The Film Daily (1940)

^v^ Wednesday, April 3, 194C ^ ^ REVIEUJS Of THE REUJ flLtnS ik i^ "Lights Out In Europe" Mayer & Bursfyn 66 Mins. POWERFUL DOCUMENTARY FILM CONTAINS A STRONG ANTI-WAR PLEA. Europe preparing for war last summer and fall, and Europe actually at war are powerfully depicted in this film. The material is excellent and the editing job is fine. A fine narrative has been written for the picture by James Hilton, and an equally fine commentary is given by Fredric March. Picture was produced and directed by Herbert Kline with Peter Mayer acting as his assistant and associate producer. Taken in Poland, Danzig, England and France, the events depicted, and the people themselves, are a grim reminder of the horrors of war. Studies of peasants are particularly telling as the camera depicts the hope for peace, the terrible shock of war at first, and then the bitterly grim expressions of hatred and sullen fear of the future on their faces. Innocent victims of war-mongers, nothing more than pawns in the fate-dealing hands of the dictators and politicians, it is these people that more truly represent the actuality of war than marching troops. Bloodied corpses and death-dealing bombers also play their part in the film, with the camera unrelenting and uncompromising to public taste as the stupid brutalities inflicted on innocent people are depicted. No hatred theme for one side or another is preached in the film, but by the very dispassionateness of the grim presentation of the facts the camera found, the picture tells a more eloquent story than any outright propaganda picture could. Naturally the picture will have exhibition difficulties in any country that is at war, but it should serve the purpose in this country of reminding every person who sees it that eternal vigilance and impregnable might is the only guarantee of peace in the world today. CREDITS: Producer and Director, Herbert Kline; Associate Producer, Peter Mayer; Cameraman, Alexander Hackenschmid; Production Manager, Rosa Harvan Kline. DIRECTION, Fine. PHOTOGRAPHY, Fine. 'Zanzibar' with Lola Lane, James Craig, Eduardo Cianelli Universal 69 Mins. RIP-ROARING ADVENTURE STORY IS FIRST-RATE THRILLER FOR THE ACTION TRADE. Replete with every possible type of action that could be encompassed in one picture, "Zanzibar" is first rate action fare. Picture has a shipwreck, jungles and wild animals, savages, sacred skulls, intrigue, murder, romance and a few more items to make it entertaining. Film has a good pace and rousing climax when a volcano erupts. Exhibitors should be able to exploit the picture in a big way as it offers unlimited possibilities in this field. Lola Lane, a hunter, James Craig, an adventuresome American, and Eduardo Cianelli, a spy, head the cast. Able support is provided by Tom Fadden, Clarence Muse, Robert C. Fisher, Henry Victor and Samuel S. Hinds. Harold Schuster directed from an original screenplay by Maurice Tombragel and Maurice Wright. Lola is commissioned by the English consul to try to find a sacred skull during a hunting trip. Craig joins her party against her wishes, and Cianelli also joins it. Their ship is wrecked after Cianelli murders the captain, and the survivors are further decimated by jungle animals before they manage to reach a native village. Here, Cianelli tips the sultan to the real object of Lola's trip and she and Craig are trapped when they search for the skull. However, after a rousing climax in which they escane death at the stake, a volcano erupts, Cianelli is killed and they fight their way through a mass of crocodiles, they manage to make a safe getaway with the skull. CAST: Lola Lane, James Craig, Eduardo Cianelli, Tom Fadden, R. C. Fischer, Clarence Muse, S. S. Hinds, 0. O'Shea, A. Biberman, L. Pape, E. Brown, H. Stubbs, Mala. CREDITS: Producer, Warren Douglas; Director, Harold Schuster; Original Screenplay, Maurice Tombragel and Maurice Wright; Cameraman, Milton Krasner. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. "Killers Of The Wild" with Joan Valerie, James Bush, Le Roy Mason Times Pictures 57 Mins. CORKING ANIMAL FILM SHOULD GET FINE REACTION FROM ALL TYPES OF AUDIENCES. With a magnificently trained police dog. Silver Wolf, as the leading actor, this animal film has thrills, beautiful outdoor locations, plenty of action, an interesting story and an able cast of Hollywood talent in support. A trained eagle named Goldie also contributes largely to the film thrills. There is also a trained crow that is a finished performer in his own right. Produced by Fine Arts Pictures, this film should get a good reaction from all types of audiences as it is different from the usual film fare and is highly entertaining at the same tme. Directors Vin Moore and Charles Hutchinson also get a hand for their painstaking work with the animals in the film. The human story in the film is routine, with Le Roy Mason, a trapper, and James Bush, a naturalist, both suitors of Joan Valerie. Mason kills his partner, Trevor Bardette, and blames Silver Wolf for the killing, scarring the dead man's face and throat with the fangs of an animal they had trapped. From there on the dog is hunted, but he proves to be faithful when he rescues a little girl taken by the eagle and returns her to her home. The dog is also vindicated of murder by evidence produced by Bush, and Silver Wolf disposes of Mason in his own fashion. CAST: Joan Valerie, James Bush, Le Roy Mason, Ruth Coleman, Jill L'Estrange, Trevor Bardette, Fred Santley, Lyons Wickland, Silver Wolf, Goldie. CREDITS: Produced by Fine Arts Picturse; Directors, Vin Moore and Charles Hutchinson; Story Charles Diltz; Screenplay, Hilda May Young. