Frightful Film

At the start of the Memorial Day riot outside Republic Steel Corp.'s South Chicago plant, a Paramount newsreel cameraman named Orlando Lippert had his truck parked about 50 ft. from the centre of the police line. Cameraman Lippert was the only newsreel man on hand, his rivals, despairing of action from a holiday crowd sprinkled with women & children, having packed off to the automobile races in Indianapolis. Except for the two or three times he stopped to shift lenses for closeup or wide-angle shots, Cameraman Lippert kept his eye glued to his view finder throughout the whole bloody affair.

Up to last week Cameraman Lippert's film had been shown in no U. S. theatre-- For this there was good reason. The prints were held by Senator La Follette's Civil Liberties Committee. So highly did the young Wisconsin Senator value the reel as evidence in the Committee's investigation of the Memorial Day riot that he defied a subpoena for the film voted by the Senate Post Office Committee, which is pondering a general steel strike investigation.

Even before Senator La Follette grabbed the frightful film, Paramount had decided not to release it on the ground that such an unrelieved record of blood and brutality was liable to touch off more riots. Said Paramount News Editor A. J. Richard in reply to a Civil Liberties body which challenged the suppression: ". . . Please remember that whereas newspapers reach individuals in the home, we show to a public gathered in groups averaging 1,000 or more and therefore subject to crowd hysteria when assembled in the theatre." One man who saw the film explained: "It made me want to go out and bite a policeman."

In a thick mist of mystery the film was studied by the La Follette Committee, its staff and a few other officials, but one description was available last week. Written by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Paul Anderson, the story was a clean copyright scoop. Newshawk Anderson, a close friend of Senator La Follette, had unquestionably seen the picture. Some scenes of the riot which left nine men dead or dying:

". . . Without apparent warning, there is a terrific roar of pistol shots, and men in the front ranks of the marchers go down like grass before a scythe. The camera catches approximately a dozen falling simultaneously in a heap. The roar of the police pistols lasts perhaps two or three seconds. Instantly the police charge on the marchers with riot sticks flying. . . .

"In several instances, from two to four policemen are seen beating one man. One strikes him horizontally across the face, using his club as he would a baseball bat. Another crashes it down on top of his head, and still another is whipping him across the back. . . . In one such scene, directly in the foreground, a policeman gives the fallen man a final smash on the head before moving on to the next job.

"In the front line during the parley with the police is a girl, not more than five feet tall, who can hardly weigh more than 100 lb. Under one arm she is carrying a purse and some newspapers. After the first deafening volley of shots she turns, to find her path to flight is blocked by a heap of fallen men. She stumbles over them, apparently dazed. . . . Then she is seen going down under a quick blow from a policeman's club, delivered from behind. She gets up, and staggers around. A few moments later, she is shown being shoved into a patrol wagon, blood cascading down her face and over her clothing. . . .

"A man shot through the back is paralyzed from the waist. Two policemen try to make him stand up, to get into a patrol wagon, but when they let him go his legs crumple, and he falls with his face in the dirt, almost under the rear step of the wagon. He moves his head and arms, but his legs are limp. He raises his head like a turtle and claws the ground.

"There is continuous talking, but it is difficult to distinguish anything with one exception--out of the babble there arises this clear and distinct ejaculation:

" 'God Almighty!' "

Both Senator La Follette and his Civil Liberties Committee colleague, Senator Thomas, admit that the Paramount picture is not a complete record of the riot. Cameraman Lippert was changing lenses during the vital period preceding the gun play. Still photographs show that the marchers came up with clubs and football helmets, that police were ducking marchers' missiles before they began to shoot.

*British cinema audiences however this week gaped in horror at the films which U. S. theatres might not show.

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