THE SCREEN; ' Lenin in October' Strikes Twice in the Same Times Square--New Bills at Criterion and Central At the Criterion At the Central At the Teatro Hispano At the Modern Playhouse
By Frank S. Nugent
April 2, 1938
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Tovarich Matty Radin, a rambunctious Democrat whose proudest possession is an autographed picture of President Roosevelt, believes "Lenin in October" is too big for one theatre. So he has given it a double première—at the Cameo and at the Continental—and he intends to keep it thundering from both ends of Times Square until every comrade in town has heard it.It's the first time anything of the sort has been done since 1930, when Jean Harlow's "Hell's Angels" played the Gaiety and Criterion simultaneously. And, if any one feels so inclined, there is a wide open field for an essay on box-office evolution. Suggested title: From Harlow to Lenin in Eight Uneasy Years; or, if it's a fan magazine you're writing for, Is Shirley Temple Through?Although we hadn't thought it possible there could be any phase of the October revolution still uncelebrated by the Soviet studios — be it the contribution of army, navy or marines; of factory worker, peasant, women, children, press, recalcitrants or spearheads — it is obvious now we were mistaken. We somehow had overlooked the head man himself, an error even more heinous than considering our Revolutionary War histories complete without a chapter on G. Washington. But the Soviet had not forgotten and, with a still-unliquidated sense of showmanship, probably was merely setting the stage during all these preliminary years.And "Lenin in October," to get around to it finally, was worth waiting for. Not in any colossal sense. Not as the flaming flower of all revolutionary films, nor as the clinching argument of the Soviet. Nor is it, to praise it again for the things it is not, the sanctified, worshipful, self-conscious portrait we had feared it would be. And that is its most incredible quality when we consider Lenin's place in the average Russian's mind. They still preserve his body in a glass coffin in a Red Square tomb, you know, and they are still filing past it in unending tribute to a man they regard as having been a composite of all virtues, including the divine.Yet Hollywood would not treat one of our vice presidents or one of its own producers with the humor, the informality and the comradely affection which shine through this Soviet biography and make it one of the most human as well as significant films to come from the U. S. S. R. If at its end Lenin remains an ikon, he is an amiable one, as friendly as a Billiken, and he has our liking as well as our respect. We gain the notion, from looking at him in the busy days of October, that he might have been a really pleasant chap to know in the Spring.Credit for this probably belongs to two men, Mikhail Romm, the director, and Boris Shchukin, who had the ticklish assignment of playing Lenin to the Soviet. (And can you picture what would have happened to Shchukin if some one decided he had sabotaged the part?) Romm has preferred to keep the revolution in the background and Lenin in the foreground; Schchukin, a marvel of make-up and character absorption, fills that foreground with unvarying interest. His Lenin is a full-sized man, worth any one's attention.So, although there is mobility in the mob scenes, vivid action in the storming of the Winter Palace, suspense in Lenin's escape from the police nets, grim humor when the factory workers make fools of the provisional government, the strength of the film is Shchukin's Lenin. The scenes we remember are those in which he is painting character, telling us of Lenin's energy, childishness, frascibility, impatience, tolerance, humor, modesty, high resolve, courage and fortitude. Perhaps this really was not Lenin, but Shchukin persuades us that it is.We believe it is all authentic, factual and true—except that we do not believe Stalin bulked as importantly in 1917 as he does in this 1937 film of 1917. And Trotsky, of course, doesn't appear at all and is only mentioned once—to be called a traitor. (Further they give a Trotskyite make-up to a government spy, so there Leon!) These exceptions noted, "Lenin in October" is good history, good biography and, above all, good cinema.
LENIN IN OCTOBER, from a scenario by A. Kapler; music by A. Alexandrov; directed by Mikhail Romm; produced by Mosfilm Studios in Moscow, U.S.S.R.; released by Amkino Corporation. At the Cameo and Continental Theatres.CASTBoris Shchukin as Lenin, N. P. Okhlopkov as Vasili, V. V. Vanin as the factory manager, and N. Svobodin, N. Arski, K. Korobova, I. Lagutin, N. Chapligin, E. M. Shatrova, N. Sokolov, V. A. Pokrovski and V. Vladislavski.There is something appealingly artless about almost any film from Republic Studios, where the alphabet begins with "B," and "King of the Newsboys," at the Criterion, is no exception to the general rule. With a charming narrational naïvete and a complete lack of budgetary self-consciousness, the film tells how Lew Ayres loses Helen Mack in the slums and gets her finally in the wreckage of a penthouse upon which, while the music inspiringly swells, you can see they plan to build a new life.In case you judge from this that the story is not likely to shock the most conservative movie-going mind with its newness, let us hasten to assure you that it isn't. We might add that the characters and incidents are purely fictitious, and bear no resemblance whatever to life, except possibly in the stanch figure of Alison Skipworth.
