(1s Lt

iller's parable of
Salem is top fare

A‘ LAST a film to wipe away

the sticky mess, and mem-

ory, of the religious jam which
Hollywood now regularly
3 * pictures.

Miller who is
responsible, film The
Witches of Salem is a French

play

version of his searing

It has been adapted by Jean-
Paul Satre and stands out as
one of the films of the year.

The well-known story is
based on actual incidents which

Massachusetts in

happened in
1692.

1

1 of terror in the Puri-
of Salem is the re-
sult of communal hysteria de-
liberately whipped up to pro-
voke a witch-hunt which is
quite clearly used to serve only
the purpose of the wealthy.

As each farmer is thrown
into jail his land is snapped
up at bargain prices by the
wealthy. The Church and the
big landowners encourage
scare.

“This is a trick to compel us
to accept Church dicipline,”
says John Proctor (Yves Mon-

Hollywood's

tand) when his neighbors seek

his help.

his
the

Proctor is tortured by
weaknesses and
that Abigail, the
17-year-old nursemaid who
makes the accusation, is only
interested in having her re-
venge on his wife (Simone
Signoreth), who threw her out
of their house when she dis-
covered that she had seduced
John.

own

Knowileage

The personal drama of the
Proctors is skilfully worked
into the, general development
of the Salem witch-hunt.

The rick are disinterested in
the deveolpment, until they
find that the devil they have
conjured is prepared also to
turn on them.

It is only then that the
wealthy farmers voluntarily

agree to approach the gover-
nor to restore order and abolish
the special courts.

Even then, as Satre brilli-
antly shows, they are still ani-
mated by fundamental class
considerations.

Hunchback

a pedestrian production

HE Hunchback Of Notre

Dame is another of the
spate of Hollywood-European
productions of recent
The advantages for Hollywood
appear to be

years.

5s

cheaper costs

all round plus a generous sup-
ply of talented
other wor

directors or stars,

4
past, Hollywood is

to them.

ic advantages so far
Europeans are con-

explanation is

as the
cerned. The

found rather in the rapacious
American economic penetra-

tion into European countries.
In France, this had reached
the level of virtual control of
the major film companies by
1949 or Italy,

ae “ eS ss Ee EE
one of the brightest jewels in

while, in

postwar screen art, the same

denig on is occuring.
The Hunchback of Noire
Dame epitomi these tend-

encies. .It was directed by
Jean Delannoy who, with some

of the other production per-
sonnel, w capable of the
sensitive and moving Sym-

phonie Pastorale of a decade
ago. Stifled by American
money, however, their efforts
are hardly vulgar than
any Hollywood “spectacular.”

less

Filmed in Paris, some of the
crowd scenes and _ brooding
shots of the Cathedral are well
handled, but in general the
photography is pedestrian,
even. incompetent; with the
only justification. for wide
screen being at the box office.

Anthony Quinn (remember-
ed for his outstanding work in
La Strada) brings some origi-
nal thinking to his character-
ization of the hunchback, but
he is stifled by more than
pounds of makeup.

Gina Lollobrigida, who real-

: .
ly can act when given a chance;

is made to keep her most ob-
vious talents well to the fore
and the others largely in re-
serve.

As for .Victor Hugo who,
after all, was there first; most
of the characterizations other
than the two principals are so
economized that their motiva-
tions are lost. Remains of
Hugo’s social criticism are
found in the “beauty and the
beast” theme and reference to
the chilling ruthlessness of
15th century feudal law.

It is safe to say than any in-
sight in The Hunchback of
Notre Dame can be traced to
French personnel. The rest is
typical Hollywood.

N. E. STORY.

= ‘shal

under
arena.

BOOKS i |
Herbert Matthews takes a look
at Franco's seething Spain

ERBERT MATTHEWS, now

an editor of The New York
Times, and, in 1937 a Times
correspondent on the Spanish
Republican side, has returned

to Spain three times since
the war “ended” in 1939. His
book The Yoke and the Arrows
(obtainable in Vancouver at
the People’s Co-op Bookstore,
337 West Pender Street, price
$4.50) is a report of what he
has observed.

It is gratifying to find Mat-
thews still wholeheartedly on
the side of the Spanish Re-
public; still “biased” (as he
puts it) against Franciscce
Franco Bahamonde and_ ali
his works.

t is even more gratifying to
have so responsible and con-
servative” a writer confirm
everything the partisans of
the Republic said at the time
the, war was going on, and
have been saying since.

In effect: that the Spanish
Republic, weak and vacillating
as it was, represented the as-
pirations of the Spanish peo-
ple for a free and democratic
regime.

That Franco rose in rebel-
lion against a legally consti-
tuted government and was and
is.a traitor to his own people.

That he could not have
overcome the people of Spain
without the active asistance
of Hitler and Mussolini.

That American, British and
French “non - intervention”
were central to the defeat of
the Spanish Republic, and that
this policy was shameful and
unworthy of the
traditions of these
powers. .

Matthews has . much more

democratic
capitalist

5 Set oS she P Zh ie ale cir : %
A recent outstanding event in the musical and theatrical life of the USSR was the: produc-

tion of Aram Khchaturian’s ballet Spartacus,

GENERAL FRANCO

to say, too. He confirms the
fact that there is nu freedom
for the Spanish people; that
the Spanish Catholic Church
is still the most powerful re-
actionary organization on the
Iberian peninsula and wields
its enormous wealth and power
against the people; that Fran-
co is. cordially hated by the
overwhelming majority of the
Spanish people; and that the
eventual liberation of Spain
will come in time.

Matthews is as anti-commu-
nist as he is anti-fascist, but
an honest man and he
not hesitate to bestow
his accolade upon the role
played by Communists in the
Spanish “civil” war. He aiso
reiterates an earlier statement,
that the men of the Interna-
tional Brigade, many of whom
were Communists, were “the
finest group of men I ever
knew or- hope to know in my
life.”

he is

does

Matthews also spikes the an-
client canard that the war itself
was a war between Chris-

based on an uprising of the Roman slaves
he leadership of the gladiator Spartacus in 74-71 B.C. Photo shows a scene in the

tianity and communism, and it
is good to hear such a man—
who in his role of editorial
writer for The Times has not.
hesitated to heat up the cold
svar at times—say there neve!
was any danger of communis™
in Spain, and, by extension
that there is also more dangé!
of fascism in the U.S.

Nevertheless — or perhap*
because he is himself commit
ted to the cold war — Mat
thews insists that while it ®
regrettable the U.S. had
make a military alliance with
Franco, it was a “necessity
and was made in the interes’
of U.S. defense.

He does not see or wish
see that without U.S. military
and economic aid, Franco lo?
since would have gone dow?
the drain. In fact, he deme
that the first “tentative co
versations” between the ¥*"

“+hid
_and Franco took place with}

a very short time after the
great general strikes of 1951—
and resulted in the U.S. fur®
ishing money to Franco ($62,
500,000 that very year)
arms to keep the people dow™
That Franco will eventually
go down the drain and some
sort of liberal, democratic ee
gime be re-established, Mat
thews has no doubt. He is on
mitted firmly to his lov® oe
the Spanish people, his knoW ‘
edge that they’ have oe
fighting for their freede
from. oppressors of one S%°
or another for hundreds —
years, and his faith that
will re-assert their ‘bias n
freedom,” as the late ie
Negrin put it, as soon as
opportunity presents itself.

ALVAH BESS”

December 6, 1957 ~ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE