The Film Daily (1945)

'9fe Thursday, August 2, 19^ cominc aid Goinc HARRY GOLDBERG, director of theater advertising and publicity for Warners will be in thiiadelphia on Friday. JULES CIRDEN, Warner Theaters executive, returns today from Albany. DON WALKER, Warners field rep. for Kansas City area, is in Omaha for a few days. HALL WALSH, Prairie District manager for Warners, and MRS. WALSH are vacationing briefly in Colorado. Theater For Picture Not Up to Arbitrator (Continued from Page 1) wanted to play RKO's "It's a Pleasure" at the Empire Theater, Fall River, Mass., but RKO insisted that the picture play the Durfee, a larger house. Yamins filed an arbitration case and, upon its dismissal, announced that he would appeal the decision. The arbitrator, Arthur P. Hardy who heard the case in Boston, said that the "most that could be done would be to make a finding that RKO had refused to license its picture for exhibit in the complainant's theater and to make an award ordering it to license its pictures for exhibition in the complainant's theater." Hardy said that such an order should not be made because the defendant in all but one instance licensed its pictures for exhibit in the complainant's theater and was continuing to do so and "because the defendant in dealing with Mr. Yamins, as exhibitor, has been and is willing to license any and all of its pictures, so far as is disclosed by the evidence, for exhibition in some one of the theaters operated and controlled by Mr. Yamins." Levy in London to Map Distribution for Disney London (By Cable)— William B. Levy, Walt Disney Productions distribution exec, has arrived via Pan American clipper. Levy will remain overseas for two months, visiting the Disney offices in London and Paris for conferences with the company's European reps. Plans will be mapped for the post-war distribution of the Disney product throughout the British Isles and the Continent. The Disney Studio at present is completing the French language version of "Pinocchio" which was dubbed in France and .is probably the first film to be dubbed there since the outbreak of World War II. Flint Slaps on Curfew Flint, Mich. — Police Chief Byars, has ordered the curfew to be enforced, in order to curb a rise in juvenile delinquency here. Streets that formerly swarmed with youngsters after 10 p.m., now must be cleared by 9:30. RCVICUIS OF THC HCUI f ILmS ^ "Mama Loves Papa" with Leon Erroi RKO 61 Mins. COMEDY HEAVILY LOADED WITH SLAPSTICK WILL SCORE ESPECIALLY WiTH YOUNG AUDIENCES. A comedy stretched to the breaking point to make feature length, "Mama Loves Papa" is made up largely of slapstick. The film is entertainment for those who can still laugh at the sight of a guy minus his pants. That means virtually every kid and such adults as are not choosy about their diversion. Honest-to-goodness humor is hardly to be >encountered in this offering, which was produced in an off-hand manner by Ben Stoloff under Executive Producer Sid Rogell. The screenplay of Charles Roberts and Monte Brice, directed with plenty of movement by Frank Strayer, relates an extremely absurd yarn about a mousy office employe in the year 1905 who gets into some fantastic situations when his wife keeps needling him to acquire spunk and advance himself. His efforts at self-promotion are clumsy, but they work to his advantage in the end. The performances are superior to the material for the most part. Errol gives the leading role all he's got. Elisabeth Risdon gives him good support as the pushing wife. Charlotte Wynters draws iruch attention to herself as a vixen with whom Errol executes some shenanigans. CAST: Leon Errol, Elisabeth Risdon, Edwin Maxwell, Emory Parnell, Charles Halton, Paul Harvey, Charlotte Wynters, Ruth Lee, Lawrence Tierney. CREDITS: Excutive Producer, Sid Rogell; Producer, Ben Stoloff; Director, Frank Strayer; Screenplay, Charles Roberts, Monte Brice; Cameraman, Jack Mackenzie; Musical Score, Leigh Hari:ne; Art Directors, Albert S. D'Agostino, Lucius Croxton; Set Decorators, Darrell Silvera, William Stevens; Sound, Frank McWhorter; Film Editor, Edwin W. Williams. DIRECTION, Okay. PHOTOGRAPHY, Okay. Alliance Corp. Buys Two Fowler, Ind., Theaters Fowler, Ind. — The Alliance Theater Corporation of Chicago has bought the equipment of the two Fowler theaters — the Fowler and Dream theaters — and leased the building of the Fowler for 25 years from Dick Vlastos. Max D. Lofton, formerly with the Orpheum Theater Circuit of Terre Haute is the new manager for the Fowler Theater. The Alliance Theater Corporation owns and operates a chain of theaters in cities and towns of the Middle West. It is reported unofficially that the Dream theater, which had been open only each Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, will be discontinued. Dick Vlastos has retained his ownership of the two theaters at Knox, Ind. Thursday Opening Switch Cleveland, O. — The RKO Palace, always heretofore committed to a Friday change with a combination vaud-film