DE MILLENIUM!

Radio Record, 29 April 1938, Page 27

DE MILLENIUM!

Cecil B. F orgets About God In "The Buccaneer’

that Cecil B. de Mille has forgotten PEAKING as a film critic, I’m glad

about God. That may sound irreverent, but is only my way of recording satisfaction at this director’s escape from the quagmire of hoteh-potch religious spectacle in which he seemed to be bogged, to the firmer ground of American history. Mr. de Mille is more at home’ among the annals of his own country than among those of the Holy Land, "The Buccaneer," his latest effort, isn’t as good as last year’s "Plainsman" --which I thought was excellent-but it is sounder entertainment than "The Crusades" or "The Sign of the Cross."

"Looking It Up

Sr. °° 7 »}©}& © DE MILLE’S method of dealing with history is to tackle it low, and in the resulting melee, history usually emerges & poor second best. But f was sufficiently intrigued by "The Buecaneer" to look up a few facts about Jean Lafitte, the pirate hero of this new Paramount production. Without peing persuaded to accept Mr. de Mille’s verdict that Lafitte saved the United States, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he really did most of the other things Mr. de Mille says he did in the now practically forgotten war between England and America round about 1812, Whether Mr. de Mille has advanced the concord of nations by digging up

these old facts may be another matter, but he has certainly turned out a-pic-ture which, with a few qualifications, I can thoroughly recommend to most boys, as well as to those adults who can still enjoy boys’ stories about piracy on the high seas, walking the plank, nud gory battles on terra firma,

Patriotie Pirate

tr may come as something of a shock to you to learn, early in the pieture, that the British were once guilty of burning down the Capitol and White House at Washington, and that later they tried to bribe a pirate king-with an offer of £30,000 and a commission in the Royal Navy-to fight for them. But Jean Lafitte turned them downwhich wis sunprising in "view of the fact

that his free-booting kingdom of Barataria in the bayous of old New Orleans had just been blown. off the. map 7 by an American fleet, Yet, beneath the ruffled shirt’ of Pirate Lafitte beat the heart of: iu true American patriot, and not even the ingratitude of his adopted country could dampen his ardour-witl the result that we see him-or_ rather Fredric March-manfully waving the Stars and Stripes forever, while American grape-shot whistles through his curls and smashes his buecaneering fortress to matchwood,

The Other Cheek

ND, mind you, this excess of pat-riotism-or it may have heen prophetic knowledge of which way the wind would eventually blow-is not caused by the de Mille imagination working overtime, for I haye it on no less an authority than my old friend, the "KEneyelopaedia Britannica," that Lafitte, swallowing his natural resent-° ment at the scurvy treatment meted out by the American fleet. turned the other cheek and sent details of, the British bribe to the authorities at New Orleans, and at the same time-in return for a~free pardon-offered the services of his tattered legions to General Andrew Jackson in the defence of that city against the impending Pritish attack, (Corit; on next page.)

On British Toes

PHD Battle of New Orleans is the highlight of the film, and a fine piece of de Mille spectacle it is, standing out all the more clearly because, in other parts, the director has tended to depart from his familiar technique of--flooding the sereen with oceans of extra players. Tt is this Battle of New Orleans, however, that is likely to land ‘‘The Buccaneer" into some box-office difficulties in British communities, First reaction of several people at the preview was indignation at being shown the spectacle of advancing lines of Scottish Highlanders being mown down by Yankee musket-shot and pirate cannonballs, Yet, ta me, that indignation was quite ,unreasonable. How often have we glowed with patriotic fervour at the sight of hairy hill-men on the NorthWest Frontier being battered into loyalty to the British Raj by means of hombing planes and machine guns? Tlow often have we rejoiced when, in fi'ms of the Battle of Waterloo, NapoIeon’s regiments have hurled themselves to death on steady British bayonets; or when, in more frequent Great Wuar stories, we have seen the Bosche or the Turk getting what was coming to him? We British can’t have it all our own way. After all, we did get beaten at the Battle of New Orleans,

Sops To Sentiment

OR can one honestly escape the conviction that Hollywood, through Mr. de Mille, has gone out of its way to make the blow to British pride fall as gently as possible. Those kilted lines never falter as they advance to their doom in front of General Jackson’s cannon and the guns of Lafitte’s renegades, Even though one knows they fought like that in those days, there is something almost ludicrous in

that precise, automatic attack, which is in reality such a tribute to British courage and obedience. Not a Scotsman turns his hack on the enemy. They fall as they march. And as the last man drops, the flag of Britain still flutters proudly from a dead hand. An even bigger mouthful of sop to

British sentiment is spooned out by that English pirate who, in the thick of the battle, is so infused with patriotie pride that he leaps to the top of the barricades and cheers the enemy on to victory. And yet I have heard this sequence deseribed as "an insult to the British’!

Whitewash

GCTUALLY, Mr. de Mille’s battle would have heen nearer the millenium in sereen spectacle if he had not dressed his heroine up in a comic opera uniform and. made her do funny business, getting tangled up with the

wheels of cannon while the fight was raging. And the picture would have been better, too, if de Mille had not splashed the whitewash so obviously on the character of Lafitte, and if the continuity had been tighter. As I mentioned in my review of "Wells Fargo," there is a feeling about most of these "apics’ of skimming too rapidly over great events. Having made his pirate-hero win the Battle of New Orleans and determined the fate of America-in actual fact Lafitte’s artillery did distinguish itself most nobly-de Mille then has to remove him gracefully from the scene; and he has more or less been able to let history do the job for him.

A Nice Gaal

AFTER being publicly pardoned for his aid to General Jackson, Lafitte got into trouble again when several of his lieutenants disobeyed orders and attacked American ships. So then, says the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" with a surprising touch of imagery, Lafitte picked a crew to man his fayourite vessel, The Pride, and sailed off into the legendary realms from which he had come. So it is on the bridge of his ship, with her course set for legendary realms, that we leave Pirate Jean La-fitte-but in the case of the film pirate he has a little Dutch lass named Gretchen on the bridge beside him. And this brings us, rather late in the day, to Franciska Gaal, the new Hungarian actress, who is possibly the best heroine Mr. de Mille has unearthed in his long career as an historical excavator. She frolics perkily through the story, entangling lLafitte’s romance with a proud southern belle (Margot Grahame) and providing the necessary softening influence in the life of the hero, and that of his swarthy chief lieutenant, Dominique You (Akim Tamiroff). One can allow Mr. de Mille his concession to the box-office demand for sentimental romance, because Fran- ciska is such a very charming Gaal.

March’s Hero

JY REDRIC MARCH is the subject for the de Mille whitewash brush in the role of Lafitte. He acts with that unselfconscious abandon which ig such a great attribute in costume pictures, and he manages to look almost as much like a hindsome pirate as he looks like ¥Vredrie March. But the prize for make-up as well as for acting goes to Akim Tamiroff, as Dominique, the mustachioed ex-gunner of Napoleon, who is an atfractively unmitigated rascal, with soft spots in his heart, however, for Gretchen, afitte and his cherished cast-iron cannon, "Betsy." : Gaudy, lusty, melodramatic spectacle, "The Buccaneer" is very much my meat -which means that it may very: well be your poison. F ["The. Buccaneer." Paramount, Directed by Cecil B. de Mille. Starring Fredric March, Franciska Gaal, Akim Tamiroff. First release May 6 (tentative).J ~

Still Native

OROTHY LAMOUR gets another native role in "Tahiti’ This will be made when she finishes "Tropic Holiday," which is the new title for "Insenada.," .