Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1939)

The Shadow Stage WAKE U P ====^ YOUR Without Calomel — 1%#^B* And You'll Jump LIVER Out of Bed in the Q Morning Rarin' to Go ""* The liver should pour out two pounds of liquid bile into your bowels daily. If this bile is not flowing freely, your food doesn't digest. It just decays in the bowels. Gas bloats up your stomach. You get constipated. Your whole system is poisoned and you feel sour, sunk and the world looks punk. A mere bowel movement doesn't get at thecause. It takes those good, old Carter's Little Liver Pills to get these two pounds of bile flowing freely and make you feel "up and up." Harmless, gentle, yet amazing in making bile flow freely. Ask for Carter's Little Liver Pills by name. 25c at all drug stores. Stubbornly refuse anything else. • CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY-Warners WlTH warning to all and apology to none, Warner Brothers step out of the entertainment and into the enlightenment field with "Confessions of a Nazi Spy." It is a bold step. Its purpose is to prove that Nazism is not confined to a large or small area of the European continent, but is spreading tentacles throughout the world, particularly in the United States. It dramatizes the Nazi method of approach upon American soil, its premise, the fact that any citizen's allegiance is where his heart is, and often — too often — his heart is in the Fatherland. Simply, the piece is propaganda with no pretense of being anything else. Edward G. Robinson is advertised as the star. His role of G-Man is well enacted but throughout he is merely Edward G. Robinson, doing a splendid job with a splendid role. The real star is Paul Lukas, in the guise of a celebrated doctor, who leads the Nazi forces in the United States. Francis Lederer, as the none-too-bright egocentric spy, gives a really memorable performance. Dorothy Tree is also to be commended. * UNION PACIFIC -Paramount UOOD old Cecil DeMille! This intelligent die-hard makes us a present of a movie in the old tradition, melodramatic and breath-taking and altogether wonderful. You will die a thousand deaths, howl as hundreds of redskins bite the dust and grunt with each swing of each hammer as the spikes are driven home and the track stretches on toward Ogden. This is a 1939 version of "The Iron Horse," using the story of the Union Pacific from the time Abe Lincoln decided to sponsor it until the gold nail united that company's rails with those of the Central Pacific. Profiteers try to delay the building of the road by sending along a pleasure concession to keep the workers drunk and lazy; ths company retaliates by hiring ex-soldier Captain Joel McCrea to do the trouble shooting for them. He's prodigious at the job, even if one of the gamblers is an old buddy of his. New Robert Preston plays the pal who has gone wrong and is excellent. Both Preston and McCrea fall in love with Barbara Stanwyck, Irish postmistress of the road. The whole picture is a succession of lusty brawls, suspenseful escapes from death, train holdups, fights with Indians, locomotives crashing over embankments and what all. The romance is honestto-God love, complete with sacrifice, misunderstandings and sex. Lynne Overman and Akim Tamiroff are swell as Joel's two bodyguards, with Overman especially funny. Brian Donlevy makes a good heavy. SORORITY HOUSE-RKO-Radio lOU couldn't call this a really big picture, but it's got a sizable social message in it, particularly to young highschool girls who intend to go to college. That business of being rushed by a sorority or standing miserably by while other gals get the bid is no light problem; and, in this, it is Anne Shirley who shows you how to take whatever comes. She's a daughter of a small-town grocer and sending her to the university means a lot to him. She's a friendly miss and when she bangs up against the cut-anddried organizations system at school she has to make a choice. Naturally, she goes for the best sorority when it asks (Continued from page 63) her to join. It could not have been an accidental piece of business on the studio's part, this rather brutal picture of the house full of girls, of their snobberies and small ambitions. The part of the piece which hurts is offered in the supplementary story of Anne's friend, Adele Pearce, who is forced to remain non-org, and thus is shunned. Oh yes, Anne makes the number one big-man-on-campus, Jimmy Ellison. THE HARDYS RIDE HIGH-M-G-M MlCKEY ROONEY, Lewis Stone and the other lovable members of the Hardy family, along with the director, have got that swell money-making Hardy series right down to formula now. The variance in excellence is too small to bother with and we can only remark that this installment, in which the family almost get two million dollars, is in the groove. The whole bunch flies off to Detroit to claim the money and while the claim is being tested, go berserk en masse in their several ways. Mickey has a run-in