The Exhibitor (Nov 1941-May 1942)

March 25, 1942 THE EXHIBITOR with Cortez. Howard is shot by Cortez’s jealous wife as she is exposed. X-Ray: This isn’t a very convincing mystery yarn, and it will fit best into the lower half. Neither the players nor the story are convincing, and the identity of the missing witness becomes apparent to all except the players early in the film. Ad Lines: “The Thrill Mystery of the Season”; “Who Was the Mysterious Kil¬ ler .. . Man or Woman?”; “Her Touch Was That of Death . . . But She Was Real”; “Suspense . . . Drama . . . Thrills In the Hit Show of the Season.” UNITED ARTISTS A Gentleman Melodrama After Dark 74m (Edward Small) Estimate: Fair meller will need a lot of selling. Cast: Brian Donlevy, Miriam Hopkins, Preston Foster, Harold Huber, Phillip Reed, Gloria Holden, Douglas Dumbrille, Sharon Douglas, Bill Henry. Directed by Edwin L. Marin. Story: Brian Donlevy, suave gem thief, decides to quit after his daughter is born. His wife, Miriam Hopkins, and assistant, Phillip Reed, hate giving up a profitable business, so, as he is committing his last robbery, they betray him to a boyhood pal, Preston Foster, police officer. Scent¬ ing trouble, Donlevy outwits the police, and, knowing he has been betrayed, kills Reed, and scares the wife away. To pro¬ tect the future of his new born daughter, he surrenders to Foster, making a deal whereby Foster will use the reward money for his capture to bring up the daughter. After Donlevy’s imprisonment, Foster adopts the child, and raises her as his own. Years later, with Foster a judge, as the grown child, Sharon Douglas is about to marry wealthy young Bill Henry, the wife returns, and blackmails Foster, with the aid of shyster lawyer, Douglas Dumbrille. Hearing of it from an old pal, Harold Huber, Donlevy breaks jail to try to stop the blackmail. In the ensuing action, Dumbrille is shot, and Donlevy hounds the wife around the city, finally catching her in a hotel where she falls from a window to her death. The daughter is married, and Donlevy gives himself up to the police. X-Ray: Single theme of a man sacrific¬ ing all to save the happiness of his child isn’t strong enough to sustain interest all the way. Situations, solutions, and acting thoughout the picture are pretty much routine. With the exception of Donlevy, who is better than average, the cast does not do much to bolster up a trite plot. As Donlevy, as the crook, has a penchant for heliotrope boutonnieres, exhibitors can use this angle in selling. Ad Lines: “When Crook Doublecrosses Crook . . . One Rat Is Sure To Be Ex¬ terminated”; “He Baffled the Police . . . But He Couldn’t Fool Himself’; “A Killer With the Ladies ... A Gentleman After Dark.” Story: Kent Taylor, New York newsman, witnesses a racetrack murder. He tells his editor, Wade Boteler, and the police that he believes the murderer to be Douglas Fowley, gambling racketeer associated with John Litel, an overlord, supposedly mur¬ dered two years before. Delegated to track down Fowley, Taylor checks first with Claire Dodd, Litel’s former sweetheart. She puts Taylor on the trail which leads him to a Mississippi gambling spot. Taylor meets Litel, mysterious figure in the small town, disguised by a plastic surgery job. Kent sees Frances Langford, winsome sing¬ er, and it’s love at first sight. Taylor also discovers Fowley, but the latter is mys¬ teriously murdered. Circumstances of the killing iead Taylor to suspect Litel is the supposedly dead gangster, who faked his own murder. Taylor traps Litel by a dar¬ ing ruse, and heads back to New York with Langford. X-Ray: This swiftly paced meller, with comedy relief twists, should hold up well for lower half billing. Langford sings, and looks well. Some numbers are: “I’m Hit¬ ting the Hot Spots,” “There Goes My Ro¬ mance,” “Got Love”. Shemp Howard, hen¬ pecked taxi driver, supplies good comic re¬ lief, and gets many laughs. This is sub¬ stantial fare for the lower half. Ad Lines: “Mystery . . . Action . . . Music;” “He’s Dynamite — With Loaded Gun Or Loaded Dice!” “Who Is This Man? Hidden By A Criminal’s Plastic Surgery; Hunted By Every Honest Man And Wo¬ man; Hated By Even The Mob He Rules.” Tough As They Come Melodr6a0™A Estimate: Typical meller for the action, nabe trade. Cast: Billy Halop, Paul Kelly, Helen