On tg ed eek nae 12 ALLEN ATCT TT CECECTEEAE TOCA eT Books and People Ey KAY GREGORY ELC AAT @c2e UNIVERSITY PRESS has published a booklet by Gerald Abraham entitled Eight Soviet Composers, dealing with contemporary composition in the Soviet Union and hohw the author considers it has been affected by ‘Soviet ideology’ which Abraham calls ‘self-centeredness.’ “Soviet music is self-centered and selfsufficient—but by. no means self-satisfied; on the contrary, it is intensely self- critical. . . . Being a government Gt the people, it insists on music for the people, not musie for intellectuals, for -.those with highly trained ears and sophisti- eated tastes.” Traditions of the past and old folk tales and melodies from the basis generally for modern Sov- iet compositions, Abraham says. Hach nationality in the Soviet Union has its own folk music, and native culture has been en- couraged rather than some alien superimposed “forms”. “It is all a part of the policy of looking jnword,”’ says Abraham, “of pro- viding art for the people im- mediately at hand, art that is natural to them and that they cen understand.” All of the eight composers mentioned in the booklet are producing music now despite the terrifie strain of the war. They are all artists in their own right in the Soviet Union and some of their recent compositions have already received acclaim in America. e@ ue first great feature length film about the American Negro, due to have been releas- ed recently by the United States War Department, is “a _ terrific contribution to a fuller and bet- ter understanding of the im- mensely vital role of the Negro in} our democracy,” according to a reviewer for the Worker, New York. Going back into early History, the film shows negroes in action in all wars, from the War of Independence te World War Two. . It is well written and narrated by Carlton Moss, Negro writer, and directed by Captain Stuart Heisler. A 16 mim. version is re- ported to be available for war plants and smail audiences. ; @ ppESONERS ALL, by Oskar Mraia Graf, Bavarian peas- ant writer, now in the United States, will be a valuable addi- tion to reading on pre-Hitler Germany. Published privately by the author, the book is a splendidly written bistory of the author’s adventures at the end of World War One and in the German Revolution in 1918. Causes of the collapse of this revolution and subsequent rise to power of the Nazis are discussed very clearly and well. Graf had another book pub- lished in the United States two years ago, Life of My Mother, which won high praise from the critics. @ THe reported confusion among subseribers to public Ii- braries between MUlka Chase’s current blurb, In Bed We Cry, and Elizapeth Hawes’ more sig- nificant work, Why Women Cry or Wenehes with Wrenches, re- minds me of the woman who asked the librarian for Kiss the Prince Goodnight. She meant, of course, Gene Fowler’s biog- raphy of John Barrymore, Good- night Swet Prince, which is light and entertaining reading, if you care for that kind of thing. THE PEOPLE BOOKSHOP ALASKA and the CANADIAN NORTHWEST Our New Frontier by HAROLD GRIFFIN The Story of CANOL and the ALASKA HIGHWAY. Illustrated 3.50 MY NATIVE LAND Yugoslavia 1933-1943 by LOUIS ADAMIC “Of course, the Partisans of Marshal Tito are the only people who are doing any effective - fighting against the Germans now.” —Winston Churchill. 5.00 ° FRENCH CANADA A Siudy in Canadian Democracy by STANLEY RYERSON, $1.00 MArine 6929 105 SHELLY BUILDING — 119 WEST PENDER : VANCOUVER, B.C. ; North Star Fine Film t Soviets Noe STAR is another film to feed the flames of the contrevyersy on realism versus escapism in movies. The transi- tion from the happy, full life of the Soviet people in the border town collective North Star is a brutal one. War intrudes as a party of young people leave their village for a hike to Kiev. The contrast between the happy singing people and the dazed, horrified people whe rally their forces after Ger- man planes strafe the roadway points out more sharply than any recent film the total brutality of the invaders—it shocks and it hurts. : But to those who say it’s too painful to witness such scenes, a gentle reminder is indicated. The Russians have seen a thous- and such attacks in all their barbarity. They haye not only witnessed them, but experienced all their tragic consquences in their own lives. E No picture, aside from a docu- mentary film, could portray in its full foree the horror of war as the Russians know it. And sometimes one is forced to the belief that those who protest against such realism still have not come to a full realisation of the issues involved in this war. North Star is a tonic. It’s treatment is severe, but full of hope. As Marina says: “This is our world, but we’ve got to fight for it. And we will sght!” The love story is very well handled by twe young newcom- ers. A scene between them be- fore the invasion begins shows very well the essentially honest relationship between the sexes. Unfortunately. Hollywood, in this film, has failed to measure up to the integrity of Mission to Moscow, Hangmen Aliso Die, and a few other outstanding pic- tures. North Star is heavy in a few spots and occasionally ar- tistically weak. Casting of Jane Withers as a young, plump Soviet girl was 211 very fine, but when she tries te become a heroine she lets down the whole cast. Walter Huston does a good job as the Soviet doctor. Contempt for the methods of the Nazi “men of medicine’ who resort to bleeding children in order to heal their own wounded lead him to become “a man who kills,’ to the surprise of the Wazis. TS a pity that so few of the good Soviet films come here. Reading of The Russian Story, Lad From Our Town, No Greater Love, and We Will Come Back, one feels that only through the medium of the Soviet film can the great Russian story be fully told. A campaign of letters and phone ealis to our local theater managers might result in a few of these coming our way.