A Woman Scorned

Every time the BBC's lady film critic took the air, MGM's edgy London staff winced. When Critic E. (for Eileen) Arnot Robertson reviewed MGM's The Green Years, it was the last straw. "When will Hollywood learn," she asked, "that to make everything larger, louder and lumpier than life is simply to diminish its effects?"

Next day the men of M-G-M barred Miss Robertson from its previews, and asked BBC to silence a voice that it felt was "completely out of touch . . . unnecessarily harmful to the film industry." Critic-&-Author (Four Frightened People) Robertson promptly filed a libel and slander suit (TIME, Oct. 14).

Last week, in King's Bench Court, a jury heard MGM's sulky defense: Miss Robertson was against "heart interest" in films; she had used her BBC time for "self-exhibitionism"; she had punctuated her reviews with "her charming but extremely cynical little laugh."

Judge & jury decided that it was not yet up to moviemakers to decide who should review their films, and how. Awarding Critic Robertson $6,000 damages, the court gave M-G-M a brief lecture. A critic, said the court, "surely is to direct us to what is worth our while to see and to escape that which is unworthy of notice. I sometimes wonder whether the cinema public gets what it wants. It seems to get what is shoveled up to it."

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