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»» INREVIEW ««

Books — Motion Pictures —
Musie — Arts

Hollywood Produces
Splendid New Films

~<cr Marks a new high stand-
Mission To Moscow 73 for Hollywood, and

proves reality to be far more thrilling than the most involved
and intricate “suspense” formula.

A wealth of material went into peasement policies which thrust
the screen adaptation of Ambas- the world into war are exposed re-
sador Joseph Davies’ book, and it lentlessly; the murder of republi-
is a tribute to the work of Ers- can Spain, the betrayal of Czecho-
kine Caldwell and Howard Koch slovakia, the Jap invasion of
that the narrative is clear and di- China.
rect, without confusion. In less Fine technique and acting, wtih
than two hours we are told of the splendid direction, added to the
joyous peoples of the Soviet Union objective treatment of the sub-

and thelr building of a new life, ject matter, make this film an
the training of the Red Army, the outstanding example of what
consistent working for peace on Hollywood. can do, A Warner
the part of the Soviet leaders. Ap- Brothers production.

The Ox-Bow Incident Te ate 3s 1859, but
this new type of “Wes-
tern” with its story of the lynching of three innocent men is

a convincing indictment of southern “Justice.” Circumstantial
evidence convicts a homesteader a stranger who joined the lynch

and his companions, one of them mob because he felt suspicion
a Mexican (sufficient reason for would fall on him if he refused,
lynching, in the opinion of one of reads the letter aloud.

the mob) of the, murder of 8 The picture goes on from
rancher. evER men only are xe there, however. The mob -leader
favor of “letting the lew take its commits suicide. Others must
COUSe eee aaa ae outvoted stand trial for murder. A tragic
ane ve eee! ae carried eee film but, it does not end on a
As sabe) OS me sbedesst negative note. Those who took
their pleas for a trial and a part in the lynching have learned
chance/to. prove thrin Snnecence something about human decency.

go unheeded. The homesteader is

‘ i The best. like the negro preacher
given a chance to write a fare-

and the wandering cowboy have

well letter to his wife, and when an added sense of social respon-

they return to town and learn sibility.

that the supposedly murdered ef

man is alive and that the real Well acted, the film has in-

criminals have confessed, Fonda, tensity and genuine suspense.
Better than The Moon is

Edge Of Darkness Down because of better ma-

terial. Facts, instead of philosophical discussions tell the story.

The picture would have to be really excellent to overcome
the handicap of having Errol movement is given its true place
Flynn in the iead, and it is, and in this magnificent story of the
does. The organized underground people’s resistance.

= Don’t miss this merely be-
Hangmen Also Die cause it will open at a

smaller downtown theater. The elimination of ballyhoo should
tell you that here is something. Opening with an account of

the betrayal of Gzechoslovakia, unbreakable solidarity of the
the picture tells of a manhunt for Czech people against Hitlerite
the killer of Heydrich and the Germany and its satellites.
JOSEPH STALIN—A Biography—
Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute -_..............-- 20c

KARL MARX—His Life and Work—
Liebkmecht and Lafargue .............--....-- 25c

MISSION TO MOSCOW

Joseph E. Davies —.._------------------------p- 39c¢
SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, WINTER 1943
Socialist Quarterly 40c
CORK Y—A story for
eg a RRA LGS oo ee 25c

The People Bookshop

105 Shelly Building

119 West Pender MA. 6929 Vancouver, B.C.

“OVE 500,000 families
now belong to the
Book - of -the- Month Club.
They do so in order to keep
themselves from missing the
new books they are really in-
terested in.”

So states one of the brilliantly-
colored, adjective-studded circu-
lars printed by what Time maga-
gine calls “the biggest jackpot
an author and his publisher can
hit,”

Some people have other names
for it. The American Booksellers
Association, for instance, pre-
pared a statement which main-
tained “there is no ‘best’ book of
the month. Books that are sold
by these ‘clubs’ receive an amount
of concentrated advertising detri-
mental to other books of an equal
or superier order.”

And the general public, and
particularly ‘club’ members
whose intelligence was insulted
by the selection committee's
choice of one of the dullest,
most anti-Soviet books produc-
ed in some time, are viewing
with alarm the club editors’
bland statements that not only
is their choice of “The Fifth
Seal’ as the best book brought
out during May justified, but
that anyone who says otherwise
is inspired by the Communist
party, receives orders from
Moscow, and is definitely un-
American and un-Canadian.

eS

UST what is the Book-of-the-
J Month Club? It is, plain and
simple, a mail order house whose
merchandise is books. It is the
US Post Office's fourth biggest
customer. Into its coffers last
year came $23,000,000 about
one-quarter of the; entire money
spent on books in the- country.
The books it distributes are
chosen by four people: critic
Henry Seidel Canby, novelists
Dorothy Canfield Fisher and
Christopher Morley; editor Wil-
liam Allen White.

