The Film Daily (1942)

ursday, April 23, 1942 30E evieujs of new fiLms DAILY 'Saboteur" versal 110 Mins. ■HRILLER, LAVISHLY PRODUCED, OCK FULL OF TENSENESS AND ACDN. -iitchcock has done it again in "Saboteur" h an original screenplay by Peter Viertel, Harrison and Dorothy Parker. The ^"gets off to an exciting and extremely orbing start, but as the sequences unJ it tends to become overly melodramatic. : situations and action take on an aura implausibility. However, there is so ch material of great interest, so many ts of the dialogue are of exceedingly h calibre and there is such a wealth of e showmanship and artistic direction that ■se shortcomings can be overlooked. At an airplane manufacturing plant in ;ndale the workers have just gone into ; factory lunchroom. Flames and smoke . from the paint shop and they all rush :k. Robert Cummings and his pal, two of : employes, collide with Norman Lloyd, jposedly a fellow worker and pick up name and address when they retrieve Tie letters he drops. Lloyd hands Cummings a fire extinguish, he passes it along to his pal; the kid :hes into the flames and is immediately led. Cummings goes to see his dead end's mother (Dorothy Peterson) and the lice come to inquire as to his whereouts. They have a warrant for his arit, having discovered that the extinguisher ntained gasoline. Cummings escapes with enough clues to ick down Lloyd and bums his way to ( hideout — a sumptuous ranch. Here he sets Otto Kruger, leader of the sabotage ig and makes a daring escape from the lice, handcuffed. He finds his way to isolated cabin, and is taken in by Vaughn aser, a blind man. His niece, Priscifla ne, tries to turn Cummings over to the lice and he goes through some clever ces to prevent her. They eventually bum a ride on a circus ravan and get to the place they assume 3yd is. Here they find a hideaway shack >ll equipped for espionage and two of the ng show up. Cummings puts on a great t and before long is on his way to New )rk with them; they assume he is part their clan. Arriving in New York Cummings is rushed a mansion and brought face to face with tto Kruger and Prise ilia Lane, who has been ken a prisoner. There is a fabulous ballom scene, elaborately photographed in hich the two kids are trapped. From this Tie on the footage covers a lot of ground, iffice to say that Norman Lloyd is finally apped and comes to a horrible end at the atue of Liberty! Up until the time Miss Lane and Cumings reach New York the plot is entirely ausible and interest-holding. A little ss of the melodramatic and a few less itanglements and complications in the story ould bring out some of the real Americanm and truth in the theme that often take back seat. They seem lost in the action. Hitchcock's direction is up to his usual igh standard. He has left out no detail iat will add to the suspense or realism so tal to a film of this sort. The photography nder the direction of Joseph Valentine oes hand in hand with the direction, jperb. Robert Cummings, P rise il la Lane, Otto ruger, and Norman Lloyd are all deserving f some real applause. Their performances * SHORTS * "Hands of Victory" Para. 9% mins. Exceptional Subject E. W. Hammons has produced a quality short which is unusual in its theme and having mass appeal. Starring Josef Renald, world famous hand scientist, and featuring Warren Hull, the subject deals with hands — hands of our military leaders and allies and those of our enemies. From Dr. Ranald's collection of thousands of hand impressions, the analyst points out what the hands reveal, basing his contentions on years of scientific study. Woven into a simple story, expertly directed by George Freeland, Dr. Ranald presents the hand impressions of General Pershing, Chiang Kai-shek, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Sir Archibald Wavell and, most important of all, General Douglas MacArthur. These persons' hands have the marks of fighters, courage and the star of victory; those of Hitler and Mussolini show marks of cruelty, frustration and disaster, according to Dr. Ranald. Subject is unusually timely and should cause plentv of comment, regardless of whether a person believes in hands as an indication of character. "California Junior Symphony" (Broadway Brevities) Warner 20 mins. Musical Treat Here is something made to order for lovers of good music. The California Junior Symphony, composed of more than 100 young musicians of