Evening star., 1944-08-30


see him huff and puff his way
through a chain of vicissitudes that
would demolish lesser creature.
Latest cinema scriptists to reap
the reward of Laughton's way with
a meaty ham) role of this sort are
those who wrote THE Man From
Down Under" which opened today
at the Little Theater. Their pic
ture gets the works from the corpu-
lent comic who, in the meantime, is
getting the works from Binnie
Barnes. The work Of the pair of
them is going to be honored by no
academy awards, but it contrives to
make THE Man From Down Under"
an agreeable fable which approaches
drama on occasion but is content
most of the time to stick to a kind
of broad slapstick.
There have been many worse COM
edies. a phrase we yearn some day
to see quoted df the Little's man
agement is listening.
X X X X
The script which Wells Root and
Thomas Seller dashed off for Laugh
ton on this occasion presents him
first as tough, rake-hell sergeant
in the Australian Army right after
the armistice of 1918. He has come
out of the war with an uncontrol-
liable yen to do patch of fancy
drinking mixed with proper pinch
of disorderly conduct. He also has
come out of 1t with a jaw that dis
locates at the slightest touch and
which can be restored to normality
only by being Dashed by small NAL
let which the sergeant carries in his
pocket for such emergencies.
That is not bad way for a Gin
ema script to get going and clearly
Laughton, Miss Barnes and the 9TH
ers like the spirit of the thing. Be-
meath his raffish facade, the uproar-
1ous sergeant has the standard SEN
timental heart Of such people and
before he can get boat for Austria
liza he finds himself the adopted
father of couple Of war orphans,
tiny, forlorn and evenly divided be-
tween the sexes.
The principal things that happen
IN Australia is that the boy turns
out to be blistering success as q
light heavyweight fighter. For him,
Laughton dreams of the empire
championship and out of the title
he also dreams Of taking enough
cash to set up the troupe in a nice
little resort hotel in the country.
1t can't be said that this picture
fails in the cardinal element of ac-
tion or movement.
1t gives Laughton many a mo-
ment of broad comedy. trickily con-
trasted with such tense moments as
that in which the young fighter wins
his first big scrap. in which he wins
another In an outrageous attack on
his sisters suitor, and the confusion
growing out of his mixed emotions
toward the girl.
Miss Barnes is out of the picture
during these intervals, but when she
gets back the comedy flavor is i'm
proved considerably. There is a very
funny sequence in which she, the
widow now of prominent English
man, scorns Laughton's arrogant
courtship, rides him for his fake
success, and finally gets his last
farthing to complete his humilia-
ton for having left her waiting at
the church back there in Paris.
There is another laugh passage,
not very original one. which profits
by Laughton's presence, in which the
hotel man and his stooge trick a
liquor company representative out
OF a beautiful supply Of champagne
by the .expedient of getting him
plastered.
X
The romance element is provided
IN the Australian area of the film
by Donna Reed as the girl, Richard
Carlson as the young prize fighter.
1t takes them long time to learn
the important truth that they are
not brother and sister, after all, but