Interviews With First-Time Emmy Nominees
Nava Mau: The actor, who said the experience of filming “Baby Reindeer” was so meaningful she would have been fine if it never came out, is the first transgender person nominated for a limited series acting Emmy.
Aja Naomi King: A nominee for her graceful, purposeful supporting turn as Harriet on the limited series “Lessons in Chemistry,” King was gratified by “the fullness of Harriet’s Black womanhood.”
Matt Berry: His performance as Laszlo Cravensworth, a debauched vampire in the comedy “What We Do in the Shadows,” often had him dangling 50 feet off the ground.
Anna Sawai: In her performance in “Shogun” as Toda Mariko, a disgraced but defiant noblewoman and samurai, Sawai drew on Mozart and the power of silence.
At the CriterionKING OF THE NEWSBOYS, screen play by Louis Weitzenkorn and Peggy Thompson from an original story by Horace McCoy and Samuel Ornitz, directed by Bernard Vorhaus for Republic Pictures.Jerry . . . . . Lew AyresMary Ellen . . . . . Helen MackNora . . . . . Alison SkipworthWire Arnold . . . . . Victor VarconiConnie . . . . . Sheila BromleyDolly . . . . . Alice WhiteLockjaw . . . . . Horace MacMahonSquimpy . . . . . William BenedictPussy . . . . . Victor Ray CookeLefty . . . . . Jack PennickPeggy . . . . . Mary KornmanMaizie . . . . . Gloria RichMr. Stephens . . . . . Oscar O'SheaMrs. Stephens . . . . . Marjorie MainApparently working on the theory that if the first feature doesn't bore you the second positively will, the Central yesterday offered a new double bill composed of "Heroes of the Alamo" and "Racing Blood." The former is distinguished solely by a neatly worded preface dedicating the subsequent events to the memory of those hardy settlers whose heroic stand against Santa Anna and his Mexican troops in 1836 made Texas safe for the United States."Racing Blood" is the story of a colt born with a bad leg who through tender nursing by Frankie Darro develops into a first-class racer. The script needed doctoring even more.At the Teatro HispanoMaking the long jump from rural Spain to the pampas of Argentina, the management of the Teatro Hispano is now presenting "Nobleza Gaucha," a fairly interesting film of life in the cattle country as lived a few decades ago. The main difference between "Gaucho Chivalry" and a Hollywood "western" consists of the substitution of knives for six-shooters and of funny looking semi-Turkish trousers for chaps.The girls are good looking and sympathetic, especially in the case of Herminia Franco, the old rancher's daughter who falls in love with the slayer (the handsome Floren Debene) of her impetuous brother. The chivalry of the title comes to the front right at the end of the story in a not altogether novel, but satisfactory, fashion.The work of the actors is much better than that of the technical men. There is some pleasing music and dancing. Sebastian M. Naon directed the piece for the Productora Argentina de Films.At the Modern PlayhouseThe current attraction at the little Modern Playhouse in Yorkville, "111-es Szobaban" (In Room 111), is alleged to be the first Hungarian mystery picture. This may be true, but patrons of Magyar movies know that when the dashing Paul Javor appears on the screen he is bound to win the affections of the prettiest woman in the show. This time she is the rather glamorous Maria Lazar and the man who loses her, without even getting her in the first place, is Jenö Törsz.As a famous middle-aged magician determined to punish the thoughtless Javor for having cast aside the deceased sister of Maria, who was the showman's assistant, Mr. Törsz gives an excellent performance. So do the others, including Julius Csortos, Marica Gervay and Gabor Rajnay. The picture is a Muveszfilm production directed by Stephen Szekely.
