The NATION

508

.4

C I T I Z E N S GUIDE T O PUBLIC
HOUSING. By Catherme Bauer.
Vassar College 60 cents

Thls is afirst-ratepresentatlon

of the
houslng plcture, both generally accepted
facts and pertlnent questions, as I t looks
to an experlenced worker In the field
The Illustrations,too, are excellent

M Y COUNTRY T I S OF T H E E By
Lucy Sprague Mltchell, Eleanor BOWlmn, and Mary Phelps
The
Macmlllan Company $3 50
It IS hard to see how these three women
could have done a better )ob In tellmg
the story of the use and abuse of our
natural resources they comblne broad
knowledge and clear thlnklng with vwid
presentatlonThey arentafraldto take
any bull by thehorns, even though he
I S very much allve andan
honorable
member of the board of the Metropolitan Opera. Some readers might find this
book rather on the primer slde But most
people can learn a greatdeal from it
and wdl have fun domg so.

,TIEN OF T H E M O U N T A i h - S By
Jesse Stuart E P Dutton and Company $2 50
A collection of twenty-one corklng good
storles about the reckless mountam boys
and glrlsand thelr old folk5 workmg,
loving, feudmg, electlonerrlng,shoutmg at camp meetmg Fresh and breezy,
thockful of Kentucky hlll-folkslore
and good humor, they are among Mr.
Stuarts best creatlons, and he IS at his
hest In the short story.

Iconoclast in Hollywood
H O I L J I L J O April
O ~ , 18
C r I T I Z E N KANE ha5 probably
L h a d more advance pudhclty of
or another
than
any other
onekmd
plcture yet produced Practlcally everybody connected wlth the productlon
has been reported on the verge of a
lawsu~t. Some have sald that all thls
uproar was nothmg but exceptionally
well-handled publlaty,
whde
others
have
sworn
that
William
Randolph
Hearst was determlned to prevent the
plctures release Finally It was ancouncedthatthe
picture would definltely be released in the near future, and
the press assembled at last weeks preview In a state of great txpechncy

Many would probablyhave rejoiced

to findproducer,dlrector,
actor, and
part-authorOrsonWellessmhitious
first effort In Hollywood not anunqualified success after all, the man had
had no prevlous clnema experience, and
I f reports were true he had walked into
the studlo and produced on a very low
budget a film whlch was a masterpiece
It must be stated here that no amount
of advance publmty or ballyhoo could
posclbly rum the effect of thlsremarkableplcture
It IS probably the most
ongmal, exclting, and entertamng picture that has yet been produced in this
country, and although It may lack thelr
subtlety I t can certalnly be placed In the
same bracket as the very best pre-war
French productlons
The film may not have been lnsplred
by the llfe of Willlam Randolph Hearst,
but the story of Charles Foster Kane, as
unfolded in the picture, certainly bears
a remarkable resemblance to Hearsts
career. The incldent
concerning
the
Spanish-Amencan War, the vast COIIectlon of useless antlquesacqulred by
Kane,andcertam
detads such as the
picnlc, wlth the guests compelled to
spendthenightunder
canvas, arefamlllarparts of theHearst legend; and
the castle of Xanadu, Kanesretreat from
the world,wlth
Its endless acres and
prlvate zoo, I S more than remmscent of
San Simeon. If Mr.Hearstdeades,
as
many othersundoubtedly wlH, that the
film IS only the most thinly dlsguised
version of his Ilfe story, he wlll perhaps
be favorably impressed wlththe sympathy andunderstandlngwlth
whlch
the subject has been treated,and may
even be delighted to have provided materlal for a drama of almost classlcal
proportlons
The film opens wlththe
death of
the
Kane, a very old man,alonein
colossal, ugly monumentto hls wealth
and power-Xanadu. A sort of March
of Tlmedealingwlth
Kanes life is
thenpresented. The producers of this
shortare dlssatlsfied, findlng it too superficlal and Impersonal, and aredetermmedtoobtaln
more lntlmate detalls
of the mans personalhlstory. The remamder of the picture deals wlththe
Information on Kanes llfe and character obtalned respectively from his guar&an, his chlef assistant, a dramatic critic
who was once hls best frlend, his second wlfe, and his butler This technique
of unfoldingthe story necessitates five
separate flashbacks and creates a certain
amount of confusion whlch 1s more than
compensated for by the powerfuleffect
obtamed by the gradual lllummatlon of

