ITALIANS FED UP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 December 1941, Page 4

ITALIANS FED UP

THE REAL STORY REVEALED. Fascist authorities can muzzle the Press of Italy and make it say what they like. They cannot, however, prevent details in Italian newspapers telling the real story. The (autumn and winter opera season in Rome, as advertised in the Press, shows a strange lack of interest in German opera. The fortieth anniversary of the death of Verdi has given the Italian opera a chance to put on a whole series of his works. By the manner in which the announcement is made one can almost feel the sigh of satisfaction at not having to play German, operas. The cinema programmes tell a similar story. German films are extremely rare. Nearly all the films are Italian, French and American. The “Giornale d’ltalia,” early in September, shows that the public at several cinemas in Rome were enjoying “Wuthering Heights,” under its Italian title of “La Voce Nella Tempests’ 1 (The Voice in the Storm). At the Rex Cinema in Rome “Raffles” was being shown, and “11 Mistero dell’Arsenale,” the film about the Arsenal mystery, was a pleasing thriller at the Corso cinema. ' The Smeraldo showed “Sherlock Holmes.” The audience at the Sala Umberto was watching the “Maschera di Ferro” (The Man in the Iron Mask). At Olympia “S.O.S. Sahara” featured the French actor Vanel, and the Trieste showed yet another French film, “11 Capitan Fracassa.” The Ottaviano was showing “11 Conte di Monte Cristo,” and the audience at the Capranica were laughing at the French comic Fernandel in “Pazzo per la musica.” There was one German film being shown at nearly all cinemas in Rome, suspiciously like a command showing. That was “Ohm Kruger,” with Emil Tannings in the role of Kruger. No doubt the “wicked English” figured in this film, which had received Mussolini’s cup for the best foreign film.