ns ateeeeliane aati scat

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South African novel | |

loses perspective

IN MODERN literature, the
tragedy of the great man has been
largely supplanted by the tragedy
of the little man.

The central figure of classical
and Shakespearean tragedy was
a man of grand and heroic pro-
portions. His fall was. cataclys-
mic by contrast with his greatness
and there was a horrifying irony
in his destruction by things small-
er than himself. The modern
tragedian tends rather to empha-
sise the littleness of his central
figure—to show man as the help-
less plaything of destructive
forces.

In Too Late the Phalarope (ob-
tainable here at the People’s Co-
operative Bookstore, 337 West
Pender, price $2.10) Alan Paton
has attempted to return to the
older way. He has taken pains
to “build up” his hero, Pieter van
Vlaanderen, as a man out of the
ordinary, a man to be revered.
His intention is to portray the
downfall of an heroic figure.

Unfortunately, Paton’s stand-
ards of greatness are rather
schoobboyish ones. We are,asked
to admire Pieter van Vlaanderen
because he is a “possible” for
the Springbok rugby team, an of-
ficer in the police and has a row
of medals on his chest. These
may all be very praiseworthy
achievements but they are not,
in the adult world, the ingredi-
ents of greatness.

We can hardly take seriously
the proposition that the personal
tragedy of a Springbok rugby
player is to be regarded different-
ly from the personal tragedy of
anybody else.

If Pieter van Vlaanderen had
been frankly presented as an or-
dinary young man in trouble, we
could accept him and feel with
him on that basis. Instead, Paton
is continually asserting that his

DO YOU know that in Yellow-
knife they set traps out on the
streets for wolves — the four not
the two-legged kind? [If this in-
formation startles you, let us add
that it’s only Hollywood’s con-

- eept of life in the Northwest Ter-

ritories.

_, Robert O. Case tells the story
in relating for News of the North,

Yellowknife weekly, what happen-
ed to the proposed movie version

of his novel, Buccaneer of the
. Barrens.

Case admits that the
novel, which originally appeared
in the Saturday Evening Post,

“inadvertently took liberties with

the locale.” But, the other weak-
ness of the novel apart, Case did

. Strive for accuracy in creating his

background. Hollywood was not
concerned in the least with real-
ity — its script writers already
had their preconceived ideas of
what the Canadian North should
be.

Here is Case’s account of his
Hollywood conferences. It’s a
potent argument for Canadian
films written and produced by
Canadians.

* * x

YOU MAY be interested in my
personal contracts with Walter
Wagner, the producer who bought
the movie rights to my story,

hero is no ordinary man, but he
produces no adequate grounds
for his assertion. The result is
an unhappy compromise between
the two alternative approaches
to tragedy.

The story is well contrived and
skilfully told. The corrosive ef-
fect of race hatred upon human

lives is powerfully portrayed. Yet’

at the end of the book one is left

‘ with the feeling that there has

been more fuss than the situation
warranted.

The ending is something of an
anti-climax. Throughout the book,
the note of impending doom is
impressively sounded, but in the
end nothing happens save that
an unpleasant old man dies and
Pieter van Vlaanderen leaves
South Africa with his wife mirac-

ulously cured of her failure to:

understand him.

Paton needs to learn to see
both his people and his events
in better proportion.

‘

UJPO Folk

RESIDENTS ~ OF Vancouver
and several other B.C. cities will
have the opportunity to attend an
unusual kind of musical event
when the Canadian Folk Singers
and Dancers Ensemble of the Un-
ited Jewish People’s Order, Toron-
to, tour the province this month.

The Folk Singers are indeed a
unique group. Singing is to them
a labor of love and joy. The peo-
ple in turn enjoy hearing them
sing.

The Foik Singers are young
working men and women, moth-
ers, housewives and_ students.
They are guided by their talent-
ed director and well known Can-

Hollywood sets wolf

Buccaneer of the Barrens, and for
a while entertained colossal no-
tions about producing it at Yel-
lowknife.

After serving three months of
a six months’ term in the county
jail for shooting the pants off a
rival for his wife’s affections (a
scandalously light sentence which
is still annoying to law-abiding
citizens) Wanger emerged to find
that the industry and the public

Art Gallery sponsors

lunch hour concerts

VANCOUVER Art Gallery is to
be congratulated on continuing
its series of free lunch hour con-
certs featuring young B.C. artists.
From 12.15 to 12.45 every Wed-
nesday until December 9, the last
concert, Natalie Minunzie, pupil
of the late John Goss, is present-
ing a recital of songs, accompan-
ied by Genevieve Carey. The at-
mosphere is very informal; Miss
Minunzie introduces the songs
herself and coffee is served for
those who wish to bring their
lunch and eat while they listen.

There is also a Friday series,
1-1.30 p.m., arranged in coopera-
tion with the CBC, featuring a
number of Vancouver singers,
pianists and violinists.

