, the incongruity of his
producing a begging-bowl from the
folds of such a costume has to be seen
to be believed !

A Boy’s Achievement

And what of Kim himself ? It is not
untrue to say that Dean Stockwell
shoulders practically the entire burden
of the film ; that he does it with
outstanding success is a great
achievement for a boy. But somehow
■ he is just not Kim ; and yet who could
adequately portray the Irish-born boy
i brought up as a Hindu gamin, with
oriental cunning and Irish humour
. inextricably mixed ? Certainly no boy
; film star that I have ever seen. Dean

Stockwell does his best, and a very
good best at that, but he is too serious
and earnest even when perpetrating his
most mischievous pranks, and never
really lets himself go. For one moment
1 hoped the humour was going to
show up when he gave that gorgeous
wink to the girl in the first few
moments, but it was only a flash that
never reappeared. This much must be
said : but for all that, it is a fine

performance which will greatly enhance
this talented young actor’s well-
established reputation.

Don’t on any account miss this film,
but your enjoyment of it will vary
according to both your knowledge and
your love of Kipling,

T. C. F.

MURDER WITHOUT CRIME
Starring: Dennis Price, Derek Farr,
Patricia Plunkett, Joan Dowling.
Producer: Victor Skutezky.

Director: J. Lee-Thompson.

Distributors: Associated British

Pathe Ltd. Certificate : A.

Category-. A.

I cannot say I liked this film. Too
pretentious ! Too self - conscious !

Maybe, J. Lee-Thompson hitched his
wagon too tightly to the Hitchcock star.

In the main it is about a fellow who
thought he had murdered a girl from
a night-club. It would be unfair to the
film to say more. But may 1 ask why
we have to endure such exhibitions of
low living ? Life is not all booze and
adultery.

Low Characters

Hardly a decent character appears in
this film. Dennis Price is a conceited,
self-centred sadist who struts around
and talks like a character from a play
by a fellow who hasn’t learnt how to
write and with an accent very much
like George Sanders. Joan Dowling is
the voluptuous miss of the night club
with a loose mouth and looser morals.
Derek Farr is the writer chap who
spends more time with the liquor bottle
than with the ink bottle. He is a sap
of a fellow and the cause of all . the
trouble. Patricia Plunkett is the
gentle wife who forgives her husband
seventy seven times. She cries a good
deal and doesn’t act too convincingly,
I thought.

E.

S2

THE LAST OF THE
BUCCANEERS

Starring: Paul Henreid. Director:

Lew Landers. A Columbia
Picture. Certificate: U. Category:
B. Running time : 79 minutes.

Here is a real piratical picture.
During its course at least two treasure
ships are captured; an island, heavily
defended by Red Indians, is stormed
and taken ; and eventually the same
island is again stormed, this time by
regular troops and the pirate settlement
with all their loot destroyed.

That is really all there is to it.
There are some lovely technicolor
scenes by moonlight and the costumes
of the period (1812) are a joy to the
eye. Paul Henreid does all the suitable
things expected of a pirate captain —
he bullies his crew, hangs a rebel and
makes love in off-moments. Karin
Booth, as the aristocratic girl who loves
him in spite of all, looks her part but
fails entirely to act it. By far the best
performance is that of Jack Oakie as
Sergeant Dominick, the captain’s fat
and humorous second in command. It
is all rather trash, but might serve for
an afternoon’s entertainment when you
can’t get in to a better film.

T. C. F.

THE MATING SEASON
Starring: Gene Tierney, John Lund,
Miriam Hopkins, Thelma Ritter.
Producer: Charles Brackett.

Director: Mitchell Leisen.

Distributors: Paramount .

Certificate-. U. Category: B.

There is always something comical
about snobs, whether they are social
snobs (of all stratas), intellectual snobs,
spiritual snobs, bomb snobs (a type
that came into being during the late
war), art snobs or film snobs.
Snobbery, automatically, lends itself to
■comedy. This comedy is well worth
seeing, I think, for those who like a
bit of clean debunking, for we see
how ridiculous a middle class fellow can
become when he marries a society girl,
not because lie marries a society girl,
but because he hides from her his
origins.

Yal McNulty (John Lund) tells
Maggie Carlton, the ambassador’s
daughter whom he marries, that there
is only his mother who manages his

father’s business in Jersey City ! The
joke of the whole thing, and from
another point of view the tragedy of
the whole thing, is that there was no
need for Val to have hidden the truth
that his mother ran a small hamburger
joint. Maggie was bored with the
artificiality of her own milieu and
wanted to get away from silly little
princes and foppish young men whom
she had to meet.

Superb Artiste

When Maggie finds out the truth
about Yal’s mother she rounds on him,
not because his mother is not her sort,
but because she thinks that Val is
ashamed of his own mother, and she
hates snobs. Their marriage is nearly
wrecked.

This comedy is very much alive ; the
plot is well developed ; all the
characters are authentic and play well ;
one’s interest is sustained all the
time. The script is good, the humour
is spontaneous. Gene Tierney always
gives distinction to any part she plays;
but many people will agree that in
this comedy the laurels must go to
Thelma Ritter. She is no glamour girl,
but what a superb artiste !

I

E.

WATCH THE BIRDIE
Starring: Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl,
Ann Miller and Leon Ames. An
M.-G.-M. Picture. Director: Jack
Donohue. Certificate : U.

Category: A. Running time: '

71 minutes.

A slapstick comedy in which Red
Skelton plays three roles; son, father
and grandfather, and is assisted by
beautiful Arlene Dahl and gorgeous
Ann Miller. As a dumb cameraman
Red unintentionally exposes a plot to
defraud the beautiful Arlene of her
father’s hard - won millions and
incidentally exposes himself and the il
B.A. to a gory revenge at the "I
hands of the thwarted villain, Leon
Ames. Ann Miller is already
sufficiently exposed, but evidently not
enough to give the Censor any
qualms. There are many funny
moments and if you can endure Red
Skelton’s brand of suggestive leering
and double entendre, you will quite
like this.

V.

83

THE BREAKING POINT
Starring: John Garfield, Patricia Neal.
Producer: Jerry Wald. Director:
Michael Curtiz. Distributors:
Warner Bros. Certificate : A.

Category : B. Running time :

go minutes.

Enjoyable Film

First class photography makes this
Hemmingway story quite an enjoyable
him. Its weakness chiefly lies in the
time that has passed between the days
of the great depression, which gave
bite to the original novel and the
security of the present which serves to
lessen patience with the difficulties of
Harry Morgan (John Garfield). The
.story concerns the efforts of a small
boat owner to pay his way and the
gradual drift through economic pressure
to crime. A girl, Leona (Patricia Neal),
does not make things any easier for
Harry or his wife (Phyllis Thaxter) and
there is an exciting and gory finish.

Glamour and Humour

Although Patricia Neal has all the
glamour and excitement, Phyllis
Thaxter manages to play the patient
wife so well that the honours go to
her. There is an air of reality about
her portrayal which is lacking in John
Garfield. In the main an enjoyable if
undistinguished film.

J- c.

Scenes from the film

HELPERS WANTED

Once again we appeal for persons willing to help in menial
but essential tasks connected with the administration of the
C.F.I. Pressure of work has left us sadly behind with the
Index for the 1950 Focus. Will someone with a typewriter,
willing to sort out and type the indices for last year’s volume of
Focus, please give us their help?

1

S4

THE LONG DARK HALL
Starring: Rex Harrison and Lilli

Palmer, with Denis O’Dea and
Raymond Huntly. Directors:
Anthony Bushell and Reginald
Beck. Distributors: British Lion
Film Corporation. Certificate :
A. Category. B. Running time:
86 minutes.

A trial scene, whether on stage or
screen is always effective, given the
minimum of competence m writers
and actors. Here we have a screen-
play by Nunnally Johnson, by no
means original but very well scripted
and acting that is well above the
average. The story concerns the trial
and condemnation af an innocent man
for murder on circumstantial evidence.
He is shown to have had an affair with
the murdered woman, but his wife
believes in his love and his innocence
and backs him loyally.

Rex Harrison, as the accused, gives
a sensitive, and for him, unusuallv
dramatic performance. Lilli Palmer,
as his wife, also acts with great

Rex Harrison gives a sensitive and

dramatic performance . . .

conviction and tenderness. Raymond
Huntly, as a C.I.D. man, turns in a
nicely rounded character studv and
Denis O’Dea again proves his skill in

PANDORA AND THE FLYING
DUTCHMAN

Starring: James Mason, Ava Gardner,
Nigel Patrick. Producer and
Director: Albert Lewin. Distrib-
utors: Independent Films.

Certificate : A. Category: A.

Running time : 122 minutes.

This beautiful technicolor film
possesses many attractive qualities,
chiefly because its setting is in Spain
with lovely shots of sea and sand to
say nothing of the whole panoply of
a superbly staged bullfight. In a story
with a motif as familiar as this — the
Wandering Jew, Death, takes a holiday
theme — it was a mistake to use the
flashback to start with. It is a pity
that we are allowed to know from

the beginning that Pandora has
sacrificed her young life on the altar
of ghostly love. The old legend which
forms the basis of this story is that
of the 16tli century Dutch sea captain
who murdered his innocent young wife
and was condemned to sail the seas for
centuries until such time as a young
girl should love him enough to die for
him. It appears that the script writers
decided to attempt the creation of an
interesting film without any element
of suspense. Pandora (Ava Gardner)
plays the part of the reincarnated
young wife and rises to the exigencies
of the plot despite all the efforts of the
Flying Dutchman to stop her. It is
her misfortune that she was not
allowed to keep us guessing but is, in
more senses than one, dead from the
initial stages of the film onwards.

85

giving full value to the words he
speaks and the gestures he uses as the
Prosecuting Counsel.

A group of small-part players provide
a satisfactory frame to the picture.
Among them ought to be mentioned
Patricia Wayne as the murdered girl,
Meriel Forbes as her friend and
Brenda De Banzie as her landlady.

One always asks oneself whether
people really would behave or speak as
the characters on the screen do. While
one has some doubt in the case of some
of the dialogue in this film, a true note
is struck in the condemned cell when
the wife says that she will continue to
pray and her husband answers that he
does not think that prayer can do
much good, but perhaps it comforts
people to pray. There speaks the
average nominal Christian who is only
driven to his knees when adversity
overtakes him. But out of this
adversity, one feels that a better way
of living will emerge and so the film
turns out to be, as well as an exciting
story of a man on trial for his life, also
a parable on the need of supporting a
good life in the material sense with
something worthwhile in the spiritual
sense.

Owing to a special twist in the

A good supporting cast help James
Mason to make a competent though
not over-inspiring job of the Flying
Dutchman, but it becomes increasingly
obvious as the film proceeds that Ava
Gardner has been seriously mis-cast.
Although she is intended to be, not
only the reincarnated young wife, but
a Helen of Troy type as well, and we
see several men risk their lives and
even die for thwarted love of her, it
never becomes easy to think any of
these even remotely possible. In an
endeavour to create a somewhat fey
atmosphere about her, the Director has
made Miss Gardner essay statuesque
immobility — a pose which she quite
clearly finds uncomfortable. The main
difficulty, however, lies beyond the
power of good direction because her
personality is too limited for the part.

• ■ Lilli Palmer acts with great conviction
and tenderness . ■ .

denouement of this film it is advisable
to see it the right way round ; that is,
from the beginning.

V.

We are left wondering how this girl
from Cincinnati or some ‘such place
got into this ritzy situation, and most
of the time Miss Gardner appears to
share our problem. It is Spain and
the Spaniards who save the picture, a
fact which raises the question why film
companies have never thought of going
there before.

T- C.

Overheard outside “Samson
and Delilah’’

“You’ll see ’im cutting ’er
’air.”

“Isn’t it ’er that cuts ’is ’air?”
“Oh, is that it? And doesn’t
she ’ave ’is ’ead on a charger?”

86

711 OCEAN DRIVE

Starring: Edmond O’Brien and

Joanne Dru. Producer: Frank

N. Seltzer. Director: Joseph H.
Newman. A Columbia Picture.
Certificate : A. Category ; A.

Running time \ 102 minutes.

Now we know what happens when
we put a dollar either way on the 2-30,
or at least we are a bit nearer knowing
some of the intricacies that lie behind
the simple bet. The mysteries of the
art of book-making are a closed book
to all but the bookies, and whereas
theirs is an honourable calling over
here, in the States it is forbidden by
law and so it becomes both more
alluring and more lurid. In this film
we see what happens, or some of what
happens, in the underground world of
American betting, and also what can
happen to a decent fellow (he is a
decent fellow, because we see him give
some of his wages away to someone in
need, at the beginning of the film) —
ves, we see what can happen to a
decent fellow who gets into the
business and gets on in it. He becomes
a very rotten sort of fellow indeed.
From all this, I suppose, we are
intended to be induced to divert our
fortunes and our spare shillings (if
any) from the clutches of bookies to
more worthy objects. It should be a
lesson to us all, but one not to be
taken too much to heart. (By the way,
have you a winner for the Derby ?)

At least all this is said to the tune
of a story — a story which, if it does
not make us jump out of our seats,
will keep us firmly rooted in them to
the end of the film. We would have
preferred a crisper dialogue seasoned
with wit, and we would have liked
some subtlety in the characters.

Futile Chase

Finally we have a chase — a rather
common fifth act to a film nowadays,
and a useful tip for us to knock out
our pipes and to button up our coats to
prepare for our exit. This time the
chase is not through the labyrinthine
sewers of Vienna, or over the
mountainous frontier of a police state,
or over the roofs of Liverpool ware-
houses, but through the ramifications
of an immense dam. Down lifts,

through tunnels, along generators, and
up stairs. Yet this did not thrill us
as it might have done and was
intended to do. Was it because we
have seen this sort of thing once too
often, or — and 1 think this is the case
— because we had no real interest or
concern for the pursued ?

G.

THE FLAME AND THE ARROW

Starring: Burt Lancaster and Virginia
Mayo, with Robert Douglas,
Frank Allenby and Nick Cravat.
Director: Jacques Tourneur.

Distributors: Warner Brothers.

Certificate-. U. Category : C.

Running time : 79 minutes.

Why are we told at the beginning
of this film that it portrays twelfth-
century Italy ? It would be just as
simple to say “in the Olden Days”, and
one would not be distracted by the
thought that here are Franciscans a
century before they were founded ; here
is the long-bow, more premature still -r
all these peasants can read and write
. . . and so on. Of course, it couldn’t
matter less, because no one expects
historical accuracy in this kind of film.
One merely hopes to be entertained-
One is.

Acrobatics

In this film then you have Burt
Lancaster as Dardo the Arrow, holding
out in the mountains against Ulrich of
Hesse, the German conqueror of
Lombardy. Ulrich wins two rounds by
capturing, first Dardo’s wife and then
his little son, Rudi. In revenge Dardo-
seizes the Princess Anne, who turns out
to be Virginia Mayo. She looks very
attractive and unperturbed with a
chain round her neck and the camera
dawdles rather unnecessarily while she
washes her legs. To let you into a
secret, Dardo wins in the end : but not
before he has (apparently)) been
hanged and his “corpse” disposed
of. During his second lease of life
he performs the most delightfully
impossible acrobatics with his
customary gay unconcern. But his
triumph is mainly due to the fact that
Ulrich’s troops behave like rather
badly-constructed robots. Thus nothing
could be easier than for Dardo,

87

brandishing a flambeau, to hold at bay
a score of soldiers armed with
immensely long pikes. Finally Ulrich,
trying unsuccessfully to shelter behind
little Rudi, is shot neatly in the throat
(Dardo being, as you will have guessed,
tiie best bowman in all Italy).

Well, it is all great fun. If you like
a combination of pantomime and
circus in a pseudo-medieval setting,
here you are. You will be thrilled by
Burt Lancaster’s breathless feats. You
will love poor dumb Piccolo (a very
able performance by Nick Cravat). And
I hope you will enjoy yourself as much
as I did.

J. R. W. D.

THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR

Starring: Michael Denison and Dulcie
Gray. Producer: Robert Hall.

Director: Lawrence Huntingdon.
Distributors: Associated British

Pathe, Ltd. Certificate: A.

Category : A .

For the filmgoer best known to me
an English film about English or, if
you prefer, British people would have to
be very poor not to please. The
Franchise Affair can make no claim to
being a great or even a highly
workmanlike production, yet in its
leisurely way it sustains interest.

Robert Blair (Michael Denison) is a
pleasant young lawyer in a small
country town. He is called in to help
and advise Marion Sharpe (Dulcie
Gray) and her mother (Marjorie
Fielding) who are being interrogated
by the police. The trouble is that a
circumstantial tale of the kidnapping,
detention and maltreatment of a certain
sixteen-year-old Betty Kane (Ann
Stephens) inculpates them, for they
and their house, the Franchise,
answer perfectly the girl’s description.
The film proceeds to the clearing of
the two women through the
unremitting efforts of Blair. He
defends them first against the violence
of public hostility and prepares their
defence for the court of law.

Plenty of Character Stuff

I just refuse to believe that the
granite faced Mrs. Sharpe (a masterly
performance by Marjorie Fielding)
could ever have run a boarding house
— too grand, too unaccommodating.

And there were other instances in
which 1 thought the differences of
social habit were rather blurred. This
could likely enough be deliberate for
none of us now admire the way Mr.
Punch used to find some something
inevitably comic in the speech, dress
or social habits of all outside the
purely professional classes.

However, there is plenty of what is
known as character stuff, and the 28
named cast include English actors who
are well able to take their opportunities
of giving their individual expert study
of type without loss to the value of
their work as a team.

I see no harm in this film, and it
does ram home the wickedness of
gossip and the injustice and brutality
possible when an undiscerning public
opinion is mobilised against individuals.

X.

TRANSCONTINENT EXPRESS

Starring: Locomotive 8i, Forrest

Tucker, Adele Mara, Adrian
Booth and Bruce Cabot. Associate
Producer: Paul Malvern. Director:
Joseph Kane. Distributors:
Republic Pictures. International
Inc. In Trucolor. Certificate : U .
Category: B. Running time:

8i minutes.

Yes, the principal star of this film
is the engine, a quite genuine period
piece. Apart from that, the film
follows a familiar pattern. The rail-
road pioneers press on westwards
despite difficulties of all kinds —
especially the obstacle of human
opposition. The latter conies mainly
from Kirby Morrow (Bruce Cabot), an
unpleasant type, who is not unnaturally
annoyed that his fiancee Constance
(Adele Mara) has left him for railway
constructor Reed Loomis (Forrest
Tucker). There are labour disputes, a
boat is set on fire to drift against a
vital bridge, and as usual the Indians
are enlisted; but in vain, for Reed
finally triumphs. Threats of derailment
need not terrify the audience if they
remember that the locomotive is a
museum piece loaned for the film and
is not likely to be risked.

The best acting in this film is that
of Adrian Booth as Aleeta, the Indian

chief’s daughter who has lived in
Paris. Her performance was out-
standing and one hopes to see more of
her in the future.

The new colour process used for this
film, Trucolor, is perhaps slightly more
convincing than Technicolor. I
understand that it is still in an early
stage of development.

J. R. W. D.

THE DARK MAN

Starring: Edward Underdown, Max-
well Reed, Natasha Parry,
William Hartnell, Barbara
Murray. Producer: Julian Wintle.
Distributors: G. F. D. Certificate:
A. Category : B. Running time:
91 minutes.

The Dark Man (Maxwell Reed)
murders a black marketeer and a taxi
driver. A pretty actress from “the
rep” in Walsham Bay and a handsome
’tec become involved. The detective
(Edward Underdown) does as much
love making with the girl from the
rep Natasha Parry) as crime-chasing;
but if love is necessary to make the
wheels of even a detective-story keep
turning, I have no right to make
further comment.

This is good entertainment, even
with its obvious gaps; a pity though
that more care was not taken with the
direction ; it could have been a first
class thriller. The camera work is
excellent. The script is good. The
acting is rather poor. Apart from
William Hartnell the minor characters
plav better than the major ones.

E.

BLACKMAILED

Starring: Mai Zetterling, Dirk

Bogarde, Fay Compton, Robert
Flemying, Michael Gough
and Joan Rice. An H. H.
Independent Production. Director:
Marc Allegret. Certificate: A.

Category ; B. Running time:
85 minutes.

Fay Compton is the link connecting
the other characters in this inverted
thriller in which the blackmailer is
killed early on in the film. The result
is not the automatic freedom of the

victims, but rather their entanglement
in a further skein of intrigue which
causes the death of one and the
unhappiness of others. Thus, Fay
Compton, who had killed the black-
mailer in order to release several
people for whom she felt sorry is able
to say that “Good cannot come out of
evil” and so point a moral lesson.

However, there is some muddled
morality in the rest of the film. For
example, Mai Zetterling, who had j|
contemplated running off with Robert "
Flemying, says she “no longer has the
right” to do so when she finds that her
invalid husband really cares for her. ?
And Dirk Bogarde, who is living with
an escaped Reformatory girl, thinks
that it is excusable all the while he is I
a deserter, unable to get his papers
rectified. Dirk also screams hysterically
to the detective come to arrest him :
“Don’t make me use it!” when
pointing a loaded revolver at the
policeman. Still, there is no attempt
to justify such conduct and it may well
be regarded as a commentary on the
un-Christian civilisation which is now •
so much taken for granted.

The film is, all things considered, a
satisfactory piece of entertainment.
Within obvious limits of scripting and
dialogue, the actors do their best. Fay 1
Compton gives the most complete
performance. Mai Zetterling and Dirk
Bogarde repeat characterisations
fashioned in previous stage parts.
Robert Flemying brings some
conviction to his role as a doctor, but
it is Michael Gough, as a peevish
invalid, who makes one feel that he 1
might be real. I found myself asking :
“Do people really behave or speak like 1
this in every day life?” To which ,
echo only answers: “Do they!”

Joan Rice who is “introduced” in this I
film, played the reformatory girl for
all she was worth ; namely, a two-year
contract from Mr. Rank, but she was j
handicapped by a Chelsea - cum - ,
Bloomsbury jargon which made one I
wonder whether her delinquency was "
failure to qualify at the R.A.D.A.

Another fetish which, for me, marred
a not unpleasing film, were the bursts
of melodramatic noise from the
orchestra every time something
obviously suspenseful was about to
happen. This sort of thing is '
unnecessary in an adult story.

V.

89

THE MAN WHO CHEATED
HIMSELF

Starring: Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt,
John Dali. Producer: Jack M.
Warner. Director: Felix Feist.
Presented by 20th Century-Fox.
Certificate-. A. Category : B.

Running time: 81 minutes.

This is Jack M. Warner’s first
independent production. It is a
creditable, in fact, distinguished
beginning.

There is nothing remarkable about
the story. It concerns the familiar
theme of a man, who as a detective,
has to solve a case of apparent murder
in which he himself is involved. His
predicament is made more difficult by
highly intelligent co-operation provided
by his younger brother.

The element of suspense is very well
handled. Indeed the whole production
indicates care and thought. Perhaps
there is slight question of mis-casting,
but not of any great moment. The
end could have done with a little
more definition. Your hearing and
intelligence have to be good to catch
the full irony of the situation. I didn’t
till I read the brochure afterwards.
Whether it was my hearing or my
intelligence that was at fault 1 leave
to the charitable judgment of my
readers.

It is not a film of importance, but
none the less is warmly recommended.

T.

BATTLE OF POWDER RIVER

Starring: Van Heflin, Yvonne De

Carlo, Preston Foster, Jack
Oakie. Producer: Leonard Gold-
stein. Director: George Sherman.
Distributors: G.F.D. Certificate:
A. Category: B. Running time:
82 minutes.

For those in search of Westerns this
is a good one . . . good entertainment
and good history, with colour, vitality
and movement in a land of enchanting
landscapes and sky-scapes.

The time is the second half of the
nineteenth century, in America, when
there were so many bloody skirmishes
between the Yanks and the Indians.
The story is about the great Sioux

Indian uprising. We are witnesses of
a pitched battle between the redskins
led by Red Cloud (John War Eagle), a
formidable dignified personality, and
the white skins led by Colonel
Carrington, who is commanding the
fort on the Powder River. The
Americans use powder and the Indians
use bows and arrows, and are, of
course, decimated.

There is a very good performance
by Van Heflin, who is in sympathy
with the Indians and their fundamental
honour. Jack Oakie fits neatly into
the picture to provide the light relief.
Yvonne, who doesn’t fit quite so neatly
into the picture, is there, I presume, to
provide the romantic relief.

• E.

LOVE THAT BRUTE

Starring: Paul Douglas, Jean Peters,
with Cesar Romero, Keenan
Wym and Joan Davis. Director:
Alexander Hall. Distributors:
20th Century-Fox. Certificate :
A. Category: A. Running

time : 85 minutes.

The projectionist, waiting to screen
this epic, whiled away the time, during
which the other critics, less noble than
myself, got from one theatre to
another, by playing a “number” called
“Let’s Go To The Pictures”! This
devastatingly original tune has been
devised in an attempt to wheedle back
to the box-office, those screen-sickened
millions who now find something
better to do. It will need something
more vital and, I hope, more decent,
than this sickly skit on Chicago’s
gangster heydays. Humour is a
strictly personal taste, but I imagine
that most will be nauseated by this
story of a soft-hearted gangster who,
instead of killing his rivals, keeps
them comfortably imprisoned in a
basement. When eventually they
escape, he is “taken for a ride”,
spared by two of his grateful “victims”,
buried by proxy in a funeral ceremony
which is an offensive travesty, and
sees his rival arrested to be executed
for the only crime he did not commit.

There is humour that is vulgar and
humour that is tasteless. Where one
is forced to make a choice I prefer the
former. This film belongs to the
latter category.

V.

90

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE
DAME

Starring: Charles Laughton, with

Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas
Mitchell, Maureen O’Hara, and
Edmond O’Brien. An R.K.O.
Radio Picture. Director:
William Dieterle. Certificate :
A. Category : B. Running time:
116 minutes.

This film, made in 1939, is an
excellent example by which to estimate
the deterioration of some well-known
names since the early days of the war.
Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara
both provide some unforgettable
moments in this film, moments which
the\' have not come near repeating
since. The crowd scenes in front of
the reconstructed Cathedral of Notre
Dame remind us of some of the much-
praised Russian crowd effects.

The story, after Victor Hugo, has
been considerably bowdlerised, in order,
presumably, to satisfy censorship
requirements in the U.S.A. As we
have it now, it tells of the devotion of
the Hunchback Quasimodo for the
gipsv.-girl, Esinerelda, and of the
efforts of Frollo, the High Justice
(well-played by Cedric Hardwicke), to
have her burnt to death since she will
not minister to his passions. His
brother, the Archbishop (Walter
Hampden), makes feeble attempts to
restrain Frollo and only succeeds in
arousing the animosity of the King of
Beggars (boisterously characterised by
Thomas Mitchell), who leads his gang
of cut-throats against the Cathedral.
The scene in which the hunchback
repels them with boiling oil and
thunderbolts of stone is photographic-
ally very impressive.

Laughton’s make-up as Quasimodo is
revoltingly ugly, but he manages to
inspire pity both in his audience and
in the heart of Maureen O’Hara. The
scene in which she brings him a cup
of water when he is being tormented
on the public pillory is a fine piece of
dumb acting. The only thing left to
Laughton with which to express
emotion is one eye. By means of this,
and the general motion of his
misshapen body, he suggests a world

of feeling. If only he still were able
or were allowed to give us this class
of acting.

The film has obvious faults of
romantic exaggeration and theatrical
over-acting and it has some brutal
moments which make it unsuitable for
sensitive children, but it is well worth
looking at for the sake of Charles
Laughton in the davs of his prime.

1

GROUNDS FOR MARRIAGE

Starring: Van Johnson, Kathryn

Grayson, with Paula Raymond,
Barry Sullivan, Lewis Stone and
Reginald Owen. An M.-G.-M. '
Picture. Director: Robert Z.

Leonard. Certificate : A.

Category : A. Running time 9

85 minutes approx.

This film seems to have been devised
to give Van Johnson fans who are, I
gather, mainly of the other sex, ample *
opportunity to see their dream boy in.
every kind of usual and unusual
situation. They can see him dressing,
shaving, having his feet washed in a \
mustard bath, using a stethoscope,
singing in opera, dancing boogie-
woogie, giving a lecture (an admirably
played burlesque of the popular
medico, this), playing serious music
on an oboe in an orchestra, etc., etc.

The story concerns the efforts of his j
divorced wife (Kathryn Grayson) to
win him back from his proposed second
attempt (Paula Raymond). Our
American friends have down-graded
the film on the grounds that it
reflects the acceptability of divorce. It
seems to us also to reflect the
absurditv of those who allow their
lives to be moulded to such a frivolous
pattern that they can enter into and ,
depart from the serious business of
marriage motivated in both cases by
musical incompatibility.

There are some interesting musical
excerpts in the film (since Kathryn
Grayson is a pleasing operatic'
soprano) and Van Johnson brings some
unsuspected vocal efforts (dubbed of
course) to an extract from Carmen !

V.

91

CONTINENTAL FILMS

SUNDAY IN AUGUST

(Donienica d’Agosto)

Starring: Anna Baldini, Franco Inter-
lenghi. Producer: Sergeo Amidei.
Director: Luciano Emmer.

Distributors: Film Traders.

Italian dialogue, with English sub-
titles. Certificate : U . Category :
B. Running time : 90 minutes.

When my colleague V. heard that I
had not only bathed at Ostia, but also
used a washstand just like the
ramshackle contraption the basin of
which has such a part to play near the
end of the film, he surrendered this
review to me with characteristic
generosity.

Artistic Realism

Rarely has my thirst for artistic
realism been slaked so satisfactorily.
This picture disproves the contention
of second-rate producers that if a film
is like real life it can only be dull.
In fact it is least interesting when it
•yields to the temptation to desert the
genius of its own pattern to attempt
pseudo-excitement in the cliche of a
robberv with shooting. Otherwise it is
content to take the ordinary events of
a typical August Sunday, mostly at
Ostia-Lido but partly in Rome, and
present them without too much anxiety
about continuity.

Here is the art which relies not on
far-fetched imagination nor on the
creation of extraordinary situations
but on acute observation, memory,
selection, arrangement and unself-
conscious re-enactment. To speak of
local colour would hardly give the
right impression, for the lido at Ostia
is like many another Mediterranean
bathing beach and the views of Rome
are few and far between. If popular
meant characteristic of people and
typical meant concerned with types,
those would be the adjectives to use.
The vociferous working class family
packed in a vehicle, the marked affection
of a father for his child, the definite
and not too attractive ethos of Italian

youths en bloc, the unabashed and
protracted staring of a middle-aged
man at the physical attractions of a
passing woman, even the unconcern
with animal suffering which can leave
cattle penned without any shade in the
courtyard of the inattatoio throughout
a blazing Sunday — these and similar
touches of authenticity combine to
make a remarkable film which those
who know Italy will certainly
appreciate.

The film critic of the Times aptly
pointed out the absence of something
no less typical of a Roman Sunday, the
churches and the people going into
them. We hear that the inmates of the
workhouse are going to Vespers,
though I should have thought that
Vespers for the laity was less
characteristic of Italy than of France,
and the boy who always slept late on
Sunday had obviously not been to Mass.
It may perhaps be that such a total of
reference to Sunday worship is
tendentious, and those who are familiar
with the Continental Sunday might
Wish for a more balanced portrait for
export to this country. But the
Italians who made this picture are so
good-natured about their own national
foibles that I haven’t the heart to wag
too solemn a finger at them. And I
like the trend away from that
pessimism so apparent in a number of
recent Italian films.

O.

CESAR

Starring: Raimu, Pierre Fresnay,

Charpin, Orane Demazis and
Andre Fouche. Producer and
Director: Marcel Pagnol.

Distributors: G. C. T. (Distrib-
utors) Ltd. Certificate-. A.
Category-. A. Running time :
120 minutes.

The third of the trilogy of films
which helped to gain Marcel Pagnol
his election to the Academie Franchise
for his services to the art of cinema,
maintains the high standard of acting
and Gallic wit which distinguished

92

Marius and Fanny. The situations and
dialogue, it is true, occasionally
impinge on the scurrilous and the
improper in a way that gives us pause
in praising this film but, as we have
mentioned before, French films of this
type have at least the merit that they
recognise immorality for what it is
and do not attempt to disguise it
under a camouflage of scientifico-
psvcbologieal jargon. In any case,
compared with the subtly-presented
superior sex-appeal of the average De
Mille epic, which manages to by-pass
the censors by lip-service to
respectability, most French films of this
kind are singularl}' innocuous.

Raimu is Faultless

With Cesar, the story of the
Marseillais quayside family is brought
to a conclusion with the reunion of
Marius and Fanny, after the death of
Panisse, whom she had married at the
instigation of her mother and Cesar.
Her son, now 20 years of age, discovers
that Marius is, in fact, his father, and
his logical analysis of the situation
brings them to see that though they
have made a muddle of their lives
hitherto, there is no sense or virtue in
not putting things right, even at this
late stage.

The film brims with those humorous
Marseillais touches which made the
other two films memorable. So, the
arguments whether alcohol can truly
be said to be the enemy of a liver
which it has never encountered ; the
decision that any man who fails to
kick a bowler hat left enticingly lying
on the pavement must be a lyonaise (the
fact that a large stone is concealed
under the hat gives point to the
“game”) ; the struggle between hatless
respect to the dead at the funeral of
Panisse and the desire to save bald
heads from the ravages of the fierce
Marseilles sun : the sublime absurdity
of the situation where Marius pleads
for the restoration of his parental
rights — and so on.

The acting of Raimu as Cesar is
faultless. His every gesture and
intonation is in keeping with the sly
character he is presenting. Pierre
Fresnay has a larger share of the
limelight than in Fanny and acts with
extraordinary charm. Orane Uemazis
is better suited to the middle-aged
Fanny of this film than she was as the

young girl in the second of the series.
Each player is carefully fitted to the
whole picture and for those whose
choice of film is based on a liking for
adult fare with intelligent French
salting, Cesar is worth viewing.

It should be pointed out that it is
unlikely to prove entertaining to those
who want the film to do all the work
for them.

V.

CENERENTOLA (Cinderella)

From the Opera by Rossini, with
Lori Randi, Gino Del Signore,
and Affro Poli. Director:
Fernando Cerchio. Distributors:
Archw'ay Film Distributors.
Certificate : U. Category : B.

One of the great virtues of the
cinema is that it is so realistic. The
camera can turn from the scene of a
great cavalry charge to the examination
of minute detail as seen through a
microscope. We have come to expect
the film to be real and one of the few
exceptions is in the field of cartoon.
Recently Disney has given us his
interpretation in cartoon of the old
fairy story of Cinderella and now an
Italian company has endeavoured to
present the story again through the
opera of Rossini. Perhaps the greatest
objection that could be levelled against
previous attempts at filming opera is
that on the screen they appear so
incredible. We have now been . used
to seeing real-life characters express
themselves in song. The allowances
we make in the opera-house are
altogether different to those we are
used to making in the cinema. In the
present case, however, this difficulty is
not so noticeable, for the fact that we
are seeing only a fairy tale makes us
prepared to grant that same willing
suspension of disbelief that we make
so automatically for the stage or the
opera. The fantastic nature of the
theme gives Rossini’s opera a great
advantage over such more or less
realistic operas as Carmen. Technical
ingenuity enables Alidoro, the fairy-
godfather of the refurbished tale, to
indulge his magical abilities with the
greatest of ease. He can vanish a coach
with a flick of his wrist and create a
storm by the lift of an eyebrow.

93

The story is played out with a grace
of movement well fitting the elegant
setting. The film was shot in the
Royal Palace at Turin, which provides
just the right atmosphere. Rossini’s
score needs no recommendation and the
singing throughout was most pleasing.
The sub-titles are few and the film is
allowed to speak for itself through the
actions of the characters and the
emotional content of the score. The
camera has been used with
discrimination to light up and
emphasise the important parts of the
story.

In our usual demand on a film this
one is far from being perfect, but of
its kind, it is pleasantly effective. It
should prove of particular value to
those whose knowledge of opera is
largely restricted to broadcasts and
gramophone recordings.

Pat Downey.

THE PARIS WALTZ
(Valse de Paris)

Starring: Yvonne Printemps and

Pierre Fresnay. Director: Marcel
Archard. Distributors: Films de
France. Certificate-. A. Category.
A. Running time : 90 minutes.

This apocryphal “biography” of
Jacques Offenbach, the French-Jewish
composer who contributed more than
70 light operas to the Parisians of the
mid-nineteenth century, is a good
example of a naughty story that is
nicely told. Offenbach’s patronage of
the young singer, Hortense Schneider,
and the series of amorous affairs after
each of which she comes tripping back
to her music master, are rendered
innocuous by reason of the lightness of
the touch and the music which
accompanies them.

Pierre Fresnay is given the
opportunity for an amusing masquerade
as Offenbach and Yvonne Printemps is
almost miraculously youthful and
charming as Hortense. Incidentally,
she sings beautifully and manages at
the same time to look natural : a rare
'achievement on the screen.

This is a film which only adults of
perception are likely fully to enjoy.

V.

THE WANTON (Maneges)

Starring: Simone Signoret and Bernard
Blier. Director: Yves Allegret.

Distributors: Films de France.

Certificate-. X Category: A.

Running time : 90 minutes.

This French film is released with the
new X certificate but, apart from
some unnecessarily intimate and
prolonged osculation there is little
but sophistication to attract the morbid
cinema-goer who thinks the new
certificate is going to provide him with
thrills.

It is quite clear that it is unsuitable
for adolescents, but whether it is of
any use to adults is also a point to be
considered. It is the story of a gold-
digging woman who, when she finds
that her husband’s business is failing,
callously seeks other sources of supply.
In this she is aided and abetted by
her worthless mother. She finds that
she has fallen for a man as
unscrupulous as herself. She meets
with an accident from which she
emerges paralysed for life. Her
husband then departs leaving her to
her mother to be cared for.

As a film it is undistinguished.
There is much too much dialogue.
The characters talk incessantly. The
photography is largely cast in that
underlighted tone which seems now to
have become fashionable. But one
needs more than shadows on stairways
to maintain contact with a film. The
stars do not add to their reputation
but there is an impressive performance
by Jane Ma'rken as the vicious mother.

V.

Pilgrimage to Fatima

The Book of the Film may
be had from
THE BLUE COTTAGE,
SUMNER PLACE MEWS,
S.W.7. Price 2s. 6d.

From Our Educational Panel

BIOLOGY FILM STRIPS
AND FILMS

LIBRARIES

Army Kinema Corporation, 36 Dover
Street, London, W.l.

British Instructional Films, Pathe,
Film House, W'ardour Street, W.l.
Common Ground, Sydney Place,
London, S.W.7.

G.B.I. Film Library, Aintree Road,
Perivale, Middx.

FILM STRIPS

Badger

Common Ground, 504. By Ernest Neal.
32 frames. Price : 15s.

Those who are interested in Natural
History, whether adults or children,
will love this film strip. The
photography is excellent and the
subdivision of the material into
five sections each introduced by a
suitable caption, makes it easier to
follow.

Having seen the Badger in its
natural environment, we are shown the
best way of obtaining a view of this
very shy, nocturnal creature. This
section includes some delightful
photographs of a family of badgers at
play. In the third section, after a
presentation of the much debated
problem, whether badgers are useful
or harmful, the life-history is
summarised in a series of 9 frames,
concluding with a useful diagram of
the annual cycle.

The last section has a practical
interest especially for rural schools.
It deals with the topic of how to find
badgers and the various suggestions
put forward are well illustrated. The
method of looking for foot-prints and
learning to distinguish them from
those of other small mammals, would
appeal to ardent young naturalists and
be well within their scope.

Suitability : Secondary Modern or

Grammar Schools ; child 12 plus.
School Natural History Societies.

Woodland Plants

Common Ground, 378. By R. H.

Hall. Price : 15s.

Biology teachers who are interested
in field work will welcome this useful
film strip. It deals in turn with all
the commonest types of British
woodland, but the two Oakwood types,
viz., the Pedunculate and Sessile, are
treated in much greater detail than the
others. For these, the pre-vernal,
vernal and summer aspects are each
considered, and the characteristic
layering is emphasised. For each
layer the dominant plants are shown,
together with their common associates.
The photography is good and clear and
the teaching notes are a great help in
using the strip to the best advantage.

Suitability : Secondary Modern and

Grammar Schools; children 14-18 years.

Care of Livestock

Common Ground, 467. Price : 15s.

This film strip is intended to be
used in conjunction with one entitled
The Stockincui which has a section
devoted to the rules which must be
observed in the feeding of livestock.

The three sections of the film deal
respectivelv with the following topics :

1. The different groups of food, e.g.,
bulky, fibrous and succulent,
concentrated and complete foods.

2. The constituents of these foods —
proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins,
etc., and their importance to
animals.

3. The factors which decide the
requirements of the animal.

The film has been made in
collaboration with the Film Strip
Advisory Panel of the National
Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs
and this accounts for its rather
technical character and determines its
suitability.

From the point of view of Biology
teaching in schools it is not directly

95

useful, although, as the authors
suggest, it might be used in
conjunction with some of the other
film strips which have been produced,
e.g., Feeding and Digestion in
\iammals (see Focus, February 1949)
to show the application of scientific
principles in the feeding of farm
animals.

FILMS

r SECRETS OF NATURE” Series.

British Instructional Films Ltd.

Hiring charges : 7s. 6d. sound ;

5s. 6d. silent.

The Nightingale

1 reel, sound.

This is an attractive film showing
Lhe habits of the Nightingale. Some
of the photography is excellent,
particularly the shots of the nest with
the fledglings clamouring for food.
In the general woodland scenes,
introduced, one imagines, just to give
background to the film, it is less clear.
The subject matter is simple and quite
suitable for juniors. Captions
accompany some parts of the
commentary and make it still easier for
voting children to follow.

Suitabilitv : Nature Studv; children

9—15.

Summertime Meadow

1 reel, sound.

As the name seems to suggest, this
film is full of sunshine and beauty.
The material is necessarily selective
but nevertheless we are introduced to
a good variety of the plant and animal
inhabitants of the meadow. We see in
“close-ups” the pollination of several
flowers and are fascinated by the move-
ment of a milliped ! We see the
Burnet moth and that beautiful
creature, the swallow tail butterfly.
We watch the caterpillar making its
chrysalis and later, emerging from it.
There is a great deal of information in
the film and sufficient material to
illustrate several lessons. With young
children it could be used to inspire
interest in the wonders of life ; with
older children it would be useful as an
introduction to ecological work. To
get the full value from this very
attractive film, some careful preparation
should precede the showing of it.

Suitability : Secondary Modern or

Grammar School, 11-16.

The Glow Worm

1 reel, sound.

It is not easy to observe all the
habits of the glow worm and this film
enables one to see things which one
reads about but which few are fortunate
enough to see actually taking place.
The photography is very good. The
predatory habits of this peculiar little
creature are well shown. The female
is seen pursuing a snail, anaesthetising
it by an injection behind the head, and
then slowly sucking the nutritive
matter from its unfortunate victim.

The film contains other interesting
material and could be used for different
purposes with children of various ages.

Suitability : Secondary Modern and

Grammar Schools; 11 plus to 16.

Some Plants with Abnormal Methods
of Nutrition

1 reel, sound.

This is not just a Nature Study Film
but is useful for the more formal
teaching of Biology. Only three plants
are selected, viz., the Sundew’, the
Mushroom and Dodder, but they are
treated in considerable detail and
much of the information given is
applicable to other plants of the
same biological types. Thus the
characteristics of parasitic flowering
plants in general are well represented
by the selected example — Dodder — and
so of British insectivorous plants and
saprophytic fungi of the larger variety.
In the case of the latter, it is a pity
that the emphasis is rather on structure
and life-history than on nutrition, but
for the other examples both aspects
are fairly treated.

The germination of Dodder is
beautifully shown and would serve as
a useful illustration of plant movement.

Suitability : School Certificate Class
in Grammar or Secondary Modern
School.

Flowerless Plants

1 reel, sound.

The structure and life history of
Mosses and Ferns are dealt with in this
film and an attempt is made to explain
“Alternation of Generations”.

There is some beautiful micro-
photography but on the whole the
presentation is too difficult for children
below’ the age of 16. It would certainly

96

be useful for YIth Form Biolog}’, at
least for introductory work, but if
intended for this type of work it seems
a pity that both Pteridopliytes and
Bryophvtes are treated together. A
more detailed study of one of these
group\ wonld be more useful.

Suitability : Grammar School ; 16

plus.

The Nasturtium

1 reel, sound.

This is a general study of the life
cycle of a plant fiom seed to seed.
The photography is good and the
commentary simple and clear.
Animated diagrams are used to show
the entry of water and salts into the
root hairs and their passage through
the plant, and also to show the
processes of pollination and
fertilisation. Speeded up photography
gives a clear notion of some aspects of
plant growth. The film is especially
useful as giving a connected picture of
the various activities of the plant and
would be good for revision purposes.

Suitability : Secondary Modern and

Grammar Schools; 14 plus.

Garden Tools

A Ministry of Information Film.
Distributors : Army K i n e m a

Corporation. 1 reel sound. No
charge.

In schools where gardening is taught
this film would be useful both to
children and teachers. It shows first
of all the tools which are essential to
the young gardener and emphasises the
points to be noted when buying new
tools. The same tools are then shown
actually in use and the correct way of
handling them is demonstrated.

ITEM OF

Sioblian McKenna, Irish actress and
film star, has translated Shaw’s St.
Joan into Gaelic (Irish). She
accomplished this task in the space of
three weeks, working from midnight
till 5 a.m. She then produced it in
the Taibhderc, the Irish theatre in
Galway and it was the first time in the
history of this theatre that the house
was sold out. People came from all
parts of the west of Ireland to see

The film would be dull for those who
have no interest in gardening, but for
the keen amateur it would be quite
engrossing and most useful.

Suitability : Amateur Gardeners, all
ages.

Introduction to the Frog

G.B.I. F.1000. Sound, 2 reels. Hiring
charge : 15s.

This film forms an introduction to thej
study of the frog by means of very
skilful photography, employing such
technical devices as slow motion and
under-water photography, as well as
animated diagrams. Early shots show
the frog in its natural surroundings,
followed by a rather disproportionately
lengthy and detailed description of
mating and spawning, and a brief
account of the development of the
tadpole and young frog.

Ail those pictures which show the
frog in its natural home and especially
those concerned with the way in which
the animal moves are very good indeed
and would prove most useful . . .
Those parts of the film concerned with
the development of the fertilised egg,
the movement of blood corpuscles, and
the movement of pigment in cells
although aided by a clear commentary
would be much more valuable if an
attempt were made to bring home to
the viewer the very great magnification
in size.

The purpose of the film is not quite
clear. It is too advanced for young
children, yet the commentary talks
down to them. It would perhaps be
best suited to pupils in Secondary
Modern and lower forms of Secondary
Grammar Schools.

INTEREST

Sioblian play St. Joan. Among those
present on the first night was the
President of Eire, Sean T. O’Kelly.

After the Galway success, Sioblian
took the play to the Abbey in Dublin
where, the critics say, it made history.
This young Irish actress has translated
and produced this play of Shaw with
that seeming effortlessness which is
typical of her genius.

Cover

Personality

Dirk Bogarde

During one of my visits to Pinewood
Studios some years ago, I found the
publicity people in charge of Wessex
Films very excited about a young man
who was playing his first film role
with them. I had gone to talk to
Kathleen Ryan and Cyril Cusack, but
found them, also, enthusiastic about the
dark young man who was sharing the
acting honours with them in Esther
Waters. Alas, Esther was not a good
film, mainly because the rambling
George Moore novel had not submitted
easily to the restrictions of film
scripting, but at least it showed that
Dirk Bogarde, though badly miscast
and required to portray a variety of age
changes beyond his powers, was a
young man worth watching on the
screen.

His next film, made with the same
company, was Once A Jolly Swagman
and here he began to show something
of the individuality which has recently
marked his better performances. As
the young Cockney who becomes a
champion dirt track rider, he brought
considerable powers of observation and
sentiment to bear upon the part.

He had, while in the armed forces
during the war, displayed great skill
in drawing and painting. He had acted
as art critic for one of the London
dailies and had sometimes said that he
would have liked to follow a career as
artist. This perceptive, cultural side of
his nature, helped in the shaping of his
next film part, which was as the young
pianist in " Alien Corn”, in Somerset
Maugham’s Quartet. It was altogether

a change from his previous roles, a
quiet, sensitive, more restrained part
which, somehow, seemed to suit him.
It was much more akin to the quiet,
well-read, scholarly young man with
whom I had chatted in the studio.

His next film role, however, though
a change from the boisterous Cockney
types, was only a change to a
boisterous public-school type in Dear
Mr. Prohack. It added to his
reputation for versatility without
earning him any distinctive acting
honours.

Then followed what is perhaps, his
best-known screen role, that of the
young thug in The Blue Lamp. Here
was a part, a loud Cockney part again,
it is true, but one in which he was able
to develop a more rounded character
and into which he put a great amount
of energy and thought. His gentle,
cultured pianist had quite disappeared
and we had only the cheap, self-
assured, essentially vulgar type which
peoples the London police-courts on
charges of robbery with assault.

Another opportunity for a defined
character was given him in the Borstal
story Boys In Brown in which he
portrayed and convincingly built up
the unpleasant Welsh lad who
sadistically battens on the miseries of
his less intelligent companions.

Dirk Bogarde took the opportunity of
a longish spell on the stage during
which he played in repertory at the
Bedford, Camden Town, and success-
fully essayed many varying roles. His
recent appearances in the West End
with Mai Zetterling in Point of
Departure have definitely added both
to his powers as an actor and to his
reputation as a man willing to work
hard at his chosen craft.

He has another sensitive role as an
artistically thwarted deserter in
Blackmailed. This he plays with a
kind of 'desperate earnestness which,
perhaps, comes nearest to the kind of
role which suits him best. He is
capable of much better work than he
has so far, been given. He evidently
has the ability and also the industry
to give the screen something really of
outstanding quality. One envisages
him as a mixture of Gerard Philipe and
Jean Gabin. I wonder if British films
will ever give him the chance to show
what he really could do ?

John Vincent.

Scriptural Productions

An Independent organisation devoted to the] development 1
and production of films for religious purposes

Under the Direction

! of

1

ANDREW BUCHANAN, D.Litt., Ph.D., F.R.S.A.

Recent Productions include

VISITATION

CRUCIFERS TO WALSINGHAM
PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

Now in Production

THE MASTER CALLETH THEE

(Filiae Boni Matris Consilii)

CATHOLIC ENGLAND

(Including a record of the Hierarchy Centenary Congress)

PARK STUDIOS

Putney Park Lane, London,

S.W.I5

Tel.: PUTney 6274 & 4052

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers). Ltd., for The Catholic Film
Institute, Blue Cottage. Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7.

l&l

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CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

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(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
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Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

/. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.
2. 1 o encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with

the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

5. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of plms.

4. To establish u library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

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Latest Additions:

CHRISTIAN FACTORY. How the Church’s Social
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Made by Alan Turner.

Pilgrimage To Fatima ; Rome Of The Pilgrims ; Holy Year.
Titles Include :

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Vol. IV

FOCUS

No. 4

CONTENTS

Page

Page

Editorial

99

Pool of London

117

American Memories

100

Mr. Drake’s Duck

117

By Declan Flynn, O.F.M.

Flesh and Blood

118

The Cinema and the Enthusiast

Storm Warning

118

104

Our Verv Own ...

119

By Marvvonne Butcher

Fll Get You For This ...

119

“The Production Code’’

107

The 13th Letter

120

By Martin Quigley

A Walk in the Sun

120

The Scenarist

111

Rocky Mountain

121

Bv Andrew Buchanan

Domani E Troppo Tardi

122

Film Reviews

A New Religious Documentary

123

Bv Our Panel of Priests

C.F.I. Notes

124

The Browning Version ...

112

Film Strips for Teaching of

Fourteen Hours

114

Music and Art

125

Wedding Bells

115

By Our Educational Panel

Three Guys Named Mike

116

Documentary

127

The Ghost Goes West ...

116

Letters to the Editor

128

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S.W.l. Michael White, 15 Broad Street Place, London, E.C.2.
Telephone: London Wall 1389.

Revue Internationale du Cinema

Organ of International Catholic Film Office

Number 7— American Number — Contributions by Irene Dunne, Eric Johnson,
Martin Quigley, Darryl Zanuck, W. H. Mooring, and others
English editions of Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and the Holy Year Double
Number 5-6 still available
Subscription rate: £1 per annum
Obtainable from:

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London, S.W.7. The only true international film review dealing with
the Cinema on a Christian basis. Specimen copy on application.

1

FOCUS: review

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. IV APRIL 1951 No. 4

A MODERN NEED

While some Christians continue to Pauiist Fathers have snown it to

keep alive the fallacy that the cinema
is merely a form of entertainment
and is outside the province of rel.gion,
the enemies of religion are busy
making anti-Christian films. Russia
has just made five anti-Christian
films. How obedient she is to the
shade of Lenin, who years ago said :
“If you want to change the thought
of the world you must do so through
the theatre and the cinema!”

Today, the world needs some good
Chr.stian films. The time is
propitious for someone to come along
and present Christian ideas in an
attractive manner on the screen.
Mathematical figures are more
eloquent than figures of speech.
Some figures and facts which appeared
last December in the Los Angeles
Examiner in an article. The Greatest
Film I Ever Made, by Cecil B. De
Mille, prove that good religious films
are wanted and that when the heart
of a film is good the box office will
look after itself.

600 Million Viewers

Cecil B. De Mille’s film : The King
of Kings, has been seen by 6oo
million people. In the past twenty-
three years it has been played
somewhere in the world every week.
Every season of Lent, its 6oo
available prints reach their greatest
circulation. In remote regions the

audiences who have seen no other
pictures. Missionaries have taken
prints up the Ganges and the Congo.
A missionary who replaces his old
print every three years has shown the
picture to 125,000 people. The
picture titles have been translated
into twenty-three languages, including
Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, and
Hindustani. An audience of more
than 30,000 saw it in Inchon and
Seoul, South Korea, in May 1949.
During the revolution in Mexico,
when the churches were closed and
the clergy removed. Catholics went
to theatres showing The King of
Kings on Sundays since they could
not go to Mass. The low hum of
voices praying on rosary beads filled
the theatre as the story unfolded.

A digest of Cecil B. De Mille’s
story appears in the current issue of
The Catholic Digest, to which lively
publication I am indebted for these
facts and figures.

Some time ago C. A. Lejeune wrote:
“Nobody, I hope at this critical time,
will raise a senseless outcry about
preaching in the cinema. The cinema,
with its showmanship, its ritual, and
its text, is really a week-day church;
and Monsieur Vincent, with its plain
illustration of what goodness means in
a man, is worth a dozen sermons,
preached from some wooden pulpit to
blocked ears.’’

Editor.

100

AMERICAN MEMORIES

No. 4: Faith and Films

By

Declan Flynn, O.F.M

It is logical to argue that a man who
has been miraculously restored to health
will see life and its problems with a
clarity and a simplicity that is not
given to the rest of men. Such a man
deserves our attention !

Power of Faith

The man I have in mind is, of course,
Fr. Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., a twentieth
century knight, who, astride the

charger of Faith, rides out to meet the
devil of Communism, with the flashing
sword of the Rosary. This man who was
almost dead is alive to the problems
of the day and uses all the up-to-date
mediums to win his battles. He

believes that the cinema is a God-sent
gift which can be used for the liberation
of the world.

By now his story is, I think, known
to most Catholics ... he was born in
Ireland of parents who gave him a
great love for the Blessed Sacrament
and Our Lady . . . When the financial
position of the large family became
difficult he went to America (1928),
worked for a time in the mines, then
became sexton in Scranton Cathedral,
during which period he felt the call
to the priesthood and entered the Holy
Cross Order of Notre Dame, Indiana
. . . two years before ordination (1939)
he was struck down with tuberculosis
and death seemed imminent ... a
surgical operation was suggested, but
for the surgeon’s knife he substituted
praver and a deep creative confidence
in Our Lady and her Divine Son. That
Faith which can remove mountains
removed the disease of death . . .

In the spirit of medieval chivalry,
Patrick Peyton gave tangible proof of

his gratitude. To his Gracious Lady
he pledged life-long devotion ; the
consecration of ever}- moment of his
life to the restoration of the daily
Family Rosary in the homes of the
Continent of America.

Tete-a-Tete

When Americans describe a man as
“a good guy” they are paying him a
rich compliment. (On one occasion an
American told me that St. Anthony was
his favourite saint and as though to
emphasise the truth of what he said,
he added : “Yeah, a real good guy is
St. Anthony.”) A number of people
who knew that I was interested in the
movies told me tliaf I must see Fr.
Peyton, a real good guy.

One afternoon when New York was
like a Turkish bath, I called to see Fr.
Peyton at the French Hospital, where
all the nuns I met were Irish.
“Fr. Pat’s out of town,” said Sister
Superior, “but he’ll be back any
moment, lie’s got to be back, isn’t he
flying this night to Hollywood to work
on his new- film : The Joyful Mysteries
of the Rosary.” The dear lady
brought me a drink of icy cold pineapple
juice and left me to the daily paper
which is about twenty times the size
of an English daily.

In due time Fr. Peyton came in like
a breath of fresh air. He is tall, broad,
very sturdy looking. It is difficult to
realise that not so very long ago he
was almost a dead man. He was

thrilled to know that there were
Catholics in England who took the
right approach to the cinema and were
determined that it would not be

101

prostituted. He asked a lot of
questions about the Catholic Film
Institute and came to the conclusion
that in some way or another we must
link up . . . “Yes, we must use the
movies to spread the Faith, to bring
peace to the world,” he several times
said.

New Stars

In his book, “The Contrast”, Hilaire
Belloc tells us that the ancients had a
phrase : “New Stars.” They said of
the exile or wanderer . . . “He came
to know new stars”. By that
phrase those wise men meant “new
influences”.

For me, Fr. Peyton was a new
influence. He has all the charm and
graciousness that you find in certain
types of Celts with something plus :
a humility that is most refreshing. “I
live,” he says, “to shake the
Complacency of men. The world needs
the friendship, the love, the humane-
ness of Mary in these critical days.
The driving passion of my soul is to
sell the Rosary to men.”

He does not indulge in pious chatter.
His attack is a counter-attack to
Communism which has almost destroyed
family life, the basis of society.
He is convinced that the Family
Rosary can and will restore family life ;
that better family life will mean a
Christian national life ; that the
restoration of Catholic principles among
nations will bring about the end of wars
and restore happiness for humanity
both here and hereafter. This is the
underlying theme of his films, which
Hollywood stars have dramatised for
him.

Soldier, Priest and Poet

His film, The Road to Peace, has
been praised universally. In it is told
the storv of the world as it might have
been — a modern Utopia blessed with
contentment and happiness for all . . .
then we are shown the world as it is
today . . . woes, woes, woes and then
the climax of the atom bomb . . . we
are made to realise that the power of
God, channeled to men by Mary
Immaculate is greater than the atom
bomb. We are made to realise that
Our Lady has a counteracting weapon :
the Rosary.

I would say that Fr. Peyton is half
soldier, half poet and all priest. When

he is talking about his Rosary Crusade
you would think you were listening
to a military chief plotting out a
battle. His organisation is first-rate.
He sets out to capture a territory in a
most intelligent, calm, cool and
collected manner.

Publicity and organisation are the
twin motors that generate the power
behind the Rosary Crusade. A little
army goes ahead and educates the
public in the meaning of the Family
Rosary and points out the benefits that
accrue from it. Billboards, posters,
letter-seals and window-stickers for
cars and homes all carry the
psychologically powerful slogan : The

family that prays together, stays
together.

There is an official Crusade Prayer
and an official Crusade Hymn. The
Family Theatre, which operates at
Hollywood, sends out its family radio
broadcasts and whenever there is a
place the film-dramatisations of the
Rosary are shown.

Good Planning

A few days after the official
announcement of the Crusade, two
chairmen from each parish are invited
to a diocesan dinner meeting at which
the plan of organisation is outlined.
Armed with a handbook explaining
their duties these Crusade Chairmen,
with their pastors, begin to build
compact parish groups. By the time
of the last meeting, three days before
the beginning of Pledge Week, the
organisation has one Crusade worker
for each five families in the parish.
From a master list submitted by the
pastor, the Central Crusade office
prepares pledge cards for the
individuals in each family and encloses
them in an envelope bearing the name
and the address of the head of the
family. The envelopes are divided
among the workers, who then visit in
pairs the homes assigned to them.

After Fr. Peyton has visited a
territory and captured it he leaves
behind him a programme for
developments.

Acorns and Miracles

When he is talking about the Rosary,
re-creating it, helping people to grasp
its power, to understand its inner
meaning, to realise the spiritual atomic
energv it possesses, he uses the

102

Fr. Peyton discussing his film “The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary” with
Maureen O’Sullivan and Roddy McDowell

pictorial symbolic language of a poet.

He refers to the beads of the Rosary
as acorns in which are concealed
miracles.

“We see some acorns lying on the
ground,” he says. “Men will pass by,
glance at them perhaps, but place no
value upon them. Never do they stop
to consider that within that little shell
lie concealed potential miracles in the
material order. Out of the oaks which
spring from those acorns will come the
wood which will be used to build houses
■ — homes for men ; the oak will supply
material for planes, which will carry
men from one end of the world to the
other.”

He now indicates a bead on his
rosary . . . “This bead is an acorn —
also concealing within itself
unbelievable miracles not in the
material order, but in the spiritual
order. From it will come forth
miracles of grace — blessings for body,
mind and soul of each member of the

family who will devoutly speak the
words Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . .
Gloria and Creed and reverently
meditate on the Mysteries.”

Hollywood is Conquered

It is easy to understand how this man
of Faith captures the hearts of all
people and even captured the heart of
Hollywood.

Here is what Pedro de Cordoba wrote
about Fr. Patrick Peyton’s visit to
Hollywood :

“HE CAME. HE WAS SEEN
AND HEARD. AND ALL WERE i
CONQUERED BY LOVE!

Well, after all, what’s so strange
about that ? Hasn’t LOVE been one*
of the main themes in the Hollywood
pattern ? Or at any rate, a suggested
facsimile of love has been the theme
of Hollywood’s productions.

But the pattern of love advanced by
Father Peyton had a little of the ‘new
look’ about it. This love was not
episodic, but eternal ; not glamorous

103

in the Hollywood sense, but established
in beautiful simplicity; and miracle of
miracles, instead of separating families,
it brought them closer together !

Here was an old approach with a new
look and Hollywood was intrigued at
first, then interested and finally won
over. What inspiring formula did
Father Peyton possess to make such a
deep impression on our Hollywood
stars and bring about such extraordinary
results ?

If you were to ask Father Peyton,
he’d probably tell you it was due to
the merciful power of Our Lord through
the kind intercession of His Blessed
Mother.

That statement we can all readily
accept.

But there is the human medium of
this bestowed gift to be considered, and
if you inquired of our stars why they
were so deeply impressed by Father
Peyton and gladly offered their services
and talents without remuneration to his
‘Family Theatre’ radio programme,
you’d probably learn that his great
simplicity, genuine sincerity, abiding
faith in God and his warm love for
humanity, convinced them that here
was a new road to follow that would

bring peace, not only into their own
lives, but to the entire world.

Hollywood has always felt that love
is the strongest force in a story, the
strongest force in life. But too often
it has forgotten that in life as well as
in stories, love of God is the most
inspiring and necessary force for a
worthwhile and useful life.

Through the help of God and Our
Lady, Father Peyton came to reawaken
this realisation of love of God and to
give it a vital, dramatic and real
presentation by means of the ‘Family
Theatre’ radio programme.

He had his full share of
disappointments, trials, difficulties and
misunderstandings, but 'Family
Theatre’, with the co-operation of the
Mutual Broadcasting System, has come
into being and has firmly established
itself in the hearts of millions of
listeners from coast to coast and abroad.

Hollywood is bringing to the world
a new kind of love, which it is
re-discovering itself.

Congratulations, Hollywood! Your
new GLAMOUR becomes you and
honours vou with vour new motto of
‘THE FAMILY ' THAT PRAYS
TOGETHER, STAYS TOGETHER!’ ”

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS

If one fourth of the Catholic population in England and
Scotland contributed a penny a day for 240 days, the Catholic Film
Institute in England would be able to set up a production unit.

To date £250 has been contributed which has been expended in
part payment of the films Rome of the Pilgrims and Crucifers to
Walsingham. There are many other religious subjects waiting to be
treated if only we can obtain the money. It was the pennies of the
Catholic population in France which made possible the making of the
film Monsieur Vincent.

Please send a donation to Rev. J. A. V. Burke, 357 Beulah
Hill, London, S.E.19.

104

A Positive Approach to the Cinema, No. 9

THE CINEMA AND THE ENTHUSIAST

By MARYVONNE BUTCHER

Monsieur Claude Mauriac, the
distinguished film critic of Le Figaro
Litteraire, writing recently of a film
which he had awaited with high hopes
and had then sat through with growing
disappointment, said : “J’ai raremeut

vu un film aussi mauvais. C’est a
desesperer du cinema. Ce qui m’arrive
de plus en plus souvent. Et pourtant,
je suis en la matiere un homme de foi,
d’esperance et de cliarite.”

Amateur in the Real Sense

And it is as such a one who
genuinely looks upon the cinema as the
seventh art, who goes to the pictures
with faith, hope and charity that I
would like to offer a contribution to
this series of different kinds of positive
approach to the cinema. With no
technical or professional reaction to the
widespread effects and influences of the
film on the life of today, beyond that
of a Catholic citizen with a conscience,
I can only say that I approach the
screen with a positive interest and an
active appreciation; always hopeful,
often disappointed, delighted often
enough ; a member of the audience for
whom a whole evening of arid
mediocrity can be redeemed by one
performance, one sequence, a single shot
even and for whom, correspondingly,
a really good film can bring one of the
liveliest of pleasures.

An enthusiast then, an amateur in
the real sense of the word : one of a
thousand other film-goers of the same
kind and prepared, moreover, to take
that extra trouble without which, in
this life, there is never any return in
valid enjoyment. Just as the potential
of the B.B.C. is wasted if The Radio
Times is never looked at until the
actual moment of listening, so the

potential of the cinema is dissipated if
no effort is made to find out what is
in the air, what the studios and
directors are up to, what kind of films
are showing at any given time. And
there is little excuse for not finding
out : film criticism today is surprisingly
competent for so widely popular an
entertainment ; and in this country at
any rate is on the average very much
better than the equivalent criticism of
the theatre. The first class critics are
very good indeed, whilst with a little
practice it is easy enough to detect the
merely petulant prejudice and easier
still to dismiss the adulation that may
be sponsored bv the box-office or,
hardly less viciously, by sheer
ignorance. Apart from what is written
on films in the daily and Sunday press
and in the weeklies there are the more
technical journals and here, besides
Focus, there are Sequence and Sight
and Sound in which to go gleaning for
the informed study of camera-man,
director or work in progress. Even the
purely “fan” weeklies need not be
despised : they can yield on occasional
fascinating detail of cast or wardrobe.

Unlimited Scope for the Enthusiast

Next, there are the private film clubs
and societies which afford unrivalled
chances to see old, rare and non-
commercial films which might otherwise
be missed ; and these clubs are not the
prerogative of London only, they can
be found scattered all over the country.
In addition, almost every town of any
size has at least one cinema where the
films already shown in the town come
round for the second time, though only
too often these are the more popular
tvpe of picture ; but often there is also
a small house which caters for a
slightly more enterprising audience

105

which will put up with a certain degree
of discomfort if films of intelligence
and distinction can be seen, even if
they are not in their first youth. The
London film enthusiast has, of course,
almost unlimited scope for catching up
with lost opportunities and I can myseif
boast of having, in my time, tracked
The Magnificent Ambersons down to
East Finchley and Blue Angel to
Putney. After all, one would never
grumble at going to Glyndebourne :
why should the cinema get less diligent
attention merely because it is more
generally accessible ?

Enthusiasm Can Be Cultivated

The Catholic Film Institute, we are
told, “exists with the primary object
of inducing people to take the cinema
seriously. That is to say, it regards
the cinema as capable of contributing
something of worth to human
experience”. A serious matter,
therefore, to judge a film, and all the
more important to have detachment and
objectivity in the attitude brought to
that judgment; and the first canon, or
so it seems to me, is that no film should
ever be condemned for not achieving
something it was never designed to
achieve. And whatever other judgments
there may be, whether on grounds of
morality, accuracy, intelligence or what
have you, this primary evaluation on
purely filmic grounds should never be
overlooked. Without it no really
informed enthusiasm can be cultivated,
and although Mr. Goldwyn is reported
in the current issue of Sequence as
saying that “Life is compromise”, no
cineast can afford to compromise with
objectivity. Once on that slope and
Bicycle Thieves is banned for glorifying
theft in less time than it takes to
show it.

Footnotes to the Film distinguishes
the film fan from the mere picture-goer
in this way : “His critical faculty is
developing, he can distinguish between
good and bad photography and knows
something of the technique of film-
making.” And so, the painful evolution
into film fan accomplished, and with
some idea of what constitutes a good
film worked out for one’s own
satisfaction it is legitimate to go ahead
and begin to cultivate a private taste ;
and if it seems of an almost lunatic
breadth of range, what is there to

worry about here ? so much the wider
the range of enjoyment. And if
personal taste involves the exclusion
of some of the more generally accepted
alphas of film-making it can at least
be felt that a due assessment of merit
and demerit has been made, and the
verdict is not entirely based on impulse :
and if the reaction still is “But I do
not like it”, then this may be accepted
as a reasonable idiosyncracy. I am
open to conviction, for instance, that
the work of Jean Vigo in Zero de
Conduite and L’Atalante is stimulating,
free and of an astonishing virtuosity
for its period : but to me it gives

no pleasure. Henri Clouzot, I am
persuaded, is a brilliant director but of
the three films of his which I have seen,
only Quai des Orfevres did not repel
by a kind of reptilian coldness of
treatment. Equally, to have established
canons of taste permits the personal
discovery, the favouritism if you like,
that every enthusiast in any field
will allow himself. Why should
Riabouscliinska be preferred to
Baronova even though the latter is
clearly the purer dancer; why is it more
delightful to have seen Duleepsinjhi
bat long ago than to anticipate the
triumphs of Hutton next season :
impossible to bring forward cogent
arguments, it simply is so. For the
same reasons, then, the film fan will
cherish gratefully pictures that other
people seem hardly even to have noticed.
Ourselves Alone is such a film for me,
Went the Day Well, too, and Stinday
Dinner for a Soldier and an enchanting
Russian fairy-tale called The Magic
Seed. Unpretentious, adequate and
companionable, these pictures form a
kind of bedside shelf of film
reminiscence, different in kind and
content from the formal mental library
built up for real study, in which
Hitchcock is listed from Blackmail and
Murder through the great period to the
sad decline; or Quai des Brumes is
matched against Le Jour se Ltve, and
Chaplin ranges from the first custard-
pie comedy to the recently recaptured
delights of City Lights this winter. In
the course of time, too, a whole gallery
of isolated sequences from films ranging
over years can be acquired, which will
not only give the most subtle and
enduring pleasure in themselves, but
enrich and educate the whole visual
approach to contemporary life. Anna

106

Christie, with Garbo in an old sweater,
her hair blown back so that the lovely
austere profile is quite revealed ; Garbo,
briefly, tying her ballet shoe in Grand
Hotel ; the lovers meeting behind the
frieze of sunflowers in Korda’s Henry
VIII ; the bridge shots in Winterset ; the
trains in Brief Encounter ; any film
enthusiast can advance a collection of
private sequences against the classic
examples from Potemkin, or Citizen
Kane or Carnet de Bat. A mere

beginning, all this, to what can be
done in the way of self-education in the
cinema, for there are all the fields of
acting, photography and music to be
considered.

Responsibility of the Picture-Goer

No one with any sense of social
responsibility can ignore the force of
the cinema today ; the Holy Father
himself has said that it is “a matter
which touches intimately the moral and
religious life of the entire Christian
people”. If one is going to be
interested or talk about it at all it seems
to me that this kind of thought and
study is the bare minimum which the
non-specialist can afford to give : the
specialist must, of course, give much
more. Nothing will ever stop the
person who goes to the pictures perhaps
three times a year from making the
wildest generalisations, but it is_ of no
use letting the ignorant or the hostile
confuse the issue by talking about all
film-goers as though they were morons,
on the assumption that everyone who
goes often to a local cinema is
automatically of no intelligence or taste.
That this is nonsense everyone knows,
and even so extremely intelligent a
person as Miss Elizabeth Bowen will
say of her reasons for going to the
cinema that they . . . ‘‘seem to fall
under five headings : wish to escap.e,
lassitude, sense of lack in my nature
or surroundings, loneliness (however
passing) and natural frivolity”. But no
one could describe the author of The
Heat of the Day as box-office fodder,
and if she is a member of the public so
am I and so is the President of the
Catholic Film Institute : the more

informed and critical I can become the
greater will be my contribution to the
kind of cinema I have learned to
consider valuable. The cinema is the
last form of entertainment, except
perhaps the radio, about which

dogmatic assertions should be made.
Apart from the extreme highbrows,
few are consistent in their approach,
for even the stupidest film-addict will
occasionally see an unusual film almost
by accident, and more often a good one
through routine attendance, though he
may describe neither as “smashing” as
he would The Black Rose. One must
accept the fact that a great many
different people will like the same film
for wildly different reasons, and almost
perhaps for different reasons on
consecutive days. The important thing
to remember is that each one of us is a
member of this vast picture-going
public, that one should never talk of
“they” in this connection without
remembering humbly (or perhaps with
pride) that one is an integral part of
this amorphous mass : that one can,
by dint of never being passive in one’s
acceptance of what is doled out, or
what one goes to see by hazard or
design, keep a critical integrity and,
provided one’s mind is made up on
valid grounds, then proceed to influence
the more passive by the mere fact of
having any opinion at all. Just as
Monsieur Vincent was brought to town
after town by the initiative of the
private film enthusiasts, so one can
bring influence to bear in one’s own
circle to a degree that can hardly be
assessed until the experiment is made.
Father Burke, in his masterly preface
to the Focus Film Course, says, indeed,
everything that needs to be said on this
subject, and I cannot do better than to
conclude with his wise and stimulating
wrords. “Just as there are many
cultured people who are skilled in the
appreciation of music, even though they
may not themselves lie able to perform
on anv musical instrument, so with the
cinema, it is possible and, indeed,
desirable, that there should be a vast
number of people skilled in the
appreciation of film : not because they
intend to become film producers or
directors, but because by knowing w’hat
is good and what is bad about the art
of the film, they may be in a position
to control the output of film by
exercising pressure at the most
sensitive part of the cinema, namely,
the box-office.”

Heartened by this, let all enthusiasts
feel that their personal enjoyment,
addiction even, can be turned to
positive good by canalising their energy
a veuy little more.

107

“THE PRODUCTION CODE”

-ITS CHARACTER AND PURPOSES

By MARTIN QUIGLEY

This article is by Martin Quigley, publisher and editor-in-chief of
a group of motion picture industry publications, including “Motion
Picture Herald”, “Motion Picture Daily”, “Motion Picture Almanac”
and “Fame”.

In 1929 Mr. Quigley originated a “Code” to govern the moral and
social implications of the entertainment film. In the following year he
introduced this Code to the Hollywood producers and gained its
adoption by the producers’ association. Since its adoption it has
provided a rale of moral guidance to the producers of more than ninety
per cent of the films produced in the United States whose productions
normally occupy in excess of seventy-five per cent of the screen time
of the cinemas of the world.

Mr. Quigley is author of a book entitled “Decency in Motion
Pictures” (1937). Since 1915, when he established “Motion Picture
Herald”, he has been active in various causes devoted to the mainten-
ance of right moral and social standards in entertainment films.

March 1950 marked the twentieth
anniversary of the adoption of “The
Production Code” by the organised
motion picture industry in the United
States.

In the two decades that have elapsed
since its introduction the Code has
experienced an eventful career. It has
encountered both approval and scorn
which, to be sure, is understandable
enough in view of the subject matter
with which it treats and its basic
commitment to the primacy of the
moral law.

Good Intentions Not Good Enough

The development of the Code grew
out of long and intimate study of the
medium and its audience effect. From
this study the eventual conclusion was
reached that the maintenance of right
moral and social standards in motion
picture entertainment was not to be
achieved merely by good intentions,
neither were thev to be effected

by idealistic pronouncement, however
sincere.

The need for an organised method of
approach of a kind never previously
attempted in the history of the theatre
eventually became exceedingly clear.
Currently this conclusion was receiving
timely emphasis. Despite intense and
evidently sincere effort to maintain
decent standards, contrary results were
appearing in an increasing measure and
frequency. The medium had lately
become articulate with the introduction
of sound. With its newly-found facility
it was drifting into the employment of
much undesirable material of a type
that was not dealt with in the silent
film.

Generally persons engaged in the
various processes of production,
however talented and ingenious in the
histrionic arts, are not — and could not
be expected to be — trained and
experienced moralists. Yet their
subject matter is of the essence of

108

Need for Guidance

The typical motion picture story is
one in which certain characters are
placed in a relationship with one
another and are then confronted with
some order of problem. The nature of
the relationships and the manner in
which the impending problem is faced
is the stuff of morality. The moral
attitudes which the screen portrays
with unique graphicness inevitably are
calculated to influence the thoughts of
an audience and consequently colour its
behaviour.

An imperative need was found for a
reasonable and workable rule of
guidance, as a beacon light, with
respect to morality for persons engaged
in writing, directing and producing
theatrical films for mass audiences —
audiences comprising many age, social
and cultural groups. The Production
.Code sought to fulfil that need.

With the determination made to
provide such a code of guidance and
regulation, the specialised training and
experience of Rev. Daniel A. Lord,
S.J., theologian, educator and author,
were enlisted for the preparation of
the definitive document which was
eventually adopted by the Motion Picture
Producers’ and Distributors’ Association
of America, Inc., on March 31st, 1930,
under the title, “A Code to Govern the
Making of Talking, Synchronised and
Silent Motion Pictures”.

Out of this collaboration a working
manual of instruction and guidance was
developed. The purpose was to present,
plainly and clearly, a reasoned state-
ment of the moral responsibility
inherent in the production of motion
pictures, and an exposition of the
objective moral principles that apply
to the various categories of words and
deeds as they may be employed in
dramatic representation.

The Code sought — and we believe
succeeded — in effecting a practicable
application of the moral dogmas
revealed in the Ten Commandments
to the function of motion picture
production.

Art and the Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments were the
ruling guide in the preparation of the
Code. Niceties of the theological

distinction were avoided. No particular
doctrinal questions were dealt with.
1 he foundation upon which the
exposition and regulations were based
consisted simply of the elemental
standard of human conduct to which,
formally at least, the whole Western
World subscribes.

The Code has proved to be neither
narrow-minded nor unduly restrictive.
It is negative in character only in the
sense that the Ten Commandments
are negative. Just as the Ten
Commandments prescribe a code of
behaviour that men may live within the
dictates of divine and natural law, so
does the Motion Picture Code provide
to motion picture production an
illumined and specialised way to the
same end. The Code seeks 'to fulfil
that injunction of Pope Pius XI which,
in his encyclical on motion pictures,
tells us that, “The essential purpose of
art ... is to assist in the perfection
of the moral personality of man, and
for this reason art itself must be
moral.”

The Code does not undertake to
legislate for virtue, except such virtue
as is the reward of the avoidance of
evil. Taking first things first, and
recognising that the primary respon-
sibility of the producer is to make
certain that the subject matter and
treatment of the films under his
jurisdiction are not reasonably capable
of exerting an unwholesome and
corrosive influence upon audiences, the
Code does not attempt to tell the
producer what to produce or how to
produce it — save only with respect to
the moral influence of the completed
picture.

The concept out of which the Code
was originated and developed prescinds
from the curious absorption in the
artistic which has overwhelmed many
serious - minded persons in their
contemplation of the potentialities of
the medium.

How'ever desirable it may be to speed
the development of ever - loftier
standards of the art, there still
remains the ponderable fact that we
are here dealing with a mass-form of
entertainment — one to which a vast
public is continuously exposed. Under
the awful significances of the spiritual
destiny of man, if we are to treat with
first things first, the fundamental

109

imperative is that the film in its
influence shall not be in conflict with
the moral law. That is the end which
the Code seeks to serve.

Encourage and spur the producer to
pursue the highest ideals of the art,
prompt him to strive for the enoblement
of his audience, by all means, but
more importantly— warn him, guide
him and encourage him to avoid
depraving his audience !

A film may be pleasing to a large
audience without even approaching the
legitimate standards of art. It may
even be trivial and commonplace, but
if it does not offend the moral law it
fulfils a useful social function in
innocently occupying the leisure time of
a public lacking in interior resources,
to whom idleness is often an
opportunity for mischief. “Recreation
in its manifold variety has become a
necessity of people who labour under
the fatiguing conditions of modern
industry but it must be worthy of the
rational nature of man and therefore
must be morally healthy,” declares the
Papal Encyclical. Therefore, no matter
what intellectual and artistic heights a
film may attain, if it tends to lower
the moral standards of its audience it
is an evil thing.

During the whole of its vital career
the Code has been given competent,
painstaking and loyal application by
Mr. Joseph I. Breen and his staff,
who comprise the Production Code
Administration, the authority charged
bv the producers with responsibility for
enforcement of the Code’s provisions.

The Code and the Film Industry

While the Code has performed no
miracles, it has been the means of
stemming the approach of a vast
quantity of unfit material. It has been
the means of eliminating or tempering
much objectionable detail. It has
through the years elevated the
prevailing concepts of production in
relation to what constitutes legitimately
admissible screen material within the
moral law and the norms of
acceptability that prevail amongst the
peoples of the Western World.

Under trial and experiment the Code
has won an increasing respect and
support from principal persons in the

executive echelon of the American
industry. Aside from its effects within
areas of morality, it has been hailed as
a saving influence against external
criticism and attack and is credited
with enhancing the character, status
and stability of the motion picture and
the industry.

The Code has not escape.d, and
doubtlessly never will wholly escape,
the slings and arrows of persons who
espouse the moral error of art for art’s
sake, by persons who reject the
spiritual destiny of man and the divine
ordinances which everlastingly govern
the moral order. It has not escaped
pillory at the hands of arty Leftists
and confused Liberals. It has not been
free of the assaults, evasions and
trickeries of those who, unmindful of
the awful responsibilities inherent in
the medium, and indifferent as to its
public repute, seek only commercial
advantage.

There is no cause, however, to regard
any part of this as being other than
wliat is to be expected in the common
order of mundane events. If all
persons concerned with the production
of motion pictures were fully and
intelligently informed on the require-
ments of the moral law and were heartily
devoted to the observance of these
requirements the film would offer no
moral problem and there would be no
need for a motion picture code.

But such a status presumes a spiritual
and moral millennium which is not to be
expected forthwith in Hollywood, any
more than in New York, London, Paris,
Rome, Brussels or Madrid. In the
meantime, sitting by with folded hands
and an expression of pained disdain
offers no promise of hastening a
betterment. The weeds grow and the
garden must be cultivated by dint of
detailed and painstaking effort. The
Code has proved, within the limitations
of the environment of a commercial
industry peopled by a miscellany of
men and women, an effective weeding
tool.

Surprise and Disappointment

While the Code has encountered
hostility and opposition in certain areas
for reasons that are abundantly clear,
the lack of understanding and
interest which it has elsewhere

110

met with has contributed surprise and
disappointment.

Its basic concept, which is simply a
workable application of the Decalogue
to the processes of production, would
seem to afford a common meeting
ground for all persons who subscribe to
the principles of objective morality.

Its basic approach to the problem of
the regulation of the moral content of
films must be recognised as not being
subject to legitimate substitution or
variation. Hence the indifferent and
sometimes captious attitude of persons
who profess solicitude for the moral
integrity of the film and the welfare
of its audiences seems to find
explanation only in reasons other than
objective and open-minded study.

During these late years in which the
citadel of Western Civilisation has been
besieged by grave moral error, when
on many fronts what is good is
condemned as evil and what is evil
promoted as good, the Code has
ministered with salutary effect to that
medium which is incomparable in its
influence upon the peoples of the world.

Its failures and its shortcomings in
practice, as deplorable as they may be,
are insignificant in comparison with
the dynamic force for decency which it
has exerted. Informed persons can
only envision with keen trepidation
what might otherwise have been the
result under the unrelenting pressures
that have been present.

The pressures will continue and the
good fight must go on. In this purpose
the active aid of all men of goodwill
is urgently needed.

Key to pictures on page 113

1. Crocker-Harris (Michael Redgrave)

has just had a passage of arms
with Wilson (Paul Medland).

2. Millie (Jean Kent) is scornful of

her husband's meticulousness.

3. M illie and Frank Hunter (Nigel

Patrick), the science master.

4. Millie taunts her husband.

5. Taplow (Brian Smith) causes

Crocker-Harris to break down.

6. Crocker-Harris expresses his

pleasure at Taplow’s present.

7. Crocker-Harris makes a moving

farewell speech.

8. Millie leaves her husband, Crocker-

Harris.

Film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions’’, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
Blue Cottage,

Sumner Place Mews,
London, S.W.7

FOCUS

FILM COURSE

A Series of Lectures to be
delivered at

MORE HOUSE,

53 Cromwell Road,
London, S.W.7
under the supervision of
ANDREW BUCHANAN
at 3 o’clock on
April 7th and alternate
Saturdays until July 14th

FEES: Single Lecture 1/-

Syllabus from Catholic Film
Institute, Blue Cottage, Sumner
Place Mews, London, S.W.7

Ill

FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. No. 3

THE SCENARIST

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

A film, like a house, must be built
to a plan, and the architect is the
writer of the scenario. Whether he be
given a novel, play or original story,
his method of approach is basically the
same. First, he extracts all sequences
and incidents possessing pictorial
value, whilst carefully noting the
importance of all passages, dialogue
and characterisation which cannot be
translated into visuals. Then he
prepares a treatment, which is a non-
technical synopsis of the subject,
varying from 1,000 to, say, 10,000 words.
The treatment presents the scenarist’s
suggested film version of the subject,
and provides a basis for discussion,
revision and elaboration. Some scenes
will be. cut out ; others, which may not
have appeared in the novel or play
being adapted, are inserted to increase
film value. Only when a treatment has
been finally approved does the scenarist
retire to begin the lengthy task of
writing the scenario. This is a detailed
document containing an analysis of
every sequence, every scene, and every
camera angle within each scene. In
addition, it contains all dialogue and
suggested movements of characters.
Often, dialogue is written by a
specialist and passed to the scenarist
to insert in his script.

