Tbe Crimson Moviegoer

Upon special request the following excerpts from a review of "Crime and Punishment" by Welford Beaton, editor of the Hollywood Spectator, are being printed. The picture opens its engagement at the University Theatre on Sunday.

To me at least, if not to others, Joe von Sternberg always is the principal character in his screen creations. He indisputably is one of our great directors and certainly one of our greatest masters of the camera. No picture of his fails to be a photographic treat. He has his own style of photography which gets its virility from his daring use of light and shade and true black. He carries his during into each production, each seemingly being to him merely an experiment along another line.

Drama of Intense Power

"Crime and Punishment" is a great motion picture which will not attract great audiences. It is purely intellectual entertainment offered to audiences originally attracted by a form of entertainment that was purely emotional. But it is a gripping offering to intellectuals, a human drama of intense power with some flaws in its presentation, but, taken as a whole, a fine demonstration of intelligent direction.

The moral lesson the Dostoievsky classic teaches is limited in its application. If shows how a brilliantly intellectual man with nerves breaks down under the weight on his conscience of a murder he has committed and for which an innocent man is in danger of being executed. If it had general application, if it depicted the mental process of all murderers, we would have no unsolved murders. We must presume the perpetrators of the unsolved crimes have neither consciences nor nerves, thus the "Crime and Punishment" theme cannot apply to them.

Main Roles Well Played

But all we are interested in as we view the picture are the mental process of the individual who committed the murder, a part played brilliantly by Peter Lorre; and the patience and cunning displayed by the police inspector (Edward Arnold) in allowing the crime to solve itself. All the scenes in which these two accomplished actors come face to face, are gripping exemplifications of dramatic art at its best.

In casting the rest of the picture, Ben Schulberg apparently looked for foreign types rather than for established picture names. Whether the wisdom of the selections will outweigh the lack of draw names is something only the box-office can decide. A departure was the casting of Marian Marsh in the principal feminine role. She is an ethereal little thing and provides the only element appealing strongly to the emotions of the audience. Under Joe's sympathetic direction she gives a beautiful performance.