Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 30, 1942)

W'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER WHEN GOOD SHOWS GET TOGETHER! "Spyyyyount LUUUIEC VOL. 1 EXTRA a PLAYING TIME IS THE ORDER OF THE DAY WITH PARAMOUNT PRODUCT! The Lowdown on the Production and Distribution of the Best Shows in Town! NO. 3 Records Crash tor Paramount Year The Major No Minor Paramount’s “Major and the Minor” is going to be a real major at the boxoffice. With Ginger Rogers iat the peak of her boxoffice career in her best performance—Ray Milland fresh from his triumphs in “Reap the Wild Wind” —Robert Benchley just out of “Take a Letter, Darling” in which he did a swell job—with Rita Johnson and Diana Lynn, who, by the way, the critics foretell great things for—and ace direction by Bill Wilder—how could ‘‘the Major and the Minor” ‘miss the boat?” And look at the pre-selling the picture is getting. Life thinks enough about it to make it its “Picture of the Week.” Redbook thinks enough about it to make it the picture of the month for October. Let’s cut a long story short and say that every magazine has picked it as the picture of the month. And on top of all this, Paramount has written a tune called “The Major and the Minor” which is headed straight for the Hit Parade. Can any Exhibitor honestly ask for any more than that? Book this winner now! The Major, Ray Milland, sees more than a minor in Ginger Rogers. ‘Holiday’ and ‘Reap’ Provide Bumper Boxoffice Harvest As Paramount’s Four Week Drive draws to a close, there is a long string of shattered records left across the Dominion from coast-to-coast. Paramount is paramount again. From Victoria on the West Coast to Halifax on the East Coast, mount’s big Bing CrosbyFred Astaire _ filmusical, “Holiday Inn,” is the same— holdovers. With “Holiday Inn” and “Reap the Wild Wind,” it was a friendly game of tag across the country—"Holiday” leading here, ‘“‘Reap” leading there —both piling up astonishing grosses. In Windsor, “Holiday” did the second largest gross in the theatre’s history. “Reap the Wild Wind” is now in its third week in Hamilton and going a fourth. “Holiday Inn” is in its fourth big week at Shea’s, Toronto, where, on opening week, it shattered the record and, incidentally, hung up one that is going to take some beating. Whether you choose Regina, Hamilton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal or Timbuctoo, the story is one of a smash week followed by a holdover. Along with “Holiday Inn” and “Reap the Wild Wind,’ Paramount’s ‘“‘The Glass Key” also the story of Para-©— hung up a record at the Eglinton Theatre in Toronto. And other smash hits from Paramount for 42-43 that have already been reviewed—‘Wake Island” with Brian Donlevy, Macdonald Carey, Robert Preston, Albert Dekker, William Bendix and Walter Abel; ‘The Major and the Minor” starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland; “Forest Rangers” (in Technicolor) with Fred MacMurray, Paulette Goddard, Susan Hayward, Albert Dekker, Eugene Pallette and Lynne Overman; “Palm Beach Story” starring Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea with Mary Astor and Rudy Vallee; ‘Road to Morocco,” third and greatest of the boxoffice history-making ‘‘Road” series, with Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour and Bob Hope and other big ones, not as yet reviewed— “Let’s Face It,” “Lady in the Dark” and the year’s biggest attraction, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls” destined. The Women’s Angle... The question, so often posed in connection with “Wake Island,” “How will the women take it?” finds its answer in the fact that nearly half of the quoted reviews which appeared in the New York daily papers were written by women reviewers. Herewith we quote from a review written by Ethel Colby for the New York Journal of Commerce. Miss Colby said in part: “For those of us who may not engage America’s enemies in mortal combat, there is a significant film at the Rivoli Theatre. At last we have a motion picture on Broadway that really matters. Paramount Pictures, in presenting ‘Wake Island’ for ‘pulp’ consumption rather than as a two-a-day special feature, is doing a rich public seryice for the more people yho see ‘Wake Island’ immediately the better for all concerned ... ‘Wake Island’ has an amazing leading man in Brian Donlevy. Amazing, mostly because he does not allow that actorish feeling to enter the celluloid, ever. Because he plays his role with a sincerity that can be only described as ‘living a role.’ He’s good, and so is every mother’s son to take part in this inspired film... This reporter was mighty glad she went, and so will you be. You'll be treated to a dose of the most vivid anger you'll ever muster. Go to the Rivoli Theatre—and quickly! ‘Wake Island’ will awaken America. It’s dynamite—and aimed at the Japs. Semper Fidelis! .O4 ‘Ranger Preem — For Vancouver Plans have been made to give Vancouver the premiere of the sparkling new Technicolor production, “Forest Ranger.” Starring Paulette Goddard, Fred MacMurray and Susan Hayward—"Forest Rangers” brought a reaction from the New York previewers that indicates it will be another smash hit from the company that knows how to make ’em. With the two feminine stars from “Reap the Wild Wind” in a story by the same author, Thelma Strabel—with the biggest song hit in two years—‘Jingle, Jangle, Jingle’— with direction by the man who made ‘“Destry Rides Again”—"Forest Rangers” has all the ingredients for what it takes to bring them in. The cast also includes names like Alpert Dekker, Lynne Overman and Eugene Pallette. And Technicolor too. Vancouver is arranging to have quite an opening with “Forest Rangers’—a picture that does such a swell job of showing plenty of natural forests: and the action around them and brings home to Canadians how close forests are to the heart of Canada. Robert Preston and William Ssendix form a new comedy team in “Wake Island.” ‘ —d! . os