Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 12, 1942)

August 12th, 1942 Mrs. Jones Dead Huston s Sister Mrs. Margaret Huston Jones of 760 Park Avenue, New York, wife of Robert Edmond Jones, the scenic designer, and sister of Walter Huston, the actor, died in Greenwich, Conn. last week at her Summer home on Quaker Ridge, after a long illness. She was born in Toronto, a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Robert Moore Huston. AS a young woman Mrs. Jones studied singing abroad and frequently appeared on the London concert stage in the years just before the first World War, receiving special praise for her interpretations of Debussy and Hugo Wolff. Later she made herself an expert on the speaking voice, and was consulted by actresses of stage and screen. In 1915 she was married to William T. Carrington, prominent grain broker and music patron, who was president and chief financial backer of the American Opera Company. He died in 1931. Two years later the former Margaret Y. Huston married Robert Edmond Jones. She was a member of the Colony Club of New York. Besides her husband and her brother Walter, she leaves another brother, Alexander Huston, a sister, Miss tNan Huston, both of Toronto. Greenthal Leaves UA For Washington On request of Donald M. Nelson, War Production Board of the USA chairman, Gradwell Sears, vice president of United Artists, granted leave of absence to Monroe W. Greenthal, director of advertising and publicity. Greenthal will be appointed to the WPB, working thru the Office of Information. First assignment will be on nationwide salvage and conservation. Greenthal will seek cooperation of the film industry in immediate expansion of this campaign after reporting to Washington, where he will headquarter. Sears announced the appointment of David E. Weshner to succeed Greenthal. Paramount's British Commando Film “The Day Will Dawn,’ a British-made film about the exploits of commandos in Norway, has been acquired by Paramount for American distribution. Paul Soskin produced the picture in England with Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr and Hugh Williams as stars. > & 7” 7 art “g CHIGAGO SUN (Warren Brown, sports columnist, in wondering if today’s ball players are as great as those of yesterday, introduces his ideas with a movie theme) Something less than fourscore years ago there appeared on the then silent screen a screamingly funny feature entitled ‘‘Tillie’s Punctured Romance.” Not so very long ago there was a re-run of this number, and it was shown hereabouts. It seemed in order that the eyes nearing 49 should gaze upon the picture and see what was in it that had seemed so very funny to the eyes of 19. There had remained through all the years—or so it seemed—a vivid recollection of the early Chaplin, who had not yet taken on the derby hat, the baggy pants, the big shoes, the tuft of moustache and the bamboo cane. He and Marie Dressler, the star when the picture was first shown, had seemed so funny, then. Well, they don’t now. Understand, please, that ever since I first saw him on the variety stage in “A Night in a Music Hall’—and was able to distinguish him from Billy Reeves, who played the same part in another company—I have gone to Chaplin pictures with two strikes on me, anda sucker for any comical curve he tossed. Yet this great feature of years gone by didn’t seem the least bit funny in the re-run. Indeed, I went away from there wondering what had ever elicited a laugh in the first place. Not being by any analysis an expert on the affairs of the screen, I looked up our Mr. Wolfe Kaufman, and stated the case. “Grandpa,” he said (and he wasn’t kidding), ‘‘you’re like all the other old guys. You don’t allow for the natural improvement of the motion picture. New ideas, new technique, new materials—see what I mean? You go along with it gradually, and you never realize that the old boat has gone, never to be reported in port again.” Baby Dumpling Sues Seven-year-old film star Larry Simms, who plays the role of “Baby Dumpling” in the “Blondie” series, has brought suit for $118,000 damages against an alleged radio imitator. “Baby Dumpling” insists that the alleged imitator is depriving him of a valuable ‘“‘property right’—to wit: ‘the use of his own natural voice.” ee eee EEE eS) Canadian FILM WEEKLY NEW YORK TIMES (Theodore Strauss, in an article called “Prelude to Battle,” makes some points about current war films) Hollywood would do well to find perspectives as large in its treatment of a history no less turbulent, no less heroic. Beside the Russian films in the same genre, Hollywood’s productions exploiting our great heroes and traditions seem like costumed charades with protagonists like ninnies; American producers too often forget the fact that to put the breath of life into an epic of the past requires more than periwigs and buckled shoes and sets that cost a fortune. The Soviet directors have gone farther—they have helped to create a heroic conception of himself within the ordinary man, a conception that somehow cannot easily recognize the possibility of defeat. Perhaps in this critical year that counts for something. An epic art can create epic behavior. Who knows how much the spirit articulated in their films has weighed in the balance at the barricades before Leningrad, with the soldiers at Bryansk fighting on long after they knew they were doomed, or in the grim and desperate grandeur of Sevastopol? PM (Another aspect of the movies will get new treatment from now on. This letter is just a small part of the growing deman¢ from all races) Dear Editor: I was very pleased to read the column Speaking of Movies in PM, July 28. It is high time some agency had the courage to take up the cudgel against the inaccurate portrayals of the American Negro by the Hollywood moviemakers. As far as the modern Negro is concerned, the Uncle Toms and buffoons are all part of the buried past. There is a rich source of story material based on the Negro’s contribution to the economic and cultural growth of this country. As you recently pointed out, modern-day jazz was _ inspired wholly by the American Negro. The life story of George Washington Carver would make as interesting a movie as the life story of Louis Pasteur. The time has come for us in America to realize that we cannot have democracy for most of the people all the time, and no democracy for a tenth of the people at any time. New York Thomas G. Young, Secretary Page 5 No 'Revivals in New York Algiers—1938 romatic drama; C. Boyer, H. Lamarr, S. Gurie. Beau Geste—1939 adventure story; G. Cooper, R. Milland. Brother Rat— 1938 comedy; Morris and P. Lane. Cavalcade—1933 drama; C. Brook and D, Wynyard. Drums—1938 technicolor military Ww. melodrama of British India; R. Massey and Sabu. Duck Soup—i1933 farce; Marx Bros. Ebb Tide—1937 technicolor tale of the South Seas; F. Farmer, O. Homolka. Gunga Din—41939 melodrama of military British India; C. Grant, D. Fairbanks, Jr., V. McLaglen. His Girl Friday—1940 comedy; C. Grant, R. Russell. Hold Back the Dawn—1941 romantic drama; C. Boyer, O. de Havilland, P. Goddard. I Love You Again—1940 comedy; W. Powell, M. Loy. Letter of Introduction—1938 comedy; Charlie McCarthy, A. Leeds, A. Menjou. Man I Married—1940 drama; J. Bennett, F. Lederer, L. Nolan. Of Human Bondage—1i1934 drama; L. Howard and B. Davis. Primrose Path—1940 drama; Rogers, J. McCrea. Things to Come—1936 dramatization of H. G. Wells’ prophetic novel of the next World War. R. Massey, Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Titans of the Deep—1939. Deep sea life; narration by Lowell Thomas. Tovarich—1937 comedy, C. Boyer, C. Colbert. Twentieth Century—1934 comedy; C. Lombard, J. Barrymore. Virginia City—1940 western melodrama; E. Flynn, R. Scott. Whole Town’s Talking—1935 comedy-melodrama; E. G. Robinson and J. Arthur. Young in Heart—1938 comedy; R. Young and B. Burke. G. HEATING AND VENTILATING CONTRACTORS AND ENGINEERS