The New Pictures

Three Wise Fools (MGM) is a tale told by an ancient leprechaun to convince a group of young pixies that there really are such creatures as humans. The oldster begins his story by saying: "Lay back your skeptical ears--and listen with your heart." The line keynotes a movie that is brimming with Irish whimsy, unabashed hokum and the indisputable talents of Margaret O'Brien.

Young Miss O'Brien, speaking her broguish lines with considerable skill, plays an Irish orphan who has the monumental task of softening up three wealthy, crotchety old men (Banker Edward Arnold, Doctor Lionel Barrymore, Judge Lewis Stone). She owns a piece of property containing an ancient oak tree, which happens to be the home of her friends, the Wee People. Her three selfish, unimaginative guardians want to get rid of the property, uproot the tree. And dispossess the pixies? Not as long as Margaret and her sweet old drunken manservant (Thomas Mitchell) can prevent it!

Even those cinemagoers who are made vaguely uncomfortable by Miss O'Brien's precocious histrionics will concede her ability as an actress. In scene after scene in this picture she is up against battle-scarred old character actors who are famed for scene-stealing, but not once does she come off second best. The attitude of her more experienced fellow workers has probably been best expressed by Veteran Barrymore. After a short rehearsal one day with Actress O'Brien. 'Barrymore, a notorious scene grabber himself, was heard to mutter : "Two hundred years ago, they'd have burnt her as a witch."

The Time of Their Lives (Universal) also features a big, old tree which is inhabited by spirits. This time the spirits are the unhappy ghosts of departed mortals. The movie would be of interest to no one but fans of Comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, except that it underscores a mild Hollywood trend toward fantasy. (In pictures soon to be released, such diverse types as Keenan Wynn and Paul Muni also play ghosts.)

Much of the comedy in The Time of Their Lives hinges on Costello's efforts to .get his very substantial-looking nonsubstance through a closed door. Killed during the American Revolution, he has not yet quite mastered, in 1946, the seemingly difficult trick of dematerialization.

Moviemakers could avoid audience confusion by sticking to a few simple, basic assumptions: either a ghost can always get through a closed door without any bother, or he should have trouble in every spook picture.

The Welldigger's Daughter (Siritzky International) is not the best movie the French ever turned out, but it was made by the same skilled hands (writer-director-producer Marcel Pagnol) and features a couple of the same players as the successful Baker's Wife.

The welldigger (Raimu) is a widower trying to raise six daughters. The eldest girl (Josette Day), bored by the fumbling marriage proposals of her father's well-digging assistant (Fernandel), has a brief romance with a handsome air-corps" officer (George Grey). When her airman goes off to war and is reported missing, unmarried Josette disgraces her respectable father by giving birth to a son.

French movies, like U.S. movies, have their own highly stylized view of life. But the French, with their sharper attention to the way human beings normally behave, often manage to make their film conventions look lifelike. The real pleasure in this picture comes from watching Actor Raimu's very human vacillation between shame and pride in his bastard grandson.

Hollywood has often used illegitimacy as a theme--generally for deep, racking sobs (The Sin of Madelon Claudet, To Each His Own), less frequently for somewhat embarrassed guffaws (The. Miracle of Morgan's Creek). Surprisingly, the French have contrived, in this tender, low-keyed picture, to use illegitimacy for a few pleasant, amoral chuckles.

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