FilmIndia (1940)

GUIDE TO FOREIGN FILMS Jfififif Don't miss this one. ^r^"A' Very good. 1? it Good, if you must. -jf Poor ( Follow our star-rating, if you want value for your money.) ***THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (M. G.M.) Featuring: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Frank Morgan etc. Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch. Beautiful and stramlined, and in keeping with the Lubitsch traditions of masterly touches, this picture presents a common every day plot in a comedy strain. It all begins in a shop in Budapest, with the shop owner (Frank Morgan) and his half a dozen employers, all at once throwing several side lights on modern life. Sophistication and simplicity, merriment and pathos, loyalty and treachery, all travel together to make up a charming romance between James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. It is really a clever picture which no intellectual can afford to miss. ***DR. ERHLICH'S MAGIC BULLET (Warner) Featuring: Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Gordon and Otto Kruger. Directed by: William Dieterlie. Almost 4 perfect biographical picture! It tells the story of Dr. Paul Erhlich the inventor of Neo Salvarson (606) injection the world famous and only remedy for syphilis. Beautifully written and directed the picture becomes an interesting biography. It. however lacks the wider human appeal which brought tears to the eyes in "Louis Pasteur" Had the ravages of syphilis on the misguided humanity been shown, the work of Dr. Erhlich would have looked more humanitarian. At present he remains only a great scientist whose life seemed to be too busy to admit any pathetic moments. The story is not framed in a world-wide human setting and therefore misses those emotional heights which make a permanent impression on the human mind. And yet, it is a picture one cannot affoi d to miss. ****WE ARE NOT ALONE (Warner) Featuring: Paul Muni, and Jane Bryan. Directed by: Edmund Goulding. This picture is Paul Muni's 1939 triumph. "Louis Pasteur" came in 1936, "Good Earth" in 1937, "Emile Zola" and "Juarez in '38 and like these great ones, the present one is also great. Jane Bryan, a Warner Bros, Star. In an intensely human story, Muni, acting as a country doctor lives his part to perfection. Jane Bryan as an Austrian dancer distinguishes herself as a great artiste by a splendid performance with an inimitable star like Paul Muni. The theme proves how blind justice keeps on taking its toll of innocents with fatal regularity while men who deliver it brag of their infalliability. ^ Everyone must see this picture. ***A CHILD IS BORN (Warner) Featuring: Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Jeffrey Lynn. Few pictures have come to the screen with such a strong appeal to our mothers, as we find in this one. The plot, enacted entirely in an hospital and its surroundings, shows the different types of mothers and their typical cravings for motherhood. A clever twist, and a bit original, is the case of a young jailed woman, undergoing a life sentence, who is brought to the hospital for confinement. Physical complications compel the doctors to make a choice between the mother and the to-beborn child. The husband, with characteristic selfish love, votes for his wife, knowing fully well that she will have to spend the rest of her life in gaol. The girl, however, wants the child to live, realizing that life to her held no more glamour. The doctors give a weak promise of saving both and ultimately save only the child. It is a powerful drama, which while being unusual, is intensely human and should be seen by all adults. Expectant mothers should however leave it alone for some time. FOUR WIVES (Warner) Featuring: The Three Lane Sisters, Gale Page and Claude Rains. Priscilla's unhappiness seems to have become the theme of the story. It has moments of comedy and pathos. But the whole affair is so long drawn out that it becomes boring and tiresome. It is not even a good time killer. HE MARRIED HIS WIFE (20th Century Fox) Featuring: Joel McCrea and Nancy Kelly. Based on the presumption that two persons are born for each other inspite of a divorce, the "eternal" element of "love'' is given one more forward push in this interesting comedy in which Joel McCrea paying alimony to his divorced wife Nancy Kelly again marries her after going through several mental but hilarious gymnastics. Nancy Kelly gives a beautiful performance. Well, it is a good entertainment for adults.