The New Pictures

Suzy (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). When the heroine of this picture, an impulsive chorus girl stranded in London, buys a newspaper to read on the boat to France, the headline says: AUSTRIAN ARCHDUKE ASSASSINATED AT SARAJEVO. The purpose of the picture, up to this point unrevealed, thereafter becomes clear. Other stories have shown some of the individual happenings which overtook individual farmers, bellringers, soda-jerkers, et al. at the outbreak of War. Suzy sets out to include in one picture all happenings which overtook all chorus girls stranded in all countries in all wars. Over a period of one and a half hours, it seems to succeed.

When observed reading the newspaper Suzy (Jean Harlow)* has already attended the Derby, married an Irish airplane mechanic (Franchot Tone), seen him shot by a mysterious veiled lady (Benita Hume). Under the impression that she is a widow, she marries Andre Charville (Cary Grant), heir to a fine chateau, whom she meets in a cabaret. Charville turns out to be France's No. 1 ace. He is also a knave who breaks Suzy's heart with his philanderings. Who is the girl Suzy finds him kissing late one evening on a hospital bed? It is the same veiled lady who shot her first husband. And who helps Suzy expose her as a German spy? None other than Suzy's first husband who is now delivering planes to the French air force. He is last seen patting Suzy on the paw to console her after Andre has been shot down by his mistress and buried with military honors.

A combination of circumstances almost as complex as that which befalls its heroine accounts for the nature of Suzy. Because Mutiny on the Bounty, an enormously long and expensive picture, was the No. 1 smash hit of last season, producers this season think that all long and expensive pictures will be hits. Length has another advantage in that it helps combat what producers call the "double bill evil." An additional reason for Suzy's length is that the Legion of Decency would not have permitted a straightforward adaptation of Herbert Gorman's mildly lubricious novel. Consequently the full quota of Harlow appeal which the picture contains had to be injected gradually rather than in short strong doses. Aside from the stuffy epic manner which ill befits its subject, it is a fair sample of its school--frivolous, kinetic and absurd, but not without real moments.

36 Hours to Kill (Twentieth Century-Fox) is not nine times as good as Four Hours to Kill, released last year, the title of which has been borrowed and expanded to its present proportions with due consent of Paramount.

It is, however, highly genial, rapid and unimportant melodrama, laid mostly on a train, dealing with the efforts of Duke Benson (Douglas Fowley), a public enemy with a national rating, to collect a sweepstakes prize. An insouciant G-Man (Brian Donlevy) traps him by publishing an advertisement announcing that someone else has won the prize and is about to sell the ticket. Before the trap is sprung, Benson has been seen shooting a train conductor (also a G-Man) and rousing the jealousy of his girl Jeanie (Isabel Jewell) with his attentions to Anne (Gloria Stuart). The cast is made up of the kind of people whose names look naked when exposed on marquees, but they are professional enough to convey that their antics are all in fun without impairing the occasional legitimate moments. One of the latter: Jeanie killing Benson.

Satan Met a Lady (Warner). The Thin Man (1934) set a new style in detective pictures. Imitations of it have been frequent. Satan Met a Lady is the thinnest imitation of it so far recorded, remarkable chiefly because Dashiell Hammett was author of the stories from which both pictures were adapted.

A frayed tassel from Hollywood's lunatic fringe, it includes performances by Warren William as a ferociously whimsical detective, Bette Davis, last year's Academy Award winner, in the trifling role of a jewel thief, and a platinum blonde newcomer named Marie Wilson as a squeaky secretary. Typical shot: the detective rebuking a baby-faced gunman for wearing a beret.

* In Trenton, N. J. last January one Joe Duggan, 14-year-old furnace tender, had the effrontery to call Jean Harlow in Hollywood on a telephone belonging to his employer, Charles Gerofsky. He spoke to her secretary, left a message which later caused Miss Harlow to call surprised Mr. Gerofsky. Last week the New Jersey Bell Telephone Co. arrived at a satisfactory settlement of its suit to make disgusted Mr. Gerofsky pay $20.35 for the long-distance call. Said Furnace Boy Duggan: "Gee, I'm sorry, Mr. Gerofsky. It was just an idea I had and I guess it wasn't so good."

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