THE MOVIEGOER

Down below Washington, D.C. there is a state that hasn't wanted any publicity since she backed the wrong horse in the Civil War. Virginia is the name-yassuh. That's the name of the picture showing at the Met this week and there are a lot of wrong horses in the picture, too. Fred MacMurray is a good old Irish southern gentleman who loves to see the tobacco grow and the young fillies fill out. He wants to keep Virginia for the folks who love Virginia. Yassuh. He can keep Virginia if it is the same state that Madeline Carrol comes back to. She comes back to sell the ole homestead, but the feel of the good earth under her fingernails brings back the days when MacMurray used to wash the little mole on her right leg. Or was it her left leg? Anyway she stays and gets everything mixed up. It's all mixed up. There's old negroes wandering around who can remember the Civil War. There's a train-master fifteen years. Virginia is supposed to be the state of virile men. Ha!

There's one good thing in the picture--a little girl named Carolyn Lee who puts a bright spot in every scene she's in. But look what they do to her--they let a mangy old horse step on her and she has to have a blood transfusion--MacMurray gives it to her--he's a doctor among other things. Oh well--the whole world is confused these days. It's too much to expect that the movies could bring order out of chaos. Somehow or other this picture misses its mark. Virginia is a good state in a lot of ways but the Holywood people sure make it out to be a pretty sad place. Oh yes, they bring home the most beautiful woman in the world--and how do they bring her? In a coffin. Now look, is that fair? After waiting for years to see the most beautiful woman in the world she shows up in a wooden kimona. For heaven's sake; don't take the kids.