Cinema: Also Showing

The Ice Follies of 1939 (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). With no individual star to rival Sonja Henie, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Producer Harry Rapf, eager to capitalize on the vogue for skating spectacles launched by Twentieth Century-Fox’s rotund little ex-Olympic skater, was forced to fall back on the reliable formula of the show within a show. Approximately half the footage of Ice Follies is devoted to the spinnings and whirlings of a troupe of professional skaters, photographed from all angles. The other half is devoted to a dull narrative in which James Stewart and Joan Crawford, as a pair of professional skaters (who never skate), achieve fame in the movies. Silliest sequence: Stewart’s heroic farewell to his skating partner (Lew Ayres) when their act breaks up.

Three Smart Girls Grow Up (Universal). Deanna Durbin, now 17, has for two years been practically the sole support of Universal’s stockholders. In this smooth, ingratiating, family comedy she discharges her responsibilities handsomely with renderings of La Capinera, Because, Invitation to the Dance, The Last Rose of Summer.