Evening star., 1938-01-26
"March of Time" Film
Tempest Raging Around 1t Raises Some Interesting
Questions Of Movie Topical Matter.

should have gone around Germany,
seeking and photographing every sign
Of distress and misery, and perhaps
performed the superhuman Houdini
trick Of breaking into concentration
camps and prisons and photographing
them.
But If they had done that they
would have produced bad and untrue
propaganda. because it would have
presented a picture utterly remote
from reality. Germany is a highly
organized, strongly disciplined country
Of very competent people, and shows
on the surface all the results of that
organization. discipline and compe-
tence, and the March of Time" pho
tographers and commentators have
done magnificent piece OF Journalism
in relating the outer show and the ac-
tual achievements to the means by
which this show and achievement are
obtained.
And IN very few minutes of highly
exciting picture and comment they
have given picture Of totalitarian
state from the viewpoint of American
democracy. Certainly it is propaganda
such effective propaganda that the
German Consuls in San Francisco and
Buffalo and the vice president of the
Hamburg American Line have pro-
tested; showing Of the film before
members of the German Embassy in
Washington received very frigid re-
ception, and Fritz Kuhn. the leader of
the German-American Bund, threat
ems a march on the Embassy Theater,
in New York. where the film is being
shown.
These people obviously do not share
Mr.. Warmers opinion.
Contrast Is Sharp.
And the film is good propaganda,
because it is affirmative, it is for some
thing rather than against something.
There is not picture or a comment
in the whole film which indicates
hostility to the German people or the
slightest indication that we ought to
interfere in their affairs. 1t is only
when the Aim switches to the United
States and shows German Americans
being harangued and drilled with the
same sort of methods used in Ger
many, when Swastikas are spotted
across the map Of the United States.
indicating Nazi camps. and finally
when the scene Is shifted to the Town
Meeting at Southbury. Conn. where
the villagers met to keep a Nazi camp
out Of their midst. that the film be-
comes both protest and very
simple, telling argument for Americas
sticking to her own way Of life
Good Drama and Propaganda.
That little shot of New England
village, the contrast Of a Town Meet
ing so intensely civilian. with the
masses OF drilled and organized people
We have just seen. the rather hating
moving remarks Of the chief speaker,
and the fine fortnight words of Jenny
Hinman who rises to say that her
ancestors have fought for liberty in
this country since the Revolutionary
War and she is still for it, are both
drama and propaganda on a very high
plane.
And inasmuch as the only propa-
ganda is for certain ideas of civil
and human rights embodied in all
our great State documents, ideas
under which this country has tried
to live for $50 years and which it has
at least always held before its eyes.
who on earth can doubt either the
right or the reason of again in this
world making such an affirmative
declaration?
This Is journalism Of the school Of
Zola. transmitted into moving pictures
one Of the most effective media
which We have-and this column be-
lieves that it is high time that 1t
should be done. and congratulates Mr..
Louis de Rochemont. the producer.
The film is an expose of an idea,
warning of danger. and an appeal
in the simplest fashion to certain basic
American concepts. which are being
sadly forgotten In too many quarters.
1t is journalism, and the function of
journalism and free press is not con-
fined to the presentation Of news.