Box office digest (May-Dec 1946)

6 BOX OFFICE DIGEST "Plainsman and the Lady'' (REPUBLIC) Experts at Work The Digest’’ s Box Office Estimate : 100% CURRENT PREVIEWS NEVER SAY GOODBYE WARNERS 150 THE STRANGE WOMAN STROMBERG-UA. .. 145 SONG OF THE SOUTH DISNEY-RKO ... 140 PLAINSMAN AND THE LADY . REP 100 THE NOTORIOUS GENTLEMAN RANK-UNIV 90 WIFE WANTED . MONO 90 THE BRUTE MAN . . PRC 85 SO DARK THE NIGHT COLUMBIA 80 STRANGE HOLIDAY PRC 80 AFFAIRS OF GERALDINE REPUBLIC 80 Associate producer and director Joe Kane The Players: William Elliott, Vera Ralston, Gail Patrick, Joseph Schildkraut, Andy Clyde, Donald Barry, Raymond Walburn, Reinhold Schunzel, Russell Hicks, William B. Davidson, Paul Hurst. Photography Reggie Canning Time 82 minutes Previewed Nov. 1st The Pony Express has served its apprenticeship on the screen, and fully earned its right to a top place of consideration when the rubber band is off the bankroll and the sky is the limit for shooting, riding, and scenery. And when veteran producer-director Joe Kane is given the assignment you may be sure that the Pony Express will be “done right well by.” “The Plainsman and the Lady” will give general satisfaction to fans of the action outdoor drama, earn plenty of profits for exhibs and producer, advance the star career of William Elliott, and all this without leaving any appreciable ripple on the sands of time. It is the scenery-action pseudo historical epic made by experts, without any particular inspiration in handling, and with little depth in characterization. But canny Kane achieves his purpose — his atmosphere is colorful, his action crisp, his story gets started early and moves forward always. This chapter of frontier history is told through William Elliott as a free lance adventurer of the plains whose services are enlisted by the promoters of the daring Pony Express to meet the obstacles of cruel nature, unpredictable Indians, and the more definite menace of Joseph Schildkraut, whose rival stage coach monopoly is threatened. The action swings from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Washington, D.C., back across the wilderness to Sacramento and then through hell and high water to St. Joe again. Elliott delivers a capable portrayal of the taciturn heroic type and continues to justify Republic’s build-up. Schildkraut gives crisp assurance to his heavy. Gail Patrick takes the feminine honors as a meanie, with Vera Ralston a somewhat negative quantity in the heroine part. Producer Kane gave director Kane sound insurance in the selection of supporting troupers, as a glance at that cast list above will quickly show. Production values are on the wide-canvas scale, with Reggie Lanning’s camera taking full advantage of rich opportunities. "Strange Holiday' Gives Claude Rains at a Price (ELITE-PRC) The Digest’s Box Office Estimate: 80% Written and directed by Arch Oboler The Players: Claude Rains, Bobbie Stebbins, Barbara Bate, Paul Hilton, Gloria Holden, Milton Kibbee, Walter W'hite, Jr., Wally Maher, Tommy Cook, Grid' Barnett, Ed Max, Paul Dubov, Helen Mack, Martin Kosleek, Charles McAvoy, Priscilla Lyons, David Bradford. Photography Robert Surtees Time 58 minutes Previewed Oct. 29th In “Strange Holiday” PRC has a picture to sell with the Claude Rains name at a time when “Caesar and Cleopatra” and “Deception” are adding new luster to that name, and backs the drawing magnet with a typically fine Rains acting job. But beyond that point, both PRC exhibitors and their customers arc going to wonder just what they have been handed It isn’t entertainment in ffie picture theacer definition of the word, and for the simple reason that it wasn’t originally intended as such. Produced as a morale documentary during the war, and intended as a horrific frightener of Americans with visions of the dire fate awaiting them when the Nazis had taken over the country, “Strange Holiday” could have been labelled hysterics and infantile then, and certainly now beggars any nominal description. Somehow or other the picture is supposed to convey the message that we must cherish these .freedoms of ours, and that if we don’t do “something or other” about it, America may have won the war only to lose the peace. Apparently to a horde of underground Nazis who are hiding beneath your beds and under toadstools on the nation’s farms. Something must be done about it. But what? Technically the picture is a fine solo performance by Rains, combined with an ex hibitionist job of direction by radio’s Arch Oboler. The direction is gymnastic, and after a few moments of earned admiration in the opening reels becomes monotonous in its acrobatics. Oboler can get away on the radio with this staccato shallow technique — “sin is sin, sin is death, virtue is virtue, virtue is triumphant, blah, blah, blah.” On the screen the sophomore is exposed. Body of the story is a dream about what happens after the Nazi underground comes up and takes over in an unexplained manner. Rains, after undergoing Gestapo beatings, goes into Dream No. 2, in which he relives the fine free life of former days, highspot of American freedoms apparently having been the right to go on a picnic. An excellent trouping cast handles the assignments subordinate to the Rains monologue. WHAT THE OTHER FELLOWS SAID: REPORTER: “Strange film offering for commercial houses today.” VARIETY: “Fails to emerge as anything.”