Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 1, 1942)

April ist, 1942 Slapstick Is Big Stuff Today Film makers have gone back to slap-stick, but this time they carefully refer to it as “a more in a. type of comedy.” The shift away from _ subtle sophisticated comedy, producers believe, is a result of the war. More and more the screen is reverting to the slam-bang type of fun-making. Alexander Hall, a suave and adept director of sophisticated comedy, feels that a bit of slapstick won’t do any harm in ‘He Kissed the Bride,,’ his next picture at Columbia with Joan Crawford and Melvyn Douglas as costars. “Today,” Hall says, ‘Hollywood is using the informal approach to comedy.” Heretofore an artificer with a sly subtlety, the director has abandoned innuendo to deal in more informal and elemental comedy. Hall mentions the war hysteria prevailing in all parts of the world in explaining the current comedy trend. He feels that the people want their laughter in generous doses. The more fundamental the medium of hilarity, Hall says, the better it will click at the box Office. “And even in war time,” the diyfector adds, “the public is still the boss.” The director believes that the current emphasis on comedy among film producers is developing into more than the product of a cycle. He points out that Hollywood picture mills are furiously grinding out one comedy after another. Slapstick has been introduced into all types of pictures, from western horse operas to usually serious drama, ‘New Super GARDINER Projector’ With Barrel rear shutter Has no equal for fine projection and long life. As low as $9.00 weekly. GET OUR PRICES AND YOU WILL SURELY BUY FROM US “YOU CAN GUESS THE REASON” E 20Z oR MORE YOUR MONE’, pat ior DOMINION THEATRE EQUIPMENT €O 897 DAVIE ST VANCOUVER BC THE LION’S ROAR (Charles “Chuck” Riesner, expugilist, songwriter, author and MGM director, airs his views on comedy) “There is no such thing as comedy. At least, not as a thing in itself. Laughs are brought about by contrasts,” Riesner maintains. “The more contrast in a 3cene, the funnier it will be. “Abbott and Costello have a physical contrast, one is large and the other small. Marie Dressler and Polly Moran had the same thing. The contrast of emotions also is found in both teams. One person has an inferiority complex, the other is superior. Often they have contrast of location—one is from the big city, the other from the country. “Chaplin had an economic contrast. He always was pictured as @ poor person, which gave the audience a superior feeling. The Marx Brothers are _ aesthetes|, through their music, which is a direct contrast with their appearance and actions. “ ‘Red’ Skelton, Bob Hope and Benny make themselves inferior to their audiences, who know they are wrong and laugh at them for it. Harold Lloyd was a weakling who always was doing some stunt demanding strength, the opposite of what was expected. “A mule isn’t funny if seen alone. Yet, put the animal next to a fine, big horse and everybody will laugh at it. Why? Because of the contrast between the two. That’s what I mean when I say there is no such thing as comedy in itself.” NEW YORK TIMES (Columbia’s “49th Parallel” is being shown as “The Invaders” in the USA) Eighty per cent of ‘The Invaders” was filmed in Canada. Back at the Denham Studios, near London, the other 20 per cent was made, against faithfully reproduced Canadian interiors. It all began because Canada, and its all-out war effort, appealed to the imagination of Michael Powell, British film producer and director. In his mind there began, some three years ago, to form a project: he wanted to make a film of Canada— not a mere travel picture of snow-capped mountains, waving wheat fields and busy cities, but a vivid and vital story of the Dominion in wartime, which would use mountains, wheat fields, prairies and towns as background for action as up-to-date as today’s yelling headlines. The film crystallized, after almost two years of planning, travel and intensive work, into “The Invaders.” Canadian FILM WEEKLY elk YL dP CLA i oe — >| NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE (Howard Barnes discusses the present function of the screen) That Hollywood should be tough and bitter now seems to me a simple axiom. The screen has a great function as a popular, propagandistic artistic expression. It has two courses to follow in the months to come. It can help gird the nation to the vast effort that must be made for the duration of this second chapter in a world revolution. It can give surcease to tired and loyal workers in the common cause by merely entertaining them with what are commonly known as escapist shows. NEW YORK TELEGRAPH (Part of column by Leo Mishkin) some pictures to show that it’s no cinch, this war. And that it’s going to take every ounce of guts we got to win it. And that the Nazis and the Japs and those Eyetalians —hell, they been fighting a long time now, and they musta learned a couple of tricks, and we gotta learn the same tricks, and better ones, and that’s the way we’ll win this war. What I mean, this thing ain’t no pushover, that’s what I mean. And the movies ought to show it, too.” “Sounds reasonable to me,” said the barkeep. THE FOURTH COLUMN (J. V. McAree, the Globe and Mail columnist on the film “Cavalcade.” The comment is taken from a 1934 book of his collected columns.) We do not say it is the greatest film ever made, for we have not seen all the good films and we understand some magnificent ones have been made. But it is by far the best we have seen. We do not know when we have been so shaken in a theatre. We do not recommend it for amusement any more than we should advise the reading of Tess of the D’Urbervilles for amusement. We recommend it particularly to all loyal British subjects, to those who love England and hope that her future may be great and clothed in dignity and peace. It was written by young Englishmen, and played by English men and women. In the literature of our race which has come out of the war it takes its place with Montagu’s Disenchantment and Sheriff's Journey’s End. If we were a dictator it would be compulsory for everybody to read the book, attend the play and see the film. “That’s just what I been saying,’”’ said the man with the red necktie. “I been saying it’s time those guys in Hollywood made —— Page 5 (Fixing the Weather Man There is one sort of weather forecast that’s never wrong, and the government doesn’t care a bit of it’s announced. It’s a very simple forecast, such as was found at the top of a call sheet at Warner Bros. Studio. It read: “The Gay Sisters. Stage 19. Interior Pedloch’s office. Rain.” And sure enough, right promptly at 9 am. it started raining inside Stage 19. Barbara Stanwyk, George Brent, Donald Crisp that’s Pedloch—and Grant Mitchell were making the scene. The office had four windows, and through those it was quite obvious that it was raining outside. Buckets, no less. Providing the precipitation was the job of the technical department. A series of overhead sprinklers was set up, and a group of hoses fixed with nozzles directed against the windows. Wind machines were put in place and a waterproof tank was built along the floor and lined with fine shavings. Workers in sou’westers, oilskins and boots were in charge. Director Irving Rapper wanted a steady downpour, and under his direction the workmen quickly got the proper amount of precipitation. When the scene was being shot, the water sloshed almost silently against the window panes and dropped down into the tank. The sawdust kept it from landing noisily. Dialogue from the four principals was clearly heard, but the camera registered the undeniable fact that it was raining briskly “out of doors.” ‘“Tt’s a wonderful system,” commented Miss Stanwyck. “I wish some such orderly method of irrigation could be arranged for my flower garden.” Schenk Loses Appeal The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the convictions of Joseph M. Schenk and his personal bookkeeper, J. H. Moscowitz, for income tax evasion. Out on $10,000 bail, both men will carry their fight to the United States Supreme Court. Schenck, who used to head 20th Century-Fox, was sentenced to three years and fined $20,000. The Government charged that Schenck had bilked it out of $189,000 in 1935 and $64,000 in 1936. Film Major Hoople? Guy Kibbee has made a recording as Major Hoople and Hollywood is checking it as possible film material. The Major Hoople comic apepars in more than 700 newspapers daily and weekly.