Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1947)

Opinions on Current Produetions; Expioitips for Selling to the Public i FEATURE REVIEWS Desire Me MGM ( ) A Drama 91 Minutes Rel. The time-worn Enoch Arden theme is placed in a postwar setting to make a highly dramatic film which will exert its strongest appeal to women patrons. With Greer Garson, making her first screen appearance in two years, and Robert Mitchum for marquee draw, this will do good business in all except action houses. Picture is slow-moving and excessively talky up until the suspenseful, melodramatic climax. However, Greer Garson's sensitive portrayal of a lonely, tortured widow and Richard Hart's outstanding performance in an unsympathetic role give credibility to a somewhat implausible tale. A prisoner in a German prison camp, who has learned every detail about a fellow-prisoner's devoted wife, leaves the wounded husband to die while he makes good his escape. He then tells the lonely wife her husband is dead and tries to win her love. Greer Garson. Robert Mitchum, Richard Hart, George Zucco, Morris Ankrum, Cecil Humphreys, David Hoffman. North of the Border Screen Guild (4610) 40 Minutes Outdoor Drama Nov. 15. '46 This little streamlined action picture is filmed from one of James Oliver Curwood's popular novels of frontier life, and .dual houses with a long top feature are finding it a good filler-inner. While laid in the Canada of the Nineties, the picture has many of the time-honored features of the average western, fast-shooting cowboys, a posse after the wrong man who succeeds in exposing the real criminal ring through the assistance of a girl friend, and rugged scenery. When Russell Hayden as "Utah" comes north to find his former ranch partner, who has taken up trapping to make money to buy more cattle, he finds his pal's dead body near the abandoned cabin. However, the pal had branded his pelts on the inside and Utah traces the killers by the stolen skins. A routine program filler but adequate. B, Reeves Eason directed. Russell Hayden, Lyle Talbot, Inez Cooper, Anthony Ward, Guy Beach, J. Stanford Jolley, Jack Mulhall. No Basta Ser Charro F Azteca Films. Inc. ( ) 93 Minutes Rel. The Hollywood cycle of films having stars play dual roles was bound to cross the border. So in this gay Mexican comedy, we have popular Jorge Negrete (their Clark Gable with a voice) playing himself and a poor "charro" who resembles him so much that one of his palpitating senorita fans with dramatic ambitions "recognizes" him. This charro and his stooge companion show up at her father's ranch and are treate.d as honored guests traveling incognito. The girl puts on an act and he discovers her delusion and serenades her in a hilarious scene with his stooge mis-manipulating a phonograph. A trip to the radio studio where the real Negrete is performing brings about a romantic endirlg, with the spoiled senorita getting spanked by the charro while her papa silently applauds. A top hit for Mexican situations. Juan Bustillo Oro directed. Jorge Negrete, Lilia Michel, El Chicole. Eugenia Galindo, Manolo Noriega, Lupe Inclan, El Indio Bedolla. BOXOFFICE Saves Time For This Exhibitor “Your BOXOFFICE is getting better every day — saves time and worry — a real guide that saves you money on features.” James L. Kotera, Strand Theatre, Neffs, Ohio. 880 The Foxes of Harrow 118 Minutes Drama Rel. Oct. '47 20th-Fox (729) From Frank Yerby's novel of frustration and unbridled passions comes a screen version so freighted with emotionstirring appeal that it cannot miss the top-hit bracket if for no other reason than the "must see" designation it is sura to win from every woman patron. Crystallizing that guarantee of record takes is the picture's lush productional excellence, reflecting itself in every Thespic and technical detail. Rex Harrison's delineation will add to his already-considerabla stature as one of iilmdom's most accomplished scoundrels; and his co-star and supporting cast tie him for acting honors. The screenplay widely departs from the origjinal but nonetheless retains most of its atmosphere and circa, which accords a limitless field for the handsome mountings representing Sybaritic New Orleans of pre-Civil War days. John Stahl expertly directed. Rex Harrison, Maureen O'Hara. Richard Haydn, 'Victor McLaglen, Vanessa Brown, Patricia Medina, Gene Lockhart. Blondie in the Dough Comady Columbia (911) 69 Minutes Rel. Oct. 16. '47 Something has been added to the Bumstead series with the appearance in this of Hugh Herbert as an eccentric cookie company tycoon who helps Blondie start a cookie business when Dogwood loses his job. Dogwood starts a correspondence course as a radio engineer and builds such a powerful set that when Herbert accidentally presses a lever, it tunes Blondie in on his own radio program. She is reading an ad for her own cookies and for this is arrested but emerges triumphant as her fans know she will. This has all the usual Bumstead antics, the mailman mowed down a couple of times. Dogwood enraging a client and getting fired by a boss with atomic blood pressure. Dogwood suffering all kinds of indignities. But in the end the Bumsteads are all set for a more abundant life. Good of it* kind. Abby Berlin directed. Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent, Jerome Cowan, Hugh Herbert, Clarence Kolb. When a Girl's Beautiful F CDinidy Columbia (827) 68 Minutes Rel. Sept. 25. '47 Light, airy program fare with a bunch of pretty girls headed by Adele Jergens, and dancer Marc Platt doing a straight acting role — to the disappointment of his terpsichorean fans. An advertising agency's best perfume account has to be revamped because its tycoon quarrels with the girl who was not only to have been his "Temptation Girl but his wife. With typical "huckster" hysteria, the agency goes into action and comes up with a composite girl created by an artistic photographer with a Pygmalion complex. When the perfume king insists upon meeting the model, they make up chief huckster More Platt's girl (who had supplied the eyes for the Galatea photograph) to fill the role. He almost loses the girl trying to keep an account, but a stunt by Adele saves everybody. Frank McDonald directed. Adele Jergens, Marc Platt, Patricia White, Stephen Dunne, Steven Geray. Mona Barrie, Jack Leonard. Write — YOUR REPORT OF THE PICTURE YOU HAtTE JUST PLAYED FOR THE GUIDANCE OF FELLOW EXHIBITORS. -Right Now USE THE BLANK ON REVERSE SIDE Just Paste It on a Ic Government Postcard and Mail BOXOFFICE September 27, 1947 859