The Exhibitor (Nov 1939-May 1940)

Servisection 6 THE EXHIBITOR Sport BOWLING SKILL. Paramount — Sportlight. 10m. Various types of bowling are shown in this well-down sport subject. Opening with a few shots of lawn bowling, the camera treks to California where a bevy of honeys are seen kegling with duckpins. Final shots are of regular tenpins with ABC champ Gene Gagliardi exhibiting some trick shots that had a projection room gathering ga-ga. It holds interest throughout. Ted Husing, as usual, capably handles the announcing chores. GOOD. (R9-7). L. S. M. Color Travel CUBA. Paramount — Color Cruise. 9m. This visit to Cuba doesn’t show much of the land other than a few buildings in and around Havana. The rest of the time is spent trying to prove that the Cubans like their fun. Proof is forwarded via about five minutes of rhumba dancing. The Cinecolor throughout is blurry and weak. BAD. (K-94) . L. S. M. NIGHT DESCENDS ON TREASURE ISLAND. Metro — FitzPatrick Travel talk. 9m. A camera study of San Francisco’s “Treasure Island” Fair on a pitch black evening, this is one FitzPatrick effort which pulls itself out of and above the formula groove. The varied hues and colors of the lamps playing upon the Fair’s structures provide beautiful targets for the cameras and an equally beautiful sight for the moviegoer. Also seen are some of the art masterpieces housed at the Fair. This is tops in travel reelage. EXCELLENT. (T-57) . L. S. M. Travel NAVAJO LAND. RKO-Radio— Reelism. 10m. A sepia-tone presentation of the Navajo Indian problem, this shows how the United States government is attempting to meet it. These Indians, with their natural love of horses, keep old, useless animals on their land, which has barely enough pasturage to feed the useful stock. The U. S. supervisor however shows them the wisdom of scientific animal husbandry. FAIR. (04607). D. O. LAST MINUTE FEATURE REVIEWS Five Little Peppers At Home (Columbia) Family Melodrama 69m. Edith Fellows, Dorothy Ann Seese, Clarence Kolb, Dorothy Peterson, Ronald Sinclair, Charles Peck, Tommy Bond, Bobby Larson, Rex Evans, Herbert Rawlinson, Laura Treadwell. Directed by Charles Barton. Another film recording the vicissitudes of the Pepper family, this mild programmer takes up the story where it ended in the previous picture, jogs the whole family down into poverty again, then back to wealth and good fortune. It is suitable fare for kids and women, but the men will probably squirm. Action involved is little. Edith Fellows owns half of a copper mine discovered by her late father. Clarence Kolb, affectionate “uncle” to the Pepper family, owns the other half. Financial difficulties and eventual bankruptcy overwhelm Kolb, and he persuades Fellows to let him sell the mine, which so far has produced no copper. She reluctantly agrees, feeling certain that there is a rich vein of copper in the mine. She and the rest of the kids decide to investigate the mine for themselves with the help of Raw_ linson, Kolb’s butler. They are trapped when the mine caves in, but one of the boys escapes and notifies the townspeople who effect the rescue of the party. Meantime, during their imprisonment in the mine, the butler found the copper vein, so everything ends hunky-dory. The little Seese kid is cute. Estimate: Dual fare for the kids, women. LAST MINUTE SHORT SUBJECTS THE HAPPY TOTS’ EXPEDITION. Columbia— Color Rhapsody. 6%m. Pretty good color work and an atmosphere of “cuteness” marks this better-than-average Color Rhapsody entry. The Happy Tots peer through a powerful telescope and see a city dump. Mistaking it for Mars, they set off on a rocket to explore. They have fun and trouble before hurriedly boarding the rocket for the return journey. GOOD. (1507). L. S. M. LIFE IN PARIS. Columbia — Tour. 11m. It appears as though every other travelogue takes Paris for its subject, but none as has Andre de la Varre in this rambling through Parisian streets and among Parisians themselves. Excellent camera work marks this grandly produced short and Len Sterling spoken commentary is in keeping with the standard of excellence which runs throughout. EXCELLENT. (1554). L. S. M. SIEGE. RKO-Radio — Reelism. 9 2/3m. Excellent pictures taken during the German “Blitzkreig” in Poland, these are accompanied by the comments of the man who photographed them. Shown in all their pathetic horror are the peasants and city dwellers of the stricken country, women who were machine-gunned, lying dead in the potato fields where they had been trying to gather a few morsels of food for their families, and shots of shellsmashed Warsaw. EXCELLENT. (04608). D. O. VACATION DIARY. RKO-Radio. 9m. Two office stenographers take a winter vacation in Bermuda. The camera follows them from New York to the tropic isle, shows their adventures there until the time comes for them to go back to dictations and reports. GOOD. (04606) . D. O. 468