Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 1, 1945)

THE PICK OF THE PICTURES REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS Vol. 10, No. 31 REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK $2.00 Per Annum Conflict with Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith Warner Bros. 86 Mins. POTENT MELODRAMATIC ENTERTAINMENT HAS PLENTY OF DRAWING POWER; ACTING SWELL. “Conflict’ makes Humphrey Bogart the key figure in a psychological melodrama that is potent entertainment. For tenseness and ability to hold the audience in suspense the film merits a big round of applause. Under the forceful directional hand of Curtis Bernhardt, the production, turned out in topflight fashion by William Jacobs, generates high-voltage interest and moves smoothly to its conclusion. The Arthur T. Horman-Dwight Taylor screenplay, adroitly contrived from a yarn by Robert Siodmak and Alfred Neumann, has Bogart in another of those sure-fire roles, that he plays so well. The star is an engineer who is made to dispose of his wife, who has become intolerable to him, by killing her in her car and then rolling the machine down an embankment. The motivation is his infatuation for his wife’s sister. The efforts of the man to cover up result in a spell-binding melodramatic exhibition. It looks like a perfect crime until one little mistake trips the slayer. The film gains a lot from the performances. Bogart makes the killer a fascinating study. Alexis Smith appears to good advantage as the girl he’s nuts about. Fine work is contributed also by Sydney Greenstreet as a psychologist who helps to solve the crime. Rose Hobart appears briefly but effectively as the murder victim. CAST: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet, Rose Hobart, Charles Drake, Grant Mitchell, Pat O’Moore, Ann Shoemaker, Frank Wilcox, Ed Stanley, James Flavin, Mary Servoss. CREDITS: Producer, William Jacobs; Director, Curtis Bernhardt; Screenplay, Arthur 7T. Horman, Dwight Taylor; Based‘ on story by Robert Siodmak, AIfred Neumann; Cameraman, Merritt Gerstad; Film Editor, David Weisbart; Sound, Oliver S. Garreston; Art Director, Ted Smith; Set Decorator, Clarence I. Steensen; Musical Score, Frederick Hollander; Musical Director, Leo F. Forb stein. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, ‘Jungle Raiders’ is New Columbia Serial “Jungle Raiders” will be Columbia’s first serial production for the 1945-46 season. Kane Richmond and Veda Ann Borg will play the lead roles with Sam Katzman producing and Leslie Selander directing. The Naughty Nineties with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Universal 76 Mins. DOES NOT MEASURE UP TO STANDARDS OF THE COMEDIANS’ PREVIOUS RELEASE; NEEDS STRONG SUPPORT. Apparently the weakest of the Abbott and Costellos to date, suffering from lack of material and production values, this saga of Captain Sam’s (Henry Travers) showboat “River Queen” will find its port of call in the hearts of kiddie matinee audiences. The comedy is obvious, repetitious, and of the dull slapstick variety, certainly not meant for feature fare. Producers as well as writers of the screenplay, Hartmann and Grant, not only subject the comedians to corny blackout bits of action but allow them, however well they deliver, to render an over-tiring oldie—the baseball routine of “Who's on First and What’s on Second.” Atmosphere songs. “On A Sunday Afternoon,’ ‘“I’d Leave Ma Happy Home For You,’ and “Nora Malone” are augmented with a few newer tunes by Jack Brooks and Edgar Fairchild, outstanding one being “I Can't Get You Out Of My Mind,” sung by Lois Collier. The story, what there is of it, has Alan Curtis, Rita Johnson, and Joe Sawyer, a crooked trio, swindling Henry Travers out of a major share of his showboat in order to establish it as a gambling ship. Abbott and Costello, employed by Travers, attempt to retrieve his share and rout the crooks. Curtis, falling for Collier, Travers’ daughter, goes straight by cheating his partners when Johnson and Travers decide to draw cards for all or nothing. CAST: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Alan Curtis, Rita Johnson, Henry Travers, Lois Collier, Joe Sawyer, Joe Kirk. CREDITS: Producers, Edmund L. Hartmann, John Grant; Director, Jean Yarbrough; Cameraman, George Robinson; Original screenplay, Edmund L. Hartmann, John Grant, Edmund Joseph, Hal Fimberg; Additional comedy sequences, Felix Adler; Art Directors, John B. Goodman, Harold H. MagArthur; Sound, Bernard B. Brown; Set