Boxoffice (Jan-Mar 1941)

An Interpretative Analysis of Opinions Deduced From the Language of Lay and Trade Press Reviews REVIEW DIGEST AND PICTURE GUIDE INDEX The plus and minus signs indicate the degree of favor or disfavor ol the review. Where our compiler is unable to form any opinion from the review the sign "o" is used. Blank spaces indicate no review. This department serves also as an Alphabetical Index to leature releasee. Listings cover reviews appearing by the Saturday preceding date of this issue. It will be brought up to date from week to week. The meaning of the various signs and their combinations is as follows: ++ Very Good; + Good; — Fair; =F Mediocre; — Poor; = Very Poor. (Numeral preceding title In Picture Guide Review page number.) OXOFFICE : : February 22, 1941 19 FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE Indexed on the adjoining two pages are the pictures reviewed in the new style started January 4. The number preceding title is your key to the Picture Guide pages, the new reviews being added each week. Additionally, a Quarterly Index, arranged alphabetically by companies, will be published for Picture Guide use. Blonde Inspiration F M-G-M (123) 72 Minutes Rel. Feb. 7, '41 Once preliminary sequences establish the basis for ensuing action, the pattern of "Blonde Inspiration" is clear and comes olf without making an important strike. A cast of competents deal out the various roles in the manner expected. John Shelton gets $2,000 from his uncle and sets out on a literary career. He falls into the clutches of Albert Dekker and Charles Butterworth, publishers of a western pulp magazine. They must print four issues to sell the book to a syndicate. They give Shelton a merry whirl. Virginia Grey, secretary to Dekker-Butterworth, keeps Shelton inspired. They fall in love. The Dekker-Butterworth plotting brings on the romantic complications. Through it all Donald Meek, prize hack in the Smoky Trails stable, roams in alcoholic confusion. In the end, boy gets girl and a contract calling for four cents a word. John Shelton, Virginia Grey, Albert Dekker, Charles Butterworth, Marion Martin. EXPLOITIPS: A good display of stills will help this one The prepared advertising features the blonde inspiration of Marion Martin who has little or nothing to do with the story's motivation. She merely sits around and moves only on signal — from Butterworth. This might be exploitable. Have a blonde lovely sit in a restaurant, hotel lobby, theatre lobby. Put a small sign nearby with a list of words which interested spectators might call out to get the blonde to talk, move on, etc. CATCHLINES: When a Girl Is the Inspiration . . Love Stories Come True. Father s Son F cD°™£y WB (520) 57 Minutes Rel. Feb. 1. '41 Translated into a film Booth Tarkington's story is fair lower case entertainment, varying from the usual minor feature. If Tarkington readers turn out, neat business should result. The author's "bad boy" is the son of a smalltown lawyer. Papa is a stuffed shirt. Between the two there exists a state of nerves caused by the boy's innocent pranks. Mother understands the situation. The youngster runs off to a series of juvenile adventures. He thinks he can bring things around properly. But on his return, papa again bulges in his stuffed shirt. In order to forestall imminent family disintegration, the youngster stages a phoney kidnapping, himself the victim. It does the trick. The accent is on comedy, generally; drama is secondary. John Litel, Frieda Inescort, Billy Dawson, Christian Rub. EXPLOITIPS: Sell the Booth Tarkington name along literary lines by tying up with bookstores — window cmd poster displays, notices in libraries and schools, specially printed bookmarks. Plant passes in Tarkington books in various public libraries and get up a hunt for them. Stage a father-and-son performance. Run a resemblance contest. CATCHLINES: Bill's Latest Aptic Has Made Father Frantic . . But Mother Doesn't Mind, They're Two of a Kind. Booth Tarkington's Best Bad Boy ... He Looks Like an Angel . . . But Raises the DeviL The Devil Commands F Wildcat of Tucson F Columbia (2211) 64 Minutes Rel. Dec. 31, '40 Trouble with the Wild Bill Hickok series with Bill Elliott is that the stories are gradually slowing down to the point where they're almost outside "action" limits. This one is no exception, Elliott's lines claiming him to be a peaceable man, and he living up to classification. In this adventure, he is called from his whittling to help save his brother (Stanley Brown), a hothead, who has run afoul of some law twisting