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. "Ghost Valley Raiders" with Donald Barry, Lona Andre, Le Roy Mason Republic 57 Mins. ACTIONFUL WESTERN WITH DONALD BARRY STARTS NEW SERIES OFF WITH A BANG. First of a new series of westerns Republic is producing with Donald Barry starring, picture is first-class action meller that should please the cowboy fans. Donold Barry is acceptable as a western hero, being aggressive, able to ride and shoot, and possessed of a pleasing personality. Picture itself has plenty of action, a fastmoving story, able direction and a capable cast. Supporting Barry are Lona Andre, Le Roy Mason and Jack Ingram, two firstrate villains, and Tom London. Barry, a government agent, is secretly sent to a town where an unprecedented wave of unsolved stage robberies has crippled business. He arrives posing as a noted outlaw after pictures of him have been plastered over the town offering a reward. The ruse works and he gets in with the gang as they have blamed the stage robberies on the outlaw he is impersonating and they don't want him captured. Barry discovers how the gang operates and after a number of complications the sheriff helps him round up the entire gang. Cast: Donald Barry, Lona Andre, Le Roy Mason, Tom London, Jack Ingram, Horace Murphy, Ralph Peters, Curley Dresden, Yakima Canutt. CREDITS: Associate Producer and Director, George Sherman; Screenplay, Bennett Cohen; Original Story Idea, Connie Lee; Cameraman, Ernest Miller; Editor, Lester Oriebeck. DIRECTION, Fast. PHOTOGRAPHY, GOOD. "The American Gang Busters" Times Pictures 60 Mins. FACTUAL ACCOUNT OF SMASHING OF PUBLIC ENEMIES BY "G" MEN IS SLIPSHOD EFFORT. Comprised of a number of newsreel clips and a few posed scenes, this release deals with a number of notorious public enemies liquidated in one form or another by the FBI and other law agencies. Material used is sometimes exciting, and it undoubtedly points out a moral lesson, "crime does not pay." But the camera work is often very bad and the picture as a whole has little value as entertainment. Probably the gangster minded and morbid type of fan who enjoys pictures of this ilk will go to see it, and smart exploitation may increase the patronage, but the film will be decried by most audiences as a cheap effort to exploit lawlessness, which is certainly black eye enough to the country at large without pointing it up and showing material of this type to children. John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bruno Hauptman, Pretty Boy Floyd, Alvin Karpis, the Urschel kidnappers, Raymond Hamilton and others are seen in the film. Of particular interest is the court scene of the sentencing of the Urschel kidnappers. CREDITS: Produced, Edited and Directed by Captain A. F. Dion. DIRECTION, Fair. PHOTOGRAPHY, Poor. "Texas Stagecoach" with Charles Starrett, Iris Meredith, Bob Nolan Columbia 59 Mini BALLADS, BULLETS, FAST RIDING ANl FIST FIGHTS APLENTY FO th( IE WEST ERN FANS. ^ Latest of the Charles Starrett series Ctlumbia produces, this release measures u| to what the western fans expect from theii cowboy heroes. Starrett fights, shoots an} rides rapidly across the countryside win equal aplomb. His supporting cast, inclUQ ing attractive Iris Meredith, Bob Nola| The Sons of the Pioneers and the villaii Dick Curtis, are all adequate. Joseph Lew directed. Starrett and his father run a sta{ liae, with Iris and her brother, Nolai friendly business rivals. MacDonald, loc< banker, and his stooge, Curtis, start a roa building race between the two stage com panies to a new town, causing trouble be tween them at the same time. One thin leads to another and open warfare breal out between the rival stage lines, but finaR ly Starrett sees what is happening behinc the scenes. His father is murdered by Cur tis and MacDonald closes down on his loam to Iris and her brother, taking their stag< line away after blocking Starrett's. How ever, Starrett rounds up Curtis and gets i confession that clears everything up, ano peace reigns once more with wedding belli in the offing. CAST: Charles Starrett, Iris Meredith' Bob Nolan, Dick Curtis, Kenneth MacDon aid, Ed Le Saint, Harry Cording, Francii Walker. CREDITS: Producer, Leon Barsha; Direc tor, Joseph Lewis; Original Screenplay, Fred Myton; Cameraman, George Meehan; Edi tor, Charles Nelson. DIRECTION, Fast. PHOTOGRAPHY, GoodJ ^ fORCicn ^ 'Claudine' (French dialogue, English titles) French Motion Picture Corp. 84 Min NEW YORK POST: Appealing pio tare, more of a character study adolescence than a narrative wit] plot. HERALD TRIBUNE: Utterly ca] tivating Gallic film, may come to ran! with other French triumphs. NEW YORK TIMES: We mu: label "Claudine" a film of douhtfi value, on its own cinematic face. WORLD TELEGRAM: Acting iil good, hut direction is static and unimaginative. CREDITS: Producer, Jacques Haik; Director, Serge de Poligny. PLAYERS: Blanchette Brunoy, Max Dearly, Margo Lion. RKO to Trade Show "Irene RKO will trade show "Irene" u all exchanges in the U. S. and Canada, Ned Depinet announced yesterday. Picture is slated to be re-^ leased late this month. m^ mttat