Evening star., 1939-05-21
Frontier DAYS
Still Rich
In Films
Industry Finds Gold
Where Pioneers
Found 1t
By Jay armody.

so aSSlduouSly are they exploring
1t as matter of fact that the STU
dent of American history who fails
his June examinations obviously
will have been playing hockey from
the cinema houses. Even modified
for dramatic purposes, the scripts
OF the super-WeSterns now sweeping
the country are sufficiently faith
full to the record to assure a passing
grade of 70 to the fans who have
learned their lessons we'll.
No film cycle in years has been
more provocative of words. words,
words (of which these probably are
just so many more). The western,
which, after all, is only the poor
relation of such spectacles as
"Stagecoach," Man of Conquest"
Union Pacific etc. only recently
was regarded. as good enough for
the simple people. There were mo-
ments even when its humble pro-
ducers questioned whether the So
phistication spread by press and
radio was not poisoning the minds
Of these folk against such fare
Imagine their surprise, then, when
the large fry in the industry took
the seemingly cockeyed slant that
what the whole country needed was
horse opera. Their surprise turned
into virtual hysteria when the mag
rltudinous magnates turned out to
be so precisely right.
Infinite are the number of sur
misses as to the sudden swing of
the studios and their customers to
the great open spaces. One of
these most generally accepted is that
Americas rich past makes fine
escape from its e-too-rich pres
ent. Another is that the founda-
tlons of democratic institutions pro-
vide very alluring vista in a pc
ROD when other political institu-
tlons wear terrifying visages.
Simpler than any such specula-
tions as these, and perhaps more
cynical, is the explanation that good
old-fashioned melodrama always has
been good entertainment and that
1t never looked lovelier than against
a Western sky.
Another notion, almost too ironic
FOR utterance in polite society. is
that dramatists who have an in
ability to create heroic characters
would be the greater fools for not
making use of the ready-made ones
IN historys pages.
The figures of some fine men
have gone trooping across the screen
in recent weeks. And with them
have marched villains who make to-
days sniveling cut-throats look like
an aggregation of white rats They
may have been misguided fellows.
deficient in social consciousness, but
they had too much honor to riddle
an enemy with machine gun hid
den in dark doorway One can
give great adnirat ton to the stall
warts who built the country and
a grudging one to the villains who
tried to steal it and every one knows
admiration for dramatic figures
helps pack theaters.
Cycle Produces Angles
OF Appealing Piquancy.
Two films now current on local
screens are among the most inter-
esting developments of the western
picture cycle
"Stagecoach, for example, is an
expensive production whose sponsor,
Walter Wanger, dared sufficiently
to believe the plays the thing that
he made it without box office names
1t has not Jared as we'll as it might
have had he been less brash if one
believes the die-hards in the busi-
ness. They may be right, though
tr - to,,%
stars brighter than John Wayne,
Wanger's stature as producer has
gained a couple of cubits with his
latest offering. incidentally, if the
change of subject is not too alb
rupt depression, "Stagecoach" is
one of the most pictorially beautiful
accomplishments the public has
seen. It's background alone is more
dramatic than the aggregate of
drama in a great many films.
Buried under its other virtues,
which are numerous, Man of Con-
quest" is screen drama which
shows that poverty may be bless
ing in disguise.
Republic. the producing studio, is
one of those independent units in
HOLLYWOOD which has existed more
on its nerve than the fat of the
land it serves with films In making
this truly fine screen drama of Sam
Houston's vivid career, it spent more
money than on any of its previous
offerings. That was not very much
as compared with the unstinted out
pouring of the larger companies on
0f l,Ilf
turned out to be one of the finest
things that could have happened
The proportions of the drama had
to be reasonable and because they
are, it carries quality of conviction
which fairly tears superlatives out
Of even the hardest boiled critics.
Rags it seems, really can be royal
rainment.
Civic to Dish Out Shaw
As Dessert for Season.
Because Bernard Shaws Arms
and the Man" will be the Civic
Theater's final Offering, F. Cowles
Strickland is rejecting these days
upon Mr.. Shaw's playwrighting gen.
ius.
Trapped in the act of reflection
the other day. Mr.. Strickland was
moved to give utterance to several
of his thoughts on the subject of the
worlds most articufate vegetarian.
1T amazes me- said Mr.. Strick-
land registering as much amazement
as Jeeter Lester in Tobacco Road
tand not bit more, that modern
dramatists ignore the Shaw method
to the extent they 90. 1t never
seems to occur to them, as it in
variably does to him, that a good
sane laugh at a thing is one of the
neatest ways of disposing of it,
When Shaw gets indignant, and
every one knows it is his favorite
mood, he lets fly with an ironic jibe