Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 3, 1943)

THE PICK OF |} | THE PICTURES | REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS February Srd, 1943 COAST-TO-COAST COVERAGE Vol. 8, No. 6 ‘Random Harvest’ Boxoffice GARSON-COLEMAN DRAMA AIMED FOR BUSY WICKET REGAL Release of MGM Production ‘Happy Go | Lucky’ So-So “HAPPY GO LUCKY” PARAMOUNT (Running Time: 79 Minutes) Nicely Technicolorful but distinctly shortweight when compared with Paramount's better musicals, this film has many moments of solid entertainment. There are several well set up numbers and some earfilling tunes, domestic and imported variety, as well as pleasing scenic backgrounds. Though the film doesn’t say so, the locale could be pre-war Bermuda, etc., since the colored natives speak with an English accent and Calypso singers perform. The use of Technicolor does much to raise the quality of the picture. When the conduct of the characters, as specified by the script, becomes repetitious the eye may dwell on the idyllic isle and thus obtain diversion. Mary Martin is the main go here, being paired in a romance with a tired-looking and listless Dick Powell, who uses his voice very little. Betty Hutton offers her accustomed rowdy delivery of songs when not trying to force her affections on Eddie Bracken, Powell's pal, in a loud and lively way. Rudy Vallee repeats his excellent role of “Palm Beach Story,” that of a _ bespectacled, stuffy millionaire with a heart of gold. The story is that of the predatory female, showgirl style, out to lure a millionaire into marriage, aided in her endeavors by two characterless loafers, Bracken and Powell. Mary Martin is the goldmining minor musical actress, pretending to be somebody, whose intended racket is horned in on by Powell, discoverer of her intentions. Powell wants a share of the Vallee plunder but takes Miss Martin instead. Clem Bevans and assorted singers, dancers and chorines keep the gayety going. New NFB Short “PINCER ON AXIS EUROPE” COLUMBIA—NFB (Running Time: 20 Minutes) This newest NFB short is on par with its outstanding ones. it | shows the most recent Allied | military activities, as well as previous moves, and relates them to overall strategy. (Running Time: It is obvious that the makers of the screen version of James Hilton’s popular book, “Random Harvest,” aimed at creating a boxoffice smash through the frankest appeal to sentiment and emotion. They accomplished it. Producer Sidney Franklin and Director Mervin Leroy not only hit the nail on the head; they drove it in all the way. Women, loaded down with handkerchiefs and equipped for after-theatre repairs to tearravaged makeup, will besiege the boxoffice for what should be a considerable run. It will also interest the men but not to the same extent. Fine and sincere acting, here as in many other movie instances, is a substitute for plausibility. Likely developments aren't always interes ting and movies must be. Any patron can predict the course of things after the first couple of reels. Just the same ‘Random Harvest” has great power of appeal befinest cause it depends almost entirely on two such skilled players as Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman. Their adult characterizations make it believable and the result is the finest love story since “Intermezzo.” Both parties to the lovemaking being of more than mature age, the vagaries of youthful romance are absent. There is also an unseen third party present during the unfolding of the troth--Will Hays, as will become apparent to those who read the book Colman is an army officer during the last war whose memory went AWOL after a battle. The film opens with him a compulsory inmate of an asylum, his identity unknown to himself and those in charge. Thoroughly dejected but aware of his plight, he escapes during the armistice celebration. Greer Garson, trouper with a small RONALD COLMAN who turns ‘in one of his performances in “Random Harvest” 125 Minutes) musical show, becomes attracted to him. Through her protection he remains free and with her guidance his spirit returns, though he still cannot dredge up his past. ‘“hey marry, settle in a small town and Colman shows signs of becoming a successful writer. During a trip to Liverpool to discuss his first journalistic “break” with an editor, he is hit by a motor car and his memory returns. But he cannot remember his recent past. Then begins the second phase of the story. Colman returns to his family, who thought him dead, and resumes his former place as a great industrialist. Having discovered his real self, he is plagued by a deep desire to find out the events of his life in the days of amnesia Young Susan Peters falls in love with him and they are ready to marry when Greer Garson tracks him down. Coleman doesn't recognize her. She becomes his secretary without revealing herself. That begins the second phase of the story. Colman, though occasionally unkempt, is the same suave fellow with the golden tones. Greer Garson, in the scenes showing her singing and dancing, isn't exactly the type but it must be admitted that she’s a legsome lass. The supporting cast is great-—-Phillip Dorn, Henry Travers, Reginald Owen, Bramwell Fletcher, Rhys Williams, Una O'Connor, Charles Waldron, Elisabeth Risdon, Melville Cooper, Margaret Wycherly, Jill Esmond and others, Though “Random Harvest” takes a while to get going, its early shuffling is forgotten when it starts to march straight for the heart and captures it MGM advertising has been of a wide and unusual nature for this film and there is a waiting audience. Fast. Furious “PITTSBURGH” UNIVERSAL (Running Time: 91 Minutes) Industrial backgrounds aren't nearly as drab as they used to seer to cinemagoers. The sight of smoking chimneys and sweating men is a comforting one these days. In “Pittsburgh” they are used as a background for rough and roaring drama and given considerable patriotic meaning. Fisticuffs, prize ring and free lance type, are frequent. The film has a number of popular ingredients to add to constant and broad action a triangular love story, a rags to riches theme, the triumph of virtue over greed, the victory of justice over tyranny, and patriotic hard work. Marlene Dietrich, playing a Lupino-like part, is capable, and John Wayne and Randolph Scott are a powerful masculine combination. Wayne and Scott, strong, silent he-man types when working apart, are quite a gabby twosome here. The story is told in flashback and Frank Craven, favorite | movie usher into the past, is again the narrator who escorts the patron. Other popular players are Louise Allbritton, Shemp Howard, Ludwig Stossel and Samuel S8. Hinds. Most unusual is that the picturé, unlike all previous films, doesn’t shy away from labor problems, There is much such conflict in “Pittsburgh” but the miners are presented as men with just grievances. Wayne and Scott are a couple of coal miners in the days when Pittsburgh was just a few vast holes in the ground. Wayne is a hard-working, hard-fighting, harddrinking but good-natured fellow and Scott, his pal, a more sober person, Dietrich enters the picture as the well-kept girl friend of a low-life prizefight manager, whose pug is beaten by Scott in a challenge match. Scott gets the purse and Wayne gets Dietrich The three become wealthy and powerful as mine owners. Wayne becomes a tyrant, loses his friends, goes broke and finally sees the light “Pittsburgh,” though its script jis patchy in spots, is a first-rate drama,