Critical Moments

English novelists who have their books made into American moving pictures seem to receive better treatment at the hands of their adapters than do their American cousins. When H. G. Well’s “Invisible Man” was dramatized for the screen the result was one of the season’s most unusual and striking films. Somerset Maugham’s “Of Human Bondage” was another picture version that turned out surprisingly well and now Universal have produced John Galsworthy’s “One More River” in a manner that should be satisfying even to the author. The audience that witnessed it at the Music Hall was loud in its approval.

R. C. Sherriff, the English playwright whose “Journey’s End” was one of the most sensitive of the war plays, and James Whale are responsible for the screen play of “One More River,” and they have done a magnificent piece of work. Without following slavishly the sequence of the book this team of collaborators have managed to retain Galsworthy’s shrewd and penetrating delineation of character and to weave a believable and moving story.

“One More River,” if you remember your Galsworthy, was the third of the trilogy concerning the very human Forsyte family. In this book the English novelist traced the unhappy existence of the Cherrell girls, one of whom, Claire, married the sadistic Sir Corven who celebrates his honeymoon by horsewhipping his young wife. She leaves him only to meet young Tony Croom who is very much in love with her. Sir Corven begs Clare to return, promising to desist from his abnormal proclivities. She, however continues to see Tony and although innocent of infidelity is shadowed by her husband’s detectives and is finally sued for divorce.

A divorce courtroom scene in London brings this film to its most stirring moments. Shots of this kind are nothing new to pictures and most of them are overdone but Universal deserves three cheers for the screening of this particular bit. It is realistic, believable, pertinent and superbly directed. Diana Wynyard as Clare, Frank Lawton as Tony, Colin Clive as Sir Corven in the three major roles all act their roles sensitively, intelligently and excellently. The minor parts: Dinny Cherrell (Jane Wyatt), Sir Corven’s lawyer (Lionel Atwill) and Alan Mowbray as the defendants attorney are also very well handled.

“One More River” is easily the best picture of the Summer. You must not miss it.

HOUSEWIFE

George Brent, Bette Davis and Ann Dvorak were handed a lemon by Warner Brothers when they were called to act in “Housewife.” It is just another very trite and obvious triangle picture which tells what happened to a man (Brent) and his wife (Dvorak) when they began to argue about their respective duties in and out of the home. The third party is the other woman (Davis) who works in the same office as the man and of course seems to be all the things his wife is not. Finally there is a divorce scene in a courtroom and at the last possible moment the husband and wife are reconciled, no doubt to spend the rest of their lives fighting the same battle over and over again.

“Housewife” is the kind of a picture that would inspire an accountant to figure that it was made because the studio was open, the actors under the contract and undeveloped film very cheap.