(2 of 2)
In between, Director Garnett fashioned the second episode in Universal's resuscitation of drowsy Marlene Dietrich. Traipsing through the islands of the East Indies with a trollop's parasol and two larcenous bodyguards (Broderick Crawford and Mischa Auer), she encounters a well-groomed wing of the U. S. Navy, casts languorous glances at a promising lieutenant, sings a dolorous chant beginning: "See those shoulders broad and glorious? See that smile? That smile's notorious. You can bet your life the man's in the Navy,"* at a cafe conducted by wheezing Billy Gilbert.
The result should be more beneficial to the Navy than to Miss Dietrich.
Escape (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). Hollywood maintains a constant vigil these days for anti-fascist material with lots of bing-bang action. The appearance of pseudonymous Ethel Vance's novel Escape last year set off a scramble for its cinema rights which ended with an M. G. M. victory costing $50,000. It was worth it.
The essence of Escape was its tingling suspense. A great German actress (Alia Nazimova), who returned from the U. S. to sell her property, is sentenced to death by the Nazis for some inadvertent but illegal financial finagling. Her U. S.-born son (Robert Taylor), sniffing along her hidden trail, discovers her plight only a few days before the execution. The nerve-racking series of events which constitute his blundering, inept attempts at rescue are enough to frazzle the composure of the most hardened cinemaddicts.
Escape is also a powerful true bill against Naziism's ruthlessness. The villain of the story, rather than any individual, is the system. Its personification is in the machinelike personality of a Prussian general (Conrad Veidt), the helplessness of a sympathetic Nazi doctor (Philip Dorn).
Outspoken, aggressive little Director Mervyn Le Roy lost none of the story in transposing it to the screen. Even the saccharine qualities of Norma Shearer are skillfully tempered to fit the regenerated Countess. Only Robert Taylor, unfairly injected into big-league competition, falls behind the pace. But Director Le Roy's combination is too strong to be defeated by this single handicap.
* Copyright 1940, Universal Music Corporation.