THE CINEMA
"The Affairs of Susan." At the Plaza.—" The Dough-Girls." At Warners.—News Reels from the Paific. Generally released.
IT is easy to be impatient with the social froth of the cinema. On the other hand, the fact must be faced that Hollywood pro- ducers and directors are truly expert in what may be described as cocktail-lounge comedy. The Affairs of Susan is outstanding in this class. The story is of a young woman, wittily played by Joan Fontaine, who changes her character according to her amorous circumstances. We see her through the eyes of four successive suitors, and for each of them she plays a different though mis- chievously logical part. Fondly pursuing from cocktail to cocktail there are a play producer (a nice performance by George Brent), a writer, a wealthy backer of plays, and a Government official. The dialogue is smooth, the action fast ; everyone is idle and everyone is rich.
The Dough-Girls (an un-illuminating title) tells again the story of overcrowded Washington, this time in terms of three young women prematurely occupying the bridal suite in an austere hotel, and seeking to achieve matrimony through chapter after chapter of ludicrous and claustrophobic accident. They are unassisted by the presence of assorted war workers, a broadcaster in full voice, and a female Russian sniper, who shops with her gun. Here, again, the film-makers are so completely at ease with their farrago of nonsense that most cinema-goers will find it difficult not to share the producers' confidence in their own high spirits. And Jane Wyman contributes a most enjoyable portrait of garrulous helplessness.
Further newsreel material from the Pacific contains sensational pictures of attacks by suicide planes on American warships. The ordeal of the U.S.S. `Franklin' shown a few weeks back provided the war's most sensational combat sequence, but now other similar material of deck crews ducking and running against a background of exploding missiles and flaming aircraft suggests that camera- work of this kind has become commonplace. It is unfortunate that although British warships have apparently been subjected to similar attacks, there has as yet been no evidence of it on
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