The Exhibitor (Jun-Oct 1939)

Servisection 3 THE EXHIBITOR fans will find what they’re after by view¬ ing this strong dual bracer. Arlen is given wide berth by pilots at Theodor von Eltz’s Alaskan airport, because he has been ac¬ cused of deserting a failing passenger plane. Devine sticks by him until the real guilty party, William Lundigan, con¬ fesses to his crime. Before that comes about, there’s the business of a couple of wrecks; a stolen gold shipment; and a bit of a love yarn, involving Arlen and Anne Nagel. Estimate: Okay action yarn for duals. Family Rio Melodrama 75m. Basil Rathbone. Victor McLaglen, Sigrid Gurie, Robert Cummings, Leo Carrillo, Billy Gilbert, Maurice Moscovich, Irving Bacon, Samuel S. Hinds, Irving Pichel, Ferike Boros. Directed by John Brahm. In this one, Basil Rathbone and Victor McLaglen are lost in Rio, figuratively and literally. Story deals with Basil Rathbone, a world financier, whose operations land him in a penal colony in the tropics. Then come the penal colony brutalities and the perilous escape to Rio, where his wife (Sigrid Gurie) is singing in a cafe to be near her convict husband. Meanwhile, she has fallen in love with Robert Cummings, an American engineer of doubtful char¬ acter. In his escape from prison to Rio, Rathbone is conveniently killed, together with his body guard (Victor McLaglen) ; the engineer regenerates himself and ro¬ mance ripens anew. Estimate: Below par; will have to be sold. The Witness Vanishes (4027) Family Mystery Drama 66m. Edmund Lowe, Wendy Barrie, Bruce Lester, Walter Kingsford, Forrester Har¬ vey. J. M. Kerrigan, Barlowe Borland, Vernon Steele, Robert Noble. Directed by Irving Starr. True to the principle set by previous Crime Club entries, “The Witness Van¬ ishes” gets the most possible meat out of what, on the face, seems like just another whodunit affair. It’s a healthy support for duallers and might be featured in the smaller nabe situations. Edmund Lowe heads four plotters, who railroaded news¬ paper publisher Barlowe Borland to the nut house, in order to gain control of his sheet. Borland escapes from the insane asylum and publicly makes known his in¬ tent of killing all four. Three of them are murdered on schedule, but the cops and reporter Forrester Harvey step in just in time to prove that Lowe was the killer. Estimate: Okay mystery dualler. WARNEHS-FN Family Melodrama 83m. Joel McCrea, Brenda Marshall, Jeffrey Lynn, George Bancroft, Stanley Ridges, James Stephenson, Howard Hickman, Martin Kosleck, Nana Bryant, Robert O. Davis, Lucien Prival, Hans von Twardowsky, Addison Richards, Edwin Stanley, Granville Bates, Grace Hayle, Egon Brecher, Emmet Vogan. Directed by Lloyd Bacon. Warners barge through with this adven¬ turous yarn, telling of our country’s dan¬ ger from within and without while war rages abroad. By sheer dint of its audac¬ iousness, not pulling punches, by calling names, plus a story as hot as the head¬ lines, with an impressive list of players, “Espionage Agent” should deal out win¬ ning cards to the exhibitors. American foreign diplomat Joel McCrea is sus¬ pended from the service because he mar¬ ried Brenda Marshall, who was forced to serve a spy ring. McCrea and his wife unofficially set out to Europe on a coun¬ ter-espionage assignment to track down the head of the spy ring. They get the dope on James Stephenson and his cohorts, then return home as private citizens. Estimate: High rating, exploitable programer. Family Kid Nightingale Comedy 58m. John Payne, Jane Wyman, Walter Cat¬ lett. Ed Brophy, Charles D. Brown, Max Hoffman, John Ridgely, Harry Burns, Wil¬ liam Haade, Helen Troy, Winifred Harris, Lee Phelps, Frankie Van. Directed by George Amy. An okay prize-ring story, with several new twists, this has Walter Catlett, man¬ aging small time fighters, run across John Payne, singing waiter in a night spot, and is impressed with his physical prowess when he knocks out a couple of hecklers. He tries to sell Payne to Ed Brophy, a big fight promoter, who wants no part of the deal. He makes a deal with Brophy ’s rival by selling him the idea that Payne can go into a singing stance while his opponents are taking the count thereby becoming a magnet for the female patrons. The idea works, but they have to hire a phoney operatic coach to satisfy Payne’s penchant for vocal aspirations. He eventually gets a fight with the champ and socks him to the canvas for a good laugh climax. Estimate: Okay for dual support. Pride of the Blue Grass (418) Family Melodrama 64m. Edith Fellows, James