The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-01-11
PORTRAIT OF A MAN
TRIPPING RORRS

y
The ax-erinders have moved in
10 the newsreels Lately nobody
expects much news the newsreels,
since most OF the footage Is devoted
to cartoons, fashions, freak kodak
cry and comedy atrocious enough
10 give radio a swelled head .
There are q lot Of commentators,
too, some sizing up the war as
honestly as they know how, and
others who plug this and slug thai,
according to the whims Of the out
tit that pays them Most OF
the spielage is slanted like the
Grand Central ramp, but still re-
mains gutleSs - implications and
nealy- mouthism. 1t hardly ever
makes charge openly - but smirks
and hints, like couple Of night
club blondes sparring until the third
highball takes the shackles off their
tongues. Besides. these finger
pointing reels throw in flag waver
every once in q while TO lull the
hooters,
The sponsors of the morale weak
ening reels must figure the news
program is safe spot to work
from Nobody pays much atten-
ton to the short. The reviewers
from the dailies never cover them
anyway. hardly ever. They sprint
for the exits after the feature pic
tlIre, and usually catch that in the
projection room The exhibitor
can't play cooper on he newies
either, since he's kind of up against
IL to take what's handed to him.
He never knows what makes 1t stink
until he hears the Kisses among
the decent element in his audience
But even kissing can't do 1t
much harm. That's drowned out by
the narrator of whom there
seem to be a number who will voice
any kind of fifth column poison
for the right number of dollars.
They figure there won't be any re-
percussion since lots OF movie
fans never get out of their SEMI
conscious state anyway and regard
the news shots, so-called, as neceS-
sary evils between gliinpses of Alb
bolt and Costello and Betty Cradle.
For the most part, the cinematic
heckling has been too cowardly to
do much harm But one OF the
kodaking outfits has indicated a
letch to put its Soiled paws on the
peace - jibing at the Teheran and
Cairo huddles and implying that
Uncle Samson has been rocked :.
Nobody wants the film spielers
muzzled. On the contrary let
them speak up The suggestion
from here is that the reviewers from
the dailies the screenings and tell
what they see. After a few OF
these critiques, the worst Of the
offenders, being something OF a
sneak already would pull his slant
ed cameras off to get busy on color
shots of Old Glory.
The birds feather routine
which got Adolf and Benito into
the same sister act is being repeat
ed in South America e. Argentina,
which is wearing all the Axis dis
carded finery, was the first to kiss
Bolivia when the latter country
tossed aside its govt and took up
the hoodlumism that's called Fas-
cism That had one good re-
suit. Some Of the American dailies,
which burn too slowly, took one look
at the new Axis and decided 1t
was too sour for democratic stom-
achs. The Times. which certainly
hasn't a trigger temper, pointed out
that Ramirez Fascist regime IS
prospecting on coin from Allied pur-
chaSes, mainly what Britain spends
for beef The paper winds up
its editorial with a jab at the State
Dept that even the needs OF war
time are no excuse for lining the
pockets of a country that's out to get
us Our armies have proved in
Europe that the best way TO put the
dictator states in line Is TO slap
their ears down. They eat appease-
ment for breakfast and get fat
on 1t.
It's worth a thought that on the
day the govt announced the indict-
ment OF 30 persons, including some
OF the most detestable Nazi-lovers
OF all, Germany began to shiver
with fear Of the prisoners in its own
country They know how much
hell can be raised by foes within
their gates. They know these H.
900 900 enslaved laborers from other
lands are going to get hung when
liberation comes Our FBl
and conscientious officials also know
how dangerous 1t Is to have enemies
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