Tonight's Movie: The Crystal Ball (1943) - A ClassicFlix Silver Series DVD Review

The charming Paulette Goddard and Ray Milland star in THE CRYSTAL BALL (1943). It's a United Artists film, produced at Paramount, which has just been released on DVD by ClassicFlix.

THE CRYSTAL BALL is No. 12 in the ClassicFlix Silver Series, which focuses on making lesser-known films available for home viewing.

Goddard plays Toni Gerard, a down-on-her-luck Texan in New York.  Thanks to the kindness of a fortune teller, Madame Zenobia (Gladys George), and a shooting gallery owner (Cecil Kellaway), she finds work and a ramshackle place to live. 

Through a series of events Toni falls for handsome, wealthy Brad Cavanaugh (Milland).  Toni, hoping to land Brad for herself, works to free him from his wealthy girlfriend, Jo (Virginia Field, who at times seems to be channeling Eleanor Parker). 

It's all very goofy, including Toni pretending to be fortune-telling Madame Zenobia at times, but no one will be surprised that everything works out in the end.

I first saw this film in 2011 and enjoyed returning to it after the passage of a decade.  The screenplay by Virginia Van Upp (from a story by Steven Vas) may not be perfect, but it's cute enough to entertain for the film's 81 minutes, especially with such delightful leads.  Milland is very appealing, and in my opinion there were few actresses in the classic film era who were as purely likeable as Goddard.

Milland and Goddard costarred in four films, and Milland once said of Goddard, "I always liked working with Paulette. She was not a brilliant actress...but nobody knew it better than she did, and she was completely honest about it; she is the most honest actress I ever knew."

The supporting cast includes one of my favorite character actresses, Mary Field, playing Jo's devious maid. Also in the cast are William Bendix, Cecil Kellaway, Iris Adrian, Nestor Paiva, Fay Helm, and Tom Dugan.

THE CRYSTAL BALL was directed by Elliott Nugent, who had previously directed Goddard opposite Bob Hope in THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1939) and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (1941).

The movie was filmed in black and white by Leo Tover.  It's notable that the film's costumes were designed by not one but two all-time greats, Edith Head and Adrian.

The ClassicFlix print is quite nice, especially considering that this is a "no frills" line where the focus is more on getting films into viewers' hands than restoration.  The sound is excellent.  

The DVD is a pressed disc; when initial supplies are depleted, Silver Series films may continue to be available in MOD (manufactured on demand) editions.  The disc includes a trailer gallery for additional films available from ClassicFlix.

I'm delighted that this movie is easily available at long last.  Anyone who enjoys the leads and '40s romantic comedies will probably enjoy spending time with THE CRYSTAL BALL.  I did!

Thanks to ClassicFlix for providing a review copy of this DVD.

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