SMILIN’ THROUGH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 163, 7 August 1942, Page 16

SMILIN’ THROUGH

(M-G-M)

GREAT deal, including technicolour and Jeanette "Macdonald, has been added to Smiling Through since I last saw it in 1932, and a

great deal, including Norma Shearer and the "g," has been taken away. And the technicolour and Miss Macdonald aren’t adequate compensation for the loss of the latter two. Not that we intend any disrespect to Miss Macdonald, whose songs provide the brightest spots in the film (apart from the technicoloured 1847 port). But she isn’t allowed to sing all the time, and there’s such an ‘awful lot of plot to be, worked in that it’s a wonder she’s able to do so at all. The story, as you will probably remember, concerns the wraith-like Moonyean Clare who, shot at the altar by a wicked rival for her hand, dies in her almost-husband’s arms in the year 1868, and thereafter keeps coming back in bridal veil to remind him that she is waiting for him on the Other Side. Meanwhile, bridegroom Brian Aherne lives solely on his memories, sparing the time, however, to watch the growth to beautiful womanhood of his ward Kathleen, Moonyean’s niece. And Kathleen’s

golden hair and golden voice ("The Kerry Dance," "Drink to Me Only"), are doing a good job of brightening Uncle John’s declining years when Kathleen goes and falls in love with ("Can this be romance?", "I'll say it is’) Wicked Rival’s son Kenneth (Gene Raymond again), newly come from the U.S. to fight for England in the Great War. Uncle John puts his foot down very firmly considering his age and general woodenness, and we go right back to 1868. And here we meet all the old faces surmounted by hair several shades darker than in 1916, an interesting sidelight on the evolutionary process. An auburn-haired. Jeanette sings "Smilin’ Through" to a _ black-haired Brian Aherne, and a brown-haired Gene Raymond shoots her through the heart. After this, back to 1916, and Kathleen’s renunciation of Kenneth. He goes to the Front; she goes the rounds of the local canteens singing "Tipperary" very slowly and very emotionally. Meanwhile, the shade of Moonyean has been applying a little gentle emotional blackmail to Uncle John, who finally agrees to accept Kenneth as his almost-son-in-law. By this time, however, Kenneth has got in first by jilting Kathleen (from the highest possible motives), and even her singing of "Land of Hope and Glory" in the church choir with brass band accompaniment fails to alter his resolve, Ultimately, everything gets straightened out. Uncle John, restored to eternal youth ("But I’m old and bent, Moonyean." "You are straight and tall as a young poplar, John") elopes in the bridal carriage with Moonyean, leaving the really important part of the marriage service still unsaid, and the film gradually fades out with Mr. and Mrs, Raymond gazing swimmingly into each other’s technicolour eyes. Definitely not a film for smilin’ through: you just have to grin and bear it.