THE AFFAIRS OF MARTHA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 207, 11 June 1943, Page 10

THE AFFAIRS OF MARTHA

(M.GM.)

T may have been because the other new films of the week were so mediocre, but I found this a most enjoyable

trifle, directed with a light touch and acted by a good cast that is in high spirits throughout. The piquant Marsha Hunt and the promising newcomer Richard Carlson, are the stars of The Affairs of Martha, which is not spelt the French way, you will notice, though it might well have been; there is so much climbing in and out of bedroom‘windows. She is parlour-maid to a household in a gossipy little village, and has written a book about her experiences, which is on the eve of publication. This news gets out, but not the identity of the author, so that every family in the village fears the worst from the impending disclosures (and with some _ reason). Thus the class-war flares up: employers band together against the threat from the servants’ quarters; suspicion seeping down from above produces a United Front in the kitchen. In addition, Martha, who has obviously been behav-

ing Beyond Her Station, is secretly married to the son of the house, though he has got himself "engaged" to another girl. That’s the situation, and the director makes the most of it. Sometimes he makes too much of it, but in spite of this, and in spite also of the fact that any situation involving cooks, parlourmaids and other Domestic Helpers is these days so far removed from reality as to be almost within the realm of the fairytale, I can recommend The Affairs of. Martha as a good way to take your \ mind off to-morrow’s washing end cool. \ ing.