Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (Sep 1935 - Aug 1936)

6 INDEPENDENT EXHIBITORS 'FILM BULLETIN' REV {Continued is a humdinger, taking place on a narrow runway above the engine room. Boyd is satisfactory, as is the rest of the cast. Aubrey gets a good number of laughs as a perpetual drunk. Mystery fans won't have much trouble figuring out the guilty person, but the plot is handled cleverly enough to make it always interesting. Average fare for action and rural houses. AD TIPS: Sell it as rip-roaring mystery-action. Star Boyd. NONNIE. WE WENT TO COLLEGE BOXOFFICE RATING COMEDY . . . Mild stuff that has its moments of good fun . . . Cast good, but weak on names . . . Rates * + generally. M-G-M 68 Minutes Charles Butterworth . . . Hugh Herbert . . . Una Merkel . . . Walter Abel . . . Walter Catlett Directed by Joseph Santley Fair comedy with a pleasant nostalgic quality that will make it particularly appealing to college graduates. For general consumption, however, I doubt that it has enough to bring it much success at the boxoffice. The plot, a flimsy affair, concerns itself with the antics of a group of old grads who return to their alma mater for a reunion. Most of them come back for the fun of it, but Walter Abel comes only because he sees a chance to win the building contract for a new campus building. He is bitten worse than the others, renewing a romance with his old college sweetheart, Una Merkel, that very nearly wrecks his own married life. This affair serves as the background for the comic business supplied by the poker-faced Butterworth and giddy Herbert. They furnish a reasonable number of laughs, but hardly enough to make this a howl. The weakness of the cast will hold it down well below average generally. AD TIPS: Sell the story as a true-life, sentimental comedydrama. Where comedy means most, plug Butterworth, Herbert and Merkel as a grand comic trio. BARTON. "finett Theatre Painting and Decorating" HARRY BRODSKY 2315 WALNUT STREET, PHILA., PA. RITtenhouse 7828 • TRInity 1189 I E W S from [)agc 5) LADY LUCK BOXOFFICE RATING COMEDY-DRAMA . . . Mixup involving sweepstakes winners, racketeers, chiselers and lovers ... It is fairly sprightly, but weak fare generally . . . Rates • + as the light half of dual bills. Chesterfield 5 8 Minutes Patricia Farr . . . William Bakewell . . . Duncan Renaldo . . . Lulu McConnell . . . Iris Adrian . . . Jameson Thomas . . . Vivian Oakland . . . Arthur Hoyt . . . Claude Allister . . . Lew Kelly Directed by Charles Lamont Mild light-weight entertainment that won't mean a thing on its own, but is suitable for rounding out a dual bill with a heavy drama. A listing of the ingredients makes it appear like an action melodrama, but it is chiefly comedy, with a murder, fist fight and horse race tossed in for action. Several chorus numbers are worked in for good measure. Cast is weak, with a neat performance by Lulu McConnell, formerly from vaudeville and musical comedy, outstanding. The dialogue is flip and occasionally amusing. Plot has to do with the mixup caused when Lulu wins a sweepstakes prize and Patricia Farr, a manicurist bearing the same name, thinks she had won it. Lulu agrees to take the pot and manage Patricia while the latter cops the dough for endorsements, stage appearances, etc. A young reporter (Bakewell), a night club racketeer (Renaldo) and a chiseler (Thomas) vie for Patricia's hand, with complications involving the murder of the chiseler being cleared up by the reporter and a happy-go-lucky detective. AD TIPS: Sell it on the "Luck" angle. Free tickets to the Lucky Ladies, etc. A remote chance might he to plug Duncan Renal do's return to the screen. He uas the star of "Trader Horn." NONNIE. Pa. Merger Up Again Charles Segall is trying once again to bring about the merger of the local M.P.T.O. unit and I.T.O. A meeting has been set for next week, with Ted Schlanger, local Warner boss taking an active part. Merger attempts have flopped a dozen i lines within the past six months. SUBJECTS FROM PHILLY By Nonamaker SCAN-TEES — JOE MURPHY takes over Community Theatre, Morrisville, Pa., for September opening . . . HENRY SORK's Opera House, Parksburg, Pa., closed until fall . . . ELIAS COURY, Victoria, Lansford, Pa., to build another house in WilkesBarre . . . MILDRED LEVY now booker for Grand National . . . MARY MEADOWCROFT now booker for Republic . . . BILL PORTER promoted to office manager for Republic . . . In collaboration with JOE SILVER, DAVE MOLIVER worked out plan of inserting separate ads in the Evening Ledger for houses playing "lucky" games . . . JACK COHEN, Grant and Glenside Theatres, is producing a comedy for legit stage, 'In The Doghouse' in New York . . . HERB GOTTLIEB, formerly with Warner's, SAM BURNS, formerly a checker for various exchanges, and a MR. RUDOW have formed a legit production company with offices in the Real Estate Trust Building. Plans call for a revival of 'Flying High' as their first venture ... A small town exhibitor out in Ohio is supposed to have put up the following sign on his marquee: "DOUBLE FEATURE. NEITHER ONE ANY GOOD." That's taking honesty seriously! . . . The Lu Lu Motion Picture Golfers are convinced that the Ashbourne Motion Picture Golfers are afraid to meet them in open competition this year. BILL WOLF and LARRY DAILY are raring to go, while HARRY WEINER claims he can't get his team together . . . HERB ELLIOTT and wife go to Thompson's Camp, Maine, next week . . . BILL GOLDMAN'S Terminal, 69th Street, will open around Labor Day . . . SID STANLEY'S Fay's scheduled to get going August 28th . . . BARNEY COHEN getting stout . . . MIKE LEVINSON aod JOE SCHAEFER as brown as berries . . . The clean-up and electrical squads are busy these days sprucing up the Mastbaum . . . OSCAR (old timer) NEUFELD suggests the following as swell titles for tearjerkers: "A Letter In the Cradle" and "A Curl From Baby's Head" . . . MO WAX, tout, back from jaunt to Suffolk Downs and so the slavery goes on and on! . . . M-G-M will road show "Romeo and Juliet" at the Chestnut St. Opera House shortly after Labor Day . . . Warners go to work on their new 5 00 seat Center Theatre, just West of the Europa on Market Street. Walker With F. R. Again Frank C. Walker, general manager of the Comerford Theatres, has been drafted by President Roosevelt again to take an active part in his campaign for re-election. He has been assigned important post of chairman of the finance committee. "Not a dark house in more than 20 years of film delivery service!" NEW JERSEY MESSENGER SERVICE Member National Film Carriers' Ass'n 250 N. JUNIPER STREET, PHILA. LOCust 4181 RACE 4600