The Film Daily (1947)

* CONiEDY * Meet Me at Danf n 20th CENTURY-FOX CAST: WilUam Eythe. Hazel Court, Margaret Rutherford, Stanley Halloway, Basil Sydney, Beatrice Campbell, George Thorpe, Irene Browne. CREDITS: Producer, Marcel Hellman in England; Director, Thornton Freeland; Screenplay, Lesley Storm, James Seymour. Syuopiis: William Eythe, a professional Parisian duellist, is hired to insult anl battle with a politician. Seeking an excuse for the duel, he accuses his potential adversary of molesting Hazel Court. The affair becomes the talk of Paris, with everyone seeking the identity of the mysterious "Madame X" involved in the escapade. Eventually, Hazel is revealed as the daughter of a prominent newspaper publisher, and things arrange themselves so that Eythe is to fight a duel with her father. Eythe allows himself to be slightly wounded during the fracas, and with everyone's code of honor satisfied, marries the beautiful Hazel. Merton of the Movies M-G-M CAST: Red Skelton, Virginia O'Brien, Gloria Grahame, Leon Ames, Alan Mowbray, Charles D. Brown, Hugo Hass, Harry Hoyden, Tom Trout, Douglas Fowley, Dick Wessell. CREDITS: Producer, Albert Lewis; Director, Robert Ahon; Screenplay, George Wells, Lou Breslow; Based on the novel by Harry Leon Wilson and play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly; Cameraman, Paul C. Vogel. Synopsis: Movie-struck Merton Gill (■Red Skelton), usher in a small town theater of 1915, dreams of becoming a cinema star. He stumbles across thieves robbing the theater and tries to capture them by imitating the screen technique of his idol, fading star Lawrence Rupert (Leon Ames). Merton knocks himself out but the thieves are captured. Rupert seeing the item in the newspaper feels that necessary publicity can be obtained and invites Merton to Hollywood. There Merton's every move is photographed and as soon as the publicity pictures are taken, Rupert completely ignores Merton who finds himself stranded. His efforts to obtain work are unsuccessful. He is further disillusioned when he discovers that Beulah Baxter (Gloria Grahame), reigning screen siren, does not perform her own dangerous stunts but are done by her double, Phyllis Montague (Virginia O'Brien) who movie-wise and tvnical tries to straighten out Merton's idealistic beliefs about movies. Merton finally gets a small role in a drama but is thrown off the set because of his amateur over-acting. He refuses comedy parts which Phyllis manages to get for him, believing himself a great dramatic actor. Phyllis is signed lo appear with Rupert in "Souls on Fire" and when Rupert disappears on one of his binges, she induces the producer to let Merton play the lead. .\s usual Merton plays with over-emphasis and the play is changed to "Soles on Fire." He is a hit but greatly humiliated. Finally Phyllis proves to him that comedy is equally as important as drama and he is happy. He crowns his success by announcing his engagement to Phyllis. ]\ew Girl in Town EAGLE-LION CREDITS: Producer Aubrey Schenck; Director, Bernard Vorhaus; Screenplay, Margaret Buell Wilder, Philip MacDonald; from the novel by Aubrey Wisberg. The ]\oose Hangs High EAGLE-LION CAST: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. CREDITS: Producer, Milton H. Feld; Director, Charles Barton; Screenplay, Edward Ullman and Clyde Brickman; Original Story, Charles Grayson and Albert T. Herman. The Paleface (TECHNICOLOR) PARAMOUNT CAST: Bob Hope, Jane Russell. CREDITS: Producer, Robert Welch; Director, Norman Z. McLeod; Screenplay, Edmund Hartman, Frank Tashlin. Synopsis: A satire on the old West. The Pittsburgh Escapade RKO R.\DIO CAST: Melvyn Douglas, Barbara Bel Geddes. CREDITS: Executive Producer, Jack J. Gross; Producer, Richard Berger; Story, Lesser Samuels, Christopher Isherwood; Screenplay, Lionel Houser. Synopsis: A romantic comedy of the turn of the Century. Road to Rio PARAMOUNT CAST: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Gale Sonaergaard, Frank Faylen, Joe Vitale, George Meeker, Andrews Sisters. CREDITS: Producer, Daniel Dare; Director, Norman Z. McLeod; Screenplay, Edmund Beloin, Jack Rose; Cameraman, Ernest Laszlo. Synopsis: Hope and Crosby are a couple of musicians whose luck reduces them to carnival shows in tank towns. To escape one carnival owner, they stow away on the "Queen of Brazil," but end up as members of the ship's orchestra as result of Dorothy Lamour's help. They form their own orchestra in Rio de Janeiro, become entangled in a plot to marry Dorothy off to a worthless far-removed cousin, with Bing finally winning Dorothy himself. It's a typical Crosby Hope-Lamour "Road" funfest of mirth and music. The Senator Was Indiscreet UNIVERSAL-INTERNATIONAL INTER-JOHN PROD. CAST: WiUiam Powell, Ella Raines, Arleen Whelan, Peter Lind