Despite the fact that an expertly
written scenario is a blue print of the
film to be, it leaves scope for the
imaginative director to improve upon
the presentation of scenes according to
circumstances whilst filming is in
progress. However, before production
can commence, the scenario has to be
rewritten into the form of a shooting
script. Imagine having spent weeks
arranging hundreds of pieces of a jigsaw
puzzle, and then when all are in
position, you tilt the table and they
tumble into a heap. At first sight, a
shooting script seems to resemble the
disarranged jigsaw puzzle, for all the

carefully numbered scenes in the
scenario in chronological order are now
regrouped, disregarding story order or
continuity, but being collected into
scene groups, so that all action taking
place in the hospital ward, the drawing
room, or the cellar, can be filmed on
consecutive days. Similarly, various
exteriors are grouped. Thus, actual
filming is a fragmentary business. There
is no evidence of the final story in the
scenes being made at any given
moment. , And yet if this was not done,
a scene would be erected and
demolished every time it recurred in a
story.

Upon the imagination of the scenarist
the success of a film largely depends.
He is more than a novelist, dramatist
or journalist, for he possesses a very
special visual sense and thinks in terms
of pictures. But he is also a technician
with full knowledge of directing,
camerawork, recording and editing —
otherwise, he could not create a
practical scenario. There are few
writers of religious scenarios as yet,
and it is time they began to appear, for
upon their inspiration depends the
future of the religious film.

FOCUS FILM COURSE
PRIMER

By Andrew Buchanan

Handbooks comprising intro-
ductory articles on all the lectures
comprising the first series of the
Focus Film Course are now
available, price Is. 6d. nett.
Obtainable from More House, 53
Cromwell Road, London, S.W.7, or
from Blue Cottage, Sumner Place
Mews, London, S.W.7.

112

j'iiiVJ y/

By our Panel of Priests

Category A, indicates adults only; B, adults and adolescents ;
C, family audiences ; D, particularly for children

THE BROWNING VERSION

Starring: Michael Redgrave, Jean

Kent and Nigel Patrick, with
Wilfrid Hyde-White, Ronald
Howard and Brian Smith.
Producer: Anthony Asquith.

Director: Anthony Asquith.

Certificate-. A. Category-. B.
Running time-, go minutes.

This film lias an “A” Certificate with
the qualification that it is more suitable
for adults. We can safely put it in
Category “B” for, though it treats an
adult theme with sophistication, it is
not beyond the perception of intelligent
adolescents who are willing to take
some trouble to understand a serious
film.

The Story

The story of The Browning Version
is, in effect, a psychopsy, that is to
say, an investigation into the minds of
two people whose love for each other
has withered into contempt and
hatred. Andrew Crocker-Harris, who
arrived at his college as Classics Master
with a brilliant academic record has to
resign his post owing to ill-health. His
wife, Millie, is a bitter, frustrated
woman, whose social ambitions have
been blasted by her husband's
constitutional weakness. She is a
passionate type and seeks consolation
in a liaison with the science-master,
Frank Hunter. She taunts her husband
with the fact of her infidelity, but he
withdraws into himself and shows the
world a forbidding fafade of austere
and aloof scholarship. He is cordially
disliked by the boys, despised by the

Headmaster and pitied by his
colleagues.

One bov, Taplow, having a
sympathetic streak, reaches behind the
forbidding exterior by means of an
ingenuous gift of the Browning version
of the Agamemnon. This proves to be
the key which releases a whole flood
of repressed emotions and culminates
in Andrew’s liberation from his wife’s
domination and the hope of a happier
though lonely life for the future.

The film, from Terence Ratigan’s
short play, is excellently mounted ; the
transition from stage to screen, though
not imperceptible, is smooth and
efficient ; the sets, by Carmen Dillon,
are impressive and convincing and the
photography pleasing and unfussy.
The direction has Anthony Asquith’s
stamp of sincerity.

Superb Study by Redgrave

The outstanding achievement in this
film is Michael Redgrave’s superb study
of Andrew Crocker-Harris. It is the
best thing he has ever done on the
screen and places him at the very top
of our small group of first-class
character actors. It is a magnificent,
rounded, minutely-observed performance
and should win him a prize at this
year’s Festivals.

Wilfrid Hyde-White is also most
satisfying as the worldly-wise and
cagey Head. Jean Kent works hard as
Millie, though she does not convince
us that she is a great actress. Ronald
Howard fits the role of Andrew’s
young successor. Nigel Patrick plays
the Science Master, Frank Hunter, with
skill and care and Brian Smith is a boy
who makes Taplow a very appealing
young character.

Distinctly a film to be seen and
savoured and seen again.

V.

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114

Left: Dunnigan (Paul Douglas) is successful ill
persuading Robert Cosick (Richard Basehart) t 1
come off the ledge. Above: Mrs. Cosick (Agnet
Moorehead) arrives to talk to her son

FOURTEEN HOURS
Starring: Paul Douglas, Richard

Basehart, Barbara Bel Geddes,
Debra Paget. Certificate: A.

Category: B. Running time:

92 minutes.

Although the dialogue suggests that
attempted suicide is not uncommon in
America, this particular attempt seems
to have caused quite a stir. The film
tells the story of the wearing out of
a long day while a boy stands on a
skyscraper ledge contemplating a jump.
Everything in the city, despite the fact
that it is St. Patrick’s Day, stops to
await the outcome. The reactions of
the various characters involved take
up the story with a level of acting which
is extremely high. The pathos of the
boy’s situation is skilfully deepened by
the half awareness of the general
public. Paul Douglas, as traffic
policeman Dunnigan carries away the
acting honours and Agnes Moorehead
gives a more than competent portrayal
of the would-be suicide’s mother.
Altogether a very good film with its
moral not too heavily underlined. The
story gives the photographers a field
dav and they have taken the
opportunity. J. C.

RAWHIDE

Starring: Tyrone Power, Susan

Hayward, Hugh Marlowe, Dean
Jagger. Director: Henry Hatha-
way. Producer: Samuel G.

Engel. Distributors: 20th

Century-Fox. Certificate: A.

Category: A. Running time:

86 minutes.

This is a Western, with the usual
ingredients : tough guys, in stage

coach, laden with gold, dashing across
wide open spaces, pursued by other
tough guys. There is a hold-up, of
course, and plenty of shooting. It is
all very grim. Not for a moment is
there a flicker of a smile. Humour is
conspicuous by its absence.

The film is well made. It has space.
The acting is competent. The J
photography is most pleasing. Henry 1
Hathaway directs it, which means that
there is plenty of suspense, almost too
much. As a bit of escapism it is good
enough ; but it is surely going too far
to have a baby playing in a film of
this type, particularly when the baby
is shot at by a sadistic brute in order
to force Tyrone Power to surrender. I
found this a bit too raw for my
mental hide. E.

115

Virginia (Barbara Bel Geddes) is called in
to try to persuade her ex-fiance to abandon
the idea of jumping to his death

WEDDING BELLS

Starring: Fred Astaire, Jane Powell,
Peter Lawford, Sarah Churchill.
Producer: Arthur Freed. Director:
Stanley Donen. Presented by
M.-G.-M. Certificate : U. Cate-
gory : B. Running time : 93

minutes.

This dancing and light musical film
has for backcloth, as it were, the Royal
Wedding and thus makes a special
appeal to a British audience. It is a
cheerful little affair which disarms
criticism. Yet mounting my ponderous
war-horse I enter the lists.

By some trick photography Fred
Astaire is represented as dancing on
the walls and ceiling of a room. He
does so because he is in love. But even
making allowances for this pardonable
condition, is it desirable for .him to
carry on so long that we pray that he
may fall down on his head and put an
end to it ? With solo dancing,
particularly, our interest is fungible.
And upside down as well, I ask you.

Astaire is as accomplished and
indefatigable as ever. Jane Powell
gives a first-rate performance, suiting
her part admirably.

In its category this film is above
average. V.

THE STEEL HELMET

Starring: Robert Hutton, Richard

Loo, Steve Brodie, Gene Evans.

Written, Produced and Directed

by Samuel Fuller.

This is a fictional film of the war in
Korea and it comes off. It is, I think,
a much better film than All Quiet on
the Western Front for the reason that
it is more objective and therefore a
better record — therefore a better piece
of propaganda, if that is its purpose.
The action of the story begins when
.Sergeant Zack (Gene Evans) is found
wounded by Short Round (William
Chun), the Korean war orphan. There
is a good performance by William
Chun, who comes to the aid of Sergeant
Zack. Gene Evans gives a memorable
performance of the savage sergeant
who, despite his wounds, hons along,
luting a cigar, always on the look out
for the enemy. He is a courageous
fellow.

The film is well made and the exterior
photography is very good indeed. It is
not too long.

E.

116

Left: A young lady achieves her ambition to
become an air-stewardess. Above: She charms
everyone

THREE GUYS NAMED MIKE

Starring: Jane Wyman, Van Johnson,
Howard Keel and Barry Sullivan.
Producer: Armand Sheldon.

Director: Charles Walters. A

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Produc-
tion. Certificate-. U. Category :
B. Rollicking time : A short

hour and a half.

Here is a pleasant, witty and gay
comedy that I think everyone will like,
if it is safe to say of anything that
everyone will like it. (I thought all
boys liked ices, until the other day I
met one — the only one — that didn’t.)
If you are the odd one who doesn’t
like this, consult your doctor, a
psychiatrist or go to the bath room and
take a dose.

The slender story simply relates how
a forthright young lady (Jane Wyman)
achieves her ambition to become a
stewardess on the American Airlines,
and how, in the process, she charms
everyone in the film, and in the
audience too. See the film. She will
charm you too. But in particular she
captivates three men, each of whom is
more handsome than the other, and
each o’f whom bears very inconveniently

the same name, “Mike”. They all
have equal chances — almost, but not
quite ! An occasional quadrangle is a
change from the “eternal triangle”,
and is more fun.

G.

THE GHOST GOES WEST

Starring: Robert Donat and Jean

Parker, with Eugene Pallette and
Elsa Lanchester. Director: Rene
Clair. Distributors: London

Films. Certificate-. A. Category:
B . Running time : 85 minutes

approx.

This reissue of a film which caught
the popular fancy when it was first
sent out in 1936 still has much to amuse
and entertain. I confess that I found
the rather extravagant guying of
American publicity foibles less funny
than I used to remember and the tilts
at the Scottish less amusing than I
used to think they were.

Still, I am sure that younger cinema-
goers will find much to laugh at in
the story of the 200-year-old ghost who
is compelled to travel with the
dismantled stones and panels of his
Scottish castle when it is purchased

117

by an American business man and
taken down, “stone by stone and panel
by panel”, to be re-erected on the sand
of his Florida estate.

There is, of course, much satire in
telling the story and, perhaps, some
uncertainty as to what proportions
comedy and burlesque should occupy in
such a plot. Theological hairs ought
not, I suppose, to be split over such
a story, though I must own that I am
puzzled as to the place Limbo occupies
and do not understand why it is that
namby-pamby characters in real life
apparently make such terrifying ghosts
when they are dead !

Robert Donat is satisfactory as both
ghost and present-day Glourie. Eugene
Pallette enjoys himself as the American
who buys the haunted lot and Jean
Parker seems refreshingly natural as
the girl who loves ghosts, particularly
Scottish ones. Even I noticed that the
clothes the ladies wear are no longer
fashionable, but that will not, I think,
hinder anybody’s enjoyment of the
film. It is, however, sad that the film
itself has not worn so well as the
clothes.

V.

POOL OF LONDON

Starring: Bonar Colleano, Susan

Shaw, Renee Asherson, Moira
Lister, Earl Cameron, with Max
Adrian, Joan Dowling, James
Robertson Justice. Producer:
Michael Balcon. Director: Basil
Dearden. Distributors: G.F.D.

Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time : 90 minutes.

It’s really only cops and robbers
again, linked to the Merchant Service by
a bit of smuggling. A watchman gets
murdered — that is the chief function of
watchmen in the films — and James
Robertson Justice gets hosed full in the
beard. (One day I hope someone will
make a film called Timber of the
Proms, with this actor taking the part
of Sir Henry Wood.) The fight between
two young women could perfectly
easily have been left out as such
things get the cinema a bad name.

Those who know the City and Port

of London will be pleased with the
backgrounds. But this is not one of
the best films about London to come
from Ealing Studios. This is a pity,
as a good deal of trouble has been
taken : the synopsis programme alone
must have cost quite a lot. Nor will
the picture earn many dollars, for there
is a gentle and indeterminate romance
between a white girl and a nice
coloured seaman, memorably played by
Earl Cameron. But I thought that the
critic who described this as a “liaison”
had quite misconceived it.

Q-

MR. DRAKE’S DUCK

Starring: Douglas Fairbanks, Jnr.,

Yolande Donlan, with Wilfred
Hyde-White, Jon Pertwee, A.
E. Matthews, Howard Marion-
Crawford, Reginald Beckwith.
Producer: Daniel M. Angel.

Director: Val Guest. Distributors:
Eros Films. Certificate: U.

Category: B. Running time:

80 minutes.

Iu this atom-conscious and bureau-
cratic era a uranium egg has distinct
farcical possibilities. The basic idea is
of a duck extracting elements from the
soil and naturally yielding what
scientists labour to produce. But it is
an idea which will not last for the
standard length of a feature film. The
producer must have been hard put to
it at times, as is borne out by the title.
And so there has to be a pointless
prelude, which will seem poor unless
you are one of those fortunate people
who can double up with laughter at
such incidents as a carpenter putting a
plank through a window and saying :
“It’s all right. I’m a glazier too.”
But once the egg is laid and the
military take charge of the farm there
is plenty to laugh at. The veteran,
A. E. Matthews, steals the scene during
a short appearance as a Brigadier.
Frank Phillips is effective as Frank
Phillips. Reginald Beckwith should
not be confused — as he has been — with
Reginald Beck, the director and editor
of films.

O.

118

FLESH AND BLOOD
Starring: Richard Todd, Glynis

Johns, Joan Greenwood, Andre
Morell. Adapted and Produced
toy Anatole de Grunwald.

Director: Anthony Kimmins.

Distributors: British Lion

Corporation. Certificate-. A.
Category : A. Running time :

102 minutes.

To read the names of the personalities
behind this production is to expect
something more than competent. On
coming away one realises that the
acting was of a high standard, that the
direction flashed almost monotonously
into cleverness, and that the production
was painstakingly accurate in the
matter of period. It is a long business
running through three generations,
exciting and masterly though the
evocative transitions were.

The story is based on the play, “The
Sleeping Clergyman” of James Bridie.
It opens with a medical student in
Glasgow who is brilliant, reprobate,
arrogant, rude and dying. He in fact
dies after a quarrel with one of his
“conquests”, who happens to be the
sister of the reliable humdrum doctor
who believes in him. She dies bearing
his daughter and honest Dr. Marshall
(Andre Morell) adopts her. She grows
up into a most attractive minx (Joan
Greenwood), who murders her lover
and, after marriage, commits suicide,
leaving her baby son in the care of —
why, Dr. Marshall, of course. Poor
Marshall now rapidly ageing takes on
this new charge, still looking for
justification on the third generation for
his high hopes of genius.

After a period of wildness, selfishness,
arrogance and rudeness the young
Charles Cameron Sutherland (Richard
Todd) passes brilliantly in the medical
schools and settles down to research.
We end up in Italy with him being
horribly rude to everyone (for, of
course, he is a genius and we all know
geniuses are like that), but he does
eventually cultivate the serum capable
of putting an end to a plague.

Faith and Science have a fair showing
and not at all in conflict either. Early

on, Dr. Marshall notes : "Don’t you
think God has a very good idea of the
principles of biology”. And the only
person Sutherland is not rude to is the
nun who spends herself in the ward of
dying patients. I thought this Sister
Anna of Lilly Kann was one of the most
authentic cinema nuns I’ve seen.

A bit long, a bit choppy, very sad and
well worth seeing, I think.

X.

STORM WARNING

Starring: Ginger Rogers, Ronald

Reagan, Doris Day. Distributors:
Warner Brothers. Certificate :
A. Category: A. Running

time : 89 minutes.

All the intelligent acting in this film
cannot make it other than a sorry affair
bordering on the horrific. We are told
before the film begins that it is in no
way a portrait of American life, that
it is not typical of any town in the
States — and indeed we hope not. But
one has an uneasy feeling that it may
not be too far from the truth, just as
when authors assure us the characters,
are entirely fictional we somehow
suspect that it is just a decoy to prevent
our identifying the models. And if it
is a sad commentary on American life
in particular, it is equally devastating
011 human beings in general.

The story tells how a young
mannequin Ginger Rogers) fortuitously
visiting a small town that is dominated
by the Ku-Klux-Klan arrives just in
time to witness an appalling crime by
that secret society and how, to the
tune of breathless excitement, she is
instrumental in showing up the entire
gang. The film is evidently meant to
hit hard at intolerance of all kinds, and
although it does not actually achieve
this it is definitely on the side of the
angels.

The acting is sufficiently convincing
to evoke a real loathing of these
horrible people. Good performances
are given by most of the cast, but
especially by Ginger Rogers and Steve
Cochran.

G.

119

OUR VERY OWN

Starring: Ann Blyth, Farley Granger,
Joan Evans. Director: David

Miller. Distributors: R.K.O.

Radio. Certificate : U. Category :
A. Running time\ 93 minutes.

Advertisements tell the public that
“You must see this film with someone
you love very much”. This admonition
did not, however, apply to those invited
to the Press Show, for on my ticket
were clearly printed the austere words
“Admit one”. Possibly Mr. Samuel
Goldwyn thought that the presence of
the beloved might distract critics from
the film : personally I would have

welcomed any distraction whatever,
beloved or otherwise.

For this is one of the sloppiest and
most sentimental pictures it has been
my lot to see for a long time. More’s
the pity, since the idea of the story is
a good one — that of the eldest of three
daughters who is suddenly told by her
younger sister that she is adopted, and
her reactions to this startling discovery.
But any opportunity there may have
been of producing something interesting
is completely thrown away.

Mr. Farley Granger and Miss Ann
Blyth (the elder and adopted daughter)
kiss each other at frequent intervals
(though a much-advertised photograph
of their doing so in a minimum of
clothing should not lead anyone to think
that the film is ever unworthy of its
“U” certificate) ; the parents of the
three girls sentimentalise equally over
their real and adopted daughters and
over themselves ; the two elder sisters,
one adopted, one genuine, end in each
other’s arms after quarrelling like two
cats over Mr. Granger ; and everyone
seems to have a very soft spot for the
third and smallest sister, who I thought
needed a sound smacking, though I
must admit that she behaved better as
the film went on.

The actingHs indifferent, except for a
fine performance by Ann Dvorak as the
adopted girl’s real mother.

But possibly you may appreciate the
film more than I did — if, that is, you
do as Mr. Goldwyn advises and are
prepared to pay for two seats.

T. C. F.

I’LL GET YOU FOR THIS

Starring: George Raft, Coleen Gray,
Enzo Staiola. Producer: Joseph
Kaufman. Director: Joseph M.

Newman. Distributors: Indepen-

dent Film Distributors Ltd. in
association with British Lion
Film Corporation Ltd. Certificate :
A. Category-. B. Running time :
83 minutes.

There is much to enjoy in this film.
It is a thriller with a plot rather out
of the ordinary, and one is quite
relieved to find that it does not resolve
itself into a mere hunt for the murderer
of the man whose corpse is found in
Nick Cain’s suite in the luxury hotel
at San Paolo, a town situated (anyhow
for purposes of this film) on the coast
of the Mediterranean. Be that as it
may, the picture was shot in Italy, and
there are some really entrancing view's,
particularly in the ruined village where
Nick and his girl hide when tilings are
getting a bit too hot for them. It is
also a relief that the shooting at the
final meeting of the Good Lot with the
Bad Lot is reduced to a minimum : one
appreciated so much more the complete
discomfiture of the Bads.

George Raft as Nick Cain, the well
known American gambler (but a right
good fellow for all that) and Coleen
Gray as Kay Wonderly, the woman
w'lio supports him in his troublous
adventures and with whom he of course
falls in love in the process, do most
adequately all that is required of them ;
and there is a good performance by
Charles Goldner as Massine, who
appears at first to be going to make
things unpleasant for Nick, but
eventually turns out to be his chief
helper. And it was a delightful and
unexpected surprise to meet again the
boy Enzo Staiola. He has grown
considerably since he charmed us all in
Bicycle Thieves, and the quality of his
acting has increased with his stature.
He has also learnt a few w'ords (only a
few, I am glad to say) of American, but
he stills remains the delightful and
inimitable Italian “monello”, who does
much to help Nick and Kay in their
difficulties and finally walks out of the
picture with an arm round each of them.

Don’t miss this film, particularly if
you love Italy. T. C. F.

120

THE 13th LETTER

Starring: Linda Darnell, Charles

Boyer, Constance Smith, Michae.
Rennie, Frangoise R o s a y .
Producer and Director: Otto

Preminger. Certificate-. A.
Category: B. Running time :

84 minutes.

I trust you will forgive a personal
reminiscence. It has only indirect
value so far as this film is concerned,
but nevertheless I feel you may care
to hear of it. I have a friend living
somewhere in the South of England
who wishes to remain anonymous yet
whose name is among the best known
in the land. I gained his esteem by
rendering him a trifling service (I gave
a fair imitation of a dog barking, thus
warning him of a lurking assailant) and
have ever since kept up the friendship
by an occasional visit.

When last I saw him he greeted me
by saying : “I see that you have

travelled down by Green Line Coach,
that you sat facing the engine and
that you dropped your cigarette ash
down the neck of the lady sitting in
front of you.”

I changed the subject; it was painful.
“You are still devoted to your old
mouse coloured dressing gown,” I
remarked. I take this opportunity of
making clear a point that is not fully
appreciated : the gown in question is
house mouse coloured not field mouse.

“Only the unseeing refer with
disparagement to mouse colour,” he
replied with some feeling. “Mark my
words a fortune awaits the man who
first starts a mouse farm.”

You will be glad to learn that he has
many quiet interests which provide
relaxation for an ever active and
enquiring mind. When I arrived he
was on "his hands and knees in the
kitchen hitting the flagstones with a
hammer to see whether they emitted
radio activity. He informed me that
he is learning Latin in order to study
the Summa of St. Thomas. “I want
to find out how good a detective he
would have made,” he said.

“A laudable pursuit,” I said, “but
the ids and quods and quidquids that
sprinkle every sentence will get you
down.”

“You would measure my brain by
vour own,” he said with something
approaching sarcasm. But his principal

pre-occupation is the composition of a
monograph on his brother Mycroft,
whom he declares to have the finest
mind of any man living. Is Mycroft
behind the flying saucer mystery ? — -
that is the problem.

As I could see that he was about to
lapse into a fit of abstraction on the
mention of this matter, I recounted to
him the plot of The 13 th Letter, which
I had just seen.

“I cannot remember ever having to
solve a case involving poison pen
letters,” he said, “but even that old
fool Poirot could have done infinitely
better than the morons of your film.
Why don’t they take a case from real
life if the}' cannot manufacture a
plausible story out of their heads?”

“You musn’t be too critical,” I
replied. “The ordinary person wants
a couple of hours escape into make
believe.”

“My dear T.,” he said, “pardon the
irritation of an old man. I think we
expect perfection in too imperfect a
spirit.”

He concluded by asking me to give
his best wishes to readers of the Focus.
“Thev are made of stern stuff,” he said.

T.

A WALK IN THE SUN

Starring: Dana Andrews, Richard

Conte, Richard Tyne. Producer:
Lewis Milestone. Certificate: A.
Category: A.

The fact that I had been fighting in
Italy, or pretending to fight, seemed to
be a good reason for my reviewing this
film which is no more or less than a
few hectic hours in the life of a platoon
of American G.I.s who are dumped on
the Salerno beaches at the beginning of
the invasion of Italy. But, of course,
it gave me the difficulty of finding
criticisms which might not be obvious
to the less initiated, if that is I can
claim to be initiated myself. Be that
as it may, I find almost everything to
praise in this film, which to my mind
is so superior after a film like All Quiet
on the Western Front. Here you have
a storv told with truth and candour
which would hardly get past the
military authorities in England. But it
is told too without any idea of
propaganda for peace.

I do not know if it would be a
damaging criticism to American films

121

in general if I said that the main
attraction to me about this particular
piece is that it has managed to capture
some of the vigour and reality that , we
find almost exclusively in French and
Italian films today. Perhaps it is the
setting !

The story is very simple. The
lieutenant, like so many keen young
officers, has his head up, and gets
killed before reaching the shore. The
platoon sergeant goes to report to
someone, and is also killed. The next
top-sergeant takes over, and the platoon
sticks strictly to orders, digging in no
more than a hundred yards from the
beach, waiting for the sergeant who
never conies back. Daylight finds them
moaning at the dirt, moaning at the
delay, moaning at the lack of orders
and smoking endless “butts”. There
follows a typical battle conversation
over the identity of aeroplanes, and an
intense bombing of the beach, with a
straffing of themselves, which gives
them the necessary urge to set off.
They advance, they get dived upon,
they lose some casualties and the top-
sergeant loses his nerve. Sergeant
T\ne takes over (Dana Andrews), they
knock out a German armoured car,
advance on their objective, a farm, and
after considerable difficulty take it.
Just a walk in the sun.

It doesn’t sound much of a story ?
Well it isn’t. But there is a very
definite kick in it. It’s real life. It
is just what happened. In war things
seldom go right. In war, man is
shaken by losing his friends. In war,
it is the endless talker, Rivera here
(Richard Conte), who keeps the rest
cheerful, with empty but heartening
nonsense. Perhaps it is because I can
see the characters so well portrayed
that I enjoyed this. But I do not think
it is only that. There is a humour, a
candour, a simplicity that is winning.

There can be no doubt that the piece
goes to Richard Conte, with his wise-
cracks and his beloved machine-gun,
with which he could never hit the
target, so that he had to bribe another
man. to get the job of gunner. There
is the soldier who is always writing a
letter to his sister Frances telling her
where he is and what’s going on.
There is Sergeant Tyne, taking over
and puzzled bv his authority, not
knowing what to do, but going on.
There is the Italian, enlisted in the
States, who interprets for the two

Eytie prisoners, and finds that one
comes from his father’s home town.

There is much more, but I think you
should see it. It may not all be
pleasant, the theme may be one you
would rather forget. But 1 think you
should see it. Because it is so true,
it may not have a run. Many will sav
it cannot happen like that ; it is too
fantastic. Not really, except that the
numbers of the platoon never diminish,
however many are killed. But I still
think you should go to see it. H.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN
Starring: Errol Flynn, with Patricia
Wymore and Scott Forbes.
Director: William Keighley.

Distributors: Warner Brothers.

Certificate: U. Category : B.

Running time : 85 minutes

approx .

A film which involves scenes with
riding horsemen, Indians and rocky
mountains is almost bound to be
popular with most cinema-goers. Story
mafters little and acting need be of the
sketchiest : so long as the cameraman
knows his stuff, the film is in the bag.

This is the case with Rocky
Mountain. The story is slight : a

Confederate Patrol, led by Errol Flynn,
is trying to rouse the West to side with
General Robert E. Dee against the
Yankees. A girl, riding to meet her
Yankee fiance, is overtaken by Red
Indians, rescued by the Confederate
Bieutenant, who, being a gentleman,
always touches his hat and says
“Ma’am” when talking to a lady and
who, to prove that white men must
stick together, rides out with his patrol
to face certain death at the hands of
the Indians while the girl escapes to
her future husband.

Errol Flynn is convincing as the
Confederate Lieutenant and Scott
Forbes (alias “Julian Dallas” when in
England) is pleasing as the Yankee
Captain. Patricia Wymore, the latest
Mrs. Flvnn in real life, has little to do
except look impossibly proper on the
Californian desert.

The two gentlemen who lead the
opposing American forces in the film
are, curiously, both British. Rather
an achievement in a Hollywood film.
Which only goes to show that Irene
Dunne was in good company as Queen
Yictoria.

122

On the other hand, the supporting
cast left nothing to be desired as far
as names go, including such rare
sobriquets as Slim Pickens, Chubby
Johnson, Buzz Henry, Sheb Wooley and
Yakim Canute. Their accents were in
keeping with their labels.

A little mongrel dog plays an

appealing role as the link between
stern duty and sentiment, and the
music which accompanies his frequent
dashes across the desert to catch up
with his master is calculated to satisfy
those multitudes who think a film is
first class so long as it has a dog in it.

V.

DOMANI E TROPPO TARDI

(Tomorrow is too late)

Starring: Vittorio de Sica, Anna Maria
Pierangelo and Gabriele Dorziat.
Director: Leonide Leurini.

Distributors: London Films.

Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : ioo minutes

approx.

Rarely do hordes of teen-age school-
children on the screen inspire one with
anything but sentiments of revulsion.
In spite of the fact that the Italian
children depicted in Domani e troppo
Tardi are going through the colt
stage and calf-love period of their
development and so behave abominably
to one another they are tolerable because
they are recognisable types and true
to life.

This film tells tenderly and with
restraint the story of the efforts of two
school-teachers, a man and woman (no
romance here!) to deal with the
emotional adolescent problems of their
charges in face of an old-fashioned and
basically Jansenistic opposition.

The difficulties and traps to be
avoided from an excess in either
direction are fairly presented and the
only complaint one has to make is that
the guidance of the Church in this
important matter seems to be unduly
divorced from the excellent advice and
information proffered by the lay-
teachers. That is, save for one
very beautiful and pointed-because-
unstressed scene in a ruined chapel
where a lamp burns before a picture
of Our Lady and she seems to be
extending her maternal protection over
the boy and girl sheltered there from
a storm.

The girl delightfully portrayed by a
pretty youngster named Anna Maria
Pierangelo, cold and unhappy, senses
danger in the situation and breathes a
prayer to Our Lady. The picture seems

to assume an even more protective
attitude as a result of the prayer and
the two youngsters eventually fall
asleep in charming innocence. The
ignorance of the children coupled with
the intolerant bigotry of their guardian
nearly bring about a tragedy but all
ends well.

Mediterranean children are doubtless
more naturally mature than our
northern youngsters and the situations
and circumstances presented in this
film are, perhaps, somewhat excessive
compared with British standards but
the problems treated of are universal
and the remedies likewise. It is the
duty of parents and teachers, in that
order, to see that their children are not
left in a superstitious ignorance of
God-given faculties. They are to be
led to see, according to their need, the
essential dignity and beauty of human
intercourse based on love of one another
as creatures fashioned in the image
and likeness of their Maker. They are
to be taught that violation of that
intercourse for whatever selfish motives
is a degradation of something most
sublime. The lesson of the film is that
neither prudery nor ignorance is a
remedy for faults against decency. The
root of the cure is understanding and
respect based on prayer and restraint.

Needless to say, the photography and
the acting is excellent. The children
are all naturally photogenic and the
sets, for the most part natural, are
convincing. Vittorio de Sica, here
acting as a change from direction, is
a most understanding and sympathetic
teacher. Gabriele Dorziat, the
accomplished French actress, is
terrifying as the bigoted school
directress.

This is a film to remind one of
childish difficulties and to suggest that
memory may be asked to help in
sympathising with and wisely directing
those who are now going through what
we went through long vears ago.

V.

123

A New Religious Documentary

THE MASTER CALLETH THEE

Producers: Scriptural Productions.
Director: Andrew Buchanan.

Commentary spoken by Robert
Speight and F.M.B.C. Category :
C. Running time : 40 minutes.

As far as religious films are
i concerned we are still in the pioneer
period. It is obvious that the
commercial film world having no basic
interest in the subject of religion save
as an idea to be exploited for box-office
purposes, has never considered the
possibilities of film as a positive aid to
; Christianity. The pleasing variety
from gangsterdom and sensuality
provided by films such as Going My
Way, Bells of St. Mary's or The Keys
of the Kingdom, though they did much
to break down certain prejudices with
regard to the lives of priests and nuns,
were but a variation on the formula of
star appeal. They could not be regarded
as serious attempts to use the cinema
for Christianity.

That field has still to be fully
surveyed, but in this country, at least,
it can be said that attempts have been
made to explore new ground. The series
of documentary essays in religious films
associated with the names of Andrew
Buchanan, Christopher Radley and
Charles Desmond Twomey are proof
| enough that there is both a wide
demand for such films and an exciting
horizon of cinematic imagination still
to be investigated. Of films such as
Visitation, Crucifers to Walsingham,
Out of the Darkness, Pilgrimage to
| Fatima and The Faith in Wales it is
possible to say that there are faults in
conception and construction ; indeed,
what film is without blemishes of some
kind ? — but it can honestly be claimed
that these films have opened new
ground and that under normal
commercial conditions they would
never have been made at all.

Now we have another aspect of the
religious film offered to us in The

Master Calleth Thee. This is a semi-
factual presentation, in pageant form,
of the theme of vocation to the religious
life. Maidenhood, on her journey,
seeks to know what she is to do with
her life. On the one hand there are
the glittering attractions of the world ;
on the other, a call to mother the
Mystical Body of Christ in its myriad
forms, whether it be those who need
shelter in old age, teaching and
nursing in childhood, medical care in
sickness, mothering in orphanages, or
the sublimest call to comfort Christ
in contemplation. More than forty
different Orders of Nuns are passed in
review bv Maidenhood, before she
overcomes the siren call of the world
and receives her Cross and her Crown
at the altar foot.

The film is beautifully photographed
by Charles Francis and though the
demands of the Daughters of the
Mother of Good Counsel whose work
it portrays, limits some of the scenes
in a rather static manner, it is full
of interest and thought-provoking
situations and cannot but cause many
a young girl to ponder the call of the
Master in her own case. This is the
purpose of the film and it will, after
its premiere run at the Hammer
Theatre, Wardour Street, London, on
April 9tli, 10th and 11th, be taken
round the country, with the object of
stirring up vocations to the various
religious congregations of women.

The commentary is beautifully and
movingly delivered by Robert Speaight
and one of the members of the
F.M.B.C. These initials cover a group
of women whose special work it is to
foster religious vocations. They have
made a splendid act of faith in the
power of film to move the heart towards
the things of God. They have also
made a courageous act of confidence in
the generosity of the Catholic public
both to answer the call of the Master
and also to contribute to the cost of
the film. It is to be hoped that both
these expectations will be amply
fulfilled.

J. A. V. B.

124

C.F.I. NOTES

Regional Film Societies
Chester Shows the Way

We are always glad to hear of
Catholic film initiatives in the
provinces. The latest enterprise is the
E.Q. Film Society, which lias been
organised in Chester under the
Presidency of the Bishop of
Shrewsbury, the Right Rev. John A.
Murphy. Vice-Presidents are the Very
Rev. Canon Hugh A. Welch, V.F.,
and the Very Rev. Father Aidan,
O.F.M.Cap. The Organising Secretary
is Lieut. -Colonel H A.- A. Howell,
M.B.E. The Society has been formed
with the approval of the Bishop with
the object of presenting in the Chester
Area films with a religious or moral
background.

The first presentation was at the
Tatler Theatre, Foregate Street,
Chester on February 25th when the
films shown were Le Sorrier Du
del, the story of the Cure d’Ars,
and Crucifers to Walsingham. The
attendance was most gratifying and
there is every hope that this courageous
enterprise will have the success it
deserves. The next presentation will
be on Easter Sunday when the films to
be shown will be Pilgrimage to Fatima
and Faith in Wales.

We warmly welcome this new offshoot of
Catholic film action and commend it to
the attention of other provincial Catholic
centres. It is one effectual way to fulfil
Pope Pius XI’s injunction to “promote
good motion pictures”. It means hard
work and little material reward, but it
is worth while doing. It would be
grand if we could count on such a centre
in every large town or city.

Focus Film Course

Lectures on The Structure of the Film
Industry and The Way Films Vary were
given at More House during February
by Andrew Buchanan. These are
lectures 2 and 3 in the Course which
the C.F.I. has organised to be given at
More House, 53 Cromwell Road, London,
S.W.7, the University House recently
opened by the Canonesses of St.
Augustine. The Lecturer insisted that
an understanding of the economic and

technical structure of the film industry
is indispensable to anyone wishing
to appreciate the present position of the
film as a factor in public life. Talking
of the way films vary, Andrew
Buchanan, insisted that the topsy-
turvy financial condition of the industry
today made it impossible for religious, i
educational or children’s films to be
produced commercially. As far as
religious films were concerned, they
could only be properly made by
an amateur group of professional
competence, dedicated to non-
commercial production on a non-profit-
making basis.

We urge as many of our readers
and their friends as possible to
attend these lectures. An adequate
grasp of the subjects covered by the
Course is essential to all those who
claim to be competent film critics.

Publicity

We often hear people say that they
have never heard of the Catholic Film
Institute. This, if true, is very sad.
On the other hand, it is a consolation
for, when people do hear about us they
usually want to help by becoming
members and in other war s. We have
been publicising ourselves as much as
our slender resources will permit for
many years and we have also been
frequently mentioned in the Catholic
Press. Still it is notorious that people
do not notice what is mentioned in the
papers unless there is a campaign of
advertising. This we cannot afford.
We have, from time to time, sent
printed leaflets through the post to
clergy and educational authorities.
Unhappily, not always with remarkable
success. The little pamphlet Dare We
Ignore The Cinema went to more than
8,000 priests, convents, schools and -
colleges. Though it did not produce’
manv results, it was and is a useful
means of telling enquirers what we are
trying to do. We have wondered
whether any of our friends would care
to help us by sending a donation to
have some more copies of this pamphlet
printed. We shall be grateful for any
help of this kind which will help to
bring our Institute and its work before
a wider public.

125

From Our Educational Panel

FILM STRIPS FOR TEACHING OF MUSIC

AND

^ LIBRARIES

C.G.B. Common Ground Ltd., Sidney

Place, S.W.7.

Introduction to Sight Singing

Bv I. Rees-Davies. Part I (35 frames).

C.G.B. 140. Price : 15s.

This is a step-by-step method of
learning to read at sight. It makes use
' of the Curwen Tonic-Solfa system with
a movable “Doll” to give a thorough
training in relative pitch before passing
to the idea of fixed pitch at frame 23.
Its originality lies in its substitution
of squares and rectangles for- one-pulse
and two-pulse units. This is an exact
1 correlation of sound and symbol, by
which the mind is free to experience
pulse and pattern without at the same
time grappling with our present system
of note symbols.

Introduction to Sight Singing

Part II (43 frames). C.G.B. 142.

Price : 15s.

The modern system of note symbols
for duration of sound is now introduced.
As each new symbol is met it is
1 superimposed on the appropriate square
or rectangle and when sufficiently
familiar is allowed to stand on its own.
Reference to the pictorial method of
squares is similarly made whenever a
new rhythm pattern is introduced.

Careful handling of the material at
• this point will be necessary if the
* ’pupil is not to assume that the crochet
is always the unit : but these two strips
taken at the rate of a frame for each
lesson or even for several lessons would
form the nucleus of an attractive and
thoroughly practical music course for
the Primary School or the first two
years of the Secondary School. Part I
leads from the first elements of pulse
and pitch to the use of the major scale
in simple keys. The second part

ART

provides for reading simple melodies in
all keys and major and minor and
modulation to nearly related keys.

To be used as the author wishes this
should be accompanied at least in the
early stages by practical handwork.
Each pupil makes his own cardboard or
wooden stave and coloured units to
place on the staff and in this way
children in their first year at school
could begin to read and “write” music.

Taken at faster pace these two strips
could also form an amusing introductory
or revision course for adults.

Introduction to Music

By W. G. Williams, B.A., B.Mus.,
L.R.A.M., Music Organiser,
Huddersfield Education Committee.

PART I. C.G.B. 326. NOISE AND
MUSICAL NOTES. Price : 15s.

That music is a science far more than
an art is not often given thought. Here
is an excellent film-strip to prove it and
one that offers a field of interest in
music for those who have not much
ability or opportunity where music
making is concerned. The pictures are
clear and well chosen to illustrate
the thesis that for sound to be produced
a vibrating source, a medium and a
receptor are required ; and hence, that
irregular waves cause noise and regular
waves mean musical notes. The control
of sound is also considered.

Gramophone Record to accompany
this strip : C.G.R. 326. Price : 21s.

PART II. C.G.B. 328. PITCH. Price :

15s.

This follows on from the last strip
and deals with factors affecting the
height and depth of sounds and poses
the question of how the exact pitch of
sounds may best be plotted both for
accurac}- and for ease of reading. We

126

then see that a graph, though accurate,
will not be practical for the musician.

PART III. C.G.B. 327. WRITING
MUSIC — I. Price : 15s.

Graphic methods having proved too
clumsy for the musician, he must now
find some other way of transmitting
musical thought. The experiments of
the Church musicians from the seventh
century to the sixteenth are shown.
Illustrations are taken from actual
manuscripts showing some of the
earliest names and then the use of one-
line, two-lines, four-lines and six or
more lines to a stave. Finally, examples
of music for the different orchestral
instruments with appropriate clefs are
shown and might well be used as an
introduction to Score Reading.

PART IV. C.G.B. 329. WRITING
MUSIC — II. Price : 15s.

This deals first of all with the
building of the Diatonic Major and
Minor Key-System and shows the
relationship of the flat series and the
sharp series to the key-board. Frames
1-16 could therefore be used singly to
illustrate lessons or would make a good
revision course. The diagrams are clear
and quickly grasped. Illustrations from
the music of Debussy, Bach and Welsh
folk-song are used to illustrate the
different flavour of the whole tone scale,
the major or minor modes and the
pentatone.

Frames 17-39 are an historical survey
of the methods of indicating duration of
sound from the early attempts to
metrieise neumes to the comparatively
modern looking manuscripts of Henry
VIII’s composition. Then follows an
outline of the modern system of relative
note values.

This should be shown in conjunction
with Part I.

PART V. C.G.B. 330. SHAPES IN
MUSIC. Price : 15s.

This would be a useful introduction to
a studv of each form in music as it
arose or alternatively could be used
entirelv as a revision and summary of
the whole subject. It is not intended
to be an exhaustive study of any one
form but to arouse interest in the
ideas of balance and contrast and
should be accompanied by plenty of
musical illustrations on the piano or

gramophone. Binary Ternary, Rondo,
First Movement form, Fugue, Minuet
and Trio and the whole Symphony or
Sonata are dealt with graphically.
Linear, abstract patterns represent the
building up of phrases, sentences and
movements, and the whole subject is
given its proper value at the end by a
series of frames showing ensemble and
orchestral players and singers at work
interpreting well-known masterpieces
for us, which, without some technical
knowledge of form in music and a
feeling for design they could not do.

The notes accompanying these film
strips contain lists of works for
reference and further reading and of
gramophone records for illustration.

Windows

C.G.B. 77. Price : 15s.

“Windows are peculiar deceptive
things. We look through them . . . we
open them, close them, clean them and
break them, but hardly ever look at
them and certainly never wonder about
them.’’

These are the opening sentences of
the notes and in a spirited and
provocative way the subject is treated,
not historically or technically, but by
showing contrasting principles of
window construction in excellent photo-
graphy accompanied by illuminating
notes. WTe are shown the problems
confronting the window designers in
ages past and the ways they
were solved and developed in modern
times. Among the many windows
shown are slit windows in a castle,
sliding-folding modern windows, the
east window of Gloucester Cathedral
and a factory window made of glass
bricks like a wall. There is included
an appendix giving a good historical
survey of windows and glass. Altogether
a film strip highly recommended for
children 15+ though even younger
children would find much to interest
them.

Houses

C.G.B. 245. Price : 15s.

This strip is only an introduction to
the study of houses, giving as it
does a bare outline history of the
development of the home from
prehistoric times to the present day.
It is divided into three parts. The first

127

part takes us from cave dwellings to
the fourteenth century (17 frames).
The second and the best part of the
strip begins with a good simplified
geological map of England and Wales
and goes on to show the use of local
material and the subsequent character
given to the buildings in the various
localities (10 frames).

“The third section,” to quote the
Introduction, “brings the development
up to the present time showing
outstanding types of the various
periods and finally the present day
improvements in the housing conditions
of the lower classes.” This is
attempting too much in nine frames,
but the strip is interesting and as an
introduction or as a quick revision of
work done it is useful.

Introduction to Perspective

F.B. 631. Fralex. (Common Ground.)

Price : 15s.

The subject is treated by photography
and diagrams. The photography is
good, especially that of the village
streets, and the houses are well used
to illustrate the desired points of
perspective. The diagrams are not very
clegir, and the commentary is dull and
heavy. It is a pity that the elipse was
included as it had to be treated so
summarily. Though it is suggested
that children of 1 1 years would be
interested, this strip is not for beginners
and the age suitability is 15 plus.

Plant Drawing

Part I. F.B. 630. Fralex. (Common
Ground.) Price : 15s.

For anyone teaching or about to teach
plant drawing this is a most useful strip.
The use of paper sculpture to teach form
is well justified and should encourage
others to attempt this method of
exposition. The notes are particularly
good and many useful hints are given ;
these together with the most attractive
photography — certainly the work of an
artist — make this strip one to be
recommended.

Lino Cuts

F.B. 629. P'ralex. (Common Ground.)
Price : 15s.

This is definitely a strip for children
who have attained a proficiency in
drawing technique as the examples of
lino-cut land-scapes done by 11 to
14-year-olds are technically very
competent. All show careful drawing
and planning beforehand. Possibly
vigour and originality are lost by not
cutting more directly on to the block.

The early examples are not very
attractive though they serve to illustrate
points in composition and in the balance
of white, black and greys. All, however,
can learn from the many good points
made in the subsequent examples cut
by the compiler, and from the remarks
on contrasting treatments, spacing of
tones and on the suggestion of mood
and atmosphere.

DOCUMENTARY

FAMILY PORTRAIT

Running time : 25 minutes.

This is a fair to middling documentary
(the last completed work of the late
Flumphrey Jennings) designed to tell
the story of our small islands. In fact
Scotland is only hinted at in a vague
sort of way and the story wears the
straight jacket of a very narrow
conception of what goes to make the
history of a people. St. Thomas More
is not mentioned nor is there anything
said about Oxford and Cambridge for
example. It is impossible to avoid
the impression that the producers and
writers involved consider the high

point of our story to have been reached
when the Forth Bridge was built and
that what they want to tell the world is
that our blast furnaces are as good
as theirs. It is not likely that any of
our visitors will want to go anywhere
near that particular type of achievement
— most of them can outnest us anyway.
What they want to know is who we are
and how it all came about. That is a
difficult sort of story to tell in a film
but it is the best part of our story and
the telling ought to have been
attempted. The commentary is a trifle
refined and bored in sound, but
will be altered to ensure American
consumption.

J. C.

128

Letters to the Editor

Sir,

Having lately read the report of the
C.F.I. Second Annual General Meeting,
I would like to add my comments to
two of the subjects of discussion which
cropped up at the meeting, namely
Focus and interesting the Catholic
population at large in the work of the
Institute.

The second can be done largely with
the help of the first — and here the
degree of attractiveness of Focus counts
enormously. I thought this month’s
number was sub-standard — there was
not the usual presentation of one of the
better films of the month with
accompanying photos. Could not this
have been done with Kim, for instance.
Admittedly, the films reviewed in this
number are not a brilliant selection.
Secondly. I felt that the photos
accompanying “American Memories”
were not very good — especially as two
of them were nearly the same.
Generally, the critiques of films appear
too jumbled up together, which is the
fault of the two columned layout.
Couldn’t the films be classified :
detective, musical, comedy, etc. ? I
agree with Air. David Alurphy’s view
that more illustrations are needed. I
am sure some artist would like to head
the Film Review section with a design
illustrating “Our Panel of Priests”.

As regards spreading interest in the
work of the Institute, I feel a lot could
be done by the formation of small
parish film clubs which would ensure
films advertised by and made by the
C.F.I. were shown in the particular
parishes. Whereas Focus can be
advertised very advantageously if
someone takes one of those copies
usually to be found lingering in the
pamphlet store, and pins it up on some
board, open at the page where is to be

found a review and stills of a film being
shown locally.

Yours sincerely,

N. C. Collins.

College de Garfons,

Dieppe.

Sir,

I would be most grateful if you would
state in y-our next issue at what age
your “Adolescent” grading begins.
This would stop argument as to whether
it is before or after a child leaves school
and make the grading far more useful
to parents. Alay I draw your attention
to Treason being given a “U” certificate
by mistake in your issue whereas it is
an “A” because of the torture scenes,
about which parents need some
indication or I would not mention it.

I am, etc.,

Henrietta Bower.

{Adolescence, the period between
childhood and the adult life, is regarded
by most pcople'as 12 — 17 years for girls
and 14 — 18 for boys. We all know, of
course, that some children grow up
quicker than others. — Editor.)

Fatima Film Shows

Sir,

A further point arises in connection
with the collection taken at the Davis
Theatre, Croydon. It has been pointed
out that, in addition to the £142
collected, 50 worth of the Fatima Film
Book were sold. However this, of
course, is not to be understood as an
addition to the total profit since the
books have already been paid for and
their sale helps to defray the money
already expended on their printing.

Yours faithfully,

AIargaret Moultrie,
Hon. Treasurer, C.F.I.

Cover

Personality

Anne Baxter

I have often wondered what sort of
hidden treasure is sought by those
nebulous but all important Hollywood
people who are called Talent Scouts.

On occasions it has seemed as if the
Talent Scouts were really a wolf pack,
men dedicated to the conviction that
what defines a woman is the long low
whistle she evokes in a certain type of
man. Their discerning eye has found
for the public heroes who beat their
women and seductive sirens without
any brains. But sometimes they rise
above the secondary sex characters and
find us an actress.

This is what happened with Anne
Baxter in 1939. The boys reallv found
an actress.

Controlled Emotion

If you saw her in All / Ibout Eve you
must remember her, and to be
remembered when you play opposite
Bette Davis is only possible for an
actress indeed. Miss Davis has a
wonderful set of emotions. She seems
to have the emotions of all the women
you have ever known. She is feline,
luxuriant, unstable, kind hearted,
unbalanced, loving and spiteful with
hardly a pause between. Her emotionailv
charged intelligence gives her a royal
canvas, and she gives you a vivid and
flamboyant perfcimance in that picture
of the Snares that wait for spoiled

career women. With cold rutlilessuess
Miss Baxter gives the complementary
portrait. In her case it is all done with
intelligently controlled emotion. As
time goes on you loathe her more and
more ; she is selfishness coming out of
solution, crystallising at just the right
moment in the film. The timing,
intelligence and realism of her
performance is completely convincing.
Only afterwards you realise that no
woman could be as spiteful, relentless
and unscrupulous as that.

She picked up an Academy Award in
1946 for her performance in The Razor’s
Edge. She was also the sweet young
woman in Sunday Dinner for a Soldier.

For those who like snippets about
their stars, it can be said that she will
be twenty-eight next May and weighs
just under a cwt. She will also be
worth her weight in gold to any good
director whose horizons are wider than
those of the Talent Scouts.

Her Versatility

She loves music — good swing, such
French moderns as Debussy and Ravel ;
Sibelius, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and
Gershwin.

She is also interested in art. Her
favourites cover a wide range such as
Gaugliin, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Grant
Wood and Thomas Hart Benton.

Her favourite modern authors are
John Steinbeck, Thomas Wolfe and
Thornton Wilder.

She likes to swim and ride horseback
in a western saddle. Her hobby is food.
She likes not only to collect but execute
rare recipes. She spends her spare time
searching out good and unusual places
in which to eat. She has another hobby
too, if it can be classed as such — the
practically lost art of walking,
particularly where she can see and
study various types of people.

She is married to John Hodiak, who
was her co-star in Sunday Dinner for a
Soldier.

Michael Antony.

Scriptural Productions

An Independent' organisation1^ devoted[to the development
8S.XJ and production of films for religious purposes

Under the Direction
of

AN DREWf BUCHANAN, D.Litt., Ph.D.,f;F.R.S.A.

Si ^

Recent Productions include

VISITATION

CRUCIFERS TO WALSINGHAM
PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

Now in Production

THE MASTER CALLETH THEE

(Filiae Boni Matris Consilii)

CATHOLIC ENGLAND

>(lncluding[a record of the Hierarchy Centenary Congress)

'PARK STUDIOS

k

Putney Park Lane, London,

S.W.I5

Tel.: PUTney 6274 & 4052

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Fllr
Institute, Blue Cottage, Sumner Place Mews, London, S.W.7.

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman-. Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

3. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £10.

Privileged Membership, £1.

Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
pamphlet publications. Ordinary members receive a monthly copy
of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote :

"The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified."

Hon. Secretary ■:

Rev. John A. V. Burke, 157 Victoria Street, London, S.W.i

SUBSCRIPTION FORM

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the issue, and enclose remittance value

NAME AND ADDRESS to whioh copies are to be sent:

To: The Manager, FOCUS. 157 Victoria Street. London. S.W.l. Please make
remittances payable to The Catholic Film Institute. The annual subscription
is 7/6, post free.

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

I wish to become a member of the Catholic Film Institute, and enclose

remittance value for year(s) subscription.

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ADDRESS

Subscription rates: Life Member, £10; Privileged Member, £1; Ordinary

Member, 10/-, per annum.

Subscribers of £l and upwards are entitled to receive all new pamphlet
publications issued during their year of membership, together with a monthly
copy of FOCUS. Ordinary Members receive FOCUS.

Please return completed form to The Hon. Secretary, Catholic Film Institute,
157 Victoria Street, London, S.W.l. Kindly make cheques, etc., payable to
The Catholic Film Institute.

Catholic Film Institute

16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Latest Additions:

CHRISTIAN FACTORY. How the Church’s Social
Teaching is put into Practice at the Harmel factories.
Made by Alan Turner.

Pilgrimage To Fatima ; Rome Of The Pilgrims ; Holy Year.
Titles Include :

Monsieur Vincent; Farrebique; To Live In Peace;
Crucifers To Walsingham ; The Sacrifice We Offer;
A Legend Of Norfolk.

Bookings can be accepted now for Hans Nieter’s colour film

THE VATICAN.

All particulars from the Librarian,

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE, 157 VICTORIA STREET,
LONDON, S.W.l. (TATe Gallery 8426)

Vol. IV

FOCUS

No. 5

CONTENTS

Editorial

At the Film Festival in Uruguay
By Freda Bruce Lockhart

Page

131

132

American Memories

... 134

By Declan Flynn, O.F.M.

Catholic Film Institute ...

... 138

Catholic Theatre Guild ...

... 139

The Film and the Mind ...

... 140

By Alan Keenan, O.F.M.

The Director

... 143

By Andrew Buchanan

Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

Captain Hornblower, R.N.
Halls of Montezuma

... 144

... 146

This is my Affair

... 146

Dark City

... 147

Bedtime for Bonzo

... 147

At War with the Army .

Tom Brown’s Schooldays
Tea For Two
The Adventurers ...

Travellers’ Joy

Lights Out

Night Without Stars
Father’s Little Dividend
Jealous}'

Continental Films

Drole de Drame

Les Amourex Sont Seuls au

Monde

Ala Pomme ...

Les Casse-Pieds

Visual Aids

By Our Educational Panel

C.F.I. Notes

Book Review

Page

147

148

150

151

151

152

152

153

153

154

154

154

155

156

159

160

FOCUS — Annual Subscription: 7s. 6d. (post free).

Single Copy: 7+d. (post free).

Glasgow agents: Messrs. James Reilly and Co., 68 Gordon Street, Glasgow, C.l.

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131

FOCUS : review

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. IV MAY 1951 No. 5

FILM ARTISTS

Artists like priests are important people. For this reason they are the
first to be gagged and silenced by the dictators of totalitarian states.

Priests are important, not by virtue of any inherent qualities they possess
(as men they may be less than the rest of men), but because they possess

power to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ; because

they possess power to administer sacraments; because they possess authority
to preach a doctrine not of this world, which reveals visions of the kingdom
of heaven. Priests are doubly important today when so many minds are
being “conditioned” and frozen stiff by the icy doctrine of materialism.

Artists are important, not because of any personal qualities they possess

(as men they may be less than the rest of men), but because they possess

gifts which widen and lengthen the horizons of men’s minds and free their
spirits to roam beyond the confines of matter. Art is the handmaid of
religion and every Christian artist who is true to his vocation, which is “to
reveal”, can prepare the way for the coming of God’s kingdom on earth.

Although film is the latest of the arts, it is not the least of the arts.
No man in his right senses would contend that film is the greatest of the
arts; but he would be a rash man who would deny that it is the most
popular of the arts and the most patronised.

It is because the art of the film is so popular, is enjoyed and understood
by the many, that the Christian film-artist of today has such magnificent
opportunities and such tremendous responsibilities.

The Christian film-artist of today has the power to make such films
as will pierce through the iron curtains of totalitarianism and free men
from the tyranny of materialism. In the years to come we shall be
either bond or free.

It may be said that priests and artists work for the same ends on
different levels. Priests operate in the field of the supernatural. Artists
operate in the field of the natural. Their vocations run along parallel lines
(earth is inter-penetrated with heaven) in such wise they can meet and bring
to men peace, freedom and happiness.

Editor.

132

At the Film Festival in Uruguay

By Freda Bruce Lockhart

One of the first people I met at
Punta del Este, after flying over six
thousand miles to attend the first film
festival in Uruguay, was Andre
Ruszkowski, the indefatigable secretary-
general of the O.C.I.C. I was delighted
to see him there, not only for the
pleasure of finding an old friend so
far from home, but also because his
presence was an encouraging symptom
of the growing firmness of the Catholic
footing in the film world.

Last year in Venice I stayed at the
same hotel as the O.C.I.C. jury at the
Festival ; previously I had met an
O.C.I.C. jury at the Belgian Festival.
Somehow I had not expected to find
the O.C.I.C. so taken for granted, an
established part of the proceedings, so
far on the other side of the world. It
was a very pleasant surprise; still more
so, and an honour too, when M.
Ruszkowski asked me to be a member
of the jury. We were then : three
Uruguayans, a Mexican, an Italian,
Ruszkowski and myself.

People are inclined to pour scorn on
these festivals as tourist rackets or
holiday treats for critics. There was
" some temptation to regard the Punta
del Este festival as a picnic, for
the hospitality was exuberant and
inexhaustible. In my opinion there is
quite a strong case to be made for
Festivals, apart from my own
enjoyment. Anything which enhances
the prestige of good films is a benefit
to the cinema, and festival juries are
almost always responsible enough to
do that, however much one may
disagree with their verdicts. In
addition it is a benefit as well as a
pleasure for those who stalk the jungle
of the studios to meet people from
other countries who take films
seriously. It is an especial pleasure,
of course, to meet Catholic film^

workers from other countries and one
of the pleasantest of all the lavish V
entertainments in Uruguay was a
simple tea-party given by a prominent
local Catholic for June Haver and the
members of the O.C.I.C. jury.
Speaking strictly for myself, it was
also salutary to find this actress, whom
I had candidly always regarded as
just another technicolor - musical
blonde, to be such a truly sweet and
charming and serious young person.

Even more encouraging than the
presence of the O.C.I.C. jury (which
perhaps ought not to have been so
unexpected after all) was the Catholic
climate of the films shown. Not that
Uruguay has not its fair share of
anti-clericalism, even anti-Catholicism ;

I was told that the founder many years
ago of the governing party (which has
been in power for over half a century)
had to turn against the Church for the
same reason as our Henry VIII — he
wanted a divorce to marry a lady not
his wife. It was open talk that the
findings of the Festival Jury would be
affected bv the fact that Catholics in
it were the minority. Of course, there
is always talk about a jury’s awards,
but it seemed plausible that some such
division might account for the
compromise choice of a mediocre film,
like the Italian Domani e Troppo Tardi,
which would hurt nobod}', as the prize
winner, rather than either a film like
La Ronde, which could give scandal
to the religious element, or one with
a specifically Catholic subject like .
Cielo Sulla Palude, the story of Saint >
Maria Goretti, which got the next most
votes after the winner.

Winners and juries apart, what I
meant by the Catholic climate of the
films shown was the unmistakable
sense of being in a Latin and Catholic
climate instead of in a Northern and
Protestant one. It was not a question

133

of occasional films waving nuns or
priests to attract tlie supposed Catholic
or religious market or to cash in on
a fashionable cycle. Quite the reverse.
It was the sense that in the majority
of films from the participating Latin
countries — from Mexico, Brazil, Italy
and even France, as represented here —
it was perfectly clear that the
characters were normally Catholics :
they turned into church to pray, said
grace before meals, crossed themselves,
were buried according to Catholic rite
and custom. A fortnight of this can give
you a quite extraordinarily different
slant on the cinema and its possibilities.

Of the films of positive Catholic
content, the principal novelty and
attraction was the French film of
Bernanos’ Journal d’un Cure de
Campagne, directed by Robert
Bresson. I am ashamed to confess
that I found myself drowsing through
a great deal of this; but that should
not be taken altogether as a. comment
on the film, it was rather a weakness
of the flesh to survive the combination
of small-hours-of-the night hospitality
with midnight film shows. There is,
however, a certain slow monotony
about the film itself of which I saw
enough to detect, I think, the
fundamental flaw. The men who
made this film, it seems to me, have
been afraid even while they have been
bold ; while they have dared to discuss
on the screen spiritual matters, subtle
inward spiritual struggles never before
tackled on the screen, they have not
dared to trust the cinema to tackle
them. The subtleties, the profundities
are in the script, in the commentary
which consists of extracts from the
journal, words used in a purely literary
way; the images, however exquisitely
photographed, are only illustrations to
the words. Adding to the monotony
is the voice of the young actor who
plays the cure. He might have been
most moving in a silent version, but
lacks the expert skill which alone
could have given vocal colour and
light and shade to the commentary. As
a result, with all its words the film
is scarcely as eloquent spiritually as
Dreyer’s silent Passion de Jehanc
D’Arc.

Nevertheless the Cure de Campagne,
even if it does not quite come off, is

a noble and notable failure. I sincerely
hope Flnglish Catholics will soon have
a chance to see and judge it for
themselves ; and I shall certainly go
to see it again.

Cielo Sulla Palude was reviewed by
Focus last year and is even more
overdue to be shown here. I found
this sombre but inspiring film
immensely impressive, both as film-
making and as an introduction to a
saint. Maria Goretti’s story is not an
easy one to tell, but the director,
Genina, has overcome all difficulties
by telling it always as a film ;
whether in his use of space and
light in the long trek across the
marshes, of urgent movement in scenes
where the saint is tormented by her
pursuer, isolated by him from her
mother, of crowd grouping in the
serene death - scene, he achieves
complete integrity of subject and scene,
of form and content.

Besides these two pictures the
Uruguayan Festival was shown Prima
Communione, the Italian comedy in
which Aldo Fabrizi goes through the
anxieties of a father the day before his
daughter’s First Communion. It had
been intended also to show Dieu a
Besoin des Hornmes, the O.C.I.C.’s last
year’s winner of the prize at Venice,
but that was one of the unfulfilled
hopes. Nevertheless if Catholic
representation at festivals continues
to grow at this pace, we shall one day
be able to contemplate a Catholic Film
Festival.

Cielo Sulla Palude had already won
the O.C.I.C. award and so was not
eligible again in Uruguay; nor was
Scott of the Antarctic which had
already won a mention. In the
circumstances the O.C.I.C. jury in
Uruguay gave the award to Intruder
in the Dust. Announcing the award
at the closing ceremony, the chairman
stressed that it was not only for the
film’s attitude to racial persecution,
but for its advocacy of individual
responsibility ; and he noted also its
artistic values. Intruder in the Dust,
directed by Clarence Brown, was
another film I found as noble in its
execution as in conception and one I
imagine Catholics will feel proud to
see commended by the O.C.I.C.

134

AMERICAN MEMORIES

No. 5: Films and Vocations

By

Declan Flynn, O.F.M

Santa Barbara, surrounded on three
sides by richly wooded canyons, is a
picturesque resort in California, poised
between the radiant waters of the
Pacific Ocean and the mysterious-
looking, rhythmic, sloping Santa Ynes
(St. Agnes) mountains. There is a purity
of atmosphere and beauty about Santa
Barbara, it is so full of colour, light and
bird-song, that it has become a natural
habitat for painters, poets, writers and
other artists whose business it is to
express ideas in colour, line or sound.

You could believe that Barbara the
beautiful, the liighly-intelligent young
lady who suffered martyrdom at the
hands of her own father, rather than
forswear the Christian Faith, guards
this town where flowers of varied and
vibrant colours festoon the houses ;
where blossoms like mosaics pave the
paths ; where the music of the old
mission bell recalls the triumph of the
old Faith.

“The drift of pinions, would we
hearken, beats at our clay-shuttered
doors.”

The old Franciscan Mission, the
tenth to be founded (1786) and the
most complete of them all, is one of
the most attractive features of Santa
Barbara. It comprises a low, long line
of cream-coloured buildings with
arched corridors in the centre of which
arises a twin-towered church with pale
pink ionic pilasters which sparkle in

the sun. On the edge of the lawn
athwart the open road a beautifully
carved fountain sprinkles its
benediction ; nearby, under the spread-
ing branches of two friendly sycamore
trees, planted by a thoughtful padre to
give shelter from the sun, you notice 1
an old trough in which beneath a
canopy of cool leaves the Indian-
converts did their washing.

In the little cemetery, to the right,
4,000 Indians lie side by side with 500 I
whites ; a crumbling vault, still in use,
entombs the dead padres (the friars in I
these parts are called padres), who are I
placed like books in shelves. Here you
can read the story of a devoted band I
of missionaries which never I
surrendered to the enemy ; which I
refused to accept secularisation ; which I
when expelled refused to obey. Among I
them lies the remains of a padre I
w'ho is the saintly Fr. Salvierderra of I
Helen Hunt Jackson’s famous novel I
“Ramona”.

Pattern of His Plans

It was in the pleasant precincts of^l
the Santa Barbara mission that I began I
to ponder on the mystery of vocation. I
How I came to fall into such meditative I
mood happened this way . . .

I was met at Santa Barbara station I
by my friend Fr. Doual McHugh who I
is all kindness and courtesy. A car d
awaited me, at the wheel of which was I
seated another friar merrily sketching. I

135

A few hours later, while wandering in
the quadrangle of the old mission
imbibing its peace and history, the
friar who was at the wheel handed me
an excellent sketch in which I, all hot
and dusty, was being greeted by a bare-
footed friar who was looking cool and
elegant. When, later on, I commented
on the skill of the laybrother artist, I
was told that not so long ago he was
working with Walt Disney in his studio
at Hollywood.

While in New York I had met a most
delightful laybrother, Br. John, a man
of about forty who also had been
called from films to friary. I knew,
too, about (since I have checked up on
details) Jose Mojica, the operatic tenor
of international fame and film star who
also was “called” to become a
Franciscan friar. On the other hand.
I had met several people in England
and America who have told me that
they believed that they had been
“placed into” the film world "and were
working therein with a real sense of
vocation. This criss-cross manner in
which the Creator seems to weave the

pattern of His plans fascinated me and
made me realise that there are many
mansions in my Father’s house where
a man can fulfil his vocation.

Is there such a thing as a film-
vocation ? It would seem that there is.

Canticle Films

In Dos Angeles, for example, a non-
Catholic gentleman, Mr. Koster, called
at the friary to see me. He was a
lawyer and businessman in a successful
way who one day awakened to the fact
that the world was going to the devil
and decided to help to do something
about it ; he was convinced that the
“movies” (in America the words films
and cinema are never used) could play
a creative part in restoring men to
Christ and bring lasting peace to the
world, wherefore he gave up law and
put every penny he possessed into a
film-production unit : Canticle Films,

the purpose of which is to operate in
the 16mm. field and produce films of a
good moral, technical and artistic
quality that will influence public

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(Tel.: KEN. 5343)

136

opinion. Upon this Rock is the title of
his first film which is made in
kodacrome. It is the life of Christ seen
through the eves of St. Peter. I was
unable to see the film but I gather that
it is a very moving piece of work. Mr.
Koster takes his film from parish to
parish and works on a fifty-fifty basis.
He supplies the film and the projector,
the parish priest supplies the hall and
the audience, they split the profits and
both parties are pleased. The Guardian
at the friary at Los Angeles where I
was staying had booked the film for a
week.

I was pleased to see that this film
has been noticed in the current issue of
“Revue Internationale du Cinema” as
an example of non-Catholic interest in
the cinema. I think Mr. Koster might
be willing to exchange his film for a
copv of our film Pilgrimage to Fatinia.

Film -Apostle

While in Los Angeles I met another
film-apostle, Bob MacMahon. He is a
lawyer who in his spare time operates
a small unit of Catholic laymen who
also confine their interest to the 16mm.
field. Mr. MacMahon as a lawyer, holds
a secure position, but he is seriously
thinking of giving it up to go into
films as a full-time job, not to make
money (he knows he will lose money),
but for the cause of Christianity. He
told me that since his college days he
felt that he had a vocation to work in
the film world for the honour and glory
of God. Like Andrew Buchanan he
believes that the day is approaching
when there will be a religious Order
dedicated to making films for Christian
purposes. Mr. MacMahon did all he
could to get people in Hollywood
interested in our film : Pilgrimage to
Fatima.

There are too many politicians,
propagandists and tub-thumpers in the
world of today and too few1 poets and
artists. There is a place in the world
today for Christian film artists to draw
aside the dark veils of materialism
and reveal the wonders of Christianity.
Christian film-artists have it in their
power to sow such seeds of thought as
will liberate the , spirit of man from
the tyranny of the false “isms” which,
like chains, have imprisoned men’s
minds.

I would say that there is such a thing
as a film-vocation. Many men have
been called to be apostles of the pen.
I think it was Pere Lacordaire who
said “I will remain crucified to my
pen”. The men of the past who wielded
the pen would — if they were alive today'
— make full use of the cinema.

Fascinating Story

Since I began this article I have been
fortunate enough to meet a friend of
Jose Mojica who passed through
London on his way to Rome. When I
asked him if all the things said about
him were true he smiled and said
“What are you sceptical about?”
“Those bits about the roses,” I replied.
He laughed out loud and assured me
that they were true.

Mojica

The story of Jose Mojica who left the
footlights to become a friar is a
fascinating one. He was born of poor
parents in the small tow'n of St.
Gabriel in the Mexico State of Jalisco.
He became known as “the boy with the
voice of an angel”. He received some
sort of education in a military school
in Mexico but it did not get him any-
where for as a young man we find him
washing dishes in a restaurant in
Times Square, New York. One day,
above the clatter of the dishes, a
Mexican diner heard a golden voice
coming from the kitchen. He asked to
be introduced to the singer. As a
result of that interview Jose was signed
with a musical company touring U.S.A.
He did so well on this tour that he was
given a contract with the Chicago
Grand -Opera Company. He soon found
glory in most European countries.
When only 36 years of age Jose had
found success, money, popularity, the
pleasure of a great name, but he had
not found happiness “There was,”
he says, “a void in my heart.” It was
while reading the life of a Franciscan
in preparation for a part he was
playdng in a film called The Sword and
the Cross that he discovered — for him —
peace of mind and soul would be
found in a Franciscan friary. His
mother who was dependent upon him
was alive so he did the next best thing
to becoming a friar : he became a

member of the Third Order of St.

137

Francis, and bided his time. In the
meantime he built a school for poor
boys and staffed it with Franciscan
Sisters. His mother died in 1941 but
he was not free to join the Franciscan
Order because he was under contract
to go to Buenos Aires to make a film
called Melodies of America. On his
wav to the Argentine he stopped at the
friary of Arequipa and sought permis-
sion to enter as a laybrother when he
had completed his film contract.

What Jose calls “the happiest day of
his life” came a year later when he
received the habit of a Franciscan lay-
brother. But Jose was not destined for
the hidden life. His provincial asked
him to study for the priesthood.
Among his fellow-students Jose was
always merry and bright and regaled
them with songs and stories ; but
inwardly he was suffering torments so
much so that his black hair became
white and he lost three stones in
weight. He felt completely unworthy
to become a priest. He decided to
leave the novitiate. But first he

prayed in a child-like way to St.
Teresa of Lisieux : “If you want me to
be a priest, have one of the other
novices bring me a red rose.” Strange
(and yet not so strange!) a novice
brought Jose a red rose. “I’ve just
been in the garden and thought you
might like this rose.”

Jose was a man of sense. He
thought this might be just coincidence.
Again he prayed to St. Teresa : “If
you really want me to be a priest have
one of the novices bring me a red
carnation and a white rose.” A few
minutes later a novice brought him a
bouquet of carnations and red roses.
“Jose, this is Mexico’s independence
day so I’ve brought you the colours of
your country.” Jose was convinced.
Today, Jose Mojica is a Franciscan
priest. The powers that be allow him
to sing on the stage in the habit of St.
Francis for charity concerts and for the
good of the Church.

This is Jose’s story in brief, but it
is sufficient to emphasise the point of
this article.

PENNY A DAY FOR 240 DAYS

If one fourth of the Catholic population in England and
Scotland contributed a penny a day for 240 days, the Catholic Film
Institute in England would be able to set up a production unit.

To date £250 has been contributed which has been expended in
part payment of the films Rome of the Pilgrims and Crucifers to
Walsingham. There are many other religious subjects waiting to be
treated if only we can obtain the money. It was the pennies of the
Catholic population in France which made possible the making of the
film Monsieur Vincent.

Please send a donation to Rev. J. A. V. Burke, 357 Beulah
Hill, London, S.E.19.

138

Catholic Film Institute

No. 1: Aims and Objects

It remains one of the perennial needs
to explain to faintly scandalised hearers
that the priests who are occupied with
propagating Catholic ideas about the
cinema have, in fact, not only the
approval of their Hierarchy, but also
that this approval derives from the
Holy See itself. One good lady actually
went so far, some years ago, as to say
that priests who went to cinema studios
or who frequented film press-shows
were aiding and abetting those whose
profession was the committing of

mortal sin by means of the cinema !
Granted that this is an extreme
example, there are many whose idea of
the cinema is restricted to extravagant
publicity items spread abroad in the

popular newspapers.

A further point that cannot be too
often stressed is that film is capable of
positively good uses. Accustomed as

we are in these days to the misuse of
words and the narrowing down of ideas
conveyed by certain words, it is an
astonishing thing to note how even
those whose education should have
prepared them to look beyond the
popular meaning attached to words,
will accept without reflection the
arbitrary restriction of such words as
“recreation”, “entertainment”, “art”
or “morals”. Further, the notion that
one need only divest the cinema of

morally objectionable elements for it
to be “safe” for general patronage is
a dangerously materialistic one. Pope
Pius XI in his film encyclical writes
that “Recreation . . . must be worthy
of the rational nature of man and
therefore must be morally healthy”
The two things go together. When
films are completely lacking in ideas
that could attract an intelligent being
for ten minutes it is pernicious to have
them labelled as satisfactory for
general consumption. There is far
too much justification of “escapist”
entertainment. People say that they go
to the films “to get away from it all”,
to “forget their drab everyday lives”.
Excellent, so long as the thing they
escape to is worthy of the rational
nature of man. It is erroneous,

however, to suppose that people can be
present at a film show in which their
minds are left virgin of impressions,
good or bad. As Pius XI says, “Even
the crudest and most primitive minds
which have neither the capacity nor
the desire to make the efforts necessary
for abstraction or deductive reasoning
are captivated by the cinema”.

It is sabotaging to basic moral
teaching to allow' that Catholics may
satisfactorily be present at film shows
which are an insult to the intelligence.
To wish to be entertained, to seek
recreation is a good thing, but it is
to ignore the exalted nature and
destiny of man to forget that even
w'hen we are enjoying legitimate
recreation, we have to be contributing
in some small measure to the purpose
of the Creator. That is why our
lightest amusement should, in some
way’, be re - creative, not merely
escapist.

The fact that, as Pope Pius XI says,
the motion picture is view'ed by
people in a semi-hvpnotic condition of
darkened hall and lighted screen, with
mental, physical and often spiritual
faculties relaxed, places a special
responsibility upon the Christian. Since
it is the most ubiquitous form of
modern diversion, and since the average
commercial film is sub-human in its
intellectual appeal, the cinema presents
a challenge to much that the Church
regards as worthy of the rational
nature of man.

The Catholic Film Institute believes
that, in spite of the gross misuse of
the invention of cinematography, it is
also capable of contributing to the
well-being of man. Not only in the
production of frankly religious films, a
department which, incidentally, is
grievously neglected, but also in the
production of commercial films destined
for public entertainment. Pope Pius
XI was not necessarily thinking of
positively religious films when he
w'rote, “Good motion pictures are
capable of exercising a profoundly
moral influence upon those who see

139

them”. The effect of films such as
San Francisco, in which Spencer
Tracy’s priest was a live, real man of
God, or The Sullivans, in which the
large, Catholic family is so normal and
so good, or even Brief Encounter, in
wrhich an example of the ease with
which an illicit situation can develop
and the realism with which it must be
faced and handled, is not without its
lesson for thoughtful Catholics, such
films are capable of contributing
h something more than amusement
or entertainment : they are truly

“recreative”.

Contained within the phrasing of our
first aim, therefore, is a vision of the
motion picture as a God-given means
of perfecting the human personality,
which is, Pope Pius XI remarks, the
raison d’etre of all art. With its
special power of harnessing light, that
most enchanting of all God’s creations,
so as to bring within the range of our
localised sight events and personalities
quite outside our experience, it can do
for us what no other medium of art
can do. “It speaks by means of vivid
and concrete imagery which the mind
takes in with enjoyment and without
fatigue.”

Aware that, as is the case with all
other mediums of artistic expression,
the cinema will not always be used by
highly gifted practitioners ; that there
will be the second and third-rate

makers of films, we feel that we are
not asking too much when we demand
that the general run of film offered to
the public reach at least the levels of
decency and intelligent form which a
civilised nation would not blush to have
shown as typical of its culture.

Such an enlightened state of
cinematic art requires an equally
enlightened patronage of cinematic art.
In other words, until and unless there
is a sufficiently large and informed
body of people capable of appreciating
the best that film can provide, the
force of moral and cultural gravity will
keep it chained to its present

deplorable level.

We are confident enough in the art
of film to think that it is worth while
continuing to hammer away at Catholic
public opinion. One day we shall see,
as a matter of course, films which are
a compliment to man’s Christian
heritage and his artistic and moral
integrity. It is a long way ahead, this
vision, and there are a large number
of very indifferent people to be
converted. But the alternative is to
leave the cinema in the hands of those
who have no concern for the sons 'of
God. That would be a great
blasphemy : the use of light to bring
darkness over man’s soul. “In Thy
light shall we see light.”

John A. V. Burke.

Catholic Theatre Guild

Readers of Focus will remember that
the Catholic Film Institute has been
hoping for a long time to organise
some kind of Guild which would bring
together those members of the cinema
industry who are Catholics. A move
has now been made to revive the old
| Catholic Stage Guild on a wider and
more democratic basis and this will
include all that we had thought of as
useful for the Catholic members of the
studios. In fact, the temporary
Committee set up at the request of the
authorities at Archbishop’s House,
Westminster, has fixed on the
provisional title, Catholic Theatre
Guild, so that membership may be open

to all who work in theatre, radio,
cinema and the allied arts.

Chairman of the temporary Committee
is Mr. Ted Kavanagh and the members
include : Miss Mary O’Farrell, Miss

Marie Ney, Mr. Robert Speaight, Mr.
David Peel, Mr. Michael Brooke, Mr.
Alan Rye and Father Joseph O’Hear.

Members of whatever department of
any of the entertainment professions
are invited to write for particulars to
Mr. Alan Rye, c/o Corpus Christi,
Maiden Lane, W.C.2. Further details
of the development of this most
interesting and necessary enterprise
will be given in a later issue of this
magazine.

140

A Positive Approach to the Cinema, No. 10

The Film and the Mind

By ALAN KEENAN, O.F.M.

The Power of the Visual Aid

You may see a car crash in five
seconds. It will take you five minutes
to describe it to your friends, and you
may describe it very well, but a single
photograph in tomorrow’s paper will
beggar r-our description.

Now a synthetic sequence of
photographs giving the illusion of
movement is what constitutes a film.
Words describe events for you : but
films make those events into pictures.
You become the characters of a story :
the evewitness of events, for no other
medium of instruction can compare
with the visual technique. It is a
fact that in acquiring information
about anything people prefer vision to
any other sense.

When you read a book, word by
word the imagination builds its mosaic.
It is a good book and the characters
come alive. They live in your
imagination and with effort they will
live again. A film of that book,
however, must acquire a new sense of
reality. You have not got to imagine
that the characters say this or that,
they do it before your eyes : the screen
does all the work for you, and it does
it with realism. No calipers are fine
enough to measure the thickness of
the film on the screen, but you are
chasing crooks through dockland or
dodging Indian arrows in a prairie
schooner.

Not only does a film give you a vivid
sequence of ready-made and technically
fine images; it will very often supply
you with a sequence of ready-made
emotions as well. The actors are
good actors : capable of enlisting yont
sympathy, your love or your hatred.
All vou have to do is accept them, and
since you have gone to the cinema fol

entertainment you will probably do
that anyway. Moreover, you do not
have to perform any mental work
while you watch the screen. Your

mind had to work when you read the
book ; and you could always put the
book down and think about it; but the
film does not stop — it is a synthetic
sequence. You can be as passive as a
dreamer and as helpless as an eye-
witness. Vou can be; but you need
not be.

We must accept the possibility that
with practically no expenditure of I
mental energy, and no labour in
imagination, without emotional effort
and little but passivity, one can be
entertained by a million dollar epic
which costs us half a crown. For
these reasons and for others, some good
and some bad, a remarkably large
proportion of the population goes to
the cinema about once a week.

The Validity of Escape

There are better reasons for going to
the cinema frequently than those given
above, but the above are not bad
reasons and they are valid, and I do
not think we should regard them as
invalid because they are not noble
enough. Every film-goer escapes from
something into what he sees on the
screen. What he sees should be
something worth escaping into, but
we are not, for the moment, discussing (I
the quality of the escape, only its
necessity. Some release from urban
and industrial monotony is necessary,
and at the level of this discussion a
number of people escape through the
fantasy of film ; as they used to do
it through the medium of the music-
hall, or through the leathery smell of
an Edwardian hansom; as they still do,
through the medium of a Southend

141

excursion, or a trip to the local round
the corner. Obviously habitual escape
from what we should be doing is
indefensible, but we are not talking
about surfeits. A surfeit of pictures is
bad in the same way that a surfeit of
alcohol is bad. In moderation it is
a stimulant; in excess it is a narcotic.
Virtue always resides in the mean,
with the exception of the theological
virtues; and 1 cannot see why drinking
| and film-going any less than eating
and being merry should not be virtues
if they are done in moderation for the
glory of God.

The Quality of the Means of Escape

Accepting the validity of the
practically universal social habit of
going to the pictures, we can now
consider a distinct thing, namely the
quality of pictures that people see.
Films are made by men with box-office
minds. Some of the producers will
have more than box-office in mind.
They will be in the film trade not only
for money, or not even for money, but
because they are also artists or men
with moral purposes. But the loftier
the mind the more it must think of
box-office. Studios have got to be
paid, distributors have to be found,
money must come from somewhere to
cover the high costs of production, art
or morals must come in a way that
will excite people to pay to see it.
Otherwise no art comes and no message
through the film is ' possible. It
follows that production has to be
governed by the simple law of demand.
It follows that the producer is not
solely responsible for the film he
produces : the public is responsible as
well. The type of film the producer
makes, will be the type the people
want.

It seems to me that the mass
entertainments of any nation validly
mirror its culture or lack of culture,
f its morals or lack of morals, its
intellect or lack of intellect in just as
. valid a way as its arts, its industries,
its churches and its books. The kind
of films we have and like is the mirror
of the kind of people we are and want
to be. The Odeons of the modern
world do not seem to be less valid
mirrors than the Colosseums of ancient
Rome. I pass no judgment on the sort
of age we are : the mirrors may be

inspected by others who can examine
the reflections and see, perchance,
whether their faces are among the
multitudes.

Some comments are relevant if
judgments are not. It seems
incontrovertible that the safest box-
office factor is degraded sex, more or
less according as the Hays Office or
the Censors will allow. A low budget
film with a spicy blonde is always a
good investment. The film need not be
very good, it need not be any good,
it can be dark and dingy ; but no
matter howr dingy it is some people
will always go for the same reasons
that some people go for walks in the
dark and dingy streets of Soho. Other
films secure their financial foundations
by appealing in more or less degree to
some of the other foundation passions
in the human race. Women beaters,
thugs, rapers and monsters titivate
tired passions and mirror the flight of
the soul. Very few films are
exclusively that, for censorship reasons,
but they may include brief moments of
eroticism ; and the fact that they do
sometimes occur, even if they occur
only in films marked “X”, is sufficient

Your Film
Show

The Catholic Film
Institute projection
unit is available for
film shows in the
London area

Moderate Charges

Particulars from

157 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.I

142

justification for considering some of
the defences the mind might acquire.

The Defences of the Mind

It is sometimes claimed that film-
going stultifies thought because it
spoon-feeds the imagination and robs
the mind of creative impulse. This
need not be so, although it may be
so for some individuals. The reasons
why it can be so have been touched
upon. In fairness, however, we must
remember that the film is a two edged
sword. If it can stultify the
imagination by doing its work ; it can
move the imagination to construct
and create by the force of stimulation.
If sometimes it gives wrong views of
reality ; at other times it gives
unsuspected views of reality, views
that correct, views that educate; that
inspire and even sanctify those with
eyes prepared to see.

