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Friday, June 25, 2021

The Crystal Ball (1943)

A beauty contest winner (Paulette Goddard) finds herself penniless in New York City. In desperate straits, she  takes a job shilling at a shooting gallery. She finds herself attracted to a handsome attorney (Ray Milland) who already has a girlfriend (Virginia Field) but by posing as a fortune teller, she hopes to break up the romance. Directed by Elliott Nugent (UP IN ARMS), this star driven hybrid fluff of screwball comedy and romcom goes down pleasantly if one doesn't ask too much (like a stronger script). Milland and Goddard have a nice chemistry (they made four films together) and William Bendix provides some nice comic support as Milland's valet with Ernest Truex and Iris Adrian quite amusing as a battling married couple. Curiously, the film was a Paramount production (Milland and Goddard were Paramount contract players) but the studio sold the film to United Artists which released it. If you're in a nostalgic mood, this might fit the bill. With Gladys George, Cecil Kellaway and Hillary Brooke.

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