Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

58 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE Volume XII, No. 2 “show-must-go-on” loyalty and a Great Love is the theme. This is used to jerk a good many tears and ring in some fancy production numbers. The war angle is a double-barrelled play for the emotions of veterans of both world conflicts and their sweethearts and wives. Some of the facts are straight, but the whole impression is distorted. Contemporaries of the sisters will find it a highly rosetinted view which can doubtless improve upon their private memories. The staging, costuming, and lighting of the production numbers are up to m o d e r n Hollywood standards, which means that they are too elaborate, too gorgeous, and too expensive to be authentic. The songs are crooned in 1945 radio style, the dances are 1945 Fox movie style — neither too close to the Broadway song-and-dance style of the second decade of this century. M. J. H. THE GAY SENORITA. Musical romance. Columbia. Arthur Dreifuss, Director. Recommended for all. A charmingly fantastic production, The Gan Senorifa tells a comic-opera type of story that contrasts modern business methods and the happy, carefree — but wholly imaginary — life reminiscent of Spanish days in southern California. Old-time costumes, castanets, dancing, song, proud aristocrats, the ancient courtesies and the spirit of clinging to the past come into clash with the vigorous present in the shape of an effort to tear down an old section of a California city and to build there a great warehouse. The aristocratic young lady of ancient descent. Jinx Falkenberg, the gay senorita, quickly converts the young real-estate agent sent to procure the deeds to the property. With its lightness, gaiety, and old-time charm, the story will interest young people. FIRST YANK INTO TOKYO. Tapical secret-agent melodrama. RKO. Gordon Douglas, Director. Recommended only for interest in topic. In this day and age we say much against encouragement of racial hatreds, and at the same time show public favor to whatever encourages hatred of the Japanese. We showed the same narrow-minded attitude toward the Germans at the time of the First World War. First Yank Into Tokyo stimulates strong hatred of the Japanese, without presenting any redeeming characteristics. As such, the film does harm, for all racial hatred of a sweeping nature does harm. As Edmund Burke said long ago, we can not justly indict a whole people. The melodramatic film would be better if it showed some Japanese, at least, whom we might respect. The highly sensational story tells the adventures of an American Major who disguised himself by submitting to surgical facelifting and then made his way to Japan to confer with an American prisoner there, who held one of the keys to the successful making of the atomic bomb. Having been born and brought up in Japan, Major Ross (Tom Neal) speaks Japanese fluently and knows Japanese mannerisms. Having joined the Japanese army. Major Ross not only finds the scientist whom he sought but also finds his supposedly dead sweetheart, an Army Nurse. Such coincidences and events challenge one’s sense of reality. One wonders why a scientist of such importance should risk capture by the enemy. Improbabilities continue to pile up. The secret investigator finds himself in a camj) com manded by his former roommate in an American college, a shrewd and cruel Japanese. Then melodrama begins in earnest until at last the heroic Major brings about the escape of his sweetheart (Barbara Hale) and the wandering man of science. At the same time, the picture has the gripping interest of the moment when Japanese atrocities have come to the fore, an interest that gains strength from much local-color realism and the strong acting of Richard Loo, who portrays the Americaneducated Japanese officer. In its timely use of strong emotions, however bad those emotions may be, the picture will interest American audiences. — F. H. L. THE STORK CLUB. Musical comedy. Paramount release of B. G. deSylva production. Hal Walker, Director. Generally recommended. From the time of the Arabian Nights down to If I Were King and Kismet, writers have amused themselves and the public by imagining what some poor and obscure person would do if suddenly placed in a position of immense wealth and power. The Stork Club tells a similar story. Betty Hutton, as a hat-check girl at the Stork Club, saves an eccentric multi millionaire (Barry Fitzgerald) from drowning. Thinking the man is nothing more than a homeless derelict, she endeavors to help him. The millionaire employs his worldlywise lawyer (Robert Benchley) to “make the girl perfectly happy.” Now what would make a hat-check girl “perfectly happy?” The lawyer thinks of clothes and style, and without telling the young woman anything about her benefactor, he provides unlimited accounts and all luxury. Barry Fitzgerald’s inimltabh' personality, Betty Hutton’s viva