Hollywood Spectator (1938)

Hollywood Spectator Page Seven a comedy point, flashes it at you with the suddenness of a rapier thrust, and then goes on with the story with the added impetus the comedy thrusts give it. There are no detours in his story-telling; his method is a direct one, carrying the narrative along at a brisk gait and picking up the laughs in its stride. Stevens knows what the camera is for, and makes it his chief medium of expression. In perhaps a score of scenes which, as written, make no allowance for spacing for laughs, the dialogue continues through unrestrained laughter without giving the audience the impression it is losing anything. Stevens manages this by skilful direction and intelligent response to it by his players. The writers, too, deserve praise here, for they have written a script in which the dialogue is seemingly the most unimportant element. Intelligent Writing, Direction . . . ONE of the tenderest, sweetest love scenes any pic¬ ture has given us is composed verbally of inane, detached utterances about anything except what the parties to it have in their minds, thus permitting the audience to get its significance visually, not aurally. It is an amusing scene, for all its romantic tenderness, and the audience enjoys its laughter because it knows the words it misses have no particular meaning. Only brilliant direction and intelligent writing can pro¬ duce such satisfactory and wholly cinematic results. If the scene had depended upon speeches for its de¬ velopment, it would have been just another standard talkie scene which the audience would have to hear to understand. Throughout the picture the same degree of intelligence is displayed in both script and direc¬ tion, except in a sequence in which the story is car¬ ried in dialogue while the players are on the dance floor at a college social gathering. Here no screen in¬ telligence is displayed in either direction or writing. The plea will be advanced that the sequence is given action by the fact that the speakers are moving on the dance floor. It is faulty reasoning. The fact that the characters are airing their private affairs in the hearing of other dancers, serves as a deterring factor in the forward progress of the story by diverting the atten¬ tion of the audience from the filmic action, the life blood of a picture, to physical action, which, in the case of a dance scene, is solely a visual trimming with¬ out story significance. But it always is done, and perhaps its appearance here is a gesture of Steven’s reverence for a screen tradition and modest refusal to land on the top of the directorial heap at one jump. Ginger and Two limmies . . . AFTER all Hollywood sees Vivacious Lady , Stevens will be among the directors for whom players will be anxious to work. In Ginger Rogers and James Stewart he had, to start with, two accomplished artists to head his cast, but to his credit it can be said that never before has either given such a brilliant per¬ formance. The two marry in the first reel and the story deals with their efforts to win the approval of Stewart’s austere father, played effectively by the vet¬ eran Charles Coburn. Ginger makes her part seem to have been tailored to her exclusive measure, making you feel as you watch her that no one else in pictures could have done as well. Jimmy Stewart continues to bear out the prediction I made in my review of his first picture. I wrote that he was destined to become a great screen actor. In Vivacious Lady he takes an¬ other tremendous forward step. He does not act, and that is what makes him the ideal screen actor. His eyes are the windows through which we see what he works with. He thinks his part and then lets it play itself — at least that is the impression I get when I watch him. It will not be long now until he climbs to a place near the top of the list of box-office favor¬ ites. Jimmy Ellison is another of my favorite young men to appear in the Stevens picture. He plays a sophisticated role with distinction, his good looks and pleasing personality being backed by an easy act¬ ing manner all audiences will like. Other members of the cast develope to the full all the possibilities of their roles, among them Beulah Bondi, Frances Mercer, Phyllis Kennedy, Franklin Pangborn, Grady Sutton, Willie Best. Good Taste Throughout . . . JfKO has given Vivacious Lady a complete and visu¬ al ally attractive production, the art direction of Van Nest Polglase and Carroll Clark being excellent. I am not aware what it signifies, but after all these years of picture reviewing I find myself becoming gown-conscious. I was aware of the attractive clothes worn by Ginger Rogers, Frances Mercer and others, and see by the credits that they were designed by Bernard Newman and Irene. Music plays an impor¬ tant part in the production, a subject which belongs in Dr. Ussher's department. A feature of the entire offering is the good taste it displays throughout. It glides along briskly — the film editing of Henry Ber¬ man being a factor in that — and in many spots is hilariously funny to the point of bringing screams of laughter from the audience, but in not one foot of film is there anything to jar the sensibilities of the most relentless stickler for good form. Vivacious Valley Vida 72 uteeby Everything for the Garden Flowers You Should Plant Now In North Hollywood on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, one block north of Ventura Boulevard, beside the bridge the flood left standing. Phone North Hollywood 6479.