Evening star., 1935-08-31


Almost every incident in the picture
at the Palace this week has been
pointed to illumine the emotional ex-
periences of this unhappy person.
Consequently the film offers Greta
Garbo great opportunity to arouse in
audiences the mixture of pity and ad-
miration which has always poured
forth in response to competent work
by an able tragedienne. She comes
to that task we'll equipped, but her
efforts are somewhat dulled by q
moral situation which has lost much
OF its point.
In this day of easy divorce it Is
difficult to appreciate fully the signifi-
canoe of Anna Karenina's most de-
cisive and fatal action-her abandon
ment Of a cold-blooded husband and a
beloved child in order to be with her
lover, Count Vronsky. Her position
at once became impossible in society
SO rigidly codified and at the same
time so boorish as the aristocracy of
Czarist Russia. Today she could have
obtained a divorce and married the
count, and been accepted anywhere.
In her era, she might just as well have
committed suicide as to defy con-
vention. When she found her lover
becoming restless in the equivocal
position which had converted him
from a dashing army officer into a
civilian celebrated only because of his
connection with a notorious scandal,
then, and only then, did she realize
that she had stripped her own life
of meaning.
This of course does not make very
cheerful fare, but it has been contrived
with pageantry, suavity and excellent
dramatic sense. The scenario writer's
choose to ignore most of the social
criticism implied in Tolstoi's tale,
which rather more sympathized with
Anna than with the social order which
crushed her. There are only occasional
scenes suggestive of the contempt
Tolstoi felt for a society which was
brilliantly attired, rich and inclined
to be both immoral and vulgar. As
Tolstoi was Of the aristocracy himself,
his remarks were the more trenchant.
No doubt his philosophy of human
kindness was considered almost trail
torous by his fellow bluebloods. Some
Of that has been retained in the film
version of Anna Karenina," which
suggests how cruel romantic love can
become when the gilt wears of.
From the box-office standpoint
"Anna Karenina" probably Is not the
best picture Miss Garbo ever made
It is, nevertheless, a literate and adult
fable, which occasionally achieves the
level of a work of art-in that horrible,
delicately handled, and fascinating last
scene in the railway station, for ex-
ample. At other times Clarence
Brown permitted the direction to
lapse to the tempo of tableaux.
concentrating so thoroughly on one
character he forgot to animate any
others at all. Neither his nor Miss
Garbo's efforts were greatly helped by
Frederic March's wooden performance,
an astonishingly unconVncing por-
trayal from this actor. Freddie Bar
tholomew, Basil Rathbone, Reginald
Owen and Maureen O'Sullivan, May
Robson and Reginald Denny acquit
themselves creditably in lesser roles.
Mr.. Rathbone is especially effective as
a gentleman who has turned into so
much ice.
THE Gaumont- British explorations
of little-known histories continue
with Loves of q Dictator" which to-
day reopened Washington's foreign
cinema house, the Belasco. Based on
q meteoric rise to power achieved by
one DR.. Frederick Struensee, who
jumpd from obscurity to dictatorial
power in the Denmark of Christian
VII, in q few years, and as quickly
lost his head through the jealous
scheming of Christians aristocracy,
this pageant is played with some
humor and occasional power by Give
Brook and Madeleine Carroll, a win
some British blond.
Decidedly English in pace, the film
nevertheless rolls along on the melo-
drama inherent in the antics of an
opportunist. Frederick Struensee was
Just that until the moment he became
enamored of Christians Queen Caro-
line Mathilde. Thereafter he behaved
less shrewdly and soon earned a nice
comfortable niche for his neck on the
chopping block.
In Loves of a Dictator" "a title
indicating the Hollywood influence has
drifted gently into Sussex-on- -Wyn-
fromingindon, for NJ Brook has only
one love after he attains fame and he
never is more than a behind-the-
throne dictator, with Christian con-
tinuing to sign all orders), Struensee
forfeits his life to his enemies on con-
dition that Caroline Mathilde shall be
allowed to return to her native Eng
land.
History has it that Caroline actually
was imprisoned two years and then
permitted to leave for Germany, where
she died shortly, but the film version
offers occasion for one of those bitter
sweet partings of which we have all
grown SO fond. It is well done by
both Mr.. Brook and Miss Carroll.
Emlyn Williams Christian is a
nicely turned impersonation of an
affected zany, and the others in the
cast include Alfred Drayton, Helen
Haye, Frank Cellier and Isabel Jeans
The Belasco, always the most orig
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