Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 3, 1945)

THE PICK OF THE PICTURES | VOICE of the CANA by « * SS — = OIAN MOTION PICTURE INODOUSTAaY REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS Vol. 10, No. 40 REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK $2.00 Per Annum Thousand and One Nights with Cornel Wilde, Evelyn Keyes, Phil Silvers, jAdele Jergens Columbia ; 93 Mins. LAVISH ROMANTIC FANTASY, SPIKED GENEROUSLY WITH COMEDY, IS CAT-NIP FOR FANS TODAY. After years of comparative neglect, Fantasy appears to be riding high among Hollywood studios as a form of entertainment. Columbia’s entry, “A Thousand and One Nights,” is a richlymounted production, sparkling in Technicolor hues, and filled with eye appeal, romance, plus good comedy relief. Showmen who have been shouting from the housetops for footage devoid of war, weighty problems, and soul-stirring complexities, will find this version of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp a complete gratification of their desires, and good boxoffice to boot. The picture is a riot of femme pulchritude, costumes and sets. The capable and Adonis-like male lead is essayed by Cornel Wilde, ideally suited to his role as the vagabond who seeks and wins the hand of the Sultan's daughter, Adele Jergens, an eye— ful if ever there was one. Laughs are supplied generously by Phil Silvers, Wilde’s side-kick, and through crisp and comical dialogue and situations which never let the action sag into the overserious. The plot is just knotty enough to preserve excitement and refiect the awful intrigue which audiences naturaily associate with lands of turbans, veils and minarets. Fans know from the first title flashes that this is not anything of depth and consequence, and at all times the action is just good fun. Cast as the Genie of the lamp is delightful Evelyn Keyes, and adding allure to the proceedings is Dusty Anderson, maid of the Princess. At times, the film is high satire. It is beautifully photographed throughout, with special effects noteworthy. Fans won’t have to think at this film's showings. All they have to do is look to get their fill and money's worth. Alfred E. Green’s direction” is skilled. CAST: Cornel Wilde, Evelyn Keyes, Phil Silvers, Adele Jergens, Dusty Anderson, Dennis Hoey, Philip Van Zandt, Gus Schilling, Nestor Paiva, Rex Ingram, Richard Hale, John Abbott, Murray Leonard, Carole Mathews, Pat Parrish, Shell Winter. CREDITS: Screenplay, Wilfred HH. Pettitt, Richard English, Jack Henley; Original Story, Wilfred H. Pettitt; Director, Alfred E. Green. DIRECTION, Skilled. PHY, Very Fine. PHOTOGRA Bedside Manner with John Carrcll, Ruth Hussey, Charles Ruggles, Ann Rutherford UA-Stone 79 Mins. MILDLY ENTERTAINING COMEDYROMANCE WITH APPEAL LARGELY TO RUN-OF-TH-MINE FANS. As entertainment, ‘Bedside Manner” can be described as mild. Neither of its two chief ingredients, romance and comedy, have enough potency to make much more than an agreeable compound. The love story is deficient in both logic and emotional appeal, and squares only ineffectually with the run of situations designed to beget laughs. That there are some of the latter is the film’s saving grace, but these spring from virtual travesty and, at time, slapstick. Audiences that are satisfied with the shallower forms of amusement may find the attraction diverting. Based on the Satevepost yarn by Robert Carson, the screenplay recounts the finding of romance by a pretty femme doctor when she stops over in her old home town, en route to Chicago. This role is played by Ruth Hussey in an aura of glamour rather than authenticity. Her patient, John Carroll, a test pilot for the aircraft plant located in the warboom community, feigns a psychosis in order to win the Hussey heart. The suitor’s mock ailment is, additionally, a conspiracy between him and the girl’s uncle, Charlie Ruggles, who is also a doctor, and who wants his practitioning niece to stick around the town because of the shortage of physicians. Ann Rutherford is injected into the proceedings to furnish a love triangle. The players get about all there is from the script, and from the dialogue which is generally dull. Cast: John Carroll, Ruth Hussey, Charles Ruggles, Ann Rutherford, Claudir Drake, Renee Godfrey, Esther Dale, Grant Mitchell, Joel McGinnis, John James, Frank Jenks, Bert Roach, Vera Marsh, Sid Taylor, Earl Hodgins, Mary Currier, Constance Purdy, Mrs. Gardner Crane, Joe Devlin, Dimitrios Alexis, Don Brody. CREDITS: Producer-Director, Andrew Stone; Associate Producer, Henry S. Kesler; Author, Robert