CINEMA
THE amount of suspense in The Scarf is not great because there is really never any doubt that the unfortunate hero (Mr. John Ireland) has not committed the crime for which he has been incarcerated 11 a criminal lunatic asylum, and equally no doubt that he will be vindicated in the end. The proof of his innocence, however, is quite an exciting and long-drawn-out affair, involving a philosophical old hermit who keeps a turkey farm in the desert, a " singing- waitress " (a new name for an old job) with a heart even more golden than her voice, and a highly sinister English psychiatrist, played by Mr. Emlyn Williams, who is supposed to be Mr. Ireland's best friend, but who . . . (but to say more would be to spoil the denouement). This is a competent film, from the beginning to the end of which Mr. Ireland bears a look of worried gloom, natural to a man who is uncertain whether he is a criminal or insane or both.
Mr. P. G. Wodehouse has written several good short stories about the effect which the game of golf can have on marriage, but nobody, so far as I know, has ever suggested turning one of them into a film. Perhaps the appearance of Follow the Sun will encourage the working of the rich native vein of sporting ore. For this American film is devoted to the career of a great golfer. Mr. Ben Hogan is still alive and flourishing, but his career is hero dramatised with the deep reverence which is usually reserved in this country for generals who have been dead for at least a hundred years. From his early days as a caddie to his apogee as a champion everything comes his way—love, fame, triumph—with hardly a fluff or a slice to chequer his progress down the great fairway of life. Only one thing is lacking—popularity. This in its turn comes to him after he has had most of his limbs smashed in a motor accident and, against all the advice and predictions of the doctors, forced himself to attempt a successful come-back. If it was not so well acted and directed this would be a slightly ludicrous film, but Mr. Glenn Ford and Miss Anne Baxter make the dour pursuit of golfing fame seem always credible and at times almost attractive.
EDWARD HODGKIN.
Previous page
