davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1961-02-15

II ID UClIlS SOIO OIl ILIS oIl Sll
torture devices used in World
War II-but these are merely
Incidental to the real drama of
the screenplay. This latter has
to do with the mercilessness
with which British intelligence
shattered the spirit of a decent
young officer by deliberately
throwing him into the hands of
the Nazis.
Presumably in a world of hu-
man rhinoceroses, potential
moviegoers would not find any
appeal in the latter. On the
contrary, the hope seems to be
that they can be lured into the
aters by the spectacle of brutal
ity which the young man must
undergo.
One is left to speculate bit
terly that this is one of the
things wrong with the movies
or society. Or both.
i y
In its straightforward. unpre-
tentious way the EngliSh-made
film is a study in heroiSm and,
at the same time, the heartleSs
decision of high commands in
choosing human sacrifices.
The action here revolveS
about a young man selected
for an intelligence mission, not
for his courage or any positive
quality Of his personality, but
on the evidence of psychologist
tests that he will crack under
torture. In breaking. his su-
periors assume, he will provide
the Germans with just the mis-
information that the British
want the Nazis to have.
Bradford Dillman, an Ameri-
can actor, plays this young
man who is treated morally by
his superior officers more in
humanity than he is physically
mistreated by the Germans.
AS the films hero. he is sup
piled with a highly actable
character by the screenplay,
taken from a novel by Alec
Waugh. The latter has clearly
done considerable brooding
upon the fate of the sacri-
ficial lamb type caught up in
some of the high command
horrors of war.
1t is part of the shocked
honesty and realism of the
film, and a strong element of
its suspense, that it is more
relentlessly concerned with
wars amorality than its bru-
tality.
On the whole, Circle of De-
ception" is a far more worthy
film than is intimated in its
advertising. Helping to make
it so is cast which thoroughly
understands that it is the de-
humanizing effects of war that
the hero's fate illustrates.
Not even the excellence of
these-including Paul Rogers,
Harry Andrews and Suzy Park
er, among others-can conceal
Evening star., 1961-02-15

Alegendary A figure out of 10th century Europe
is the central figure in THE Sword and the
Dragon" new screen attraction at LOew's
Palace Theater The actors are unidentified
but in this scene, says the caption, Prince
prince that his armies under the mighty Ilya
MurOmets are indeed ready and will win the
day against the Tugar onslaught"
Evening star., 1961-02-15

CIRCLE OF DECEPTION" Goth
Century Fox release of T H.
Morahan production, directed by Jack
Lee. screenplay by Nigel Balchin
and Robert Musel from novel by
Alec Waugh At the Capitol Theater.
Evening star., 1961-02-15

route back to Florida, will be
Helen Hayes Miss Hayes
is booked for a critics lunch
con at 1::30 that day at the
jefferson She will fly out
that evening to rejoin the
American Repertory Theater
company. world-bound this
spring and summer, in Florida
. The company will play
three plays here during the
week of February 28 It's
understudies by the way are
Ethel Casey and Warner
Evening star., 1961-02-15
Films of More Than Routine Merit

FHnS or WoTe ] nan Routine WeTV
BEN HUR-The giant spectacle winner of record
IL Oscars the original uncut action -teemng version.
"CAN CAN-Shrey MacLane Chevalier, Frank Snatra in
large, lavish film version Of the Cole Porter musical
"THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS'-MOving film
of the play starring Robert Preston, Dorothy Mcclure
"MAN IN A Cooked HAT"-Peter Sellers has fine time
spoofing diplomatic protocol and related matters.
"MIDNIGHT LACE'-DOris Day English housewife
terrOriZed by threats of her imminent murder.
THE SUNDOWNERS"-DebOrah Kerr and Robert Mitchum
find life dramatic in AusraIia's "outback" country
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS'-Cecil B. DeNIle's big Biblical
spectacle all about Moses and his life and times.
"WHERE THE BOYS ARE"-FrOlicsOme comedy about the
springtime intercollegiate mating in Florida
Evening star., 1961-02-15

Wong; 1905, 2::30, S, 7::30 and
GAS pm.
TranS-Lux - THE WackieSt
Ship in the Army; II am,
1880, 2:45, 4:35, $50, 8::20 and
10 pm.
UptOwn-"The Alamo; 2 and
$3.50 pm.
Warner 80 "Spartacus";; 1870
and 8:15 pm.
Evening star., 1961-09-24

have is not vouchsafed the
curious reader.
The climax of the novel is
reached when a white mob
dynamiteS a Negroes home.
The victim - our mulatto
has leased the house by
mail in the white part of
town in a spirit of social
protest. The judge instigates
the murder and inflames the
arsonists; the last we see of
him is in a radio station
where he has gone to deliver
a diatribe against the Su-
preme Courts desegregation
decision. When he stands be-
fore the microphone,, he can
only recite Lincoln's Gettys-
burg Address. Presumably, he
has gone insane.
Handled with insight and
restraint, the subject mat
ter of this novel could have
been made a story of gen.
uine appeal. AS it stands,
Miss McCullers' book lacks
cohesion, direction, and
point. 1t is little more than
an attempt to exploit mer-
etriciously sensational as
poets of miscegenation, per-
version and race hatred.
Evening star., 1961-09-24
The Leaning George Dixon
Is Supported by Column

are wildly provocative such
as the one about the hostess
who explained in her own in
imitable way how she selected
the dress she was wearing.
They're all Highland re-
vealing, in the same way
Saint Simon's stories help us
to understand the court of
the Louis XIV, where the his
torians simply give us the
facts.
And Mr.. Dixon's own COM
mentaries are not to be over
looked. Who could put it
happier, for instance, than
this: "In Washington, unless
otherwise stated, it is as
Sumed that cocktail parties
are from 6 to 8, exactly the
right hours to ruin the eve
ming for the greatest num-
ber." e, T,
Evening star., 1961-09-24
As PereImon's Gorge Rises
SO Does Readers Pleasure

doses-maybe one or two ex-
amples per diem.
The cruX of Perelman is
usually, not invariably, in his
first paragraphs. There the
situation, the peculiar view
point, the feverish nostalgia,
or the verbal twist is pre-
sented, impeccably, MASTER
fully. All too often that first
paragraph is the essense of
the fun-what follows is di-
luton. It is as though Shell
ley expanded "Ozymandias'
with a report on the nasal
Disagreement of the Sphynx.
Some of the pieces sustain
the cream of their jests-
the exchange of letters be-
tween Perelman and his dry
cleaner, and the story of a
week end in the English
countryside are examples.
Most of the book has ap-
peared in the New Yorker.
ID. T.
Evening star., 1961-09-24
SKILLFUL NOVEL
SPANS 200 YEARS
THE HOUSE AT OLD VINE.
BY Norah Lofts. Double
day; S4.95.)

THE HOUSE AT OLD VINE.
BY Norah Lofts. Double
day; $4.95D
Six first-person narratives,
covering a span of nearly
200 years. follow the declin-
ing fortunes of the Old Vine,
an English country estate
that sees varying service as
a wealthy manor house, a
wool mill, a silk mill, an inn,
and finally a second-rate
school for boys.
The six residents, whose
lives are linked together by
the house they live in, tell
diverting tales that include
a pure 15th-century melo-
drama, an account of some
low-powered espionage dur
ing the Puritan Royalist
wars, and a blood-chilling
Gothic tale about a little girl,
a string of blue beads, and
a fugitive priest. The latter
should be included in any
future anthology of macabre
stories.
Miss Lofts is a historical
novelist of skill and expe-
rience. Her characters have
far greater dimension than
many of the people who in
habit current historical fic-
ton. RUTH HUME.
Evening star., 1961-09-24
A GAME FULL OF ACTION
Great Ty Cobb Refutes
Dirty Player Legend

