Evening star., 1927-04-17
1continned from rlrst 20

Continued from First Pagel
the drudge soul. But this is evi.
IDENTIFY regarded as very dreadful ana
impressive by the producers, who are
all on the side of soul and love ana
such like. ] am surprised they were
NOT njnched for souls in the alarm
clocks and runabouts. Masterman,
still unwilling to leave bad alone, per-
suades Rotwang to make this Robot
in the likeness Of Mary. so that u
may raise an insurrectsCn among the
workers to destroy the machines py
which they live and So learn that u
is necessary to work. Rather lftfl
cate that. but Masterman, you ua-
derstand, is a rare devil of "a man,
Full of pride and efficiency ana mod-
ernity and all those horrid things.
Then. comes the crowning imbecility
Of the f1ln4-the conversion of the
Robot into the likeness of Mary. Rot
wang, you must understand. occupies
a small old house embedded in
modern city richly adorned with PEN
tagrams and other reminders of anu.
suated German romances, out OF
which its owner has been taken A
faint smell of Mephistopheles is per-
ceDtible for a time. So even at Ufa,
Germany can still be dear, old. magic
loving Germany. Perhaps the Ger
mans viii never get right away from
the brocken Walpurgis Night is the
name day of the German poetic imaSl-
nation, and the national fantasy
Cspers securely forever with broom
stick between its legs. BY some no
doubt abominable means Rotwang
has squeezed a vast and we'll equipped
modern f4aborat tory into this little
house. It is ever so much bigger
than the house, hut no doubt he mas
fallen back on Einstein and otnef
modern bewilderment Mary has 10
he trapped put into machine like
translucent cocktail shaker and u1-
derEo All sorts Of pyrotechnic treat
ment in order that her likeness may
he transferred TO the ROBOT. The pos
sibility of RotWang just simply max
inE a Robot like hec evidently never
entered The gifted producers head.
The Robot is developed ia wayer-
ing haloes. The premises seem to be
struck by lightning repeatedly, the
contents Of number Of TASKS and
carboys are violently agitated, there
are minor explosions and discharges.
Rotwang conducts the operations
with a manifest lack of assurance,
and finally To his evident relief the
likeness is taken and things calm
down. The false Mary then Winks
darlllv at The audience and sails OF
10 raise the workers And SO forth
end so on. There is some rather good
awishing about i'm the water after the
best film traditions, some violent and
unc0nvincin- machine breaking and
rioting and wreckaEe, and then rather
confusadlT one gathers that Master
man has learned ujs lesson and taat
the workers aud employers are now
to be reconciIod and by love.
Never for "a moment does one be
leve any Of this foolish story never
for moment is there anything anus
ing or convincing in it's drearT series
Of strained events. Ii is Immensely
and strangely dull 1t is not even Il
be laughed at There is not one gooN
looking nor sympathetic nor funn1
personality I'm the cast. there is, IN
deed, no scope at all for looking wet
or acting like q rational creature anllf
these mindless initiative absurdities
THE film has the air of having some
thing grave and wonderful too, Il Il
TRANSPARENT pretence. 1t mas nothln-
TO do with any social on moral issue
before the world, or with any that car
even .conceiyably arise. 1t is bunkun
and poor and thin even as bunkum
I am astonjshed at the tolefatloi