Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 18, 1948)

THE PICK OF THE PICTURES | Vel. 13, No. 31 Dream Girl with Betty Hutton, Macdonald Carey, Patric Knowles Paramount 85 Mins. ADAPTATION FROM THE RICE PLAY NOT TOO FUNNY, THIS ONE WILL REQUIRE INTENSIVE SELLING AND PUSH; HUTTON NAME SHOULD LURE HEAVY FIRST-RUN TRADE, The Elmer Rice stage play is not too funny on film. There is an assortment of gags, true enough, and some of them are rather smart cracks at that, but for the most part the proceedings enacted herein by Betty Hutton, Macdonald Carey and the rest of the cast evolve as the tritest of trite stuff. The romantic problem of a young girl given to daydreaming and flights of imagination will no doubt immediately be compared to something else of recent date wherein a male did much the same thing plus sound effects. Once during “Dream Girl’ Miss Hutton is her familiar self. She does a “Sadie Thompson” takeoff which permits her to sing a number suitable to her vocal talents. Later, near the end she does an aria from “Madame Butterfly.” Having to do with dreams in which Macdonald Carey always shows up in one form and costume and another, “Dream Girl’ has her emotional problem. solved by marrying Carey after he impresses her with his mental strength, toughness. These factors scare the girl properly and she comes out of her Freudian hallucinations. Cast as the welloff, bookshopkeeping daughter of Walter Abel and Peggy Wood, Miss Hutton repeats her lines like a straphanger on the Brighton Express. To put it lightly this is incongruous, as Virginia Field plays her sister, who marries Patric Knowles. Knowles, abouit-to divorce Miss Field, or rather the other way ’round, tries to lure Miss Hutton to go off to Reno with him. But other, more romantic characters have tried this and failed. Only Carey suc. ceeds. He takes Miss Hutton up to Greenwich, Conn., and marries her, after which they call her parents in the middle of the night and after giving information after the fact, conclude the episode. CAST: Betty Hutton, Macdonald Carey, Virginia Field, Patric Knowles, . Walter Abel, Peggy Wood, Carolyn Butler, Lowell Gilmore. CREDITS: Producer, P. J. Wolfson; Director, Mitchell Leisen; From the play by Elmer Rice; Photography, Daniel L, Fapp. DIRECTION: Adequate,’ PHOTOGRA. PHY: Good, ; a ec VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK Easter Parade with Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Ann Miller MGM 103 Mins. HERE IS. ONE THAT MOVIE FANS, YOUNG AND OLD, WILL THOROUGHLY ENJOY. AN APPEALING STORY, ENJOYABLE MUSIC, MAGNIFICENT DANCING, TOGETHER WITH TECHNICOLOR APPEAL WILL GET ’EM IN AND SEND ’EM -AWAY HAPPY. The boxoffice will jingle-jangle with the shekels from the patronage that seeks this kind of amusement. Irving Berlin’s songs, some old, some new, are soothing to the ear and one cannot come out-of the theatre after seeing ‘Easter Parade” without humming more than one tune. The unsophisticated charm of Judy Garland is like a gem. And there is nothing like Fred Astaire’s dancing. He is syncopation itself. The cast, in its entirety, is fine. One outstanding number that the patrons will talk about is that called ‘““A Couple of Swells’’—featuring a pair of silkhatted evening-dudded tramps. Production numbers are superb. Judy Garland warbles easily through “Better Luck Next Times,” “Easter Parade,” “I Love a Piano,” “A Fella’ With an Umbrella,” “I Wanna’ Go Back to Michigan,” “When I Dance With You.” Fred Astaire does “Drum Crazy,” “When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam’,” “Stepping Out With My Baby.” Ann Miller has “Shaking the Blues Away,” “The Girl on a Magazine Cover.” Other numbers interpolated are, “I Love a> Piano,” “Snooky Ookums,” “Ragtime Violin,” and of course, “Easter Parade.” Arthur Freed rates laurels for the production. Charles Walters turned in a thorough-going job of direction, plus. Harry Stradling was on the beam with his camera work. Johnny Green caught the charm of the Berlin music. Plot takes place about 1912, the hey-day of vaudeville, when musical comedy producers were vieing with each other. Fred Astaire and Ann Miller, a dance team, are on the verge of a big time engagement, Astaire is very much in love with his dancing partner. Distraction hits him when he learns that Miss Miller has been offered a show of her own and what with the thought of the glamour of being a star and all that goes with it, she doesn’t hesitate in letting Astaire hold thé bag. Downhearted, broken, Astaire confides in his best friend, Peter Lawford, that with his tutelage he can make an offhand choice of any chorus girl and make her greater than his former partner. And to prove his point he goes to a cafe and chooses Judy Garland for his masterpiece. In his endeavor to model Miss Garland into his own creation, Astaire fairly ruins her unsophisticated, meek charm. In his Severity to make good his pledge he is unmerciful in his tutorship, also fails to notice Miss Garland’s affection which is growing with each moment. At a meeting arranged by Lawford who is smitten by the love bug in Judy’s direction, Astaire and Miss Miller meet again. Miss Miller tells him he is only making Miss Garland another copy of herself. Astaire still loves Miss Miller but finally learns that nothing can: come of it. Realization comes that he has failed to let Judy be her real, natural self. He discovers the real charm of his new partner. And So success goes to the team as they play the different spots. In the interim Miss Miller is a success. Astaire and Miss Garland become stars in a revue. They visit Miss Miller and it is then that Judy realizes he is stil] carrying the torch for his former partner. However, the whole thing clears up when he realizes he’s in love with Judy and in happiness they join the Easter Parade. CAST: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Ann Miller, Jules Mushin, Clinton Sundberg, Jeni LeGon. CREDITS: Producer, Arthur Freed; Director, Charles Walters; Original story, Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett; Screenplay, Sidney Sheldon, Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett; Lyrics-Music, Irving Berlin; Cameraman, Harry Stradling; Musical numbers directed by Robert Alton; Musical director, Johnny Green; Orchestrations, Conrad Salinger, Gan Cleve, Leo Arnaud; Vocal arrangements, Robert Tucker; Art, Cetric Gibbons, Jack Martin Smith; Editor, Albert Akst; Sound, Douglas Shearer; Sets, Edwin B. Willis, Arthur Krams, PHOTOGRAPHY, Fine. DIRECTION, Excellent. Oak Bay to Willis ‘Mask For Lucretia’ Paulette Goddard and Ray Mil P. W. Willis has acquired the theatre in Oak Bay, BC, from land will star in Paramount’s “A Mask for Lucretia,” Odeon Theatres of Canada. REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS $2.00 Per Annum The White Unicorn with Margaret Lockwood, Ian Hunter, Joan Greenwood Eagle-Lion 90 Mins. SOAP OPERA FARE, SHOULD DO THE TRICK WITH THE FEMININE PORTION OF THE AUDIENCE OUT TO GET THEIR TEARJERKINGEST MONEY’S WORTH. Shortly after it is established that Joan Greenwood is an erring mother of an illegitimate child and Margaret Lockwood is the mistress of a home for delinqguent girls, the pair begin telling each other of their travail and divergent experiences with men. Miss Greenwood is from the slums. Miss Lockwocd is the well-bred woman whose marriage to a stuffed shirt went on the. rocks. In the former’s case, she thought she would improve her condition by permitting herself to be seduced by a man who had no thought of marriage. After her child is born she tries to kill herself and her child. This does not come off. She is arrested, remanded to Miss Lockwood's home until trial. All the elements of the familiar opera du savon are present in this tear jerker which will quite easily furnish the feminine portion of the audience with what they require in the way of maudlinity. It is a lengthy series of flashbacks in which the Greenwood-Leckwood talents indulge in what just about shapes up to be a can you top this session of soul-baring. Married, estranged and divorced from Ian Hunter, Miss Lockwood remarries. Second mate is Dennis Price who dies in a Finnish skiing accident, leaving a distraught widow. Miss Lockwood forthwith takes up the post at the home and it is later through her efforts that when the erring Miss Greenwood comes to trial before Ian Hunter, the judge in the matter, the girl is freed and both Miss Lockwood and Hunter decide to patch up their past lives for the sake of their young daughter, “Norey,” played by Miss Lockwood's real life child, “Toots,” CAST: Lockwood Jo Greenwood, Ian Hunter, Dennis Price, Eileen Peel, Guy Middleton Lacey, Paul Dupuis, . ne CREDITS: A J. Arthur Rank Presentation; A John Cornfield Production; Producer, Harold Huth; Director, Bernard Knowles; Screenplay, Robert Westerby, A. R. Rawlinson, Moie Charles; From the novel, “The White Unicorn,” by Flora Sandstrom;; Phot ard H, Wyer. ny ae DIRECTION, Ad " PHY, ; equate, PHOTOGRA Margaret