Evening star., 1947-10-30

solidly agreeable humor, but the We
of an excess Of whimsicality. 1t is
the same pixilated pitch of those
participating in Robert Riskin's pro-
duction.
Magic Town" is another of those
cinema meditations on small town
America, better than many, but con-
siderably shy of the best. The town,
Grandview, actually is the films
hero with Stewart cast as a sort of
unwilling, rather wistful villain in
its life. Before their differences are
composed, the Keith offering
drenches the landscape In a lot of
strained sentiment, a few passages
of wistfulness, and some genuinely
moving comedy interludes.
At its peak, however, the SCREEN
play never measures up to the pos
sibilities Of the basic idea. That is
something that one seldom says OF
picture so pleasantly cast. but 1t
Is the case here.
As the chief character in Magic
Town." Stewart is a kind Of mad
genius functioning in the field Of
public pulse taking. In this pre-
sumably cold and calculating art, he
is a quite human type with the
normal allotment Of frailty.
His chief weakness Is that he
thinks the big poll people (those in
stitute set-ups) are fools for operat-
ing on national scale. His convic-
tion is that there is a miracle small
town somewhere in the United
States that represents perfect
cross section of America. If he can
And it, he can do one-man, one
town poll that will knock the spots
off the competition in both accuracy
and low cost.
Grandview turns out to be his
Magic Town"
Being a nice guy at heart, Stew
arts man hates the notion that he
must be furtive in dealing with
Grandview, but as poll expert he
knows the danger Of proceeding
otherwise. Once Grandview dis
covers it is the yardstick OF Ameri-
can opinion, he Is sure it will suffer
a fatal attack Of self CONSCIOUSNESS.
The drama of the picture rests on
the suspenseful point Of how long he
can keep Grandview being its
natural self. That is not bad idea
for a movie, but it is not as good
an idea as Producer Riskin and Di-
rector William Wellman think it Is.
Next to its gift of averageness,
the best thing about Grandview
from Stewards viewpoint Is Jane
Wyman. She not only is the COM
munity's most attractive young fe-
male asset, she is also the editor
of its idealistic newspaper. 1t Is
In the latter role that she turns
out to be the natural enemy OF
Stewart, even though the attraction
between them is irresistible.
A number of amiable small town
characters-a little too amiable,
everybody is-and a number OF
laughable political and social situa-
tions are dropped into the script
which Riskin wrote. In the course
of turning the community into his
innocent stooge, Stewart takes over
the high school basketball team,
invades and disrupts a meeting
that is about to build a new Civic
Center, goes to the high school
victory dance, and otherwise be-
comes q civic leader.
The day must come, however,
when his chicanery Is exposed by
the girl he loves. 1t is at that point
that Grandview goes beserk with
the notion that 1t is the perfect
American symbol, enjoys its brief
moment as the hero community
of the country, and then becomes
the laughing stock of even the
most solemn radio commentators.
As sort of Mr.. Deeds with
reverse English, Stewart is alter
nately wistful and wryly humorous
semivillain in Magic Town" but
the overall effect of his role will
not add anything to his stature.
Miss Wyman, too, is as winning
as the script permits her to be,