Screenland (May-Oct 1942)

CAST "HIGHLY IRREGULAR" (Columbia Pictures Corporation) B. P. Schulberg, Producer. Richard Wallace, Director. Chris Fraiichot Tone Anita Joan Bennett Zellfritz Allyn Joslyn Mrs. W overman Georgia Caine Thomas Lloyd Corrigan Maria Barbara Brown Jan Erskine San ford "Nonsense." The officer smiled. "I shall enjoy it." "There . . . there might not be any divorce." Chris was groping for words, any words at all that would keep the officer out of court the next morning when the real Hendrick would have to be there. "My wife and I are going to talk it over tonight. Aren't we, darling?" "Why, yes." Anita smiled, grasping at any straw at all. "We will still go to court in the morning," Zellfritz said grimly. "Come, don't take it so seriously. You all look as if you were going to a court martial." He stiffened as the doorbell rang, springing to his feet and hurrying so that he could reach it before Jan. "Hendrick!" Mrs. Woverman gasped in a frightened whisper. "What if it is Hendrick ?" _ "I'll take care of that," Chris said, taking his place behind the door, his fists clenched and ready. Then he relaxed when he saw the Major come back with a telegram which he gave to Thomas. "Aunt Sofie won't come in from the country for several days, Mother," Thomas said, crossing over to Chris and giving him the message. "She isn't feeling very well." Chris glanced down at the telegram signed by the doctor of the sanitarium, saying that Hendrick would not be home for several days as he had suffered a relapse. Then he crumpled it into his pocket as if it had been the most casual message in the world, although he felt as relieved as the rest of them looked. "Isn't that wonderful !" Mrs. Woverman forgot her caution in her relief. Then she went on more carefully, "What I mean is," she said with an apologetic little laugh, "in a few days Hendrick will be back in the sanitarium and there will be room for Aunt Sofie. And now if you will excuse me I really must be getting along to bed. Don't worry too much about tomorrow, Hendrick. We'll all be there to see you through." Chris knew what she meant. He was getting as used to necessary codes as the rest of them who had learned to speak in riddles since their freedom had been snatched from them by the Nazis. He'd have to show up for the mock divorce to save the rest of them from Zellfritz's suspicion. But first he must get to the Savoy Cafe and try to make contact with the British agent he had come to Holland to meet. Every moment lost was dangerous and it would be suicide to attempt it that night with searching parties combing the city. But even though he got up at dawn the next morning he realized that Zellfritz had been up before him when he saw the two Gestapo men fall into line behind him. He tried to elude them but it was hopeless, and he arrived at the courthouse to know the morning a total loss. "Have a nice walk, Hendrick?" Zellfritz asked. "Yes, Major," Chris grinned. "Thanks for your escorts." "Not at all." Zellfritz's cold blue eyes seemed to stare right through him. "I was afraid you might get lonesome." "Hendrick !" Mrs. Woverman faltered a little seeing that stare. "Did . . . did you make any stops? See anybody?" "Oh, yes, I made several stops," Chris said easily. "Once for a shave, once for a cup of coffee and once for a cigar." He stopped as a clerk called the court to order and listened intently as the Judge gravely looked at him and Anita and inquired if they were certain they wanted to go through with the divorce. "Your Honor," Chris said then, going up to the bench, "I'd like nothing better than to drop the whole matter and take my wife home with me." "No !" Anita put in quickly. "My mind is made up. My husband is impossible. He's done everything possible to hurt and humiliate me. He's cruel, tyrannical, fiendish." She stopped for breath and tried to glare at Chris but only succeeded in looking so absurdly young and wistful and tender that the Judge shook his head in bewilderment. It was the strangest divorce case he had ever heard. Chris thought so, too. Again the feeling of nightmare swept over him as he listened to Anita's charges, her eyes, now that she had pulled herself together again, punctuating her testimony with those hurt indignant glances at Chris. It made Chris feel he was really Hendrick, that it was he who had been a Dutch official in Sumatra and had married the French officer's daughter Anita, that it was he who had become drunk on his wedding day and had never drawn a sober breath until the day he had been sent to the sanitarium as a hopeless alcoholic and that he had even beaten her. "I wouldn't ahurt a hair of her lovely head I" Chris protested indignantly, while Thomas who was defending him beamed approvingly. "Your Honor, they are trying to make me out a beast, a dipsomaniac, a . . . " Anita flushed at that. "What else would you call a man who buys two bushels of peanuts for his pink elephants?" she demanded tartly. "Your Honor," Thomas said pompously. "Does this young man look like a confirmed alcoholic?" Chris seized the cue as the judge looked at him dubiously. "All I've got to say is that I forgive her." He sighed and managed to look the complete picture of outraged innocence. "Your Honor, look at me. Look at my clothes, at the shirt I wear. Nothing fits me. I've lost all this weight worrying about her. But," he looked at her magnanimously, "I still forgive her." The Judge had to wipe a tear from his kind, sentimental eyes and Anita's flashed when he suggested that she and Chris retire to his, private chambers to talk over a possible reconciliation. "A fine mess you made of things 1" she said indignantly, as the door closed leaving her alone with Chris. "I'm sorry." Chris couldn't hold back his exuberance over being alone with her like this. "I guess I just lost myself in the part. I couldn't sit there and have you call me a wife beater." "Why not?" she asked. "Do you think I'd lie about my life with Hendrick?" "But you were looking straight at me when you said it," Chris pointed out. Then, persuasively, "You are lovely!" "Oh, talk sense!" Anita begged. "And please don't hinder my divorce. I've got to have it." "But I'm not Hendrick," Chris said. New under-arm Cream Deodorant safely Stops Perspiration 1. Does not harm dresses, or men's shirts. Does not irritate skin. 2. No waiting to dry. Can be used right after shaving. 3. Instantly checks perspiration for 1 to 3 days. Removes odor from o perspiration, keeps armpits dry. 4. A pure white, greaseless, stainless vanishing cream. S« Arrid has been awarded the Approval Seal of the American Institute of Laundering, for being harmless to fabrics. 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