Evening star., 1939-09-09

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sheer experience in the role would .
have earned Garfield a magnum
cum laude by this time. Once more
he is cast as fate's fall guy, a pitt
able victim of circumstances whose
heart must develop callouses to
keep from breaking. So must his
fists and chin for the picture has
the violence of baseball game in
Brooklyn.
Jerome Odlum, whose Each
Dawn I Die" recently gave Jimmy
Cagney such dramatic field day
in the same general area of human
suffering, is the author of dust Be
My Destiny" He is just as furious
as ever about penal brutality and
stupidity that falls alike upon the
Just and unjust. His story, however,
starts slowly, has tendency to be
repetitious, and lacks the sustained
ferocity of the earlier contribution.
One of the more pleasant assets
of Dust Be My Destiny" in a grim
way, of course, is the presence OF
Priscilla Lane Miss Lane, who has
complemented Garfield so hand
somely in such previous efforts as
-Four Daughters" and Daughters
Courageous" has increased her
skill in administering lovingly to
the darkness in his soul. Miss
Lanes acting is coming right along,
and those who have thought OF her
primarily as a piquant little blond
will be mighty surprised at what
she can do with a dramatic oppor-
tunity.
The picture introduces Garfield
as one of the disinherited, a dark,
bitter lad, being belched out OF a
penitentiary in which he has served
l6 months for crime he did not
commit. His attitude is not the
most happily social one you ever
saw as a result of that experience,
but it grows worse when he IS SEN
fenced for vagrancy to do stretch
on a county farm in the South.
There he finds more of cruelty and
brutality. but he also finds love,
which is short for Miss Lane. She
is the step-daughter of the alco-
maniac overseer. who when he dis
covers her love for Garfield gets into
row with the young man and
dies of heart failure after they
have fed from the institution. The
narrative thereafter is one of those
flights from a vindictive destiny,
malevolence popping out at the
young couple at every corner.
Adversely, with which their world
is filled to overflowing, gives the
girl the strength eventually to stop
running away and the strength,
too, to halt her savagely disillu-
stoned. frightened young husband.
He stands trial for murder, is acquit-
ted and the story ends with a con-
vincing promise of compensating
happiness.
Lewis Seller, who directed Dust
Be My Destiny" has worked out
some handsome miscellany to give
his story force and continuity. He
has been so successful in the latter
quality that its essentially episode
nature is effectively concealed, al
though not too effectively.
Subordinate performances through
the picture are handled with excel
lence. Alan Hale does substantially
with the role of flrebrand editor,
fellow of wit, wisdom and keen
enough sense of justice to teach
the young man the world is not
an unmitigatedly lousy institution.
Henry Armetta is another bene-
factor of the young pair, a Greek
cafe proprietor, whose theme song,
MY Wild Irish Rose" is a nice
comedy injection, of which, Incl
dentally, this film has far more than
did Odlums contribution to the last
Cagney picture.
X X X X
That's a good, unpretentious little