Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1941)

d Strafford the Seventh!" That impressed him, all right, and he was ready to listen when I said, "Do you want a birthday present for your Daddy very badly'.'" He nodded. "Oh, yes! He always gives >ne!" "Have you got a purse?" I asked, like a conspirator, and he showed me one on his belt. I opened it and slipped Wyn's ring — the one with a snake swallowing its tail — off my finger. "Here's something you can give him," I said, putting it in the purse. "But it's he a secret. A secret just for you and your Daddy!" Il< nodded solemnly. "1 won't tell anybody else!" he promised and ran out of the room after his mother. I stood there and watched him go, feeling lost and alone. And the place on my finger where the ring had been was all naked, but that ring had been my last link with Wyn and now it was gone, too. I was glad to have it gone. I felt free again. It must have been that feeling of freedom that made me able to tell Mark tonight I'd marry him. He called for me after work at the store and took me with him to one of his maternity cases in a poor part of the city and I held the baby • arrived. He saw me with it and said, "You have no idea how right you look with a baby in your arms." "I know how right I feel," I said. It was true, too. This, 1 was thinking, is what women really want. Not men — not really. There's something down inside of women that's the future. Then was when Mark dragged out a diamond ring, right there in the kitchen of the tenement, and asked me to marry him. And — after all, a man must love you to go on wanting to marry you for six years without any encouragement. So I told him I would. He had to go back to the hospital for a while, but we arranged to meet at Grand Central at midnight and go on to Greenwich. "You're all over that — that fellow from Philadelphia?" Mark asked. "All over," I said. And meant it — until I came home two hours ago and found Wyn waiting for me. \A/E'RE no good apart, Kitty," Wyn "said. "I know that now. And I'm going away. I'm leaving my wife. I'm sailing at midnight — alone, unless you'll go with me." "You — you're going to be divorced?" 1 asked him. "No," he said after a pause. "I've tried. I'm afraid I can't even promise you that. But whatever you decide, I'm sailing anyway. I'm only hoping, I'm asking, that we'll go together and be together, always." Be together, always. Forgetting Mark, thinking only how much the mere sight of Wyn could bring back all my love for him, I told him I'd be at Pier 48 at midnight. (It's fifteen minutes to twelve, Kitty Foyle. You can't stall any longer. No matter where you're going, to Wyn or to Mark, you'll have to start out.) I've packed my bags, I've called a porter, I've done everything except decide. A great deal of love — but no marriage— with Wyn. Marriage — and some love, too, there's no use denying that — with Mark All right. I know what it's got to be. Oh, Wyn darling, please understand. It's just as you said. What we've had together is something I can never forget. I love you, in a very special way, and I'll always love you. But I'm — me, Kitty Foyle! Not something for you to leave and come back to and leave and come back to again whenever you feel like it. Mark can be part of that person named Kitty Foyle. Mark and the home and the children — the bits of the future — we can have together, that you and I could never have. You'd never be part of me, Wyn. I'd only be part of you . . . your hanger-on, your — girl friend. It's not good enough for me It's not good enough for you. So good-by, Wyn. I don't think you and I will ever see each other again. Mrs. Mark Eisen won't have much to do with the Philadelphia Main Line Straffords — because, of course, you'll go back there someday, Wyn. I said once they had you under contract and it's still true, no matter how hard you try to break av That little boy — he has you under contract, too. And Wyn— don't worry about me. Don't fret about whether or not I'll be happy. I will be. Maybe I love Mark in a very special way, too. And anyway — maybe nobody knows what happiness is. Until after they've had it, that is. Maybe it's just something you're always looking for and never quite finding — until you stop looking. I've stopped looking, Wyn. ^Escape (M-G-M) It's About: The rescue of an imprisoned woman in Germany by her son. SUSPENSE and drama pack the thrilling story of "Escape" that faithfully follows the story by Ethel Vance. Every scene and every line of dialogue lead to the itic and stirring climax that keeps the audience breathless as the drama unfolds. Norma Shearer as the Countess and Robert Taylor as the American score heavily. Taylor seems to have caught the nervous emotional pitch of the lad who leaves his home in America to find his mother imprisoned in Germany. Phillip Dorn as the Doctor is thi ' star nerge in Hollywood mark that down in your memory hook. Conrad Vcidt as ll is detestably compelling. Nazimova as the mother is outstanding. Your Reviewer Soys: Thrill-packed. ^ A Little Bit of Heaven (Universal) It's About: A family who rides /n<//i on a little girl's success. Tl [AT i lucei Joi Pa tei nak, who has ..| Dcanna Durbin through all her UCC< I has taken little Gloria Jean under his wing and brought her right hack to "The Underpup" fame Gloria couldn't !*• sweeter, the story cozier or the east more competent and when you put lh.it all together, what does it S-u-c-c-e-s-s? You're right Yes, this i It's charming. ling and. more, it has Gloria being boosted lor the i. 'Ii" bj a pair of radio nnnounc 86 The Shadow Stage (Continued from page 14) ers, Robert Stack and Stuart Erwin. The only catch is Grandpa. C. Aubrey Smith, objects and Grandpa is boss. Pop Hugh Herbert and sister Nan Grey are for it and so is Gloria. In due time Grandpa is won over, Gloria becomes a star, the family becomes high-hat and everyone is miserable until — but that's telling. Anyway, Gloria sings gloriously. Billy Gilbert is a beeg lamb. It's nice seeing so many stars of silent days. Your Reviewer Soys: Bright, appealing. ^ They Knew What They Wanted (RKO-Radio) It's About: Romance by correspondence. THIS, to our notion, is a great picture. ' We think it a great picture for the i performance given by Charles Laughton as Tony, the Italian fruitgrower ill the Napa valley of California We i ll ureat for tin inspired direction of M'ul Garson Kanin, the work of Lombard and the fiercelj etched performance of Bill Gargan as ./•■. the hired man We like the feeling of supp: throughout, the gripping hopelessness thai melts under Tony's Christian kindness into a promise of something better ii' in some future daj It is almost inconceivable to be] i Englishman could b< Italian as Laughton. Yet Laughton really is Tony, the Italian, who falls in lovi waitress Carole Lombard and In to write her of his. Tony's love, and who finally substitutes Joe's picture for his. thus reaping a reward ol d e, We tell you again, Laughton is marvelous and we urge all adults who enjoy intelligent, beautifully directed entertainment to see this picture. Your Reviewer Soys: An exquisite gem. ^ The Long Voyage Home ( ArgosyWanger-U. A.) It's About: Seamen who are always striving for a journey home. THERE'S a tragic moody depth to "The ' Long Voyage Home" that shouts the artistry of Director John Ford to the housetops. Not since his "Informer" has this master of art in movies turned in such a triumph. Yet we doubt if it will appeal to those movie fans who like their stories cut and dried, hewing to the line and toeing the mark. Box-office appeal it may not have, but if the producer is content with food for the soul he has given us a banquet indeed. Ian Hunter, the wandering drunken Englishman, is one ot the sailors on a munition -laden ship homeward bound for England at the outbreak of the war. On the tedious homeward trip the men become inflamed with the idea that Hunter is a Fifth Columnist and he almost loses his life before the mistake is discovered. German planes dropping hell from the skies add to the thickening, engulfing peril, Thomas Mitchell. Hi: John Wayne and John Qualen — all turn in stirring performances. Hut for once we believe it's the mood and "feel" of a picture that steals [| from tin cast, If you catch that mood you'll he carried along with it. Your Reviewer Soys: An art istic triumph. ntinued o?i page 88) combined u>ith movh mirror