Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1950)

KUDOS FOR GARLAND. KELLY " f] 1 1 (IT £ P" IN MGM'S "SUMMER STOCK' jjUUlLu What the Newspaper Critics Say About Neui film Although they differ in this criticism of the overall quality of Metro's Technicolored backstage musical, "Summer Stock," the New York newspaper critics put up a solid front with their highly complimentary remarks when writing about the stellar performances by stars Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. Classing the film as a typical MGM musical, productionwise, the majority of the scribes agree that topnotch singing and dancing by the Garland-Kelly team elevate "Summer Stock" to the status of enjoyable musical entertainment. Gene Kelly comes in for top kudoes from the Post's Archer Winsten, who sees Kelly in "extraordinarily good form, ringing the bell on triple counts of dancing, acting and singing." The show, as a whole, he describes as "a flashy, glittering earful . . . that's fine if you enjoy that kind of musical." Alton Cook, in the World Telegram, credits Judy Garland with "one of her very top-quality pictures" for which "the old pattern of the backstage musical has been freshened for once." Producer Joe Pasternak also gets a pat on the back for having "recaptured the spontaneously joyous spirit of the early Deanna Durbin pictures that he did so well a dozen and more years ago." "Kelly's show from beginning to end," writes the Herald Tribune's Howard Barnes, to whom it is "familiar comic and romantic ingredients whipped into a smooth and tasty texture" resulting in a "welcome hot-weather musical melange." In the Times, Bosley Crowther also applauds Miss Garland, whom, he points out, "is in excellent musical form" along with "a passel of (Metro's) more amiable and talented kids" who "give out with merriment and music in a Technicolored lark called 'Summer Stock'." "Agreeably escapist in theme," says Rose Pelswick in the Journal American, "it's gay and lively entertainment" that "you'll find fun." Seymour Peck, in the Compass, is not quite as high on the film as he is on Miss Garland, whom he says is "tops." Calling it "just an amiable, up and down little musical" made along "conventional, MGM, backstage musical lines," Peck points out that it "is not as good a movie as Judy rates — nor, for that matter, as Gene Kelly, another performer of enormous talent and magnetism, rates." 'SPY HUNT' UNIVERSAL-INTERNATIONAL "Puts half the burden of hunting on the audience . . . Picture itself is a remarkably dull, routine job considering all the chasing, killing and dying that go into this separation of sheep, goats and undercover agents." — WINSTEN, N. Y. POST. "Two black panthers contribute the only reasonable violence and suspense . . . Wildly confused continuity about a political murder ... On the whole, confusion outweighs the melodramatic tension of the picture . . . Direction is far better than the plot and dialogue . . . Fabricated thriller built around an Alpine safari, with growling beasts taking most of the honors." BARNES, N. Y. HERALD TRIBUNE. "Outline of melodramatic story gives fair notice of . . . artistic merits of this film." — CROWTHER, N. Y. TIMES. THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE' London Film "Funny, irreverent and sometimes altogether mad little farce. . . . Small, lighthearted, almost affectionate joke. . . . All fcr laughs. . . . Far more hilarious than childish caricatures on a blackboard. . . . As with most farces ... a good deal of it is very, very thin." — PECK, N. Y. COMPASS. "Witty, warm, sometimes biting and wholly charming commentary on English schools and British bureaucracy under the stress of war. . . . Not as especially profound joke . . . but delivered with flavor and professional timing. . . . A farce that is enjoyable." — A. W., N. Y. TIMES. "A rich vein of witty satire. . . . Generates some very pleasant amusement. . . . Chief fault ... is that the slapstick overwhelms the sharp caricature. ... A rather happy screen entertainment." — BARNES, N. Y. HERALD TRIBUNE. "English movie humor running in high gear again. . . . Waggish, whimsical delight. . . Mad romp packed with laughter every antic of the way. . . . Chalk up another bullseye."— COOK, N. Y. WORLD TELEGRAM. "Deteriorates into broad farce which is repetitious and lacking in ingenuity. . . . All is confusion."