Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-03-28

else. The result is an unbalanc
Danny can do and what he is
permitted to do in most of his
films.
The writer, then. is put in
the position of being a liability
when he is breaking his brain
trying to be an asset.
Latest evidence Of this rueful
truth Is to be found in Merry
Andrew" which opened yester-
day at Loew's Capitol Theater.
It's screen play was written by
Isobel Lennart and I. A. L. Dia-
mond from q story by Paul
Calico. All three Of these are
talented humans. but their coll
lective skills still fall short of
demanding his best from Actor
Kaye.
He is present, however. and
80 are Pier Angel and several
others, which does permit
merry Andrew" to be a rea-
sonably engaging exercise in
comedy.
In the large screen. colored
film directed by Michael Kidd.
Kaye is asked to impersonate
q youthful English schoolmas-
ter. His field is science and
mathematics in the classroom.
His hobby is archaeology.
This is something of an odd
character to find as the key
figure in q movie musical but
to the extent that anyone can
make something of it, Kaye is
the man.
Most of his success with it is
In that area of the narrative
when he goes looking in an
English meadow for a small
statue Of Pan which the Ro-
mans left behind in Caesars
day. While a small, touring cir
Gus occupies the meadow, Kaye
starts digging underneath it in
search Of the Roman relic. The
big moment of his exploration
comes when he tunnels his way
into the lions den during the
circus performance.
A stranger spot for an
archeologist to find himself in
is not easily imagined. but Kaye
makes it pretty funny especially
when his terror subsidies and he
begins to treat the lions as
unruly members of his class
room. The romantic touch is
injected when he discovers that
circus people are more con-
genial than scientists, most en-
phatically Miss Angel as a
birdlike aerialist.
This situation is played to
the hilt by everyone concerned,
but it cannot mask the fact
that what Mr.. Calico wrote
originally was a short story
which begins to look thin when
stretched out to feature film
length.
Although it is unlikely to
revolutionize pedagogy. Hayes
use of music in the classroom
has its fetching aspects. He is
both engaging and effective, for
example, in teaching that rule
about the hypotenuse of a right
triangle and in another in
stance when he makes Greek
mythology entertainingly
educational in a song about
Pan.
The supporting performances
in Merry Andrew" are be-
comingly unobtrusive as they
should be in a Kaye picture.
This is most winningly the case
in Miss Angeles portrait of the
high wire girl who has met few
Psychologists and does not
know whether to be impressed
by the type as represented by
Kaye,
Also prominent in the cast are
Baccaloni, that corpulent and
clownish refugee from grand
opera, Rex Evans as an ire
sponsible older brother of Kaye,
and stately Noel Purcell as the
father of the films shy hero.
Merry Andrew" is rather
far from Hayes best picture
but his performance makes it
clear that it is nevertheless a
Kaye movie.
4 + X
MEMOS: Jason Robards, jr.,
who stunned Broadway with
his performance as the older
brother in the Broadway pro-
duction of Long Days Journey
Into Night" has his next job.
He will play the lead in
THE Disseminated" the play