Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

18 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 8. 1949 BOX-OFFICE SLANTS {Continued jroni Page 15) takes Gale in charge and they, with an assist from the district attorney, unearth the leaders of the baby-selling racket, recover Gale's sister's baby which they decide to adopt after they get married. Comment: This drama of the black market in babies has much to recommend it: the story is credible, exciting, and always interesting; it has been nicely produced, directed and photographed, and for the most part excellently acted. Audience sympathy is won by the girl's search for her dead sister's baby, and by the friendly helpfulness of the newspaperman who realizes he has embarked on a dangerous course in attempting to uncover the lucrative black market in babies. In this, his love for the girl outweighs his newspaperman's instinct to run down a good story. Dennis O'Keefe acts the reporter with naturalness and charm, and Gale Storm is just as natural and engaging. They keep their performances down to earth. Marjorie Rambeau as the society 'head of the baby-selling racket, gives another of her fine "character" parts. Raymond Burr as the double-crossing "private eye," Meg Randall as an unwed, expectant mother who risks her life and baby to help expose the racket, Will Kuluva as the gangster, Jeff Chandler and Jeanette Nolan do commendable work. In the larger situations "Abandoned" is worth the upper half of a dual bill while it has appeal and excitement enough to be singled in small towns and neig'hborhoods. Marquee names will help little in exploiting the film; the subject matter and the good acting should be played up for all they are worth. Black Shadows Eagle Lion Travelog 62 mins. AUDIENCE SLANT: (Adult) A trip through the Belgian Congo, with shots of the natives that offer plenty of action and interest and first pictures of the capture of a gorilla. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: Exploitable, especially the gorilla capture and the human sacrifice of the leopard men. Cast: Jeff Corey (narrator), Jacques Nateuil, Iris Jasinsky. Credits: Producer-Director, Andre Cauvin. Photography, Andre Cauvin and Charles Lengnich. Music. Pierre Moulaert. EngHsh adaptation, James Leichester. Comment: New pictures, from darkest Africa always stand a chance as exploitation pictures in the proper situations. This particular one, a record of a trip through the Belgian Congo, prides itself on the first filming of the actual capture of a gorilla, but the impression it leaves is much more one of the natives than of the animals. Besides the gorilla sequence there are shots of other wellknown beasts and one of an odd half zebrahalf giraffe, none of them having much movement. The scenes of the natives, however, have plenty of action and interest. There are the frenzied ceremonial dancing, the traditional disgorging operations, the high jumping of the handsome giants, the curiosity of the pygmies. And there are the leopard men. Those vicious outlaws of the jungle are portrayed in a highly exploitable if not always tasteful account of human sacrifice. Aurally, there are fragments of the tireless native rhythms and narration by American actor Jeff Corey. Chiefly responsible for this production is Andre Cauvin, a well-known Belgian film man who has had previous dealings with the Congo. Eagle Lion Melodrama 78 mins. AUDIENCE SLANT: (Adult) Well constructed and fast-moving melodrama of counterfeit investigators that will hold audience interest tense. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: Word-of -mouth publicity will jump the attendance at every show. Exhibitors have the cooperation of the Treasury Department in filming the story to highlight campaigns, plus an entertaining, fast-moving melodramatic story. Cast: Lloyd Bridges, John Hoyt, Barbara Payton, James Todd, Russ Conway, Bert Conway, Tom Noonan, Ruth Robinson, Rory Mallinson, Mack Williams. Stephen Chase, Harry Antrim and many others. Credits: Produced by Bryan Foy. Directed by Richard Fleischer. Story and screenplay by Earl Felton and George Zuckerman. Photography by Guy Roe. Plot: A prisoner, Lloyd Bridges, is sprung by Treasury agents as he crosses Missouri by bus to lead them to the owner of counterfeit plates, the passing of currency from which landed him in the pen. Bridges double-crosses the Treasury agent, John Hoyt, but is eventually captured, his confederate sweetheart killed by the owner of the plates who meets death by electrocution. The counterfeit plates are seized. Comment: "Trapped," one of Bryan Foy's last productions for Eagle Lion before going over to Warner Bros., is a well-constructed