THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 525, 15 July 1949, Page 12

THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE

(United Artists) SURREALISM is a pretty general sort of term, and it should be wide enough to cover this screen adaptation of William Saroyan’s prize-winning play. Those who have never read Saroyan may wonder what they’ve struck, as scene after scene unfolds on some of the most fantastic characters and the most amazing happenings (all in one room) that they have seen in years. But they should enjoy themselves if they sit it out. For those who know their Saroyan, of course, nothing need be said except that the spirit and mood of the Old Maestro are captured with remarkable fidelity. From the moment when we first catch a glimpse of James Cagney and William Bendix in that waterfront barroom, which is like no bar-room in existence and yet seems a microcosm of the whole world, we are transported into a region of whimsy and pathos where only the magic Saroyan touch could create not only sense but a lot of amusement as well. The characters include a ‘young dancer (Paul Draper) who believes he is a "natural-born comedian" but can’t make anybody laugh, a negro jazzpianist (Reginald Beane), a buckskinclad cowboy (James Barton), who recounts some remarkably tall stories including the one about falling in love with a midget weighing 39 pounds ("will I ever forget that amazon of small proportions?"), a marble game maniac, a thug,’ a policeman, a Salvation Army (continued on next page)

(continued fram previous page) band, and most attractive of all, a Bgirl (one paid to talk to lonely bar customers and keep them buying drinks) who is played by James Cagney’s sister Jeanne. The Time of Your Life is a stage play filmed (the producer is William Cagney, another of the family), but since it is a play of incident and action rather than of dialogue, it does make an exciting movie. The characters are abstract types as well as human beings, but what they all symbolise no one is_ likely to have discovered by the time the picture is over, although there are. enough clues to keep an intelligent person guessing. James Cagney is a little out of character as a modern Santa Claus who wants to help everyone he meets, and Bendix is also a tender type instead of a tough. But both benefit considerably ffom the change.