National Box Office Digest (Jan-Dec 1945)

BOX OFFICE DIGEST 12 "Frontier Gal" (UNIVERSAL) The Digest's Box Office Estimate: 135% Written and produced , ( Michael Fessier and ( Ernest Pagano Director Charles Lainont Executive producer Howard Benedict The Players: Yvonne De Carlo, Rod Cameron, Andy Devine, Fuzzy Knight, Andrew Tomhes, Sheldon Leonard, Beverly Simmons, Clara Blandiek, Jan Wiley, Frank Lackteen. in, i ( George Robinson Photography J charfes p. Boyle Time 84 minutes The FessierPagano team strays from the path of ultra-sophistication to show that if you have the “know-how” it is just as easy to give the class touch to lusty Western meller-dramatics, strongly impregnated with sex, and gloriously decorated by Technicolor. Universal has a money maker here. While Yvonne DeCarlo is only making her second screen appearance, the healthy grosses garnered by “Salome” will grease the way for this one, and she repeats as a definitely colorful individual screen personality. Also, let it be recorded, that Universal has very likely hit another jackpot in five-yearold Beverly Simms. For which, with all due credit to the tyke’s amazing talent, a bow to director Charles Lamont, who had much to do with an infant money-maker of some years ago, Baby Sandy. Director Lamont also knew another youngster of whom you may have heard, Shirley Temple. True to the best traditions of the genre, Fessier and Pagano start us off with a chase, then continue to pile on the action, without any perceptible pause in pace for the desired moments of sultry song from Miss DeCarlo. In fact it is Rod Cameron who is being chased, and Miss DeCarlo, running a frontier saloon, who saves him, temporarily, later snags him into matrimony, and is awaiting him after he does a six-year stretch with their offspring, Baby Beverly. Will Be Money Hosfess The balance is kept neatly between meller and heart throb — occasionally giving a tongue-in-cheek impression — and sprinkled with the proper amount of comedy. In this department Andy Devine, Fuzzy Knight, and Andrew Tombes gang up effectively. Rod Cameron is properly swashbuckling in the lead, with Sheldon Lewis a capable heavy. The picture is the best opportunity Charles Lamont has had lately, and he takes full advantage of it with a workmanlike job, and particular skill in his handling of the youngster. Executive producer Howard Benedict has dressed it in the super-Western style, getting full values from his Technicolor. Chalk up another one for Fessier-Pagano, the boys are on the beam. Exhibitor s Booking Suggestion : Hot for current box offices. . . . Previewed Nov. 29th. 117/17 THE OTHER FELLOWS SAID: REPORTER: “Will pay oil' handsomely.” VARIETY: “Lusty glorified western pro duced for mass audience appeal.” "Letter for Evie" (MGM) The Digest's Box Office Estimate: 90% Producer William H. Wright Director Jules Dassin The Players: Marsha Hunt, John Carroll, Hume Cronyn, Spring Bvington, Pamela Britton, Norman Lloyd, Percival Vivian, Donald Curtis, Esther Howard, Robin Raymond, Therese Lyon, Lynn Whitney. Photography Karl Freund Time 80 minutes We are just following the daily reviewers’ parade when we record that “A Letter for Evie” is a sleeper. But, in our justification, let it be said that we felt the same way they did when chuckling through this picture as they did. Ours is not the fault that there is only one word to express “sleeper"' in the fillum vocabulary. Essentially, there is no reason for calling any MGM picture a sleeper. Except that some have the super-power marquee strength or super-splashy production flash that others do not possess, any MGM picture has certain oualities of class that should make a real sleeper of none. But in the sense that “A Letter for Evie” lacks some of those super elements it takes its place rolling down the stretch in the sleeper handicap. The picture is sheer audience delight. Basically light comedy, it has its moments of near-drama, and it is at all times on the audience level for enjoyment. It bubbles, sparkles, and moves. The plot — which, incidentally, would more correctly justify a title “Letter FROM Evie,” — has been told before, in good, bad, and indifferent form. Treatment, in script, and most certainly in the Jules Dassin direction, must explain the difference this time. We have the girl in the shirt factory working on Army orders, who writes a note tucked within a shirt to the unknown soldier boy who may some day acquire the shirt. This letter-writing habit is common to most of the girls but Evie, our Marsha Hunt, more reserved, only succumbs to aim at an imaginary guy who could wear a 16J/2 collar. From there on you can take up the plot with your own imagination when we tell you that it is sad sack Hume Cronyn who receives the note and carries on the romantic In MGM Sleeper Class correspondence, John Carroll who must do the physical John Alden for his courtship. Tangle a group like this up, sprinkle them with army friends and girl friends, and you have the makings. Directorial treatment, and very smart playing, does the trick that puts the formula over to an impression of freshness. Hume Cronyn, the pint-sized G I, comes close to stealing the picture with a performance that will be talked about. And that is not taking anything away from the excellent job done by Marsha Hunt, both personable and capable, and by John Carroll. The latter suffers a bit from a decision to give him a fasttalking characterization that frequently is difficult to follow. Support, and production attributes are in the MGM class. Exhibitor’s Booking Suggestion : Honey of an audience picture that will be the frosting on many a bill with a heavy top attraction. . . . Previewed Nov. 27th. WHAT THE OTHER FELLOW S S HD: REPORTER: “Deserves all of the "raise that will be heaped upon it bv iacled c'ii'cs.” VARIETY: “Belongs definitely in the sleeper class . . . utterly charming.” "The Fatal Witness" Makes the Meller Grade (REPUBLIC) The Digest's Box Office Estimate: 80% Associate producer Rudolph E. Abel Director Lesley Selander The Players: Evelyn Ankers, Richard Fraser, George Leigh, Barbara Everest, Barry Bernard, Frederick Worlock, Virginia Farmer. Colin Campbell, Crawford Kent, Peggy Jackson. Photography Bud Thackery Time 60 minutes Strictly formula in the Scotland Yard school of detecting, “The Fatal Witness” measures up as ordinary fare that will probably just get by in the filler spots awarded it. The pace is too slow for the action addict, the script and direction too stereotyped to lift its semi-psychological treatment. Richard Fraser, a competent young actor, by the way, is .seen as the Scotland Yard man who is not satisfied with the innocence of George LeDh in the matter of the latter’s aunt’s death. But Leigh has the best of alibis he was in jail at the supposed time of the fatal event. The procedure is to break down the villyun, a task that goes staidly along for the alloted 60 minutes. Supporting cast is adequate to the material, George LeDh registering as the killer, and a minor individual hit being scored by Barney Bernard as a cockney. Exhibitor’s Booking Suggestion : Average. . . . Previewed Nov. 21st. WHAT THE OTHER FELLOWS SAID: REPORTER: “The film is standard sup port in g fare.” VARIETY': “Of little consequence except to pad out a double feature program.”