Canadian Film Weekly (May 13, 1942)

GIRL FROM ALASKA Republic Payoff: This is a melodrama in the old-time tradition— greed for gold against a background of the big winds and the great white wastes. It’s some time since such a subject has been used—which gives it some novelty to add to the suspense and thrills. What Goes On: Ray Middleton is a prospector fleeing from a phoney murder rap and forced to do the bidding of badmen Jerome Cowan and Robert H. Barrett. They’ve discovered that a large cache of gold is to be moved out of the area by Jean Parker, daughter of the discoverer, and a young man coming to help her. The young man dies on the way and Cowan forces Middleton, under penalty of exposure, to help in the plundering. Romance enters, skullduggery thrives but it all works out well. Sizeup: Middleton is the same strong, silent type but Jerome Cowan has picked up a clipped English accent as the British bounder abroad among the babes and wolves. There’s a thrilling scene of escape over ice floes. John Grierson, NFB, Has Been Around John Grierson’s name is synonymous with the theory and practice of documentary film production. Born in Scotland and educated at Glasgow University, Grierson did not turn to films until he found them the one indispensable instrument for “bringing alive the world we live in.” Even then he approached films as a sociologist, not as an aesthetician. After World War Number 1 Grierson spent three years in the USA studying the “yellow press” and other instruments affecting public opinion on a fellowship of the Rockefeller Foundation. He worked on American newspapers and made an intensive analysis of boxoffice reactions to the cinema. He returned to London and joined the staff of the Empire Marketing Board as a propagandist in the task of knitting the component parts of the Empire closely together and inevitably turned to film in order to speak to the millions throughout the Empire. He rather enjoys remembering that he made his first film to démonstrate “documentary” film technique without knowing one lens from another. He soon drew around him a group of young men and women who came into documentary production from all fields of public information and public service, from scientific research men in the government to avant garde artists, school teachers from Glasgow and mewspaper correspondents. This group grew under his leadership into “the British documentary film movement,” and today to its credit is the production of hundreds of films. The British documentary film is of particular interest to any student of the field because of its continuity, its underlying and consistent purpose of public information and public service, and its volume. .After the Empire Marketing Board was dissolved Grierson took his production unit to the General Post Office where it performed brilliantly the task of gaining public affection and support for an immense and at that time unpopular government service. Grierson went from the Post Office to found Film Centre from which many units making films for private and public sponsors were able to operate in a single continuous line. The British Gas Industries, Petroleum Industry, Imperial Airways, Zoological Society, the National Council of Social Service—all became steady customers of the documentary producers. World Film News was founded and published for several years until the outbreak of war in 1939. During this period Grierson was frequently consulted by other governments on their film activities. In 1938 Grierson was invited by the Canadian government to report on its film meeds and assisted in drafting the National Film Act. In October, 1939, he was appointed to the position of Government Film Commissioner for Canada. Shortly after assuming the Canadian post Grierson travelled to Australia and New Zealand to advise the governments of those dominions on their film needs. In September, 1941, he was appointed Government Film. Commissioner for a period of three years. Canadian FILM WEEKLY May 138, 1942 Esquire DEAD MAN’S SHOES THE Phone: Adelaide 4316 Payoff: An unusually engrossing drama filled with fine acting in all its leading roles. What Goes On: Leslie Banks is a successful business man who causes the arrest of a man for blackmail. The extortionist maintained that Banks was a denizin of the Paris underworld. Though vindicated in court, Banks realizes slowly that his accusers are right and that, as a result of a loss of memory, he stepped into another man’s shoes. Sizeup: The picture has a number of clever touches, some night club and jazz background, and solid dcting from Wilfred Lawson, Judy Kelly, Nancy Price and Peter Bull. 20th Century-Fox MAD MARTINDALES Payoff: Warm family comedy of the early automobile period. It’s extremely pleasant and highly suitable for the family trade. What Goes On: Alan Mowbray is a scatterbrained architect always in financial hot water because of his spending on antiques. Daughter Jane Withers sells them in his absence to stave off the finance company, then finds Mowbray facing jail for getting rid of property not owned by him. Byron Barr, wooing older sister Marjorie Weaver, steps in to help and winds up with Miss Withers. Sizeup: Jimmy Lydon and George Reeves help it along its homey path. Columbia SWEETHEART OF THE FLEET Payoff: Unpretentious but highly enjoyable musical with considerable comedy, pretty girls and currently popular songs. Good stuff for the cheerup half of the bill. What Goes On: Jinx Falkenberg and Joan Woodbury, two models, pose as two radio mystery singers picked as sweethearts of the fleet. The real gals are Brenda and Cobina of the crinkled kissers, so you see why they have been kept a mystery. Joan Davis, as publicity gal who has never seen B & C, sells the navy the idea without the boss’s knowledge and is forced to sub Jinx and Joan to follow through. B & C elope with a couple of sailors and are thus unable to be present at the USO rally to expose the posers. Jinx & Joan are explained to the sailors and land two officers; the boss and Joan Davis hook up and all’s fine and fair. Sizeup: The Falkenberg-Woodbury team are working well together, having appeared in one other film mutually. The film is lively all the way and has a timely service background. & XHIBITORS BOOKING _ASSOCIATION A thoroughly reliable, tried and proven buying and booking service for Independent Theatre Owners. ° 21 DUNDAS SQUARE Toronto Frank Meyers, Manager ®