The New Pictures

Irene (RKO). Only a few British cinemactresses have kicked their way up from the chorus to stardom--Evelyn Laye, Jessie Matthews, Anna Neagle. None is quite so fair as Anna Neagle.

Born Marjorie Robertson, Cinemactress Neagle (rhymes with eagle) got a grip on her career as a chorine when a British musical took her to Manhattan. Back in England, Producer-Director Herbert Wilcox signed her up, patiently brought her along, picture by picture, from musicomedy to solemn historical roles. In eight years they made 14 pictures together. Among them: Victoria the Great (which made the Neagle reputation international) ; Sixty Glorious Years (Victorian impersonation No. 2) ; Nurse, Edith Cavell.

In Hollywood last year Director Wilcox made an appalling discovery--U. S. cinemaddicts had forgotten that Cinemactress Neagle was ever a chorus girl in Manhattan, thought of her as a royal senescent or a primly patriotic martyr. Wilcox determined to correct this misconception.

His first step was to keep tightly taped up in cans the reels of Queen of Destiny (Victorian impersonation No. 3). Next step was to find a gay, frothy, fluffy musical, which would take Cinemactress Neagle right back where she started, would restore to musicomedy one of its prettiest faces and two of its smartest dancing legs, give Queen Victoria's double a chance to dance, sing, flirt, wear billowy dresses, publicly demonstrate that she is not a day over 25.

For this purpose Irene was dug out of the musicomedy archives of 1919, tuned down with less music, toned up with more comedy, glorified midway with a sudden blob of Technicolor for the Alice Blue Gown song sequences, jazzed toward the end when a Harlem revue swings the same song.

This version of the old Cinderella story does not rate prolonged cheers. But spun out by the deft Wilcox touch, it is pleasant entertainment, as airy and filmy as the gowns in which pert Upholsterer's Apprentice Neagle dances her way into the heart of Madame Lucy (Ray Milland), the masculine modiste who employs and marries her. There are well-tailored performances by Roland Young, Billie Burke, Arthur Treacher. Cinemactress Neagle sings charmingly, dances delightfully, is saucy, dainty, indubitably youthful.

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