Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1952)

Critics Find Groucho Marx Comedy Downed By Poor Script Not even Groucho Marx' current wave of popularity was able to keep this RKO production afloat in the opinion of most New Vork newspaper critics when it opened at the Paramount. With one exception, they tagged "A Girl in Every Port" as a film which suffered because a promising cast just didn't have the material. In the HeraldTribune, Otis L. Guernsey says this is "one of the flimsiest comedies on the record/' He finds that "there is no humor worth mentioning in the situations and hardly any pep in its sight gags." It is a film which "has an impossible script which wai staged without flair or invention." "An involved melange of obvious antics and gags, only one or two of which are likely to generate chuckles," writes Abe Weiler in the Times. He feels that while "Erskine has kept his story moving briskly ... he has come up with uninspired situations and labored lines." Alton Cook, in the World-Telegram, gives the cast E for effort "but their author-director, Chester Erskine, did not do right by them." So does Archer Winsten of the Post. "Labored and wordy conversations betray the mighty effort to beat a froth of laughter out of some spare parts." He caustically remarks that "if this is a big or even a small success at the Paramount, the cause of good, adult movies will have been set back fifty years." Sole proponent of the film's entertainment value was the JournalAmerican's Rose Pelswick, who found it "A completely wacky farce, the piece keeps the pair clowning through a succession of nonsensical gags." THE BIG TREES' WARNER BROTHERS "Obviously there still must be reasons for making films such as 'The Big Trees' or else they wouldn't . . . opus not only antiquated but dull ... as movie fare, certainly doesn't anywhere nearly reach the height of the big trees." — Thirer, N. Y. Post. "Giants of a California redwood forest make an impressive setting . . . story that sends actors scurrying among them is not in proportion . . . Lumbers along without producing much sound timber." — Cook, N. Y. Telegram and Sun. "What with psychiatric dramas, underworld yarns and assorted other problem plays, it's been quite a time since Hollywood has come up with such forthright melodramatics." — Pelswick, N. Y. Journal-American. ". . . Welter of cliches, in action as well as in words . . . almost a caricature of the average early American roughhouse . . . Achingly routine stuff, presented without imagination or enthusiasm." — Guernsey, N. Y. Herald Tribune. "Muscular adventure . . . the plot and emoting seem to be as old as the giant redwood I with which they are concerned . . . Not terribly far removed from the Warners' "Valley of the Giants," circulated hereabouts in 1038" Weiler, N. Y. Times. "QUOT6S" OBSESSED' UNITED ARTISTS What the Newspaper Critics Say About New Filil WESTWARD THE WOMEN' METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER "Spooky, plodding murder mystery ... it may fail to raise the anticipated quota of shudders but it certainly cannot be charged with any lack of zealous endeavor . . . Scenario did not come provided with a sufficient number of exciting entanglements to keep a movie in high speed." — Cook, N. Y. Telegram and Sun. "Fairly routine prescription, compounded largely from the contents of the old arsenic bottle . . . Another in a long line of such items as 'Angel Street,' 'An Inspector Calls' and similar Victorian and Edwardian melodramas."— Allison, N. Y. Herald Tribune. "Fair plus (Movie Meter rating) . . . weakness is that it pursues its plot theory so diligently that you have the impression of characters being pushed this way and that to make another structural curlicue come out right ... A clever little murder mystery, nothing more" — Winsten, N. Y. Post. "With only three suspects to choose from, chances are that the arm-chair sleuths won't have much difficulty beating Scotland Yard to a solution of the case . . . Largely conversational but sustains affair measure of suspense." — X. Y. Journal-American. SAILOR BEWARE' PARAMOUNT "This is Martin and Lewis in pure form, with the volume turned up high, calculated to tickle the funnybone or set the teeth on edge, according to where it strikes the individual . . . There is no questioning the appeal of this sort of thing; it packs audiences in as though they hadn't heard a good joke in years." — Guernsey, N. Y. Herald Tribune. "Makes people howl with laughter and toss with rocking frenzy in their chairs . . . Knockabout clowning is in the classic tradition of good buffoons." — Crowther, N. Y. Times. "Zany, hilarious show ... If you thought Jerry Lewis was funny in the previous Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis films, wait till you see him in 'Sailor Beware' . . . He romps his zany way through one gag after another and practically stops the show whenever he's within camera range." — Pelswick, N. Y. JournalAmerican. "Designed strictly as a slapstick romp for the tireless Jerry with an occasional song in Dean's husky baritone . . . Appeal depends entirely on how much and how long you relish the antics of Jerry Lewis." — Cook, N. Y. Telegram and Sun. " The easy laughters roar, and the rest follow along . . . There's not one sequence that has strong comic appeal for the discriminating, just as there's nothing weak enough to disillusion the Martin-Lewis fans." — Winsten, N. Y. Post. "Coy Western with women performing tl tasks usually reserved for Hollywood brawny actors . . . Cowgirls instead of co\ boys, but in this case, the bare idea doesr seem quite enough to add up to very goc movie entertainment." — Cook, N. Y. Tel gram and Sun. "Large-scale outdoor drama comes up wi a new idea for covered-wagon plots . . Striking outdoor settings and vigorious cl rection by William Wellman make it an i | teresting departure from the convention1 Westerner." — Pelswick, N. Y. Journal American. "Fair plus (Movie Meter rating) . . . Wea ling epic . . . Reaches embarrassing heigh of Hollywood fancy . . . this reviewer mu! report that in his estimation only the scene stood the stern test." — Winsten, N. Y. Po'| SCANDEL SHEET' COLUMBIA "Ruthlessness of tabloid journalism, j seen through the coolly searching eyes Hollywood scriptwriters ... is given other demonstration in ... a run-of-the-prc melodrama . . . Apart from a bit of toup discussion of the public's avid taste fl thrills and chills and a few dubious hints tabloid techniques, there is nothing vej shocking in this film." — Crowther, N. Times. "If you check all your little thinking ca at the door, there may be some suspense the rushing events of this picture . . . laughter does not interfere with your spi of excitement too much." — Cook, N. Y. Tp gram and Sun. "Hollywood has always taken a sort ; fairyland view of the newspaper business 'Scandal Sheet' doesn't change this opini . . . Lay public should be warned agaii taking the Paramount screen offering s< ously." — Pihodna, N. Y. Herald Tribune. MY FAVORITE SPY' PARAMOUNT "Paramount's energetic buffon is in danger of losing his license . . . latest es:i pade is designed for that comic's talents Story is likely to be lost in the frar goings-on ... It doesn't matter much .it liecause of its harried hero's breezy delivl it docs generate a generous portion I laughs." — Weiler, N. Y. Times. "Good (Movie Meter rating) . . . ordin Bob Hope entry, permitting the corned', to run not only a facial gamut but als ' double characterization with a Jeckyll-H : on top . . . Your reviewer was not able) find anything really new in the picture.-! Winsten, N. Y. Post. "Loaded with laughs . . . prize packagtM entertainment . . . All done up in slick gW and slapstick." — Pelswick, N. Y. Jourr} American. 22 FILM BULLETra