Evening star., 1938-02-28


1t the Soviet cinema industry has
injected a vitality that is nothing
short Of astonishing. q reality that
will startle you, and enough drama
for several ordinary films. The quail
ity of its acting, in comparison with
the average of cinema fare, is some-
thing that the discerning film fol-
lower will use hereafter as his stand
ard Of measurement. Peter, the most
insjired Of the Cars, has become the
subject of the most inspired film to
come out of Russia.
The picture, for all OF these vir-
tues, Is not without its defects. It
opens at a pace that is positively
torpid and, judged by American stand
ards, its photography is murky at
moments when murkiness is not con-
sistent with the scene being brought
to life. These shortcomings, however,
are comparatively minor and 1t is
possible that the dribbling introduce
ton Is inescapable in view of the
necessity of translating Peters speech
into English dialogue titles.
1t is easy to understand why the
current Russian government could
accept Peter as picture material. He
was an apostle of progress, a man
to whom any violence was supportable
if it helped toward the national well
fare. He conceived it to be his task
to vitalize .,,e Russian soul, and any
individual soul that did not vitalize
easily was shown scant sympathy or
tolerance. The Peter, played with
downright grandeur by Nikolai Si-
monov, Is a magnificent mixture of
cruelty and tenderness, the latter
reserved for his family (even though
he did execute his own sony and for
the clod-like masses for whom he
demanded place in the sun. With
the latter, he worked side by side, as
q soldier who did his share of loading
cannon on the battlefield, a. a puddler
in steel mill, as a miner, merchant
or into any other field where his rest
less drive to improve Russia might
lead him.
There is great deal more acting
in the film than that Simonov puts
into the playing Of Peter, magnificent
character creation though that un-
doubtedly is. ALA Tarasova as Cath
crime, the woman who rose from q
soldiers prize after the battle to be
the Czarina, is as excellent in her way
as Simonov in his. The craven Care
witch (craven at any rate by Peters
standards), is played with the same
acute intelligence that Nikolai Cher
kassov has manifested in his previous
film roles, and M. Zharov paints Mem
shikov. Peters favorite minister, with
the strokes of a robust actor. The
dozens Of minor parts are entrusted
only to the best actors under the sickle
and hammer banner.
After its stodgy start, Peter the
First" teens with action and spec
tacle. It's battle scene and flood, the
two outstanding spectacular features,
are handled on scale that Hollywood
could envy and with a realism that it
profitably could copy.
Realism. in fact, is what the film
Is drenched in. It ought to create a
great deal of respect for the Russian
cinema industry.
4 4 X +
IT Is quite a different part from
= the stern, cruel and righteous papa
Of the "Barretts of Wimpole Street"
that Charles Waldron will play in Il
Am My Youth" which has its pre-
miere performance at the National
tonight AS the central figure
IN Ernest Pascafs drama. Mr.. Waldron
will impersonate William Goodwin,
making him the head of q family that
was quite different from the Barretts.
The Godwins, Mr.. Pascars drama
will make clear, were family whose
members thrived on Haunting the con-
1entions. Whatever their whims, and
heir whims made a kind of vivid
history, the Godwins yielded to them.
It was the whim of one daughter,