Evening star., 1946-01-04
By HARRY MacARTHUR.

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ings that can beset marriage in a
wartime separation have been ex-
ploded before by the cinema, but that
has not prevented Alexander Korda
from making them into a genuinely
entertaining motion picture called
vacation From Marriage" 1t Is
the thesis of Scriptwriters Glenn
ence Dane and Anthony Pelissier in
this new British-made film, which
opened yesterday at Loew's Capitol,
that two people in love are due for
great surprise when they change
SO much during three-year sepa-
ration that each looks back with dis
gust on their former drab married
life.
With this thought TO start on, the
writer's have contrived a lscreenplay
that is unpretentious, but warmly
human, film in which the people
involved act like people rather than
like the melodramatic puppets Of
those too many pictures which wan
der far from life. The writer's have
been fortunate, too, in that the lead
Ing roles in their story of marital
problem that probably is more
widespread than unique these DAYS
are played by Deborah Kerr and
Robert Donat. Miss Kerr and Mr..
Donat are two of Britail's more able
screen performers and their sensi-
tive understanding endows "Vaca-
ton From Marriage" with a consid-
erable amount of quietly humorous
realism.
X *
In spite of the fact that the pic
ture deals with two people WHO are
about to wreck their lives by a di-
vorce neither of them really wants.
the approach is less solemn than
amusing. Lightly amusing, but not
in the screwball mood which Holly
wood might have been tempted to
adopt with the same characters iii
the same situation. The Robert and
Cathy Wilson of the piece are hu-
man beings of some dimension; not
large dimensions, but normal ones.
They, even as all of us, have their
faults and 1t is easy at times to see.
Tor instance, why Cathy must have
bored the daylighss out of Robert
Just as it is difficult at other times
to see how she possibly could do SO.
Mr.. Korda, in the role of producer
director, has told the story of Robert
and Cathy on that level which has
oecome known as typical British
understatement, which in many
cases, this one included, is a very
pleasant level. Robert, for instance.
goes of to war with the Navy and
apparently becomes something of a
nero, and SO does his wife in the
WRENS. But you will have to
watch closely to find it out, lust as
you would in the case of any of their
real-life counterparts.
Mr.. Donat does not have, of course
as meaty part from an actors
standpoint as the one for which he
perhaps is best known, Mr.. Chips"
but he does apply all of his consid-
cradle skill to giving full life to the
London clerk who is blasted from his
rut by war which sends him off to
sea. Miss Kerr, of course, can do
more with the flicker of an expression
In her eyes than many young
woman OF the cinema can do with
a sweater and a 50-piece orchestra;
ner Cathy is fine. Among the others
IN the British cast, the most i'm
pressiye, perhaps. is a talented girl
named Glynis Johns, though all the
others are capable, too. No COM
plants at all here.
X X
Those who are just little weary
OF girl singers. who can't quite stand
unrequited love or are getting tired
waiting for train, should greet the
CapitolS stage show star, Miss Doro-
thy Shay, with cheers and other
forms OF vociferous approval. Miss
Shay is different from other young
lassies who sing. not in her ap-
pearance, which is not bad at all.
but IN the songs she sings. known
as the Park Avenue Hillbilly." Miss
Shay includes among other things in
her comic song repertoire such en-
gaging items as your Baby Has
Gone Down the Drainpipe" and
"Fightin', Fussin' and Feudin'," and
she is wonderful.
Also on hand to make the Capt.