Such a vision is surely possible if
one’s speculative reason, or power of
rational criticism, is kept alive. The
values, if they are values, at the base
of some films should be inspected and
comprehended. The happiest life is
not necessarily the one lived in a Bel
Air Chateau, and love is surely more
than a streamlined seduction of a
brazen blonde for the price of a mink
stole. Some men do exist without
psychiatry and “Chanel” does not
eliminate the odour of original sin.
One’s practical reason, or conscience
has equally its canons of beauty, and
these need not sleep either.

Another way of putting this is to say
that the best way to see any film is to
see it as a Catholic, for the Catholic
shares in the vision of the Church,
which is the vision of Christ and
therefore the finest aesthetic in the
world. This aesthetic says that all
material things in greater or lesser
degree mirror the Infinite Beauty which
made them. If the film mirrors life
it reflects it beautifully if no offence
is done to that Ancient Beauty who
pitched His tent among us and shared
our flesh. That Beauty is the splendour
of order and the reflection of that order
is what might humbly be sought for,
when we go to the cinema. We shall
see some things which are beautiful
but none of them will have the fullness
of beauty if they insult or exclude the
archetypal Beauty of which they are
the finite expression.

Film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions”, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THEMASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
157 Victoria Street
London, S.W.l

FOCUS

FILM COURSE

A Series of Lectures to be
delivered at

MORE HOUSE,

53 Cromwell Road,
London, S.W.7
under the supervision of
ANDREW BUCHANAN
at 3 o’clock on
April 7th and alternate
Saturdays until July 14th

FEES: Single Lecture 1 /-

Syllabus from Catholic Film
Institute, 157 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.l

143

FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. No. 4

THE DIRECTOR

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

It often seems to me as if the entire
human race is composed of people who
either want to be film stars or film
directors, the most enthusiastic always
being those who know least about
either calling. Discovering budding
stars is not my vocation, I am relieved
to say, but for many years people have
been asking me how they can become
film directors. Usually, they have no
qualifications, the idea having got
around that a director doesn’t need any.
How, then, does one begin ? There is
no recognised course of study — no
main road — and there is also no short
cut. Successful directors have begun
as scenarists, dramatists, journalists,
stage producers, cameramen, film
editors. One may be any or none of
these, but in addition, one must obtain
first-hand experience of film-making in
a studio, or with a documentary unit,
learning everything possible of the
various technical processes involved,
for the director has to co-ordinate the
work of numerous technical specialists,
and this he could not do if ignorant
of their activities. The first essential,
therefore, is to possess an all-round
knowledge of production technicalities.
The second is to be blessed with the
right characteristics — the kind of
personality capable of influencing
others without seeming to dominate
them. A great many highly technical
people who began by aspiring to film
direction realise after long production
experience that they lack the human
qualities essential in a good director.

One cannot classify such invisible
gifts ; they vary considerably, but
generally speaking, the director needs
a wide and deep knowledge of human
nature — insight. He must be the sort
of person capable of putting others at
their ease. He must be calm in a
crisis — and there’s at least one every
day in film-making ! And he must be
unusually systematic. In a sentence,
therefore, he must combine the vision
and sensitive nature of an artist with

first class technical and administrative
ability.

You have already learnt how and
why scenes are produced out of story
order so that all action taking place
in each particular setting may be
filmed on consecutive days. This
jig-saw approach makes it necessary
for the director to visualise every
fragment of action in its final correct
place — so that it shall fit perfectly.
Imagine the chaos if he was scatter-
brained.

The director is the unseen star. He
is reflected in the players whom he
inspires. All their movements and
vocal inflections are instructed by him.
Naturally, they need to have complete
confidence in him if they are going
to allow him to mould them so
completely, which means he must
begin by having complete confidence in
himself.

It would be wise, I feel, for anyone
wishing to become a film director to
step outside himself and spend some
time examining his personality in a
detached manner, and then to
remember that the right (and rare)
characteristics are in themselves of
little value until supported by a
thorough technical knowledge of film
production.

FOCUS FILM COURSE
PRIMER

By Andrew Buchanan

Handbooks comprising intro-
ductory articles on all the lectures
comprising the first series of the
Focus Film Course are now
available, price Is. 6d. nett.
Obtainable from More House, 53
Cromwell Road, London, S.W.7, or
from 157 Victoria Street, London,
S.W.l.

144

jiiLsa

By our Panel of Priests

Category A, indicates adults only; B, adults and adolescents ;
C, family audiences; D, particularly for children

<

CAPTAIN HORNBLOWER, R.N.

Starring: Gregory Peck, Virginia

Mayo, Robert Beatty, James
Robertson Justice, Denis O’Dea.
Director: Raoul Walsh. Distrib-
utors: Warner Bros. Certificate :
U. Category : C.

Warner Brothers have ever}' reason
to blow their own horn for presenting
such a successful film. Captain
Hornblower, R.N., overflows with
good things. After so many murder
films and psycho films in which we
have been plunged in the morbid and
messy depths of other people’s sub-
conscious minds, it is relief indeed
to breathe in the wide open spaces of
the sea and follow an objective story
which has colour, space, pace,
adventure, excitement, moments of
poignancy and glory, a deal of unforced
humour and excellent acting.

Work of Art

The Americans seldom make a
technically bad film. The technical

A Serious Moment

merits of this film are superb. It has
the same high technical quality as
another Warner film : Sierra Madre.

I understand that the original meaning
of the word artist was “to join”. This
film is well joined. Sequence flows
into sequence with a delightful rhythm
which makes it pleasing to eye and
nerve. As you watch this picture you
get the impression that great pains
have been taken to get everything
right. The director, the lighting
cameraman, the art-director, the editor,
the special-effects man, and the
technicolor adviser all deserve praise.

Good Entertainment

The sea stories of C. S. Forester lend
themselves to the medium of the
cinema ; they have no axe to grind, no
problems to propound ; but they have
movement, character and interesting
characters.

From the word “go”, this movie
moves and keeps on moving. From the
moment that I saw the sails of H.M.S.
“Lydia” a-flapping in the waters of the
Pacific I was interested. From the
moment that I saw Captain Hornblower

145

(Gregory Peck) pacing the deck deep
in thought (he was in a jam) I liked
him. I liked the look of him. He
seemed credible. The sort of fellow
you could trust. I caught the thrill
of the officers and ratings when the
castle of the insurgent, Don Julian, was
sighted. It was a tricky moment when
Hornblower presented himself to this
bullv. He got away with his life and
with orders to capture a Spanish galleon,
the “Natividad”. Hornblower, under
' cover of night, boards the “Natividad”,
a fight ensues, the captains of both
vessels are engaged in a battle of
swords. The “Natividad” is captured
and Hornblower hands it over to Don
Julian as an ally of his King.

Two Surprises

Now comes a surprise. As the
“Lydia" sails for home a Spanish ship
is sighted flying a white flag. Her
captain comes aboard for parley.
Hornblower learns that Spain is now
an ally of England.

At all costs he must re-capture the
“Natividad” from Don Julian. To add
to his troubles he finds himself forced
to take two ladies aboard.

To make an exciting story short,
Hornblower gives chase to the
“Natividad”. Battle is joined. And
what a battle ! Most realistic ! The
“Lydia” is victorious.

From now on Lady Barbara
Wellesley, not a bit the horsey-horsey
type, but pretty and gay bobs in and
out of the picture ; she is the wrong
woman in the wrong place, but
somehow you don’t mind. Her
ladyship dresses up so often and so
colourfully that you could believe that
the captain had organised a sort of
symbolic fashion parade to celebrate his
victories and to prove that England is
the mistress of the seas.

There is no point in revealing the
l whole of the story. It will be sufficient

A Battle Rages

to say that Hornblower carries out a
daring plan and blows the “Sutherland”
to bits. Himself and his lieutenant are
captured and sent off to be tried as
pirates. With the help of Quist they
escape.

I fear that my allotted space allows
me but a few more words, which must
be words of tribute to all the cast, most
particularly to Gregory Peck, Robert
Beatty and James Robertson Justice.

E.

After Their Escape

SUBSCRIPTION RATE

^jWING to the increased cost of postage on printed papers we are
obliged to increase the rate on annual subscriptions to FOCUS:
A Film Review, to 7s. 6d. per annum as from May 1st, 1951.

146

HALLS OF MONTEZUMA

Starring: Richard Widmark, Walter
(Jack) Pallance, Reginald
Gardiner. Producer: Robert

Bassler. Director: Lewis

Milestone. Presented by 20th
Century-Fox in Technicolor.
Certificate-. A. Category-. B.
Running time : 112 minutes.

There have been a number of films
dealing with the capture of Japanese
occupied islands in the Pacific. This
is another. Why this preoccupation of
American film makers with this phase
of the war ? Partly, I suppose, because
there is no danger of offending the
susceptibility of other nations by
featuring only American Forces.
Partly, also, no doubt, because such a
subject is easier to handle than the
complexity of larger scale battle.
(Incidentally, could one truly say that
films are more effective when recording
small things rather than large, with
the particular rather than the general ?
That there is a greater sense of reality
given when we see a kettle boil or a
man blow his nose than when we see
an assemblage of world statesmen or an
atomic explosion ? I dally, perchance,
with cinematic heresy.)

THIS IS MY AFFAIR
Starring: Susan Hayward, Dan

Dailey, George Sanders.
Producer: Sol C. Siegel. Director:
Michael Gordon. 20th Century-
Fox. Certificate : U. Category-.
A. Running time : 89 minutes.

It is undoubtedly Harriet Boyd’s
affair. This obvious young woman, a
mannequin at a cheap New York gown-
shop, is determined to achieve fame,
and above all money, as a dress-
designer, and cajoles two men, a
middle-aged cutter and a young
salesman, into a partnership with her;
She shamelessly exploits her mother
and sister in order to raise the
necessary cash and when F. J. Noble
(George Sanders), dictator of New
York’s fashions, starts taking an
interest both in her and her work, she
proceeds to try and play him and her
two partners off against each other.
Really she is such a nasty piece of
work that all Susan Hayward’s charm
cannot lure one into having any
sympathy for her ; in fact one is left
wondering whether Miss Hayward has
much sympathy for the part herself.

Many Minor Themes

An assault party makes a successful
landing on the island, but subsequent
advance is checked by a barrage of
rocket shells. A party of marines
succeed in locating the rocket site
which is then summarily dealt with.
Many of the incidents of the campaign
are graphically depicted. For example,
the fantastic splendour of ships firing
at night, or the horror of flame-throwing
tanks dealing with machine gun posts.

The film has many minor themes,
such as the psychology of stuttering and
migraine headaches, which clog the
action of the main story. When a dog
chases a rabbit he doesn’t keep
stopping to scratch himself for fleas.

The film catches its quarry in the end
but is an unconscionably long time
doing so.

Not Quite Alive

The same rather applies to Dan
Dailey in the part of Teddy Sharman,
the younger of the two partners, who
is deeply in love with Harriet. I don’t
feel that either of them quite come
alive, in spite of the happy ending.

Sam Jaffe gives a fine performance
as Sam Cooper, the middle-aged
partner who cherishes a paternal
affection for Harriet ; he provided the
only moments of real beauty in the
film. 1

Mr. Sanders is, of course, his own
incomparable self — never a chance of
being bored while he is on the screen.
When he was not I felt that I might
have to stifle a yawn in another minute.

For this picture is quite frankly
mediocre.

T.

T. C. F

147

DARK CITY

Starring: Charlton Heston, Lisabeth
Scott, Viveca Lindfors, Dean
Jagger, Don De Fore. Producer:
Hal Wallis. Director: William

Dieberle. Paramount Films.
^ Certificate : A. Category : A.

Running time : 97 minutes.

A man from bos Angeles comes East
on business and hangs himself after
poker losses and dishonest payment
with business money. Of the three
cardsharpers who had played that
poker session, two are quickly garotted
by the victim’s brother, and the third
is some concern to the police who
insist on effective but unenthusiastic
protection for him. The murderer’s
appearance is unknown to the police,
who know his name, though they don’t
seem to have thought of sending to
Los Angeles for description or
photograph. The sorry hero (Charlton
Heston) does try something by going
there and ingratiating himself with his
victim’s widow with the hope of getting
a photograph of Miss Sidney Winant,
but fails to get one. The story deals
not too successfully with the increasing
fears of the cardsharpers and their
various reactions. The revolting sight
and sound of dangling feet tapping
against wall or window would justify
giving an “H” or Horror Certificate
to the film, even without the actual
showing of the murdering hands and
tautening rope of the garotter.

Revolting

It was also revolting, in a quite
different way, to have that strange
mixture of uneasy sophistication and
clinging insipidity fathered on to the
1 unfortunate Lisabeth Scott with her
part of the cheap night-club singer in
love with the unresponsive hero. At
least he was unresponsive for 96 of the
97 minutes of film.

While the background is murder and
divorce, the foreground is cardsharping,
suicide, murder and a happy ending
with bigamy in prospect.

BEDTIME FOR BONZO

Starring: Ronald Regan. Dianna

Lynn, Walter Slezar. Director:
Frederick de Cordova. Producer:
Michel Kraike. Distributors:
G.F.D. Certificate : U. Category :
C. Running time : 83 minutes.

The star, in this farce with a purpose,
is a real live chimpanzee, who plays
(and plays about) very well indeed, and
is the cause of much mischief and
merriment.

Professor Peter Boyd (Ronald Regan),
a psychology lecturer at Sheridan
College, loves the Dean’s daughter, but
the Dean doesn’t love Ronald for the
reason that his father was an habitual
criminal who died in prison. As an
expert in genetics the Dean believes
that Peter’s children will inherit their
grandfather’s tendencies.

Aided and abetted by Hans Neumann
(Walter Slezak), the science professor,
Peter uses Bonzo, the College
chimpanzee, to prove that the
determining factor in one’s life is not
heredity but environment. He takes
Bonzo into his own home and engages
Jane Linden (Dianna Lynn) to act as
mother. All very silly, you may think,
to watch a nice girl like Dianna Lynn
bringing up Bonzo; but mixed up with
the nonsense you may gather some
wisdom. I have nothing against
psychiatry and psycho-analysis and
genetics and their ilk, but some boys
who practice these things do assume an
omniscience and an omnipotence which
becomes comical. This satire puts them
in their proper place. Very good acting
by Ronald Regan and Dianna Lvnn.

E.

AT WAR WITH THE ARMY

Starring: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis.
Distributors: Paramount. Running
time : about 60 minutes.

A little bit of nonsense about
American Army life wrapped up any
old how in a lot of celluloid.

One chit of publicity about this film
runs : “Audience reaction, THE TOPS
. . . Critic’s reaction, THE BOTTOMS”.
I’m all for the critics!

X.

E.

148

TOM BROWN’S SCHOOLDAYS
Starring: John Howard Davies,

Robert Newton. Producer: Brian
Desmond Hurst. Director:
Gordon Parry. Distributors:
Renown Pictures. Certificate : U .
Category : C. Running time :

96 minutes.

In order that this film may be
appreciated as it deserves all memories
of the book should be left at home
before setting off to the cinema. Those
who know the novel well have, and
maybe have had for years, their own
conceptions of Doctor Arnold, Tom,
Harry East, George Arthur and the
rest ; these would inevitably come
between them and their enjoyment of
the picture, which would be a pity, for
there is so much to enjoy.

It is no small feat to have turned
the story of Tom’s life at Rugby, which
extended over eight years, into a film
lasting 96 minutes, and no one can
object to much compression and
adaptation in the process. The
essential is that the characters should
remain themselves : what they do and
say on the screen should be in keeping,
though not necessarily identical, with
what they do and say in the book. This
has been done on the whole success-
full}-, the one lamentable exception
being that of George Arthur, the timid,
fatherless new boy whom Tom takes
under his wing and who, by his true
saintliness, succeeds in working such
a transformation in Tom and his
friend Harry East : the namby-pamby
child depicted in the film could never
have achieved this. But the fault does

Football match in the old days

not lie in the acting of Glyn Dearjnan,
who plays the part, as conceived by
screen-play author and director,
extremely well. Still it must be
admitted that, since Tom’s transforma-
tion (I had almost said conversion) did
not take place till he was much older,
and the film for obvious reasons deals
only with his early time at Rugby, the
error is not as bad as it might have
been.

There are other faults. The bullying
scenes are magnified and distorted out
of all proportion, especially in that of
Tom’s first song, performed amid a
hail of missiles of every description.
There is no hint of this in the book;
nor that Tom suffered as much as he
is depicted doing in the blanket-tossing.
A little less bullying and more of the
charming pictures of the boys playing
games and bathing would have balanced
the film better. The row in the
common-room between the pro- and
anti-Arnold masters is banal and
ridiculous and should be cut out. The
scene in which Tom, still a new boy,
bullied, wretched and miserable, goes
to the chapel to pour out the bitterness
of his soul, and which might have
been so effective, is completely ruined
by a four-part setting of the Our
Father, heard off.

So much for the defects. But what
a lot there is to delight both heart and
eye! Tom’s parting from his father
at the door of the inn, and the sight
of the coach which bears him for the
first time to Rugby as it passes through
country lanes in the early dawn are
wholly charming; the great fight with
the bully Flashman is extremely realistic
(so much so that I believe John Howard
Davies had to retire to hospital after
it had been shot) ; the near-drowning
in the weir of Tom and his friends is
really thrilling.

But of much greater importance is
the fact that the sincerely religious
atmosphere of the book has passed into
the film. I have already mentioned
Tom’s solitary, silent prayer in the
chapel, and there are two good scenes
of Doctor Arnold conducting prayers.
Best of all is the incident occasioned
by Arthur’s serious illness, in which
East, whcf would never pray “because
when you do there is no one there to
listen”, finds that after all “there is
Someone listening all the time”. The
rare and intensely moving beauty of
these scenes, which might so

149

The Bully is nearly drowned

Tom Brown

The Headmaster

Harry East

150

easily have degenerated into mere
sentimentality, reflects great credit on
producer, director and actors

The photography is consistently
excellent throughout, especially in the
open-air scenes. Most of it was done
at Rugby, and great pains have been
taken to reproduce the costumes and
the whole set-up of the period, with
remarkable success.

The acting is of a high order. In the
smaller parts I would single out James
Hayter as Old Thomas, Hermione
Baddeley as Sally Harrowell, Amy
Veness as Mrs. Wixie and Max
Bygraves as the Coach Guard, as well
as the group of Tom’s school-friends.
Of the principals Robert Newton’s
Doctor Arnold reveals all the great
qualities of the man save the greatest
of all — his intense spirituality and
burning charity which are so admirably
portrayed in the book but hardly
suggested on the screen. More’s the
pity.

John Howard Davies’ good looks and
general charm make of him a delightful
Tom who excites all our sympathy
when he is bullied and unhappy. But
he has not quite enough of Tom’s
tremendous vitality, though I think this
is partly due to the fact that we see
too much of his tragic moments and
not enough of his gay ones.

John Forrest is extremely good as
the bully, Flashman, but is hampered
by being so handsome and having such,
an air of distinction one cannot really
believe him to be such a young brute.

But the best performance of all is
undoubtedly that of John Charlesworth
as Harry or “Scud” East, Tom’s first
and best school-friend. In the book
he says of himself : “They think I’m
a devil-may-care, reckless young scamp.

So I am — eleven hours out of twelve
— but not the twelfth . . . We’re very Jl
good friends at games and all that, but ®
not a soul of them but you and Arthur
ever tried to break through the crust,,
and see whether there was anything
good at the bottom of me ; and then
the bad ones I won’t stand, and they
know that.” John Charlesworth’s
portrayal of this cheerful, jolly boy
brimming over with fun, who takes
both bitter and sweet with a laugh but
yet reveals such hidden depths when
brought up against suffering and death,
is a masterpiece. The look on his face
when he realises, in the scene alluded
to above, that his prayer for his sick
friend has been answered is most
moving. Bravo, John !

Go and see it all for yourself, and
that as soon as may be, for you will
probablv want to go again. I know
I do. ' T. C. F.

TEA FOR TWO

Starring: Doris Day, Gordon MacRae,
Gene Nelson and S. Z. Sakall.
Director: David Butler. Colour
by Technicolor. A Warner Bros.
Production. Certificate : U .

Category: B.

This musical was suggested by the
popular play of twenty years ago, “No,
No, Nanette,” and includes many of
the original songs that Vincent j
Youmans wrote for it : “I want to be
happy”, “Tea for Two”, “No, No,
Nanette” and others. It speaks well
for them that though they have been
churned out for us for two decades by

Gordon MacRae

151

THE ADVENTURERS
Starring: Dennis Price, Jack Hawkins,
Siobhan McKenna, with Peter
Hammond, Gregoire Aslan,
Bernard Lee. Producer: Aubrey
Baring. Director: David Mac-
donald. Distributors: G.F.D.

Certificate : A. Category : B.

Running time : 86 minutes.

That a film should not be just like
a lot of others is half the battle — or
at least a quarter. And so I was
pleased to find that this one was about
South Africa during and after the Boer
War. And I had another agreeable
surprise. A horse had to be shot, to
its owner’s great regret. I know how
horses are shot in films, I thought. We
shall hear the crack of the rifle and
see the owner wince and avert his eyes.
Well, we didn’t

The adventures which the adventurers
meet with are concerned with diamonds
and gold mines and trekking across the
trackless veldt. Siobhan McKenna has
a small, tight-lipped part. She looked
as if the whalebone, in which women
were encased in those days, had entered
into her very soul.

Not an enthralling film, but an
eminently decent one. Q.

inferior dance bands and well worn
gramophone records they still come
up as smiling, fresh and breezy as ever.
Not so the number called “Crazy
Rhythm”, which I imagine is a modern
addition. Displays of human degeneracy
of this kind should only be permitted
behind the bars of padded cells. With
this exception this musical is a jolly
affair, with Doris Day pleasantly
performing, but regrettably lapsing into
crooning at times, when she is singing
“straight”. Gordon MacRae does nofr
risk his reputation in this way, and
sings seriously and well, while S. Z.
Sakall’s humour bubbles and sparkles
throughout the show. He loses his
fortune, but he steals the picture.

G.

TRAVELLERS’ JOY
Starring: Googie Withers, John

McCallum, with Yolande Donlan.
Producer: Antony Damborough.
Director: Ralph Thomas.

Distributors: G.F.D. Certificate :
A. Category : B. Running

time : 78 minutes.

Since a book can be called a best
seller, a play might be called a best
runner. And now another best runner
has been transferred to the screen.
But one feels that the story of the
ingenuity of British visitors to Sweden,
who have exhausted their currency,
has not gained by the absence of
Yvonne Arnaud.

Yolande Donlan gives a very good
characterisation of a come-hithering
American blonde whom one would go
miles to avoid. Dora Brvan, always a
good actress, is excellent in the part
of a Swedish maid. The script is
clean and straightforward, if only
rarely witty. The divorcified atmosphere
is duly cleared, for the divorced couple
are happily reunited and the dialogue
makes it clear (though not, of course,
in so many words) that no one has
committed adultery. In fact the only
fault I have to find with this comedy
is that on the whole it is not
particularly funny. Q.

Doris Dav

152

LIGHTS OUT

Starring: Arthur Kennedy and Peggy
Dow, with James Edwards, Will
Geer, John Hudson and Julia
Adams. Director: Mark Robson.
A Universal-International Picture.
Certificate : A. Category. B.

Running time : 97 minutes.

Pope Pius XI said that good motion
pictures could contribute to social
justice and understanding between
classes and peoples. The American
cinema has made a big effort to produce
films which may be said to have had
some effect in this direction. Not
always perfect, either from the moral
or artistic standpoint, but, also, not
without considerable merit, bearing in
mind the non-Catholic and often non-
Christian context in which so large a
part of modern life is passed..

Based on a novel of the same name
by Bavnard Kendrick, Lights Out is a
further example in the series of
“rehabilitation” and “problem” films
which began with The Best years of
Your Life and went through such themes
as colour-bar adjustment in Home of
the Brave and Pinky, and social and
physical readjustment in The Men. It
deals with the special problems
belonging to men blinded in the war
and treats its subject with considerable
restraint, having in mind the dripping
sentimentality with which some films
of this character have been saturated
in the past. It is true that one feels
that the chief character in Lights Out
endures a plethora of unfortunate
experiences unlikely to be the lot of
any one man ; still, the situations are
not impossible and it is a useful
thing to be confronted with the
embarrassments and mortifications
which even the most thoughtful can
cause to persons suffering some
physical disability.

Larry Kevins (Arthur Kennedy) is
tempted to suicide when he discovers
that he is blind for life, but Corporal
Flagg (John Hudson) convinces him
that there is much useful responsibility
for him to undertake. He goes through
a rehabilitation course with flying
colours, but then discovers that his
parents feel pity* for him rather than

happiness at his survival. His fiancee
(Julia Adams) is unable to bring herself
to accept life with a blind man and he
returns to his rehabilitation centre to
continue another course, in law, which
will make him a useful citizen. He
is also reunited with Judy (Peggy Dow),
a sympathetic girl with whom he can
find true happiness. He is likewise
reconciled to his friend, Joe Morgan
(James Edwards), whom he had
insulted, not realising in his blindness
that Joe was a Negro.

The acting of Arthur Kennedy is
virile and convincing as the blind man.
Peggy Dow is suitably cast as the
understanding girl friend, but I fear
that the camera is not always kind to
her somewhat uneven features. It is
mainly a question of excessive make-up.
The remainder of the cast are adequate
to the demands made upon them
without achieving distinction.

V.

NIGHT WITHOUT STARS

Starring: David Farrar and Nadia

Gray, with Maurice Teynac,
June Clyde and Gilles Queant.
Director: Anthony Pellisier.

Distributors: G.F.D. Certificate :
A. Category: B. Running

time : 86 minutes.

When one praises the French and
other Continental films that are seen in
this country it is sometimes forgotten
that there are probably a large number
of very indifferent films which,
mercifully, never see the light of an
English day (or should I say, night ?)
I am moved to this reflection by the
thought of how bad some of our
British films have been of late and the
hope that they never travel abroad to
disgrace us.

One of the poorest, both in script,
acting and direction, is Night
Without Stars. David Farrar, as an
almost blind man, stumbles, most
unconvincingly, into a blackmarket
gang in the South of France. After
they have tricked him in various ways
he comes back to London and gets the
sight of one eye restored, with which
he returns to the Riviera to clear
things up. The film comes to an end
without much conspicuous assistance

153

from Mr. Farrar. Car crashes, dead
bodies, disgruntled Resistance heroes
and the beautiful Nadia all take a part
in this starless night, but it is a waste
of a lot of money, even if it was a
“cheap” film and I do not think you
need worry to add it to your collection.

V.

FATHER’S LITTLE DIVIDEND
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett
and Elizabeth Taylor, with Don
Taylor and Billy Burke. Director:
Vincente Minelli. An M.-G.-M.
Picture. Certificate-. U. Category.
C. Running time : 81 minutes.

We last saw Spencer Tracy working
himself into a lather of paternal
perspiration as the father of the bride.
Now we see the same paternal anxiety
being transformed into grandpaternal
perspiration as the first baby , begins to
arrive and the four prospective grand-
parents experience, vicariously, the
pangs they suffered when their own
little dividends matured. Of course,
there is now added the wisdom (and
snobbery) of age and the way they try
to organise the baby’s arrival and

subsequent progress almost brings
about the separation of his parents.
However, everything turns out nicely
in the end and we are enabled to sit
back and enjoy an amusing comedy
built round all the old chestnuts
concerning babies, grandparents,
nappies and the rest. The interesting
thing is that Spencer Tracy and Joan
Bennett are such artists that the old
stuff almost sounds convincing.

I know that one does not take these
films too seriously, but I wonder to
what extent such a film reflects
American social habits ? The business
about consulting up-to-date doctors
who have primitive ideas on pre-natal
care ; the slightly excessive nursery
arrangements for the one-and-only ;
the six - months - delayed baptism
(Methodist) which is so obviously much
more a social event than a sacrament ;
the complete absence of Christian
symbols or belief in the homes of the
three families concerned. Sad to think
that, if and when Master Banks
becomes a Catholic, he will have to be
baptised conditionally, for despite the
social eclat attending his first visit to
church, the minister gave him but a
perfunctory sprinkle of the necessary
water !

Still, you will find Father's Little
Dividend a good evening’s investment.

V.

JEALOUSY

Starring: Larry Parks, Barbara Hall,
Willard Parker. Producer: Nat
Perrin. Director: Edward Buzzell.
Presented by Columbia Pictures.
Certificate: U. Category: B.

Running time : 78 minutes.

This is a mildly amusing comedy
about a rich but idle young man who
has married a conscientious lady doctor.
He has too jealous a regard for her
so she leaves him at the end of three
days to seek a divorce and marry
somebody else who is more tolerant.

To extract what interest there is in
the film, it is necessary to abandon the
Christian conception of matrimony.
On due reflection you will, I trust,
consider this too high a price to pay.

T.

Grandpa Spencer

154

CONTINENTAL FILMS

DROLE DE DRAME
Starring: Louis Jouvet, Michel Simon,
Fran5oise Rosay, Jean-Louis
Barrault and Jean-Pierre Aumont.
Director: Marcel Carne. Distrib-
utors: Film Traders Ltd.

Certificate-. A. Category: A.

Running tune : 97 minutes.

This French burlesque of London in
the naughty nineties is all the more
funny for its unintended burlesque of
French ideas about English ways of
life in the rich and unconfined
period of Victorian ascendancy. The
Protestant Bishop inveighing against
the pernicious vogue for detective
novels, the very French Inspector
Bray from Scotland Yard, the
“Bobbies” with their very uu-Englisli
gait and girth, the unconsciously funny
newspaper reporter with his exquisite
French manners, the Limehouse
“tough” with the ballet-master’s grace
of movement and the poet’s power of
expression, the Gilbertian character of
the botanist who believes that his
mimosa thrives on gin ... all these
delicious people are all the funnier for
being Eenglish and so vairy, vairv
improbable.

Marcel Carne made this film in 1937
and it is not clear to what extent he
intended the burlesque he achieves.
He is admirably served by a galaxy of
star talent, each of whom is worth
going to see. Franfoise Rosay,
younger and so aristocratic ; Michel
Simon, looking like a caricature of Sir
Arthur Sullivan ; Jean Louis Barrault,
complete with cloth cap and jersey as
a homicidal maniac who loves animals
and therefore specialises in killing
butchers who are cruel to animals ;
Louis Jouvet as “Soper, Bishop of
Beckford”, whose passion for food is
only equalled by his hatred of detective
novels. He is a humbug and his roving
•eye and stupendous snobbery bring
about the fantastic situations which
provide the story of the film.

All principals act vigorously and
well and evidently enjoy themselves
thoroughly.

One feels a certain doubt as to the
propriety of allowing a Protestant
Bishop to be presented in such an
uncomplimentary light. One is
accustomed to fun at the expense of

clerics such as the Private Secretary
and others, but surely a Bishop, even
an heretical one with an army of
children, is too elevated an ecclesiastic
for the fun poked at him to be anything
less than very bad taste.

Still, it is all too farcical to be taken
seriously. V.

LES AMOUREX SONT SEULS AU
MONDE

French dialogue — English sub-titles J
Starring: Louis Jouvet, Leo Lapara, *
Fernand Rene, Philippe Nicaud,
Renee Devillers, Dany Robin.
Director: Henry Decoin. Scenario,
Adaptation and Dialogue: Henri
Jeanson. Certificate : A. Category.

B. Running time: 94 minutes.

This is the old, old story of a young
pupil (Dany Robin), a gifted pianist,
who loses her heart to a distinguished
composer (Louis Jouvet), who is old
enough to be her papa or grand-papa.

Although the theme has little
substance it is not without a certain
superficial charm, which is probably
due to some pleasing strains of music
and some distinguished acting,
particularly by Jouvet, who has the
gift of what I would like to call
“transformation”.

The film opens in a charming,
promising way, but as it evolves it
becomes (I thought) involved.

There is this much (which is a lot)
to be said for the film ... it ends on
a Christian note. The distinguished
composer shakes himself free from the
snares of the little one ; and Sylvia
(Renee Devillers), the composer’s wife,
does not commit suicide. E.

MA POMME

Starring: Maurice Chevalier, with

Sophie Desmarets, Raymond
Bussieres and Vera Norman.
Director: Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon.
Distributors: Films de France.

Certificate: A. Category: A. f

Running time: 102 minutes.

We last saw Maurice Chevalier as a
rather charming if unconvenfional king
in Le Roi. Now we see him as an
equally charming but much more
restrained tramp. The theme of the
film is the one made famous by
Hollywood in Mr. Deeds Goes to Towji,
the simple, contented, good hearted

fellow who finds that extreme wealth
is a cause of unhappiness and so gets
rid of it. In this case, however, the
characterisation is frankly more farcical
and less easy to believe in. The
amiable tramp who prefers to wander
around with a cronv singing plaintive
songs to tight-pursed market crowds,
and who says that he is much more
comfortable sleeping a wheel-barrow
than in a bed is less credible than the
small town Distributist who merely
wants to set-up small holdings with his
unexpected and embarrassing wealth.

The tramp decides to accept his
wealth when he finds that he can play
fairy-godfather to a young married
couple. We see him, after dealing with
two erring spouses, wandering down
the endless road in his tattered rags,
singing his tramp song of freedom.

A pleasing, unpretentious film with
several laughs and some moralising

about the evils of wealth. One could
believe this high-sounding preaching
more easily if only we had a little more
of the filthv lucre to be tempted with !

V.

LES CASSE-PIEDS
(As Others See Us)

Starring: Noel-Noel, Bernard Blier,
Marghuerite Deval, Jean Tissier
and Georges Rollin. Director:
Jean Dreville. Distributors: Blue
Ribbon Films. Certificate : U.

Category ; B. Running time: 80
minutes.

Here is an amusing excursion into a
kind of Film Revue with Noel-Noel as
Compere. A series of sketches is built
up around the idea of lecturing about
bores. A re-reading of Moliere’s Les
Facheux convinces him that these

THE MASTER CALLETH
THEE

The Wise Virgins

Spirit of Worldliness

Maidenhood Takes the Cross

156

tiresome people still exist and have,
indeed, been enabled by means of
motor-cars, telephones, the cinema and
such modern inventions to inflict
themselves upon their victims at
long-distance and by delayed-action
techniques.

There is much satire and gentle

leg-pulling before Noel-Noel reaches-
the conclusion that he, too, is a bore,
and that, probably, we are all pests to
one another !

The film makes use both of subtitles
in English and an English commentator
who discreetly dubs Noel-Noel’s lecture.

V.

From Our Educational Panel

VISUAL AIDS

The substance of an Address delivered by Frank
E. Farley at a meeting of the Metropolitan Branch
of the Association of Convent Schools on
March 10th, 1951

The term “visual aids” came
originally from America, where it used
to include every device by which the
teacher imparts knowledge through the
use of sight. In England the
definition is more limited in its scope
and embraces only those devices which
possess the quality of multiplication,
such as charts or photographs, or which
it is possible to magnify optically.
The term “optical aids” is given to
those instruments which function by
the use of light and lenses, not to
charts and graphs which are usually
termed “graphic aids”.

In the early stages of the development
of visual aids, too much attention was
given to their mechanism and the use
of the more simple graphic aids was
neglected. These latter give a greater
range of matter for the choice of the
teacher ; films often impose a restriction
on his plans, and can less easily be
adapted for the teacher’s own purposes.
A proper balance in the use of
mechanical and graphic aids is
necessary to achieve the desired
results. A second mistake was made
in supposing that pictures can replace
the written word ; here again the
right balance must be maintained.
Visualisation cannot be separated from
description ; pictures may often be

incomprehensible to the child without
an explanatory background — each has
its own part to contribute to fruitful
learning. Verbal explanation and
discussion is to be followed by verbal
activity by the children, but pictures
save time and make for a more
complete understanding of the subject.

The two kinds of equipment in
general use are the film-strip and the
cinema. The development of the
cinema for mass instruction brought
renewed interest in visual aids of all
kinds, but especially in the film-strip
and cinema itself. The film-strip is the
modern counterpart of the old optical
lantern with the advantage of cheapness
and probability ; it is a happy
medium between the cinema and the
comparatively heavy and expensive
lantern slides The device of story-
telling through a sequence of still
pictures is very old indeed and of
universal appeal, and may be found in
the cartoon strips in the adult
newspaper and in children’s comics.
The film strip is the appropriate
medium for static subjects and those
for which it is important that the rate
of argument and presentation be
controlled. It is an aid to detailed
studv, and may be used, for example,
to show the different conditions

157

•prevailing during the successive stages
in the unfolding of a subject.

The cinema is, on the whole, a new
tool in the teacher’s hand and
introduces alteration in class-room
relations, and a change in teaching
technique. It brings movement into
the class room and is the only means
■of reproducing the stir and rhythm by
which the children are surrounded in
the living world outside. By means of
the cinema it is possible to vary the
apparent speed of movements, the slow
can be speeded up and vice versa.
The almost imperceptible growth of
living things can be seen as a complete
process ; swift movements can be
studied as a sequence of subsidiary
movements. Dynamic maps and
diagrams can enable the children to
understand the relations of cause and
effect, and the action and structure of
organisms and mechanisms can be
more clearly explained. Drama is
another advantage brought by the
■cinema since it both holds the
attention and appeals to the emotion,
and is thus more impressive than the
static picture sequence.

The chief disadvantage of the cinema
is the expense involved. The teacher
must often ask himself whether he is
justified in incurring the cost, or
whether he cannot achieve his purpose
in some other way. If it is a case
where movement is concerned it is
probable that the desired educational
result can be obtained in no other way.
If the topic is static, then he may
resort to such aids as plans, models,
pictures, etc.

When the teacher is preparing his
subject he will probably collect
together his pictures, sort and order
them to fit into his plan, and where
movement is required he will probably
need films, usually of the short and
silent kind to suit his purposes. But
such a method implies a very narrow
view of the possibilities of the film
strip and cinema film. The film strip
and cinema have the great advantage
of helping to save time. Relations
which are intolerably complex to the
child’s mind in the verbal form become
comprehensible when seen on the
screen. This leads to a telescoping of
the whole curriculum. As Science
progresses and the horizons of
knowledge widen the syllabus must be
readjusted. The conception of the
minimum knowledge to be acquired

expands, and the problem of the
curriculum can only be solved by the
application of the new teaching
technique, namely that which saves
time.

If films do not fulfil our expectations
it is often because they have
reproduced the traditional way of
teaching in visual form, and have not
thereby extended the horizons. The
purpose of the film is to give
new experience, to take the children
to share the surroundings of different
peoples, to be a substitute rather
for a journey or camp than for
a formal lesson. There must be sound,
for in an unfamiliar country one does
not travel without a guide, and so a
commentary is needed. Captions are
unsuitable — the modern child is unused
to them and the sequence is broken in
a quite artificial way. Speaking about
a film by the teacher is indefensible ;
the children are captivated by the
hypnotism of the movement, and the
impersonal voice of a commentator
synchronising with the film does not
break the spell as would the voice of
an ordinary person.

The film should be introduced by the
teacher, words should be explained,
questions may be prompted, but once
the film has begun the teacher should
not intrude. Afterwards a communal
discussion may take place so that the
teacher may gather how the children
have viewed the film and may correct
mistakes in the passage of time, false
generalisations, etc., which they have
made. A second showing is often
desirable so that the children can be
guided to points missed the first time.
After this the lesson may be ended,
but the subject will continue. Various
forms of activity may be prompted
and the knowledge applied to other
topics. It will generally be followed
up by some form of talking and writing,
for when everything has been said,
words still remain the handiest form of
expression.

AIDS TO SCRIPTURE TEACHING
The Projected Bible

Old and New Testament film strips in
Natural Colour, obtainable from
Visual Education Ltd., 9 Upper
Berkeley Street, W.l.

In this series each “volume” consists
of 12 colour strips in metal containers

15S

packed in a box designed to resemble
a book, and thus made convenient for
storage. The strips are reasonably
priced at 22s. 6d. each or £12 for the
set and are supplied with teaching
notes. These provide suggestions for
treatment and give captions and full
references to scripture passages. It is
essential that the strips should be
used, as intended, in close conjunction
with the Bible text, and the strips, far
from minimising the importance of
the teacher’s role, demand careful
preparation as well as sympathetic
insight into the fundamental meaning
of the Scripture narrative.

A. Old Testament Characters

This volume of 12 strips aims at
illustrating the ways of God with man
as typified in the lives of eight great
characters of the Bible; Noe, Abraham,
Joseph and Moses are obvious choices,
and the interpretation of their lives is
done with reverence and imaginative
sympathy. If the main aim were
historical detail, there might be some
questioning of the accuracy of scenery
and dress, but emphasis throughout is
upon the universality of the Bible’s
message, and its relevance for today.
Yet in a series representing the Old
Testament as a whole the omission of
any representative figure from the
Kingdoms seems strange — the later
crowded years of the Old Testament
provide only two of the characters ;
Ruth and the Prophet Daniel.

Nevertheless much useful material
is here collected and presented
skilfully in a form which could be
adapted for use both with Juniors or
with advanced groups. The colour
and line of the drawings are simple and
on the whole very pleasing. It should
be noted that the text used and the
spelling of names is not that of our
Catholic versions, but since captions
are not on the strips themselves this
need not cause difficulty, as the
necessary changes may be made by
reference to an approved version.

Titles :

Noah — Preacher of Righteousness.
Abraham — Founder of the Hebrew
Nation.

The

The

The

The

The

The

The

The

The

Story of Joseph (I).
Story of Joseph (II).
Story of Moses (I).
Story of Moses (II).
Story of Joshua.
Story of Gideon.
Story of Ruth.

Story of Daniel (I).
Story of Daniel (II).

B. New Testament Stories

In this set 27 “stories” are grouped
in 12 strips covering the life and
teaching of Our Lord ; the last four
dealing with SS. Peter and Paul form
an introduction to the Acts of the
Apostles.

Within certain limits these pictures
should be of considerable use in a
Catholic school. Two strips are
devoted to the Miracles of Our Lord
and two to the parables. There is a
fairly detailed survey of the events of
the Passion and Resurrection, and the
early life of Christ is shown in one
strip. On the whole, however, these
fall short of the standard set in the
Old Testament series — perhaps because
we are here more exacting in our
requirements, and there are obvious
gaps which every Catholic teacher
would have to fill in. This arises
naturally enough from the attempt
to present the Scriptures without
insistence on dogmatic teaching. The
series will be very useful in helping to
make children and young people more
familiar with the character of Christ as
friend and Master.

Titles :

The First Christmas . . .

The Power of Jesus in Miracle.
The Love of Jesus in Miracle.
Talks with the Master.

The Parables of the Kingdom.
Lost and Found.

The King Cometh.

After Three Days.

Simon called Peter.

Saint Peter.

Abraham — Friend of God.

Paul the Fearless (Parts I and II).

159

C.F.I. NOTES

Summer Meeting

Readers will recall that we agreed
to support the efforts of any of our
regional friends to organise a Summer
Meeting in lieu of our customary
Summer School this year.

We are very glad to be able to report
that the very efficient and lively
Birmingham Youth Organisation, under
its leaders, Fathers T. Copsey and D.
Hickling, have undertaken to organise
an Amateur Film Exhibition at
Stratford in the middle of October.
The Course will be restricted to actual
workers in sub-standard film and
members will be invited to show their
films and discuss each other’s work.
Andrew Buchanan and Father J. A. V.
Burke have promised to be present,
and it is hoped that this may be the
opportunity, we have long been looking
for whereby the nucleus of a really
worthwhile Catholic Film Production
Group can be recruited. We hope, too,
that an annual Festival of Religious
'Films may be the outcome of this
effort.

We are particularly hopeful that the
many priest workers in film, hitherto
so shy of letting their work be known,
will make an effort to attend the
Stratford Film Meeting and let us
have the benefit of their experience
and ideas.

Further details later. But mark the
dates : October 8tli- 13th at Stratford-

on-Avon .

Film Competition

'1'he above paragraph leads us
naturally but regretfully to the question
of the Film Competition. ‘ Only four
entries were submitted, one from
Australia. It has been difficult to
arrange a time suitable for viewing
films of which only one copy exists,
a copy which the owner is reluctant to
leave out of his sight, especially when,
as in two cases, the films are being
shown to interested local audiences.

Regretfully, because so few of the
many Catholics who must have made
films during the last few years, cared
to let us view their work. Perhaps the
Stratford Film Meeting will serve to
assure them that we are anxious to be
of assistance and that we think they
can contribute something worthwhile

to the great cause of Catholic Film
Action.

Focus Film Course

This Course continues at More House,
Cromwell Road, London, S.W.7. On
April 7tli, Mr. Buchanan spoke of the
News Film and pointed out that just
as the world was enslaved by
“newspapers” which so often influenced
the views of readers without their
being much aware of the fact, so the
News Reel, the child of the newspaper,
did much the same thing. It follows
the same tradition of imparting views
and ideas by means of selective and
continued “leading article” and
“headline” techniques. It panders to
the present state of things as far as
politics is concerned and eschews
“propaganda” except in so far as it
always supports the powers that be.

Having dealt with the development
of the News Reel organisation and the
method of distributing coverage among
the five component groups which make
up the News Reel Association, Mr.
Buchanan urged the formation of a
Religious News Reel group. Not with
the intention of producing a replica of
the secular hotch-potch of bits and
pieces, but rather a serious attempt
to produce a series of religious
documentaries of the March of Time
pattern which could be of interest to
people in several years time. There is
no reason why the amateur film makers
up and d&wn the country could not
be grouped together to form such an
organisation.

The next Film Course Lecture in
April will be on Film Music, by Fr.
J. A. V. Burke. The May Lectures will
take place on May 5th, The Educational
Film, and May 19th, Children and the
Cinema. The first will be given by a
member of the Visual Aids Federation,
the second by the Hon. Mrs. R. Bower.

Change of Address

Readers are asked to notice that the
address of the Catholic Film Institute
is now 157 Victoria Street, London,
S.W.l, to which all enquiries should in
future be directed. The telephone
number is : TATe Gallery 8426.

160

BOOK REVIEW

Le Cinema. No. 56 of Fetes et
Saisons, 29 Bd. Latour-Maubourg,
Paris Vile.

The Dominicans in France publish a
monthly magazine, Fetes et Saisons,
dealing with questions which face the
Christian living in the world today.
This number is devoted to the whole
art of the Cinema, and is published
in collaboration with the Catholic
periodical, Radio-Cinema.

The profusion of “stills” from films,
photos of stars and pictures of off-stage
work, gives a pleasing impression, and
one most likely to appeal to a cinema-
going public. Behind the illustrations,
however, throughout the 24 pages,
there is a serious attitude to the film ;
on the front cover are quotations from
Pope Pius XII and Lenin, emphasising
its power, and at the back are
exhortations to “Aimez - le
intelligemment”. The purpose of this
issue is to put forward in palatable
form many interesting facts, and then
to persuade people to reflect and form
their conclusions.

The invention of moving pictures has
produced a universal language with an
influence so great that the dangers of
its abuse are obvious. Films have the
power of introducing false ideas as
being true to life, of fostering unhealthy
hero-worship and, worst of all, of
directing, or at least tempering, the
consciences of young people. As an
antidote, Le Cinema suggests a well-
balanced knowledge of the art of film-
making and the formation of Cine-
Clubs. What does the schoolmaster
taking “Athalie” think of the idea?
How can he dare say that the cinema
is unimportant when the children he is
teaching will go to the pictures
probably every week for the rest of
their lives and will never again read
“Athalie” ? Wherein is the logic of
refusing to prepare children for this
influential part of their everyday life ?
What about the mother with no time
to see the films that her 14 and 15 year
olds are watching ? What about the
parish priest, too busy to discuss
current film with his flock ? Cine-clubs
are a solution and the magazine offers
practical suggestions for founding them
You do not need a hall and an

expensive projector ; just a group of
people who know about the same film
and there is your Club.

An interesting article takes us behind
the scenes of film-making, shows what
is involved in the great industry and
where the money goes. Another points
out to the pessimists that the youngest
art will not kill interest in the older
arts, not even in literature, since it
exists as something entirely different
and intrinsically cinematographic.
Photography has not banished painting
nor the novel, poetry; each fulfils a
function and is irreplaceable. Certainly
no life of a saint was ever told as
forcefully as that of Monsieur Vincent,
but no film can reproduce the
tremendous words of Isaias or St. John.

There is given a list of films which
should not have been missed ; it
includes only three British right from
early days — Desert Victory, Hamlet
and The Seventh Veil. But the French
also enjoyed Brief Encounter, Passport
to Pimlico and Whisky a Gogo (I can’t
resist the translation). These evidently
portray the British character to French
satisfaction. Respect for Russian
films is very evident, particularly for
Battleship Potemkim and Battle of
Stalingrad.

Apart from the disconcerting lack of
page numbers, I have nothing but
praise for this little magazine which,
crowded with information, tries to be
just in putting forward the blessings
that the film has brought as well as
its dangers. It presents a review of what
the cinema really is. In conclusion, I
quote from the rules for spectators :

Don’t go to the cinema from sheer
force of habit.

Make sure that the film you are going
to see is really worth the trouble.

In one year there are only ten films
that one must see, rarely more.

Don’t be surprised to see priests and
teachers at the pictures; it would be
a very serious matter for them to
ignore the cinema.

A film whose propriety is
unimpeachable can be immoral through
its stupidity.

Yes, the French take their films
seriously, if Le Cinema is a criterion.

M. A.

COVER PERSONALITY

Pier Angeli

It is not often the case that we
feature a film star on the cover of
Focus who is almost certainly unknown
to our readers. Indeed, until a year
ago, Pier Angeli had no idea of
becoming an actress. Yet, I was one
of a number of guests recently invited
by M. - G. - M.’s London publicity
department to an elaborate Press
Reception to meet this eighteen-year-
old Italian girl, who is now working on
her third film in Rome.

The hospitable M.-G.-M. publicity
group were literally crowing with
delight about the pretty, vivacious, un-
self-conscious girl who sat surrounded by
Press photographers and admiring
interviewers. Her mother, pleasant,
obviously proud of the attention being
lavished on her daughter, but also just
a little uneasy about the whole
extraordinary business, sat with one
eye on her child while she answered
almost as many questions as her
daughter. She does not speak English,
but was glad to have a copy of Focus
with our review of Pier’s first film,
Domani e troppo tardi, and at once
pounced on a misspelling of her name.

M.-G.-M. ’s gratification over their
new discovery is excusable. Anna
Maria Pierangeli has, in addition to
her good looks, those qualities of
intelligence, self-possession, hidden
depths of character and friendly charm
which add up to produce personality.
Not many of the stars, particularly the
youthful, untried ingenues who people
the American screen, could sustain the
impression of charm and artless
sincerity as this child does. Those
who have seen her in Domani e troppo
tardi will remember the leggy, long-
plaited, adolescent girl who was so
troubled by the emotional reactions
brought about by her schoolday
friendships. She was utterly convincing
as the thirteen-year-old child, conscious
of her budding womanhood, but
mystified by the bother and chatter
produced by her unsophisticated
attempts to get an answer to her
problems. It is not often that such a
character can be presented on the screen
without the embarrassment almost
inevitably produced by Hollywood’s
teen-agers in similar situations, or the
sense of gauchery that British
youngsters impart to such rbles.

Her part in this film was the result

of chance. Leonide Moguy, the French
director, was working on the film and
saw Anna Maria in the apartment of
a friend. He recognised in her the girl
he was seeking for the principal part.
She was an art student in Rome and
had no intention of following a stage
or screen career. After Domani e
troppo tardi was finished she continued
her art studies, but was once again, by
chance, projected into her next film,
the M.-G.-M. production, Teresa, the
story of an American G.I. and his
young Italian war bride. The authors
of the film were in Italy advertising
for girls between the ages of 15 and
20 to try for the part. Anna Maria
did not see the advertisements, but her
mother had a mysterious telephone call
one morning from Silvio Damico, head
of one of the best-known dramatic
academies of Europe. Though he would
not let any of his own pupils try for

the role of Teresa, he had seen the

rushes of Domani e troppo tardi and
he was convinced that she could play
the part. He told Mrs. Pierangeli to
take Anna Maria to the testing studio.
She got the part as soon as the
Producer, Arthur Loew, and Director,
Fred Zinnemann, had seen the tests in
America. Zinnemann, the famous

director of The Search, after seeing the
first rushes said : “No matter how I
manage to make this picture, that girl
will carry it”. After one day of

shooting, Zinnemann confessed that he
had made several retakes of her, “not
because there was anything wrong but
because each time she did it there
would be some new expression, some
different movement that I hadn’t
noticed before. If you just shot a
series of close-ups of her you would
have a fascinating motion picture”.
Such praise from veteran film-makers
is high indeed and there seems every
reason to suppose that if she gets the
right kind of scripts and is handled
properly she will climb to the heights
of screen fame.

Her next film is called The Light
T ouch in which she plays opposite
Stewart Granger. M.-G.-M. have
decided that her full name is too much
for the film-goers and so have divided
her surname in two : Pier Angeli. A
pity, for it does not convey the
essentially Italian and Christian back-
ground which is so vital a part of her.
However, by whatever name she plays
she will certainly reach the top. Let
us hope that her fame will not spoil
a singularly charming and unaffected
young girl.

John Vincent.

FOCUS

FILM COURSE

Handbook No. I

Foreword by

Rev. John A. V. Burke

Film Course by

Andrew Buchanan, D.Litt., Ph.D.

“ provokes thought and arouses a desire to read more ... an
excellent primer for Film Study Groups

— The Catholic Times.

. . . invaluable to anyone mho wants to take an intelligent
interest in the cinema •”

— The Catholic Worker.

Contents include essential facts and statistics relating
to: The Way Films Vary: The Cinema Programme:
The News Reel: Fictional versus Factual Films:
Educational and Children’s Films: The Religious
Film: Film Music.

Price 1 s. 6d.

From

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE,

157 VICTORIA STREET,
LONDON, S.W.l.

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Film
Institute, 157 Victoria Street, London, S.W.l.

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cmema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

j. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of pirns of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of pirns calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
pirns of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £ 10 .

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Ordinary Membership. 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
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"The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified."

Hon. Secretary:

Rev. John A. V. Burke, 157 Victoria Street, London, S.W.i

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Catholic Film Institute

16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Latest Additions:

CHRISTIAN FACTORY. How the Church’s Social
Teaching is put into Practice at the Harmel factories.
Made by Alan Turner.

Pilgrimage To Fatima ; Rome Of The Pilgrims ; Holy Year.
Titles Include :

Monsieur Vincent; Farrebique; To Live In Peace;
Crucifers To Walsingham; The Sacrifice We Offer;
A Legend Of Norfolk.

Bookings can be accepted now for Hans Nieter's colour film

THE VATICAN.

All particulars from the Librarian,

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE, 157 VICTORIA STREET,
LONDON, S.W.l. (TATe Gallery 8426)

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Editorial

... 163

Romance at Last

... 164

True Beauty

... 165

Francesco Giullare Di Rio

... 166

Things to Come

... 167

The Influence of Hollywood

... 168

By Mervvn McPherson

The Art Director

... 171

By Andrew Buchanan

Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

Circle of Danger

... 172

The Galloping Major

... 173

Hollywood Story

... 173

hollow the Sun

... 174

Mad Wednesday

... 174

The Tales of Hoffmann ...

... 175

You’re in the Navy Now

... 178

Abbot and Costello Meet

the

Invisible Man

... 178

Where the Sidewalk

Ends

Page

178

The Great Caruso ...

178

Teresa

180

The Scarf

182

The Next Voice You

Hear

182

New Religious Documentaries
Triptych

183

Noble Mission

183

Continental Films

Donne Senza Nome

184

La Ronde

184

Clochemerle ...

185

Some Film Strips
Teaching of
History

FOR THE
English

186

By Our Educational
Artist or Empiric ?

Panel

190

By Edward Carrick

Letters to the Editor

191

Book Review

192

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Revue Internationale du Cinema

Organ of International Catholic Cinema Office

Number 8 now available — Contributions include articles by Freda Bruce Lockliart,
Liam O’Laoghaire, Mervyn McPherson, Edward Carrick, Spyres P. Skouros,
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FOCUS : rev/ew

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. IV

JUNE 1951

No. 6

INCREASE OR DECREASE

My dear readers of Focus,

You will have observed that during the past twelve months or so, a
number of reputable magazines, of the smaller class, have been forced out
of circulation owing to financial difficulties.

Focus has been able to maintain its stand in the war of ideas, not
because it has secret funds and is well off (you would be surprised if you
knew how very poor we are!), but because most of the services to Focus
are freely rendered.

The Editor, the Manager and the priests who write the film reviews
are unpaid servants and, as far as I am aware, they are willing to remain
as such, in order to help to create a Christian Cinema and to forward the
principles laid down in the papal encyclical “Vigilanti cura”, which in this
country is, I fear, a literary Cinderella.

You will have observed also that the recent budget, wdiich descended
upon us like a hatchet, has forced all newspapers, periodicals and
magazines either to decrease in size or to increase in price. Some papers
have done both. Focus would like to do neither; but the high costs of paper,
postage, parcelling and so on, forbid a status quo.

The other day the editorial board met and put its several heads together
to determine in what manner we could best serve our readers. The manager
told us that we must either increase the price of Focus to 9d. or decrease
to twenty-four pages. We decided that to rend your reading space rather
than to rend your pockets would be the best policy. This policy will come
into effect with the July issue.

May I take this opportunity to thank you for your support, your
kindness and your tolerance. To those of you who write letters of
encouragement and express ways and means of improving Focus I am
deeply grateful.

Yours sincerely,

Declan Flynn, O.F.M., Editor.

164

Romance At Last

Focus is sometimes criticised for not
containing chatty paragraphs about
the private lives of film stars. So once
in a way, in order to compete with
some other periodicals, we are featuring
the engagement of those popular
favourites John Fandelight and Pretty
Voidhead. “Better send Q. to cover
this,” the editor said, “he can do it in
his sleep.”

When I visited the Voidhead home
it was the star’s mother who opened
the door.

“Is it about the whist drive ?” she
said, as soon as she saw my clerical
collar.

“No. It’s about something more
important than that.”

Mrs. Voidhead became rather nervous
and on the defensive.

“I know we don’t go to church
much,’ she said, “but I believe in
living up to it in your life. ' Practical
Christianity, that’s what matters,’ my
father used to say. We all loved him,
though he did knock mother about on
Saturday nights.”

“No,” I said. “It’s not that. I’ve
come to ask about a certain little
romance.” I tried to smile archly.

“Oh, you mean about Pretty and
John Fandelight? Yes, it’s quite true
and I expect they will be announcing
it soon. We’re very pleased. Ever
since she was a little girl we’ve looked
forward to the day of her divorce. And
I always say, unless you get married
vou can’t get divorced. ‘It’s not only
for your own sake, dear,’ I tell her,
‘but for your career. Why, Shirley
Temple and Deanna Durbin both had
a divorce before they were your age.’
We’re glad it’s John, too. He’s so well
balanced. He was the innocent party
in one of his divorces and the guilty-
one in the other. He’s just the man
for Pretty.”

“Is Pretty her real name ?”

“Well, no. Her father still calls her
Violet but she doesn’t like it. ‘I wish
you would stop calling me Violet, Dad,’

she says. ‘Do you think I want
every-one to know my real name?’ ”

“And what does Mr. Voidhead say
to that?”

“He says she wants a good kick on
the — a good kick. He doesn’t under-
stand. Of course, we hope they won’t
have any7 children. It’s not natural.
But we shouldn’t be too hard on them
if it’s only one or tw7o. Both Mr.
Voidhead and I are broadminded.”

“And where is the w:edding to be?”

“ ‘Well,’ I told her, ‘you must be
married in white ; it’s lucky. So if
you can’t be married in white at the
registrar’s, you’ll have to go to church,
that’s all. And you know we had a
lovely service when Ethel was

cremated.’ John doesn’t mind wffiether
it’s church or registry office. ‘All

marriages are sacred to me,’ he say-s.
The Vicar made a bit of trouble though
about him being divorced. Apparently
if he had been a bachelor or a widower
it w-ould have been different. Funny,
isn’t it? ‘No, Mrs. Voidhead,’ the
Vicar said. ‘I can’t possibly7 officiate.
The rules of the English Church about
the marriage of divorced persons are
quite definite.’ So he’s asked another
clergyman, wdio doesn’t believe in the
Church, to take the service. But the
Vicar will give the address. ‘We must
give them all the encouragement we
can,’ he says. The Reverend Heartiman
is the other clergyman’-s name. Such
a nice gentleman. ‘If God were to
come into this room now7, Mrs.
Voidhead,’ he said, ‘He w-ouldn’t agree
with any of the Churches. He would
always agree with me.’ And he’s going
to shorten the service as my husband
is not very religious.”

I asked if Focus might be the first to
announce the engagement, so as to
bring a breath of romance into our
columns.

“Well, Pretty isn’t in now,” she
replied, “but I’m sure she wouldn’t
mind. We’ve no objection to the
Roman Catholic Religion. After all,
you can’t help what you are brought
up.”

0.

165

True Beauty . . .

Irene Dunne

“I do hope that as I stand before you
that you will not look upon me as a
movie star but as a Catholic woman,
who looks upon you as stars in the
firmament of the Church.

“I come from a land of shadows,
where an alter-ego is projected on a
screen to make it appear as real. But
I come to a land of reality, or better
still, to the reality of the Communion
Rail where I find you, my true sisters
in Christ, eating the same Bread, loving
the same Saviour and tugging at the
same blue mantle of our dear Blessed
Mother.

“In the Twentieth Century, all
women are interested in glamour and
in that they are right. But there are
two kinds Of glamour — the external and
the internal, the latter glamour
characterises those who receive
Communion, thereby giving a loveliness
which fulfils the words of scripture,

An excerpt from the talk given by Miss
Irene Dunne at the Thirtieth Annua
Communion Breakfast, held at the Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria, New York City.

‘The beauty of the King’s daughter is
from within’.

“It is very likely that if we could
have seen Our Blessed Mother as she
walked this earth, that the very last
thing we would have noticed about her,
would have been her external beauty.
The inner grace of the Mystical Rose
would have so impressed us that we
would have paid no attention to the
vase.

“It is interesting that Our Blessed
Lord once reprimanded a woman who
commented on the external glamour of
His Mother. One day while He was
preaching, this woman shouted :

‘Blessed is the womb which bore Thee
and the breast which nursed Tliee!’
But immediately He lifted her mind to
the realm of the inner beauty saying :
‘Aye ! Blessed rather are they who hear
the word of God and keep it.’

“Of all my pictures, none ever did
more for me personally than I

Remember Mama. It was a totally
unpretentious picture without any props
of glamour, which meant that in order
to make Mama lovable, I had to be
lovable on the inside. There was even
the handicap that had to be overcome
in the sense that I had to put on
weight, and if there is anything a
woman loves, it is to be weighed and
found wanting. Powder and lipstick
were even denied me. I realised that
I had to ‘make-up’ from within what
was wanting from without.

“One night, coming home from the
studio, I said to myself, ‘No woman is
really beautiful, if she needs more than
two things outside of grace to make her
beautiful — soap and water ! ’

“I wonder then if it is really not our
bodies and our faces which make us
seem less beautiful than we are — we
who have been to Communion. May
I conclude with a prayerful petition
that I may have glamour as you have
glamour ; be lovely as you are lovely ;
beautiful as you are beautiful in grace
and above all that I may be a star as
you are a star in the crown of Mary.
For those stars will never lose their
brightness or their glamour in time or
eternity with God.”

166

In this article two French Franciscan Friars express their opinion of

Rossellini’s film

FRANCESCO GIULLARE DI RIO

(Francis, God’s Tumbler)

“Clumsy Fingers and Little
Flowers”

Rossellini was unable to hide a
certain apprehension when he gave a
public presentation of his film
Francesco GiuUare di Dio (Francis,
God’s Tumbler) in Rome last
September. The troubled expressions
of some French Franciscan Friars from
the Campo San Giorgio were noticed
by him and he asked : “Allora, che dici,
Padre ?” (Well, Father, what’s your
opinion ?)

We told Rossellini that we were not
a bit impressed by his film. We came
to it expecting to see a real Italian St.
Francis, played and interpreted by his
own countrymen, who, as his heirs,
would capture his spirit and
enthusiasm ; instead we found that it
was devoid of that spirituality which
alone can explain the life and work of
the Friars.

We enjoyed the atmosphere of
delightful simplicity which, here and
there, surrounds the brethren : a

repartee from Brother Juniper, an
escapade of the little band of Friars ;
but as the film progressed we became
more and more depressed and sad lest
“men of good will” who see this film
will get a false idea of Christianity
and pass it by.

We were disappointed with the film
because it is chopped into eleven
unrelated episodes. This technique,
which may be passable in a book,
brings to a film the impression that
the easy way out has been taken by
someone who did not understand his
subject and was incapable of forming
a definite plan 'with situations and
characters firmly knit together. The
stories from the Fioretti which have
only been waiting for the camera to
bring them together into a single
splendid “ensemble” remain scattered

all over the place ; we are shown a
workshop (if not a ruin). *

Furthermore, the life of the primitive
Franciscan community is incompre-
hensible to anyone who does not already
know the life of St. Francis. From
start to finish we watch, in the film,
a band of young Friars running and
twisting and turning — till we’re tired
of it — then singing, begging, groaning,
laughing or crying — without a clue as
to the why or wherefore. The little
snatches we get of the preaching or
prayers of St. Francis do not permit
us to discover the personal drama of
the man who one day met Christ and
thereafter vowed to follow Him.

St. Francis was not bom in poverty;
if we do not bear in mind his conversion,
we cannot have the vaguest notion of
the meaning or the value of his actions
or words. The characters of the film
are, therefore, condemned to remain
pretty puppets, if you like, but too
much of the tumblers and not enough
of “God’s”.

Again, why inflict upon us at the
beginning a discourse about the state
of souls in the thirteenth century
while strings of paintings pass across
the screen ? We had better been
shown these thirteenth century folk in
their relations with the Friars, instead
of being read a page from a history
book — albeit illustrated ! Even so,
apart from a tyrant Niccolaio — who is
straight out of the hordes of Attila and
who might have ended by being
impressive, if he had not been shown
so grotesque at the beginning — we are |
reduced to a mere two or three strange
characters who go as quickly as they
come and are representative of every-
thing or nothing : a donkey-driver, a
swineherd and a man who doesn’t spare
the rod. And why should the scene
of the meal with the brethren in the
company of Clare and her Sisters have
been made so ladylike and dull ?

167

But don’t let’s get lost in our
grumbling about details. From what
source did Rossellini draw his
documentation ? It matters little. The
essential thing is not documentation,
it’s the mentality, the faith, the
personality of the man who shapes it
into a work. One should not tackle
the life of a saint unless one has
discovered in oneself, after perhaps
years of prayer and meditation, certain
echoes, certain impulses of that life.
Hagiography is a difficult subject which
brooks no artificiality.

“Little flojvers,” remarked Mauriac
apropos of Clerambard, “are not to be
mauled by clumsy fingers.” The writing
of saints’ lives — like poetry — requires of
those who give themselves to it a
certain “state of grace”, in the absence
of which the would-be hagiographer
can only offer us caricatures and
counterfeits.

These are hard truths, and criticism
is easy. But we were bound to
safeguard the true St. Francis.

Fr. Gerard Hego, O.F.M.

Fr. Damien Vorreux, O.F.M.

(By courtesy)

FILM STRIP

FATIMA TO-DAY

Coloured pictures from the film

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

with explanatory booklet

36 Frames. Price : 15s.

(Post free 15/3)

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
157 VICTORIA STREET,
LONDON, S.W.1

Things To Come

Irene Dunne Dances

Irene Dunne, who last danced on the
screen in Show Boat fourteen years ago,
is dancing again in a romantic corned}7,
Never A Dull Moment, with Fred
MaeMurrav, Andy Devine and William
Demarest.

+

Howard Hughes announces that he
has secured Clare Boothe Luce’s story,
“Pilate’s Wife”, and the services of
Rene Clair to direct it. This will be
a Wald-Krasna production to be
distributed through R.K.O. Radio
Pictures.

Hughes had been secretly in
negotiation with Mrs. Luce for quite
some time, urging her to permit her
property to be made into a motion
picture rather than a stage play. The
story is on a plane never before
attempted in a picture contemporary
with Jesus, and deals with the reactions
of those who participated in the fateful
days.

Rene Clair arrived in Hollywood
on April 23rd.

Mrs. Luce is now engaged in further
research on this project, which has
occupied her for the last few years.
She will write the screen-play from her
own material. Mrs. Luce is the author
of “The Women”, “Come to the
Stable” and many other stage plays
and film stories. Rene Clair is the
distinguished French director who has
gained an enviable international
reputation for his work in Hollywood,
as well as in Europe.

+

Abbey Theatre Player Goes West

Cyril Cusack, who is 35-vears-old and
who has played in the Abbey Theatre
for 15 years, has gone to Hollywood to
co-star with Charles Laughton and
Jane Wyman in The Blue Veil.

+

Howard Hughes has secured Alan
Young, recently voted television’s best
actor of the year in America, to portray
Androcles in the Gabriel Pascal
production of George Bernard Shaw’s
classic comedy Androcles and the
Lion”, for R.K.O. Radio. Young joins
a cast which includes Jean Simmons,
Robert Newton, George Sanders and
James Donald.

A Positive Approach to the Cinema, No. 1 1

The Influence of Hollywood

By MERVYN McPHERSON

The word “Hollywood” has the same
effect on some Englishmen today as the
word “Rome” used to have on the old
Dissenters ; and still has on a few
scattered followers of Mr. Kensit, and
many widely spread followers of
Messrs. Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Co.

For this, Hollywood can largely
blame itself : its fabulous and very

great achievements — which have led to
the inevitable jealousies in less
successful centres of film production —
at least as much as its not
inconsiderable gaucheries.

Obvious Truism

To myself, an Englishman with a bit
of Scottish and Irish blood to make up
a typical racial mixture, and with 30
years’ experience of the promotion of
Hollywood films in Great Britain, it
seems almost too obvious a truism to
say that the motion picture industry
could not exist in this country today, in
a form capable of giving entertainment
and relaxation to an average public of
something like twelve to fifteen million
people a week, were it not for the
pioneer work Hollywood did in the
past ; and is continuing to do today,
despite difficulties sometimes caused by
faults of its own making, but more often
by the crushing burden of taxation,
quota and other restrictive laws
and practices, imposed on films,
particularly in this country.

To assume, therefore, as some
apparently sane critics do, that every-
thing emanating from Hollywood is the
work either of sinister perverts or of
half wits is as silly as to imagine
everything that comes from it is all-
wonderful and all-glamorous.

Beginning of Hollywood Tradition

Actually the great Hollywood tradition
began while Hollywood was still little
more than a country village. The first
of the real American pioneers was

D. W. Griffith, who made most of his
films in Mamaroneck, New York State.

His pictures, notably The Birth of a
Nation, Intolerance, Way Down East
and Orphans of the Storm, established
the full length film, as opposed to the
one- or t.wo-reeler ; and the cinema
screen as an art medium capable also
of having profound historical, political
and moral significance.

Incidentally, whether he was showing
us ancient Babylon or modern America,
Griffith never failed to preach his
crusade against intolerance, with almost
evangelical fervour.

Having revolutionised film production,
Griffith and his advisers proceeded to
do the same for its distribution and
exhibition. I publicised his brilliant
melodrama Way Down East in 1921 at
the old Empire (before it was rebuilt).

Although, of course, innumerable
films, both British and American, had
been made and shown before that time,
it was our belief that, in England at
least, they were not taken seriously
either as art or entertainment. People
dropped into the local cinema (or
“fleapit”, as it was all too often called),
for a snooze, or a cuddle, or perhaps
for a good laugh at a Chaplin film.
That was about all, except that the
youngsters very properly adored their
“Westerns”.

To implement our belief, we took
great pains to describe Way Down East
as a “wordless play”, to advertise it
in the theatre instead of the film
columns of the papers, and to invite
several thousands of regular theatre-
goers to see it.

Most of the latter had never seen a
film before, except perhaps at the end
of a music hall performance. Many of
them became and remain ardent film
“fans”.

Pioneer work was also done by
the Griffith and other American
organisations in providing first class
orchestras, and highly skilled “effects”

169

Mervyn McPherson with Ann Blyth

170

men, to accompany films. The work
was carried on in the provinces by
“road - showing” (taking over
“legitimate” theatres or town halls for
the picture, and providing our own
orchestra and “effects”).

Great Film Pioneer

Another great film pioneer, to whom
I can pay personal tribute, was Marcus
Loew, principal founder of Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer. Having, from the
smallest possible beginnings, built up
a great network of cinemas, he
characteristically decided — because he
could not get enough pictures worthy,
in his opinion, of being shown in
them — to start his own production
company.

It produced a large number of
successful films; but Loew wanted to
make an epic (and he meant an EPIC)
about the first world war. He engaged
an unknown and eccentric young Irish
director, Rex Ingram, and two
previously obscure players, Rudolph
Valentino and Alice Terry, to head the
cast of The Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse. It cost a huge fortune,
even for Hollywood, and most of
Marcus Loew’s friends “wrote him off”
as (a) mad and (b) broke, or about to
be — for war films were at that time
deemed to be “box-office poison”.

The important British distributor
who handled Metro films at that time
said he’d be so-and-soed if he’d handle
a war picture finishing up in a so-and-so
graveyard ; and it remained in his
vaults for many months.

Then Loew came to London, took
things into his own hands by renting the
Palace Theatre, and engaging his own
staff (of whom I was lucky enough to
be one of the first two). In the event,
The Four Horsemen proved an
enormous success, which was shortly
followed by an even greater one in
Ben-Hur, which ran for a year at the
Tivoli.

Coming of the Talkies

That’s enough — I hope not too much
— about the silent past.

When talkies came, Holtywood within
a few years was filming Dickens ( David
Copperpeld and A Tale of Two Cities ),
Shakespeare (Romeo and Jidiet), Jane
Austen ( Pride and Prejudice ), Kipling
(Captains Courageous) , Rudolf Besier
(The Barretts of Wirnpole Street), and

works by almost every contemporary
British and American author of note,
including such film classics as Trader
Horn, Mutiny on the Bounty and The
Good Earth.

The opposition will undoubtedly say
that these were the big, spectacular
films which Hollywood was able to
make because of its money hags. But
Hollywood also made thoughtful,
experimental pictures like O’Neill’s
Stranger Interlude and Ah, Wilderness !
and the profoundly significant Boys’
Town and Men of Boys’ Town.

When Naziism and Dictatorship
began to bestride the world, it made a
notable series of anti-Nazi films, both
before and after war began. While
America was still nominally at peace,
it made pictures like Mrs. Miniver
which, at the urgent request of the
British Ministry of Information, was
rushed into general release because of
the effect it was expected to have — and
in fact did have — on American public
opinion.

In Britain, during the war, Gone
with the Wind ran for four consecutive
years in London. There and through-
out the country it and many other
Hollywood films brought blessed
relaxation and forgetfulness of present
dangers and troubles to millions of
picturegoers.

What Has Hollywood Done?

Again I anticipate the opposition’s
question : “But what has Hollywood

done since the war ?”

First, I should like to interpolate
that no one is more appreciative than
I am of the magnificent pictures which
Britain, France and Italy have made in
the last few years. But these pictures,
as the facts have proved, were not
numerically sufficient to fill even half
the British cinemas for a quarter of the
time.

And meanwhile Hollywood has
continued to make films like The Best
Years of Our Lives, Johnny Belinda ,
Red River, The Yearling, The Seventh
Cross, among many others which were
really worth while ; innumerable
musicals of which a considerable
proportion have given enjoyment to
innumerable people, and deserve to;
and, of course, films of especial interest
to Catholics like Song of Bernadette ,
The Bells of St. Mary’s and Going My
Way.

171

FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. No. 5

THE ART DIRECTOR

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

A “scene” on the stage is a “set”
on the screen, and when it is an
exterior, it becomes a “location”, but
whichever or whatever it is, the Art
Director is responsible for it. He is
a cross between an interior decorator,
connoisseur, period furniture expert,
artist and architect. At the lowest
level, his job is to provide a background
for characters. At the highest level,
it is to create sets which shall become
an integral part of the story. Broadly
speaking, there are three types of sets
— normal interiors, normal exteriors,
and abnormal / fantastic / symbolic
interiors. As the most numerous are,
of course, normal interiors, let us
study them in a new way, by separating
them from the characters who appear
in them — a thing one never does whilst
watching a film, because attention is
primarily concentrated on the people,
the sets being seen more or less
unconsciously. But if those sets were
out of character — too exaggerated,
poorly constructed — one would become
conscious of them at once, and
enjoyment of the film would be marred.
Now whether the Art Director has to
design a kitchen, ballroom or cellar, the
set must appear to be absolutely real ;
that is, a permanent place in which the
characters have spent years of their
lives. Consequently, he has to
become thoroughly familiar with the
characteristics of the characters. If
the set is Mrs. Brown’s drawing room,
every picture, vase and rug must be
just the articles which Mrs. Brown
would buy, maybe in good taste, or
extremely bad taste. Whether a room
be squalid or rich, immaculate or
untidy, it must seem to have been
created by the character living in it,
and not by the Art Director. If he
designed sets to please himself, then
the characters would be merely super-
imposed on them, and even the most
undiscerning film-goer would sense the
unreality of the picture so presented.

Normal exteriors are usually selected
by the Art Director or his assistant.
Location hunting is an art in itself, the

tracking down of natural scenes which
shall exactly fit a story being no simple
task. However, whether interior or
exterior, the work of the Art Director
must never dominate the screen, but
always remain in the “background” — •
unless, of course, the story demands
that some feature of a room shall have
dramatic significance.

But it is when we turn to fantasy
and symbolism we find backgrounds
coming into the foreground and often
sharing honours with the stars. The
sets in, say, Tales of Hoffmann,
Henry V, Hamlet, and in some of the
major American musical features,
present highly imaginative sets which
intentionally dominate the screen
from time to time, dwarfing the
characters and becoming part of the
story. That old German classic, The
Cabinet of Doctor Calagari, pointed to
a world of screen fantasy waiting to be
developed, and recent productions, such-
as those I have named, reveal the Art
Director at his brilliant best.

The majority of people are
unconscious of his existence, for, like
his creations, he remains in the
background, but he deserves to share
honours equally with the Director of
the characters. His powers of
perception are sharpened to the finest
point. Every room is, to him, a mirror
reflecting the characters of the people
inhabiting it. When you visit people
do you carry away detailed impressions
of their homes — of evidence of good or
bad taste — of how limited space is
artistically used — of flower arrangement
— of heavy overpowering rooms — of
orderliness or chaos ? Or are you
entirely insensitive to environment (an
astonishing number of people are) ?

Lastly, there is another field which
has received less attention than others
— the natural religious background —
offered by the interiors and exteriors of
churches — intact and in ruins — of
religious sculpture and murals — all
providing inspiring backgrounds against
which to unfold the factual religious
films of the future.

172

smsa tin'/iii w

By our Panel of Priests

Category A, indicates adults only; B, adults and adolescents ;
C, family audiences; D, particularly for children

Patricia Roc

CIRCLE OF DANGER

Starring: Ray Milland, Patricia

Roc, Marius Goring, Hugh

Sinclair, Naunton Wayne.
Producer: Joa-i Harrison .

Director: Jaques Tourneur.

Presented by David E. Rose and
released by R.K.O. Radio I

Pictures. Certificate : U. 1

Category: A. Running time:

86 minutes.

An American film, this, made in
England, and made very much the

English way, with real people and real
places, and the common touch. The
motive in making the film so
unelaborate may have been economy.

Will these men kill each other?

Ray Milland
★

173

but the effect achieved is altogether
pleasing and natural.

The story is simple, and if it is on
the slow side, there is adequate
compensation in the quality of the
acting. Milland plays the part of an
American who sets out for Europe to
enquire about the death of his kid
brother, who, as a Commando in the
British Army, was killed during an
attack in the war. The reports of his
I death led Milland to suspect that all
was not on the level. With great
difficulty he traces the various
surviving members of his brother’s
company in order to get to the full
truth. Thus we have the real people
and the real places . . . London, South
Wales, Hammersmith, Richmond Park,
Covent Garden, the bonnie Highlands,
Teddington Lock.

Refreshing

While credits are due to all the cast,
both great and small, Marius Goring,
in a minor part, gives us something
verging on the brilliant.

This film is unusually calm for a
thriller. Not that it was not exciting
in patches,- and at the end. You can
enjoy it and be interested throughout,
and can emerge from the cinema, not
tensed up with nervous exhaustion, but
pleasantly and happilv refreshed.

G.

THE GALLOPING MAJOR
Starring: Basil Radford, Jimmy

Hanley, Janette Scott. Producer:
Monja Danischewsky. Director:
Henry Cornelius. Distributors:
Independent Films. Certificate :
U. Category : C. Running

time : 82 minutes.

It is a pity that the expression “good,

I clean fun” lias come to such a poor pass.

1 This film is full of good, clean and very
clever fun with a Dickensian flavour.
I It is unlikely that we are as nice as the
script makes us out to be, but they say
that it was Dickens who created most
of our modern Christmas heartiness and
there is no reason why the adventures
of the Galloping Major should not work
wonders with our manners and outlook
now. It is a friendly England that is
portrayed, full of characters one would
dearly love to think were real. The
story is all about a syndicate made up

of “real folks” who bought a somewhat
skittish horse. It would be wrong to
say whether it wins the National or not
but the finish is as good a combination
of the happy ending and realism as one
can hope to see, with just the necessary
dash of improbability shot through it.
The whole family must go to see this.
What a good idea to bring it out during
the festival of Britain. I was dreading
an essay in crime or a deep dive into
the unconscious.

J. c.

HOLLYWOOD STORY

Starring: Richard Conte and Julia

Adams. Producer: Leonard Gold-
stein. Director: William Castle.
A Universa 1-Intemational
Picture. Certificate : A. Category :
B. Running time-. 77 minutes.

Set in Hollywood, this story still
manages to attain something of novelty,
though it never reaches any peak of
excitement. It is essentially a quiet
thriller, but a good story, which carries
one through to the end without too
much clue as to the identity of the
original murderer.

Such set-ups as these always leave
me wondering how or if the American
Police work. We find this producer
(Richard Conte) who begins to unravel
a murder story which the cops have
failed to solve. Though they are not
too pleased about him doing it, he goes
ahead and shares clues with Lt. Lennox
of the Police (Richard Egan), who,
though vaguely hostile, does not mind
turning up when things get too tough
for a mere amateur sleuth.

More hostile is the original author of
the trouble, who takes pot shots at an
unconcerned Richard Conte through a
window and then retires to his hide-out.
In time, everyone concerned in making
the film of the murder comes under
suspicion as having been connected
with the murdered man. Naturally, it
is a female of the species who has
caused all the trouble, and her daughter
who is no less beautiful (Julia Adams)
proceeds to cause more.

But amateur sleuth is too much for
amateur criminal, to say nothing of
professional investigator. He is quicker
at clues, in this case a medallion of
St. Clare, which leads to a concealed
identity, and also quicker on the draw,

174

which leads to another killing on the
stage-set of the original one, but this
time a killing which settles the case.

The whole film falls on Richard
Conte, and if you like him and his
acting, you will enjoy the film
tremendously. It is certainly good
entertainment though not an out-
standing film.

M.

FOLLOW THE SUN
Starring: Glenn Ford, Anne Baxter,
with June Havoc. Producer:
Samuel G. Engel. Director:
Sidney Lanfield. 20th Century-
Fox. Certificate : U. Category :
C. Running time : 94 minutes.

You might almost call this a lesson
on how to play golf with a straight bat.
Golf like Peace hath its victories, but
it is rather like War when you come
to professional tournament levels.
Glenn Ford in the part of Ben Hogan
- — who, it appears, is a real champion —
so concentrates on his game in the long
struggle that he is known as the
Iceberg. This, by some strange canon
of the sport, comes to be regarded by
Ben as not keeping faith with his
public ; and the story- tells how he
won his way first to the top of the
tree and then, more slowly, into the
great big possessive, but apparently-
discriminating, heart of the populace.
This latter success comes when he
makes a determined come back after a
shocking motoring accident which had
left him a cripple.

His wife (Anne Baxter) is what anyr
man’s wife should be — an inspiration to
his golf. But let us be fair : she has a
sweet strength of her own. And the
two do present a picture of a marriage
loyal and unrancorous which is
charming.

The supporting pair (June Havoc and
Dennis O’Keefe) provide their own
problems, one of them unrealised. This
is that she had “married” him after a
Reno divorce. This fact adds or
subtracts nothing, being simply a
natural piece of background. It is
always alarming that way and it is
always something we must react to.

Otherwise you may like this tale of
what it takes to be a popular golf
champion.

MAD WEDNESDAY

Starring: Harold Lloyd, with Frances
Ramsden, Jimmy Conlin, Ray-
mond Welbum, Arline Judge,
Edgar Kennedy. Franklin Pang-
bom, Lionel Stander, Margaret
Hamilton. Director: Preston

Sturges. Distributors: R.K.O.

Radio. Certificate : U. Category : i
B. Running time : 77 minutes.

Harold Lloyd is a name to conjure
with. It conjures up memories of the
day-s of the Keystone Cops and the
Mack Sennett bathing girls, when the
same actors could make a comedy a
week. Mr. Lloyd was in films with
Bebe Daniels when she was sixteen and
even before that he appeared under
the name of Winkle.

Now he emerges after many years of
retirement. It is remarkable how little
he has changed. The same might be
said about some of the material with
which he is associated. A lion still
gets loose. People still nearly- fall out
of windows high above the street.