The books chosen for distribu-
tion to readers — who promise
to buy at least four selections

Miusie

ITH interest mounting

in the question of music
as an aid to production,
workers, union leaders and
company officials all over the
west coast are considering the
use of music in war plants.

At West Coast shipyards, for
instance, six half-hour programs
of music, singing and dancing
have been presented by Allied
Arts Council, a group of Van-
couver artists, writers and broad-
easters who are beginning an all-
out campaign along lines which
have proved successful elsewhere.

ROM several large Canadian

war plants recently came the
news that after conducting ex-
periments on the use of music
on the production line, the follow-
ing results were achieved:

j. Increases in production and
efficiency, and reduction of
errors.
. Decrease in absenteeism,
tardiness, sickness and acci-
dents, and early departure.
8. Reduction in mental fatigue,
and improvement in morale.

w

Fifth Column Poise
Through The Mails

The Book of the
Month Club conducts
a mail order cam-
paign against democ-
racy and the war.

e
a year — seem to’ be divided into
three classes: The first class

is the sucker-bait, the premium
selections. The BOM people go
out of their way to shower these
upon members. You get one
every time you buy two other
selections. You get one when
you join the club. You get one
if you inveigle a friend into
joining, and you get your choice
if you deposit money with the
club in advance. These books
are mostly tried and true favor-
ites, classics in their field. Tol-
stoy’s War and Peace, the Sub-
treasury of American Humor,
Leave of Grass, the collected
works of Stephen Vincent Benet,

By CYNTHIA
CARTER

are included. They are the bait
to pull in the unsuspecting reader.
The second class of books offer
a certain amount of entertain-
ment and require little mental
concentration. In fact, in many
cases the least mental concentra-
tion the better, This holds true
particularly in some of the recent
choices, such as the March se
lection, The Human Comedy.
C
HE HUMAN COMEDY is
written by a man whom the
BOM drags in to prove that
everything is purely on the up-
and-up, and that the club edi-
tors® are just a nice bunch of
fellows who love good literature—
stch as Jan Valtin’s Out of the
Night and don’t let politics

Aids Output |

Does music aid
production in war
plants? Experience
in many centers
proves the affirma-
tive.

«At the John Inglis plant in
Toronto, a problem exists which
faces many west coast industries
—the problem of noise conected
with the work itself. Heavy noise
from machinery drowned out all
higher music, and the sound en-
gineers had a tough nut to crack.
However, it was discovered that
the higher pitches of the stringed
instruments could be heard above
the industrial noises. The result?
Inglis workers have become
Strauss and Irving Berlin fans.

‘Medical science has conclu-
sively proved that music in-
ereases nervous and muscular
energy without causing an after
let-down, and materially reduces
fatigue,” point out union offi-
cials,

influence them one way
other. The characters in |
Saroyan’s Human ~Comec™
no politics. They have a i
phy of a sort, and appare |
lieve that if you let life c”
and otherwise muddle
you'll end up a nice old ;
pher in a telegraph statio®
a telegraph station? No
lar reason. It just happ |
occur, that’s all, to Saroy:
Salvador Dali of the writtc
Where Dali, the “artist” d: “
believable watches over
tree-trunks, Saroyan drip
lievable characters over

situations. (incidentally
bet our last double @B
selection that Saroyan
travelled in a trainload

diers, otherwise he would:
his soldier characters talk
elusively God, the better
in life, and faith — it's ©
ful!) Politics? No! pok
the Book-of-the-Month €
umphantly! We're the
art-for-arts sake boys!
Ss
UT the third group oc”
sent out to the 5000
secribers to the Club are ¥
anti-democratic, anti-Sovie
labor. In the case of Th
Seal, which critics unan
agreed was about the dulle
to come their way in son ¥
there is no excuse. As li j
it rates lower than a co f
pulp. As propaganda —
wrong side — it’s way UE
list. j
‘No one knows who
right when history ma
final appraisal,” states or

acter. ‘Perhaps it will t

sky, perhaps ... Hitler.”
e@

MERICA and Cana

countries at war. Bo
regulations, designed to
the state, that lay down
ments for acts which Pp
recruiting in the armed
and give comfort to the
Citizens of both countries
a more serious charge
the Book-of-the-Month C€

(Gontinued on Page

N BRITAIN, at a COE

between workers and 7
ment on the subject, seve:
clusions were reached, &
on these conclusions th
grams are now based in
factories.

First of ali, the labor-z
ment committees decide
music should be familiar
—the kind people whistle
The melody should be ck
well defined, which makt
plicated, jazzed rythyms
able. They also discovers
the tone of an organ ©
“carry” well on amplificat’
tems. Volume must be ke
stant, they decided, to cov
bad weather conditions or?
strain. A scientific progra
reported, should consist =
types of music; special sel
such as Christmas carols, |
muic for opening and
soothing music for rest ©
and light orchestral mu
luneh-time entertainment,

When the principles of j
programs were followed i
land, according to report
English trade unions, pro
increased by from about
cent to as high as 25 pi
for an hour or an hour ant
after each program.