JaJWM

Long before Rodgers and Hammerstein had the idea of musicalizing Cinderella, Betty Boop made the midnight pumpkin change tunefully, with verve, sex and good story editing. The plot is trimmed to its essentials, the splendid backgrounds may have influenced the Disney Beauty and the Beast, and the closing shot of the Pinocchio-nosed sisters wraps everything up with a laugh.

The Harold Lloyd movies I've seen (The Kid Brother, Safety Last) tend to depend on Harold's brilliant ability to hang hilarious gags on a rather flimsy plot, and this film is no different. It has some very funny moments (Harold and the turkey; Harold and the battleaxe mother-in-law) and a superb opening scene in which he falls in love at first sight, but the later assaults on his in-laws aren't very well motivated. One feels sympathy for his wife's Wagnerian mother;she even cries in one scene. The very handsome Lloyd is much more intersting as a young swain. For obnoxious in-law comedy that really works try W.C. Fields' "It's a Gift" and "The Man on the Flying Trapeze," the latter containing some elements similar to Lloyd's film.

Chilling little late 40's "B" deserves recognition -- nay - preservation. Slow-moving (some might say majestic) at first, then gathers steam. Turhan Bey sets the dreamy tone as a phony spiritualist; the rest of the acting is sturdy 40's style, including a charismatic Richard Carlson and the redoubtable Norma Varden in an unbilled cameo. But the real star here is the hypnotic mise-en-scene -- plenty of sweeping moonglow landscapes and murky interiors. Not as slangy or nihilistic as a classic-style noir -- though there's a neat scene with a gumshoe -- but definitely worth sitting through on a dark and stormy night.