Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1946)

SHOWMEN'S REVIEWS RELEASE CHART BY COMPANIES THE RELEASE CHART This department deals with new product from the point of view of the exhibitor who is to purvey it to his own public. The Big Sleep Warners (1946-47)— Bogart, Bacall and Murder Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and six murders add up to equal a lot of motion picture in any showman's reckoning, and when it's a picture in the Raymond ("Murder, My Sweet") Chandler manner, produced and directed by Howard Hawks, the sum of all its parts commands top playing time and exploitation effort. This is such a picture, conceived and executed strictly and forthrightly for the adult consumer, and it's hard to see how it can do less than top business. Bogart portrays the role of Philip Marlowe, private detective, played by Dick Powell in "Murder, My Sweet," and takes and gives more bodily and mental punishment than mere human beings are constructed to survive. The six killings are accomplished in a variety of ways, all violent, and these are only the highlights in a series of incidents inter-related with great skill in the screenplay by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman. Blackmail, extortion and hijacking are background materials used effectively, and there is a steadily flowing supply of the type of roughly-drawn humor without which high pressure melodrama is not considered complete. The scene is Los Angeles, and the period, indicated by mention of ration points and such, is a couple of years back. To adopt for the moment the tone of the characters, Bogart plays a private dick engaged by a nice old gent with millions of bucks and two problem daughters to take a blackmailer off his back by paying off. The dick has trouble finding the clip artist, but none in getting the gals nuts about him, the younger of these being a psycopathic case and the elder a divorcee addicted to "all the usual vices and some she's invented for herself," to quote her parent. The dick, who used to run rum in the old days, finds his assignment complicated by the rapid death rate in the field of suspects, but finally gets the blackmailing stopped and is told he's through. By this time, though, he's gone for the divorcee, who has also gone for him, but won't tell him the whole score, so he goes on digging into the family skeleton closet until he is so deep in that he has to start doing his own killing. Finally he figures out that the younger sister committed the first killing, irresponsibly, and he appears to be all set with the elder sister at fadeout time. (This is a thin and inadequate synopsis of a highly complicated tale that rivets attention to the screen for almost two tight hours). The production has immense impact, steady movement, and piles surprise upon surprise. It also has, in common with some other melodramas of recent date, no spotless characters. Also in common with other melodramas as intricately fashioned, it requires seeing from the beginning if understanding is to be reasonably complete. But it has force in plenty, and plenty of material, both in dialogue and action, to make people who've seen it tell people who haven't. Previewed at the studio. Reviewer" 's Rating : Excellent. — William R. Weaver. Release date, August 31. 1946. Running time, 113 min. PCA No. 10625. Adult audience classification. Phil Marlowe Humphrey Bogart Vivian Lauren Bacall John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone, Peggy Southern. Regis Toomey, Charles Waldron, Charles E. Brown, Bob Steele, Elisha Cook, Jr., Louis Jean Heydt, Sonia Darrin. The Time of Their Lives Universal — Abbott-Costello Click Comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are back in peak form in this startlingly different and extremely well produced comedy combining skillfully the essence of smart dialogue, trick photography and physical humor, with the latter this time held to a minimum and cushioned by surprise. It's by far the best A & C picture of the last two years, and quite possibly the best ever. Producer Val Burton, who collaborated with Walter de Le^n and Bradford Ropes pn the script, and director Charles Barton, whose handling of the subject rates with the best comedy direction of recent date, gave the comedians a complete change of material. The picture opens in Revolutionary War time, and in the manner of a starched period production, and gets a nice bundle of laughs before skipping to 1946, after which it gets going in full-speed-ahead tempo and rushes on to a screaming finish. The tale concerns the efforts of a pair of earthbound spirits, played by Costello and Marjorie Reynolds, to influence living people to find a lost letter which will free them of worldly ties. To say simply that they do it by haunting a house is to understate unfairly what goes on in proceedings that filled preview audience eyes with tears of laughter again and again. Excellent performances by such marquee mentionables as Binnie Barnes, Gale Sondergaard and Donald MacBride, in addition to those named above, add to the marketability of an attraction likely to establish new AbbottCostello records. Previewed at the Forum theatre, Los Angeles, where it kept a Friday night audience in stitches. Reviewer's Rating : Excellent— W '. R. W. Release date, August 16, 1946. Running time, 82 min. PCA No. 11771. General audience classification. H°ratio Lou Costello Dr. Greenway Bud Abbott Marjone Reynolds, Binnie Barnes, John Shelton, Gale Sondergaard, Jess Barker, Robert H. Barrat, Donald MacBride, Anne Gillis, Lynne Baggett, William Hall, Rex Lease, Harry Woolman. The Show-Off MGM — Skelton Acts Red Skelton proves here that he doesn't have to go into one of those inimitable solo routines of his_ to furnish an audience with 90 minutes of satisfactory entertainment. He proves it by playing the lead role in George Kelly's imperishable stage play without once taking leave of the character to play Red Skelton. What his millions of fans may think about this (and this one protests that at least one solo bit should have been indulged) remains to be seen, but it's not to be denied that the job done is O.K. The story, written this time by George Wells and produced by Albert Lewis, and directed by Harry Beaumont, concerns the well meant but bungling endeavors of one Aubrey Piper, a clerk who pretends infallibility in all things, to gladden and prosper the lives of his wife's family members. He gets them into various troubles before succeeding, after he believes he has failed, in putting over a business deal that puts them all on Easy Street. Although the supporting cast is wholly competent, interest centers naturally on the role played by Skelton, who plays it with energy, emphasis and altogether successfully. Previewed at the Village theatre, Westwood, where it did all right. Reviewer's Rating ; Good. — W. R. W. Release date, not set. Running time, 83 min. PCA No. 11625. General audience classification. Aubrey Piper ....Red Skelton Amy Marilyn Maxwell Marjone Mam, Virginia O'Brien, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, George Cleveland, Leon Ames, Marshall Thompson, Jacqueline White, Wilson Wood. Rendezvous with Annie Republic — Comedy _ Alan Dwan, who recently celebrated his fortieth anniversary in the motion picture business, has expended the accumulated craftsmanship of those forty years in a truly delightful comedy. Based on a news dispatch which told of a soldier who went AWOL in order to spend one night with his wife, and thus placed her in an extremely embarrassing position when the union was subsequently blessed with issue, the screenplay by Mary Loos and Richard Sale treats the situation humorously and with good taste. Eddie Albert is cast as the bungling G.I. who, after the birth of his son, must prove that the child is really his in order to claim a large estate. Faye Marlowe plays the wife, and Gail Patrick, in the role of a night club singer, does much to unsnarl the tangled situation. Sir Aubrey Smith, as always, gives an excellent performance. Philip Reed and James Millican are convincing as the two flyers who give Albert a free ride from England to New Jersey and back again. Raymond Walburn, William Frawley and Lucien Littlefield acquit themselves ably in minor roles. The film should give a good account of itself. Seen at the studio. Revietver's Rating : Good. — Thalia Bell. Release date, July 22, 1946. Running time, 89 min. FLA No. 10766. General audience classification. Jeffrey Dolan Eddie Albert Annie Dolan ........... Faye Marlowe Gail Patrick Philip Reed, Sir Aubrey Smith, Raymond Walburn William Frawley, James Millican, Wallace ■ Ford, Will Wright. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, AUGUST 17, 1946 3149