THE STORY OF THREE LOVES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 757, 22 January 1954, Page 10

THE STORY OF THREE LOVES

(M.G.M.) OU don’t need to be a Kinsey to discover that it’s love that : makes the world go round, and in Hollywood (where they have no false notions about which side their cake is iced on) they know, too, that one good turn deserves another. For safety’s sake, however ‘(caution is one of the stigmata of the film industry), The Story of Three Loves adds a third turn, in case the first two fail to overcome our inertia. I must confess that I found this over-generous, and others who are also: at the stage when arteries and prejudices are hardening may likewise find three helpings of sweet corn a little cloying at one sitting. But I am quite sure Hollywood need not worry about us. The vast mush-headed teen-age audience on which it still depends will take al] and look for more. On paper the film looked promising. The three stories involve eight playersJames Mason, Moira Shearer, Agnes Moorehead, Leslie Caron, Farley Granger, Ethel Barrymore, Kirk Douglas and Pier Angeli-who are not merely wellknown names, but are all capable of intelligent and stimulating performances, given anything like a chance. One of the directors is Gottfried Reinhardt (son of Max), who produced for Huston in Fhe Red Badge of Courage, the other is Minelli, who directed An American in Paris. And there is also Technicolor. The first episode. (Shearer, Mason, plus Moorehead) is the story of a balletdancer forced to abandon her profession and her dreams because of a weak heart, and of a ballet-producer whose latest ‘and most ambitious piece of choreography won’t quite jell. She, throwing caution to the wings, dances for himfirst on a deserted stage, then in his flat (where there is more room). He scribbles and sketches under her inspiration and she slips, unnoticed, home to die happily of angina. The dialogue positively coruscates with clichés, and with what the scriptwriter imagines to be high‘brow conversation. Miss Shearer’s dancing is the one saving grace. I am sure, anyway, that the suffering she was at times required to register was only in part simulated. The second tale (Minelli’s contribution) is by contrast airy, gay and, in a "mild degree, sophisticated. It was some-

what blighted for me by the intrusion of an "American small boy (1 find the American urban juvenile generally caco--phonous and_ ill-bred), but it was relatively easy to withdraw attention from him and _ concentrate on his French governess (Leslie Caron). Mlle. Caron, I am happy to report, is still dewy and unspoiled, still one of the most interesting of the recent discoveries -either in motion or in repose. But I hope that her capacity as an actress does not obscure her ability as a dancer. As the witch in this

fairy-tale fantasy, Ethel Barrymore seems (for once) a little more like herself and-a little less like brother Lionel. "Equilibrium," the third story (the others are titled "The -Jealous Lover" and "Mademoiselle") features Pier Angeli, and the tanned torso of Kirk Douglas. Here again (as in the first) the script is overloaded with banalities and the dialogue is of the "Luck-chance-call-it-Fate-if-you-will" variety. But it is a tale of love on the high trapeze and there is just enough excitement and acrobatics, caught by good photography, to eke out the poverty of the script. Kirk Douglas is good in action. Pier Angeli, as the girl he hooks gut of the Seine and trains as his partner on the circus circuit, has charm and a capacity for pathos, but she hasn’t yet set my whiskers on fire. I should perhaps have mentioned that the three stories are presented as flashbacks from the promenade deck of an Atlantic liner on which are travelling Messrs. Mason and Douglas. and Mlies. Caron and Angeli. The liner is travelling to America, where (no doubt) even Mr, Mason will find happiness.