Evening star., 1946-04-03

Perhaps not quite leer. but with
the speaker does not believe a VIC
1t is this favor that gives its
which opened today at the Little Th
waltz, whose parents seem to have
captain of the Palace Guard. 1t
gives you the option of taking it as
something charming in its inno-
cence or as sophisticated as Bios
som Time" would have been had
Noel Coward. instead Of Sigmund
Romberg's set, written it. There
fore, when it throws back It's pretty
head and sings, it is very likely that
your heart will sing with it.
Old Vienna, the gay and naughty
thing, has been waiting for too
many decades for just this treat
ment. 1t injects new note of mer-
riment into the beer gardens of the
Prater, and spices its beautiful
young expresses so pleasantly that
they are certain to grow some day
into older empresSes who will be
played by Tallulah Bankhead.
X Xxx
The sophisticated flavor of Robert
e Sherwoods Reunion in Vienna
with the Lunts, remember?-is
suggested in the screenplay which
was the work of couple of chaps
named Montgomery Tully and Har-
~ James. The latter is not the
band leader, being much too May
fair in the tone he uses in speaking
of romance between the blades and
beauties of the films period. The
musician chiefly concerned with
Waltz Time" indeed, is one named
Hans May. 1t is quite turn he has
for three-four time, but when he
gets through with the musical idlom
of the Danube composers, it seems a
lot livelier than it did.
What it Is is equally melodic, but
whole lot merrier.
Carol Raye and Peter Graves,
the Empress and the Guards cap
tain of Waltz Time" no doubt will
come to Washington audiences as
a surprise. But pleasant surprise.
They not only know how to sing and
dance spirited Viennese waltz,
but have an equally spirited sense
of how a modern young empress
and a worldly guards officer would
act under the circumstances OF the
plot.
1t is hard to believe that the waltz
ever was juvenile delinquent
among dances, but that is the whole
premise of the picture which was
directed by Paul L. Stein.
When Maria-that'S the Empress
came to the throne, the stately
thing to dance was the minuet, OF
maybe the polka. That was what
was being done at the palace. In
the beer halls, however, the bright
young things of both sexes were
f1inging wildly happy hearts into
the waltz. AS they danced, they sang
and you can bet the rafters went on
ringing long after the curfew of the
stuffy old court had rung.
Dreams never die-Vienna," they
sing, and that is rather funny in it.
self. for no one ever seems to find
time for sleep in the Vienna which
is shown in the picture.
The treatment, the satirical mood
of Waltz Time" is what makes il
different. In its deft dialogue, there
Is always the implication that the
speakers mean just little bit more
than they are saying. 1t makes M
difference which of the character
happen to be the speaker, the dying
old Emperor, the tall and handsome
guards captain, the lovely Empress
or the merry fat man who runs th'
capitals favorite beer hall, or nigh
club. This feeling that there is more
to this than meets the ear is not al
ways present in the talk of Walt
Time" but it is handy at any sucl
time as the tale might need to b
spiked q bit for the harder one
listening.
Actually, the plot is that one which
is as old as Vienna, older than tn
waltz.
The pretty young princess find
herself suddenly with an empire II
her tiny lap and a renegade youni
officer in her heart The two do no
sit comfortably. The cabinet want
to run the Empress, the empire. ant
1t also wants to run the young mai
out of the country. Incidental to al
these warnings, it feels that tn
waltz, which is responsible for tn
social revolution among the young
will have to be suppressed at a.
costs.
There never is any question abou
how it is going to work out, but