STAGE AND SCREEN
THE CINEMA Hitler, the Beast of Berlin." At the London Pavilion.— The March of Time: No. 12.
MANY must have hoped that the present war would not produce the more unnecessary mistakes of the last ; but here
1: a follow-on to The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin, which captured world screens in the not-so-long-ago. The theme and the material are both, from one point of view, trite ; that is, they reveal conditions the existence of which both the Government and the newspaper-reading public of this country must have been noting for several years past. The theme is, in fact, an attempted dramatisation of the atrocities which uere (rather tardily) revealed officially in the Government White Paper. The democrats, driven underground by the tyrannical Nazi regime, try—how hopelessly—to combat the foes who rule their State, and end up in concentration camps, with all the horrors appertaining thereto. The horrors are revealed without stint ; and not only young S.S. men, but also aged officers of the 1914 regime are exhibited in the most detailed flights of sadism.
But there is something not quite genuine about it all. In the first place, the film is American, and the United States is neutral in the present conflict. One gets, rightly or wrongly, the impression that Hitler, the Beast of Berlin, represents an attempt to cash-in on the box-office. This impression is strengthened by the balance of certain elements in the film. A Jew is perfunctorily insulted, a priest has a pretty ghastly passage, and the democrats are beaten up with the utmost violence. And when the major democrat's wife has a baby, he is allowed to escape (by a kindly S.S. man!) and joins her in the safety of Switzerland.
All this may be impeccable as far as the factual accuracy of individual cases may be concerned. It may even be a good thing to illustrate in screen terms the atrocious brutalities of the Nazi regime. But it is significant that neither our own nor the French Ministry of Information has thought to bless films of this type as part of their respective war efforts. Perhaps they assume that people in all countries are already sufficiently aware of " man's inhumanity to man." Or do they, with Machiavellian cunning, count on neutral Hollywood to do the dirty work?
If the work were well done, there might be less to cavil at. But Hitler, the Beast of Berlin, leaves almost everything to be desired as a film. It has the same drab atmosphere as those well-meaning dramas which reveal—to audiences care- fully segregated into adults (male) and adults (female)—the perils of venereal disease. That is, the direction is faltering, the acting terrible, and the camera-work only so-so. It is a solemn thought that if half the talent which goes to an American gangster or chain-gang film, or for that matter to a Soviet Professor Mantlock, had been employed on this pro- duction, one might have been deeply moved. A Mamlock or a Mum film possess things of the spirit ; Hitler, the Beast of Berlin, deals with things of the flesh, and the fact that the flesh is raw and bleeding is no answer. It is neither drama, documentary, nor even good red herring. The cast (in general singularly untalented) struggles valiantly with unspeakable dialogue ; and the camera department, apparently limited to a very meagre voltage, achieves one or two good effects—notably in the machine-gunning of an escaping prisoner, which has almost the authentic quality of a Cagney film.
March of Times are falling thicker than leaves on Vallom- brosa, but on their present standards their arrival is a welcome breath of fresh air in the turgid round of newsreel limitations. This new issue deals succinctly, bravely and excitingly with Canada's war effort. Into some twenty minutes it packs a vast amount of absorbing information and really splendid photography. And of especial interest is the commentary, which appears to be closely directed at the citizens of Canada's great neighbour State. President Roosevelt's guarantees to Canada last year are given special emphasis, and the con- temporary significance of the Canadian-U.S.A. frontier is stressed several times by the commentator. It is a first-class issue, well made as a film, and, as news, heartening.
BASIL WRIGHT.
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