ON THE SCREEN ‘Joan of Arc’ deserves an Oscar in reverse .IN, JOAN OF ARC Walter Wanger has contrived to spend .a big. budget without. than‘arouse the envy of B picture producers.. t accomplishing anything more Its inevitable boxoffice failure is now being attributed to the “moral indis- CAPSULE REVIEWS Little choice: for film fans PANIC IN THE STREETS A brutal chase after a gang- ster infected with bubonic pla- ‘gue done by Elia Kazan in the familiar “documentary _ style”. Along the way the film becomes highly offensive in its treatment ef its working class characters and particularly of the foreign- cretions” of Ingrid Bergman, its principal actress: The extremely large cast appears embarrassed to be discovered in such surround- ings, although notable exceptions are provided by Jose Ferrer as the Dauphin, and Thomas Malt- hus and J. Carrol Naish in two lesser roles. Almost every worn out tech- nique and tired cliche is used, while the obtrusive musical score and the gaudy technicolor vie with each other for attention with all the subtlety of a boiler fac- tory: Victor ‘Fleming’s direction is nebulous, with especially inferior and unimaginative handling of crowd scenes. The film rambles so loosely from scene to scene that one is never quite certain born characters in the back- what is happering. ground of the story. Zero Mos- Ingrid, Bergman, in her port- tel, the comic, plays the part of rayal of the Maid of Orleans, has a gangster — straight. no difficulty in turning in the worst role of her career. Sustain- ALL ABOUT EVE ed posturing and puerile dialogue create a thoroughly amateurish Written and directed by the effect, but the payoff is Ingrid’s eminently capable Joseph Man- ‘Meatrical sprinting about the bat- kewicz. A ruthless examination ef Broadway show people, a not tlefield complete with white ar- mor and a papier mache sword shouting morale boosting orations. especially important. segment of ‘This deserves an Oscar in reverse society. Some of the sharpest as the hammiest sequence of the . G@ialogue in many. months. year. Joan of Arc is just one more TRIO example of what is happening to ‘ Hollywood — the Hollywood of ‘ Sereen adaptations of three Cecil B. DeMille, the cold war more Somerset Maugham short witch-hunt and the hot war pro- stories, but not equal to the paganda. standards of Quartet. conservative but well done. THE MINIVER STORY Thanks be we've now seen the last of Greer Garson in that high-class Mrs. Dalery. THE ASPHALT JUNGLE A Sangster film notable for its characterizations, and its expose ef circuit detectives: . The hero- villain (Sterling Hayden) is the strong-arm mug selected by am- bitious and cagey bank robbers to handle the “juice” and cover the getaway. The film makes an attempt to explain how the’ gangsters got that way, and re- veals the tie-in of police agents and the aristocracy of the under- world. It is definitely not re- Archly COmmended.—N. E. STORY. Ti-Coq’ closes after run of three days GRATIEN Gelinas’ play, Ti- Coq, which has been. seen by some 250,000 people in eastern ‘Canada, closed down after only three performances on Broad- way. Widely acclaimed as a great play, Ti-Coq was criticized by Pierre Gelinas in the Canadian Tribune as falling far short of the greatness Gelinas, “a master craftsman”, could have achieved because it gave a false picture of the French Canadian attitude to war and conscription. u CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING A charge of 50 cents for each insertion of five lines or less with 10 cents for each additional line is made for notices appearing in this column. No notices will be accepted later than Monday noon of the week of publication. WHAT’S DOING i DANCE — Modern and Old-time Music, at Clinton Hall, 2605 E. Pen- der. St., every Saturday night, 9 to 12. Music by CLINTON EAST Orchestra. Hall for rent — Phone BA. 3277. BUSINESS PERSONALS 3% TRANSFER & MOVING, Cour- teous, fast, efficient. Call Nick at Yale Hotei, PA. 0632, MA. 1527, CH. 8210. SUMONSON’S WATCH Repairs — We repair Ronson’s, Jewellery, all types of watches and clocks. Tll East Hastings, Vancouver. SALLY BOWES INCOME TAX PROBLEMS — Rm. 20, 9 East Hastings. MA. 9965. A. Rollo, Mgr. WORK BOOTS high or low cut. see Johnson's Boots. 63 West Cor- dova Street. io. CRYSTAL STEAM BATHS—Open every day. New Modern Beauty Salon—i763 E. Hastings. HAs- _ tings 0094. : 0.K. RADIO SERVICE. Latest fac: torye precision equipment used. MARINE SERVICE, 1420 Pen- der St. West, TA. 1012. HELP WANTED 4 PERSON TO LIVE IN except weekends and look after two small children, no housework. {Cedar Cottage District. Box 100, Pacific Tribune. : HALLS FOR RENT RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME — Available for meetings, weddings, and banquets at reasonable rates. 600 Campbell Ave., HA. 6900. 4 ‘ _- NOTICES NEW OFFICES OF THE PACI- FIC TRIBU ARE: ROOM 6, 426 MAIN STREET. PT Dixielang Trio — Available for dances and socials, “Assure a suc- cessful evening.” Quality tops, rates reasonable. Call MA. 5288 for booking, ea b 4 GUID: TO GOOD READING ‘Eyes of Reason’ of postwar Czec STEFAN HEYM, who wrote in The Crusaders, what this re- viewer believes to be the best American novel of the Second World War II, has now given us an honest and important novel about postwar Czechoslovakia, The Eyes of Reason (Little, Brown). One .searches his memory in vain for the title of any Ameri- can work of fiction which has described faithfully the great events in eastern Europe as the peoples of Czechoslovakia, Hun- gary, Poland and the other Peo- ple’s Democracies* move toward socialism: Instead, we have been deluged with filth of the Koestler variety, complete with the stock slave labor camps, the wicked com- missars