Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 25, 1944)

) THE PICK OF | Vol. 9, No. 43 EEL LS ERT LIEN TPES MELE ON SAIS CT aS YON NETTIE COICO ERS POCO IES CEI LR OI ROE IRE PETE DIRE SEA ASEAN CRS ABS PRET CNN we Take It Or | Leave It with Phil Baker, Edward Ryan 20th-Fox 70 Mins, FAIR ENTERTAINMENT DISPENSED BY PIC BASED ON RADIO SHOW. Radio fans, especially admirers of the air show which inspired the film, no doubt will take it, Others, in quest of more substantial entertainment, more than likely will leave it. The film is virtually nothing more than a photographed “Take It Or Leave It” radio session. The budget has been kept down by the neat if simple process of trotting out excerpts from old 20th-Fox films when one of the characters (Edward Ryan), a contestant on the “Take It Or Leave It” program, picks as his subject “scenes from motion picture hits of the past.” Musical and comedy extracts predominate in these scenes, among the films represented being “Stand Up and Cheer,” “Tin Pan Alley,” “Lillian Russell” and “One in a Million.” Among the players seen in these bits out of the vault are Shirley Temple, Al Jolson, Sonja Henie, Jack Oakie, Alice Faye, George Montgomery, Betty Grable, Buster Keaton, the Ritz Brothers, the Weire Brothers, Glenn Miller, James Dunn, Billy Gilbert, Nicholas Brothers, the Ink Spots, Going to the files may be one way of keeping production costs down, but it hardly makes for meritorlous entertainment, although it does have a certain nostalgic value. What little story there is in “Take It Or Leave It” is hardly a master mental stroke. Ryan, a young sailor, has to have dough to get a good obstetrician for his wife, Marjorie Massow. How his appearance on “Take It Or Leave It” solves his problem. is the main burden of the story. Phil Baker, playing the same role he does in the air, is the main puller-in. The film requires little on the way of acting from him and his fellow thespians. CAST: Phil Baker, Edward Ryan, Marjorie Massow, Stanley Prager, Roy Gordon, Garleton Young, Ann Corcoran, Nella Walker, Nana Bryant, Renie Riano, Frank Jenks, Al Jolson, Sonja Henie, Shirley Temple, Jack Oakie, Alice Faye, George Montgomery, Weire Brothers, Betty Grable, Buster Keaton, Ritz Brothers, Glenn Miller, James Dunn, Billy Gilbert, Nicholas Brothers, Ink Spots, DIRECTION, Routine, PHOTOGRAPHY, Good, REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK The Climax with Boris Kerloff, Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey Universal 86 ©~Mins. MIXTURE OF DRAMA, MUSIC AND ROMANCE RATED AS FINE POPU. LAR ENTERTAINMENT, The Edward Locke play, first made into a film by Universal in 1930, has been resurrected to serve the talents of Boris Karloff, Susanna Foster and Turhan Bey. Depending no little upon the melodramatic to attain its dramatic ends, the re-make is an eye-arresting Technicolor spectacle produced impressively by George Waggner for popular consumption, The screenplay employs romance and music lavishly to relieve the heavy dramatic mood of the story. The romantic moments are entrusted to Miss Foster and Bey. With an opera house serving as the main scene of the action, the music fits naturally into the story. Musically the picture owes a lot to the singing of Miss Foster, The plot concerns the efforts of Karloff, opera house physician, to preyent Miss Foster from pursuing a singing career because her voice reminds him of a former operatic star whom he killed in a mad paroxysm of passion. He almost destroys Miss Foster before justice catches up with him. The story, which has touches of the macabre, is intended purely as fiction. The acting is worthy of attention, and Waggner’s direction Is skillful. CAST: Boris Karloff, Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, Gale Sondergaard, Thomas Gomez, June Vincent, George Dolenz, Ludwig Stossel, Jane Farrar, Erno Verebes, Lotte Stein, Scotty Beckett, William Edmunds, Maxwell Hayes, Dorothy Lawrence, DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPRY, Aces. WB Employees Get Personnel Manual A 25-page Personnel Manual for Warner Prothers USA employees has been compiled and issued by the company’s person~ nel department to help bring about a standardization of personnel procedure. The mannual, first of its kind in the industry, was recently distributed to home office department heads. It deals with situations involving sick leaves, vacations, priority rights for returning service men and women, merit increases, overtime