Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 11, 1947)

THE PICK OF THE PICTURES | a —*—*~—“~z~—EEE Buck Privates Come Home with Bud Abbott, Lou Costello Empire-Universal 77 Mins. BANGUP, SLAP DASH STUFF SHOULD HAVE THE RAFTERS RINGING; A & O CLICK AGAIN. Like almost always, Abbott and Costello supply comedy from the very outset and continue to supply it until the very end. Their brand of humor is eminently the popular variety. At heart the boys are gag men. Also they have a human warmth in their motives that gives the scenario much more than mere framework for clowning. Here they smuggle a French orphan into the country and at length arrange for her to stay and be adopted. The discharged G.I. will find laughs, too. His laughs might be of a sardonic variety stemming from inner understanding of status quo, the restored “place” of the veterans. These facets are not gone into very deeply, the surface is skimmed. Plot jumps off aboard ship with the pair returning from the wars. Costello has smuggled Beverly Simmons in his barrack bag. She’s found. There’s a KP interlude that concludes on a piein-the-face note. Ashore the boys are discharged and return to their business, selling ties in Times Square. They meet up with the child again. She has eluded immigration officers. They mean to keep her but cannot make legal adoption moves until they are more secure. Joan Fulton and Tom Brown come on the scene. Brown is a midget racing car driver who has a hot job waiting for a race. Money is raised to pry it loose from debts. With the cops and authorities on his trail, Costello hops into the pint-sized car and there fellows a wild, exciting chase. A manufacturer whose car has been commandeered Sees the performance of the racing job and the future is set. The detailing has laughter galore and everyone in the cast is in fine comic fettle. OAST: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Tom Eve) Joan Fulton, Nat Pendleton, everly Simmons, Don Beddoe, Don Porter, Donald McBride, CREDITS; Producer, Robert Arthur; Director, Oharles T, Barton; Screenplay *y John Grant, Frederic I, Rinaldo; Rob ert Lees; Original story, Richard MacMulay, Bradford Ropes; Cameraman, Charles Van Enger, e DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, ‘Roughshod' Shooting RKO’s “Roughshod” has gone before the cameras. <1 eF7 ee : Pursued with Teresa Wright, Robert Mitchum Warners 101 Mins. ADULT TALE OF TWISTED PERSONALITIES, SOUNDLY DRAMATIC, RATES AS FIRST RATE ‘“‘CLASS’” WESTERN, ABLY PLAYED AND SKILLFULLY DIRECTED. Introducing the neurotic to the western scene, ‘“Pursued,” second number from U. S. Pictures, is a sound dramatic offering, holding attention from the outset and delivering a story that mounts to a fair peak of suspense. Niven Busch’s original screenplay takes the case of Mitchum and traces it back to an experience that occurred in his childhood when his family was wiped out in a feud. The telling is heavily detailed. Segments of Mitchum’s mental problem are treated. The scenario mounts to its climax and conclusion via the flashback method and Mitchum is routed from his marriage bed when the feuding forces decide to wipe out the last of. the “Rand” clan—Mitchum. Mitchum, as a child is taken by Miss Anderson and raised along with Miss Wright and John Rodney. When the Spanish War comes he goes off to return a hero. He goes back to the ranch and discerns a dislike for his presence there by Rodney. Later they brawl. Redney tries to kill Mitchum, is himself killed. Miss Wright and Miss Anderson think it was murder and Mitchum, acquitted, departs to take a partnership in a gambling joint-saloon with Alan Hale. They prosper. Meanwhile Dean Jagger, stalwart of the “Callum” clan lurks in the near distance and provokes situations. He sets a stupid lout to kill Mitchum. It works in reverse. Hale is around to save Mitchum’s life in an ambush. Mitchum has always loved Miss Wright and he again takes up wooing her. She acquiesces, but coolly. At length they marry. She plans to kill him on their wedding night. Hence the tale, which concludes with the pair being surrounded in the old “Rand” place. They give in. Mitchum is about to be hung. Miss Anderson saves him by killing Jagger. Meanwhile, there has been a thorough understanding. CAST: Teresa Wright, Robert Mitchum, Judith Anderson, Dean Jagger, Alan Hale, John Rodney, Harry Carey, Jr., Clifton Young. CREDITS: Producer, Milton Sperling; Director, Raoul Walsh; Screenplay and original story, Niven Busch; Cameraman, James Wong