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Charlie Chaplin pokes

jun. at witch - hunters

essa Chaplin’s new pro-

duction, A King in New York, is one of his greatest films.

At one supreme moment he is seen® physically turning a fire hose on the members of the Un-American Activities Committee and throwing a high-powered jet of cold water. to clear soma very dirty faces.

It is the comic climax of a film which is both one of his funniest and most tragic. :

Chaplin as King Shahdov is ushered into the Un-American Activities Committee with his fingers stuck in the nozzle of a fire hose, and when he takes the oath, he is ironically forced to stand like the Statue of Liberty with the nozzle look- ing like a torch in his right hand.

When firemen connect the hose and turn on the hydrant, it becomes a cleansing torch of different'pattern. . y

This is the comedy climax of the film. The tragic climax follows ‘almost immediately.

It recalls with agonising poignancy the bitter exper- iences of the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were publicly pilloried! for political purposes before their parents’ execution as @lleged atom. spies.

The small som (Michael Chaplin) of two schoolteachers persecuted by: the Un-Amer- ican Committee is bullyragged and brainwashed into betray- ing his parents and naming their Communist or suspected Communist associatés .as the price of their freedom.

The King, who is about to dust off American commerciai- ism and return to Europe, has gone to see the boy before he leaves.

You know exactly how he feels for: the boy when he hears the smug State Depart- ment , official explain that “everything is all right now —the boy agreed-te cooperate.”

When the boy ‘enters, his face, clouded and tear-stained from weeping, tells its own story. .

ses xt 53

This contrast between the brutal reality of contemporary American politics and Chap- lin’s traditional comic genius is the characteristic feature of this film, which will be widely popular among ordinary au- diences, but it already being denigrated, attacked and critic- ised for being “propaganda.”

There isn’t any doubt that Chaplin rams home a “mes- sage” in this film.

He told me: “This isn’t poli-

_ tical propaganda, but it does

set out to show the struggle of human beings with their own souls.”

Chaplin denied that the ex- ample of the Rosenberg chil- dren had stimulated this film, but when a persistent question- er asked him whether he-had any personal experience of

children being grilled in the U.S., he recalled the case of the Rosenberg children.

After the showing in Lon- don Chaplin told me: “I do not believe that the witch- hunting atmosphere*has radi- cally altered in the U.S. I do not believe this film will do any harm to the USS. It will do a service and not‘a dis- service.” ;

It is going to be fashion- able to play down and decry the merit of this film. Critics who deny that they are ani- mated by political bias already claim that they are criticising “the decline of a genius” while others claim he has no right to “preach.”

xt be t

In fact this is a film which takes down the pants of free enterprise. When the exiled King discovers his prime min- ister has absconded with his assets, there is nothing left for him to do but to live on his wits.

“Better be a successful crook than a destitute monarch,” he tells his only faithful “servant (Oliver Johnston).

The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission appears disinter- ested in his plans for the peace- ful universal application of atomic energy, and so he has to rely on commercial tele- vision, which is interested in exploiting his personality assets.

This he does in a Series: of wickedly humorous » satirical touches helped by a wonderful television in his bathroom with a windscreen wiper to keep off the steam.

Chaplin manages to insert a whole. series of wonderful, silent miming sequences which show that he hasn’t lost his old talent for making people laugh at actions without words.

The film takes its serious twist after he visits a so-called progressive school and is given a political lecture by a young man, Rupert “Maccadi, who later runs away from the school to avoid being pressured about his parents.

Unfortunately the boy ‘is logked after by the king and this leads to a scandal, with the ‘Royal Communist” being subpoenaed before the Un-: American Committee.

Chaplin allowed his. young son Michael to play the part of the boy. He has obviously put into his mouth many of the ideas and attitudes which dominate his own political philosophy. :

It was a courageous thing to have done, just as it was cour- ageous of Chaplin to refuse to

pull his punches over the film.-

A King in New York is a brilliant work of art and no- body who honestly’ observes the U.S. can complain of the use to which Chaplin has put his ‘own personal bitter ex- periences of it.

