The Film Daily (1940)

^Thursday, December 12, 1940 3fe reviews of new fiLms^ * book reviews < * 'Baby Sandy Gets Her "Nobody's Children' Man with Baby Sandy, Una Merkel, Stuart Erwin (Universal 66 Mins. GOOD CAST OF COMICS FAILS TO PUT PICTURE OVER DUE TO WEAK STORY MATERIAL. I Using Baby Sandy as the basis of a tug iof-war between a cop and a fireman for t her mother's hand and her father's hoped for award to the department, Universal lined up an imposing cast of comics for the picture, but the picture suffers from Iweak story material. However, pix has some good laughs and a lot of comedians whose appearance alone will put audiences in a good humor. Baby Sandy has Una Merkel for her mother, Stuart Erwin, a fireman and Jack Carson, a cop, as the rivals for Miss Merkel's hand, and Edgar Kennedy, William Frawley, Edward Brophy and Wally Vernon in the supporting cast. Otis Garrett and Paul Gerard share credit for the direction, and the screenplay was written by Sy Bartlett and Jane Storm. ' Erwin and Carson are rivals for Miss Merkel's hand because her father, William Davidson, a city councilman, is in a position to award a large sum of money to the 'departments for new equipment. Erwin is really in love with Miss Merkel, but she decides that Baby Sandy will have to make the choice. Kennedy, the fire chief, and Frawley, the police chief, support the courtship of their candidates. A lot of hokum transpires and Baby Sandy gets mixed up in a burning building for a big rescue scene climax, with Stuart playing the hero's role, getting the girl and reinstatement in the department. CAST: Baby Sandy, Stuart Erwin, Una Merkel, Edgar Kennedy, William Frawley, Edward Brophy, Wally Vernon, Jack Carson, William Davidson, John Sheehan Isabel Randolph. CREDITS: Associate producer, Burt Kelly; 'Directors, Otis Garrett and Paul Gerard Smith; Original screenplay, Sy Bartlett and Jane Storm; Cameraman, Elwood Bredell. DIRECTION, Okay. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. ;20c Per Seat License Fee Livingston, N. J. — The township .attorney has been instructed to draw an ordinance fixing movie theater .fees at 20 cents a seat per year, and to specify 1 p.m. as Sunday opening •hour. Township recently approved , Sunday movie question after theater ;;hain had given assurance a theater, , the township's first, would then be ouilt. Tentative plans call for a £52,000 building, containing 600 seats. The license fee would total £120. Leverette Held Up, Kidnaped Medford, Ore.— Walter H. Leverjtte, Southern Oregon and Northern 3alif ornia circuit operator, and party were held up as they were leaving Lieverette's new home on the Pacific 3ighway. The bandit kidnaped Leverette, forced him to drive his own :ar about two miles west of Jacksonville. with Edith Fellows, Billy Lee, Lois Wilson, Walter White Jr. Columbia 65 Mins. DRAMATIC YARN ABOUT ORPHANS IS OVERLY SENTIMENTAL BUT WELL ACTED; GOOD FOR FAMILY AUDIENCES. A tear-jerker of the first water, this release will probably appeal to the average family audience as it is well acted and the story is intelligently put together. However, for larger, sophisticated spots, the picture suffers from an overdose of sentimentality. Edith Fellows and Billy Lee are an able pair of juveniles, and they do justice to their parts. In addition, a good supporting cast has been provided, including Lois Wilson, Walter White Jr., Georgia Caine, Ben Taggart and Mary Currier. The picture is based on a radio program originated by White to place orphans in good homes. Doris Malloy wrote the screenplay and Charles Barton directed. Miss Fellows, a cripple, and her brother, Billy Lee, are in a home for orphans. White suggests to the directors of the orphanage that the children be placed on the air to sell themselves but Billy won't allow himself to be adopted because his crippled sister hasn't been. Finally, Edith, who has passed the orphanage age limit and must go to a state home for cripples persuades him to let himself be adopted, and is adopted herself by Taggart and Miss Currier. Much travail follows, but everybody is happy when the picture ends as Edith recovers and Billy is adopted by the same family. CAST: Edith Fellows, Billy Lee, Georgia Caine, Lois Wilson, Walter White, Jr., Ben Taggart, Mary Currier, Mary Gordon, Lillian Ward. William Gould. CREDITS: Produced by Columbia; Director. Charles Barton; Screenplay, Doris Malloy; Adapted from a radio show by Walter White Jr.; Cameraman, Benjamin Kline; Editor, Richard Fantl. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. GWTW Anniversary Show Tonight in Atlanta Atlanta — Exactly one year after the roadshow premiere of "Gone With the Wind" at Loew's Grand, the picture returns tonight for its anniversary premiere at approximately one-half the original admission prices but without any cuts to reduce the running time of three hours and 45 minutes. Tonight's audience will comprise the first of 50,000,000 persons expected to see the picture in its general release. About 25,000,000 already have seen it. Proceeds of tonight's premiere will go to the Atlanta Committee of the British War Relief Society. Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier and Director Alfred Hitchcock head the Hollywood delegation here to participate in the festivities. Clark Howell, publisher of the Atlanta Constitution, will be emcee. D. W. GRIFFITH. American Film Master. By Iris Barry. Published by the Museum of Modern Art, New i York. 40 large pages. Price $1. It was almost inevitable that the | Museum of Modern Art should start [ its series of large-page books on prominent figures in the motion picture art or industry — as you prefer— with a mono era ph on David Wark Griffith, for he still remains j the outstanding figure in the development of the movies from a fivecent time -killer to the $2 "roadshow" which has superseded the "living stage" in providing entertainment for the mass public. The volume is profusely illustrated with photoe-rarahs of sets and scenes from the Griffith productions and "stills" of the actors whom he developed — often "created." Miss Barry's es^ay is a mingled biographical and historical account of the great director and the emergence of the motion picture into a complicated emotion-arousing art form. The biographical treatment presents Griffith in a verv human, sympathetic light while the historical treatment stresses his influence upon film technique, most of the developments of which were originated by him. Many of the technical improvements were seized upon by Russian and German directors and came back to this country as innovations, but Miss Barry demonstrates that they were originated by Griffith and the expert cameraman so long associated with him, "Billy" Bitzer. Comment on Griffith's major productions— "The Birth of a Nation," "Intolerance," "Broken Blossoms," "Orphans of the Storm" — while critical never loses sight of his originality, sympathy with new ideas, projection of very human characters from his first directorial efforts, particularly with those films dealing with modern life. The volume is a handy reference s'uide for all those interested in the technical development of the movies end in the principal events in the life of a master innovator in a new and still developing art form. L. H. M. DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS. The Making of a Screen Character, By Alistair Cooke. Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 40 pages, 40 plates. Bound in boards. Price $1. Second in the Film Library Series of publications by the Museum of Modern Art, "Douglas Fairbanks," is a thoughtful, well-balanced analysis of the actor and his place in screen art; of the merging of Douglas Fairbanks, the man himself, his characteristics, his athleticism, his American brand of idealism, into "Doug" the screen star who knew "more about making pictures than all of us," as Joseph M. Schenck was to say later. Mr. Cooke divides his monograph into three sections: I. Creating a Screen Personality; II. The Raw Material (Douglas Elton Ulman) ; III. The Making of "Doug," with three sub-divisions — The Popular Philosopher (1917 to 1920); The Athlete (1916-1932); The Showman (1912-1929). This is followed by a chronology of the private and screen life of the star and a full index. The pages are about as large as those of The Film Daily with two columns to the page so that the monograph would fill about 100 pages of an ordinary 12 mo. book. It is handsomely printed and reproductions of photos of Fairbanks and of scenes from his pictures are of artistic and nostalgic interest to those who fell under the Fairbanks spell in his early or mid-career. The Museum of Modern Art has done a service to the screen and the general public in publishing Mr. Cooke's illuminating essay on the ebullient Fairbanks whose name is indissolubly linked with the emergence of motion pictures from a curiosity into a popular art form that is helping to shape the pattern of modern civilization. To the student of the films, to all those who were Fairbanks "fans" and to the general public the volume is recommended. — L. H. M. Grasgrin, Moon on Stand i Tallev Appoints Darrock In Midwest-Co-op Trial To Short Subjects Post Detroit — At yesterday's session of trial of the Midwest versus Co-operative Theaters suit, Al Grasgrin, manager of Flatroc theater at Flat Rock, testified his house was forced to play 60 days after nearby Monroe theaters instead of seven days which would be agreeable to Monroe management. Reason given is that Co-operative insisted Flatroc be classed in the Trenton zone, where it has a house, rather than Monroe. Raymond E. Moon, manager of Mutual theaters, and former manager of Co-operative, then took the Appointment of Jack Darrock to a supervisory post in the Fox Movietone short subjects department is announced by Truman TaPey, production chief of Movietone. Darrock, who has been news manager on the Coast for a number of years, is succeeded there by Arthur De Titta, who recently returned from Europe. stand. Testimony interrupted by frequent legal clashes. Moon said Co-operative closed as a unit for product deals for all houses, and testified to some situations where independents could not get pictures at any price but Co-operative could.