Evening star., 1937-08-05


when he and other canny citizens
able trickery.
The life Of Mr.. Fisk, however, has
placed no restrictions on the script
writers Of this cinema, who have fic-
tionized it and hokumed it up into
combination of high finance and low
comedy, where anything that will get
q laugh goes. This, of course, is
pretty smart idea. There's material
In the career of Fisk for a serious and
dramatic film biography but audiences
never would be able to follow the
trick manipulations of stocks, bonds
and other peoples money which made
Jim Fisk legend. The sole purpose
of the R-K-O Radio people when they
made Toast of New York" was to en-
tertain and the deals engineered by
Fisk, while filled with considerable
drama, probably would be less enter
tanning on the screen than is this
comic biography.
So, with satire slapped on with a
whitewash brush the goal, it matters
not that the writer's have allowed
Fisk to live to be shot by an irate
investor rather than in a more per-
sonal affair, nor that they have devil
ated on occasion from true history.
r. There's many a laugh and plenty of
enjoyment in Toast of New York"
for all its inane moments and its exag-
gerations.
Edward Arnold, the cinema's favorite
titan of industry and finance. IS Jim
Fisk, for the simple reason there's no
one else about who would fit the role
so handily. He's vigorous and occa-
sionally ruthless, as usual, in the part.
But he also manages to inject sug-
gestion of satire and some light
hearted playing into his career of
cotton-smuggling, railroad stock phe-
nagling, gold manipulation and gen.
erous courting and protection of Josie
Mansfield.
For stooges throughout his rise from
an itinerant peddler to his fall on
BLACK Friday he has Jack Oakie
:. and Cary Grant. Oakie is around
- strictly for laughs and when Mr..
{. Oakie is around the laughs are there.
: Mr.. Grants task consists mainly of
: being handsome and then being honor
able and trying to save the country
, when Fisk tries to buy up all the gold
there is, but he does it we'll.
The Toast of New York" is con-
siderably enriched. too, by Donald
Meeks humorous and deft clowning OF
the role of Uncle Danl Drew, whose
artistry Is so deft he even filches a
. scene now and then right out from
: under Mr.. Arnolds nose, a good trick
even if he couldn't do it. Others
closely associated to this hyped-up
version of the Jim Fisk legend are
Josie Mansfield, role which gives
Frances Farmer little to do but walk
through, and the elder Cornelius
Vanderbilt, played mighty well by
Clarence Kolb.
r. Rowland v. Lee directed the piece
with a pace that keeps the laughs
rolling in and keeps the heavy mo-
ments in their places.
IT MAY be August and it may be
hot, but there's crisp Fall tang
in the air if you point your nose
toward Mr. Edmund Plohns National
Theater. Comes news from New York,
via the local outpost of the Theater
. Guild and the American Theater So
ciety, that October 18 is the date set
for the opening of the weeks engage
ment at the National of the Alfred
LuntLynn Fontanne production of
"Amphitryon 49,"
The play is due to arrive on
Broadway November /, the third pro-
duction Of the guilds twentieth season
season. s0liAk
SHOOTING from the Cuff: Anna
bella, the lovely lass from France,
who set people over here by the ears
in Wings of the Morning" is the
star of the Rialto's next. It's "Under
the Red Robe" with Conrad Veidt in