melodrama of Treasury agents hunting down the printer of counterfeit $20 bills. Foy's production and Richard Fleischer's direction keep audience interest tense through rapid, melodramatic action, including some stirring 'Passport to Pimlico' This whimsical and satirical comedy should well please followers of the British cinema and others who appreciate "chuckles rather than belly laughs," as STR's London review-in-full (June 11, 1949) put it. Dealing with a London suburb which is suddenly found to be foreign territory not subject to Britain's austerity regulations, it has no real star value but performances which range from pleasant to delightful by an assortment of characters including Stanley Holloway, Hermione Baddeley, Margaret Rutherford, Paul Dupuis and others. As Jock MacGregor wrote, "Art house patrons should find it an amusing comedy of the times and the British way of life." An Eagle Lion release running 84 mins. fights and a chase new to films — that of Treasury agents and Los Angeles police after the owner of the false plates through a car barn, in and out of long rows of cars, underneath the tracks and on top of the cars, with the counterfeiter being electrocuted when he touches a live wire over the trolleys. Lloyd Bridges and John Hoyt give deft characterizations that never let audience interest lag. Acting of the top members of the supporting cast is capable. While the picture may get off to a slow start, word-of-mouth reports should jump attendance at succeeding shows. While there are no marquee names, exhibitors have, for selling ammunition, the fact that the Treasury Department aided in producing the picture, and that many of the early scenes show activities of its various departments, plus an entertaining, fast-moving melodramatic story. Angels in Disguise Monogram Drama 63 mins. AUDIENCE SLANT: (Family) This latest Bowery Boys film lacks the mugging and action of its predecessors. It is slowpaced and not "exactly" what the followers of the series want. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: Should do fairly well at the box-office but perhaps not as well as others in the series. Cast: Leo G'orcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Mickey Knox, Edward Ryan, Jean Dean, Billy Benedict, David Gorcey, Bennie Bartlett, Bernard Gorcey, Richard Benedict, Joseph Turkey, Pepe Hem, Ray Walker, Rory Mallinson, Marie Blake, William Forrest, Don Harvey, Herbert Patterson, Ray Gordon, Jane Adams, Jack Mower, Lee Phelps, John Morgan. Credits: Directed by Jean Yarbrough. Screenplay by Charles B. Marion and Gerald Schnitzer. Photography, Marcel LePicard. Produced by Jan Grippo. Plot: The killing of a detective, buddy of the gang, inspires them to track down the killer. To achieve this purpose they join an underworld gang, and eventually find the man responsible for the deed. Comment: Folks interested in seeing The Bowery Boys pictures are naturally entertained by their antics and the comic situations that arise, in character. Therefore, most of their films have action and a good bit of goings-on. This one is different, for it tends to use the narrative technique, and this slows the picture to such a degree that it is doubtful whether those who like their "Bowery Boys" as is, will be entirely satisfied with this latest offering. Cast members, the majority of them, are the same, with Leo Gorcey, as the head of the gang, doing his usual mugging. His handling of the lines, plus the Huntz Hall dumb assist, gives the film most of its laughter. Others in the ■cast fill their roles adequately. The Fallen Idol' An eight-year-old boy gets a distorted view of an accident, believes his "idol" has committed murder and out of loyalty lies and contradicts himself in such manner as nearly to do the man in. Director Carol Reed has gotten almost constant suspense out of the Graham Greene story. Sir Ralph Richardson as the suspect, who had been unhappily married to the victim, and Michele Morgan as his lover, are excellent, but Bobby Henrey as the boy "eyewitness" (once the title) dominates the scene. Viewed in New York, where it wrill follow "Quartet" into the Sutton Theatre, the film certainly seemed to justify the report of Showmen's Jock MacGregor from London. "Aimed at better class audiences," he wrote (STR, Aug. 28, 1948), " 'The Fallen Idol' may well turn out to be a sleeper through its undeniable feminine appeal and the word-of-mouth publicity Bobby Henrey's performance will create." Since then the film has received several awards and Richardson has turned in a performance in "The Heiress" which should greatly boost his stock at the box-office. "Idol" runs 94 minutes and is handled by the Selznick Releasing Organization.