Mad Wednesday is presented as a
sequel to The Freshman, a silent film
of the 1920s, and has as its introduction
a long extract from the earlier picture.
The best part is that which centres
round the first drink of the hitherto
teetotal hero. (This owes a great deal
to the barman, excellently played by
Edgar Kennedy, familiar from a
number of short domestic farces.)

The film is not successful as a whole.
But it avoids being tedious since one is
always expecting something really
funny to happen. And sometimes it •
does.

Q.

A NIGHT AT THE
PALLADIUM

April 9th, 1951

Clang, Clang, clang went the
trolley,

Ding, ding, ding, went the bell,
Flat on her back fell Judy
And the audience applauded
like .

Qcomber.

X.

175

THE TALES OF HOFFMANN

Starring: Moira Shearer, Robert Help-
mann, Leonide Massine and
Robert RounseviUe, Pamela
Brown, Ludmilla Tcherina, Ann
Ayers. Producers and Directors:
Michael Powell and Emeric
Pressburger. Conductor: Sir

Thomas Beecham, with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

P English librettist: Denis Arundell.
Choreographer: Frederick Ashton.
Distributors: British Lion. In

technicolor; Certificate : U .

Category. B. Running time:
127 minutes.

The original “clerihew” about Hilaire
Belloc refers to his books as being all
of different kinds. The same might be
said of films by Powell and Pressburger.
Their subjects have included Anglican
nuns, the life of the world to come,
fox hunting and the French Revolution
a I’Orczy. In none of these spheres
did they seem entirely at home. More
effective was their excursion into ballet,
and the trail blazed by The Red Shoes
has been followed considerably further
in The Tales of Hoffmann. And the
first three stars are the same : two

shining lights of contemporary British
ballet and a very live link with the
golden days of Diaghilev.

Substantially Successful

But The Tales of Hoffmann is opera.
An opera with an incidental ballet is
familiar enough. Here is something
quite different and new, an attempt to
overcome the difficulty of transferring
to the screen something so
comparatively static as opera by fusing
it throughout with ballet and mime.
This interesting and rather complicated
experiment is, in my opinion,
substantially successful. It means that
the voices of invisible singers must
I sometimes be used. Only Robert
RounseviUe and Ann Ayers are qualified
to sing their parts. I do not find
dubbing as objectionable as some
people do. (But perhaps I am biased
since my own voice has been heard in
more than one feature film when other
lips were seen to move.)

Another interesting development is
that whereas The Red Shoes told a

contemporary story in which long
sequences of ballet w'ere encased, here
the film does not go much beyond the
opera. The work of educating picture-
goers proceeds and is to be commended.
And it proceeds slowly. Though The
Tales of Hoffmann is the last and least
trivial of Offenbach’s works, it is not
so grand opera. (I believe the
composer would have been quite
surprised to find it treated on such a
magnificent scale.) All the same I
wonder how it will be received by those
who are not at home among the
conventions and the idiom of opera
and ballet. I can well imagine some
people — the sort who will get Hoffmann
and Helpmann all mixed up —
complaining that they had to wait
nearly an hour before the Barcarolle
and then the words were not “Night
of Stars and Night of Love”. Also it
is unfortunate that the last act is the
least interesting. Feeling sleepy
during this I accused myself of lack of
culture until I heard that a Balliol
scholar had dropped right off in the
course of the film. And it is most
remarkable how persistently the word
“exhausting” has been used to describe
it ; rarely, if ever, has there been such
unanimous use of one word by so many
critics.

The colours and designs incline, for
the most part, to the flamboyant
tradition to which the ideas of artistic
simplicity and restraint are alien.
Sometimes, however, there are touches
of modernity and in the disintegration
of the doll Olympia even something
approaching surrealism.

I thought the tuning up of the
orchestra during the credits an
excellent idea. But it went on too long.
(So does the film.) I am not so sure
about the artistic propriety of the
appearance of Sir Thomas Beecham at
the end, but his “potted” version of
the score, to which the action was
fitted, was excellently played and
recorded.

The small part played by Pamela
Brown was as effective as it was
unexpected. Her expression conveyed
so well the unspoken comment : “Poor
old Hoffmann ! Will he never learn ?”
For his tales are cautionary and seem
to have for their moral : Don’t fall in
love with a doll, a courtesan or a
tubercular soprano — a blessing I wish
you all. Q.

FILM OF

THE 7
HOF.

Coppelius turns a
penetrating gaze
on Hoffmann

i

es a
ent

»

i seeing
ni (L .
through
igical
ic/es

MONTH

ES OF
4NN

he puppet ( Moira
hearer ) caught by
palanzani when
about to fall

178

YOU'RE IN THE NAVY NOW

Starring: Gary Cooper, Jane Green,
with Millard Mitchell, Eddie
Albert. Producer: Fred Kohlmar.
Director: Henry Hathaway.

20th Century-Fox. Certificate :
U. Category : C. Running

time : 93 minutes.

Transatlantic “pep” films for an
American public can resemble good
local wines which don’t “travel” so
well. Gary Cooper is a volunteer
officer in the U.S. Navy, put in
command of an experimental (top
secret) vessel. All the ship’s company
are also inexperienced with the
exception of the bos’n’s mate (Millard
Mitchell). The story, very simply, is
of the successive failures of the
experiment and of the eventual though
very gradual emergence of an esprit
de corps on board.

The feminine interest is reduced to
the minimum. This minimum is Jane
Green in her non-exacting role of the
skipper’s wife. There is a “wuffy”
sort of admiral, who might be described
by some as a poppet.

To have the maximum effect, “pep”
must be lightened with humour. So
there is humour.

I have no doubt of the harmless
quality of this film.

X.

ABBOT AND COSTELLO MEET
THE INVISIBLE MAN

Director: Charles Lamont. Distrib-
utors: G.F.D. Certificate-. U.

Category: B. Running time:

82 minutes. »

Those who like Abbot and Costello
should know that this, though not
their best film, has plenty of
characteristic comic situations derived
from the idea that, as a couple of
detectives, they are trying to prove the
innocence of a boxer wrongfully
accused of murder. The boxer
complicates things somewhat by
injecting himself with the serum
originally tried on H. G. Wells’
invisible man. The best moments are
when Costello the fat one) fights a
boxing match aided (sometimes) by the
invisible pugilist.

V.

WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS

Starring: Dana Andrews, Gene

Tierney. Producer and Director:

Otto Preminger. 20 th Century-
Fox. Certificate: A. Category:
B. Running time: 95 minutes.

This is a disappointing film, a thriller
which fails to thrill. The audience see
the murder committed (accidentally)
quite early on, and for the rest of the
time watch the Police and others trying
to solve the mystery. The plot is
ingenious, and if only we had been kept
in ignorance of the facts and had to
work it out (so to speak) with the
Police, the solution would have been
thrilling indeed.

Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney run
the correct gamut of emotions as the
tough detective who gets himself into
a sack of trouble and the girl who
sticks to him through it all. There are
far too many close-ups of Mr. Andrews
registering the emotions aforesaid.

The ending, apart from the discovery
of the murderer’s identity, is stupidly
inconclusive : it is irritating to follow
the man through so many troubles and
all those close-ups, and then not to be
told precisely what happens to him. I
hazard the suggestion that he ends on
the sidewalk.

T. C. F.

THE GREAT CARUSO

Starring: Mario Lanza, Ann Blyth,
Dorothy Kirsten. Producer: Joe
Pasternak. Director: Richard

Thorpe. Distributors: M.-G.-M.
Certificate : U. Category : C.

Running time : 109 minutes.

With his film Hamlet, Laurence
Olivier brought to the multitudes who
go to the pictures the opportunity to
know, appreciate and love the drama.
What he did for the drama the Powell-
Pressburger team did for the ballet.
Red Shoes became a best seller and
Tales of Hoffmann continues to draw
the crowds. And now M.-G.-M., with
The Great Caruso, are bringing to the
multitudes the riches of the operas.

After the press show, I caught myself
uncharitably describing this film as
“Vox et praeterea nihil” (“a voice and
nothing else”). I was not trying to
be facetious. I was not feeling ill-

179

Caruso sings for pennies He sings in opera

He is snubbed He is acclaimed a success

disposed towards the film. On the
contrary, I enjoyed it very much. I
think I was trying to say that sight,
movement and story had been sacrificed
for sound.

As a biography it is much too loose
and sketchy, although we are given an
insight into Caruso’s origins and
background and the shots of Naples
where he was born are visually
I pleasing, but you get the impression
that all this is just a means to an end,
which is to display Mario Lanza’s
might}- voice. As an operatic film it is
rich, royal and joyful, the sort of film
that makes you happy. Mario Lanza
is a happy artiste, his voice has quality,
range, power, resonance and resilience ;
he makes you believe that he loves
singing better than anything else in
the world. What a pleasure it was to

hear extracts from such masters as
Verdi and Puccini.

Sentiment sometimes runs into
sentimentality and I have no doubt that
Caruso singing Gounod’s “Ave Maria”
with choir boys in St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, New- York, during High Mass
will make the “arty” boys wince
and wiggle ; however, this particular
sequence is worth noticing for it has
its own particular value ; one of the
boys who sings is no Ganymede, but
he has a voice wrhich is outstandingly
pure, beautiful and individual.

Among those who contribute their
quota to the musical success of this
film Ann Blyth deserves a special w-ord
of praise. She looks well, sings well
and acts well.

E.

180

TERESA

Starring: Pier Angeli, John Ericson,
Patricia Collinge, Aldo Silvani
and Franco Interlenghi. Director:
Fred Zinnemann. Distributors:
M. - G. - M. Certificate: A.

Category: A.

Here is a film which will repay much
thought and study. The Censor’s
Certificate carries the hint that it is
“more suitable for adults”. This is not
a warning to prudes to keep away, but
a suggestion that those who seek
primarily to be painlessly and effort-
lessly entertained may not see all that
is being put before them on the screen.
It is a film for adults, that is to say,
for people with grown-up minds who
are able to appreciate truth and
goodness and beauty though they be
decked in rags and live in broken-down
houses.

The story is simply told. Philip, a
timorous, diffident G.I., meets Teresa,
a young, naive but self-confident Italian
when he is billeted on her family
during the war. They marry. He

returns to New York but is afraid to
tell his possessive, jealous mother about
his Italian wife. When she eventually
arrives, the mother does her best to
separate them. Lacking self-confidence,
Philip allows Teresa to leave him, but
finally finds courage to begin to set up
his own modest home when he hears
that Teresa has borne him a son.

There is not space enough even to
mention all the tantalising ideas that
flow from a perusal of this film.
Perhaps the most intriguing is the
sense of open-air spaciousness which
the camera, under the direction of
William J. Miller, captures, even for
the New York scenes in Central Park.
Naturally, the open-air locations in
Italy have that glorious atmosphere of
actuality which is common to most
Italian-made films, but it is rarely that
one escapes from the shut-in, artificial
studio environment in American films.
Fred Zinnemann, the maker of the
film, learnt with The Search that the
special contribution which the camera
can make to life is to let it at liberty
among real people and places and
happenings. Then it tells its story
truthfully. Once set it up in an
elaborately dressed studio and it can
only record what is artificial.

Pier Angeli John Ericson

181

Another interesting speculation
derives from the opening of the film
where Philip is talking to a
psychiatrist. He reels off a string of
modern cliches : “I’m all mixed up.”
“I feel all alone.” “They don’t
understand me.” One has an impression
of the psychiatrist as a father confessor
and it is clear that the function of the
priest as physician of the soul has now,
in an unchristian civilisation, been
largely taken over by the lay-
practitioner. A curious secondary
problem : is Philip a Catholic ? He

instinctively makes the sign of the
Cross when being married in Italy but
his New York home and his subsequent
attitude give no further corroboration.

A score of questions are posed by the
war scenes in Italy. The casual, other-
worldly, air of the soldiers as they ply
their soldierly profession, compared
with their very down-to-earth eagerness
to fraternise with the local girls. The
family spirit underlined by the almost
ritual passing of wine around the circle
to celebrate the acceptance of Philip as
a friend in the family. The permission
sought and granted for Teresa to
“walk out” with Philip but ten-vear-
old little brother is sent to accompany
them as chaperon !

Pier Angeli who plays the role of
Teresa is, at present, an unspoiled,
self-confident, exceptionally photogenic
seventeeu-year-old child who looks less
than her age. How long she will
be able to withstand the baleful
materialism of the publicity machine
remains to be seen. The personality
that comes so forcefully across the
screen may be strong enough to resist
the corrosive influence. Following upon
her delightful acting in Doniani e
troppo tardi, her work in Teresa
suggests that here we have the makings
of a first-class screen actress.

John Ericson, who plays Philip, is a
likeable and competent youngster, but
he is quite outclassed by the girl.
Patricia Collinge gives a strong study
of the possessive mother, and an
unusually thoughtful and successful
piece of underplaying is Richard
Bishop’s part as the ineffectual,
weakling father of Philip.

This is a film to see, to enjoy, to
think about and then to see again.

Film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions”, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
157 Victoria Street
London, S.W.l

FOCUS

FILM COURSE

A Series of Lectures to be
delivered at

MORE HOUSE,

53 Cromwell Road,
London, S.W.7
under the supervision of
ANDREW BUCHANAN
at 3 o'clock on
April 7th and alternate
Saturdays until July 14th

FEES: Single Lecture 1 /-

Syllabus from Catholic Film
Institute, 157 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.l

V.

182

THE SCARF

Starring: John Ireland, Mercedes

McCambridge and E m 1 y n
Williams. Director: E. A.
Dupont. Distributors: United

Artists'. Certificate : A. Category-.
A. Running time : go minutes
approx.

A convict makes liis getaway from
the Californian State Asylum for
Criminal Lunatics. He is sheltered by
a philosophically - inclined turkey
farmer. He has lost all memory of the
crime he was charged with. He thinks
he must be innocent because lie has no
sense of guilt. (My italics.) An
English psychiatrist comes on the
scene, a former friend of the criminal.
His first remark is to rebuff someone
who laughs at him. He says he is
allergic to laughter. It takes the rest
of the film to work round to the point
where it is shown that the English
psychiatrist committed the crime. If
you can bear the suspense, perhaps you
may care for the film for the sake of
some imitation tough acting on the part
of Mercedes McCambridge and some
pseudo-philosophical grimacing on the
part of James Barton as the turkey
farmer. For the rest, I think films
about psychiatrists ought to be banned
for at least seven years. In the
meantime, script-writers • who want to
deal with the subject might take some
lessons in human behaviour and the
treatment necessary for its vagaries.

V.

THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR

Starring: James Whitmore and Nancy
Davis. Director: William J.

Wellman. Distributors: M.-G.-M.
Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time: 75 minutes

approx.

What would happen if at 8-30 one
Tuesday evening God’s Voice were
suddenly heard by all men in their own
language on every broadcast programme
throughout the world, and then for a

week was heard every evening at the
same time ? Antecedently one would
dread Holljwood to suggest an answer,
but their answer in The Next Voice
You Hear will probably surprise you.
The subject is treated sensitively and
with intelligent imagination. Their
“VOICE” does not speak in favour of
the Church. It only emphasises our
duties to men (for God’s sake?), but it
does suggest some practical and
apposite applications of charity. “The
world” naturally calls for a Sign, and
the sign given is that of Carlyle : "The
age of miracles, as it ever was, now is”.
The morality of the film is excellent in
the sense that such wrong-doing as is
portrayed carries its own punishment
and shows the need for forgiveness.
One regrets that the Voice occasionally
lapses into such human language as
‘‘I gather ”, but there is nothing
blasphemous, or sacrilegious, or
objectionable. It is a film for the
family to see together, and it may well
give rise to a discussion which will
help to bring more Christian Charity
into family relations.

T. T.

Your Film
Show

The Catholic Film
Institute projection
unit is available for
film shows in the
London area

Moderate Charges

Particulars from

157 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.I

183

NEW RELIGIOUS DOCUMENTARIES

TRIPTYCH

Starring: Benjamino Gigli. Producer:
G. Parenti. Distributors: Arch-
way Films Ltd. Certificate : U.
Category : C. Running time : 20
minutes.

The Society of St. Paul, a Religious
Institute composed of priests and
lay-brothers, was founded in Italy in
1914 with the object of spreading the
Gospel by means of the modern
methods of propaganda. The Press,
the Cinema, the Radio, are, therefore,
the natural milieux for their apostolate.
His Eminence Cardinal Griffin gave
permission for a foundation of the
Society in London some three years
back. The radio is closed to them as
a means of spreading their message in
this country, but from the beginning
they set to work to provide an Italian
language newspaper for their numerous
fellow-countrymen. This has met with
considerable success. Now they have
brought out their first film. it is a
two-reel, technicolor treatment, in
the manner now made familiar by the
Italian art films, of three of the most
famous of the Italian Old Masters.
We are shown Crivelli’s Annunciation ,
Botticelli’s Nativity and Mantagna’s
Crucifixion in, . such a way that they
really spring to a life unsuspected by
even the most devoted of the art-
gallery habituees. Here the camera
comes into its own and shows what
can be done by a sensitive artist using
the camera as a kind of microscope,
revealing hidden beauties and
significant points not available in any
other way.

The colour is delicate and the
general effect most pleasing. The film
differs from other similar “art films”
in that it assembles the three paintings
in the course of a short lecture on the
music of the composers whose work
accompanies the film; Bach, as
interpreted by Gounod in the “Ave
Maria”; Rossini, whose “Cujus
Animam” underlines the Crucifixion.
The “Adeste Fidelis” is fitted to the
Botticelli. The three airs are sung with
magnificent bravura by a mellow Gigli,
who personally appears at the piano in
a room decorated with musical
paraphernalia.

The whole thing is stirring and
devotional at the same time though I,
for one, could have done with
something less militaristic in shape
than Rossini’s robust aria to pick out
the Mantagna. However, these are
questions of taste about which we are
warned not to dispute. This is a film
to ask for at your local cinema. A.S
it is a “short”, they may well risk it
and as it is made under the normal
commercial conditions demanded by
the unions there should be no difficulty
about its inclusion in an entertainment
programme. In any case, it is a film
well worth taking trouble to see.

V.

NOBLE MISSION

French Documentary. Director;
Maurice Thery. Available in
16mm. from Bro. Dennis Robert,
F.S.C., St. Joseph’s College,
Beulah Hill, S.E.19. Category.
C. Running time : 25 minutes.

The Institute of the Brothers of the
Christian Schools are this year
celebrating the tercentenary of the
birth of their Founder, St. John
Baptist de la .Salle. These celebrations
include an exhibition which will be
seen in various parts of the country
and also a documentary film account,
made in France, of the life and work
of the Brothers. This film, Noble
Mission, is beautifully photographed and
assembled and though, inevitably, it has
a strongly French flavour about it, does
much to inform the audience of the
extensive and efficient work for God
and youth of these devoted Brothers.

It is even more valuable as yet
another example of the use of film for
the spreading of the kingdom of God.
The field is so vast and the labourers
so comparatively few that it is a
tremendous pity that religious people
are still so ignorant of the possibilities
of the cinema in aiding them to do their
work. Of course, they are frightened
off, to some extent by the commercial
approach to the problem, but, we are
convinced, the day is not too far off
when a group of dedicated film
technicians, bound to their craft for the
love of God, will be providing films of

1S4

professional quality, made without any
other consideration than that they are
contributing to the glory of God and
the benefit of humanity.

Meanwhile, here is a step in the right
direction and Bro. Dennis Robert will

be glad to bring his film around to
your district to help you to understand
the breadth and the depth of the work
which St. de la Salle did for the same
sublime objects.

V.

CONTINENTAL FILMS

DONNE SENZA NOME
(Unwanted Women)

Starring: Simone Simon, Valentina

Cortese, Vivi Gici and Fran§oise
Rosay. Director: Geza Radvanyi.
Distributors: London Films.

Certificate: X. Category: A.

Running time: 97 minutes.

Films which deal with war and its
aftermath fall into various categories.
There are those which sensationalise
their subject and seem to be using the
misfortunes of men to gain success at
the box-office. Others appear to lean
heavily upon political or national
prejudices. Vet others take advantage
of contemporary fashions in strife to
place their stars, whether male or
female, against the most lurid back-
grounds.

It is only rarely that one detects a
note of true humanity in a film which
treats of man’s inhumanity to man.
Donne Senza Nome is such a film. It
is not pretty to look at, still less to
think about. Nevertheless, for those
who realise the power and the duty of
the cinema to focus attention upon
international problems, this film is
worth looking for. It is a pity that it
contains elements which will enable
the unscrupulous or unimaginative
publicity agent to attract merely
sensation-hunting patrons, but that is
inevitable in a film of this nature and
does not detract from its essential
merit.

It is the story of the concentration
camp for displaced women situated in
Italy near Trieste, and populated by
French, German, Polish, Spanish,
Hungarian, Czech and Yugoslavic
women who, for one reason or another,
are without identity papers and are,
therefore, not so much imprisoned
within the camp, as herded there for
their own security by the inability of
the politicians to arrive at a sane and
human solution of their problem.

The central character is a Yugoslav
(Valentina Cortese), who is determined
that her baby shall be born in freedom
outside the camp. Her efforts to escape
do not succeed and she dies while
giving birth to her child. The baby is
saved from being sent to the orphanage
when a kindly Italian guard adopts
him and gives him a name and a
country and the opportunity to live and
grow, to which all human beings are
entitled.

There are characters and scenes
which are repulsive, but they are an
integral part of the whole picture and
could not be omitted wdthout destroying
the point of the story. The direction
is firm and seldom overdone. The
strongest scene is the attempted escape
of the women and the measures adopted
by the guards to prevent them. The
quiet talk of the kindly Commandant
(Mario Ferrari), who explains why they
are safer within the camp gates, is
very moving. The cynical interjections
of Francoise Rosay, as a Belgian
countess, the saucy disregard of
propriety by Simone Simon as a French
girl who gets herself a husband and
so liberty, the resigned devotion to
dutv of Gino Cervy as the officer who
adopts the baby, all combine to give
a remarkably restrained and credible
picture of one of the most heart-rending
problems left in the path of the war
that has never ended.

V.

LA RONDE

Starring: Simone Signoret, Simon

Simone, Danielle Darrieux, Jean
Louis Barrault, Gerard Philipe
and Anton Walbrook. Director:
Max Ophuls. Distributors:
G.C.T. (Distributors)' Ltd.
Certificate: X. Category: A.

Running time: 125 minutes.

This film has taken three awards :
as the best French film this year at

185

Montevideo ; for the best scenario and
for the best decor at Venice last year.
1 find it difficult to accept any of these
awards as well-merited. The decor is
Hollywood fantastical, the scenario,
evidently set on getting as many bed-
room scenes as possible into one film,
assumes that Destiny (personified by
Anton Walbrook under a number of
disguises) arranges illicit love affairs
between virtuous and vicious indis-
criminately. The street woman, the
soldier, the shop girl, the poet, the
actress and the count are all involved
in a roundabout of “amour”, in which
the count finds himself eventually-
accepting the attentions of the street
woman, which was where we came in
and so we go out.

As for being the best French film,
the only thing truly French about it is
the galaxy of talent, including Jean
Louis Barrault, Gerard Philipe, Odette
Joyeux and others, so dreadfully
wasted.

One can admire the polish of some
of the technique without conceding that
it is either typically French in the prize
class ; or worthy of the talent of Max
Ophuls, the Saarbrucken-born maker of
Letter From An Unknown Woman.

V.

CLOCHEMERLE

Starring: Felix Oudart, Brochard,

Saturnine Fabre. Director: Pierre
Chenal. Distributors: Blue

Ribbon Films. Certificate : X .

Category : A. Running time : 80
minutes approx.

Good Friday once was a day on
which Christian countries suspended
secular pastimes and occupations in
order to pay reverence to the Saviour
of mankind whose great act of sacrifice
that day commemorates. London this
year signalised the day by admitting to
the West End a film of peculiar
vulgarity in which disrespect to religion
was a strong element.

It would be easy7 but unjust to blame
the Censor for the contents of this
film. At the best of times his task is
an unenviable one. It is not his
business to express views as to
artistic or cultural standards in films.
His main business is to safeguard
public good order. This he does under
three main heads : religion, politics

and social order. He is not to be

blamed when a film is moronic any-
more than he is to be praised if a film
is what some people term “broad-
minded” (another term in that context
for skating on morally thin ice). In
neither case has he done more than to
assure that the exhibition of a film will
not cause a public riot. With regard
to Clochemerle, one has to be grateful
that so much that is offensive to
religion has been cut out and if one
or two scenes that are verging on the
sacrilegious still remain, that is due as
much to the natural ignorance of the
Censors of the theological implications
of the scenes as to the superior
professional knowledge of the Catholic,
who will instinctively- invest such
scenes with a significance which the
non-Catholic may well fail, to notice.

Though it is not the business of the
Censor to express opinions about the
quality of the film it is certainly the
business of the responsible adult
cinema-goer to refuse to tolerate on the
screens he patronises films that are
basically vulgar and coarse.

It will be sufficient to say that the
theme of the film is anti-clericalism,
symbolised by the erection of a public
urinal in the square outside the church.
The radicals who use this convenience
are opposed by pious and embittered
spinsters, who are thus made the
protagonists of Religion versus Progress
and Commonsense.

It may be that the reading of the
book from which this film is derived
is capable of providing genuine
amusement to adult minds, but the
moment it is turned into a film, this
unsavoury situation is offered to the
salacious sniggering of every Tom,
Dick and Harry who thinks that a
French film is synonymous with
impropriety. An example of this type
is the man I heard of who regretted
that he did not understand French as
he thought that he was “missing
something spicy”.

In its present version Clochemerle
labours under two defects. It supposes
that religious practice and devotion
are the refuge of sex-starved and
embittered spinsters who constantly
prey upon the innocence and youth of
those youngsters likely to find a spouse.
It also assumes that the mention and
function of micturition is screamingly7
funny and greatly daring. There is no
accounting for tastes, but I imagine

186

that most of us ceased to think that
urination was a subject for humour
when we entered our teens.

It is not without significance that

this film is technically second-rate.
One or two actors stand out but the
whole thing is below standard.

V.

From Our Educational Panel

Some Film Strips for the Teaching
of English History

LIBRARIES

B. I.F. — British Instructional Films,

Ltd., Film House, Wardour Street,

W.l.

C. G. — Common Ground — from Educa-

tional Supply Association, 171/181
High Holborn, W.C.l.

G.B.I. — Gaumont British Instructional,
Film Library, Aintree Road,
Perivale, Middx.

Dawn Trust Film Library, Aylesbury,
Bucks.

MEDIEVAL

Cathedrals and Abbeys

B.I.F. No. 154. Price : 10s.

The 41 frames of this strip cover 18
of the cathedrals and abbeys of
England, and aims at suggesting the
extent of this heritage rather than
providing a complete survey of it. The
choice of buildings is representative of
different periods and places and shows
the great range in style of building and
wealth of historic and artistic treasures
they often contain. Details of sculpture
are sometimes provided — Winchester’s
Norman font, the cloister vaulting of
Gloucester, as well as relics of more
particular historic interest — the
Coronation Chair, Winchester’s
Mortuary chests and Hereford’s famous
“Mappa Mundi”. In each of the
eighteen cathedrals and abbeys at least
one view of the exterior is provided
and these are sometimes disappointing
and usually the result of trying to
convey too much in a single frame.
The same criticism can be made of

“interior” views where the beauty of
the object is sometimes concealed by
the angle of the photograph. Never-
theless, this is a strip to be enjoyed
by all over 12 for its “general
knowledge” value and would be useful
as a revision of medieval history.

Canterbury Cathedral

B.I.F. No. 182. Price : 10s.

This film strip presents a complete
survey, in 30 frames, of the most
interesting features of the cathedral and
monastic buildings. In addition to the
familiar views of the exterior, nave and
crypt, there are some exceptionally
good details of the buildings, notably
the fan vault of the central tower, the
magnificent panelled roof of the
Chapter House and the bosses of the
cloister vault. A cathedral so rich in
associations with saints, kings and
pilgrims provides abundant material for
the photographer and the selection is
representative, covering the structure
and, decoration of the building, its
historic relics and associations. Apart
from the general interest and value of
this film strip, it contains many
illustrations of the chief features of
English ecclesiastical architecture.

The English Manor House

B.I.F. No. 183. Price : 10s.

The history of the English manor
house as a place of defence and
residence is shown in the 39 frames of

187

the strip showing the exteriors and
interiors of some of the best known of
these houses and ending with sixteen
detailed views of Hatfield House. The
term “manor house” extends to such
palatial residences as Chatsworth
House, but most of the illustrations are
of the smaller, more familiar type of
country house The original defensive
features such as the curtain walls,
moat and towers are shown, but the
emphasis throughout is on the manor
house as a home. Photographs of
Haddon Hall, Montacute House and
Compton Wynyates provide details of
domestic interest, the chapel, the
library, gallery and gardens, and finally
Hatfield House is treated in detail both
for its historical interest and as an
example of the manor house combining
elegance with comfort.

This film strip would have most value
for older children and would provide a
useful introduction to the study of
English domestic architecture and
furnishing.

The Castle

C.G.A. No. 487. (Colour.) Price : 25s.

A set of attractive drawings
reconstructing life in and around a
medieval castle in peace and war. The
strip itself is not over-loaded with
technical detail, and so is mainly suited
for young seniors, but very full and
valuable notes are provided, giving
much interesting information and
points for study. The pictures are
supplemented by photographs of four
or five existing castles, intended to
show children what to look for when
sight-seeing.

Medieval Building

G.B.I. Price : 15s. each.

1. The City. S.ll.

A comprehensive survey of an
English medieval city, beginning with
its siting, design and lay-out, and
showing the city walls, bridges, gates
and defences, cathedral, guildhall,
streets, dwellings, shops and alleys.
The illustrations are chiefly from York,
and the photography is good.

2. The Cathedral. S.12.

A simple introduction to the develop-
ment of the English Cathedral building,

beginning with the vaulting, and
intended to show children what to
look for in the interior and exterior.
Examples widely chosen and
interesting.

3. The Parish Church. S.22.

An excellent strip. Very good
photographs, useful diagrams and
captions designed to show the evolution
of the parish church and its place in
social life, with just enough detail to
arouse interest and desire to find out
more. The names of the churches are
given in the titles, a point to be
specially commended.

4. The Monastery. S.59.

Photographs of different parts of a

composite monastery, with figures of
monks added to recreate monastic life
in its natural setting. The photographs
are good and representative ; the monks
are rather blurred and ghostly, but
this perhaps serves to give a not
inappropriate illusion. No distinction
is made between the Benedictines and
Cistercians, otherwise the impression
is a faithful one.

The Luttrell Psalter

G.B.I. S.20 and 21. Price : 15s. each.

Black and white reproductions of
marginal illustrations from this unique
record of daily life in the Middle Ages.

Strip I show's the Church, some
medieval People, and Agriculture, the
farming scenes being especially note-
worthy.

Strip 2 show's games and pastimes,
and home life.

TUDOR TIMES

The Shakespeare Country

B.I.F. No. 157. Price : 10s.

This is a most attractive and
interesting film strip showing the chief
scenes of Shakespeare’s life and work,
together with beautiful views of the
countryside and villages familiar to
him. The first twenty frames show the
places and relics most closely connected
with Shakespeare’s life — the parish
church with baptismal font and parish
register recording his birth and death,
the grammar school and his desk, and
the cottages of Anne Hathaway and

1S8

Mary Arden. The views of interiors
and relics shown have an interest apart
from their Shakespearean associations
and much can be learnt of fifteenth and
sixteenth century rural architecture
and domestic life from the carefully
preserved contents of the houses — the
old plates, furniture, ovens and farming
implements. The remaining frames of
the strip are devoted to the villages
Shakespeare knew and American links
with Shakespeare and ends with a
view of the Memorial Theatre.

This strip could be used for a number
of purposes for children of 12 and over
and would be an attractive introduction
to the study of a Shakespeare play.

Tudor Life

C.G.P. No. 526. Price : 6s. 6d.

This is a short “Pilot” strip of
eleven drawings illustrating various
aspects of Tudor life — printing, a
grammar school, a countrv mansion, a
tournament, the playhouse, a dockside.
These are followed bv some notes and
questions and references. The pictures
are only indifferently good, however,
though children might find them useful
in individual work.

The Tower of London

C.G.A. No. 52 Price : 15s.

This is a most interesting strip,
formed of photographs of the Tower as
it is today, combined with prints and
drawings which tell of its history, the
uses to which it has been put, and the
many famous and tragic names
associated with it. The strip could be
used to recall former visits, or to
prepare for a future one. It would be
a useful addition to a series illustrating
castle-building.

MODERN TIMES

Lives of Famous Men

Common Ground. Price : 15s. each.

A series illustrating the lives and
achievements of famous English
Statesmen and national figures from
contemporary portraits, prints, cartoons
and other material, all supplemented
by comprehensive notes.

Sir Robert Walpole. C.G.B. 344.

Colourful, vigorous and alive.

Chatham. C.G.B. 345.

Concentrates on the conduct of the
wars rather than their outcome.

Younger Pitt. C.G.B. 346.

Achievements of his Ministry and
early battles of the war. Rather
colourless.

Wellington. C.G.B. 385.

Very good. 4

Nelson. C.G.A. 217.

Very good.

Disraeli. C.G.A. 256.

Interesting, especially “Punch”
cartoons.

Introduction to the Industrial
Revolution

Common Ground. Price : 15s. each.

Part. 6. The Revolution in Textiles.
C.G.B. 46.

Valuable collection of contemporary
prints and illustrations which bring the
best-known aspect of the Industrial
Revolution to life. Besides pictures
of the epoch-making inventions, there
are explanations and illustrations of all
the subsidiary processes, and the people
engaged in them, also of shops,
fashions and tailors, and of the Luddite
movement.

Part 8. Roads, Rivers and Canals.
C.G.B. 48.

Prints, drawings and diagrams
illustrating the eighteenth century
revolution in communications : the

construction of roads, canals, bridges,
locks, tunnels ; types of vehicle — stage
coach, post-chaise, cabs; the postal
system, and the G.P.O. A fascinating
collection.

Part 9. Coal, Metal and Steam.
C.G.B. 47. |

More technical than the two last
strips — early coal mining and
machinery, child labour ; iron works
and processes ; early steam engines and
the coming of gas.

100 Years Ago

A Festival series of drawings from
contemporary prints. Dawn Trust.

189

Oldc London. I and II. D.T. 34 and 35.

Strip I shows the public buildings
and principal streets as they looked
100 years ago. Strip II shows the
interior of many of these buildings,
and London as seen from the River.
Both strips very interesting, especially
the second.

Olde Oxford. D.T. 36.

Not so impressive as the last, since
| few of the buildings illustrated have
' altered much, and better contemporary
drawings are available.

Oldc Edinburgh. G.Ss. 9.

Pleasant but much too short.

The Houses of Parliament

B.I.F. No. 178. Price : 10s.

Beginning with some fine views of
the building and its surroundings, the
strip deals mainly with the settings in
which the daily business of Parliament
is conducted. We see the House of

Lords with the royal thrones and
Woolsack and the historic “bar” from
which the Commons hear the Speech
from the Throne, the House of
Commons, the Libraries, Prime
Minister’s room and other interesting
details not to be seen by the average
visitor to Parliament.

The strip shows the dignity and grace
of the buildings, especially as seen
from the river and the pageantry of
the State Opening of Parliament. The
strip is divided into three sections
dealing with the Building and its
surroundings, the Throne, the Lords
and the Commons, and finally the
Clock Tower and Big Ben. It would
be most suitable for older children as
an introduction to or revision of
Parliamentary institutions.

The next article will deal with
FILMS AND STRIPS FOR USE IN
THE JUNIOR SCHOOL.

THE

CHALLONER

CLUB

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HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL GRIFFIN

Full Club facilities are offered to readers of

FOCUS

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DRAMATICS

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Particulars of membership may be obtained from

THE SECRETARY

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(Tel.: KEN. 5343)

190

Artist or Empiric?

By EDWARD CARRICK

Having been brought up as an artist
and having lived all my early years
among artists whose names are now
among the mighty, I often wonder why
more artists — real artists — are not
employed to make films.

During the last 21 years that I have
worked in films, I have heard much
about our technical development and
even more about the vast sums of
money that are being poured into
British films so that their quality will
rank with the filmic product of other
countries.

But all that we really need are
IDEAS and ARTISTS to carry them
out.

Great ideas cost no more than poor
ones. It costs the publishers no more
to print Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan”
than to print some doggerel verse
about a contemporary hanging.

Shakespeare’s characters were as
popular in Queen Elizabeth’s time as
any characters written into modern
drama — and yet the Elizabethan
producers paid no more for these
“classics” than we do for ordinary
plays. Today things seem to have
changed a bit. Is it that we are

constantly trying to develop our brains
at the expense of our imaginations ?

As I see it, the knowledge of film
technique will help you no further
than a would-be-writer is helped by the
knowledge of spelling and grammar (a
most essential knowledge but to no
advantage unless he is motivated by
inspiration). Money and chromium
dictaphones from American will not
help.

It has been a custom for years to
joke about artists and their

impracticability. The artists are all
right : it is the empirics that are to
blame. They masquerade as artists,
but their “trial and error” methods are
the very antithesis of the true artist’s 1
approach. As Leopold Eidlitz pointed ®
out : “We cannot paint a picture and
then consider what we shall call this
picture ; painted as it were by accident,
and yet claim for it the title of a work
of art. To create a work of fine art,
it is necesary that an idea should
be represented in matter with I
premeditation, and that the artist shall, I
front the beginning of the work, and
throughout every stage of it, be the
master of the means and methods of
accomplishing this object.”

It is only by trial and error that the !
phony artist can possibly succeed —
but at whose expense ? I once worked |
on a film with such an “artist” ...
he shot 291,000 feet of film in order to I
make a 3,000 foot picture !

Now that times have changed and
money is not to be squandered and the
future is to be borne in mind, I feel |
that it is time we, in the film world,
stopped to put our shop in order. It |
is time we turned out these glib
talkers, these “trial and error” boys
and took English films seriously.

Let us have crazy comedies full of
wit, social dramas keeping us awake
to the realities of life, fantasies I
transporting us into the unknown,
heroics to revive us, but let them be I
made by the best artists — artists who
recognise that they have in charge a
trust of enormous value. That upon I
their studies, their devotion, their
enthusiasm, must depend the thoughts I j
and emotions of coming generations.

(“International Film Review”) 4)

SUBSCRIPTION RATE

f^WING to the increased cost of postage on printed papers we are
obliged to increase the rate on annual subscriptions to FOCUS:
Film Review, to 7s. 6d. per annum as from May 1st, 1951.

A

191

Letters to the Editor

Two Endings

Sir,

Re E.’s review of Les Amoiireux
Sont Seuls an Monde in your May issue,
k I saw this film shown in Paris with
* two endings, one after the other. The
first was the true ending, where
composer remains infatuated and wife
commits suicide. It was authentic and
very moving. The second, captioned
as devised for countries requiring a
happy ending, was that of which E.
writes. It appeared a false volte face
from the rest of the film (of which E.’s
review is fair enough) . I think it
better to deplore a tragic offence
against God’s law than to be offered
something devised for superficial
conformity with Christian morality. In
am- case the real opposition in the two
endings was that between French
idealisation of love and Anglo-Saxon
common sense.

Yours faithfully,

A. McKee.

Paris.

+

Hollywood’s Homage to the Rosary

Sir,

We were interested to read the
account of Father Peyton in the April
number of Focus, and I have thought
that the enclosed report from Blackpool
may be of interest in showing the
tremendous power of the Rosary films
which were produced by Father Peyton.

“During the month of March the
people of the diocese of Lancaster had

I a new experience of the cinema, an
experience that has proved the religious
film a “best seller”. Father Peyton’s
three Rosary films — The Road to Peace,
The Joyful Hour and The Triumphant
Hour — are not amateurish efforts, but
the finest Hollywood productions.
Here are seen the Stars— Bing Crosby,
Ann Blyth, Don Ameche, Ruth Hussey,
Pat O’Brien — not only acting in the
moving scenes of the mysteries of the
Rosary, but also doing it from
conviction to bring to the notice of the

world a practice that they have
established in their own homes . . .
the Family Rosary.

“In this area of Blackpool and the
Fylde we have had ample opportunity
of witnessing the effect of these films.
St. Cuthbert’s Parish has its own
projector, and so each evening and
most afternoons during the past three
weeks a priest has been out with the
films showing the whole of this two
and a half hour programme in cinemas,
parochial halls and schools. There is
no sign of the rush abating.

“The story is one of packed audiences
all the way. One priest had to switch
from his hall at the last moment and
use his church, so great was the press
of people. Audiences have been
spellbound. One child (a non-Catholic)
was given a piece of chocolate, but the
chocolate was never eaten. It melted
away as the enthralled child watched
the " Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.
One whole family — typical of the
ordinary families in the town— has been
seen at every performance in the
district, and they are not finished yet.
Non-Catliolics love it as much and more
than do our own people. One non-
Catholic lady who had done a hard
day’s work stood for two and a half
hours and said that she had enjoyed
ever}' minute of it.

“Such instances are typical of the
reception that these films have received
everywhere, and are an indication of
the great persuasive power of these
beautiful films to bring the Rosary to
the home. The general reaction is that
for the onlookers the Rosary will never
be the same again, for it will have an
even greater depth of meaning in the
future. No greater tribute could be
paid to the efforts of all who contributed
to the success of the Rosary Films.”

With every good wish.

Yours sincerely,

Fr. O’Niell,

Secretary.

Bishop’s House,

Cannon Hill,

Lancaster.

192

BOOK REVIEW

Focus Film Course Primer. Handbook

No. 1. By Andrew Buchanan.

pp. 36. Catholic Film Institute,

is. 6d.

The monthly articles comprising the
first half of “Focus Film Course” have
now been published as a handbook.
While primarily an introduction to the
present series of lectures at Hove
House, it also serves as a blue-print
for Film Study Groups, providing a
scheme of work in place of possibly
shapeless arguments. It is a primer in
the art of film appreciation through
knowledge, a positive approach.

Dr. Buchanan has suggested a
syllabus by means of which students
can become informed on all aspects of
the medium. The film on the screen
is the end of the story; he urges them
to begin at the beginning. Thus the
syllabus for the first eleven meetings
covers the film industry as a whole,
classification of films, subject matter,
films in education, films for children,
commercial programmes, the news reel,
religious films and film music. The
twelfth chapter suggests questions
covering the work of the previous
meetings, and the student who can
answer most of these, says Dr.
Buchanan, is ready to go on to the
second series of lessons, the Work of
the Film Makers, now appearing in
Fqcus, and later to be published as
Handbook No. 2.

The writer wastes no words and the
short chapters are essentially readable.
There are not too many statistics, a
specimen lesson with points for
discussion is given, and the comments
on different parts of the syllabus are
interesting. He goes straight to the
cause of the trouble when he says that
there is a world of difference between
books and plays written for adults and
those for children, but, judging by the
thousands of children who visit
cinemas, there is little if any difference
between films for adults and films for
children. Why? Because the cinema
does not cater for a very high standard
of intelligence, says Dr. Buchanan. He
would have all children barred from all
commercial cinemas, since films made
for adults cannot be suitable for

children, and he urges the setting up
of a 16mm. network for the showing
of children’s and religious films.

An original turn of phrase lends a
lighter touch to the book. I liked his
description of the News Reel as merely
an animated interval for some people,
and the idea of a film going in one eye
and out of the other is, if faintly
ludicrous, at least novel.

In conclusion, Dr. Buchanan states
that although the first aim of the
course is to increase the critical
faculties of the film-goer through the
formation of study groups, the ultimate
purpose is the making of films “which
shall proclaim the Christian Message
ceaselessly”.

This business-like handbook is
provided with a bibliography and
several blank pages for notes. It is
obtainable, price Is. 6d., from More
House, 53 Cromwell Road, London,
S.W.7, or from Blue Cottage, Sumner
Place Mews, London, S.W.7.

M. A.

Prayer Book for Artists of Stage,
Screen and Radio. (Published
by Basil Clancy Ltd., 33
Bachelor’s Walk, Dublin.)

The Catholic Stage Guild of Ireland
is fortunate in having FT. Cormac
O’Daly, O.F.M., to edit a delightful
prayer book for actors and players.

The charm of this neat book lies in
its original presentation of its prayers.
Fr. Cormac knows his actors well.
They are busy people with many
rehearsals. The prayers are therefore
kept short, and the player is
continuously but tactfully reminded
that life itself is a rehearsal for an
eternal drama. There is a prayer by
Hubert van Zeller in which the actor
is bidden to ask God to save him from
the artificiality of the footlights and the
sniff of the Green Room.

All the prayers are built on a lovely
conception : that Christ is the

Supreme Artist who played to perfec-
tion the part allotted to Him by His
Heavenly Father.

Cover

Personality

Ann Blyth

Against a background of green-
garbed ballet girls and Irish-habited
singers, a pretty girl walked on to the
enormous Empire Theatre stage with
perfect poise and sweet reserve. After
a few words of introduction she sang
“An Irish Lullaby”. The huge
audience, come from all parts of
London to see and hear Ann Blyth
with Mario Lanza in The Great Caruso,
gave her a welcome that only warm-
hearted Londoners know' how to give
and give only to those whom they
know they can trust and admire to be
natural and human. Then she paid
tribute to English musical tradition by
singing “O Happy Day” from “Kiss
the Bride”. This charming song she
had learnt specially for the occasion
and she sang it with feeling and
warmth.

When I chatted with her after the
show I was not surprised to have Ann
Blyth confirm my impression that she
was a trained singer and had been on
the stage before she went into films.
There is something about the way a
person walks on to a stage that betrays
the trained actor or actress. After a
childhood radio career she was with
the San Carlos Opera Company for
three years. There is also an
unmistakable character about the film
star who has been through the theatre
mill. Ann Blyth is such a one. She
told me that she would not have missed
that training for anything. She was
very glad, she said, to have the
opportunity to go back to the stage last
summer for a short spell in order, as
she put it, “to learn again the things
i had forgotten”.

Her singing, too, gave evidence of
the careful artist. She treated both the
songs she sang with the care that
compliments both the singer and the
song. So many singers nowadays
imagine that they have only to

“vocalise”. John McCormack taught
us the lesson that anything worth
singing is worth taking trouble over
and Ann Blyth gives us that impression
too : she had taken trouble to present
her numbers to the Empire audience as
well as she knew how and the

audience did not take long to

appreciate and react to the compliment
she thus paid them.

One becomes accustomed to the
professional approach of many of the
film stars. It was not difficult to
recognise the sincerity which is Ann
Blvth’s most heart-warming quality.
The tough-skinned press representatives
with whom I talked after the Empire
show were loud in their praises of her
genuine and unselfconscious manner.
She had come to keep her date,
regardless of the fact that she was
stiff with the reactions of a vaccination
demanded bv the American authorities
and which had left her feeling very
stiff and sore. To me she confided that
it was all worth while as a preliminary
to her visit to Rome. She was wildly
excited about the thought of seeing the
Holy Father. To a Catholic priest, of
course, there is something specially
delightful in the loyal, pious devotion
which such a personality brings to her
religious life and there was an unusual
warmth in the way she responded to
my “God bless you” : “Oh, thank you.
Father ! ”

Her film career began, as far as
England is concerned, with The Merry
Monahans. Mr. Peabody and the Angel,
Another Part of the Forest and Top
O’ the Morning are the other films of
hers which have been shown over here.
Now she is appearing in The Great
Caruso in which she makes a hit by
reason of her under-playing to Mario
Lanza’s rather obvious and over-plaved
Caruso. Incidentally, she is not
allowed in that film to do justice to
her talent as a singer when she ends
the film with a song version of “Over
The Waves”. She has just finished
work at Denham on The House on the
Square, for which she was flown from
Hollywood at short notice to take over
Constance Smith’s part. She is a good
trouper and a fine, human character.

John Vincent.

FOCUS

FILM COURSE

Handbook No. 1

Foreword by

Rev. John A. V. Burke

Film Course by

Andrew Buchanan, D.Litt., Ph.D.

“ provokes thought and arouses a desire to read more ... an
excellent primer for Film Study Groups."

— The Catholic Times.

“ . . . invaluable to anyone who wants to tai^e an intelligent
interest in the cinema "

— The Catholic Worker.

Contents include essential facts and statistics relating
to: The Way Films Vary: The Cinema Programme:
The News Reel: Fictional versus Factual Films:
Educational and Children’s Films: The Religious
Film: Film Music.

Price 1 s. 6d.

From

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE,

157 VICTORIA STREET,
LONDON, S.W.l.

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Film
Institute, 157 Victoria Street, London, S.W.l.

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : The Very Rev. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

5. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

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FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Editorial 195

Film Critics on Lake Lucerne ... 196

American Memories 198

No. 6 — Dau O’Herlihv

Colour : Boon or Bane ? 200

By J. J. Curie

Catholic Theatre Guild 201

The Cameraman 202

By Andrew Buchanan

C.F.I. Notes 203

Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

Macbeth 204

A Tale of Five Cities 205

Laughter in Paradise 206

Mystery Street 206

The Groom Wore Spurs ... ... 207

Page

Bouaventure 207

Sirocco ... 208

Apache Drums 208

Roseanna McCoy ... . . ... 208

Out of True 209

The Harlem Globetrotters ... 209

Call Me Mister 209

There is Another Sun 210

Young Wives’ Tale ... ... 210

Payment on Demand 211

A1 Gennings of Oklahoma ... 211

Continental Films

II Mulino Del Po 211

L’Armoire Volante 212

Ballerina 212

Four in a Jeep 212

Some Film Strips for Juniors ... 214

From Our Educational Panel
Book Review 216

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FOCUS: review

ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

Vol. IV

JULY 1951

No. 7

WORDS OF WISDOM

“I have very little idea of what is going on in the world: but occasionally
I happen to see some of the things they are drawing and writing there and
it gives me the conviction that they are all living in ash-cans. It makes
me glad I cannot hear what they are singing.

"If a writer is so cautious that he never writes anything that cannot
be criticised, he will never write anything that can be read. If you want
to help other people you have got to make up your mind to write things
that some men will condemn.

“The poet enters into himself in order to create. The contemplative
enters into God in order to be created.

“A Catholic poet should be an apostle by being first of all a poet, not
try to be a poet by being first of all an Apostle. For if he presents himself
to people as a poet, he is going to be judged as a poet, and if he is not a
good one his apostolate will be ridiculed.

“If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy.

“If you write for men — you may make some money and you may give
a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while.

“If you write for yourself you can read what you yourself have written
and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted you will wish you
were dead.”

I have quoted these words from Thomas Merton’s book “Seeds of
Contemplation” because there is a close affinity between the poet and the
film-artist. What a poet does with words a film-artist does with pictures.

Thomas Merton was an American newspaper man, literary critic (I
think, film-critic also), essayist, poet, who in recent times became a Trappist
monk. His words of wisdom are worthy of attention.

Editor.

196

Film Critics on Lake Lucerne

The O.C.I.C. General Council and Study Conference

Leaving London Airport at midday
on May 24th, I arrived at Lucerne at
4-30 p.m., was met at the station by
an efficient Swiss Scout who took me
to the Union Hotel, where I was swept
bv Dr. Reinert, the doyen of our Vice-
Presidents and our host for this
occasion, into the embrace of an
Executive Committee, already several
hours old. We emerged to take breath
and refreshment several hours later.

Friday, May 25th, was devoted to the
General Council of the O.C.I.C. It
began at 9 a.m. by an assembly of the
representatives of 28 nations and
continued until 12-15, past midnight!
We had breaks for lunch and also to
see a Spanish film, Balarrasa, about
which I hope to say something
elsewhere, but even these intervals
were severely filled up with “contacts”.
That is to say, between mouthfuls or
eyefuls, as the case may be, one found
oneself discussing the pros and cons of
religious films, of film criticism, or it
might be, the exchange of information
between the various countries, with
Frenchmen, or Spaniards, or gentlemen
from Germany or Austria, or maybe
from Cuba or Haiti, or Egypt or
Lebanon. This kind of Pentecostal
intercourse makes great demands on
the nervous system and the resulting
exhaustion diminishes the benefit
otherwise being derived from the
enormous and excellently prepared
Swiss meals !

The principal business of this General
Council was a Study Conference,
organised by the General Secretariat of
O.C.I.C. This occupied the best part
of two days, Saturday and Sunday, and
took place, appropriately enough, in
the Parliament House of the Canton of
Lucerne. Occupying elaborate seats
usually filled by the legislators of this
enchanting country, film critics from
many lands listened to a masterly
analysis of the function of the film
critic, delivered by J. L. Tallenav,

Editor of the French Radio-Cinema.
They had their chance to speak in
Parliament when, following a series of
“interventions”, the debate was opened
to all comers.

Tallenay outlined the present position
of film criticism in the form of a report
on tendencies and methods and put
forward some suggestions, open to

discussion, by which the Christian film
critic might extend both the range of
his own validity as a critic and the
field of his influence.

It is necessary, he said, that the
critic should undertake to inform his
readers, since publicity is so often

misleading, and to form them also,
since most spectators, even though
educated persons, lack the necessary
knowledge to be able to judge a

film technically and artistically. The
Christian critic must provide his readers
with enough material to enable them
to form their own opinion as to whether
the film is to be seen or not.

Some critics fall into the error of

snobbery, that is to say, of judging the
film merely according to its aesthetic
value, forgetting that film is a language
and should have a message under-
standable by the public. For this
reason the critic should give his reasons
for liking or disliking a film, thus
enabling the reader to form his
judgment.

On the other hand there are those
who content themselves with
cataloguing questionable situations in
films without sufficiently considering
the value of the film as a whole. The
'danger here is that films may be
commended whose only value is that
they contain no unseemly situation.
The fact that the majority of films tend
to be stupid and vulgar and thus
present a danger as regrettable as
immorality is often overlooked.

The critic must be as well educated
as the readers for whom he writes. He
is offering to guide them in their

197

choice of film and therefore he owes
them something more than a cursory
outline of the film as such together
with a smart remark at the expense of
the producers and players. Even
though he may not have the space in
which to publish all he knows about
the film, the critic should have taken
the trouble to analyse it. He will take
care to distinguish between this analysis
of the film and the judgment which he
himself will pass upon it. The
Christian critic will judge a film
completely, that is to say, he will
balance it from the artistic and the
moral viewpoint.

With regard to religious films, M.
Tallenav said that the critic who is a
Catholic should be severe without
being destructive. Avoiding excessive
indulgence, he must deliver a verdict
within the limits fixed by the authors
of the films and taking into
consideration their possibilities, their
material and artistic limitations.

The Christian film critic will
remember that he is writing for a wide
public that contains both Christian and
non-Christian elements. He will bear
in mind those others who, through his
judgments, may come to know some-
thing of the mind of the Church on the
various problems presented by the
cinema.

Among the interventions which
followed J. L. Tallenay’s exposition of
the theme of the Conference was one
by W. J. Igoe, the dramatic and film
critic so well known to Catholic readers
in this country and America. Mr. Igoe
made the point that the critic must
above all things be true, both to
himself and to the film he is criticising.
Much harm is done bv films which do
not tell the truth and which, therefore,
mislead people about America or
Britain or with whatever country or
people the film may be concerned. The
persons most to blame for the
misinformation about these countries
are the natives of those countries
themselves who allow bad fiction to
pass for fact. The critic, however, has
his share of blame for he should be
able to inform his public of the truth
which the film has not told.

The debate which ensued was a lively
one but there is not room here to deal
with the points raised ; in general
critics were concerned with their
freedom to be able to express their

true opinions about films. This, of
course, is not always easy for the
writers in commercial papers where the
policy of advertising or even political
reasons may hamstring the critic. It
was, suggested that some kind of
national or perhaps international
federation of film critics might be able
to obtain and safeguard the literary
and religious freedom of the critic in
this matter.

A great consolation to the assembled
critics in their deliberations was the
telegram received from the Vatican
which came in answer to a message of
filial homage and devotion imploring
the Papal Blessing, sent to the Holy
Father by Dr. Bernard, President of
O.C.I.C. on behalf of those participating
in the Study Conference. The telegram
read : “His Holiness very impressed

by filial homage of O.C.I.C. General
Council and critics assembled for
Study Conference at Lucerne.
Paternally encourages positive work
in the very important domain of
cinematographic criticism. Sends all
participants the desired Apostolic
Blessing. Montini. Subst.’’

Thus yet another Papal incentive to
continuation in this important but
wearying work of Catholic Action came
to crown the endeavours of the General
Council of O.C.I.C. 1951.

The excursion up the Lake of
Lucerne which occupied the last day of
the meeting was not, as it might sound,
primarily “a day off”. Granted we had
excellent hospitality from the kindly
Swiss municipality at Altford, as we
had had also on the Sunday from the
municipality at Lucerne itself. But the
eternal and everpresent urge of the
Continental “to make contacts” meant
that while one was trying to admire the
beautiful mountain scenery an Italian
gentleman would demand information
about the position of children’s films
in England ; then, while trying to
snatch a glimpse of the obelisk which
commemorates Schiller, a Frenchman
would demand to know what the
English thought of Dieu a besoin des
hommcs ; and so on, and so on. The
outcome of it all is that anyone who
blithely steps into the doorway marked
“Catholic Film Action” abandons for
ever in this world the hope of a quiet
half hour. May God bless them all!

J. A. V. Burke.

198

AMERICAN MEMORIES

No. 6— DAN O’HERLIHY

(This Month’s Cover Personality)

By DECLAN FLYNN, O.F.M.

To meet a man for a few hours and
then to write about him will seem like
arrogance, unless you remember that
I am just giving a personal impression.

Dan O’Herlihy impressed me as a
man of considerable charm and
intelligence. He is over six feet in
height, broad-shouldered, athletic and
extremely handsome ; he speaks
beautifully, dresses quietly, is very
friendly without being “hearty”; he
will answer your questions courteously
and then will ask you questions about
yourself, your work, the friends he
knows, the people and the places he
knows and you know.

I met him last October in a broad-
casting studio in Hollywood, when he
was playing John Cyril Hawes in the
“Hour of St. Francis” programme,
which I have already written about in
the January' issue of Focus.

One moment I was chatting and
smoking with him ; the next moment
I was watching him playing John Cyril
Hawes. I was amazed and fascinated
by the rapidity with which he could
jump into someone else’s skin. For a
moment or so (I was so near to him
that I could see his every movement)
he seemed a little nervous, then Dan
O’Herlihy' disappeared and John Cyril
Hawes, mount-guard, waiter on rail-
ways, sailor, architect, Anglican
missionary in Zanzibar, convert to
Catholicism, Catholic priest who built
churches in Australia, consecrated
bishop, philosopher, poet, archeologist,
“Hermit of the Bahamas”, who
eventually changed his pontifical robes
for the Franciscan habit and his name
from John Cyril to Frater Hieronymous,
w'as re-created and lived and moved
and the amazing story of his life was
presented to us.

This power to lose oneself is, surely,

the distinguishing mark of the great
actor. Alec Guinness possesses the
power ; so do many of the actors and
actresses who have been schooled in the
Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Dan O’Herlihy
achieved fame with the Abbey Players
and at the Gate Theatre, Dublin. He
was born on May 1st, 1919, at Wexford,
Ireland, and went to Dublin when he
was two years old. His father was a
government official. Dan grew up and
waxed strong and was educated at
Blackrock College, which is under the
care of the Holy Ghost Fathers; from
there he graduated to the National
University of Ireland. It was while
taking part in a University play that he
was “discovered” by’ Producer Frank
Dermody who offered him the leading
role in “Three To Go”. This play
launched young O’Herlihy profession-
ally. Later, he went to the Gate
Theatre where he appeared in more
than 60 plays, acting the lead in half
of them. It is interesting to note that
it was at the Gate Theatre that his
taste for Shakespearian drama was
born. He appeared in at least a dozen
successes. He also participated in
more than 300 broadcasts over Dublin
and B.B.C. airwave.

“Hell Bent for Heaven”, in which he
was the juvenile; “Sun-up”, in which
he played the lead; “You Can’t Take
It With You”, in which he portrayed
the mad Russian ; and the lead in
Shaw’s “Joan of Arc” are among the
plays in which O’Herlihy' played at the
Gate Theatre.

To date he has done little film-work.
You may remember that he played one
of the hold-up men in Odd Man Oxit
and also a part in Hungry Hill, with
Margaret Lockwood. However, his
film-future seems assured. At the
moment of writing he is starring as
Macduff in Orson Welles’ Macbeth.
He is spotlighted opposite Welles (who

199

plays Macbeth) and participates with
him in the famous duel scene set off by
the challenge : “Lay on Macduff”.

O’Herlihy has baffled the Hollywood
boys who try' to “type” newcomers. He
is not the type to allow himself to be
typed. He received several flattering
offers from American film companies,
but instead of accepting a film studio
contract, he chose to go to Hollywood
as a free agent. He was followed a
few months later by his wife and their
year-old daughter, Olwen. Not being
typed is regarded an asset in film
circles whereas being tabbed “another
any one” predicts quick oblivion.

While I was in the studio I got the
impression that Dan O’Herlihy is well
liked and respected by everybody. I
was told that it is very likely that he
will be invited to play the part of Our
Lord in John Farrow’s film. I hope he
does. He is a first-rate Catholic and
one feels that he would play the part
with understanding and integrity.

Like many other first class actors,
O’Herlihy has other cultural interests.
1 understand that he holds a degree of
Bachelor of Architecture from the
National University of Dublin and is
also an Associate of the Royal (English)
Institute of Architects, and that he
expects to establish an architectural
office in Dublin within the next few
years, in company with a former school-
mate.

At present he is doing a lot of
radio work in Hollywood. After he
had finished this Peter Cyril Hawes
programme he had to rush off to do
another broadcast in another studio
somewhere in Hollywood. But, before
he left, he autographed for me a script
with a charming message written in
Gaelic which I am told means : “God
bless you, P'ather O’Flvnn”. It would
be fitting for me to conclude this
inadequate study by saying : “May God
bless Dan O’Herlihy, and his wife, his
child and his work.”

Tribute to Very Rev. Fr. Hilary Carpenter, O.P.

The Catholic Film Institute has suffered a severe loss in the resignation
of its Chairman, Very Rev. Fr. Hilary Carpenter, O.P. The Chairman of a
flourishing organisation requires intelligence, sympathy, tact, tolerance and good
humour. Fr. Hilary possesses these qualities in a high degree.

Fr. Hilary has always preached the doctrine that man should develop all
his faculties of body mind and soul. He himself practices what he preaches.
Although a scholar, a sound philosopher and theologian, he can create things.
He sketches very well indeed ; you may see a set of altar rails in the Church
of the Capuchin Fathers, Oxford, which he made ; he has made some amateur
documentary films recording the work of the A.R.P. in Oxford and the
missionary work of the Dominican Fathers in South Africa. Needless to say
he was a firm believer in the Apostolate of the Cinema

He always realised the necessity of film-appreciation and film-criticism ;
nevertheless he equally realised the necessity of making films of a Christian
character. Under his leadership the C.F.I. entered production.

The disputation, “The Cinema is the highest form of Art”, which he devised
and which was broadcast on the Third Programme, made history at the B.B.C.
In many other ways he emphasised the work of the Catholic Film Institute.

We all deeply regret that ill-health has forced Fr. Hilary to leave us. The
C.F.I. offers him its gratitude and assures him that his work and character will
ever be remembered.

200

A Positive Approach to the Cinema, No. 12

Colour: Boon or Bane?

By J. J. CURLE

The introduction of colour into a film
usually provokes one of two very
definite reactions ; either the watcher
delights in the mere fact of colour with
its sensuous appeal and associations, or
the artificiality and harshness of the
colour used repels him. But the real
issue for those who believe in the film
as an art form lies far deeper than this.

Technical processes will no doubt
improve with time, though commercial
interests may keep the improved
methods at bay for a few years. Yet,
even if they do improve, the advance
will be towards naturalism rather than
art. The film image will become as
nearly lifelike as it is possible for
anything to be which is distorted in
scale, limited by the bounds of a screen
and gazed at steadily by an eye that
does, not move.

These limitations are, however, in
themselves substantial.

To alter scale, as anyone knows who
has looked through a magnifying glass,
is to alter both the relative and the
absolute values of the colours and
shapes seen. Look at life through the
wrong end of the telescope and it
becomes sharp, neat, tidy, quite unlike
the sprawling dusty affair we know.
Took at it through the right end and
you are perpetually living in the
heightened atmosphere of close-up
without being able to take the
unemotional long view which puts a
scene in perspective. So too with the
bounded screen and the static eye, the
image is distorted from its resemblance
to life. The eye in contact with nature
knows no limits and therefore does not
have to compose what it sees. It roves
about taking in cursory, simplified
“impressions” such as Monet and
Pisarro captured in their paintings and,
before it is sated — or if it is jarred — it
moves on. But looking at the screen
we see the whole of what appears on
it simultaneously and even a change of
camera angle does not give us the same
effect as moving our eye, for either it

is made too seldom (the eye being
accustomed to pass from angle to angle
with lightning speed) or else, if it is
made continuous as in a panning shot,
the contrast between the moving scene
and the static border of the screen
makes us physically uneasy as if
looking out of a moving car through
field glasses.

But, granted that these limitations
were not vitally important, would the
successful imitation of natural colour
satisfy us in the cinema ? Frankly I
doubt it. If we want to look at nature
we go into a park or a garden or take
a trip to the country, but we go into
the cinema as men have gone into
every playhouse from the earliest
times, to purge our emotions by living
through others fuller, finer, more
shapely — or at least more exciting — than
our own. We want a human story
in which man stands out as the
dominating feature of his environment,
or at least a story in which that
environment seems to reflect human
moods. In the black-and-white film
this was possible because its light and
shade correspond in some way to the
light and shade of man’s nature. The
skilful cameraman builds his pattern of
mood in light just as the composer of
the accompanying music builds it in
sound. To strengthen the power of
these moods as artistic unities he may
also compose his individual pictures in
terms of mass like a painter creating
a satisfying unity on canvas. In
addition he can alter the emotional
effect of his shots by altering their
range, pace and definition.

But with colour the cameraman’s
resources are far more limited. Man
photographed in colour against a
natural background at once shrinks to
less than lifesize, to the position of a
mere “extra” in the picture. If he
does manage to stand out it is only
because of the colour of his shirt, not
because of the power of his emotions
or personality. Nature in colour can

201

no longer be kept as a backdrop to
set a mood, for the mind does not
react to colours \tfith the same
unanimity of interpretation as it does to
light and shade. The red that to one
is joy, to another war, and, to yet
another, shame, cannot be used as
common coin with a universally known
value. Similarly to compose with
“masses” in their natural colouring is
clearly almost impossible, when the
slightest movement of the camera or
an actor may cause even a small spot
of colour, by fresh juxtaposition, to
strengthen or weaken a large mass to
the point at which its apparent weight
is altered. Speeding up of shots and
deliberate blurring of definition are
also made largely ineffective by natural
colour, for the eye is too distracted by
irrelevant background colour to catch
the emotional linking thread with the
first device, while in the second case
though the shapes of the objects seen
are fused into a lulling and sensuous
rhythm their colours may still clash or
disturb just as much as when sharply
defined and will annoy doubly because
they suggest objects which they do not
clearly define. Finally the effect of the
close-tip as a heightener of emotion is
largely annulled when, not only does
the background distract in this manner,
but the spectator’s interest is diffused
over a number of different coloured
planes of flesh and clothing instead of
being focused on the centre of one
mass — the head.

Of course the alternative to using
natural colour is to create endless
“sets” on a theatrical pattern and use
colour as an element of fantasy rather
than realism. This is the technique of
the Disney cartoon, The Red Shoes and
many of the best musicals, and it is
in this direction that the future of
colour would seem to lie. At the other
end of the scale, also, where mere
pictorial fact is required, as in news-
reels and nature films, colour can add
notably to the effect produced. But the
“realism” of colour in the feature film
is a myth and we would do well to
recognise it before the art that black-
and-white film has created is
abandoned. It is easy to mistake
greater factual accuracy for greater
realism, but cutting the dancing out of
a realist ballet and performing it
against a three dimensional slum
background does not make it more

real ; it merely destroys it as a work of
art.

Perhaps a new art will be evolved
from the use of colour. Possibly, as at
the introduction of sound, an old one
will be lost. Perhaps colour will even
take us back to the world of the silent
film with its emphasis on fantasy,
action and larger-than-life acting. One
thing is certain and that is that, with
an increasing range of accurate colour
tone registered on the film, the art
director’s efforts to highlight his
characters’ emotions against the
rainbow riot of natural backgrounds
will soon, manifestly, be a lost cause.
If the colour film is to progress as an
art form it must either scrap nature
or scrap its efforts to show the subtler
feelings and thoughts of man as parts
of an artistic pattern.

Catholic Theatre Guild

A meeting was held at Corpus Christi
Church, Maiden Lane, London, W.C.,
and afterwards at the Charing Cross
Hotel, on Sunday, June 10th; to
inaugurate the resurrected Catholic
Theatre Guild. Over a hundred
member of the stage, screen, radio,
variety and other allied professions
were present. At the suggestion of
Father O’Hare, Chaplain to the Guild,
the Temporary Committee, with Mr. Ted
Kavanagh as Chairman, was re-elected
en bloc until such time as a larger and
more representative gathering has had
time to consider the revised Constitution
which the Temporary Committee has
been working on.

Mr. Michael Brennan, Mr. John
O’Sullivan, Mr. George Baker and
Miss Mary Pilgrim were co-opted on to
the Temporary Committee to represent
the interests of film players, technicians,
music and the student actors of the
R.A.D.A. and other similar academies.

The next meeting will be at Corpus
Christi Church, Maiden Lane, London,
W.C., on Sunday, July 1st, at 5 p.m.
In the meantime all Catholic members
of the allied professions are urged to
become members of the Catholic
Theatre Guild. All information from
The Secretary, The Catholic Theatre
Guild, Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane,
London, W.C.

202

FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. No. 6

THE CAMERAMAN

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

Cameramen are fairly numerous, but
those combining creative ability with
technical knowledge are comparatively
rare. Think of all the friends who
show you their snaps after holidays.
“That’s where we stayed. You can’t
see it very well, but ...” “Here’s
May with the baby — the light wasn’t
too good that day.” Occasionally you
are shown snaps revealing picture
sense, fine detail, and dramatic
qualities, but usually you have to sit
transfixed, staring at distant, dim, drab
views of vital interest only to the
photographer and his family.

So it is with film cameramen. Many-
wili bring back the right material shot
in the wrong way. A few will capture
first-class imaginative material. In film
production, save newsreel work, a
cameraman receives instructions from
the director who knows, or should
know, the exact position from which
a scene must be taken. That is why
a director without full knowledge of the
camera’s capabilities and limitations
works at a serious disadvantage. The
cameraman will carry out the director’s
wishes regarding angle, nature of
lighting, and general set-up unless, of
course, such instructions are technically
impossible to obtain. Maybe camera-
man and director will work together to
select the best positions, but it remains
the cameraman’s responsibility to
secure first class photographic results.

In modern studio production the
cameraman is more accurately described
as the lighting expert, for he is
primarily concerned with lighting a
scene and the characters appearing in
it, leaving the manipulation of the
camera to an operator. Lighting is
among the most difficult of all jobs
in film-making. First, a scene has to
be lit so that it shall appear as in
normal daylight, or sunlight, or lamp
light. Then the characters must be
equally normally lit. The audience
must not be conscious of any

concentration of light upon this or «
that person, even though such "

concentration probably exists. More-
over, a character must never walk
out of the light. Wherever he moves,
the illumination must be even, as in
an ordinary day-lit room. Consequently,
whilst batteries of lamps provide an
overall light, the rays of others follow
people wherever they go in a scene.
Even that is not all. A character may
walk out of one scene into another,
but the latter may not be filmed for
weeks after the former. In the finished
film the character’s move from one
scene to the next will be immediate,
and so the lighting expert must be
sure that even though the scene has
changed, the lighting of that character
is the same. Stars can be filmed only
after exhaustive camera tests have been
made, and lighting formulae for each
evolved.

The cameraman is an artist modelling
in light and shade, just as, in his
different medium, the sculptor models
in clay. Sometimes artificial lighting
is introduced into natural exterior
scenes to strengthen the daylight, or
so that light can be controlled and
directed on certain characters. This is
particularly difficult work, for no
evidence of artificial light must be
apparent.

A top-ranking lighting expert has
almost certainly worked his way up
from, perhaps, being a clapper-boy,
focus-puller, or general assistant, and
became an operator before rising one
step higher. Now the work of the I

operator is of supreme importance, for
he is the man responsible for the actual
movement of the camera — keeping
characters in the centre of the screen
regardless of whether they are
dawdling or rushing about ; he has to
follow them smoothly, track up to
them, or withdraw imperceptibly,
making sure both they and the back-
ground remain sharply in focus. This

203

demands long experience, patience and
a lot of rehearsing before a scene can
be filmed.

In the documentary field, most
cameramen use light portable, clock-
driven cameras which can be carried
anywhere, free of the restrictions
imposed by complicated and cumber-
some studio equipment. Here, too,
photographic values are of first

importance, and anyone who has taken
the trouble to study camerawork for
itself — that is, separating it from the
narrative being unfolded — can instantly
tell the work of the creative cameraman
from that of the purely technical man.

However, whatever the nature of a
film, the finest camerawork never
distracts the viewer from the story
being projected.

C.F.I. NOTES

Catholic Film Exhibition

The dates originally thought of for
the Film Exhibition and Conference
which the Birmingham Youth Organisa-
tion has promised to organise for the
C.F.I. coincide with the dates of the
Lay Apostolate to be held in Rome,
October 7th to 14th. It is therefore
necessary to change the dates for our
Film Conference.

As we mentioned before, the idea is
that priests particularly but lavfolk as
well, who are practically interested in
sub-standard film production should
come to Stratford with their films to
show them and to talk about them, as
well as to see what other people have
done in this line and to exchange ideas
which will certainly be fruitful of much
good for practical Catholic film action
in the future.

Details can be obtained from Rev.
Father T. C. Copsey, M.A., Soli House,
John Street, Stratford-on-Avon.

C.F.I. Lectures

Talks have been given on various
aspects of the film from the Catholic
standpoint at Chester, at Cardiff, at
Sheffield and at Weybridge. Discussions
at these meetings show that there is a
great deal of adult and intelligent
interest waiting to be awakened and
guided along the lines indicated by
Pius XI in his memorable Encyclical
on Films.

Focus Film Course

The remaining lectures in this Course
will be given by Miss Freda Bruce

Lockhart, speaking on “Dialogue in
Films”; by Mr. Ian Dalrymple,
speaking on “Factual versus Fictional
Films”; and a final talk summarising
the Course bv Andrew Buchanan.

The next series will be given during
the Autumn. The first series can be
delivered again if there is sufficient
demand for them. There is no reason
why they should not be arranged for
other parts of the country with the
same or with different speakers.

FOCUS

FILM COURSE

A Series of Lectures to be
delivered at

MORE HOUSE,

53 Cromwell Road,
London, S.W.7
under the supervision of
ANDREW BUCHANAN
at 3 o’clock on
April 7th and alternate
Saturdays until July 14th

FEES: Single Lecture 1/-

Syllabus from Catholic Film
Institute, 157 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.l

204

j'jljvj aiwaswg

By our Panel of Priests

Category A, indicates adults only; B, adults arid adolescents ;

C, family audiences ; D,

Macbeth (Orson Welles)

MACBETH

Starring: Orson Welles, with Jeanette
Nolan, Dan O’Herlihy, Roddy
McDowall and Alan Napier.
Producer and Director: Orson

Welles. Distributors: Republic

Pictures. Certificate : A. Category.
B. Running time'. 90 minutes
approx.

It is a pity that with this issue of
Focus we have to cut down our space.
Macbeth demands a full treatment, if
only to deal with the weaknesses of
what could so easily have been an
outstanding version of the tragedy.

particularly for children

Alan Napier (The Holy Father)

Shakespeare presents the camera with
many a tempting trick ; the wood of
Birnam coming to Dunsinane, Banquo’s
Ghost, the Weird Sisters, the Sleep-
walking scene, and so ou. But Welles
throws away most of the tricks the
bard allows him in place of a mixture
of obvious stage-limited movement and
some moments of almost inspired
photography. The use of deep focus
with the head of Macbeth nearly filling
the screen while the characters he
speaks to or about move in the distance
was very effective. The fatuous changes
of headgear which Macbeth assumes, on
the other hand were merely silly. First
a helmet which looked like a rehearsal

205

for Welles as the Khubla Klian in
Black Rose , then a crown which looked
like the Statue of Liberty brought up
to date, then a square and most
uncomfortable headpiece which might
have found a place adorning some of
the statues in Battersea Park. This
fussiness and concern with oddness for
its own sake makes one wonder whether
the maker of Citizen Kane, the man
who scared American radio audiences
with his Martian invasion, has really
matured.

Then, too, the intrusion of a “Holy
Man”, a kind of Wagnerian priest, in
order to underline his conception of
Macbeth as a conflict between the
powers of good and evil would be
impertinence if it were not merely
naive. Since its showing at Venice
three years ago, the sound track has
been much modified. The grotesque
Scottish accents, though still out-
rageous, are less offensive to the ear.
The ending has been changed and a
prologue added, in which Welles points
out that the story of Macbeth is a fight
between good and evil.

Orson Welles’ performance as
Macbeth is a mixture of the worst
kind of strutting player with the
subtlest kind of insight into the
character of the man. It is, in other
words, an infuriating film which you
ought to see, if only to be able to say
how much you disagree with its
producer’s interpretation. V.

A TALE OF FIVE CITIES

Starring: Bonar Colleano, with Lana
Morris, Barbara Kelly, Anne
Vernon, Eva Bartok, Gina
Lollobrigida, Karin Humbold.
Producer: Alexander Paal.

Director: Montgomery Tully. A
Grand National Picture. Certi-
ficate: A. Category: B. Running
time : 99 minutes.

Bob Mitchell, a trapeze artist, was
rash enough to put on a private
performance which resulted in a fall,
concussion and complete loss of
memory and identity. The only clues
w'ere a cigarette case with his name,
five bank notes, each with a girl’s name
written on it, and the photo of a small
bov. The notes are in the currency of
Italy, Austria, Germany, France and
Great Britain respectively.

The following up of these clues
might have provided scope for a really
good picture. But what has emerged
from the machine of the film industry
is something colourless and flabby.
Some names in the credits recall
British National Films and it would
seem that the mantle of that now
defunct company has fallen on Grand
National Pictures, which would appear
to have taken to heart a remark made by
a character in this film : “Corny or not,
that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Rome is the first city visited by Bob
in search of his past. The aerial view
of St. Peter’s is included in the film.
This has the advantage of providing, in
return for a modest outlay, a piece of
local colour recognisable even by
conducted tourists. He appears to have
driven from the airport to the terminal
along the old Appian Wav, which must
have been more interesting, if more
bumpy, than the way most of us are
taken on such occasions. But the real
highspot in the Eternal City is Gina
Lollobrigida in a sweater. (Some of
those who saw her for the first time in
Pagliacci were quite sure we should
soon be seeing her in a sweater, and
how right they were.) He also sees
an ancient ruin or two, of course.

More modern ruins abound in Vienna
and Berlin. But still no wife and child
for Bob. He finds out in turn that
none of the ladies had been either his
wife or in any other way qualified to
be the mother of his child. Having
discovered this he makes a pass at each
one in rotation. Gently but firmly and
unanimously they turn him down.
(Cheer up, chaps, if the girls turn you
down. It can even happen to Bonar
Colleano.)

When Bob had toiled up the steps to
the Sacre-Coeur on Montmartre, I
almost expected a very bogus priest to
come out of the basilica and remark :
“It will soon be Ave Maria, ray son.”
But no. Let us be thankful for small
mercies.

Well, in the end it turns out that
he is quite eligible for a letter of
freedom and that as for the small boy
— Bob’s his uncle. So the scene is set
for the final curtain with the girl who
has loved him ever since he lost his
memory.

The synopsis contains an unusual
piece of information : “British Quota.”
This is an explanation, if not an
excuse. Q.

206

LAUGHTER IN PARADISE

Starring: Alastair Sim, Fay Compton,
Beatrice Campbell. Producer
and Director: Mario Zampi.

Distributors: Associated British

Pathe. Certificate : U. Category.
C . Running time : 95 minutes.

It was not exclusively a press show
and your gentle, non-professional critic
noticed that the public laughed much
more than did his professional brethren ;
this makes one think that the
public is happily content with being
entertained, while the sated and jaded
critic complicates things by looking for
art. The art of entertainment is
competently exercised and well
displayed in Laughter in Paradise.

A practical joker, whose feats are
reminiscent of the great Horace de
Vere Cole himself, dies on a joke and
leaves a queer will. Four of his
relatives are each to come into £50,000
on certain preposterous conditions.
An appalling, nagging sister (Fay
Compton) is to seek and keep for a
month a situation as a domestic
servant. Cousin Deniston, later of the
Army Pay Corps and now secret writer
of “thrillers” (Alastair Sim), is to
spend 28 days in gaol. Timid Cousin
Herbert has to “hold up” the manager
of the bank where he works.
Philandering Cousin Simon has to
marry the first girl he speaks to after
the will has been read.

This in effect gives us four separate
plots and results in a certain episodic
character as far as the film is
concerned. Anyway, all have their
individual difficulties in qualifying for
their legacy and this gives us four
different opportunities for fun. And
they are well taken.

It is always a jov to have Alastair
Sim, with his smooth speech and deft
touches. The timid bank clerk and the
roystering philanderer (George Cole
and Guy Middleton) have to portray not
unfamiliar types and squeeze out new
humour from 'situations which in the
main are not novel. And they do it
successfully too.

The one attempt at delineation of
character is in the hands of Fay
Compton, who gives a beautiful
rendering of the nagging middle class

woman learning her lesson that
considerateness is quite a thing. We
do actually watch her learning it and
while I don’t know about Laughter in
Paradise, we have the best authority
for being sure that there is joy in
heaven over a sinner doing penance.
Amidst all the laughter that is just
what Miss Compton brought out by her
lovely performance.

Joyce Grenfell is in it too, the same
old sixth former with her slightly off-
right slang, this time an A.T.S. officer
engaged for ten years to the thriller
writer. She always makes me helpless
with laughter, but I wonder if it is
fair to her to expect always variations
of the same type.

The list of players is long and
reassuring. What of a production
which, besides the principals and those
already mentioned, includes such
favourites as Ernest Thesiger, A. E.
Matthews, John Laurie and Anthony-
Steel ? It should be good and it will
be popular.

X.

MYSTERY STREET

Starring: Sally Forrest, Richard

Montalban and Elsa Lanchester.
Director: John Surtees.

Distributors: M.-G.-M. Certifi-

cate: A. Category : B. Running

. time : 90 minutes.

A story about a man who is wrong-
fully accused of murder and of the
painstaking work of the Harvard Legal
Research College which leads both to
his arrest and his acquittal. The film
is neatly made and keeps the interest
of the spectator till the final chase and
capture of the murderer. There are
some improbabilities, of course. I was
a little unconvinced that a body would
be reduced to a state of drv-boned
skeletonisation by a few months
immersion in the sea. But then, the
Harvard expert would not have been
able to deduce that the bones were
those of a ballet dancer and that would
have spoiled quite a lot of the fun.

Elsa Lanchester turns in an excellent
studv of an unscrupulous landlady and
Richard Montalban makes quite a
pleasing detective with a Latin
American accent.

V.

207

THE GROOM WORE SPURS

Starring: Ginger Rogers, Jack

Carson, Joan Davis, James
Brown. Producer: Howard

Welsh. Director: Richard Wharf.
Distributors: G.F.D. Certificate-.
U. Category : B. Running time:
8 1 minutes.

There is hope for all of us if we can
laugh at ourselves with our own
idiosyncrasies and pretensions. In this
film Hollywood takes time off to laugh
at itself good-humouredlv and, let
us hope, with a firm purpose of
amendment.

Fancy

On the screen, Ben Castle, admirably
played bv Jack Carson, is an idol whom
the ladies of all shapes and sizes adore.
He is a great big hunk of a guy who
loves horses in a big and tender way;
he has a crooning mellifluous voice
which causes his fans to faint, for what
reason I cannot say; he is the massive,
manly sort of chap with a way with
him and a manner that his kicks or
kisses are all the same to certain
idolatrous females.

Fact

Off screen, this idol is revealed as
an idle sort of fellow with little
character, and capability who hates
horses and can’t sing; he is just a
stooge, mere clay in the hands of the
publicity potters. His vocal powers
are contrived by off-stage records ; his
horsemanship is the work of a double.
His manly, muscular charm derives, I
should say, from distance which, it is
said, lends enchantment.

Apart from this open confession of
Hollywood’s soul, there is little else to
the film. Ginger Rogers, Ben
Castle’s lawyer, plays her part as she
no doubt was told to play it, which
means that within the first five seconds
all the laws of gravity are broken and
she falls into his arms ; and that in
the next five seconds (almost) she is
his wife, disillusioned ere her vows
spoken before some quack in a
mountain shack have had time to get
fixed in her silly little head and too-
too hero - worshipping heart. Joan
Davis, who plays the part of Ginger

Rogers’ room-mate, adds ginger to
this film, which is light, merry and
digestible.

E.

BONAVENTURE

Starring: Claudette Colbert, Ann

Blyth, Anne Crawford. Producer:
Michel Kraike. Director:
Douglas Sirk. A Universal-
International Picture, G.F.D.
Release. Certificate-. A. Category:
B. Running time: 84 minutes.

I have not seen the play (of the
same name) from which this film is
taken and do not, therefore, know
what changes have been made in the
transition process ; but I am left
wondering why the scene is laid in a
convent. As far as the plot is
concerned an ordinary hospital would
have done just as well, and we should
have been spared the inept efforts of
actresses to impersonate nuns. The
less said about Gladys Cooper’s
performance as Rev. Mother the better,
and I do not take kindly to Claudette
Colbert as Sister Mary Bonaventure,
the heroine of the story. On the
other hand, Connie Gilchrist’s Sister
Josephine is wholly delightful, without
one false note — quite the best thing in
the film, which is for the rest a thriller
with little merit. There are, however,
some excellent shots of flooded land-
scapes and good performances by Ann
Blyth, who as a girl falsely condemned
to death for murder is not afraid of
having a • good fit of hysterics and
really letting herself go, and Michael
Pate as the half-witted youth who is
so devoted to Sister Bonaventure.