Decorators, Russel A. Gausman, Leigh Smith; Film Editor, Arthur Hilton; Musical Director, Ed gar Fairchild. DIRECTION, Fair. PHOTOGRAPHY, Fair. New Theatre? It is rumored that a new theatre with a seating capacity of 4,200 will be built in Montreal as soon as restrictions are lifted. A Royal Scandal with Tallulah Bankhead, Charles Coburn, Anne Baxter, William Eythe 20th-Fox 94 Mins. LATEST LUBITSCH PRODUCTION ONE OF THE MOST ENJOYABLE FILMS OF THE SEASON. “A Royal Scandal” is entertainment with a _ continental flavor that will delight audiences everywhere. All signs point to a rousing success for the production, which has been handsomely mounted, crisply produced by Ernst Lubitsch, intelligently directed by Otto Preminger and acted spiritedly by a fine cast of players. Grand fun all the way through, the film has been done in typical Lubitsch manner with tongue in cheek and with a display of humor that has a strong appeal to the adult mind. Audiences will laugh often and loud. Preminger’s direction extracts all the amusement possible from the situations in the slick and imaginative screenplay of Edwin Justus Mayer founded on a Bruno Frank adaptation of a Lajos Biro-Melchior Lengyel farce. The love-mad Catherine the Great is the central. character. “A Royal Scandal’ has to do primarily with a hot romance she indulges in with a young soldier to whom she takes a sudden fancy. She makes the soldier, only to break him when he becomes involved ina revolt against her. However, his life is spared to permit him to resume his romance with the czarina’s ladyin-waiting to whom he is engaged. Tallulah Bankhead does a swell job as the czarina. William Eythe as the soldier, Anne Baxter as the girl, and Charles Coburn as the royal chancellor perform ca pitally. CAST: Tallulah Bankhead, . Charles Coburn, Anne Baxter, Willixm Eythe, Vincent Price, Mischa Auer, Sig Ruman, Viadimir Sokoloff, Mikhail Rasumny, Grady Sutton, Don Douglas, Egon Brecher. CREDITS: Producer, Ernst Lubitsch; Director, Otto Preminger; Screenplay, Edwin Justus Mayer; Adaptation, Bruno Frank; Based on play by Lajos Biro, Melchior, Lengyel; Cameraman, Arthur Miller; Art Directors, Lyle Wheeler, Mark-Lee Kirk; Set Decorators, Thomas Little Paul S. Fox; Film Editor, Dorothy Spencer; Special Effects, Fred Sersen; Sound, Alfred Bruzlin, Roger Heman; Musical Score, Alfred Newman. DIRECTION, Excellent. PHOTOGRAPHY, Excellent, Divorce with Kay Francis and Bruce Cabot Monogram 70 Mins. DOMESTIC DRAMA WITH EXCELLENT EXPLOITATION POSSIBILITIES; SHOULD DO WELL. Here is an excellent exploitation offering, and Kay Francis scores on two counts—first as co-star and secondly as co-producer. She shares the stellar honors: with Bruce Cabot and the producing chores with Jeffrey Bernerd. William Nigh contributed effective, sympathetic direction. Helen Mack is a standout in a featured role, while Jerome Cowan, Ruth Lee, Craig Reynolds, Jonathan Hale, Mary Gordon, and Larry Olsen and Johnny Calkins, the latter two as sons of Helen Mack and Cabot, do good work. Winning her fourth divorce and a fine property settlement, Kay Francis returns to her home tewn, Hillsboro. She falls in love with Cabot, her childhood sweetheart, and backs him with a real estate promotion. Cabot drifts away from his wife. Helen Mack, who divorces him. Cabot resents Kay’s domineering ways, returns to his children, and a new life with Helen is indicated. CAST: Kay Francis, Bruce Cabot, Helen Mack, Jerome Cowan, Craig Reynolds, Jean Fenwick, Larry Olsen, Johnny Calkins, Ruth Lee, Reid Kilpatrick, Leonard Mudie, Mary Gordon, Virginia Wave, Napoleon Simpson. CREDITS: Executive Producer, Trem Carr; Producers, Jeffrey Bernerd and Kay Francis; Director, William Nigh; Author, Sidney Sutherland; Screenplay, Harvey M. Gates and Sutherland; Cameraman, Harry Neumann; Production Manager, William Strohbach; Musical Director, Edward J. Kay; Supervising Editor, Richard Currier. DIRECTION, Effective. PHY, Good. PHOTOGRA ieee Theatre For Lindsay A theatre is planned for Lindsay, Ontario, it is said, with Snowdon Investors responsible. The town, with a population of more than 8,000, has two theatres now. Ganetakos Presides At Farewell Dinner George Ganetakos, head of United Amusements, recently presided over a farewell banquet at the Windsor Hotel, Montreal, for Major General L. R. LaF leche, former Minister of National War Services and now Canadian Ambassador to Greece. The banquet was given by the Greek community of Montreal and the Greek War Relief Fund.