National Board of Review Magazine (Jan 1939 - Jan 1942)

16 National Board of Review Magazine had hardly anything. . . . She was the only one in the picture who didn't do any acting, you could see how she threw herself down, it was so movieish. . . . She put on too much drama, "oh dear! oh dear!" . . . Just because she is beautiful she sits and looks at you. Any beautiful girl can do that. . . . Her looks could be used to better advantage than just being looked at. . . . She hasn't enough experience to be a really good movie actress. The famous actresses in Hollywood aren't debutantes — they are very well trained." In all this, the Young Reviewers saw eyeto-eye with the mature critics, with the difference that the former wanted to overlook the deficiencies. They were attracted visually to the film and were informed by it so they were willing to forgive the phonyisms. They accorded higher acting honors to Joseph Calleia, who does a magnificent job in a supporting role, than to the star, Miss Tierney. They were entertained by the picture but it is obvious that they also hoped for more than they got from it. Politely, they overlook the film's faults recognizing that entertainment must not be too divorced from their own sense of good taste. When they weren't confused, the Young Reviewers were as critical as the newspaper reviewers but they humbly excuse the bad points. The picture will probably be profitable just because of such condescension from audiences, but the Young Reviewers prove that it can't be a successful recipe for very many pictures. Selected Pictures Key to Audience Suitability f — Family audience (12 years up), m — Mature audience (18 years up). j — Juvenile audience (Under 12). * — Pictures especially worth seeing as above the average "selected" picture. Starred Selected Pictures *THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER / — Bctte Davis, Ann Sheridan, Monty JFoollcy. Based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Directed by IFilliam Kcighlcy. IFarner Bros. See Critical Comment, p. 8. ★REMEMBER THE DAY / — Claudette Colbert, John Payne. Based on the play by Philo Higley and Philip Dunning. Directed by Henry King. 20th Century-Fox. Again, we have a long look at the tragic love-affairs in a teacher's life told by means of flash-back. In the spring of her life, she had been secretly married to another teacher in their grammar school but the World War I made it a short-lived romance. Her only solace was in a young pupil, a sensitive boy who was scandalized like the townsfolk by the secret marriage. He had had a deep affection for his teacher which was badly shaken, but years later when the pupil had risen to be a presidential nominee, the teacher appears before him and he understands and forgives her early affair. The past is recreated with considerable nostalgia, alternately amusing and poignant. Miss Colbert and the young boy are very moving in what might have been an overdose of tear-jerking. ★SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS / — Paramount. See Exceptional Photoplays, p. 6. Selected Pictures ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT / — Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Kaaren Verne. Original screen story by Leonard O. Ross and Leonard Spicgelgass. Directed by Fincent Sherman. JVarner Bros. As a line puts it, there is indeed more here than meets the F.B.I. Bogart is in the familiar role of king-pin in a gangster ring but accidentally gets embroiled in a murder which turns out to be but one tiny facet of the operations of a vast system of fifth columnists. After many exciting narrow escapes, the line is traced up to the