The New Pictures

Are We Civilized? (Raspin Productions). An aging publicist (oldtime William Farnum, 58), returns to his native land, which resembles Nazi Germany.

There his son runs a press bureau, is engaged to the daughter of the dour government censor. At a testimonial dinner, Farnum flays the government for its bigotry and intolerance. At once he and his son are ordered to leave. The press bureau is raided, the son's library stripped. Farnum buttonholes his persecutors long enough to harangue them on freedom, progress, humanity, before he is fatally hit In the head with a brick. His speech, however, seems to have led his listeners to plan a more kindly government.

Directed by Edwin Carewe. Are We Civilised? is' stuffed to dullness with words. Farnum's harangue is illustrated with scraps of old historical films, mob and battle scenes, newsreel shots, flashes of prehistoric animals. Moses. Buddha. Confucius, Caesar, Christ. Mohammed, Columbus, Washington, Napoleon, Lincoln.

The Life of Vergie Winters (RKO). Vergie Winters (Ann Hardingj is another of the cinema's unhappy heroines in the same boat as Madelon Claudet, Mary Lane in Only Yesterday and Ray Schmidt in Back Street. Her marathon of discontent starts when she is 20 and shows no sign of stopping when the picture ends with her release from jail, at 42. The man she loves, John Shadwell (John Boles) marries someone else, under the mistaken impression that Vergie has jilted him. Vergie gives birth to an illegitimate daughter named Joan. John and his rancid wife Laura (Helen Vinson) adopt Joan. Gossip about Vergie's protracted affair with John causes the ladies of Parkville to boycott Vergie's millinery store. Her landlord ups the rent and Vergie's radio breaks down.

In the situation between Laura, John and Vergie nothing happens until young Joan is old enough to marry; then Laura Shadwell tells her that she is a foundling. In a rage. John Shadwell asks Laura to divorce him, scuttles off to Vergie's house. Laura follows him with a revolver, shoots him dead, runs away. Vergie Winters takes the blame. Laura confesses on her death bed. Vergie gets a pardon.

Adapted from a story by Louis Bromfield. The Life of Vergie Winters is a wet-eyed salute to sacrifice. As such, it is an ideal vehicle for Ann Harding whose specialty is keeping a stiff upper lip amid life's many misfortunes. Actually, the miseries of Vergie Winters are unlikely, exaggerated and avoidable. That they may draw more tears than any of Ann Harding's other recent martyrdoms is due to Director Alfred Santell's clever use of his whole bag of tricks, including "asides" and sequences of "narratage." Typical shot: Vergie Winters, when little Joan runs into the shop, tying a yellow ribbon in the child's hair.

Let's Talk It Over (Universal) deals with the efforts of a jaded socialite (Mae Clarke) to refurbish a brash, gum-chewing sailor (Chester Morris). The sailor becomes a prosperous gentleman but when he learns that the girl interested herself in him to win a bet. his wrath is great and he flays her and her rich friends for a pack of rotters. A nasty accident and a reconciliation follow. Cut to fit a familiar, frivolous and unpleasant pattern. Let's Talk It Over is not much to talk over.

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