The Iron Curtain. . . . . .at the Metropolitan

When Hollywood committed itself on the issue of communism last fall, under the pressure of Congress and Wall Street, every major West Coast studio rushed home, hoping to be the first to register priority on the film title "The Iron Curtain" for future production. Twentieth-Century Fox won the footrace and subsequently assigned a Mr. Milton Krims to fill in the required screen play. The same Mr. Krims can be significantly remembered for his other scenario--"Confessions of a Nazi Spy." The sure fire true story of the Canadian Soviet spy ring naturally presented itself as his answer: the results could hardly be other than socko for the Box Office. That is, as long as the wind from Capitol Hill and the Kremlin and stockholders such as Henry Luce, didn't change.

The movie, "The Iron Curtain," is now being shown in Boston and simultaneously in 400 other theaters across the country something of a record even for Hollywood in the wide-spread dissemination of propaganda. For the film is clearly just that. It is propaganda against a country with which we are now not at war. It is blatant war propaganda. It is the first step in the psychological softening-up for war.

Narration is Documentary

The film is unfolded in the March-of-Time manner, implying authenticity. It tells of the young Soviet embassy clerk in Ottawa, Igor Gouzenko, who finally sees that his colleagues are seeking to undermine a good country and are getting atomic secrets for reasons other than world peace. Gouzenko steals from the embassy some documentary proof of this and tries to warn the Canadian government. He falls in this, but Gouzenko, wife and child, are rescued in the nick of time from the Russians by the arrival of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. That is the end of the picture.

The telling of it is made vividly exciting by the use of such standard Hollywood gimmicks as the sliding panels, the catacombs beneath the embassy, the Mata Hari girls, and a big, fat, replusive character for the villain. (It should be pointed out too, that the actor playing Gouzenko is clearly a Michigan boy and is clearly the one to be rooting for. The cards, you see have been stacked in Hollywood.)

Acting is Good

There can be no denying the conviction of the film. The actors are uniformly excellent and restrained; the direction is good, except for its unintentional lapses into 'Ninotchka' mockery, revealing the risible elements of any dogma-swallowing people; the photography is just right. I found myself frequently on the edge of my seat with stomach tingling, like it used to do when, as a kid, I saw the 'Dracula' films.

I felt urged to look about me at the large afternoon crowd. There were matronly house wives, fresh from the side of their kitchen ranges and their radios. There were truant school-boys looking for a weekly thrill to help let loose their natural energy. In front of me was a very young mother with her shopping bundles and a copy of the Boston Record on her lap, and beside her was what has been rightly called the hope of our country--a squirming baby boy.

Mr. Eric Johnston, in a speech earlier last week, proclaimed the tremendous force of the motion picture in forming public opinion.

Attacks and Counter Attacks

There are, of course, conflicting views on "The Iron Curtain." The New York Roxy is now being picketed by the (Wallace) Committee Against War Propaganda. And those pickets, in turn, are being counter-picketed by the Catholic War Veterans. A petition of protest against the film has been signed by 297 leading Protestant clergy over the country, including five bishops. On the opening night, there was a near-riot beneath the Roxy marquee, involving reported 2,000 persons. Mr. Spyros P. Skouras, of 20th Century Fox, said "those who banded together last night to boycott the film are attacking the basic American right of free-expression."

The picture is most convincing on its surface. It therefore places in jeopardy the life of every Soviet national in this country. That cheering mob heard in the streets of tomorrow may not be cheering for blood on the football field.

This is only the beginning, there are many more studies yet to be heard from. The tune the dropping coins in the box-office till is playing is a familiar one: "Johnny Get Your Gun."