At the CentralHEROES OF THE ALAMO, from a screen play by Roby Wentz; directed by Harry Fraser; a Columbia production.Davy Crockett . . . . . Lane ChandlerStephen Austin . . . . . Earl HodginsAnne Dickinson . . . . . Ruth FindlayJames . . . . . Roger WilliamsSam Houston . . . . . Edward PielWilliam B. Travis . . . . . Rex LeaseSanta Anna . . . . . Julian RiveroAlmerian Dickinson . . . . . Bruce Warren
A version of this article appears in print on April 2, 1938 of the National edition with the headline: THE SCREEN; ' Lenin in October' Strikes Twice in the Same Times Square--New Bills at Criterion and Central At the Criterion At the Central At the Teatro Hispano At the Modern Playhouse. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Tovarich Matty Radin, a rambunctious Democrat whose proudest possession is an autographed picture of President Roosevelt, believes "Lenin in October" is too big for one theatre. So he has given it a double première—at the Cameo and at the Continental—and he intends to keep it thundering from both ends of Times Square until every comrade in town has heard it.It's the first time anything of the sort has been done since 1930, when Jean Harlow's "Hell's Angels" played the Gaiety and Criterion simultaneously. And, if any one feels so inclined, there is a wide open field for an essay on box-office evolution. Suggested title: From Harlow to Lenin in Eight Uneasy Years; or, if it's a fan magazine you're writing for, Is Shirley Temple Through?Although we hadn't thought it possible there could be any phase of the October revolution still uncelebrated by the Soviet studios — be it the contribution of army, navy or marines; of factory worker, peasant, women, children, press, recalcitrants or spearheads — it is obvious now we were mistaken. We somehow had overlooked the head man himself, an error even more heinous than considering our Revolutionary War histories complete without a chapter on G. Washington. But the Soviet had not forgotten and, with a still-unliquidated sense of showmanship, probably was merely setting the stage during all these preliminary years.And "Lenin in October," to get around to it finally, was worth waiting for. Not in any colossal sense. Not as the flaming flower of all revolutionary films, nor as the clinching argument of the Soviet. Nor is it, to praise it again for the things it is not, the sanctified, worshipful, self-conscious portrait we had feared it would be. And that is its most incredible quality when we consider Lenin's place in the average Russian's mind. They still preserve his body in a glass coffin in a Red Square tomb, you know, and they are still filing past it in unending tribute to a man they regard as having been a composite of all virtues, including the divine.Yet Hollywood would not treat one of our vice presidents or one of its own producers with the humor, the informality and the comradely affection which shine through this Soviet biography and make it one of the most human as well as significant films to come from the U. S. S. R. If at its end Lenin remains an ikon, he is an amiable one, as friendly as a Billiken, and he has our liking as well as our respect. We gain the notion, from looking at him in the busy days of October, that he might have been a really pleasant chap to know in the Spring.Credit for this probably belongs to two men, Mikhail Romm, the director, and Boris Shchukin, who had the ticklish assignment of playing Lenin to the Soviet. (And can you picture what would have happened to Shchukin if some one decided he had sabotaged the part?) Romm has preferred to keep the revolution in the background and Lenin in the foreground; Schchukin, a marvel of make-up and character absorption, fills that foreground with unvarying interest. His Lenin is a full-sized man, worth any one's attention.So, although there is mobility in the mob scenes, vivid action in the storming of the Winter Palace, suspense in Lenin's escape from the police nets, grim humor when the factory workers make fools of the provisional government, the strength of the film is Shchukin's Lenin. The scenes we remember are those in which he is painting character, telling us of Lenin's energy, childishness, frascibility, impatience, tolerance, humor, modesty, high resolve, courage and fortitude. Perhaps this really was not Lenin, but Shchukin persuades us that it is.We believe it is all authentic, factual and true—except that we do not believe Stalin bulked as importantly in 1917 as he does in this 1937 film of 1917. And Trotsky, of course, doesn't appear at all and is only mentioned once—to be called a traitor. (Further they give a Trotskyite make-up to a government spy, so there Leon!) These exceptions noted, "Lenin in October" is good history, good biography and, above all, good cinema.
LENIN IN OCTOBER, from a scenario by A. Kapler; music by A. Alexandrov; directed by Mikhail Romm; produced by Mosfilm Studios in Moscow, U.S.S.R.; released by Amkino Corporation. At the Cameo and Continental Theatres.CASTBoris Shchukin as Lenin, N. P. Okhlopkov as Vasili, V. V. Vanin as the factory manager, and N. Svobodin, N. Arski, K. Korobova, I. Lagutin, N. Chapligin, E. M. Shatrova, N. Sokolov, V. A. Pokrovski and V. Vladislavski.There is something appealingly artless about almost any film from Republic Studios, where the alphabet begins with "B," and "King of the Newsboys," at the Criterion, is no exception to the general rule. With a charming narrational naïvete and a complete lack of budgetary self-consciousness, the film tells how Lew Ayres loses Helen Mack in the slums and gets her finally in the wreckage of a penthouse upon which, while the music inspiringly swells, you can see they plan to build a new life.In case you judge from this that the story is not likely to shock the most conservative movie-going mind with its newness, let us hasten to assure you that it isn't. We might add that the characters and incidents are purely fictitious, and bear no resemblance whatever to life, except possibly in the stanch figure of Alison Skipworth.
