Evening star., 1940-05-11

Son" are any number Of players
who acquit themselves with sum-
cient distinction to disprove the
charge there Is no acting in the
movies. Handsomely filling the out
lines of Springs engaging, and
otherwise, creatures are Brian
Ahearne. Madeleine Carroll, Louis
Hayward. Henry Hull, Laraine Day,
Josephine Hutchinson and others,
Each of them was given something
to work with by Spring and he will
have no occasion to feel their skill
Inadequate to his recognizably hui
man characters.
my Son, My Son." for those
whose knowledge of 1t may be fuzzy
in spite Of It's popularity. is the ac-
count of a noble father who begot
a swinish son. Evidence of the
child's predisposition toward lying,
cheating. in fact the whole gamut
Of contemplate qualities, mani
tests itself early. But Novelist Will
liam Essex, who climbed from
squalor to success on the inspira-
ton to give his son all the things
he himself had missed, is blinded to
the boys shortcomings. by a pa
ternal love unparalleled since. the
Old Testament.
The movement of my Son, My
Son" encompasses all categories of
love while focusing upon that Of
the father for the son. Running
concurrently with the major theme
is the deep affection OF the grad
ually disillusioned father for stormy,
lovable Dermott O'Riordan, his boy
hood friend; the wifely love Of
Sheilah ORiordan for her husband
and his return Of her feeling: the
deep, frustrated mutual love of the
novelist and the enchanting young
artist. Livia Vaynol, and the illicit
attachment for the caddish Oliver
which young Maeve ORiordan de-
velops in her desperate disappoint-
ment that the elder Essex sees her
only as the once little girl whom he
dandled on his knee. Never once
does this complicated aggregation
of attachments become befogged in
the direction or the playing of the
picture. They all seem highly
plausible, with the possible ex-
ception of that first-sight affair
which wrecks the lives of the novel;
ist and the pretty young artist.
That one develops with rather
startling speed, even in this age
of motorcars, airplanes, wirephotos
and the radio.
For his villainous portrait Of the
ruthless Oliver, Hayward deserves
first prize among the cast; a sort of
best dog in the show, If we know
what we mean. Man and boy, he
proves himself to be thing human
ly shaped who Is not above any
the next to final one
being a shrug for the beautiful,
talented girl who committed suicide
because of the shame he brought her.
He has achieved the most admirably
hateable character Of the season.
Most surprising impersonation is
that of Miss Day as the lovely
Maeve who makes her love for the
plain to every one except
himself, as clever a bit of acting
as any screen youngster has per-
petrated in a long time. Deeply
are the performances of
Ahearne as the noble, disappointed
father; Miss Carroll as the beau
tiful artist whose love for the elder
Essex is fouled by the Vaccinations
of the son; Hull as the elder
OHiordan, and Josephine Hutchi-
son as the austere wife who dies
out of Essex's life before she makes
it an alternate horror to that Gre
ated by his son. The others all more
than earned their pay, whatever
it may have been.
Howard Stradling, at least that's
what our cast sheet says, is re-
sponsible for the atmospheric and
Photographic soundness which make
my Son, My Son" the further
attractive.