Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 15 December, 1945 in check. The blunt fact is that Therese turns out to be a parade of competence, but, as with parades, the impulse when it is over is to ask : why all the trouble in the first place? The failure of this melodrama to stir the emotions or move the heart is theoretical and axiomatic. The lovers-murderers — Therese and Laurent — drown Camille, Therese’s husband, without conflict and without emotion. You might say they drop him in the cold water in cold blood. Precisely because they are lacking in feeling, we feel no pity. We see that their crime brings them no happiness; for, once it is committed, there are daily reminders of it that destroy their peace, and in the end the mother of the dead husband spells out with dominoes the truth about the murderers. But we care nothing about the fate that overtakes them, just as we cared nothing about Camille’s death. This sordid behavior Zola called naturalism, but, ironically, naturalism here seems curiously artificial. There could have been pity in the story. The hypochondriac Camille turned Therese into a shrew, and the murder could have been presented as the final expression of her struggle to escape from a miserable life with a lover who promised to restore her to her normal self. But if this struggle is implicit in the story, it is nowhere manifest in the play or in the acting. Eva Le Gallienne’s Therese is a faded photostat of the role she played in Uticle Harry. Victor Jory, as Laurent, rises to the occasion in the self-chastisement of the final scenes, but his love scenes are wooden. The comedy of the callers at Madame Raquin’s home is a bright spot, for John F. Hamilton, Averell Harris, Annette Sorell, and Doris Patston are amusing in these minor roles. Dame May Whitty captures the honors of the evening. She plays Camille’s mother. Her performance is a masterpiece of sheer technical brilliance, achieved through under-emphasis. When she learns that her too-well loved but neurotic son is dead, she barely changes her stance or her tone of voice, but there is something in the look of her eye which betrays her sorrow. Overhearing the selfreproaching of the guilty lovers, she blends into the sinister background. Stricken with apoplexy, her helplessness is life-like. When she sits on a wheel chair, dumbly watching the murderers carry on their sordid daily life, the accusation in her silent body is remarkable. Finally, there is a moment of electric theatre Notable Radio Course On "Our Foreign Policy" Teachers and students of the social studies are finding increasing interest in the nonpartisan series of weekly programs on American foreign policy, presented Saturdays at 7 p. m. as one of the notable courses in the NBC University of the Air, under the direction of Sterling Fisher, who also acts as moderator. The program brings to the microphone leading members of both houses of Congress, spokesmen of the Department of State, and other public figures, as a sustaining feature. Every school and college will do well to keep a file of the 20page weekly transcripts of this program, available at 10c a copy, or 13 for $1. Payment should be made in U. S. coin or check and mailed to “Our Foreign Policy,” The National Broadcasting Com w h e n she musters enough strength to spell out her accusation. Dame May is the evening, but the evening needs more than just Dame May to make her gifted daughter’s direction worthwhile. Deep Are The Roots is suited to high-school or college production. It combines a serious theme with youthful characters. The character of Nevy, played by the youthful Barbara Bel Ceddes, is a particular challenge to the student actress. The play also has the advantage of having a singlet set. You Touched Me, also with a youthful heroine and a single set, is likewise a possible school production, though its Rabelaisian touches might alienate timid directors. pany, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y. Elmer Davis on the Air Elmer Davis, OWI director for three years, is back on the air as a commentator for American Broadcasting Company (Blue) network stations. The time is Sundays, 3 p. m., and Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8:15 p. m. EST. His return to radio was launched December 2 on a sustaining basis, but by the time this appears in print the program may have a sponsor. Davis devotees welcome his restrained style, his homey twang, and his habit of clear statement. Radio needs commentators of the competence of Davis, whose levelheaded, neighborly analysis of current events will serve to reinforce the more pyrotechnical showmanship of the Winchell type.