Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 12, 1946)

| THE PICK OF Vol. 11, No. 24 REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK Smooth as Silk with Kent Taylor, Virginia Grey Universal 65 Mins. MELODRAMA WITH INGENIOUS PLOT IS ABLY PRODUCED AND WELL-ACTED FILM CAPABLE OF ENTERTAINING MOST FANS. Melodrama fanciers will take readily to “Smooth as _ Silk,” which has an interestingly unfolded plot devised with some ingenuity by Dane Lussier and Kerry Shaw from material provided by an original by Florence Ryerson and Colin Clements. The film relates a tightly knit story with more than ordinary suspense and tenseness, and has. been directed with a firm hand by Charles Barton. It is entertainment that should have no trouble at all in commanding the unwavering attention of the majority of picture-goers. The film, which doesn’t go too far overboard in its melodramatics, tells its story skillfully and absorbingly, with some good touches to help pique the interest. It has Kent Taylor, a smart criminal lawyer, resorting to murder to get even with John Litel, a theatrical producer, for stealing his sweetheart, Virginia Grey, an actress who has no compunction about changing boy friends if it helps her career. By clever maneuvering Taylor attempts to confuse the police, conceiving the idea of having Miss Grey charged with the crime and then getting her free through his legal wizardry. He then hits on the idea of having the crime hooked on disgruntled admirer of Miss Grey (Danny Morton) who is in the habit of drinking to the point of rendering his mind blank. However, the villain doesn’t prove clever enough for Milburn Stone, the district attorney working on the case, making one false move that lands him in handcuffs. The film has been worthily produced by Jack Bernhard under the supervision of Executive Producer Howard Welch. Taylor, Miss Grey, Stone, Litel, Morton and Jane Adams (playing Miss Grey’s unsophisticated sister) play their roles capably. CAST: Kent Taylor, Virginia Grey, Jane Adams, Milburn Stone, John Litel, Danny Morton, Charles Trowbridge, Theresa Harris, Harry Cheshire, Bert Moorehouse, Ralph Brooks. CREDITS: Executive Producer, Howard Welch; Associate Producer, Jack Bernhard; Director, Charles Barton; Screenplay, Dane Lussier, Kerry Shaw; Based on story by Florence Ryerson, Colin Clements; Cameraman, Wood Bredell. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. Shock with Vincent Price, Lynn Bari 20th-Fox 70 Mins. VIVID MELODRAMA, EXCELLENTLY PRODUCED AND ACTED, IS RATED GOOD FILM OF ITS TYPE. Aubrey Schenck, former 20thFox home-office executive, makes his bow as a producer with a melodrama that has a lot to recommend it to patrons who go in for this type of entertainment. Its terseness, intensity and simplicity are some of the film’s characteristics that contribute to its power to command the audience’s interest with little wavering from first to last. Suspense, largely due to the sharp, straightforward direction of Alfred Werker, is an important element in making the production a strong dual-bill booking. From a story by Albert deMond, Eugene Ling has worked up an interesting screen-play about a psychiatrist who, to save himself from an arrest for murder, keeps a patient in a state of shock when ‘he discovers that her condition is due to her having witnessed his killing of his wife during an argument over another woman. Most of the action takes place in the sanitarium run by the psychiatrist. The plot engineered by the villain at the prodding of his inamorata, a nurse, to bring about the girl’s death before suspicion is aroused is touched with a horror that adds weight to the film as melodrama. The doctor is exposed in the nick of time, the film ending with the patient restored to her husband, an army officer. The production is a good one, with the photography of Glen MacWilliams and Joe MacDonald contributing much to the effectiveness of the film. Vincent Price as the psychiatrist and Lynn Bari as the gal for whom he commits murder handle the leading roles capably. The supporting cast is competent. CAST: Vincent Price, Lynn Bari, Frank Latimore, Anabel Shaw, Michael Dunne, Reed Hadley, Renee Carson, Charles Trowbridge, John Davidson, Selmer Jackson, Pierre Watkin, Mary Young, Cecil Weston, Charles Tannen. PRODUCER: Aubrey Schenck; Director, Alfred Werker; Screenplay, Eugene Ling; Based on story by Albert deMond; Additional Dialogue, Martin Berkeley; Cameramen, Glen MacWilliams, Joe Mac d Donald. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. Bad Bascomb with Wallace Beery, Margaret O’Brien M-G-M 110 Mins. COMBINATION OF ROUSING ACTION AND THE SENTIMENTAL GIVES ACTION: PICTURE BROAD AUDIENCE .APPEAL. Good strategy has gone into the making of “Bad Bascomb.” Not content to depend solely upon the box office appeal of the star of the film, Wallace Beery, the production makes a strong bid for the patronage of western fans by casting the actor in a rousing action story set in the days of America’s expansion toward the Pacific. Despite its excessive length and proneness to talkativeness, the picture kicks up quite a fuss, with all the devices dear to the heart of the lover of outdoor films drawn upon to create excitement and vivid action. Even those old familiars, the battle with the Indians and the rescuebound U. S. Cavalry, are dragged in to add thrills to the footage. The sentimental is stressed in the story both in the writing and in the direction. The yarn, which has much humor, gives Beery a golden opportunity to play to the hilt the type of role with which he is most closely identified. We see him as a bad hombre who seeks to evade capture by Federal agents by joining a Mormon wagon train headed for Utah. He is paired off with Marjorie Main, a widow who takes very much of a fancy to him. Most of the film’s human interest revolves around the friendship between Miss Main’s granddaughter, Margaret O’Brien, and the bandit. The child steals the rough guy’s heart to the point where he changes his mind about stealing the caravan’s gold and defends it against a former confederate, J. Carrol Naish. CAST: Wallace Beery, Margaret O’Brien, Marjorie Main, J. Carrol Naish, Frances Rafferty, Marshall Thompson, Russell Simpson, Warner Anderson, Donald Curtis, Connie Gilchrist, Sara Haden, Renie Riano, Jane Green, Henry O'Neil, Frank Darien. CREDITS: Producer, Orville O. Dull; Director, S. Sylvan Simon; Screenplay, William Lipman, Grant Garrett. Phtag ECTION, Goed, PHOTOGRAPHY, ne. Vol. 11, No. 24 June 12, 1946 Sees stro h eG. Teagan 2 here. ty 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, Ontari Canada. Phone ADelaide 4317. Price 5 cents each or $2.00 per ear ; Entered as Second Class Matter. Virginian with Joel McCrea, Brian Donlevy, Tufts, Barbara Britton Paramount 90 Mins. NEW EDITION OF OWEN WISTER CLASSIC SHAPES UP AS FIRST-RATE SUPER-ACTION WESTERN ENTERTAINMENT IN COLOR. “The Virginian” has been brought to the screen again without losing any of its punch. This time Paramount has dressed the western classic in Technicolor to make of it a super-action film that discloses the Owen Wister story has lost none of its boxoffice appeal. Since, unlike the common western, the production allows romance to play an important role in the proceedings, the exhibitor can look forward to as much patronage from the women as from the males. The film’s cast strength guarantees the offering’s drawing power. The story is a simple one—one that in general outline has become extremely familiar by now. It is a credit to those who had a hand in the making of the picture that the yarn is still able to excite an unusual amount of interest. Perhaps the terseness and intensity with which the plot has been unfolded is in great measure responsible for this. This and the vivid and thrilling quality brought out by the direction of Stuart Gilmore. This is the tale of a deadly feud between a Wyoming rancher and the head of a gang of rustlers in 1885. The villain carries on his cattle raids with impunity until the Virginian takes drastic measures to establish law and order. The picture takes on added human interest when our hero has no choice but to hang his dearest friend as one of the gang. Parties to the romance are the Virginian and a schoolmarm out of the East. The cast delivers creditably, with Joel McCrea playing the name role; Brian Donlevy, his enemy; Sonny Tufts, the pal who turns rustler; Barbara Britton, the schoolmistress. CAST: Joel McCr Sonny Tufts, Secbare utnoe "Wan ter, Henry O'Neil, William Frawley, Bill Edwards, Willard Robertson, Tom Tully, hear pu Garralaga, Paul ms Brides, al —— James Burke, CREDITS: Producer, Paul Jones; Direetor, Stuart Gilmore; Screenplay, Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett; Adaptation, Howard Estabrook; Based on novel by Owen Wister and play by Wister and Kirk La Shelle; C tie ametaman, Harry Hal. Fine. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY,