The Canadian Motion Picture Exhibitor (Nov 1, 1941)

Page 4 The Exhibitor November lst, 1941 COLUMBIA TEXAS WARNERS A well-scaled western with a plot much like MGM’s “Billy| ONE FOOT IN HEAVEN the Kid.” William Holden and Glenn Ford are the ex-pals for and against the rustlers who also compete for Claire Trevor. She goes for badman Holden but winds up with goodguy Ford when the former is erased. It’s plenty scenic, entertaining and exciting. There’s a very funny prizefight under old-time rules, community singing A grand picture about the problems of a preacher. Deeply human and always interest-arresting. Some Canadian background. Frederic March, Martha Scott and an: ace crew of supporting players. and dancing, and a stampede. Gun fights, too. Edgar Bucha-| BLUES IN THE NIGHT nan, George Bancroft and Don Beddoe help it mightily. REPUBLIC THE PITTSBURGH KID This is a pugilistless exhibition designed to snare the admirers of Billy Conn, who was whacked out by Joe Louis a couple of jousts ago. Most of its sporting appeal was present immediately after the fight. But, though Conn can’t emote, it’s still an okay topper. That’s publicity for you. Plot is the one about the fighter in bad hands saved by the bell a few times and finally by the girl. With Jean Parker, Dick Purcell, Alan Baxter and Veda Ann Borg. PARAMOUNT BIRTH OF THE BLUES This is pre-war (No. 1) stuff and highly potent. The best Crosby yet is this saga of jazz and its early days in the white world. The oldsters will listen with a glow to the old favorites, the ballad bugs will get a full measure of Crosby, and the jitter-kids will love it. Though light on comedy, it’s gay all the way as well as musically lively. And cast for pulling power. There’s Mary Martin, Brian Donlevy, Rochester, Jack Teagarden, Warren Hymer and Harry Barris and other film and music figures. There isn’t much story and it’s just as well. Crosby is} THE the white crusader for colored music. He collects a hand. Story deals with its ups and down.s Get on this bandwagon—if you can afford it. THE R.C.A. “High Fidelity” Sound Systems Northern Electric ‘Mirrophonic” Sound Systems Motiograph Projectors Century Projectors Ashcraft Arc Lamp Equipment {mperial “Stedypower” Generators Forest Rectifiers R.C.A. Hurley Screens Celotex Acoustical Materials -Also Other Miscellaneous Booth Supplies. This picture may turn out to be a surprise. Though it has no A names, it is solidly cast from an acting standpoint and for A2 clientelle. It has the musical appeal of two ace bands, those of Jimmy Lunceford and Will Osborne and there are five good new numbers in it. It certainly is different, in that it is drama and tragedy against a background of jazz. A group of barnstorming musicians and a vocalist, Priscilla Lane, who is married to leader Jack Carson, get their break in a honk-tonk run by Lloyd Nolan. Betty Field, a hateful wench smitten with Nolan, kicks the men around and almost breaks up the band but Priscilla Lane’s goodness keeps it together. A newcomer to the screen but not the stage, Richard Whorf, puts on a great performance as the pianist driven off his head by the Field virus. There are masterful montages of what goes through the mind of a demented jazz musician that are scarifying. Wallace Ford and Elia Kazan both do fine work. Anatole Litvak directed. It moves fast, is consistently interesting and has so many many ingredients that it makes one of the most unusual mixtures in some time. Yet it all jells. MALTESE FALCON Here’s the beSt cop-crook mystery in a long time. John Huston, son of Walter, did the direction and screenplay. He hooked it together as expertly as a breakaway bicycle. Audience interest is almost maximum. Though comedy is absent, it isn’t even missed. The title describes a jewel-studded statue of a bird and the hunt for it. Bogart is tops but a newcomer of vast girth, Sydney Greenstreet, makes a powerful bid for honors. . There is the able assistance of Mary Astor, Glady’s . George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane, Jerome Cowan and Elisha Cook, Jr. RKO GAY FALCON Easy-going murder puzzle about the private dick who beats the cops to crooks and who wants to quit but can’t. George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Allen Jenkins and Gladys Cooper. FOX MAN AT LARGE Scotland Yard and the FBI join to track down a Nazi spy ring in the USA. Story starts with a German prisoner ‘escaping from a Canadian prison camp and there’s the slightest amount of Canuck color. Slow and somewhat senseless. George Reeves and Richard Derr: are ' the man-power. Marjorie Weaver is the interfering receptionist who wants to be a reporter. Truth to tell, is becomes annoying as the idea grows that FBI and Scotland Yard are being used as a sort of comic opera background. It just ain’t right just now. REGAL DOMINION SOUND UNHOLY PARTNERS EQUIPMENTS LIMITED Head Office: 1620 Notre Dame Street West, Montreal Brancnes at: HALIFAX TORONTO WINNIPEG REGINA CALGARY VANCOUVER A NATIONAL THEATRE SERVICE| Nothing .much new but mostly exciting is this gangsterpress melodrama of the first post-war and the last pre-crash period. Ed G. Robinson, having left the army for his old job as editor, hooks up with gambler Ed Arnold to float his pet idea, a tabloid. The conflict arises over whether news of Arnold’s activities shall appear. No laughs at all. Other names: Loraine Day, Marsha Hunt, William T. Orr, Don Beddoe and Walter Kingsford. It'll do.