The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-28
WORLD 9TH
MOVIES
An Open Letter to Richard
Watts, Jr.

:
" Please permit me to take excep-
ton to some of the curious remarks
in your recent review of Three
Songs About Lenin." You say that
Three Songs instead of being wildly
heralded by the radicals here and
in Russia should be looked upon by
them with suspicion as being vir-
tually counter-revolutionary."
Such an incredible assertion COM
ing from a film critic who by his
own admission once shouted out his
lonely enthusiasm for the high
zealousness and grim sincerity of
purpose that blazed forth from
these vigorous cinema evocations of
the Soviet dawn" is hardly beliey-
able.
Can this be the same Watts who
once hailed the genius of Potemkin,
End of st. Petersburg, and Soil, and
whose visit to the Soviet Union last
year was the occasion for stirring
tributes in the columns of the
Herald-Tribune? Is it possible that
our once lonely enthusiast" of the
Soviet film has become so enam-
CURED of the world he lives in, that
he does not recognize the tncom-
parable high zealousness and grim
sincerity of purpose" of Three
Songs About Lenin," which to many
of us is milestone in the history
of cinema, continuing and deepen
ing the tradition of the early great
days of the Soviet film?
Since when, Mr.. Watts, is it
counter-revolutionary for film to
attempt to reveal in a form finely
suitable to the subject the great
ness of a leader who has become a
potent symbol of freedom for tens
of millions of people, and whose
every word has been and is being
carried out in deed and action by
these same millions who are pre-
pared to give up their lives for the
new world, for which Lenin fought
also till death.
I'm rapturous hysJerlcal tones the
film shrieks forth its alteration of
its chieftain and cries out that he
is not dead" This, Mr.. Watts, you
know is an absurd exaggeration, not
even shared in by your confreres,
Mr.. Sennewald and Mr.. Boehnel,
both of whom experienced true
emotion, not hysteria, in this film.
THESE are songs about a new
L revolutionary world, Mr.. Watts,
which was suddenly opened up for
millions of enslaved workers and
peasants who when they sing of
Lenin sing of their own new found
liberty and happiness, and not, as
you intimate, of an abstract adora-
ton of chieftain which you
falsely compare to the period of
the foundation of Christianity"
you can imagine that had the
newsreel camera existed at the time
of the. foundation of Christianity
pictures maintaining just this mood
would have been taken and ex-
hibited in much the same manner"
In other words, Mr.. Watts, you
seriously doubt the power of Lenin
and Leninism among the masses;
the camera in Three Songs has not
captured the reality of the Revolt
ton led by Lenin, at all, it has
merely maintained a mood which is
perhaps not inherently felt by the
workers and peasants of the Soviet
Union. Is this not so, Mr.. Watts?
Three Songs is just another Soviet
propaganda plot to bride the
masses?
But to those Of us who look upon
Vertov's film as noble revelation
of the great strides of the October
Revolution toward classics, free
society, your assertions have had
very disconcerting effect, especially
since we had recently begun to look
upon your work as containing ele-
ments with which we could prop
erly syrnpathize. Please let me as
sure you, Mr.. Watts, it is not Three
Songs About Lenin that we shall
look upon with suspicion as being
counter-revolutionary," but remarks
such as your which, whether made
consciously or otherwise, nevertfe-
less tend to bear that ugly, indelible
stain. DAVID PLATT.