Evening star., 1944-04-14

drama OF the flve Sullivan brothers
OF Waterloo, Iowa, who were killed
IN one OF the wars early naval bat
ties. The epic quality is regrettably
missing In the film, "The Sullivans," !"
which now undertakes to retell the
story on the screen at Loews Capt.
tol Theater. What 20th Century Fox
has produced Is q sluggish, senti-
mental drama which proves once
more that the deeds of heroes lie
beyond the, eloQuence OF most screen
writer's. Or most of any other kind
Of writer's for that matter. That is
aesad thing.
Mary Mccall, jr., who wrote the
screen version of the Sullivans' saga,
no doubt can insist that apart from
their mass sacrifice for freedom, the
brothers were typical middle -class,
middle-Western Americans. That
probably Is true, but 1t is equally
true that screen drama ID not FASH
ioned out of the typical by the
method used here. What results is
a simple, homespun narrative of an
Irish-American family. Unless you
share the authors sentimental re-
gard for its tribulations and its
jokes, it is unlikely to be your IA
vorite piece of entertainment for the
current week.
The Hollywood account Of the
Sullivans' life is much more pains
taking than inspired. 1t begins at
the baptismal font with the first
Sullivan son, George. 1t stays there
until the christening of AL, the
youngest and most elm of the tribe,
Is over. The Sullivans were endowed
with q deep sense of clan or family.
They fought rs gang, played as
one, and went to school and church
together and shared life with that
completeness which Is given to large
families ruled by affection. The
Sullivans were SO inseparable that
they had to die that way, Miss NC
Call says, but the drama implicit in
that statement somehow lacks the
force 1t should have.
The lightheartedness which rules
the childhood and adolescence of the
Sullivans Is distinctly the standard
brand. 1t is related to such details
as the fathers being asked by five
little Sullivans, in order, why he
cuts himself while shaving. A little
later, four of the offspring virtually
wreck the house trying to build
woodbox into the kitchen wall.
One senses the Mark Twain in
huence in much of the early part OF
the narrative and feels that he did
a much better job.
The passage which deals with the
truly epic incident in the life of the
Sullivan family makes an inevitably
dramatic climax to their story. Not
even the Navy cared to risk sepa-
rating them when they enlisted in a
body after Pearl Harbor and they
went on from that point to die as a
group in one of those exciting Sc
|quences of heroism which Hollywood
has learned to do rather con-
vincingly.
As might be expected, Thomas
Mitchell as Father Sullivan gives
the outstanding performance in the
picture which Lloyd Bacon directed
with such marked reverence for the
over-trivial. A proud man is the
senior Sullivan. but he also is
quick-tempered one and an indi-
vidualist whose methods of rearing
children are not out of the latest
books. Mr.. Mitchell makes quite a
character OF him as does Selena
Royle Of the patient, hard working
and finally jealous Mrs. Sullivan.
1t requires 10 performers to
introduce the Sullivan sons in their
childhood and adolescent phases,
but the two most likely to be marked
are Bobby Driscoll and Edward
Ryan, who play Al, the youngest
son. Anne Baxter, the glamour touch
in the cast. impersonates AIS fiancee
and wife, but not very conspicuously
as the script is written.
Rxx
Walter O'Keefe. the one comedian n