homestead-jumpers. The gang, headed by Kenneth MacDonald, is well along the route to successful grabbing of all choice land by fixing judges, buying sheriff? and terrorist tactics, when Elliott arrives. He clips one guy on the chin, outdraws a couple, and the picture is over. Bill Elliott, Evelyn Young. Stanley Brown. Dub Taylor. EXPLOITIPS: Sell this along series lines, because the others in the packet of Wild Bill Hickok stories have been better than this one. Dating copy from the established past, with a pat and a promise for "Wildcat of Tucson" is the honest approach to the selling problem. CATCHLINES: Wild Bill Hickok, the Gentleman of the West. He Allowed His Enemies to Draw First . . . And Die Firstl Phantom Submarine F AttIO„ Columbia (2033) 69 Minutes Rel. Dec. 20, '40 Considering the heft of headlines working in aid of exploitation for "Phantom Sub," here's an opus with possibilities in the duals. Nothing in itself to stand alone, the film can do more than its share of toting the marquee load if used for the magnet, the other portion to do the entertaining, Anita Louise is a femme reporter, hired by Uncle Sam to go on a salvage cruise arranged by Bruce Bennett, that she may see whether rumors of an enemy sub in the West Indies is true. The story moves quietly along, and only the trouping of ship's captain Osar O'Shea and enemy agent Pedro De Cordoba makes any kind of a showing Anita Louise, Bruce Bennett, Oscar O'Shea, John Tyrell. EXPLOITIPS: Recent files of newspapers, calling attention to Axis promises of breaking the blockade with sub warfare, will provided plenty of color and current events timeliness for a theatre lobby. Scareheads about uncovering the plot to mine the entrance to the Panama Canal, the truth about what's going on in the area of United States acquired island bases in the Atlantic, with a display of diving equipment, if available, exciting another interest angle. CATCHLINES: A Salvage Ship Sets Out to Find Sunken Gold in the Caribbean Sea But Finds an Enemy Minefieldl Columbia (2028) 65 Minutes Rel. Feb. 3, '41 Still pursuing weird science, Boris Karloff is up to his cadaver snatching again. Discount obvious implausibilities and you have fair horror — a la Karloff. There are a few chills between dull moments, but not too many. Professor Karloff devotes his experiments to recording patterns made hy the human brain, irt an endeavor to read minds. His ieverish pursuit soon causes him to be dismissed from the faculty of a college. He goes to a New England town with a spiritualist whose living brain is an excellent "control." There the grave robbing occurs. Karloff conducts his horrible experiments with the cadavers costumed in outfits resembling diving suits and an array of electrical equipment that purrs, crackles and sparks menacingly. His last test wrecks the place, saving him from an irate populace. Boris KarlofL Amanda Duff. Richard Fiske. Anne Revere. EXPLOITIPS: Publicity on Boris Karloff is plentiful, interesting and easily planted. Rig up a mechanical figure, similar to the props in the film. Utilize buzzers, spark coils and flashing lights. Show the thing in the lobby or in a store window. Dare individuals to sit alone in the theatre while viewing the film. Costume usherettes as nurses. CATCHLINES: Karloff . . . Monstrous Master of Rorror . . See Him Enter the Service of Satan. See the Demented Wizard of the Weird . . . And Peer With Him Beyond the Grave. Petticoat Politics F Republic (020) 67 Minutes Rel. Jan. 31. '41 Joe Higgins retires on his annuities. Mrs. Higgins and her women's political club need a candidate for mayor on the reform ticket. So they nominate Joe. And Joe proceeds to get funny. However, he is not funny enough, the comedy sequences that come his way being all too familiar. Another excursion into the middle class didoes of the Higgins Family, "Petticoat Politics" is just something for the followers of this series to observe, mark time with and await the next production for comparison. This can be said for the new cast of the Higgins Family cycle: They perform better than the former players. Roscoe Earns, Ruth Donnelly. Spencer Charters. EXPLOITIPS: Get a ballyhoo man to don a barrel adorned with a sign reading: "My name is Mr. Taxpayer, the forgotten man. Join me at the Theatre, and well see what the ladies can do about the political situation in 'Petticoat Politics ." A still promotion campaign could be worked up with book stores on "Life Begins at Forty." CATCHLINES: Fearless Joe Higgins Faces the Mailed Fist of Crooked Politics, 30 February 22. 1941 31 BOXOFFICE