with a chorus dancer and you'll get a howl out of the way he makes his escape. Mousy old Aunt Milly, played by Sara Haden, gussies herself up and gets her man, and the others, both cast and situations, are typical of the Hardy tradition. Good new addition: Virginia Grey, as the Temptress. STREETS OF NEW YORK-Monogram LVEN Jackie Cooper, veteran at causing you to cry, can't make of this anything more than a routine, sentimental story of an underprivileged kid's regeneration. The moral is apparent; live a clean life, help your neighbor, be strong. Jackie heads a gang of paper boys, goes straight even if his brother doesn't and takes care of a little cripple. Dick Purcell is the brother and Marjorie Reynolds lends the feminine touch. BIG TOWN CZAR-Universal HERE we have more gangsters, more tenement kids turning into criminals, more proof that crime does not pay. Barton MacLane, having come out of the slums, gets ambitious and tries to reach the top of the gangster business. Things don't go well and he gets his punishment, you bet. Tom Brown plays his younger brother and Eve Arden has been inserted for purposes of romance. THE RETURN OF THE CISCO KID 20th Century-Fox REMEMBER the Cisco Kid, that sort of Mexican Robin Hood with the accent and all? Here he is again, and welcome; there's not much story this time but a great deal of shooting and robbing and hard riding. Cesar Romero plays the Kid's lieutenant and is wonderfully mean, especially when a chance comes to kill somebody. Henry Hull and Lynn Bari have minor roles; Warner Baxter, of course, plays the Cisco Kid and is believable and charming. THREE WALTZES-Vedis Films nS effervescent as champagne and as unreal as the dreamy Strauss (Johann) and Straus (Oscar) music which high lights three romances, ranging from the court of Louis Napoleon to a modern film studio, this French picture provides a field day for Yvonne Printemps, who sings like a lark, and Pierre Fresnay, whose dramatic abilities don't get much chance. You'll probably like its naive Gallic naughtiness, even if you don't understand French (English subtitles) . LUCKY NIGHT-M-GM IT was understood — Hollywood all but promised — that the mad-mad-fun stories were out, once and for all. It just goes to show how far you can trust that town. Here's the works again, and it is a picture with a galloping case of whimsey; furthermore, Myrna Loy and Robert Taylor are stuck with the leads. She's a rich girl with no idea of what she wants, goes out on her own to try for a job, isn't successful, meets Taylor on a park bench. Here, then, is where it starts — good and early. Taylor sweeps her off her feet, they swipe a tip off a counter, hit a jack pot. They gamble a little more, win a car, borrow some money, drink too much and are married. Taylor gets a job, and they get an apartment, Myrna gets a LittleWoman-In-the-Home complex and they both get bored. No more mad fun. But don't relax; it starts up all over again. Frankly, this reviewer's attitude about the whole thing is more plaintive than angry; we keep wanting to cuddle the dialogue to our chest, like a fluffy white bunny. BULLDOG DRUMMOND'S SECRET POLICE Paramount A SCHOOLBOY'S nightmare, after listening to Gangbusters at night, must be something like this picture. There is mellerdrammer beyond belief; there are horror chambers; there's even a treasure. John Howard is still playing Drum??iond, and he is still doing it well, but even that pleasant character can't make such a yarn acceptable to modem audiences. Heather Angel, H. B. Warner, Reginald Denny and others struggle valiantly, too. CALLING DR. KILDARE-M-G-M I HIS series has its big following and you may expect to see the same cast as always, with Lew Ayres doing well as young Dr. Kildare. This time he must choose between operating on a man wanted for murder, or letting the fellow die because of principle. His decision gives him a chance to fall in love with the patient's sister, Lana Turner, and, for a time, it looks as if he would marry her and thus end the series. Lionel Barrymore is the old surgeon who steps in when things look black. THE NIGHT RIDERS— Republic I HE best of the excellent Three Mesquiteers series, this novel Western presents the trio fighting the perpetrators of a fraudulent land grab in the early '80s. John Wayne again stands out as the leader of the Mesquiteers, with Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune supporting him in his Robin Hoodish career. It's an absorbing and exciting Western that you'll all enjoy. BACK DOOR TO HEAVEN-Paramount Persistently pessimistic in tone, this social message on celluloid starts in a folksy way. It wants to prove that a little misdeed in childhood can lead to eventual degradation, with Wallace Ford the victim of the thesis. He works very hard at it. Patricia Ellis plays his old school friend, who helps him out when finally he is brought to trial for murder. Aline McMahon, Stuart Erwin and a lot of children help. 90 PHOTOPLAY