SENSATIONAL DRAMATIC ROLE

Evening Star, Issue 22891, 24 February 1938, Page 11

SENSATIONAL DRAMATIC ROLE

MONTGOMERY IN‘NIGHT MUST FALL’ ‘Night Must Falf,’ which will begin to-morrow at the Regent, presents Robert Montgomery in the brilliant new role that will capture the screen’s acting honours for the year. To attempt to outline the plot oi ‘ Night Must Fall ’ within the scope of this short article would be to attempt the impossible. It is too important, too great a dramatic triumph to dismiss in a summary. Robert Montgomery, deserting his previous type of role, emerges a far greater actor than when he entered the picture, and an even greater theatre attraction. He Brings to the role of Danny a fiery interpretation, a performance of academy award calibre. “ Danny ” is one of the strangest and most fascinating characters of modern fiction. Born and reared in low circumstances, his mind and manner belie his background, for he is blessed with an intense brain and damned with ah imagination so great that it eventually brings him to disaster. Danny is a menial who detests the people he must serve; he has one idea in life—to be " somebody.” And the only way to be “ somebody,”- he decides, is to get money. Taking advantage of his strange appeal to women, he participates .in a clandestine romance with a woman older than himself, one who provides him with funds. Tired of the affair and wanting more money, he takes the action his strange mind says is the best solution—he murders her. Aglow with a perverted sense of importance because no one suspects him, and imEressed by his “cleverness,” he quits is position, and by scheming and lying insinuates himself into the affections of a dour old woman who has a heavy surplus of money which Danny plans to get. This old lady lives in a dreary house on the edge of a_ black, foreboding forest. And it is in this house that transpire * the most compelling and dramatic scenes that have reached the screen in years. For in this house live the three women who weave an odd circle of strange events around the life of Danny. One is the maid, whom he lias promised to marry. The second is his benefactor, who adopts him as her son, little realising that her reward for such kindness will be death. The third is the old lady’s niece and secretary, who finds in Danny a strange fascination which she is ashamed to. admit and unable to control. , It is difficult to give too much credit to Montgomery for this piece of acting. He has altered his walk, his way of standing and speaking. His face takes oh a loose-lipped look of self-indulg-ence. His eyes assume a glow of moronic egoism, and his voice takes on the self-confidence of th© successful liar. Rosalind Russell manages to ! make real a part that seems, on paper, too contradictory to he credible. Without loss of dignity, without making her character seem cheap or weak, she makes it believable that a fine, conventional girl could connive for his safety with a murderer whom she fears and despises.