"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 85, 11 April 1931, Page 5 (Supplement)

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

AMERICAN" FILM EPIC. ENGLISH CRITIC'S TRIBUTE. ''The talkfing picture interpretation of the life of Abraham Lincoln, created by D. W. Griffith, is the loveliest thing that has happened since the film found its voice," states Walter Webster, an English reviewer, who is noted for his outspoken cuticisms. "It may be considered a matter of sentiment by the young people who do not know their film history, that this talking picture marks _ the triumphant return of- the one man in the world who created film drama. It is a matter of plain and undeniable fact that 'Abraham Lincoln' is the first great national epic we have seen in talking pictures, as definitely as 'The Birth of a Nation was the first great national epic we saw in silent films. "Those of us behind the cinema scenes know that D. W. Griffith, when he had completed this picture, fled, from Hollywood and buried. himself in Texas. He was afraid. The new and superficial intellects of the cinema, having borrowed specious and spurious recipes from Moscow, had passed him He wondered if the sophisticated insincerity of the younger . 'geniuses' had captured popular imagination to the exclusion of all that is of good report. And, one day, when I). W. Griffith was in the depths of artistic despair, he received a telegram saying that 'Abraham Lincoln' had been presented in Hollywood to a critical film audience and acclaimed a masterpiece. There are dramas behind the scenes of film drama more poignant' than any we see upon the screen, and this one, as in all wellconstructed dramas, has a happy ending, which is also a beginning.

"Having the reputation (which I hope is deserved) of being the severest film critic in Britain, 1 will stake the whole of that reputation (which I value) on saying that 'Abraham Lincoln' leaves me bereft of words, so tender is its sentiment, so sure is its drama, so joyous is its laughter, so poignant is its tragedy, and so certainly does the diapason of its music travel to the secret places of the heart. In this film D. W. Griffith has again shown that the essence of entertainment is emotion; that the essence of emotion is sincerity, and that the essence of sincerity is simplicity. But, altogether apart from its historic significance, 'Abraham Lincoln' is a picture of very many virtues, one of the best of which is the dialogue by Stephen Vincent Benet, who has achieved poetic beauty, dramatic strength and unfailing fidelity to his theme. In this there is surely both a lesson and a reproach to those selfsatisfied British talking pictura producers who have not begun to explore the treasure house *of our people. "A whole essay might be written on 'Abraham Lincoln' as being absolutely the first talking picture to wed music to pictorial action, but this one would rather leave filmgoers to appreciate ; (which they will), and film directors to discover (if they can), being content meantime to point out how D. W. Griffith builds, with apparently the simplest material, a tremendous climax. One would wish for much more space j in which to recognise the brilliant act-J ing of Walter Huston and a uniformly

perfect company of players, but the fact remains that this picture is a monument to the genius of D. W. Griffith, who has proved himself here the best of the good companions in the iilm world."

In introducing a new recording system by which hissing, scratching, and all other extraneous noises are eliminated, Ruth Chatterton's latest production, "The Eight to Love," will be the first perfect talking picture to be made. Under this new process, the most softly spoken words, whispering, and sobbing, are clearly recorded. Richard Wallace directed the film.

Britain as she is and as we would have her be.

There has been plenty of assiduous anti-British propaganda in America. The Indian Conference "talkie" counters it more effectively than an army of platform orators could have done. And here—this is the real point of importance—here is the lloxy Cinema, with its audience of 6000 nightly—far more, indeed, for seats are perpetually being vacated and refilled—and thousands of cinemas up and down the 48 States displaying to the American people as an ordinary commercial venture that aspect of British political life which we would of all things desire to see displayed. Business Man's Disservice. To descend from the sublime to the ridiculous. The "New York Times" pjblished recently an interview with a leading British business man just landed from a Cunard liner. He was Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen. With him this conversation is recorded: "Things are rather bad all round and I do not see any hope for improvement while the present Government is in power." "When do you think the Labour partv will go out?" "Not while its members in Parliament can draw 40 dollars a week." That is another way of advertising England in America—apparently the business man's way. It may be observed in parentheses that the 40 dollars a week rapier thrust (the figure is not even accurate) finds its edge a little blunted in a country where every Senator and every Congressman draws close on 200 dollars a week, with travelling expenses on a far higher average scale than a British M.P.'s. But no doubt it is the intention that matters. So New York sees two sides of England. The Boxy Cinema advertises it one way. The British business man prefers another. The Roxy sends British stock irresistibly up. The business man, if 'rightly reported —I wonder where he thinks he is sending it.

Ann Harding is rehearsing for "The Greater Love," which was written by Eugene Walter. Harry Bannister, hueband of Ann, will be her leading man, with Clive Brook playing the other "two-feai.nred" role.