CINEMA
" The Glass Menagerie." (Warner. )—" If You Feel like Singing." (Empire.)--" The Wolf of the Sila." (New Gallery.)
Mr. Tamassze WILLIAMS' obsession with ageing ex-belles from the Southern states is brought to our notice once again in the film version of his Glass Menagerie. Now instead of Miss Helen Hayes fluttering like a one-winged butterfly across the stage we have our own Miss Gertrude Lawrence flitting across the screen. Miss Lawrence's per- formance is a veritable tour de force, for it is a long breathless voluble part fluctuating in mood from the vituperative to the hysterically gay. She proves, what we have known all along in our hearts, that she is a first-rate dramatic actress as well as a superlative comedienne. Never- theless, because of the familiar inflexions in her voice, very English individual inflexions which cannot quite be subdued by the layers of southern accent, one remains unconvinced of her assumed personality. She is wonderful, but she still is Miss Gertrude Lawrence. Miss Jane Wyman in a blonde wig, as the cripple girl who lives in a dream world of little glass animals and for whom her mother builds such ephemeral castles, is extremely touching, and both Mr. Arthur Kennedy as her brother and Mr. Kirk Douglas as the " gentleman caller " give admirable performances. As a student of life's cruelty, of its frustrations and abnormalities, Mr. Williams has nothing to learn, and he invokes pity with so subtle a hand it is inevitable, I suppose, that a healthy British audience should laugh heartily from start to finish. Some day I shall kill someone.
If You Feel Like Singing is a really good musical starring Miss Judy
Garland and Mr. Gene Kelly. Mr. Kelly's troupe of actors come to rehearse their show in Miss Garland's barn on her farm, so there is a country setting to their terpsichorean activities which is extraordinarily pleasant. Miss Garland singing as she drives her scarlet tractor must inject leaven into the lumpiest heart. This is a tuneful, colourful, lark-happy film with a plot which nearly succeeds in being plausible.
Miss Silvana Mangano, who played so bustfully in Bitter Rice, is in another earthy picture called II Lupo della Sila. It is a tale of revenge and passion, jealousy and death, and as such it is quite rewarding. Good acting, especially by M. Armadeo Nazzari, and some lovely out- door photography smooth the rough edges of a melodramatic script and soften the peculiarly harsh hissings of the sound track. -
VIRGINIA GRAHAM.
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