Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1940)

Releases of 1939-40 for a five-month period. Production number follows title. Running time in parenthesis. National release date at end of title line. Symbol ^ indicates a BOXOFFICE Blue Ribbon Award Winner. Symbol © indicates color photography. This department makes no attempt at evaluation of picture quality, but merely presents a thumbnail synopsis. Columbia Babies for Sale. .1039. . (64) May 9 Melodrama. Expose of an adoption racket. Rochelle Hudson, Glenn Ford. Director: Charles Barton. Blondle Has Servant Trouble. .1013. . (66) . .July 35 Comedy. The Bumsteads. installed in an estate of which Dagwood’s boss is executor, soon get around to believing the place haunted. Penny Singleton. Arthur Lake. Larry Simms. Director: Frank R. Strayer. Doctor Takes a Wife. .1005. . (88) Apr. 37 Comedy. An unmarried pair who think they hate each other, pose as man and wife to serve individual financial interests. Loretta Young. Ray Milland. Director: Alexander Hal!. Durango Kid.. 3301.. (57) Aug. 15 Western. The Kid helps the homesteaders against the crooks. Charles Starrett. Luana Walters. Director: Lambert Hillyer. Fight for Life, The.. (69) D. S. Film Service Documentary Drama. A young doctor develops into a skilled obstetrician and queries the world on the ills and vile conditions in which maternal welfare still exists. Pare Lorenta produced. Five Little Peppers in Trouble (65) Sept. 1 Comedy. Edith Fellows. Dorothy Ann Seese. Snobbishness at a private school gets the Peppers into trouble, but they and their friend. Jasper, get set for schooling in Europe. Director: Charles Barton. Girls of the Road. .1037. . (61) June 30 Drama. The governor’s daughter, by becoming a girl hobo, persuades her father to achieve establishment of a camp for these wanderers. Ann Dvorak, Helen Mack, Lola Lane. Director: Nick Grinde. He Stayed for Breakfast. . 1006. . (87) Aug. 33 Comedy. A guy who imagines himself a Red hides in the apartment of a banker’s wife who is divorcing her husband. He sets about teaching her his brand of radicalism but instead learns hers. Loretta Young, Melvyn Douglas. Director: Alexander Hall. 1 Married Adventure. .1110. . (75) July 34 Adventure. Twelve years of big game exploring with the camera as done by the Martin Johnsons. Island of Doomed Men. . (A) . .1033. , (70) .. May 30 Drama. A G-Man brings about the downfall of a tyrant who has enslaved paroled persons on his island. Peter Lorre, Rochelle Hudson, Robert Wilcox. Director; Charles Barton. Lady in Question, The. .1008. . (76) Aug. 7 Drama. A juror who helped acquit a girl accused of murder, proves her innocent when his son falls in love with her. Brian Aherne, Rita Hayworth, Irene Rich, Director: Charles Vidor. Lone Wolf Meets a Lady, The. .1016. . (71) . .May 30 Melodrama. A diamond necklace, stolen, is traced but proves to be a paste copy of one stolen earlier by an old friend. Warren William, Jean Muir. Director: Sidney Salkow. Mad Men of Europe. . (A) . .1113. . (7.3) June 3 Drama. Parachutists and bombers drive on England after a foreign agent ingratiates himself into an English home. Edmund Gwenn, Mary Maguire. Director: Albert De Courville. Man From Tumbleweeds. .1313. . (59) Ma.v 3 Western. Wild Bill routs the outlaws who have virtually captured a community, by a posse of to-be-pardoned prisoners. Bill Elliott. Director: Joseph Lewis. Man With Nine Lives. .1017. . (73) Apr. 18 Melodrama. A scientist experiments upon his patients with long-time freezing sleep. Boris Karloff, Roger Pryor, Jo Ann Sayers. Director: Nick Grinde. Military Academy . . 