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It does inadvertently achieve a curious cumulative impression of famous and infamous faces under the wear & tear of time. Hitler ages visibly from the bedraggled but hard-driving Chancellor (1933) to the double-chinned, snappish war lord (1941). Bombast and ostentatious health fade from Mussolini's naked dome after the debacle in Greece. From the present's point of view, Laval looks untrustworthy from the start. Irony stalks beside Winston Churchill and Admiral Darlan as they review French sailors together. The tread of marching armies forecasts the kind of fight they will make later on—the Germans, thudding, dour, professional; the Russians, massive, resolute, rough; the Italians, light, out-of-step, a little too gay, a little silly.
These sidelights are the best of United We Stand. The narration (Lowell Thomas) is patronizing, the script (Prosper Buranelli) undistinguished. Commentary, photography and score get in each other's way. Net result is a warning to future producers that it takes more to make historical documentaries than an animated file of old rotogravure sections.
Are Husbands Necessary? (Paramount) may serve to record on celluloid a pattern of U.S. social behavior once considered cute: the late, unlamented antics of the country-club set. But as an attempt at scatterbrained domestic frivolity, it falls flat on its farce.
The picture struggles with the old plot about the slightly whacky, well-meaning little wife (Betty Field) who thinks she can manage her husband's (Ray Milland) career while ignoring the family budget. On his salary as a small-town bank vice president the pair live in a manner to which only Hollywood is accustomed. He cuts up at fancy-dress balls. She has a genius for speaking out of turn. The story strives so hard to be funny that the actors rarely have a chance to be.
The picture was originally called Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, after Isabel Scott Rorick's book, which has sold 25,000 copies. Audiences at sneak previews showed that the title meant nothing to them; many asked: "Where's Xavier?"
The person they referred to was hawk-nosed Bandleader Xavier Cugat, who claims that he is the only Mr. Cugat in the U.S., and sued the publishers, Houghton Mifflin, for using his name. The publishers were sufficiently impressed with his claim to settle his suit out of court. Paramount, too, paid up promptly, then changed the picture's title.
CURRENT & CHOICE
The Magnificent Ambersons (Anne Baxter, Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Gotten, Dolores Costello, Tim Holt; TIME, July 20).
Mrs. Miniver (Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Richard Ney; TIME, June 29).
Yankee Doodle Dandy (James Cagney, Walter Huston, Irene Manning, Joan Leslie; TIME, June 22).
Food—Weapon of Conquest (Canadian documentary about food's role in World War II; TIME, June 15).