Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1941)

'KITTY FOYLE' GINGER ROGERS SCORES IN SURE-FIRE WOMEN'S PICTURE Rates • • • except In action spots RKO Radio. 105 Minutes Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Eduardo Ciarmelli, Ernest Cossart, Gladys Cooper, Walter Kingsford, Odette Myrtil, Mary Treen, Katharine Stevens, Richard Nichols, Nella Walker, Cecil Cunningham, Edward Fielding, Florence Bates, Kay Linaker, Tyler Brooke, Heather Angel. Directed by Sam Wood. The film version of "Kitty Foyle," witli Ginger Rogers giving a superbly human portrayal in the title role, is definitely a superior type of women's picture and, as such can't miss at the box office. Losing much of the down-to-earth realism of Christopher Morley's novel, the picture also gains some emotional power as it becomes primarily the love story of a white collar girl and a scion of the idle rich. Telling his "Matural History of a Woman" (RKO's sub title) in flashback fashion, Director Sam Wood misses no opportunity to win audience sympathy for his heroine from "the wrong side of the tracks and this approach compares it to "Stella Dallas" in mass appeal. Already pre-sold to the public as one of the year's best-seller, "Kitty Foyle" will prove a magnet for the women fans and the husbands and boy friends always follow in huge numbers. Dialogue is completely natural and tthe true-to-life comic touches make it good entertainment for first-runs and neighborhoods alike — in fact for all but the action fans. At the turning point in her life, a moment when she must decide if she will run away with the wealthy married man she will always love, or wed the poor young doctor who loves her, Kitty Foyle's mirrored reflection bids her review her past. As a middle-class Philadelphia girl of 15, Kitty longed to meet the idle rich, but it was not until her first office job working for socialite Dennis Morgan that she fell in love, married him and then realized that his Main Line family would disapprove. When she has divorced Morgan and decided to marry an adoring doctor (James Craig), her former husband returns, but, happily for her (and the Legion of Decency), she decides on Craig and security rather than an illicit relationship with the re-married Morgan. Ginger Rogers gives a real candid camera portrayal of the loyal, troubled Kitty— a delineation that carries her from shiny-faced adolescence to sophisticated womanhood. Dennis Morgan's ingratiating performance of the wealthy lad is certain to raise his stock in Hollywood's studios. James Craig is equally fine in the less flashy role of the likeable doctor. Such acting bits as Ernest Cossart's Irish father, Odette Myrtil's sympathetic French employer and Eduardo Ciannelli's bewildered restaurant proprietor are standouts in a first-rate cast. LEYENDECKER 'CHAD HANNA' COLORFUL PRODUCTION OF PALLID TALE Rates • • + on nanne values only . . 20th Century-Fox 86 Minutes. Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, Linda Darnell, Guy Kibbee, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Roscoe Ates, Ted North, Ben Carter, Frank Thomas, Olin Howland, Frank Conlan, George Davis, Sarah Padden, Tully Marshall, Edward McWade, Leonard St. Leo, Elizabeth Abbott, Harry Tyler. Eddy Waller. Directed by Henry King. Ambling along against colorful backgrounds, but without excitement or suspense, "Chad Hanna" is a small-time circus tale lamentably lacking in smash features. Rich Technicolor, vivid backgrounds and a picturesque period, everything, in fact, except the episodic story lends itself to a film which might have been absorbing entertainment, but actually is only a mildly pleasant char ade. Individual scenes relating to circus problems are amusing but that is all. Popularity of the Satiu-day Evening Post serial, "Red Wheels Rolling," the Technicolor and the circus atmosphere are all exploitation naturals and the Fonda-Lamour names should guarantee slightly above average business, for short periods, in first runs and the average neighborhood spots. The story revolves around Chad Hanna (Henry Fonda), farm boy who becomes so dazzled by the bareback rider (Dorothy Lamour) of a traveling circus that he joins the ramshackle outfit. At the same time, a slave smuggler's awkward daughter (Linda Darnell) runs away after a beating, is taken in by Lamour and learns to ride in the ring. When the fierytempered Lamour leaves to join a prosperous rival circus, Darnell takes her place as bareback rider and Fonda temporarily becomes ring master. Later he marries the girl to save her from her irate father, although he still adores the absent Lamour. It is only after a mildly suggestive bedroom sequence between Lamour and Fonda that he realizes that it is Darnell he really loves. If "Chad Hanna" does nothing else, it at least furnishes Henry Fonda with an ideal role. Here again he proves that , if properly cast, he can make a memorable portrait out of the ingenuous, naive country bumpkin. Dorothy Lamour is perfectly cast as the seductive bareback rider and Linda Darnell, a gorgeous type for Technicolor, is aopealing as the long-suffering waif. Jane Darwell, blown up to fat lady proportions, is amusing as is Guy Kibbee, Roscoe Ates and, of course, the tired old lion and the elephant who are important to the plot. Director Henry King struggles, with scant success, to knit the rambUng story into an interesting picture. LEYENDECKER 'FANTASIA' SUPERB WELDING OF CLASSICAL MUS:C AND DISNEY CHARACTERS Rates • • • • for class audiences. Filr Distributed by Walt Disney Productions. 120 Minutes Music played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski for Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D. Minor;" icnaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite;" Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice;" Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring;" Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony;" Ponchinelli's "Dance of the Hours;" Moussorsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" and Schubert's "Ave Maria." Commentary by Deems Taylor. Walt Disney's "Fantasia," a visual appreciation of eight great musical compositions, photographed in unsurpassed Technicolor, peopled by inimitable Disney characters and recorded by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, is an unprecedented and stirring cinematic experience. This two-hour excursion into the realms of Di.sney's fancy, with recording in the new Fantasound equipment, which permits the music to swell requires special Fantasound equipment a from all parts of the theatre, is certain to be seen and discussed by true lovers of classical music. That portion of the innumerable Disney public adjacent to the nation's larger cities, who can afford the two-a-day prices charged, will flock to the theatres playing the subject and the combination audiences should guarantee profitable, if somewhat limited, engagements wherever It plays. Although the great mass of the picture going public may never see this imaginative production, it can and should be compared to a work of art to be appreciated for years to come. Even the introduction is unique in that no credits are given. The film opens with the Philadelphia Orchestra's musicians tuning up before Stokowski (on the screen) mounts the platform and Deems Taylor appears to interpret and comment upon t^e Bach's "Toccata and Fugue," this first in visual colors and forms. The following "Nutcracker Suite" is in the more familiar style of DLsney's Silly Symphonies with the audience nd will only be shown at two-a-day prices high spot a Chinese Dance by Tiny Mushrooms. The first real humor enters in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," a most delightful comedy interpretation as Mickey Mouse, trying his hand at magic, finds himself swamped by its power. Of the other separate musical parts, the stirringly effective and awesome "Rite of Spring;" the gruesome "Night on paid Mountain" and the finale "Ave Maria"" are serious in intent and conception while Beethoven's "Pastoral" peopled with lovely centaurs and other mythological characters is the most pleasing to the eye. "Fantasia" is not a comedy, as we are accustomed to regard Disney's feature-length and short subjects, and, despite the endorsement of the New York Schools Motion Picture Committee, the greater part of the production contains too many horrible and nightmare-inducing figures to make it suitable for younger children. Almost any one else, however, will find it inspirational as well as educational and a pictorial adventure not soon forgotten. LKYENDECKER 6 FILM BULLETIN