Word: plot
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...plot revolves around three members of an American intelligence team out to obtain information on German troop movements behind the Rhine. Leader of the team is an American captain. He has no political convictions. He spies because he's ordered to. Tiger, the second agent, is a German POW who has switched sides for better pay. But the central figure is "Happy," a sad-eyed, 19 year old medic, played by Austrian Oskar Werner. He becomes a traitor because he believes in "a life where people are free...
...which certainly tried to live up to its promise of 1950--the year when movies had hit an all-time low--that movies would be better than ever. Spurred by the competition of television, more imagined than real, the big studios attempted to climb out of their ruts of plot, technique, and star systems and did succeed in producing some acceptable film...
Always the master of situation, Webb dashes about with authority and assurance. His poker-face expression and impromptu remark routine is just as ridiculous and sometimes just as hilarious as in his former productions. Unfortunately, the plot in this case tries to cover all the old comic situations and succeeds in laboring the obvious conflicts in modern living. From modern furniture which ends up supporting the victim on his head to neurotic relations between father and daughter to weepy family scenes, the action speeds about, leaving no emotion unexploited...
Perhaps it's just as well that the plot is practically non-existent until near the end of the second act. For its first three-fourths, the play is simply a below-par musical revue, a series of mediocre songs and dances unhampered by any connecting thread. Indeed, Jo Mielziner's one set does remind you that this is all taking place on a rather battered Showboat, but there is no other perceptible connection with...
...lead, is probably the loudest and most un ingratiating actress on the stage today; Gene Lockhart, her co-star, is an established actor in his own right, but he has no singing voice, and this is, unfortunately, a prerequisite in a musical. There is, of course, a romantic sub-plot running through the play, but since neither of its principals can either sing or dance, it seems hardly worth mentioning...