FilmIndia (1945)

December, 1945 FILMINDIA gets the impression that the picture would be a daring advertisement for Fortune Magazine, for it is boldly displayed and spoken about. Fortune could not have bought this plugging for one hundred thousand dollars: — On the day of their honeymoon, Carleton Young, a young business tycoon, who had swept Esther Williams off her feet lea res her at a resort and goes to Washington on an important business trip. While he is away, Esther becomes acquainted with Johnson, and the two fall madly in love with each other. On the morning that Young returns, Esther and Johnson are shown returning from the woods, where they had been lost overnight. His suspicions aroused, Young orders his lawyers to bring annulment proceedings. His action pleases, not only the two young foik, but also their friends at the resort. Melchior, happy that matters had turned out so well, assembles an orchestra to serenade the young couple, and he sings a romantic song. Richard Connell and Gladys Lehman wrote the screen play, Joe Pasternak produced it, and Richard Thorpe directed it. The cast includes Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra, Frances Gifford, Henry Travers, Spring Byington and others. Unobjectionable morally. "WEEK-END AT THE WALDORF" (MGM, no release date set; time, 128 min.) Good entertainment for all types of audiences. That it will be an outstanding box-office attraction is a foregone conclusion, for the popularity of the players is enough to insure its success. While the credits state that the story was suggested by a play by Vicki Baum, it is apparent that it is an up-to-date version of "Grand Hotel," with alterations, of course. The story combines a series of incidents affecting the lives of different people at the hotel, with the action constantly shifting from one group of characters to another group. Some of these incidents dovetail with one another, while others have no connection whatever, yet all have been presented in so deft a fashion that one's interest in the proceedings rarely wanes. It has considerable comedy, but much of it, particularly the comedy contributed by Robert Benchley, is rather weak. The different characters are as follows: Ginger Rogers, as a glamorous movie star, and Walter Pidgeon, as a famous war correspondent, who fall In love after she mistakes him for a burglar and he gleefully permits her to "reform" him. This part of the picture is marked by bright sophisticated dialogue and situations. Lana Turner, as a pert hotel stenographer, who yearned to live a life of glamour on Park Avenue, and Van Johnson, as an Air Force captain, who was staying at the hotel for a final week-end before undergoing an operation that may prove fatal. This part of the picture is concerned with their romance and with Lana's ultimate deffsiori to forsake her dream so that she could marry Johnson and give him courage to overcome his ailment. Others in relatively lesser roles include Edward Arnold, as a fake oil stock promoter, whose plot to fleece the Bey of Aribajan (George Zucco) is foiled; Keenan Wynn, as a cub reporter, who, aided by Pidgeon, unmasks Arnold; Robert Benchley, as a gossip columnist and bon vivant; Phyllis Thaxter, as a worried prospective bride; Leon Ames, as Ginger's press agent; and Rosemary DeCamp, as her maid. for TerriforW fi/$Afa s— KIRTI picture; L™ Radar Buildings* /andhur/t rd BOMBRV • 4 1 1 1 1 "■ ■ ■ 1 1 " ' ' 1 ''11 1 Mm I., 57