IN LINCOLN’S DAY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22514, 23 September 1938, Page 7

IN LINCOLN’S DAY

Gripping drama and comedy mingle in a story told in terms of ■ down-to-earth human characters in “Of Human Hearts',” a story of Abraham Lincoln’s day which brings Walter Huston to the screen for the first time since his

Walter Huston Returns in “Of Human Hearts”

triumphs in “Dodsworth.” The film is coming to the Avon. “Of Human Hearts,” like “Ah Wilderness!” was directed by Clarence Brown., Though the story is entirely different and the dramatic theme one of the greatest in literature, it shares with the' O’Neill play the. quality of plain humanity, with characters so genuine that the audience really looks upon a cross section of American life. Based on Honore Morrow’s story of an itinerant preacher in a pioneer Ohio village, its principal characters are Huston, as Ethan Wilkins, the zealous clergyman; Stewart as his son, who prefers medicine to saving souls; and Beulah Bondi as the adoring wife, who tries to follow both blindly. Huston plays his, character with restraint and a genuine human quality. Stewart is given an opportunity for some of the finest dramatic acting in his career, and Beulah Bondi as the mother is the gripping figure in- the drama.

The story starts before the Civil War. Father and son do not .understand each other. There is a quarrel and the boy leaves for a medical college. When the father dies the mother sacrifices everything she owns to educate her son. He becomes a great surgeon but forgets his mother , until his feet are set on the right path by Lincoln. The story is told with many simple, homely characters; Charles Cobum as the bibulous, kindly village doctor; Guy Kibbee as the skinflint storekeeper; John Carradine in an amazing portrayal of Lincoln; Ann Rutherford as the boy’s sweetheart. Leatrice Joy Gilbert, the daughter of John Gilbert, plays the heroine as a child and Gene Reynolds plays Stewart in boyhood. Charley Grapewin as the horse trader,. Clem Bevans as the comical Elder Massey, Charles Peck, Arthur Aylesworth, John Miljan, Gene Lockhart, Sterling Holloway, and Leona Roberts are other bright spots among the character players. DANIELLE’S RECIPE Any girl can be ■ glamorous if she is willing to take a bit of trouble. So says Danielle - Darrieux, the - Parisian beauty, who has been voted the outstanding glamour girl of the European screen by the French. ' While acting the scenes of her American screen debut at Universal studios in “The Rage of Paris,” she paused long enough to develp her theory that any Woman . could have “all the glamour she wants.” Whait she said was: “The rules?. Walk 10 blocks every day, eat sensibly, and get plenty of sleep.”