The Exhibitor (1950)

EXHIBITOR September 13, 1950 with her failure causing her foregoing luxuries for a year. Day keeps the prom¬ ise only to have Goodwin announce no backing because Sakall is broke. De Wolfe assigns his interests to Nelson but Eve Arden, Day’s secretary, saves the show and the Day-MacRae romance by getting highly-solvent Goodwin to marry her to provide the backing for the show, which is a success. X-Ray; An extremely pleasant, highly entertaining musical, packed with popular songs and laugh-provoking comic dialogue and situations, this should make a dent in the boxoffices as a solid musical. Direc¬ tor David Butler has skillfully provided the proceedings with pace, and has kept the comedy crackling. Day, MacRae, and Nelson handle the songs and dances with polish and zest but it is Sakall and Arden at their best plus De Wolfe and Goodwin who supply the meaty humor. Songs heard include: “Tea For Two,” “I Want To Be Happy,” “Do, Do, Do,” “Oh Me! Oh My,” “No, No, Nanette,” “I Only Have Eye^ For You,” “Crazy Rhythm,” “I Know That You Know,” “Charleston,” “Put Them In A Box,” “The One Girl,” “Take A Little One Step,” “Bambalina,” “Where Has My Hubby Gone Blues,” and “Call Of The Sea.” Harry Clork wrote the screen play, suggested by “No, No, Nanette,” by Frank Mandel, Otto Harbach, Vincent Youmans, and Emil Nyitray. Tip On Bidding: Higher bracket. Ad Lines: “Songs And Dances Sparklingly Performed By Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, And Gene Nelson In The Tech¬ nicolor Musical, ‘Tea For Two’”; “Hear Some Of The Most Popular Songs Of The Last Two Decades In ‘Tea For Two’ “The Gay Musical Comedy About The Girl Who Had To Say ‘No’ For 24 Hours.” Three Secrets (006) Drama 98m. Estimate: Good woman’s picture is packed with selling angles. Cast: Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, Ruth Roman, Frank Love joy, Leif Erick¬ son, Ted de Corsia, Edmon Ryan, Larry Keating, Katherine Warren, Arthur Franz, Duncan Richardson. Produced by Milton Sperling; directed by Robert Wise. Story: When a private plane crashes in the Sierras, a five -year-old youngster is alive with his dead parents atop a steep mountain. As rescue parties are formed, it is brought out that the boy was an adopted child, and it becomes apparent later that the adoption home refuses to reveal the identity of the real mother. He could belong to one of three women. Eleanor Parker is now married to at¬ torney Leif Erickson. Parker, in love with a soldier, had a child by him, and the father never returned. Patricia Neal, a sophisticated and successful newspaper¬ woman, couldn’t make a go of things with her husband Frank Love joy because she wanted to cover assignments the world over, and he wanted her home. Two weeks after he divorces her, and remarries, she discovers she is to have a child, which she gives out for adoption. Finally, there is Ruth Roman, a notorious showgirl re¬ cently released from jail after serving a term for manslaughter for killing her racketeer-lover when he tried to brush her off, and she had his child. Parker tells Erickson about her pre-marital exper¬ ience, and he stands by her and her de¬ sire to adopt the child if he survives, and is hers. Meanwhile, Neal gets her pub¬ lisher to work on the real identity of the boy, and it turns out that he is Roman’s. By the time the rescue party picks the boy up, and reaches the lodge with him, Roman makes up her mind to let Parker have him, and not reveal that he is hers. X-Ray: Here is a heart-touching tale that will have its primary appeal for femme audiences. Interest and suspense are well maintained, the cast turns in a uniformly good job in the acting depart¬ ment, and the direction and production assignments are also in the better class. The story was written by Martin Rackin and Gina Kaus. Tip On Bidding: Good program price. Ad Lines: “Three Women Waited For The News That Would Bring Happiness To The Life Of One”; “What Were Their Secrets?” “Suspense Marks Itself On Three Women.” FOREIGN Difficult Years Satirical Drama 90m. (Lopert) (Italian-made) (English titles) Estimate: High rating import. Cast: Umberto Spadaro, Massimo Girotti, Ave Ninchi, Odette Bedogni, Ernesto Almirante, Di Stefano brothers, Milby Vitale, Enzo Biliotti, Carletto Sposito, Loris Gizzi, Aldo Silvani, Turi. Produced by Falco Laudati; directed by Luigi Zampa. Story: With the advent of Fascism and the rise of Mussolini in Italy, clerk Um¬ berto Spadaro joins the black shirts rather than lose his job with Enzo Biliotti. Domineering wife Ave Ninchi pressures him into it. Spadaro’s son, Massimo Girotti, an army officer, becomes engaged to Milby Vitale upon his release. Spadaro’s daughter, Odette Bedogni, becomes ' a Fascist school teacher romantically en¬ tangled with Biliotti’s son, Carletto Spo¬ sito. Eventually, Girotti marries Vitale, and they have a child. Biliotti becomes the