Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1939)

August 19, 1939 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 51 Chicken Wagon Family (20th Century-Fox) Comedy Melodrama Jane Withers is growing artistically as well as physically, and the lively young star's assignment in this is the kind a growing young woman of her peculiar ability feasts upon. She is the mainspring of the picture and always its focal point, despite the presence of such known players as Leo Carrillo, Spring Byington, Hobart Cavanaugh and Marjorie Weaver. That is what her fans want her to be and why they have placed her twice among the top ten Money Making Stars in Motion Picture Herald's poll of exhibitors. The Harry Benefield novel had a wide reading and much mention in the magazines. Additionally, it was one of the stories enacted via radio by Orson Welles shortly after he had stirred up the nation with that Mars broadcast and while, presumably, a large part of the listening public was acutely Welles-conscious. It is, therefore, a story of considerable ready-made acceptanceViola Brothers Shore wrote the screen play and Herbert L. Leeds directed the picture. Neither sought to make more of the story than there is in it. What's in it is an account of the adventures in New York City of an itinerant merchant and his family, who drive into the metropolis in the mule-drawn wagon in which they've been touring the back roads of the provinces these many years. These adventures are both comic and melodramatic, about 50-50, and could happen just about as they seem to. The result is pleasing entertainment. Miss Withers is a little taller and a little leaner, perhaps a little less headlong and a deal more certain of her timing. There is no awkwardness and no embarrassment. There would seem to be no reason why her 'teens should hold terror for her, or disappointment for exhibitors, in material as well suited to her ripening talents as this one. Previewed at the Uptown theatre, Los Angeles, where it seemed to give complete satisfaction. — W. R. W. Produced and distributed by 20th Century -Fox. Directed by Herbert L. Leeds. Screen play by Viola Brothers Shore. Novel by Harry Benefield. Photographed by Edward Cronjager. Edited by Fred Allen P. C. A. certificate No. 5425. Release date, August 11, 1939. Running time, when seen in Los Angles, 65 minutes. General audience classification. CAST Addie Fippany Jane Withers Jean Paul Batiste Fippany Leo Carrillo Cecile Fippany Marjorie Weaver Josephine Fippany Spring Byington Matt Hibbard Kane Richmond Henri Fippany Hobart Cavanaugh Auctioneer Hamilton MacFadden Mrs. Buzzi Inez Palange Hawaiian Nights (Universal) Musical Swing music and Hawaiian melodies blend in Universal's "Hawaiian Nights," a musical whose chief action takes place in and around the famed resort. Insouciantly entertaining, the story brings to Hawaii a young man interested in leading a swing band, but whose father insists upon his following the hotel business. He meets the daughter of a rival hotel proprietor and aids her in defeating his father's "grab" of the other hotel. The romantic leads are Johnny Downs and Constance Moore, with Mary Carlisle, Eddie Quillan, Etienne Girardot, Thurston Hall, Samuel S. Hinds, Robert Emmett Keane and Willie Fung supporting. The music is provided by Matty Malneck and his orchestra, and Sol Hoopiis Hawaiian Band. Albert S. Rogell directed, from a screenplay by Charles Grayson and Lee Loeb, who adapted the original story by John Grey. Max Golden produced. Previewed at the Alexander theatre, Glendale, Cal., to a receptive audience. — V. K. Produced and distributed by Universal. Associate producer, Max Golden. Director, Al Rogell. Original story by John Grey. Screenplay by Charles Grayson and Lee Loeb. Cameraman, Stanley Cortez, A.S.C. Original songs, Matty Melneck, Frank Loesser. Musical director, Charles Previn. Dance director, Jack Crosby. Sound supervisor, Bernard B. Brown. Technician, William Hedgcock. Art Director, Jack Otterson. Costumes, Vera West. Film editor, Otto Ludwig. Assistant director, Henry Spitz. P.CA. Certificate 5555. Running time, 65 minutes. Release date, September 15, 1939. General audience classification. CAST Ted Hartley Johnny Downs Lonnie Lane ...Constance Moore Millie Mary Carlisle Ray Peters Eddie Quillan T. C. Hartley Thurston Hall Lane Samuel S. Hinds Alonzo Dilman Etienne Girardot The Band Matty Melneck's Orchestra These Clamour Girls (MGM) Glamour Stuff In College Capitalizing upon reams of current newspaper space given to debutantes and glamor girls, self-made and otherwise, "These Glamour Girls" is a timely exploitation picture of adult nature. Based on college life and the allure of girls being rushed by men-in-the-best-fraternities, the plot has for contrast and motivation the actions of a taxi dance hall girl thrown belter skelter into what soon turns out to be trouble and more trouble. The cast includes Lew Ayres, Lana Turner, Tom Brown, Richard Carlson, Jane Bryan, Anita Louise, Marsha Hunt, Ann Rutherford, Mary Beth Hughes, Owen Davis, Jr., Ernest Truex, Sumner Getchell, Peter Hayes, Don Castle, and Tom Collins, a sufficiency of marquee names. A. Sylvan Simon directed the Sam Zimbalist production. Jane Hall and Marion Parsonnett wrote the screen play from a Cosmopolitan Magazine story by Miss Hall. Basically, the story is not new. "Phil Griswold," wealthy young man, meets "Jane," taxi dancer, while drunk, and invites her to a fraternity house party to which he also invites a girl whom he is supposed to