The Exhibitor (Nov 1941-May 1942)

THE EXHIBITOR February 11, 1942 X-Ray: This is better than the average western. Exhibitors can cash in on the combination of the two principals. Cliff Edwards furnishes some comedy relief and sings with his uke, while Marcella Martin furnishes the heart throb. Ad Lines: “Two Favorites Of the Plains Draw Their Guns to Clean Up a Gang Of Bad Men”; “A Pair Of Tough Hombres Shoot It Out With the Outlaws”; “Two Favorite Heroes In a Blaze of Action, Guns, and Song.” MONOGRAM The Man From Headquarters Comedy Melodrama 63m. Estimate: Routine newspaper-crime en¬ trant. Cast: Frank Albertson, Joan Woodbury, Dick Elliott, Byron Folger, John Maxwell, Robert Kellard, Mel Ruick, Gwen Kenyon, Jack Mulhall. Christine McIntyre, Max Hoffman, Jr., Paul Bryar, Arthur O’Con¬ nell, Maynard Holmes, Charles Hall. Di¬ rected by Jean Yarbrough. Story: Frank Albertson, wise-guy but alert newspaper reporter, loses his job when he gets too fresh, and lands in St. Louis when some gangsters try to prevent him from testifying at the trial of gang¬ ster Max Hoffman, Jr. Albertson runs into Joan Woodbury, down on her luck, and before it is over he has not only made a name for himself once more as a re¬ porter but he has captured Hoffman, who has pulled off some robberies and shoot¬ ings. X-Ray: A routine independent entrant, for the lower half, this is in the familiar reportercops and robbers groove, and as such will please the neighborhood and action fans. Title may prove attractive for some theatres. Ad Lines: “Wise Guy or Smart Reporter . . . Watch Him Get the Lowdown On the No. 1 Public Enemy”; “He Picked Her Up In the Depot . . . But She Made Him Keep His Distance”; “Thrills . . . Action . . . Excitement In a Race Against Crime.” Thunder River Feud WeS5i^ Estimate: Okay Range Busters. Cast: Ray (Crash) Corrigan, John (Dusty) King, Max (Alibi) Terhune, Jan Wiley, Jack M. Holmes, Rick Anderson, Carleton Young, George Chesebro, Carl Mathews, Budd Buster, Ted Mapes, Steve Clark, Rex Felker. Directed by S. Roy Luby. Story: Range Busters are spending their vacation competing in rodeos when they learn of a feud going on between Jack M. Holmes, an old friend of Terhune, and the neighboring ranch. Corrigan and King decide to go with Terhune to help straighten things out when they see a newspaper photograph of Holmes’ daugh¬ ter, Jan Wiley. It doesn’t take them long to discover that the trouble has been hatched up by a half-a-dozen men on both ranches working both ends against the middle. They also learn that their romantic endeavors are for naught, since Wiley loves her neighbor’s son, Carleton Young. Before they ride away to new ad¬ ventures, the “Busters” have re-united the feuders and the lovers, and have thwarted the villains. X-Ray: This satisfactory western has the usual tidin’, shootin’, and fightin’, plus plenty of good comedy. Two songs are “What a Wonderful Day” and the familiar “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” Ad Lines: “Two-Fisted, Two-Gun Action As the Range Busters Buck a Ranchland Feud”; “Latest Adventures Of Your Fav¬ orite Range Busters”; “A Riot Of Western Fun and Action.” PRODUCERS RELEASING CORP. Raiders Of the West Western WITH MUSIC 63m. Estimate: Fair. Cast: Bill Boyd, Art Davis, Lee Powell, Virginia Carroll, Charles King, Glenn Strange, Rex Lease, Slim Whitaker, Milt Kibbee, Lynton Brent. Directed by Peter Stewart. Story: Boyd, Davis, and Powell are marshals working under cover to locate a missing Government engraver, held host¬ age by Charles King, and forced to turn out counterfeit money, which King passes at gambling casinos on dude ranch he operates. After various scrapes, Boyd and Davis are hired by unsuspecting King as entertainers. Powell, working indepen¬ dently of his two pals, arrives with some genuine money, which he convinces King is phony, and that he, too, is a counter¬ feiter. He offers to sell “money” to King at cut rates, and the latter, not wishing anyone cutting in on his racket, makes a deal. With this evidence that King is the counterfeiter they are looking for, the boys locate the plant, and finally rescue the missing engraver, whose daughter proves to be Virginia Carroll, hostess at the dude ranch, who was looking for her father. X-Ray: There is sufficient action in this one with several okay fist fights, usual shooting, and riding to satisfy the average western fans, and a flock of western songs as well. Title is a misnomer. Comedy re¬ lief is so-so. Songs are “Sunset Trail to Texas,” “Remember