Flynn turns Stevenson villain into comic-strip hero for kids

oe Robert Louis Stevenson’s

dramatic psychological “ tale The Master of Ballantrae James Durie is a character of consum- mate and tenacious evil, admir-

able only for the persistence and -

skill with which he hounds and persecutes his brother. :

In Warner Brother’s Technicol- or version he is transformed into a comic-strip hero and, ‘appropri- ately, played by Errol Flynn.

Some incicents nave been taken from the first 50 pages of Steven- son’s original and strung along to make a juvenile adventure story. The rest of the book is ignored and secret passages and a happy ending are invented to fill the gap.

The devouring ‘hatred which in the book consumes the brothers Durie until their strange deaths in wild Indian country is adap- ted into a mere misunderstand-

But it is impossible to go on. it is enough to say that Stevenson has been robbed and abused.

As participators in the crime British actors like Mervyn Johns, Felix Aylmer and Anthony Steel seem justifiably embarrassed and uncomfortable. Roger Livesey manages to laugh the whole thing off as a blustering Colonel Burke. ‘

Errol Flynn alone seems igno- rant that-any crime is taking place. As long as he has his. quota of acrobatic sword-fights (and

BOOKS

ERROL FLYNN

there are more than enough) one title is presumably as good as another. :

x * _ Elephant Walk has Ceylon for its setting. :

An English girl, Elizabeth Tay- lor, marries a near-millionaire tea planter, Peter Finch, after a few days courtship in London, and goes to live on his plantation in Ceylon.

The bride’s first joyful impres- sions of Paris frocks and a bun- galow as big as Olympia are dim- med when she discovers ihat her husband’s hobbies seem to be holding drunken parties for his planter neighbors and talking

fanatically about “the Guv’nor,” his late father, who foolishly built the “bungalow” on the ele- phant’s favorite promenade.

After the heroine was wavered temporarily toward a slightly saner character, Dana Andrews, and after elephants. and fire had destroyed the bungalow and a cholera epidemic has come and gone, all ends happily.

That fine actor, Abraham So- .

faer, manages somehow to. bring dignity to the part of the chief native servant.

* * x

Dial M for Murder suffers through transposition from stage to screen, because little has been done to make it into a movie other than photograph the rather static play.

This is strange, for the name of the director, Alfred Hitch- cock, was once synonymous with suspenseful - film-making.

Ray Milland takes the part of the man who plans the murder of his wife, Grace Kelly, and when

‘his plans go wrong frames her

for the murder of her potential assassin.

The credibility, and hence the suspense, depends upon your ac- ceptance of two items — that the police are willing to admit they have made a mistake and that the Home Secretary is prepared to release a condemned woman temporarily the day before an ex- ecution because the inspector has a hunch. .

Frazer's Golden Bough study

ot beliefs of early mankind

MAN made gods in his own image; made and female creat- ed he them.”

The truth of this old guess was proven by James Frazer, Scottish- born anthropologist, in his great study of the culture and beliefs of early mankind — The Golden Bough (available “here at the People’s Cooperative Bookstore, 337 West Pender, price $5.50). ©

Frazer, who was born 100 years ago this month, gave us a factual foundation for the science of comparative religion. He demon- strated that at a certain level of

. culture the chief official in tribal society was simultaneously high priest, kind and god-incarnate.

Moreover, that ithe tribesmen, when they installed a new king into office with the appropriate magic, were quite convinced that

_ they were thereby creating a new god Gvho was at the same time a perpetuation of an old god).

So closely was the priest-king- god identified with the life of the tribe—and the life of the vege- tation and the crops upon which the tribe depended for its exist- ence — that any failure of the

United. Labor PICNIC

SUNDAY, AUGUST 8

CONFEDERATION PARK 4600 EAST HASTINGS ° NORTH BURNABY

health of ‘the “god,” especially any loss of procreative virtility,

entailed a corresponding failure -

in ‘the vegetation, the flocks and the tribe itself.

Consequently, at this level it was natural to put the king to death in a ritual manner (replac- ing him by a younger man) to save him and them from the calamity of a death from disease or old age.’ :

From this root stemmed the amazing world-wide growth of the vegetation and lifecreating rituals and cults which everywhere. pre- ceded the growth of formalized religion. :

Even priests today admit (with reservations) that religion has “evolved.” But, with the aid of Frazer and others, anthropology has demonstrated that religion (in the good sense of a bond of tribal union) began before gods were evolved, and can therefore conceivably exist after they have all faded away.

