Word: steinbeck
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...serious bid for immortality, but an open mind and some patience can find in it one of the happier ventures of the movie-year. Whatever Hollywood publicity may maintain, the name Spencer Tracy is not always synonymous with great acting, or Victor Fleming with spirited direction, or John Steinbeck with irrestible writing; "Tortilla Flat," with all three names, does not quite make the grade of any superlative. So much for immortality...
...Steinbeck's paisanos, remains of the original Spanish settlers above Monterey, are a simple, indolent, pleasure-loving lot who live in happy poverty on ramshackle Tortilla Flat. Pilon and his band of rascally idlers would rather filch their beloved food and wine and sleep out under the giant redwood trees than earn their keep by chopping squids in the town below. They are probably the most harmless, insignificant people alive, but Steinbeck's story of religious faith and the good works it inspired lifts them out of their humble uselessness, preaching the essential dignity of all mankind...
Prominent among those who think that the Steinbeck moon is made of green cheese...
...pinko New Republic ("Don't think that Mr. Steinbeck's Nazis are the people who actually invaded Norway. If they were, the free nations wouldn't need planes, tanks and gasoline rationing to defeat them. The job could be done effectively with dynamite and bonbons...
...Lewis Gannett. Gannett called the "totalitarian crusade" against the story "a depressing example of wartime hysteria." Said Dorothy Thompson: "I know dozens of German officers who were thoroughly mature when last I enjoyed friendly relations with them, and they were just like [Colonel Lanser].... The enormous power in Mr. Steinbeck's drama is that it is not an attack on Nazis. It is an attack on Naziism." Meanwhile The Moon is Down is doing quite nicely. As a novel, it has sold 450,000 copies. As a play, it has entertained when it closed last fortnight, some...