The Moviegoer

"Inside the Maginot Line," the latest issue of the March of Time, which opens at the University tomorrow, is a comprehensive and intelligent piece of reporting. Although the audience expects to see nothing but the underground forts which Minister of War Andre Maginot began in 1928, exclusive interior shots--of mess halls, shower rooms, gun turrets and lookout posts--form less than half the picture, for the title refers to the whole military organization of a peace-time democracy. The Government's solution of how to make a people militarized but not militaristic is well shown with pictures of the drab uniforms and hard work that go with "service militaire." The absence of petty regulations and delegation of responsibility to men of low rank is also shown, for these make army life compatible to the independent Frenchman. And to an essentially pacifist people the price of peace, however dear, is less than the costs of war. The film shows the price: from munitions and aircraft factories (manufacturing 400 planes a month) down to the Peace of Munich, or compromise with cherished ideals. Less editorialized than most of Time's marches, the picture may be recommended as one of genuine educational value.