Canadian Film Weekly (Jul 2, 1947)

THE PICK OF THE PICTURES jj Vol. 12, No. 27 ES VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS $2.00 Per Annum Cynthia with Elizabeth Taylor, George Murphy MGM 98 Mins. INTELLIGENTLY PRODUCED, DIRECTED FAMILY DRAMA FOR GENERAL AUDIENCE ACCEPTANCE. Intelligent understanding of what constitutes entertainment for all the audience, particularly for the female portion is very much in evidence throughout the unreeling of this story. Miss Taylor is the chief target of the story’s focus. Her portray, al of a misfit adolescent schoolgirl who at length flowers into womanhood is highly effective. Veterans in the cast besides Murphy—Mary Astor, S. Z. Sakall, Gene Lockhart, Spring Byington —brace the plot considerably with solid roles, soundly performed. Storywise it is insight into the lives, loves, hopes, happiness, parenthood, idiosyncrasies and economic problems of small town folk. At first Murphy and Miss Astor are seen as college students falling in love, planning careers and study abroad. They marry instead. Parenthood cancels their fond hopes. Murphy becomes manager of a hardware store, Miss Astor mothers Miss Taylor. From that point on it is Miss Taylor with whom the script is mainly concerned. She is a frail child, under constant medical supervision. S. Z. Sakall gives her singing lessons to improve her “thoracic” muscles. She’s a good singer and he encourages her. While father Murphy relies on Gene Lockhart for guidance to everyone’s dismay and disgust, Miss Taylor is exposed to James Lydon, a returned vet student, cynosure of the school’s female roster. Miss Taylor falls ill and fails to appear in a .school-produced operetta. She would have become an outstanding social success if she performed. However, Lydon takes her to the prom and after that night conflicts that . are slowly boiling are resolved to an ultimate intelligent conclusion. CAST: Elizabeth Taylor, George Murphy, S. Z. Sakall, Mary Astor, Gene Lockhart, Spring Byington, James Lydon, Scotty Beckett. CREDITS: Producer, Edwin H. Knopf; Director, Robert Z. Leonard; Screenplay by Harold Buchman, Charlies Kaufman; Based on a play by Vina Delmar; Photography, Charles Schoenbaum, DIRECTION, Effective. PHY, Good, PHOTOGRA In Gene Autry Film Gloria Henry, Columbia starlet, was chosen by Gene Autry Productions as the cowboy star’s leading lady in the Cinecolor production “The Strawberry Roan,” his next picture for Columbia. The Brasher Doubloon with George Montgomery, Nancy Guild 20th-Fox 72 Mins. ANOTHER “PHILIP MARLOWE," ANOTHER TRADE MARK. ALL ADD UP TO TOP LINE SLEUTHING ENTERTAINMEN'T. THIS ONE IS DEFTLY HANDLED FOR GOOD RESULTS. With “The Brasher Doubloon,” an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s ‘The High Window,” the full-length Chandler literary jobs are about exhausted. That they were good material for translation into film fare is a fact of recent date. The ‘Marlowe’ role has given fine players opportunities for fine portrayals. There is no letdown by Montgomery herein for he delivers another smooth, amorous portrait to an already glittering gallery. Like most of the Chandler stories, this one strays around. Bodies are found. Blackmail is rampant. All sorts of ugly characters walk in and out of the doings. There is the pretty girl who at once becomes a “Marlowe” usual $25 per diem plus expenses, Montgomery is hired by Florence Bates to locate a missing coin from her late husband’s collection. It’s the Brasher Doubloon. There’s only two of them in existence. The other is in the Smithsonian Institute. From here, to there, and back again, Montgomery makes his rounds picking up a bit here, sifting this-and that and stumbling upon a few bodies in due course of research. Method and interview nets him an assortment of lethal hardware and thereby hangs a clue for murder. Miss Guild is in and around “the doings as a sort of mental case. Secretary to Miss Bates, she conveys to the scene a mood of. confused purpose. Certain aspects of the case hinge on her inability to remember clearly and Montgomery attempts to assist her to overcome abnormal revulsion to normal instincts. The dirty business comes to a head with the screening of newsreel footage which figures in the blackmail murder mayhem and finally the finger points. CAST: George Montgomery, Nancy Guild, Conrad Janis, Roy Roberts. Fritz Kortner, Florence Bates, Maryin Miller. CREDITS: Producer, Robert Bassler; Director, John Brahm; Screenpluy by Dorothy Hannah; Adaptation by Leonard Prausking from the novel by Raymond Chandler; Musical Direction, Alfred Newman; Cameraman, Lloyd Ahern. DIRECTION, Very Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, First Rate. MGM's ‘Red Mill’ ' Red Skelton and Keenan Wynn are teamed for MGM's “The Red Mill,” target. Engaged at the Winter W onderland with Lynne Roberts, Charles Drake Republic 71 Mins. LIGHT, ROMANTIC JOB HAS THRILLSPECTACLE, FINISH; EASY TO TAKE OFFERING. A romance on slats, ‘Winter Wonderland” supplies a routine romance, a brief sojourn at a swanky Winter resort hotel, many snowscapes, lightweight drama to bolster the lovers. But the best parts of the doings are captured by the camera when the concluding ski race is filmed. Photographically superb ski action shots are edited into the story to give the whole a fine, exciting concluding note. Lynne Roberts is the farmer’s daughter from a nearby valley when she meets Charles Drake while out skiing. He’s an instructor at Skyline Lodge. First thing you know it’s love and Miss Roberts is away from her chores every afternoon rehearsing in Drake’s ski ballet. Miss Roberts’ father, Roman Bohnen, owns 2 meadow the Lodge wants for a ski run. He won’t sell. Eric Blore figures in the doings as manager of the Lodge. Things run along, mostly through the snow, with Drake and Miss Roberts skiing all over the place and getting more and more romantic. Mary Eleanor Donahue is Miss Roberts’ younger sister who covers up for her. One day Miss Roberts falls into a chasm. Late that night she’s rescued, spends a night at the Lodge where she is mistaken for an heiress due to the similarity of her name with that of a local millionaire. She incurs quite a bill. To pay it she quickly cures a hangover next morning and wins the men-women ski race when Drake takes a spill. Clinch. This latter ski race is the real thing, gives the story a great deal of spectacle quality. CAST: Lynne Roberts, Charles Drake, Roman Bohren, Eric Blore, Mary Eleonor Donahue. Renee Godfrey, Harry ‘Tyler, Renle Riano, Diana Mumby, Alvin Hamner. CREDITS: Associate Producers, Walter Colmes, Henry Sokal; Director, Bernard Vorhaus; Sereenplay. Peter Goldbaum, David Chandler, Arthur Marx. Gertrude Purcell; Idea, Fred Schiller; Photography, John Alton, DIRECTION, Good, Cast In Musical Jean Porter will have the lead in Columbia’s “Three Blondes and a Red Head.” "Your Red Wagon’ Cathy O’Donnell and Farley Granger will have the leads in RKO's “Your Red Wagon.” Okay. PHOTOGRAPHY, Calcutta with Alan Ladd, William Bendix, Gall Russell Paramount 83 Mins. MELODRAMATIC WHODUNIT DEPENDS UPON LADD, BENDIX AND RUSSELL PLUS EXPLOITATION ANGLES FOUND IN COLORFUL SETTINGS AND BACKGROUNDS. It’s really up to Alan Ladd, William Bendix and Gail Russell, plus exploitation angles inherent in the story and settings, to carry this one. Lethargy stalks through “Calcutta” most of the way. There are moments when it perks up. One, for particular note, is when Alan Ladd slaps Gail Russell about in an effort to make her talk. After a brief going over she does, too. A few of the quaint customs of a certain Hindu sect are involved in the script. Such as strangling. Thuggee is its Far Eastern appelation. A quiet sort of murder. This happens to John Whitney at the outset, before he has completed performing in one reel. Later it almost happens to Ladd. Meanwhile, when he learns of pal Whitney’s death, Ladd, in cahoots with William Bendix, take leave of flying duties—they fly the Hump from India to China—to find Whitney’s murderer. From that point forward the script drags its pages through the city and Ladd is seen romancing with June Duprez, playing hard to get with Miss Russell, tracking down clues in curio shops, generally getting about the city. When Paul Singh is knocked off Ladd begins to see the light. Meanwhile Bendix is in jail under suspicion. The crux of the matter is large-scale smuggling of jewels into China and somebody slipped up. Ladd gets his man, loses his woman. But there’s always Miss Duprez available. And she loves him. This is no classic exercise for cinematic sleuths. The pace is slow, there is much unimportant talk. A few situations manage, however, to lend color and suspense to the doings. CAST: Alan Ladd. Gall Russell, WilHam Bendix, Juve Duprez, Lowell Gilmore, Edith King, Paul Singh, Gavin Muir, John Whitney, Benson Fong, CREDITS: Produced and Written for the screen by Seton I. Miller; Director, John Farrow; Cameraman, John F. Seitz, DIRECTION, Adequate, P iRAPHY, Good. “aan Gets British Medal Notification of the bestowal upon him of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Degree of Honorary Officer, was received from the United States War Department recently by Frank Capra, who served as a colonel in the war,