Interviews With First-Time Emmy Nominees
Nava Mau: The actor, who said the experience of filming “Baby Reindeer” was so meaningful she would have been fine if it never came out, is the first transgender person nominated for a limited series acting Emmy.
Aja Naomi King: A nominee for her graceful, purposeful supporting turn as Harriet on the limited series “Lessons in Chemistry,” King was gratified by “the fullness of Harriet’s Black womanhood.”
Matt Berry: His performance as Laszlo Cravensworth, a debauched vampire in the comedy “What We Do in the Shadows,” often had him dangling 50 feet off the ground.
Anna Sawai: In her performance in “Shogun” as Toda Mariko, a disgraced but defiant noblewoman and samurai, Sawai drew on Mozart and the power of silence.
At the CriterionKING OF THE NEWSBOYS, screen play by Louis Weitzenkorn and Peggy Thompson from an original story by Horace McCoy and Samuel Ornitz, directed by Bernard Vorhaus for Republic Pictures.Jerry . . . . . Lew AyresMary Ellen . . . . . Helen MackNora . . . . . Alison SkipworthWire Arnold . . . . . Victor VarconiConnie . . . . . Sheila BromleyDolly . . . . . Alice WhiteLockjaw . . . . . Horace MacMahonSquimpy . . . . . William BenedictPussy . . . . . Victor Ray CookeLefty . . . . . Jack PennickPeggy . . . . . Mary KornmanMaizie . . . . . Gloria RichMr. Stephens . . . . . Oscar O'SheaMrs. Stephens . . . . . Marjorie MainApparently working on the theory that if the first feature doesn't bore you the second positively will, the Central yesterday offered a new double bill composed of "Heroes of the Alamo" and "Racing Blood." The former is distinguished solely by a neatly worded preface dedicating the subsequent events to the memory of those hardy settlers whose heroic stand against Santa Anna and his Mexican troops in 1836 made Texas safe for the United States."Racing Blood" is the story of a colt born with a bad leg who through tender nursing by Frankie Darro develops into a first-class racer. The script needed doctoring even more.At the Teatro HispanoMaking the long jump from rural Spain to the pampas of Argentina, the management of the Teatro Hispano is now presenting "Nobleza Gaucha," a fairly interesting film of life in the cattle country as lived a few decades ago. The main difference between "Gaucho Chivalry" and a Hollywood "western" consists of the substitution of knives for six-shooters and of funny looking semi-Turkish trousers for chaps.The girls are good looking and sympathetic, especially in the case of Herminia Franco, the old rancher's daughter who falls in love with the slayer (the handsome Floren Debene) of her impetuous brother. The chivalry of the title comes to the front right at the end of the story in a not altogether novel, but satisfactory, fashion.The work of the actors is much better than that of the technical men. There is some pleasing music and dancing. Sebastian M. Naon directed the piece for the Productora Argentina de Films.At the Modern PlayhouseThe current attraction at the little Modern Playhouse in Yorkville, "111-es Szobaban" (In Room 111), is alleged to be the first Hungarian mystery picture. This may be true, but patrons of Magyar movies know that when the dashing Paul Javor appears on the screen he is bound to win the affections of the prettiest woman in the show. This time she is the rather glamorous Maria Lazar and the man who loses her, without even getting her in the first place, is Jenö Törsz.As a famous middle-aged magician determined to punish the thoughtless Javor for having cast aside the deceased sister of Maria, who was the showman's assistant, Mr. Törsz gives an excellent performance. So do the others, including Julius Csortos, Marica Gervay and Gabor Rajnay. The picture is a Muveszfilm production directed by Stephen Szekely.
At the CentralHEROES OF THE ALAMO, from a screen play by Roby Wentz; directed by Harry Fraser; a Columbia production.Davy Crockett . . . . . Lane ChandlerStephen Austin . . . . . Earl HodginsAnne Dickinson . . . . . Ruth FindlayJames . . . . . Roger WilliamsSam Houston . . . . . Edward PielWilliam B. Travis . . . . . Rex LeaseSanta Anna . . . . . Julian RiveroAlmerian Dickinson . . . . . Bruce Warren
A version of this article appears in print on April 2, 1938 of the National edition with the headline: THE SCREEN; ' Lenin in October' Strikes Twice in the Same Times Square--New Bills at Criterion and Central At the Criterion At the Central At the Teatro Hispano At the Modern Playhouse. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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