THE MOVIEGOER

Surprisingly similar to "Mayerling" in mood and pace, "Orage"--now at the Fine Arts--attains dramatic excellence through masterful use of simple, intrinsically unprepossessing material. In the hands of Warner Brother and Kay Francis--perish the thought!--it would probably have been trite and dull, for the plot concerns merely the tragic love of a marries man (Mr. Boyer) and a tempestuous, delicate, passionate femme du monde (Michele Morgan). But the vehicle is unimportant; around the character of Francoise--portrayed by Miss Morgan with an almost psychological profundity amazing for her seventeen years--the interest is centered. Not beautiful except in certain poses, she is nevertheless very appealing, and although her character is at once vain, cruel, tender, and generous, she succeeds in making it credible. If Charles Boyer is overshadowed, it is because the script was so constructed, not because of any weakness in his performance; and the minor characters--even the impossibly naive Gilbert (Robert Manuel) and the eccentric, hardly credible Robert (Jean Louis Barrault)--are skillfully portrayed. Only on one occasion, when the two principal women engage in that lush sentimentality so often employed to resolve a triangle plot, does the pace become slow; and the ending, tragic and impelling in the vein of the whole film, again revolves about Francoise and leaves a well unified impression in the mind of the delighted spectator.