In spite of having to run a hospital
crowded to extreme limits by patients
and refugees rendered homeless by
floods, the nuns are able to sing
elaborate four-part polyphonic motets
in their chapel, though there are
apparently only five of them : one can
but suppose that the fifth (Rev. Mother
by the way) reinforced the first soprano
part !

There is nothing positively offensive
to Catholic taste, but producers and
actresses might take a little trouble to
find out how nuns really behave.

T. C. F.

208

SIROCCO

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Marta

Toren, Lee J. Cobb, with Everett
Sloane, Gerald Mohr, Zero
Mostel. Producer: Robert Lord.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt.

Distributors: Columbia. Certi-

ficate: A. Category-. B. Running
time : 98 minutes.

The scene is in Damascus in 1925
when the Syrians were fighting the
French. Harry Smith (Humphrey
Bogart) is strictly nootral — he says so
— and though he runs guns for the
Syrians', he ends up with one of their
bullets in his back.

Lee J. Cobb, as one would expect,
gives a finished performance as a
French officer. Zero Mostel is too
modest with his first name ; I should
give him more marks than that.

The film presents two problems. One
is enunciated by the lady who says to
Mr. Bogart : ‘‘How can a man so ugly
be so handsome?” This I will not
attempt to solve.

The other is : why is the picture

called Sirocco when no wind of any
kind plays any part in it ? For a time
I was baffled and then I remembered
that the sirocco (in Italian scirocco) is
notorious for making you feel sleepy
and irritable.

Q.

APACHE DRUMS

Starring: Stephen McNally, Coleen

Gray, Willard Parker. Producer:
Val Lewton. Director: Hugo

Fregonese. A Universal-
International Picture. G.F.D.
Release. Certificate \ A. Category :
A. Running time : 72 minutes.

Apache Drums is a hair-raising, blood
curdling Red Indian picture, all
according to adventure books for
schoolboys. The topograph}', history
and the ferocious character of the Red
Indians are all in accordance with what
is supposed to be true in stories of
this kind. The reality may have been
very different, but who of us is to
know ?

The story is somewhat easy to
predict from the first — the bad, loose-
living, handsome ne’er-do-well (Stephen
McNally) makes good — all for the love
of a lady (Coleen Gray). It is done

by his bravery in defending a small
township of settlers against the
invading hordes of Red Indians,
who, for the purposes of this picture,
are all bad. The fear of the
unpredictable and sinister force of
Indians will enter our bones, not so
much through the eye as through the
ear. Those drums ! Suggestion is
sometimes more effective than sight.
Our imagination is allowed to do the
work, for once, and does it do it !

Admiration for those responsible for
the photography and technicolor of
this film ! Someone here is not only
a technician but knows the meaning of
composition and is an artist.

G.

ROSEANNA McCOY
Starring: Joan Evans, Farley

Granger, Charles Bickford,

Raymond Massey, Richard Base-
hart, Gigi Perreau. Producer:
Samuel Goldwyn. Director:

Irving Reis. Certificate-. A.
Category-. A. Running time :
89 minutes.

I had no idea until I had read the
blurb after seeing this film that I had
witnessed “The Mightiest Feud in
History”. Things are not always what
they seem ! All I thought I had seen
was yet another western, a grim,
sordid and squalid one indeed, with
none of that breezy freshness that one
usually expects and gets in such a film.
If you want violent and unrelieved
rough and tough stuff, here it is, but
it’s not the sort of fare for a pleasant
evening at the pictures.

The acting was creditable and
credible, with some good individual
performances — that of Joan Evans in
particular. But why must she be always
dolled up as though she was straight
from the beauty parlour when she was
supposed to dwell in a squalid wild
west shack ? And why did not our hero
spit out the hornet’s poison which he
had sucked from her arm ? And since
he didn’t, why didn’t he die from it,
and so spare everyone — ourselves
included — the torture of this sorry
story ? Perhaps just to give us the
satisfaction of seeing them both ride
off on horseback in the light of the
silvery moon (or sun) to the tune of
angelic voices. We could have been
spared that too. G.

209

OUT OF TRUE

Starring: Jane Hylton and Muriel

Pavlov. Director: Philip Leacock.
Distributors: C.O.I. Certificate:

A. Category : A. Running time:
40 minutes.

Mental disease has long had an
attraction for the film script-writer.
Not always has the subject been
treated either accurately or truthfully.
Out Of True is an attempt to avoid
the faults of other films on the subject
while soliciting sympathy for sufferers
from this sad affliction. It invites
comparison with the American Snake
Pit and comes out of the comparison
with considerable merit. Perhaps to
English minds the film rings truer
only because the American system has
to be taken on trust through films.
Jane Hilton as the girl patient, scores
a well-deserved success. Talking to me
after the Press Show, she said that she
had always had the greatest concern
for people who were mentally sick and
she hoped that her efforts in this part
would contribute to a better under-
standing both of those who are patients
in mental hospitals and also to those
whose work it is to treat mental disease.

V.

THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS

Starring: Thomas Gomez, Dorothy

Dandridge, Bill Walker, and the
Original Harlem Globetrotters.
Director: Phil Brown. A

Columbia Picture. Certificate:
U . Running time : 77 minutes.

There is nothing pretentious or
involved about this film. It is simply
a story woven round the exploits of a
basket-ball team in America. The
basket-ball matches are most exciting,
which is a good thing, as the major
part of the film is basket-ball matches.
Of course, if you don’t like basket-ball,
don’t go and see this film. And if you
do like basket-ball, w'ell you sure will
see basket-ball. But then basket-ball
isn’t quite what we think of as basket-
ball, so you go to see basket-ball as
she is played in U.S.A. And even
love is subjected to basket-ball, which
is quite an achievement over there, so
that basket-ball has to be subjected to
love at one stage, but of course basket-
ball wins in the end, and so do the
Globetrotters, because the Globetrotters

sure play mighty fine basket-ball . . .
Oh yes, that’s just about w'lrere we
came in.

M.

CALL ME MISTER

Starring: Betty Grable, Dan Dailey,
Danny Thomas, Dale Robertson,
Benay Venuta, with the Dunhill
Dance Trio, Frank Fontaine.
Producer: Lloyd Bacon. Director:
Fred Kohlmar. Distributors:
20th Century-Fox. Certificate :
U. Category : B. Running time:
96 minutes.

If you have studied, through the
medium of Hollywood films, the history
of the war which ended in 1945, you
will be aware that it was won by the
American armed forces. But you may
not have realised hitherto how their
morale was sustained. It was
principally by means of two CATS,
Betty Grable and her accompanist. (I
thought the designation very ungallant
until I found out that it meant
Civilian Actress Technicians.)
Supporting aitists were recruited from
the soldiers themselves. The period of
the film is that between the surrender
of Japan and demobilisation, after
which G.I.s resume the prefix of
“Mr.” (hence the title).

I found some of Danny Thomas’ lines
and business amusing, but the rest was
mostly the usual routine of song, dance
and hug. When I got tired of looking
at the screen, I glanced at my
neighbour, a young American. His
feet beat time ; his chew ing gum
revolved with enthusiastic rapidity.
For one ecstatic moment he could no
longer keep silence. “That’s Betty,”
he said.

Those who are familiar with films in
which Miss Grable appears will not be
surprised to hear that the usual care is
taken to display her legs from time to
time. I feel that I may be disqualified
froln passing judgment on the propriety
or otherwise of this exhibition — which
admittedly only lasts for a very small
proportion of the running time — by the
fact that I hold the very heterodox
opinion (which this picture has only
served to confirm) that the legs in
question are the reverse of
beautiful. Not all of us are able to
appreciate some forms of contemporary
architecture. Q.

210

THERE IS ANOTHER SUN

Starring: Susan Shaw, Maxwell Reed,
Laurence Harvey, with Hermione
Baddeley, Leslie Dwyer and
Meredith Edwards. Director:
Lewis Gilbert. Distributors:
Butcher’s Film Service. Certifi-
cate: A. Category : B. Running
time : 95 minutes.

The amount of money spent on a
film has no necessary relationship to
its excellence or otherwise. Though
this film is not to be thought of as a
masterpiece of cinematic art, it is
refreshing to learn that for £40,000 it
has been possible to produce a picture
with atmosphere, excitement, pleasing
stars and entertainment value which
compares very well with other
productions that have cost five times as
much.

The main characters are a young
boxer who has a doglike loyalty for a
worthless speedway rider and who is
saved from the unwholesome friendship
by the love of a good girl and the death
of the rider when the police catch up
with him.

The old stagers, Leslie Dwyer,
Hermione Baddeley and Meredith

Edwards, steal the picture, but
audiences will, I think, be attracted by
Laurence Harvey, a good-looking,
friendly, though not very competent
young actor. With more experience
and firm direction he will fulfil the
promise which he gives in this film as
the young boxer. Susan Shaw is
charming and does all that is required
of her. Maxwell Reed, again the bad
man, has evidently wearied of his bad
character and does not even try to be |
good (in the cinema sense, I mean). 1
He has now gone to Hollywood to join
the growing band of exiles who could
not find what they wanted in Britain.

V.

YOUNG WIVES’ TALE
Starring: Joan Greenwood, Nigel

Patrick, Derek Farr, Guy Middle-
ton, Helen Cherry. Producer:
Victor Skvtezky. Director:
Henry Carr. Distributors:

A. B.C. Certificate : A. Category :

B. Running time : 80 minutes

approx.

This is a good comedy in which we
see what complications can arise when
young married couples are forced to
live together on account of housing
shortage. Things are bad enough when
ordinary (as we like to sav, “normal”)
people are forced to live together ; but
when one of the couples comprise two
starry-eyed artists there arises the
un-tranquillity of disorder.

With such a brilliant cast this
comedy was bound to be a success. It
has pace and grace ; its humour
is rich and spontaneous ; and under-
neath the fun may be found the moral
that man and wife were meant to live
alone in their own house, if not in
their own castle. Such a team of
brilliant players prevents the play
becoming top heavy.

Comparisons are odious when there
is all-round brilliance ; nevertheless it
is fair to say that Joan Greenwood once
more proves that she is no mere
actress but an artiste. She plays the
part of the feather-brained, doting
little newly-wed wify with remarkable
skill and integrity. I would also like
to pay tribute to Helen Cherry, who
plays a small part with restraint and
reality.

Laurence Harvey

E.

211

PAYMENT ON DEMAND

Starring: Bette Davis. Barry Sullivan.
Producer: Jack H. Skirball.

Director: Curtis Bernhardt.

Distributors: R.K.O. Radio

Pictures. Certificate: A. Running
time : 90 minutes.

If you are not yet tired of the story
of the disillusioned husband who thinks
divorce the only way to something
better than the wealth and position
an ambitious wife can provide, then
you may get some pleasure from a film
that has little new in it except a few
odd trimmings. “I made him . . . now
I’ll break him,” sums up the wife’s
sentiments, and the process of breaking
is a hard and bitter one. Though the
wife (Bette Davis) acts well and must
follow her script, you will have to be
pretty hard-boiled to stand strident,
high-pitched, snappy staccato with
never a moment’s comic relief or play
for the finer emotions. Even the few
moments of reverie with memories of
marriage and their early struggles
can’t quite balance the stern, stark
realism and the things in poor taste
that could offend the least fastidious.
The all too familiar rich home, the
country club, the luxury liner would be
more easily endured if room were
found for even a little subtlety and
finesse. Even though events are so
arranged as to bring about a final
triumph of heart over mind one feels

that the final reconciliation is too
artificially devised to be convincing.

W. A.

AL GENNINGS OF OKLAHOMA
Starring: Dan Duryea, Gale Storm,
Dick Foran. Producer: Rudolph
C. Flothow. Director: Roy

Nazarro. Distributors: Columbia
Pictures. Certificate : A. Cate-
gory: B. Running time: 80

minutes approx.

This is the story of A1 Gennings, who
was born with a hot temper which got
him into hot water, “plenty”. He
became a lawyer and took the law into
his own hands in order to clean up
Oklahoma, during which time one of
his brothers is shot by one of the bad
boys about town. A1 sets out to avenge
his brother’s death ; in self-defence he
kills his brother’s murderer.

A1 the lawyer now runs away from
the law and becomes an outlaw and
leader of a band of bandits. He robs
banks and express offices, and holds up
trains. A price of 25,000 dollars is put
on his head. A woman betrays him.
He is imprisoned after the judge has
interfered with the verdict of the jury.
Later Roosevelt has him released.

As a Wild Western it gets by; but I
have my doubts about all this rough
stuff and glorification of trigger-happy
outlaws.

I thought the photography the best
feature of the film. E.

CONTINENTAL FILMS. By V.

IL MULINO DEL PO
(The Mill on the River)
Starring: Carla Del Poggio and

Jacques Sernas, with Giacomo
Giuradei. Director: Alberto

Lattuada. Certificate: A. Cate-
gory: A. Running time: 90

minutes approx.

This film is one of a group of what
I would describe as the less sensitive,
more frankly melodramatic Italian
school. Though it was much thought
of at the Cannes and Venice Festivals
two years ago, I fear I thought it both

noisy and tedious. This is probably
due to the fact that it was taken from
a novel bv Riccardo Bachelli dealing at
great length with the story of a tragic
love during the agrarian conflicts in
nineteenth-century Italy. It is not easv
to reduce a lengthy biographical novel
to film terms and proportions.

The photography is, of course,
excellent and one or two sequences
are superb. The acting of the two
principals is full-blooded and impressive
and some of the crowd scenes are very
well-handled. On the whole, not the
best Italian vintage, but sufficiently
attractive to those whose taste runs to
grand opera.

212

L’ARMOIRE VOLANTE
(The Cupboard Was Bare)
Starring: Fernandel, with Florencie,
Berthe Bovy and Maxirailienne.
Director: Carlo Rim. Distrib-
utors: Films de France.

Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time: 88 minutes.

An old plot with a new twist.
Alfred Pue’s rich aunt dies of the cold
in a furniture van and is placed for
safety in a wardrobe. Unfortunately
the wardrobe and the van containing
it are stolen. Thereupon commences a
wild chase to discover the whereabouts
of the wardrobe and its mortified
occupant. Alfred, in order to obtain
his aunt’s legacy, finds that he must
demonstrate to the lawyer that she is
not only dead but diseased. This,
without the body, is not easy to do.

A fantastic pursuit of the missing
wardrobe contains most of the expected
and many unexpected twists and makes
this a very amusing film. Fernandel
as Alfred is the personification of civil
servitude.

BALLERINA

Starring: Mira Redina, Victor Koza-
novich and Galina Ulanova.
Director: Alexander Ivanovsky.

Distributors: Concorde Film

Distributors. Certificate : U.

Category : C. Running time :

80 minutes approx.

This is the first Russian film to be
seen in London for a long time. I do
not know under what Governmental
arrangement the film has been allowed
into England. If it is on a basis of
exchange, I fear that the Russians will
get the worst of the bargain for it is
certain that few films we have
produced for a long time could equal
this one for charm, decency and sheer
entertaiment. It is ironic that the
Russians should teach us that a film
does not need to be moronic to be
decent. This one is, perhaps, even too
austere in its demands for seemliness.
Not one embrace, and the reunited
lovers at the close of the film beam
happilv at one another across a court-
wav ! Make-up, too, is sparingly used,
which is all to the good. Men and

girls both look more human for this
restraint.

The story is the simple one of boy
meets girl, estrangement through
misunderstanding and eventual reunion.
The boy is a singer, the girl a ballet
dancer. They both perform their parts
with conviction. The ballet scenes on
the stage of the Marinsky Theatre,
Moscow, are the most perfect and
beautiful I have seen in a film.

A curious lapse (?) in a Russian
film : the girl’s grandfather, anxiously
watching her performance on the day
which is to mean success or failure to
her, traces a Sign of the Cross in the
air while lm mutters his prayer for her.
Is it that ®s he is so old, the Masters
of Russia can forgive him a superstition
which the young do not need ? Or is
there some deep trap for the unwary
Westerner ? The Party Line appears in
a very harmless form in a Song in
Praise of Leningrad.

The camera-work is pleasantly calm
and effectual. No arty angles to
complicate the simple visual narrative.
Altogether, a film to see and enjoy.

FOUR IN A JEEP
Starring: Viveca Lindfors, Ralph

Meeker, Michael Medwin, Yoseph
Yadin and Dinan. Director:
Leopold Lindtberg. Distributors:
Film Traders Limited. Certificate:
A. Category: B. Running

time : 96 minutes.

When the Swiss make a film for
international consumption it can always
be depended upon to be truly inter-
national in its approach. You will
remember Marie Louise, The Last
Chance, The Search : all films which
were something more than programme-
fillers and sent their audiences away
in a thoughtful and stimulated mood.
Which is one of the elements in the
meaning of “recreation”.

In this story of the International
Zone of Vienna todav we have a cross
section of the problem which is taxing
the minds of the politicians as well as
the people who have the true welfare
of mankind at heart. Four soldiers
share a jeep, each representing one of
the occupying powers, each trying to
administer order if not justice according
to the dictates of the nation he

213

“ . . . Have you any news of my son?”
A scene from “Four in a Jeep”

represents. The soldiers themselves
are decent enough. They have to
avoid embarrassing their superiors bv
too much display of humanity. No
“incidents”, at all costs. The American
cannot endure seeing people “pushed
about”. So he interferes when it is
the turn of the Russian soldier to take
command. The British and French
soldiers would leave well alone, but
they, too, share something of the
American’s dislike of totalitarian
methods. They, too, therefore, are
engulfed in the struggle in the heart
of the Russian soldier between obeying
orders and the urge to humanity.

One is not quite sure what this film
is trying to say. It simplifies the
situation unduly, but it still leaves the
essential problem as complex as ever.
There are heartrending scenes, as in
The Last Chance. The return of the
prisoners is one of the most moving.
This film does what the American Red
Danube failed to do. It makes us
believe in the characters it shows us.
The French and the British soldiers

are the most recognisable. The Russian
and American would seem to be types
rather than persons. But they all live
and they have us living with them.

The players are, practically without
exception, first-class Viveca Lindfors
as the woman whose husband the
soldiers try to assist is magnificent in
her integrity. Michael Medwin is the
Cockney par excellence : no national
prejudice here; he is really good.
Dinan and Paulette Dubost as the
French soldier and his wife are superb.
It is part of the honesty of the film
that it is the Frenchman who has his
wife and family with him in Vienna.

Another aspect of the integrity of the
film is that it is played without sub-
titles. Thus, w'ithout destroying the
ability of the English audience to
understand the film, they are placed in
the predicament of the characters on
the screen when they are unable to
understand what the other people are
saying.

A magnificent film and one to be
seen again and again.

214

From Our Educational Panel

Some Film Strips for Juniors

LIBRARY

Visual Education Ltd., 9 Upper
Berkeley Street, Portman Square,
Loudon, W.l.

Fairy Story Film Strips

In colour, £1 each (purchase only) or
a set of 12 in a handsome “book”
container for £10 10s. Fourteen

titles are included : Nos. 1 to 9
inclusive can be bought either
with captions or with story
commentaries; Nos. 10 to 12 and
the two alternative titles are
captioned only.

The titles are :

(1) “Snow White and the Seven

Dwarfs” (40 frames).

(2) “Alice in Wonderland” (41

frames).

(3) “Hansel and Gretel” (40

frames).

(4) “Dick Whittington” (40

frames).

(5) “Treasure Island” (40 frames).

(6) “Puss in Boots” (37 frames).

(7) “Robinson Crusoe” (40

frames).

(8) “Cinderella” (41 frames).

(9) “Aladdin” (37 frames).

(10) “Jack and the Beanstalk”

(40 frames).

(11) “Ali Baba and the Forty

Thieves” (45 frames).

(12) “Tom Thumb” (33 frames).

There are two alternative titles :
“The Three Bears” (36 frames).
“Sinbad the Sailor” (40 frames).

A good representative list of
children’s stories, and a variety yet
greater than the titles suggest. No
general review is adequate, though one
general remark can be made : the

colouring is excellent, being both
vivid and harmonious, and the inter-
penetration of light which projection

involves enchants the children and
renders the atmosphere of fairyland.
Yet a general warning is to be added :
these him strips should not be bought
“eu m^se” in the box of 12; they
are uneven in merit and must be
individually considered.

Of the fourteen, eleven are in
“cartoon form”; but for a few only
is this an aptly chosen style. The
peasant-ogre themes of Jack and the
Beanstalk and Puss in Boots are well
fitted by it, as also the gnome world
of Snow White and the fantasy of the
Three Bears. But the heroines have
suffered : not only is Goldilocks badly
drawn to deformity and Snow White
made to lose all the delicacy and
simplicity essential to her story, but
these and the Princess in Puss in Boots
and even Cinderella herself are mere
sophisticated misses — an objectionable
type. And as a type, they will impress
themselves on the children’s inner
imaginative life, not a desirable effect.
This touches a consideration of the
first importance too often overlooked.
The use of visual aids is urged upon
teachers because by them certain kinds
of knowledge are conveyed more
clearly, vividly and lastingly than by
anj' other means. But one must be the
more highly critical of the kind of
knowledge that is so successfully
imparted and the quality of the images
by which the imagination is being filled.
If not entirely decadent, the cartoon is
an art form which renders its subjects
ludicrous and ought not to be used
except for the comic or purely fantastic.
To present literary classics such as
Treasure Island or Alice in Ti'onderland
in this manner is to prostitute our
inheritance and to wrong our
children : they have the right to meet
the author in his chosen medium of
words and build their own imaginative
interpretation directly. If illustration
is to be attempted it must be kept very
close to the spirit of the author, and
stimulate rather than impress the

215

mental powers of the child. Robinson
Crusoe (not in cartoon form) strikes one
as being most commendable in this
respect, as also a delightful artistic
achievement. Alice in Wonderland may
be said to have retained the flavour of
the original story more successfully
than Treasure Island, but a brown
rabbit instead of the White Rabbit
aroused strong protest from a class of
eight and nine year olds, who also
censured the artist because Alice
was three-fingered, not once but
consistently. All deviations or notable
omissions in well known stories are
quickly noted and disliked by children.
What may cause their teachers to
shudder are such errors as mar the
captions of Tom Thumb ; his brothers
are said to have “laid” down on the
grass to sleep, and Tom “lead” them
out of the wood. Such slight slips are
the more to be deplored as they could
so easily have been avoided and do
lessen the educational value of the
strips. For education is continuous and
comprises all experience, and what is
devised for the children, be it as
education or entertainment, is all
formative, for better or for worse.

The series includes stories for the
whole junior age range, but the age of
the children who are to have each story-
might have been more carefully
considered. Thus Jack and the
Beanstalk, which is very pleasing and
handles the repetitive characteristics of
the story perfectly, has just one
blemish : the black shadow of the giant
in the chase is likely to have fearful
repercussions in the mind of a child
young enough to enjoy the story.
Again Treasure Island is a story' for
children of nine and over who can
confidently distinguish between fact
and fiction and therefore control any
terror which hong John Silver might
inspire. But this hong John inspires
no terror and the comic cartoon lacks
the seriousness which the adventure
theme has for children of this age.

Children may laugh at and enjoy
cartoons and therefore these may be
judged “good entertainment”. But
they vitiate taste and enjoyment that
is truer because more thoughtful ; and
probably the only reason why children
accept them is that they are given so
much of them. Certainly Ali Baba
was much disliked by one group of
children “because of the pictures”;
indeed this story, though traditionally

for children, is thoroughly unpleasant
and no good food for them, and the
cartoon style instead of giving romance
but shows up the crudities, in spite of
the magical settings.

Hansel and Gretel is a lovely little
strip, outstanding all for the younger
children, and is the work of the same
artist as Robinson Crusoe. Dick
Whittington has much charm and
imaginative appeal, and Cinderella is
commendable — in spite of the weak and
characterless godmother.

It was noted that in all this series
the backgrounds excellently' suggest the
setting and atmosphere each story
requires. Aladdin is unmistakably in
the China and Ali Baba in the Arabia
of our imaginations ; the perils and
attractions of the sea, the natural
loveliness of the countryside and the
otlier-worldliness of fairyland are
consistently well rendered in proper
place.

The story commentaries are well
done, simple and short. They are to
be preferred, when available, to the
captioned versions, and of course leave
the teller free to adapt slightly as the
ages of the audience require.

Your Film
Show

The Catholic Film
Institute projection
unit is available for
film shows in the
London area

Moderate Charges

Particulars from

157 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.I

^ i

216

BOOK REVIEW

Le Cinema pour Africains. By L.

Van Bever. Cahiers Beiges et

Congolais, No. 14, Brussels.

It is a good thing to be reminded that
the film is universal. Le Cinema pour
Africains deals with the use of films
in the mass education of the natives
of the Belgian Congo. As the cinema
is the speediest and most efficient
means of influencing and civilising
these people, it is necessary for colonial
governments to have a department
dealing with films, and also a definite
policy concerning them. M. van Bever,
the author of this pamphlet, is the head
of such a department of the government
of the Congo. Mere censorship of
films is not enough if the African is
to get a true impression of the life of
the white man. Certainly, this often
leaves much to be desired, but we do
not spend our entire lives in dance
halls, night clubs, opium dens and
police courts. What is needed is that
films should be made specifically for
the African.

The first half of the book deals with
the production of these films, showing
the adaptation of film-making technique
to the more primitive mentality of the
natives; plots must be simple, scenes
long and continuous, subjects suitable
as anything violent rouses the latent
battle instinct.

Where possible Africans themselves
should be employed by the film units.
Since 1948, there has been at Accra,
on the Gold Coast, a School of
Cinematographic Studies, where after
a six months’ course each group of
Africans makes a short film. These
trained assistants are of great value to
the British Colonial Film Unit of whose
work a short account is also given.
Although there is not a similar school
in the Belgian Congo, the natives are

taught the job and many of the
photographs in the pamphlet show them
doing technical work

Nor is it hard to find the good actor.
The African man is completely free
from camera shyness and tends rather
to overact. It is the women who are
unreliable. Even when one has been
persuaded to take a role, she generallv 1
refuses to act before the camera, and a *
nurse or a school assistant who is more
used to European ways is asked to take
the part.

In the second half of the pamphlet
an account is given of distribution and
projection, both presenting great “
problems because of the distances ;
and difficulties of communication.
However, in 1949 there were 1,560
showings of films in 486 different places
to 23,400 Europeans and 1,826,138
natives. Many of the films are not
made for the African and are too
difficult for him to follow. Of the
foreign ones he prefers those about
animals, sport and the things familiar
to him. The actual shows are given
at fixed places such as schools and
missions, and out-of-doors bv mobile
cinemas. Eventually, says M. van
Bever, when there are more films for
Africans about Africans, the cinema in
the Belgian Congo will be a great
power for good.

There are a number of interesting
photographs and the text is well
printed. In addition to the bibliography
at the end, there are three appendices '■
listing films made by “Congofilms”

(the government film unit), legislation
relating to the cinema in the Belgian
Congo, and finally a full description of
the equipment and staff of a mobile
cinema.

This informative pamphlet is No. 14
of the series Cahiers Beiges et
Congolais , published in Brussels.

M. A.

COVER PERSONALITY

For article on Dan O’Herlihy, this month’s Cover
Personality, see page 198

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Vol. IV

FOCUS

No. 8

CONTENTS

Page

Page

Editorial

219

Hotel Sahara

... 233

Films ox a Desert Island

220

You Belong to Mv Heart

... 233

Dean Stockwell

223

Whirlpool

Show Boat

... 233
... 234

The Recorder

224

Never a Dull Moment

. . 234

B\ Andrew Buchanan

Operation Pacific

... 234

C.l'. I. Notes

225

Up Front

“Mr. Universe”

. . 235
... 235

Film Reviews

Go For Broke

... 235

Bv Our Panel of Priests

My Forbidden Past

... 236

The Lavender Hill Mob

Midnight Flpisode

Bird of Paradise

226

227

227

Born Yesterday

Bandit General

Happy Go Lovely

... 236
... 237
... 237

Alice in Wonderland

230

Catholic Film Institute ...

... 238

Vendetta

230

By J. A. V. Burke

White Corridors

231

I’d Climb the Highest Mountain

231

Script lo Screen

... 240

Ace in the Hole

232

By J. A. V. B.

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Revue Internationale du Cinema

Organ of International Catholic Cinema Office

Number 8 now available — Contributions include articles by Freda Bruce Lockhart,
Liam O’Laogliaire, Mervyn McPherson, Edward Carrick, Spvres P. Skouros,
A. T. L. Watkins, George Damas, and others
English editions of numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and the Holy Year Double,
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Obtainable from :

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The only truly international film review dealing with the Cinema
on a Christian basis

FOCUS: REVIEW

Organ of the Catholic Film Institute

Vol. IV

August 1951

No. 8

INTRODUCING MR. BLUE

Mr. Blue, a sort of modern St. Francis, is the creation of Myles Connolly,
a Catholic film script- writer who lives in California.

Mr. Blue is a best seller in America. “It is easily the most striking

thing of its kind which has been published in the decade,” says the

Providence Journal. I have no doubt that before long it will reach our shores.

Mr. Blue should interest readers of Focus because he has some pertinent
and positive things to say about the cinema . . .

“He had been talking about art and artists. He had little use for the

art that is kept in galleries and museums and in the halls of the rich. He

had little use for that kind of art, he said, even when it was put in a public
square. The art he liked was dynamic art, the art that changed skylines,
the art that created beautiful customs, that inspired men and women to
love one another, the art in brief that transformed lives. The art that would
do that tomorrow, he maintained, was the art of the motion picture.

“Once,” he said, “the cathedral builders and the troubadours,
interpreting truth, created a beauty that was as current as language and
almost as essential as blood. Then came the printed word to spread
confusion, to throw a twilight over the world in which men became little
more than shadows chasing shadows. But, now, we have a new art,
luminous, vivid, simple, stirring, persuasive, direct, universal, illimitable — the
animated picture.

“It can create a new people, gracious and graceful, sensitive, kindly,
religious, a people discovering in beauty the happiest revelation of God. No
art has ever had the future that the motion picture has. If it fails, no art
shall have had as great and lamentable a failure.”

Editor.

220

A New Series

Films on a Desert Island

It seems to me that the world goes
more and more crazy each day; or,
maybe, I myself have gone crazy. It
could well have happened as a
consequence of the years I spent alone.
For years I was “monarch of all I
surveyed”, never hearing a human
voice and starting at the sound of my
own. It all happened many years ago;
now I have been asked to tell about it.
I hope I can do so dispassionately. If
you can imagine what sort of crime
merits the punishment of being sent to
a desert island for three years (and
don’t let your imaginations run away
with you) and the kind of man who
would be guilty of such a crime, then
you know enough about me ; so thus
equipped, let us travel to my Island
of “X.” in the South Pacific.

There I was left one lovely evening
and as I watched the ship that
abandoned me disappear over the
horizon, without any warning, dark
night descended, and the horror of that
first night will remain with me to my
dying day.

That Forlorn Feeling

I had been assured the place was not
inhabited bv human beings which was,
I thought, just as well because I did
not want to encounter the natives for
the first time at night. After a while
I was not so sure of that, and as the
night wore on I was quite sure that
any sort of human being, even one with
a stone axe looking for my flesh and
blood, would have been preferable to the
din of the night. Birds and beasts and
darkness and flies and bats, all the
horrors that I had heard about were
there to baffle description by any words
of mine. Somehow, all of a sudden, it
was dawn again : brilliant dawn arrived
as rapidly and unexpectedly as the night
had come on. With the day came the
quieter activity of living and the
forlorn feeling all over me mingled
very ill with the breath-taking,
luxuriant beauty around me.

I Adjust Myself

Either I must adjust myself or go
mad and because the urge to live was
strong and because the urge to retain,
as far as possible, my former mode of
living till I returned to organised life
was also strong, I decided to forget that
I was a criminal and make use of my
time in exile. It was not easy,
gradually it came and gradually I
wandered further from the shore and
made little clearings for camping, and
in time I got round the whole island.
In time, too, because I am interested
in such things, I got to know some of
the flowers, the habits of the various
animals and sometimes I sat for hours
watching them in wonder and
fascination ; sometimes I used to lie
down on the shore and listen to the
endless breaking of the mighty sea on
the coral reef and meditate on the
strength of the sea and Him Who had
made it and the persistence and faith
of the insect that built up and continued
to build the reef, even against such
power; and so the days went by in a
lovely peaceful way, but each pair of
days was bridged once again by a night
that sounded to me like all hell let
loose and then I longed for the day
when I would once again see that
ship coming to take me back to society,
even though society had cast me out.
As I said, that was long ago — therefore
life was not so pleasant on a desert
island. In these days people who
are condemned to a desert island are
allowed to make some limited requests,
among them gramophone records, and
sometimes they are asked to state their
reasons for choosing certain records.
Quite recently it has been thought that
it would be a good idea to give the poor
exile a choice of some films, also to
take with him to his island, so you
see conditions must have improved
considerably.

Although I hope it won’t happen
again, here is my selection of films
I would like to he able to see on my
island.

A scene from

(I)

The Count de Monte Cristo for
Donat’s Voice

I have always, since I first heard his
voice, had a great admiration for
Robert Donat. I first heard that voice
manv years ago in The Count de Monte
Cristo. I have seen it recently again
and though it was plain to even such
a layman as myself, that it lacks many
things in technique it is, judged by the
present day standards, still one of my
favourite films. It has always been my

"The Wooden Horse”

•A

desire to be a really good speaker and
surely Robert Donat is a lesson to any-
body in that art. You may say what
about Alec Guinness in The Mudlark ?
I put against that Robert Donat in the
Winslow Boy, also his short feature
appearance in Captain Boycott and his
complete volte face with just one or two
glimpses of the speaker in The Cure
for Love. In these films he appealed
very strongly to me, but in none so
strongly as when to the consternation
of all present he put the King’s
Attorney on the stand and pushed him
round the packed courtroom and in

fury of passion, which was yet
completely controlled — something only
an accomplished speaker can do — he,
with a final push, handed over the
prisoner to France. In addition to his
power as a speaker, another fascinating
feature of that film of Monte Cristo
was and is, after all these years, the
power it gives me to imagine myself
doing the same thing to the man who
sent me to my Island of X.

(II)

One Night of Love for Grace Moore’s
Enchanting Voice

I go to the dim and distant for my
next choice. I have told you of the
horror of the nights on the island. I
live it again and try as hard as I can
to bring something to counteract that
horror. What more soothing and
suitable antidote than the voice of Grace
Moore in One Night of Love ?
Thousands, possibly millions of people
believe that fine and remarkable woman
reached the height of fame and
perfection in that lovely musical. I
have seen the film only once and
narrowly missed seeing it several times
since then, and each time was a great
disappointment to me. I should like to
renew my acquaintance with the many
other songs besides the theme song
which are only half remembered. I
should also like to have a clearer
memorv of what Grace Moore looked
like because she has since died in tragic
circumstances, almost at the threshold
of the Church.

(HI)

A Matter of Life and Death for its
Originality

A Matter of Life and Death, from the
famous collection of Powell and
Presburger, would be my next choice.
Now I have seen this film three times
to date, I enjoyed it each time, and
each time I saw more in it than the
previous viewing. The production and
photography are excellent, and photo-
graphy is a hobby of mine. The
colouring is exquisite and the longing,
wistful way in which Marius Goring
says “they are starred for technicolor
up there” remains always in the mind.
Then the beautiful voice of Roger

Livesey, with its rich depth and
expressive power make it a memorable
film, and then even in the most
unexpected places and ways we find
expressed the need for religion and the
hereafter and expressed in a very
simple open way. The pilot’s belief in
the after life, the portrayal of heaven
which, even though it lacks technicolor,
is a place where the American can
“have a Coke” and the Englishman
can have time off to listen to Howard
Marshall as he gives a commentary on
the cricket match at Old Trafford on a
showery day, and citizenship of heaven,
like that of America, gives equal rights
to all. It is such things as these that
make it a film to see often.

(IV)

The Browning Version for Redgrave’s
Study of a Lonely Man

On a desert island one has to be
content with small pleasures and
blessings. To help us out in this matter
we have the example of the Classics
Master in The Browning Version,
portrayed by Michael Redgrave. His
life was drab and dreary and frustrated
and his wife also had a drab and dreary
existence. Into her life came another
man for a time. Into his came just a
boy, who was a real schoolboy in the
best and the worst senses who, though
he would never allow the others to
even guess at it, had a great affection
and respect for “the Crock” which he
showed by giving him a book he might
like. It is all very touching and very
sad, too, because we never like having
our faith in others destroyed : it hurts
too much and the contrast between the
master’s gratitude and the brutal way
his faith in the boy is uprooted is
brought out very well indeed. There
are other features of the film which
don’t go very well with the superb
character-study given by Mr. Redgrave,
but his performance alone is enough to
make it a desert island favourite choice.

(V)

The Wooden Horse for its Courage

Being on a desert island also calls for
courage and resourcefulness and an
example is to be found in The Wooden
Horse. The horror of the prison camp.

223

guarded by men and dogs, escape
activities covered by strenuous
gymnastics, the eccentric who clumped
about with an awful row, and was very
useful on the night of the actual escape,
the humour, and little discomfitures
which came with each day, the quiet
evenings when the men settled down
to their handicrafts, or to sleep, or to
listen to the gramophone. The breath-
taking suspense of the actual escape,
the test by ordeal of the ex-prisoner’s
good faith and the final coming to a
place of safety : all very cheering and
comforting to one who has got the urge
and the will to imitate their example.

And now, that is all I am allowed to
choose. At various times a voice has

prompted other films to be chosen and
now a voice says quite loudly and
recognisably : What about One Wild

Oat instead of The Wooden Horse?'
Really, friend, you have lost your grip
on things. This is a desert island and
why do you come to taunt me with the
impossible ?

My name, by the way, is :

Ben Gunn.

P.S. — The Editor seems to like my
ideas about “Desert Island Films”
and, therefore, he and I would like to
see what other people might choose in
similar circumstances.

B. G.

Dean Stockwell

Hollywood’s newest child candidate
for stardom is now gaining fame in his
home town, but it took a trip to New
York to do it. Although born in
North Hollywood on March 5th, 1936,
Dean Stockwell went unnoticed by
film studios until his performance in the
Theatre Guild Production, “Innocent
Voyage”, drew the acclaim of New
York critics.

Dean, whose father, Harry Stockwell,
starred as Curly in the Chicago
company of “Oklahoma” and in the
Broadway show “Marinka”, made his
film debut in Anchors Aweigh for
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1945. His
other films are The Green Years, The
Arnelo Affair, The Mighty McGurk,
The Romance of Rosy Ridge, Song of
the Thin Man, The Secret Garden,
Stars in My Crown, The Happy Years,
Kim.

Dean comes from a family of actors.
Besides his father, his 11-year-old
brother, Guy, was in the New York
shows “Innocent Voyage” and
“Chicken Every Sunday”, and his
mother, Betty Veronica Stockwell, was
formerly an actress.

Living in New York, Dean was
asked to make a screen test for Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer. Joseph Pasternak,
the producer, happened to be in New
York, searching for a youngster for an
important part in Anchors Aweigh. He
met Dean, saw his first test and asked
him to do a Technicolor test for the
picture. This won Dean the role and
his contract.

Educated at a public school at
Richmond Hill, Long Island, New
York, and at the Martin Milmore
School in Boston, Mass., Dean, between
lessons, managed to travel all over the
United States in his nine years. His
tastes do not differ from those of other
American boys of his age. He likes
baseball, badminton, movies and
chocolate ice cream.

When in New York, Dean made his
debut on the radio by appearing in
“Death Valle)' Days” and “Dr.
Christian” with Jean Hersholt. His
favourite part was that of Lee in
“Death Valley Days”.

Dean is a fine looking youngster —
with light brown curly hair and brown
eyes. His hobbies are drawing and
carpentring, and he spends much of
his time making model ships and
planes and carving guns, swords and
knives. His ambition, next to acting,
is flying and he hopes some day to be
able to pilot his own plane. Dean likes
music, especially if it’s operatic or
classical.

A CORRECTION

It was stated in last month’s issue
that Fr. Hilary Carpenter resigned as
Chairman of the C.F.I. on account of
ill-health. Happily Fr. Hilary is in
good health. He resigned owing to
pressure of work as Provincial of the
Dominican Order.

224

FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. No. 7

THE RECORDER

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

Considerable mystery always
surrounds the work of the recording
department, for two reasons. First, it
deals with something invisible ;
secondly, it is more or less invisible
itself, being well behind the scenes.
Even the uninitiated, who take no
trouble to develop an intelligent interest
in films, speak familiarly of directors
and cameramen, but never of recorders,
and yet the latter share equal
responsibility with cameramen, for
upon their ability to record to perfection
everything we hear, depends the
success or failure of films.

Perhaps the simplest non-technical
way to describe a recorder is as “the
other cameraman’’. We have learnt
of the cameraman who films all the
visible action, and should remember
that he always films that action in
silent form. Voices, sounds and music
are of no interest to him. It is “the
other cameraman”, the recorder, who,
ignoring what a scene looks like,
concentrates on filming all the voices
and sounds occurring in that scene.
Thus two cameras are at work, one for
picture, the other for sound, and they
have one thing in common — both are
driven by the same source of electric
power so that they run at exactly the
same speed. Any variation would
mean that visible movements and
corresponding sounds could never be
synchronised.

The recording camera is loaded with
a roll of negative as in the picture
camera. It is connected, via a Mixing
Panel, to the microphone which hangs
over the scene, invisible to the picture
camera, of course. The Mixing Panel
is the control. From here volume is
adjusted to the right level. All sounds
passing through the microphone and
panel travel into the recording camera,
where the film is unrolling at a speed
of ninety feet per minute. As it
unwinds, the negative passes over a
tiny slit behind which is an exciter
lamp, which results in hundreds of
exposures being made as the sounds

occur — wavy lines or jagged peaks, and
when this negative is developed and
printed, the sound track is ready to be
synchronised with the corresponding
visuals taken by the picture camera at
the same time.

To achieve first class results, the
recorder has to place his microphone,
either stationary or mobile (on the end
of a silently moving boom), so that it
shall not be seen by the picture
camera, nor cast a shadow on the
walls of the scene. So important is
the placing of the microphone that
sometimes lighting has to be
completely changed, furniture moved,
and the positions of the characters
altered to accommodate it. The
recorder, too, hears all the sounds
which must not be recorded — rustling
dresses, scrapings, heavy breathing,
and so on, which have to be silenced.

The sound camera operator takes his
instructions from the recorder who is
controlling the Mixing Panel. The
term “mixing” more correctly applies
to blending several tracks together.
Maybe music, recorded separately, has
to form a background to a conversation,
and so the two tracks are mixed, so
that neither drowns the other. When
several tracks have to be mixed, they
are run simultaneously through a
sound projector, and pass through
separate sound channels to the Mixing
Panel, where each is controlled by a
separate dial. The mere touch of a
dial will increase or reduce the volume
of a track, and it is the manipulation
of several dials (sound channels) which
is known as mixing. By this means
the sounds in one scene can be faded
in or out at will, and another
introduced, or several sound tracks
can be laid over each other. The
process can be likened, in some ways,
to the broadcasting of a play in which
several microphones are employed, one
fading in as another fades away.

When recording music, the recorder
needs an ear as sensitive as a
conductor’s. An orchestra may look

225

impressive, but in all probability a
number of the instruments have to be
moved into new positions to create
the right balance for recording. And
to give emphasis to certain passages,
the wood, or wind, or brass will
need to be recorded separately, and
the whole assembled into a unity
afterw'ards.

Indeed, the recorder’s job is one of
the most difficult in filmdom — and, by
the way, do not blame him if a film is
inaudible to you, for in all probability
this is due to faulty projection, or a
very w'orn positive print. A recorder
is never satisfied with mediocre sound,
and so loss of clarity is generally
traceable to causes within the cinema.

C.F.I. NOTES

Catholic Film Exhibition

The Conference and Exhibition of
Catholic Films which is being organised
by the Birmingham Youth Group is
now definitely to take place at Soli
House, Stratford-on-Avon, from October
1st to 5tli inclusive. It will open on
the Monday evening and conclude on
Friday morning. The fee is 15s. per
day inclusive. Bookings should be
made through the Rev. T. S. Copsev,
M.A., Soli House, Stratford-on-Avon.

The Conference and Exhibition is
open to priests and laymen who have
done practical film work and are
w'illing to show their films at Soli
House during the Conference and
discuss the possibility of organised
production in the future. It will be
beneficial to all to have the comments
and experience of each with regard to
his own and other members’ work.

The places for accommodation are
restricted, so please make your
application early.

Focus Film Course

The last lecture of the first series is
due to take place just after we go to
press. We shall publish a summary of
the series in a forthcoming issue of
Focus. In the meantime we should
like to thank those who have attended
the lectures so faithfully ; the
Canonesses of St. Augustine, who
placed their lecture room at More
House so generously at our disposal
and the lecturers who gave of their
experience and knowledge in the
subjects under discussion and who also
went to considerable trouble to be
present in spite of pressing engagements
in other directions.

It is hoped to arrange the second
series of lectures, on the practical

aspects of film-making, towards the end
of the autumn. These lectures will
take place at a later hour and a
different day than 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Though this time was fixed at the
request of some nun teachers who
found it difficult to be present at any
other time, it has been discovered that
the majority of potential students find
Saturdays almost impossible to fit in
with other engagements.

Though the lectures were geographic-
ally restricted to London audiences
(two enthusiastic nuns, however, came
each time from Horsham!), there is no
reason why the)7 should not be given
again in the provinces if people are
keen enough. Not necessarily the same
lecturers, but the same subjects and
under the same supervision.

Cure d’Ars film available in 16mm.

There is an increasing interest among
Catholic users of 16mm. projectors in
French films. Since Monsieur Vincent
set such high standards and raised the
hopes of those who think mainly in
terms of religious films, there have
been a large number of enquiries as to
future productions. Unfortunately, the
film producers do not have sufficient
commercial success with their religious
subjects to encourage them to venture
into the same field too often. However,
there is good news for those who have
been waiting for the release of the
Sorcier du del, the story of the Cure
d’Ars, in 16mm. “Films de France”,
the London distributors who have the
English rights, now inform us that
it has been reduced to sub-standard
gauge. The various societies will now
be busy making up their autumn
programmes so it is advisable to send
in bookings for Sorcier du Cicl as soon
as possible.

226

i'jLM jia yjii tarn

By our Panel of Priests

Category A, indicates adults only; B, adults and adolescents ;

C, family audiences; D,

THE LAVENDER HILL MOB
Starring: Alec Guinness and Stanley
Holloway, with Sidney James
and Alfie Bass. A Michael
Balcon Production. Director:
Charles Crichton. Certificate \
U. Category : C. Running

time : 80 minutes.

Ealing Film Studios have set a
standard for decent, competent, out-of-
the-rut cinema entertainment. They
have done more : they have brought the
English scene and way of life to the
screen in a manner and to a degree that
recalls the better French and Italian
work of the same genre. Their films
are the outcome of carefully organised
teamwork. T. E. B. Clarke, whose
scripts for Hue and Cry, Passport to
Pimlico, The Magnet and other light-
hearted and unusual screen-subjects
had the benefit of loyal co-operation
from a group of film-craftsmen from
Sir Michael Balcon downwards, has
evidently studied public taste and takes
the trouble to give it something better
than it is credited with being able to
appreciate.

If Lavender Hill Mob leaves one with
a slight sense of anti-climax it is only
because one wakes with a sigh as from
a dream which the most law abiding of
us must have indulged at some time
or other. It is the delicious one of
perpetrating a perfect crime which
leaves us with untold riches and the
power to play the role of Nuffield to our
favourite charities !

Mr. Holland, a middle-aged, respect-
able, punctiliously careful bullion
supervisor for the Bank of England,
has thought for years of a plan to

particularly for children

appropriate a “cool million” in gold
bars and so to live in fabulous opulence
for the rest of his life. When he meets
Mr. Pendlebury, manufacturer of metal
souvenirs he realises that here is the
one contact necessary to make his
plan possible. Mr. Pendlebury is
seduced, a couple of professional
burglars, complete with press-cutting
“testimonials” to their prowess trapped
into confederacy, and the Lavender
Hill Mob is complete.

The film moves through a tangle of
entertaining contretemps and manages,
en route, to cast many a sly dig in
the ribs of police routine, bowler-
hatted serfdom, to say nothing of
gangster films in general and the whole
business of “making your flesh creep”.
Withal, the tension is maintained in a
masterly way and one has the supreme
and hypocritical satisfaction of wishing
the criminals success, confident that
law and order will in no wise be loser.

Alec Guinness as Mr. Holland
provides another of those superb
studies which have made him our
outstanding comedian. His steel
spectacles, neat umbrella, bowler hat
and complete control of every
physical and mental detail of the
make-up of the bank official are the
outward trappings of a character which,
for the duration of the film, he has
become.

Stanley Holloway is correctly cast as
Mr. Pendlebury, but his performance,
though a perfect foil to Guinness’s, is
less a study than an outsize impression
of the essential character which he has
always shown us. The other members
of the cast are admirably chosen and
admirably support the principals in a
singularly amusing and wittily written
screenplay.

V.

227

A SCENE FROM ‘'THE LAVENDER HILL MOB
Another superb study by Alec Guinness

MIDNIGHT EPISODE
Starring: Stanley Holloway. Producer:
Theo Lageard. Director: Gordon
Parry. Certificate-. A. Category-.
B. Running time: 78 minutes.

This is a first-rate film in every
respect : a good story, good photo-

graphy and excellent acting. It is a
thriller that really thrills and unless
you are sharper than myself (which
you probably are) you won’t guess the
murderer until he is finally unmasked.

Stanley Holloway as “The Professor”
L who recites Shakespeare to theatre
r queues and gets himself involved with
the police, gives a really superb
performance which it is a joy to watch
from beginning to end. Leslie Dwyer
as his pal Albert and Sebastian Cabot
as Benno the proprietor of a caf£ are
both excellent.

Don’t on any account miss this
picture.

BIRD OF PARADISE

Starring: Louis Jourdan, Debra

Paget, Jeff Chandler. Associate
Producer: Harmon Jones. Written
and Directed by Delmer Daves.
20th Century-Fox. In techni-
color. Certificate: A. Category:
A. Running time: 101 minutes.

The only possibly good point of this
film is the Polynesian scenery in
technicolor, but even this begins to pall
before the 101 minutes have run out.
Otherwise I can find nothing in it to
recommend : the story is a nasty

pagan one of human sacrifice, the acting
is bad and the dialogue objectionable
in at least two places.

Don’t take impressionable youngsters
to see it — they would hate the sight of
a young woman walking on burning
coals; better still, don’t go to see it
yourself.

T. C. F.

T. C. F.

From the Story
by

Lewis Carroll

(Reviewed overleaf )

“I hope I shall not grow any more ”

Alice leaves the cottage

Tweedledum and Tweedlcdce

The Cat and the Quee

FILM OF
THE
MONTH

The Mad Tea Party

“Alice

in

Wonderland”

ting, Queen and Alice

The Rabbit is late

The Walrus and the Carpenter

The Trial

230

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Starring the voices of Ed Wynn,
Richard Haydn, Sterling Hollo-
way, Jerry Colonna, Kathryn
Beaumont. From the story by
Lewis Carroll. Distributors:
R.K.O. Certificate ; U. Category-.
B. Running time: 75 minutes.

If you are expecting this film to be
pure Lewis Carroll, with John Tenniel’s
realistic artistic illustrations brought
to life you will disappointed.

If you are a purist who cannot endure
the sight of classical characters being
caricatured ; if you want to keep the
memory of the book intact you would
be advised to give this film a miss.

If you are one of those curious people
who become “curiouser” to know how
Disney treats Lewis Carroll’s story,
you had better see it for yourself ; for
one man’s fun is another man’s fury.
I guarantee that you will gather plenty
of mental food for argument and
debate ... “Is any man justified in
caricaturing another man’s work ?”
“Has Disney gone Dizzy?” “Is this
film a distortion?”

If you can forget Lewis Carroll’s
delightfully written story and John
Tenniel’s superb illustrations, or if you
are among the few who have not read
the “Alice” books and accept this film
as a sort of a Walt Disney comic opera,
you will probably enjoy it very much
and think that Tweedledum and
Tweedledee are a couple of Lancashire
comedians being caricatured, and
probably some of the voices will remind
you of Colonel Chinstrap and other
radio and music hall comedians, and
I think you will have a lovely time in
Walter’s Funderland.

Disney is essentially a cartoonist and
a caricaturist, he is too much the
individualist, he is too creative and too
original to reproduce or interpret in
another medium another man’s work.
But, if you accept the principle that it
is lawful for one artist to caricature
another artist’s work in another
medium, you will have to admit that
Disney has produced an interesting and
amusing piece of work in the comic-
strip tradition.

Lewis Carroll was a scholar, a
cultured man and a distinguished

mathematician who wrote his stories to
amuse children of the Victorian era ; he
wrote in such a dignified yet childlike
style that his books are perennially
pleasing to children and adults. (A

doctor on the staff of a well known
mental hospital once told me that he
reads the Alice books at least once a
year to keep him sane.)

Walt Disney’s film is comical, at
times rip-roaring, sometimes it

approaches the childish.

It is beautifully made, technically
clever and adventurous, imaginative,
tuneful and colourful. It is what a
friend of mine would call “pure enter-
tainment”. Alice remains reasonably
close to the book. In spite of all this
“fun of the fair”, Walt Disney
manages to keep her lovable. For
which manv thanks

E.

VENDETTA

Starring: Faith Domergue and George
Dolenz. Producer: Howard

Hughes. Director: Mel Ferrer.

Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time: 84 minutes.

If you missed all those other films

and still don’t know what a Vendetta
is, you might risk one and ninepence
on this. Should you arrive late and so
miss the narrator’s comprehensive
account of the Vendetta code (Corsican
style), you’ll find that the characters
themselves make it all perfectly clear
from time to time.

Faith Domergue and a ruggedly
handsome newcomer (George Dolenz)
do all that is demanded of them—
sometimes a trifle unwillingly, one
hopes, in view of the weakness of
some of the dialogue. The outdoor
photography is effective, and the music
of Puccini pleasing, if a little too oft-
repeated. You won’t be profoundly
moved nor highly thrilled, I venture to
suggest, but you will find out what a
Vendetta is ail about, and you may get
a laugh from the delightful remark of
a French Gendarme who, when asked
for direction, replies : “Straight am,
you cain’t missut”. Don’t be misled
by the lurid poster; unless I’m very
much mistaken Miss Domergue wears
onlv the most sober black dresses, and
doesn’t so much as handle a dagger.

O.

231

WHITE CORRIDORS

Starring: Googie Withers, James

Donald, Godfrey Tearle, Petula
Clark, with Moira Lister, Jack
Watling, Barry Jones. Producers:
Joseph Janni and John Croydon.
Director: Pat Jackson. Distrib-
utors: G.F.D. Certificate: A.

Category : A. Running time :

102 minutes.

Nurses, like nuns, have a recurrent
fascination for film makers. And in
both cases reality is apt to be
swamped by theatrical conventions
and preconceptions. Matrons and
Reverend Mothers are hard and grim.
Probationers and Novices are too naive
for words. Etc., etc.

And so, when I pay one of my regular
visits to a hospital, I should not be
surprised if one of the nurses were to
say : “You ought to see White

Corridors , Father. You’d get a good
laugh.” And she would be thinking of
the matron dissolving into slight tears
after a staff nurse has implied that she
is a repressed spinster, and the same
staff nurse being incredibly “upstage”
and continually telling off the other
nurses in the presence of the patients.

When the critics of the Observer and
the Sunday Times are at variance I
notice that I find myself sometimes on
one side and sometimes on the other.
In the case of this film I am with the
former who is definitely the less
enthusiastic.

But there is much to commend in this
adaptation of Helen Ashton’s novel
“Yeoman’s Hospital”. It is a story of
men and women with a sense of
vocation and purpose, all human, some
— as in real life — with greater
weaknesses than others. On two
occasions there are passing references
to the dependence of the medical
profession upon God which are most
welcome. Only those to whom
everything connected with hospitals and
surgery is horrifying would have any
reason to be unduly distressed. James
Donald as one of the doctors and Jean
Anderson as a Scottish Sister portray

particularly credible and attractive
characters. Googie Withers as a lady
surgeon elicits from me the respect due
to a competent actress rather than the
admiration provoked by genius.

The action does not extend beyond
the hospital precincts and the absence
of music is somehow inconspicuous.

Q-

I’D CLIMB THE HIGHEST
MOUNTAIN

Starring: Susan Hayward and William
Lundigan, with Gene Lockhart,
Ruth Donnelly and Alexander
Knox. Director: Henry King.

Distributors: 20th Century-Fox.

Certificate: U. Category: B.

Running time : 87 minutes.

This film is technicolored. So is the
sentiment that runs through it. It can
no longer be said that Hollywood is
producing religious “propaganda” films
at the demand of the Vatican. Here is
proof that freedom of thought also
prevails in the land of the angels. A
Methodist minister takes his citv-bred
wife to the Blue Ridge Mountains in
North Georgia, U.S.A. The publicity
hand-out tells me that he is an unusual
minister. “He has wit and humour.
He loves to race his pony and trap”.
He is, therefore, a much nicer minister
than those you and I are accustomed
to who, presumably, have not wit nor
humour and do not race ponies and
traps. He also has individual ideas
about God : “My kind of God”, he
calls Him, with engaging familiarity.
He is, obviously, one of those carefree
types who have, instead of Faith, what
Arnold Lunn calls FIF, that is to say,
Funny Interior Feeling. It enables
him to carry on quite well with his
heterogeneous flock and makes him
very broadminded. When his wife
buys a smart, gaily-coloured frock she
says that she is sure that “God does
not like black”, so it seems to run in
the family. She also knows that when
a smartly-dressed woman comes to
consult her husband about difficulties of
Bible interpretation, she really ought

232

to be at home looking after her own
husband instead of trying to fall in
love with the minister. Another
peculiarity is that she insists on her
husband baptising their still-born
child because she is sure that it is alive
somewhere and will benefit.

I wonder w'hat our Methodist friends
will think of this vacuous nonsense ?
It only goes to show that when
Hollywood tries to put religion on the
screen, they are as phony with the
Protestants as they are with the
Catholics.

I felt most sympathy for Alexander
Knox, as the atheist. He is such an
intelligent actor. Lundigan’s minister
and Susan Hayward’s wife are box-
office jam to entice the fans. The
scenery, of course, is magnificent.

V.

ACE IN THE HOLE

Starring: Kirk Douglas, with Jane
Sterling and Bob Arthur.

Director: Billy Wilder. Distrib-
utors: Paramount. Certificate :

A. Category: A. •

In the offices of the local newspaper
of the Mexican border town where this
film-story takes place, the walls are
decorated with needlework injunctions
to “Tell the truth”. The film is the
story of one journalist who did not tell
the truth in a big way. It is a pity
that Billy Wilder, the talented producer,
director and part writer of the film, did
not also tell the truth. Great films like
all great art are based on and adhere
to truth; in the telling, the acting and
the characterisation. Real people do
not need to be twisted to make them
dramatically more palatable. Ace in the
Hole narrowly misses being a great film
because Billy Wilder did not tell the
truth.

If you remember Double Indemnity,
Lost Weekend or Sunset Boulevard,
you will be prepared for the harsh,
brilliant, exciting but basely false
development of Ace in the Hole. Wilder
takes a lot of trouble with his characters
but he rarely makes them credible. The
dipsomaniac in Lost Weekend was
spoilt by a last minute conversion

which was psychologically and morally
unconvincing. Tatum, in Ace in the
Hole, is too bad to be believable and
too well-drawn for his change of heart
at the end to be logical. Wilder seems
to be holding up for examination
through cynical lenses both the
individuals in the story and the crowds
who flock, moronically, drawn by
sensation, to cavort around the old
Indian mine where a man is trapped
and dying. There is much matter for
thought in the film, but it would have
been so much more effective if it had
not been forced.

The newspaper reporter has discovered
the trapped man and thinks he can use
the story to rehabilitate himself as a
front rank New York journalist. To
do this he has to keep the man
entombed for at least six days. He
bribes the Sheriff into ordering long-
winded but spectacular rescue methods.
He builds himself up as a hero by
means of radio and other publicity
media. Crowds gather and encamp on
the site of the mine. They are
stimulated by loudspeakers, souvenir-
sellers and other paraphernalia for
exploiting sentiment. The man’s wife,
a worthless hussy, makes a small
fortune from selling food and petrol.
Finally the man dies because it is too
late to get him out the easy way.
Tatum dismisses the crowds, loses the
New York assignment his guile had
won him, is wounded by the dead man’s
wife and dies as he is trying to tell
the truth to the local newspaper he has
hitherto despised.

Wilder’s weakness is manifested by
the very slickness and competence of
his story and its direction. The priest,
brought to the dying man at the last
moment, underlines Tatum’s change of
heart, but it is false because the priest
would have been there earlier, anyhow.
The Mexican mother, praying and
neglecting her clients, is also false to
reality. And there are other points out
of the true. Nevertheless, this is an
impressive film. The atmosphere, the
crowd scenes, the photograph}' are all
superb. Kirk Douglas is fiercely
competent if not actually inspired. The
other players fit the whole fantastic
situation faithfully according to
Wilder’s lights. A film to see but not
to believe in.

V.

233

HOTEL SAHARA
Starring: Yvonne de Carlo, Peter

Ustinov, David Tomlinson.
Producer: George H. Brown.

Director: Ken Annakin. A

Towers Films Production .
Certificate : U. Category ; B.

Running time : 87 minutes.

This happy, humorous and
preposterous film will find its way to
everybody’s heart.

With the outbreak of desert warfare,
the Hotel Sahara is occupied in turn by
groups of Italian, English, German and
French soldiers. The main pre-
occupation of the proprietor (Peter
Ustinov) and his fiancee (Yvonne de
Carlo) is to placate all comers, so that
the hotel may be preserved intact.

The direction is smooth and the
acting equal to it. If I may single out
an actor without detracting from the
performance of the others, it is David
Tomlinson. As always he reflects
so amusingly the conceited and
ridiculously ineffectual creatures we so
often are. And a little dose of that
from time to time is a jolly good thing.
But for me the most significant and
encouraging feature of the film is the
chivalry shown in the portrayal of our
late enemies. They are caricatured, of
course, but no offence could possibly
be given.

As a tailpiece I protest at the posters
advertising the film. They are unworthy
and debasing. Cannot actors and
actresses sue those responsible for loss
of prestige ? T.

YOU BELONG TO MY HEART
Starring: Lana Turner and Ezio Pinza
with Marjorie Main, Barry

Sullivan and Sir Cedric Hard-
wicke. An M.-G.-M. Picture.
Director: Don Hartman .

Certificate : U. Category : B.

Running time: no minutes.

It is difficult to understand the policy
which governs the organising of Press
Shows. There are an increasing
number of films which are not submitted
to the Press these days and this is one
of them. Whether it is because the
subject of the film is too closely allied
to recent royal history or whether it is

feared that the critics might think the
story too corny and say so it is not
easy to say. The film has technicolor,
Hollywood, Paris, Rapallo and what the
trade publicity describes as “luscious
Lana”, as well as an intriguing
personality from the Metropolitan
Opera in the baritone Ezio Pinza. The
story tells of a king who wishes to
abdicate in order to marry a show girl
whom he met while he was Heir
Apparent. She is now a film star; he
follows her to Hollywood ; is thought
of as the male star in a story which
she is making, built round her
experiences with the Heir Apparent.
But duty in the person of a Prime
Minister is always just round the corner
and references to a Plebiscite, and the
young Crown Prince (at School in
England) both give the story a topical
tone and bring it to the expected
“unhappy” ending.

Ezio Pinza sings one or two pleasing
ditties, but it seems to me a woeful
waste of a good baritone to ask him to
support “luscious Lana”. The whole
film is so obviously artificial in
conception and execution that there is
nothing one can say about it except
that it ranks as harmless entertainment
which vou do not have to see.

V.

WHIRLPOOL

Starring: Gene Tierney, Richard

Conte, Joseph Ferrer, Charles
Bickford. Producer and Director:
Otto Preminger. 20th Century-
Fox. Certificate : A. Category:
A. Running time: 98 minutes.

Based, a long, long way away, on a
novel which it has cleaned up and
otherwise altered, the film Whirlpool is
over the edge of psychology. This time
it is hypnotism. If you can believe it
all, there is plenty of excitement with
a psycho-analyst (Richard Conte), his
neurotic kleptomanic wife (Gene
Tierney) and the professional
hypnotising villain (Joseph Ferrer).

Murder (victim, Barbara O’Neill) and
Police (Charles Bickford) lead to
conflict of wits between good scientist
and bad charlatan. It is pretentious
dress for the same old bones of heroine
in right corner rescued by sweetly tough
policeman and loving husband.

X.

234

SHOW BOAT

Category : B . Running time : 90

minutes.

It is extraordinary how much good
drama there is in Edna Ferber’s story.
Although one has seen it all before
man\' times there is always a new
freshness about any revival of it. This
edition is bigger and better than ever
produced with that lavish elan in which
Hollywood has no rival. All the tunes
are there again, magnificently sung
with the exception of Ava Gardner’s
rendering of “Can’t help lovin’ that
man o’ mine”. Apparently Miss
Gardner has a contract to run and we
shall just have to watch her mild
intrusions into one film and another for
some time. It is because of the sad
story of Julie that one hesitates to
recommend this as a family film.
Although she is in the end a very
noble good-bad girl, her make-up is
horrific enough to give the average
youngster a nightmare. That is the
only flaw in this rhapsody of the river
complete with happy ending. “Old
Man River” has never been better sung
or better produced. Most of the
photographic work is superb, the acting
is entirely adequate, with Joe E. Brown
threatening to steal the film most of the
time. It is nice to know how really
pleasant Miss Agnes Moorehead can be
when the directors give her a chance.
Altogether one of the most enjoyable
films we have been sent to see for a
long time.

J. C.

NEVER A DULL MOMENT

Starring: Irene Dunne, Fred Mac-

Murray. Producer: Harriet

Parsons. Director: George

Marshall. An R.K.O. Picture.
Certificate-. U. Category: B.

Running time : 89 minutes.

This film falls between two stools.
Its plot is the well-worn one of the
town-bred girl who marries a ranch-
owner and all her ensuing troubles ; it
can be treated either as a psychological
study or as a farce, but not as both,
which is what the director has tried to
do in this case. Miss Irene Dunne has
both charm and talent in considerable
quantity : she displays these admirably

in the more serious moments of the
story, but to my mind she is completely
wasted when she is made to fall off
horses, trip over carpets and struggle
with washing drying in a high wind.
However, the audience at the press
show seemed to enjoy these antics
heartily, and Miss Dunne certainly
emerges triumphant out of all her
difficulties.

You too may be amused, but as to
never a dull moment — well, I can’t
guarantee that.

T. C. F.

OPERATION PACIFIC

Starring: John Wayne, Patricia Neal.
Producer: Jack L. Warner.

Director: George Waggner. A

Warner Brothers Picture .
Certificate: U. Category: B.

Running time: no minutes

approx.

A war film of the type with which we
are all only too familiar, composed of
the usual ingredients : a submarine

attacked by Japs, thrilling rescues of
drowning airmen, crew at work and
play, interspersed with officers on leave
at Pearl Harbour making love, one of
them to his ex-wife. An unusual
element consists of a party of nuns and
children rescued from the Japs, being
taken home on the submarine. I don’t
think any wise nun would insist on the
whole cr“w taking caps off and keeping
silence while she says grace, nor would
she when unable to find adequate words
with which to thank the C.O., tell him
that these will come to her that evening
when on her knees in the chapel — at
least she would not have put it quite
like that. When the same C.O. tells
another officer that the nuns have
brought the children through Japs and
jungle “protected only by a string of
beads”, he pays a remarkable tribute to
the Holy Rosary; but I wonder if any
non-Catholic would have the faintest
idea what he was talking about.

The acting is indifferent. There is
one unforgettable shot of the submarine
leaving harbour with the crew
silhouetted against the sunset. When
in an American film someone alludes to
his brother as “Fop” one is apt to get
relationships confused.

235

UP FRONT

Starring: David Wayne, Tom Ewell
and Marina Berti. From the book
by Bill Maudlin. Director:
Alexander Hall. Distributors:
General Film Distributors,
Universal International Picture.
Certificate : U. Category ; C.

Running time : 92 minutes.

Choice of a film to review on a
Wednesday landed me with yet another
series of American G.I.s (now to be
known as soldiers, according to official
U.S. circles) doing preposterous things
in the Italian Campaign.

The film is the story of “Old Bill”
and his companion in arms, who
manage a three day pass in Naples from
the front. Old Bill, plus mud, whiskers
and dislike of military police is soon
arrested. The main part of the film is
a mad rush through Naples in which
the two inseparables get involved with
an old man distilling “hooch” and his,
needless to say, beautiful daughter.
Finally, driving a black market truck
full of army stores, they drive towards
their unit, followed by most of the
military police in Naples. Their arrival
sends the German army into retreat,
the local general promises to decorate
them, the much disliked M.P.s are flung
into the battle, and all is well.

Not much of a film. It is quite
entertaining, but misses being really
funny. Parts are very true to life, but
the tale drags and there is little real
comedy. You won’t miss anything if
you do not see it. M.

“MR. UNIVERSE”

Starring: Jack Carson, Janis Paige,
Bert Lahr and Robert Alda.
Producer and Director: Joseph

Lemer. International Film
Distributors Ltd. Certificate :
A. Category : B. Running

time : 88 minutes.

This is a knock-vou-round-the-ring
all-in wrestling comedy which will
amuse you if you are in the mood and
can understand the jargon. But if you
are not feeling that way, it will seem
a long eighty-eight minutes. Plenty
punches. No tears shed. No harm done.

G.

GO FOR BROKE

Starring: Van Johnson, with a cast of
Japanese American players.

Director: Robert Piroosch.

Distributors: M.-G.-M. Certificate :

A. Category-. B. Running

time : 90 minutes.

The title of this film is the motto
of the American Japanese Battalion,
which saw service during the war in
various parts including Italy and France.
It is pigeon English for “Hell for
Leather”, and the Japanese fighting
under the American flag certainly lived
up to their motto and deserved the
honours heaped upon them by the
President of the United States of
America.

The film is very efficiently made and
directed. The camerawork is excellent
and the battle scenes are among the
most convincing I have seen. Never-
theless, I have seldom been more
nauseated by a film. It is the most
cynical and deliberate piece of mass
propaganda by means of the cinema
that I have experienced. While our
ears are still deafened by the impact
of the spate of films about Pearl
Harbour, and the Pacific Islands, films
preaching the beastliness and treachery
of the Japs, films which stopped at no
epithet of approbrium to describe the
“little yellow devil”, we are now, at a
blow, asked to forget all we have learnt
and to look upon these same “yellow
devils” as the salt of the earth when
they serve under the Stars and Stripes.
No cliche for drawing tears or
stimulating emotion is omitted from
the script. The lonely lad whose only
pet is a pig which he has weaned, gives
up his pet to make food for the
starving Italian bambinos; the Chaplain
(Catholic) learning that the rosary
which the wounded man clasps is a
Buddhist rosary; the young soldier
coming up the line to find that his
brother is killed ; the soldiers who
have been despised by the “white”
Americans eventually leading their
tormentors to victory, etc., etc. There
are also the episodes in which two
diminutive Japanese winkle out a
machine-gun post manned by Italians
of herculean girth and the line of hefty
German prisoners brought in by a
solitary undersized soldier.

236

I am not complaining that the
Japanese are being given a “come-
back” in this film. 1 do not need to
be told, least of all by the cinema, that
there are good and bad on either
side of the Iron Curtain and that
pigmentation has nothing to do with
one’s share of the consequences of
Original Sin. Nor do I forget that,
being a citizen of one of the civilised
countries which permitted the ghastly
experiment at Hiroshima, I shall
always feel a sense of shame when
talking to one of my yellow brothers.
It is the blatant contempt for the
intelligence of the cinema audiences
which this film illustrates which is so
sickening.

“Everyone knows what damage is
done to the soul by bad motion
pictures,” wrote Pius XI. What damage
can be done to the mind by political
motion pictures ? Are we safe from the
the use of this all-powerful weapon in
the hands of those who seek votes ?

V.

MY FORBIDDEN PAST
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Ava

Gardner and Melvyn Douglas.
An R.K.O. Radio Picture.
Certificate ; A. Category : A.

Running time : 70 minutes.

’Pon my word, the only reason I can
think of for seeing this film is that Ava
Gardner looks pretty in it. But there
are many reasons why this is a film
definitely to be missed. It is a
mawkish and torpid story, in which
the characters are as nauseating as
they say they are. Ava Gardner, who
looks nice enough, is really a selfish
hussy, and because she fails to elope
with Robert Mitchum, he forthwith gets
married to someone else whom he has
never seen before and who is obviously
the “wrong person”. (If one has got
the urge, one simply must get married,
mustn’t one ?) But true love must
up and wreck this heartless marriage,
and the naughty Ava seeks to break it.
But how conveniently it all turns out :
the wife is accidentally killed, so he, a
pillar of righteousness — a smug,
humourless and thug-like pillar if ever
there was one — is free to live happily
ever after with dear Ava who now
promises to go straight. What a hope.
What a film. What a life.

G.

BORN YESTERDAY
Starring: Judy Holliday, William

Holden, Broderick Crawford.
Producer: S. Sylvan-Simon.

Director: George Cukok. Distrib-
utors: Columbia Pictures.

Certificate : A. Category. B.

Running time : 102 minutes.

Harry Brock, well played by
Broderick Crawford, is one of those
rich Yanks who roll in fat and wealth.
He is a junk dealer who has made easv
millions. When the story opens, he is
manipulating a huge international deal
in Washington, D.C. He is big and
vulgar; his voice is like the sound of
a thousand cymbals; he has a girl
friend (a euphemistic way of putting
things ! ) , who is as dumb as you make
them and whom he clothes and houses
expensively. For Harry, the summum
bonum seems to be money. For
Billie Dawn, his girl, the summum
bonum seems to be minks ; so even
though Harry does push Billie around
like a lump of junk, she doesn’t seem
to mind very much, not until . . .

Billie is a blonde, the fellow who
wrote the synopsis says she is beautiful,
but we can let that pass ! No one will
deny, however, that she is stupid and
ignorant of the social graces. So
ignorant that Harry realises her
ignorance will be an obstacle to big
business ; therefore he chooses the
crusading writer, Paul Yerrall (William
Holden), to educate her.

You do not need to be very clever
to guess the rest of the story.

A little knowledge, particularly when
imparted by an attractive teacher, is a
dangerous thing. It is not long before
the new learning makes Billie Dawn
an ardent crusader of democracy and
an ardent admirer, then lover, of her
teacher and Harry is left to brood over
his junk and his millions.

If your taste runs to satire I
recommend this comedy. Today there
are not enough people writing satire or
taking notice of it.

E.

PS. — For playing the part of this
dumb blonde, Judy Holliday received
an Academy reward which she deserved.
The way in which she sustains this
difficult part is admirable.

237

BANDIT GENERAL

Starring: Paulette Goddard, Pedro

Armendariz, Gilbert Roland.
Producer: Bert Granet. Director:
Emilio Fernandez. Distributors:
International. Certificate: A.

Category: C. Running time:

74 minutes.

Beginning with a crash in a glass
factory owned by the heroine’s father,
this film fails at any time to get up
momentum. Though the crash is to
announce the arrival of tjie Bandit
General himself (Pedro Armendariz),
Maria Dolores (Paulette Goddard) and
her father refuse to be intimidated.
A very wet scene among the
aristocrats, torn between tears and
prayer gives place to shows of brutality
on the part of the General, who
however recognises a long lost pal in
the local priest. This strong silent
individual continues to appear, warning
the heroine not to come to Mass or go
out alone and telling the General who
she is and why he cannot marry her.

Meanwhile, her American lover, who
is a doctor in his spare time, goes off,
conveniently, to get supplies, and
Maria meets the attentions of her new
suitor, the General, first with her beefy
face-slapping tactics, but later with
hidden tears. The only amusing
incident is when she dislodges the
General’s dignity with a firework-.
However, a well-timed plague sweeps
the city, and prevents Maria and her
father from escaping, her American
lover turns up to tend the sick, bodies
are carted here and there and the
priest unconvincingly prays for the
dead. Maria meanwhile has been
continuing to go to Mass regularly and
when the opposing forces arrive to
drive out the Bandit General, she
appears ready for the wedding, which
surprisingly seems to be happening in
the best Hollywood style round the table
in the front drawing-room. It is even
more surprising to see the priest leaning
against the door-post in an unconcerned
way while they sign the register.
However, the departure of the Bandit
General with a fanfare of trumpets
seems to have more effect in preventing
this irregular marriage, as Maria
Dolores suddenly decides to follow

them and is seen disappearing at the
stirrup of her new hero-lover.

In fact this is a thoroughly bad film,
with little excitement, no appeal to
emotion that would stir even the most
sensitive, and a very wild, ill-advised
idea of Catholic ceremonial. Only the
fact that I took someone with me to
the showing prevented me from leaving
much earlier than the end.

H.

HAPPY GO LOVELY

Starring: David Niven, Vera-Eilen

Cesar Romero. Producer: Marcel
Heilman. Director: Bruce

Humberstone. Distributors:

Associated British-Pathe. In
Technicolor. Certificate : U.

Category: B. Running time: 90
minutes approx.

I cannot quite make out why the
events portrayed( in this film are
supposed to take place during the
Edinburgh Festival : this supposition
provides us at the outset with some
quite enchanting but all too brief
technicolor views of that delectable
city, turns Mr. David Niven into a
vScottish multi-millionaire (I doubt if
such exist) and produces a crop of
amazing Caledonian accents. But really,
it might have all happened anywhere.

The essential is that it does happen,
for it is light entertainment at its
best. The scenes are sumptuous, the
technicolor good, the dialogue amusing,
the dancing excellent, the music if not
brilliant at least gay and tuneful, while
the story is as light, farcical and
impossible as anyone could wish.

Miss Vera-Ellen as Janet Jones, the
chorus-girl, who by a series of
delightfully ridiculous events becomes
the multi-millionaire’s wife, dances and
sings charmingly, supposing, that is,
that the voice is really hers (in these
days one can never be quite sure of
this) ; Mr. Niven as the multi-
millionaire is — well, Mr. Niven; Miss
Diane Hart gives a most entertaining
performance as Mae, Janet Jones’
intimate friend ; and the rest of the
cast are all good.

Go and see it, it will make you laugh
and forget life’s worries.

T. C. F.

238

Catholic Film Institute

No. 2: Catholic Film Criticism

Strictly speaking it is incorrect to
talk of “Catholic Film Criticism”; just
as it is incorrect to talk of Catholic
novels, Catholic music, Catholic art.
There are, of course, novels which deal
with Catholic subjects, music composed
to be sung at Mass and Benediction,
and art which finds its proper resting
place in churches and convents. There
are a few films made by Catholics which
treat of religious subjects and call for
criticism as such.

What is meant is that Catholics who
are artists, writers, musicians, critics,
bring their own special mental attitude
to bear upon the subjects they are
concerned with and cannot help
colouring those subjects with that
attitude. That is not the same thing
as saying that all novels, music, art
whose authors are Catholic must be
shaped for use in religious
surroundings, but it does mean that
Catholics cannot help bringing certain
fixed standards of belief and behaviour
to bear upon their work even if the
theme of the work is not intended to
be edifying.

In the case of films we are, from the
beginning, up against the fact that so
few intelligent people are willing to
allow that films can be discussed and
defined in equal comparison with other
art forms. Indeed the definition of art
itself has caused many a dialectical
headache and outside lecture rooms in
Catholic seminaries and universities I
doubt whether anybody has ever
arrived at a satisfactory definition.
Granting that the classical definition
of St. Thomas, " ars est recta ratio
factabilmm” , is valid as it applies to
other media of expression, it must, I
think, be considered that potentially,
at least, it is valid when the form of
expression is cinematic.

Father Hilary Carpenter has rendered
that definition, “a good quality or
virtue of the practical intelligence, a
potentiality whereby a man is in a
condition of soul to envisage the proper

ordering of things to be made by him”.
This, upon examination, will be seen to
apply to the man who chooses to express
his ideas in terms of cinema as much as
to the man who expresses his ideas in
terms of paint, stone or musical sounds.
People are apt to be confused by the
fact that most films are the product of
a conglomeration of bits and pieces,
persons and machines, and to suppose
that, under such circumstances, it is
not possible for the film finally
projected upon the screen to have any
connection with art A little quiet
thought should enable them to see that
if a man has ideas to express and ‘‘is
in a co>idition of soul to envisage the
proper ordering of things ” he should be
able properly to order the disposition
of light upon persons, places and
things, viewed through a motion picture
camera in such a way that the final
result, projected upon the screen, comes
near to being, in its own order, a work
of art.

There is no time here to expand this
idea ; we are more concerned at the
moment with the function of the critic
who views the final result on the screen.
We say that our object is to encourage
the development of Catholic criticism
of films. The critic is, above all else, a
judge. That means that he must be
equipped with sufficient knowledge of
the subject he is judging as well as a
sufficient background of culture to
enable him to put his judgment of the
particular subject he is criticising into
its proper general context. Whereas
with other art forms, a school or
standard of criticism has been
developed over the years, cinema is still
so new, and to some people so vulgar,
that on the whole little has been done to
formulate a proper critique of cinema.
The Church has, of course, been
concerning itself with film for a longer
period than those who are not of the
Faith. Indeed the birth of film
criticism may be said to have taken
place in Belgium in the early days of

♦

239

the century when the Abbe Brohee was
commissioned by Cardinal Mercier to
organise Catholic Action, and set
himself to develop a critical approach
to the beginnings of the cinema.

The Catholic who is a critic is in a
stronger position than most others, for
lie is more likely to be equipped with
an adequate moral and dogmatic
background and is able to view tilings
in that light. Indeed one might say
^ that only a convinced Christian is able
to view things in their proper context
since only he is able and willing to
view tile things of time in the light
of Eternity. That means that if a
Catholic critic has made the effort to
acquaint himself with the knowledge
that is necessary to be able to follow
his particular profession, his general
background as a Christian gives him
the opportunity to make judgments
that are more valuable than those of
critics who lack the transcendental
standards against which to evaluate the
forms he is considering.

It may be said that critics in general
and Catholics in particular have little
influence upon the general public. That
is not really true. The critic who is
known to be painstaking and not afraid
to express liis opinion truthfully has an
influence beyond that of the critic who
is known only as a confectioner of
smart and biting witticisms. The latter
may be read for amusement but the
former will be read for information.
Ultimately it is truthfulness in film
criticism which will gain for the critic
the position from which his attitude to
films will assume something of the
magisterial authority of the best
critics in other arts.

The film critic has a wearying task.
Unlike the other critics he has not a
ready-made audience capable of
appreciating the finer points of his
critical analysis. In the case of the
cinema it is probably true to say that
the majority of the audience have little
or no appreciation of the cultural and
artistic values which may or may not
be present, which may or may not have
contributed to the film they are
viewing. The film critic has not only
to give his readers information, he has
also to provide them with sufficient
knowledge to enable them both to
increase in knowledge about the cinema
and to be able to form their own
judgments.

The second part of our second
object speaks about “influencing the
type of films publicly exhibited”.
Such influence will be real only
to the extent that the critic is
honest. It is not enough to allow
prejudices to warp his views about
films. It is when he is able to convince
his readers that he both knows what
the film is trying to say and whether
the director of the film has succeeded
in saying it, that his opinion that what
the film is trying to say is either good
or bad will have any value. People
sometimes speak of films which are
artistically excellent but morally
worthless. This is, I venture to think,
a contradiction in terms. No matter
how apparently excellent from the
technical point of view a film may be,
it cannot really be said to be artistically
good if its moral elements are faulty.
If the Thomistic definition is valid,
that is to say, if the artist is “in a
condition of soul to envisage the proper
ordering of the things to be made by
him ” the thing made by him, whether
it be a film or some other form of art,
should conform to standards which are
themselves the result of intellectual
integrity. The Christian critic, there-
fore, in order to influence his readers
to the greatest degree, must be
completely equipped as a Christian.
His evaluations must balance both
spiritual and material and his
judgments must take both into
consideration.

There are signs today that cinema
audiences are becoming more selective.
It may be due to the growth of
television. That, if it is true, provides
another cause for alarm since the
television cabinet has the effect of
destroying the last refuge of those who
wish to unite the family circle.
However, it may be that, in fact, the
deplorable level of so many films has
sent the people scurrying from the
glamorous invitation of the local
“Odorium”. The frequently heard
refrain “Let’s go to the pictures”
suggests that the industry is getting
nervous. This is surely the opportunity
for the Christian film critic to get to
work to do what he can to help produce
the audiences which will be able both to
recognise and to appreciate the good
films which we are convinced the
future will provide.

J. A. V. Burke.

240

Script to Screen1

by Andrew Buchanan, D.Litt., Ph.D.

Andrew Buchanan’s latest book on
the film : "Film-making from Script

to Screen” is a completely revised
and re-written version of "the book
which first appeared in 1937 and
has been out of print for many years.
A constant demand for copies made
it clear that this simple but
comprehensive course in film-making
had appealed to a wide public. The
author has the ability to state in lucid
and not - too - technical terms, the
principles and practice of a craft which
has all too often been camouflaged
under excessive neologism on the one
hand or vulgar ostentation on the other.

