The Film Daily (1948)

Thursday, March 4, 194? ftflLfll DAILY REVIEWS Of DEW FEATURES ^ 'Scudda Hoo! Hay!" Scudda with June Haver, Lon McCallister, Walter Brennan 20th-Fox 95 Mins. FINE ENTERTAINMENT; PROPERLY EXPLOITED IT SHOULD PAY OFF IN BIG B. O. DIVIDENDS. Fine entertainment has been fashioned in film from the novel by George Agnew Chamberlain. It has warmth, romance, humor, drama, first class performances and Technicolor. Also it has two mules. These mules are responsible for the title. Yell it out and they lean lustily into their harness. If they like you they'll drag and drag. No mules will be required to drag an audience in to see this picture. With astute exploitation the picture will have them coming from near and far, send them away happy and with a smile. As a glimpse into the rarely viewed American agrarian scene "Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!'' tells a story that has plenty of vivid incident. Various aspects of the tale are blended in neat, snappily paced sequences. As the ingredients are added up and thrown into the scales the balance swings from serious to light. F. Hugh Herbert directed the piece from the script of his own concoction. The observation drawn when this film concludes is that too long has the horse and dog been subjected to admiration. Too much film ihas been exposed to their prowess, accomplishments. Here the serviceable, faithful, hard-working, highly intelligent and beloved mule comes into its own for worthy exposition and tribute. McCallister acquires two stalwart mules after his father, Henry Hull, fed up with his second wife, Anne Revere, and stepson, Robert Karnes, goes to sea. He takes a job with Tom Tully, neighboring farmer, who first got the mules, resold them when they proved ornery. June Haver is daughter to Tully. Natalie Wood is her sister. McCallister applies himself to pay off for the animals. Aided by Walter Brennan who has an affection for "cookin' Bourbon," he breaks the mules. They get mule-work at a nearby lumber camp, prosper. Karnes induces Tully to participate in a bit of connivery to get the animals. Karnes would beat McCallister so severely he would not be able to keep up the installments. McCallister, learning of this via Miss Wood, turns the table, gives Karnes the thrashing of his life. At length Tully is made to see the error of his ways. Word comes that Hull is lost at sea. Miss Revere and Karnes are driven off the place which is now McCallister's. Final contest has the mules extracting Tully's tractor from a mired field and McCallister and Miss Haver making plans to wed. It is pleasant, rewarding stuff that unfolds here. Alternating currents of humor, drama and vivid pictorialization run through the proceedings. CAST: June Haver, Lon McCallister, Walter Brennan, Anne Revere, Natalie Wood, Robert Karnes, Henry Hull, Tom Tully, Lee MacGregor, Ken Christy, Matt McHugh, Charles Wagenheim, Herbert Heywood, Edward Gargan. CREDITS: Producer, Walter Morosco; Director, F. Hugh Herbert; Screenplay, F. Hugh Herbert; Based on the novel, "Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!" by George Agnew Chamberlain; Photography, Ernest Palmer; Art directors, Lyle Wheeler, Albert Hogsett; Sets, Thomas Little, Stanley Detlie; 'Casbah' with Yvonne DeCarlo, Tony Martin, Peter Lorre Univ.-lnt'l 94 Mins. POWERFUL BOX OFFICE DRAW B1ENDING UNDERWORLD, COMEDY, ROMANCE, REVENGE AND MUSIC. In France it was "Pepe Le Moko." Wanger made it as "Algiers" with Boyer and Lamarr. Now, as "Casbah," with songs by Tony Martin and dances by Katherine Dunham and her troupe, it again appears. It is still a powerful box office draw. It has been given the new look. Ships have been swapped for airplanes. Story of the romantic crook who hides out in the Casbah section of Algiers, quite safe from the police, and how his gal done him wrong when he took up with a chippy from Paris, is too well known to repeat here again. Peter Lorre plays the native police inspector who is on the friendliest of terms with "Pepe" Tony Martin. He does the role well. Miss DeCarlo is "Inez" the native wench. Marta Toren is sultry, interesting and beautiful as the visitor from Paris who ensnares Martin and is responsible for his leaving the Casbah, getting himself arrested and subsequently shot to death at the airport when she departs. She plays "Gaby," which in this version comes off the soundtrack "Gabby." The Katherine Dunham troupe is restrained from really demonstrating their talents along lines of savage, albeit interesting terpsichore. Miss Dunham has a bit part in the script but she is more interesting when she's on her feet and cavorting a la torso. Music is by Leo Robin and Harold Arlen. Two numbers will catch on. They are "What's Good About Goodbye" and "For Every Man There's A Woman." There are also two others. Show is a neatly concocted display of underworld, comedy, amour and the woman scorned who gets her revenge. John Barry directed. CAST: Yvonne DeCarlo, Tony Martin, Peter lorre, Marta Toren, Hugo Haas, Thomas Gomez, Douglas Dick, Katherine Dunham, Herbert Rudley, Gene Walker, Curt Conway, Andre Pola, Berry Bernard, Virginia Gregg, Harris Brown, Houseley Stevenson, Robert Kendall. CREDITS: A Marston Production; Producer, Nat G. Goldstone; Director, John Berry; Screenplay, L. Bush-Fekete, Arnold Manoff; Music, Harold Arlen, lyrics, Leo Robin; Musical story, Eiic Charell; Based on the novel, "Pepe Le Moko," by Detective Ashelbe; Photography, Irving Glassberg; Art directors, Bernard Herzbrun, John F. DeCuir; Editor, Edward Curtiss; Sound, Leslie I. Carey, Jack Bolger; Sets, Russell Gausman, Oliver Emert; Choreography, Katherine Dunham; Music arranged and directed by Walter Scharr. DIRECTION, Okay. PHOTOGRAPHY, Very Good. Rites for Jack Kaufman Funeral services were held last Sunday at Valley Stream for Jack Kaufman, 65, farmer vaudeville headliner and record artist, and father of Judy Clark of the films Evelyn Jones Promoted Evelyn Lee Jones has heen named time buyer of the Donahue & Coe radio department, effective immedi ately. She has been manager of the contract and traffic division for the past five years. Editor, Harmon Jones; Music, Cyril Mockridge; Conducted by Lionel Newman; Arrangements, Herbert Spencer, Earle Hagen; Sound, Eugene Grossman, Roger Heman. DIRECTION, Fine. PHOTOGRAPHY, Excellent. "Oklahoma Badlands" with Allan Lane, Eddy Waller, Mildred Coles Republic 59 Mins. GOOD WESTERN FARE SHOULD DO THE TRICK; PERFORMANCES, DIRECTION OKAY. Control of a vital pass in Grass Valley motivates this oater. Directed by the veteran Yakima Canutt, it delivers all necessary elements of the western. It is hardhitting stuff and astutely fashioned to the talents of Allan Lane. Eddy Waller gives comic relief. Mildred Coles is effective as a girl named "Leslie" who switches monickers with Lane in order to bring the criminal element out into the open for eventual extinction. The "Rawlins" ranch has been depleted of 'Rawlinses." They are all dead of lead poisoning. Miss Coles, a second cousin, is heiress to the place. Last thing Jay Kirby, a "Rawlins," did before he was killed was to send for Allan Lane. Passing Miss Coles off as his housekeeper Lane soon adds up the state of affairs at the ranch. Crooks are trying to get the place by foreclosing on a note. Cattle are sold to get money to pay off the debt. Lane is waylaid. Soon after the plan is exposed and after a perilous brawl atop a wildriding stagecoach, Lane settles the criminal hash. Unostentatiously, this one should do the trick. CAST: Allan Lane, Eddy Waller, Mildred Coles, Roy Barcroft, Gene Stutenroth, Earle Hodgins, Dale Van Sickel, Jay Kirby, Claire Whitney, Terry Frost, Hank Patterson, House Peters, Jr., Jack Kirk. CREDITS: Associate producer, Gordon Kay; Director, Yakima Canutt; Original screenplay, Bob Williams; Photography, John MacBurnie; Art director, Frank Arrigo; Music, Mort Glickmon; Editor, Arthur Roberts; Sound, Earl Crain, Sr.; Sets, John