RUSSIA SMILES AT U. S. --- IN A PLAY
Quick-Change Artist Reviewed by RAYMOND ROSENTHAL §dtg7. By Curzio Malaparte. New York: E. P. Button & Co. 407 pages. $3.75. jHpPCIO MALA PARTE is the first Fascist writer of any prominence to...
...If course, he insinuates, he told it in such a skillful way that the Nazis could never be sure of his real attitude...
...And this dramatic frame, telling the Nazis oft* in their own strongholds, is a pet device with Malaparte throughout the book...
...Husband-to-be-number-six, returning, turns out not to be a millionaire...
...Here and there in his narrative, MalaItrte has a striking insight into the totalitarian madness...
...Directed by Jessie Royce Landis...
...Malaparte's bid for gsnnan support can be easily understood as an eminently practical step taken by * pea intent on saving his own hide...
...At a hmquet of Nazis presided over by Frank, la* Nasi boss of Poland, Malaparte expects us to believe that he launched into a long tale criticising the Nazi policy of extermination of the Jews...
...At the Booth Theatre...
...Tbey listened to him with an air of amused tolerance, as to a kind of capricious court jester...
...Professor Northrop was one of the scholars attending this conference, and his book, Tht Mutiny of East and West, represents bis contribution to the great task which the meeting in Hawaii had set for it* members...
...Perhaps, indeed, it thought of Hollywood first...
...Somewhat in the mood of "Charley's Aunt," "Lovely Me" might someday make a good burlesque...
...Umlerstandirg is, after all, the first step toward wisdom...
...It was as though their greatest fears and their worst punishments were directed at the weak and ineffective, the old and the despised...
...Staged by Robert Montgomery...
...When he grows insistent...
...Now, he attempts jKpfJkis Fascism by donning a new costume, this time the uniform of a repentant jpj)|liliilii totalitarian who has suddenly seen the Stalinist light...
...By L. DushFekete and Mary Helen Fay...
...They get together to patch up the situation...
...He can never look at a scene without being reminded of a passage of music by Satie, a picture by Chagall, n story by Dostoevsky...
...But how can the standards in the world be unified...
...Some of these slyly point up the opposition between the "big two...
...in a Play Joseph T. Shipley ON THE STAGE TWO ON A TUMBLE "THE BIG TWO...
...He has written sn extensive, well-documented referemv volume, quite frankly fsvoring the cause and efforts of Lithuania...
...g| tarning his leap for a bandwagon practically in mid-air, this political acrobat ammged to land safely as a liaison officer with the American Army in Italy...
...Western world...
...It is doubly irritating since Malaparte writes like a Sax Runnier who has somehow conic into contact with D'Annunzio...
...New York: Stratford House...
...Tt hear him tell it, he was constantly being wracked by indignation about the latest l*jsj atrocity...
...Scenery and lighting by Jo Mielziner...
...At once the Captain slips from her arms, summons his soldiers, and starts a search for the American traitor...
...like the innocent but aroused country girl in the clutches of the black moustached villain...
...Foreword hy WitHam Henry Chamherlin...
...Now it has only Hollywood to think of, after its brief glow in the big city...
...Especially penetNting is his portrayal of the driving fear which made the Nazi warlords heap *M crime against the conquered peoples on top of another in frenzied succession...
...Yet gljlpte is far from being a reliable witness...
...One adventure the Soviet Captain recounts bus an alluring locale...
...At regular inter1fM@t his bitter description of Europe's Apocalypse he interjects panegyric passages fetfisJK the Red Army's feats, etc., that sound like the machine-made product of a sJEist publicity man...
...Tortured by Nazism and war, fsrope quickly began to resemble that firaad Guignol that journalists of Malajsrte's special talents had in the past Men inclined to invent...
