TIL WE MEET AGAIN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 85, 7 February 1941, Page 16

'TIL WE MEET AGAIN

(Warner Bros.)

ERE again we have new wite in an old bottle. ‘"’Til We Meet Again" (Merle Oberon, George Brent) is a remake of "One-Way Passage" which

starred Bill Powell (before he became slim enough to feature on the right side of the law) and Kay Francis. I didn’t sample the original vintage, but this sin of omission on my part did not affect my enjoyment of the new. On the other hand, the fact that I had seen " Dark Victory" did. Both, I suppose, were regafded by their producers as tragedies: the two plots were strikingly similara similarity made more pointed by the fact that Brent was the male lead in both films, while Geraldine Fitzgerald played in "’Til We Meet Again" a role almost identical with that which she had allotted to her in " Dark Victory." But "Dark Victory" was by far the more tragic story. Some might feel that(Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) quantitatively speaking-it could not be so, since in "’Til We Meet Again" both the principal characters are doomed, Merle Oberon by angina pectoris, George Brent by society. Yet to me Bette Davis was more tragic in her essential loneliness, and I am almost tempted to think of "’Til We Meet Again" as a tragedy with a happy ending. However, although it suffers by comparison with " Dark Victory," it is good entertainment. If Merle Oberon has not yet the acting experience of Bette Davis, her very youthfulness, by heightening her personal tragedy, to a great extent makes amends for this. Speaking parenthetically, I would prefer to see her in a happier part. As the condemned murderer being brought back to expiate his crime, George Brent is competent, but does not, in my opinion, rise above mere com-petence-and I do wish he hadn’t grown those Hollywood moustaches. There’s good supporting work from Eric Blore, Frank McHugh and Pat O’Brien.