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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol 5, No. 6. July 31, 1942

Review Reviewed

Review Reviewed

Mercifully we were informed by H.W. at the beginning of his consideration of "Two-Faced Woman" that the result contained, for him, an obscene interest. Had this not been so, the tendency would always have been there to regard him as a responsible type of individual, but as it is, he has as good as confessed that he is of that semi-moronic type who pay their one-and-six at a theatre box office with the firm intention of extracting the last, minute drop of unpleasantness from the show. The possessor, no doubt, of the same sort of mind as those responsible for the banning of "Ulysses."

This type of mind is congenitally incapable of enjoying a wisecrack for its wit and swiftness, but must search heavily for some improper allusion. It is incapable, too, of enjoying a story for its own sake, but must pry deeper into it till there is discovered some immoral or unsocial interpretation. Now and again it will find a social message it approves of in a film, but never is it prepared to throw itself open, let the rancid fumes of unpleasantness escape from it, and indulge in ephemeral but enjoyable relaxation which the majority of films provide. Perhaps H.W. is the kind who taunts enjoyment with charges of escapism. Let him taunt, and keep his mind filled with an ill-smelling fog of doubtful social consciousness. The more moral of us are capable of enjoying a picture for its pure entertainment value, and even if we do forget the whole thing within a couple of days we have had those two hours of pleasure, and no one can take them back again. H.W., on the other hand, contemplates Melvyn Douglas's preference for the fastish [unclear: type] of wench, and consequent liaison with a slightly abandoned Garbo, with prudish condemnation or [unclear: frustrated] longing. Either sentiment could have produced his dismal account of what other people found to be an hour or two of fair enough amusement. He shows promise that on the first morning of his honeymoon he might in all seriousness compose a treatise on the necessity of celibacy.

"Two-Faced Woman" was not a good picture. It was an airy confection, and an actress of Garbo's talent was wasted in it. Her part would have been better filled by some recognised glamour girl. But if H.W. is going to criticise the film, then why in the name of all that's celluloid doesn't he treat it as what it purports to be, nothing more than an improbable comedy, instead of peering at it through someone else's red glasses and finding it a gigantic fabrication designed to keep the working classes in subjection? I would not be surprised to hear that H.W. sees in the story of Goldylocks and the Three Bears a profound social allegory illustrating that it is right that the hungry should be allowed to-steal the porridge of the possessing classes and go unpunished, and perhaps his revolutionary soul chuckles ironically at capitalist fathers who are unwittingly helping to bring about their own downfall by imbuing their children with such potent propaganda.

Dont let it' be thought that in his review H.W. has been making a mountain out of a molehill. It is just that he and his mind are too to see over the Molehill.

Sebastopol