A Man Well Worth Remembering

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 28, 23 December 1938, Page 14

A Man Well Worth Remembering

["A Man to Remember." ~- R.K.C. Radio. Directed by Garson Karin. Starring Edward Ellis and Anne Shirley. Early release, Wellingten.] T’S hard to know what to say about ‘‘A Man to Remember.’’ It is an unpretentious picture, and as for stars, well, by ordinary standards, Anne Shirley is the biggest box-office name present, But it is a picture which I can commend, one which I think you will feel better for having’ seen. And that’s quite a lot to say about any picture.

The- qualities I liked about it? First of all, perhaps, its very unpretentiousness. Then its complete sincerity and trneness. Those qualities, I always think, more than make up for lack of thousand-candle-power stars. What is technically known, f helieve, as "flashback" technique is employed to very good effect in "A Man to Remember." The féneral cortege of the centrai character, a beloved smal town doctor, is passing through

the main street. The whole town is paying him reverent tributeall, that is, except .three foxy old businessmen who are waiting impatiently for the executor to settle some long-standing debts. All the doctor’s worldly goods lie in a small cashbox, and, as the executor turns over document after crumpled ‘old document, the doctor’s career unfolds scene by scene.

Successes, Failures IIS long struggle against poverty, his trials, his suecesses, his failures; above all, his simple honesty and courage and. high prin-ciple-small wonder his fellowtownspeople mourned the old doctor’s passing. It is the sincerity of Edward Bilis’s acting that makes the doctor such a very probable character, though I also liked» Anne Shirley as his young ward. The stage on. which the picture is set is a humble, everyday one, yet there’s: drama in pienty, the drama of life and death: incidental to every doctor’s fe. And there is humour, and sentiment which is never quite sentimentality. It will be interesting to see how "A Man to Remember" does at the box office.