An exhibition of wide interest to citizens opened at Vancouver Art Gallery this week and will
continue until May 6. Under the heading “People of the Potlach,” Vancouver Art Gallery and
- UBC have assembled the most representative collection of Pacific Northwest Indian art and cul-
ture ever brought together. One display shows part of an Indian house. The exhibition will be,
reviewed on this page next week.

oe

Extravagance of Helen of Troy
fails to produce epic picture

VEN though Homer is never
i mentioned in the credits, a
film about Helen of Troy de-
mands greatness in its treat-
ment, or at least the lusty ex-
travagance of a Cecil B. de
Mille.

Warner Brothers’ epic, made
in Italy with an international
east of featured players and an

army of 5,000 extras, has a fair
amount of spectacle and excite-
ment and colorful surge.

But this competent and work-
manlike tale of how a_ beefy
young man named Paris met
and jumped over a cliff with a
humorless blonde named Helen,
with elaborately violent conse-
quences, lacks the epic touch.

The assault on Troy, the epi-
sode of the wooden horse, the
fighting and the comings and
goings of the chariots have vigor
and merit as CinemaScope spec-
tacle. The settings and cost-
umes are undeniably lavish. But
there’s little real gusto in the
decorous orgies, bacchanalian
Gances and scenes of rapine.

And most of the actors can’t
do very much with the dialogue
—particularly when it’s dubbed
in by another voice:

When Paris first sees Helen
sporting in the sea in a blue
tunic he says admiringly:
“Aphrodite!”

Helen, apparently not having
had a classical education, fails
to catch the allusion, She simp:
ly says, “What?” and goes on
‘to remark: “This creature’s
crazy, but with a nice sort of
craziness.”

Delivered in the peculiar
breathless sing-song adopted by
dubbing voices, this sets the
tone for much of the dialogue,
which has the classic directness
and simplicity of the comic strip.

The safhe blankness has been
favored in the looks of the
principals. The Paris of Jacques
Serenas is more college football-
er than prince. Rossena Podesta
is comely enough in a heavy
way, but lacks go.

Only Stanley Baker, as the
sulky Achilles, achieved any-
thing like Homeric | stature.
“Most of the other heroes re-
minded one strongly of a gath-
ering of Rotarians. Janette

Seott makes a sweet Cassandra,

Se

Scene from Helen of Troy showing the giant horse being
welcomed by the Trojans. Movie stars Rossena Podesta and
Jack Serenas, but.most convincing acting is turned in by Stanley

Baker.

though, and Brigette Bardot, as
a slave, would lure me into the
ship-launching trade-a lot quick-
er than her mistress. ~

x * *

In The Court Jester Danny

Kaye clowns with his usual en-
dearing warmth ‘as a sort of
Walter Mitty of the age of
chivalry. :
_He is a member of a Robin
Hood-like band of outlaws, and,
by posing as a visiting jester,
gains admittance to a’ wicked
king’s court, where a witch puts
a spell on him. '

One snap of the fingers and
the shy, timid Danny becomes
a masterful lover, fearless
swordsman and paragon of
chivalry. Another snap and he
reverts at once to his old self.

Danny is aided and abetted by
talents far superior to those
usually employed in film sagas
of knighthood and outlawry.
Glynis Johns, Angela Lansbury

and Cecil Parker see no reason
why farce should lack distinct-
ive touches of character and
wit, and Basil Rathbone ensures
that the villainy department
shall not lack style.

Script and direction, by Nor-
man Panama and Melvin Frank,

are ingenious and slick and a

great deal better carpentered
than is usual in this sort of
picture.

The trouble is that too much
talent has to be brought to bear.

Polish it how you like, it is’

still basically second-rate
material. - ;

Danny and company - dis-
appoint in the end because, al-
though they do this very well,
it is not really worth doing for
performers of their accomplish-

‘ments. They ought to be scaling

the heights of comedy instead
of showing off on the nursery
slopes.

THOMAS SPENCER

surprise,

fine novel

OVELS about industrial
N struggles by those who have
taken part in them are still few
and far between.

For this reason particularly
we should welcome He Must So
Live, by David Lambert (obtain-

able in Vancouver at the People’s ©

Co-op Bookstore, 337 West Pen-
der Street, price $2.25.)

It is the story of how the men
of a Clydeside foundry overcame
disunity and hesitations to fight
against layoffs and victimisation
during the hegtic thirties.

The author himself started
work as an apprentice in a
foundry on his 15th birthday,
and worked in’ Clydeside found-
ries till his health broke down.
He is now on the staff of the
Amalgamated Union of Foundry
Workers. :

He has created a rich, warm-
hearted story of the people and
places he knows so well, the
heated discussions in the
foundry, the anger at poverty
and injustice, the religious diy-
isions, and the love, humor and
hope of the packed, vigorous
humanity of the Clyde. —

x x x

This book has many of the
ingredients of a first-rate novel.
There is plenty of action and
excitement as the story unfolds.

