CINEMA
“Lights Out." .(Leicester Square.)--“Lemon Drop Kid." (Plaza.) Father's Little Dividend." (Empire.) Lights Out concerns the rehabilitation of a blinded war-veteran. Mr. Arthur Kennedy, fighting his way upward through an agony of despair and self-pity to the final realisation that living still has its possibilities, gives ope of the most sincere and moving perform- ances of his career. While aiming chiefly at the public's heart, the film also appeals to its intelligence, and not only do we see how the blind are taught to fend for themselves, to cultivate their other senses, to gain a measure of independence, but we are given a number of salutary lessons as to the manner in which we should treat the blind. Indeed the picture is, to my mind, so closely packed with information about, compassion for and understanding of the blind that it has a somewhat encyclopaedic air. Any one of the themes, the readjustment of a sightless man's attitude to a pitying family, the emotional shock of discovering that his best friend is a negro, the joy of realising that he need not rely entirely on others—any of these could have well withstood a longer and more profound study. But evidently there was a great eagerness to challenge us with every horror and every hope, every major upheaval and every minor irritation experienced by the blind. The direction by Mr. Mark Robson is excellent, and in addition to Mr. Kennedy's fine performance there is a laree cast acting with ercat sensitiveness and the minimum of sentimentality.
Mr. Bob Hope has made another picture based on a story by Mr. Damon Runyan, and this one, The Lemon Drop Kid, is very nearly—as they undoubtedly no longer say in New York—a hum- dinger. Mr. Hope is an unsuccessful racecourse tipster, and in order to raise sufficient money to discharge a debt he embarks on a number of corkscrew-crooked enterprises ranging from collecting money in the streets dressed up as Santa Claus to starting a home for old people—what he calls " old dolls "—in a disused casino. There are a few longueurs perhaps, but on the whole it is excel- lent fun.
I have left myself small space for Father's Little Dividend, but suffice to say it is a soothing sentimental sequel to Father of the Bride. Starring the same cast, Mr. Spencer Tracy, Miss Joan Bennett, Miss Elizabeth Taylor and Mr. Don Taylor, it centres on Mr. Tracy's curiously feminine reluctance to have a grand- child, his distaste for its appearance and habits when it arrives and his ultimate surrender to its toothless charms. All rather pleasant
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