Behind all that Buchanan writes
about the cinema there is evident a
deep concern about the misuse of film
and the consequent harm that humanity
can suffer from this ubiquitous
instrument for diversion and the
expression of ideas. Indeed one might
say that his writings form the only
extensive commentary at present
available in English on the Film
Encyclical, Vtgilanti Cura. His purpose
is "to make use of the screen to help
man to discover how to overcome the
material forces which are reducing him
to serfdom. Film-makers possess the
most powerful medium in the world.
Are they to remain content to employ
it solely to satisfy their technical
aspirations and to provide a pleasant
hour for their club friends, or are they
going to devote a portion of their time
to shaping films which shall make
some contribution to the welfare of
humanity ?” Those who are familiar
with the Encyclical will find this
almost an echo of Pope Pius’ plea for
a sane and constructive use of the
cinema “to give new life to the claims
of virtue and to contribute positively
to the genesis of a just social order in
the world”.

In the volume under consideration,

* "Film-making From Script to Screen.”
Phoenix House, Ltd. 8/6.

Buchanan outlines a complete course
on simplified film-production. The
fundamentals from script to screen are
described and are aimed at the
professional as much as at the amateur.
The dedication of the book, "To
the Amateur Professional and the
Professional Amateur”, describes both
the public for which he is writing
and the objective to which, ultimately,
he is tending. He is a man
with a deep love of and under-
standing of his craft and it is his
sorrow that commercialism has sullied
to such an extent an art which, in the
words of Pius XI, “with its magnificent
power, can and must be a bearer of
light and a positive guide to what is
good”. A well-known art-director, a
man who has been making films for
nearly thirty years was my host some
time ago in the restaurant of one of
the big British studios. He astonished
me by saying that, of the two hundred
or more people dining in that room, not
more than half a dozen really knew or
cared much about film. If that was
true, and I have no reason to doubt
my host’s complete sincerity, it gives
point to much that Buchanan says in
this book and elsewhere. To quote
again : "Since this book first appeared,
film has outgrown its strength. It
looks fairly robust from a distance,
but suffers rather a lot with internal
troubles. Wardour Street specialists
have had it under observation for some
time, hoping a major operation may be
averted, but some of us think that the
major operation should be performed
on the specialists, leaving the patient
free to get up and regain its strength
unaided.”

May I recommend this book to all
those who have, so far, failed to see
the significance of film as the most
potent influence of our time ? In this
way they may learn how to do
something to "promote good motion
pictures”, the key directive in the
Papal Encvclical.

J. A. V. B.

Cover Personality

Janette Scott

Film children are not always
attractive types. The very nature of
their employment militates against that
natural charm which is one of
childhood’s sweetest enchantments.
One can think of many youngsters
whose unamiable qualities penetrate
through the screen to make us thankful
that we do not have to deal with them
in real life !

However, there are also some very
likeable children working for the
screen and usually they are to be
found among the professional families.
Little Janette Scott, for example, is
the daughter of that line character

actress Tliora Hird, and she has been
brought up to the smell of the stage
and screen, so to say.

Janette first came to our notice for
her excellent work in No Place For
Jennifer, where her heartrending
performance as the child whose
parents were divorced did much to lift
that film out of the rut which its story
and treatment otherwise merited. She
has recently been seen in The
Galloping Major, a delightful comedy
in the Ealing Studio style in which
Janette plays the young daughter to
Basil Radford.

She has a part in the Festival of
Britain film, The Magic Box, the story
of Freize-Greene, the inventor of
moving pictures.

Janette came to the Y.C.W. Premiere
of the Sorcier du Ciel film last October.
She is a pleasant and unaffected little
girl off screen and with her mother’s
wise professional and maternal skill
to guide her she should make a
place for herself among the few
child players who have matured into
accomplished grown-up artists.

John Vincent.

Film Strips on the
Mass

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74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions’’, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
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By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
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FILM STRIP

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FOCUS

FILM COURSE

Handbook No. 1 <

Foreword by

Rev. John A. V. Burke

Film Course by

Andrew Buchanan, D.Litt., Ph.D.

“ provokes thought and arouses a desire to read more ... an
excellent primer for Film Study Groups.''

— The Catholic Times.

. . . invaluable to anyone who wants to take an intelligent
interest in the cinema •"

— The Catholic Worker.

Contents include essential facts and statistics relating
to: The Way Films Vary: The Cinema Programme:

The News Reel: Fictional versus Factual Films:
Educational and Children’s Films: The Religious
Film: Film Music.

Price : Is. 6d.

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*

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman :

Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian cidture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

3. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

3. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all who accept our aims and objects.

Life Membership, £10.

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Ordinary Membership, 10s. per annum.

Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
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of Focus. All members help to support an organisation devoted to
the right use of films, about which Pope Pius XI wrote :

"The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.’’

Hon. Secretary.

Rev. John A. V. Burke, 157 Victoria Street, London, S.W.i

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Pilgrimage to Fatima The Sacrifice We Offer

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FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Editorial 243

Robert Flaherty 244

By Maryvonne Butcher

Catholic Stage Guild 249

The Westminster Passion Film 250

The Editor 252

By Andrew Buchanan
Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests
The Man in the White Suit ... 253

The Sound of Fur 3- 254

Hell is Sold Out 254

Strangers on a Train 255

Dear Brat 255

Here Comes the Groom 256

No Resting Place 256

As Young as You Feel 257

No Highway 257

Page

Worm’s Eye View ... ... 258

Rich, Young and Pretty ... 258

The Phantom Horseman ... 258

Talk of a Million 259

The Last Outpost 259

Love Happy 259

Life in Her Hands 260

Wherever She Goes 260

Chicago Masquerade 260

When I Grow Up 261

The Prince Who was a Thief ... 261
Red Mountain ... ... ... 261

The Law and the Lady 262

The Golden Horde 262

Half Angel 263

Cattle Drive 263

Documentary

The Offertory ... ... ... 264

Continental Films

L ’Ingenue Libertine 264

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Revue Internationale du Cinema

Organ of International Catholic Cinema Office

Number 8 now available — -Contributions include articles by Freda Bruce Lockhart,
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FOCUS

Organ of the Catholic

♦

♦

A FILM
REVIEW

Film

Institute

Vol. IV

September 1951

No. 9

Film Controversy

Recently I was forced into a controversy about films, with a man who
is interested in the arts and who would describe himself as a good Christian.
He has a poor opinion of the cinema as a medium of expressing ideas,
particularly religious ideas.

He churned up the old heresy about the cinema being a mechanical device
which materially minded magnets use to get rich quickly by exploiting the
emotions of the masses.

He thinks that the Church should mind its own business and allow the
cinema enough rope to hang itself. He seems to have a special grudge against
films with religious themes and told me that he feels less embarrassed when
he sees a naughty film than when he sees a religious film. He would not even
concede a point to Monsieur Vincent and that splendid film. Triptych.

When I asked him whether he was embarrassed by the religious themes
expressed by Raphael, Michelangelo, Mozart and other famous artists in other
mediums he paused and said: “Er . . . no . . . but, that’s different”. He
made the point that a painter like Raphael had the power to spiritualise his
subjects to such a degree that we are able to accept them as real and derive
inspiration from them; whereas a film such as Monsieur Vincent lacks
integrity because no man who has not experienced sanctity can portray it.
He said that such films disturb rather than inspire.

To allow six of the arts the right to express religious ideas and to deny
this right to the seventh and the youngest of the arts, which is the cinema,
is illogical and not very helpful. All young things, whether they are plants
or people, must grow slowly, silently and imperceptibly.

The cinema is still in its youth. Who can say what spiritual
masterpieces it will produce when it grows to maturity?

Editor.

244

Robert Flaherty

By . . . MARYVONNE BUTCHER

Bv the death of Robert Flaherty at
the age of sixty-seven the cinema has
suffered a grave loss indeed. On main-
planes his was an influence that can ill
be spared, and perhaps not least on
account of that fertility of geniuswhich
at sixty gave us what is possibly his
best film, showing no decline in any
power and a positive advance in
subtlety of theme. The parallel with
Dr. Vaughan Williams is too striking
to be missed : if The Louisiana Story
was Flaherty’s fifth symphony, how
can we reconcile ourselves to the loss
of that sixth which we shall now never
know ?

I defy anyone to see a Flaherty film
and remain unmoved : about his best
work there is a quality of lyricism, of
limpidity, that has the immediate
impact of a poem and that leaves
the same feeling of serenity and
inevitability behind. To have achieved
this extreme authority of treatment
combined with extreme mastery over
medium so early, and to have preserved
it inviolate so long proves Flaherty to
have had a sense of purpose and a
tenacity very unusual in the film-world ;
and though it may be argued that his
personal predilections have perhaps
deliberately narrowed his range to
subjects which made this single-
mindedness more easy, this still does
not explain away the achievement.
“I’m primarily an explorer,” Robert
Flaherty once said, “and only'
incidentally a movie-maker,” and it
may well be that the indifference
generated by this point of view towards
the common tools and tricks of the
trade is what gives to all Flaherty’s
work that effortless visual beauty which
is perhaps its dominant characteristic.

It is impossible fully to understand
Flaherty’s attitude to his subjects or
his method of film-making without
some knowledge of the details of his
early environment and experiences,

which are highly relevant to his
subsequent career : it is sufficiently

rare in the history of the cinema to
find a man whose course has run so
logically from start to finish. He was
born in 1884, in Iron Mountain, in the
upper Michigan Peninsula; his father
was Robert Henry Flaherty, a mining
engineer from that part of the countrv
with all the lack of respect for
permanence which is the mark of the
true mining man. Young Robert was
sent to school at the age of six, but
it was not a prospect which appealed
to him very much, and on the whole
he tended to go when it suited him
and when there to behave with a
conspicuous lack of enthusiasm.

In 1896 his father was made the
manager of the Golden Star Mine in
the Rainy Lake region of Canada, and
he decided to take his eldest son along
with him ; it was generally agreed that
it made very little difference whether
he were at school or not and the
township of some two thousand people
to which he was going certainly
afforded an interesting alternative. It
must have been very like an early
Western : gambling, shooting and

knifing were accepted pastimes, and
the female company available was of
a generous and full-blooded kind.
Robert was left to amuse himself, which
he did with the greatest of ease, largely
in the company of young Chippewa
Indians, who inoculated him for the
first time, but permanently as it
subsequently appeared, with that love
of simple and primitive communities
which never left him to the end.

After two years of this racy existence
Robert’s father went on to another
mine in the even more romantically
named Lake of the Woods country,
where they lived much the same kind
of life. It was then suddenly decided
to send him to LTpper Canada College,
Toronto, to finish his education ; this

ROBERT

FLAHERTY

is a school run very much on English
public school lines, so that the reciprocal
relationship of college and pupil was
hardly likely to be happy. It was not,
however, an episode that lasted very
long, and he moved on to the Michigan
College of Mines with an idea that he
should follow in his father’s profession;
this, too, proved to be an uneasy
interlude, and after some months his
father made it clear that he must now
fend for himself. So this, until he was
nineteen, he quite successfully did,
working on various mines ; his father
then became a prospector to the United
States Steel Corporation with all
Canada for his area. Robert joined him
in his work and travels, then branched
off with another man and finally, when
he was twenty-one, took a job on his
own as prospector for the Grand Trunk
Railway.

In this and subsequent jobs he
explored, unsystematically perhaps,
but remarkably thoroughly, all over
Canada from coast to coast : and one

must remember that at this time, while
still a very young man, he had
literally half a life-time’s experience pf
living in the wilderness with the most
primitive of peoples and in the hardest
conditions.

On one of his periodic returns to
Toronto he happened to meet Sir
William Mackenzie, who was at that
time building the North Canadian
Railroad, and mentioned that, well
though he knew Canada, he had never
been to Hudson’s Bay. Without more
ado, Sir William sent him off on an
assignment to prospect for iron and
codfish in that area ; he had a year of
incredible dangers and difficulties,
more than alleviated by his first meeting
with Eskimos, but came down to
Toronto with no news of fish or metal
— only talk of a great land mass which
had never been properly mapped. He
was soon sent back again to get more
information about this, returning
briefly to Toronto to be married to
Frances Hubbard and, almost casually,

246

X

to buy a movie-camera ; then back north
again to find and eventually to map the
islands, one of which is officially named
Flaherty Island in recognition of his
work.

It was some six years since he had
first gone north : he was now an

experienced prospector and explorer of
thirty-two, but it had taken all his
resource and toughness to come back with
his life, some specimens of indifferent
iron-ore and several thousand feet of
film from this expedition. After weeks
of work on what lie would subsequently
have called “editing” his film, he
accidentally set fire to it with a match,
the whole thing went up in flames and
he was badly burned. And in more
ways than one, for his immediate
reaction was to resolve to go back
again as soon as possible and make the
film of a lifetime about the North.

1920 saw the meeting between
Flaherty and Captain Thierry Mallett,
a representative of Revillon Freres, the
great furriers, which led directly to the
making of Naiiook of the North.
Mallett was immediately interested in
the idea of a film about Eskimos as a
commercial asset in the competition
between his firm and the Hudson Bay
Company, and readily agreed to send
Flaherty north to the Barrens again,
with all the equipment he needed.
This time he knew exactly what he
meant to do and this certainty of
attack remained a constant in all his
work from Nanook to Louisiana Story
and it stems directly from those early
formative years. To live with the
people on their own terms, to observe
their lives without condescension, to
make a faithful record of everything
that happens in the community life
over a long period of time, and then
to edit the bulk film with the greatest
austerity, so that the final result, the
emotion recollected in tranquillity, is
eloquent both of the economy of
ultimate selection and the significance
of the poet’s single eye. It is not a
cheap, nor a facile method of making
documentary films, as Eisenstein later
found to his cost, but in the hands of a
master it has yet to be improved upon.

This, then, was how Nanook of the
North grew : for sixteen long months
he lived and hunted and starved and
nearly died with the Eskimos, filming
a record with the utmost fidelity of the
rigorous hardships which were the lot

of all. Then he came south to New
York, never again to return to the North
where he had spent so many years. He
settled down to the task of editing, and
showed the result to Revillon Freres
who, to their eternal credit, recognised
it as a masterpiece and have, moreover,
always regarded it as a major financial
asset; Hollywood, on the other hand,
held neither opinion. Appalled at a
piece of work which they considered at
once bad film and bad box-office, the
film barons would not even arrange for ^
a showing and this was secured at the C
Roxy, New York, by little less than a
trick. Here it did average business for
the week, but was acclaimed by the
critics at once and was something
like a sensation when it reached
Paris and London. In England,
particularly, it had an immediate and
fertile effect on the makers of what
we have sequentlv learned to call
“documentary”, which is, I suppose,
the field in which British film-makers
have shown most originality and
reached their liigliest achievements.
John Grierson, for one, was able to see
for the first time on the screen his own
precept that this kind of film should
“be the creative treatment of actualitv”.

Reassured by the clamour of the
critics’ applause, Hollywood began to
reconsider its first instinctive response
to this ugly duckling of their industry ;
Paramount came forward with an offer
to Flaherty to go anywhere and do
anything, filming what he liked. New
to this kind of thing, Flaherty believed
that this meant that he was indeed
expected to make the kind of film he
considered right. So, after a certain
amount of discussion and reflection, he
decided to go to Samoa and make a
film about the life of the islands, which
he intended to approach in the same
way as with Nanook. With his wife
and three daughters he spent nearly
two years in Samoa, making a film that |
he called Moana of the South Seas, j
Partly as a concession to what even he 4
had gathered of Paramount, but
largely because it was in fact an
integral side of island life, this film
did carry a definite love-interest ; but
the central and dominant theme was a
loving and faithful study of initiation
into manhood by the ordeal of pain — (

in this case of tattooing. At the end
of two years he was ready to edit the
vast quantities of film and had, with his

247

family, been sent off from the island
with every evidence of sorrow by the
islanders who had learned to regard
them as permanent members of the
community. As could have been
foreseen, of course, Paramount were
considerably disconcerted by the result :
this gravely beautiful ethnographical
study of primitive customs was not at
all the brand of island glamour they
had anticipated. Endless difficulties
were made over the release and
eventually Moana became, as with so
many Flaherty films on release, an
artistic success acclaimed by all
discerning critics and a pronounced
financial failure.

After Moana Flaherty was rather at
a loose end. It seemed obvious that
his professional future now lay in films
rather than in exploration, yet he was
not connected with any major film
enterprise. He did some desultory
work for the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, making experimental shorts, and
there were some abortive plans to
make a film of Kim, which fell through
for financial reasons ; he wras then asked
to make a documentary of New York
for an anonymous sponsor, and rather
indulged himself on angle shots, and
an emphasis on the more sordidly
picturesque corners of the city. But
this turned out not to be what the
patron had expected, and even the
negative has now disappeared. It
seems obvious that to be a backer of
Flaherty required rather specialised
characteristics, and his next employers,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, conspicuously
lacked them. He was given a contract
to film White Shadows in the South
Seas in Tahiti, and this time was
accompanied by a full-scale Hollywood
production unit. A child could have
foreseen the difficulties that would
arise, and after a briefish interim during
which it appeared that two totally
incompatible productions were afoot —
Flaherty’s and that of the unit as a
whole — he tore up his contract and
walked out.

It was now 1927 and Flaherty was
over forty, without a job or even the
prospect of one, but with an
unshakable conviction that his way
of making films and, still more
importantly, his approach to the
making of films was the only one. He
is quoted as having said once that it
was only the first sixty years of his

life that were tough : only a very

integrated and devoted man could have
conserved his sense of vocation against
the constant reiteration of lesser men
that he was utterly mistaken. At about
this time lie met Frederick Murnau, a
man after his own heart, and they
decided to go back to Tahiti and make
the film that Flaherty had wanted to
make before. They arrived at Papeete
in July 1929 to start work on a film to
be called Tabu, which was to treat of
the life of a girl placed beyond all
human relationships by the operation of
a tabu ; but when they returned from
work on location in November of that
same year they learned of the financial
crash, in that era of crashes, of their
Hollywood backers. Undaunted, they
decided to proceed as best they could on
Murnau’s money, and finished the film
in about eighteen months, which was
quick for Flaherty : edited it on the
spot, and brought it back to America
where it was eventually released by
Paramount. People who have seen
Tabu, like that diminishing band who
saw Nijinski dance, aver that there has
seldom been anything like it, and
that its sheer visual beauty was
incomparable. But few enough saw it,
and it was one of his worst failures.

Be that as it may, there is no denying
the almost breathtaking beauty of
Flaherty’s next big film, Man of Aran,
made between 1932-33 in Britain for
Gaumont British. He Was given the
assignment through the influence of
John Grierson, who from the very
beginning had been one of his most
devoted adherents, and few men can
have regretted their intervention less.
Man of Aran is essentially a film in the
main stream of Flaherty development :
it treats of the conflict of the primitive
community' with one of the great
impersonal forces in its struggle for
existence — in this case of the sea— and
Flaherty approached the Aran islanders
in the same way as he had the subjects
of all his films. First, to settle down
in the island ; then to get to know the
people on their own terms ; then the
endless preliminary studies of all sides
.of their life ; and gradually the slow
crystallisation of the main theme and
the characters committed to it. The
beauty, the purity and the serenity
of the photography make it an
unforgettable piece of work, and the
flamboyance of the characters was

24S

emphasised by the starkness of the
the setting. For many years it was
considered Flaherty’s best film, and it
was certainly his first commercial as
well as artistic success ; it is gratifying
to think that Britain enabled him to
produce this lovely thing with few of
the attendant vexations which had so
often dogged his footsteps.

Hardly so much can be said of
Elephant Boy, his next film made for
Alexander Korda in 1935-7. Lovers of
Kipling do not find it easy to recognise
Tooinai of the Elephants under the
elaborate trappings which muffle the
story, and it is almost as difficult to
trace the Flaherty touch in the
direction, though the sequences of the
elephant drive could not have been
made by anyone else. The results of
this film must have been much less
puzzling to Hollywood. It established
its hitherto unknown star, Sabu ; it was
tepidlv received by the critics, and it
was a financial success ; the film trade
must have felt it had Flaherty under
control at last.

Soon after Munich Flaherty went
back to America with his family, and
just after the outbreak of war he made
a long documentary called The Land,
for the Department of Agriculture. It
was never used for the purpose for
which it was commissioned, and few
people have ever seen it. It is reputed
to have been a study, in the most
powerful terms, of land erosion in
America, and is interesting as having
for its central theme not the struggle
of man against the forces of nature or
tradition, but man and his struggle with
the machine. Now here again we in
Britain may modestly congratulate
ourselves for in 1932 Grierson and
Flaherty had made a short for the
Empire Marketing Board called
Industrial Britain, which was the
first time that Flaherty had ever
touched on this theme of mechanisation.
The Land, which must have been
considerably longer, was an amplifica-
tion of this idea ; and in his last and
most brilliantly successful film, The
Louisiana Story, Flaherty turned
wholly to a fusion of his two dominating
ideas^that of man in his weakness
facing the power of nature, and man in
his weakness facing the power of the
machine. In essentials both are, of
course, studies of the problem of
survival, physical or psychological : in

The Louisiana Story these two struggles
are superimposed. It is pleasant to
think that Britain was the scene of
his first tentative essay in the second
manner.

The Louisiana Story, like Nanook of
the North, was made for private
backers : in this case for the Standard
Oil Company. This form of sponsorship
seems always to have given Flaherty
more ease of execution, and here lie was
allowed a perfectly free hand in both
subject and treatment. The country
and people of the bayous of Louisiana
were perfect material for his rhythmic,
poetic direction and the force of his
personality had never been more clearly
stamped on any of his productions ; not
only is it the work of a master film-
maker, it is also essentially the work
of a strongly individual thinker — a
cerebral statement, as it were, and not
merely the illustration of a technique.
The Russians may say they owe much
to Flaherty, but it is of Russian films
that one is reminded by The Louisiana
Story : the sunflowers of The General
Line echoed by the water flowers of the
later picture. Unlike too many of
Flaherty’s films, this not only won
awards in many countries, but was also
an immediate box-office success. He
was now well over sixty, and it
had been a long wait for this dual
recognition.

The value of Flaherty to the cinema
can hardly be over-estimated. For
thirty odd years he had been making
pictures with an obstinate probity, a
refusal to capitulate to the second-rate
or to financial venality which in itself
constituted a positive factor for health
in the industry. Roger Manvell,
writing of Nanook, says that it is one
of those pictures “worth a hundred
competent marvels”, and that it is
only through the more-tlian-average
precursor film that the average cinema
production ever achieves any major
advances. Flaherty’s techniques
changed, his themes developed, but
always behind everything he ever
touched, even little functional shorts
like Industrial Britain, there burned the
integrating compassion, the single-
minded intuition of the man himself,
whose purpose it was to record life as
he saw it, not to make money or achieve
material success for himself or anyone
else. His independent, underivative
genius reminds one of Keats on the

249

genius of poetry which, he said,
“must work out its own salvation in a
man : it cannot be matured bv law

and precept, but by sensation and
watchfulness itself”. And so back to
the conviction that the Flaherty picture
gives such true delights on all levels,
technical, intellectual and aesthetic,

precisely because the eye and mind
behind its making is that of a poet
rather than that of a technician. In the
words of Franfois Mauriac in another
context, Flaherty spent himself “to
give an apparent order to the disorder
of life, to impose on it a significance
which it is possible it does not possess”.

Catholic Stage Guild

At a general meeting held at Charing
Cross Hotel on July 29th, the
Constitutions of the Catholic Stage
Guild were presented and accepted
subject to minor terminological
modifications.

The acting Committee was voted into
office until the Annual General Meeting,
to be held in the spring. Of this
Committee, Mr. Ted Kavanagh remains
Chairman and Father J. O’Hear,
Chaplain.

Meetings will be held monthly at
Corpus Christ Church, Maiden Lane,
London, W.C., at 5 p.m. each First
Frida}'. The meetings will consist of
Benediction followed by social inter-
course. A Special General Meeting
will be held on Sunday, October 21st,

at 3-30 p.m., at Corpus Christi Church,
Maiden Lane, and afterwards at the
Charing Cross Hotel.

The programme until the end of this
year is, therefore, as follows :

Friday, September 7th, 5 p.m.

Friday, October 5th, 5 p.m.

Friday, November 2nd, 5 p.m.

Friday, December 7th, 5 p.m.

Film personnel are welcome as part of
the Catholic Stage Guild whether they be
clapper boys, directors, script-writer or
film stars. This is a Catholic Guild and
all who are professionally connected
with the stage and allied arts should be
members.

Practical Help jor the C.F.I.

“Although television is hitting the
cinema very hard, the latter is still far
and away the most densely attended of
all amusements and has a tremendous
influence for good or evil. We should,
therefore, be careful about the films we
visit. That is why I urge you so
strongly to buy Focus every month.
There you will find an expert and
unbiased review of all the major films
and many of the minor ones. Sixpence
a month is a very small premium to pay
to be insured against wasting your
money and time on a worthless film, or
(what is far more important) on an
immoral one. Furthermore, when a
film is on the whole worth seeing, but
has certain bad points, these points are
emphasised so that you may avoid the
great danger of being seduced by the

emotional atmosphere into unreflective
acceptance of the -bad with the good.
I myself have preserved every copy of
Focus from the first issue as Catholic
Film News in 1940.’

(Fr. W. A. Pritchard in
St. Gertrude’s Parochial
Newsletter.)

PUBLIC DEMAND

We have been asked by a number
of readers to revert to our practice
of giving a list of films reviewed
with their evaluation. In future
issues we shall do this.

I

250

The

Westminster Passion Film

For several years the Passion Play
presented at Westminster Cathedral
Hall, by the Archdiocesan Youth
Organisation has been an important
part of the Lenten devotions of many
London' Catholics. The play has always
been offered anonymously with the
object of stimulating devotion to the
Sacred Passion of Our Lord.

The plav has now been made into a
film. Again the anonymity which
sheltered the play veils the film and we
only know that the Companions of the
Cross offer Behold the Man as an
attempt to stir up, by means of the

screen, a devotional co-operation with
the mind of Christ during the dolorous
steps of His Passion

It is the special merit of this film that
it does, precisely, induce in the
beholder a sense of intimate
participation in the Way of the Cross.
This it achieves partly by the self-
effacing sincerity of the players and
partly by the happy decision to play
the whole thing in mime. There are
no lip movements to distract one’s
attention from the message being
offered. The commentary, composed of
a harmony of the four Gospel accounts

251

of the Passion, is spoken with calm and
deliberate dignity without any attempt
to do more than let the natural weight
of the words drop into one’s soul. The
camera examines with unobtrusive
analysis, those characters and groupings
which have some special significance in
the context of the setting.

What has been accomplished is
something new in the use of film for
religious purposes, something that is
a cross between the normal, natural,
flow of camera motion and the static
tableaux of stage presentation. The
camera is here used as an instrument
in meditation. The result is something
which lifts the mind without disturbing
the senses with undue excitement.

The part of Our Lord is played by a
priest with unassuming dignity and
sincerity. The rest of the cast is filled
with lavfolk. The direction was in the

hands of a well-known German actor. The
technicians at Twickenham Studios were,
of course, professionals, but tliev paid
the tribute of respectful admiration for
the self-sacrificing spirit which brought
the cast, often at considerable personal
inconvenience, to pay this gratuitous
offering in the cause of religious use of
the cinema.

The film will be presented to the
public towards the end of September.
Versions in Italian and French already
exist and it will be a comparatively
simple matter to produce versions in
other languages. Perhaps the most
important thing which this film will
have achieved is the international
appeal of the film once again by means
of the internationally-known words of
the Gospels.

J. A. V. B.

252

FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. No. 8

THE EDITOR

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

It is more than a pity that all wishing
to become film-makers, scenario writers
and critics, cannot begin in a cutting
room under the eye of an expert editor,
for it is here, far removed from the
stars and lights, that the roots of films
are exposed and basic construction
occurs. And yet quite a number of
people reach the director’s chair and
even become producers with a minimum
knowledge of film editing — a fact

sometimes reflected in their work.

We have learnt how stories are
filmed in countless isolated scenes out
of story order, and how their
corresponding sounds and or dialogue
are on tracks which, to start with, are
separate from the visuals. All this
material is sent to the cutting room in
daily batches to unravel and assemble.
It is viewed immediately to judge
photographic and sound quality. There
are always several takes of each scene,
and the director and editor decide,
during the first run through, which are
the best to retain. Then each sequence
(visuals and track) is roughly assembled
and when all material has arrived, a
“rough-cut” is put together, which is
a first assembly of the complete
production. (Incidentally, positive film
is cut, joined, and cut again with ease
and scissors. The ends of any two
scenes to be joined are scraped free of
emulsion and coated with amyl acetate
and acetone, mixed. The ends are
clamped for a few seconds, and the join
is made.)

The editor works from a copy of the
scenario supplemented by the continuity
sheets which reach him with each batch
of rushes. These sheets indicate where
original scenario instructions have been
changed during filming, and contain all
essential information about the actual
filming. As every scene is numbered
at the beginning, the . editor has no
difficulty in identifying each one. All
this is more or less routine work, and
it is only after the “rough-cut” version
has been viewed that his creative faculty
comes into play. Assembling a film
should not be confused with editing it.
The first is methodical sorting, the

second, the work of an artist. The
editor heightens drama by the
positioning of scenes and of angles
within scenes. He brings a film to life
by shortening or sharpening scenes, by
introducing close-ups or removing them
— by creating moments of silence in the
sound track. He chisels a film, bit by
bit. He might move an entire sequence
to another place. He eliminates long-
winded entrances or exits. He knows
just how much of a close-up should be
seen. He knows, too, when a sequence
goes beyond saturation point.

There is, perhaps, less scope in the
dialogue film for creative editing
because human speech governs the
action, but in sequences composed
mainly of mute scenes, or action on a
broad scale accompanied by natural
sounds rather than dialogue, he has a
chance to shape and reshape his visuals,
and he can then create a story or a
sequence out of a number of scenes
which, separately, bear no direct
relation to each other. The Editor
creates the relationship. He introduces
symbolism. Maybe he will enlist the
aid of Nature’s varying moods to
express the moods of men and women.
He can create, say, the prelude to a
storm by grouping unrelated visuals
each of which may have been filmed at
a different place — heavy clouds — cattle
under trees — grass bending low —
running feet — angry waves — swaying
branches — big rain spots splashing on
pavements — then the deluge.

Opportunities are endless. After a
hard training in the cutting room, one
can really say one knows how films are
made. Without such training the
journey is longer, and signposts are
few. A famous critic once said to me
she always felt uneasy sitting in
armchairs viewing films when she had
never toiled on production, nor sweated
in a projection box.

Even if one cannot find one’s way
into a cutting room, one would be wise
to place first things first, and to realise
that in the assembling and editing of
a film, one can learn most about this
difficult art.

253

wmm

By our Panel of Priests

Category A, indicates adults only; B, adults and adolescents ;
C, family audiences; D, particularly for children

THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT
Starring: Alec Guinness, Joan Green-
wood, Cecil Parker. Producer:
Alexander Mackendrick. Distrib-
utors: Ealing Studios. Certificate :
U . Category : C. Running time :
about 80 minutes.

Today, one is justified in saying :
“It’s a Guinness, therefore it’s good.”
Alec Guinness (when he first tried to
get on the stage, everyone told hint :
“You’re wasting your time, you’ll
never be an actor”) is one of those
artists, who turn to gold everything
they touch. In this film-satire he again
displays his versatility, his brilliance,
that artistic humility which enables
him to lose himself and get into the
skin of whatever personality he
chooses to play.

This time he plays the idealistic
scientist who is labouring for the good
of mankind to create a fabric which
will resist dirt and which will never
wear out. Scientists are never known
in their own factories ; Guinness has
to work furtively, without reward,
without the adequate necessities of
life; after many experiments, failures,
explosions, misunderstandings, all of
which are most humorously told in film
language, he is triumphant. But it
is a pyrrhic victory : instead of

congratulations, rewards and
emoluments he discovers that every
man’s fist is turned towards him. The
capitalists hate him because his
invention will prevent them from
making more money. The proletariat
hate him because his creation means
that they will be out of employment.
To crown all, just as he is about to
be lynched by the masses who rend his

white shining garment, he realises
that it is not everlasting !

Films that come from the Ealing
Studios are in a class apart. This film
has the wit, the wisdom, the humanity,
the full-hearted humour, the subtle
satire, the high entertainment value,
the quality of distinguished production
that distinguished its predecessors.
Even the music is witty. As I write
this review I cannot help chuckling
when I remember the humorous noises,
very much like some strains of
modern music, which spring from the
young idealistic scientist’s test tubes.

This is a good story, fantastic but
credible and developed with style and
good pace ; the characters are alive and
lively, they are the sort of people you
might meet any day in any textile
factory, interesting to meet, to laugh
at or to laugh with. Impish Joan
Greenwood, with her quivery, quavery
attractively husky voice ; Cecil Parker,
urbane, well-mannered and
immaculately dressed ; Ernest Thesiger,
who celebrated his 72nd birthday w'hile
this film was in production ; all the
other major players play faultlessly.

The same may be said for the
subsidiary characters, who stay just
long enough to make you want to see
more of them . . . Vida Hope who
plays the trade unionist factory girl
and who befriends Guinness ; the old
landlady (what a remarkable head and
face she has!) who pathetically points
out to Guinness that his invention has
robbed her of her job of “taking in
washing”; the little girl who misdirects
the mob when it is after the blood of
the man who has created a suit which
will never get soiled and which will
last forever. This film is physically
and intellectually enjoyable. E.

254

THE SOUND OF FURY
Starring: Frank Lovejoy, Kathleen

Ryan, Lloyd Bridges and Richard
Carlson. Director: Cyril Enfield.
A United Artists Picture.
Certificate-. X. Category ; A.
Running time : 99 minutes

approx.

I missed the Press Show of this film
and went to see it when the cinema
was filled with its customary audience,
drawn, perhaps, by the sensational
reviews which it received from the
National Press. I was disturbed,
therefore, by the ugly laughter which
followed both the intentionally
“humorous” episodes of the shy,
would-be gangsters’ moll, and some
episodes which were, surely, not
intended to provoke laughter. It seemed
that a large part of the audience was,
in fact, being sadistically stimulated
by a film which was, ostensibly,
preaching against sadism. Which
makes one wonder. There was an
article in a Sunday paper some weeks
ago which, in a similar vein, spoke of
the stimulation to sexual crime which
publication of the details of such
crimes brings about. Within a few
days the thing which the newspaper
was ostensibly deploring had taken
place; which again makes one wonder.

The sound of fury is that of a mob,
stimulated to demand the lynching of
two men associated with a brutal
murder by the publication of articles in
the local paper calling for their execution
and describing their crime. The police
are overpowered by a frenzied mob and
the journalist, ineffectually protesting
his remorse, brushed aside when the
two frantic prisoners are thrown to the
mob like foxes to the hounds.

It is an ugly picture and one which
cannot easily be forgotten. The
preaching of a blind evangelist at the
opening and close of the film and the
pleading of an Italian scientist for
sympathy and understanding for
criminals make the film into a kind of
propaganda for toleration and crime
reform, but the reasons given ignore
the fact of personal responsibility for
wrong-doing and assume that sin is the
result of the stimulation of the wrong
glands.

The acting is remarkably good.
Frank Lovejoy as the man weakly

tempted to crime and Lloyd Bridges as
the anti-social gangster who entices
him are excellent. Kathleen Ryan as
the wife of Frank Lovejoy gives the
best performance of her career.

The crowd scenes are extremely well
done and the direction in general is
outstanding. But I remain uneasy
about this film. As in the case of Ace
in the Hole one asks, “Is it true?” and
secondly, “Is it necessary to make
such films ? Are they not, in the true
sense, anti-American ?”

V.

HELL IS SOLD OUT
Starring: Richard Attenborough, Mai
Zetterling. Herbert Lom,
Hennione Baddeley and Kathleen
Byron. Director: Michael Ander-
son. Distributors: Eros Filins.

Certificate : A . Category : A .

Running time: 88 minutes.

This film, which was not shown to
the Press, is chiefly remarkable for the
number of well-known players who
manage for once to escape from

type-casting. Hermione Baddeley is
successful as an unscrupulous and

socially ambitious publisher; Herbert
Lom is an appealing and soft-hearted
novelist who gets the girl in the end ;
Richard Attenborough is a gay,

flirtatious pianist who gives up the girl
he loves to the man he thinks she
loves, etc., etc. Refreshing if only for
the change of expressions and dialogue.
The story is about a bachelor novelist
who finds that his latest novel was
written by his widow. She claims that,
thinking he was dead, she had a right
to his name in view of the fact that a
previous MS. of hers had appeared
under his name. The tangle is, of
course, happily ended after a slightly
tedious film has given us some pleasant
moments.

Mai Zetterling is charming and
competent as the soi-disant widow.
Kathleen Byron, too, loses, for one film
at least, her customary expression of
loathing and makes an attractive “gold-
digger”. A film to while away a rainy
evening. You will notice, of course,
the prevailing fashion of amorality.
Lying and deceit are all right if the
end is “good”. Wasn’t it the Jesuits
who invented this kind of thing ?

V.

255

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
Starring: Farley Granger, Ruth

Roman, Robert Walker, with
Leo G. Carroll, Patricia Hitch-
cock, Laura Elliott and Robert
Gist. Producer: Jack L. Warner.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 105 minutes.

One can always rely on Alfred
Hitchcock for an unusual story with a
universal appeal. The story of the film
starts with a proposed exchange of
murders, suggested by Bruno Anthony
(Robert Walker) to Guy Haines (Farley
Granger), a well-known tennis player,
in a chance conversation aboard a
Washington train. The film falls
naturally into three parts, each with its
climax and anti-climax. Each time,
Hitchcock makes dramatic use of
pronounced backgrounds to use the
camera to build up the suspense. The
murder of Miriam, Guy’s wife, takes
place in an amusement-park, the
trailing of the girl by Bruno through the
park being a perfectly balanced
sequence of long and close-up shots,
themselves balanced by the near and
distant voices of the victim and her
companions. The next climax and
heightening of tension is when Guy,
anxious to keep an appointment with
the murderer at the park, is delayed in
a long and bitter tennis match, while
Bruno, in matching shots, is just as
anxiously trying to reach down a drain
into which the precious piece of
evidence has fallen. The last climax
is the fight between the two on the
madly whirling merry-go-round.

The title of the film may suggest
something similar to The Lady
Vanishes. Apart from the story, there
are many similarities, especially
Hitchcock’s skill in introducing
humorous relief to offset the growing
suspense. In the fight on the
roundabout, with the police holding
back the demented mother, the only
one enjoying the experience is the
young boy astride the bobbing-horse.
Again, the murderer’s presence at
Forest Hills is recognised as the only
head not moving sideways from left to
right as the spectators follow the
passage of the ball. Hitchcock has a
good story to tell and he tells it well,

but he knows the cinema public and is
content to give everyone something for
their money.

The cast is uniformly good and acts
throughout as a team. Robert Walker
gives an outstanding performance as
the maniac murderer, Farley Granger
gives a satisfactory account of himself
as the half-guilty accessory, anxious not
to involve the Morton family, whose
daughter Anne he is now free to marry.
Anne Morton (Ruth Roman) is a
pleasing personality, while among the
supporting players Patricia Hitchcock,
as Anne’s sister, in an excellent
performance, prevents the anti-climaxes
of the film from becoming boring.

The moral, I suppose, is that one’s
own matrimonial troubles are one’s own
affairs and there is no short-cut out of
them, but as far as Alfred Hitchcock is
concerned, the storv is the thing.

O.

DEAR BRAT

Starring: Mona Freeman, Billy De
Wolfe, Edward Arnold, Lyle
Bettger. Producer: Mel Epstein.
Director: William A. Seiter.

Certificate ; U. Running time :
82 minutes.

For some time now Hollywood has
been tumbling to the possibilities of
exploiting the suburban homes of the
upper middle classes. One fears
that there may be hidden depths of
criminal and psychological misery as
yet unrevealed, but in the meantime it
is all very good fun. The dear brat
in this case is the daughter of Senator
Wilkins, who feels called to the rescue
of anti-social types who have paid their
debt to society but still must set about
what is called for short rehabilitation,
re-integration or readjustment. Just to
make things complicated the dear brat
invites a man of desperate record, who
was sentenced by her own father, into
the home in the capacity of gardener.
From then on things move rapidly from
crisis to crisis, reaching in the end, we
are glad to say, a temporary solution.
The senator is far too progressive a man
to resort to old-fashioned spanking
methods, but he and others like him
would put themselves in the clear
socially and politically much quicker if
they would. Almost everybody will

enjoy this. J. C.

256

HERE COMES THE GROOM

Starring: Bing Crosby, Jane Wyman,
Alexis Smith, Franchot Tone,
James Barton, with Robert Keith.
Producer and Director: Frank

Capra. Distributors: Paramount.
Certificate ; U. Category. B.
Running time : no minutes.

When I saw the advertised running
time of 144 minutes, I at once thought
that a comedy needs to be very
exceptional if it is to be so long. And
though this picture has received some
guarded praise from responsible people,
it is not all that good. However, the
actual time by my watch was 110
minutes.

The dialogue of a film sometimes does
some of my reviewing for me. It
would not be fair to quote in this
connection : “This calls for an expose.”
But, “He thinks he can sing” and
“You know my limited range”, seemed
very applicable to Bing Crosby.

Young Anna Maria Alberghetti is
introduced — or should one say dragged
into the story ? — in order to sing an
operatic number with precocious skill.
Air. Crosby, as before, melodiously
imbues the young with simple and
sound philosophy.

What I found uncongenial about the
film was less its self-conscious
frolicsomeness than a certain hardness
and cheapness of tone. And I wonder
to what extent those who produce
pictures of women fighting one another
realise the level to which they are
approximating.

It was interesting to see Jane Wyman
as a “brittle” young woman, in
contrast to her part in The Glass
Menagerie. And it was amusing to see
Alexis Smith as a “socialite” being
de-refined. Oddly enough, an outstanding
memory is of a very small incident
when an irritable man got his dental
plate broken. The actor’s name eludes
me, though I have often seen him
before. But such small part players are
specialists worthy of comparison with
first-rate accompanists or anaesthetists ;
they get no publicity and are obscured
bv the principals whom the}' assist, but
they have brought their own essential
work to a fine art.

Q.

NO RESTING PLACE
Starring: Michael Gough, Eithne

Dunne, Noel Purcell. Producer
and Director: Paul Rotha.

Distributors: A.B.F.D.

Certificate : A. Category: A.

Running time: 75 minutes.

We hear so much about the advantage
which Italy and France have in making
films like Bicycle Thieves and Jofroi
and we have swallowed so easily the
assertion that such methods are
impossible in these islands that it comes
as something of a shock to see a
film which was made entirely on location
in Ireland ; which cost (according to
current Wardour Street standards)
comparatively little ; which is, more-
over, comparable with the best that
either of the two countries above
mentioned have produced in the same
style.

The film is the first fictional effort of
Paul Rotha, a name hitherto associated
with the development of documentary
in this country. The documentary
flavour, naturally, persists. This is no
bad thing for it lends an air of veracity
to scenes which, in the studio, would
have seemed melodramatic.

The story is a simple one built up on
the feud which exists between ordinary
people and tinkers in Ireland. In this
case, a tinker hides the body of a
gamekeeper whom he has killed while
defending his wife and child because he
is convinced that the police would
never give him justice. The police, in
the person of a fanatical constable, at
length run him to earth after a
relentless persecution. The tinker is
not an attractive type, nor is the
policeman, yet our sympathies are
somehow engaged for both.

The acting of Michael Gough as the
tinker is astonishingly good, taking
into consideration that he is a London
stage actor who has to convince us, as
he does, that he is an illiterate and
thickly-spoken Irishman. Noel Purcell
gives the best performance of his career
as the policeman. Hitherto he has been
typed in stage-Irish parts ; here he
shows what he can do to build up and
sustain a complete character. Eithne
Dunne, too, as the tinker’s wife is true
to character and eschews any kind of
glamourising make-up, with obvious
benefit to her playing.

257

The remainder of the cast, mostly
amateur, are very good and the camera
work outstandingly good. The danger
with such a film is that one’s
enthusiasm at what has been achieved
within narrow limits causes one to
overlook faults, of which there are
several; an unnecessarily slow pace,
a lack of real humour, which would not
have destroyed the drama. But the
merits are many and the general effect
so pleasing that it is worth while
taking trouble to see this unusual film,
a. proof that we can take our cameras
into the open air with as much
confidence as the Continentals — when
we have the right people in charge of
the cameras.

V.

AS YOUNG AS YOU FEEL
Starring: Monty Woolley, Thelma

Ritter, David Wayne, Jean
Peters. Producer: Lamar Trotti.
Director: Harmon Jones. Distrib-
utors: 20th Century-Fox. Certifi-
cate ; U . Running time ; 77

minutes.

It is obvious that America is worried
about the incidence of divorce. This
enjoyable film contains what is for
Hollywood some propaganda about the
permanence of matrimony of a fairly
subtle type and manages also to say
a word for the individualist. Never-
theless it is most enjoyable and very
capably acted. Honours go to Monty
Woolley and Thelma Ritter, but the
general level is very high. The plot
is slight but full of good comedy
and no little friendly satire aimed
at American big business. Over-
organisation is something, apparently,
that the American citizen has difficulty
in restraining, and when Grandfather
Hodges (Monty Woolley) finds himself
declared redundant by some obscure
corporation that has grown unmindful
of the Gettysburg declaration, things
begin to happen. Perhaps the most
enjoyable part of the film is the light
thrown on ordinary American family
life and character. It is here that
Thelma Ritter comes into her own in
her unique way. There could be few
happier entertainments to take the
family to when depression has fallen
upon it.

J. C.

NO HIGHWAY

Starring: James Stewart, Marlene

Dietrich, Glynis Johns, Jack
Hawkins, with Janette Scott and
Ronald Squires. Director: Henry
Koster. A Twentieth Century-
Fox Film (British). Certificate ;
U . Category ; C. Running
time ; 99 minutes.

In a week that includes a Hitchcock
thriller it is an outstanding film that
can be ranked more entertaining and
suspenseful. Yet without any of the
tricks of editing which enable even
second-rate films to assume an
importance they do not merit, No
Highway emerges on the score of
script, acting and direction as one of
the most gripping films we have seen
for a long time. The peak of tension
is reached when, in a transatlantic
plane, Theodore Honey, the botfin,
discovers that it is one of those which
his researches tell him will disintegrate
after 1400 hours flying time. The plane
has done nearly 1400 hours. He warns
the Captain to turn back. The Captain
refuses. He tells a famous film-actress,
a passenger and the favourite star of
his dead wife that there is one spot in
the plane which might prove less
vulnerable when the crash comes. He
warns the air-hostess, who has been
kind to him, where to sit to take
advantage of the thousand to one
chance of escape. They think him a
lunatic, or do they ? Certainly I have
not had such an “edge of the seat”
fifteen minutes in any film since Twelve
Days to Noon. And it is all quite
credible. That is the beauty of the
film. You feel it could have happened.
That is, with the exception of the end
of the story which is a sentimental
concession to romance, though not
unpleasant of its kind.

James Stewart puts all he knows of
the tricks of shyness, gaucherie,
helplesness and general air of guileless
fool into his study of the scientist,
Honey. It is a complete characterisation
and probably the best thing Stewart has
done for a long time. Marlene Dietrich
comes to life in an extraordinary way
as the film actress, and one has
the impression she is being almost
autobiographical when she speaks of

258

herself and her work, within measurable
distance of eternity. “All that will be
left of me will be a few strips of
celluloid in a can!” And a profound
point for meditation when the plane
continues in flight : “A few more
minutes presented to us as a gift!”
With such competition it says much
for Glynis Johns that she more than
holds her own as the air hostess. She
is delightfully right in her part. Janette
Scott, too, as Honey’s over-precocious
daughter, is not ill at ease in such
company. A special word of praise,

too, to Nial McGuinness as the Captain.
In a variety of character parts he can
always be relied on and this is one of
his best. Indeed, not the least merit
of the film is its faultless casting. And
Neville Chute, who wrote the book,
must be fairly happy too. Definitely a
film to see.

V.

WORM’S EYE VIEW
Starring: Ronald Shiner and Garry
Marsh, with Diana Dors, John
Blythe, Bruce Seton and Christina
Forrest. Director: Jack Raymond.
Distributors: A.B.F.D.

Certificate: A. Category ; B.

Running time : 75 minutes.

There is no accounting for taste as
far as some London stage successes are
concerned. R. F. Delderfield’s Worm’s
Eye View ran for several years after a
wobbly opening had been laced w'ith
street amplification which brought the
crowds rolling in to the Whitehall
Theatre. Now it is turned into a film
and it is still difficult to know' why it
should have appealed to the public for
so long. Perhaps it is that to many
ex-service men and women there is a
nostalgic quality about the types and
situations met with in this yarn about
R.A.F. personnel billeted upon a
dragon of a landlady whose house is
euphemistically called “Mon Repos”.
All the cliches and gags you expect
w'hen a Cockney spiv and a Welsh
miner join the philandering “Duke”,
the idealistic young schoolmaster Mark
and the kindly,1 middle-aged, “other
war”, L.A.C. Brownlow, are here in
obvious plenty. The crowded Rialto
rocked with noisy laughter when I

attended a non-Press showing so I
suppose that there is every chance of
the film repeating the stage endurance
test.

V.

RICH, YOUNG AND PRETTY

Starring: Jane Powell, Danielle

Darrieux, Wendell Corey, Vic
Damon and Fernando Lamas.
Director: Norman Taurog. An

M.-G.-M. Picture. Certificate :
U. Category: B. Running time:
95 minutes.

A technicolor trifle which tells in
easy terms the story of a Texas rancher
who takes his daughter to Paris, where
she falls in love with a French
Government clerk, and discovers her
mother, a F'rench singer, who ran
away from her husband and child soon
after the birth of the latter. Naturally,
the father and mother are reunited and
also naturally the young people are
allowed their romance after a proper
ration of opposition.

The whole thing is light entertain-
ment with' the accent on youth and
music. Even Wendell Corey, as the
father, looks half his age with a Colman
moustache, and Vic Damon, a pleasant-
looking young man, is an agreeable foil
to a charming Jane Powell. As her
mother, Danielle Darrieux, looks just a
shade passee. Perhaps it was the
Hollvwood sun.

V.

THE PHANTOM HORSEMAN

Starring: Bill Edwards, Maria Hart,
Spade Cooley. A Jack Schwarz
Production. Monarch Film.
Certificate: U. Category: C.

Running time : 60 minutes.

The good old Wild West. There is
plenty of galloping in this film, which
deals with the rustling and smuggling
of a gang who are headed by a man
known as the Phantom Horseman.
The story is as old as films, and older.
But it is always fun to see this sort
of thing, and far more healthy than
the sob-sex-slush so often dished up
for us.

M.

259

TALK OF A MILLION

Starring: Jack Warner and Barbara
Mullen, with Michael Dolan, Noel
Purcell, Niall McGinnis, Ronan
O’Casey, Joan Kenny and Eliza-
beth Erskine. Director: John

Paddy Carstairs. Distributors:
A. B. Pathe. Certificate : U .

Category : B. Running time:

80 minutes approx.

A play called “They Got What They
Wanted’’, by Louis Dalton, was a
failure when put on in London last
autumn. It has been turned into a film
and sent out without a Press showing.
A pity, for a poor play has expanded
into an amusing and enjoyable film
which deserves to be a success, if only
because it has youth and light and air
and is such a welcome change from the
grim, underlighted, existentialist pre-
occupations which are so often served
up as film entertainment nowadays.
Jack Warner, Barbara Mullen, Michael
Dolan and Noel Purcell give competent
performances based on their long
experience, and some charming
youngsters show promise of future skill
if only the film world is kind to them.
Vincent Ball, Ronan O’Casey, Elizabeth
Erskine and Joan Kenny are names to
keep in mind.

The story is best summed up by
saying that it concerns an Irish family
whose work-shy father eventually puts
them in comfortable circumstances by
taking advantage of a rumour that he
is to inherit a large fortune and working
on the axiom that whereas £500 is
“finance”, Is. 6d. is money!

V.

THE LAST OUTPOST

Starring: Ronald Reagan and Rhona
Fleming. Director: Lewis B.

Foster. Distributors: Paramount.
Certificate: U. Category: B.

Running time : 80 minutes.

This is the age of rehabilitation. The
cinema, too, follows the fashion. All
our good old friends, the Bad Men, the
Indians, the Japs, the Philanderers, the
Gangsters, are now being shown to

have hearts of gold and a weakness for
humanity. This is the third film I have
recently seen in which White
Americans make a poor showing against
the honest, true-hearted braves. To
complicate matters still further, the
Confederates and Yankees get mixed
up with the stor.y and it has to end with
the Confederates rescuing the Yankees
from the Indians who have been
betrayed by the Washington Govern-
ment ! Awkward ! I wonder whether
this should be listed among the
un-American films ?

There are some beautiful shots of
horsemen, both white and red, and the
battle scenes are picturesque if not
convincing. As the whole is doled out
in glorious technicolor, it is probably
worth your Is. 9d. — or is it now Is. lOd. ?

V.

LOVE HAPPY

Starring: The Marx Brothers, with
Vera Ellen, Ilona Massey, Marion
Hutton and Melville Cooper.
Director: David Miller. Distrib-
utors: Monarch Film Corporation.
Certificate: U. Category: A.

Running time: 80 minutes approx .

There is a curious streak of sadism
to be found in many of the films which
feature clowns. Chaplin’s are not
without this element. He, also, is
noteworthy for a basic vulgarity in
many of the situations intended to
draw laughter at the expense of
somebody’s embarrassment. This
characteristic is found in the Marx
Brothers films, too. Love Happy has
some quite horrid sequences concerning
torture which, though presented as
funny, are in fact rather revolting.

With the Marx Brothers the story
never matters much. This one is about
the stealing of the Romanoff diamonds.
Groucho is once again a detective ;
Harpo and Chico are members of a
troupe who need a backer to break in
on Broadway. The best moments are
when Harpo is gathering food, by
strictly dishonourable methods, for the
the starving show girls. As always,
the film is too long. Humour and
slapstick are tolerable only in small
doses.

V.

260

LIFE IN HER HANDS
Starring: Kathleen Byron and Berna-
dette O’Farrell. Director: Philip
Leacock. A Crown Film Unit
Production. Certificate-. A.
Category : A. Running time :

50 minutes.

Like Out of True, which dealt with
treatment in insane asylums, this film,
made by the Crown Film Unit, has a
purpose behind its factual-fictional story
of a young widow who finds in nursing
the solution to her thwarted maternal
instincts and also to her scrupulous
fixation that she was in some way the
cause of her husband’s death in a car
smash.

The film is competently and pleasingly
made and the hospital staff convincingly
represented, even though one does feel
that matrons are not usually so youthful
nor Paul Dupuis the most likely type
for a lecturer on psycholog}'.

Kathleen Byron is excellent as the
w i d o w and Bernadette O’Farrell
entertaining as an unruly probationer.
A film which should do much to make
girls think of both the joy and the need
of ministering to the sick.

WHEREVER SHE GOES
Starring: Suzanne Parrett and Eileen
Joyce. Director: Michael Gordon.
Distributors: A. B. Pathe.

Certificate'. U. Category-. C.
Running time : 80 minutes.

This is a charmingly simple story
based on the early days of Eileen Joyce,
the famous Australian pianist. Filmed
in Tasmania and the goldfields of
Western Australia, it both pleases the
eye with its glorious light and scenery
and stimulates the imagination with
visions of future films produced in a
land which is second to none for
natural background and exciting stories
of the kind that are so often thought
to be peculiar to the U.S.A.

Michael Gordon, a young British
cineaste, who wrote, produced and
directed Wherever She Goes, is
obviously a man with a poetic gift for
film-making. His handling of the
scenery as well as his direction of little
Suzanne Parrett, indicate that he
believes in film as an art.

The naive treatment of Eileen Joyce’s
early struggles to express the musical
powers within her and the somewhat
amateurish acting of some of the
adults do not destroy the essentially
entertaining character of this decent,
kindly, open-air and moving film. It
also has the merit of sticking to what
it is trying to say and does not ramble
beyond the probable.

Suzanne Parrett as young Eileen is
delightful. A natural actress, graceful
and convincing, she carries the film on
firm young shoulders. Eileen Joyce
herself is seen in prologue and epilogue
and her music is heard as background
to most of the visuals. A wholelv
pleasant and worthwhile film.

V.

CHICAGO MASQUERADE

Starring: Mark Stevens, Rhonda

Fleming, with Nancy Guild and
Charles Drake Director:
Frederick de Cordova. A
Universal-International Picture.
Certificate: A. Category \ A.

Running time: 81 minutes.

This unwholesome story of confidence
tricksters operating at the famous
Chicago World Fair is made even more
so by the revolting publicity which
accompanies it. Scantily - clothed
dancers can be tolerated in proper
contexts where the emphasis is on
choreography. In this case the film
builds up to a pornographical finale in
which the suggestive dancing of
Rhonda Fleming as a fake Egyptian
princess is flaunted as a gesture in the
cause of women’s “freedom”.

The publicity hand-out sets the tone.
The provocatively posed picture of
“Little Egypt” is entitled : “The Shape
that Shook the World!” The inside of
the picture informs us that, “Women
called her shocking ! Men called her
as soon as they could get her ’phone
number!” This is about the lowest
such publicity has reached in London
for a long time. I wonder what the
Un-American Activities Committee has
to say about this type of “propaganda” ?
People who have a regard for the
cinema will know what to do about it.

V.

261

WHEN I GROW UP

Starring: Bobby Driscoll, Robert

Preston, Martha Scott and

Charley Grapewin. Director:

Michael Kanin. Distributors:

Eros Films. Certificate : U.

Category : C. Running time :

| 80 minutes.

Another film not shown to the Press ;
a sentimental but not unattractive story
of a boy who, thinking his parents have
no affection for him, takes it out on
them by hooliganism and plans to run
away. He finds and reads a diary
written by his grandfather who, when
a boy had the same kind of difficulty
with his parents. The boy and his
grandfather get together and
reformation all round is the clue for the
final fade out.

Bobby Driscoll, now reaching the
deep-voiced period which means that
his little boy parts are at an end, gives
a likeable performance as the boy and
also as the grandfather when a boy.
The moral is a sound one ; if only
people would show some signs of
affection for those they love, life might
be easier.

V.

THE PRINCE WHO WAS A THIEF
Starring: Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie,
Everett Sloane. Story of Theodore
Dreiser. Director: Rudolph Matd.
A Universal-International Picture.
G.F.D. Release. Certificate : U.
Category : C. Running time :

88 minutes.

Entertainment such as this, in the
Arabian Nights tradition, is always
colourful and generally a good mixture
of action and passion ! In fact the
passion side, in the sex-appeal sense,
is not so stressed as the posters would
lead us to think.

The story is of Julna (Tony Curtis),
heir to the throne, who should have
been assassinated as a baby, in process
of developing into prince of thieves
under the skilful tuition of his assassin-
turned-father. “Set a thief to catch a

thief” is used by the usurper as a
reason for setting Julna on the trail of
the person who has stolen the great
Pearl of Fatima.

In finding and restoring it, he falls
in love with Yasmin, a beautiful
princess. But the pearl thief, Tina
(Piper Laurie), a female contortionist,
happens to have fallen in love with
Julna. In a series of exciting chases
through markets, scaling of walls,
sword battles, Julna and Tina are
cornered in the Treasury, which they
have previously robbed. Tina saves the
day by announcing Julna as the true
prince, and he banishes Yasmin and
her father, marries Tina, and they
live . . .

The film is well set and produced,
with Tony Curtis as a handsome
dashing young thief-prince. Piper
Laurie is mischievously attractive, and
the whole is in glorious technicolor . . .
so what more could anyone want ?

M.

RED MOUNTAIN

Starring: Alan Ladd, Lizabeth Scott,
Arthur Kennedy, John Ireland.
Producer: Hal Wallis. Director:
William Dieterle. In Technicolor.
Certificate-. A. Category : B.

Running time : 84 minutes.

It is difficult to ring the changes on
the ever-popular stories of early days
in the wild west. But this story of tile
end of Southern resistance in the face
of the Union manages to avoid the
worst repetitions, and centres a lot of
action round Alan Ladd, who carries it
off with his usual dash. The acting
is all pretty straightforward, and the
photography good. The bitterness of
feeling between the two sides is
difficult to recapture at this distance.
The old question of Red Indians looks
in for a moment, and the moral appears
to be that the brutal methods used by
the Indians is too much for the true
white man to stand. And so the
remaining Southerners are betrayed to
the Union, and the sun sets on the stars
and stripes.

A good evening’s entertainment
which holds nothing outstanding, either
of good or bad.

M.

i

262

THE LAW AND THE LADY

Starring: Greer Garson, Michael

Wilding, Fernando Lamas and
Marjorie Main. Director: Edwin
H. Knopf. An M.-G.-M. Picture.
Certificate: A. Category : A.

Running time : roo minutes.

This screen-play seems to derive
partly from Frederick Lonsdale’s play
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, which gives
it its shape, and Hilaire Belloc’s novel
The Green Emerald, which gives it the
idea of a house party in which every
guest has some disreputable episode in
his past to make him shrink from cross-
examination in a law court. It is a
furbished version in which a housemaid
partners the ne’er-do-well brother of a
peer in a round of confidence trickery
in every European capital from which
the)' are politely but firmly ejected,
until San Francisco tempts them to
jewel robbery on an elaborate scale.

The sheer satire of the piece enables
an immoral story to get away with it on

the wings of witty dialogue and
excellent acting. Greer Garson is back
to her old, high standard and Michael
Wilding was never better suited to his
traditional role as the aristocratic crook-
cum-butler. He is one example of an
English screen player whose Hollywood
pilgrimage has brought out the best
in him.

V.

THE GOLDEN HORDE

Starring: Ann Blyth, David Farrar,
George McReady. Producers:
Howard Christie and Robert
Arthur. Director: George

Sherman. Distributors: G.-F.-D.
Certificate: U. Category: A.

Running time: 76 minutes approx.

This is the sort of film that gives a
handle to the fellow who likes to churn
up the old falsehood that the cinema
is nothing more than an industry
directed by individuals who don’t care

263

a dime about art or any of its brethren.

The story is about a baud of crusaders
(Sir Guy of Devon, their leader, always
calls them “lads”) who journey to
Samarkland with an ultimatum to the
evil Gengis Khan to keep out of
Europe.

Hollywood finds it difficult to keep
love out of history and before long Sir
Guy of Devon (David Farrar), looking
so very knightly in sword and armour,
^ is amorously engaged with Ann Blyth,
who is the beautiful ruler, Princess
Shalimar ; she is dressed in not too
maidenly a manner and looks like
some blithe spirit that Shelley might
have created.

Banal is the word that best describes
this film. You could almost believe
that it was produced just to give David
Farrar an opportunity to make love to
Ann Blyth.

A more apt title for this film might
be “Armour and L'amour”.

E.

HALF ANGEL

Starring: Loretta Young and Joseph
Cotten, with Cecil Kellaway and
Basil Ruysdael. Director: Richard
Sale. A Twentieth Century-Fox
Picture. Certificate : U. Category.
B. Running time : 76 minutes.

Technicolor underlines in glorious
pastel shades of difference the split
personality of Nora Gilpin who, at
night time and in exotic shimmering
green silk, seduces lawyer John
Raymond, a young man whom by the
light of day and dressed in sober brown
she loathes. Marriage, at a moment’s
notice and in the middle of the night,
solves her neurosis and leaves
everybody, except the man she was
engaged to, looking happily ever after.

Loretta Young is surprisingly youthful
when the camera does not come too
close to her colour make-up. She acts
with unexpected grace in a film which
is pleasant enough nonsense with one
or two moral lapses which, as the
characters are only Christian to the
extent of using the name of God
in a civil marriage service, is not
unexpected. I mean the ease with
which it is assumed that lying is
legitimate to get one out of trouble.
Incidentally, does anyone ever
remember seeing a film star who said

any prayers before he (or she) got into
bed? Curious, isn’t it!

V.

CATTLE DRIVE

Starring: Joel McCrea, Dean Stock-
well, with Chill Wills, Leon Arnes
and Bob Steele. Director: Kurt
Neumann. A Universal-
International Picture. Certificate-.
U. Category \ D. Running time :
77 minutes.

A title like this tells you what the
film is about and indeed, to the
driving of cattle, reminiscent, at some
points, of Overlanders, is added for
full measure the idea behind Captains
Courageous. The spoilt fourteen-year-
old son of a railroad magnate is
compelled to spend two weeks with a
bunch of cowhands. He ends the
fortnight a reformed character and the
film fades out with the boy, his father
and the chief cowhand riding off into
the sunset.

This is a simple, kindly, naive story
and children as well as some grown-ups
will like the technicolored scenes of
stampeding cattle and runaway horses.
Dean Stockwell, now a coltish lad of
fourteen, maintains his ability to
present a credible version of an
incredible character, which means that
he is an actor. He is much better
than Freddy Bartholomew was in
Captains Courageous , but Joel McCrea,
as the equivalent character in Cattle
Drive comes nowhere near the mastery
of Spencer Tracy in the earlier film.

It is a gratifying relief to be able
to put a film in the category for
children.

V.

A Question of Address

Will those who have occasion to
write to us at 157 Victoria Street please
make sure to include Catholic Film
Institute in the address. .

C.F.I. Lectures

Lectures have been given at the
Y.C.W. Summer School at Strawberry
Hill, to the Catholic Guild of
Professional Social Workers at Oxford,
and to the Cinema Committee of the
National Council of Women at Friends’
Meeting House, N.l.

264

DOCUMENTARY

THE OFFERTORY

Religious Documentary and Film
Strip. Producer and Director:
Rev. G. L. Wheeler for the
Church of England Northern
Provincial Film Council. Distrib-
utors: S.P.C.K. Running time :
12 minutes. Film Strip : 30

frames.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Bishop of Blackburn and a number of
Church of England clergy were present
at the first showing of this film. Prior
to the film, the Bishop of Blackburn
said that the use of film for religious
purposes was not a stunt on the part
of a few “progressive” clergy, but the
considered and often painful use of a
new medium for extending the Gospel.
His Lordship regretted the slow output
of religious films but pointed out that
the heavy expense and the lack of
funds were the cause of the scarcity of
religious films. His Lordship said that
The Offertory cost £1,400 and that it
was the first of a series of similar
films which, it was hoped, would
eventually complete a film account of
the Holy Communion Service and
kindred subjects.

As a Catholic, one sympathises with
and applauds the desire to use film for
religious purposes. The theme of this
film attempts to do for the Church of
England Service what Alan Turner did
for the Mass in The Sacrifice We Offer.

I hope that it will not be regarded as
partisan prejudice if I say that, in spite
of the excellent photography and
evident sincerity with which the film
was undertaken, and notwithstanding
the limitations imposed by the sub-
standard medium in which Turner
worked, The Offertory lacks the sense
of inspiration and unity which
permeated the Catholic film. This may
be due to the variety of liturgical
schools of practice which are brought
into a short film, or possibly the sense,
one had, that the film was searching
for a common expression of belief in
the reality of Christ’s presence under
the sacramental forms. Perhaps, also,
there was an amateurish feel about the
direction of the film which consorted
uncomfortably with the professional
camera-work. V.

CONTINENTAL FILMS

L’INGENUE LIBERTINE
(No Love Lost)

Starring: Daniele Delorme, Frank

Willard. Director: Jacqueline

Aubry. Distributors: George

Amull. Certificate : X. Category:
A. Running time : 80 minutes.

Though this film has been given an
“X” Certificate, which means that it
is considered suitable only for adults, it
is evident that the censor has made
some excisions. This does not mean
that it is either truly adult, in the
sense that it presents serious problems
which only the mature could be
expected to appreciate or that it is now
divested of all unseemly episodes ;
indeed, the very points at which cuts
have been made seem to suggest a
licentiousness which probably did not
exist in the original.

The story concerns an emotionally
immature young wife who seeks from
the company of other men the exotic
raptures of which she imagines love to
consist. She eventually discovers that
love dwells at home and we are left
with the presumption that henceforth
her husband will provide all that is
needed.

The basic assumption of the story is,
of course, quite false, the atmosphere
of the film completely materialistic and
the acting and decor sufficiently
artificial to leave us to suppose that
the plavers, too, found it unconvincing.

V.

Catholic Film Exhibition

We hope that many priests and
layfolk who have made practical
use of the cine-camera will rally to
the Conference which is being
organised for them at Stratford-
on-Avon during the first week of
October.

Father T. S. Copsey, M.A., is
making all arrangements for the
participants to be comfortably
housed at Soli House, Stratford-
on-Avon, from October 1st to
October 5th. The cost will be 15s.
a day inclusive.

The available places are strictly
limited so please make your
application soon

Cover Personality

Petula Clark

At the Press Reception which
followed London Town, that lamentable
effort to put London into a musical film,
I noticed a rather shy little girl of
about 1 1 years sitting demurely on a
chair behind the gossiping film critics
and film technicians and stars. She
was dealing with an ice cream and
seemed quite apart from the clatter
of publicity with which she was
surrounded. She was not eager to
talk about herself and I remember that
our conversation consisted mainly of
exchanges of view about the films we
had recently seen. I saw her again
at the Press Reception which followed
Vice Versa, another gallant attempt to
make us laugh which did not quite

come off. Once again the little girl was
eating ice cream and sitting in a
sheltered part of the room while the
critics and others made their customary
after-film noises. Again she smiled
shyly and seemed unwilling to talk
about her own work and we exchanged
a few remarks about other people’s
films.

Since then, Petula Clark has appeared
in Easy Money, the Huggetts films,
The Romantic Age and, lately, as the
probationer nurse in White Corridors.
She began her film career in Medal for
the General in 1944, and followed it up
with a part in Strawberry Road and /
Know Where I’m Going, for Archers,
in 1946.

She also works very hard for the
B.B.C. Whatever she does, whether the
part be trivial or worthwhile, one
notices the same intense earnestness
to take trouble about films as such.
The same pleasing shyness conies
through the screen and one has the
impression of an unspoilt personality.
She has now reached the dangerous age
for child film stars who have made the
grade from little girl to teen-ager.

John Vincent.

film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book "The
Sacred Actions’’, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
157 Victoria Street
London, S.W.l

FILM STRIP

FATIMA TO-DAY

Coloured pictures from the film

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

with explanatory booklet

36 Frames. Price : 15s.

(Post free 15/3)

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
157 VICTORIA STREET,
LONDON, S.W.l

FOCUS

FILM COURSE

Handbook No. 1

Foreword by.

Rev. John A. V. Burke

Film Course by

Andrew Buchanan, D.Litt., Ph.D.

“ provokes thought and arouses a desire to read more ... an
excellent primer for Film Study Groups.'

— The Catholic Times.

“ . . . invaluable to anyone who wants to take an intelligent
interest in the cinema •”

— The Catholic Worker.

Contents include essential facts and statistics relating
to: The Way Films Vary: The Cinema Programme:
The News Reel: Fictional versus Factual Films:
Educational and Children’s Films: The Religious
Film: Film Music.

Price 1 s. 6d.

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CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE,

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Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Film
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(Affiliated with Office Catholique International dn Cinema)

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
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Chairman :

Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

3. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

i 5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life, agricidture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when and where possible Repertory Cinemas where
films of permanent interest and value may be seen.

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Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.’’

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16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Titles Include :

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Pilgrimage to Fatima The Sacrifice We Offer

A Legend of Norfolk Christian Factory

Heaven and Earth (The Cure d’Ars)

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Vol. IV

No. 10

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Editorial

Page
... 267

I Should Know

... 268

By A Nun-Projectionist
The Story Behind The

Westminster Passion

Play 272

The Film Actor

... 273

By Andrew Buchanan
Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

Valentino

... 274

The Frogmen

... 274

People Will Talk

... 275

Francis Goes to the Races

... 276

Queen of the West

... 276

Rhubarb ...'

... 276

When Worlds Collide

... 277

Valley of Eagles ...

... 277

Page

Soldiers Three 277

An American in Paris 278

Decision Before Dawn 278

Murder Inc 279

His Kind of Woman ... 279

Continental Films

Monte Cassino ... ... ... 280

Pattes Blanches ... ... ... 280

Tale of Siberia ... ... ... 281

Some Films Reviewed 281

Catholic 16mm. Film Users and

Enthusiasts 282

The Masses and the Cinema ... 284
Bv Neville Braybrooke

Catholic Film Institute 286

By J. A. V. Burke

Book Review 288

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Revue Internationale du Cinema

Organ of International Catholic Film Office

Number 9 now available : devoted to the film in Latin America and the Spanish-
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FOCUS

A FILM
♦ REVIEW

Organ of the Catholic Film Institute

Vol. IV

October 1951

No. 10

FILMS, FUN AND THE FAITH

The majority of people who go to the pictures think of the cinema only in
terms of entertainment, which is a pity; such narrow vision of the purpose and
the power of this modern medium of disseminating ideas prevents a just appraisal
of films made by cineastes who have ventured, for their subjects, into the
fields of science, medicine, travel, art and religion.

There is a time to laugh and there is a time to learn ; a time to be gay
and a time to be serious ... to reflect and meditate upon the deep creative truths
of our Faith. Shooting pictures for salvation is (at least!) as important as shooting
pictures for fun. To limit films to the world of fun is the quickest way to
destroy films and fun. There is not the slightest reason why the Faith and films
should be afraid of each other.

All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy. Publishing houses and libraries
would be dull places if they published and circulated nothing but romances and
bloods.

There are books published to entertain us ; others to instruct and interest us
in the arts and the crafts; some sharpen our wits and enlarge our mental horizon;
others nourish our faith and enkindle loyalty to the Higher Things. Should not
the range of our films be as wide as the range of our books ?

There are first-class publishing houses that specialise in publishing religious
books. there are first-class authors who specialise in writing books about
religion. Should not an honourable place be given to film companies and film
artists who reveal the romance and the wonder of religion ?

Focus offers its congratulations to “The Companions of the Cross” who have
recorded in telling, simple, dignified film-language the drama of Calvarv.

The film Hamlet brought to the multitudes a love of Shakespeare; Red Shoes
and The Tales of Hoffmann brought to them an appreciation of ballet. The Catholic
film Behold the Man (made by the Companions of the Cross under the inspiration
of Fr. Carr and Fr. Meyjes) will bring to them an awareness of the redemptive
and healing power of the Pain of Christ.

Editor.

268

I SHOULD KNOW

By a Nun-Projectionist

This Article Should Interest Every Responsible

Parent

Scene : The large study hall of a

Catholic College where an audience of
100 girls, ages ranging from seven to
seventeen, is seated. A rubberised-
canvas screen is rigged up in front,
while down at the back of the hall a
Nun-projectionist gives the fly-wheel of
the 16mm. machine a preliminary turn,
nods “lights out” to her assistant,
fingers a couple of switches and . . .
the show is on.

Experience Taught Me

That setting is familiar to me. Over
a period of y.ears the routine job of
exhibiting a feature film programme to
a more or less receptive juvenile
audience has been mine. I have
become “educated”, so to speak, in the
strengths, the weaknesses and in
the idiosyncrasies of famed screen
personalities. I have done more ; I’ve
been faced by a problem which forces
me to ask all likely to be interested
why, in the name of common sense, we
don’t do something practical in the
matter of securing suitable screen
entertainment for our children and
’teenagers.

There are two facts related to 16mm.
sound-projectors that deserve attention :
these machines have come to stay, and
the feature programmes available to
exhibitors using the models are limited
in number, being mostly reprints of
films seen a few years ago by picture-
show goers.

Any manager of the 16mm. depart-
ment in the Film House Agencies will
tell you that superiors and principals
of our Catholic colleges, schools and
institutions are in ever-increasing

numbers bringing these particular
models into their establishments for
entertainment and educative purposes.

Experience taught me that children
will not be satisfied for long with
programmes made up exclusively of,
for instance, the excellent shorts
supplied by the N.S.W. Documentary
Film Council ; they demand a story.
This is particularly so with students
residing in boarding school. On
vacation they see the shows of the
moment ; back at college, they want to
know why the same pleasure should
not be theirs, especially when they
subscribe to an entertainment fund.
And they are logical. But — this
question is not rooted in narrow-
mindedness; it comes from one of the
thousands who want progress, yet
not at the price of injury to souls — ■
what, I ask, have the Australian
Distributing Agencies for American
Film Companies to offer a Religious
exhibitor ? Well, I should know.

Verbal Battle

The issue raised in this article led to
many a verbal battle between
representatives of the aforesaid agencies
and myself ; they are not primarily to
blame ; the actual culprits are the men
behind the Hollywood producers ; the
men who finance the industry ; the
men, who have given practically no
consideration to the planning, the
steady building up, and to the
maintaining of a supply of juvenile-level
films able to fill the hearts of our boys
and girls with fun and happiness, to
stir them to an appreciation of
goodness, truth and beauty.

269

A famed Hollywood magnate gave
recently a most unflattering estimate
of the number of adults capable of

understanding and enjoying any but
films of a low; intellectual grade. So,
w'e can take it, that in making films,
men of the industry cater for morons
and find it a sound investment.
However, before he dismissed the
subject, this gentleman, who has facts
at his finger-tips, would do well in

conjunction with his fellow-controllers
of the world’s major film output, to

examine personal responsibility towards
that public he so uncompromisingly
catalogues.

It is Hollywood and its masters,
those who buy material for films and
instruct script and scenario writers as
to the manner in which it is to be

handled, it is these men who have, in
the matter of films, educated countless
devotees of the silver screen ; they
compose and pipe the tune to which
the public dances. These had it in
their power from the start to train to
a high degree of artistic appreciation
and discrimination the taste and
appetites of those whom they
entertained, instead of w'arping,
blunting and destroying these faculties.
Hollywood created the public’s urge to
see films, hardened it into a fixed
habit comparable to that of an
inveterate cigarette smoker, and gave
it little upon which to satisfy itself.
These conditions still obtain.

For the Sake of the Children

It is disturbing to watch the same
old process at work upon each
generation as the youngsters aware
of the lure of the film, line up with
its fans. Children and immature
adolescents cannot weigh standards in
the balance and condemn them ; they
go to the shows, see what has become
a traditional presentation, absorb it, as
a sponge absorbs water and continue
to do so even unto old age. It is a
tragedy.

It is for the sake of the children that
I am throwing my pebble into the
pond, hoping that the ripples may
attract people able and willing to fight
in their behalf, for a square deal.
Those only whose main business in
life is to be with them, to shape them
for both earth and heaven, may form

an idea of the delicacy of children’s
hearts and minds, and of the ease with
which they can be damaged. Juvenile
crime-waves are often subjects of
discussion. I have no hesitation in
naming the film as a mighty factor in
these outbreaks against convention,
law and order.

The child moves in a world of
fantasy; to us it may often seem
precocious, old beyond its years in
worldly ways but it lacks experience
and maturity which, for the adult,
are shock-absorbers. Youth is not
conditioned for adjustment to the
heavy play of notions born of
“grown-up” conceptions of life as
embodied in the film. Abnormal
reaction to undue pressure exerted on
imagination and the emotions is what
we must expect from juveniles if we
persist in allowing them to be subjected
to disruptive influences they cannot
resist.

Again, child-interest in films is deep,
persistent and thorough. Open the
subject with any youngster; you will be
surprised at the amount of data
touching films, actors and actresses he
has filed away in his mind. This,
incidentally, goes to show how the
cinema rightly directed could
revolutionise the existing educational
system ; the reverse rules that,
mishandled, it could and is working
incalculable harm.

The Religious Exhibitor

Films and the Child could be
discussed from many angles. I prefer
to narrow it down to a single aspect of
the problem, namely the type of
feature-film sent by distributors to our
Catholic colleges and schools owning
projectors.

What, for the most part, does the
Religious - exhibitor of the 16mm.
handle ? With rare exception — I speak
from experience — films spoilt by purple
patches — drooling, sloppy sentimentality
— sources of embarrassment to teachers
and a direct menace to inflammable
adolescence. The so-called “love
interest”, deemed indispensable, is
positively vulgar, indelicate and
inartistic in its demonstration ; it is
worse, much worse, in its decided
appeal to sensuality, and our children

270

should not he subjected to such an
onslaught.

Consideration of the matter highlights
a particular fact, viz., Australian
Agencies for American Film Industry
have practically nothing but adult
movies to offer for children’s enter-
tainment. And for us, that is not good
enough.

Reviewing the situation, there arises
from Catholic tradition and background
an implication which cannot be ignored.
We know and regret that in holiday
times numbers of our children go to
unsuitable, often objectionable shows ;
but if films concerned with adult
problems solved in sensual, passionate
settings be exhibited by one dressed in
the livery of Christ, then the harm
done the children, individually and
collectively, could never be estimated.

Instinctively the Catholic youngster
sets the priest, the brother, the nun,
apart from these things; should that
attitude of mind and heart ever be
destroyed then a great battle will have
been lost.

We must not take the risk of giving
any boy, any girl, in after-school life
the opportunity of saying : “Well, the
show we did tonight leaves an ugly
taste in the mouth ; but we saw some
nearly, if not quite as bad, at

College; perhaps we’re squeamish —
unnecessarily.”

Catholic Agency

Let the steps that could be taken to
better the situation as it now stands be
the next consideration. The ideal solution
is, of course, a Catholic Distributing
Agency. I know’ of one organisation,
The Catholic Film Centre, Box 380,
G.P.O., Sydney, N.S.W., which is
gathering strength to fight in our best
interests. Already it is building up its
own library of films ; but, to be really
effective, expansion on a large scale
is absolutely necessary, and this means
money and plenty of it.

Failing, for the moment, an adequate
supply of suitable films from Catholic
sources, our next plan should be to
insist that the feature films we hire be
in conformity with Catholic Principles
of morality. This may appear naive ;
let us ask to have the Catholic angle

on films for children brought to the
notice of film manufacturers in both
America and England ; properlv
organised, our demands should influence
supplies.

It is sound business not to sign
lengthy contracts with one particular
agency ; six months is quite sufficient,
and gives one the chance of selecting
the best films offered.

Finding out in advance from posters
and write-ups procured at negligible
cost from the agencies, the subject-
matter of films we are notified to
expect, enables one to avail oneself
of the rejection privilege. It is not
difficult to cancel a programme if
sufficient notice be given by the
exhibitor.

It could be pointed out to producers
that there is no lack of clean, juvenile
literature suitable for screen adaptation.
The fact that the world over, children
form a large section of picture-show
goers should be stressed and used as
a basic argument in defence of their
right to consideration.

Some might say that youngsters,
modern youngsters, would not sit out
shows featuring films built on children’s
stories. Let us try them, and if their
reaction is negative, then adults, upon
whose shoulders grave responsibility
rightly rests, must surely come to
realise that juvenile ideas regarding
films are in urgent need of sound,
healthy re-orientation.

Over To You

Know this : when a censor classifies
a film he says, in effect, “Over to you,”
to parents, teachers and guardians ;
what the children line up to see, so
far as he is concerned, is anybody’s
business. But we, who realise we are
dealing with immortal souls, cannot
shelve responsibility ; we must guard
and cherish and train those under our
care, remembering always that the hour
will surely come when w’e shall stand
in the Presence of Him Who said :
“ . . . w’hosoever shall scandalise one
of these little ones ... it wTere better
for him that a millstone w’ere hanged
about his neck and he were cast into
the sea.”

(By courtesy of the Editor of
“The Crusader” .)

271

THE LAST SUPPER
scene from the film, "Behold the Man"

272

The Story Behind The

Westminster Passion Play

In the winter of 1938, two priests of
the Westminster Diocese decided to
make a Passion Play to be performed
by young people who were under their
care, as a Meditation both for them-
selves and for those who should see it,
in preparation for Holy Week. For the
text, they made a Harmony of the Four
Gospels, deciding that it would be
better to read the story and have it
illustrated in mime than to take the
risk of writing original dialogue.

And so, in Passiontide 1939, this play,
called ECCE HOMO, was first per-
formed in a clubroom in the Vauxhall
Bridge Road. In spite of an improvised
stage and a rather primitive production,
one of the Catholic papers remarked
that it made theatrical history by
combining in this way speech from a
narrator with silent action and with
appropriate music selected from the
great Masters.

The play was not performed again
until 1948, this time on a much larger
scale, in the Westminster Cathedral
Hall. The success of that year’s per-
formance and of the subsequent per-
formances in the three following years
led to the idea of making a film of it,
not onlv in order to bring it before a
much larger audience, but also because
the artistic quality of the stage
production promised excellent material
for a film of equal artistic interest.

The problem of finding a suitable
director and technicians and a suitable
film studio was solved without difficulty,
for the project of making a religious
film of this kind was received with
immense enthusiasm by all those who
were approached, and the Film Censor,
who saw the play, gave an assurance
that, owing to the special treatment of
the subject, no objection would be
lodged on this occasion to the portrayal
of Christ on the screen. So that, in
fact, it is the first time this has been
allowed in Great Britain.

The only serious difficulty lay in
keeping together the cast, for it was
agreed that those who had acted in the
play should also appear in the film.
They were all amateurs, working during
the day and devoting their spare time
to rehearsals and performances. Among
them was a baker, a tourist agent,
several electrical engineers, a book-
keeper, office workers, a window-dresser
and others who would find difficulty in
leaving their employment to go filming,
while the figure of Christ was portrayed
by a priest who, with the approach of
Easter, would have little time to spare
from his parish. But with the enthu-
siasm of the company and by making a
part of the film during the run of the
play, the problem was surprisingly
overcome.

The shooting script of this film has
been based on the play expressed in
terms of the screen. It is not an attempt
to reconstruct and present the whole
history of the Passion of Christ but, as
was the play, it is a visual meditation
on the events of the last week of His
life. As such it is offered to the public,
trusting that in these times it may
remind those who see it of the message
of hope which is the Story of the Cross.

Highly Recommended

We direct the attention of our readers
to a really valuable article on the
Christian and the Cinema in the
current issue of Blackf riars, the
monthly magazine edited by the
English Dominicans. It is written by
Miss Freda Bruce Lockhart and is a
notable contribution to Catholic thought
on the subject.

