New Picture

The Hucksters (M-G-M), an adaptation of Frederic Wakeman's blustering, best-selling assault on radio advertising, hands Clark Gable his first good job since demobilization, and presents Britain's beautiful Deborah Kerr (TIME, Feb. 10) in her first U.S. film.

Victor Norman (Gable) is quite an operator. Women of all sorts tumble for him like so many roundheeled dominoes, and he clearly qualifies for a fancy future in radio advertising. He knows, to perfection, how to walk into a cushy job by appearing to walk out on it; how to hook a gentlewoman (Miss Kerr) for a soap testimonial; how to turn out a commercial ("Love That Soap") that turns even his own stomach; how to finesse a sharp deal and how to make it stick by the application of blackmail. Above all, he knows how to please his agency's most fearsome client, Mr. Evan Llewellyn Evans (Sidney Greenstreet). Vic seems predestined for radio's ulcer brackets. But Miss Kerr's gentility seduces him into true love; and Mr. Greenstreet's ferocious bullying eventually goads him into self-respect.

Possibly Hollywood, which is capable of blushing, has heard about the pot and the kettle; in any case, unsure pacing and thin delivery cause a lot of the wickedest haymakers against radio and money-love to land rather light. For all Actor Greenstreet's enthusiasm, Soap Sponsor Evans is so fantastically brutal that most people may think him a freak, rather than a personification of one kind of big-business tyranny. And Adolphe Menjou, expert as he is as the head of the agency, appears more interested in getting laughs than in illustrating what a man can do to himself for the sake of money. Some of the picture's trimmings are shrewder stuff. There are viciously funny glimpses of a commercial photographer, a comedian (Keenan Wynn), an actor's agent (Edward Arnold) and two skilled script-plumbers; and the singing commercials are as horribly funny as the real thing. Ava Gardner is lush as the nightclub singer and Clark Gable plays his huckster firmly.

It is still too early to tell what Hollywood will do with Deborah Kerr, or vice versa. She has to huckster a pretty thin role for an actress of her charm and ability--and do what she can with it while M-G-M is huckstering the daylights out of her. She goes through the assigned paces with a good grace, refining them with considerable shrewdness and as much concern for more serious artistry as the heavily commercial traffic will bear.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.