high administrating official of the province during the long Fascist regime but when the Allied victory in the war is imminent he curries favor with Spadaro and his liberal-minded friends. At the war’s end, Girotti is shot in the back while rejoining his family. Under American occupation, Biliotti and the true Fascists become friendly with the authorities by posing as the liberals or anti-Fascists and profit thereby. Spadaro is fired by Biliotti as a Fascist, and then realizes the great price he and others like him paid for bowing to Fascism. X-Ray: An incisively probing ironic satire on the Italian people’s acceptance of Fascism, this import may do well at the art houses. Stark accuracy and rare realism are used in setting forth the people and their actions. Skillful direction by Zampa points up the common man’s dilemma. However, this is marred by a sketchy continuity because of the format, and the pace lags thereby. Exploitation angles are evident in John Garfield’s in¬ terspersed narration and the English adap¬ tation of this by playwright-author Arthur Miller. Performances are uni¬ formly fine. Sergio Amidei, Franco Evangelisti, Enrico i^lchignoni, and Vitaliano Brancato wrote the screen play from Brancato’s novel. An Lines: “The Story Of The Fall Of A Human Being And A People Under A System And TTie ‘Difficult Years’ They Suffered”; “An Unusual Italian Film”; “All His Life A Man Labors, And What Does He Have If He Survives The ‘Difficult Years’?” Distant Journey (Artkino) (English titles) (Czech-made) Estimate: Okeh import for houses. Drama 92m. the art Cast: Blanka Waleska, Otomar Krejca, Viktor Ocasek, Zdenka Baldova, Jiri Spirit, Eduard Kohout. Production by the Czech State Film studios; directed by Al¬ fred Radek. Story: Jewish doctor Blanka Waleska finds herself dismissed from the hospital in which she works when the German armies march into Prague. Her father, Viktor Ocasek, wishes to emigrate but she refuses to accompany him, and marries her gentile doctor colleague, Otomar Krejca. The family remains in Prague. One by one, members of the Jewish com¬ munity are transported to concentration camps, and at last the turn of Waleska’s parents comes. In the concentration camp, the parents undergo incredible tortures and humiliations. The last one to be trans¬ ported is Waleska, herself, but the camera loses her in the surging crowd as they clamber over the camp’s barricades, liber¬ ation in the final shot. X-Ray: Superior performances com¬ bined with intelligent use of the camera make “Distant Journey” good emotional cinema for the spots which can use it. The shocking nature of the subject, how¬ ever, makes this a strictly art house pro¬ duct. The screenplay by Mojmir Drvota, Erik Kolar, and Alfred Radock is based on the original story of Erik Kolar. Ad -Lines: “See This Starkly Realistic Portrayal Of The Nazi Terror”; “They Dared To Be In Love Though Hitler Said ‘Nein’ ”; “See Blanka Waleska In Her Best Role Yet.” The Paris Waltz Romantic Musical 92m. (Lux) (French-made) (English titles) Estimate; Entertaining import. Cast: Yvonne Printemps, Pierre Fresnay, Jacques Charon, Jacques Castelot, Claude Sainval, Pierre Dux, Lucien Nat, Robert Manuel, Andre Rbussin, Noelle Norman, Denise Provence, Raymonde Allain, Renee Senac. Produced by Jacques Riviere; directed by Marcel Achard. Story: Singer Yvonne Printemps comes to Paris seeking fame and fortune, and actor Jacques Charon is the first of a long string of males who fall prey to her charms. Composer Pierre Fresnay adds impetus to her career by starring her. Later, they have a love affair with much unhappiness resulting for Fresnay, He recovers by following her suggestion to write her story into his operettas. He then goes on to compose his best works, and is happy. X-Ray: This solidly entertaining im¬ port should register well at the art houses. It is saucy, charming, and gay, and, when the thready story breaks down, there are opulent costumes and sets, lilting ex¬ cerpts from 10 of Offenbach’s operettas sung with style by Printemps, and Fresnay’s consistent and top-grade perform¬ ance as the composer. The Jacques Offen¬ bach music exploitation is evident, and the title is an asset. Songs heard include excerpts from “La Belle Helene,” “La Vie Parisienne,” “Orpheus In The Un¬ derworld,” “La Perichole,” “La Chanson de Fortunio,” “La Fille du TambourMajor,” “Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein,” “La Belle Lurette,” “Madame L’Archiduc,” and “Madame Favart.” This was written by Marcel Achard. Ad Lines: “Pierre Fresnay And Yvonne Printemps In The Story Of Jacques Offenbach’s Great Love, ‘The Paris Waltz’ ”; “She Loved Men Too Much To Stay Faithful To One”; “A Gay Psirisienne Import.” The ServisecUon Is the Only Service of Its Kind Giving A Full Coverage, Listing and Reviews Of All Features and Shorts Released In the DomesMc Market. 2930 Servisection 8