MOVIEGOER

One good thing that war has brought to Hollywood studies is new faces to replace the Gables and Taylors in the services--Sonny Tufts, Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Eddie Bracken, John Hodiak, Alexander Knox, Paul Henreid, with others appearing every month. Some of the new leading men are not so good as the old stand-bys, but they all have the advantage of freshness. Of course hams like Edward G. Robinson and Wallace Beery are still around to remind us of our Saturday matinee days, but they've gone stale. If you can't predict every line in "Barbary Coast Gent" before it's said, at least you can be be sure of its tenor.

Deceivingly billed as "M-G-M's Terrific Western Thriller," the new Beery vehicle (with square wheels) is really a wishy-washy comedy. Beefy Beory is just an easy-going tramp, very un-high waymanlike, who by very obvious means terrorizes a hunk of the Wild West by holding up stage coaches while posing as a respectable citizen.

Sentimentalists may like it, but this sort of thing has been going on for years in the same old rut. You really haven't time for it. jgt.