Cinema, Also Showing Jun. 17, 1946

Bad Bascomb (MGM) presents Great Muggers Wallace Beery and Margaret O’Brien in a fight to the finish. She leads him into paths of righteousness; he in turn leads a band of Mormons towards the Promised Land. Histrionically, the battle is a draw. Typical O’Brien low-blow: “Why does your nose run when your feet get wet? Your feet don’t run when your nose gets wet.” Typical Beery haymaker: bulging the screen full of a face as massively seamed as a relief map. There is also an Indian raid, during which Miss O’Brien routs a brave with a peashooter. Because enough people enjoy that one, Bad Bascomb is already on the lists of box-office bests.

So Goes My Love (Skirball-Manning, Universal), based on Hiram Percy Maxim’s reminiscences of his inventor parent (A Genius in the Family), is a sort of utility-grade Life with Father, told chiefly in terms of what it does to Mother. Time & place: Brooklyn, in its mansard-capped prime. Since Son Percy (Bobby Driscoll) is a regular little heller and Father (Don Ameche) a regular social booby trap, life is anything but simple for Mother (Myrna Loy). Finally one of Percy’s pranks almost causes her to lose her second baby. But by dint of widespread praying, in which even the family terrier takes part, mother, child & movie pull through. A ragbag of wornout sentiment, So Goes My Love goes only soso.