1038 . . (66) July 18 Melodrama. A youngster in a military school overcomes the fact he is the son of a gangster. Tommy Kelly, Jackie Searl, David Holt. Director: D. Ross Lederman. Out West With the Peppers. .1021. . (61) . . . .June 30 Comedy-Drama. An uncle with whom the five little Peppers are staying overcomes his dislike of them when he rescues them from a raft. Edith Fellows, Victor Kilian, Dorothy Peterson. Director: Charles Barton. Passport to Alcatraz .. 1038 .. (60) June 6 Melodrama. Special Investigator tracks down enemy aliens who sabotage munitions plants. Jack Holt, Noah Beery jr. Director: Lewis D. Collins. Return of Wild Bill. .1314. . (61) . June 39 Western. A cowboy comes home in time to rid the county of a gang of vigilantes who execute justice tc their own ends. Bill Elliott, Luana Walters. Director: Joseph H. Lewis. Secret Seven, The. .1039. . (62) Aug. 15 Melodrama. Scientists convince a police chief, through his daughter, to use their methods in tracking down crime. Florence Rice, Bruce Bennett, Barton MacLane. Director: James Moore. Texas Stagecoach. .9206. . (59) June 6 Western. Friendly rivals in the stagecoach business are saved from being victimized by an unscrupulous banker. Charles Starrett, Iris Mered.th. Director: Joseph Lewis. 21 Days Together. . (A) . .1111. . (75) May 16 Drama. Fate interven>:^s when the man who killed the scoundrelly husband of the woman he loved, is about to give himself up. Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh. Director: Basil Dean. First National This, and Heaven Too . .454. . (143) . . July 13 Drama. A spiritual love is victimized by jealousy but is not overcome even by death. Bette Davis, Charles Boyer. Director: Anatole Litvak. An Angel From Texas. .468. . (69) Apr. 29 Comedy. A country bumpkin, inveigled into financing a dubious production, outsmarts the slickers. Eddie Albert, Rosemary Lane, Wayne Morris. Director: Ray Enright. Flight Angels. .466. . (74) May 18 Comedy-Drama. Airline Casanovas, romancing stewardesses and experimental aviation, Wayne Morris, Virginia Bruce, Jane Wyman, Dennis Morgan, Director: I.ewis Seiler. Fugitive From Justice . .473 .. (53) June 15 Melodrama. The company which has insured a man for a million dollars finds him a .safe place when his life is threatened by gangsters. Roger Pryor, Lucille Fairbanks. Director: Terry Morse. Ladies Must Live . . 474 . . (58) July 27 Comedy-Romance. A newly rich country lad falls for a night club singer who proves to be no gold digger as the country boy’s friend at first suspected. Wayne Morris, Rosemary Lane. Director: Noel Smith. Man Who Talked Too Much . . 467 . . (75) July 6 Drama. A criminal lawyer gains a confession from a crook which saves his brother from a murder charge. George Brent, Virginia Bruce. Director: Vincent Sherman. Murder in the Air . .472 . . (55) June 2 Spy Melodrama. A G-man thwarts a foreign ring from obtaining a device that is able to halt machines in motion. Ronald Reagan, Lya Lys. Director: Lewis Seiler. They Drive by Night. .460. . (93) Aug. 3 Melodrama. Lives, loves and adventures of truck drivers. George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupine. Director: Raoul Walsh. *Ti! We Meet Again . .456. . (98) Apr. 20 Drama. Two, doomed to a quick death, experience a great love in the short time allotted them. Merle Oberon, George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Pat O’Brien. Director: Edmund Goulding. Torrid Zone. .455. . (87) May 25 Comedy Drama. A persistent stowaway on a banana plantation finally wins the manager. James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Pat O’Brien. Director: William Keighley. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Andy Hardy Meets Debutante .. 43 .. (87) July 5 Comedy. Andy manages to get his picture taken with a debutante after he had told his friends they were in love. Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Judy Garland. Director: George B. Seitz. Boom Town. .48. .