Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-09-28

uuuBTy pduy.
The British import now ai
able to stand on its own artist
found in the circumstance that
it takes a hackneyed subject
the eternal triangle-dig into
its human values and presents
them with something Of Q fresh
surface.
Thanks to q searching per-
Torrance by Yvonne Mitchell
in the wife role, its pursuit Of
the pathos and comedy Of an
ebbing middle-class marriage Is
considerably more rewarding
than one more mere leer at In
fidelity. The dressing gown in
the title has nothing to do with
the filmy negligee Of, the other
woman in the case. It refers
instead to the breakfast stained
garment which bangles around
Miss Mitchell's wife as the
symbol Of everything her hus-
band finds distasteful.
= The genius Of Miss Mitchell's
performance Is its neat balance
on the hairline that separates
comedy and tragedy.
So
As the wife whose husband
has become enamoured Of his
crisp attractive secretary, Miss
Mitchell is almost q caricature,
but Q touching one, Of the
woman gone to seed in mar
riage. The house she runs
could not be more disorderly
in the literal sense Of the word.
The kitchen stove and sink
are stacked with dirty pans
and dishes. The dining table is
a litter Of cereal boxes. milk
bottles and unironed laun-
dry. The combined untidy-
ness Of these Is about equal
to that Of Miss Mitchell's per-
sonal appearance. that Of a
woman so sure her home is
her castle that she never sees
it as the hovel she permits It
to be.
With this drugged. once
loved. lump to deal with. the
husband played by Anthony
Quayle is at q loss to make
her even understand he has
emotionally left home for
another woman. Once he does
get this across however. Miss
Mitchell pulls together the
scattered remnants Of woman
who deserved love and is de-
termined to do so again.
Now. the screen play by Ted
Wallis. is directed by J. Lee
Thompson. becomes poignant.
Miss Mitchell in fighting mood
is q panicked, punch drunk
figure and an object Of pity.
There Is almost nothing left to
be saved Of the marriage to
which she became so indiffer-
ent and by which her husband
became repealed.
It is part Of the honest
realism Of Woman in A Dress
ing Gown" however. that the
sympathy Miss Mitchell's panic
inspires is never allowed to OBJ
scure the fact that she Is also
. comedy figure. In fact, one
Of the most heartbreakingly
funny scenes Of the season is
that in which she manages
to get q hair-do and q new
dress only to become once more
a sodden mess in Q sudden
summer transform.
Apart from Miss Mitchell's
acting, woman in A Dressing
Gown" Is without notable dis
tinctions. Its other characters
are a bit better than stereo-
types, but not much, and its
triangle situation is, on the
whole. the conventional one.
The other players indeed
seem too often merely inciden.
tai. Anthony Quayle as the
husband so hard put to hurt
such q shabby butterfly al
Miss Mitchell; Sylvia Syms Al
the secretary who undertakes
to give spine to her hesitanI
sutton; and Andrew Ray as thu
boy who knows his mother
faults and is dismayed by then
but still knows q mothers due
Woman in A Dressing
Gown" like most British pic.
lures. is deity cast in it
minor roles and is given {