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New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 384, 1 November 1946, Page 33

Sir,-Each week as I pick up The Listener and read G.M.’s movie page, I long to tell him just what I think of his gloomy, miserable reviews, The other week, to cap all, he attacks Van Johnson. No doubt, G.M. belongs to the group of ancient critics who think that guys like Charles Boyer, John Barrymore, John Gilbert, etc., are of the school of perfect actors. But does he ever get a real good laugh or a thrill from their pictures? No siree! There he sits picking out all faults, listening to see if so-and-so pronounces a certain "t"’ or looking to see if somebody else times a gesture a fraction of a second too soon. If he doesn’t! Well-that picture is due for a walk-out. Anyway, G.M. is only a cut-and-dried pessimist against whose one-man criticisms nine out of ten film-goers protest. Let the bobby-soxers have Van Johnson! When all is said and done, G.M. is just about half a century too late to be a bobby-soxer, and (presumably) he is of the sex that find it impossible to see anything in "the boy next door." If G.M. didn’t have an idol, what a dull, impeccable childhood he must have had! e And if he thinks what he wrote about Van Johnson, what would he think (if he lowered himself far enough) when he saw Frankie Sinatra, the frail, weakvoiced, weak-bodied, big-hearted little guy who still bowls ’em down in rows?

ONE OF THE BOBBY-SOXERS

(Dunedin). |