Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 19, 1945)

THE PICK OF THE PICTURES WY, JN VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INOUSTRY REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS Vol 10, No. 51 Love, Honor And Goodbye with Virginia Bruce, Edward Ashley, Victor McLaglen Republic 87 Mins. ROMANTIC FARCE IS LIVELY ENTERTAINMENT THAT WILL PROVE AMUSING TO MOST FANS. In “Love, Honor and Goodbye’”’ the services of a cast with several box office names has been employed in the interests of an artificial romantic farce that tries awfully hard to be sophisticated. While the fun is derived by hard effort, most of it will draw a favorablereaction from audiences, It is dubious that run-of-themill film goers will permit the story's lack of conviction to stand in the way of their enjoyment of the film, which has some fine production assets, among them settings that are artistically impressive. From the story of Art Arthur and Albert S. Rogell a trio of writers composed of Arthur Phillips, Lee Loeb and Dick Irving Hyland has derived a screenplay obviously composed with tongue in cheek. The main story line concerns the efforts of Virginia Bruce to find grounds for a divorce suit against her husband, Edward Ashley. Her suspicions about her husband are aroused by the presence in her home of a child which she takes to be her husband’s by another woman, when in reality the youngster is merely being cared for by Ashley for Victor McLaglen, the fosterfather. Husband and wife eventually settle their misunderstanding and all’s love and kisses at the finale. ‘ Rogell directed with a loose hand, with the result that the players for the most part overact more than is necessary. Ashley, a Britisher, should cut some ice with the ladies. CAST: Virginia Bruce, Edward \Ashley, Victor McLaglen, Nils Asther, Helen Broderick, Veda Ann Borg, Jacquetine Moore, Robert Greig, Victoria Horne, Ralph Dunn, Therese Lyon. CREDITS: Associate Producer, Harry Grey; Director, Albert S. Rogell; Screenplay, Arthur Phillips, Lee Loeb, Dick Irving Hyland; Based on story by Art Arthur, Albert S. Rogell; Cameraman, John Alton; Musical Director, Walter Scharf; Musical Score, Roy Webb; Film Editor, Richard L. Van Enger; Sound, Earl Crain, Sr.; Art Directors, Russel Kimball, Hilyard Brown; Set Decorators, John McCarthy, Marie Arthur. DIRECTION, Fair. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. Returns to Taube F/O Sol Borkowitz, formerly of Syd B. Taube’s staff, was awarded a DFC recently for service during the war. He will re: turn to Taube, REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK Blithe Spirit with Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings UA 94 Mins. SMART ENTERTAINMENT OUT OF THE ORDINARY IS OFFERED BY FINE BRITISH-MADE PICTURE. In bringing his stage success, “Blithe Spirit,” to the screen Noel Coward has done credit to the British film industry. That shining light of the English stage and films has functioned with distinction in his dual capacity of producer and scripter, contributing to the production all his extensive talents as a creator of smart fun and rapier wit. With the assistance of David Lean, a director who has realized all the possibilities of the material, and a cast that has captured the spirit of the original with little faltering, Coward has made of the offering delightful filmgoing—something that is cut to order fer the jaded taste. Those craving entertainment a little different from the usual will revel in this Two Cities film from the British studios. The picture spoofs spiritualism most amusingly. The story makes most of the situation that is created when a spiritualist materializes the spirit of an author’s first wife. A series of diverting misunderstandings result between the writer and his second wife, who has no sympathetic under standing of the new and strange experience in his life. When his second wife dies he has to contend with her spirit, too. The finale finds him joining the spirits of wives one and two when he is killed in an auto accident. The acting is a constant joy. Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings have the leading roles as the writer and wife number two. Kay Hammond makes the spirit of the first wife an entrancing and seductive figure. Good as all these are, it is Margaret Rutherford as the spiritualist who is the biggest hit of the film. She steals the show every time she’s in evidence. Technically the film is tops, with Technicolor photography that is a distinct accomplishment. CAST: Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hzmmond, Margaret Rutherford, Joyce Carey, Hugh ‘'Wakefield, Jacqueline Clarke, CREDITS: Producer, Noel Coward; Associate Producer, A. Havelock Allan; Director, David Lean; Screenplay, Noel Coward; Cameraman, Ronald Neame; Musical Score, Richard Addinsell; Sound, John Cooke; Art Director, C. P. Norman; Musical Director, Muir Mathieson; Film Editor, Jack Harris. DIRECTION, Fine. PHOTOGRAPHY, Superb. Sing Your Way Home with Jack Haley, Marcy McGuire, Anne Jeffreys RKO 72 Mins. POST-WAR MUSICAL COMEDY. CHOCKFUL OF LIFE CARRIES A YOUTHFUL APPEAL, In “Sing Your Way Home” Bert Granet has produced an assembly-line musical with plenty of life if not much else. A slapdash affair, aiming its sights at our younger filmgoers and adults who fina the cavortings of teenage performers entertaining, the production is filled with musical turns for which Herb Magidson and Allie Wrubel have done the songs, with material easy on the mental processes supplied by William Bowers, his inspiration coming from a story by Edmund Joseph and Bart Lytton. Jack Haley, Marcy McGuire, Anne Jeffreys, Glenn Vernon and any number of other performers, most of them on the adolescent side, are close put through their paces with lots of vigor by Director Anthony Mann. It must bs said for all concerned that they don’t lie down on the job at any time, Miss McGuire being particularly supercharged. Haley is called upon to play an American war correspondent who finds the only way he can obtain transportation home after V-E Day is by playing wet nurse to a company of young entertainers stranded in Europe. Before the picture has reached its end he has become romantically involved with Miss Jeffreys, a singer who moves in with the group when she can’t find accommodations elsewhere on the ship bearing him home. A mix-up over a mistake in a coded message on a hot story dispatched by Haley to his boss in New York gets Haley in trouble with the State Department, but all’s well at the finish. CAST: Jack Haley, Marcy McGuire, Glenn Vernon, Anne Jeffreys, Donna Lee, Patti Brill, Nancy Marlow, James Jordan, Jr., Emory Parnell, David Forrest, Ed Gargan, Olin Howlin. CREDITS: Executive Producer, Sid Rogell; Producer, Bert Granet; Director, Anthony Mann; Screenplay, William Bowers; Based on story by Edmund Joseph, Bart Lytton; Cameraman, Frank Redman; Art Directors, Albert S. D'Agostino, .Al Herman. DIRECTION, So-so. PHOTOGRAPHY, Okay. ‘Jolson’ Femme Lead Evelyn Keyes will play Ruby Keeler, top female role in “The Al Jolson Story,” now being produced in Technicolor at Columbia, $2.00 Per Annum Mildred Pierce with Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Scott Warner Bros. 111 Mins. VIVID DRAMATIC ENTERTAINMENT OFFERED BY HIGH-RATING PICTURE; CAST IMPRESSES. The screen version of the James M. Cain novel is heady dramatic fare served with all the trimmings by a force of artists and technicians of extreme competence. The film, which runs the whole gamut of emotions, is an attraction which the women especially will accept unreservedly. Under the understanding and feeling direction of Michael Curtiz the production delivers a potent blow straight at the heart. In its dramatic force the picture is aS uncompromising as could be, with no opportunity lost to give the story interest and importance as entertainment. This tale of a woman’s driving determination to make a go of things after she splits with her husband has been endowed with all the finest production assets imaginable. The woman whose story this primarily is makes a brilliant success in the restaurant business. Largely motivating her is a consuming desire to make available to her daughter all the good things of life. Two men come into the heroine’s life when sho and her husband part. One a charming but worthless playboy, she is married to in a desperate effort to hold her daughter by enabling the girl to live the glamorous life the playboy has taught her. The girl is finally driven to kill her mother’s new husband when he makes advances to her. At the finale the heroine and her first husband are reunited. The acting is a credit to the film. Joan Crawford as the heroine returns to the screen auspiciously after a long absence. Jack Carscn and Zachary Scott, the latter the playboy, are tops as the men in her life after she parts from her husband, who is played with intenseness by Bruce Bennett. Eve Arden is responsible for some good comedy moments. As the daughter, Ann Blyth tends to overplay the role. CAST: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Bruce Bennett, Ann Blyth, Jo Ann Marlowe, Manart Kippen, Leo Patrick, Moroni Olsen, George Tobias. CREDITS: Producer, Jerry Wald; Director, Michael Curtiz. DIRECTION, Fine. PHOTOGRAPHY, Fine.