...While the book is primarily a study of the ideological issues which are an outgrowth of the divergent philosophies of religion, art and science, its last chapter, entitled "Practical Wisdom," does not overlook the contribution that the social scientist coild make toward a complete adjustment of the disagreements now dividing the civilized world...
...For unification of standards is difficult enough even between different countries which share the same civilization, and therefore possess the same impulsion toward an adjustment of differences...
...3.60...
...True harmony between these giant civilizations has become imperative if the world is to live in peace...
...A dread of those who were least able to retaliate animated the Nazi passional of destruction...
...Background information about this area I* almost equally scarce...
...But those who are philosophically minded will find here tbeii meat...
...The meeting itself took place slowly and hesitantly and was bound to become accelerated by the rapid expansion of transportation...
...With all due allowance for ike morbidity which is Malaparte's most ialinguished trait, it is quite clear that Isrope became a charnel bouse during the war...
...When Captain Nicholai Mosgovoy arrives, Miss Forbes thinks he has been sent to wntch her...
...Others Involved in the doings include little 8-yesr-old Pstti Brady, Broadway stage youngster who appears as Flip, daughter of the divorced pair, who also plots to reunite her I parents...
...Their frivolous game of converting the real values of art into the meaningless counters of a Riviera pastime foreshadowed in an ironical way the »pproai'hing crack-up of European culture...
...Presented by David Lowe...
...And if the Soviets were destined to rule the European continent, then the fgrf Irst move for a wide-awake journalist was to ingratiate himself with the Soviet lilgshets Yet when the war did finally come to an end, Malaparte must have soon HjjjUtered that his conception of Soviet power was more than a little exaggerated...
...Hy David Bryn-Jones...
...Obviously, Malaparte was not immune to the spell rf bis own propaganda...
...As William Henry Chsmberlin point* out In his forword, s book on this subject In to be welcomed at this time...
...Her love scenes are just off the far edge of the comic...
...Even though about to be dispossessed for non-payment of rent, she gives sleeping-space in her living-room to two of her exhusbands—not to mention, for he never speaks a word all through the show, the genius who sits at her piano, composing...
...his pop owns the apartment...
...tot it is not hard to believe that history faelf outdid the most macabre and lurid magination...
...Millard Mitchell is a competent player, and Mischa Auer comes pleasantly over the footlights...
...She determines to soften him, but she is the one that falls...
...There is more genuine comedy among the Austrians in Baden...
...Russia Smiles at U.S...
...It accomplishes the author's purpose of helping uS to understand our cultural heritage in relation to the cultural wealth of the Orient...
...Another wears an alias because he is dodging, not the Russians or the Americans, but his tergamant wife...
...Love grows torrid...
...NIWS FROM LITHUANIA THE STORY OF LITHUANIA...
...but the impact of the recent war interrupted this natural development and precipitated a closeness which neither side was prepared to accept...
...Miss Forbes cries out "Co on, hit me...
...he had swallowed a large portion of his stuff about the Soviet laaseee...
...The Big Two" is a play three parts wishful politics, and seven parts corny love...
...Yet, even accounting for the Germans' feeling of contemptuous tolerance of their Italian allies, it Is positively unbelievable that Frank permitted even such sly criticism of his policies at his own banquet...
...But many of his stories fail to come ef because of sheer incredibility...
...We wish we could feel more friendly toward the play...
...By Jacqueline Susann and Beatrice Cole...
...But the daughter comes to the rescue...
...a study of the Chinese, Japanese, and Indian cultures and religions and ah explanation of the contemporary Orient Only after these extended studies does Professor Northrop attempt a "Solution of the Basic Problem" in which he shows the relationship of East and West in the modern world and advocates the merging of all cultural contrasts and the mutual reinforcement of opposing political doctrines...
...Despite its massiveness and erudition, this book is written not only for the scholar and specialist, but for every thinking person...
...J. T. S...
...Lovely Me" is another of those preposterous trifles one wishes well, but cannot possibly have hopes for...
