As a gentle and soothing mitigation from Danny Kaye's madness on the stage, the Paramount Theatre is offering on its new bill which started yesterday a sweetly sentimental little picture, "Miss Susie Slagle's" by name. (At least, that's the best explanation for the swift change of pace that we can see.) And assuming that all your nerve-endings will be tattered by the thwacks of Mr. Kaye, you should find it a pleasant refresher—and moderately charming, at times.

Based on the reminiscent novel which Augusta Tucker wrote—a humored and wistful reflection of life in a boarding house for medical students in Baltimore—it follows the episodic pattern of Miss Tucker's flavorsome book, with a couple of romantic by-plots worked in by the Hollywood scribes. There is nothing exciting about it, nor is it hung on a line of strong suspense. Just a half dozen medical students check in at Miss Slagle's domicile, a dignified diggings for young gentlemen with good recommendations back around 1910. And, through four long years of med school, which are bridged in less than an hour and a half, they indulge in many student shenanigans, personal problems and proper amours.

A coolly responsive critic might observe that the film fails to give a full and impressive comprehension of the ardor of a medical neophyte. And the mixing of love into the doings keeps it all in a familiar romantic groove. (Also, a reader of the novel might wistfully object that some of the most flavorsome episodes have been needfully left out.) But the playing is genial and winning and, except for some oddly rough jumps, the story lines flow together entertainingly.

Sonny Tufts is disarmingly amiable in the principal student role—that of a good-natured plodder who has an unaccountable phobia of death. And Renny McEvoy, Lloyd Bridges, Bill Edwards and Billy De Wolfe are amusing, too—the latter dominating deliberately with fancy, theatrical airs. Joan Caulfield is winsome but sturdy as the little lady who encumbers Mr. Tufts, while a respectably modest performance as a student nurse is given by Veronica Lake. Lillian Gish is decidedly limited by the script as the boarding-house marm but she manages to give an impression of respectability and pride personified. And Ray Collins, Morris Carnovsky and J. Lewis Johnson are picturesque in other roles.

One would refrain from recommending "Miss Susie Slagle's" as a fine drama of medical school. But it is a cheerful, nostalgic and personally engaging little picture of fabricated life.

MISS SUSIE SLAGLE'S, screenplay by Anne Froelick and Hugo Butler, with additional dialogue by Theodore Strauss, adapted by Miss Froelick and Adrian Scott from a novel by Augusta Tucker; directed by John Berry; produced by John Houseman for Paramount. At the Paramount.
Nan Rogers . . . . . Veronica Lake
Pug Prentiss . . . . . Sonny Tufts
Margaretta Howe . . . . . Joan Caulfield
Dr. Elijah Howe . . . . . Ray Collins
Ben Mead . . . . . Billy de Wolfe
Elijah Howe Jr . . . . . Bill Edwards
Elbert Riggs . . . . . Pat Phelan
Miss Susie Slagle . . . . . Lillian Gish
Dean Wingate . . . . . Roman Bohnen
Dr. Faber . . . . . Morris Carnovsky
Clayton Abernathy . . . . . Renny McEvoy
Silas Holmes . . . . . Lloyd Bridges
Irving Aaron . . . . . Michael Sage
Mrs. Johnson . . . . . Dorothy Adams
Dr. Metz . . . . . E. J. Ballantine
Dr. Boyd . . . . . Theodore Newton
Hizer . . . . . J. Lewis Johnson
Otto . . . . . Ludwig Stossel
Mr. Johnson . . . . . Charles E. Arnv

Operating on the time-tested theory that moviegoers are seldom more satisfied than when a film causes them to experience cold chills, RKO-Radio yesterday treated audiences at the Palace to a creepy melodrama, called "The Spiral Staircase." This is a shocker, plain and simple, and whatever pretentions it has to psychological drama may be considered merely as a concession to a currently popular fancy. It is quite evident by the technique Director Robert Siodmak has employed to develop and sustain suspense—brooding photography and ominously suggestive settings—that he is at no time striving for narrative subtlety.

How could he have been when he has drawn upon practically every established device known to produce goose pimples? However, the only thing that really matters is that Mr. Siodmak has used the rumble and cracking of thunder, the flickering candlelight, the creaking door and the gusts of wind from out of nowhere to startling advantage. For even though you are conscious that the tension is being built by obvious trickery, the effect is nonetheless telling. That Mr. Siodmak and his players, notably Dorothy McGuire, had a packed early-morning house under their spell most of the time was evident by the frequent spasms of nervous giggling and the audible, breathless sighs.

