The daily worker., 1933-10-30
FLASHES ana
CLOSE-UPS
By LENS

The Pilm and Photo League OF
New York tosses its collective hat
into the ring and challenges the
Leagues throughout the country to
beat its Embarrassing record by the
time the Daily Worker" $4,000
Drive is over. =. Our members have
already responded and contributions
will be listed beginning in the next
column. hollywood Film and
Photo League take noteD
The Harry Alan Potamkin Film
School of the Film and Photo League
will close its registers in a few days.
First session Nov, 10.
Warner Brothers announces that
it will close its studios indefinitely
in March. How's business? =.
A Hollywood dispatch announces that
producers have become convinced
that stories about honest love" no
longer pay good dividends" and
that the Mae Vests, Ed Robinsons,
ETC., are initiating new era in pic
lures "all based ON the more viriIe
IL less wholesome period Of the last
century. Romance has little place
in any of the stories which will fea-
ture the more robust and less re-
fined mode of living. Now we're
getting somewhere, as Ted Cook
might put it. -.
The Motion Picture Section of the
Specia1ties Division of the Bureau of
Foreign and Domestic Commerce
Chats the name, for short) releases
the news that "a report from the
Polish Press would indicate =.
that certain changed conditions in
Soviet Russia would tend to develop
demand for foreign films. The re-
port in question states that the So
Wet film policy is due for another
change with view to admitting the
production and release of films with
so-called sexual problems and that
propaganda will be ordered
stopped after fifteen years of appli-
cation. 1t is apparent that the
Russian n1ovie-goer wants more
variety in his films and is particu-
larly interested in their entertain
ment value -
My dear Motion Picture Section Of
the ETC., ETC., please quit kidding
yourself. 1t isn't Hollywood's kind
OF Sexual problems" films that the
Soviet movie-goer wants. Your gloat-
ing is both premature and In vain.
. Love Me Tonight" "I'm No
Angel" and Song of Songs" will
never find a market in the land of
the Soviets, I'm afraid. You'll
never produce the sort of sexual
problems" pictures that Soviet work.
ers want to see. Do you recall
Bed and Sofa?" That was a
Soviet idea on how sex should be
treated in the cinema. Even
from the standpoint of pure and un-
adulterated entertainment it was a
masterpiece. You censored that
film in its entirety and American
audiences never got to see Il. II
know Soviet movie audiences will
disappoint YOU, Polish press fairy
tales notwithstanding. ..
Upton Sinclair has added 5000
feet Of the originally discarded
footage of Thunder Over Mexico!"
to the version which will be shown
at the 55th st. Playhouse Tuesday.
=. 1 don't know WHAT material
he has added, nor HOW 1t has
been cut In. But we want you
to answer the question: DOES 1T
PAY TO FIGHT?
George Arliss says that historical
figures were human beings before
they became statues" And so
this sweetest of Hollywood stars
whose stiff upper lip is his main
claim to artistic distinction, is going
to impersonate one of the famous
Rothschild capitalist pirates In his
next film. The Rothschilds, of
course, were and are neither human
beings" nor Statues" buth ruthless
exploiters of the workingelasS and
whose fabulous fortune was ac-
cumulated by the sweat and blood
of exploited proletarians. >.
Paramount is importing Jose Ortiz,
foremost Mexican toreador, to show
George Raft how to toss bull in
his Forthcoming Trumpet Blows" :.
A sheer waste Of money. B. P.
Schulberg has been throwing the
horned beast for years now and
should be able to teach Raft a few
tricks. ..
Random gleanings from motion
picture cuts ordered by New York
State Board of Censors from Janu-
ary, 1882, to March, 1888:
ALONE-Eliminate all scenes OF
children when sex is shown. Il
AIR Notwithstanding indecent
action Of Miller's lips in fight where
they form "Son of a bitch" i
GREAT JASPER--Eliminate "Why
should Mrs. Daniel McDowd be in
terested in the ancestry of one Jasper
Horn, an idle, shiftless working
man?" AM A FUGITIVE
FROM A CHAIN GANG-Eliminate
screen subtitle: 1920 p. M" (After
allowing previous title "4:20 A. NJ
showing length of working day for
prisoners.)
Philadelphia Workers School