NO TIME FOR COMEDY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 97, 2 May 1941, Page 16

NO TIME FOR COMEDY

( Wiener Bros.)

N spite of the fact that I am an admirer both of Jimmy Stewart and Rosalind Russell, I went along to see this film rather despondently, for I had

the idea that I was in for still another crazy comedy. And I am feeling just a little tired of crazy comedies and of seeing Rosalind Russell — a pleasant, charming soul-forced to caper around in nightmarish creations, looking like something surrealist or psychopathic or whatnot. So it was a great relief to find her once more in her right mind and respectably clothed in almost the kind of garments your wife or mine might wear. And although the plot was as old as them thar hills it was certainly not crazy comedy. (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) I don’t claim to be very good at labels, but I should describe it as comedydrama, in that order, with the hyphen representing four years of unseen marital bliss before the arrival of the drama, in the shape of the Other Woman. Once again the small-town boy (James Stewart) makes good-this time as a play-wright-and marries his star (Rosalind Russell). Four years later he is still successful, with four comedies to his credit, but is feeling dissatisfied and unnerved in the process of writing a new play while Miss Russell is apparently inclined to be more maternal about it than any wife has a right to be. In this Not Understood frame of mind he meets Genevieve Tobin and, inspired by her, writes a tragedy which is a failure. She drops him and he returns to the loving arms of his wife, who has just concluded a half-hearted affair with Genevieve’s husband, Charlie Ruggles. This second part of the film isn’t too satisfactory. The cast doesn’t seem to know just how serious to be about the whole affair, and naturally the film audience is even more at a loss. It’s complicated, too, by having Charlie Ruggles in a comparatively straight part, not that Mr, Ruggles hasn’t every right to a straight part, but it’s not exactly straight. And Stewart, who is still in his anecdotage, strikes a hollow note here and there. But the earlier half is good fun and Stewart is perfectly at home as the ingenuous country youth-he should be by now, though I don’t suppose it is his fault that he has played the part so often. There is some bright dialogue, especially from a gentleman called Allyn Josylin (pstudionym?) whose performance was much more intelligent than the label he appeared under. Altogether, if you like Rosalind Russell and Jimmy Stewart, it’s quite worth paying a girl that extra half-crown to mind the children while you go and see it.