Carson. DIRECTION, Firm. PHOTOGRAPHY, The Last Hill with Nikolai Kriuchkov, Marina Pastukhova Artkino 8 Mins. SOVIET FILM OF HEROIC DEFENSE OF SEVASTOPOL BASED ON AUTHENTIC NOVEL; WELL .ACTED. A story of courage and love of country brought to life from a compilation of “front-line dispatches” contained in a novel written by Boris Voyetekhov, has been excitingly revealed in this latest Russian import. Despite several repetitious sequences, the film, shown with superimposed titles, moves at a rapid pace and offers a bit of friendly propaganda when one of the Russians, about to abandon Sevastopol, asks the commanding officer whether the report that the British had lost Singapore was true. Affirming this report, the officer replied that “the British, too, would one day return.” The fighting spirit and cameraderie, accented, via Alexander Zarkhi and Josef Heifitz’ direction, are commendably portrayed by a group cast as sailors from the destroyer “Grozny.” CAST: Nikolai Kriuchkov, Marina Pastukhova, Boris Andreyev, Anton Khorava, Nikolai Dorokhin, Feodor Ischenko, Niko lai Gorlov, Evgeni Preov, Yegor Tkachuk, Zurab Lezhava. CREDITS: Producer, Thilisi Film Studios, Georgian S.S.R.; Directors, Alexander Zharki, Josef Heifitz; Cameraman, Arcady Kalzaty; Scenario, Boris Voyetekhov, Alexander Zharki, Josef Heifitz; Music, A. Balanchivadze; English Titles, Charles Clement. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Okay. Winnipeg Theatre . Manager Robbed Two masked men, armed with revolvers, recently robbed Jack Proudlove, manager of the Gaiety Theatre, Winnipeg, Manitoba, of $1,073. Proudlove was sitting in his office when the bandits entered and instructed him to crawl] on his stomach to the cash vault and get the money for them. “When I handed them the money,” he said, “they made me crawl back to where I was and told me to shutup.” Tip-Top. He recor Hy} Vol. 10, No. 40 ~—Oct. 8, 1945 HYE BOSSIN, Managing Editor Address all communications—The Managing Editor, Canadian Film Weekly, 25 Dundas Square, Toronto, Canada. Published by Film Publications of Canada Ltd., 25 Dundas Square, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Phone ADelaide 4317. Price 5 cents each or $2.00 per year. Entered as Second Class Matter. Printed by Eveready Printers Limited, 78 Wellington Street West, Toronto, Ontario. Anchors | Aweigh with Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Kathryn Grayson, Jose Iturbi MGM 140 Mins. MUSICAL STUNNER IN TECHNICOLOR A FEAST OF ENTERTAINMENT; KELLY STEALS SHOW. “Anchors Aweigh” gives MGM another musical that hits the.top note. Once more caught in its most expansive mood, the studio has assembled a show that will stir audiences to an extreme pitch of enthusiasm. Everything that could possibly be crammed into a musical is in evidence in this production. With Producer Joe Pasternak at the helm, the offering, a Technicolor binge, sizes up as a gem of showmanship that adds further luster to his record as a maker of screen diversion of universal appeal. It is hard to think of an MGM musical excelling it. There is no reason why the film should not gain recognition as one of the year’s best of it type. The presence of Frank Sinatra and Jose Iturbi, representing opposite poles in musical taste, gives the attraction both mass and class drawing power. The crooner delivers himself of a couple of numbers by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne that are manna for the bobby-sockers, departing from his usual line once to take a fling at something high-class with a rendition of Brahms’ lullaby, ‘“Wiegenlied.” Iturbi is at his most brilliant in a production number in which he plays Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody” backed by a battery of pianos, Further touches of class are contributed by the singing of Kathryn Grayson, whose best number is TchaikovskyBrent’s “Waltz Serenade.” Potent drawing cards though they be, it isn’t Sinatra and Iturbi who contribute most to the film. That honor goes to Gene Kelly. The film, a dazzling visual treat directed uncommonly well by George Sidney from an Isobel Lennart script, reworks the yarn about a couple of gobs (Sinatra and Kelly) who find love in Hollywood. CAST: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly, Jose Iturbi, Dean Stockwell, Pamela Britton, “Rags” Ragland, Billy Gilbert, Henry O’Neill, Carlos Ramirez, James Flavin, Edgar Kennedy, Grady Sutton. CREDITS: Producer, Joc Pasternak; Director, George Sidney; Screenplay, Isobel Lennart; Suggested by story by Natalie Marcin. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Aces. i t } }