FILM OF SPANISH CONFLICT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23648, 4 November 1938, Page 19

FILM OF SPANISH CONFLICT

AN INDICTMENT OF WAR Overseas newspapers have reported the international ruffle caused by a Hollywood producer daring to make a film which might be construed as criticising the Fascist side of the Spanish War. It was stated that on the completion of the film “Blockade,” Walter ganger began receiving the unwelcome attentions of various foreign embassies. But Wanger resolutely decided to release this film, and a special preview screening of “ Blockade,” a forthcoming attraction at the State ■Theatre, was held yesterday. There is no attempt to conceal the fact that the war in “Blockade” is the Spanish War. There is some attempt at compromise in that the uniforms of the soldiers might belong to the men of either party concerned in the conflict. The beseiged town of Castlemare is non-existent, but it may be relevant to ask whether the Republicans have been guilty of blockading ports and torpedoing food ships from submarines. But the film goes beyond partisanship and graphically and vigorously acts as a forceful indictment of any war which makes victims of the civil population. Madeleine Carroll again finds herself in the* role of the beautiful secret service agent in love with the man who is compelled by duty to prove her guilt. Henry Fonda at last gets the chance he deserves as the idealistic, sensitive, young farmer who rallies his fellow peasants and who later becomes an intelligence officer. Leo Carrillo, as a gentle, nature-loving countryman, and Reginald Denny, as a tactless but kind-hearted foreign correspondent, provide serio-comic relief. John Halliday makes an oily and convincing soldier of fortune who divides his allegiance between both parties. “ Blockade ” is noteworthy in that it is the first real drama of the Spanish War. Walter Wanger is to be congratulated on substituting for the conventional “ fade-out ” embrace the following stark appeal by Fonda: “Peace! Where can you find it? Our country has been turned into a battlefield , . . Women

can’t keep their families safe in their houses —they can’t be safe in their own fields. Churches, schools and hospitals are targets . . . It’s not war—war is between soldiers —it’s murder! Murder of innocent people. There’s no sense to it. The world can stop it—where is the conscience of the world? ” A new issue of the “ March of Time ” series was also screened, and it presented a disquieting survey of current world affairs.