and never quit attempting to
do the impossible. He never
thought there was anything
on the diamond he couldn't
do.
Ty said that through the
years there have been many
misconceptions about him
and his aggressive tactics. He
said "the men I went against
didn't call me a dirty player.
That charge has come from
newspaper critics."
Ty admitted that "a ter
rible anger was in me"
during his first years with
Detroit, when he was hazed,
ostracized, and physically
beaten. He described his first
year with the Tigers as "the
most miserable and humili-
ating experience I've ever
been through" He was 18
at the time. One thing is
certain. Ty never ran away
from a fight, and this fact
may well have contributed to
the reason there were so
many legends about him.
Whether one believes what
Ty said, or what his critics
say, doesn't matter too much,
as far as the book is con-
cerned; MY Life in Baseball"
is an interesting, Illuminating
biography of baseball's most
controversial figure.
GEORGE w. CLARK
Evening star., 1961-09-24
Dartmouth Bible
Is King Jomes's
Abbreviated

THE DARTMOUTH BIBLE.
Second edition. Revised and
enlarged by Roy B. Cham
berlin and Herman Field
man. (Houghton, Mifflin;
$10)
The original edition of this
abridgment of the King
James Bible appeared in 1850,
and took its name from the
fact that its two principal
editors were on the faculty
of Dartmouth College. The
present revised edition is
notable for the addition of
the Old Testament Apocry-
pha, together with commen-
tary on the Dead Sea scrolls
and other recently discovered
relevant material.
Introduction, maps, and
exhaustive notes are what
give the volume its value. The
text itself is reduced to about
one-half, without, if the edi-
tors can be believed, Chang
ing its nature or spirit" Ger
tainly there are readers who
want their Biblical abbrevia-
ton done for them; others
are glad to do their own
skipping.
What is important in
Scripture depends on the eye
and the ear of the beholder.
For example, one can under
stand that the identity of
Jobs daughters, as whom "in
all the land were no women
found so fair" may be con-
sidered unimportant. The
Dartmouth Bible SupreSSes
their names. For me, their
faces and their figures are
more seductive when I know
what to call them-Jemima,
Kezia, and Keren-happuch.
Perhaps the Dartmouth BIZ
BILE would be more satisfac-
tory in two volumes. One
could be for exegesis, which
could be revised and brought
up to date from time to time,
while the other could be re-
served for the voice of
Yahweh, ungagged and un-
cut. ID. T.
Evening star., 1961-09-24

music reviews of Mencken a
half century ago knew they
were face to face with the
prejudices of a genuine critic
when they learned that
there are two kinds of mu-
sic-German music and bad
music" and that the music
OF StravinSky was, among
other things, "maudlin."
If Mencken entertained
curious prejudices he never
theleSS was free of one fault
all too common among mu-
sic critics. In a Mencken
review there is never any
doubt that the man was in
the concert hall and that he
heard what he was writing
about.
The present volume is o
collection of Mencken'S mu-
sic reviews, Mercury articles,
letters, and obiter dictd.
Music for Mencken was es-
Sentially instrumental music
of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart,
Haydn, Brahms, Schumann
and Schubert. He writes of
these, his idols, within the
limitations of his horizon, but
he writes as a performer and
not as a record collector,
and if he does not tell us
much that is new, he at least
shows us quite vividly the
effect of these German COM
poSerS on one d ominant
personality.
Evening star., 1961-09-24
MY LIFE IN BASEBALL:

