Posted 4:57 PM by Gene

And in more FOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NEWS, our man Rog, America's greatest PR man, says not-so-between the lines THE OSCAR® BEST PICTURE is a "better version of the 'Mission: Impossible' movies." So Luke Spielberg dispensed His medicine with a whole bag of action sugar, as we'd have thought, and it'll go down easily with the scribblers. It is exasperating how we have to draw teeth from the ad-blurbists to get them to tell even the smallest morsel of the truth, especially now in 1939. We forget that truly great art has often been accompanied by indifferent to rotten reviews; it is rare the scribblers instantly acclaim true brilliance, and they're easily blinded by the dazzle of fool's gold. Think of the bored reaction to The Great Gatsby. Better yet, read these reviews of Huckleberry Finn. Even the few favorable ones don't get the point. Or to quote this noxious example from a paper happily long folded:

It is little wonder that Mr. Samuel Clemens, otherwise Mark Twain, resorted to real or mock lawsuits, as may be, to restrain some real or imaginary selling of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" as a means of advertising that extraordinarily senseless publication. Before the work is disposed of, Mr. Mark Twain will probably have to resort to law to compel some to sell it by any sort of bribery or corruption. It is doubtful if the edition could be disposed of to people of average intellect at anything short of the point of the bayonet. This publication rejoices in two frontispieces, of which the one is supposed to be a faithful portrait of Huckleberry Finn, and the other an engraving of the classic features of Mr. Mark Twain as seen in the bust made by Karl Gerhardt. The taste of this gratuitous presentation is as bad as is the book itself, which is an extreme statement. Mr. Clemens has contributed some humorous literature that is excellent and will hold its place, but his Huckleberry Finn appears to be singularly flat, stale and unprofitable. The book is sold by subscription.

By Roger Friedman.

Okay, we made that last line up. And possibly we too might have gotten into the spirit of raillery, especially if we'd made up our minds that Sam Clemens was but the Garrison Keillor of his day (which to some extent he was, only better). But when the blurbists tell us six movies in a row are masterpieces it is for a reason, and it is NOT for our erudition. So broad and sweeping is the urge to rave that when somebody like Bert Lahrson pans THE OPRAH MUSICAL we can't believe him -- owing, to be sure, from a long and distinguished career of fatuousness, but because he is an AD-BLURBIST, and such creatures do NOT deserve the benefit of the doubt; and besides, they're looking for the next property to overrate.