JUST FOR YOU

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 725, 5 June 1953, Page 19

JUST FOR YOU

(Paramount) F you could close your ears to the scream of the 3-D promotion campaign moving into second gear, life was pretty quiet in the Wellington neon-light area last week. Old familiar faces in situations even older and more familiar seemed to be the rule. Just for You, which brings back that Sinatra of the Gay Nineties, Bing Crosby (this time in company with Jane Wyman), is one of those musical productions which the Hollywood assembly line shoots out in handy manageable 10,000-foot lengths. If Hollywood hadn’t shown us on various occasions (On the Town, An American in Paris, and the like), what an imaginative and enterprising team could do, one might be less critical of the pro-duction-line jobs. They are, after all) technically proficient, highly polished affairs-rather like American cars. Only they don’t run quite so well. The photography is generally good, the timing is neat, the big set-pieces are adroitly handled. What they too often lack is, however, the very essence of the good musical-the quality of gaiety. Just for You has some gay moments, to be sure, but in between an_ over-sentimental story makes the going heavy. Without Crosby it would be much heavier. So much attention has been paid to his voice that there has been a tendency to overlook his capacity as an actor. Within limits he is more than competent. He has an easy unbuttoned style, apparently casual and relaxed but in fact precisely adjusted to the demands of the camera and microphoneand, of course, to the kind of easy-going story that he so often figures in. This time, however, the going is not always so easy. As a Broadway producer of bright musical shows he is quite in his element, and £ enjoyed what I saw of his stage production, but he is also simultaneously the widower father of a couple of problem children ("Somewhere along the line I’ve lost them and I’ve got to get them back’), and here he does not manage things quite so successfully. Strictly speaking, he does not succeed at all in parental eapacity. He wins back the affection of his-socially ambi-

tious ‘teen-age daughter by backing her social ambitions instead of curing her of them, and it’s left to the United States Air Force to make a man out of his soft-centred, self-pitying son. However, with both offspring taken care of, he is free to marry his leading lady, who has been hanging round for a good hour and a half waiting for him. Jane Wyman is leading-ladylike up to a point. She sings brightly (though "Zing a Little Zong" is already losing some of its gloss), she shapes well in the sort of abbreviated rig-out that can be worn only by those who are well shaped, but I had the feeling that after a Tun of sober roles she was having a little difficulty in re-orientating herself.