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Body and Soul (Fox). This picture is noteworthy only because it was chosen as the vehicle for the U. S. cinema debut of Elissa Landi, whose talents are emphasized by the film's other shortcomings. Actress Landi has the flimsy role of a heroine who, having passed the night with an aviator on leave, has to express her certainty that she has given him a "moment of heaven." The aviator is Charles Farrell who portrays drunkenness by waggling his head from side to side. The lady, nicknamed Pom-Pom, has been the wife of one of his friends who is killed in action. She is temporarily suspected of being a spy. Farrell is therefore accused of having, in moments of intimacy, given information to an enemy agent. Emotional tensity is emphasized by dropping articles on the floor: a champagne glass, later a revolver. Presently Pom-Pom is vindicated. Worst shot: a group of flyers teasing Farrell when they find him writing a letter to his girl. The vogue of Greta Garbo has been such that no important company considers itself to have a quorum of talent without one blonde actress capable of narrowing her eyelids inscrutably and talking alto. Elissa Landi is obviously the Fox Garbo. She also possesses important qualifications which are her own. Her face is attractive from certain angles; she performs with knowing restraint and a finish quite incongruous to such a story as Body and Soul. In her first U. S. appearance, on the Manhattan stage in A Farewell to Arms (TIME, Oct. 6), her beauty was more noticeable than it is when photo- graphed. Universally praised by critics, she was immediately taken to Hollywood. Body and Soul is her first U. S. movie. Daughter of the Countess Zanardi-Landi, Actress Landi was born in Venice, edu-cated in England. She is now 26, has written two published novels, likes tennis, is billed as never drinking.
