The Film Daily (1939)

Wednesday, July 12, 1939 /3*fc .V :< REVIEWS Of THE REUI flLHIS i\ ■< "Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever" with Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney M G-M 85 Mins. GREAT -^OMEDY PERFORMANCE BY MICKEY*. N>NEY IN FILM INTRODUCING NEW oLAMOUR GIRL. This latest in the Hardy series rings the bell not only because of the exceptionally fine human story and the featured work of Mickey Rooney, but because of the appearance of a girl named Helen Gilbert in the role of a schoolteacher, who looms up as one of the most charming personalities to come to the screen in a long, long time. | This story has plenty of incident, combining I the usual formula of a dramatic episode I in the life of the family, and the smaller I crisis in the personal affairs of Mickey. The j family matter involves Lewis Stone as the i father in a crooked deal with two sharpers | who take him and two other of the town's citizens over for a few thousand dollars on a fake real estate deal. But the Judge manages to pull out of that with no financial loss to himself and friends. Mickey's romantic adventure comprises the bulk of the action, and also the interest, for he has a touch of spring fever, and falls desperately in love with the new teacher of dramatics at the school. She is a very understanding person, and handles the situation with great finesse and diplomacy, with the help of the Judge who doesn't want to see his boy hurt. There is good comedy in the rehearsal and .final showing of an amateur school play which Mickey writes and in which he also plays the leading male part with his steady girl, Ann Rutherford, as the romantic interest, she being a native girl on the isle of Tahiti, and Mickey a rear admiral of the U. S. Navy. The finale has Mickey realizing that his love for the teacher can never be, and coming back to earth and his regular girl. Rooney does a grand job, his versatility for a youngster being something to wonder at. But this Helen Gilbert person as a new glamour girl will have the customers talking . She has charm, personality, marvelous looks, and real acting ability. CAST: Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden, Ann Rutherford, Sara Haden, Helen Gilbert, Terry Kilburn, John T. Murray, George Breakston, Charley Peck, Sidney Miller, Addison Richards, Olaf Hytten, Erville Alderson, Robert Kent. CREDITS: Director, W. S. Van Dyke. II; Screenplay, Kay Van Riper; Cameraman, Lester White; Editor, Ben Lewis. DIRECTION, Excellent. PHOTOGRAPHY, The Best. Durkee Signs for Rep. Product James R. Grainger, Republic's president and general manager in charge of distribution, returned to the home office yesterday from Baltimore, where, in association with Sam Flax, Republic's franchise holder for the Washington territory, a deal was closed for company's 193940 product with Frank H. Durkee, head of Durkee Theatrical Enterprises. Deal is for 22 of latter's houses in Baltimore, Annapolis and Havre de Grace. "They Asked for It" with William Lundigan, Joy Hodges, Michael Whalen Universal 61 Mins. COMEDY-DRAMA WITH RURAL SETTING RATES FAIR SUMMER ENTERTAINMENT. Rural drama with comedy sidelights. It tells of a country editor, played by William Lundigan, who is having a tough time trying to keep his local sheet going. His assistant, and general utility worker is Joy Hodges. They have as friends Michael Whalen and Thomas Beck, young lawyer and medico respectively. To kick some life into the dead sheet, they hop up an apparently natural death of an old farmer with a story suggesting foul play. They build this up with the help of the sheriff, who falls for the gag. Then the kick comes when the daughter of the dead farmer confesses to the murder. But this is then topped by the newspaper editor's discovery that a gang of trucking thieves using the dead farmer's barn had done the killing. The yarn gets by as a light summer concoction with emphasis on the laughs tied up with the thrills. The newspaper atmosphere is too far removed from reality to carry any weight of conviction. CAST: William Lundigan, Joy Hodges, Michael Whalen, Isabel Jewell, Lyle Talbot, Thomas Beck, Spencer Charters. CREDITS: Director, Frank McDonald; Author, James B. Lowell; Screenplay, Arthur T. Horman; Cameraman, Stanley Cortez; Editor, Philip Cahn. DIRECTION: Fair. PHOTOGRAPHY. Good. Para. Plans Wide Exploitation for Outstanding 39-40 pix (Continued from Page 1) disclosed yesterday by Robert M. Gillham, ad-publicity director. "Beau Geste," company's leadoff pix, will have a press preview at the Carthay Circle, Los Angeles, next Tuesday, with approximately 30 subsequent trade screenings to be staged throughout the country. Pix will also be shown at the FPC convention at Niagara Falls later in the month. Trade screenings will be handled by Alec Moss, Al Wilkie, C. N. Odell, Cliff Lewis, Terry De Lapp, Harlan Hobbs, Rufus Blair, Carl Kreuger. For Bob Burns' "Leading Citizen," plans include screenings for the 48 Governors, Coast-to-Coast broadcast by Burns from Van Buren, Ark., and a lecture tour by Irvin Cobb, story's author. For Bing Crosby's "The Star Maker," plans embrace a Coast-toCoast broadcast honoring Gus Edwards, staged by his former kid proteges, and contests to select most talented orphans in keys for a "Cinderella" trip to Hollywood. Premiere of "Geronimo," will be staged on the Apache reservation in Arizona, and Para, plans to have 250 Hollywood and New York newspaper correspondents