THE CRYSTAL BALL (1943)

Typical light romantic comedy of the period from Paramount (released by United Artists*), a neatly executed example of a form that tended to be overdressed at M-G-M; overplayed at Warner Bros.; under-cast at Columbia & Universal; and Tyrone Powered at 20th/Fox.  Paulette Goddard’s an out-of-town gal who falls into Gladys George’s fortune-telling racket, swindling clients via crystal ball to find ‘lost’ valuable items purposefully misplaced by an inside accomplice.  (Generous reward evenly split.)  But Goddard grows more interested in Ray Milland, boyfriend to one of the victims and, wouldn’t you know it, he’s a fellow sharpshooter she’ll meet-cute at the carny booth she shills for.  And while this sounds like one of those forced farcical things (okay, it is one of those forced farcical things), loosey-goosey playing under director Elliot Nugent shows considerable finesse executing running jokes & compound gags from Virginia Van Upp’s original script, along with help from a better than average cast for one of these (William Bendix; Cecil Kellaway; Virginia Fields; Sig Arno).  Even composer Victor Young gives us a break, toning down the Mickey Mousing used on so many comic films as background score/qua laugh-track.  These mid-list comedies so often start dumb & grow tedious, it’s easy to overrate the merely decent, but this one’s pretty fun.

DOUBLE-BILL:  Goddard & Milland, something of a team at Paramount for a few years in the mid-‘40s, seen at their best together in KITTY/’45, a period piece (think VANITY FAIR) which may also be director Mitchell Leisen’s best, and is stolen lock, stock & barrel by character actor Reginald Owen.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *So, what is this 100% Paramount film doing over at United Artists?    Best guess is that the film biz, going thru the roof during the war years, saw films expected to play a week (or even a split week) being held over two or three weeks, precipitating a backlog at the major studios while United Artists was left on the hunt for product and offered a buyout.  Why U.A. retained rights after the initial run is a mystery.  But then, Paramount is the studio who would sell twenty years of their catalog (1929 - 1949) to Universal for a song in the mid-‘50s.