Dizzyingly admirable and endlessly innovative, it’s all so breathtaking that one doesn’t quite have the time or even the resources to respond more than weakly; is the failure in the film or in the viewer? it’s true that this is much more than blood simple smarty-pants filmmaking, but it still tends to leave you in the cold; the genre mixing (breathtaking 30s art-deco combined with the early 30s newspaper yarns and the 50s boardroom melodrama, a form I know next to nothing about), the quoting (the surprisingly fine J.J. Leigh’s Katharine Hepburn imitation in the Jean Arthur/Barbara Stanwyck role–in fact, it’s a Capra movie too, as the good-hearted innocent is nearly besmirched, but hangs on and knocks over the corrupt corporation [though here the corruption’s never converted, and the innocent never quite catches on to what’s happening])–one identifies, one enjoys, one finds it’s gone past and been replaced before one can quite figure it out; still, it’s greatly worthwile, Robbins is better than he’s ever been (I maintain that, except for the sure thing, that may not be saying much), Newman’s still a fine specimen, the cinema-ness of it all is an endless treat, big laughs abound, and the good-heartedness so evident in Raising Arizona, that’s been in the background of late, is in abundant and pleasing evidence