MY LIFE IN BASEBALL:
The True Record. BY Ty
Cobb, with Al Stump Dou-
bleday; $4.50)
For upward of 80 years
I've turned away from all
offers to speak my piece.
But my time is running short.
My critics have had
their innings. I will have
mine now"
So writes baseball's late
great Ty Cobb in the first
chapter of his autobiography.
From that point on, Ty at
tempted to refute many of
the anti-Cobb legends that
grew up around him, and
sought to set at rest the con-
tention of many fellow ball
players and fans that he was
"a spike -slaShing demon of
the diamond with a wide
streak of cruelty in his ma
ture." He made some good
arguments in his favor.
Cobb, the son of a school
master-legislator Landowner,
played in the major leagues
for "a years-22 with the De-
troit Tigers, two with Con-
ME Mack's Philadelphia Ath-
letics. During all those
years, until he ended his
playing days in 1928, he gave
the game every ounce of his
energy, never quit trying to
outthink the other fellow,
Evening star., 1961-09-24
BOOKS IN REVIEW
Mencken Letters
Concern Writers
By DAY THORPE
Star Book Critic

LETTERS OF H. L. MENCKEN. Selected and Annotated by
= Guy j. Forgue. CKnopf; $795)
H. L. MENCKEN ON MUSIC. Selection bv Iouis ches-
lock. (Knopf; $45O)
The first volume of Mencken letters to be published
since his death, the selection of Guy Forgue dealing
amest exclusively with writers writing shows an
Interesting aspect of Menckens mind. Though he was
not profound and catholic student of literature he was
always wide awake to what going around him.
and the files of the Smart Set the American Mer-
Gry anyone who opens that as an editor
Mencken, like Harold Ross, had uncanny knack for
discovering talent Not only he an early champion
Evening star., 1961-09-24
Love AIono
The Yonatze
THE RED PEONy Rv 7

THE RED PEONY, BY Lin
Yutang. World Publish
ing Co.; $3.50
The prolific DR.. Lin must
have been looking for a way
of gainful relaxation when
he turned out this leiSurely
tale of love along the
Yangtze. The adventures of
Peony, a sort of Chinese Ado
Annie, begin at the coffin of
her dead husband, where she
finds herself unable to mus
ter even the minimum num-
ber Of tears required by eti-
quette. The young widow, we
soon discover, is a girl of
boundlesS charm, limited
brain, and a sociability rare
among Chinese ladies of the
late ninetheenth century.
Once rid of her nondescript
spouse, Peony branches out
in all directions, with lovers
representing nearly every
inch of the social scale. At
the top of it is Mengchia,
an appealing gentleman who
is everything we have come
to know and admire in the
mature, or fortyish, hero. He
is suave, scholarly, Sexy, even
well-to-do. Women readers
(and I don't think there will
be too many of the other
kind will lose patience with
the silly girl when, she gets
bored with this paragon and
falls in love with a pugilist.
Peony gets herself captured
by bandits and has to be
rescued by two lovers stimuli
taneously.
The charm of DR.. Lin'S
writing, however, somehow
manages to make this concoc-
tion an entertaining glance
at a way of life that is gone
forever.
Evening star., 1961-09-24
Norris Novel
Holds Reader
Throughout
ATLAST TO KISS AMANDA.
By Frank Norris. (McGraw-
Hill; S4.95.)

AT LAST TO KISS AMANDA.
By Frank Norris. (McGraw-
Hill; $4.95.)
Frank MOTIFS, whose
Tower in the West" was
the Harper prize novel of a
few years ago, offers a new
ovel'quite different in theme
and treatment.
Where the earlier novel
was a concise, dramatic story
of an architect who designed
a great building in st. Louis
but saw his career crumbling
from a personal difficulty,
AT Last to Kiss Amanda" is
a rambling, diScursive first
person story of a man who
became quite rich and pow
erful. And yet, despite it's
length and inclination to de-
tail, some of it trivial, the
new story is amusing and
manages to hold the inter-
est throughout.
The story is centered in
Atlanta and South Georgia,
although it skips here and
there at times. Mr.. Norris
knows Atlanta very well in
deed. His protagoniSt, who
becomes chief executive of a
fabulously successful soft
drink, is named Jay Cand-
less. Some of the other char
acters come close to reality
in their names and ways, and
I haven't read a novel in a
long ago that SO needed the
usual disclaimer in front of
the book that any real per-
sons were depicted. Maybe
not. Maybe It's all coinci-
dence.
The characters are inter-
eSting and well developed.
which, after all, is the i'm
portant test of a good novel.
If there is a lack of plausi-
bility in the way Candless
develops, as described by
himself, it is in his sudden
transition from a youth with
a foot = in mouth tendency,
who seems unlikely to do well
in business, to a man who
amasseS a fortune without
much difficulty. He begins
succeeding in a big way al
most overnight.
But I think you'll enjoy
"At Last to Kiss Amanda"
] did.
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
Evening star., 1961-09-24
THE RISING GORGE. B

