VER since 1947 when J. Par- nel Thomas, then chairman the Un-American Committee and later convicted thief) told Ne motion picture magnateg that hey had better make some anti- OMmunist pictures, Hollywood las been trying slavishly to com- And without exception, the hings it has turned out have ‘allen flat on their cans. ‘But “The Manchurian Can- date,” adapted from Richard Ondon’s so-called novel, is the host vicious attempt yet made Y the industry to cash in on ‘Oviet-American tensions, and it s Certainly the most ingenious nd imaginative — from a cine- “Matic point of view. The ingenuity and imagination ide in the treatment of the tory on film (in terms of struc- re, camera-work and acting)— 1€ story is something else again. Briefly, an American patrol is tured in Korea in 1952, flown nto Manchuria and = “‘brain- Yashed’’ by the Red Chinese and 2 Russians (sic). One particular sergeant (Law- ce Harvey) becomes so _ re- ‘POnsive a patient that, years ater and under © post-hypnotic estion, he will kill anyone his er captors want put out of way. *ossessing no conscience and Sense of guilt, and returned a hero and winner of the Bressional Medal of Honor, ey (in short order) kills his employer (a_ liberal magazine editor), his adored wife and her father (a Senator.and his final orders involve sje, murder (in Madison Square Garden) of the nominated candidate for Presi- dent of the United States — so that a fascist demagogue may step into hig place. If you think this is absurd, be patient. For not only is his step- father the fascist, a la McCarthy, but his mother (who manages his political career) is the key figure in what the brainwashed victim is called upon to do: in other words, she is a Communist agent, too! * * * This juxtaposition is typical of certain reactionaries who, realiz- ‘ing the American people’s al- most instinctive loathing for fascism, tell them that fascism and communism are the same thing. That is what Condon’s novel said — and what the film repeats And the building of the story is conducted with such genuine imagination and the use of the camera is so effective that, if you have no political savvy, you could easily swallow it whole. This point was made by Bos- ley Crowther in The N. Y. Times (Oct. 25) when he said the film “pops up with a rash supposition that could serve to scare some viewers half to death — that is, if they should be dupes enough to believe it, which we solemnly trust they won't.” Time magazine, no enemy of fascist brainwashing itself, was disappointed by the picture (Nov. 2) because it failed to make its point. Said Time, ‘‘. . . the story is notable chiefly for a system- atic error it makes. It tries so hard to be different that it fails to be itself.” * * * .. . Sad is the fact that Frank Sinatra lent himself to this one— in the role of a fellow member of the Korean patrol who — on their return — gets a sneaking suspicion that ‘‘something’s go- ing on,” followg his friend, Har- vey, and manages to un-brain- wash him in less than five minutes, so that, instead of assas- sinating the Presidential nominee, he kills his long-hated (Commu- nist) mother and her fascist hus- band, the vice presidential nom- inee! Since Sinatra does not need the (money) the only reasonable as- sumption for his presence might be a desire on his part, finally to absolve himself of the charges of “Red sympathizer,’’ that were hurled at him when he (momen- tarily) hired Albert Maltz to write a screenplay a couple of years “ago. This film is poison, all the more lethal because it is pre- sented with ingenuity and gen- uine suspense. —DAVID ORDWAY OPEN FORUM ds Greetings Rod Doran, Prince Rupert, ites to say that “the cur- Nt- issue (Nov. 30) was ex- lent; congratulations to all _ *Oncerned” and extends Sea- Son’s Greetings to the PT staff “Uy Justus in the Minneapolis Star Nele’s skeleton closet.” . WORTH Ward Selsam. $1.65 (Paper- le) For those interested in the- Pace questions, here is an Toduction to philosophy “Stimulating and thought- Poe: It is a Marxist Uction of philosophy “is written very clearly Simply. Teactionary Hungarian ©Paper recently claimed Fidel Castro is a Jew. Proof they offered?—he beard, Cut Headlines K. G. Hammond, Vancou- ver ,writes: Dialectical mater- ialism works with everything . . . Perhaps a minor sugges- tion in the interests of space and how in imitating the ways of the “yellow press”, some- how I feel space is sacrificed to a certain degree. Take, for instance, the size of titles used with the inten- tions of catching the eye of the passerby. Perhaps, in view of the lack of success in the sub drive, we may have to recon- sider once again the size of the paper and a cut may be forced on us. Should this happen, I say forget about the headlines and fill the . pages of the paper with ‘‘pro- teins”, if you’ll pardon the expression. 