present as its "Career" with Anne Shirley, Edward Ellis RKO Radio 79 Mins. GOOD FAMILY PICTURE WITH ROMANTIC DRAMA OF SMALL TOWN LIFE FEATURING CONTEST WINNERS. This is the Jesse Lasky Gateway to Hollywood tieup picture, with the girl and boy winners given featured roles. The boy John Archer shapes up very well, and looks as if he can go far with proper handling. We cannot say as much for the girl given the screen name of Alice Eden, who strikes this reviewer as being quite negative. However, the interest of the film does not depend on the work of these two amateurs. Edward Ellis is there, carrying the story with competence, and in the role of the boy's father protecting his fellow townsmen from a major financial disaster as the local bank fails, and helping his boy to survive his first tragic romance, he delivers a grand performance. The story is one of down-toearth realism, a typical small town drama of the midwest. Phil Stong's novel makes strong family entertainment. The romances of two young couples are followed, and while the story lacks any great dramatic moments, the character of Ellis as the homespun stalwart standing firmly for the things he believes in, and fighting through to a triumph when the whole town seems to go against him, makes a fine wholesome bit of screen entertainment. Anne Shirley plays the part of the girl that John Archer is in love with, and who marries another boy from the home town. Good comedy contributed by Leon Errol as the town's loveable drunk. Selling angles: the radio buildup on the Gateway to Hollywood contest; the small town story of the average American boy and girl in love. CAST: Anne Shirley, Edward Ellis, Samuel S. Hinds, Janet Beecher, Leon Errol, Alice Eden, John Archer, Raymond Hatton, Maurice Murphy, Harrison Greene. CREDITS: Producer, Robert Sisk; Director, Leigh Jason; Screenplay, Dalton Trumbo; adaptation, Bert Granet; Author, Phil Stong; Cameraman, Frank Redman; Editor, Arthur E. Roberts. DIRECTION, Fair. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. guests. Pix will start in Salt Lake City and Denver with special campaigns; total of 20 test runs are contemplated. To exploit "Rulers of the Sea," Para, will send 40-foot replicas of the Sirius and Dog Star across the country by truck and waterways. Pix will have its world premiere aboard the Queen Mary here and will be tied in with a HollywoodNew York-London broadcast. Similar three-city Trans-Atlantic broadcast also will mark premiere of "Jamaica Inn" at the Rivoli here in the early Fall. Premiere of "Are Husbands Necessary?" is scheduled for Nassau, Bahamas, in mid-September and Para, will send scribes from the Atlantic seaboard to the opening. For "Disputed Passage," Lloyd C. Douglas, its author, will make a key city lecture tour prior to pix's release. "Hell's Kitchen" with Stanley Fields, "Dead End" Kids Warners 81 Mins. RAMBLING DRAMA OF BOYS' REFORMATORY CARRIES ONLY MILD THRILLS. A confused drama of a boy's shelter run by a crooked headmaster, with Stanley Fields in the guise of a racketeer trying to reform in order to make good his probationary stint, moving in and running the home. Fields carries the picture all the way with his good natured comedy characterization, trying to make the boys in the home go straight and avoid going up to the big house for a stretch. Grant Mitchell as the hypocritical head of the institution, collecting funds from philanthropic citizens and using the money for his own purposes, does a fine piece of work. The "Dead End" kids seem to be greatly overworked in spots, and their emotionalism does not always register as sincere. The story is obviously patterned after "Boys' Town" with its self government by the kids being suggested by Fields when he muscles in on the crooked head of the institution and relegates him to secondary position. But Mitchell works a scheme with a rival racketeer of Fields, and frames him into a parole violation via a hockey game in New York between the "Dead End" Kids and another reformatory team. But the latter are professional ringers, and the game is a slambang affair dragged in for the thrills and general excitement, but very illogical with the pros playing against the kids and nobody protesting till it is practically over. A couple more like this and the Kids will be washed up. It rates just so-so on a double-bill. Margaret Lindsay and Ronald Reagan furnish the romantic interest. Selling angles: the "Dead End" Kids; the Fields comedy as a reformed gangster. CAST: The "Dead End" Kids, Stanley Fields, Grant Mitchell, Margaret Lindsay, Ronald Reagan, Frankie Burke, Fred Tozere, Arthur Loft, Vera Lewis, Robert Homans, Charley Foy, Robert Strange, Raymond Bailey. CREDITS: Producers, Mark Hellinger, Bryan Foy; Directors, Lewis Seiler, E. A. Dupont; Author, Crane Wilbur; Screenplay, Crane Wilbur, Fred Niblo, Jr. DIRECTION, Weak. PHOTOGRAPHY, Okay. Dallas Variety Club Industry Workers Picnic Saturday Dallas — A picnic to be given by the Variety Club at Vickery Park Saturday for the employes of all the film companies, Interstate Circuit, Robb & Rowley, Jefferson Amusement Co. and the Griffith Amusement Co. promises to be one of the big events of the season. Harry Sachs is general chairman. Hyman Charninsky's orchestra will play for dancing in the evening. Levy Doubling for GN Omaha — Lou Levy, Grand National branch manager at Des Moines, now has the Omaha exchange under his wing. Freddie Horn, GN manager, has joined the Columbia sales staff.