The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-31
Mother Re 1905 Is
Stirring Drama of
Toledo, Ohio, 1884
MOTHER, 1906" at the Acme
Theatre, Union Square, directed
by Pudovkin.
Reviewed hx JACOR RTRCK

MOTHER, 1895" at the Acme
Theatre, Union Square, directed
by Pudovkin.
Reviewed by JACOB BURCK
Pudovkin's Mother. 1905" based
on Gorkis famous novel Mother"
comes like a welcome oasis in the
vast desert of the American film.
In Mother" you will not find any
Of the stereotyped, canned charac-
ters manufactured in Hollywood.
Here. as in all Soviet movies, the
people are real, capable of eating.
sleeping. breathing. loving. suffer
ing, and struggling. Not since the
end of st. Petersburg have we met
in this country such an array of
vital characters which 90 far be-
yond their immediate characterize
ton
Gorki's first working class novel.
and Pudovkin's first great film, both
of which arc prophecies Of the great
future works these men are to pro-
duce, Mother" Is the story of the
struggle of the Russian working
class under Czarisrn. 1t is the story
Of working class mother whose
son is revolutionary, and whose
drunkard husband is killed as
strikebreaker. The censors having
barred Pudovkin's film for over four
years, seem to have released it I'M
Willingly at very appropriate time
Inside the little theatre the spec
tator witnesses a drama of which
he is a part in 1894.
1t Is almost uncanny to discover
how closely the parallel of the
strike in Mother" written in 1905
follows that Of the strike Of the
Auto-Lite workers in Toledo. Ohio.
The same treachery of the manu-
facturers, the same provocstion of
the scabs, the same terror, the same
action on the part of the govern
ment-and perhaps, the last chap
ter of Toledo, which is as yet I'M
written as this review appears, may
not be far different from the ending
OF this film. Our writers and artists
in this country who are trying to
produce working class art have but
to take this film as guide.
To the American movie-goer Pu-
dovkin's film assumes an added i'm
portance as a chapter in the devel-
opment of the Soviet cinema which
has until now been missing. In this
picture we witness the genesis Of the
cinematic technique which was later
to become the stock-in- trade Of the
Hollywood hacks.
There are many flaws in this film,
but they are due to the awkward
ness of young genius becoming
conscious Of his strength It is a
silent film, with superimposed dia-
logue written by Michael Gold. To
this reviewer the experimentation is
utterly superfous and becomes an
annoying obstacle in approaching
the fine acting and the mounting
emotional tenseness of the play.
The acting of this marvellous cast
of Soviet artists, many of whom
have appeared in subsequent Soviet
masterpieces. becomes almost as
powerful vehicle of Gorki's genius
as Gorki's own written word. Espe-
cially Vera Baranovskaia, as the
mother She looks and acts not only
as the Mother in the story-but as
you sit and watch you begin to feel
that you have seen that haggard
face before. The expressions of suf-
fering, joy and hope on her face
become peculiarly intimate. You
think of your mother of your
friends mothers-and finally decide
she is all of them. She is every
body's workingclass mother. The
picture should have been left in its
original form-a silent film.