"THE OX-BOW INCIDENT"
Sir-I am breaking a long-kept resolve about»writing to newspapers and periodicals in this letter. It is sent chiefly to draw your critic’s attention to a film which otherwise might slip past him. I feel that G.M. is having a very definite influence for good on middlebrow film taste in this country, an influence which may well build up a much-needed sensitiveness to the film as a medium for things other than ephemeral entertainment. (I am, of course, unable to agree with many of his judgments.) The film I hope he will see is The Ox-Bow Incident. It is one of those films which will not be popular-it is too real and too grim to please the general public. It ran for a week only in Queen Street-while other much less meritorious shows ran for months. It is for this reason that I fear G.M. and other discriminating people may miss it. But it is a film which I class amongst the treasured few great achievements of the screen. The Ox-Box Incident is simply the story of a lynching in a little sleepy, dull, Southern town in 1885. But the whole film has the quality of great (Continued on next page)
(Continued from previous page) tragedy — the inevitable, relentless march to death which marks Greek plays and which marked out The Informer. And as a social document I have never seen a film to surpass it, Lynching is still a reality in the U.S.A. Such a film should do much to squash it-it is real. The special pleading of Steinbeck is absent, and so I think it is of much more social importance than The Grapes of Wrath. Another thingit adapts the book to the screen as well as it will ever be possible to turn a book into a film.
J.C.
R.
(Auckland).
(This film has not yet come to Wellington. If it does, it will be reviewed in The Listener. as doesn’t, some questions will be asked.-
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19440406.2.31.3
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 250, 6 April 1944, Page 18
Word count
Tapeke kupu
331"THE OX-BOW INCIDENT" New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 250, 6 April 1944, Page 18
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in