273

FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. No. 9

THE FILM ACTOR

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

Though numerous stage actors adapt
m themselves to screen acting with little
apparent effort, a great many screen
actors have never appeared on the stage
and it is doubtful whether they could
do so with success. At first sight, the
actor, whether on stage or screen, is
performing in the same way insofar as
the spectator is concerned, to whom it
rarely occurs that stage and screen
make fundamentally different demands
on the performer. On the stage there
is acting in the real sense of the word,
the actors playing through a story from
start to finish, building up their
characters as the play proceeds. On
the screen they appear to be doing the
same thing, or rather to have done the
same thing when the film was being
made, whereas they did nothing of the
sort, for, as we have learnt, every scene
and fragment of action is filmed
separately, out of story order for
building and technical reasons.

Thus the screen actor has no chance
to build up the character he is
playing. Instead he has to rely
entirely on the film director to explain
what is needed in this or that brief
action. This is acting of quite a
different kind and helps to explain why
some screen actors do not possess the
abilities needed to succeed on the stage.
It applies particularly to many
glamorous film stars who, if judged by
the highest standards of legitimate
stage acting, would be found without
talent, depending as they do primarily
on their looks. The screen actor has
to be photogenic, with a strong
^ personality, the right kind of voice
(which is not necessarily the voice of
a well-trained stage actor) and an
ability to register emotions by facial
expressions and mannerisms.

On the stage, actors naturally remain
life-size throughout a play, and save to
those in the front half of the stalls,
they appear quite small. To people in
the circle, upper circle and gallery,
they look tiny, especially in large

theatres. Hence the value of opera
glasses to bring them near. But in the
cinema opera glasses are unnecessary
because the camera does their work and
brings the actors near in close-ups at
the right moments to give dramatic
emphasis to a situation.

Therein lies the difference between
stage and screen presentation. Screen
actors are seen in hundreds of different
positions and angles in a feature film,
near, very near, distant, and so on.
Consequently, their facial expressions
and gestures must never be overdone.

Compare such “acting” conditions
with those of the stage actor, dwarfed
by a large stage, who has to project his
personality and his voice unaided by
technical magnification. Remember, a
close-up of a face might well be six feet
high — as tall as a tall man — face only.
An actor such as Sir Laurence Olivier
who excels both on stage and screen
and also produces his own films is the
exception. Charlie Chaplin is another
rarity — a master of screen technique
who began on the stage. There are not
many.

Generally speaking, the stage actor
cannot easily flower to the full when
acting for the screen, being imprisoned
by technical needs, acting for merely
a minute, or perhaps a few seconds at
a time— never playing through an
entire story ; being the victim of
distractions and delays and the
uninspiring conditions prevalent in
every film studio. Indeed the screen
actor must be able to act, but very
differently to the stage actor. In the
studio the actor has to be taken and
retaken until a scene is perfect, for
only the best take will reach the public,
whereas the stage actor gives a fresh
performance every night.

The real star of a film is the director
whom you never see, save reflected in
the performances of the entire cast.
Upon his ability to inspire and extract
dramatic expression from screen actors
their success depends.

274

irmssa ®mwa!Ew§

By our Panel of Priests

Category A, indicates adults only; B, adults and adolescents ;

C, family audiences; D,
VALENTINO

Starring: Eleanor Parker, Anthony

Dexter, Richard Carlson, Patricia
Medina, Joseph Calleia. Director:
Lewis Allen. A Columbia Picture.
Certificate : A. Category : A.

Running time : 105 minutes.

The ethics of the entertainment film
world are sui generis. Taking advantage
of the fact that it is twenty-five years
since the death of Rudolph Valentino
and that there are in existence large
fans societies devoted to his memory,
a film has been made — not to tell the
story of his life — that might lead to
the law courts — but to “reveal the man
behind the legend”. The result is that
to the name of Rudolph Valentino they
have attached a sleek, fattening face
bearing a resemblance to the dead man
and a quite fantastically untrue story
of a cad who uses women’s affections
to get himself hoisted to the peaks of
filmdom and who, finally, dies from
peritonitis after marrying one woman
to save the honour of another whom he
has already wronged.

Curiosity Interest

The technicolor, as is so often the
case, makes a vulgar film seem even
more so. The acting of Anthony
Dexter as Valentino is not poorer, as
my memory serves me, than that of his
prototype. The rest of the cast,
particularly Richard Carlson as a
silent-film director, are good. The film
has little beyond a euriositv interest.
The tango, danced by the leading
players, reminds one that such
apparently “respectable” choreographv
can be unhealthy.

V.

particularly for children

THE FROGMEN

Starring: Richard Widmark, Dana

Andrews and Gary Merrill.
Director: Lloyd Baker. A 20th
Century-Fox Picture. Certificate:
U. Category: B. Running time:
97 minutes.

There is, apparentl y, some
controversy as to whether Americans
or British were the first to make use
of underwater demolition tactics
during the war. It matters little from
the point of view of one’s admiration
for the team-work, skill, courage and
heroism displayed by the men known
to the world as “Frogmen” whether
they wore U.S.A. or U.K. on their
bathing trunks ; the}' were equally
brave and patriotic : even the Japs,
against whom the Americans in this
film were working, displayed the same
kind of courage underwater in the
same kind of froglike uniform.

The underwater pictures of these
men going about their difficult task
are among the most fascinating of their
kind ever to be shown on the screen.
There is a peculiar grace in the
movements of the men as, equipped
with fins for their feet and glass
frames for their faces, they go about
their submarine sabotage.

The story is mainly documentary in
shape and treatment. The Twelve
O’clock High twist to the story does
not add much to the interest of the
film. Richard Widmark as a new
commander whose unpopularity with
his team is eventually broken down by
various brave deeds is not entirely
convincing, any more than Dana
Andrews as the leader of the childish
team who want to be transferred
because their present is not like their
late commander. V.

275

PEOPLE WILL TALK
Starring: Cary Grant and Jeanne

Crain, with Finlay Currie, Hume
Cronyn, Walter Slezak, Sidney
Blackmer, Basil Ruysdael,
Katharine Locke. Producer:
Darryl F. Zanuck. Director:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Certificate :
A. Category : A. Running time:
no minutes.

The claim that this is the “picture
of the year” cannot be sustained. We
have two plots gradually — very
gradually — developed for our enter-
tainment. First, how is Dr. Praetorius,
that nice unconventional medico (Cary
Grant), going to help the appealing
unmarried mother who is troubled with
faintings and the occasional pregnant
wince of pain ? Well, in an inescapably
happy way he marries her. Secondly,

who is Shunderson, the doctor’s
devoted shadow with just a touch of
the sinister ? A jealous colleague
(Hume Cronyn) of the doctor busies
himself in dragging out that skeleton
from what he imagines to be the shady
past. But Shunderson (Finlay Currie)
in a dramatic scene intervenes at the
board of investigation so that Dr.
Praetorius is cleared and able to keep
his appointment of conducting, of
course with bravura, the orchestra of
his happy students
There are pomposities — for we are in
the world of cinematic medicine — but
the dialogue can be amusing, some-
times one feels it is amusing in spite
of itself. There is a lot of charm
about, what with Cary Grant and
Jeanne Crain, Sidney Blackmer and
Walter Slezak. And the rigid
shoulders and straight down hands of
Finlay Currie have a dramatic quantity
of their own before ever he speaks a
word .

X.

Shunderson warns Dr. Praetorius that Annabel will try to commit suicide again

276

FRANCIS GOES TO THE RACES
Starring: Donald O’Connor, Piper

Laurie, and Francis, the Talking
Mule, with Cecil Kellaway and
Jesse White. Producer: Leonara
Goldstein. Director: Arthur

Cubin. Distributors: G.F.D.

Certificate'. U. Running time :
87 minutes.

Comic humour is in some part akin
to humility. It is humorous when
a man slips up on a banana skin or
loses his temper. Both are evidence,
which we need now and then, that man
is a pathetic being who naturally
finds it difficult to keep his balance
either physically or mentally. The true
comic scenario suggests this. It helps
us still more by hinting that however
much human beings pretend they are
God there is still hope left for
mankind. But when we are given
animals acting like intelligent people,
what are we to gain from this ?

Francis Goes to the Races is indeed
a punter’s dream, a bookie’s nightmare
and a riot of laughs, but it succeeds in
being a good film in spite of Francis,
the talking mule, because its human
companion, Donald O’Connor, is a
comedian in the tradition of Charlie
Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Whereas
the other characters in the film, despite
all-round good acting, appear merely
foolish in this fantastic story Donald
O’Connor remains a human being.

It is repulsive to see a mule talking
down to a crowd of human beings and
running the show, but nevertheless the
close-to-hysteria which greeted some of
the impossible situations during the
show is sufficient proof that the comedy
was good enough to keep this feeling
of repulsion in the background. Not
content with giving inside information
straight from the horse’s mouth
enabling his master to back seven
winners in a row, Francis, after a bad
attack of mulishness, agrees to help the
lost fortunes of the girl’s (Piper Laurie)
father (Cecil Kellaway) by curing a
filly’s inferiority complex by psycho-
analysis and persuading the gallant
favourite to stop dead in its tracks in
‘sight of the winning-post.

The film is well produced and

directed, has a good supporting cast
and you will feel much gayer for
having seen it.

O.

QUEEN OF THE WEST
Starring: Maria Hart, Drake Smith,
William Fawcett. A Jack Schwarz
Production. Monarch Film.
Certificate : U . Category • C.

Running time : 60 minutes.

Rather a new theme for a Western,
and a good Western at that. This time
the cowboy becomes cowgirl, and a
tough one she makes. She is called
the Queen of the West because she is
always one move ahead of other cattle
owners. But the West is ruled by the
rod. So there is plenty of shooting,
holding-up of coaches, driving of cattle
and all the things which go to make
for a fast moving, entertaining film.
There is a rough justice, a relic of
youthful hero worship in these films
which gives them a sweeter flavour
than the town gangster lot. There are
countryside, horses and a little
chivalry left which go to make this sort
of picture always a stand-by.

M.

RHUBARB

Starring: Ray Milland, Jean Sterling,
Producers: William Perllberg and
George Seaton. Director: Arthur
Lubin. A Paramount Picture.
Certificate: U. Category : B.

Running time : 95 minutes

approximately.

I heartily recommend this nonsensical
and wholly delightful film to any
reader who wants an afternoon’s light
entertainment. Even if, like myself,
you don’t know' the first thing about
baseball you can’t help being amused,
as the jaded critics at the press show-
showed by their laughter that they
were.

It is well acted, though the chief star
is neither of those named above : he
- — yes he — is Rhubarb ; fcfr Rhubarb is
a cat and a very remarkable one ! Go
and make his acquaintance.

T. C. F.

277

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
Starring: Richard Derr, Barbara

Rush, Harry Keating. Producer:
George Pal. Director: Rudolf

Mate. Distributors: Paramount.

Certificate: A. Category : A.

Running time : 82 minutes.

Apart from some good faked photo-
graphy of the possible results of a star
colliding with the earth and suitable
sound effects, there is little to commend
in this film except to those who might,
like myself, enjoy such fantasies. As
the film had to have a story, for it is
based on a novel by Edwin Balmer and
Philip Wvlie, Sidney Boehm obliged,
but it is the most unimaginative
imaginable. That very poor film, Saints
and Sinners, which also had as its
theme the end of the world, did it a
great deal better. Since for the
average Christian the end of one’s own
life is infinitely more important than
the end of the world, this film will
probably leave you quite cold. That is
if you go, and personally I think you
would be wasting your time and your
money. It is, as the titling says,
unsuitable for children, but only because
of the noise.

O.

VALLEY OF EAGLES

Starring: Jack Warner, Nadia Gray,
John McCaLlum. Producer: Nat
Bronsten. Director: Terence

Young. Distributors: G.F.D.

Certificate: U. Category: B.

Running time: 86 minutes.

The cinema must be topical without
being embarrassing. And so this story
of a disappearing scientist is located in
Sweden. This has the additional
advantage of bringing in the sub-Arctic
regions of the northern frontiers.

Though John McCallum in furs and
liorn-rimmed glasses looks disconcert-
ingly like Harold Lloyd, and Nadia Gray
does not look at all like a female Lapp,
though the film may be a little naive
sometimes when the scene is civilised,
it is sometimes magnificent when the
fugitives reach the northern snows.
(The scientist has run away with
another scientist’s wife as well as with
secret and essential parts of an

invention with an enormous “war
potential”.)

There is a particularly good sequence
of a large reindeer herd on the move.
Unfortunately most of the herd
stampedes over a precipice. In fact
animals come off rather badly in this
picture. Wolves are attacked and
killed by eagles. (This will not be
everybody’s taste.) But those who
want to see something original and
scenic, including the descent of an
avalanche, should go to this picture.

Confidence in God is inculcated by
reading a psalm to children. And the
fact is recognised that when a marriage
comes to grief, the fault may not be all
on one side. These are two straws
which indicate a wind blowing in the
right direction.

Q-

SOLDIERS THREE
Starring: Stewart Granger, Walter

Pidgeon, Robert Newton, David
Niven, with Cyril Cusack and
Greta Gynt. Distributors: M.-G.-M.
Director: Tay Garnett. Certifi-

cate: U. Category: B. Running
time : 90 minutes.

Lovers of Kipling may find their
familiar soldiers three changed in more
than name in this film version of the
famous story, but they will find enough
amusement of a light character to
make the film worth a visit. Dealing
with military escapades in India at the
turn of the century, the film is mainly
notable for its galaxy of well-known
male stars and the fact that Stewart
Granger has no leading lady. Mr.
Granger, in fact, makes quite a success
of the Cockney soldier, here named
Ackroyd, and reminded me that his
best performance, as far as I am
concerned, wras his Cockney Spiv in
Waterloo Road.

Robert Newton and Cyril Cusack play
up loyally as the other two soldiers,
but it seems to me a lamentable waste
of talent to exile to Hollywood tw'o of
our best character actors, when any
two of a score of Hollywood natives
could have played the parts in the
required slap-stick fashion. Walter
Pidgeon roisters through the role of
the Colonel and David Niven is well-
suited as his Adjutant.

V.

27S

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

Starring: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron,
Oscar Levant, Georges Guetary
and Nina Foch. Director:
Vincente Minelli. An M.-G.-M.
Picture. Certificate: U. Category:
B. Running time: 114 minutes.

When M.-G.-M. set out to do
something different they can usually
be depended upon to provide something
worthwhile. This time it is a musical
with a difference. Owing something to
both The Red Shoes and On The Town
it nevertheless stands on its own
twinkling feet and marks a new

SCENES FROM THE FILM

standard of excellence in the world of
eccentric dancing for which the name
of Kelly has now come to be ranked
above that of Astaire. The dream
ballet with which the film ends is
brilliant; a few minutes too long for
comfort, perhaps, but most agreeable
to watch.

The trite story of the penniless
painter in Paris who is taken up by
a wealthy patroness while the girl he
really loves feels herself bound in
gratitude to accept another man as
husband has often been told. This
time it is garnished with dancing, song
and comedy of a definitely high order.
Gershwin’s music and the acting of
Oscar Levant, Georges Guetarv and
Gene Kelly and the appearance of
a most enchanting little French
ballerina, Leslie Caron, make this a
memorable film which can be
recommended to those who (like
myself) do not much care for musicals.

V.

DECISION BEFORE DAWN

Starring: Richard Basehart, Gary

Merrill, Oskar Werner, Hilde-
garde NefE. Producers: Anatole
Litvak and Frank McCarthy.
Distributors: 20th Century-Fox.

Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time: 120 minutes.

My growing dread of stories based
upon American war exploits was swept
away by the reality and sincerity which
I found in this film version of George
Howe’s novel “Call It Treason”. The
reality began with the cast, which is
not blatantly Hollywood and is
remarkably good throughout. Richard
Basehart and Gary Merrill are real
American and are meant to be. But the
biggest credit goes to the sensitive
playing of a sad-faced, idealistic young
German medical corporal by Oskar
Werner, well backed as he is by such
names as Hildegarde Neff, Dominique
Blanchar and Hans Christian Blech.
Moreover, the photography is really
done in Germany, a Germany of bomb-
scarred ruins and siren-driven crowds
far different from the cardboard and
three-ply of California.

279

The story is harrowing, very moving
and not at all the usual blood and breath-
catching escapes. There is a query
behind it for each one of us to face in
these days of spy trials, missing
diplomats and fellow-travellers of what
does treason consist ?

Here we have German prisoners-
of-war being chosen as volunteers to
train for spy work behind their own
lines, in order to help the American
| advance. Their motives vary : Tigar
' (Hans Christian Blech) is out for the

winning side and the financial benefit
of being “well in” with the conqueror;
Happy (Oskar Werner) hates the
Hitlerism which ruins his country and
causes the death of his disillusioned
friend at the hands of his fellow
prisoners. Happy is the one we follow
chiefly. He is sent on a mission among
his own people. The psychological study
is interesting when he sees them as a
mixture of good and bad, embittered,
depraved, yet battered and fighting on
dauntlessly. He has to struggle with
himself and with his ideals. Ideals ?
Must they result in the starvation of
his own people, in telling the location
of a new chemical works next to his
father’s hospital, sure target for
American pattern-bombing ?

Today, six years later, we can again
catch the rift in Germany and not only
there but elsewhere too. The cry of
the officer who has to win over the
surrender of the panzer corps is that
the object now is to do more than save
lives even, it is to save their souls.
Yet we are bound to sympathise with
Happy, although we leave him in
Nazi hands, knowing he will be shot
as a spy, for helping his companion to
swim the Rhine with vital information.
Is this treason ? In the darkness of the
cinemas crowded with emotions,
Happy grows to heroic stature. Yet
suppose it was daylight and his name
was Quisling or Fuchs or Pontecorvo ?

You should certainly see this film.
I As I say it is harrowing, but the two
hours of it passed quickly. And the
human touches like the good Sister of
St. Vincent de Paul peddling away on
her bicycle as the despatch rider roars
up to the door, or the couple of
children glimpsed playing ball in the
background of a tense street scene —
these make the picture live.

MURDER INC.

Starring. Humphrey Bogart. Director:
Bretaigne Windust. Producer:
Milton Sperling. Distributors:
Warner Brothers. Certificate :
X. Category. A. Running time :
83 minutes.

The fact that this film has been
given an X Certificate is sufficient
indication of its unsuitability, not to
sav worthlessness. There is really
nothing about it to recommend. The
story about a gang of murderers, is
just as sordid as it can be without
even being exciting ; the construction
is bad, with so many flash-backs as to
become confusing; and the acting is
indifferent. Don’t waste either time or
money on it.

T. C. F.

HIS KIND OF WOMAN
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Jane

Russell, with Vincent Price, Tim
Holt, Charles McGraw. Producer:
Robert Sparks. Director: John

Farrow. Distributors: R.K.O.

Radio. Certificate-. A. Category-.
A. Running time : 120 minutes.

In addition to the information above
we are told that Howard Hughes
“presents” this film. The first time
he presented Jane Russell was in The
Outlaw , a picture characterised by
revolver shooting, decolletage and a
cynical contempt for the audience. His
Kind Of U'oman is that kind of film
too, only less so.

The story is about the attempted
re-introduction into the United States
of a deported racketeer. It begins in
a semi-documentary style, with maps,
and ends (more or less) with a
prolonged chase-and-fight, one of the
weapons involved being a hypodermic
syringe, loaded with a deadly drug, in
the hands of an “unfrocked” doctor.

The best thing in the picture is the
caricature of a film star by Vincent
Price, but this is worked to death. The
dialogue is sometimes good and
includes the memorable suggestion that
what people really want when they go
to the cinema is to eat popcorn and
be happy.

M.

Q.

280

CONTINENTAL FILMS

MONTE CASSINO

Starring: Alberto C. Lolli. Director:
Aturo Gemmiti. From book by
Tommaso Lecciosotti, O.S.B.
Distributors: Film Traders.

Dialogue Italian. English
Prologue, Narrator and Sub-
titles. Certificate ; A. Class : A.
Running time : 85 minutes

approximately .

Monte Cassino ! Like religion, anyone
will argue on the rights and wrongs of
1944. Certainly in England and among
English Catholics, I have found few
who admit any possible excuse for the
Allied action. Ninety per cent say it
was unnecessary vandalism and get all
“worked-up” about it.

It makes this film all the more
interesting, as here is the view of an
Italian and a monk of the Abbey,
whose opinion lies between outright
condemnation and outright approval.
And so, if you are one of those who
condemns the decision to bomb, go
along and see this film. Because,
holding the view of the psychological
necessity for the bombing, I found a
real atmosphere of authentic and
balanced history as the story unfolded.
It is one-sided, because it is from the
monk’s outlook, but it is fair.

The first fifteen minutes were slow,
awkward and quite baffling. Pre-war
views of the monastery were all “stills”
and so dead, with a dead dreary
soliloquy. Later the tale was gripping,
terrifying, harrowing and exhausting.
The photography was good and the
message, I thought for a time, was to
boost the Communist Peace Plan. But
after all, St. Benedict got in first
with Pax.

Refugees flee to the monastery as
war approaches. When the monastery
is neutral zoned, no more may enter.
Then with fighting more pour in.
The Germans take up position near the
walls, on the heights guarding Allied
attack-routes. The ground attacks on
the town of Cassino and the hill first
avoid the monastery. (Though not shown
many American and Commonwealth

troops died on the lower slopes of the
Monastery Hill, cut off, dying of hunger
and exposure, because of German
defences higher up.) Then the Allies
drop leaflets announcing the bombing,
demanding civilian evacuation. The
Abbot asks the Germans for permission
to evacuate. Refusal. The bombing.
Some civilians flee and are mown down
by German guns. Horrifying scenes of
collapsing roofs, ceilings, walls, people
buried alive, panic. More bombing.
More death. Only then are the
survivors allowed to leave, a handful
of monks led by the tottering Abbot
carrying a cross and some hundred and
fifty civilians.

A real life film, so grim as to be
unnatural. No monk smiles. A
nightmare to see because even in dust
and rubble God comes to his children
in Viaticum.

M.

\

PATTES BLANCHES
(White Legs)

Starring: Suzy Delair, Fernand

Ledoux, Paul Bernard, Arlette
Thomas and Michel Bouquet.
Director: Jean Gremillon.

Distributers: Films de France.

Certificate-. A. Category ; A.
Running time : 80 minutes

approx .

The scenario of this film is the work
of Jean Anouilh and Bernard Luc, the
team responsible for Monsieur Vincent.
There the connection ends. A
novelettish story about the lonely squire
of a Breton castle, disliked by the locals,
maintaining the vanished grandeur
of his philandering ancestor as best he
can, the victim of the hatred of his
repudiated half-brother, adored by a
pathetic hunchback serving-maid from
the village : the film is redeemed from
nonentity by the acting of the principals
and the photography, by Agostini,
which is, at times, almost inspired.

There have been some obvious cuts
by the Censor, but there still remain one
or two bed-room scenes of a candour
to which 'American and British cinema-
goers are unaccustomed.

V.

281

TALE OF SIBERIA

In Russian, with English suib-titles.
In technicolor. Certificate : U.

Category : B. Running time-.

ioo minutes approximately .

This film was not shown to the Press,
and owing to a late arrival at the public
performance I am unable to give the
names of the stars, who are not even
billed outside the cinema. However,
as they are all Russians and quite
unknown to filmgoers in this country
anyway, their names are not all that
important.

The film is meant to be a glorification
of Siberia and its people and of
Stalin’s development of it as opposed
to the Tsars who regarded it merely
as a penitentiary. It is also intended
to show how happy are the Russians
under Soviet rule — everyone dances and
sings on the slightest provocation. • But
these bits of propaganda are quite
innocuous and in no way interfere with

one’s enjoyment of the film. It
concerns a young pianist who has to
give up playing owing to a hand injury
received in battle : he turns to

composition and produces a kind of
oratorio with long orchestral interludes,
during which he declaims the glories
of Siberia and Stalin. (Perhaps one of
our younger composers might do
something of the same sort in honour
of the Health Services or Nationalised
Railways). For the rest the film is
pleasing. The technicolor is excellent,
far less gorgeous than that to which
we are accustomed and some of the
out-of-door shots, both of summer and
winter scenery, are quite extra-
ordinarily beautiful. The story is
simple with plenty of honest love-
making and is easily understood with
the aid of English sub-titles. The
acting is quite adequate. The only
real blemish is the sound-track — most
of the orchestral tone is very harsh.

On the whole I don’t think you’ll
regret having seen it. T. C. F.

SOME FILMS

REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this

list

does

Lavender Hill Mob, The

(C)

(226)

not connote positive recommenda-
tion. Films that are positively harm-
ful are not included here. Readers

Law and the Lady, The
Life in Her Hands

(A)

(A)

(262)

(260)

are reminded to refer to

the

full

Love Happy

(A)

(259)

review when assessing: a him.

Man in the White Suit,

Category A, indicates adults

only ;

The

(C)

(253)

B, adults and adolescents;

C, family

audiences; D, particularly

for

Midnight Episode

(B)

(227)

children.

“Mr. Universe’’

(B)

(235)

Reviewed in “Focus” (Vol

IV,

My Forbidden Past

(A)

(236)

Never a Dull Moment

(B)

(234)

inos. o ana y)

No Highway

(C)

(257)

Ace in the Hole

(A)

(232)

No Resting Place

(A)

(256)

Alice in Wonderland

(B)

(230)

Operation Pacific

(B)

(234)

As Young As You Feel

(257)

Phantom Horseman, The

(C)

(258)

Bandit General

(C)

(237)

Prince who was a Thief,

Bird of Paradise

(A)

(227)

The

(C)

(261)

Born Yesterday

(B)

(236)

Red Mountain

(B)

(261)

Cattle Drive

(D)

(263)

Rich, Young and Pretty

(B)

(258)

Chicago Masquerade

(A)

(260)

Show Boat

(B)

(234)

Dear Brat

(255)

Sound of Fury, The

(A)

(254)

Go For Broke

(B)

(235)

Strangers on a Train

(A)

(255)

Golden Horde, The

(A)

(262)

Talk of a Million

(B)

(259)

Half Angel

(B)

(263)

Up Front

(C)

(235)

Happy Go Lovely

(B)

(237)

Vendetta

(B)

(230)

Hell is Sold Out

(A)

(254)

When I Grow Up

(C)

(261)

Here Conies the Groom

(B)

(256)

Wherever She Goes

(C)

(260)

Hotel Sahara

(B)

(233)

Whirlpool

(A)

(233)

I’d Climb the Highest

White Corridors

(A)

(231)

Mountain

(B)

(231)

Worm’s Eye View

(B)

(258)

Last Outpost, The

(B)

(259)

You Belong to My Heart

(B)

(233)

282

CATHOLIC 1 16mm.
FILM USERS AND
ENTHUSIASTS

At the fourth congress of the O.C.I.C in Brussels in 1947 Dr. Jean
Bernard, President of the O.C.I.C., summed up the plan of action decided
upon when he said : “We have to be active in all five stages of the cinema
. . . we must influence the public, the cinema, the distributor, the producer,
the legislator. This will not be done by building up a Catholic cinema
inside the real cinema, but only by penetrating the professional life of the
cinema and bringing to it all the riches of our Faith.”

16 mm. enthusiasts have an excellent opportunity to put this plan into
action.

In future we shall devote space to 16m»i. films.

“GULLIVER’S TRAVELS” AND
OTHER 16mm. RELEASES

The season for amateur film shows
is upon us again and parish halls,
convents, colleges and schools will
have been wise if they have already
mapped out their programmes for
the winter and spring terms.

Practically every worthwhile film
produced in normal 35mm. or
theatrical gauge is eventually
reduced to 16mm. and becomes
available to the non-theatrical
enthusiast. We take this oppor-
tunity to mention a few of the out-
standing new releases in entertain-
ment films.

Worth Booking

Walt Disney has such a hold on
the imagination as the teller of fairy7
stories in cartoon that it is sometimes
overlooked that other names also
have a share of limelight in this field
of picture-making. The Fleischer
Brothers, whose work preceded that
of Disney, produced in 1939 a full-
length version of Gulliver’s Travels.
If it has little real connection with
Dean Swift’s rather bitter satire
apart from the names of the
characters, it is at least as legitimately
entertaining as any of the Disney
classics, and should prove very7
popular with those requiring a pro-
gramme mainly intended for
children. We anticipate heavy
bookings for the new 16mm. version.

Worth Attention

» An M.-G.-M. film which
might engage the attention of
the Catholic film groups is
San Francisco, made in 1936
and starring Clark Gable,
Spencer Tracy and Jeanette
McDonald. It wears remark-
ably well and the great earth-
quake scenes are as authentic
and terrifying as ever.
Spencer Tracy’s performance
as a Catholic is first-rate.

Popular Continental Films

We have already had occasion to
mention that the popular Sorcier du
Ciel, the story of the Cure d’Ars, is
now obtainable in 16mm. The same
distributors, Films de France, also

Your Film
Show

The Catholic Film
Institute projection
unit is available for
film shows in the
London area

Moderate Charges

Particulars from

157 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.I

announce Jour de Fete, the
Chapiinesque comedy about a
French village postman and his
adventures when the circus comes to
town. Lasting 79 minutes, it will
become a favourite with those who
look for something different from the
average run of American slap-stick.
It has definite atmosphere.

French film now to be had in
16mm., Nous les Gosses (Us Kids),
directed by Louis Daquin, tells of
comradeship in a French school,
though it is not very suitable for
youngsters to see, being rather more
sophisticated than English children
are accustomed to.

An Italian film which is enter-
taining without being morbid as
some of the modern Italian films are
is Angelina, with Anna Magnani as
a matron whose direct-action
methods lessen some of the post-
war annoyances in the Roman
slums. It runs for 90 minutes and
has an “A” Certificate but is
suitable for adolescents as well.

284

The Masses and the Cinema

An Approach

As one walks down the drive of Max
Reinhardt’s former home near Salzburg,
one is tempted to think sometimes as
one passes a large sprawling house
standing to the left of Schloss
Leopoldskron : “How like a stage

setting ! Why, with the sun streaming
through on that courtyard, it might be
the first act of a play by the Quintero
brothers, or the second act of *4 nns
and the Man!” The impression may
only linger for a moment, but
impressions of such an essentially
dramatic nature can be multiplied
endlessly : one recalls sightseers in the
summer being taken round Hampton
Court who think rather of Charles
Laughton than Henry VIII and of
those who cannot see the Colosseum
from the Palatinate, but think of it in
terms of the background to the
re-staging of some new gladiatorial
pageant.

Now all these impressions in varying
degrees are significant as reflections for
the order of their thought, since in
each case the dramatic is given
precedence over the historical past or
present reality. Moreover, the cinema,
because of the wide network of
distribution at its disposal, has an
impact on its public which is more or
less immediate ; indeed going to the
cinema is becoming such a habit that
discrimination on the part of the
audience is becoming a thing of the
past, and consequently the assertion of
a genuine critical attitude to films by
the public can hardly be expected as
a thing of the future.

Responsibility Towards Cinema

For films taken in such regular doses
— and box-office receipts show that for
manv they are no longer merely a
weekly event but a thrice-weekly event
— are combining to blunt the mind, to
make it unfit for voluntary exertion, to
reduce it to a state of savage torpor.
Of its effect alone in one direction an
interesting comment by a girl of 18
may be cited which appeared some
time back in Picturegoer. She wrote :
“For a whole year I thought, talked

By Neville Bvavbrooke

and dreamed films and Errol Flynn
became mv screen idol. His good looks,
handsome physique and most of all his
moustache made me feel as if I was
in love. However, when the war broke
out, I found that my idol had feet of
clav and would not join the army. Thus
ended my infatuation ...”

Left to run riot, or at least when this
kind of infatuation is carried beyond
the adolescence of girls with goo-goo
eyes, one is up against that kind of
hero-worship which, if it cannot be
checked by being sublimated, paves the
way for the recurrence of those events
in the thirties that led to the supremacy
of Nazidom in Germany. The German
film industry in the way that it
pandered to the public demand until,
devoid of independence, it was
swallowed by Goebbels’ Propaganda
Ministry, is a case in point. It is as
well a warning of what dangers would
befall the film world were it .to become
nationalised .(of which talk has been in
the air for some while.) So it is that
unless a feeling of responsibility
towards the cinema can be engendered
in the public, the film industrv with
its enormous potentiality will become
nothing other than a chain of studios
whose juster designation would be
dream factories.

Development of the Film

The development of the film in the
last twenty years has been immense,
and on a scale that can compete with
the greatest industries. It has, for
example, been estimated that the cost
of a film ranges from that of founding
a hospital to clearing over a square mile
area of slums. Further, the film, like
television, or rather the means by
which television and films are made
possible, stand for a piece of technology
whose use is restricted to driving not
only an engine, as with the modern
hydro-turbine, but orientated towards
the culture of life as a whole. (The
same is true of course to a lesser extent
when in the theatre use is made of
cycloramas to give the impression of

285

moving clouds and rainstorms.) Within
its studios, the film recruits aid that
is both psychological and aesthetic, as
well as purely mechanical, and it is
upon all these contributory factors
working in unison, together with a host
more unmeutioned here, that is
dependent the harmony of one result —
a film.

They Lack Humility

When therefore one deals with an
art-form of such size and intricacy, the
tendency is to regard its audience,
because it is a larger audience
than attends a theatre, in terms of
masses. The tendency lias caught on
surprisingly quickly and anything that
is popular nowadays is immediateiy
dubbed as “fit for the masses”. One
finds this note coming through in books
by Lewis Mumford like “Technics and
Civilisation” (1934) ; in parts of Karl
Jaspers’ early, but not more recent,
philosophical writings; and in treatises
of the calibre of Serge Chakotin’s “The
Rape of the Masses” (1939) — or, to
come nearer the present, in William
Vogt’s “Road to Survival” (1949). It
goes without saying, too, that in each
case these authors are not without
their lesser fry in the Press : for it is as
if they would unite together, cut
themselves off from mankind and then,
with haughty disdain, attempt to
diagnose the ills of their fellow men.
Of this form of writing there has
been no abatement since the war.
Between Chakotin, Vogt and current
commentators there have been many
who have spoken thus and it must be
admitted that in manv cases their
diagnosis in itself, so far as it went,
has often been good : ultimately their
failure to be fully convincing has lain
elsewhere. In their inability in
condemning the world at large of which
they are a group, they have failed to
take stock of their own part in the
building of that very world : in short,
tliev lack humility, and to this extent
they have failed to allow for original
sin. Yet when it comes to it, the
girl with the goo-goo eyes is just as
much a part of civilisation as they are :
this is her world just as much as it is
theirs. Masses never consist of masses
alone : in them, each person is an

individual, endowed with a soul, of
which no two are the same ; and
salvation which is the end of each soul
can only be achieved through the

fulfilment of vocation. To those who
would plan Utopias, to those who are
so ready to condemn the masses out
of hand, it may not seem particularly
important to be (perhaps) just a
stenographer of eighteen working in a
government office. Yet Christ came
first and foremost to redeem men — not
to draw distinctions and to give marks
bv intellectual preferment. He came
to die for men and so redeem them from
original sin.

Dead-End Arguments

With public responsibility viewed in
this way and magnified beyond the
realm of the cinema, one is faced with
world events and audiences : one is

faced with the continual retorts that no
longer the individual voice counts ; that
world events are beyond personal
control ; that nothing any single person
can do will prevent history from
running its course. But to accept these
dead-end arguments without a rejoinder
is to reject faith which means a loss
of freedom for all ; since it means the
denial of free will, because freedom can
only be fully realised in community
through faith. It is for this reason that
the film which can both instruct and
entertain becomes so dangerous when,
like a cacliou, it is taken as something
to sweeten the taste against reality.
I'lie film is only a means of expression,
in the way that Strindberg used his
Dream Plays to express the reality
behind an existence conceived of in
terms other than those of pure animal
appetite. This difference between
Dream Plays and dream factories is
finallv one between passive and active
acceptance ; between rejecting to be
more than a spectator and accepting to
play the role of a participant. Yet for
those who accept the role the challenge
is theirs : it is a challenge like all

truth in the form of a paradox since it
is to see the present as it really
becomes present, not as mere spectators,
but as participants in its realisation ;
and in such a realisation a man’s work
is his prayer because it is his vocation.
Intellectual preferment becomes
subordinate to Christ’s teaching of each
according to his talents, since where
there is true faith, God’s light, as
upon a screen, will shine not thrice
weekly, but continuously — - ever
illuminating the way, ever making
salvation a nearer reality.

JT

286

Catholic Film Institute

Aims and Objects

No. 3— Discussion Groups

In a recent letter to The Tablet,
answering a somewhat pedestrian attack
upon the cinema, Miss Freda Bruce
Lockhart, one of the most penetrating
of our film critics, pointed out that “if
those who should be leaders of taste
and morals deliberately remain aloof
and leave the cinema to be conducted
bv and for those whom they regard as
morons and infants" they cannot be
surprised if the cinema produces films
of low average worth. On the other
hand, as she points out, “there are each
year, on a temperate estimate, I should
say at least a dozen motion pictures one
would be the poorer for missing. I
doubt whether more could be said of
contemporary ‘still’ paintings, plays,
novels or musical compositions".

It is, indeed, astonishing in view of
the general attitude of contempt which
so manv of our intellectuals and
particularly Catholics affect towards the
cinema that it manages to produce so
many films worth talking about. Pope
Pius XI was in no doubt as to the
position and power of the cinema as a
means of expression when he wrote that
“it can and must be a bearer of light
and a positive guide to what is good”.
His injunction that each country do
its best to “promote good motion
pictures” has, in the past twelve
months, received greater attention and
it is gratifying to notice in almost every
free country, energetic and fruitful
attempts on the part of Catholics to
bring this potent instrument under
control. Even in England we have had
some modest attempts to fill the gap
of ignorance but they have been
disappointingly supported and we have
to look to France to find organised and
extremely well-attended debates on
current films such as Dieu a Besoin dcs
Homines and Justice Est Faite, the
O.C.I.C. and Grand Jury Prize Winners
at the 1950 Venice Festival respectively.

France, too, has its Institut dcs Hautcs
Etudes Cinematographiques (I.D.H.E.C)
or Institute for Advanced Film Studv
where lectures are given and degrees
obtained in the craft of cinema. Then
there are in France, Belgium, Italy,
Germany and other countries, organised
Cine-Forums where films are discussed
and analysed with as much attention
and interest as that given to music,
painting or the drama.

Pius XI demanded that Catholics
should work to make the motion picture
“an effectual instrument for the educa-
tion and elevation of mankind.” Nobodv
would deny that the vast majoritv of
films are far from being either educative
or elevating but that is because so few
people take the trouble to work for
anything better. It is equally true that
probably never will the majoritv of
films be of higher value than the
majority of books published or music
composed, but it is quite certain that
a very large proportion of films made
could be of permanent value as docu-
ments, poetic essays in movement and
visual rhythm, entertaining and
elevating camera comedies, if onlv
people wanted them so and were able
to recognise them when they were
forthcoming.

In other words, we need more
discussion about films. The cinema is,
as Dr. Andre Ruszkowski, the General
Secretary of O.C.I.C., has pointed out
in his “Cinema, Art Nouveau" , a new
language having its grammar and
syntax and capable of expressing ideas
in an entirely new and enchanting
manner. This language needs to be
learnt. Like all other languages, it
yields up its full meaning only to those
who take the trouble to master it.

The C.F.I. spends much time in
organising lectures and conferences.
Its officers go about the country giving
talks and initiating discussions on film.

287

It is because we are convinced that the
cinema is capable of contributing new
and valuable expressions of the genius
of man as a creature made in the image
of God. It is because we have accepted
the challenge of the Popes “to raise the
standard of the motion picture to meet
the needs of education and the require-
ments of the Christian conscience”. It
is because we are convinced that the
best way to raise the standard is to
learn to be content only with the best.

We think that in every school there
should be a group organised to discuss
films. We think that just as it is
considered a part of general knowledge
and culture to be able to talk intelli-
gently about music and the drama,
about painting and poetry, so should it
be a part of general knowledge and
culture to be able to analyse and
evaluate the classics of the cinema
repertory. There is a vast field for
difference of opinion and taste in the
domain of cinema art as there is in the
other arts. But there are, as in the
other arts, principles of artistic
expression which require to be under-
stood before further discussion is
fruitful.

It goes without saying, of course,
that, as in the other forms of art,
morality is a prerequisite of good art
in the cijrema. Catholics who wish to
see the standards of cinema elevated
will not be satisfied with a purely
negative lip-service to moral obligations.
They will recognise that art is positive
and must be cultivated, as virtue is
positive and must be cultivated. They
will recognise that a film is not a good
film or worth seeing unless to moral
orthodoxy is added the perfection of an
intelligent craftsmanship. They will
be willing to discuss dispassionately
but with the satisfaction derived from
knowledge based on truth the merits
and demerit's of films as a wdiole. They
will hesitate to support a film merely
because it is morally sound and deals
with an edifying subject unless to that
sound morality is added a high standard
of technical excellence. This is only
to apply to the art of cinema the rules
that have governed the Church in its
attitude to other forms of art. Only
the best is good enough.

Discussion groups need to be
carefully organised and efficiently
conducted. Careful foundations both
moral and artistic need to be laid but

members should not be frightened off
bv too rigorous an application of
artistic principles to begin with. The
purpose of such discussion groups as
with any other kind of discussion is
to lead gradually to the recognition of
and acceptance of high standards.
Within the limits imposed even by high
standards there is great latitude for
variations of taste and preference.
There is no room for dictators nor the
infallibly right among film critics. Once
the foothills have been overcome the
view at the top of the mountain is
grand and everybody will have his own
particular delight.

A discussion group in every parish
with its members well-primed in film
craftsmanship could be a tower of
strength to positive Catholic film
action. Their views on all films locally
exhibited if expressed with calm
conviction as to defects and merits,
would be welcomed by the cinema
managers as evidence of intelligent
reaction to his wares and would
ultimately lead to that elevation of the
art of cinema which Pius XI insisted
is possible.

J. A. V. Burke.

film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond
Young from the book “The
Sacred Actions’’, by Father
Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour
By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
157 Victoria Street
London, S.W.l

2SS

BOOK REVIEW

Came the Dawn. By Andrew
Buchanan, D.Litt., Ph.D.

Readers old enough to remember
silent films need no introduction to
Cecil Hepworth, but younger folk with
a serious interest in film cannot afford
to remain unacquainted with this great
pioneer who laid most of the founda-
tions for film production in Britain.
Hepworth has just written his life
( Came the Dawn, Phoenix House, 16s.)
which I wholeheartedly recommend.
It presents a most refreshing contrast
in film-making to present-day boastful,
sensational and materialistic methods,
and is written in a gentle almost humble
style which is delightful. Hepworth
seeks no credits for his very great
achievements. The book appears most
appropriately at a time when attention
is being focused on the film, The Magic
Box, which pays tribute to Friese-
Green, inventor of moving pictures, for
it was Hepworth who developed this
technical miracle into a new form of
dramatic expression. Forty, fifty years
ago he was making films of varying
lengths, first in the open, then in a
studio lit only by sunshine, and finally
in artificially lit interiors. He gave us
many films which will not be forgotten :
Coming through the Rye, Rescued by
Rover, several features adapted from
the works of Dickens ; Forbes-Robertson
in Hamlet. And he “built up” stars,
too — Alma Taylor, Chrissie White,
Stewart Rome, Henry Edwards — but,
above all, Hepworth evolved a formula
for film-making which the industrv
today has unwisely forgotten, for he
founded a stock-company — a sort of
family affair. Actors, writers, camera-
men, permanently employed, worked as
a team with complete freedom. Anyone
did anything. When the stars were not
acting they were making the costumes,
painting the scenery, typing scripts,
helping in the office. It was a wonder-

ful little world, and the films were both
economically produced and widely
popular. Hepworth looks sadly at
filmdom today, for it is utterly unlike
the film world he established. It has
not only grown too big for its boots, but
is down at heel through blind
extravagance. Though quiet, and
essentially friendly, Hepworth has the
fire and vision of the individualist, and
sometimes in these pages his pen points
to the stupidity and danger of current
methods. He says only a complete
revolution can put the industry back
on its feet, and gives a long list of all
the technicians employed in a modern
studio unit, comparing it to his small
talented company which supplied a
blue-print for creative production. He
says little about religion, but his faith
is revealed in his life, his true love of
beauty, his kindliness and his courage.
Many are the technical advances for
which we have to thank him, and many
films too, ranging from historic news
reels dating back to the funeral of Queen
Victoria to feature films of first class
quality. Leaders of the British
production industry today say film-
making in this country is not an
economic proposition. Indeed, it can
never be whilst the present approach
persists. Maybe they would be wise to
seek the advice of this quiet happy
man whose book is in so manv ways
one of the most important and timely
contributions to film literature.

Maligning the Jesuits

Two correspondents have taken
objection to the final sentence in the
review of Hell is Sold Out in the
September issue of Focus. “V” writes ;
“I regret that what I thought was a
transparently ironical reference to the
ancient canard about the Jesuits should
be taken seriously and I sincerely
apologise to any reader who has
misunderstood my jest.”

Cover Personality

Jeanne Crain

Three talent scouts in the audience
at a Los Angeles repertory theatre on
the same evening a Saturday in late
1942, were more interested in a lovely
girl in the audience than they were in
the actors. The girl was Jeanne Crain
and on the following Monday morning
she made a screen test for 20th Century-
Fox. In record time she became a star.

Jeanne was six months old when her
parents went to live in Los Angeles. It
was there — at St. Mary’s Academy and
for a year at Inglewood High School —
that Jeanne was educated. In leading
roles in one school play after another,
Jeanne delighted proud relatives, but
was seen by nobody else. At that time
she was uncertain as to whether her
future lay in becoming an actress or an
artist, for she had a flair for drawing.

A friend of the family heard that Max
Reinhardt was seeking someone to play
the title role in “Song of Bernadette”
and Jeanne was promised a test. Mean-
time, she was given two tickets for a
show at the tiny Max Reinhardt
Playhouse. That evening three talent
scouts saw her, and Ivan Kahn, of 20th
Centurv-Fox, gave her a contract.

Jeanne’s only previous experience of
films was a test she made for the role
of Lucy in the Orson Welles’ production
of “The Magnificent Ambersons”. At
the time she was 15 and very nervous.
The verdict on the test was that “she
had something, in person, which didn’t
come through on the screen”.

After her contract was signed, she
was advised to “go on with college for
a while”. When Darryl Zanuck
returned to the studio in 1943, he at
once cast her for an important role in
“Home in Indiana”, in which June
Haver was also introduced. From that
day forward, she made one successful
appearance after another : “In the

Meantime, Darling,” “State Fair,”
“Leave her to Heaven”.

The simple charm of her screen
personality is no “act”. One reason

for it may be that she lived, until her
marriage to Paul Brinkman, with her
family in a modest flat, as she had done
during her schooldays.

Her literary and artistic tastes show
a bias towards the serious : Chopin and
Liszt, Emil Ludwig’s biographies and
Shakespeare’s plays.

Jeanne is a good friend of the
Franciscan Fathers in Los Angeles and
has appeared several times in “The
Hour of St. Francis” programme.

O.C./.C. Prize Film

The prize offered by the International
Catholic Film Office (O.C.I.C.) to the
film “which most contributes to spiritual
and moral progress” has been awarded
to Journal d’un Curd de Compagnc
(“Diary of a Country Priest”), the film
directed by Robert Bresson, which
succeeds in representing one of the
most profound and mysterious of
experiences, that of the triumph of
grace over human frailty. This it does
by expressing in cinematic terms of
high artistic quality the essential
elements of the work of Georges
Bernanos.

FILM STRIP

FATIMA TO-DAY

Coloured pictures from the film

PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA

with explanatory booklet

36 Frames. Price : 15s.

(Post free 15/3)

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
157 VICTORIA STREET,
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FOCUS

FILM COURSE

Handbook No. 1

Foreword by

Rev. John A. V. Burke

Film Course by

Andrew Buchanan, D.Litt., Ph.D.

“ provokes thought and arouses a desire to read more . . . an
excellent primer for Film Study Groups.'

— The Catholic Times.

“ . . .invaluable to anyone uho wants to take an intelligent
interest in the cinema-' ’

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Contents include essential facts and statistics relating
to: The Way Films Vary: The Cinema Programme:
The News Reel: Fictional versus Factual Films:
Educational and Children’s Films: The Religious
Film: Film Music.

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CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

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AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian cidture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage the development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of pirns publicly
exhibited.

3. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of pirns.

4. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of pirns calculated to de nonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, cmfts religious
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Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.’’

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16mm. SOUND FILM LIBRARY

Latest Titles Include :

Triptych Rome Pilgrimage

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Vol. IV

No. 11

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Editorial 291

Going to the Films — as a Career 292
By C. A. Lejeune

O.C.I.C. in Venice, 1951 294

Whither the Craftsman? ... 296
By Andrew Buchanan

C.F.I. Notes 297

A New Section of the C.F.I.

16mm. at Stratford-on-Avon 298
Catholic 16mm. Film Users ... 299

O.C.I.C. Prize Film 300

Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests
The Magic Box ... ... 301

Flying Leathernecks 301

The Lady Pays Off 302

David and Bathsheba 302

Page

Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell ... 303
The Lady with the Lamp ... 303

The People Against O’Hara ... 303

Cyrano de Bergerac 304

Rommel — Desert Fox 305

Across the Wide Missouri ... 305

Appointment with Venus ... 306

Detective Story 307

Highway 301 307

He Ran all the Way 307

The First Legion 308

I was a Communist Spy for the

F.B.1 309

Continental Films

Meurtres 310

La Belle que Voila 310

Justice est Faite 310

Some Films Reviewed 311

Cover Personality 312

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Telephone: London Wall 1389.

Revue Internationale du Cinema

Organ of International Catholic Film Office

Number 9 now available : devoted to the film in Latin America and the Spanish-
speaking countries. The first survey by a group of cineastes, intellectuals and
spiritual leaders of the place occupied by the cinema in the lives of a large and
hitherto unexplored part of the film world
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on a Christian basis

FOCUS:

A FILM
REVIEW

Organ of the Catholic Film Institute

Vol. IV November 1951 No. II

THE FILM AND THE APOSTOLATE

At the Lay Apostolate Congress recently held in Rome, the Executive
Committee of the International Catholic Film Office was present as one of the
expert groups on hand to assist the deliberations of the Congressists. It is yet
another testimony to the recognition bv the Church of the need to integrate
competent film action in the life of the Catholic laity. The words of Pius XI
written sixteen years ago in the Film Encyclical are more than ever apposite
today. He said : “The motion picture should not simply be a means of diversion,
a light relaxation to occupy an idle hour; wfith its magnificent power it can
and must be a bearer of light and a positive guide to what is good.”

All too many people among our prominent leaders of thought fail to
recognise the cinema for the power it is. Further, they fail to appreciate the
part it could play in helping people to understand the Catholic way of life.
Douglas Hyde, writing of his days as Communist organiser, said that more
converts to Marxism were made by means of films than by lecturing or reading.
The film has an impact upon even the most sophisticated minds that is altogether
beyond the pow'er of the press and the radio. It is, therefore, regrettable that
few among us as yet realise the pow'er within our grasp.

Not since the invention of the printing press has a comparable power been
placed in the hands of man, for good or ill. If we could imagine persons of
intelligence and position sneering at the printing press as a machine for
publishing novels and romances and quite overlooking the mountains of spiritual,
theological, scientific and purely literary w'orks which it has produced, we should
have something analogous to the attitude of those who regard the cinema as
a machine dedicated solely to the output of meretricious glamour films.

Another point to be considered is that the kind of films we have in mind
could not and would not be made by the commercial cinema industry. Films
like Visitation, Crucifers to Walsingliam, Pilgrimage to Fatima, The Master
Calleth Thee would not be made at all because the religious organisations
sponsoring them simply could not afford the price required. The situation is
simply that either such films are made by a dedicated group or not made at all.

It is urgent, therefore, that our leaders give us all the svmpathv and
understanding possible in our campaign to bring the film within the orbit of
the average religious group as a feasible method to be used by them in the
Apostolate. We have blessings and good wishes from many, but we need real
appreciation of what it is we are trying to do. “They will,” in the words of
Pius XI, “help to ensure that a great international force — the motion picture —
shall be directed towards the noble end of promoting the highest ideals and
the truest standards of life.”

292

GOING TO THE FILMS—

As a Career /*

By ... . c. A. LEJEUNE

“How can I become a film critic?”
is a question I get asked again and
again in letters. You’d be surprised
if you knew the number of frustrated
service-men, students, clerks,
secretaries and even schoolchildren
who are filled with a burning desire
to blossom out as reviewers of pictures.
Some of them are just ordinary film
fans, who go to the pictures two or
three times a week, know all the
histories of all the film stars, and long
to make a profession out of a thing
that has always been their hobby.
Some of them have been told by their
friends that they have “a critical
faculty”. Some — the more enterprising
of them — have made a practice of
writing, for their own enjoyment, short
personal reviews of all the films they
see. These last are the only ones with
the smallest chance of ever becoming
film critics. And I must emphasise
the fact that the chance is very small.
Old critics, like old soldiers, never
seem to die; and if they do, there are
always five or six fully-trained
journalists ready to step into their
shoes. A modern editor hardly ever
goes outside the newspaper world for
his film critics, and the general practice
is to choose somebody from his own
staff, or his own newspaper group ;
perhaps the man who fills in for the
regular reviewer when he is away on
holiday.

Again, an established critic on a
daily newspaper may be asked to
review films for a weekly, or a monthly,
magazine, as well as for his own paper.
Most of us earn our living by writing
for three or four different publications,
in different styles and sometimes under
different names.

This makes things very difficult for
the boy or girl who wants to become
a film critic, and I shouldn’t be fair

* By courtesy of C. A. Lejeune, Film
Critic of the Sunday Observer, and Basil
Clancey, Editor of the Junior Digest.

if I didn’t warn you that only one in
a thousand can hope to attain his
ambition. But for those who still have
their hearts set on the career after this
warning, here are a few hints as to
how to set about it. Having a rich
and benevolent uncle who owns a
newspaper is, of course, one way, but
even the most benevolent of uncles, if
he knows his business, will make
short work of a nephew or niece who
proves unequal for the job.

The first thing to do is to learn to
write ; to write to a set length on a
specific subject : to write simply,

concisely and to get your facts clear.
This isn't as easy as it sounds. Writing
to an exact length, for instance, is a
thing that isn’t taught at school.
“Write an essay on How I Spent My
Holidays,” they’ll say. Never : “Write
about 350 words on “How I
Spent Mv Holidays”. But that is
something you have got to learn if you
want to be any kind of journalist.
There are just so many inches to be
filled in every newspaper, and it is the
journalist’s duty to fill the exact space
allotted to him, never mind how
distinguished he may be, nor how
important the thing he is reporting.
Writing too little is as bad as writing
too much.

Try the experiment for yourself, next
time you see a film or a play. Come
home and write a report of it, giving
yourself an allowance of, say, 250
words and keeping as close to that
figure as possible. Consider that you
are writing the report for the benefit
of people who haven’t seen the play
or picture. You will have to give them
the main facts about it : what it’s

called, where it is, who is in it, what
sort of film or play it is, roughly what
it is about, and finally, what you think
of it and why. Then hand it to
someone who has not seen that
particular film or play, and see if you

1

liave given him an account that
satisfies him. Can you do it ? If you
can, you have at least the makings of
a journalist.

This, of course, is simply an amateur
test. If you still want to take up
criticism as a career, the next thing
is to try to get a job as reporter on a
newspaper. You won’t find this easy,
but don’t despise any job that is
offered you, however ill-paid or small.
Once your foot is inside a newspaper
office, you’ll really begin to learn. Be
prepared to take any sort of assignment
and do each one equally conscientiously.
Learn to “cover” local fires and bazaars
and gymkhanas : to report police-court
cases and amateur plays and political
meetings. Don’t be in too much of a
hurry to get your initials at the bottom,
or your name at the top of a column.

I’ve never forgotten a healthy lesson
in humility I learnt when I was a very
young reporter in Manchester. There
were two new plays on the same night,
and I was sent, on my first assignment
as a reviewer, to cover the less
important of them. Back in the office
at midnight I handed my proudly-
signed notice to our real dramatic
critic. “I hope I’ve said the right
things,” I stammered to the great man.
He gave the copy one hasty glance,
and turned away with it. “Don’t
worry,” he said, with what was meant
to be real kindness, “when they find
my initials aren’t at the bottom, they
won’t pay any attention to a word
you say.”

He was right. “They”, meaning the
public, don’t; but an editor does. Bv
patiently standing in for older writers,
doing each job scrupulously', and
learning everything that can be learnt
from more experienced colleagues, a
bov or girl with a real flair for
journalism will generally get a footing
in the newspaper world. And that, as
I told you a few minutes ago, is the
only way y'ou will get the chance of
becoming a film critic, or indeed any
kind of critic.

“How can 1 become a good critic?”
is a very much more difficult question
to answer. Criticism, you see, is not
an exact science ; nobody can really
teach the way of it. It is a thing that
only comes after hard labour and long

293

practice. It can’t be learnt from books,
although a regular and careful reading
of the best reviewers can be a great
help, so long as you study them, not
slavishly imitate them.

All criticism, in the end, must be
intensely personal — personal opinion,
but not personal prejudice. You can
never know for certain what your
readers are going to like. Y’ou must
know by experience how hard it is to
recommend a book, or a picture, or a
play, even to your best friend ; so how
on earth can a reviewer expect to hit
off the exact taste of thousands of
strangers ?

Get it out of your head that criticism
is a matter of being right or wrong.
The great thing is to make sure that
what you say is right for you, that
your views are honest and considered
ones, not just high-flown writing or
showy wisecrack ; that you could cross
your heart and say, “I truly believe
this”. The one major sin in criticism is
being dishonest with yourself. Nothing
— no bribe, no threat, no appeal to
sympathy, no cautious, second thought
— makes this forgivable.

If you are consistently honest, and
the reader gets to know it, it doesn’t
matter in the least whether he shares
vour tastes or not. As long as he can
say with confidence, “Oh, I always
agree with So-and-So”, or “I never
agree with So-and-So”, he has a reliable
guide by which he can choose his
films.

.So learn to form your own judgments,
He prepared to defend them wdtli cogent
reasons and don’t be upset if other
people disagree with you. Learn to
write simply and to the required length,
and make quite sure that you are
accurate in your information. If your
memory isn’t reliable, don’t be
ashamed to keep careful notes and
files. To be able to lay your hand on
information quickly is almost as good
as carrying all the information in your
head, and very much more practicable.

And always remember that vour
first duty is to the customer, who has
paid you a tremendous compliment
when you come to think of it ; by
putting down his money, even if it’s
only a penny, to find out what you
think about a particular entertainment,
to read what you have to say.

294

O.C.I.C. IN VENICE, I9£I

Three priests were nominated by the
Executive Committee of O.C.I.C. and
approved by the Vatican Secretariat to
act as ecclesiastical advisers to the
Catholic Film Office Jury at Venice this
year. This is an innovation and allows
a greater degree of freedom to the
clerics taking part in the Catholic side
of the Festival. Hitherto much time
was taken up with receptions which one
felt in duty bound to attend. This year
the Jury itself, composed entirely of
laics, were able to fulfil this part of the
Festival round leaving the priests time
for other and more ecclesiastical
contacts.

The three clerics were : Mgr. A.

Galetto, General Secretary of the Italian
Centro Cinematografico Cattolico ; Dr.
Charles Reinert, S.J., Director of the
Swiss Catholic Film Centre, and the
present writer. The Jury consisted of
Mile M. Etcliegoyen (Urugay) ; Mile
Yv. de Hemptinne (Belgium) ; MM. B.
Rasmussen (Denmark) ; J-P Tallenav
(France) and U. Sciascia (Italy). The
gathering was, then, a truly inter-
national one, a fact that was not wdthout
its effect upon the other participants in
the Festival. Indeed, each year this
evidence of the Church’s international
approach and aspect is of considerable
propagandist value compared with the
often narrowly nationalistic outlook of
some groups taking part in this annual
shop window for the sale of films.

British critics were not so numerous
this year though what we lacked in
quantity we certainly made up in quality.
Miss Freda Bruce Lockhart and Mr.
Campbell Dixon were more than able to
hold their own as representative of the
best in British Film criticism.

The films shown at the Festival were,
on the whole, not so distinguished as in
other years. On the other hand, neither
were there so many to_ which objection
could be taken on moral grounds.
Whether this is a tardy but welcome
indication of reform or merely lack of
opportunity is not easy to say. Certainly
there was nothing to equal tHe utter
decadency of Motion, the Grand Prize
winner of two years ago. Nor was there
evidence that I could discern of the
political lobbying that disfigured last

year’s effort to choose prize films. True,
there was a rumour at the beginning of
the Festival that some French producers
were accusing the O.C.I.C. of making
it impossible for certain films to obtain
a dispassionate viewing. If this is the
case, it is an unconscious testimony to
the influence which Catholic Action is
exerting.

The film which was crowned by the
Grand Jury (composed this year of
Italian journalists) was the Japanese
Rasho-Mon (In the Forest). This came,
I think, as a surprise to many who had
canvassed the claims of three American
films, Streetcar Named Desire, Ace In
The Hole, and Fourteen Hours. What-
ever the merits of the Japanese films
(and I found it a little difficult to assess
them since I had no standard of
comparison apart from ordinary cine-
matographic criteria) this award indi-
cated some independence of mind on the
part of the jury against strong pressure
from the U.S.A. In view of the fact
that the film which received the O.C.I.C.
Prize Journal D’Un Cure De Compagne
(Diary of a Country Priest) also received
two other awards — tying for second
place with Ace In the Hole and a
beautiful film made in India with an
international cast and a French
director — The River, it would seem that
fear of appearing to crown a religious
film deprived the Cure of the greater
distinction of the Lion of St. Mark.
However, that is but surmise.

British films did not carry off any
major awards. The Lavender Hill Mob
was voted the best script, and Murder
in the Cathedral, the most distinguished
decor.

About Journal D’Un Cure Compagne,
I shall write elsewhere. For the moment
it may be listed as one of several films
seen at Venice this year having a
distinctly religious theme. Behold The
Man, though not entered for the
F'estival was viewed with interest by a
number of different nationalities and its
form and content eagerly discussed.
Murder in the Cathedral, produced and
directed by George Heollering, with the
active collaboration of T. S. Eliot,
evidently baffled the Italian audience
though many of them told me they had

295

seen an Italian language version of the
plav and found it full of interest. The
extremely austere visual treatment, the
rhythm, slow as the spoken words of the
poem, blinded them a little to the very
pregnant and apposite argument about
the respective roles of Church and State.
The Japanese prizewinner, Rasho-Mon,
also had a religious theme, basically, for
it was a plea to the Japanese to discard
their ancient worship of ancestors and
personal honour and to accept some-
I thing approximating to Christian
values. A French film, La Nuit Est
Mon Royaume (Night Is My Kingdom)
dealing with the training of the blind,
likewise had a religious turn to it. Jean
Gabin received the prize as best actor
for his part in this film.

The much publicised Streetcar Nanied
Desire proved to be somewhat dis-
appointing as a film. Overrated as a
theatre piece, it failed to gain anything
from its transposition to the screen.
Vivien Leigh took the prize for best
actress for her study of physical and
mental degradation leading to the
lunatic asylum, but added little to her
reputation for worthwhile performances.

The Catholic contribution to the
Festival was focused in the Cinema
Mass which the Patriarch of Venice
celebrated ' for the benefit of the
Catholics attending the Biennale. His
sermon and the reception which His
Grace afterwards gave made a great
impression. Non-Catholic personalities
expressed surprise at the realism of the
Church in face of this perplexing
medium which the words and the
presence of the Patriarch implied. His
Grace attended a special showing of
Journal D’Un Cure De Compagne and
discussed its technical merits and its
power of transmitting a spiritual experi-
ence with warmth and appreciation.

The kindness and understanding of
the Patriarch set the seal upon our
labours at Venice. Not everyone admits
the importance of the work which the
I O.C.I.C. is doing in thus penetrating the
w domain of the cinema in action and
trying to bring the impact of Christian
thought and practice to bear upon it. It
is always a consolation to know that at
least at H.Q. the work is appreciated.
The Vatican’s interest in approving our
presence at Venice and the Patriarch’s
hospitality in welcoming us are
treasured memories.

John A. V. Burke.

Catholic Stacre Guild

Mr. Ted Kavanagh was the Chairman
to a Special Meeting of the Catholic
Stage Guild held at Charing Cross Hotel,
London, on Sunday, October 21st, after
Benediction at Corpus Christi Church,
Maiden Lane. It was the first of a series
of such meetings at which it is hoped
that well-known professionals of stage
and screen will address the members of
the Guild. On this occasion Mr. George
Wood (better known to the public as
Wee Georgie Wood) spoke of his early
days on the stage and of the influence
on his life made by the visits of the
local Catholic priest to the touring
companies in which he was engaged.
He made a strong appeal to all Catholic
members of the entertainment world to
join and support the Catholic Stage
Guild. All professional members of the
various stage, film, radio and variety
organisations are eligible. Next ordinary
meeting : Corpus Christi Church,

Maiden Lane, London, on November
2nd, at 5 p.m. Afterwards at the Green
Man, Bedford Street, Strand.

C.F.1. 16mm. SECTION

Chairman :

The Rev. F. E. Young
Hon. Secretary :

Miss M. Rieey

Membership fee 2/6 per annum

If you own a 16mm. movie camera
or if you wish to help to develop
an important side of Catholic film
action by helping to make
religious films for non-theatrical
distribution, join our 16mm.
Section

All enquiries to :

Catholic Film Institute

(16mm. Section)

157 VICTORIA STREET
LONDON, S.W.1

296

FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. No. 10

Whither the Craftsman?

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

We are approaching the end of this
Course which, for two years, has sought
to present a complete picture of
filmdom to enable the student to
become fully informed on a most vital
subject about which far too little is
known. The first year was devoted to
an analysis of the industry, revealing
methods of costing, distribution,
exhibition, governmental stipulations,
and how the film world is divided into
two unequal parts — Theatrical and
Non-Theatrical. We covered, too,
audience reaction, the influence of
films on adults and children, and
provided statistics sh’owing the huge
dimensions of the industry throughout
the world. Thus our initial approach
differed from most discourses on film
matters which are usually concerned
with surface values studied from a
cinema seat.

Fundamental truths, however, can be
learnt, we found, only by probing
behind the screens. That was why we
made no attempt to enter either
cinemas or studios to begin with.
Having dug down to the roots, we
then turned attention to the actual
making of films, and now, to summarise
the Course and consider its underlying
purpose, let us share the problems
facing the craftsman and the creative
artist who are anxious to apply their
gifts to the making of films for religious
purposes. We find them standing
dwarfed bv mighty studios, dazzled by
the glittering entrances of cinemas,
bewildered by commercial stipulations.

Can the craftsman find an outlet for
his films in the commercial cinema ?
No — at least not unless thej- are
entertaining in the accepted sense and
we may assume, for the moment, he is
not primarily interested in adding to
the ceaseless torrent of entertainment
films. But assuming he is so skilful
that he can combine his spiritual
messages with dramatic values to
make his films acceptable to cinema
audiences. Can he then produce freely,

spending as little money as he wishes
lor possesses) ? No. There is in force
today a Quota Act to guarantee a
market for British films in this country
containing a “cost clause”, which
stipulates that the labour costs of a
short film must be at least 10s. per
foot, and of a feature film, £1 per foot.

Consider the short film. Our
craftsman plans, writes and shoots it
as economically, ingeniously and
artistically as possible. The result is
really first class. If it is a one-reel
film, 1,000 feet in length, and if it is
to qualify as a Quota film, he must
have spent £500 on labour costs alone
(to which must be added all the other
costs of making the film). If his
labour costs are less than 10s. per foot,
or if he might have managed to make
the entire film for less than £500, his
film will not be registered by the Board
of Trade as a Quota subject, and this
fact will result in fewer bookings,
because exhibitors are not enthusiastic
about booking uon-Quota films,
regardless of their quality. In this way
costs are artificially raised owing to the
widespread belief that quality depends
upon cost, and the “cost clause” is
designed to prevent “cheap and nasty”
films being produced. Thus, the cheap
and brilliant film has little chance of
success.

And so our craftsman turns away
from the commercial cinema and seeks
non-Theatrical 16mm. distribution.
Here he finds a highly developed
network for circulating films of a
specialised nature for all purposes
except religion, which has not been
catered for systematically in so far as
distribution is concerned.

Is then his mission hopeless ? By
no means, though his task is going to
be very hard. In next month’s
concluding article I will try to help
him with his problem of how to project
the Christian Way of Life on the
screen to the millions in urgent need

297

of the Message. To project it,
moreover, in pure, simple, brave fashion
and not watered down or shaped to
meet box-office demands. It is a great
purpose — maybe the greatest purpose

of all, and the visionary craftsman must
be saved from being commercially
strangled so that the mighty power of
film may be employed to bring the
people face to face with religion.

C.F.I. NOTES

From Down Under

We have been very happy during the
last six months to have seen a lot of
Father F. M. Chamberlin who is
National Chaplain to the Australian
Young Christian Students and who is
in Europe on an extended and, we are
sure, very exhausting study tour of
Catholic Action. Father Chamberlin
came to Lucerne in May to represent
the Australian Catholic Film Centre at
the O.C.I.C. General Council. He was
also at Venice for the Children’s Film
Congress and in Paris for an
Educational Conference on Children and
the Cinema. At both of these we were
glad to have him representing the
C.F.I. Father Chamberlin is an
enthusiast for Catholic Film Action.
He is the Editor of Film and You, the
very practical booklet written for
Australian youth which has sold over
20,000 copies, and been translated
into several other languages, an
astonishingly fine result from a
comparatively small seed. Father
Chamberlin has also made several
recordings of talks by well-known
personalities in this country for
transmission over the Catholic Radio
Hour in Australia. It makes us wonder
when we are going to catch up with
our brothers down under. More power
to their elbows !

“Focus” Film Course

The handbook which was published to
help as a stimulus to discussion groups
talking about films is still not as widelv
known as it deserves to be. Priced
Is. 6d. it is an inexpensive reference
book for those who wish to talk
intelligently about the place of the
cinema as an industry and an art in
the world today. Too manv people are
ignorant of the background of the

cinema industry and of the part that is
played by financial considerations in
moulding what Pius XI called “the
most powerful means of influencing the
masses today”. It is little use talking
about better films or the needs of
censorship if you are unaware of the
nature of the gigantic monster which
produces the films you condemn. We
think that it would be a good thing if
every boy and girl in the top forms of
our schools should invest in a copy of
the Focus Film Course Handbook.
Parents and youth leaders willing to
help form opinion on the cinema will
find this book a useful guide.

Meantime we hope that in other parts
of the country interested groups are
planning to repeat the lectures which
we arranged in Loudon last spring.

Regional Film Groups

Gradually we are learning of the
existence of Catholic Film Societies up
and down the country. Thev are all
doing excellent work in helping to
focus attention in one way or another
on Catholic film action. We shall be
giad to help in any way possible.
Strength comes from unity in these
matters.

Low Mass Film Strip

The film strip Low Mass, made by
John Gillick, S.J., may be obtained
from the C.F.I. or from Father Gillick
himself at Beaumont College, Old
Windsor, Berks. It costs 12s. 6d. plus
postage.

STRIPS ON APPRO i
DAWN TRUST

STUDIO - AYLESBURY 1

298

A New Section of the C.F.I
1 6mm. at Stratford-on-Avon

An encouraging and very pleasant
Conference was held at Soli House,
Stratford-on-Avon, during the first week
of October. The purpose of the
Conference was to examine the
possibilities of setting up a practical
16mm. group under the auspices of the
C.F.I. It was organised by the
Birmingham Archdiocesan Film Group
and though the number of those
attending was not large, the atmosphere
of the meeting was most satisfactory
and a great deal of useful exploratory-
work was accomplished.

Two days were devoted to showing
films made by members of the
Conference and a wide variety of
religious subjects were touched upon
in this way, from the excellent film
made for the Southwark Rescue Society
by Father Francis Young, dealing with
Day Nurseries under the charge of the
Vincentian Sisters, to the interesting
and provocative mime of the Stations of
the Cross, made by Father P. Corrigan,
with a group of workers against the
background of a Midlands factory.

Frank discussion and exchange of
ideas followed each projection and if
no other object were achieved than this
comparison of methods of work, the
Conference would have been well worth
while. In fact, a very important step
in the development of Catholic film
action in this country was made. It
was decided that a group specially-
devoted to the production of religious
films in 16mm. be set up. In this way,
a return has been made to the primary-
object with which the original Catholic
Film Society- was started in 1934.
Indeed, the link is made more obvious
by the fact that Father Francis Young,
one of the pioneers of the original
group, was elected Chairman of this
new section of the C.F.I., and we are
glad to be assured of his enthusiasm
and experience in the direction of this
necessary and inevitable side of Catholic
film action.

There must be many Catholics, both
clerical and lav, who have more or less

proficiency with a 16mm. movie camera
and who have felt at some time or other
that if they could exchange ideas and
work in co-operation with other
Catholics of like mind, something
good and useful to the general
community would result. We are
convinced that the opportunity for this
pooling of ideas and experience is now
possible under the aegis of our new
section and if everybody who knows
anybody whom this section would
interest will only put us in touch, we
shall have a large and representative
gathering for the next Conference
which we propose to hold during the
first week of next March. Persons to
whom this applies are invited to write
to the Hon. Secretary, Catholic Film
Institute, 16mm. Section, 157 Victoria
Street, London, S.W.l.

In the meantime, we shall have the
benefit of the advice and co-operation
of Andrew Buchanan and other
professional technicians in helping to
make sure that the work done by the
members of the 16mm. section will be
up to the highest standard. It may
well be that here, at last, is the nucleus
of the dedicated group that we
have been working for for so long.
One thing is clear : whatever work

is done in the Catholic name must be
of the best quality. This is not to say
that fantastic sums must be spent.
When Pius XI wrote that “for this
purpose they must make use of the
technical ability of experts and not
permit the waste of effort and money by
the employment of amateurs’’, he was
certainly not committing us to the
wasteful and astronomical economics
of the commercial industry. He was
insisting, in accord with the age-old
tradition of the Church, that whatever
use be made of the arts in the name
of the Church, the highest standards
alone are satisfactory.

We cannot close our brief account of
this Conference without according a
warm vote of thanks to Father T. S.
Copsey, the organising genius behind

299

this meeting and the priest responsible
for the very special work which is
being done for youth in the Arch-
diocese of Birmingham. Many of our
readers will have seen the remarkable
film, Rome Pilgrimage, which Father
Copsey, aided by his henchmen, Fathers
P. Corrigan and D. Hickling, produced
last year. These good priests have
coupled their work for youth with an
enthusiasm for the medium which most
appeals to youth nowadays and if their
efforts at practical film-making and
showing result, as they seem very likely
to do, in the greater appreciation of

the young for the potentialities of the
cinema, they will be doubly our
benefactors.

It was also comforting to know that,
though he was unable to be present at
the Conference, it had the backing and
approval of His Lordship the Bishop of
Soli, Bishop Bright, whose valuable
support of all that concerns the welfare
of Catholic youth is signalised in the
hostel which bears his name, Soli
House, and which was our home for the
all-too-short period of our sojourn on
the banks of the Avon.

J. A. V. B.

Catholic 1 6mm. Film Users

We are often asked to suggest
programmes suitable for children. It is
not always easy. Many a film with a
“U” certificate from the Censor
contains elements that are either beyond
the understanding of children or else
not desirable for the young to see.
There are, however, a number of
films made by the Rank Children’s
Entertainment films group which
(although the organisation has now,
unfortunately, ceased production) are
still available for 16mm. users.

Jean’s Plan, running for 33 minutes,
tells of a little girl’s efforts to recover
a stolen necklace. It is full of action
by a team of youngsters and grown-ups
and has some lovely scenery and shots
of life aboard a barge.

Riders of the New Forest, running
for 60 minutes, is a pleasant story of
children and horses and forest scenery.
Dragon of Pentdragon Castle tells of
a castle that is haunted by a dragon,
but it is a little boy who tames the
dragon and brings happiness to all and
sundry. A most amusing performance
is given bv little David Hannaford. It
runs for 52 minutes. Circus Boy is
probably better known but is still a
favourite with the youngsters, telling of
the efforts which a boy makes to
overcome his fear. Authentic circus
scenes make this a particularly useful
film for Christmas programmes. It is
50 minutes long. Bush Christmas, too,
is now a classic, but not to be
overlooked for repeat performances.
Children love to see the films thev

really like again and again. The
Little Ballerina, particularly suitable for
girls but not by any means exclusively,
is a charmingly told story of a girl’s
adventures as she tries to realise her
ambition to become a ballet dancer.
There is some lovely dancing in it by
Margot Fonteyn.

Your Film
Show

The Catholic Film
Institute projection
unit is available for
film shows in the
London area

Moderate Charges
Particulars from

The

Catholic Film Institute
157 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.I

300

O.C.I.C. PRIZE FILM

“JOURNAL D’UN CURE DE COMPAGNE”
(Diary of a Country Priest)

The O.C.I.C. Jury had little trouble in
coming to a decision this year at Venice.
Though there were several films with
spiritual and humanitarian tendencies
in competition, only one had those
qualities of technical and artistic as well
as moral integrity which leave one in
no doubt as to the result in a festival.
George Bernanos’ novel, “Journal D’Un
Cure de Compagne”, was already a
classic. The film which Robert Bresson
has made from the novel will also be a
classic. That is not to say that it will
be popular as, for example, Monsieur
Vincent was popular. It is far too
austere, too much of an essay in mental
development, too exacting in the
demands it makes of its audience for it
ever to be an easy film to see. But if
an audience is interested to see a film
in which it is evident that director,
scriptwriter, actors and cameraman have
worked as one closely-knit team to
produce what is, in my experience, the
first film actually to suggest true
spiritual progress, then Bresson’s is that
film.

To say that it is not easy to look
at and understand is onl\- to say that
there is much more in it than is
apparent at a first viewfing. Having seen
it three times at the moment of writing
I can say that it unfolds itself upon
investigation. It is relentless in the
attention it demands from the intelli-
gence. It has no softer moments. It
moves firmly forward to the inevitable
death of the young priest and the
brilliant white cross which covers the
screen as the film fades out underlines
yet more the impression one has already
gained that we have attended a fierce
sermon on conformity to the pattern of
Christ and Him crucified.

The diary is written by a young priest,
sent to his first parish, suffering already
from an interior malady which makes
even more difficult the hard task of
penetrating the hard, materialistic

hearts of his peasant congregation.
Conscious of his physical and cultural
deficiencies, he feels able only to suffer
for them and to pray for them as for a
dearly beloved one. Actually, the
stammering sincerity and intensity of
his words, forced from his lips as from
a mother bearing her children in pain,
bring about the conversion and the
implied conversion of even the stoniest
of hearts.

To a priest this film is as a retreat;
an encouragement and an accusation of
feebleness in the harvest fields of God.
To the laity it should be an inspiration
to pray for and love their priests who,
basically, are their lovers and shepherds
for God’s sake.

Bresson, in an interview with our Jury
at Venice, said that a film like this can
only grow from within. The director
cannot force it to take shape other than
its own ; or if he do so, then it will be
an abortion and lack all truth. To this
must be added that there is needed a
director who is a poet and a man of God.
I have every reason to believe that
Bresson is both.

J. A. V. B.

The Young Priest Seeks Advice

301

smssa sas^asw

By our Panel of Priests

Category A, indicates adults only; B, adults and adolescents ;
C, family audiences; D, particularly for children

THE MAGIC BOX

Starring: Robert Donat, with Margaret
Johnston, Maria Schell and over
sixty British stars. Producer:
Ronald Nearae. Director: John
Boulting. Distributors: British

Lion. In technicolor. Certificate :
V . Category : C. Running time :
118 minutes.

It was to be expected and very proper
that the British film industry should
make a special contribution to the
Festival of Britain. And it is appropriate
enough that the subject of such a
picture should be tile life and labours
of William Friese-Greene (Willie to his
friends), since, unknown to you and
me and the encyclopaedia, he was as a
matter of history the first to “produce
and patent a commercially practical
motion-picture camera based on the
principles still used today”.

The film shows us a man who in his
early days looked like a distant
relative of Buster Keaton and in the
year of his death, 1921, like a twin
brother of Mr. Chips. Lovable but
unpractical outside the sphere of
photography, he was the despair of
two successive wives through his
forgetfulness and lack of consideration.

) (He even forgot to turn up to sing a
few bars solo when no less a person
than Sir Arthur Sullivan came to
conduct the Bath Choral Society.)

For me the most memorable moments
in the picture were when the
incomparable Margaret Rutherford
visits a photographer’s studio, when
Laurence Olivier, in the unusual role
of a London policeman, sees his first
moving picture and when Mr. Friese-

Greene exhorts Lord Beaverbrook and
others to realise that unless the cinema
grows up with its audience it will
destroy itself. (In cynical moments I
wonder if the audience is growing up
all that fast.)

There was a Council of Management
for the film in which K.C.B.s etc.,
are two a penny. But the result,
though qualifying with honours for a
Nihil obstat as regards faith and
morals, seems too often to be on a
par with a Theatrical Garden Party or
a Green Room Rag.

It is said of Friese-Greene that his
story was compounded almost equally
of brilliant achievement and abject
failure. The Magic Box is never an
abject failure but, except for brief and.
rare moments, it never achieves
brilliance.

Q-

FLYING LEATHERNECKS

Starring: John Wayne, Robert Ryan,
Don Taylor, Janis Carter.
Director: Nicholas Ray. Distrib-
utors: R.K.O. Certificate: A.

Category: A. Running time:

90 minutes.

This is a picture-epic which records
the gore and the glory that surrounded
the American Air Force and mud-
commandos who operated under fierce
orders in the Pacific during the late
war.

I was often reminded of firework
displays ; but, on the whole, this film
is exciting and credible. It, at least,
should help us to realise that civilisation
is, as yet, a very thin veneer.

E.

302

THE LADY PAYS OFF

Starring: Linda Darnell, Stephen

McNally and Gigi Perreau.
Director: Douglas Sirk. Distrib-
utors: Universal-International.

Certificate: U. Category: A.

Running time : 80 minutes.

Here is another fifth-rate film which
dubious publicity involving bathing
beauties (not to be seen in the version
shown to the Press) is intended,
presumably, to sell to an otherwise
sales-resisting public.

A story in which “the teacher of the
year” resents being thought of as
maternal and finds herself compelled to
tutor the little daughter of a gambler
in order to pay off the I.O.U. she has
rashly signed is hardly elevating and
certainly not entertaining.

Little Gigi Perreau as the child goes
through the appropriate routine of tear-
jerking gestures expected of a child
actress ; the remainder of the cast have
not to exert themselves unduly. The
customary deference to materialistic
standards of conduct and the acceptance
of lying as a legitimate means to any
desired end renders this film no better
and no worse than a thousand similar
products from the studio assembly line.

- V.

DAVID AND BATHSHEBA

Starring: Gregory Peck, Susan Hay-
ward, with Raymond Massey,
Kieron Moore, James Robertson
Justice, Jayne Meadows, John
Sutton, Dennis Hoey. Producer:
Darryl F. Zanuck. Director:
Henry King. In technicolor.
Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time: 116 minutes.

David and Batlisheba was only to be
expected after Samson and Delilah.
But Mr. Zanuck has not played a trump
card ; he has followed the suit led by
Mr. de Mille.

Some Catholics may be mystified
when they are told that the story of
David and Batlisheba is taken from the
Second Book of Samuel. “There is no
Book of Samuel in my Bible,” they
mav say, “and no mention of
Batlisheba.” It should be mentioned
that in the Douai version the book in

question is headed “The Second Book
of Samuel, otherwise called the
Second Book of Kings” and is usually
known to Catholics by the latter name.
And the Douai version prefers the
Greek to the Hebrew form of many
names and so uses Bethsabee.

But there is much in the film which
will not be found in anyone’s Bible.
It is quite true that King David first
saw Bathsheba (I shall use the names
employed in the film) when she was
washing, that she had a child by him
and that David sent her husband Uriah
into the front of a battle so that he
should be killed and that David then
married Bathsheba and was reproved
bv Nathan, the prophet. But this
discreditable incident is magnified,
glamourised and distorted in the film.
The bath business is presented
modestly enough behind a screen. But
whereas Holy Scripture implies a single
act of adulter}-, the picture suggests
quite a prolonged and sentimental
affair, with David and Bathsheba going
out for what was obviously a picnic,
though we do not see them eating.
(My instinctive thought was : “They
must have parked the car somewhere.”
And sure enough they go back in a
chariot.) Bathsheba’s only recorded
comment on the situation (II Kings
xi, 5) was concise and to the point. In
the film she has a lot to say, including
“Did you really kill Goliath?” (Of
course, the encounter with Goliath is
shown in a flashback.) In the Bible,
David makes Uriah drunk. In the
picture he treats him to a performance
by a dancing girl which, to put it
mildly, is very Oriental. This sequence
is quite uncalled for and should be cut.
The part of Nathan is well acted by
Raymond Massey. But the time of his
famous rebuke is transposed and
gratuitouslv associated with popular
indignation.

The cinema does not often improve
the work of an author when it alters
it. The Vatican Council teaches that
the books of the Old and New
Testament “have God for their author”
and many will prefer His version to
that “written for the screen by Philip
Dunne”.

No doubt the Biblical Technical
Adviser knows more about the costumes
of the period and place than I do, but
somehow I did not care for David’s
pullover with embroidered star. As for

303

Bathsheba’s outfit and general style, I
found myself looking, albeit in vain,
for a brooch inscribed “Bathie”.

The psalm, “The Lord is my
shepherd”, has been adopted as a
Protestant cliche, so we had that (sung
by the Hollywood equivalent of the
B.B.C. singers) and not the Miserere,
traditionally associated with this
episode.

