THE ACTRESS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 783, 23 July 1954, Page 17

THE ACTRESS

(M.G.M.) IFE with Father, or Mother (or both) is one of the great institutions of the American theatre-and therefore of the American: cinema. Generally it is a pretty extroverted sort of existerice, whichever parent is on the ascendant. lf Father rules the roost (Lite with Father, Cheaper by the Dozen) the conventions demand @ fair measure of social sectrity for the family, and plenty of robust séntiment. lf Mother is the breadwinner (2 Remember Mama, Chicken Every Sunday) security almost inevitably supervenes before the final curtain. In any case, there are usually enOugh boisterous children to frighten atriy wolf trom the door. The Actiess, adapted for the screen by Ruth Gordon trom her play Years Ago (which in turn was based on her own early lite) breaks with tradition in a nunrber of ways. This is a story of life. with Father and Mother, but it is a life in which security is never quite achiéved and. whéfe since there is only one child-there is not the weight of ntmbers and tioise to keep worry, out of earshot. Though it has some broadly comic moments, though Father is in his way an eccentric, and the only daughter a Stage-struck romantic in her tééens, The Actress is only incidentally funny, It eschews _ the flamboyance of the tter-known family sages, comes much closer to ot comfhon exerience, and in the manner of its telling ds a Sharp flavour all its own. There are only three players of any consequence. Of these, Spencer Tracy is easily the most impressive. His Father is credible from every atigle. Teresa Wright plays the more restrained part of Mother with a quiet competence, and the ox-eyed Miss Simmons .is the daughter. I found her just as wearing at tines, as Father did. The Actress, I Should } say, isn’t everyone’s picture, but middle-a parents with teen-aged daughters (and eroded bank-balances ) will find it easy to take,