Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1945)

HERE COME THE CO-EDS' FUNNY ABBOTT & COSTELLO FILM Rates • • • where stars are popular Universal 87 minutes Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Peggy Ryan, Martha O'Driscoll, Lon Chaney, June Vincent, Donald Cook, Charles Dingle, Richard Lane, Don Costello, Joe Kirk, Pierre Watkin, Dorothy Granger, Bill Stern, Phil Spitalny and His All-Girl Orchestra. Directed by Jean Yarbrough. One of the best of the Abbott and Costello laugh-fests, "Here Come the Co-Eds" should do smash business wherever these comedians are favorites. Although heavily embroidered with typical A. & C. gags, unadulterated slapstick, pretty girls and lively tunes, the nonsensical plot manages to maintain some interest throughout. It seems that Universal has found the correct film formula for the nation's ace comedy team. The setting of a girls' college, where Abbott and Costello are caretakers, is surefire for laughs and Director Jean Yarbrough has kept the stars dishing out the laughs in between song numbers, some warbled by dynamic Peggy Ryan and, for contrast, the others played in a soft, dreamy style by Phil Spitalny and His All-Girl Orchestra. All are pleasing, if not destined for Hit Parade popularity. The comedy high-spots, including Costello's battle with a live oyster in his stew, his wrestling match with a husky Masked Marvel and his donning of girls' attire to play on the college basketball team against a group of husky female professionals, will have audiences howling. The addition of the up-and-coming Peggy Ryan, Lon Chaney and Phil Spitalny's Orchestra to the marquee names should increase the high box office draw. Because Bud Abbott publicizes his dancing sister, Martha O'Driscoll, as an ambitious girl anxious to attend Bixby College, she is given a scholarship to this traditionbound girls' school by the young dean, Donald Cook. Abbott and his pal, Lou Costello, secure jobs as college caretakers in order to watch over Miss O'Driscoll. Charles Dingle, who holds the mortgage on the col lege, is determined to wreck the school rather than let Cook introduce his modern ideas on the hallowed grounds. Abbott and Costello then take a hand to save the college and stage (first) a wrestling bout which Lou is matched against a brawny Masked Marvel and (second) a basketball game with 20-to-l bets on it in order raise funds to pay off the mortgage. But a group of six-foot professionals are brought into the game against the college team and Lou is forced to don feminine attire to score a victory. Peggy Ryan has only a few comedy and song interludes with Lou Costello before she i "wows 'em" with her whirlwind climactic | dance routine to "Jumpin' On Saturday Night." Martha O'Driscoll and Donald Cook take care of the romantic plot nicely, Charles Dingle and Lon Chaney play I straight roles and Radio Announcer Bill Stern plays himself reporting the basketball game. The All-Girl Orchestra does some excellent harmonizing. DENLEY FRISCO SAL' OLD-FASHIONED MELLER HAS SOME HIGH SPOTS Rates • • + in action spots; less elsewhere Universal 94 minutes Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, Alan Curtis, Andy Devine, Thomas Gomez, Collette Lyons, Samuel S. Hinds, Fuzzy Knight, Ernie Adams, George Lloyd, Billy Green, Bert; Fiske, Earle Hodgins. Directed by George Waggner. San Francisco's Barbary Coast is again the setting for a noisy and colorful melodrama geared to entertain mass audiences. The story of "Frisco Sal" is a routine affair which deals with rival big shots and a sweet-faced New England choir singer searching the Barbary Coast for a long-lost brother. This moss-covered ten-twentythirty plot is rarely believable, but the above-average performers managed to maintain some interest in the highly-theatrical doings. The songs and comedy antics of Collette Lyons furnish the picture's brightest moments, while two rip-roaring free-forall fights which practically wreck the cafe are exciting in a humorous fashion. Susanna Foster, whose high, reedy soprano voice is ill-suited to a floor show number like "Good Little, Bad Little Lady," is heard to advantage when she renders the more romantic ballad "Beloved." Turhan Bey makes a more convincing romantic figure than a suave cafe owner, but Alan Curtis does good work as his rival, leader of a gang of hoodlums. Andy Devine and Fuzzy Knight get a few chuckles despite their familiar material. This can be exploited to good returns in the action spots, while the title and cast names make it a good dualler generally. Susanna Foster, New England choir singer, arrives at San Francisco's Barbary Coast in the Nineties to seek clues on the reported murder of her long-lost brother. Believing that her brother was killed in the First Dollar Cafe, she meets the owneri Turhan Bey, who has just been threatened by Alan Curtis and his gang of shake-down hoodlums. When a fight starts between Bey's men and Curtis' gang, the place is wrecked and everyone, including Miss Foster, is arrested. She later gets a job singing at the cafe and soon finds evidence which makes her believe Bey killed her brother in a poker game. Bey, who has come to love Miss Foster, makes plans for their marriage to her but she turns him down and accuses him of the murder. She then goes to Curtis' "mission" to sing at his Christmas party and while there conies across evidence to prove that he is her missing brother. She then returns to Bey's cafe and later the furious Curtis arrives and starts another brawl. When he is forced to admit his real identity, Curtis makes up with Bey, who will soon be his brother-inlaw. DENLEY SHE'S A SWEETHEART' MUSICAL QUICKIE FOR LOWER DUAL SPOT Rates • -i as supporting dualler Columbia Hit minutes Jane Frazee, Larry Parks, Jane Darwell, Ross Hunter, Nina Foch, Jimmy Lloyd, Dave Willock, Carole Matthews, Loren Tindall, Eddie Bruce, Ruth Warren, Pat OTVIal ley. Directed by Del Lord. A run-of-the-mill musical programmer which is long on sweetness and sentiment but short on humor and action. "She's a Sweetheart" has as its only assets a few pleasing songs and dances and its timely background of a soldiers' canteen, making it acceptable as a secondary dualler for minor naborhood houses. Although the characters are typical of real-life service men and the canteen workers who try to make their furloughs pleasant, the romantic plot is even more implausible than most. And, while the plump, sixtyish Jane Darwell is a good choice for the motherly soul who runs the canteen efficiently, her role often makes her act too meddlesome for comfort. Far better are Larry Parks as a lonesome service man hero and Jimmy Lloyd and Loren Tindall as his soldier pals. Jane Fiazee again does a capable acting job and puts over her songs in sparkling fashion. She deserves a break in better pictures than this mediocre supporting dualler. Jane Darwell, who has turned her home into a canteen for servicemen, takes a personal interest in the problems of "her boys." She sends for one's ex-fiancee to patch' up a broken love affair and brings a young wife and baby on from New York so that the G. I. father can see the infant for tht first time. But, when her favorite, Larrj Parks, falls for Jane Frazee, who is enter taining at the canteen to get publicity, sh« decides to break up the budding romance This is done and Parks is shipped out be fore he can be reconciled with Miss Frazee The latter goes through with a benefit shew she had planned but when a telegram say ing that Parks is "missing in action" ai rives, both she and Miss Darwell are heart broken. Miss Frazee then spends most o her time at the canteen doing the kitche chores and Miss Darwell is forced to adml she was mistaken about her. Parks return home wounded and turns up at a party tB boys have arranged to honor Miss Darwel The latter then arranges for him to be « united with Miss Frazee. LEYENDECKEl BOX OFFICE RATING: •Poor ••Average •••Good ••••Excellent 8 FILM BULLBTI