Hayes, Ray Collins, Allen Jenkins, Hans Conried, Whitner Bissell, Milton Parsons, Charles D. Brown, Francis Pierlot, Oliver Blake, Cynthia Corley. CREDITS: Producer, Nunnally Johnson; Director, George S. Kaufman; Screenplay, Charles MacArthur. Synopsis: William Powell, a Senator, decides to run for President. He is aided by press agent Peter Lind Hayes, wlio, in turn, is ridiculed by Ella Raines, a newspaperwoman. Ray Collins, party leader, finally orders the Senator to withdraw, but he refuses, and threatens to publish his diary if he is prevented from running. But the diary is stolen by Arleen Whelan, Hayes' girl friend. Hayes, after long consideration, finally gives the diary to Ella whose publication of it forces the Senator to retire to an unimportant official's position on a small faraway island. Two Guys From Texas (TECHNICOLOR) WARNER BROS. CAST: Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Dorothy Malone, Penny Edwards, Forrest Tucker, Fred Clark, Gerald Mohr, John Alvin, Andrew Tombes, Monte Blue, Philharmonica Trio. CREDITS: Producer, Alex Gottlieb; Director, David Butler; Screenplay, I. A. L. Diamond, Allen Boretz; Cameramen, Arthur Edeson, William V. Skall. Synopsis: The adventures of a male vaudeville team who became stranded in Texas and winds up on a dude ranch owned and operated by a prettv girl. Wallflower WARNER BROS. CAST: Joyce Reynolds, Robert Hutton, Janis Paige, Edward Arnold, Barmara Brown, Jerome Cowan, Don McGuire, Arm Shoemaker, Lotte Stein, Angela Greene, Walter Sande. CREDITS: Producer, Alex GottUeb; Director, Frederick DeCordova; ScreenPlay, Phoebe and Henry Ephron; From the play by Reginald Denham and Mary Orr; Cameraman, Carl Freund. Synopsis: Romantic comedy about a shrinking violet and her childhood boy friend, complicated on the girl's return from college with her uninhibited step-sister, but winding up with the right girl getting the boy. Welcome Stranger PARAMOUNT CAST: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Joan Caullield, Elizabeth Patterson, Frank Faylen, Wanda Hendrix, Bob Shayne, Charles Dingle, Lorry Young. CREDITS: Producer, Sol C. Siegel; Director, Elliot Nugent; Screenploy, Frank Butler, Arthur Sheekman. Synopsis: Two doctors (Crosby and Fitzgerald) have a series of petty disagreements when Crosby is sent to a small New England community to relieve Fitzgerald, who is planning a long-awaited vacation. Crosby saves Fitzgerald's life by performing an emergency appendicitis operation and they become staunch friends, working together for construction of a much needed hospital. Love interest is supplied by Joan Caulfield, a school teacher who doubles as an emergency nurse during the operation. Hospital finally is built, despite many obstacles and Fitzgerald's life-long dream is realized. Where There's Life PARAMOUNT CAST: Bob Hope, Signe Hasso, William Bendix, George Coulouris, Victor Varconi, Dennis Hoey, Leo Mostovoy, William Edmunds, Emll Romeau, Vera Marshe, Eddie Johnson, George Zucco, Emo Verebes, Fred Nurney, Crane Whitley. CREDITS: Producer, Paul Jones; Director, Sidney Lanfield; Screenplay, Allen Boretz, Mel Shavelson; Cameraman, Charles Lang. Synopsis: Barovia's king is downed by an assassin's bullet. Search for the rightful successor to the throne leads to America and Bob Hope. But it's not as easy as that. For the dread Mordia group made up of Fascist scoundrels— is at work attempting to keep the Barovians and Hope apart. Hope, it might be added, is a considerably baiifled young man who has a time accustoming his once commonplace existence to the hectic routine of dire plots, dead bodies, chases and the determination of a handsome and patriotic woman soldier. The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap UNIVERSAL-INTERNATIONAL CAST: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello. Marjorie Main, George Cleveland, Patricia Alphin, William Ching, Gordon Jones. CREDITS: Producer, Robert Arthur; Director, Charles Barton. Synopsis: Abbott and Costello come to a western town and Costello fires a gun in the air and ostensibly kills a man. He is saved from hanging by an old law which requires a murderer to assume responsibility for the debts and dependents of his victim. The latter are Marjorie Main and her six children. Costello becomes immune to shooting since no one wants to assume these debts. He is elected sheriff, and flashes a picture of his "family" instead of a gun. Abbott starts a rumor that Marjorie will become rich so that she will become desirable to otheirs thus making it possible for Abbott and Costello to get away. The scheme backfires when she actually becomes rich and Abbott and Costello are out of the money. 28 A Section of THE FILM DAILY — Pictures of Tomorrow and Directors' Number Wednesday, September 10. 1947