The Exhibitor (Nov 1939-May 1940)

S I X -POINT FEATURE COLUMBIA Blondie Brings Up Baby (1013) Family Comedy Drama 66m. Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Daisy, Danny Mummert, Jonathan Hale, Robert Middlemass, Olin Howland, Fay Helm, Peggy Ann Garner, Roy Gordon, Grace Stafford, Helen Jerome Eddy, Irving Bacon. Directed by Frank B. Strayer. The Bumstead family reaches new heights in this picture, although the title would be better, reading “Baby Brings Up the Family.” The picture, the most hilarious of the series to date, is excellent, full of laughs from the head of the family, Dagwood (or Blondie) down — or, better yet, from Baby Dumpling up. Daisy also reaches new honors. Baby Dumpling is enrolled in school, because an enterprising salesman tells Blondie he has an I.Q. of 168 (30 points better than a genius). Following Baby to school, Daisy is caught by dog-catchers, but is rescued by a young crippled girl, the daughter of the city’s wealthiest man. Baby Dumpling plays hookey, looks for Daisy, Dagwood is fired, and looks for Baby Dumpling, and Blondie and Mr. Dithers look for Dagwood. Dagwood, after a good deal of trouble hurries to the wealthy Mason home, where police think he is the kidnapper of the crippled girl, who has gone with Baby Dumpling and Daisy to the Bumstead homestead. Enroute to jail the police and Dagwood stop at his home where the Bumstead family, J. C. Dithers, and Mr. Mason meet, and see the crippled girl walk for the first time. Mason buys a building, the cause of Dagwood’s being fired, Dithers rehires Bumstead, and everyone is happy. The picture can either stand as the top-half of a double feature, or as a single feature in neighborhood houses. Estimate: Top-half of dualler, or nabe single feature. Miracle on Main Street (1032) Family Melodrama 78m. Margot, Walter Abel, William Collier, Sr., Jane Darwell, Lyle Talbot, Wynne Gibson, Veda Ann Borg, Pat Flaherty, George Humbert, Gene Kelly, Susan Miller, Willy Best, Dorothy Devore, Ottola Mesmith. Directed by Steve Sekely. Another plodding “B,” this deserves no better than lower billing on a nabe double bill. Walter Abel and Margot have genuine acting ability, but here are stymied by a story which would confound the best of actors. It begins with married couple Margot and Lyle Talbot earning their livelihood with a traveling “cootch” dance and strip-tease act. Talbot gets into trouble with the police and deserts Margot. While hiding in church, Margot finds an abandoned baby and uses it as a means to escape the police guard around the church. She becomes attached to the in fant, decides to find respectable work in order that she may be able to keep and raise it. While looking for a job, she meets Walter Abel, whose wife has just left him. The similarity of their situations draws them together, and soon Abel proposes to Margot. At this point, Talbot returns and tries to force his wife to blackmail Abel. She double-crosses him and he informs on her to the child welfare authorities. They are about to take the baby away from her when Abel interposes, and saves the situation by marrying Margot after Talbot is killed in a hold-up. Estimate: Weak dualler. METRO Adult Remember? (11) Comedy 83m. Robert Taylor, Greer Garson, Lew Ayres, Billie Burke, Reginald Owen, George Barbier, Henry Travers, Richard Carle, Laura Hope Crews, Sara Haden, Sig Ruman, Halliwell Hobbes, Paul Hurst. Directed by Norman McLeod. Here is a sophisticated, fantastic development of the love triangle story with good names for the marquee, names far above the material. Three friends, Robert Tayloi', Lew Ayers and Miss Garson, the latter stolen from Ayers by his pal Taylor after their engagement has been announced, carry the weight of the story — and it weighs heavy on the patron in many sequences. Comes misunderstandings and the pressure of business separating Taylor from his wife followed by an interlocutory degree of divorce. Lew Ayres, unhappy over the unhappiness of his friends, administers a strange drug potion to his friends, and what do you think? It makes them forget everything since their first romantic embrace. The legally unmarried couple meet each other again, fall in love and start all over again completely ignorant of any repetition in the procedure that leads to a second ceremony. Offering has a few bright spots, some clever laugh getting dialogue and situations, with every player getting the most out of the allotted footage. It goes a long way for a laugh but manages to get plenty in the final reel. Audience reaction was fair. Estimate: Will have to be sold. MONOGRAM Danger Flight (3816) Family Melodrama 61m. John Trent, Marjorie Reynolds, Milburn Stone, Jason Robards, Tommie Baker, Dennis Moore, Julius Tannen, Edwin Parker, Joe Bernard, Harry Harvey, Jr., Walter Willis. Directed by Howard Bretherton. Out of many a dramatically insignificant episode have exploitation gags been made, but Monogram has completely re November 15, 1939 THE EXHIBITOR REVIEWS versed the idea, and made, in “Danger Flight,” a purely hypothetical bally stunt into a picture. Yet despite this angle, this fourth in the series based on Hal Forrest’s “Tailspin Tommy” cartoon strip is the best, well bearing out The Exhibitor’s original estimate (on “Mystery Plane”), “Pleasing starter, presaging a better series.” This time, Tailspin Tommy (John Trent) organizes the scouts of the air, with new-comer Tommie Baker becoming the star member. After Trent crashes in a storm and is found by Baker, the latter devises a smoke signal to be attached to model airplanes, to attract big-ship pilots’ attention in emergencies. Baker’s crook brother (Dennis Moore) tricks him into grounding Trent, en route to the mine with the payroll. However, Baker and Trent come through, with the wee plane again signalling the spot for the climactic action. Although “Danger Flight” cannot be termed better than routine action stuff for family spots, it is good entertainment throughout, and should please the transient observer as well as the chronic Tailspin Tommy fan. And the Scouts-of-the-Air idea could be worked into a valuable promotional stunt for Monogram’s 1939-1940 continuation of the series. Estimate: Nice action show for the family trade. Fighting Mad (3937) Family Action Drama 55m. Jimmy Newill, Sally Blaine, Warner Richmond, Benny Rubin, Walter Long, Ole Olson, Horace Murphy, Milburne Stone, Dave O’Brien, Ted Adams, Chief Thunder Cloud. Directed by Sam Newfield. Jimmy Newill’s voice is still the most important asset to the Renfrew series, with “Fighting Mad” apparently best suited for the Saturday matinees trade, despite the advent of Benny Rubin, who attempts to inject the comedy angle. Sally Blaine, fleeing as a material witness in a case, gets mixed up with some gangsters, seeking to bring their loot to No. 1 gangman (Milburne Stone) . They escape to Canada where our Jimmy, with his pal, straightens out the mess, recovers the money, and wins the gal. The production values are nothing to write home about, although there is the usual quota of singing, fighting, riding, etc. Newell sings “Trail’s End,” “Lady’s in Distress,” and one other song, all of which are pleasant to hear. Estimate: The kids should like it. Heroes in Blue Family Melodrama 58m. Dick Purcell, Charles Quigley, Bernadene Hayes, Edward Keane, Jidie Warren, Lillian Elliot, Frank Sheridan. Directed by William Watson. Strongly indicating that there is nothing new under the sun, here is that story about a policeman poppa (Edward Keane) who had two sons, one a copper (Dick 415