The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-08-30

"HaHelMah" at Embassy
Don't Portray Real Negro

THE artistic content of the cinema
in capitalist countries is almost
nil. There is hardly film made
that in any way justifies the use of
the screen medium for any useful,
serious purpose. The conception of
the film as a commercial entity, as
commodity, guarantees the contln-
uation of this condition under CAPT
talism. In the Soviet Union confer
ences are held to decide upon ways
and means to transform the Gin
ema, in the hands of the working
class, into an instrument for the orr
entation of education and the organ
ization of the masses around the
tasks of building socialism and cul-
tural progress In America pro-
ducers meet with bankers to discuss
ways and means of raising box-of-
flee receipts. The kept press dances
to the tune of the dollar sign. When
Mechanics of The Brain was recent
ly shown in a New York movie
house, Mordaunt Hall, of the New
York Times, expressed the moronic
opinion that such films, although of
some educational value, were not fit
for exhibition in theatres because
they are not strictly entertain
ment." Feed your audiences on
Fox Movietone Follies," Holly
wood Review" Broadway Melody,
Damned be your Mechanics of the
Brain! The third largest industry
in the country can live and prosper
only on e echanics" of bare legs,
frisky musical comedies (filmed
ones), and no "brains" necessary,
either!
Gigantic strides in technique,
Color, stereoscopy, enlarged screen
(anamorphosa). Nothing avails to
rescue the film from the low estate
into which it is daily falling more
and more. But something must be
done to save an ever-narrowing
market. Hence, a recent wave of
vogues in the cinema. But even the
audiences as sanity patient as those
in America will become tired and
disillusioned after some time. When
the novelty of sound alone wore off
bit we got the film with part talk
and part sound. Then came the big
sensation, the 100 per cent talking
picture! The latter ushered in a
period of trial and mystery produc-
lions not yet exhausted. But there
is limit to mystery plots. After
every conceivable angle of crime
and mystery has been drained, some
thing else must be found - and has
been found! The Negro film!
Over year ago King Vidor her
aided his loud Eureka to an awed
movie world. But filming the Ne
gro is not as simple as it may ap-
pear. A delicate problem. The South.
Negro audiences. Anglo-Saxon SUI
periority white chauvinism).
Until recently Negroes figured in
films only as grotesque buffoons,
over-grown children afraid of
ghosts. Sometimes as servants IN
scenes of the upper classes. The Ne
gro was caricaturized and made to
provide the lighter stuff in pictures.
Sambo. Rastus. Farina. America
sees the Negro!
And so five major production
companies, Negro scenarios in hand,
waited to see how Vidor would
tackle the problem.
"Hallelujah" a film of the
American Negro by white director
who does not, never has and never
will understand the American Ne
gro.
"In 'Hallelujah' we've tried to ex-
press the remarkable emotional ma
ture of the Negro, against a series
of vivid happenings" - King vi
dor. They call it an "epic of the
Negro" 1t neither expresses the
remarkable emotional nature of the
Negro" nor is it an "epic of the Ne