Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 30, 1947)

_ THE PICK OF | THE PICTURES | Vol. 12, No. 18 a i ___t__ “ VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS eee $2.00 Per Annum ee a a tener ES The Macomber Affair with Gregory Peck, Joan Bennett and Robert Preston United Artists 89 Mins. ATTRACTIVE BOXOFFICE COMBI NATION OF ABSORBING DRAMA AND FINE PORTRAYALS. Here is an attractive boxoffice combination that should attract many shekels to the boxoffice. Gregory Peck, Joan Bennett and Robert Preston enact the starring roles, with Miss Bennett doing the best work of her career. Peck is excellent, while Preston, making his first appearance since his return from the Service, is convincing in a difficult role. Zoltan Korda has done a good job of directing, and co-producers Benedict Bogeaus and Casey Robinson have provided showmanly values. The story was written by Ernest Hemingway. The story is laid in British East Africa, with Peck a professional hunter, Preston a wealthy young American and his wife, Joan Bennett, the principal characters. ; Preston is desirous of hunting Af. lion and hires Peck as his guide. They sight a lion, and when it charges at Preston, Preston loses his nerve, and Peck had to dis-_ patch the animal. Joan witnesses her husband’s act of cowardice and loathes him for it. Preston regains some of his confidence and agrees to hunt buffalo the following day. Preston awakens during the night, and finding Joan missing from their tent, is convinced she is with Peck. The following day, as Preston and Peck start for the buffalo hunt, Preston forgives him for his romantic interest in Joan. Joan follows the hunters, and when she sees a buffalo charging Preston, fires the bullet killing her husband. Joan confesses to Peck that hatred for Preston, who had been cruel to her for years, had caused her to shoot him. In his report to the authorities, Peck describes the killing as an accident. CAST: Gregory Peck, Joan Bennett, Robert Preston, Reginald Denny. CREDITS: Producers, Benedict Bogcaus, Casey Robinson; Director, Zoltan Korda; Adapted from Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”; Screenplay, Casey Robinson, Seymour Bennett; Adaptation, Bennett and ny Arnold; Cameraman, Karl Struss. BIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. Wallis Buys Story _ Hal Wallis has bought screen rights to radio’s famed ‘Sorry, Wrong Number,” It’s a Wonderful Life with James Stewart, Donna Reed RKO 129 Mins. THIS IS ONE OF THE GREAT ONES: A STIRRING, PROFOUND, INTENSELY HUMAN STORY OF EXCEPTIONAL MERIT, HEADED FOR SMASH BIZ. The happy combination of Frank Capra and James Stewart is together again and they have in “It’s A Wonderful Life” made action and decision increasingly complicated and difficult for those august bodies who would name the best. The current season has been one studded with superb gallery pieces. Here is another. Frank Capra has created a grand picture of humanity. With his master hand he had brushed in a gallery of people, places and events that lifts the basic story to heights and depths of grandeur and despair. This is the story of a man who was a dreamer from boyhood, who looked at the distant horizons and tried to heed the calls of adventure and romance conjured up in his mind. It was his misfortune to be tied down to his fate in a small town. And we contemplate this from an astral plane provoked by conversation between heavenly hosts who deem it duty when mortals below beseech them to interfere in the tide of life and fortune of “George Bailey.” At the most crucial moment in his life, on Chrisama Eve, he wishes he never was born. He is heading for suicide stemming from financial ruination when his guardian angel steps in and grants the privilege of permitting him to see what the community would have been like if he had never been there. This is an acute, pointed and tremendously emotional chapter that called for the best the players had in them—and they delivered. We have before been presented with the spectacle of heavenly interference in affairs of mortals, but this story stands to become the high water mark of such endeavor. And it is with fine taste and simplicity that it unfolds. Returned from the war, James Stewart here resumes his rightful place, adds solidly to his stature and recaptures the esteem of the film-goer that The Great Interruption never caused him to lose. It’s a lengthy span of years that this tale covers. We see Stewart