Evening star., 1946-04-12

Miss Susie Slagle's boarding house
on Laurel street, Baltimore, was
quite an adjunct to Johns Hopkins
Medical School back in 1910 Its
tradition was genteel, but not stuffy
Miss Susie's was turning out its
third generation of Hopkins doctors
at the time and the young bucks
had left their marks on the place
They were merely marks, however
not defacements Not even Elise
who was painted on the ceiling OF
the third-floor bathroom. Elise went
beyond nudity. She was Dalilike
collection of ligaments, ganglia and
the like; sort of color plate re-
moved from a medical textbook
Elise was a joke, a running gag
leaping from generation to genera
tion of Miss Susie's medical young
men. She was not at all exciting
and, come to think of it, neither is
Miss Susie Slagles" which opened
yesterday at the Earle Theater.
1t is too bad that lack of ex-
citement in movie cannot in itself
be exciting, as the first few days OF
a vacation promise 10 be. There is
no question that Miss Susie as
played by Lillian GiSh is charm
ing lady to meet, much more en-
gaging than a dozen standard movie
heroines. But nothing much ever
happens where she is, and when
anything does it is so subdued that
1t seems like nothing at all.
While her mansion and her gen.
tility set the mood of the Para
mount production at the Earle, il
Is not primarily about Miss Susie
The principal character in the plot
is played by Sonny Tufts, medica.
student who has two problems. The
serious one is how to be surgeon
although afflicted with a craven de.
sire to run away from fear of death
The lighter one how to study medi-
cine in spite of the interruption Of
Joan Caulfleld's spirited romantic
pursuit.
There Is romantic subploi
which rather surprisingly present.
Veronica Lake as a sort of modern
Florence Nightingale in love with 6
poor medical student who is goine
back to China to practice. Fun-lov.
ing Tufts and Miss Lake, who i.
usually the harshly wistful type
hardly represent brilliant casting or
Paramount's part in making mis-.
Susie Slagle's."
They create rather sharp i'm
preston that almost any two other,
would have fit better into the gen
teel flavor of the screen version O.
Augusta fuckers novel of Baltimor,
life.
Being principally concerned will
character, which should be en-
couraged on the part of the movies
Miss Susie Slagle's" probably is t,
be forgiven to some extent for it
daWdl1ng pace; not, however, TO
its lack OF incident and the jerkines
with which it moves.
Occasionally it rises to your no
ton that it must be a dramati
thing to be a student under the grea
faculty which Hopkins has produced
There is one such scene in which
fiery old Prof. Metz tells off tn
petulant son of another great on
on the faculty. And another let
the spectator in on the earnestnes
with which the examining boar,
looks rather more deeply into tn
personality of worthy student thai
most exam boards do.
For the most part. however, tn
picture is content to deal with tn
standard affairs in the private live
of Miss Susie's collection of board
ers. They are collection of tn
conventions of college life, the sing
ing in the beer hail. the Christina
party, the friendships and court
ships and the clinics. Some of ther
are colored with pathos, and NOR
with comedy, but none of them
truly dramatic.
Nor, unfortunately, quite as huma
as they obviously are supposed t
be, and probably were in Mis-
fuckers tale of Baltimore.