— WINSTEN, N. Y. POST. "May or may not be your cup of tea. . . . Has a good many quietly amusing moments to recommend it. . . . An unpretentiously diverting piece, funny as to dialogue."— PELSWICK, N. Y. JOURNAL AMERICAN. THE BLACK ROSE' 20TH CENTURY-FOX "Trouble is that nobody seems to have had a good time, to have had fun making it . . . Hardly any pleasure to be found anywhere . . . Solemn, earnest pageant, heavy and costly . . . Needs so badly a little zest, a little of the joy of living, the joy of adventure . . . Ponderous, humorless, stuffy film . . . Certainly no fun." — ■ PECK, N. Y. COMPASS. "Woefully unexciting recount of gaudy but static episodes . . . Really something luxurious at which to look . . . Pictures everything but the pulsing drama of 'The Black Rose' — and that's a downright shame." — CROWTHER, N. Y. TIMES. "Has lots of scenery, a mad variety of multicolored costumes set off in Technicolor, impressively huge crowds of extras and a minimum of excitement." — A. C, N. Y. WORLD TELEGRAM. "Sprawling adventure film . . . has a lot of hoop-la pageantry and a minimum of dramatic continuity . . . An episodic and disjointed exposition . . . Covers a lot of territory but is about as exciting as a travelogue." — BARNES, N. Y. HERALD TRIBUNE. "Much to delight the eye . . . Surprisingly lacking in epic, dramatic sweep . . . Narrative is jumpy and episodic . . . Probably the dullest big picture of the year, and doubtless the most disappointing by a good margin." — WINSTEN, N. Y. POST. "Swashbuckler of medieval days, an adventure yarn that takes place in the 13th Century . . . Massive production, impressively mounted." PELSWICK, N. Y. JOURNAL AMERICAN. 'MADELEINE' UNIVERSAL-INTERNATIONAL "Flouts a well-justified convention c murder fiction . . . Basically annoyin . . . Has compensations of period Scottis i atmosphere, excellent characterization!! and convincing reality . . . Entertainmer value is seriously compromised by thi story it has to tell." — WINSTEN, N. POST. "Has as its greatest novelty the facr that it never answers the all-importar question . . . Leaves us tantalizingly u in the air . . . Very elegant and lavis and stately and long film . . . Stately pn cession of fine, slow, heavily atmospheri scenes . . . Drama of no human dimei sion." — S. P., N. Y. COMPASS. "An inconclusive drama and therefor an unsatisfying entertainment . . . Chai acters remain more in the realm of mak< believe than reality." — T. M. P., N. V TIMES. "Curiously uninteresting entertainmer . . .Handsomely mounted but rather lon{ winded bore . . . An unusual case histor is recorded in accurate but dull terms."BARSTOW, N. Y. HERALD TRIBUNE. 'MY BLUE HEAVEN' 20th Century-Fox Technicolored song-and-dance film. . . Heavily sentimental plot. . . . Boys wh write the movie musicals have foun' a new gimmick." — PELSWICK, N. V JOURNAL AMERICAN. "Looks like a set of expensive hant painted china, and is just about as er[ tertaining. . . . Level of technical pr<( ficiency is unobtrusively impeccabl everywhere, but it's really wasted effor' There's no life in it. . . . Nothing . . inspires superlatives of praise or cor demnation"— WINSTEN, N. Y. POST. "Betty Grable wants to be a mother i My Blue Heaven, and how Betty suffer i — and how we suffer — before she achieve this noble goal."— PECK, N. Y. COR, PASS. "Title song chief distinction of a pede trian screen musical .. . Sentimental] soporific as a soap opera . . . Wisps c banal situations. ... A minimum c: comedy in the laggard continuity. . . Brightly tinted photography, incidental!; merely accentuates the woeful lack i movement and gayety." — BARNES, N. Vf HERALD TRIBUNE. 'SIERRA' Universal International "All in fine outdoor Technicolor. . . Good deal of shootin', rootin' and ridii . . . Aside from Murphy, Sierra ordinary, competent, pretty and active WINSTEN, N. Y. POST. "Sweet ballad singing of Burl Iv« punctuates a preposterous horse oper . . . Tedious melodramatic . . . feathe brained film. . . . Supposed acting lenc little credence or substance to a lamen able six-shooter saga." — BARNES, N. HERALD TRIBUNE. "Benevolent little drama. . . . Hai to imagine how anyone who helped 1 make and then witnessed this film coul feel anything but embarrassment towar anyone else connected with it. . . . Or of those pictures that would humilia a 10-year-old child."— CROWTHER, I Y. TIMES. 14 FILM BULLET!