McCarthy, Jr., James Redd. DIRECTION, Very Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Fine. Sorrell Denies Being Red; Tells of Browne-Bioff Days (Continued from Page 1) terday told the House Labor Subcommittee an alleged party membership card bearing the signature "Herb Stewart" is certainly not his. The Committee this morning will consider the possibility of calling in handwriting experts. Telling the Committee that there wasn't anything they could do about his being a Communist, if he were, Sorrell declared, "If I had ever joined the Communist party, I would just as soon tell you because you can't deport me back to Missouri, where I was born. There is no law against being a Communist." Rep. Thomas Owens said mysteriously he knows some things the Tenney Committee overlooked when it considered the same card, now here in Washington. The original was produced by IA attorney Matthew Levy after Sorrell testified that no one has ever let him see the original before. For the most part, Sorrell concerned himself with the old BrowneBioff days in the IATSE. He said Willie Bioff, former IATSE Holly-, wood chieftain, "made more Communists in Hollywood than any Communist organizer could make." He "The Hawk of Powde] River" with Eddie Dean, Roscoe Ates, Jennifer Hoi PRC-Eagle Lion 54 Mins GOOD WESTERN HAS A NOVEL TWIS' IN PLOT; ALL ACTION ELEMENT>n?ES ENT. £-, . Jennifer Holt, heretofore seen in thes Eddie Dean westerns as a nice girl givei to playing along with the side of law am order, this time plays "The Hawk," leader o a gang of murdering outlaws. She has he uncle done in. Then his daughter, Jun Carlson, who inherits the ranch, is the nex target. But happily Dean comes along, get wind of what is up, drives off the killer as he rides shotgun on the stagecoach. Miss Holt connives with Eddie Parker an unscrupulous lawyer, to withhold read ing the will. Dean is insistent that it b read. He suspects certain elements wan Miss Carlson out of the way. She, on hi say so, hides out in a line shack under pro tective guard. Miss Holt, learning the legacy is to b divulged next day, rounds up her cut throats, searches for the girl. They locat her. A gun battle ensues. Dean and Ate come riding up, kill off the attackers. Mis Holt is shot. Up to this time everyone i the cast was not aware of her identity She's unmasked in death, the case is cleare up Story has a novel element in the role o Miss Holt. One of the capable wester: female performers, she does it up to turn. Dean sings four songs. Ates make with the comedy. There's a full complemen of action. Ray Taylor directed. CAST: Eddie Dean, Roscoe Ates, Jennifer Hoi June Carlson, Lane Bradford, Terry Frost, Te French, Steve Clark, Tex Palmer, Carl Mathew Eddie Parker, Andy Parker and the Plainsmei CREDITS: Producer, Jerry Thomas; Directo Ray Taylor; Original screenplay, George Smitr Songs, Eddie Dean, Hal Blair, Pete Gates; Phc tography, Ernie Miller; Sound, Glen Glenn; Set: Gene Redd; Editor, Joe Gluck; Incidental musi. Walter Greene; Music supervisor, Dick Carrutl DIRECTION, Okay. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. Screen Mag. Readership Concentrated in 83 Keys (Continued from Page 1) publications. Of a total readershi of 20,000,000, 13,250,000 is concer trated in the 83 keys. Magazines represented in the As sociation are Motion Picture, Movi Story, Modern Screen, Screen Storie Photoplay, Movie Life, Movie Star Parade, Movieland, Screen Guidi Screenland, Silver Screen and Movi Show. ':: also attacked Joseph Tuohy, nolabor director of Fox West Coa? Theaters, as a former Chicago mot ster. He said he had been told <: Tuohy's record by a representatrv of the Chicago police force. Sorrell testified that the troubl behind the present Hollywood mov! strike, which the subcommittee investigating, began in 1934 or 193 At that time, he said, the IATSI headed by George Browne, "raai" deal with Schenck." Nicholas Schenck is president c Loew's, Inc. Sorrell will return to the stand tc day.