When the film was shown to a
selected audience consisting of clergy-
men, with and without moustaches,
senior officers of the Salvation Army,
myself and a few others, we were told
that it was “a film with a message”.
I am not clear myself what that
message is, but I think the great
British public will emerge from the
cinema with a vague but comforting
conviction that if, and when, you
commit adultery, God will forgive you
if you look like Susan Havward.

Q.

MR. BELVEDERE RINGS THE
BELL

Starring: Clifton Wetob, Joanne Dru,
Hugh Marlowe, Zero Mostel.
Producer: Andre Hakim.

Director: Henry Koster. Distrib-
utors: 20th Century-Fox.

Certificate : U. Category : B.

This time Clifton Webb doesn’t ring
the bell of any rich and spontaneous
laughter. There are, of course, some
mild peals of merriment and Clifton
Webb has a way with him that is always
amusing.

20th Century-Fox seem to have been
caught in the web of modern
psychology : in this comedy they use
the talents of Clifton Webb to preach
the doctrine that we are only as old as
\\ e feel .

It has been said that this film is in
bad taste because it makes fun of old
people who live together. But does it
make fun of old people ? And is it not
true that a number of people succumb
too quickly to old age? “It is the
mind that makes the body sick,”
.Shakespeare has told us.

Nevertheless, I prefer Clifton Webb
the comedian to Clifton Webb the
preacher.

E.

THE LADY WITH THE LAMP
Starring: Anna Neagle, Michael Wild-
ing, Gladys Young, Felix Aylmer.
Producer: J. D. Wilcox.

Distributors: British Lion.

Certificate : U . Category ; B.

Running time: no minutes.

This film is neither brilliant nor dull.
There is such a twilight quality about
it that, although Anna Neagle acts most
sincerely and with technical precision
and perfection, Florence Nightingale at
no time emerges as the clear-cut
powerful spiritual leader of thought and
action. She is presented as a quiet,
sterling, devoted, self-sacrificing Sister
who could be any Sister working in any
hospital.

The fault lies not in the star, Anna
Neagle, but part of the fault lies in the
star, Michael Wilding, who is hope-
lessly miscast as the Rt. Hon. Sidney
Herbert. Wilding looks and acts like
a very tame butler.

I respectfully suggest that the whole
of the fault must be laid at the door of
Herbert Wilcox who has attempted
something outside the sphere of his
own particular genius. Part of genius
is (surely) the ability to recognise one’s
limitations. Wilcox has produced some
good, gay, bright, light films such as
Spring in Park Lane, but the
biographical penetration would seem to
be outside his sphere.

E.

THE PEOPLE AGAINST O’HARA

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Pat O'Brien,
Diana Lynn. An M.-G.-M.
Picture. Producer: William H.
Wright. Director: John Sturges.
Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time: 103 minutes.

The only people not against O’Hara
are his parents and an eminent lawyer,
splendidly played by Spencer Tracy,
who undertakes to defend the young
man on trial for murder. This is
a thriller with more than one unusual
incident ; and though I must confess
that I found it somewhat complicated
and at certain moments too drawn out,
I would class it as being very good
of its kind. There is some fine photo-
graphy and the acting is adequate.

T. C. F.

William Prince, Ralph Clinton, Jose Ferrer

CYRANO DE BERGERAC

Starring: Jose Ferrer, Mala Powers,
with William Prince, Morris
Carnovsky and Ralph Clinton.
Distributors: United Artists.

Certificate : A. Category-. B.

Running time : 90 minutes

approximately .

The Shakespearean fire and dash of
this brilliant theatre piece cause one to
reflect with astonishment that it is a
translation of a French play which was
first performed in Paris in 1897.
Edmond Rostand, the author, built his
work around the French novelist,
Savien Cyrano de Bergerac, born at
Perigord in Gascony in 1619, who
divided his time between literature and
fighting and spent two years in the
guard, lie fought a number of duels
to avenge insults about his enormous
nose. The contemporary prints show
a man with a large nose, but not
anywhere near as large as those usually
affected by actors on the stage, a fancy
observed by Jose Ferrer in his brilliant
characterisation on the screen.

The film, following Rostand very

closely, also keeps close to the stage
convention. This is wise, for what we
most enjoy is the dialogue and though
the camera is able to make occasional
excursions in space, Cyrano is an
actor’s piece and in Jose Ferrer we
have an actor of outstanding ability
who never misses a moment of telling
phrase, gesture or facial expression.
The film exaggerates the absurdities of
the stage play, but this does not bother
us who are fascinated to watch for
once a superb stage performance in
close-up.

The remainder of the cast are poor
by comparison with Ferrer. The story
of the ugly man who loves a beauty
and is willing to speak as deputy for
a tongue-tied handsome rival is an old
one. The handsome rival eventually
making way for the ugly hero whom
the beauty realises, in this case, too
late, she really loves, is also an old
resolution of a trite situation, but the
film is worth seeing for the sake of
Ferrer. Marriage is treated somewhat
lightly and the friar who performs the
ceremony is rather a figure of fun from
the Shakespearean repertory, but this
need not disturb the average adult.

V.

305

ROMMEL — DESERT FOX

Starring: James Mason, Cedric Hard-
wicke, Jessica Tandy, Leo
Carroll. From the book
“Rommel”, by Desmond Young.
Producer: Nunnally Johnson.

Distributors: 20th Century-Fox.

Certificate : U . Category : C.

Running time'. 99 minutes.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is a
| legend from history today. But he was
a legend to the troops on both sides of
the firing line long before he died. It
is therefore just that he should appear
as the hero of this outstanding film.
Quite simply told, without undue
dramatisation, this is the story of the
general who swept the Western Desert
so long as his health and supplies
lasted. He was a great German war
figure of World War II, yet he is
portrayed here in his other capacity as
well, a human person of deep

personality and a happy family life. If
there is one criticism of the film, it
is that the story begins only, really, at
El Alamein, though the prologue is the
tale of the thrilling, if unsuccessful,
raid oil his headquarters before. At
any rate, his sweeping victories do not
feature. I11 fact we see the slow eclipse
of Rommel, as he is. brought more and
more into conflict with Hitler. Bitterest
personal blow was surely when at the
closing phase of the North African
Campaign, Hitler told Rommel he had
no further interest in the Afrika Corps.

On the Western Front the atmosphere
before D-Day is well pictured, especially
in the discontent of Von Rundstedt’s
dry humour . . . “Corporals are always
so obstinate, Rommel.” The invasion
of Normandy is most effective with its
many contemporary shots of the
landing, and Rommel disgusted by the
lack of preparation, doubting Hitler
because of his immediate control of
affairs, yet as a soldier bound to obey.
The final story, so little known to the
^ general public, of Rommel’s bid to save
Germany by destroying Hitler is
moving and yet restrained.

One thing emerges very clearly from
Von Rundstedt’s words, that the
German army considers itself defeated
by a Bavarian corporal. Winston
Churchill re-echoes his House of
Commons tribute to Rommel as an
epilogue in these days when “there is
so little time for chivalry”.

Janies Mason’s Rommel is most
convincing and sincere. This film
deserves great credit and should be
seen as historically sound and at the
same time great entertainment.

M.

ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI

Starring: Clark Gable, John Hodiak,
Maria Marquez, Ricardo Mont-
alban. An M.-G.-M. Picture.
Director: William Wellman.

Certificate : U . Category • C.

Running time'. 80 minutes
approximately .

This technicolored story of trappers
and Indians along the banks of the
Missouri in the first quarter of the
nineteenth century was not shown to
the Press. It is always difficult to
understand what policy governs these
things. The film is an excellent piece
of adventure and colour with the
magnificent scenery inseparable from
such films, 'lhere is much interesting
information about the ways of Indians
and the methods of the trappers. There
is a minimum of love-making, a
maximum of riding and hunting and a
great deal of tension especially when a
runaway horse bearing a child, tied
papoose fashion, to the saddle, is
chased by an Indian intent upon
killing it.

The romance is between Clark Gable
as the chief trapper and Maria Marquez
as an enchanting Indian girl who
becomes his wife. She speaks only an
Indian dialect throughout the film — an
unusual deference to integrity — and is
killed before the end of the film. This,
I imagine, is not so much an avoidance
of the customary “happy ending” as
demanded by the taboo against white
men being the husbands of coloured
wives. The same thing took place in
another excellent film dealing with
Indian and White- relationship, The
Broken Arrow.

The acting is on a high level
throughout. Maria Marquez, particularly,
gives a thoughtful performance. John
Hodiak, as a Scotsman gone Indian,
and Adolph Menjou, as a French scout,
give out - of - the - ordinary character
studies. Not a great but an entertaining
film.

V.

306

George Colouris Impounds Venus

APPOINTMENT WITH VENUS

Starring: David Niven, Glvnis Johns,
George Colouris, Barry Jones.
Producer: Betty E. Box. Distrib-
utors: G.F.D. Certificate : U.

Category: C. Running time:

89 minutes.

Venus, let it be said, is a cow. But
such a cow that the Ministry of Ag.
and Fish, (or Agriculture and Fisheries,
to strangers) decide to remove her at
all costs from the German-occupied
Channel Island of Armorel. For the
purpose, they pick Major Morland
(David Niven), looking dashing in a
kilt, and give him A.T.S. girl Nicola
Fallaize, who knows the island. In fact,
of course, she is sister to the “head
man’’ of the island, the Suzerain.
Arrived on the scene of operations,
they find the local commander has also
fallen for Venus, and is planning to
get her away to Germany. Swift action
is necessary, and Nicola enlists the aid
of her cousin, who as a painter has
refused to leave the island or to be

Glynis Johns, Venus and David Niven

involved in war. He is, however, I
involved in Venus, and agrees to
camouflage another cow to look like
her. All goes well until the German
commander pats the supposed Venus
and clouds of dry distemper rise from
her “new look”. However, the Navy
comes at the right moment and despite
the fact that Venus gives birth and
delays operations, she is safely lured
aboard an which sets off at full

speed, chased by an E-boat which has
arrived in the harbour. Naturally the
E-boat is disposed of by a well-trained
depth-charge which waits to go off until
the pursuer is passing over.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, which
is amusing and has a certain excite-
ment as well. Initial pictures in the
Ministry are typical of what is supposed
to (and does ?) go on in these offices. ^
The photography is of a peaceful
Channel Island, with co-operation by
the islanders making a realistic picture
of a story so fantastic that you can
just relax. At the same time there is
a deeper feeling in the quiet resistance
which so often occurred in occupied
countries. A good afternoon off.

M.

307

DETECTIVE STORY

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Eleanor

Parker, Cathy O’Donnell and
William Bendix. Producer and
Director: William Wyler.

Distributors: Paramount Pictures.
Certificate-. X Category. A.
Running time : 104 minutes.

Those who have read Les Miserables
will remember that Javert, the police
officer, mercilessly hunts down Valjean,
the reformed convict, because he feels
that he must blot out the criminal
record in his family by unremitting
devotion to the Law. Detective James
McLeod is possessed by the same
passion in this film. Because his father
was a criminal and sent his mother to
an early grave, he wages a relentless
war against crime and is without pity
even for the first offender whom a
humane touch could wean from evil. In
hunting down an abortionist he dis-
covers that his wife had had a still-born
child before her marriage with him.
Furv and rage blind him and his wife
leaves him because she knows that he
will never be able to forgive her. He
eventually dies from wounds inflicted by
a prisoner who has overcome his guard.
His last words are an act of contrition
as he realises on the brink of eternity,
the enormity of his sin of pride.

The film is an example of technique
at its best. Not a moment or a move-
ment wasted. Though it is obviously
based on a play it is packed with
motion ; the very essence of true cinema.
Its dialogue is taut and real. The
acting reaches that pitch of intensity
which makes one forget that it is acting.
Kirk Douglas gives a powerful perform-
ance as McLeod : perhaps a little too
reminiscent of his recent highly-strung
parts in Champion, Man of Music, or
Ace In The Hole, but still acceptable
and very much above average. Eleanor
Parker is appealing as his wife ; Cathy
O’Donnell, likewise, gives a warm,
moving performance as a girl willing to
help her boy-friend keep straight if only
the police will give him a chance. Fine
work also by William Bendix, Horace
McMahon as a police lieutenant, and
Lee Grant as a shoplifter, and Joseph
Wiseman as a cat burglar with a
psychological twist.

It should be noted that the film has

an “X” certificate which means it is
not suitable for children nor for adults
who are unaccustomed to mature
thought.

V.

HIGHWAY 301

Starring: Steve Cochran, Virginia

Grey and Gaby Andre. A Warner
Brothers Picture. Director:
Andrew Stone. Certificate : A.
Category-. A. Running time : 80
minutes approximately .

This is a “cops and robbers” story
though it is decorated with some
documentary-style interpolations from
real-life politicians and police. It
finishes with the declaration from the
police officer in charge of the case that
it is useless to be too gentle with
criminals ; that crime does not pay. In
the meantime some very vivid pictures
have shown that it does pay, for a time ;
it also shows how neatly a bank can be
robbed by determined gangsters. Before
the film has ended, the gang have all
been killed, either by the police or br-
each other. There is a generous
allowance of face-slapping and other
brutalities. Despite the fact that there
are a few moments of breath-taking
tension towards the end of the film, it
is not the kind that one recommends
to people looking for worthwhile
entertainment.

V.

*

HE RAN ALL THE WAY
Starring: John Garfield, Shelley

Winters, W a 1 1 a c e Ford.
Producer: Bob Roberts. Distrib-
utors: United Artists. Certificate :
A. Category: A. Running time :
75 minutes.

This very brutal film has few merits
except its new treatment of the gunmen
who escape from the police. Nick
(John Garfield) panics on a raid, gets
his chum killed and kills a cop. He
then uses a girl to get him through
the cordon, a girl he has picked up in
a swimming bath. Taking her home,
he proceeds to turn her parents’ flat
into a hide-out. He holds up the
family, keeps one with him all the time
as a hostage and generally bullies

308

mother, father and kid brother. But
Peg (Shelley Winters) loves hint,
backs him, wants to help him escape.
She buys a car with his stolen money,
and despite the threats by her father
says she will go with him. But in the
end, his selfish fear makes Xick use
her as a shield, she shoots Xick, who
collapses dramatically7 in front of the
car which should have driven them to
safety.

The onlv really Christian sentiment
is expressed by Peg’s father, who
explains that his wife from her church-
going learns the true meaning of love.
You certainly would not do the same
from seeing this film.

M.

THE FIRST LEGION

Starring: Charles Boyer, with William
Demarest, Lyle Bettger, Walter
Hampden, Barbara Rush, Wesley
Addy, H. B. Warner, Leo G.
Carroll. Producer and Director:
Douglas Sirk. Distributors:
United Artists. Certificate : U.

Category : C. Running time: 85
minutes.

The First Legion is none other than
the Society of Jesus, and the great lover,
following the track beaten by two
famous crooners, now plays the part
of a priest with no less, if no greater,
success. The story is of an alleged
miracle and its consequences in a
Jesuit College, the alumni of which,
described as novices, seem to be more
like scholastics. A distinguished Jesuit,
who saw the film, said that he enjoyed
it because it was so unlike anything
he was accustomed to. In spite of a
technical adviser, a priest of Loyola
University, the picture fails, he
thought, not only in accuracy of detail
but also in its attempt to suggest the
ethos of the Society in America.

In endeavouring to assess the value
of the film I will begin with some of
its defects. The first point (if I may
borrow an Ignation phrase) is the
conflict in the mind of a young Fr.
Fulton, who is on the point of leaving
the Society without a dispensation.
This is dealt with exclusively in terms
of “finding peace”, “belonging”, etc.
Broken vows, shirked duties and

undischarged commitments count for
nothing. Fr. Fulton is a musician and
perhaps it is characteristic that his
musical ideal is Grieg’s pianoforte
concerto, a superficially attractive but
not very profound composition. An
apparent miracle restrains him. (What
he really needed was a kick in the
appropriate part of his cassock.)

Then there is our old friend, the seal
of confession. The confession in
question is explicitly not with a view a
to absolution. Therefore the seal does ™
not bind, and this is mentioned. But
the person making it requires the priest
to treat it as equally secret. The priest
refers to the matter some time ,
afterwards when he is alone with the
person who confided in hint. This is
liable to give the entirely false
impression that a confessor is
entitled to refer to a confessional matter
to a penitent outside confession,
provided he supposes that they are
alone.

The introduction of a love interest
between a doctor and a crippled girl
was artistically defensible and
commercially prudent, but the
conventional and almost simpering
glamour injected into the film in this
connection is out of key.

More commendable is the shrewd

Fr. Boyer and the Agnostic Doctor

309

observation of certain aspects of the
faithful in bulk and the commercialism
which is the parasite of their devotion.
And commendable for the most part
is a clever study by Walter Demarest
of a Monsignor, with his kind heart
and anti-Jesuit banter. But I think he
had forgotten the precision of his
theology when he announced that
God’s love is a miracle.

A priest’s training and experience
give him an advantage when he
reviews a “secular” or “profane” film;
he has the yardstick of clear principle
by which to judge it. But paradoxically
he is at a disadvantage in the case of
a “religious” film like this. The
familiarity of the expert makes it
difficult for him to make the mental
adjustment necessary if he is to put
himself in the place of the average
filingoer in this country. This picture
is intended to have a popular appeal
and will be seen bv thousands who not
only know nothing about the Catholic
Religion or the Religious Orders, but
think they know a lot, for in no
other sphere is abysmal ignorance so
bolstered by confident and complacent
misconception. Whatever its limitations,
this film is much nearer to reality than
the fantastic notions of many who will
see it. It is a corrective to the idea
that members of Religious Orders must
all lack vitality, humanity and humour.
It makes a point of distinguishing
between cures of nervous conditions
due to suggestion and the rapid healing
of an organic defect which medical
science cannot explain. And the latter,
a true miracle, takes place. And with
wholesome irony the film portrays an
agnostic doctor telling lies in order to
propagate a false miracle and seeking
to prevent a Jesuit from exposing the
fraud.

I hope that what I have written will
enable me to plead not guilty to the
charge of uncritical eulogy of a picture
merely because it is about priests and
miracles. And I could enlarge upon
opportunities missed and emphasis
misdirected. I know that the film is
not a great work of art. (If it were,
far fewer people would go to see it.)
But the laity sometimes tell us that
there is too much scolding and too little
encouragement in the Catholic pulpit.
And I think I have detected a slight
echo of a similar sentiment in Wardour
Street. So let us not be too harsh

with those who here forsake the
themes of boy-meets-girl and cop-
chases-robber for something which
transcends their usual sphere. They
have really tried to treat a Catholic
subject sympathetically and what
might seem to us so easy will have
been quite an undertaking. I haven’t
the heart to look this gift horse in the
mouth with too stony a stare. Let us
give the industry its due.

Q-

I WAS A COMMUNIST SPY FOR
THE F.B.I.

Starring: Frank Lovejoy, Dorothy

Hart, Philip Carey, Konstantine
Shayne and Roy Roberts.
Director: Gordon Douglas.

Distributors: Warner Brothers.

Certificate-. A. Category-. A.
Running time : 82 minutes.

The purpose of this film, which is to
reveal the inherent evil of Communism,
is (of course) excellent and praise-
worthy ; but I venture to suggest that
its mode of attack is much too
aggressive. Communism is too
subtle, the real thing is much too
intelligent a philosophy to be treated
with sledge hammer tactics. Maybe
this sort of shock treatment gets across
in America, but it only makes
Britishers cross or embarrassed. I
suggest that there are only two ways
to fight Communism by the medium
of the cinema — by making reallv
intelligent documentaries or by satire.
All heretics and heresies quail before
satire.

This film excites the nerves, it has
all the verve of a Warner thriller, but
it makes little appeal to one’s
intelligence. Some of the shooting
scenes are overdone ; in fact they are
boyish. Lovejoy, who is in the party
to destroy the party, is credible and
acts well. Dorothy Hart, who plays
Eve Merrick is also very good.

It is a pity that the approach is so
clumsy. All modern crusaders who
have the courage to fight Communism
should remember Our Lord’s words to
his disciples, “Be ye as wise as
serpents and as simple as doves.” This
film lacks wisdom and simplicity.

E.

310

CONTINENTAL FILMS

MEURTRES

Starring: Femandel, Raymond Suplex,
Jacques Varennes. Director:
Richard Potier. Certificate'. A.
Category-. A. Running time :
120 minutes.

I would say that this film is
remarkable for its brilliant acting, but
for little else. It is a story of mercy
killing which begins by leading you
to think that you are going to hear
some clear and courageous thinking
about this present and prevalent trend.
Noel, who gives his suffering wife a
fatal injection, knows that he has done
wrong, so much so that he determines
to “give himself up”. His ambitious
brothers who have become professional
business men and live for ribbons and
decorations are determined that their
“chances” shall not be spoiled by
such a scandal ; they even get their
brother put away as a mental case to
save the purity of their social name.

There are two problems in this film :
Mercy Killing and Social Snobbery.
Thev bump into one another in such
a way that you have no clear idea what
the film is trying to say. And surely,
clarity and coherence are primary
requisites of anv film.

E.

LA BELLE QUE VOILA

Starring: Michele Morgan. Henry

Vidal, Ludmilla Tcherina and
Gerard Cury. Director: Jean-

Paul le Chanois. Distributors:
Studio One, Ltd. Certificate:
A. Category: A. Running time:
116 minutes.

French, films are not all masterpieces.
Here is one that ranks average
Hollywood melodrama about a budding
ballerina who is shot by her jealous
lover and then defies medical advice
about the risk to her heart ; forces
herself to the top of her profession in
order to win a free pardon for the
imprisoned lover only to die in his
arms on the day of his release.

Michele Morgan repeats her some-
what stereotyped performance of
pathetic loveliness. She also dances
sufficiently well to make it amusing

trying to decide exactly where the real
ballerina takes over. Henry Vidal as
the lover is gloomy enough to have
committed the crime he is charged
with. Tcherina dances, in her own
right, beautifully as ever and plays the
role of the favourite whose place
Michele Morgan usurps.

It is a pity that the suggestion is
allowed by implication that to be a
successful ballerina one has to defy
the laws of morality. The life is too
exacting in fact for many to survive
the exotic existence here depicted.

V.

JUSTICE EST FAITE
(Justice Has Been Done)

Starring: Balpetre, Claude Nollier,

Michel Auclair, etc. Director:
Andre Cayatte. Distributors:
Archway Films Ltd. Certificate :
X. Category: A. Running time:
no minutes approx.

This is one of two films, given awards
at last year’s Venice Festival, which
have been the subject of much debate
and controversy. The other film was
Dieu .4 Besoin Des Hoinmest which
received the O.C.I.C. Prize. Both films
present problems to be considered by
ilie audience. Both leave something
to be desired from the point of view
of clarity as to the thesis proposed. Both
make great demands and seem to
require a maturity of judgment not
often found in the average cinema-goer.

Andre Cayatte, the director, himself
once a barrister, has deliberately set a
problem about the possibility of justice
not being done in a court of law. It
appears to be a plea not only against
capital punishment but even, taken logi-
cally, against retributive justice itself.
He has chosen euthanasia as the crime
to be judged, thereby blurring the
edges of sentiment even more than
would be the case with another less
emotionallv-pregnant charge.

A brilliant woman physician has taken
the life of another doctor, at his own
request, to end his sufferings from
cancer. The jury consists of an
avaricious peasant, a very level-headed
waiter, a printer who is a devout
Catholic, a retired Major with
pronounced military ideas of discipline,
a worldly-minded gentleman-farmer, a
middle-aged builder who, though
married, is attracted to the other

311

member of the jury, a widow who still
retains some of her youthful charms.

We are shown each of the jurors in
turn and learn something of their
private lives and the personal problems
weighing upon them and we are invited
to believe that in arriving at their
verdict they attribute to the accused the
motives they themselves would have
had in similar circumstances. The
implication seems to be, in the words
| of the director, that “in judging others,
each one of us judge ourselves”, and
that therefore, since our own opinions
vary from time to time, we are not quali-
fied to form judgment on other people
at all.

This, of course, simplifies the matter
far too much. The normal person who
accepts the weighty duty of serving on
a jury makes every effort to think and
judge impartially. Whatever his
personal code of behaviour may be, he
has at least an idea of generally
accepted morality which he applies as
best he can to the case in hand. The
fact is that people usually know quite
well what ought to be done even if they

find excuses for themselves for not
living up to the moral standard. The
film shows the printer being told by his
priest that euthanasia is wrong and that
the accused is therefore guilty. The
peasant suspects his young wife of
infidelity, he therefore condemns the
accused. The major regards the accused
as a foreigner and therefore suspect,
etc., etc.

The film is brilliantly made and the
acting, by a cast of capable if not well
known players, of a high order. In spite
of the fact that most of the action
takes place in court and is therefore
very wordy, the camera is not static and
one has the impression of an intelligent
approach to a script which, dealing so
largely with mental conflicts, might
easily have baffled the motion-picture
maker.

Catholics know that euthanasia is a
crime and do not need to be told that
human justice is not perfect, but they
also know that, having 'due regard for
human frailty, justice can be and
generally is done.

V.

SOME FILMS

REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this

list

does

Love Happy

(A)

(259)

not connote positive recommendation.

Man in the White Suit,

Readers are reminded to refer to the
full review when assessing a film.

T he

(C)

(253)

Category A. indicates adults

only ;

Murder Inc.

(A)

(279)

B, adults and adolescents;

C. family

No Highway

(C)

(257)

audiences ; D, particularly

for

No Resting Place

(A)

(256)

People Will Talk

(A)

(275)

Reviewed in “Focus”

(Vol

IV,

Phantom Horseman, The

(C)

(258)

Nos. 9 and 10)

Prince who was a Thief,
The

(C)

(261)

An American in Paris

(B)

(278)

Queen of the West

(C)

(276)

As Young As You Feel

(257)

Red Mountain

(B)

(261)

Cattle Drive

(D)

(263)

Rhubarb

(B)

(276)

Chicago Masquerade

(A)

(260)

Rich, Young and Pretty

(B)

(258)

Dear Brat

(255)

Soldiers Three

(B)

(277)

Decision Before Dawn

(A)

(278)

Sound of Fury, The

(A)

(254)

Francis Goes to the Races

(276)

Strangers on a Train

(A)

(255)

Golden Horde, ’'The

(A)

(262)

Talk of a Million

(B)

(259)

Half Angel

(B)

(263)

The Frogmen

(B)

(274)

Hell is Sold Out

(A)

(254)

Valentino

(A)

(274)

Here Comes the Groom

(B)

(256)

Valley of Eagles

(B)

(277)

His Kind of Woman

(A)

(279)

When I Grow Up

(C)

(261)

Last Outpost, The

(B)

(259)

When Worlds Collide

(A)

(277)

Law and the Lady, The

(A)

(262)

Wherever She Goes

(C)

(260)

Life in Her Hands

(A)

(260)

Worm’s Eye View

(B)

(258)

312

COVER PERSONALITY

DULCIE GRAY

Dulcie Gray was one of the British
stars to be seen acting as hostess to
the British Film Producers’ Reception
at the Hotel Des Baines at the Venice
Film Festival. In spite of the heat and
the crowd she managed to move calmly
about the room with a word and a
smile for everybody. ' Memories of
other such receptions leave me with a
picture of sub-royalties graciously
receiving their subject fans with a
series of set phrases carefully rehearsed.
Not so Miss Gray. There seemed to
be no end to the topics of conversation
she was prepared to join and take up
at a moment’s notice with whatever
group she happened to encounter. It
must have been a good thing from the
point of view of British film prestige
that so intelligent and charming a
personality should be our ambassadress.

Graham Greene was the topic of
conversation she bumped into in our
group and she spoke with great warmth
of her part as “Rosie” in the stage
version of Brighton Rock. Within a
few minutes, with Graham Greene as
bait, we were discussing faith and
morals and art and philosophy and the

difference between acting for the stage
and the screen and whether spiritual
integrity is necessary in order to be
able to express spiritual development
on the stage or screen. Unfortunately,
the claims of hospitality cut short this
most intriguing of conversations and I
was left with the promise that at some
other time and place we might take up
the threads.

Her career has been a full one. Films
like Madonna of the Seven Moons,
2,000 Women, They Were Sisters, A

Man About the Hotise and Mine Own
Executioner have given her an

opportunity to show her versatility,

though it must be owned that producers
have not always been as attentive to
her talents as they might have been.

She has managed to appear a number
of times with her husband, Michael

Denison, both on stage and screen. The
Glass Mountain, The Franchise Affair
and her new film, Angels One Five, are
films in which she has partnered him.
Long may they reign, both together
and singly, for they give a great deal
of pleasure to a great many people.

John Vincent.

Your Film Show

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FOCUS

FILM COURSE

Handbook No. 1

Foreword by

Rev. John A. V. Burke

Film Course by

Andrew Buchanan, D.Litt., Ph.D.

“ provokes thought and arouses a desire to read more ... an
excellent primer for Film Study Groups.’

— The Catholic Times.

. . . invaluable to anyone who wants to take an intelligent
interest in the cinema- ”

— The Catholic Worker.

Contents include essential facts and statistics relating
to: The Way Films Vary: The Cinema Programme:
The News Reel: Fictional versus Factual Films:
Educational and Children’s Films: ‘The Religious
Film: Film Music.

Price l s. 6d.

From

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE,

157 VICTORIA STREET,
LONDON, S.W.l.

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Film
Institute, 167 Victoria Street, London, S.W.l.

THE

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

National Film Reviewing Office

(Affiliated with Office Catholique International du Cinema )

President : His Eminence, Cardinal Griffin
Vice-President : The Rt. Rev. Abbot Upson, O.S.B.
Chairman : Mgr. Thomas Croft Fraser
Vice-Chairman : Arthur Leslie

AIMS AND OBJECTS

1. To further the cause of Christian culture by means of the cinema.

2. To encourage ihe development of Catholic criticism of films with
the object of influencing, as far as possible, the type of films publicly
exhibited.

j. To promote the organisation of discussion groups for the study
of films.

-f. To establish a library of films of Catholic interest.

5. To encourage the production of films calculated to demonstrate
the Christian cultural heritage of Europe in its arts, crafts, religious
life , agriculture, architecture, etc.

6. To establish when ana where possible Repertory Cinemas < where
films of permanent interest and value mar be seen.

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Life and Privileged members receive Focus and other occasional
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“The establishment of such an Office will involve a certain
sacrifice, a certain expense for Catholics of the various countries.
Yet the great importance of the motion picture industry and the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of the Christian people and the
entire nation makes this sacrifice more than justified.”

Hon. Secretary:

Rev. John A. V. Burke, 157 Victoria Street, London, S.W.i

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Vol. IV

No. 12

FOCUS

CONTENTS

Page

Editorial 315

The Birmingham Catholic Film

Unit 316

By T. S. Copsey

Catholic 16mm. User and

Enthusiast 318

End of the Beginning 319

By Andrew Buchanan

Our New Chairman 320

These Are The Stars 321

By Bing Crosby
Film Reviews

By Our Panel of Priests

High Treason 322

Lady Godiva Rides Again ... 323

Triptych

Page
... 324

The Stooge

327

Scrooge

... 328

The Blue Veil

... 330

Pickup

... 331

Meet Danny Wilson

... 331

Encore

... 331

Where No Vultures Fly ...

... 332

Continental Film

Sous le Ciel de Paris Coule

la

Seine

... 333

Some Films Reviewed

... 333

Catholic Film Institute ...

... 334

By J. A. V. Burke

C.F.I. Notes

... 336

Cover Personality

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Revue Internationale du Cinema

Organ of International Catholic Film Office

Number 9 now available : devoted to the film in Latin America and the Spanish-
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FOCUS:

A FILM
REVIEW

Organ of the Catholic Film Institute

Vol. IV December 1951 No. 12

Christmas and the Cinema

“And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them and the brightness of
God stood round about them . . . and suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly army praising God and saying: Glory be to God
in the highest and on earth peace to men of goodwill.”

It is part of the policy of this magazine to focus attention on the vast
possibilities which the cinema offers to those who are anxious to bring to
the multitudes who sit in the shadows of darkness, the riches of the Christian
religion, through the modern medium of light and sound.

In the past painters, particularly Botticelli, Rembrandt, Hugo Van Der
Goes, re-created in their own medium the glory of the Incarnation. Is not
the time ripe for cineastes to re-create in the modern medium of light and
sound the startling story and message of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who called
Himself the Light of the World?

Tnptych (see article on pages 324 and 325) has evoked the spirit of
Christmas in a moving and artistic manner. Is it too much to hope that
in the near future some courageous film artist will create a full length film
of the Nativity?

This is the appropriate month to thank all those who have given their
time and talents to this magazine and to the work of the Catholic Film
Institute. We cannot thank them adequately, but such work will reap its
own rewards.

Focus is now four years of age. We think it deserves a new overcoat.
We hope that its new cover will attract new friends.

My very best wishes for a very happy Christmas.

Editor.

316

The Birmingham Catholic
Film Unit

A Working Proposition
By - - - T. S. COPSEY

We began with a flourish four years
ago: a big audience; a talk from Fr.
Burke; “Family Affair”, by Mr. Alan
Turner ; and a practical demonstration
of equipment from Mr. Ellis, of
Substandard Films. Then we came to
earth. Within six months we had
learnt that film discussion needs films
to discuss ; that no professional could
be expected to do our work for us ;
and that we had got to get down to it
ourselves.

Starting a Film Unit

With the blessing of the Diocesan
Youth Council we formed a working
unit of four. We chose 16mm. as the
only practical medium for public
showing. Then came the problem of
equipment. We decided that though
we would work closely together as one
unit, it would be better all round if
each of us somehow “acquired” his own
projection unit and, if possible, a
camera. The Council would loan us
the cost of buying film and having
copies made. We were to pay it back
from takings.

It sounds improbable but it works
admirably. The Film Unit as such,
owns no equipment ; its only property
is films. This meant we started off
with no heavy capital debt. If people
were really keen to come in they would
get hold of a projection unit somehow.
(And if thej’ were not keen we didn’t
want them.) Owning our own
projectors and cameras gave us all
practical experience and a healthy
competition. And it was hoped that all
four of us (we soon became five : four
priests, one layman) would eventually
make up four complete separate
showing sections in different parts of
the Diocese.

And so it turned out. We now have
five projectors : all 16mm., sound and
silent, secondhand, ranging from £90
to £125 each. We have four cameras :
a Kodak B, 100 ft., 3.5 fixed focus; a
Victor No. 3, 100 ft., 3.5; a C.I.G.,
50 ft., telephoto; and a C.I.G., 100 ft.,
three turret lens; prices ranged from
£20 to £120. We are all five fortunately
endowed with cars and thus have a
circuit of five mobile sections
working from Leamington, Stratford,
Birmingham (2) and the Potteries. The
Chairman, Fr. P. Corrigan, holds all
films and all bookings are made only
through him. He then informs the
appropriate section and sends the
required films. All takings and films
are sent back immediately to him and
he pays out travelling expenses.

Catholic Job of Work

These details may seem too domestic
to matter. In fact, however, they
have an extremely practical and
important bearing. A film unit has got
to choose between confining itself to a
small coterie with a private hobby, or
doing a real Catholic and public job
of work. Briefly, no unit can last
without high standards : high standards
in films are expensive; expenses can
best be covered not by donations or
begging, nor by hiring expensive halls,
but by giving as many shows as possible
in small halls and huts to modest
audiences all over the Diocese. And
that can best be done by working
together to make the actual film and
then dividing the work of showing it
among a number of mobile projectors.
A paying, working unit must give an
average of two shows a week over a
wide area throughout the year. No
single projector team has time for that.

317

In other words, you have not only to
make your film, but, and many units
fail here, you have then to create your
own circuit in order to get back enough
money to pay for the film and make
another one to take round next time.
Hiring is very slow and often risky.
You can’t afford serious damage or poor
projection. It is far more effective to
push round yourself and show the

film personally. This gives a real
^ opportunity to talk on the Film

P Apostolate in general and your own

efforts in particular. It stirs up far
more interest in the film. It also
brings in a bigger collection. All

collections count, and ours count both
ways. We now offer to go anywhere
in the Diocese and put on a show of
two hours for £5. If the parish or
club has any wits it can easily double
that amount and keep the extra £5
for its own funds. They then ask you
to come again.

Making Films

But what about actually making
films ? Our first efforts were as bad as
any other beginners. We view them
with horror. But they had one feature
that saved us financially. They were
simple documentaries of parish or
diocesan events with a strong local
interest. And audiences were quite
keen to pay for the sheer interest of
seeing themselves or their friends on
the screen. We began therefore with
a kind of Diocesan News Reel of ten
or twelve events, covering a wide range
of interest with a strong local flavour.
We have now five of them, each of
20 minutes and they are still popular.

We then tried longer films covering
a single event : a 40 minute on the
Walsingham Pilgrimage ; a 30 minute
on Catholic Scout Training; a 30 minute
on the Rosary Mime at the Diocesan
Celebrations, and so on. We were now
experimenting with two and even three
cameras at once and doing all our own
J editing and titling.

Our Big Opportunity

The big opportunity came in our
third year. A large Diocesan Pilgrimage
to Rome. We went ajl out. We had
accumulated 2,500 feet' of Kodachrome
and kept to a flexible but carefully
dovetailed script for all four cameras.
The results surprised us. Within six

months we had shown it to over 16,000
people at audiences generally ranging
from 100 to 150 : this meant some 78
showings between November and
March. The cost of the film, with two
colour copies was £200, and in six
months we had more than covered it.
This year’s Lourdes Film (1,600 ft.
Kodachrome) promises an equal success.

The Rome film brought our next
practical problem — that of sound.
Hitherto we had been content with
microphone and gramophone
commentary. We now tackled an
emitape recorder with music and
commentary supplied by ourselves to
synchronise with the film. They are
expensive (even if you make your own)
and tricky to work. But they add
immeasurably to the film and work out
much cheaper than a sound track, with
its rate of £10 a 100 ft. After the initial
outlay £5 will give a complete
permanent sound recording that runs
for an hour. We have two machines,
one bought and one home made and
find them invaluable.

Keeping Within Our Limits

One last point. We have made no
mention of creative in contrast with
documentary work. Like all other film
units we are dying to vie with
Eisenstein or Jean Cocteau. But we
decided to gang warily at first, to
start modestly and keep well within
our limits and means. We have already
attempted a Stations of the Cross
performed by our youth and have
detailed scripts for a film on Training
for the Priesthood and two others on
the Sacraments. And we have a lovely
dream of a big film to be called “City
Parish”.

But the point of this article is not to
push ourselves or exploit future plans.
We have simply given our own
experiences in the light of the past 4
years in the hopes that others will see
that a Catholic Film Unit can be a
practical proposition. Provided it keeps
within its own limits and is ready to
work hard in giving shows to many
modest audiences in small halls, then
it can be not only practical but in the
long run, even profitable. And there
is no better way of arousing a real
interest in Catholic Films and an
awakening of conscience in regard to
the ordinary cinema.

318

Catholic 1 6mm. User and
Enthusiast

We are able this month to mention two
films which are additions to our list of
specifically Catholic efforts and which,
though modest in intention, will give
great pleasure to numbers of people. Fr.
F. E. Young, Chairman of the 16mm.
Section, is the maker of a charming,
one reeler, black and white silent film
entitled Safe In His Own Home. This
was made for the Southwark Catholic
Rescue Society and deals with the Holy
Child Nursery under the Franciscan
Sisters of the Divine Motherhood. We
see a mother bringing her little baby
to be cared for by the Sisters and from
then on we see everything that can
happen to a baby in the course of a
day; being washed, fed, getting into
mischief and finally getting down to
sleep. The photography is charming
and imaginative and with the lovely
close-ups of enchanting babies, a certain
winner for all ages of baby worshippers.
The film is 15 minutes in running time
and the hiring fee is 5s.

For Convent Schools

Another film which will be of
particular interest to convent schools is
The Hound of Heaven, a news-reel
compilation of the Centenary
Celebrations of the Assumption Convent,
Richmond, Yorks. The children gave
a performance of The Hound of
Heaven for which they were trained by
Miss Beryl Cooke and we see the
children and their teachers busily
gathering together the necessary-
properties for the play, we see the
rehearsals and part of the open-air
performance and finally the audience
gathering for the show at a local
cinema. The film is unpretentious but
its colouring is attractive and is of
interest in suggesting what might be
done on another similar occasion if a
little more elaborate thought and
planning could be indulged. The hiring
fee is 7s. 6d. and the running time is
fifteen minutes.

There are several films from the

commercial list which will be of interest
to the programme planner who is
looking for a show which is primarily
entertaining.

Fine Selection

Last Days of Dolwyn, 95 minutes
running time, tells of the Welsh
village which is submerged to make
a waterway to Lancashire and of
the resistance of the villagers. There
are delightful performances from most
of the cast, especially- from Edith Evans
and Emlyn Williams. Happiest Days of
Your Life, 81 minutes, is a lively
comedy of war-time school life with
amusing characters played by Alastair
Sim, Margaret Rutherford and Joyce
Grenfell. A more sophisticated drama
is Man About the House, 93 minutes,
with Margaret Johnson, Dulcie Gray
and Kieron Moore, telling of two
spinsters on an estate in Italy who are
victimised by the major-domo. The
photography is fine and the piece de
resistance is the grape-harvesting scene.
State Secret, 104 minutes running time,
is Sidney- Gilliat’s exciting manhunt
story of a Tito-like dictatorship with
excellent work from Gly-nis Johns,
Douglas Fairbanks and Jack Hawkins.
Another thriller is The Woman in
Question, 88 minutes running time,
directed by Anthony Asquith, with
Jean Kent and Dirk Bogarde in which
the story is told from the point of view
of witnesses, each seeing things from
his own point of view.

i CATHOLIC ,

DIVISIONS j

f Equipment * Films • j

\ \ Strips - Catalogues i

I The DAWN TRUST !

STUDIO — AYLESBURY J

319

FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. Nos. II and 12

End of the Beginning

By ANDREW BUCHANAN

Here is the last chapter of the Course.
From now on the religious film
craftsman will proceed, I hope, both
to practise his art, and infect others
with his enthusiasm.

I can best conclude by trying to
remove from his mind any feeling
of frustration regarding inadequate
outlets for the films he plans to make,
created on the one hand by commercial
barriers described earlier, and on the
other by undeveloped distribution
channels within the Church. These
combine to place him in a quandary,
for despite his skill and determination
to devote his talents to producing
films of real religious significance,
purely as a labour of love, he cannot
discover just how they are going to be
circulated to maximum audiences.
Making films is difficult, but finding
ways of distributing them apart from
commercial cinemas is more difficult
still.

Now the line of action regarding both
production and distribution depends, of
course, on the extent of the craftman’s
experience. If he has already mastered
the writing of scripts, the camera,
editing and studied direction, he will
either be working alone, or with one of
the many excellent amateur producing
clubs. If in the latter way, he will
have discovered that few if any of such
clubs are interested in making religious
films, being content to produce
technically ingenious but spiritually
unimportant subjects. That policy is
admirable as far as it goes, but it does
not go far enough. If the craftsman
can induce his experienced amateur
friends to devote just a little of their
time and talent to making films that
matter, he will be doing a great service
to the community. If he cannot, then
two courses lay open. Either he must
work alone, or establish a unit himself
through his Church, and I recommend
him to do the latter, gathering together
all those, skilled and unskilled, who are
prepared to devote their spare time to
the job. The best craftsman is he
who, though a specialist in one

particular branch, has mastered all the
other branches of his art. Therein lies
the difference between craftsman and
technician.

Today, many books are available,
teaching every branch of film-making,
and the craftsman-unit-promoter should
set about establishing a library,
available to all members, and this, in
conjunction with a well-organised
and continuous series of lectures,
discussions and demonstrations based
on this Course, will set the unit in
motion. Next, he should take a census
of equipment in his area. It is
surprising how many cameras, lamps
and other apparatus lie about, some-
times unused. Arrangements should be
made to pool what is available, and to
hire what is not. The basic cost of
film-making is film stock. All else, bar
the processing of exposed negative,
should be done bv the unit, thereby
reducing expenses to a minimum. The
technical chapters of the Course have
described the right approach in
considerable detail.

Finally, to overcome, as far as
possible, the problem of inadequate
distribution, the craftsman-promoter
should register full details of his
activities with the Catholic Film
Institute in London. This is the hub,
the guiding force for all new craftsmen-
units. The Institute will welcome
details of progress, plans, and
completed films. If results are as
excellent as they should be, I am sure
the Institute can arrange for such films
to reach interested bodies in various
parts of the country.

I have very great faith in the success
of these proposed units. Under inspired
leadership they can assume universal
importance, and make contributions to
the Church in film form which are not
possible by commercial methods.

In a sentence, the fundamental
purpose of this Course is to appeal for
a revival in the spirit of craftsmanship
applied to religious film-making.

My part is more or less done. It is

320

for the craftsman to take over, but I
should like to give evidence of ray
faith in him, wherever he may be, by
offering a prize, in a year’s time, for
the best religious film of a factual
nature, made by a craftsman unit, or
lone worker. I trust, therefore, that all
interested will keep the Institute
advised during the coming year of their

activities, for the prize-winning film
together with all others submitted
which deserve prominence, will surely
be seen -by many people, thus adding
further strength to the movement as a
whole.

From now on, faith in the future
means faith in the religious craftsman.

Good-bye and good luck.

Our New

His Eminence Cardinal Griffin has
been pleased to approve the nomination
of Mgr. Thomas Croft Fraser as
Chairman of the Catholic Film

Institute, to succeed the Very Rev.
Hilary Carpenter, O.P., who resigned
in June last.

Mgr. Croft Fraser was born in

London ; his father was the Rev.
Thomas Denman Croft, sometime Vicar
of Kimpton, Herts., his mother Eleanor
Fraser Tomlinson, daughter of the
Right Rev. George Tomlinson, first
Anglican Bishop of Gibraltar. Through
his maternal great-uncle, Colonel

Frederick Mackenzie Fraser he
inherited the estates of Castle Fraser
and Inverllochy in Aberdeenshire, and
assumed the additional surname of
Fraser in 1906. He was educated at
Radley and later studied the organ at
Trinity College of Music, London,
under the late Mr. Edward d’Evrv,
organist of the London Oratory, which
was the church of his predilection
from the time of his conversion to the
Catholic Church in 1912. During the
first world war he was employed at the
Foreign Office. In 1921 he went to
Rome where he became a Benedictine
Oblate and subsequently studied for the
priesthood at the Abbeys of St.-Paul’s-
outside-the- Walls and Cesena, near
Ravenna, and was ordained at the
latter in 1927. In 1929 he was appointed
Choir Sacristan of St. Peter’s Basilica
at Rome and two years later was made
a Beneficed Clerk and Assistant Master
of Ceremonies. He succeeded to the
post of Master of Ceremonies in 1935
and was created Privy Chamberlain in
1939. During the war he was resident
in Switzerland. In 1946 he resigned his
benefice at St. Peter’s and returned to
England after an absence of nearly 25
years. At the Centenary Congress last

Chairman

year he was a member of the Liturgical
Committee and assisted Mgr. Collings
in the direction of the ceremonies.

He has had a deep interest in the
drama and the potentialities of the
screen for a number of years and he
has been one of the reviewers for
Focus for some time. We are certain
that his wide interests and experience
will prove of the greatest value in
directing the affairs of the Catholic
Film Institute and we regard ourselves
as fortunate in having his services at
our disposal.

Your Film
Show

The Catholic Film
Institute projection
unit is available for
film shows in the
London area
Moderate Charges
Particulars from
The

Catholic Film Institute
157 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.I

321

THESE ARE THE STARS*

Being some observations on Vocation

By

In the movie business we have lots
of fun pretending we’re soldiers of
fortune or masters of high adventure.
It’s fun doing it, and it’s fun knowing
that we’re helping other people to get
a laugh or a bit of relief from the worry
and care of everyday life. Of course
we get paid for it — and that adds to
the fun somewhat, too. But when the
studio day is ended, we go to our homes
and we are just ourselves — no more
adventure except when we trip on
junior’s roller skates or smell the toast
burning or write to that man who wants
to know how we’re getting along on or
about the 15th of the month.

There are some people in this world
who are playing all the time at high
adventure and who never step out of
their roles day or night. But the funny
thing about them is that they don’t
seem to realise what heroes they are.
We play them in the movies once in a
while. They’re the Father O’Malleys
and the Sister Benedicts and the
Brothers whom Hollywood writers
frequently don’t bother to name. They
are the people whose lives are filled
with real drama. Day after day the
padre goes along, straightening out the
lives of others who haye gotten into
tangles of one sort or another. Day
after day the Sister or the Brother
works patiently, shaping the characters
of girls and boys who will be mainstays
of this good American way of life of
ours, which is founded on a belief in
God. Look at any American coin —
“In God We Trust”.

The priests and the Religious are the
real makers of history. The rest of us
run a business and make some money,
and after a little while we’re gone, and
the money’s gone. But they are
building kingdoms of spiritual values,
that are going to influence and rule
generations years and years away.

Of course, we’ve each got our little
spot in this big movie of life, and the
trick is to play our part the way the

* With acknowledgments to The Shield.
published by the Catholic Students’
Mission Crusade, TJ.S.A., Cincinnati. Ohio.

BING CROSBY

Great Director wants it played. Most
of us are spotted to places like mine
— with a bunch of youngsters and a
good wife at home to provide for. But
some of us can move up into really
stellar roles, if we answer the call
when the Great Director goes about
casting. The important thing is to have
studied our abilities and to know
whether or not we can play the roles
when they are opened to us.

For me — I envy the boy who gets
cast for life as a Father O’Malley and
the girl who gets called up for lifelong
starring as a Sister Benedict. In my
book, they are the ones whose names
are going to stand first on the
programme, spelled out in capital
letters and in good black type. In my
book, these are the stars.

In Hollywood, the actors have agents
who remind the directors and producers
about their talents and ambitions. Well,
there are ways to get in line for
the big roles in the real-life drama I
have just been describing. There are
people you can pray to, and you can do
a lot to get yourself in shape for the
part you’d like to play. In real life,
it takes a smart fellow to be a Father
O’Malley— you’ll notice I said in real
life — and it takes a girl who has
everything to be a good Sister.

The world needs a lot of padres and
Religious right now. The world needs
them for the good they can do and for
the example they can give of that spirit
we call the Christian spirit. In the
long view of our times, there will be
more glory attached to the memory of
the padre and the teacher than to the
memories of a lot of generals.

When a movie director deals with the
character of a priest or a Religious in
the motion-picture drama and he builds
up the character into something heroic,
he never needs to worry about
acknowledgments to real-life people.
He knows that any resemblance of
such movie characters to thousands of
priests and Brothers and Sisters now
living is strictly not a mere matter of
coincidence.

/

322

smsa

By our Panel of Priests

Category

C,

A, indicates adults only; B, adults and adolescents;
family audiences; D, particularly for children

HIGH TREASON

Starring: Liam Redmond, Andre

Morell, Kenneth Griffith, Mary
Morris, Dora Bryan, Joan
Hickson, Patric Doonan and
Anthony Nichols. Director: Roy
Boulting. A Paul Soskin
Production. Certificate : U.

Category : B. Running time :

93 minutes.

It was a neat piece of publicity work
to exclude all publicity on this film on
the grounds that it might prejudice
voters. Though the press saw it on
October 22ud, its West End run was
postponed till after the Election. I
cannot imagine many voters who had
already decided to support Socialism
being deflected by this film, which
seems to suggest that elements willing
to overthrow democracy are to be found
within the Left-Wing Party.

The script, the joint work of Roy
Boulting and Frank Harvey, makes use
of such recent happenings as the
sabotaging of munition ships, the
disappearance of highly-placed
members of the Foreign Office, the
prosecution of University lecturers, the
support given by certain Members
of Parliament to “Freedom - Loving
Associations”, and weaves them into a
story about a large-scale attempt to
sabotage the country’s power stations
and a plot to seize power during the
confusion which would ensue.

Like Seven Days To Noon, which it
closely resembles, High Treason makes
much use of the factual, detached,
everyday face of London, though there
is not in the latter film the same degree
of tension aroused. This is mainly

because the threat is aimed, not so
much at a place as at a way of life,
and I suppose that we could suffer
more composedly the disappearance of
democracy than the disappearance of
London. Perhaps that is what the film
was trying to say. In any case, though
we watch with interest the untangling
of the skein which reveals the
connection between the destruction of
the munition ship and the attempt to
blow up Battersea Power Station, we
are not gripped as we were by the last
half hour in Seven Days To Noon.

That is not to say that this is
anything else than an extremely
competent film. The production is as
neat as could be desired. The script
is compact and the acting is of that
flawless, effortless kind that we have
come to regard as typically English.
This in spite of the fact that the
leading player is an Irishman ! The
direction has the story under control
at all points. The dialogue, though
crisp enough, has one or two lapses,
especially when the arch villain and the
Scotland Yard Chief get together, but
this does not detract too much from
what is an essentially entertaining cops
and robbers film.

Liam Redmond as the Yard man is
excellent. It is the biggest part he has
yet had on the screen and, as was the
case with Barry Jones in Seven Days
To Noon, proves that the actor trained
in the theatre tradition is able to make
rings round the “star” who is merely
produced for the screen. The cast is
exceptionally strong : Kenneth Griffith,
Patric Doonan, Dora Bryan are but a
few from an exceptionally good team.

A film to see and enjoy. Let us hope
that when you see it you will no^ have
voted for the wrong party !

V.

323

LADY GODIVA RIDES AGAIN

Starring: Dennis Price, John

McCallum, Stanley Holloway and
introducing Pauline Stroud.
Director: Frank Launder.

Distributors: British Lion.

Certificate : A. Category-. A.

Running time : go minutes

approximately .

No one need be made anxious by
this film’s title; the ladies’ costumes
are merely such as may be seen on any
beach in the summer, whereas the
moral is excellent, namely that (as the
programme puts it) “pretty girls with
no talent and no sense had better stay

at home”, instead of going in for
beauty competitions and trying to
become film stars.

I do not believe in giving away the
plot in a review, so I am not going to
tell you any more of the story. Suffice
it that the film is witty and
entertaining and is rendered vastly
amusing by making the cinema laugh
at itself. Pauline Stroud is quite
charming as the heroine, Dennis Price
gives a superb performance, while
Stanley Holloway, Gladys Henson,
George Cole and Dora Bryan do all
that is expected of them, which is a
very great deal. The rest of the cast
sup2X>rts admirably.

T. C. F.

“Nativity”.

Cbe Annunciation bp crioem

All lovers of great pictorial art must
be pleased that a beginning has been
made to make the works of the great
painters better known by the medium
of the cinema. Triptych is the first of
what we hope will be a long and
continuous series. Our own National
Gallery alone could provide excellent
material for it. Perhaps it is not
always appreciated that we have the
most representative collection of the
greatest pictorial art in the world in
London, and that the National Gallery
is neglected because its treasures are
unknown.

Though the central panel of T riptych
— “The Crucifixion” by Mantegna — is in
the Louvre, the other panels, the one
on the right Crivelli’s “Annunciation”
and the one on the left Botticelli’s

A Film t

the Spirit <

are two ^
of the glories of our
national collection.
Though there is a
difference of a few
years in their ages,
the three artists
were contemporaries
— late fifteenth
century.

They represent <

three of the great
schools of Italian
painting, Mantegna
of Padua, Crivelli of
Venice and Botticelli
of Florence. Padua
is close to Venice
and though there are
characteristic
differences between
the two schools, it
will serve our purpose
if we emphasise only
the greater differences
between the artists of
Venice and Florence.

The Renaissance
began in Florence
and with it the city
became the centre of
the whole artistic movement in Italy. By
the time that movement reached Venice,
to the excellence of form and line of
the Florentine painters, the Venetians
added colour. That does not mean to
say that Leonardo and Botticelli were
poor colourists, but that the Venetians
were more excellent in that aspect of
pictorial art — and in that aspect alone. ft]
Moreover, it can be said of them that
they were painters and nothing more.

The Florentines were not only painters,
they were sculptors, architects, poets
and even men of science.

It will also help us to understand
Triptych if we appreciate that an artist
may approach his subject in different
ways. It may be to illustrate an event.

That is the case if we consider the
central panel by Mantegna. It

ych

h evokes
Christmas

^ illustrates the fact of
Christ’s Crucifixion,
but is wanting in
Christian feeling and
devotion, though the
grief expressed by
Our Lady and the
Holy Women is very
moving. Mantegna
loved to depict the
antique. His ideal
was the old Imperial
Rome and in
consequence Roman
soldiers, mounted and
on foot, are given
great prominence in
his “Crucifixion”. His
figures too are not
painted from life, for
he preferred to study
anatomy from the
old classical statues
which, he said,
combined the
excellence and grace
of many perfect
models. Towards the
end of his life, he
was known as “The
Old Pagan”.

Crivelli’s “Annunciation” shows an
approach of a different kind by the
artist. He records the fact of the
Annunciation as if it had happened in
his own time and in his own city. Our
Blessed Lady is a person of high degree
living in palatial surroundings and
Nazareth has become the joyous,
rJ luscious and magnificent city of Venice.
Was there ever such a gorgeous
person as Crivelli’s angel of the
“Annunciation” ? The inquisitive child
peeping round the balustrade at the
head of a flight of steps is in delightful
contrast with the sedate senators aloof
in the background. Notice, too, the
little golden archway on the side of the
main building, which admits the
message from heaven that touches
Our Lady’s head. All this joyous

Paiioitp Dp Botticelli

exuberance will be better understood
when it is known that Crivelli was'
really commemorating something that
actually happened in his day. The
I’ope of that time had granted certain
rights of self-government to the town of
Ascoli Piceno and the news of the
privilege reached the town on March
25th, the Feast of the Annunciation.
It was a joyous day, commemorated
yearly bv the citizens of Ascoli ever
afterwards. They walked in procession
to celebrate at the Franciscan church
in the town and make merry in the
afternoon.

What looks like a boy Bishop in the
picture, next to the angel, is St.
Emidius, the Patron .Saint of Ascoli.
He supports a model of the town wfith
his left hand and asks the angel to

Caiuaru bp iftauicqiia

327

bless it. The printed inscription at the
bottom of the picture, “Libertas
Ecclesiastica”, identifies the picture
with the freedom granted by the
Holy See.

The “Nativity” by Botticelli is again
an example of yet another approach by
tlie artist to his subject. The historic
event of the Nativity of Christ is
presented as a mystery, inciting the
artist to express visibly the emotion
the mystery calls up. He would have
the on-looker too to share in his
devotion. We are told that this is the
most striking of all the Nativities ; it
is a comprehensive poem or hymn on
the Nativity. It proclaims “Glory to
God in the Highest, and on earth
Peace to men of good will”. It follows
with enthusiasm the story of the
Nativity as recorded in St. Luke’s
Gospel, with incidents squeezed
together and with an exactness that is
unusual in pictures. In the skv, the
heavens are opened and twelve angels
holding branches of olive in their hands
dance as they give glory to God. The
rhythm and lines of the dancing angels
are typical of much of Botticelli’s work.
In the middle of the picture stands the
shed over the mouth of a rocky cave.
Three angels on the roof of the shed
crowned with olive hold olive branches
and a book.

On the right side of the shed, an
angel holding an olive branch
introduces the shepherds crowned with
olive and on the left another introduces
the Magi similarly crowned. Olive
grows by the stony pathways in front
of the cave, and cave and shed are
surrounded and enveloped by an olive
wood. Everywhere that he could place
it and plant it naturally, Botticelli
insists on putting this symbol of peace.
And, most significant of all, the peace
on earth to follow the birth of Christ
is shown by the three angels in the
foreground embracing three men
crowned with olive, whilst little demons
nearby scurry away underground.

The little group, Our Lady, St.
Joseph and the Holy Child, are painted
with great understanding and devotion.
The figure of Our Lady, larger than
any other figure in the picture, is a
return to medieval convention from the
style of the Florentine Renaissance and
another earlier convention is recalled
by the lovely figure of the Infant Christ.

He touches His lip with His hand,
which was taken to mean, “I am the
Word made flesh”. St. Joseph, too,
shows the age that the old conventions
gave him. He is old and tired. He
rests his head on his arms and sleeps.

A mysterious inscription in Greek
runs right across the top of the picture.
Why Botticelli should say in Greek that
he painted the picture in the year 1500,
in troublesome times in Italy, is the
mystery. Why put it into Greek ?
Some think that it was to hide the fact
that he was a sympathiser with
Savonarola, the Dominican Reformer.
The latest scholarship thinks that there
was no precise connection between the
work of the two. The inscription, we
are told, may possibly be an expression
of Botticelli’s own feelings and that
probably the picture was painted for his
own private devotion. However that
may be, the picture now is ours. It
should remind us that our first duty is
to give glory to God and then, by
loving our neighbour, promote peace on
earth. In a special way, this message
comes to us at Christmastide and it
should receive a generous response
from all men of good will.

P. R.

THE STOOGE

Starring: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis.
Producer: Hal Wallis. Director:
Norman Taurog. A Paramount
Picture. Certificate : U. Category.
B. Running time : 98 minutes.

The plot is promising, that of a
charming good - humoured man
becoming conceited over his artistic
achievements to the point of discarding
his assistant (“The Stooge”) in his
variety turn only to find (and freely
confess to his audience) that he cannot
carry on alone. Unfortunately the
“comic relief” introduced excels in
quantity and lacks in quality, though
it seemed vastly to amuse a small but
highly noisy section of the audience at
the press show. It struck me as being
poor stuff. Definitely not my idea of
satisfactory light entertainment.

T. C. F.

Alastair Sim as Scrooge

SCROOGE

Starring: Alastair Sim, Kathleen

Harrison and Jack Warner, with
Hermione Baddeley, George
Cole, Rona Anderson, Mervyn
Johns and John Charlesworth.
Producer and Director: Brian

Desmond Hurst. Distributors:
Renown Pictures. Certificate : U.
Category : C. Running time :

86 minutes.

George Minter, chief of Renown
Pictures, having made a success of
Tom Brown’s Schooldays and wisely
allowed Miss Blandish and her orchids
to fade from his publicity sheets, has

come to the conclusion that people
want to escape the harassing weight of
present-day existence by looking at
films dealing with people as they lived
in other days. This may well be true
though it is not easy to understand
why a consideration of the misery of
former times should make ns feel very
happy today when it is so evident that
the lessons of history have not been
learnt.

Entertaining Christmas Fare

Be that as it may, Scrooge, freely
adapted by Noel Langley from Dickens’
Christmas Carol, is an entertaining
piece of Christmas film fare and will
surelv be a favourite with the thousands

329

of children ot all ages who dote on
Dickens and enjoy having their withers
wrung by sentimental stories. It is,
we are promised, only the first of a
series of similar Dickens transcriptions
and if they all reach the same level of
honest, unpretentious but efficient
production, they will deserve well of
the uncomplaining cinema public.

The story of the miserly Scrooge’s
conversion by means of a dream on

) Christmas Eve is too well known to
require outlining here. It is, of course,
no less improbable in celluloid than it
is in print, but it is a pleasing fancy
and far be it from us to carp at this
forgiving time of the year. Let us,
instead, echo Tiny Tim’s immortal
blessing, “God bless us all, every one!”
The film is really a vehicle for
Alastair Sim’s versatility.

»

Rounded Characterisation

As Scrooge, he passes through all
stages of tight-fisted, inhuman contempt
for his fellow man to boundless
generosity. It is announced as his first
dramatic comedy role. This is not quite
accurate, for I remember early films in
which Sim played dramatic parts, but
it is certainly true that in Scrooge he
gives his best and most rounded
characterisation to date. An interesting
novelty is the part given to the young
Scrooge, played by George Cole. The
physical resemblance between the two
actors is strong and it was most
enlightening to watch Alastair Sim
coaching George Cole while they were
shooting the film at Nettlefold. He
was evidently anxious to make
sure that the young and the old
Scrooge developed logically as well as
biologically.

Family Film

Michael Dolan, as the Ghost of
Christmas Past, gives an interesting
and thoughtful performance. Hermione
1 \ Baddeley, as Mrs. Cratchit, Kathleen
'•* Harrison as Scrooge’s housekeeper,
Rona Anderson as Young Scrooge’s
sweetheart, are all worthy of notice.
So also Miles Malleson as Old Joe and
Ernest Thesiger as an undertaker.

Here is a family film which can
safely be recommended for all lovers
of . Dickens and Christmas as he
invented it.

V.

Scrooge feigns anger as his clerk helps him 01
with his coat. But ghostly dreams have brough
about his reformation

Alastair Sim as Scrooge and Michael Hordern •
his dying partner, Marley

Scrooge visits the Royal Exchange (The Exchan
was actually used for these scenes in the fil

330

THE BLUE VEIL
Starring: Jane Wyman, Charles

Laughton, Joan Blondell, Richard
Carlson, Agnes Moorehead, Cyril
Cusack, Don Taylor and Audrey
Totter. Director: Curtis

Bernhardt. An R.K.O. Radio
Picture. Certificate : U .

Category : C . Running time :

114 minutes.

The blue veil used to be worn by
children’s nurses. This film tells of a
young war widow whose baby dies and
who becomes nurse to a long line of
other people’s children, on whom she
lavishes the love which she would have
given to her own. Many times she
suffers the anguish of loss as the
children are taken away from her for
one reason or another, and she rejects
several proposals of marriage in order
to devote herself to her chosen career.
A sad ending is averted by a chance
encounter with one of her now grown-up
charges and w'e leave her aged but

Jane Wyman in “The Blue Veil”

happy with two more delightful
children.

The film is obviously a tear-jerker,
but it is honestly so and provides us
with some excellent acting from Jane
Wyman. She is sincere and moving in
her portrayal and makes no concession
to glamour. A succession of unbecoming
costumes are worn with complete
conviction and one is vividly reminded
of the ugly fashions of thirty years ago.
It seems that she ages rather excessively
from a possible 25 years in 1916 to a 55
years that looked more like 75. However,
that does not diminish the worth of
her performance. Good work is given
also by Cyril Cusack as a whimsical
toy merchant, and Everett Sloane as a
humane District Attorney. Charles
Laughton as a middle-aged widower is
somewhat too reminiscent of the
doting Henry VIII.

The story is from a French original
and one remembers the film made some
ten years ago with Gaby Morlay as the
nurse. The American version is more
sentimental but is nonetheless pleasing
and avoids some obvious mawkishness
which such a subject offers.

Jane Wyman and one of her "children”

V.

331

PICKUP

Starring: Beverly Michaels, Hugo

Haas, Allan Nixon, Howland
Chamberlin, with Jo Carroll
Dennison. Producer and
Director: Hugo Haas. Distrib-

utors: Columbia. Certificate-. A.
Category : A. Running time:

78 minutes.

The “gold digger”, whom the middle-
aged, rather simple widower picks
up at a fun fair and subsequently
marries is described in the synopsis as
“tawdry but attractive”. This film
might have been both tawdry and
unattractive, but it is saved by the fact
that it is always intelligent and some-
times subtle. It contrives to hold the
attention without playing on the
emotions, in spite of two more or less
attempted murders. Perhaps the fact
that besides starring, producing and
directing, Hugo Haas is part author of
the screen play has given it a unity
which some films lack.

There is a moral too : when you lose
both your wife and your dog, get
another dog.

Q.

MEET DANNY WILSON

Starring: Frank Sinatra, Shelley

Winters, Alex Nicbl, with Ray-
mond Burr. Producer: Leonard
Goldstein. Director: Joseph

Pevney. Distributors: G.F.D.

Certificate: A. Category: B.

Running time : 88 minutes.

The cast is surprisingly small ; only
six players are named in the synopsis.
The formula is singer-of-hit-tunes-
snowballs-to-success-but-his-buddy-gets -
the-girl combined with owner-of-night-
club-is-relentless-killer. Both ingredients
are from regular stock and do not mix
particularly well.

Unless you are acclimatised to this
sort of thing and susceptible to the
yearnsome vocalism of Frank Sinatra,
the film will seem merely tedious. If
it is the only one at your cinema in
Christmas Week, stay at home and
play “Hunt the Slipper”.

And may I take the annual
opportunity of wishing a very merry

Christmas to those readers who have
written to the editor or the office about
my work in such a kind and friendly
wav ?

Q-

ENCORE

Producer: Anthony Damborough.

Directors: Harold French, Pat

Jackson, Anthony Pelissier.
Certificate: A. Category: A.

Running time : 89 minutes.

Those who enjoyed Quartet and Trio
will welcome these three short films by
the same author and with the same
producer. There is something intensely
human in these tales of Mr. Somerset
Maugham, even though human nature
■ is not always portrayed at its best.

“The Ant and the Grasshopper”,
about an idle, worthless and dissolute
young scamp who ends by turning the
tables on his industrious and respectable
elder brother is a triumph for Nigel
Patrick in the part of the scamp. The
tale’s gay cynicism carries it along so
entertainingly that there is hardly time
to realise that the moral behaviour of its
characters leaves something to be
desired : but it would be ungrateful to
labour this point w'hen all we are meant
to do is to sit back and be amused.
And we most certainly are.

In “Winter Cruise” a middle-aged
spinster drives the crew- and passengers
of a cruising-steamer to desperation by
deciding to be “the life and soul of the
party” and talking incessantly. Miss
Kay Walsh as the spinster is superb,
and is ably supported by Noel Purcell
and Ronald Squire as the ship’s
harassed captain and doctor, Jacques
Franjois as Pierre, the French steward
who is deputed by the captain to make
love to the spinster, is highly
entertaining. The end is as unexpected
as delightful. A charming film, the
best of the three by a long shot.

About “Gigolo and Gigolette” I am
not so happy : some of the characters
in the story are so ruthless and brutal
as to make it almost sordid. Also I
do not think that Glynis Johns is quite
successful as the girl who does a
nightly trick-dive from a high ladder
into a five-foot deep tank of water with
burning petrol on its surface, and at
length loses her nerve. It seemed to
me that her performance was too

332

restrained and would have been all the
better for a fit of first-class hysterics,
for which no one could have blamed her
in such trying circumstances. The
honours in this third film undoubtedly
go to Mary Merrall and Martin Miller
in the parts of a retired vaudeville artist
and her husband.

On the whole an excellent entertain-
ment and not to be missed. But don’t
take impressionable youngsters who
might be upset by the diving scene, not
to mention some of the brutal
characters referred to above.

T. C. F.

WHERE NO VULTURES FLY

Starring: Anthony Steel, Dinah

Sheridan and Harold Warrender,
with Meredith Edwards and
William Simons. Director:
Harry Watt. A Michael
Balcon Production. Certificate :
U . Category : C.

Those superior people who say, “I
never go to the cinema, I prefer real
life”, will be challenged by this film
which is a storv that could be told in

Gwil Davies, the trapper, listens rather
unhappily to Bob’s views on the trapping of
wild animals

no other medium. Only the camera
could recount so graphically the events
that take place in this lovely part of
East Africa, with the majestic Mount
Kilimanjaro presiding over the
National Parks, where fabulous animals
of many kinds live out their lives in
safety.

It was a fit thing to set before the
Royal Family for the Command
Performance. They, like us, must be
heartily sick of the artificial and morbid
sagas that are so often presented for
the entertainment of the public. No
gangsters here, no psychiatrists, no
sadistic fighters with a grudge against
the world. Instead we are shown in
most enchanting colours, the wild life
of Kenya, animals of every shape and
size and the efforts of the man who
managed to set up the animal preserves
and the difficulties he had to overcome
before doing so. There is a thin
thread of narrative dealing with the
adventures of the man, his wife and
young son which binds the picture
together. Anthony Steel, Dinah
Sheridan and little William Simons
fit these parts adequately. Harold
Warrender is a rather unlikely villain
of the piece and Meredith Edwards a
quite convincing shady character who
traps animals for zoos and is not above
a little bribery on the side.

The dialogue is somewhat stilted
but otherwise the film has a refreshing
atmosphere which will ensure its
popularity with those who are tired of
the average fictional film with its
artificial characters and unpleasant
undertones.

V.

A Reminder

Professor Dr. Bonfilius Knipping,
O.F.M., D.A., will give an

informal lecture to our priest
film critics on December 11th, at
the Challoner Club, at 4 p.m.,
on The Film Critic, The
Christian Film Critic and The
Priest Film Critic.

333

CONTINENTAL FILM

SOUS LE CIEL DE PARIS
COULE LA SEINE

Starring: Denise Lamibert, Jean

Brochard, Sylvie, Marie France.
Scenario and Director: Julien

Duvivier. English Commentary
spoken by Anthony Bushell.
Regina Filmsonor Production.
Certificate-. A. Category : B.

Running time : 90 minutes

approximately .

Picking some half - dozen very
different people from all corners of
sleeping Paris, Julien Duvivier brings
twenty-four hours of their lives together
in gradually lessening circles. This
necessarily implies an episodic opening,
switching from one scene or one
story to another. The commentary in
English is well spoken by Anthony

Bushell, but a little ineffective as the
main connecting link between the
characters, the story and Paris.

My general impression was one of
pity and melancholy. This should not
be so, as the star is Paris — Paris,
bewitching by night, brilliant in sun
and playing fountains, dreary in a
strike, attractive in byways, attics and
gardens. The photography excels and
captivates.

But the memories that remain are
haunting. The sad Mademoiselle
Perrier (Sylvie), who spends from
dawn till evening begging a mere
sixty-four francs, to buy milk for her
cats . . . and fails. And then there is
the glum child-face of Colette (Marie
France), aged six or seven, tvhose bad
marks at school lead her to wander the
streets rather than go home to mother’s
anger.

This is not Duvivier’s best production,
but the photography and one or two
characters put it well ahead of many
British and American films.

M.

SOME FILMS

REVIEWED

NOTE. Inclusion in this

list

does

Highway 301

(A)

(307)

not connote positive recommendation.
Readers are reminded to refer to the

His Kind of Woman

(A)

(279)

full review -when assessing

a film.

I was a Communist Spy

Category A, indicates adults

only;

for the F.B.I.

(A)

(309)

B. adults and adolescents; C, family
audiences ; D, particularly for

Lady Pays Off, The

(A)

(302) |

children.

Lady with the Lamp , The

(B)

(303)

Reviewed in “Focus” (Vol.

Magic Box, The

(C)

(301)

IV,

Mr. Belvedere Rings the

Nos. 10 and 11)

Bell

(B)

(303).

Murder Inc.

(A)

(279)

Across the Wide Missouri

(C)

(305)

People Against O’Hara,

An American in Paris

(B)

(278)

The

(B)

(303)

Appointment with Venus

(C)

(306)

People Will Talk

(A)

(275)

Cyrano de Bergerac

(B)

(304)

Queen of the West

(C)

(276)

David and Bathsheba

(B)

(302)

Rhubarb

(B)

(276)

Decision Before Dawn

(A)

(278)

Rommel — Desert Fox

(C)

(305)

Detective Story

(A)

(307)

Soldiers Three

(B)

(277)

First Legion, The

(C)

(308)

The Frogmen

(B)

(274)

Flying Leatherjackets

(A)

(301)

Valentino

(A)

(274)

Francis Goes to the Races

(276)

Valley of Eagles

(B)

(277)

Fie Ran All the Way

(A)

(307)

When Worlds Collide

(A)

(277)

334

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE

AIMS AND OBJECTS
No. 4 — A Catholic Film Library

The fourth of our aims and objects is
an obvious and logical one to emphasize
the necessity of promoting good motion
pictures as the Encyclical requires.
Just as a supply of good literature
demands a library from which it may
be circulated, so the supplying of good
films requires the setting up of a centre
from which films which are of interest to
Catholics may be secured. There are, of
course, other organisations, both
Catholic and non-Catholic which handle
films of interest to Catholic audiences,
but there is need for a library which is
a specialist centre in a way that other
organisations, of their nature, cannot
be. The library service which the
Catholic Film Institute is in course of
establishing is not intended primarily
as a commercial enterprise, though,
obviously, it is one of the necessary
sources of income for the upkeep of the
office itself. Its work is many sided,
as much informational and consultative
as an answer to the question : “What
can I show to the Sodality next
Sunday?” Such a library needs to be
in touch with other film concerns up
and down the country, whether Catholic
or non-Catholic, in order to co-ordinate
as usefully as possible, film activities
which may be of service to the general
Catholic community. In this there is
no desire to establish a monopoly, even
within the Catholic circle, for it is
evident that there is need and room
for more than one distributing centre,
but it is also evident that an official
organisation such as that of the
Catholic Film Institute must be, must
also be in a position to indicate to
enquirers whatever it is the}- need to
know about whatever may be of film
interest from the Catholic point of
view. To be able to do this we must
be in a position to specialise.

Such a library will also have access
to information about Catholic film
activities in other countries and as the
Catholic Film Institute is a component
body of the International Catholic Film
Office (O.C.I.C.) it is in an admirable
position to be kept in touch with ail

Catholic film activities •which take
place in the other countries connected
with O.C.I.C. Films of value from the
Catholic point of view are made by a
number of groups in these countries
and though it is not possible at our
present state of penury to purchase
copies of such films, at least it is a
good thing to know about them and to
be able to bring them to the knowledge
of persons or organisations who may
be interested.

The work of the library embraces two
main departments. A certain number
of films which have been made under
the auspices of the C.F.I. take pride
of place. This number is of necessity
small at the moment but time and
enthusiasm will remedy that. There is
a great demand for Catholic films of all
kinds but especially for films made
explicitly to show the Catholic way of
life in all its various expressions,
religious, educational, social,
recreational and artistic. There are at
the moment very few films which can
be said to have been made to measure
for Catholics. Doubtless the newly
resuscitated 16mm. section of the C.F.I.
will help to fill that gap in course of
time.

The other main part of our work
involves the booking of films made by
other organisations, both commercial
and non-commercial, which Catholics
wish to make use of. The greater part
of Catholic film programmes are made
up of entertainment films such as
Monsieur Vincent, Song of Bernadette,
To Live In Peace, San Francisco, etc.,
which we book for our clients from the
firms which own them. Naturally we
do not keep copies of such films in our
own library ; we arrange for them to
be sent to the parish convent, college
or school which is giving the film
show. This service involves a lot of
writing, ' telephoning, sending of
telegrams and so on, but is all part of
the job.

One thing which we have wanted to
do for a long time is to compile a list

335

of titles which will include films of
interest to Catholics from whatever
source they may come. This is a big
task and frankly we have not the
personnel at the moment to devote to
it. However, we are, little by little,
gathering together titles which may be
of use. One thing is quite clear at the
moment ; owing to the paucity of films
which can be called truly Catholic, it
is not possible for a film society to
organise a monthly show which will
consist entirely of such films. It is,
however, quite possible to run a series
of programmes which will include films
of interest to Catholic audiences.
Indeed, it is probably not a bad thing
to bring certain non-Catholic films to
the notice of our people and if, by
discussion, a more alert and perceptive
attitude towards such films can be
developed, it will in the end contribute
to the long term policy of all Catholic

film action, that of promoting good
motion pictures.

One further service we wish to be
able to offer, but which at the moment
is entirely embryonic, is a library of
reference books on the subject of film.
We would like to be able to offer our
members the opportunity of consulting
standard works which will help them in
their study of film. This will come
about one day, but at the moment we
have not the means to realise it. Our
members, generous as always in their
devotion to the cause which we have
so much at heart, will perhaps help us
to bring this sphere of our aspirations
to fruition sooner than we think. In
any case, modest as are our services at
the moment, we are anxious to be of
assistance to all who can use our help.

J. A. V. Burke.

■j

Rn Inexpensive Christmas 6ift

In these days there are a lot of things you can’t buy for 7s. 6d. But
you can give your friends a subscription to Focus. It will last ALL
THE YEAR ROUND. And what about your parish priest? Fill in
the form below and we will do the rest.

I enclose 7s. 6d. for one year’s subscription to Focus, to begin with

the issue. Please send a Greetings Card with the

first issue to :

NAME (Block Letters)

ADDRESS (Block Letters)

SENDER’S NAME

The Manager, FOCUS: A Film Review, Catholic Film Institute
157 Victoria Street, London, S.W.i

336

C.F.I. NOTES

Meeting of the 16mm. Section

It is proposed to hold a second
meeting of those interested in the
development of the 16mm. Section of
the C.F.I. at Putney Park Studios,
London, S.W.15, on January 8th and
9th. The two days will be devoted to
the showing of selected films and to
lectures and discussions on future
plans for the 16mm. Section.

Those who care to take part in this
conference are requested to send in
their names as soon as possible to Miss
Maureen Riley, 157 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.7. Accommodation will
be arranged if desired at a nearby
convent and college.

Membership of the 16mm. Section

It is hoped that as many as possible
of those who are interested in the
possibilities of the- 16mm. Section will
join it. The annual subscription is set
at 2s. 6d. in order to encourage those
— the majority in these . days of the
New Austerity — who find expenses
connected with their hobby already too
heavy. It is not expected that such
persons will necessarily be full members
of the C.F.I. though there is, of course,
no reason why they should not be. It
is felt that, on the whole, the members
of the C.F.I. are those who generously
wish to assist by their subscriptions
and donations an important work of
Catholic Action quite apart from auy
consideration of what, at present, they
can get out of it in return. On the
other hand, those who are already
caught up in the fascinating but very
exacting enchantment of making their
own amateur moving pictures will be
able to make a valuable contribution in
this way to Catholic Film Action, if
they so desire.

Film Club at Boscombe

During the past three years, the
Boscombe C.P.E.A. has been holding

regular monthly film shows in the
parish hall so as to give members of the
parish an opportunity of seeing various
Catholic films which would otherwise
not have been available to them. These
shows have met with varied success,
but on the whole the C.P.E.A.
Committee has been well satisfied that
the venture is worth while. It has
therefore been decided to organise a
film club as a section of the C.P.E.A.,
and this Club came into being in
September. The aim of the Club is to
promote among members good taste and
discretion in film going, and it is
proposed to hold a film show each
month. A 16mm. projector has been
purchased. It is also intended
occasionally to hold talks on the
educational and moral value of films
viewed both at the Club and at the
public cinemas. Membership is confined
to members of the C.P.E.A. and the
yearly subscription is 10s. 6d. Non-
members may attend film shows and
discussions on payment of one shilling.

The Club hopes that it will be
possible to give shows in neighbouring
parishes from time to time. Copies of
Focus are sold at each film show, and
a number of regular orders for this
review have now been obtained.

Annual General Meeting

Members will have already been
notified by post of the A.G.M., which
is to take place on December 5th, at
8 p.m., at the Challoner Club, 61 Pont
Street, London, S.W.3.

Phoenix House Limited has just
published another book by Andrew
Buchanan, D.Litt., Ph.D., F.R.S.A.,
entitled : “The Film in Education”.

This excellent publication will be
reviewed in the January issue of Focus.

COVER PERSONALITY

RICHARD TODD

Thinking of the large number of
stars that shoot across the screens of
the world never to be seen again after
'j their first and only flashing burst of
publicity makes one ponder on the
elusive quality which enables an actor
like Richard Todd to steal the first
picture he appears ill and to keep the
popularity he thus achieves with both
public and producers. Less than three
years ago an unknown actor with the
Dundee Repertory Company, he
has since then starred in several
British films, has been to Hollywood
where he made a film, yet to be seen
in this country, Lightning Strikes
Twice; has played opposite Marlene
Dietrich and Jane Wyman in Stage
Fright, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
and is at present working on a film
opposite Merle Oberon, directed by
Victor Saville, entitled Twenty-
Four Hours of a Woman’s Life.
(Doubtless a more compact title will be
discovered before the film is sent out.)
He has finished playing Robin Hood in
the Walt Disney film of that name and
Associated British Pathe, the companv
to whom he is under contract, are
considering him for the title role in
the film version of Thomas Hardy’s
Mayor of Cast abridge.

It is evident that he has something
which the directors want and judging
by the wide variety of parts he has
already appeared in he is able to deliver
\j the goods. If only he can avoid being
typed as a “heart throb” he may well
climb to the top of the ladder which
accommodates the quite small group of
really first-class actors of stage and
screen. It was his heart-warming,
pathetic little Scottish soldier in The
Hasty Heart which first caught and
held the attention of the public though

lie had already shown promise of
unusual ability in his part as the
condemned man in For Them That
Trespass. In Portrait of Clare, in
which he played opposite Margaret
Johnson, his part was more
conventional but still sufficiently
individual to be noticed. In Stage
Fright he was rather overshadowed by
the galaxy of talent that peopled that
not very good film. Nevertheless,
whatever his part he manages to leave
something in the memorv of the
beholder in addition to the good looks
which are both an asset and a danger
for a. man who wants to be a real actor
for the screen.

John Vincent.

| i n[

Film Strips on the
Mass

THE SACRED ACTIONS

74 Frames

Pictures by John Drummond

Young from the book “The [

Sacred Actions”, by Father

Hugh McEvoy, S.J.

Price £1 Is. Od.

THE MASS FOR LITTLE
CHILDREN

20 Frames. Colour

By S. N. D. Price 7s. 6d.

THE CATHOLIC FILM
INSTITUTE
157 Victoria Street
London, S.W.i

FOCUS

FILM COURSE

Handbook No. 1

Foreword by

Rev. John A. V. Burke

Film Course by

Andrew Buchanan, D.Litt., Ph.D.

“ provokes thought and arouses a desire to read more ... an
excellent primer for Film Study Groups."

— The Catholic Times.

. . . invaluable to anyone who wants to take an intelligent
interest in the cinema "

— The Catholic Worker.

Contents include essential facts and statistics relating
to: The Way Films Vary: The Cinema Programme:
The News Reel: Fictional versus Factual Films:
Educational and Children’s Films: The Religious
Film: Film Music.

Price 1 s. 6d.

From

CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE,

157 VICTORIA STREET,
LONDON, S.W.1.

Printed by Samuel Walker (Printers & Publishers), Ltd., for The Catholic Film
Institute, 167 Victoria Street, London, 8.W.I.

Scanned from the collection of

Karl Thiede

Coordinated by the

Media History Digital Library

wvw.mediahistoryproject.org

Funded by a donation from

The Libraries of Northwestern
University and

Northwestern University in Qatar