CINEMA
66 The Miniver Story." (Empire.)--“ Shadow of the Eagle." (London Pavilion.)---,, Caged." (Warner.) OUR old friend Mrs. Miniver, now battling with post-war problems and burdened with angina. is making her final bow to us from the Empire screen. Miss Greer Garson, whether bidding farewell to a wartime flame, Mr. John Hodiak,,tidying up the love life of her daughter, Miss Cathy O'Donnell, or concealing her impending demise from her husband, Mr. Walter Pidgeon, gives a warm and human performance within, as it were, " the scope of the scheme." Unfortunately, the character of Mrs. Miniver is one which, up to now, has been the prerogative of angels. She is so brave, wise, loving, true, humorous, kind, understanding and well-dressed that, in spite of Miss Garson's clever handling, she is nearly incredible. She never lets up or down for a second, and carries the torch of courageous womanhood so high it sets fire to reason.
This is a long, sentimental, nigh whimsical film, and will be wept over by every woman who feels in a self-sacrificial mood. The acting is good. Even Mr. Leo Genn, as a vitriolic general, manages to get away with a rendering of Grieg's piano concerto, playing with all the brilliance of a Myra Hess, and not, as any decent general should, with one finger. The Miniver Story, unlike its predecessor. is not exaggeratedly false to English womanhood, but it is sufficiently overdrawn and sufficiently saccharine to make one glad the lady has found her final resting place.
Directed, by Mr. Sydney Salkow and produced by Mr. Anthony Havelock-Allen, Shadow of the Eagle has a certain splendour about it which makes up for its certain tediousness. A romantic story embracing Catherine of Russia, Elizabeth Tarakanova, pretender to the throne, and Count Orloff, takes us to the glories of Venice as well as to the Crimea and St. Petersburg, and if neither Mr. Richard Greene, Miss Valentina Cortesa nor Miss Binnie Barnes distil the aroma of old Russia, the photography and direction are magnificently compelling. Flowing cloaks and horses on the sky- line, rtCnning fights and cloud effects, shadows on walls and vast ornate interiors are trapped by the camera to form an exciting and slightly menacing background to a tame play. The eyes, if not the ears, are completely satisfied, and there are moments which would, if one cared about the hero and heroine, be exciting. As it is, they can be commended for being technically brilliant. * Following our visit to an American madhouse Hollywood, still aflame with missionary zeal, takes us into a women's prison. Caged, like The Snake Pit, is a very fine production, and can be guaranteed to make one feel as low as a drain. The protagonist is Miss Eleanor Parker, and she gives a most vivid and painful performance as a young girl, a first offender, who, from her initial shame and terror, grows, under the cultivating hands of a sadistic matron, a misguided board of governors and the old lags with whom she lives, into a hard-boiled, bitter, brassy woman. Refused probation because she has no home to go to, her baby taken from her because she cannot find someone outside to care for it, bullied and corrupted, she symbolises all that is bad in the prison system. It is stressed that English prisons are not at all like this one (presumably lest we should get alarmed and refuse to send our daughters there), but one cannot help wondering. Between swimming-pools and poetry readings and solitary confinement in a wet cell there must be a middle way, and one hopes, being shamefully ignorant, that it is ours Mr. John Cromwell has directed the film with distressing skill, and if one never weeps one would like, on the whole, to die.
VIRGINIA GRAHAM.
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