Noel Coward is starring in a play of his own, which attempts to portray the emotional and psychological aspects of a love triangle involving a psychiatrist, his wife, and his lover. The effort to trace the disintegration of his marriage and his personality through a long series of flashbacks produces fine acting and dialogue; it is weakened by the instruction of melodramatic necessities of the plot.

The story is too trite to be redeemed by a psychological perspective. The narration of the psychiatrist's downfall, "the final triumph of matter over mind," is generally handled with restraint and conviction by Mr. Coward, but too many people in the cast do and say the expected things at the expected time.

Margaret Leighton gives an insistent performance as the paramour. Her lover compares her to "a child banging an empty spoon on a table" before his emotions overcome his scientific approach, and this analogy fits her role aptly.

As the thoughtful, intelligent wife, Celia Johnson displays just enough martyr complex to make her role appealing but not maudlin. Though her rational plans go awry and she cannot maintain a marriage based on mutual need rather than love she is a refreshing and stable antidote to the decaying lovers.

The dialogue is noteworthy for speeding up, rather than retarding, the pace of the picture. Mr. Coward's facility in writing and handling language makes it self-sustaining entertainment, as well as a vehicle for transmitting the thoughts and emotions of the players.

It is not in presentation that "The Astonished Heart" falls down. The acting could not have been much better, and Anthony Darnborough's direction was excellent throughout. It is the plot, which can only offer vague psychological glimpses to pierce its essentially raw triangular base, that prevents the picture from achieving great stature.

"Passport to Pimlico" is not one of those second features that warrant careful timing to avoid them. It is an imaginative comedy of London life which provides plenty of laughs with a restrained-farce type of humor.