and the revolution im- posed by Soviet arms on an unwilling populace. The Eyes of Reason breaks cleanly -with this: shameless pat- tern. Heym shows, convincingly what really happened in Czecho- slovakia; how the people of that country, after V-E Day, were eager to progress peacefully to- ward socialism; how industrial- ists and bourgeois politicians pretended to go along with the public will, but only to sabotage reforms; and how when -these politicians . resigned from the cabinet to precipitate a crisis and then seize power in a coun- ter-revolution, the people stood firm behind the Communist par- ty. * * * IT IS THROUGH the inter- locked affairs of three brothers that Heym recounts the postwar story of Czechoslovakia. Joseph Benda is the owner of the family glass works. Thomas is a liberal writer, known during his exile in America during the Nazi oc- eupation, as the “Voice of Cze- choslovakia” And Karel is a doctor, only one of the three to remain in his country during the war, and a_ concentration camp prisoner for his role in the underground. Obviously, it is not an original formula that Heym has contrived to show the civil conflict which divided classes, neighbors, bro- thers in ‘Czechoslovakia. But he has made this three-way conflict among the Benda brothers come to life, because each is a real person with his own motivations and inconsistencies, not a card- board ‘symbol’ of a class. Joseph is a small provincial manufacturer, with a love for the glassmaker’s craft. But his ambition and his greed draw him inexorably into the web of counter - revolutionary plotting. When industry is nationalized, he takes the post of administrator under the government, but uses ‘it to siphon off profits to his wife’s non-nationalized _ plant. When the Czech people. stand firm against the counter-revolu- tionaries, Joseph senses the futi- lity of his efforts:/ But it is too jate: He flees his country to carry on the plotting in exile. In his own estimation, Joseph is a patriot, acting in the best interests of his country when) he acts in his own. And Heym permits the reader to get, un- censored as it were, the self- portraits of all of his leading characters. But the unfolding action of the novel clearly re- veals how Joseph, whatever his protestations, feathers his nest at the expense of his workers and the nation. : The doctor, Karel, is similarly drawn by the logic of his past deeds and his imprisonment in Buchenwald — but he is drawn to support the Communist party and the working class. Heym skillfully portrays the hesitations and confusions which mark Karel’s path: as he striyes to break completely with the deca- dence, moral sickliness and greed of his family — and class. Perhaps the most complex of the Bendas is Thomas. Ultim- ately a suicide, his life and out- look illustrate the dilemma of a’ bourgeois intellectual who can- not stomach the hypocritical pre- tensions of a dying exploiting class. Yet he cannot give up his anarchic views on the “free dom” of the individual to ob- serve tyranny and join with the revolutionary working class in winning the highest form of frec- dom yet known to man — socia- lism. : IT IS CLEAR from Heym’s concentration on this middle-class clan “and from his almost pain- fully careful presentation of the viewpoint of each, that he has sought to unfold a story that only the most hysterical of anti- Communists could challenge as untrue. And, in fact, The Eyes of Reason, has the powerful ring of truth. ‘While this em- phasis not only serves that pur- pose, but also vividly pictures the decay of the old Czechoslo- vak ruling class in contrast to the emergence to power of the majority working class, Heym honest novel | hoslovakia has neglected to round out the full political picture. : The counter - revolutionary putsch of the old Czech ruling class was part of the drive for imperialist war and world power for Wall Street. Heym shows through the character of Elinor Simpson, an influential American foreign correspondent who ac- tively promotes the anti-demo- cratic intrigues. Yet this is an inadequate description: of the in- — tervention of the. Truman gov- ernment and American imperia- lists. Also, while drawn individual Communists, deputies in parliament, factory workers and officials, the entire movement of the Communist party and the Czechoslovak wor- king class is too vaguely and intermittently drawn. Thus Heym has done a better job of describing the maneuvres of the rejected boss clique than he has of the people’s organiza- tions and struggle. This gives an out-of-focus picture.. But these weaknesses do not deflect from the primary merit of The Eyes of Reason — that it conscientiously and accurately demonstrates the historical fact that the establishment of the People’s Democracy was an ex- pression of the will of the Cze- choslovak people — was a vic- tory for the people. —JOSEPH FRIEDMAN. The Command Performance Picture of the Year HELD OVER a second great week! SSSSSSSSSOSS: a 20th Century-Fox Picture starring — IRENE DUNNE win ALEC GUINNESS and introducing 11-year-old ANDREW RAY * as THE MUDLARK VOGUE SOSSSSSOSSSGSES9S SSS GS GOSS O SISOS SION Don’t Miss the Biggest Event of the Season... Fourth Annual All Slav CONCER Tes Sunday, February 18, 7:45 p.m. HASTINGS ODEON THEATRE 20 West Hastings St. MUSIC, SONGS AND DANCES j 2 | HEAR JOHN BOYD, Secretary of the C:nadian Slav Committee from Toronto JUST RETURNED FROM EASTERN EUROPE AUUC HALL, ‘| Welcoming Banquet For John Boyd SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 at 6.30 P.M. 805 E. PENDER All Slav Dishes — Dance after 9 p.m. ADMISSION $1.00 N this primarily Heym has — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 16, 1951 — PAGE 10 | 7.