—Elsie Anderson. Fen = WAND STUDIO “Anything With a Camera” 8 E. Hastings St. PAcific 7644 VANCOUVER, B.C. Reviewed This Week | a Soviet Woman’s Story Running Tide—by Irina The 2 Duell Sloan and Aleksander — Pearce—$3.00. : HIS is the fictionalized story - of Valentina Orlikova, third mate on a Soviet merchant ship, who-visited this city on one of her trips, and whom we ban- queted and listened to with tre- mendous respect for the danger- ous job she, a woman, performed with such courage and poise. : The book puts Orlikova’s job in proper perspective. She is only one of thousands of Rus- sian women doing just as dang- erous jobs for their country, and the outstanding thing about this story is that it shows the com- pletely natural way in which women in the Soviet Union are enabled to follow their chosen eareer regardless of its nature Why Chaplin Is Smeare, HARLES CHAPLIN has been a warm friend of the Soviet Union since 1917. He was the first Hollywood star to come out for American-Soviet friendship. The red-baiting press has never forgiven him for this. It has heen hounding him for more than 25 years. In 1922 when Chaplin announced that he was taking a trip to Europe he was besieged by reporters of the unkempt press: “Mr. Chaplin, why are you go- ing to Europe?” “Just for a va- cation.” “Are you going to make pic- tures while you are there?’ “No” “What do you do with your old mustaches?” “Throw them away.” “Mr. Chaplin, do you ever ex- pect to get married?” “Yes.” “To whom?” “I don’t know! Finally, the reporters came to the point. “Mr. Chaplin, are you a Bolshevik?’ Charlie took them all by surprise by answering: “I am an artist. I am interested in life. Bolshevism is a new and challenging phase of life. There- fore I must be interested in it.’ The newspapermen rushed to the telephone. The next days headlines smeared Chaplin as a “Bolshe- vist” by his own admission. They said he was going to the Soviet - Union to make films. They pub- lished lies galore about him. Chaplin returned from postwar Europe greatly saddened by the poverty he had seen. He made The Idle Class, Pay Day and The Pilgrim, all directed against the pot-bellies of the social order. He made many enemies among the satisfied classes. The “pink-petticoated” tabloids in scandal went after Charlie in real earnest a few years later when Lita Grey sued him for di- vorce. Yellow journalism neyer had such a holiday. Barnarr Mac- fadden’s tabloid, the porno- “Graphic,” printed the divorce complaint in full. This was some- thing new in character assassina- tion. Chaplin was stripped down to his last undershirt. The reputa- tion he had built up through hard work was ripped apart over- night -by the scandal sheets Charlie was accused of letting his children go hungry for lack of milk. He beat his wife. He Was a sex-maniac. Chaplin was UNIVERSAL NEWS STAND 138 EAST HASTINGS STREET Mail your Order for all PROGRESSIVE LITERATURE MOSCOW NEWS WEEKLY and without any raised eyebr or questioning Jooks. = The story of Arlikova, or she is known in the book, Gz Sedova, is a delightful-one mainly in the peaceful days fore the Nazi attack, it gives unassuming “account of life Soviet Russia, and shows the ~ pact of war upon the lives ordinary citiens: : Sedova herself was aboarg: ship in the Baltic when the Ni struck. She participates in ~ defense of Leningrad, joins © guerrillas, and is finally assj ed to the sea again. The tale her visit to the United States included in the book, and made the more interesting wi you realize that we here in 7? country were part of the tho ands who greeted her. 4. ‘eaten tite thes, a ; pronounced guilty of every cr in the book before he was i He was hooted at, jeered at; stoned before he had a cha to make himself heard. His fi” were banned in many comm ties. as One or two editorial wil came to his defense. Living: Larned of the White Plains (NX _. Reporter lashed out at Chapj “self-righteous critics” who at | blow sought to wipe out his “% ~ and immeasurable record of £ achievement,” which has inspi laughter and light-hearted ga all around the world. HH Mencken came to his defense the Baltimore Evening Sun. Chaplin’s own statement at time holds good for today. “All | ask is that the pu suspend judgment until the | } is decided. | can fight an uri © charge even though all the yers of California are behine | But I do not think It fair to } me to fight afl gossip and | charges and all rumors that , spread against me by pe } whose only interest is to m ; money out of me.” } 4 + j i : a Of course. all the sensati charges and rumors against © lin were eventually proven f it was all a brutal tabloid engineered by filthy minds ge te reactionary political stand;- it took Chaplin several mo ~ to recover from the strain + those hectic weeks during w | the gutter press had him © as a “hardened criminal,” bi ~ was not long before his | film, The Circus, was being | claimed everywhere as a ma piece. 4 In 1928, a year after Chi | was pilloried by Mactadden Hearst, he received an € | from the Academy of Motion ture Arts and Scienes “for: versatility in writing, acting producing The Circus.” It we act of simple justice in rec tion of the work of one of greatest artists of all time. — But the cheap rags that | ecified Charlie im 1922 and never let up. When The €_ Dictator came out, they opened up with everything — had because Chaplin had rei to lump Stalin with Hitler. 1 Charlie came out for a Se — front they decided to get good. ~ They think they have him: Ff but they’re wrong. The p are on the side of the little with the oversized shoes, 9 eoat, cane and moustache.— people whom he has served — fully for a quarter of a ce or more will stand by hin that I am sure—DAVID PL.