(116) Aug. 30 Drama. Lives, loves and fights of oil men. Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr. Director: Jack Conway. Captain Is a Lady. .42. . (65) June 21 Comedy Drama. A retired sea captain, only male inmate of an old ladies’ home, is helped by them to regain his ship. Charles Coburn, Virginia Grey, Billie Burke. Director: Robert S. Sinclair. Dr. Kildare Goes Home.. (78) Sept. 6 Drama. The need for socialized medicine is brought to the fore in this one. Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore. Director: Harold S. Bucquet. ^Edison, the Man. .36. . (106) May 10 Drama. The inventor obtains the backing of Western Union for his stock ticker. The talking machine and light by electricity follow. Spencer Tracy, Rita Johnson. Director: Clarence Brown. Forty Little Mothers .. 34 ... (87) Apr. 26 Comedy. The girls of his school come to the professor’s aid when he undertakes to care for an abandoned baby. Eddie Cantor. Rita Johnson, Judith Anderson. Director: Busby Berkeley. Gold Rush Maisie. .47. . (82) . . . . July 26 Comedy Drama. The wise-cracking, soft-hearted showgirl finds land for a family of migrant crop-pickers after participating in a gold strike that doesn’t pan out. Ann Sothern, Lee Bowman, Virginia Weidler. Director: Edwin L. Marin. Golden Fleecing, The. .49. . (69) Aug. 16 Comedy. An insurance man finds his biggest account has a price on his head, and to keep his job, must protect him. Lew Ayres, Rita Johnson, Lloyd Nolan. Director: Leslie Fenton. 1 Love Vou Again. .50. . (99) Aug. 9 Comedy Drama. A blow on the head changes a leading citizen into the confidence man he once was, but his wife, who was about to divorce him. now finds him fascinating. William Powell, Myrna Loy, Frank McHugh. Director: W. S. Van Dyke II. C^^Mortal Storm, The. .41 .. (99) June 14 Drama. Clouds gather over a German family when the Nazis rise to power, and their life is disrupted. Margaret Sullavan, James Stew art, Robert Young. Director: Frank Borzage. New Moon. .31. . (105) ■ June 28 Operetta. Romance and music in colonial New Orleans. Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy. Director: Robert Z. Leonard. Phantom Raiders. .40. . (70) May 31 Melodrama. Nick Carter breaks up a Central American sabotage and insurance racket. Walter Pidgeon. Donald Meek, Florence Rice. Director: Jacques Tourneur. 0Pride and Prejudice. .46. . (118) Aug. 2 Costume Comedy. The connivances of a mother to get her five daughters married off. Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Mary Boland, Maureen O’Sullivan, Edna May Oliver. Director: Robert Z. Leonard. Sporting Blood. .44. . (80) July 12 Drama. Love and a horse race dissolve a feud between two families. Robert Young, Maureen O’Sullivan. Director: S. Sylvan Simon. Susan and God. .39. . (115) June 7 Drama. A frivolous woman, who adopts religion as a fad, finds it stands her in good stead when she has to face a crisis in her own life. Joan Crawford, Fredric March. Director: George Cukor. 20 Mule Team. .35. . (86) May 3 Western. Stealing, fighting, killing for borax in the desert. Wallace Beery, Leo Carrillo. Director: Richard Thorpe. Two Girls on Broadway . .33. . (71) Apr. 19 Comedy Drama. In love with her sister’s suitor, i. girl turns to a man-about-town. The sister, to save her, gives up her fiance. Lana Turner. Joan Blondell, George Murphy. Director: S. Sylvan Simon. Waterloo Bridge. .37. . (103) May 17 Drama. A girl who becomes anybody’s girl when she believes her soldier-lover to have been killed, refuses to burden him when he returns, desiring to marry her. Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Maria Ouspenskaya. Director: Mervyn LeRoy. We Who Are Young. .45;. .,(79) .. (A) July 19 Drama. Struggles of a young couple, whose mar BOXOFFICE September 7, 1940 87