Parrish, Ann Gillis, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsley, Gabriel Dell, Virginia Brissac, John Gallaudet. Directed by William Nigh. Story: Billy Halop, wanting to be a law¬ yer, works for a finance company with gyp tactics. His pals are Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, and Bernard Punsly, neigh¬ borhood boys, and Paul Kelly, who rooms with his family. Things tighten up when Halop has to collect from his friends, and when the cab operated by John Gallaudet, father of Ann Gillis, is taken by the finance company, the latter tries to kill himself. Halop then realizes what sort of an outfit the company is, and with Kelly goes after the gyps. With the aid of the pals, they get the necessary records, reveal the com¬ pany for what it is, and everything is taken care of. X-Ray: Typical Dead End Kids-Tough Guys yarn, this will satisfy the action trade, and serve on the lower half. The title is attractive for these houses, and the presence of Kelly, Helen Parrish, and Gillis in the cast helps. Selling angles are obvious. Ad Lines: “The Gang Takes Over the Law”; “Mob-Might Rules the Slums. . . . Until the Gang Takes Over”; “Cracking the Racket Even the Cops Couldn’t Touch.” FOREIGN UNIVERSAL Mississippi Gambler Melodrama with Music 64m. Estimate: Better than average support¬ ing feature. Cast: Kent Taylor, Frances Langford, John Litel, Shemp Howard, Claire Dodd, Wade Boteler, Douglas Fowley, Aldrich Bowker. Directed by John Rawlins. Tanya Ur7a3mma (Art kino) Estimate: Satisfactory Soviet picture, obviously made for foreign consumption, can play art spots. Cast: Lubov Orlova, E. Samoilov, Vla¬ dimir Volodin, Osip Addulov, Nikelai Konovalov, Elena Tiapkina, Vera Zhit¬ kova, Anastasia Zuyova, Vera Altaiskaya, Nina Fodosyuk, Anna Terekhina, Rina Yonaya. Directed by Gregori Alexandrov. Story: Lubov Orlova, an ignorant peas¬ ant, is inspired, by her love for Samoilov, an engineer, to study. When the country pleads for greater production, Orlova, now a textile weaver, formulates a plan that more than doubles her factory’s output. For this she wins the Lenin medal. Con¬ tinuing with her studies, she becomes a great engineer, and, in the end, marries the man she loves. X-Ray: Routine Soviet stuff, this shows the intensity and interest of the people, and their desire to further their country’s welfare. Acting and production are ade¬ quate. Ad Lines: “The Triumphant Story Of the Will Of a Great Nation”; “Nothing Could Stop Her Devotion To Her Coun¬ try . . . Nor Her Love”; “Here Is the Story Of the Real Russia.” MISCELLANEOUS . Adult Narcotic Melodrama 68m. (Esper) Estimate: Drug film, only for houses that can play this type. Cast: Patricia Farley, Harry Cording, Claudia Cummings, David Callis. Di¬ rected by Dwain Esper. Story; A physician, with a promising medical career before him, is driven by overwork, worry, to the use of opium for diversion. His wife, helping him fight the drug habit, has him removed to a sani¬ tarium, where eventually he is pronounced “cured”. Later, a drug-crazed taxi-driver causes a collision with a train, and the doctor is injured. At the hospital, he is kept under opiates, and emerges again ad¬ dicted to the use of drugs. He becomes a quack, is ostracized from society, and his wife leaves him. He commits suicide. X-Ray: This is heavy, unrelieved drama, and needs sensationalizing to sell it. Re¬ view is being printed for the record as the picture was released years ago but never covered here. Ad Lines: “Drugs — Man’s Curse Through the Centuries”; “The Truth About the Dope Racket”; “A Picture All Serious Thinking Persons Should See”; “A Vivid Warning Of the Terrors Of the Drug Habit.” THE SHORTS PARADE TWO-REEL Color Cartoon THE RAVEN. Paramount — Cartoon Spe¬ cial. 14m. Technicolor cartoon version of the famous Edgar Allen Poe story, this has a good musical score. It starts off seriously with off-screen commentator reciting opening lines of the poem, but soon a vil¬ lainous crow appears, and, with the help of a tough dog, they proceed to try to sell a vacuum cleaner to a Scotty. While the crow is demonstrating the cleaner, the tough dog is trying to break in the Scotty’s safe with quite a few funny sequences re¬ sulting. GOOD. (FF1-1) . Buy Defense Savings Bonds and Savings Stamps. Servisection 7 977