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The Crystal Ball

1943, Movie, NR, 80 mins

The Crystal Ball: Review

Mild comedy starring Milland as a rich attorney who is engaged to an even richer widow, Field, until sassy Goddard enters the picture to upset the best-laid plans. Goddard, a one-time beauty contestant, takes a job as a phony fortune teller and tells Milland to buy some property. Goddard plays two roles and Milland and the others involved don't know that she is the fraudulent fortune teller. The big comedy sequence is a pie-throwing fight at the end, a bit that was 30 years old by the time this movie was done. There are so many characters in the picture and so little time that one doesn't have the opportunity to really get to know anyone. Bendix does his tough chauffeur act and Truex and Adrian are cute as a Bickersons-type couple. Yvonne DeCarlo does one of the many bits she played before Walter Wanger cast her in SALOME, WHERE SHE DANCED, in 1945. South African-born Cecil Kellaway was always an elf of an actor and won Oscar nominations for THE LUCK OF THE IRISH and GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER. leave a comment