CINEMA
The Story of Three Loves. (Empire.)—Malta Story. (Odeon.)--' Forever Female. (Carlton).
The Story of Three Loves is another trinity film, two parts directed by Gottfried Reinhardt and one by Vincente Minelli. The first, The Jealous Lover, gives us James Mason as a very implausible chore& grapher enthusiastically driving Moira Shearer, who has been forbidden by her doctors ever to dance again, to her death. Miss Shearer is not an actress, but for the purpose of this piece that is immaterial, for almost the whole of it is taken up by her exquisite dancing. Alone on an empty stage or in Mr. Mason's Knightsbridge ballroom she, accompanied by Rachmaninoff's Paganini VariatiottS, graces the very air she breathes. Mr. Minelli's section' is a fantasy of some charm. It is called Mademoiselle, and the protagonist, French governess to a tough little American boy staying in Rome, is Leslie Caron. The boY' well played by Ricky Nelson, meets a very recherché witch in the shape of Ethel Barrymore, who grants him his major wish in life, that he should be grown up for a few hours so as to get away front Madeinoiselle and her past participles. Adult and disguised Farley Granger, the boy does the inevitable. Adapted by Lustig and Froeschel from a story'shy Arnold Phillips, this is full of enchanting Rene Clair-de-Lune touches. The final film, Equilibrium, stars Kirk Douglas as a trapeze artist Who has a reputation for killing his partners through taking an over- optimistic attitude to the laws of gravity. Pier Angeli, a would-be suicide rescued from the Seine, is his latest recruit. There is It great deal of swinging and a good exciting climax, but the most remarkable thing about this venture is that both Mr. Douglas and Miss Angeli Seem perfectly at ease suspended by their feet tvbm a bar. The dreadful truth about war pictures is that unless a director has some out-of-the-run characters to play with they are now, to the sated senses, too much like each other to capture the imagination. Malta's stand against incredible odds, the courage and endurance of her people, are now a glorious page in our history, but when we see it written it follows the familiar pattern of bombings, air battles, tombings, sea battles, bombings. In Malta Story, directed by Brian uesmond Hurst, the characters are too stereotyped to offer any Hawkins from the old sad sights and sounds. Alec Guinness, Jack nawkins and Anthony Steel are bravely poker-faced, modest, costive with understatements and throw-away lines. Mr. Hawkins is vet), good at this sort of thing as he persuades one of an underlying agony of spirit, but Mr. Guinness, who is blessed with a rare gift for comedy, seems quite lost in the banal. Only Flora Robson, a bereaved and stricken mother, is given the chance, which she ably takes, of registering more than casual feelings. I am never quite reconciled to Ginger Rogers in unmusical comedy. 1,• grieve a little for her past terpsichorean glories. Yet in Forever Female, a sophisticated, witty and thoroughly enjoyable film about a middle-aged actress, a juvenile actress and a playwright she gives faultless. performance. Ably supported by William Holden, Paul D ouglas and a chirpy young newcomer called Pat Crowley she skates over the gloss with professional assurance, and it is foolish to wish to put back the clock. Sleekly directed by Irving Rapper, this comedy of theatrical manners is well written, well acted and well worth a
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