WHEN LOVE WINS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22592, 23 December 1938, Page 5

WHEN LOVE WINS

Joan Crawford in “Mannequin”

A story in which a poor girl marries a rich man out of pity, learns to love him on their honeymoon, and then has to prove her love when he goes broke, provides one of the season’s most highly entertaining motion pictures. Joan Crawford is the girl, Spencer Tracy the man, and the picture is “Mannequin,” which will begin to-day at the Avon. Here is the Joan Crawford her admirers have been clamouring for, glamorously gowned by Adrian, singing delightfully a new song hit, “Always and Always,” and ideally teamed with Spencer Tracy. As Jessie Cassidy, a shop girl fed-up on poverty, who accepts love as an escape, but has it fail her, and then finds a real love worth fighting for, she has the type of dynamic role which has brought her fame as an actress. Spencer Tracy-as-John L. Hennessey, a man who has to lose a fortune to discover what the love of a woman can mean, has been given a forceful characterisation that must be numbered among his best. Well received, too, will be Hollywood’s newest leading man discovery, Alan Curtis, who makes the most of his first important film opportunity as Eddie Miller, a cheap crook. From an original story by Katharine Brush, who wrote “Young Man of Manhattan,” the picture has New .York’s drab tenement district and

sumptuous multimillionaire’s penthouses as colourful and exciting background. To escape from her tenement surroundings, Jessie marries Miller, who proves a weakling. She determines to live her own life, a resolve which fades before Hennessey’s determined courting. They marry, which gives Miller an idea for a blackmail Scheme that misses when Hennessey goes broke. This gives Jessie a chance to prove her love in a dramatic and surprising climax. In the direction will be noted the deft hand of Frank Borzage, who has given the screen such successes as “Big City,” “Seventh Heaven” and “Farewell to Arms.”

Adequately supporting the stars in featured roles are Ralph Morgan, Mary Phillips, Oscar O’Shea, Elizabeth Risdon, and Leo Gorcey.

Gladys George will play the lead cp posite Bob Burns in “I’m from Mis souri,” which Paramount will make.

Tallulah Bankhead, who has not been on the screen since “Devil and the Deep,” will appear with her husband, John Emery, in “I Am Different.”

Lupe Velez, who is having one of her frequent separations from her husband, Johnny (“Tarzan”) Weissmuller, is receiving aboundant praise for her impersonations in Cole Porter’s show, “I Married, a Republican.”

W. C. Fields is reported to have been offered 150,000 dollars by M.G.M. to lead the cast of “Wizard of 0z.,” in which Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bobby Connolly, and Buddy Ebsen have begun the dance routines.

• • • Paulette Goddard has been signed for an important role in “Dramatic School,” the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture which will star Luise Rainer. Other additions to the cast of “Dramatic School” are Lana Turner and Ann Rutherford, both of whom appeared in the last Hardy series, “Love Finds Andy Hardy.” Alan Marshal and Gale Sondergaard are also in the cast.