Howe. DIRECTION, Very Good, PHOTOGRAPHY, Excellent. REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK = = Dishonored Lady with Hedy Lamarr, Dennis O'Keefe, John Loder UA 85 Mins. GOOD DRAMATIO BET FOR LADIES’ DAY; WELL DONE AND HAS FINE PRODUCTION VALUES. The ladies will find “Dishonored Lady” quite the drama to their liking. This Hunt Stromberg production of the play by Edward Sheldon and Margaret Ayer Barnes is done well, sustains interest and offers enough lively dramatics to register not only with the distaff side but also with the general audience. The story has been embroidered with elements of psychiatry. It has a great deal of production merit. Dissecting modern life as it is lived in super sophisticated circles the story opens with Miss Lamarr attempting suicide. She is brought out of this state by Morris Carnovsky and soon enters into an affair with John Loder, a diamond merchant. The news of her synthetic romance with Loder comes back to her at her office via gossip. She quits her job as art editor of a snooty slickpaper magazine and after wandering about the city in a daze returns to Carnovsky. He outlines a course of curative action in which she assumes a new name, moves into Greenwich Village and pursues an art career. She meets Dennis O’Keefe and falls in love with him. Loder, maenwhile, has engaged William Lundigan to track Miss Lamarr. A brief return to her old life ’ sets off the sordid aspects of her old affair with Loder to new complications. O’Keefe plans to marry Miss Lamarr. When the time nears she becomes involved in the killing of Loder. The concluding sequences of the story involve the trial of Miss Lamarr. O’Keefe returns. At first he is revolted by the lurid story of her past but he is made to see the light by Carnovsky and it is largely through his effort that Miss Lamarr is acquitted. It ends on the right reconciliatory note. CAST: Hedy Lamarr, Dennis O'Keefe, John Loder, Willlam Lundigan, Natalle Schafer, Paul Cavanaugh, Morris Garnovsky, Douglas Dumbrille. CREDITS; A Hunt Stromberg Production; Producer, Jack Chertolk; Director, Robert Stevenson; Screenplay, Edmund H, North; Based on play by Edward ‘Sheldon, Margaret Ayer Barnes; Camera man Luclen Andriot, DIRECTION, Effective, PHY, Very Good. PHOTOGRA REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS $2.00 Per Annum Barbaree with Van June Allyson MGM 91 Mins. WARM AND HUMAN STORY INGRATIATINGLY TOLD IS VERY GOOD BET FOR THE GENERAL AUDIENCE. A great deal of warm, human feeling flows through “High Barbaree.” The story unfolds ingratiatingly, touched off neatly with humorous notes. Withal, it has movement, pace and generates much interest for the entire audience all the way. It manages to be, also, colorful and exciting. Van Johnson and Miss Allyson are very well cast here. There’s also Henry Hull, Thomas Mitchell, Geraldine Wall and Claude Jarman, Jr., to ring in telling performances. Most of the tale unfolds via flashback. Johnson is a Navy pilot shot down in a patrol bomber. This, after he had made his farewells to Miss Allyson, a Navy nurse, and patched up their romance. That romance was the real thing stemming from childhood. With the exception of “Joe” who lIater dies, Johnson becomes the lone survivor. He tells the story of his life to “Joe” as they drift to the position of “High Barbaree,”’ a fictitious island conjured up in the imagination of Thomas Mitchell, Johnson’s uncle, who told tall tales of the sea. Grown up, Johnson leaves medical school and takes up aviation. Miss Allyson and her family, 10 years previously, had moved to another state. There is a reunion of sorts but Johnson becomes affianced to Marilyn Maxwell. Day Miss Allyson is to leave there’s a tornado. Johnson is pressed into medical assistance. He finds himself and his true vocation. Attempting to take up with Miss Allyson where he left off he learns she has flown to the coast, embarked for Hawaii. Pearl Harbor follows. Mitchell shows up one day at Johnson’s base. Miss Allyson is with him but must sail. Johnson passes out from the ordeal of crash survival and is picked up by Mitchell’s ship. He comes out of it in Miss Allyson’s arms. . CAST: Van Johnson, June Allyson, Thomas Mitchell, Marilyn Maxwell, Cameron Mitchell, Claude Jarman, Jr. OREDITS: Producer, Everett Riskin; Director, Jack Conway; Screenplay by Anne Morrison Chapin, Whitfield Cook, Cyril Hume; Based on a novel by Charles Nordhoff and James N, Hall. DIRECTION, Very Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Fine, Johnson,