policy, will offer its new program on Thursday of each week starting Sept. 13, Manager William Heiss announces. This will conform to the Thursday change date of neighboring first-run movie houses. "Johnny Angel" with George Raft, Claire Trevor, Signe Hasso RKO 79 Mins. EFFECTIVELY DONE MELODRAMA IS ENTERTAINMENT THAT WILL GO OVER WELL. "Johnny Angel" is a taut melodrama that will get by nicely. The film possesses atmosphere, vividness and a story told with a fair amount of suspense, managing to hold the interest in spite of one or two points that are not made exactly clear in the develcpment of the plot. Aided by the photography of Harry J. Wild, the film creates a mood that strengthens the story. The film profits, too, from Edwin L. Marin's tense direction of the Steve Fisher screenplay, which stems from a Frank Gruber adaptation of a yarn by Charles Gordon Booth called "Mr. Angel Comes Aboard." Well produced by William L. Pereira for a film of modest proportions, "Johnny Angel," set almost wholly in New Orleans, has George Raft as a sea captain determined to lift the mystery surrounding his father's ship, found adrift at sea with no sign of life aboard. He solves the riddle with a good deal of excitement. A plot involving the theft of millions in Free French funds on the way to a safe repository in America is at the bottom of the mystery. The film has been acceptably acted. Raft is forceful if nothing else. Signe Hasso, at first suspected of having a hand in the plot, eventually becomes the object of Raft's affections. Claire Trevor is a party to the plot who wants to leave her husband and run away with our hero, who isn't interested. CAST: George Raft, Claire Trevor, Signe Hasso, Lowell Cilmore, Hoagy Carmichael, Marvin Miller, Margaret Wycherly, J. Farrell Macdonald, Mack Cray. CREDITS: Executive Producer, Jack J. Cross; Producer, William L. Pereira; Director, Edwin L. Marin; Screenplay, Steve Fisher; Adaptation, Frank Gruber; Based on story by Charles Cordon Booth; Cameraman, Harry J. Wild; Musical Score, Leigh Harline; Musical Director, C. Bakaleinikoff; Special Effects, Vernon L. Walker; Art Directors, Albert S. D'Agostino, Jack Okey; Set Decorators, Darrell Silvera, William Stevens; Sound, John Cass; Film Editor, Les Millbrook. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. 40 Per Cent of SPG Said Observing Picket Lines IV est Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Although members of Screen Publicists Guild voted 107 to 99 to ignore studio picket lines, SPG representatives declared last night that 40 per cent of members observed picket lines yesterday. Major producers reported staffs were 100 per cent at work at 20th-Fox, RKO, Republic, Goldwyn Studios and Warners, with three members out at M-G-M and three at Universal. Walkouts were voted at Paramount and Columbia and all SPG members of those two studios were out. Aimee Lewis Returns Cleveland — Aimee L. Lewis, forer M-G-M booker, is home from the wars, having received her discharge from the WAC, after 26 months in the service, — 20 of them overseas. She served in North Africa, Naples and Leghorn. ^ SHORTS * Universal "Victory Bound" (Variety View) \0] 9 min Captivating Beautiful photography capturi the narrative mood of this saga an LST boat as it takes you from i construction berth on a shakedo\s cruise from Pittsburgh, Pa., on tl Monongahela river, through Ame' ica's waterways to New Orleans h fore setting out on the mission f( which she was intended. "School for Mermaid" (Person-Oddity) Universal 9 min; Exceptional Three subjects of . interest, pr sented in an entertaining fashio have been joined for this reel. Tl first features a unique school for f male deep sea divers at Port Arthu Tex. Following this is a display tricks by Lt. Jerome C. Knight, fo' mer vaudevillian and stage perforr er, who offers knife-throwing as possible use against the enemy. Ei ward T. Frenrich winds up the su' ject with a display of unique utili" canes. "Waikiki Melody" (Name Band Musical) Universal 15 min Excellent A variety of novelty and standai Hawaiian tunes has been neatly roi tined in this one for Harry Ower; and his Royal Hawaiians. The voca' and dancing delivered by Hilo Hatti Ernest Kawohi, Bob Hamlin, Aim Ross, Leinaala Reid, and the "Thrt Hawaiian Sweethearts" turns ths into a top-notch musical subjet Outstanding bits are a Hawaii? cowboy number, native interpret:: tion of "Three Blind Mice," ar Owens' pleasing introductions. Universal "Village of the Past" (Variety View) Unusual 9 min A trip through Greenfield Villai near Detroit reveals a Henry Fol philanthropy with his creation of community that includes landmarl and historical collections of pai American generations. Among thes are the 100-year-old Clinton Inn; tl general store with its bootjack-t corset merchandising; an impressi^ Lincoln collection; Edison's labor; tory, and Stephen Foster's home Eddie Safier 111 Chicago — Eddie Safier, 20th-Fc country salesman, is at Billings hoi pital for observation.