(2 of 2)
The story: an oyster-bar waitress (Deanna) yearns for a stage career and dupes an eminent actor (Laughton) into signing a letter of recommendation while he is engrossed in an oyster stew. Eventually she is enfolded in the arms of handsome Playwright Tone. Among the intervening spectacles:
> Deanna's brilliant tactical lapse from her role of would-be dramatic actress: while visiting Laughton's bachelor apartment, she does a moist-eyed, full-throated, full-dress rendition of Danny Boy.
> Deanna's loud, dramatic-soprano progress, to the tune of Tosti's Goodbye, through the crowded public passages of a tony Manhattan hotel.
> Laughton's fussy, flouncy, ham-Hamp-denish curtain speech at a closing performance of Cyrano.
Good sequence: Playwright Tone, hat brim down and coat collar up, eavesdropping among the customers out for air during the second-act intermission of his new play.
CURRENT & CHOICE
The Harvey Girls (Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger; TIME, Jan. 28).
It Happened at the Inn (French counterpart of You Can't Take It with You; TIME, Jan. 21).
A Walk in the Sun (Dana Andrews, Richard Conte; TIME, Jan. 14).
They Were Expendable (Robert Montgomery, John Wayne; TIME, Dec. 24).
Cornered (Dick Powell, Walter Slezak, Micheline Cheirel; TIME, Dec. 17).
The Lost Weekend (Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry; TIME, Dec. 3).
Spellbound (Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov; TIME, Nov. 5).