MR. EMMANUEL
(Two Cities )
MELLOW and moving char-acter-study by Felix Aylmer, as a kindly old English Jew who goes to Berlin and puts his
head right into the Nazi lion’s mouth in order to, be nice to a little boy, is the most notable feature of this British picture. I don’t know the original story by Louis Golding, but I should be surprised to learn that it was exactly like this-that is, unless the author wrote it specially for the screen. The pattern is so exactly that of the cinema: the goodies are so good and the baddies are so bad; the climaxes are so neatly contrived; the whole plot is so melodramatic that it is difficult to feel very closely involved in it. Why, for example, did the British Government show so little interest in the fate of Mr. Emmanuel when he was arrested by the Nazis on a fake assassination charge? He was, after all, a British citizen with Anthony Eden’s own signature on his passport, and the year was only 1938. It is a pity to have to say this about Mr. Emmanuel because it has the very best intentions. But good intentions are not enough to make.a good film, any more than labelling ‘certain characters s "Goebbels" and "Himmler" is sufficient to make them resemble the originals.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19451026.2.34.1.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 331, 26 October 1945, Page 18
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221MR. EMMANUEL New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 331, 26 October 1945, Page 18
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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.
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