as a young boy saving his brother from drowning, working in H. B. Warner’s drugstore and growing to young manhood. He is about to leave for college when his father dies. He must take over the business since the board desires him to replace his father. It is the local Building & Loan Association, a godsend to the poor of the community who trust the company with savings that will eventually buy them decent housing. Barrymore owns the slums. He would prefer them in rent paying squalor. Stewart fits himself uncomplainingly into the pageant of life, suffers pangs of heartbreak but enjoys the reward of seeing his friends made happy. He marries Miss Reed. There is no honeymoon. On the wedding day there is a run on Barrymore’s bank which communicates itself to the Stewart firm. The honeymoon bankroll is diverted to pay off the demand. The firm is left with two dollars, but solvent, and in business. oa The newlyweds take an old house and Miss Reed makes it livable. Soon a flock of children duly arrive. The war comes and ends. Stewart’s brother is a hero, Congressional Medal. It’s Christmas Eve. Thomas Mitchell, Stewart’s uncle, inadvertently mislays a bank deposit. Barrymore finds it. The bank examiner on that day is to go over Stewart’s accounts. The shortage would ruin Stewart, send him to jail. He despairs. At home he becomes deranged. He goes out, gets drunk, contemplates suicide. 4 as Rie is juncture Henry Travers, a wingless angel, steps in t ata eait and bring him from the profoundest depths of despair te hig family and happiness once more. The many people Stewart had Haibed in the past come to his aid and there is a fine, truly Christmas es . : 2 te. irit, to ring in the closing no Bei se ‘ Doubtless, there will be finer films than “It’s A Wonderful Life in time to come. But for the present it stands to be one of the most human films of the day. i Barrymore, Henry Travers, Beulah CAST: James stewar’s poles ee Roane H. B. Warmer, Samuel S. Hinds, o Bondi, Ward Bond, Fran son. eee roducer and Director, Frank Capra; Screenplay by Frances Goodrich, ee pete Capra; Additional scenes by Jo Swerling; Cameramen, Joseph bert e 2 ae ikes Joseph Biroc; Art Director, Jack Okey N, Splendid PHOTOGRAPHY, Excellent. DIRECTION, Splendid, 13 Rue Madeleine with James Cagney, Annabella 20th-Fox 95 Mins. REALISTIC OSS STORY IN DOCUMENTARY TECHNIQUE PACKS STEADFAST WALLOP AND BUILDS TO TENSE CLIMAX; SHOULD CLICK SOLIDLY. Comparisons being fairly unavoidable in this instance, ‘13 Rue Madeleine’ is done in the manner of “The House on 92nd Street.” It is a documentary treatment with actors. But it pursues its story’s end relentlessly. Almost from the outset there is a thrill a minute. An inside. revelation of how the American espionage service was planned, trained, equipped and sent into the field — into enemy-held territory — attention is captured at the beginning and held at a high pitch of intensity until the very end. It concerns Group 77. Cagney trains the men and women in this country. One of the agents is a Nazi who inveigled his way into the setup. It is known that he’s in it and later Cagney, as part of his job, gets a fix on him. It is through the Nazi that the group will function, to counter any German military moves. On an initial mission Cagney loses Frank Latimore, his best man. Being aware of the fundamentals of the problem Cagney himself jumps in France, there being no time to train another agent, He is almost done in contacting the Maquis. A French collaborator-scientist is the person sought by Cagney for his knowledge of V-2 sites and launching devices. This person is taken and spirited to England but Cagney is captured by the. Gestapo, under Conte. Cagney is unable to take his poison tablet. Conte tortures him. Meanwhile chief operator Walter Abel orders the air force to bomb 13 Rue Madeleine in Le Havre. That is where Cagney is held and Abel knows torture will eventually make Cagney reveal his mission. The bombers come out and take out the building destroying Cagney and the local Gestapo unit in the ensuing havoc. CAST: James Cagney, Annabella, Richard Conte, Frank Latimore, Walter Abel, Melville Cooper, Sam Jaffe. CREDITS: Producer, Louis de Rochemont; Director, Henry Hathaway; Original screenplay by John Monks, Jr., and Sy Bartlett; Music, Alfred Newman; Cameraman, Norbert Brodine. DIRECTION, Excellent. RAPHY, Fine. Sterling Signed Robert Sterling has been signed by RKO to a long-term contract. PHOTOG.