Cinema, Also Showing Dec. 9, 1946

Never Say Goodbye (Warner) is the one about a divorced husband (Errol Flynn) who loves his ex-wife (Eleanor Parker), who loves him but won’t-admit-it-even-to-herself, and their little girl (Patti Brady), who loves, and is loved by, both of them, and will never let them hear the last of it. This situation, which is not unheard of in the home-loving U.S., might have been the basis for a touching and impressive film. Or, in skillful hands, it might have been first-rate comedy. Those who made this version use all the known tricks, and invent a few new ones, for depriving it of both humor and humanity.

The American Cop (MARCH OF TIME) tackles a serious and very present problem: the booming postwar U.S. crime wave. But with all its cops-&-robbers flavor of shrieking sirens, swinging nightsticks and hard-boiled violence, the film is as much fun as a fast whodunit.

When you come right down to the mechanics of law enforcement, says MARCH OF TIME, local policemen are the boys who do the hard, grubby job. As an example, the camera examines the New York City force, biggest of them all, whose rookies must pass a civil service exam and are schooled to be polite (some of them are), resourceful, specialized. Exciting shots: sweaty, wholesome-faced New York cops beating the internes to an emergency obstetrical case, reviving a would-be suicide, tracking down a pair of slippery young hoodlum-killers.

Appassionato (Lux-Saga) is a genteelly lethargic Swedish-made film about a girl who is loved by one young and one not-so-young pianist. The middle-aged one never really has a chance. Few U.S. moviegoers will care particularly that this is a fairly dull—but well photographed—movie. What they will notice is the girl, Viveca Lindfors, auburn-haired alumna of the same Swedish Royal Dramatic Academy which gave Hollywood both Garbo and Bergman.

Miss Lindfors, 25, wife of a Stockholm lawyer and mother of two small children, is already in California at work on Warner Bros.’ Night unto Night (TIME, Sept. 30). Appassionato,, with English titles, is being released in the U.S. for the benefit of cinemaddicts who cannot wait to make comparisons.

Like her more celebrated countrywom en, Lindfors is a good-sized, healthy-looking girl with a rich, cello-toned voice.

She is no conventional beauty, but her face is founded on beautifully modeled, well-spaced bones. It will be a pity if Hollywood’s make-up experts are tempted to tamper with her thick, dark eyebrows and wide, expressive mouth. Her legs are all right as they are.