Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1941)

'DIVE BOMBER' SLOW-MOVING AIR SPECTACLE Rates • • + generally on name value Warners. 13:! Minutes. Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Regis Toomey, Alexis Smith, Herbert Anderson, Louis Jean Heydt, Robert Armstrong, Allen Jenkins, Cliff Nazarro, Dennie Moore, Addison Richards, Craiz Stevens, Moroni Olsen, John Gallaudet, Charlotte Wynters, DeWolf Hopper, Charles Drake, Ann Doran. Directed by Michael Curtiz. "Dive Bomber" has star names, spectacular flying thrills, gorgeous photography and a defense angle to give it timely value — almost everything except an interest-holding story. To Technicolor must go the major credit for enhancing the backgrounds for the long-winded and familiar tale of two aviators at odds-point and turning the film into a flying epic which will get fair attention in the majority of theatres. Warners has employed a similar enmitybetweenflyers theme innumerable times, but usually spiced with laughs and romance for greater audience appeal. This time only spectacle is given full play and medical and experimental scenes are stressed, while the comedy is incidental and romance is completely lacking. This is strictly a man's picture — but not a strong one. The Flynn-MacMurray will insure fair grosses generally. Errol Flynn plays a hospital surgeon who incurs the enmity of aerial bombardiers Fred MacMurray and Regis Toomey when a dangerous operation on their criticallywounded pal fails to save his life. Flynn determines to become a flight surgeon and investigate the reason for the high altitude "black-out" which brings death to many fliers. MacMurray is assigned, against his will, to teach him to fly and their ill-will is increased when he grounds Toomey because of flight fatigue. It is only after Toomey's death because of his refusal to stay out of the air that MacMurray realizes the importance of Flynn's research work. Although he, too, has reached a flying fatigue point, MacMurray dons Flynn's new pressure suit, takes up a dive bomber and jots a few instructions before the fatal "black-out" overtakes him and he dies a hero's death for aviation. Flynn is still playing "Robin Hood," but he manages to give his surgeon's role a fair degree of conviction. Fred MacMurray never seems able to get his teeth into the serious aspects of his role. Ralph Bellamy gives the best performance in the cast as a research expert and Regis Toomey and Louis Jean Heydt are flne in dramatic parts. The blonde Alexis Smith adds beauty to her three short scenes and Dennie Moore, aided by Allen Jenkins and Cliff Nazarro, supplies some routine comedy relief. This is hardly Michael Curtiz' best directorial effort. LEYENDECK^ 'WORLD PREMIERE' ATTEMPTED HOLLYWOOD SATIRE FALLS FLAT Rates • • — as secondary dualler Paramount. 70 Minutes. John Barrymore, Frances Farmer, Eugene Pallette, Ricardo Cortez, Virginia Dale, Sig Rumann. Don Castle, Fritz Feld, Luis Albemi. Cliff Nazarro, Andrew Tombes, WilUam Wright. Directed by Ted Tetzlaff. Few movie attempts to lampoon Hollywood have proved amusing to film fans and "World Premiere" is sillier and less entertaining than most. The basic idea of satirizing the industry's extravagant junkets was a clever one but the story here has been so burdened with foreign spies and sabotage that it merely becomes ridiculous and unfunny. Two examples of the picture's lack of subtlety is to have the film siren with shoulder-length black hair named Kitty Carr and to use a tiger (not a lion!) as the producing company's symbol. Apparently Ted Tetzlaff <the cameraman turned director) was unable to restrain his actors from broadly burlesquing their roles and mugging to their hearts' content. Never before has John Barrymore been guilty of such atrocious overacting and Fritz Feld, Sig Rumann and Luis Alberni scamper about in typical slapstick fashion and although they all occasionally extract some laughs, most of the nonsensical comedy falls fiat. This will be a weak dualler generally. The mad plot hinges on some comic foreign spies who have been ordered to sabotage the Hollywood epic, "The Earth's on Fire," because it harms their cause. The wacky producer (John Barrymore) unwittingly aids the spies by unknowingly hiring them for a publicity stunt during the cross-country trip to the film's world premiere in Washington. On the train, the company's symbol, a tiger, is let loose, the star is believed to be murdered and the negative is nearly destroyed by a time bomb which (being made in Japan) merely peters out without exploding. Fritz Feld almost succeeds in making the vicious, face-slapping little Field Marshal Muller a rich comic portrait and Sig Rumann and Luis Alberni give him hilarious support. These three take the laugh honors with only a few scattered snickers left for Barrymore's movie mogul and Cliff Nazarro's yes-man who lapses into his double-talk specialty. Frances Farmer, in an unbecoming black wig, and Virginia Dale furnish indifferent feminine support. LEYHNDECKEll BAAKE THE TEST ■ ■ ■ ■ Check Some FILM BULLETIN Reviews with your boxofiice grosses and you will find an amazing degree of ACCURACY BULLETIN THE INDEPENDENT TRADE JOURNAL SE'PTEMBER 6, 194 1 23