The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-30
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Vicious Nazi Film
IObenSin
BY SAMUEL BRODY

THE strong wind which for some
time has been blowing westward
from the cesspools Of Goebbel's
Naz propaganda yards in Berlin
has brought with it to New York
another sickening stencil in the form
Of film, this time: IS. A. Mann
Brand"
3. A.-Mann Brand is a composite
Of a thosand strains and under
tones that We have for some time
been observing in the films Of our
own democratic" Hollywood. The
Hollywood film, in the process Of
fascination, is travelling towards the
final formula Of film like Brand. u
The characterization of workers
leaders as depraved gangSter types
in Washington Merry Round u
closely parallels the portrayal Of
Communists and trade union leaders
in Brand" as degenerate human
dregs who drink, shoot down chill
dren and get orders and money
from Moscow. Does the depraYed
half-m version of a Communist
in Heroes For Sale" differ in
essence from the arch-fiend and
murderer Tu1row who is presented
to the German masses in Brand
as the Bolshevik leader? Is the
killing Of Nemescek by the Red
Shirts in Columbis's mo Greater
Glory far cry from the murder
Of the child-Nazi by the Com
munists in Hitler's IS. A.-Mann
Brand"9 Gn Brand the sequence
in which the Storm Trooper Brand
carries the dead child through the
streets in his arms corresponds so
closely to the part in mo Greater
Glory" in which mother Nemeseck
carries her son who has died in a
battle to defend vacant lot against
the Red Shirts, that both might
have been done by the same di-
rectorD
&c A.-MANN BRAND" differs from
y. the effect that the average
Hollywood propaganda film is likely
to exert on working class audience
in that the gap created by the
hysterical, class rage of its makers
and the realities which they are
/ trying 10 cover up in the film are
beyond conceivable bridging. Re-
member that this film was produced
in country where millions Of work
ers under the leadership of the Com
munist Party have long ago deter
mined that the proletarian social
revolution is the only way out OF
unemployment, hunger, war.
To these workers life itself has
already shown that fascism aggra-
Yates unemployment and hunger
and intensiifes the danger of war q
thousandfold. To them film like
Brand" is insult added to injury
They will never accept TuTow, the
degenerate Soviet agent" as true
picture of one of their heroic lead
ers, the Thaelmanns and Torglers
who are tortured in dark medieval
pits for organizing and leading them
to a better world. They will refuse
to believe that every Communist is
a fiend and cutthroat. because they
have learned the truth in the caul-
dron Of their own bitter experiences
in the class-struggle.
In many other ways Brand
represents revealing compendium
of classic Nazi demagogy. The
Naz landlord frsternizes with his
Impoverished Nazi tenant who car
therefore get away without paying
her rent. Economic classes don't
exist. One is either a Nazi or a
Marxist. If your boss is not a Nazt
you can expect to be fired for BEING
faithful Storm Trooper. In
Brand" the boss fires the Mar
worker at the instigation Of the
leader Of the Reds!
If there are any half-decent
unperverted individuals among the
Communists and Social-Denocrats