This group of singers and dancers, combinin; the talents of the Toronto UJPO Folk Singers #
the Toronto New Dance Theatre, will give four concert: in B.C., at Vancouver, Nanaimo, Port

and Trail, this month. The group is now on a national tour.

nd

perni :

Singers to give four B.C. concerts

adian musician and pianist, Mrs.
Fagel Gartner. They are im-
bued with a great. desire to con-
tribute, through their songs, to-
wards. greater friendship and
good will among all people in-
habiting our country.

The rich and varied repetoire
of the Folk Singers is well suited
to bring this about. They sing
with equal ease in many languages
— English as well as Yiddish,
French, Russian and many oth-
ers. Thus the Folk Singers,
through the medium of the simple
and beautiful folk songs of many
nations bring to the people of

fraps on streets of Yellowknife

were a little cool toward him. He
had to start from the bottom
again, as a producer with Allied
Artists (a second-rate producing
company). -

Moreover, he now considers
himself to be an expert in penol-
ogy as a result of his three
months’ stay in a rather plush
“honor” farm institution, and his
efforts during the past year have
been devoted to a forthcoming
picture entitled, Riot in Cell
Block 13, which Allied is releas-
ing shortly.

Meantime, several months ago,
he called me in for a conference.
He still wanted to produce Buc-
caneer of the. Barrens and had
found a financial “angel” for the
venture. Let us call this financial
angel Schlitz.

In our first conference, Wanger
handed me a script he had writ-
ten, presumably based on my
story. It was an incredible script
— terrible.

My story inadvertently took lib-
erties with the locale, but this
script compounded the error by
taking unbelievable liberties with
my story. (The script writer, for
example, had tossed in a fight be-

tween the hero and villain, on a |

public street in Yellowknife, in
which the hero first stepped into’

Canada the cultural heritage of
the peoples of other lands.

So successful was the group’s
first national tour last year that

an even more ambitious program
is being presented on the present
tour. This -year, two dancers,
Marcel and Rosalyn, are travell-
ing with the group. Both are
members of Toronto New Dance
Theatre, which has distinguished
itself in the past few years by
creating original Canadian dances,
at least three of which were per-
formed at the annual National
Canadian Ballet Festival.

The two young artists enhance

a wolf trap concealed in the snow
— by the cunning villain — and
then our hero snatches up a sec-
ond wolf trap, which closes on

his face . . . and so on ad nau-
seum).
Wanger asked me_ what I

thought of it . I told him — it
was too terrible for words. So he
asked me to write him a “treat-
ment” along the lines I approv-
ed. (I was to do this on specula-
tion, a quaint Hollywood device
which plays on a writer’s vanity
and induces him to perform
much unpaid labor).

I wrote the treatment, featur-
ing the little girl, Babette, as in
the story. Wanger liked it, and
we had another conference to
which Gilbert Roland was invit-
ed. (Roland was to play the lead
part of Ravenhill, who was, you
may recall, an English remittance
man, old school tie and all that.
The fact that’ Gilbert Roland is
of Mexican extraction, didn’t
bother Wanger in the least; we'll
bridge that easily by giving Ra-
venhill a Spanish first name —
Carlos or Sebastian or whatever
— and explain that he came from
the Argentine!) :

Well, I made a terrible faux
pas by telling Roland enthusiastic-
ally that little Babette would

the program of the Folk singers
with their interpretation of ai
of the stirring folk songs 3 51
as doing some _ specia

dances. ‘

Concerts arranged in B.C: ne

November 26: Nanaimo 917,
pices, Congress of Canadian
men.

November 28: Port
Auspices, Association ©
Ukrainian Canadians.

November 29: Park Theé
Vancouver, Auspices, UJ eae

December 2: Trail. Aus? ail
International Union of Mine ©
and Smelter Workers.

albert:
f ynited

trey

isti-
“steal the show.” As any er a
cal actor would, Roland tion: if
very dim view of this 1
anyone stole the show, nr col
be Roland. Following
ference, I toned down t :
playing down little Babet
what.

Then came the conference ie
the financial angel, Schilt@
had cautiously wagered ctio#
on an independent PT money
which had quadrupled 1} fifty”
— and now wanted to 8° * 4voind
fifty with Wanger
Buccaneer of the Bere

4
a, did
It developed that sented Me
like little girls and insist
part of little Babette. ord wie
on keeping Babette 12, vi gchli
ger backed me UP. 7. en
withdrew from the ef oe ans
prise in a huff, leavi® pojas
and me high and in Bt 0
went galloping OF “ine en
fields — and that We of BU.
that, Future productiO® ‘s¢ it &
caneer of the Barrens pave
ever produced — +7@ 90
wait for Wanger to Tetl eck fs
thing from, Riot in re
or find another sehli™ ott
ally I doubt if te 7s .
wi ;
further todo pace 8

‘ & a
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 13, 1953 — oe