Evening star., 1945-08-17

oCI cdiiltu ytSlcI udy over Tile dLlLlCS
CUT we refuse to change our posi-
ton. If it overlooks a single cliche
in the catalogue, we failed to jot it
down. But it has Barbara STAN
Wyck, Dennis Morgan, Sidney
Greenstreet and a half-dozen more
of Warmers better players in it and
it seemed to be convulsing every
one else in the theater. 1t could be,
of course, that it is the fashion to
be merry at the moment and that
the picture is merely perfect piece
OF timing as to release.
christmas in Connecticut" clear
ly undertakes to be a farce so diz-
zily paced that you will not be con-
scious of the fact that its material
is positively senile.
If you refuse to be caught up in
the swirling movement of it, how
ever. you will notice such familiar
details as:
The woman columnist who has
made Nation wide reputation as
an authority on cooking, homemak-
ing and marriage yet who cannot
cook. lives in dingy apartment
and is profoundly not in love with
any one.
The domineering publisher who
loves only big circulation figures
and advertising income and whose
bombastic approach to the rest of
humanity has the devastating force
of an atomic bomb.
The foreign-born chef who is
great humanist and philosophic
genius despite linguistic shortcom-
ings that put an enormous strain
upon the human ears.
A hero who is an artist and
painter chap hiding behind the
honest uniform of a chief petty
officer in the merchant marine.
And fat man who slides down g.
snowy precipice to the howls of
those witnessing his humiliation.
There are others, but these will
give you a pretty comprehensive
idea of the height to which the in
spiration of Authors Lionel Houser
and Adele Commandini rose in
writing the script for Christmas
in Connecticut"
x X x X
It must be conceded of the Earle's
new farce. however, that the really
accomplished performers assigned
to it never give the slightest inti-
nation that they have heard any of
it before. They play it with fervid
enthusiasm that is quite deceptive,
even such sophisticated ones as the
corpulent Greenstreet and Reginald
Gardiner.
A large part of the burden (sic) of
Christmas in Connecticut is car
ried by Greenstreet. His sense of
comedy has been in nowise impaired
by his long service in behalf of the
sauve and sinister fat man. In fact,
it probably is his long service to the
latter that makes so comic the spec
tacle OF his plunge down that snow
bank when he is trailing romantic
Miss Stanwyck and Morgan on the
basis of well-founded suspicion that
they may be unwisely in love.
| X X X X
The general idea of Christmas in
Connecticut" is that of Yuletide
| IllOUcCP0AO w III WIllCll flILudlly dll Ol
the guests engage in one form OF
deception or another. Miss STAN
wyck. pretending to be married and
mother and a great cook all at the
same time is the greatest deceiver
She is quite adroit., in the pretense
and so is Gardiner as literal
minded architect who is willing to
marry her on almost any terms.
Morgan comes to the party with
the sole notion of eating some OF
the woman columnist's nationally
famous meals and spends the rest OF
the time falling in love with her
and discovering that she is a COM
plete phoney in all of her well ad-
vertised aspects.
incidentally, the picture gives him
a chance to display-after all these
years-the really good voice which
got him his Hollywood contract
| when M-G-M wanted q baritone te