Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 24, 1942)

Page 4 BIG SHOT Canadian FILM WEEKLY June 24th, 1942 United Artists EHERRY PILOT (‘The World in Action” Series) This documentary short, made with the cooperation of the British Ministry of Information, is of the same stripe as “Target for Tonight.” It is a factual presentation of the work of that mysterious hero of this war, the ferry pilot. What he foes through, how he gets there and the planning back of each Atlantic jaunt make up the framework of the picture. But filling this structure are thrills, sorties and humorous touches. : Today there are a great many patrons who would rather have their war hero films factual, with their tempo unhindered by the addition of a love story, and accept more escapist material for entertainment. A picture such as this, added to a gayer film, might be the answer to many an exhibitor’s puzzlement about what the public wants. “Ferry Pilot’ is crackerjack stuff about the air avenues that feed Britain bombers and the game guys who fly those lonesome and dangerous skyways. The “Second Front” mass raids and reference to Cologne, Rostock and Lubeck gives the film exact topicality. INSIDE FIGHTING RUSSIA (“The World in Action” Series) This National Film Board subject has the same quick pace and stirring narration of the best previous efforts. It’s concise and clear, filling well that great curiosity about what Russia is and was like. Shots show the old and ugly Russia of the Czar as against the vigorous and inventive Soviet state of today. Why and how our Soviet ally is able to kick Hitler's efforts back into his face and rear is plainer and quicker to see here than in almost any other subject of a like nature. Vitagraph Payoff: Set up to fit into an intermediate slot, this mobster melodrama exceeds expectations. It becomes a character study and a hard-driving melodrama at the same time. Humphrey Bogart, who can give the most flimsy piece body and substance, takes full advantage of all the possibilities and the film becomes a thrilling attention arrester. What Goes On: Bogart is a broken ex-mob chief who, faced with life if he offends a fourth time, takes the bulldozing of a small-time hoodlum, Joseph Downing. Hungry and discouraged, he returns to the racket. He renews his love affair with Irene Manning, who married his lawyer while Bogart was in jail. Though there are two love stories in the picture, the second between Richard Travis and Susan Peters, they create no confusion. Travis is a young fellow hired to provide Bogart with an alibi who goes to jail when unwittingly exposed by his sweetheart. Sizeup: The film has many excellent and clever shots to symbolize this and that, such as the crushing of Bogart’s cigarette underfoot as he dies. There is a chase over snowy roads that’s the best thing of its kind in a long time. Several superb characterizations support Bogart, particularly that of Chick Sandler as Bogart’s jailbreak partner. There are some familiar slants, such as a prison show, but they’re unusually well done. Minor Watson and Howard de Sylva play well. ESCAPE FROM CRIME Payoff: Gangster piece of a distinctly minor classification. What Goes On: Richard Travis is the reformed crook who goes straight, becomes a photographer, and helps round up the mob he used to run with. Sizeup: Julie Bishop, Jackie C. Gleason, Frank Wilcox, Rex Williams and a half-dozen others. Regal LAND OF THE QUINTUPLETS (James A. Fitzpatrick Traveltalk) A technicolor short on the Quints, with the emphasis on background and environment. There are shots of the Quints but Dr. Dafoe is the hero here. He is shown at home and gets his due. Mighty interesting subject. Paramount TAKE A LETTER, DARLING Payoff: Long on loud laughter and certainly one of the funniest pictures in a couple of years. A racy escapist story and an ultra-mountea production give it top eye and ear value. What Goes On: Rosalind Russell is a self-sufficient advertising account executive who’s a cinch to sell a man but runs into a chill when their wives are with them. On account of Miss Russell being so fetching. She hires Fred MacMurray, a jobless artist, to play her sweetheart and take the freeze out of the wifely frails. MacMurray becomes so expert at thawing them out that he warms Miss Russell out of her wintry attitude also. It’s nice work, etc. Sizeup: The audience gets on MacMurray’s side early, knowing full well that he’ll make fact out of fiction but it watches the procedure with immense glee. Miss Russell, as a sure shooter, is at her best. Bob Benchley is her silent but droll partner. Constance Moore provides the female barrier between MacMurray and Russell and Macdonald Carey is Mac’s male opposition for Roz. Columbia PARACHUTE NURSE Payoff: A minor effort that has the advantage of being about a branch of the American services that is pictured for the first time. That’s something. What Goes On: Marguerite Chapman is one of the nurses who leaves the usual routine to join the girls who bring nursing to places that can only be reached by air. She falls in love with William Wright, the instructor, but a jealous competitor, Louise Albritton, unnerves her in the first parachute test. She gets over the mental hurdle, wins the instructor and sees the perfumed heel thumbed out of the service. Sizeup: It has a certain amount of novelty, as well as many pretty girls for the male custom. 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