Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Pauline Kael once asked whether Frank Capra had an honest bone in his body. Even hearing the question is a crusher, for if Capra is a calculating manipulator, then who is left? To be sure, he was sly behind the camera: Graham Greene wrote that he was the best propagandist since Eisentstein. Greene's proof lay in Capra's exposition of Edward Arnold in his pictures. Hardly anyone has ever done justice to the memory of Arnold, Capra's bloated symbol of all that was wrong with America in three consecutive celebrations of his defeat: You Can't Take It With You, Mr. Smith and Meet John Doe. In the first, he was an obese and lost soul, a rotten but salvagable capitalist. By the last, he had become a fascist threat, buying his own police state. If it hadn't been for the war, God knows what he would have done, but Capra was drafted, and in the famous Why We Fight series, foreign villains replaced Arnold and the threat from within disappeared but quick. The Why We Fight films are enormously powerful, even now: they show the extent of Capra's mastery of film, and they seem to be the extensive proof of Graham Greene's contention. One veteran told me, "you saw those movies and you just wanted to go kick the shit out of every kraut in Europe. They scared you and made you angry."
The Virgin and the Gypsy is a cariacture of D. H. Lawrence at his worst--all violent passion and sensuality in lush color without any character development. The only relief in this romantic melodrama comes when a flood washes away the virgin's shrewish grandmother and the entire vile English country estate to our intense delight. Another dull melodrama to be avoided is Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon, unless you go for two and a half hour fag jokes in the guise of sympathy and relevance. Al Pacino's acting is excellent but does not overcome the ridiculous role he is saddled with.
Lenin in Poland will undoubtedly prove to be more interesting than, say, Gidget in Poland, since Ilyich is always a pleasure to watch, but in this case the location is unworthy of him. The only time he could have been there is with the Red army invasion of 1920, so expect hidden justifications of post-1945 revolution at bayonet point.
Foreign Correspondent, quite simply, is a knockout. It contains one of Hitchcock's most amazing technical achievements, shooting a plane crash into the ocean from the inside, and one of his best plot clues, involving counter-clockwise windmills. One is again reminded, in this film, of Hitchcock's theory that the best way to make a screen villain memorably terrifying is to make him likeable, and the wonderful British actor Herbert Marshall is, in Foreign Correspondent perhaps the most likeable of all Hitchcock's malfeasants.
ADAMS HOUSE
The Virgin and the Gypsy, Friday and Saturday at 8 and 10.
HARKNESS COMMONS
Ben Hur, Friday and Saturday at 8:30.
HILLES LIBRARY
Lenin in Poland, Friday at 8. Free.
KIRKLAND HOUSE
The Scarlet Pimpernel, Friday and Saturday, at 8 and 10.
LEVERETT HOUSE
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 and 9:45.
QUINCY HOUSE
Fahrenheit 451, Friday and Saturday at 8 and 10.
SCIENCE CENTER A
The Unquiet Death of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Sunday at 7:30. Free.
SCIENCE CENTER B
Why We Fight (Capra), Tuesday at 7:30.
HARVARD-EPWORTH CHURCH
Foreign Correspondent, tonight at 7:30.
Moses and Aaron (Schoenberg's opera), Sunday at 7:30.
GUND HALL
The Three Musketeers and Ivanhoe on Fri. and Sat. at 7:00 and 9:15.
BRATTLE
The Conformist at 5:45 and 9:30; The Spider Strategem at 7:45.
CENTRAL II
Nashville at 6:15 and 9:15.
GALERIA
Swept Away at 5:15, 7:30 and 9:40.
HARVARD SQUARE
Dog Day Afternoon at 7:30; Mean Streets at 5:25.
ORSON WELLES I
Sweet Movie at 4, 6, 8, 10.
ORSON WELLES II
Beauty and the Beast, Friday and Saturday at 5:55, 9:25; Black Orpheus at 4 and 7:30.
ORSON WELLES III
Invasion of the Body Snatchers at 7 and 9:55; The Mole People at 8:30. For midnight movies, call theater.