...It must be based on mutual understanding, and this can I* brought about only by the eradication of the differences in the principles of thiiutrtit on the fundamental laws of life between the West and the East...
...He most linly got the job by posing as an expert on Russian affairs...
...She pretends to need the baths, but is really on the trail of an American truitor, a Nazi Lord HawHaw...
...pslaparte throws out all sorts of hints that he never got along with the Fascists...
...If she could put over a song as well as she burlesques a singer trying to put over a song, she'd be a musical comedy star...
...Presented by Elliott Nugent and Robert Montgomery...
...By F. S. C. Northrop...
...One, a critic, described a playwright as "a cockroach in our theatrical kitchen" — to find the cockroach installed as Minister of the Press in the new Austrian cabinet...
...Count Ciano, Axel Munthe and Oswald Mosley...
...but when two such opposite major civilizations as that of the East and the West meet, unification of standaids seems also impossible...
...But -somehow, as part of her amorous drool, Miss Forbes spills out the truth alaiut her job and her mission...
...These •sdiets, who always expect to be in return, are most enraged when they meet tbselute surrender...
...Daughter, meanwhile, elopes with the boy who sold her a dog...
...6.00...
...Beneath his blunt indifference she finds the man...
...For the last twenty-five years he has jjig^eeehantic existence as one of Mussolini's more talented hacks...
...You like them, and wish you could like what they are doing...
...How indeed...
...but Claire Trevor gives up the fight and plays her journalist in the style of tentwenty - thirty farce - melodrama...
...Russia and the United States—in the figures of a stiff Soviet captain and a richly bedecked American woman war correspondent—shout praises of their separate systems at one another...
...Set by Donald Oenelager...
...What is particularly annoying about "laipuit" ia the faked atmosphere of artistic and cultursl concern with which Malaparte invests his slightest thought...
...And, instead of objecting to their son's hasty marriage, these enlightened millionaires give their son's new mother-in-law her apartment as a wedding present...
...There is little attempt to differentiate between the various resistance groups, which are ail presented as patriotic and democratic...
...Once on a time, one might have figured it would score on the road, after a brief stay in New York gave it a chance to describe itself as "fresh from a hit run on Broadway...
...J. T. S. COMEDY AND THILLER COMBINATION AT RKO The accent is on fun and romance in "Never Say Goodbye" starring Krrol Flynn and Eleanor Parker, and on suspense and surprise in "The Beast With Five Fingers" featuring Robert Alda, Andrea King and Peter Lorre, both films now playing at RKO Manhattan, Bronx and Westchester...
...Of the three Baltic nation*, Lithuania has the most vocal representatives in the United States...
...I'm inclined to believe my friend Kelcey Allen, would have used another wor£ spelled the same way except for the last three letters...
...In "Never Say Goodbye," Errol Flynn plays the part of Philip Gayley, artist and man-about-town who finds himself in a number of unusual situations as ha pursues his estranged wife, Ellen (Eleanor Parker), in an attempt to reassert his good intentions...
...At one point he did land in jail, in Msjsjwlini's infamous Regina Coeli, but he doesn't bother to inform us of the exact [Serges against him...
...Father Chase is one of the men who see to it that their country is mfyforgotten by the English-speaking public...
...She (like her country) makes all the overtures and concessions...
...but this cannot be achieved merely by exchange of trade, by sharing defense bases, or by relief shipments...
...H spent four days in what be calls a "typical peasant bed": sky-high with feather comforters an.< large, soft pillows...
...The person in the title is a much married lusty lass from Russia, trying to support her daughter (and aunt) by singing until she can hook the sixth husband, her first millionaire...
...If that's what peasant beds are like in the USSK, there's further reason for closer contact with the Soviets...
...Unfortunately, "Lovely Me" seldom lets you...
...It couldn't have been a serious political offense, since he was Mft soon after his release to rover the IHsi campaigns in Finland and the Ukraine...
