The Moviegoer

Without a doubt the most incessantly cute child actress of her generation, Margaret O'Brien nauseates more people than any pre-puberty screen personality since Shirley Temple in her hey-day. It's not that Miss O'Brien is a bad actress. She is a remarkably good one, with versatility, genuine feeling, and all the trimmings. The trouble lies in the basic idea of putting child actresses on the screen in big parts, an idea which leads almost inevitably to super-sanguinity, tedious tear-jerking, and a total lack of sex-appeal.

"Three Wise Fools" is no exception. Miss O'Brien believes in pixies and things, but Edward Arnold, Lionel Barrymore, and Lewis Stone, the old meanies, want nothing to do with pixies and things. All they want is to build a Greek Theatre on a piece of property Miss O'Brien owns. She won't let them do it, on account of the pixies and things live there. A compromise is finally reached, the land is made a park, and the theatre doesn't get built, which is too bad, especially considering that the pixies and things will live happily forever after.