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——— M P HERALD—Apr 16—Rudy-108 ALL TROE CLASS in DATES Q\o. A Warners’ Anti-Red Film Timely and Hard-Hitting ITH sharp timeliness Warner Brothers Pictures makes available this week to the theatres of the nation a hard-hitting subject dealing with the Communist conspiracy under the title, “| Was a Communist for the F.BL" The timeliness of this picture is sharply emphasized against the current. disclosures of Communistic activities on the part of some Hollywood people which have been brought out in the Un-American Activities Committee hearings in Washington. These disclosures ‘are inevitably disquieting to the American public which right now is in no mood lightly to excuse the kind of Red penetration which took place in Hollywood and about which too fittle indeed was done. - —<— = > The one fatal danger to which the motion picture was exposed was Red coloring of the picture itself. As is now well-known nothing of this kind was allowed to take place, There may have been some lack of watchfulness about employee loyalty in the stucio—fostered by ideological confusions which were quite general not only with +he public but in government as well and by no means confined to Hollywood. But there was no lack of watchfulness about what went on the screen. The srgenizes industry is this time aveiding the silly adventures upean which it embarked at the time of the earlier probe of Hollywood by the Un-American Activities Committee. This time it is sensibly recognizing the right and duty of the Congressional Committee to expose treason and is cooperating accordingly. But the public opinion impact of the disclosures, dealing with names which the public familiarly associates with the screen, is by no means good for the motion picture business. Hence the advent right now of the Warner Brothers picture is especially fortunate and opportune. Under the generalship of Mr. Jack L. Warner and with the spirited cooperation of Mr. Bryan Foy there emerges in “I Wes a Communist for the F.B.t." @ powerful and moving dramatic narrative. The industry in its higher purposes and necessities has not been too fortunate in some of the subjects dealing more or less directly ‘with the Communist conspiracy which have been previously released. It is for- tunate in this one. The picture within the limitations of a popular dramatic subject is revealing and informative relative to some of the most poisonous aspects of the Red intrigue as practiced in this country. But for purposes of audience impact it is far more than that. It has a very real warmth and appeal, dealing centrally with the re- ‘telling of the true story of a genuine national hero who made a great sacrifice ‘in the nation’s defense. —=- —>- —— Audiences will be moved by such incidents as that of @ father who so loved ‘his country as to be willing to appear as a traitor in the eyes of his son and wilf be thrilled by melodramatic flashes of the kind which have long been representative of the craftsmanship of Bryan Foy. The theatre man who is alert to the repercussions of the current Washington revelations will in his own immediate interest and in his solicitude for the welfare of the industry at large see in this current Warner release a significant opportunity. wiayeet ought to be played enthusiastically—broadly across the nation and w —Martin Quigley ———— ee