As a mute serving-girl in a sinister household, where family hatreds are deep and searing, Miss McGuire gives a remarkably lucid performance in pantomime. Her characterization of one who senses a dread shadow hovering over her but is incapable of communicating her fears, is restrained and effectively pathetic. In this day of much talk on the screen few actresses would dare to undertake a role which only permitted six words of speech. Miss McGuire is to be heartily commended for her adventurousness and the high degree of resourcefulness with which she has tackled the demanding and little-used art of pantomime.

In relating this arresting tale about a psychopathic killer who terrorizes a New England town, circa 1906, Director Siodmak has literally put the evil eye on the victims. For he has used his camera to give the spectator a closeup of the murderer's baleful eyes as they strike terror into his helpless victims, who, by the way, all are pretty, young girls. Whether "The Spiral Staircase" is a faithful translation of Ethel Lina White's novel, "Some Must Watch" we are not in a position to say, but we do know that the film is likely to scare the daylights out of most of its audiences.

Ethel Barrymore, playing the matriarch of the Warren family, is always interesting even though her role as a cantankerous invalid is hardly deserving of her vast talents. Sara Allgood, George Brent, Rhys Williams, Gordon Oliver, Elsa Lanchester and Kent Smith all do well by their respective characters.

At the Palace
THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE, screenplay by Mel Dinelli based on the Ethel Lina White novel, "Some Must Watch"; directed by Robert Siodmak; produced by Dore Schary and released by RKO Radio Pictures.
Helen Capel . . . . . Dorothy McGuire
Professor Warren . . . . . George Brent
Mrs. Warren . . . . . Ethel Barrymore
Dr. Parry . . . . . Kent Smith
Blanche . . . . . Rhonda Fleming
Steve Warren . . . . . Gordon Oliver
Mrs. Oates . . . . . Elsa Lanchester
Nurse Barker . . . . . Sara Allgood
Mr. Oates . . . . . Rhys Williams
Constable . . . . . James Bell

"Love Alone," Alice Faye dreamily points out, "can make the Fallen Angel rise." But apparently neither poetry nor its excessive palaver help lift "Fallen Angel," the melodrama which came to the Roxy yesterday, out of the tedium of mere words and uneven pace. It is only the latter half of this study of passion and crime that the picture fits words to action and takes on a semblance of speed necessary for such an excursion. And, while this vehicle no doubt will be welcome to those admirers who anxiously have been awaiting Miss Faye's return to the screen, it still remains only potentially powerful.

Back in 1944, Twentieth Century-Fox, Otto Preminger and Dana Andrews, among others, combined story, talent and scintillating dialogue to turn out a taut and superior murder mystery in "Laura" and the same auspices cannot be blamed for following a vaguely similar tact with "Fallen Angel." This time, Andrews, a drifter from New York with, his future behind him, lands broke in a California coastal town. Enamored of Linda Darnell, a waitress with a roving eye and a hankering for the security of marriage, Andrews marries Alice Faye, a virtuous and leading citizen, in order to mulct her of her inheritance and then take up with his true love. But the fire of passion is quenched by sudden crime when Miss Darnell is found murdered and Andrews and a couple of that lady's other devoted fans become suspect. To this observer, however, the dénouément comes abruptly and the final identification of the murderer does not add greatly to the film's suspense.

As the frustrated adventurer, Dana Andrews adds another excellent tight-lipped portrait of a growing gallery. Linda Darnell is beautiful and perfectly cast as the sultry and single-minded siren, while Miss Faye, whose lines often border on the banal, shoulders her first straight, dramatic burden, gracefully. Charles Bickford, as a dishonarably discharged cop, Anne Revere, as Miss Faye's spinster sister, and Percy Kilbride, as the lovesick proprietor of the diner in which Miss Darnell works, are outstanding among the supporting players. But for all of its acting wealth, "Fallen Angel" falls short of being a top flight whodunit.

At the Roxy
FALLEN ANGEL, screen play by Harry Kleiner; based on the novel by Marty Holland; produced and directed by Otto Preminger for Twentieth Century-Fox.
June Mills . . . . . Alice Faye
Eric Stanton . . . . . Dana Andrews
Stella . . . . . Linda Darnell
Mark Judd . . . . . Charles Bickford
Clara Mills . . . . . Anne Revere
Pop . . . . . Percy Kilbride
Dave Atkins . . . . . Bruce Cabot
Madley . . . . . John Carradine
Joe Ellis . . . . . Olin Howlin
Johnson . . . . . Hal Taliaferro