The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-12-11
XVII. Summary and Proposals

Films that hail from the Soviet
Union are of utmost interest to us
because they come from a land
where workers have taken power
and where socialism is in the con-
struction. We have perfect right
to expect complete revolution in
the cinema as we'll as, in other in
situations of the old society. in that
whole series of Sovl1ino productions
which has gained so much Of our
admiration and enthusiasm, both be-
cause of their revolutionary back
ground and the use of scenic adapta-
tions so fitting to the action and
moods portrayed. we have witnessed
wide range Of subject and treat
ment. from the massive tempo of
the END of st. Petersburg" to the
centering of whole age in an in
dividual as in "Tsar Ivan. The Ter
rible."
"The Yellow Ticket" now show
ing at the Cameo, could perhaps be
called the younger brother of Tsar
Ivan, in that same general class,
but not so matured and finished
both in conception and execution.
Here the new director, Ozep, is
vague in just exactly what he
wishes TO do. The story is simple
one. One of the master class takes
fancy to a peasant girl who has
Just been reunited with her nus
band, recently returned from SER
wing his military in the tsar's army.
The couple, out of the kindness of
the masters heart, is rented farm
all stone and stubble. Orders come
from the city that the master must
have the peasant girl to take care
of his baby. A years toll on stone
filled soil. no harvest to reward the
year of labor, the mortgage must
be paid--so the peasant girl goes
to the city to work in the house
hold of the master, leaving her two
small children in the hut in the
gully with her husband. In the city
the peasant girl rejects the advances
of the master and leaves the man.
sion only to be rounded up in the
public garden in a police raid on
the prostitutes. In the police sta
ton she is given a yellow ticket.
She thinks it is recommendation
and offers it as such in an employ
ment agency. She is of course
shown the door ard soon finds her
self employed in a public dance hall
and prostitution house. The first
night there she lies with peasant
from her neighboring village who
tells her that her husband has been
hurt in an accident. She rushes out
of the hall and to her husband
When she comes into the small hut
her husband, who before could not
walk, advances sturdily toward her
And the picture ends with every
body happy.
If the plot smacks little toe much
of the American ending and a
stretching of reality to bring about
an insipid finale, the producer takes
every opportunity for psychological
effects and telling contrasts. Wav-
ing wheat on Russian steppe is
a sight for any eye to delight in;
peasants advancing in unison swing
ing scythes; the peasant soldier
coming home, swinging his boots on
a stick, stopping to rub wheat in
his hands to test the quality of the
crop, his meeting with the peasants
on the field and his simple embrace
of wife and child. Moments like
these abound in Soviet films, which
are so close to the earth and fac
tory, so at home to the life of the
worker and peasant.
Sovkino productions fully exploit
nature to express the mood of a
character OF of mass. And here
| COO, Idbult 10 SiiVWH, CHANG iIie WIN
the mood OF the husband as he
trudges to the city, pulling his new
born child in a small cart behind
him and holding his daughter by the
hand. Cloud formation, trees wav-
ing their tops at a threatening sky
from the brim of a hillock; buds and
blossoms decorate the Homecoming
of the soldier, the coming of the
child and the return of the wife.
There is also a dlrectness and
simplicity here, which throws the
idyllic plot into bad relief. The
leave-taking of husband and wife
with such a sense of inevitableness
and study resignation, with no ca
resses and kisses, centers in itself
years Of labor and oppression with
no way out. The peasant does moi
tell his wife that their son has died
but only shows her the baby's
wooden socks and she understands
this direct language of the soil.
By far the best scenes in the film
are the public dance hall and tn,
prostitutes in the police station. Thu
prostitutes before the police officials