THE RISING GORGE. BY
"a & Schuster; $4.50,l
and Schuster, $4.50D
~
Like every sane American,
or honest fellow, am sus-
ceptible to the Establishments
of the prose of S. j. Perel-
man, and have been in this
condition for years. I find
it, as I find Viennese waltzes,
for example, good fun. Both
make up in quality what is
3 lacking in variety.
,,, During the couple of weeks
THE Rising Gorge" has been
{ lying around the living room,
!. it has been interesting to see
how many people have be-
come so immersed in the book
that they have barely escaped
, drowning. An odd state of
affairs, for while MIR. Perel-
mans humor is of the best,
it is most effective in small
Evening star., 1961-09-24
Hayward Press
Receives Sulvo

THE PRESS. BY A. j. Lieb-
ling. (Ballantine Books;
rs centS.)
For a good many years
now, A. j. Liebling has been
serving as a sort of self
appointed burr in the seat of
American journalism, through
the "Wayward Press" articles
in the New Yorker magazine.
This paper-back volume is
made up largely of such
pieces, grouped rather loosely
in sections which more or
less bear on several favorite
Liebling themes, among
which are the evils of one
newspaper cities and the fail
ings of foreign news COW
erage.
Some of the foibles he re-
counts are consequential, and
should be of greater concern
than they are both to news
papers and to those who read
them. Others, however, are
not likely to exercise anyone
else to the fever pitch that
they do Mr.. Liebling. The
traditional Liebling whipping
boys, led by the late Col.
Robert r. Mccormick, are
present in profusion.
BY either implication or
direction. however, hardly a
newspaper parsonage or a
newspaper-with the single
loving exception of the de-
funct left-wing tabloid, PM
escapes entirely unscathed.
A goodly number of the Sc
lections were written a dec
ade or more ago, which may
interest dyed in the wool
Liebling fans. For those who
do not yet know the gentle
man, and who would like to
make his acquaintance, this
is as good a place as any to
start.
GEORGE BEvERIDGE.
Evening star., 1961-09-24

of his compatriots DRESSER,
Pound, and Lewis, but his
keen ear in Baltimore heard
the strange music of James
Joyce in Zurich when almost
all Europe was still deaf to it.
Mencken'S letters to writ
,ers and to other editors are,
on the whole. first rate ex-
amples of his style-witty,
trenchant, and vigorous.
Since it is estimated that
there are $4,000 Mencken
letters extant. it is almost
certain that this is only the
first Of many volumes to be
published. Perhaps it would
have been more advisable to
have shown the writer in a
single epoch of his life, in all
the variety of his interests,
rather than discoursing on a
single subject throughout 56
years. Also, presenting some
of the letters in excerpts
seems a doubtful procedure.
The explanatory notes are
haphazard and entirely un-
satisfactory. At least half
the letters contain references,
clear to the recipient but OBJ
scure to the reader, which
the editor makes no effort to
clarity. Mencken himself was
punctillious in this regard,
and his literary remains de-
serve better treatment.
tN 4 y k*
From boyhood to the end
of his life, music was one
OF Mencken's enduring pas
sions, He knew enough about
the technical side of the art
Ito play the piano and write
simple pieces. and for more
than 40 years he spent his
Saturday nights in Baltimore
as a member of a conviVial
amateur orchestra. His writ
ing on the subject of music
will surprise the reader, for
,Mencken's love of the art
made him an unlikely vassal
at the steps of the muses.
throne and robbed him of
much of his characteristic
,iconoclasm and literary ebul-
lience.
T.. The iconoclaSm was there,
all right, but somewhat
pallid of aspect. Readers of
Evening star., 1961-09-24
Novels Look at South
Finds 1t Dismal Still
CLOCK WITHOUT HANDS

