After having been skilfully battered into the most odious of film categories, the movie biography has had its face lifted by Columbia in "The Jolson Story," and emerges almost unrecognizable and completely vindicated. Jolson himself recorded the songs, and he still packs more life, rhythm, and excitement, note for note, than any other singer around. Combined with Larry Parks' delivery, which old-time Broadwayites claim to be phenomenally like that of the man who was the biggest boxoffice draw of his times, Jolson's voice accounts for the excellence of about half the picture.

The other half, namely the story, is distinguished mainly by the good taste of its omissions from the film-musical-biography formula. There is, for instance, no prophetic publisher, music teacher, wife, mother, or Monty Wooley to rasp "millions will thrill to your voice some day, Al." Instead, the gradual development of a star personality is shown, with little sentimental emphasis on either the ups or the downs. Again, although there is the usual trumped up battle between the hero's music and his wife, it is less ferocious and more human than in the Gershwin and Porter epics, and ends on a breakup instead of in a clinch. Best of all is the tasteful portrayal of Jolson's mother and cantor father, who are given some dimensions instead of being molded into a minority group comedy type.

Part of the overall effect of intelligence was undoubtedly achieved by restrained script-writers; much of it is due to the fact that an entertainer's life lends itself better to movies than does a composer's. Both "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (Cohan was primarily an entertainer) and now "The Jolson Story" illustrate the point. Where composers are just composers, and neither necessarily nor usually dramatic personalities, entertainers can entertain in biography as well as in person, and their lives generally have something public and spectacular about them.

Also on the program is a very cogent and provocative "March of Time." Entitled "The Teacher's Crisis," it molds the usual facts, figures, speeches, and dramatic incidents into an unusually good documentary, portraying with unique clarity the malignant growth of trends such as the exodus of underpaid teachers from the profession and the slackening of registration in teachers' colleges. President Conant winds up the "March of Time" with a short speech, and is followed by Donald Duck, and Mickey Mouse, and Pete Smith, and at least one other comical feature. This procession of humor is overpowering: all but ardent Pluto fans are advised to synchronize their entrance to the U.T. with the beginning of "The Jolson Story" and their exit with the end of the "March of Time."