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Salient.The Newspaper of Victoria University College. Vol. 19, No. 4. April 6, 1955

Disturbing

Disturbing

Ella Kazan's "On The Waterfront" (disturbing). In this film Kazan shows that he is supreme as a technician. It is his most showy and cleverest film to date and a different film from his first big success, "Panic in the Streets." A recruit from the theatre, Kazan in "Panic in the Streets," showed that he had mastered cinematic technique—but in a quiet, unobtrusive way so that the theme and plot of the story' were able to come through in their own right.

But then with "Viva Zapata" "Streetcar Named Desire" and "Man on a Tight-rope" the ostentatious displays of cleverness began to creep in, until the saturation point was almost reached in "On The Waterfront." If Kazan keeps this up, he has only to have one weak script and his work will be labelled clever and' brilliant, but empty and shallow. At present he is making John Steinbeck's "East of Eden." Is he going to restrain himself or is he going to weaken Steinbeck's story by giving us too much startling technique?