Cinema: The New Pictures, Apr. 5, 1954

Beauties of the Night (Franco-London; United Artists). "If a workman were sure of dreaming every night that he was a king," wrote Blaise Pascal, "I believe he would be almost as happy as a king who dreamt every night that he was a workman." Borrowing plots from great philosophers is a quick way to get out of the movie business, but this time the borrower is René Clair (Sous les Toits de Paris, Le Million), a man as skillful with pictures as Pascal was with ideas. The result is a wonderfully natty little reductio...