‘SUSAN AND GOD’

Evening Star, Issue 23862, 17 April 1941, Page 5

‘SUSAN AND GOD’

SPARKLING COMEDY INAIA • Susan and God,’ a striking presentation opening at the Regent to-morrow, is a picture unique in its theme and undenia-ble in its merit as an entertainment, with a spiciness and wit in its dialogue that place it in the first flight of sophisticated modern plays. Based on a stage production of the same name by Rachel Crothers, with an unprecedentedly successful run on Broadway to its credit, the film version has as its leading players Joan Crawford and Fredric March, an ideal team to interpret this sparkling comedy-drama. The adaptation of Miss Crothers’s famous stage play to the screen was brilliantly executed by Anita Loos. Following the original faithfully in story, the film play naturally brings greater scope to the unusual situations created by the author. The scintillating dialogue that made the play so delightful has been retained in its entirety, with a few well-developed additions besides. Dizzy with comedy at one moment and bristling with drama the next, the picture version of ‘ Susan and God ’ docs credit to the great play on which it is based. Tiie story of ‘Susan and God,’ despite its title, is not a religious theme. It is, rather, the story of a self-centred, frivolous woman who has always made a fad out of joining some sort of movement to help the world, and at the same time completely neglecting her husband and young daughter. Susan’s constant meddling in tiie affairs of her friends provides a constant flow of gay comedy; yet, at every moment, the audience is strangely aware of an undercurrent of impending drama, which materialises in the powerful climax, when Susan finds that her meddling has back-fired to her own disadvantage. It is only then that Susan realises how shallow and wrong she lias been about everything, and, as the story comes to its close, she has determined to devote her future to the fad of being a good wife and mother. In the co-starring role as Susan’s husband, Fredric March returns to the screen in the first picture he has made in two years. Memorable for his appearance in such successes as ‘ The Royal Family of Broadway,’ ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,’ ‘Smilin’ Tlini,’ ‘ Death Takes a Holiday,’ ‘ The Barretts of Wimpole Street,’ ‘ Les Miserables,’ A Star is Born,’ and many others, lie temporarily deserted Hollywood to appear in the Broadway stage hit, ‘ The American Way.’ March’s performance in ‘ Susan am] God ’ proves conclusively how sorely the screen has missed this splendid actor.