Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 19, 1945)

———— @ THE PICK OF THE PICTURES | REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS Vol. 10, No. 38 REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK $2.00 Per Annum Guest Wife with Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche Richard Foran UA-Skirball 90 Mins. SPIRITED FARCE COMEDY RATED AS_HIGHLY ENTERTAINING FILM; ACTING DESERVES NOTICE. Jack H. Skirball’s newest production effort is a comedy stalwart that will gain the warm approval of the film-going public. The picture, produced by Skirball most handsomely, is bright, faststepping farce with considerable polish, playing all the way to provide a session of sheerest fun. The production enjoys the services of a cast which, besides being strong in marquee value, throws itself wholeheartedly into the spirit of the yarn, creating a sense of joy that is readily communicated to the audience. To watch the cast having such a good time is a pleasant experience indeed. The playing goes a long way in establishing the feeling of informality that is the key to the offering’s success. Miss Colbert, Don Ameche, Richard Foran and their fellow players give unstintingly of themselves in putting over this farce about a roving journalist who maneuvers his best friend’s wife into posing as his bride before his boss to support a tall tale about his having taken a mate overseas. The complications that ensue when the gal takes advantage of the situation to let everyOne squirm for the sake of her own amusement will have the audience in a high state of hilarity. Don Ameche is the journalist; Foran, Miss Colbert’s husband. The Bruce Manning-John Klorer screenplay has been directed deftly by Sam Wood. CAST: Claudette Colbert, Don Amecnhe, Richard Foran, Charles Dingle, Grant Mitchell, Wilma Francis, Chester Clute, Irving Bacon, Hal K. Dawson, Edward Fielding. CREDITS: Producer, Jack H. Skirball; Production Manager, Arthur Siteman; Director, Sam Wood; Screenplay, Bruce Manning, John Klorer; Cameraman, Joseph Valentine; Art Director, Lionel Banks; Musical Director, Daniele Amfitheatrof; Set Decorator, George E. Sawley; Film Editor, William M. Morgan; Sound, William Lynch. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. Bloom Assistant To Bill Gehring Tom Connors, vice-president in charge of distribution with 20th Century-Fox, has announced the appointment of Jack Bloom as executive assistant to W. C. Gehring, Central and Canadian sales manager. Thrill of A Romance with Van Johnson, Esther Williams MGM 105 Mins. EXCELLENT MUSICAL ROMANCE, STRONG IN COMEDY AND PACKING ALL-AROUND APPEAL FOR FANS. Few musicals fashioned by resourceful Hollywood can equal this Joe Pasternak production in ability to entertain the public and satisfy the revenue thirst of showmen. It is a property packed with varied talent, timeliness and tunes,—the latter ranging from the stirringly popular to familiar semi-classics. The really heavy accent is on romance, with Van Johnson as the home-on-leave Pacific war ace wooing and finally winning the glamorous Esther Williams, whom her big-business husband, Carleton Young, carelessly leaves on the very day of their honeymoon. However, comedy is an ingredient virtually as _ strong with laughs coming with machine-gun-fire frequency between the heart-tugging sequences. The entire film is mounted in splendid Technicolor and played against handsome settings. Pasternak, long a master of fitting musical numbers logically into screen action, has made the most of Lauritz Melchior’s presence, giving him a large and sympathetic role as the foil for his superb vocalizing, thus making “Thrill of a Romance” a magnet to lure serious music lovers. Pop tune devotees are equally well rewarded by a battery of lilting numbers including the hit songs, ‘Please Don’t Say No” and “T Should Care.” Hurled in for very much better than good measure is Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra, along with the amazingly talented young performers, Jerry Scott and Helene Stanley. Much of the film’s excellence springs from the screenplay by Richard Connell and Gladys Lehman, and the unusually skillful direction by Richard Thorpe. “Thrill of a Romance” is manna for showmen and patrons. It’s Leo roaring in his best mood. CAST: Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Frances Gifford, Henry Travers, Spring Byington, Lauritz Melchior, Carleton G. Young, Ethel Griffies, Donald Curtis, Jerry Scott, Fernando Alvarado, Helene Stanley, Vince Barnett, Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra. CREDITS: Producer, Joe Pasternak; Director, Richard Thorpe; Original Screenplay, Richard