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'LET THERE BE LIGHT,' JOHN HUSTON VS. THE ARMY

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By VINCENT CANBY
Published: January 16, 1981

FOR more than 30 years, the United States Army has been suppressing public showings of ''Let There Be Light,'' one of the documentaries made for the Army Signal Corps by John Huston toward the end of World War II. That's not to say the film has gone unheralded. The late James Agee wrote about it with enthusiasm in Time and The Nation in 1947 and 1948. Though the picture is now, at long last, opening a limited run today at the Thalia, the Army - which didn't supply this print - apparently continues to be alarmed. At this late date, it's difficult to see what the fuss is about.

''Let There Be Light'' is a good, slickly made documentary about the treatment of psychoneurotic combat veterans at Mason General Hospital on Long Island. The treatment involved the thenrevolutionary use of truth drugs and hypnosis and, though the movie tells us more than once that the cures we see will have to be supported by long, intensive psychiatric care, the impression given and even encouraged by the film is of a series of miraculous cures.

With its voice-over narration (provided by Walter Huston), its use of wipes and dissolves and its full-orchestra soundtrack music, ''Let There Be Light'' is an amazingly elegant movie, far different from the kind of documentaries we're now used to and pioneered by such post-World War II film makers as Morris Engel, Robert Drew, D.A. Pennebaker, Richard Leacock and Albert and David Maysles.

Its studied look may have the effect of softening the movie's impact on today's audiences, who've grown up seeing riots, wars and assassinations live-and-in-color on their home television screens.

Yet it's not difficult to understand the force of the film. Among the patients we see from their arrival at Mason General through their treatments, cures and releases are men suffering from amnesia, hysterical paralysis, stuttering and acute melancholia.

In the late 40's, the Army seemed to feel that the film would scare off potential recruits. In his recently published autobiography, ''An Open Book,'' Mr. Huston reports the Army justified its censorship on the grounds that a public showing of the film would invade the privacy of the soldiers. He also reports, in passing, that he photographed some patients being given shock treatment, though there are no such scenes in the print being shown at the Thalia.

Also on the Thalia bill is ''Independence Day,'' an independent feature about black workers in Los Angeles, which was reviewed in The New York Times on Nov. 10, 1976, when it opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Unheralded Study

LET THERE BE LIGHT, directed by John Huston; written by Mr. Huston and Charles Kaufman; produced by the Army Signal Corps. Running time: 60 minutes. This film is not rated.

INDEPENDENCE DAY, directed and produced by Bobby Roth; director of photography, Elliot Davis, film editor, John Carnochan. At the Thalia, West 95th Street at Broadway. Running time: 87 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Mel Rosier, Gammy Burdett, Michelle Davison and Henry Gayle Sanders. At the Thalia, West 95th Street at Broadway.

Bresson escribió:alguien a visto LET THERE BE LIGHT ? es el 3. documental hecho en la epoca de la guerra de Huston. Prohibido y luego solo mostrado en los 80. SEgun se dice es una obra clave en Huston. Prefigura la trama de Key largo..entre otras cosas