Salt of the Earth Movie 1954 Movie Review

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March fifteen, 1954

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Confronting the hard and gritty background of a mine workers' strike in a New Mexican boondocks—a background bristling with resentment against the working and living conditions imposed by the operators of the mine—a rugged and starkly poignant story of a Mexican-American miner and his wife is told in "Table salt of the Earth," a wedlock-sponsored moving-picture show drama, which opened terminal night at the Grande Theatre on East Eighty-6th Street.It is the story of a husband'southward house objection to women—and, especially, his married woman—mixing in the grim affairs of the strikers, and of the strong determination of the wife to participate, along with other women, in the carrying on of the strike.This is the film that occasioned controversy and violence when it was beingness made almost Silver City, Northward. M., simply one year ago. The facts were then widely noted that members of the independent company making it, including the director, Herbert J. Biberman, and the producer, Paul Jarrico, had been identified before the Firm Commission on UnAmerican Activities as past or nowadays Communists and that the organisation sponsoring the moving-picture show, the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, had been expelled from the Congress of Industrial Organizations for left-wing leanings.Threats of Vigilante ActionRosaura Revueltas, the Mexican actress who plays one of the leading roles, was seized as an illegal conflicting while the production was underway, and fisticuffs and threats of vigilante activity occurred in Silver Urban center while the company was at that place.Contempo sub rosa difficulties of the film'southward producers in getting a theatre in which to testify it here have further evidenced the pressures confronting it and the obstructions placed in its way.In the light of this agitated history, it is somewhat surprising to find that "Salt of the World" is, in substance, only a strong pro-labor flick with a peculiarly sympathetic involvement in the Mexican-Americans with whom information technology deals. True, it frankly implies that the mine operators accept taken advantage of the Mexican-born or descended laborers, accept forced a "speed upwards" in their mining techniques and given them less respectable homes than provided the so-called "Anglo" laborers. Information technology slaps at brutal police tactics in dealing with strikers and it gets in some rough, sarcastic digs at the mental attitude of "the bosses" and the working of the Taft-Hartley Law.But the real dramatic crux of the film is the stern and bitter conflict within the membership of the spousal relationship. It is the issue of whether the women shall have equality of expression and of strike participation with the men. And it is along this line of contention that Michael Wilson's tautly muscled script develops considerable personal drama, raw emotion and ability.Conflict of PersonalitiesFor this conflict of human personalities, torn past egos and traditions, is shown in terms of sharp clashes at union meetings, melees on dusty sentinel lines, tussles with "scabs" and deputy sheriffs and contiguous encouners betwixt the hubby and married woman in their meager home. It is a conflict that broadly embraces the love of struggling parents for their young, the dignity of some of these poor people and their longings to run across their children'south lot improved.Under Mr. Biberman's direction, an unusual company made upward largely of actual miners and their families, plays the drama exceedingly well. Miss Revueltas, one of the few professional players, is lean and dynamic in the primal role of the wife who compels her miner hubby to accept the fact of equality, and Juan Chacon, a not-professional, plays the husband forcefully. Will Geer as a shrewd, hard-bitten sheriff, Clinton Jencks as a union organizer and a youngster named Frank Talevera equally the son of the principals are excellent, as well.The hard-focus, realistic quality of the picture'due south photography and style completes its characterization as a calculated social document. It is a clearly intended special interest film.

Common salt OF THE World, screen play past Michael Wilson; directed by Herbert J. Blberman; produced by Paul Jarrico. Presented by the International Wedlock of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers and the Contained Productions Corporation. At the Grande.Esperanza Quintero . . . . . Rosaura RevueltasRamon Quintero . . . . . Juan ChaconSheriff . . . . . Will GeerFrank Barnes . . . . . Clinton JencksRuth Barnes . . . . . Virginia JencksLuis Quintero . . . . . Frank TaleveraBarton . . . . . David WolfeAlexander . . . . . Mervin WilliamsHartwell . . . . . David SarvisTeresa Vidal . . . . . Ernest VelasquezConsuelo Ruiz . . . . . Angela SanchezSal Ruiz . . . . . Joe T. MoralesLuz Morales . . . . . Clorinda Alderette

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1954/03/15/archives/the-screen-in-review-salt-of-the-earth-opens-at-the-grande-filming.html

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