Just as "Mission to Moscow," which was Joseph E. Davies's report on his two-year Ambassadorship to Russia, was a striking and controversial book, so its translation into pictures should prove an equally agitating work. For this generally faithful screen version, which Warners brought to the Hollywood yesterday, is clearly the most outspoken picture on a political subject that an American studio has ever made. With a boldness unique in film ventures, which usually evade all issues, it comes out sharply and frankly for an understanding of Russia's point of view. It says with a confident finality that Russia's leaders saw, when the leaders of other nations dawdled, that the Nazis were a menace to the world. And it has no hesitancy whatever in stepping on a few tender toes.Based entirely on the personal observations reported by Mr. Davies in his book, it will obviously prove offensive to those elements which have challenged his views. Particularly will it anger the so-called Trotskyites with its visual re-enactment of the famous "Moscow trials." For it puts into the record for millions of moviegoers to grasp an admission that the many "purged" generals and other leaders were conspirators in a plot鈥攁 plot engineered by Trotsky with the Nazis and the Japs to drain the strength of Russia and make it an easy victim for conquest.Further, it takes some healthy potshots at Britain's Chamberlain government. It pictures the pre-war Ambassador of Great Britain to Russia as a foggy person. It characterizes the French and Polish envoys as anti-Russian to the core and swings a vicious wallop at Congressional isolationists over here. In short, it says quite clearly that reactionaries permitted the war and that Russia, far from earlier suspicion, is a true and most reliable ally.That is the general content of "Mission to Moscow" as a film鈥攐r should we say as a screen manifesto, which is actually what it is. For in form it follows closely the episodic pattern of Mr. Davies's book and aspires, through re-enactment, to convey a realistic impression of fact. As a consequence, it takes its continuity from events as they transpired and relies for its dramatic impulse upon the urgency of the times. The method results in certain weaknesses. The picture becomes much too long. It depends much more upon discourse than on graphic representations to make its points. A careful concentration upon the dialogue is required. It seldom reaches the audience in straight cinematic terms.The picture begins with Mr. Davies modestly introducing himself and explaining to the audience why he wrote his book. Then it takes up the diary of his interesting mission to Moscow, with Walter Huston playing Ambassador Davies in a most earnest and convincing style. He receives his commission from President Roosevelt, for whom the picture shows profound respect, and departs with his family for Moscow, with a revealing visit to Germany en route. In Russia Mr. Davies meets the leaders, Kalinin and Litvinoff. He talks cracker-barrel philosophy with them on political issues and finds them genuine. He tours Russia and sees its vast resources, its similarities in many ways to "home" and soon acquires an honest admiration and respect for it all.Then come the Moscow "purge" trials, which are briefly but effectively played; a vivid representation of Russian armed strength and a final, plain and frank talk with Stalin. On his way home Mr. Davies stops off in England to stress the growing Nazi peril and has a talk with Winston Churchill (Dudley Field Malone), which is poorly done. He gets back to report to the President just as war begins, and the rest of the film is devoted (the most absorbing part, by the way) to Mr. Davies's whirlwind efforts to tell America the truth before it is too late.Several very good representations of actual persons are performed by the large cast, particularly by Oscar Homolka as Litvinoff and Victor Francen as Vyshinsky. But the nature of the picture is such that only Mr. Huston has a great deal to do. And that is another weakness. The story is never told with as much excitement or compulsion as resided in the times. But still it should be a valuable influence to more clear-eyed and searching thought.

MISSION TO MOSCOW; screen play by Howard Koch; from the book by former Ambassador Joseph E. Davies; directed by Michael Curtiz; produced by Robert Buckner for Warner Brothers. At the Hollywood.Joseph E. Davies . . . . . Walter HustonMrs. Davies . . . . . Ann HardingFreddie . . . . . George TobiasLitvinoff . . . . . Oscar HomolkaEmlen . . . . . Eleanor ParkerPaul Grosjean . . . . . Richard TravisMajor Kameneff . . . . . Helmut DantineVyshinsky . . . . . Victor FrancenSpendler . . . . . Jerome CowanVon Ribbentrop . . . . . Henry DaniellIvy Litvinoff . . . . . Barbara EverestKrestinsky . . . . . Roman BohnenTanya . . . . . Maria PalmerHenderson . . . . . Minor WatsonColonel Faymonville . . . . . Moroni OlsenHerr Schacht . . . . . Felix BaschTimoshenko . . . . . Kurt KatchHaile Selassie . . . . . Leigh WhipperMolotoff . . . . . Gene LockhartLady Chilston . . . . . Kathleen LockhartKalinin . . . . . Vladimir SokoloffJudge Ulrich . . . . . Frank PugliaGrinko . . . . . John AbbottWinston Churchill . . . . . Dudley Field MaloneStalin . . . . . Manart KippenMrs. Churchill . . . . . Doris LloydVon Schulenberg . . . . . Frank ReicherYagoda . . . . . Daniel OckoBukharin . . . . . Konstantin ShayneTukachevsky . . . . . Ivan TrisaultShigemitsu . . . . . Peter Goo ChongLord Chilston . . . . . Lumsden Hare