Me,” “Prairie Tumble¬ weeds,” “Tell Me Why My Daddy Don’t Come Home.” Ad Lines “Two-Fisted, Two-Gun Sing¬ ing Cowboys Round Up Counterfeiters In the Modern West”; “An Actionful, Musical Of the West Of Today”; “Plenty Of Action On a Dude Ranch With Some Two-Fisted Cowboys Who Couldn’t Be Called Dudes.” REPUBLIC Code Of the Outlaw western (164 ) 57m. Estimate: Satisfactory Mesquiteers. Cast: Bob Steele, Tom Tyler, Rufe Davis, Weldon Heyburn, Bennie Bartlett, Me¬ linda Leighton, Donald Curtis, John Ince, Ken Duncan, Phil Dunham, Max Walzman, Chuck Morrison, Carleton Young. Directed by John English. Story: Three Mesquiteers are deputy sheriffs charged with running down a gang of highway robbers headed by Weldon Heyburn. After a gun battle the only outlaw they can capture alive is young Bennie Bartlett, Weyburn’s son, but can’t get the lad to talk. Melinda Leighton, newspaper girl, accuses the boys falsely of using third-degree methods, so he’s sent to an orphanage. Through a ruse, they get custody of him, even though he’s reluct¬ ant to accompany them. Kindness on the part of the Mesquiteers later almost has young Bartlett ready to talk. Untimely arrival of Miss Leighton and the orphan¬ age principal forces the boy to run away, and outlaw Dofiald Curtis gets him to claim a $98,000 deposit of stolen money in a neighboring town, planning to kill him later. But the Mesquiteers get there in time to round up the remaining criminals. X-Ray: This is a satisfactory western. The Mesquiteers turn in their standard performance. There is a minimum of dia¬ log, and the action is continuous. Song is “Rootin’, Tootin’ Terror Of the West.” Ad Lines: “Your Favorite Western Ac¬ tion Heroes Bring Justice, Law, and Order to the Old West”; “The Mesquiteers Get Another Member, Young, But Willing to Teach Them New Tricks!”; “Blazing Guns. Pounding Hooves, the Three Mesquiteers Ride Again!” Pardon My Stripes Comedy (122) 64m. Estimate: Prison comedy okay for lower half. Cast: Bill Henry, Sheila Ryan, Edgar Kennedy, Harold Huber, Paul Hurst, Cliff Nazarro, Tom Kennedy, Edwin Stanley, George McKay, Dorothy Granger, Maxine Leslie. Directed by John H. Auer. Story: College halfback Bill Henry earns himself the title “dope of the_ year” when he mistakes a football helmet for the ball, and carries it across the goal line for a touchdown that loses the game. This pleases Paul Hurst, Chicago operator of a gambling syndicate who cleans up a small fortune on the game, and he offers law student Henry a job, which the boy accepts. His first duties are to pick up a large amount of cash winnings, and take same to Hurst. Gal reporter, Sheila Ryan, who covered the football game, and is trailing Henry for more story, now thinks he is in league with the gamblers, and that he purposely threw the game. She manages to accompany Henry on a plane to Chicago. The bag of money falls out of the plane window, and lands in the state penitentiary. Huber refuses to be¬ lieve Henry’s story, has him arrested for embezzlement, a charge he could not sub¬ stantiate in court; but Henry pleads guilty in order to get into the jail, and search for the missing bag of money. This leads to many complications, and winds up with a burlesque football game in the jail yard using the money satchel as a ball. X-Ray: This is for the lower half. Bill Henry, who resembles Charles Ray at times, is pretty light as a comedian. Most of the laughs come from capable perform¬ ances turned in by familiar comedians; Edgar Kennedy as the warden, double talking Cliff Nazarro, as a T man; Paul Hurst and Tom Kennedy, as slow witted gangsters; and George McKay as an old timer. Light on marquee strength, this one will adequately serve as the comedy half of a double bill. Ad Lines: “The Big House Goes Bug House”; “Meet the Dope Of the Year In a Stir-rific Comedy”; “The Wackiest Comedy Of the Year”; “You’ll Go Hilarious At These Comic Cons In the Can.” A Tragedy at Midnight (114) Comedy Melodrama 68m. Estimate: Okay dualler combines action with broad farce. Cast: John Howard, Margaret Lindsay, Roscoe Karns, Mona Barrie, Keye Luke, Hobart Kavanaugh, Paul Harvey, Lillian Bond, Miles Mander, William Newell, Wen¬ dell Niles, Archie Twitchell. Directed by Joseph Santley. Story: John Howard, radio detective, an¬ noys the police by continually solving crimes over the air before the cops get the answer. They get their chance to pin something on him when he wakes up one morning to find a strange murdered woman in his wife’s bed, the latter having Serviseetion 2 ' 946