Cinema

???SPITFIRE,??? a screen drama adapted from the play, ???Trigger,??? by Lula Vollmer, directed by John Cromwell and presented by RKO-Radio at the Radio City Music Hall with the following cast:

The word spitfire just about tells the story of the new Katharine Hepburn picture which RKO produced and which is going to roll up a sizeable gross at the Music Hall for the next week or so. The star of “Little Women” and the play, “The Lake,” is placed in what I believe is an embarrassing situation. She is made to play the part of a mystical mountain lass of the Carolina hills, a gal who is unrestrained, without inhibitions who say and does what she wants but who is really very, very kind at heart, and always ready to do a good turn or two for her neighbors. Miss Hepburn acquits herself with honors and it is her acting alone that saves this patently phoney story from being ridiculous.

The plot which rambles no end concerns among other things the old problem of faith healing. It seems that our heroine is very good at this sort of thing and has quite a reputation in the community for making effective passes at the sick. In the course of events our Katharine, who is called quaintly enough “Trigger” Hicks, has an impulse to take a baby away from its parents because she does not think the child is being treated properly. Her neighbors, although willing to be healed by Trigger, do not really appreciate her talents and goodness and form a posse. The ideal behind this spontaneous organization is the lynching of the mountaineer gal. How she is saved from their wrath by her own occult, though unexplained powers and how she find a weakness in her heart for the dashing northern engineer, are integral parts of this typical movie.

In “Spitfire,” Miss Hepburn works very hard indeed. There are few moments in which she is not within range of the camera. This is a clever idea. When she gets out of sight the audience becomes restless. The supporting cast, especially Ralph Bellamy and Robert Young, are effective, but their roles are so negligible that they have little chance to make an impression.