Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1937)

Skolt SulrjQCt California Missions RKO Radio-Van Beuren 11 Minutes The gorgeous photographic shots in this instructive travelogue are drenched with the peace and religious character of these historic retreats built by the Franciscan Friars. Starting in Old Mexico several hundred years ago, these holy men erected their places of worship along a thousand-mile course ending in what is now Los Angeles. Although battered by time and the attacks of hostile Indians, the sturdy buildings stand as a monument to the hardships encountered by the Franciscans while bringing their religion to the New World. Alois Havrilla’s narration supplies all the historic details that the camera is unable to picture. Chicken a La King Paramount 8 Minutes Replete with clever ideas and amusing scenes, this is another lively cartoon in the Max Fleischer all-color classic series. The story concerns a rooster sultan residing in his magnificent palace where he becomes bored with the continual attentions of a dozen adoring hens. Their everyday routine is disturbed by the appearance of Ducky-Wucky, a Mae West-ish flirt, who becomes the new favorite until her jealous suitor, a male duck, appears and knocks the stuffings out of the rooster. Uproarious finale finds the crestfallen sultan receiving a further beating at the beaks of his indignant harem. A cartoon gem. Fun in the Water Columbia 10 Minutes With the approach of summer and the thoughts of city dwellers turning to aquatic diversions in the mountains or the seashore, this “News World of Sports” release is a timely subject full of thrills and amazing shots of water champions. Among the numerous sports shown are diving, spinning in somersaults, water baseball, surfboard riding, balancing on a wet diving board and racing on skiis behind a fast motorboat. Trim-figured bathing beauties are also photographed in, about and under the water in a variety of stunts. Paul Douglas narrates in fast enthusiastic manner. Let's Go Columbia 8 Minutes An entertaining modernized version of the fable of the lazy grasshoppers and the industrious bees, this Scrappy cartoon will be a pleasant and colorful addition to the average program. The happy and contented bees are distressed by the mournful music issuing from a ragged grasshopper outside their prosperous village. Realizing that the depression found the carefree insects unprepared, the kindhearted bees marshal their forces and turn the broken-down grasshopper town into a shiny new city. %HORT the week Stranger Than Fiction No. 38 Universal 8 Minutes Certain to entertain and to hold the complete attention of audiences during their too-short unreeling, this novel series of one-reelers is always a welcome addition to any program. Universal cameramen photograph oddities such as these in nearby and far-off spots, the only requirements for inclusion in the series being that they must be either rare, quaint or unusual. Among the extraordinary features in No. 38 is a 3Q0-pound lion which rides and dines in public with his pretty mistress; a buck private in California, who is six feet, 10 inches tall; a pet deer in New Jersey who dines with his master; a penny on the San Antonio city clerk’s desk which has never been stolen in 15 years, and a thickskulled native of Oriente, Cuba, who cracks cocoanuts on his head to the amazement of visitors. Just a few of the subjects in this well-compiled and fascinating issue. Little Maestro M-G-M 11 Minutes A quaint and laugh-provoking little fellow, Jerry Bergen, is introduced to screen audiences in this musical tabloid and by his clever pantomine and the underlying pathos behind his comic misadventures stamps himself as distinct personality. Here he is placed in a mildly amusing story which evokes no more than faint smiles but his own brand of wistful comedy brightens the routine situations. Ragged and hungry and carrying a violin case, the sad-faced half-pint wanders into an exclusive night club where the master of ceremonies introduces him as “a superb musician” until his case is found to contain dirty clothes. However, his delicious pantomine as he becomes entangled with the acts of the other performers makes him the hit of the show. The Dancing Theodores contribute an intricate rhumba to fine effect. The March of Time (Vol. 3, No. 10) RKO Radio 18 Minutes Timely episodes on matters currently occupying the headlines again lift this issue of the pictorial newspaper head and shoulders above the average short. The true story of the ill-feeling, bitterness and warfare behind calm and prosperous Irish Free State is graphically pictured in the first episode, and although de Valera has announced a new constitution making all Ireland a free nation, he has still to win the support of Ulstermen loyal to England. The second episode pictures the manner in which puzzle contests have swept the nation with 2,200,000 entrants attempting to solve a tobacco concern’s puzzles and win easy money. U. S. unemployment is the subject of the final episode. Although industry has returned to a high employment level, relief workers are organized under 35-year-old David Lasser who threatens another hunger march upon Washington by the Workers’ Alliance of America, demanding a higher relief appropriation. This sequence is colorful and exciting and contains many crowd scenes taken on May Day. The photography of the Irish countryside in the first episode is art-like in quality. Popular Science J6-5 Paramount 11 Minutes Photographed in Cinecolor, this interesting subject pictures a wide variety of gadgets recently invented to make life easier for Mr. Average Man. Shown also are such amazing devices as the world’s largest camera, located in the Bureau of Standards in Washington, to make maps and charts and an unusual new hobby, collecting red ants which can now be kept in glass cages in one’s own home. The household inventions include an automatic card shuffler, washable cards, a davenport-bar and other inexpensive luxuries. Of particular interest to the ladies is a closeup of the miracles of plastic surgery whereby a girl with an ill-shaped nose can be made over into a beauty. Swing, Hutton, Swing Paramount 11 Minutes An excellent musical short, one of the best of the Headliners series, this has a snappy assortment of hot rhythm numbers played in the most approved pulse-quickening style by Ina Ray Hutton and her Melodears. Miss Hutton, a platinum blonde who projects her sex appeal through the screen, wears a stunning array of formfitting gowns that are, to to put it mildly, very, ver-revealing. The members of her all-girl orchestra are also attractive and proficient and play “Stardust,” “Organ Grinder’s Swing” and “The Suzi-Que” in popular swingy fashion. BOXOrnCE :: May 29, 1937, 65