Motion Picture Reviews (1941)

Six MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS cidental scenes for its appeal, and it would be quite impossible with less talented and attractive actors than Claudette Colbert, Rav Milland and Brian Aherne. These three make it entertaining in a superficial, sophisticated way. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Not recommended be No cause of sophisticated viewpoint ❖ SMILIN' THROUGH O O Jeanette MacDonald, Brian Aherne, Gene Raymond, Ian Hunter, Frances Robinson, Patrick O'Moore, Eric Lonsdale, Jackie Horner. Based on the play by Jane Cowl and Jane Murfin. Screen play by Donald Ogden Stewart and John Balderston. Musical direction by Herbert Stothart. Direction by Frank Borzage. Produced by Victor Saville. M.-G.-M. “Smilin' Through” was first played on the stage by Jane Cowl in 1919, and this is its third appearance on the screen. The scene is laid in rural England. Part of the story takes place at the time of the first World War, when the young girl, Kathleen, falls in love with Kenneth Wayne, Americanborn heir to a deserted castle, and part of it reverts to the sixties, when her foster uncle explains his bitter opposition to the match. At this earlier period Sir John Carteret was betrothed to Mooyean, Kathleen’s aunt, and even as they stood at the altar she was shot and killed by a rejected suitor, the father of Kenneth Wayne; Sir John’s great love for her and his grief have left a deep imprint on his life, and many a night he begs her to come back to him out of the shadowy, moonlit garden. For Kathleen and Kenneth it is the struggle of young love to free itself from the fetters of the past. This is a story which requires a deeply sustained mood to accentuate the sadness and the beauty of the theme. The treatment is not so successful as it was in earlier versions. Technicolor is partially responsible. Some of the tones are delicate or rich with a patina of age, but there is too much deliberate striving for pictorial effect; some of the scenes have the sugary prettiness of an old-fashioned gift calendar and others are so vividly realistic that one is rudely jolted from the past. The acting of Brian Aherne as Sir John and of lan Hunter as his life-long friend, the Vicar, is easy and wholly convincing, but Jeanette MacDonald and Gene Raymond, who are husband and wife in real life, seem to be seized with self-consciousness when they play opposite each other on the screen, and some of their dialogue is either badly written or poorly interpreted. Miss MacDonald’s singing, however, is lovely, and the sweet cadences of “Smilin’ Through,” “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes,” “Long, Long, Trail,” as well as the majestic strains of the church music, make up for many short-comings of the film. A delightful part is played by little Miss Jackie Horner as the child Kathleen, when she comes to see Sir John for the first time and sings a gay Irish song in a high-pitched childish voice. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Probably enjoyable Too confusing and too sad a theme ❖ SOUTH OF TAHITI O O Brian Donlevy, Brod Crawford, Maria Montez, Andy Devine, Henry Wilcoxon, H. B. Warner, Armida, Abner Biberman. Direction by George Waggner. Universal Pictures. Three rough sailors out of Singapore, go pearl hunting, are cast upon a tropical isle, rescued by the dazzlingly beautiful daughter of a native chief. Although tempted to steal from their benefactors, their escape is cut off and they remain to accept their fate and live forever after in a Hollywood setting, South of Tahiti. Unexacting audiences may while away an idle hour. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Not recommended Violent SUSPICION O O Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Dame May Whitty, Isabel Jeans, Heather Angel, Auriel Lee, Reginald Sheffield, Leo G. Carroll. Screen play by Samson Raphaelson, Joan Harrison, Alma Reville, from a novel by Francis Hies. Direction by Alfred Hitchcock. RKO Radio. Alfred Hitchcock has again built up a startling psychological mystery thriller by his masterful genius in unfolding a story and guiding fine actors. The script is mature and dramatic. The story tells of a charming English girl, bound for the ranks of spinsterhood until she meets a winning, irresponsible fellow and is united to him in a runaway marriage. Suspicion enters insidiously when she learns that he is so beset with debts that he may have married her to defray them, and it deepens until she believes from almost irrefutable evidence that he is capable of any crime. Joan Fontaine duplicates the sensitive and beautiful performance she gave in “Rebecca.” Cary Grant has an unsympathetic role, but he succeeds in making the man believable, even lovable. Nigel Bruce is excellent as the dull-witted but loyal friend. Both music and photography emphasize the quality of suspense, and the beautiful English settings are chosen to give contrasting effects of deep security and stupifying danger. The action builds toward such a terrific climax that the ending is a superb relief from the emotional strain. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Mature No