character, untdwiththe
click of the
final switch he is fully revealed-empty,
lonely, and unhappy,a
victim of his
own personal power.
Thls excellent
cinematic
material
Welleshas
embellished with brilliant
directorlal, pictorial, and dramatic
touches. He breaks, withthe greatest
effect, practically every photographic
rule In the business, employing very few
close-ups, playmg whole scenes wlth the
faces of the performers In shadow, using
llghtmg to enhance the dramatlc value
of the scene rather than the personal appearance of the actor. H e is, In fact, one
of the first Hollywooddirectors really
to explolt the screen as a medium, and
It IS Interesting tonotethatindolng
thls he has used an entire cast wlth no
previous screen experience
The acting both of Welles and of the
rest of the Mercury Theater cast is excellent. Dorothy Comingore as Kanes
second wife, whom he forces to smg In
opera to gratlfy hisego, IS partlcularb
as the
effective; so IS JosephCotten
dramatlc crltic. Welles himself gives an
amazmgperformance as Kane, equally
convmcing in youth, middle age, and
senlllty Thephotographer,GreggToland, has achieved some wonderfuleffects, particularly the scene in the prolect~onroom of the newsreel company
The picture hasmade atremendous
lmpresslon in Hollywood. Charlie ChapIln is reported to be preparedto back
any venture thatWelles may have In
mmd. Perhaps when the uproar has dled
down it will be dlscovered that the film
IS not qulte so good as it is considered
now, but nevertheless Hollywood w ~ l l
for a long time be In debt toMr. W d e s

OTHERFILMS
The Great Lie is one of those exasperatmg pictureswhich
a few moments of sensibleconversatlon between
the chief characters would brlngto a
hasty stop, almost before it started. Even
Bette Davis is unable to carry off wlth
convlctlon the part of Maggle, a Southern belle of the modern era. Mary Astor
walks away with the hlstrionlc honors as
a planist wlth style and a sharp tongue,
andthe
plcture is really qulte llvely
when she is around.
T o crltrclze Men of Boys Town
seems almost churlish when I t is a picture of such excellent intentlons A
sequel to Boys Town, it gives further
publlclty to Father
Flanagan,
whose
work wlthjuvendedellnquents is well
known, and throws in an exposure of
the brutal conditlons In a reform school
highlyremmlscent of the unsavory ex-

April 26, 1941

posuresat
the recent Whlttler School
investigatlonsNevertheless,
it mustbe
of thlsplcture
said that thecreators
have gone a little too far In thelr employment of sentlmental devlces NothIng IS spared-tbe death and burlal of
a k t l e dog, at least three agonlzed partings, gobs of human kindness,anda
rnlnor mlracle. Spencer Tracy as Father
Flanagan wears his
halo
wlth
some
sklll, and Mlckey Rooney makes another
contributlon to Amerlcana wlth hls performance as the mayor ofBoys Town
The screen play of Zlegfeld Glrl
appears somewhat dusty wlth age. Nearly
everythlngthathas
ever been sald before about llfe behlnd thefootllghts
and the dangers of the dresslng-room is
saldagain wlththe monotony born of
repetitlon. The lmpresslve array of stars
featured In this plcture are helpless
agamst the
odds,
and
Lana
Turner,
Hedy Lamarr, and Judy Garland wander
around llke lost souls onthe glgantlc
Zlegfeld staircases James Stewart makes
a half-hearted appearance as truck
a
drlver,anumber of pretty glrls parade
In hldeous costumes, and the only spark
of life is klndled by two brllllant SpanIsh dancers called Rosarlo and Antonlo
The film should make Zlegfeld turn In
grave.
hls
ANTHONY BOWER

GERMAN muslclan I know who

In true German fashlon
cannot
dlscuss a mere performance wlthout tyIng I t up with vast hlstorlco-phllosophical notlons, sometlmes wlthlnterestlng
results, sometlmes wlth preposterous
ones, madeone of hls less pretentlous
and more pentratmg-that IS to say, less
speculatlve andmore factual-observatlons recently when I spoke of the excellence of Bruno Walters performances
of Fldello
and
Don Glovannl
That, he explained, IS because Walter IS a rhetorlcal nature And It IS true
that the dlfference between Toscaninis
performance of Beethovens Erolca
with the N. B. C Symphony (Victor
Set 765, $7) and Walters wlth the New
York Phllharmonlc-Symphony (Columbla Set 449, $6 5 0 ) IS the dlfference between fierce, concentratedlntensltyand
expansive rhetoric. For a while I followed and accepted xppreclatlvely the
different shapes In sound,the dlfferent
effects, whlch the dlfferent personal and
rnuslcal natures of thetwo conductors
were glvingtothework;
but at the
beglnnlng of thethlrd
slde Walters
treatment of the pusage for solo horn