ROBERT KENNEDY

CHARLIE CHAPLIN

He told reporters in London that he would never revive the character of the little tramp.

BOOKS

,

MUSIC

Vancouver

plans Centennial tou

ANY provincial towns will

enjoy their first. ‘live”

orchestra appearances next

year.

The 75 - piece Vancouver

Symphony. Orchestra will take‘

its music to 15 ‘centres_on the mainland in the Centennial year program, sponsored by the B.C. Centennial mittee. “

Com-

Negotiations also are in

good progress for the Victoria Symphony Orchestra to con- duct a similar tour of Van- couver Island, in addition to the popular concerts staged at Duncan by this group of musi- cians under their conductor Hans Gruber.

“This will be a wonderful opportunity for people who might not otherwise have the chance to hear the symphony orchestras - We want to present the symphony to as many people as possible dur- ing our year of celebrations,” says LJ. Wallace, chairman

of the B.C. Centennial Com- mittee.

symphony

orches!"*

The Vancouver jour it

will make a two-week early April of Oliver, Cranbrook, Trail, vere ticton, Kelowna, Ken Quesnel and Prince Gears

Separate performances -% be played at Mission, eed wack, Abbotsford and “aay Westminster, and @ ~ 0 excursion will be ma' Powell River. :

f

Irwin Hoffman, conductot ° the orchestra, Sal minute concerts 3 children will be held ae afternoon at each centre, i one two-hour concert tia evening for adults. A pote 4 audience of 13,800 adults ; 27,600, children is expect be reached, according 10 Dobbin, business manage!

f

“We feel the most import”

part of our job is to br ee symphony to the chit Dobbin said. “The net a of our entire -effort show"

be gauged by pur euccey ic

that field . . . if good is to live it must live thY the children.” ‘

Simple story of sea trip appeals to audience for books on B.C.

A PLEASURE cruise in shel-

tered British Columbia waters is an idyllic way of spending a vacation,. but the circumnavigation of Vancou- ver Island in a small troller during the months when Pacific storms crash un- restrained along the west coast, is not generally consid-

winter

ered a holiday. However, to

Margaret Sharcott of Kyuquot, her fisherman husband, baby

and dog, a 600-mile trip such as this could only be taken in the winter months and it was their first holiday in five years,

In telling her story, Troller’s Holiday, young Mrs. Sharcott vividly recounts their voyage in 1954 through treacherous straits and round rocky capes while gales and fog beset them. She gives an absorbing account of thriving communities as well as ghost settlements long lost to weather and isolation, now reclaimed by relentless forest growth.

The story is simply told, yet it is not a simple story, for here is recounted not only the past struggles of early explor- ers and settlers, but also the present struggles of the fish- ermen to make a living.

The author gives a thorough- ly enjoyable and informative historical background for each place as it is visited, not for- getting the local anecdotes whith give to each town its character and flavor. Her brief but revealing descriptions of life in a cramped cabin with her 13-month-old baby are told with a nice sense of humor and frankness.

There is a freshness to this story, a prevading atmosphere of delighted discovery, ap- preciation of our country’s heritage, and joy in accomp- lishment which makes the book a welcome addition to our growing Canadiana.

Troller’s Holiday, published by British Book Service (Can-

ada) is obtainable here 4 ee ple’s Co-op Bookstores +i West Pender Street, P $3.75. -

SA Se

: Pr I fas dust cover says thot and Out, by John © {0 Powys tells “what happem th the four survivors after jc has destroyed itself in at©

warfare.” . p- But this is no Wellsian tit tasy, but rather, as the ?,, goes on, a “moral parable.

If you like word-spinnints the light, Celtic, humo,

touch, allegory, a convers@ tat piece between God and 54 f on whether to re-create 4 B® world where all is predesti?™, and free will goes by the )04 you will enjoy this book.

Especially if you are a rabid anti-vivisectionist — the ye derlying theme of this of book. If you are not part, to any of this, you may fin” it indigestible. 1G

September 20, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE &