The Exhibitor (Jun-Oct 1939)

IN THIS ISSUE: 6-POINT REVIEWS, THE SHORTS PARADE, PRODUCTION NUMBER ANALYSIS and the ALPHABETICAL GUIDE SIX-POINT REVIEWS COLUMBIA Blondie Takes a rFAMlu Vacation (9010) 68m. Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Daisy, Danny Mummert, Donald Meek, Donald MacBride, Thomas W. Ross, Elizabeth Dunne, Robert Wilcox, Harlan Briggs, Irving Bacon. Directed by Frank R. Strayer. Refreshing as a summer breeze, this latest offering in the Blondie series should please its current following and draw new customers to the box office. The picture is largely on the hokum side, loaded with laughs, and shows better production values, with entire cast getting into proper stride and Baby Dumpling turning on increased magnetic personality. Blondie, Dagwood, Baby Dumpling, and Daisy set out for a vacation with the usual false starts and their troubles begin on the train when they irritate Donald MacBride. In claiming hotel reservations, they discover that MacBride is the manager and they are forced to register at an¬ other place about to close for lack of business. They take over the place and try to put it on a paying basis running into all kinds of trouble and getting out of it again in a humorous vein. The hotel is finally burned to the ground after being invaded by skunks and Baby Dumpling saves Dagwood from arson charges with the whole gang glad to go home and get some rest. Audience reaction was fair. Estimate: Above-average Blondie. A Woman Is The Judge (9025) Family Melodrama 62m. Frieda Inescort, Otto Kruger, Rochelle Hud¬ son, Mayo Methot, Gordon Oliver, Arthur Loft, Walter Fenner, John Dilson, Bentley Hewlett, Beryl Mercer. Directed by Nick Grinde. A rather good B, this should sell in the neigh¬ borhood houses, especially to the women. Frieda Inescourt is good as the woman judge who faces the problem of sending her own daughter (Rochelle Hudson) to the chair for murder. Otto Kruger plays the hard-pounding district attor¬ ney who is in love with Inescourt. Kruger hammers hard at the accused girl, and since he does not know of the close relation between the judge and the accused, he cannot understand why Inescourt defends the girl. Inescourt resigns from the bench in order to defend her daughter, and in a stirring plea to the jury, obtains her acquit¬ tal. Inescourt and Kruger then agree to marry. Estimate: Nice femme stuff for the nabes, duals. METRO Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (944) Family Comedy 8JM. Lewis Stone, Cecilia Parker, Mickey Rooney, Fay Holden, Ann Rutherford, Helen Gilbert, John T. Murray, Sara Haden, Terry Kilburn, George Breakston, Charles Peck, Sidney Miller, Addison Richards, Olaf Hytten, Erville Alderson, Robert Kent. Directed by W. S. Van Dyke, II. This is by far the best offering in the popular Hardy series. It should not only please the present Hardy followers, but also make new ones. After a tiff with Ann Rutherford, Mickey Rooney falls desperately in love with his high school dramatic teacher, losing his appetite, and generally reflecting the anguish of the adolescent lover, with Judge Hardy coming to the rescue through his kindly philosophy. Meanwhile, the judge has his troubles with a business deal, which threatens to deplete his savings, and the whole family has its troubles as usual. Comes the happy conclu¬ sion, through logical reasoning, and all ends well. Mickey Rooney does his best work in the series in this offering, displaying less mugging and a more legitimate understanding of comedy and pathos. Lewis Stone gives his usual sterling per¬ formance and the direction by W. S. Van Dyke of this, his first Hardy Family assignment is noteworthy. Audience reaction was very good. Estimate: Top-bracket Hardy; best of the series. MONOGRAM Cooper to help its selling. It follows closely along the lines of the earlier Ronald Colman starrer, with the tale of the brothers Geste, how they joined the Foreign Legion after the mysterious theft of a family jewel, and how two of them eventually came to their deaths, leaving one to go back with a note indicating that the jewel had really been sold years before by the mistress of the house and seen by Beau Geste when a young boy. The picture is devoid of the romantic angle, except for a slight romance be¬ tween John Geste (Ray Milland) and Susan Hay¬ ward, ward of the family. In the Foreign Legion, Brian Donlevy is the harsh, brutal officer, who is eventually killed by one of the brothers. Made on the sweeping scale seen in all such stories, it moves rapidly and has some splendid action scenes, as well as fights between Arabs and soldiers, as its talking points. All of the roles are played well, with Donlevy having the most meaty part. There are many exploitation angles, and the popularity of the silent version should make audiences want to see this story again with sound. To the younger generation, it will come as something new. Paramount has done a work¬ manlike job, and the picture has all the angles to make it a good grosser. Estimate: High-rating production, can be sold for the money. Mr. Wong In Fam1ly Chinatown Mystery Melodrama (3807) 68M Boris Karloff, Marjorie Reynolds, Grant Withers, William Royle, Peter George Lynn, Huntley Gordon, James Flavin, Lotus Long, Bessie Loo, Lee Tong Foo, Little Angelo, Richard Loo, Guy Usher. Directed by William Nigh. This is the third in the Wong series of oriental mysteries and, from a standpoint of production, story, acting, and direction, easily the best. Story starts with the murder of a Chinese prin¬ cess right in the home of Mr. Wong, who event¬ ually discovers that the princess had come to America for the purpose of buying airplanes for her brother’s army. The death of the maid follows that of the princess, and a Chinese dwarf, and an attempted murder of Wong him¬ self, with the Chinese detective finally cornering the real culprits and turning them over to the law. Picture moves at a fast pace with plenty of thrills and suspense for the mystery addict. Estimate: Best of the Wongs. PARAMOUNT This Man Is News Family _ „ „ _ . Mystery-Drama 3 865) 72m. Barry K. Barnes, Valerie Hobson, Alistair Sim, Edward Lexy, John Warwick, Patricia Medina. Directed by David MacDonald. This English production has a slow start, but it gathers momentum throughout the running, winding up with a fast climax. A member of a gang, brought to trial with an accomplice, turns state’s evidence against his friend, which results in his freedom, his companion’s execution. A hunch that the informer will be killed by the others in the gang is followed by reporter Barry K. Barnes, who is fired before anything happens. While drunk, Barnes calls his chief and tells ths spurious yarn of how he saw man killed. Told of this by an inside man, the gang kills the informer and plants evidence in Barnes’ room to involve him in the murder. Wife Valerie Hob¬ son, however, outsmarts the mob. Then attempts are made on his life, but they are futile, with ultimately the gang’s being captured and the leader brought to justice. Estimate: Pleasing English picture, with a slow start, a smash finish. (English-made) ( Family Beau Geste Melodrama 114m. Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, J. Carroll Naish, Donald O'Connor, Janies Stevenson, Harry Woods, fames Burke, Albert Dekker, James Stephenson, G. P. Huntley, Martin Spellman, Harold Huber, Ann Gillis, Harvey Stevens, Duke Green, Heather Thatcher. Directed by William Wellman. RKO-RADIO The Spellbinder (931) Family Melodrama 70m. Lee Tracy, Barbara Read, Patric Knowles, Allan Lane, Morgan Conway, Linda Hayes, John Laird, Pierre Wat kin, Ed Gargan, Leona Roberts, Roy Gordon, Chester Clnte. Directed by Jack Hively. Paramount’s sound re-make of the sensation of A minor, yet fairly interesting, courtroom 1926 is a finished job, with the name of Gary story, this should more than please the Lee July 26, 1939 353