The Interest Hangs On A Hair

Radio Record, 15 July 1938, Page 27

The Interest Hangs On A Hair

(Mademoiselle. Docteur." Max Schach-Trafalgar Films. Directed by Edmond Greville. With Ditn Parlo, Erich von Stroheim, John Loder. Just released.]

HE only thing that really impressed me in . "Mademoiselle Docteur" was Dita Parlo’s hair.. It: was twisted and -twirled into: fantastic shapes, so that at one minute it ‘resembled one of those homely cottage’ loaves, while at the next it was as sinisterly serpentine as the locks of the Gorgon Medusa. It stood on énd, it hung in a fringe, it meandered over the face beneath it as aimlessly as the plot of this spy melodrama meandered through 7500 feet of film. . ‘Perhaps I am a lost soul.. Perhaps I have: basked so long in. ihe reflected beauty of conventional Hollywood heroines that I was unable to become excited by the Germanic archness of Dita Parlo, in the same way as the ponderous Continental. technique of this picture made me long for the slickness of American direction. More Than Somewhat I HAV®E a feeling, though, that if Dita Parlo had heen a better’ and more versatile dramatic actress, and if the story had had more vitality. and a greater sense of direction, the curious coiffures and the Continental technique wouldn’t. haye mattered, All those close-ups of the star striving to look determined or self-sacrificing or kilttenish might really have meant something; .and her quaint hair fashions might have been accepted ag true 10 period and part of the disguise which the most daring secret agent in the German. service would naturally be called upon to assume. As it was, Miss Parlo struck me as being rather more unconvincing than somewhat. ‘ John Loder is quite likeably trueblue Brilish as the officer who has to fall in love with the heautiful enemy agent in order that this spy film may he like all the other spy films ever made. But so far as acting goes it's Erich von Stroheim who gets my money

-good old rich, the pride of Prussia. but not so hiss#vble as usnal, beeause this German colonel role of his contains a trickle of human kindness: And I suggest: that Claire Lance's decolletage is worth at least a second glance, even if her performance as a jealous ea. s-entertainer isn't otherwise particularly remarkable. At One Blow AS for the story, it has its. wnomenty of suspense -especially in the early part-anid its other, moments of action, especially in-fhe finale, when the Germans bring the story to a very abrupt and by no means conclusive con clusion by an air raid .on Salonika which blows everything -off the screen On seeing this, [ thought that the producer had at last solved ‘the, old pro blem of what to do with the hero and heroine of spy stories who .have: been eaught in the familiar conflict between love and patriotism, Bunt he apparently didn’t have the courage of my convietion that the hest way to deal. with such people.is to wipe them all. out. We had to have a final scene, in which the heroine muddled us up -by suggest: ing that she and the hero weren’ t dead after all!