Ten foundry workers are fir-
ed, and the workers, taken by
at first do nothing
about it. An old militant, Bill
Omond, rouses them to protest
and to seek guarantees against
future sudden layoffs, and, as a
result, himself is fired.

The workers go on strike, and
the climax is reached in a great
demonstration against unem-
ployment, during which Bill
Omond, already a sick man, is
beaten by the police.

The central character, Bill
Omond, is a splendid creation —
a Socialist of the old school, a
pupil of John McLean’s, who has
recently joined the Communist
party, but is reluctant to ac-
cept advice and criticism from
his comrades, particularly those
younger than himself.

The many other characters—
especially Bill’s ‘wife,’ Ma, and
her daughters Jean and Cathie,
and’ Father McGrory, the Cath-
olic priest — are well-drawn
individual people.

The young Communist organ-
ized, Jack Speed, eager, self-sac-
rificing, yet insensitive about
other people’s feelings and bet-
ter at laying down the law than

Saks

ences of others,
weaknesses.

But the conflict between
Omond and Speed is never satis-
factorily resolved.

has familiar

In fact, the stress which fs

laid on this conflict obscures one
of the main problems which the
author is trying to work out in
the novel — the role of con-
scious leadership in working
class struggles. :

: eee Se

Some of the leaders of the
workers, it seems, happen to be
Communists, but the Communist
party does not appear as the
leading, organizing force that
it undoubtedly was in the strug-
gles against unemployment, war
and fascism in the thirties.

When the workers are rallied
to make their protest to the boss
against the dismissals, this ap-
pears to be not so much the re-
sult of their own experiences
and thoughts, combined with
correct ‘leadership, but rather
the result of an almost magical
inspiration on the part of Bill
Omond.

And the failure to resolve the

at learning’ from the experi- -

Metal worker writes

of Clyde

conflict between Omond and the
Communist organiser in a ra-
tional manner (it is resolved
only on the emotional plane) —
deprives the book of a satisfac-
tory ending.

The dialogue is excellent
throughout. But in descriptive
writing David Lambert is not
yet sure of himself. There is -
some clumsiness and obscurity
which mars the narrative, and
which the publishers should
have helped the author to over-
come,

Young working class writers
like David Lambert possess the
experience and vitality needed:
to create first-rate novels; but
they should constantly study
the craft of writing in order to
achieve the precise effects which
they desire.

: CHARLES CLAY

* * *

HE setting of Doris Lessing’s

" Retreat to Innocence is Lon-
don, 1955, and its central figure
is Julia, a ravishingly pretty
student who plunges into a des-
parate love affair with a mid-
dle-aged Central European re-
fugee writer, whom she picks up
in a coffe bar.

In outline, it is a simple little
story of the clash of innocence
and experience; but as Doris
Lessing develops it the simple
human story reflects in the pas-
sions of its characters the great
and complex issues of our time- —

For the ¢ontrast and tension
between Julia and her unsuit-
able Jan is not only the “nor-
mal” contrast between genera-
tions, or between British and
Central European experience
(though) it includes something
of both of these).

By a brilliant device of story.
telling we see Jan, the old anti-
fascist fighter, now isolated and
disenchanted, only through the
eyes of the pretty spoiled girl
who says: “Politics make me
sick.”

In particular she reacts v10-
lently against what she thinks |
of as the “stupid” left wing
movements of the thirties.

And as Jan tries to explain to
her the personal and political
facts of life, with a charm an)
wit that come over remarkably
well (most intellectuals in n0o-
vels being prosy bores) he eX-
presses not only his courage, his
keen eye for sham and hypo-
crisy, but also his sense of 150-
lation and restlessness.

Resentful of what he sees 4°
“little bureaucrats” and deeply
angry at cases of injustice and
harshness, he can understan
the mistakes of the revolutio?
but not accept them.

The author does nothing *
blur or soften Jan’s conflict oF
solve it for him. His final de-
cision, after a bookful of tal
and the way it reacts upon Julia,
I found both convincing a”
deeply moving.

This is a book that attempts
something new and is certain 0
‘rouse. controversy. It: is fres
evidence that we will achieve a
literature that really mattet®
not by keeping off difficult a?
controversial problems, but by
deepening our imaginative sh
sight into the lives of the hus)
man being involved. b

It was timé, anyway. a
someone wrote a novel aii
would show sympatheticall?
and truly the anti-fascit inte a
lectuals of the thirties so lomo
slandered by the Spenders ne
Koestlers who repented of the
youthful courage. ;

g
MARGOT HEINEMA! a

APRIL 13, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 8