Evening star., 1947-08-01

a loose use of the word "lady," :"
Earle's new screen attraction. The
heroine of its case history is gilt
tering playgirl impersonated by
Miss Lamar. What she goes
through before life, love, the law
and her psychiatrist finish with her
makes one of those lacquered love
stories on which the screen dotes.
AS dramatic fare, however, 1t suf-
fers from being made with an eye
apparently more fixed on the box
Office than upon the psychologist
values implicit in the basic idea.
One gathers that the decision to
wiring Miss Lamarr's confesson was
regarded simply as the tidier way
to send her away happily with Den
mis- O'Keefe at the fadeout. End
ings must be tidy, you know.
A play. by Edward Sheldon and
Margaret Aver Barnes provides the
structure of "Dishonored Lady"
It's setting is the highly polished
world Of those inspired wantons
who apparently edit, advertise in,
or merely read ultra-sophisticated
magazines.
Miss Lamar is presented as the
art editor of such periodical, called
Boulevard. If anything, she is
slicker than the magazine, at least
on the surface,
Below the surface, however, there
is a split in her personality. One
half of her is a reckless, excitement
seeking playgirl, the other appar-
emily a lady of normal moral tone
and highly critical of standards any
lower than her own.
This basic inner conflict lends it
self to easy illustration in the art
full hands of Director Robert Steven
son and his assistants on the story
of "Dishonored Lady" They are
quite glib as Hollywood seems to
have become, in disposing their
tormented heroine between two
groups Of natural enemies.
The one group is headed by
young research pathologist (O'Keefe)
and the amiable occupants Of a
downtown boarding house where
Miss Lamar has taken refuge from
her worse self. She has allied her
self with these wholesome humans
at the suggestion of her psychiatrist
morris Carnovsky), kindly and
wise reedeemer of beautiful ruins
such as the tortured editor.
Naturally, the other team is COM
posed of Miss Lamarr's old play
mates, especially rich, handsome,
and specifically polite jewel i'm
porter who, like herself, has lost
touch with rational values.
The battle the rival outfits stage
for Miss Lamar Is not the sort cal
culated to give a girl serenity, but
1t does have the virtue Of keeping
the pace of "Dishonored Lady" live
ly by screen melodrama standards.
X X X 4
There is never any conviction
that the screenplay is giving any
thing more than cursory scrutiny
to it's theme, but it does show more
than average dexterity in the treat
ment of its incident. In sardonic
way, it achieves few moments of
humor, but its major aim is to keep
Miss Lamar moving from jam to
jam from which it seems neither the
psychiatrist's skill nor the young
pathologist's love can retrieve her.
In common with SO many stories
of its kind, "Dishonored Lady" has
the weakness that it might utterly
destroy itself at any moment should
one of the characters grow careless
enough to speak sensibly. This
never happens, however, until it is
time for one audience to move out
and another to replace it.
Miss Lamar makes a properly
beautiful heroine for "Dishonored
Lady," but never a quite believable
one. There always is actually doubt
that the young man genuinely In
love with her could have expected
any one so lovely to have come to
him mscathed. AS young scien-
tist given to the deductive tech
nique of his profession, he must have
recognized her as an inevitably Sc
ductive type. The screen play says
he did nothing Of the kind, although
it certainly offers lots Of evidence
that he should have.
Most of those who support Miss
Lamar in her suffering in "Dis-
honored Lady" have d seemingly
easv ASSURANCE that if thew saeY,, fn |