20th Century-Fox Dynamo (August 5, 1939)

r, NEW DYNAMO “MARSHAL” WOWS ’EM RIGH T ON BRO ADWAY! “A Shot in the Arm” Cheeringly Shouts Critic-Get Masterpiece Applause From Reviews as Box Office Gross Shows It Ranks With “Second Fiddle” in Drawing Power-SmashTriumph! Paralleling the first week’s daily gross on “Second Fiddle,” the final release of the K-6 season, “Frontier Marshal,” got off in dramatic fashion at its premiere showing at the Roxy theatre in New York. The recipient of a set of the finest metropolitan newspaper reviews any of this company’s K-6 releases enjoyed during the season, Wurtzel’s “Frontier Marshal” was being labeled by New York critics as “the most entertaining picture on Broadway” and “a relief from the pictures that have been released in the past five months.” Audience reaction corroborated the claims of the newspaper critics. The latter dug deep into their vocabulary for superlatives to laud “Frontier Marshal” and in spite of a hot week-end, the attendance ranked among the largest the Roxy has reported this season. j DISTRICT CHAMPIONS AT THE j I COMPACTION OF K-6 SEASON ! Following are the branches that finished the K-6 season as district leaders on accumulated 52-week’s delivery on total revenue, on short subjects and on Movietone News: drama that is sincere, touching and quite unexpected.” Bland Johanson of the New York Daily Mirror made this observation: “A big, elaborate Western, the Roxy’s. ‘Frontier Marshal’ dramatizes the days of Tomb- stone, Ariz. Like ‘Stage Coach’ and ‘Union Pacific’ and ‘Dodge City,’ it is a melodrama for ac- tion fans. The shootin’, fightin’ and roisterin’ it describes are lusty and in the true spirit of the Westerns. Randolph Scott, Cesar Romero, Binnie Barnes, Nancy Kelly and John Carra- dine play the principal roles and lift it out of the class of ordi- nary Westerns. It is exhilarat- ing entertainment.” MORE PRAISE No picture this company re- leased during the K-6 season re- ceived more enthusiastic review from New York Herald-Trib- une’s Howard Barnes, who, in part, wrote: “It was inevitable that the screen, in its consideration of American frontier history, would get around to Wyatt Earp. In ‘Frontier Marshal’ at the Roxy, he receives a bang- up screen biography. It is not nearly as florid as most of its companion pieces in the current cycle of super-Westerns, but that is one of its distinctions. Instead of superimposing the conventional romantic and melo- dramatic variations on a sound story, it permits a more or less factual historical account and intriguing characters to carry the film. The result is a lusty action picture continually enter- taining. It is well worth see- ing.” New York Times reported the following: “The story of Wyatt Earp, who brought law to Tombstone, Ariz., belongs to frontier folk- lore; to have touched it at all, and not to have made a great Western out of it, would have been a cinematic ci’ime even lower than horse-stealing. But in the case of ‘Frontier Mar- shal’ nobody can say that Sol M. Wurtzel has not been faith- ful to the great tradition. With a grand cast and an excellent job of directing by Allan Dwan, Mr. Earp’s screen biography be- comes entirely worthy of its fabulous subject. “In short, ‘Frontier Marshal’ is a cracking good Western and in the movies there’s nothing much better than that.” Two Offices That Made History At the right J i m Grady’s Cincinnati which fin- ished the K-6 season in first place on ac- cumnl ated 5 2 - week’s over - quota delivery on Movietone News. At the left, Phil Long- don’s Char- lotte which won second prize ($500) on 52-week delivery. Randolph Scott’s charac- terization of the title role was unanimously praised. As New Dynamo was go- ing to press, from other parts of the country came many exhibitor wires of con- gratulations, for it was apparent that in every situation where the theatre operator got behind “Frontier Marshal” that vehicle started with a bang. Newspaper reviews in other cities were every bit as enthusi- astic as those the picture earned in New York. Without any unusual or extra advance exploitation effort, “Frontier Marshal” slambanged its own way into the Roxy, for the opening day’s returns were on a par with the spectacularly advertised “Second Fiddle,” which had the added advantage of a $25,000 Coast - to - Coast broadcast, the popularity of Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power and cashed in on the reputation of Irving Berlin! That theatregoers were anx- iously awaiting an action story of the type revealed in “Frontier Marshal” was apparent from the turnout at the Roxy and the re- ception accorded it by the blase critics. THE REVIEWS The New York Evening Post’s Archer Winstein wrote: “‘Fron- tier Marshal’ is a remarkably consistent picture. It is a bang- bang thriller which certainly will take your mind off Danzig, Japan and Mr. Garner.” Eileen Creelman of the New York Sun reported: “The Roxy’s film has an hon- est title, a solid title. Its name is ‘Frontier Marshal’ and it tells, as it promises, of the old wild West. The story is a galloping one, abounding in saloon brawls, threatened duels, murder and sudden death. There is a stage- S ALBANY EARNS PRIZE MONEY ' Moe Grassgreen and his Albanians (with Northeastern j I District Manager Tom Bailey, fourth from left) are pictured S j below—and with plenty of reason for smiling. The gentleman jj j at the extreme left, however, does not share in that office’s i I short subjects prize money for since this photograph was S | taken he was transferred to the Cleveland exchange. coach robbery, a bad man with a heart of gold, a bespangled dance hall girl with ditto and a hero and a heroine. And the general effect is refreshing. The cast is certainly superior to most such action dramas.” AND GET THIS Wanda Hale of the New York Daily News shouted: “ ‘Frontier Marshal’ is like a shot in the arm to Broadway’s anemic box office. A .45-calibre Western, it is a saga of the set- tling of Tombstone, Ariz. Randy Scott is 20th Century - Fox’s choice for the intrepid law en- forcer and Indian Scout whose name is in the history of the making of more than one state. As far as I’m concerned, no bet- ter choice could have been made. More in the histrionic line is asked of young Nancy Kelly and Cesar Romero and both fulfill their obligations admirably. “You wonder at the matured artfulness of Miss Kelly and Romero proves that he is a val- uable man to have around the studio, for here he rises to the emergence of dramatic occasion. “Allan Dwan directed deftly and swiftly Stuart Lake’s story, which has more action in a min- ute than most hoss-operas have in their entire existence, and