and many other related matters, Youth Runs Wild with Bonita Granville, Kent Smith, Jean Brooks, Glenn Vernon, Tessa Brind. RKO Radio 57 Mins. GOOD BOX OFFICE ASSET BECAUSE OF HUMAN DRAMA AND INCREASED INTEREST OF PUBLIC IN PROBLEMS OF YOUTH. There is the best of justification for the continuance of the juvenile delinquency cycle of films via “Youth Runs Wild.” It’s that juvenile delinquency is apparently on the increase, and films dealing with the subject can properly grow to combat it, public concern is also becoming greater, hence films of this type can be offered by the exhibitor on three vital counts, (1) mounting audience interest as result of topiec’s timeliness; (2) consequence to parents and the younger generation; and (3) the natural human drama. Also might be added the element of service which the exhibitor tenders to himself as a theater operator, as well as to other showmen, in helping drive home to the people at large the destructive toll which vandalism is taking during the war on our home front. “Youth Runs Wild’ follows the general pattern of pix made in this category of late, but pointed up, and rightly so, is the angle of parental delinquency which many sociologists and civic leaders hold to be the source of the bad behavior on the part of kids. Tessa Brind, a fine young actress, has the role of the girl who is victimized by her folks’ laxity. This leads her into close com~ panionship with Bonita Granville (whom Hollywood has typed for this sort of thing), who is a goodhearted but fallen angel. Against this retrogression of Tessa’s environment is played a parallel situation in the case of Glenn Vernon. His parents wrongfully attribute his failings to TesSa, With whom he is in love, This leads young Vernon into trouble, but at the film finale, he and Tessa appear headed for a chance in this world, but not until circumstances have sent Glenn to a reformatory. Kent Smith is the wounded World War II veteran who takes a constructive interest in the problem of delinquency, and does a good job. CAST: Bonita Granville, Kent Smith, Jean Brooks, Glenn Vernon, Tessa Brind, Len Bard, Mary Servoss, Arthur Shields, Lawrence Tierney, Dickie Moore, Johnny Walsh, Rod Rodgers, Elizabeth Russell. DIRECTION, Tip-Top. PHOTOGRA. PHY, Ditto, REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS $2.00 Per Annum The Port of Forty Thieves with Stephanie Bachelor, Richard Powers, Lynn Roberts Republic 58 Mins. DANDY MYSTERY MELLER WHICH DESERVES HIGH RANKING THIS SEASON AMONG PIX OF ITS TYPE. Competently produced, directed and acted, “The Port of Forty Thieves” is an excellent murder meéller. Walter H. Goetz, who fashioned the film, assigned Stepanie Bachelor to the central role of the glamourous killer who did away with her husband when he planned to leave her and rewed his former mate. Miss Bachelor is a natural for the part alloted to her, making the evil she does appear all the more breath-taking because of her beauty and charm. The public is led to believe that her victim has merely disappeared. So, when seven years have passed, the smooth and sinister woman makes it her business to have him declared “legally dead” and collect his estate. Her paramour, George Meeker, knows that She is a murderess by her own admission, and later, to silence him, she sends him to his death in the elevator shaft of the building in which her luxurious apartment is located. In the interim, She goes to Richard Powers, a prominent young lawyer, to have him represent her in gaining her demised husband's property. Powers, aided by the relatives of the latter, and Russell Hicks, whom She attempts to blackmail in the amount of $50,000, finally brings her to justice. Director John English gets everything there Is out of this story. The Bachelor character might well start a chain of such pix by Republic, with the beastly beauty as star. Not the least of his at~ traction’s assets is Jack Marta's photography which is as clear as the bell which Republic uses as its atmospheric trademark at the picture’s outset. The entire cast does well. Ellen Lowe does noble service notwithstanding a role and dialogue which are not espe~cially convincing. There are other minor flaws, but they are overwhelmed by the high quality and punch the picture possesses. CAST: Stephanie Bachelor, Richard Power, Lynn Roberts, Olive Blakeney, Russell Hicks, George Meeker, Mary Field, Ellen Lowe, Patricia Knox, John Hamilton, Harry Depp. DIRECTION, Thorough, PHOTOGRA. PHY, Fine,