The Film Daily (1948)

Motion Picture Associates SALUTE THE WILL ROGERS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL ANNUAL BEACON AWARD DINNER and DANCE WALDORF-ASTORIA GRAND BALLROOM FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1948 TICKETS $10.00 PER PERSON Informal FOR RESERVATIONS CALL: NAT HARRIS LA 4-9190 HERMAN SCHLEIER CI 6-6460 OR WRITE TO— ROOM 170 HOTEL ASTOR, NEW YORK 19, N. Y. " DAILY Monday, May 17, IS. » REVIEWS » "I. Jane Doe" with Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Vera Ralston Republic 85 Mins. THIS ONE IS THE TICKET FOR THE FEMALES WHO LIKE THEIR SOAP OPERAS ON FILM: SUBSTANTIAL NAMES, GOOD PRODUCTION ARE ASSISTING FACTORS. Republic' usual top grade of production has gone into the making of this semicourtroom drama. Also, there is a good cast of substantial name players to enact the proceedings which will doubtless be found stimulating more by the feminine portion of the audience than the male viewers. The plot has a tendency to drag in spots. It is given over to lengthy courtroom procedure with flashbacks. It follows in its general handling, a more or less routine pattern. ■ ' Remaining silent during her trial for the murder of John Carroll, Miss Ralston is tagged "Jane Doe" by court and press alike. She is convicted, sentenced to the electric chair. She collapses and it is brought out she will soon have a baby. Her execution is postponed. The baby is born. Then Ruth Hussey, Carroll's widow, a lawyer, evinces interest, seeks and obtains a new trial. She managed to get Miss Ralston to talk. At the trial it is brought out that Carroll was a bigamist. Shot down in the war, Carroll was rescued in France by Miss Ralston. He romanced and married her, very lightheartedly, then returned to the States. She followed him. Trying to rid himself of her annoyance he snitches to the immigration authorities that she is in the country illegally. She is arrested but escapes from deportation detention and kills him. This is all brought out laboriously by Miss Hussey and to climax her case she makes Carroll out a morally irresponsible culprit whom she would have killed — she was about to — when Miss Ralston beat her to it. The jury acquits Miss Ralston who goes to the arms of a boyhood French lover, and so back to France. There are a number of discrepancies in the screenplay which, however, do not glare as the script unfolds. Work is a screenplay by Lawrence Kimble. "I, Jane Doe" adds up to substantial fare for the audience that likes its soap operas on celluloid. John H. Auer is associateproducer-director. CAST: Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Vera Ralston, Gene Lockhart, John Howard, Benay Venuta, Adele Mara, Roger Dann, James Bell, Leon Belasco, John Litel, Eric Feldary, Francis Pierlot, Marta Mitrovich, John Albright. CREDITS: Associate producer-director, John H. Auer; Screenplay, Lawrence Kimble; Adaptation, Decla Dunning; Photography, Reggie Canning; Art. James Sullivan; Music, Heinz Roemhold; Musical director, Morton Scott; Editor, Richard L. Van Enger; Sound, Victor B. Appel, Howard Wilson; Sets, John McCarthy, Jr., Charles Thompson. DIRECTION, Adequate. PHOTOGRAPHY, Fine. UJA Rally in Columbia H. O. Si Fabian, head of the Fabian circuit, Jack Cohn, Columbia veepee, and S. Cherr, Young & Rubicam veepee, addressed a UJA rally of the Columbia home office last Friday. Fabian is metropolitan chairman of the amusement division in the UJA drive for $2,500,000 in the industry. "Clandestine" into Stanley "Clandestine," French spy film with English titles, preems at the Stanley Theater, Saturday. Investment of Film $$ Up $43,500,000 (Continued from Page 1) was invested in enlarging and i, ■ proving studio facilities, while $2£ 000 was invested in distribution l a similar amount on non-t) p j enterprises. Vd > Estimated total investment as { the first of this year, according I the Year Book, was $2,647,976,4) A breakdown shows $2,474,976,'] was invested in theater properti 1 $134,750,000 in studios; $25,500,0!'; in distribution, and $12,750,000 in non-theatrical field. A reference book on the mot picture, the Year Book includes o 1,000 pages of data on films, mot picture companies, personnel, ind' try lists, credits of players, p? ducers, directors, writers and cajj eramen, associations, theater circuij1 and other phases of film makrdj* distribution and exhibition. Motion picture industries of t« country as well as a number of f\ eign countries are included in A: scope. In addition there are specf: sections of the volume devoted j television as it affects films, the p j duction and marketing of non-tli: atrical subjects, theater equipmct and other allied material. Published each year since 19 1; the 1948 edition marks the 30th it nual edition of the book. 63rd SMPE Convention W Be Opened Today on Coa West Coast Bureau of THE FILM <DAIh\ Hollywood — Sixty-third semi-* nual convention of the Society Motion Picture Engineers opens day at the Ambassodor Hotel, Sai Monica. Meeting will run throu Friday, with technical sessions schi uled for each day. Loren L. Ryd SMPE president, will preside at day's introductory luncheon and \ Wednesday evening banquet. Chairman and vice-chairmen of \V 11 technical sessions scheduled, ' announced by Ryder, include: Sidr P. Solow, C. R. Crane, W. N. W<? Lloyd Goldsmith, C. R. Daily, O. c » Gunby, J. G. Frayne, F. L. Eich, ' ■ W. Rennerscheid, Leo Chase, Ger^ » Rackett, E. H. Reichard, C. R. Kei; f Earl I. Sponable, Alan Gundelfing; Watson Jones, C. N. Batsel, C. Handley, W. E. Gephart, Col. Nath Levinson, and Dr. B. F. Miller. SICK LIST BETTY ANN STEINMAN, daughter Minneapolis Monogram branch mana Morrie Steinman, hospitalized follow attack of pneumonia. E. J. WILLIS, Atlas Theaters auditor, St. Joseph's Hospital, Denver, for operati BENNY LAMO, assistant manager of Strand Theater, Hartford, Conn., is a path at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, eye trouble. I: