The Actress Reviews

A plodding, sometimes sensitive film about an aspiring actress, Simmons, whose father Tracy is a poor working man. He and his wife, Wright, are apprehensive about such a chancy career and try to convince their daughter to pursue another career or, better yet, settle down with a dour suitor, Perkins. Simmons persists even though she is turned down by Boston's leading theatrical impresario. Tracy taps his backbone and thrusts his child into the world, sending her to New Tork to find a role, giving her his only valuable, an expensive seaman's spyglass. A touching story which bogs down in too much argumentative dialog. Tracy walks tolerantly through his role, Wright is the rock-ribbed mother and Simmons is often grating as the stagestruck daughter. Walter Plunkett received an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design.