2nd then for solo flute caused me to

think of a [emark ascrlbed to Toscanlni
hlmself a few years ago: At somethmg
beautiful Walter melts I suffer Walters
rneltlng over that passage for solo horn
and so10 Hute was the first of the detalls
that I found too expanslvely rhetorlcal
for my own nature and my own feellng
about thls work.
Afterthethin,
dry, hard Stud10 8H
sound of theToscaninlrecordlng
the
sonorlty and depth and rolumlnousness
of the Walter recordlng were even more
lmpresslve than they would have been
merely after some of Columbias prenous recordlngs of orchestra Notlng this
vast lmprovement I was aware, after a
mlnute or two, that the sound dld not
have the beautlfulwarmthand
clean
transparency and clarlty of definltlon of
Columbias lmported Beecham recordIngs,andafter
a whdethe cleanness
and sharpness of the Vlctor Studlo 8H
recordlngwere as much a rellef after
the amorphous volumlnousness of the
Columbia recordlng as the cleanness and
sharpness of Toscaninls performance itself were after the amorphous volumlnousness of Walters. All this, moreover,
was when I played the Walter recordlng
with onlya llttle less than the widest
irequency-range of my Scott; and when
I reduced the range to what I used for
the Toscaninl recordlng-whlch is what
I use for the Columbla Beechams, the
Vlctor Stokowskq and what one IS llkely
to Rave on a good rnachlne-the recordIng lost brllllance on top and became
mlddle,
muffled and hollow In the
whereas the Toscanlnl recordlng retalned
Its balance and clarlty even on an eighttube Lafayette of llmlted
frequencyrange, on whlch theWalter recordlng
sounded muffled throughout
As for Vlctors other orchestral reieases, the unfamlllar MozartSlnfonla
Concertante K. App. No. 9 recorded by
Stokowskl and the Phlladelphla Orchestra (Set 760, $4 5 0 ) turnsout to befor my ears, at any rate-oneof
the
duller exerclses of Mozarts willlng
craftsmanshlp The beautlfulplaylng of
the sololsts IS recorded wlth marvelous
fidellty,but Stokowskls dellcately perfumedphraslng of Mozart1sto
my
ears, agam-as unacceptable as hls more
violently luxurlant treatment of Bach
and Mussorgsky , and from a man who
has conslstently given us astoundlngly
beautlful orchestral recordlng it IS a surprlse to get the plercmgly harsh sound
of thewollns,the
occaslonal wooden
sound of the entlre orchestra on these
records A slngle dlsc (17731, $1) offers harjh recordlng of harsh perform-

ances of R~mskg-Korsakovs Dublnushka and Gllnkas Overture to Russlan and Ludmllla by Sevitzky and the
Indlanapolls Symphony; and on another
slngle (13590, $1) Sevitzky conducts
thePhlladelphia Chamber String Slmfonletta In moresensltire
and
more
agreeably recorded performances of
some not too Interesting muslc by
two pieces
Grktry--a Pantomlme,and
from the operaDenysle tyran
TheNewFrlends
of Music concert
atwhlch
Strledry conducted hu own
orchestral verslon of
Bachs
Artof
Fugue offered the deeply satlsfylng esperlence of magnlficent muslc well performed-so
satlsfylng as to cause the
audience to cheer at the end. There were
satlsfylng experiences at some of the
other concerts-the
old muslc sung by
Tlnayre, the performance of the delightful Haydn Symphony No. 67 ; and on
the other hand there was Serkins me&ocre playmg in Mozarts Concerto K
453 Thls rarely heard work is a masterpiece, thethreeunfamiliar
pieces that
Mllsteln played were a bore-instead
of which hemlght
have played the
neglected Concerto K. 216, which IS
dellghtful ; and this wad only oneof
several Instances of the tendency I have
polnted out occaslonally In New Friends
program-maklng As for theperformances, Strledry IS evldently a musically
and technically accompllshed conductor,
but also a somewhat tense one who at
tlmes-to Judge from the wlry soundimparts hls tenseness to the orchestra,
InLteadof creatlng the relaxed ease that
shows itself, in things like silken, lumlnous strlngtone The wlry sound IS ROtlceable also when he pulls the orchestra
up short in the way a rlder does wlth a
horse, and
with
slmllar
a
result-a
breaklng of the easy flow In the music
and In the playlng, whlch it IS the conductors Job to create and maintain.
This flow IS something that Beecham
-whom some of the thoroughly trained
Germansare i n c h e d to dlsmiss as a
mere dllettante-achleves; it is the thing
whlch caused the New York Clty Syrnphony to play wlth fine sonorlty at hls
first concert and with almost perfect precislon at hls second;It 1s one of the
thlngs that make him one of the worlds
great conductors. And the man who
phrasedMozarts Symphony K. 297 so
powerfully,who Idted the longopening melody of the slowmovement of
Haydns Symphony N o 102 from polnt
to point of increasingtension so excitingly, IS one of the worlds great muslclms.
B. H. HAGGIN