Another basic fact established by Frazer is the astonishing per- sistence of ritual practices once they have gained currency. In all ‘parts of the wovld practices sur- vive as customs whose meaning bas long been lost.

A good deal of mythology con- sists of tales invented to account for a ritual practice whose origin had long since been lost in the lapse of centuries.

This, of course, is an ali-too- peeaubte explanation of the ruly immense field covered by Frazer and |those who have work- ed under his inspiration. Mar» was enthusiastic about Morgan’s Ancient Society. _He would have been more than delighted at The

| Golden ‘Bough.

_ but specialists is

Worker ‘students should riot al- low themselves to be baffled by the 13 volumes of the complete Golden Bough. There is a one-

- volume edition, abridged by Fra-

zer himself, which for everybody

even better than the larger work.

Frazer wrote a number of other works which rank only a little be- low The Golden Bough.

Do not, for instance, miss any chance you get to take a look at his Folk-lore in the Old Testa- ment.—T. A. JACKSON.

e

It's summer and the beaches are

A scene from the English film, Scott of the Antarctic, as Meares

starts homeward with the dogs from the,foot of the Beardmore

glacier,

Ralph Vaughan Williams’ music for the film, and his Sit

fonia Antarctica based on it, were broadcast over CBC recently.

Robeson favorifes on

Othello LP records —

‘WO more Long Playing records

by Paul Robeson are now avail- able on the Othello label. This is the firm which, we understand, is operated by Robeson’s son, and so far has presented Robeson ex- clusively (Othello L-101 offered selected people’s songs).

ot 5° 3 to

Let Freedom Sing—Ten Songs of Hope and Courage: Othello L-301. (25% minutes; reproduc- tion fairly good; surfaces noisy.)

Here is a feast of international favorites, including spirituals of Robeson’s own people, the Aboli- tionist hymn John Brown’s Body, Joe Hill, and Old Man River, from the real America; the ode to an Irish martyr Kevin Barry; the stirring Song of the Warsaw Ghetto (in English and Jewish; The Four Insurgent Generals, a song of the International Brig- ades (in English and Spanish); and a moving, surprisingly fresh rendition of the overworked Volga Boatmen’s Song (in Eng-

_lish and Russian).

Along the way, this great cham- pion of the friendship of peoples gives the full treatment to the Hymn For Nations, a setting of the “brotherhood” melody in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Indeed, this. is a full-bodied, living art! Every song is a sig- nificant and memorable - gem. Highly recommended!

Thr en St xt

Solid Rock—Favorite Hymns of My People: Othello L-201. (1814 minutes; reproduction good; sur- faces quiet.) ‘

“I sing these songs today,” Robeson explains on the record

jacket, “in the African. Methodist Church in New York .. - woehe my brother Ben is pastor and 0 which I am an active membe!- And recently, as I have gone about the land, singing mainly at church services and concerts, the hymns have become eve? dearer to me. Church folk have urged me to include their favor ites in an album and I have bee? happy to do so.”

The six hymns included are sung with the simple dignity 42 deep feeling that is the hallmar* of Robeson’s art. His treatment raises them to a high artistic level and imparts a rich warmt and wider significance to su¢ 4 sturdy warhorses as The Soli Rock and the well-known spirit uals Balm in Gilead and Jacob's Ladder. vee

Othello Records is providins a public service of inestimable value (despite technical short comings) in providing these pee tributions of a great artists, DU one obvious and unnecess@ shortcoming is their failure ' provide the words of the song® included. We hope this will b@ corrected in future releases. a

The two recordings review® above raise to six the number © Robeson LP’s now available. B&

‘sides the three Othello release

there is the recording of the firs Peace Arch Park Rally; | or To Sing, and two excellent CO” umbias. t

A limited supply of the lalex releases is available at the Pe — ple’s Co-operative Bookstore, h West Pender St., price $4.75 ea¢ Y

—N. E. STOR

British Columbia beaches are crowde enjoying the first long spell of sunshine tance of Vancouver is Bowen Island as freighter ballast) and has ideal ship Company, which has a daily summer service ito Bo Passengers from Vancouver have made

One popular holiday retreat within easy 4 , Which boasts Scottish sand on its beaches (brought over years 4

rowded . e d these days with vacationists and city dwellers who vi this summer.

facilities for boating and fishing, tennis and riding. Union Stea™™

the short trip.

wen, says that since 1930 more than 1,5000

PACIFIC. TRIBUNE — AUGUST 6, 1954 — PAGE 3