OAOCh WITHOUT HANDS,:
= A novel By Carson McCul-
80 lers. (Houghton, Mifflin;
$4.)
A story about repellant
people involved in more or
less sordid activities may be
worthwhile if it is formally
beautiful. or arresting, or
timely, or provocative. But
Carson McCullers' latest book
has no such qualities to off
set its basic unpleaSantness.
1t is merely a fictional
patchwork. When humanity
is drab. we can pity it; when
a contrived tale is repugnant
and unbelievable, we resent
the misuse of paper and ink.
= The name of the book comes
from a Georgia pharmacists
wait in anticipation of death,
after his doctor tells him he
has leukemia. The fear and
shock caused by the news are
transformed into anti-Sem-
itism-the Jewish doctor typ
flies those who by their Su-
perior grades forced the
pharmacist out of pre-med-
ical school. Fortunately, the
book is not greatly concerned
with this sufferer, who serves
the authors purpose primar-
p lily as friend and foil of the
Judge.
This judge is an elderly
ex-Congressman who believes
in white supremacy and de-
Spises the Federal Govern
rnent. In these particulars he
is drawn smaller than life,
and duller. as any newspaper
reader can see. However, he
becomes passionately attached
to one Negro, a blue-eyed
mulatto, whose mother has
been loved by the judges son,
a suicide dead these II years.
The judge takes the
mulatto into his house as a
personal servant. The boy is
an unSavory character-dirty,
insolent, arrogant, ignorant
and vain. The grandson of
the judge enters a liaison
with him, but whatever in
terest or credibility it may
Evening star., 1961-09-24
When Allies
InterVened
In Red Russiu
NTERVENTION Ann Tur

INTERVENTION AND THE
WAR. BY Richard H.
Ullman. princeton; $7.50.)
By the winter of 1917, the
third year of the World War,
the Russian people were visi-
bly, war-weary. They had
lost a million men in the
tragic fighting the summer
before, and during that win
ter, another million deserted
rather than continue to fight
for the Tsar.
The. vast dissatisfaction
with war led to the March
revolution and the abdication
Of Tsar Nicholas III. The
liberal pro-Western govern
ment that replaced the au-
tocracy, however, made the
fatal error of continuing to
fight on the side of the
Allies.
Continuing losses and agi-
tation by the ever-growing
Bolshevik Party brought
about the inevitable collapse
of the Kerensky government
and the November Z reyolu-
ton.
The first decision by the
Bolsheviks was to seek an
armistice with the Germans
and bring some relief to their
population. The British and
French, however, pressed
hard by the Germans in the
West, feared that an end to
the Eastern front would
allow the Germans to trans
fer more troops to the West
than they could repulse.
They were determined to
keep Russia in the war.
Mr.. Ullman's book is i'm
portant because so much of
allied policy in those years
originated in London. This
policy in 1918 changed
from trying to persuade the
BolShevikS to continue fight
ing the Germans, to small
scale intervention by allied
troops to defend" allied in
terests against the Germans,
to outright support of anti
Bolshevik elements and di-
rect Intervention against the
Bolsheviks.
For some reason not at. all
clear, the American, British
and French publics are quite
ignorant Of the facts con-
corning the actual interven-
ton.
George F. Kennan, and
now Mr.. Ullman, have done
much to improve the pub
lies knowledge of these
tragic events-tragic, for as
both men have shown, the
policy leading to the inter-
vention was based on often
inaccurate and misleading
information. The interven-
ton was never large enough
to bring down the Bolshevik
government, but was large
enough to give the Soviet
government an excuse for
distruSting the West even to
this day.
BERNARD GWERTZMAN.