Deanna Durbin At That Certain Age

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 23, 18 November 1938, Page 14

Deanna Durbin At That Certain Age

["That Certain Age." Universal. Directed by Edward Ludwig. Starring Deanna Durbin, Melvyn Dougbas, Jackie Cooper. First release: Wellington, November 17.] N my time I have had some pretty nasty things to say about the way Hollywood makes pictures, aud I shall probably continue to find reasons to say them. But there is at present one special aspect of Hollywood production which earns my unqualified admiration. That is the way they are handling Deanna Durbin and ether young players at the age that used to be known as ‘‘awkward.’’ ; Life on the screen once used to come to an almost full stop at the age of 12° (when child prodigies usually sank into oblivion), and then it began again about 20, with love in full bloom. It has taken

the movie industry a Jong time to realise that there is an age between, and that youngsters in their *%teens are extremely interesting and entertaining folk. Once having made this discovery, however, Hollywood has shown surprisingly good sense and good taste in exploiting it. From the comedy and drama of adolescence have come some of the most honestly attractive films of the past year or so, and some of the most refreshingly natural performances. The pest to date is Deanna Durbin’s new picture, "That Certain Age." Tender Plant RANKLY, I don’t know how they do it-make each Deanna Durbin picture better than the last, Allowing for all the loving care which Universal Studios naturally lavish on their most valuable asset, there must eventually come a point beyond which it is impossible to go. When [I saw "100 Men and a Girl’ and ‘Mad About Music," T thought the peak had been reached. Now I know that it wasn’t. Perhaps the explanation is that Universal are letting Deanna’s pictures grow up with her. in "Mad About Music," we saw the first budding of innocent young love for the 15-year-old star. in. "That Certain Age,’ the bud has opened further; but Praoducer Joe Pasternak, the chief gardener who tends the precious cinernatic plant, has seen to it that there Is no forcing. He has forestalled any suggestion of precocity by treating Miss Durbin’s romantic burgeoning as a subject for very wholesome laughter. Young Lochinvar is there, to be sure, ready, perhaps, in two or three pictures to carry Deanna off to the altar; but at the moment the main emphasis is on old Lochinvar. .* The really serious object of -Deanna’s' passionate yearningswhich the audience never takes geriously-is a man at least twice her age. She has what I believe "ig technically known as a "crush" on Melvyn Douglas. Perfectly Written ywHat shall I praise most-the acting, the direction, or the story? The story, I think, because it represents one ‘of the finest examples of script-writing to have come out of Hollywood. You will applaud Deanna’s~ performance for its inielligence and light-hearted charm, you will be enthusiastic about Melvyn Douglas and the others, and about Director Edward Ludwig’s expert handling of brilliantiy-conceived situations-but without those situations in the first place you would not have much. If you're interested-and you should be-the man responsible is Bruce Manning, who wrote the screenplay of "That Certain Age" from an original story by I, Hugh Herbert (that Mame sounds familiar!) Manning has taken a simple, featherweight plot about a young girl’s infatuation for a man of the world, and with Ludwig’s deft assistance has turned it into a comedy as lively as a cricket and as fresh as a spring preeze. -And The Music? Bor I refuse to give the outline of this story. What’s the use ‘when the treatment is of far more imporiance than the actual plot? There can be few worse fates for any adult actor than having to appear with a child star, especially one of _ Deanna Durhin’s ‘calitre; but | Sehue Oc ae t. aPO © Ae Sawa & i. mn-, iamase

Melvyn Douglas more than manages to hold his own, as the ‘rero-worshipped foreign correspondent, Vincent Bullitt. Jackie Cooper, though not getting any handsomer as he grows older, makes a aatural, likable boy-ithe lad who had "replaced Lord Byron in Alice’s affections until that fellow Bullitt came

along." Watch out also for Juanita Quigley, as the infantile pest known as "Buich’--not that you could overlook her! Tf I have left mention of the music to the last, it is because the music in this picture, though bright and tuneful and occasionally operatic, is of less importance than in any previous Durbin effort. This is searcely a fault, because the story needs no bolstering, but rather a sign of good sense, in that the studio is unwilling to put too much strain on the Durbin voice. The worst of a show like "That Certain Age" is that it makes one so confoundedly dissatisfied with so many other pictures.

sonia ed RKO for a trifling sum. Among those unwanted sereen plays was ‘"‘The Awful Truth."’ Among them also was ‘‘Holiday,’’ which now comes to the screen again as a gem of entertainment for intelligent audiences. Few plays can have had a more interesting history than Philip Barry’s "Holiday." It Was an artistic triumph and a box-office success on the New York stage in 1928. In 1930, it was made as a film, with Ann Harding, Mary Astor and the late Robert Ames in the leading roles, and will probably be remembered as'‘an outstanding success of the early talkie era. Now it stars Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Doris Nolan; and third time looks like being just as lucky. Rank Heresy JN "Holiday," the playwright ~ enunciates, with a pronounced but ingratiating radical accent, the thesis that riches do not ensure happiness--in fact, very possibly the opposite. His hero (Cary Grant) is a young man of a most independent turn of mind and no. material wealth who falls in love with the purse-proud daughter (Doris Nolan) of an incredibly rich family, whom he has met during a vacation. From the moment Johnny Case enters the massive portais of the Seton mansion, his immortal soul is in danger. He finds ‘he is expected to marry a tradition of money-grubbing as well as a bride-when all the time his social philosonhy is that peonle shonid take a holiday from work and discover what life is all about while they are still young enough to enjoy it. To his fiancee this is sheer nonsense: to her Tory banking father (Henry Kolker) it is rank. dangerous heresy. In this predicament, the hero finds sympathy and understanding from Linda, his fiancee’s renressed but attractive sister (Katharine Hepburn). She, too, is a rebel at heart-and she loves Tohnny from the moment she meets him, but is, of course, too loyal to do anything about it until the final seene. Then Johnny sets off on his holi-day-and Linda soes with him. Too Much Money HIS triumph ‘over Mammon wonld he vather more strikine if the hero did not wait to take his holiday away from it all vntil he has managed to serane together a tidy lithe fortune by shrewd dealing on the Steck Tixchange. , it is also rather hard to ex-. ‘pect. us common: Wage-carners |; ™yree Fr clyde. a af ety vliciad

to shed a tear over the plight of people so filthy rich that they live in a house the size of the National Art Gallery and just don’t know how to spend their money, . Yet if the philosophy of "Holiday" is hali-baked, the interpretation of it is brilliantly done. Recently branded as "box-office poison" by the New York Independent Theatre Owners’ Association, Katharine Hepburn seems likely to hurl the insult back in their teeth with the most apnpealing, most sympathetic performance she has ever given. Still Improving CARY GRANT’s improvement as an actor continues to be ime pressive. it seems only a very short while ago that he was seilfconscious and awkward in almost every part he touched; then came "The Awful Truth’; and now {Continued on next page)