Evening star., 1939-03-02

a depressingly hollow sound, Mr.. Sh
his stride. His "Pygmalion," which
very special ceremonies and an enc
said of 1t. 1t is grand, 1t is magni
What Is more, it is the Cinderella
legend dressed up with some of the
finest comedy acting and the most
laughable dialogue you ever heard,
SO stop any silly thinking you may
have been doing that Mr.. Shaw is
too Olympian for the screen. He and
the camera have been perfect mates
all these years without any one real
izing it. And now that the union
has been consumated so splendidly,
a postscript to the movie public S
prayers that it may never be dis
solved distinctly is in order. Their
long and seemingly hopeless breach
was a terrible thing not only for
them but for those who have clam
ored for better movies.
Mr.. ShaW's romantic comedy,
which is both more romantic and
comic than most things which fall
into that category, is not without its
oAAoA eSOAAiil6os AAACy oAC oO uluIll
shorter than the usual shortcomings,
however, that only thoroughgoing
cad would even notice them. Such
person, should there be one, might
feel that the picture slumps bit
near the end; that it takes Gin
derella and Prince Uncharming too
long to get into what, in the ordinary
picture, would be the "clinch." There
is a lot of fine acting by Wendy
Hitler and Leslie Howard, and a
veritable deluge of bright dialogue,
in this area to compensate for any
delay in getting on with the thing.
X X X
Even Mr.. Shaws debut as screen
contributor Is no event to keep q
reviewer going paragraph after
paragraph without bow to Miss
Hitler. She is absolutely faultless in
the role Of the cockney guttersnipe
who is remodeled into a great lady
in three months by the semi-mad
genius in phonetics Mr Howard> i.
Lovely to look at, in an ethereal sort
Of way, Miss Hitler might be the
child of Shaw's mind, so complete is
her affinity for her role. To be the
child of a mind which had such a
long, deserved and enduring fame,
is something you can bet. Miss
Hitler is.
Mr.. Howard playing at his best in
one of those cruel genius roles
which he manages so expertly is not
the best player in the cast simply
because of Miss Killers presence
in it. She really is that good and
not even the most fanatical Howard
fan can dispute it, although he may
say, with cause, that her role is the
more sympathetic one.
Mr.. Shaw, treading in the worthy
footsteps of Shakespeare, goes back
to the Pygmalion legend for his
theme. That, of course, is the one
about the artist who made a statue
of the ideally beautiful woman, then
fell in love with it, prayed that it
might be given life, and had his
prayers answered. Mr.. Shaw has
modernized it until it is as fresh as
postwar youth tried to be.
His protagonists are a Cockney
flower girl and a genius in voice cul-
ture. On bet the latter agrees to
convert the seemingly hopeless cab
bage leaf" into such a lady in three
months that she can be taken to an
ambassadors reception and be the
belle OF the affair. You have some
thing good right there, but you won't
know how good until you actually
see the Shaw sheen on it. A dozen
sequences clamor for mention, pas
sages which in memory are good for
an echoed guffaw, but they are too
well done for adequate description.
One masterpiece is the practice
coming-Out affair. in which the girl,
like a somnambulist, goes through a
culture test with few of London's
upper crust It has a mad non
sensical quality that the screen, nor
anything else, achieves with suft1-
cient frequence. Mr.. Shaw was
walking here on that narrow line
which divides comedy and tragedy.
And with what expertness.
Even better from the standpoint
Of performance is the climactic af-
fair of the Ambassador dinner.
Miss Killers acting here is the kind
that produces that silent awe, bro
ken by laughter at the proper points,