UNCLE JOE’S CRITICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27090, 26 May 1949, Page 2

UNCLE JOE’S CRITICS

If there is a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Theatre Critics (a dubious assumption), all its energies must be focused upon alleviating! the sufferings of this genus in Russia. Rarely, if ever before in the turbulent history of the Ancient and Honourable Order of Theatre Critics, have its members been subject to so concentrated and virulent an attack as that which has been going on in the Soviet world. But before all past, present and would-be playwrights decide that the Russians have truly created Utopia by banishing the professional detractors of stage offerings, it should be added that the Soviet attack is only against critics who have dared to malign certain favoured playsand writers, and—worst of all—used their own judgment in making evaluations rather than faithfully following the party line. Critics who hew to the line are still very much in favour with the Kremlin. Page after page of the skimpy Soviet cress has been filled with denunciation of these erring critics, and meeting after meeting has unanimously denounced them. “ Cosmopolitans," " People Without Consciousness of Race or Clan,” " Decadent Grovellers Before the West," these and other choice Soviet epithets have been hurled at the accused. The critics who have been thus assailed have worked primarily* for the newspaper, Soviet Art, and the magazine, Theatre All of them apparently “ missed the boat ’’ on the change in the post-war propaganda line ordered by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, ruler of the theatre as well as of music, genetics and architecture. The new party line became one of glorifying Soviet culture as the most advanced in the world and the Soviet man as the highest type of humanity. Conversely, everything smacking of Western “ bourgeois” culture became anathema, to be denounced and attacked on every possible occasion. The measure of how badly these critics missed their cues in the post-war period is the fact that they are being accused of glorifying all the bad plays (in terms of the new line, that is) and of opposing all the best new productions faithfully carrying out the Central Committee's orders. According to revelations made at a meeting of playwrights in Moscow, some of these critics engaged in conspiracy and intrigue against new plays of which they disapproved. The hapless critics’ failure to join in the anti-foreign campaign of recent years was made even more serious by their in-

ability to break the habit of admiring the Western theatre.

Having disposed of these erring traitors to Soviet culture, Pravda pointed out that tt did not mean to discourage theatre critics, giving even such praise as “ the theatre critic is the first assistant of the theatre in searching out the best, most true to life, end most talented ” plays. The critic is the “ first propagandist ” for that which is new and important. Many Soviet plays need much criticism, it continued, to get rid of weaknesses and deficiencies. .But the criticism that is wanted is from critics animated by “ burning patriotism ” and free of all " hostile foreign influences.” “We must purge the atmosphere of art, of antipatriotic philistinism,” Pravda concluded. When that purge is completed, presumably, party line plays will be praised by party /line critics and all will be well—at least until the line changes again.

The makers of films have discovered that medicine in its various aspects makes excellent grist for their story mill and garbled medical matters have become a screen staple. It is pleasing, therefore, to see a rather more authoritative treatment of the subject in the current issue of “ The March of Time,” which was given a preview locally yesterday. With the case of a hypothetical patient as its theme it offers a consoling insight into the work behind the scenes in a hospital. It could, however, have dealt with the subject in a rather less superficial manner and still stayed within the bounds of popular entertainment. i*# i # Arthur Benjamin has written an hourlong opera buffa laid in eighteenth-cen-tury Venice called " Prlma Donna.” He conducted the premiere recently in London. • * • ” Train of Events ” gives a straightcomedy role to ballerina Irina Baronova, who comes back to the studio at which she was tested for “ Bullet in the Ballet ”10 years ago The new film-presents her as a concert pianist, in a group story which has its climax in a train crash between London and Liverpool. • • • The opening performance of the Auckland Amateur Operatic Society’s thirtieth “ birthday ” production of “ The Gondoliers ” almost coincided with the 107th anniversary of the composer of the opera, Sir Arthur Sullivan. He was 'born in London on May 13, 1842. • » o Mary Fickford is about to sign an agreement with Feruccio Caramelli for the production of a picture in Italy on a co-operative basis. What that film would be is still a matter for the future • • * In Manhattan, the Perry Awards (Broadway’s "Oscars”), for "notable contributions to the current season,” were presented for the third year recently. The little silver medallions went to Rex Harrison (“Anne of the Thousand Days ”) and Margaret Hunt (" The Madwoman of Chaillot ”) for dramatic acting. Arthur Miller received an award for writing "Death of a Salesman,” and Ray Bolger (” Where’s Charley? ”) and Nanette Fabray (" Love Life ’’) for their musical comedy performances.

• • • London’s second longest current run, " Edward, My Son,” finished on April 23 after 828 performances. (The longest was “ Worm's Eye View,” now in its fourth year.) “ Edward, My Son,” had gross takings of more than £300,000 sterling, paid £82,000 in entertainments tax. and has been sold to make a film for Spencer Tracy for £45,000. Its Broadway production has so far taken £175,000. Coauthor Robert Morley is bringing the play to Australia and New Zealand later in the year.

When Hollywood finally gets up its courage to discuss any social reform on the screen it tackles the problem with a vengeance. The question of the American negro and the cruelty of society towards him is being faced by the film industry this year with a rush which, to an* extraplanetary observer, might suggest that the injustice involved is less than 75 years old. Louis de Rochemont started the trend when he announced plans for “ Lost Boundaries,” a story of " passing ” from the negro race to the white race. Soon afterwards, Twentieth Century-Fox quietly purchased Cyd Ricketts Sumner’s -novel, "Quality,” which deals with the "problems of an almost-white negro nurse, and which has been adapted to the screen under the title, “ Pinky.” More recently, Fox acquired "No Way Out.” a story about a negro interne. Last year M-G-M purchased William Faulkner’s *• Intruder in the Dust.” a novel about an attempted lynching of a negro tn the South. But, while these projects were maturing, a relatively young company Screenplays (Inc.), moved into the field by purchasing screen rights to Arthur Laurents’s three-year-old play, "Home of the Brave.” The Laurents drama dealt with a Jewish soldier who suffered from a post-battle psychosis because of his awareness of anti-Semitism. In the screen adaptation by Carl Foreman, the soldier will be a negro, and the theme will be anti-negro prejudice and not antiSemitism.