Evening star., 1939-12-30

missed with mild Shrug. Ine
best that can be said is that Miss
Parsons sticks to her last, does not
try to do something at which she has
no experience. She is a commen-
tator on the strange ways of the
dream children of Bagdad-on-the-
Pacific, so she just comments. The
worst that can be said Is that the
Capitol stage seems very silly
place to write a column, even a
Hollywood gossip column.
miss lightly the doings on the Capt.
tol stage of the Hollywood Stars
of 1940"-June Preisser, Susan Hay
ward, Jane Wyman, Arleen Whelan,
Joy Hodges and Ronald Reagan.
Pert, impish and vivacious Miss
Preisser. having the personality for
it and the sure touch of seasoned
stage trouper, is the show stealer
of the lot When she sings that
ditty about all her singing teachers
advising her to learn to dance, then
goes into her acrobatics, you know
you are watching lass who Is the
mistress of her art.
The audience at yesterdays first
matinee was in mood to voice ap-
proval Of young love. too. cheering
quite Justify the romantic comedy
blackout performed by Miss Wyman
and Mr.. Reagan, whose names have
been linked in columns like Miss
Parsons The other starlets are in
troduced in manner BETTING their
talents. Miss Hayward brings of
very we'll, indeed, burlesque on an
actress playing tragic scene; Miss
Hodges sings just like the lass who
sang to George M. Cohan in I'D
Rather Be Right" and Miss Whelan
sings for all the world as though
she did not have that laryngitis.
Pleasant people all and they never
looked lovelier.
4 -
This latest adventure of young
Dr. Kildare is in the groove-not in
the groove like your favorite swing
band, but down that groove indi-
Gated by past episodes in his medical
career. Once again he has a prob
lem in his life and in solving it he
is misunderstood for a while by
gruf1, lovable old DR.. Gillespie, the
demon diagnostician of Blair Cen
eral Hospital. Once again the mis-
understanding also involves Mary,
the pretty little nurse who loves the
intern. And once again DR.. Kill
dare solves his problem, cures his
patient and returns to DR.. Gillespie's S
laboratory to battle germs and
microbes.
DR.. Kildare's problem this time
is dual one. He must think of
some way to enforce a much-needed
rest on DR.. Gillespie and he must
restore to normalcy a rich, lovely,
brooding young debutante with a
psychosis or something. This lass is
quite a problem for a young intern,
as a matter of fact. She Is con-
vinced she has a brain tumor and is
going blind. so she just ups and goes
blind when her boy friend, weary
of her neurotic didoes, exclaims you
will never see me again!"
Most of the people involved in
"The Secret of DR.. Kildare" have
been in his life before. Lew Ayres
as DR.. Kildare, Lionel Barrymore as
DR.. Gillespie, Laraine Day as Mary,
the nurse, are in their accustomed
inches. The newcomer this time is
Helen Gilbert, who again proves
what a fine idea it was to take her
out of the M-G-M studio orchestra
and put her in front of camera,
that the Nation might look upon her
image. All of them perform with
evident sincerity (Mr. Barrymore
even with gusto), but they can't
make 1.-The Secret of DR.. Kildare"
anything other than ordinary. There
is, however, something pleasant and
harmless about it's genial mediocrity.
X + X X
It might be we'll to add a note
here in reminder that the Misses