41 Years Ago John Anderson, Qualicum Beach, writes: J. S. Woods- worth, in his maiden speech in Parliament, said that the Conservatives claim we should have high tariffs to protect our industry, while the Liberals maintain that we have a vast country and should have more immigrants. Woodsworth pointed out that Great Britain had the highest tariffs in the world, along with a vast army of unemployed and that every immigrant brought into the country would bring with him a mouth and two hands. The people of Canada can pro- duce much more than they can consume, he said. Neither tariffs nor immi- gration policies would solve the problem of unemploy- ment and_ ,though this was said 41 years ago, it is still just as true today ... Enjoys PT E. G. Phelps, Clearwater, writes: I enjoy your fine pap- er very much. Although a lot of people don’t receive your paper, they think and believe the same as you folks; so, keep up the good work, as you are on the right side and there can be no other way. Your paper was first sent to me by a very fine, true friend of mine—Henry Codd, of Notch Hill. I believe you men of the Pacific Tribune are of the same type of good, honest men as my friend, Mr. Codd. A handshake and a pat on the back to you and your staff, Mr. Editor. Canadian Grid Ww. S. E. Morrison, Parks- ville, writes; Did I hear some reference on the radio to Pre- mier Bennett soliciting Col- ombo Aid from the United States for the Columbia river sellout development? i Canada provides funds un- der the Colombo plan for underdeveloped countries and, if this report is true, does not the premier, as a Canadian in an underdevel- oped country, consider that charity begins at home? Perhaps our premier’s ima- gination is now interfering with his vision and any day now we may hear the slogan “Colombo Aid for the Colum-_ bia”. On the other hand, it may be that he has reversed the plan and imagines vast battalions of Congolese, .un- der U.S. control of course, carrying baskets of mud and _ rocks to the dam sites. What is required is an all- Canadian grid and the whole project financed and com-_ pleted by Canadians. * enburg A group of singers enjoying themselves on the CBC-Halifax program, “‘Singalong Jubilee’, one of the better replacement shows of last. summer. Plaudits for CBC... ANY times in the past, we have gone to the telephone, phoned the CBC Vancouver office and told them that they should quit wasting the _ taxpayers’ money on some of the trash which is loosely. labelled ‘‘television en- tertainment.”’ On Saturday, Dec. 1, however, we went to the phone for a dif- ferent reason — this time, it was to congratulate the CBC for hav- ing the courage to show some- thing with content; for taking a theme which might- not be too popular in some quarters, treat- ing it objectively (as well as artistically) and then having the guts to bring it to a logical con- clusion. We had just finished watching an episode of ‘The NurSes’’ which, one supposes, is the fe- male answer to Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare. Having formed this pre-conceived notion and mental rating of the show, the story came as somewhat of a shock. * 4 * oe Briefly, it goes like this. An attractive, fortyish-looking German-born nurse wins a place on the staff of a large metro- -politan hospital. She is kind, con- siderate, helpful, experienced, sympathetic — in a word, she is the penultimate in nursing; al- most too good to be true. And then, a strange thing hap- pens. One of the hospital’s patients claimg to recognize her and charges that she was one of a specially-selected medical crew which conducted illegal experi- ments on human beings in a Nazi concentration camp. The patient is a neurotic and the nurse ig such an all-American type that nobody seems very anxious to believe the accusation, However, the patient insists and the hospital authorities decide to conduct an investigation as a mat- ter of form. * * * The results shock them. The nurse’s name (Frieda Schacht) turns up in records of the Nuer- trials and when con- fronted with this evidence, she neither panics nor asks people to “forgive and forget.’’ What she does say is: ‘‘All I did was to serve my profession and my country . . . no matter what you say or do, you’ll never convince me that this was wrong.”’ (Shades of Eichmann! ). The authorities immediately decide to dispense with her ser- vices, but a young nurse and doctor whom she has befriended find it difficult to believe that this is the right thing to do. The nurse, in particular, feels ashamed, starts to apologize to friend Schacht and gets the fol- lowing for an answer: “It’s all right, dear. I had “hoped to find at least one coun- try which had not been despoiled by the Jews and Bolsheviks, but even here, in America, I can’t find that country.” The two young people are speechless at this open mouthing of typically. vile fascist poison, but the young man finds his voice long enough to say to her: “May- be the day will come when people will forget about fascism, but that day hasn’t arrived yet, Miss Schacht, not yet . . .” And the show ends on this note. RADIO-TV * * *- Upon phoning for information, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that it was produced in the U.S. (probably Hollywood). Although the cast members’ names were unavailable, it was produced by Herbert Broadkin and directed by Arthur Lewis. All readers who live outside of Greater Vancouver and have a TV outlet in their locale, should immediately request that this episode of The Nurses be ob- tained by that outlet. This can be done by writing to the Canadian distributor: Page I Ltd., 18 Grenville St., Toronto 5, Ont. You won’t regret going to a little trouble to see this show, we can promise you that, and the more people who do see it— the better. —J. SHACK The general secretary of the Communist Party of Peru, Acosta Salas, has been released after al- ‘most two years of imprisonment. Where grim signs say “No jobs Today,” - He gave a Life to Save; - For one good meal a year. HOW MANY? How many Christs are born this day Where Hunger reigns as King? How many die on Poverty’s cross That Wealth map have its fling? Where verse gives flame to song. Where neck-bones bleach beyond our reach, With hopes of porkchops gone— “Buy Here,” you'll “save” with Christ today, Just stop and pause with Santa Claus, x © DAN McLEAN Dec. 14, 1962—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9 ; - t t i} = ax Pas. 44 Pe