Hollywood, performs a wealth of classical selections with a skill worthy of the maturest instrumental performers. Their work is amazing, considering some of them are of a tender age indeed. Peter Meremblum, their conductor, who brought the group together, deserves great praise for the accomplishments of these young people. Jean Negulesco directed. are top-notch. Kruger and Cummings both show their stuff in sequences donated to putting over messages. Vaughn Glaser has also done a swell job on a small part. CAST: Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Norman Lloyd, Otto Kruger, Vaughn Glaser, Murray Alper, Dorothy Peterson, Alma Kruger. CREDITS: Producer, Frank Lloyd; Associate Producer, Jack H. Skirball; Director, Alfred Hitchcock; Assistant, Fred Frank; Original Screenplay, Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison, Dorothy Parker; Art Director, Jack Otterson; Associate, Robert Boyle; Photography, Joseph Valentine; Sound Supervisor, Bernard B. Brown; Sound Recorder; William Hedgcock; Editor, Otto Ludwlg, PHOTOGRAPHY, Excellent. DIRECTION, Superb. Your reporter does not review books but he is vitally interested in one publication, the annual Film Daily Year Book. The 1942 edition is about due and when it arrives it will bring a wealth of information which is almost indispensable to one associated with the motion picture industry, directly or indirectly. It would be difficult to ask a question regarding the activities of the movie industry in 1941 which is not answered in the 1942 edition. How do I know? Well, I've been getting the Year Book for more years than I care to remember and it has always been like that. Just to give you a rough idea of how this splendid publication "puts the finger" on the worth while information, I quote below two treatments of subjects concerning motion pictures which will prove as interesting to you as to me: "Moving picture theaters are located in 10,013 cities and towns in the United States, it is revealed by a survey made by The Film Daily for the 1942 Year Book, published today. Checkup also shows that there were 378 more theaters operated in the country on Jan. 1, 1942, than on Jan. 1, 1941. Total theaters were indicated at 20,281 with 11,719101 seats; 2,362 houses with 906,567 seats were temporarily closed on Jan. 1, 1942, and 17,919 theaters with 10,812,534 seats were being operated. On Jan. 1, 1941 there were 17,541 open houses with 10,589,842 seats. The Year Book also shows that theaters are operated in 207 U. S. army posts. It is estimated that there are in excess of 400 theaters on these posts, operated by the U. S. Army Motion Picture Service for the exclusive use of army personnel. It is pointed out that 468 of the theaters operated for general patronage are of the "portable" type, using projection and sound equipment carried from town to town, usually by truck. Also that 413 theaters are operated for the exclusive use of Negro patrons. During 1941, the vogue for auto theaters continued and at year's end there were 95 "drive-in" locations in the U. S." "Yes, despite the diggin's have been well worked by literally miners, there's still gold in them thaiHollywood hills. Witness the fact that the film industry last year paid out more than a half million dollars for just three literary properties with a view to their conversion into screen fare. When Paramount acquired the rights to "Lady in the Dark," Broadway stage hit, the sum involved was $283,000. That was the industry's record investment in a literary property during the last calendar year. Total expenditure by all American film studios for stories — published works, stage plays and originals — in 1941 reached $4,950,000, as against $3,225,000 paid out in the preceding year. Top price for a novel paid by a film company in 1941 was $175,000; it gave Warner Bros, the rights to Edna Ferber's best seller, "Saratoga Trunk." Highest price paid for an original story was the $100,000 which Katharine Hepburn insisted Metro pay for "Woman of the Year"; the story was the joint work of Ring Lardner, Jr., and Michael Kanin. Incidentally, the picture well may prove Metro's biggest money maker of 1942. Hollywood manifested increased denendency on original stories during the past year. The number of originals rose from 323 in 1940 to 358 in 1941; the relative percentages being 61.8 and 63." Reprinted from the TACOMA, WASHINGTON Times oi March 31 i