marry. Complications develop, furthered by a display of cattiness by the girls when the identity of "Jane" is discovered. Romances are shattered, a "perennial Prom" girl commits suicide after being compromised, and "Phil" finds he loves "Jane." Previewed at the Alexander theatre, Glendale, Cal., to genuine audience appreciation, indicated audibly and long. — V. K. Produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Producer, Sam Zimbalist. Director, S. Sylvan Simon. Screenplay by Jane Hall and Marion Parsonnet. From the Cosmopolitan magazine story by Jane Hall. Musical score by Edward Ward and David Snell. Lyrics by Bob Wright and Chet Forrest. Vocal and orchestral arrangements, Wally Heglin. Recording director, Douglas Shearer. Art director, Cedric Gibbons. Set decorations, Edwin B. Willis. Wardrobe by Dolly Tree. Director of Photography, Alfred Gilks, ASC. Film editor, Harold F. Kress. P. C. A. Certificate 5524. Running time, 85 minutes._ Release date, August 18, 1939. Adult audience classification. CAST Philip S. Griswold Lew Ayres Jane Thomas Lana Turner Homer Ten Eyck Tom Brown Joe Richard Carlson Carol Christy Jane Bryan Daphne Graves Anita Louise Betty Ainsbridge Marsha Hunt Mary Rose Wilston Ann Rutherford Ann Mary Beth Hughes Greg Smith Owen Davis, Jr. Alumnus Ernest Truex "Blimpy" Sumner Getchell Skel Peter Hayes Jack Don Castle Tommy Torgler Tom Collins New Frontier (Republic) Western Confronted with another problem of the never static movie west, "The Three Mesquiteers" ride again. The solution is summarily attended to when the last reel draws alarmingly near its close. The script has the Mesquiteers falter and bungle before that last fadeout, while their legion of fans squirm in their seats. The roll call of the "Mesquiteers" finds John Wayne as "Stony Brooke," Ray Corrigan, the only remaining member of the original trio, in the role of "Tucson Smith," and Raymond Hatton as "Rusty Joslin," the names based on characters created by William Colt MacDonald. William Berke was associate producer and the film was directed by George Sherman. The settlement of New Hope is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding, when news arrives that the valley is to be converted into a reservoir for a nearby city. "The Mesquiteers" are taken in by a land grant swindle and it is through their efforts that the people agree to leave the settlement and settle on the new land. Too late the "Mesquiteers" discover that the promised land is a mirage. They try to warn the settlers but are captured and held prisoners. Escaping, they overcome "Gilbert," the heavy, and his cohorts. In the end the setlers move to the new land after the state has run an irrigation pipe into the barren country. Action, as in all of this series, is the keynote. Reviewed in a projection room in New York. — Paul C. Mooney, Jr. Produced and distributed by Republic. Associate producer, William Berke. Directed by George Sherman. Original screen play by Betty Burbridge and Luci Ward. Based on characters created by William Colt McDonald. Production manager, Al Wilson. Photography, Reggie Lanning. Editor, Tony Martinelli. Musical score, William Lava. P. C. A. Certificate No. 5520. Running time, 57 minutes. Release date, August 10, 1939. General audience classification. CAST Stony Brooke John Wayne Tucson Smith Ray Corrigan Rusty Joslin Raymond Hatton Celia Phylis Isley Major Broderick Eddy Waller Stevie Sammy McKim Gilbert Leroy Mason Proctor Harrison Greene Tudge Lawson Reginald Barlow Doc Hall Burr Caruth Jason Dave O'Brien Sheriff : Hal Price Harmon Jack Ingram Dickson Bud Osborne Turner Charles Whitaker Where's That Fire (Twentieth Century-Fox British) Firefighting Indications that Will Hay's sponsors seem disinclined to widen his field of appeal, apparent in his more recent films, are again manifest in this latest creation by the Islington chefs. It is true that the bold determination on originality which had previously cast the schoolmaster comedian as a lawyer, as a railway porter and as a skipper of a scow, now dresses him in the habiliments of a fire brigade chief, but the slapstick mixture is very much as before, and the appeal of the unsophisticated comedy is neither to those who have been satiated nor to those who have not yet been converted. The aim is obviously and directly at that audience which wants neither subtlety nor novelty, which is set ready to laugh at Mr. Hay and his stooges before the film starts. Exhibitors booking the picture, on the other hand, are likely to be critical of its box office merits, and there would not seem to be much likelihood of an overseas market or one outside that of the star's devotees. Hay's adventures as "Captain Viking," chief of the Bishops Wallop fire brigade, lead him into mishaps with his own apparatus, find him fighting a fire on to which his assistant, Moore Marriott, has hosed petrol, and ultimately capturing crooks after the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, with the aid of a formula which buries them beneath an ocean of soap suds. In between whiles the trio — for Graham Moffatt, the cheeky boy, is again included — wrestle with a pole in a china shop and a goutstricken invalid's bedroom, argue with the Mayor and have their fire engine stolen. It is rather the two-reel comedy brand of humor strung to feature length. That there is a public for it, there is of course no doubt. Whether that publice will increase by virtue of "Where's That Fire" is another matter. Both script and dialogue are less effective {Continued on page 54)