McCallion, Gran¬ ville Bates, DeWolf Hopper, Raymond Brown, Lawrence Grant, Frankie Burke, Fred Tozere, Aldrich Bowker, Arthur Loft, Edgar Edwards, John Butler, Sam McDan¬ iels, Bernice Pilot, Walter Fenner. Directed by William McGann. Putting his hand to turning out the story of a blind horse’s winning of the Grand National, producer Bryan Foy has, the while filling another date on Warners’ re¬ lease schedule, given forth with 64 minutes of all ’round entertainment. While it will set no records, “Pride of the Blue Grass” should please the great majority of the family trade, and especially that segment for which horses and a horse story have a particular appeal. With the exception of the obvious novelty of the climactic moti¬ vation (said to be based on fact) , the story is rather trite — about James McCallion, who saves a colt from a fire, trains it, but loses the Kentucky Derby when the horse falters and he seems to have thrown the race. Gantry the Great, however, had gone blind. On the basis that “blood will tell,” McCallion trains Gantry as a jumper, and finally wins the Grand National. Estimate: Good entertainment for . the family trade. FOREIGN Betrayal (World) Adult Drama 80m. Annie Vernay, Suzy Prim, Pierre-Richard Willrn, Roger Karl, Abel Jacquin, Ber¬ geron, Janine Merrey, Paulais, Berlioz. Directed by Fedor Ozep. Produced on a more lavish scale than any previous Gallic motion picture, “Be¬ trayal” relates the tragic romance of Eliz¬ abeth Tarakanova (beauteous newcomer Annie Vernay and Count Orloff (PierreRichard Willrn). A cross between “Mayerling” and “Mary of Scotland,” this starts off fairly slowly and takes on dramatic impetus as it rolls smoothly along to a crescendo finish. Art and foreign houses can reap a box-office harvest and generalrun theatres can make friends by exhibit¬ ing the superb French import. Orloff is dispatched to Venice by Catherine the Great (Suzy Prim) to arrest Vernay, pre¬ tender to the Russian throne. The two fall deeply in love and would have lived happily, but for the betrayal of Orloff’s officers, who realize their mistake too late. Both die on the scaffold, but not until the movie-goers have seen thrilling cinema scenes. Estimate: French box-office success. A Brivele Der Mamen Family (A Letter to Your Mother) D|Q4m (Sphinx Films) Lucy Gehrman, Alexander Stein, Max Bozyk, Chane Levin, Gertrude Bulman, Iccok Grudberg, Irving Bruner, Edmund Jayenda, Misha Gehrman, Sincha Fostel, Samuel Landua. Directed by Joseph Green. Although there is a decided lack of prominent American Jewish players in the cast, the various exploitable angles of this Polish-made film should more than make up for that shortcoming in drawing Yid¬ dish audiences into the house. Lucy Gehr¬ man holds down the lead in this dra¬ matically heavy picture, the last Yiddish production to be made in Poland before the outbreak of war. Gehrman is a sorely tried mother, who loses one son in the First World War, another to the greener fields of America; and a daughter to the world of sin. Estimate: Yiddish cinematic triumph. Light Ahead Family Drama (Di Khatshe) (Carmel) 103m. Izidore Casher, Helen Beverly, David Oparoshu, Yudel Dubinsky, Rosetta Bialis, Tillie Rabinowitz, Misha Fishman, Leon Seidenberg, Anna Guskin, Jenny Casher, Wolf Mercur. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. From Edgar G. Ulmer, the same director who gave Yiddish theatre-goers “Green Fields” and “The Singing Blacksmith,” comes this excellent product that should set new records where Jewish films can be played. Unlike typical Yiddish cinema which follows the usual melodramatic formula of squeezing out as many tears as possible, “Light Ahead” tells a beauti¬ ful love story between its many philo¬ sophical utterings. Wandering book mer¬ chant and philosopher Izidore Casher helps blind orphan Helen Beverly and crippled orphan David Oparoshu consum¬ mate their romance by marriage. He then aids them in their escape from local sup¬ erstitions to a metropolitan center. Estimate: Superb Yiddish photoplay In Soviet Family _ • -r* j Documentary Russia today ioom. (Amkino) (No credits.) A compilation of newsreels and Soviet shorts, this offering aimed at left wing audiences is propaganda stuff showing the results obtained by and the work done by the collective system in Russia today. As far as entertainment is concerned, there is no claim made. However, it is sup¬ posedly an educational subject which might today find added significance. Estimate: Propaganda for radical audi¬ ences. 393