Evening star., 1944-04-21

affair, rather like a summer cruise
Both Kaye and the plot, however,
are no less than drenched in techni-
color and ornamented with all of
Producer Samuel Goldwyn's beauti-
full girls. That gives up in Arms
probably all it needs to divert all
save the most churlish from the
sense that it was written by three
people who flunked Freshman COM
position.
Hayes first picture testifies hand
somely to the fact that he is one
lof the brilliant new comedians. In
doing so, it further proves that Mr..
Goldwyn is the same old fox in his
Willingness to let a cinema unknown
become solo star in his screen
debut. No other producer you can
think of would have taken such a
gamble And it is possible that even
Mr.. Goldwyn hedged bit in adding
Dinah Shore to the company, not to
mention such other supporting play
ers as Dana Andrews, Constance
Bowling and Louis Calhern.
Y X X N
The character which Kaye as
sumes stems vaguely from the
principal one in "The Nervous
Wreck" a farce of some seasons
ago. He is a mad hypochondriac
whose draft board snatches him and
his imaginary ills right into the
Army which he all but wrecks with
his psychoneurosis.
With so talented zany to create
it, that kind of character can have
some hilarious moments in front of
a camera and Kaye see that this
one has many.
The best are those in which he
works his way into that suffering
form of recitative, or song style,
which he introduced with such
sensational results in his Broadway
hit, Lets Face It." There is one
on shipboard-a" transport that looks
like the Normandie or the Queen
Elizabeth In the heyday of luxury
travel-Which can do no less than
establish him as the funniest human
with song since Bea Lille stopped
singing in this country.
The loose-leaf quality of the plot
of Goldwyn's lavish musical leaves
room for the insertion of a Kaye
song anywhere at any time. The
picture, indeed, is but a few min
utes old when the lanky, blond
young star drifts into a mad vocal
satire on the musical movie formula
which is nastier than anything even
the critics ever have said OF 1t. It
is quite memorable song as screen
dittieS 60, but 1t falls short of the
dynamic rendering Of his Melody
in 4-F," which he brought with him
from his Broadway triumph. The
third of the Kaye vocal items is
jive affair which he does as a duet
with Miss Shore.
The latter, incidentally, is not en-
tirely obscured in "Up in Arms"
She demonstrates that a bit of
broadly comic acting is not beyond
her by playing the lovelorn sweet
heart OF Kaye, rather hefty sort
of role as roles go in the Goldwyn
musical. Her principal contribution
to the entertainment at Keith's
however, is in her special field of
song. The picture sets quite won
derful stage for her Interpretation
of Tess Torch Song" is only
slightly less modest in its treatment
of her jive number with Kaye, and
is truly simple only in a ballad,
Now 7 Know"
The roles of Andrews and Miss
Bowling, the latter a pretty new
conner, represent the plots conces-
sion to the need for romantic ele-
ment somewhere on the lavish
premises. The factor of suspense
in the love idyll which the two
contrive is provided by their con-
Germ for Kaye who is so mad about
Miss Bowling that neither she nor
her sweetheart can bear to tell him
the truth. 1t is not the most imag-
inative thing you ever heard, but
it is good for a few mild laughs
which are pleasant enough contrast
for the loud, long ones which the
picture earns when its star is per-
forming his tumultuous antics.
On the whole, "Up In Arms"
leaves it up to its irrepressible star
to introduce himself to the public
He is just the chap who can do 1t,
too, which Is fine thing for the
Keith attraction.