Evening star., 1944-01-14

scientists are prosaic things lived IN
to the layman. Nine. Curie's life
was fascinating one. athrob with
two great and dramatic loves, and
Metro -Goldwyn- Mayors picture has
caught its every glow In one of the
most exciting biographies the screen
has ever accomplished. In the GEN.
tral role, one to which she brings
the graces of warmth, intelligence
and beauty, Greer Carson gives one
of the superlative performances of
her career, making it the perfect
companion piece to her unforgettable
Mrs. Miniver.
The Curies, Marie and Pierre (the
latter played by Walter Pidgeon) ),
lived a love story that must have
been one of the great romances and
provided the inspiration which led
them to the discovery of radium
That love story is told in Madame
Curie" with a. dignity that never
modif1es its essential warmth, but
1t Is not overemphasized in this
screen adaptation of Eve Curie's
colorful biography Of her mother.
1t provides rather the exciting un-
dertone for a screen play that finds
its most tingling drama in the lab
oratory of the Curies. There Is
where they conducted their long
experiment in the separation of
radium from its mercilessly stub
born pitchbleIl6e base and there Is
where the picture spends most of its
time. Barely has time been more
excitingly and dramatically con-
sumed.
The brilliance OF Madame Curie
which finds It's climax in the superb
portraits OF the beautiful scientist
and her devoted husband by Miss
Carson and Pidgeon, begins in
a screen script that is unfailingly
fine dramatic literature. 1t opens
with Mime. Curie's university days
in Paris where she is a pretty Polish
girl working toward degree that
will take her back to her native
land as teacher. It follows her
through her first paid job in which
she works in the laboratory of Dr.
Pierre Curie on a research project
Of her own, works with a devotion
which piques the curiosity Of even
so detached a man as the good doc.
tor. 1t goes from there through
their cool, aloof courtship which
gives the film its fine element OF
gentle comedy, their marriage and
with properly decorous speed to the
laboratory where the real dream of
the Curies was laid.
The outstanding excellence Of
Madame Curie" is undoubtedly |
the quality of high excitement
which attaches to the pairs in
vestigation Of the defiant, elusive
pitchblende. Years went into their
great project. They were years of
high hopes and savage disappoint-
ments, of backbreaking labor in a
crude, unheated little shed, of a
great and fully shared devotion
which seemed destined to be
crowned with futility. AS the
Curies discovered, nature hides her
secrets deeply and defends them
with a baffling cunning. but the
fight provides more drama than is
to be found in 10 ordinary films.
Never for a moment Is there q
tagging OF interest in the expert
ment as it has been photographed,
and when 1t comes to the final
test on the Curie electrometer the
film has quality of suspense that
is actually painful.
X y
Madame Curie" represents an
almost ideal blending Of the ele-
ments which make superb screen
entertainment The awkward
courtship of Pierre is a thing of
excellent comedy, handicapped oc-
casionally by an extreme of self
consciousness. The romance of the
pair is replete with touching pas
sages. one of the best that in which
the triumphant Pierre remembers
that his wife has been a beautiful
woman as well as a determined
and devoted one. This sequence is
made doubly moving by its unex-
pected climax, the tragic death of