Connell, Gladys Lehman. DIRECTION, Aces. PHOTOGRAPHY, Ditto, Don Juan Quilligan with William Bendix, Joan Blondell 20th-Fox ‘ 75 Mins. COMEDY WILL BE APPRECIATED BY THOSE WHO CRAVE SOMETHING DIFFERENT IN SCREEN FUN. While “Don Juan Quilligan” may not make full use of its opportunities,—it must be given credit for trying to present comedy entertainment that veers from the norm. Audiences fed up with the formula type of comedy diversion will find much to claim their interest in this William Le Baron production, which was directed competently by Frank Tuttle. The Arthur Kober-Frank Gabrielson screenplay, based on a Herbert Clyde Lewis story, has a good amount of delightful fun. However, it is not the sort of thing that the ordinary fan will take to enthusiastically. To be sure, the story is on the preposterous side, but that shouldn’t stop the discerning person from enjoying the film. William Bendix is cast as the mame character, a dumb but sentimental barge captain who gets hitched to two gals, Joan Blondell and Mary Treen, each of whom reminds him of something he cherished about his dead ma. The complications at times becomes somewhat confusing and the whole muddle is solved a bit too conveniently for our hero. The acting is good for the most part. CAST: William Bendix, Joan Blondell, Phil Silvers, Anne Revere, B. S. Pully, Mary Treen, John Russell, Veda Ann Borg, Thurston Hall, Cara Williams, Richard Gaines, Hobart Cavanaugh, Rene Carson, George Macready, Helen Freeman, Charles Cane, Anthony Caruso, Eddie Acuff, Joel Friedkin, Charles Marsh, Emmett Vogan, James Flavin, John Albright, Charles D. Brown, Lea Phelps, Tom Dugan, Carey Harrison, Genevieve Bell, Jimmy Conlin. CREDITS: Producer, William Le Baron; Director, Frank Tuttle; Screenplay, Arthur Kober, Frank Gabrielsin; Based cn story by Herbert Clyde Lewis; Cameraman, Norbert Brodine; Art Directors, Lyle Wheeler, Ben Hayne; Set Decorators, Thomas Little, Frank E. Hughes; Film Editor, Norman Colbert; Special Effects, Fred Sersen; Sound, Alfred Bruzlin, Roger Heman; Musical Score, Davis Raksin; Musical Director, Emil Newman. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. Visitor Jack Whitney, who was connected with First National in these parts years ago, was a visitor to the district recently. Dropped in on Ben Cronk and a few of the old-timers. Now of Buffalo, he was on his way north for a holiday. Strange Affair Of Uncle Harry with George Sanders, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ella Raines Universal 80 Mins. STAGE HIT IS CONVERTED INTO A SUPERIOR SCREEN MELODRAMA CAPITALLY PRODUCED. The screen version of the Thomas Job play, ‘Uncle Harry,” is a melodrama of quality that should prove nothing less than first-rate diversion for the great majority of film patrons.’ The Charles K. Feldman production has been arrestingly turned out and its plot has been unfolded in a manner that holds the interest fixed at all times. The picture offers additional evidence of Joan Harrison’s capabilities as a producer. Functioning under Executive Producer Milton H. Feld, she has stamped the film with a distinctiveness that is one of its richest assets. Disappointing only in the falseness of its ending, which employs the reverie trick for the sake of a happy ending, the Stephen Longstreet screenplay, drawn from an adaptation of the play by Keith Winter, is a neat and compact scripting job. The story tells of the efforts of a member of a New England family hit by the depression to break his sister’s hold on him so he may find happiness with a fashion expert from the New York office of the textile mills where he is employed as a fabric designer. The sister is defeated in her plot to smash the romance between the two when the brother severs the bonds that tie him to her. George Sanders is in his finest form as the man. Ella Raines handles the role of his love capably. Although a little overdrawn, the character of the viperish sister is capitally played by Geraldine Fitzgerald. With a few exceptions the work of the other players is of high caliber. CAST: George Sanders, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ella Raines, Sara Allgood, Moyna Maggill, Samuel S. Hinds, Harry von Zell, Ethel Griffies, Judy Clark, Craig Reynolds, Will Wright, Arthur Loft, Irene Tedrow, Coulter Irwin, Dawn Bender, Ruth Cherrington, Rodney Bell, CREDITS: Executive Producer, Milton H. Feld; Producer, Joan Harrison; Director, Robert Siodmak, Screenplay, Stephen Longstreet. Jap Surrender Short A Technicolor two-reeler, containing all the latest surrender material filmed in Japan, will be produced by Warner Brothers and titled “Sunset in the Pacific.”