THE CINEMA
Cheers for Miss Bishop." At the Regal.—" That Uncertain Feeling." At the Gaumont.
THERE are times in the cinema when it seems as if the highest American traditions all derive from the same person in a number of different disguises. This protean figure is always recognisable by his self-abnegation, by a life-time of sacrifice rewarded with a demonstration of public affection. The Hollywood school of historical biography has presented this symbol of the American ideal in a wide variety of male roles—as famous statesmen, doctors, scientists and explorers ; and now in similar style comes Miss Bishop, of Midwestern College, to show us what she was able to contribute to American education during fifty-two years of service on the faculty of this famous American university. Unfortunately, we learn more about what this distinguished woman failed to contribute to matrimony by unluckily (or stupidly) missing three opportunities of marriage. Miss Martha Scott, excellently graduating from Our Town into the name-part, is compelled to spend more screen-time in sacrificing her personal happiness than in demonstrating the educational aptitudes which were presumably her strongest interest. From time to time in Cheers for Miss Bishop we are reminded that MidWestern, bring- ing education to the immigrant communities of the corn-belt, was doing a dramatic job in assisting their assimilation into the United States, but the film is primarily a sentimental piece presented skilfully enough to disarm both cynic and historian.
That Uncertain Feeling seems to have been produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch after a re-examination of his earlier films to see what used to be funny about them. With the result that he has recaptured the form with none of the spirit. Here are all the old tricks—what used to be funny sub-titles accompanied by what once was witty music. But, shades of Trouble in Paradise, whoever expected to see this mountain of humour bring forth a mouse of polite laughter? With Merle Oberon miscast and Burgess Meredith under the impression that his part called for Groucho Marx, the occasion would be a sad one, if it were not for Melvyn Douglas, who does succeed in extracting some fun from this old story of the unromantic business- man who wins back his wife from a romantic genius who would just as soon have stolen the silver. EDGAR ANSTEY.
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