The Crimson Moviegoer

Four features are or will be at the University this week. Through Wednesday "Shall We Dance" and "Once A Doctor", with Jean Muir and Donald Woods are showing; on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, "Fifty Roads To Town", with Don Ameche and Ann Sothern, and "Romeo and Juliet", with Norma Shearer and Lesile Howard.

"Shall We Dance" possesses the merit of being no more nor less than it pretends to be, witty dialogue, Gershwin music, lavish production, preposterous situations, and those four specialists, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Eric Blore, and Edward Everett Horton. If the audience ever liked the ingredients, it will like the film since all the elements are proportionately balanced and put together in one performance which is all component and not at all discordant.

Notes on the cinema would, however, include some mention of the bit part played by Jerome Cowan. As Arthur Miller, friend of both the principals, he keeps the fire hot and the plot going by conclusively convincing the world that Petrov, the great ballet artist, and Linda Keene, dancer and blues singer, are married, though in reality they are not; that is, not until the eighth reel.

With a topnotcher like "Shall We Dance" it is a pleasant surprise to find the second show "Once A Doctor" also surpassing entertainment. This is due primarily to the absence of hospital dramatics customary in medical films, a new plot, and suitable acting by the lead, Donald Woods, with assistance from Gordon Oliver, as the weakling antagonist, and Joan Muir, for romance.

Suitable acting is the term. Also unlike the case in many medical films, the players attempt to play their roles and not steal the show from each other.