THE MODEL AND THE MARRIAGE BROKER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 717, 10 April 1953, Page 18

THE MODEL AND THE MARRIAGE BROKER

(20th Century-Fox) F John Ford’s Quiet Man had stayed in the States instead of wandering back to the Ould Sod devil a marriage-broker would he have seen like Barry Fitzgerald. To be sure, being a fine figure of a man and not really a bit quiet at | all at all ’tis not likely that he would have been needing to meet one, but if he had been a little less handsome, and a little more quiet, and if, now, he had stayed in the States and was after wanting to get.in touch with a marriagebroker. . . Och, sure, and if he. had been another fellow altogether, living in New York, then maybe he might have found himself calling on Mrs. Swasey at her office on the top floor of the Flatiron Building. . . You can get acquainted with Mrs. | Swasey yourself, as I did, if you see The. Model and the Marriage Broker, and don’t let the title put you Off for (as played by Thelma Ritter) she’s a character quite worth knowing. Charles Brackett, who collaborated with Billy Wilder in The Lost Week-end, is the producer of this sentimental comedy (he also headed the scripting team), the director is George Cukor, Milton Kras-. ner is responsible for the photography, and decoration is provided by Jeanne Crain. Not. surprisingly, therefore, it’s a pleasant little picture-admittedly a slight piece, occasionally more sentimental than suits my fancy, but with plenty of astringent humour to make up for | that, and always close enough ‘to life to hold the illusion Of reality. . It would, of course, have been easy to pack the script with cheap laughs at . the expense of Mrs. Swasey’s clients (she runs a Lonely Hearts agency, called Contacts and Contracts), but for the most part Mrs. Swasey herself provides the humour. She is, by nature, an inveterate match-maker and the more devious the means by. which she brings two soul- mates together the better she

is pleased. She is also an incurable sentimentalist -this keeps her busy but shows little profit-and while she never wearies in welldoing, occasionally her feet get tired. It is a part admirably suited to Thelma Ritter’s specialised talents, and, if I may use a phrase worn smooth by the lips of the exalted, she does a Good Job. | So does Jeanne Crain. "She is the model of the title. This happy circum"stance permits. her to wear exotic hats, .and dresses- that Christian Dior or Jacques Fath might have designed in a moment of more extravagant abandon. It also allows her to adopt on occasion the odd poses affected. by the young lovelies who twirl long-handled umbrellas in the pages of ultra‘fashionable magazines

(the kind husbands look at furtively over their wives’ shoulders). I found her quite enjoyable to watch. The Mode] and the Marriage Broker is, in fact, a pleasant way to spend an evening. I went with some forebodings, but came away diverted and quite satisfied,