Evening star., 1939-03-19

and Indian dramas, and poor old
the horse operas With the success
of "Stagecoach,' Hollywood has
learned to its great surprise that
human nature and the customers
do not change. And so the original
villains are being given new i'm
portance and new terror.
At Paramount, Geronimo's blood
thirsty savages are making life very
uncomfortable for the whites with
their scalpings, burnings and other
forms of amusement. Warmers re-
Gently completed Dodge City" and
"The Oklahoma Kid" which depict
a less violent phase of pioneer life.
Fox is showing commendable re-
straint in handling the II Black
feet who were brought from their
Montana reservation for Shirley
Temples "Susannah of the Noun
ties; other Indians, however, are
being allowed free rein in THE
Return of the Cisco Kid Robert
Sisk at R-K-O is preparing THE
Great Seizer," which is a cowboy
Indian melodrama of the more
primitive sort.
Paramount's Geronimo" has been
but lightly touched by history;
aside from the warrior and Pres
ident Grant. the picture gives indi-
cation of living up to that word OF
caution on all titles that "the story
and characters bear no resemblance
to actual happenings or persons
living or dead" The plot deals with
the uprising of the Indians in the
Southwest under Geronimo and the
Quelling of the rebellion and the
capture of the Apache war chief,
which cost the United States Gov
ernment the neat sum of SAL 900 900
Geronimo is being portrayed by
Chief Thundercloud, and the casting
has created a delicate problem. for
the chief also plays Tonto in The
Lone Ranger Tonto is very good
Indian, and neither Republic, the
studio making the picture, nor
Thundercloud want people to asso-
ciate the Lone Rangers chum with
the wicked Apache too closely.
Paramount says it is trying to be
careful about this. although if it
reveals anything about Geronimo,
caution is impossible.
Those who were a bit fed up with
Hollywood's pseudo -sophistry and
its many phony life dramas prob
ably will relish this renaissance of
the red man. Geronimo deals with
Ralph Morgan, an Army general
whose son, William Henry, is
snached by the Apaches. Ellen Drew
Is the grill who waits, and Gene
Lockhart is the black-hearted viii
lain who sells arms and firewater
to the savages. There are the GUS
tomary torturings to make the cap
tured youth divulge information
about the ammunition train, and
there are scalpings and toma-
fawkings and shootings galore,
which will delight the horse opera
addicts. Brave old Geronimos pride
in his motion picture descendants
Is a matter of doubt, for the raw
ages of civilization have told on
them. About thousand were
rounded up by Central Casting, and
the studio asked no questions, for 1t
was easily discernible that the pure
bloods were outnumbered by Mexl-
cans, Filipinos, Hawaiians and Chi
nese.
With Shirley Temple succumbing
to the primitive urge in 'Susannah,"
the conquest of Hollywood by the
red men is almost complete; now II
they can just get into picture with
Garbo, they can put on real dance
of victory. Fox's II Blackfeet I'M
ports are the good Indians led by
that fine old warrior, Maurice Mos
covitch; they are opposed by some
local rascals whose depredations are
directed by that splendid portrayer
of ignobility, Victor Jory.
Although no information was to
be gained from their immobile coun-
tenances, the suspicion prevails that
the Blackfeet had a pretty good
time in Hollywood. They were here
for four weeks, for which each
received SIS week and expenses,
and they attended a previeW and
saw a motion picture every after
noon. They were properly beWll-
dered, if net awed, by the glamorous
opening, but Big Beaver, their leader
and interpreter, said that they were
DANCING.