IT ALL CAME TRUE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 87, 21 February 1941, Page 16

IT ALL CAME TRUE

(Warner Bros.)

FTER having had to sit through a deluge of noisily sentimental music played on the theatre’s Grand Organ (sic), and a deplorable’ short-feature in

crude colour about the Mounties, we came to "It All Came True" with some excuse for hoping that our expectations of this film would do just that. After all, it had been advertised as "the Year’s Must-See Hit," and it was written by Louis Bromfield; and although the former was hardly a valid reason for optimism, we are still innocent enough to be influenced sometimes by advertising. In this case, however, our high expectations were not altogether sustained. Not that "It All Came True" is a poor film or that it is entirely lacking in distinction. On the contrary it contains a good many bright ideas very brightly carried out. It is just that there is nothing particularly outstanding about the general effect. Nothing, in fact, to justify that "Must-See" slogan. Of Louis Bromfield’s part in it I cannot speak, but I beg leave to remain sceptical that what we saw is exactly, or even fairly remotely, like what he wrote. "Tt All Came True" is a fairy-tale done in the modern manner, about how a wicked gangster was reformed by a mother’s love (somebody else’s mother). Humphrey Bogart is the gangster, and I must say I do enjoy the way he talks out of the corner of his mouth and looks through you with those cold eyes of his. Ann Sheridan, who helps Mr. Bogart to find his soul, is also good to watch, though for a rather different reason. The story’s claim to novelty lies largely in its setting-a very old-fash-ioned boarding-house in a backwater of New York City where Una O’Connor, who is Ann Sheridan’s mother, and her partner (who is Jeffrey Lynn’s mother) maintain a collection of antique failures and eccentrics and try to defy time and the bailiffs. To this museum of the ‘nineties come Mr. Bogart, who is seeking a hide-out from the law, and Mr. Lynn, who is in Mr. Bogart’s power. It is not long before the kindly ministry of the two old ladies melts Mr. Bogart’s icy heart, ‘assisted somewhat by Miss Sheridan’s warm presence. He soon removes the threat of the bailiffs; and then, in order to put the place on a paying basis and also establish the Teputations of Miss Sheridan and Mr. Lynn as a song-writing and singing team, he turns the boarding-house into a night-club with an authentic Naughty *Nineties atmosphere. The _ gangster’s redemption is complete when he takes the rap that he had prepared for Mr. Lynn and blesses the union of Miss Sheridan and Mr. Lynn. And so the fairy-tale all comes true. Oh yeah? As the daughter of the house with a quick tongue, high spirits, and a throaty voice for singing her sweetheart’s songs, Ann Sheridan has no lack of opportunity to demonstrate her wellknown "oomph"; but Jeffrey Lynn is a trifle calf-like as her lover. It must be because he has a good profile that this young man is getting so many important parts: so far his acting hardly

justifies them. Several excellent char-acter-players are in the supporting cast, helping to give the film its peculiar flavour of thick sentimentality mixed with whimsy and toughness.