10 IN REVIEW Rooks — Motion Pictures — Musie — Arts Tom Paine - The Conscience Of Man Citizen Tom Paine. By Howard Fast. was anybody liked Tom Paine. Nobody, $3.00. Nobody who that is, who wanted to preserve the American status quo of the times he lived in. In England, members of the aristocracy who believed America as a colony to be exploited was 4 fine thing, used to fasten coins with his likeness engraved on them in the soles of their shoes— so they could stamp on him with every step. Wealthy Americans agreed on one thing; Tom Paine was their enemy, and they intend- ed to make it a fight to the finish. On several oceasions bullets miss- ed him by inches, and his life was constantly in danger. Tom Paine was a revolutionist. “Citizen Tom Paine” is an im- portant book, and one which will probably live for a long time, be- Regeneration! Whitaker, author of Cannot Escape History” that these exact swords were told to Don Gonzalo Aguilera, Count of Alva John. -<- “We tes him by Captain de Yeltes, a Spanish grandee: “You know what's wrong with Spain? Modern plumbing? In healthier times—I mean health- jer times spiritually, you under- stand — plague and pestilence could be counted on to thin down the Spanish masses. Held down to manageable proportions you understand. Now with modern sewage disposal and the like they multiply too fast. The masses are no better than animals, you understand and you can’t expect them not to become infected with the virus of Bolshevism. After all, rats and lice carry the plague. Do you understand now what we mean by the regeneration of Spain?” The Count, who is one of the chief press officers of Franco, is still on the job. cause it is a true document about a very important part of Ameri- can history. As in his other books, Howard Fast has made his Tom Paine a real man, as alive as your next door neighbor or the secretary of your local union. And Paine is presented not only as a dreamer, a philosopher, or the writer of Common Sense, but also as a man of action. George Washington said that because he himself was an active revolutionist, he had an intimate knowledge of the important part played by Paine in bolstering the morale of his ragged army. He had seen Paine during the “times that try men’s souls,” freezing and starving with the defeated, fieeing American army. “At night they made their fires when they could not march @ step more, and it was Paine who did the cooking for a hundred men, Paine to calm a boy's fear, Paine to read a man @ jetter from his wife and write one in return, Paine to sit with his strong hands clasped about his pent knees and slowly, simpiy explain what they were suffering for, the politics of an empire ahd a world, the struggles of mankind from the Romans until now, not only in America but the world over.” When the five long years were over, and the revolution won, Washington said to Paine: “No one of us will ever forget your value. On two fronts, the home front and the fighting front, it was Paine who kept the cause to- gether.” Paine’s writings inflamed the people, the miners, dockworkers and mill ands. Tom Paine earn- ed the love of the common peo ple, and the undying hate of the ruling classes. Howard Fast's portrait of the man 1s timely, as well as being cleverly drawn. to Canada’s Quisling. 119 West Pender @ A Timely Book You've heard Professor Kirkconnell’s lies. . - read the answer of the Ukrainian-Canadian people This Is Our Land By Raymond Arthur Davies J A “MUST” Book-for All Progressive Canadians! Price 75 Cents The People Bookshop 105 Shelly Building MA 6929 . Now Vancouver The Controversy on ‘Mission to Moscow’ Do We Want ‘Escape’ Filr wu THE cry from one side for more serious films and on the other the horrified exclamations against war films, Hollywood pre- tends to find itself in a pre- dicament. Most “critics” are calling for an end to war films, for more light and amusing pictures to take the film-goer’s mind off the horrors of war. Since this- is likely to develop into a campaign to put a stop to the making of progressive pic- tures, it would seem to be high time for John Public to step into the case and take a hand. “War films are getting just a little bit tiresome,” moans one local reviewer. “There are lots of good shows, but they are too much the same. It is hard to under- stand how the studios can pre- sent, without a qualm, a number of pictures with practically the same theme.” 2 A too often these so-called critics get away with this sort of thing. The absurdity of pointing to “Hangman Also Die,” “The Moon Is Down,” “Comman- does Strike At Dawn,” as proving the point of a charge of monot- ony, while equably, nonchalantly tossing off a credit for some ‘Monster and Maiden” type of thriller doesn’t speak well for the qualifications of this sort of critic to give a verdict on anything mentally more exacting than Mickey Mouse. Probably you'll recall that when “Keeper of the Flame” came here, The motion picture industry needs more, not less, of films that tell the story of man’s battle for progress and victory over re- action. @ the reviewers gave us no idea of what it was all about. “Mystery” they exclaimed, and “Murder” they hinted. But never did they tip their hand and let the public in on the secret—that in this picture Warner Brothers had sounded the warning against those in America who would palm off fascism on the nation while posing as its greatest pa- triots. . @ “q RISSION TO MOSCOW” was a also played down by local people, although they could not ignore its greatness. Also 4 Warner Brothers’ production, this powerful dramatization of Joseph E. Davies’ book on his stay in the Soviet Union as Am- erican ambassador is real and vital. Scenes from newsree! shots of the May Day parade in the Red Square in 1985 highlight the picture, proving in Davies’ words that “One nation with no aggres- sive intentions is ready for what- ever comes—and I thank God fer ic Failure of the long campaign of Soviet leaders for world peace through collective security, the tragedy of Czechoslovakia and Austria are shown in this picture Canada’s Army Show Ranks With Best Sold out almost before it hit town, Canada’s Army Show presented a colorful two hours and a half of music, songs and skits at the Strand Theatre this week, marshalling talent from all branches of the service. (An Several clever songs with comic sequences guaranteed never a dull moment for the audience, and the dances were beautiful and cos- tuming excellent. The skits showed no respect for position, and the army medical officers and recruit- their im- general staff, ing officers came in for share of the good-natured pudence handed out by the writ- ers, Sets. Frank Shuster and Johnny Wayne.