...Women's Wear calls her terrific...
...The most currentjy interesting chapters are, of course, those dealing with the anti-Nan and antiSoviet resistance movements...
...The extent of Professor Noithrop's undertaking becomes clear with tin realization that this book of '631 pages eon tains an analysis ef the cultures and ideologies of Europe, the United States, and Mexico...
...a definition of "the basic theoretical issue ef the contemporary...
...A SURPRISINGLY sane and useful re-examination and redefinition of the democratic symbols in the light of today':' conditions snd problems...
...Despite all this, there is much in his nek that has the ring and semblance of He truth...
...There are a few comments in the play, oh critics' opinions of Natasha's work...
...The prospective husband, who ignores the genius, is disconcerted by his two predecessors, and flees...
...Then they agree that it is better to agree...
...The whole play is not so preposterous as this movement may .sound...
...jHpPCIO MALA PARTE is the first Fascist writer of any prominence to tell the Iffiuairy of the war frees the Axis side...
...News from the Baltic countries is nonexistent...
...Perhaps her surrender is symbolic of the political scene...
...Among these caricature roles, Felix Bressart does a good though too tluttery job as a black marketeer...
...At the Coronet Theatre...
...What else they do is personal to the man and the woman...
...There may be many others like him, who, after the destruction of the ITalisisrftf headed with the instinct of their species for the most available bandwagon jisnblinr through the pile of rubble that Europe has become...
...But she can share a fervent kiss...
...It's on some such basis, indeed, that the play makes its plea for friendly relations...
...Philap Dorn struggles hard to make the rigid Russian credible...
...and without wisdom neither amity, nor peace, nor brotherhood is possible, SANE VIEW OF DEMOCRACY Reviewed by JOSEPH S. ROUCEK...
...Others live in little worlds of their own...
...E. A. Krumschmidt builds genuine comedy out of his silent minutes and his too few words athe timid husband...
...But Russia and the United States must lie friends, and all promises, at the end, to lead to an extremely cordial entente...
...But Lubs Malina as Natasha Smith is often pleasing...
...Mil quite possible that Malaparte's instantaneous conversion betokens a tendency M§irop...
...His pages reek et blood and are packed with corpses...
...Me," Natasha Smith, is played by Luba Malina, a lusty and zestful wench...
...It wat with the purpose of making a comparative study of the cultural and ideological histories of the Occidental and Oriental worlds that a conference of Eastern and Western philosophers was held in Honolulu under the auspices of the University of Hawaii...
...She is goodnatured...
...Understanding the Orient Reviewed by ILZA VEITH THE MEETING OF EAST AND WEST...
...The suthor shows a curious tendency in citinjf ancient philosophers snd the nineteenth-century liberals to the exclusion of Ihe modern thinkers...
...Professor northrop's monumental work is prefaced by a quotation from Mn-ti: "Where standards differ, there will be opposition...
...His strategic position behind the scenes uEjps war correspondent gives his report a definite value as a document...
...However, he took care to express his indignation tangential ly so that Steaald go right on writing Axis propaganda...
...INCONSEQUENTIAL LAUGHTER "LOVELY ME...
...3.60...
...But this betrays the two leading performers...
...Miss Forbes has been slipped into the Russian zone, at Baden...
...In fact, Malaparte belonged to that international high bohemian set which embraced such ornaments of culture as Noel CoivhhI...
...She would find a man much farther hidden...
...New York: The Mscmillan Company, xxii plus 663 pages...
...Mrs...
...By Thomas G. Chase...
...TOWARD A DEMOCRATIC ORDER...
...But now in writing the chronicle of the cataclysm, Malaparte resorts to the catch-phrases of his set in a ghoulish attempt to restore, not art, but himself to the human community...
...For her dog-boy is a millionaire's son...
...Minneapolis: Unionsity of Minnesota Press, 1945...
Vol. 30 • February 1947 • No. 5
