Motion Picture Reviews (1944)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS Nine girl lives as one apart, pure, selfless, a mystic through whom a message may be given to the world. Besieged by the arguments of political and clerical dignitaries, she triumphs by the simple answers of truth. This is no sentimental plea for belief. Except for the cure of the infant in the Grotto spring, no miracles are verified, and the scepticism of the sophisticated is gently countered by the foreword: “For those who believe in God no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible.” The photography, creating the atmosphere of a small French provincial town, is beautiful, and the music is inspiring, rising in triumphal crescendos. Many of the parts are played with rare understanding. Demonstrating the intelligent handling of a controversial theme, “Song of Bernadette” sets a high standard for films of a religious nature. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 1 2 Excellent Good, although too long and mature for many SONG OF RUSSIA O O Robert Taylor, Susan Peters, John Hodiak, Robert Benchley, Felix Bressart, Michael Checkhov, Darryl Hickman, Jacqueline White. Screen play by Paul Jarrico and Richard Collins, based on a story by Leo Mittler, Victor Trivas and Guy Endore. Direction by Gregory Ratoff. Music adapted for the screen by Herbert Stothart. Peter Mereblum's California Junior Orchestra. Produced by Joseph Pasternak. M-G-M. The music of Tschaikowsky, with additional numbers by modern Russian composers, conducted by Albert Coates, is used as an important element of this picture, and the compositions selected are sufficiently familiar to please the average audience. They are introduced very naturally, since the story is about John Meredith, an American orchestra leader who tours Russia as a guest conductor and falls in love with a brilliant young musician, Nadya, a peasant girl from Tschaikoye, the birthplace of the great musician. They are married, but when the Nazi invasion forces sweep over the land, Nadya returns to her own community to share in the labor of “scorching the earth” as a true Russian, subordinating her personal existence to her duty to her country. Although Robert Taylor’s role of a conductor is a new one for him, he fills it successfully, and Susan Peters endows the girl of modern Russia with a fine blending of efficiency and idealism. Photography is delightful in most of the scenes. The film presents a romanticized picture of Russia with lovely girls and handsome men, but there is a deeper motif, the surge of the invincible spirit of Russia and the great love of the land. In the later sequences, the docu mentary pictures of Russian crowds and battle scenes seem too heavy and depressing for a musical production. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 1 2 Romantic story and Long and some of beautiful music it too somber THE SPIDER WOMAN O O Basil Rathbone. Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard, Dennis Hoey, Vernon Downing, Alec Craig, Mary Gordon, Arthur Hohl. Screen play by Bertram Millhauser. Based on a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Associate producer and director, Roy William Neill. Universal. An especially ingenious plot places “The Spider Woman” among the best of the Sherlock Holmes series. Peculiar circumstances in connection with a number of so-called “pyjama suicides” in London cause the master detective to suspect murder. He is right, of course, and he traps the killer after assuming various disguises and risking a horrible death. Even though everyone knows that Sherlock Holmes must always survive to solve new mysteries, the suspense is very real, and the man-killing spider which plaj's an important part will give many people the creeps. The cast, as usual, is superior. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 1 2 Good of its kind Probably frightening STANDING ROOM ONLY O O Fred MacMurray, Paulette Goddard, Edward Arnold, Hillary Brooke, Roland Young, Anne Revere, Clarence Kolb, Isabel Randolph. Original screen story by Al Martin. Direction by Sidney Lanfield. Paramount. This highly amusing expose of war-time Washington attacks on three fronts: the housing shortage, the red tape methods of the bureaucracy and the servant problem, adding for good measure a trenchant satire on selfimportant women in uniform. In the hands of a cast adept in farcical routines and persiflage, it all adds up to a lot of irresistible merriment. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 1 2 Yes Little interest THE SULLIVANS O O Thomas Mitchell, Selena Royle, Anne Baxter, Edward Ryan, Trudy Marshall, John Campell, James Cardwell, John Alvin, George Offerman, Jr., Roy Roberts, Ward Bond, Mary McCarty, Nancy June Robinson, Marvin Davis, Buddy Swan, Billy Cummings, Johny Calkins, John Nesbit. Screen play by Mary C. McCall, Jr. Direction by Lloyd Bacon. 20th Century-Fox. No film has pictured the best American traditions with greater fidelity, genuineness and warmth than this simple story of a family group with their inarticulate loyalty to each other and their sense of responsibility to the country which means Home to them. It shows the delightful family of a freight train