Harrison's Reports (1946)

200 HARRISON'S REPORTS demic arrives with the first trading ships of spring. The same is true of isolated tropical islands. . . . "In the near future it is possible to foresee people avoiding stores, movies, hotels that fail to provide protective atmospheres — just as motorists shun drinking water in towns where roadside signs announce that the water is unsafe. . . In view of the fact that, among the public places that are mentioned as requiring the protection of the atmosphere within is also motion picture theatres, exhibitors should proceed to study the problem with a view to offering the protection needed. Exhibitor organizations would do well to study the problem, obtaining their information, either from the United States Public Health Bureau, at Washington, D. C, or from the army command, or from whatever other source such information may be obtained. Mr. Ratcliff states that Glycol vapor is most efficacious. A few droplets sprayed through the air-conditioning system may render the atmosphere free of all germs. As a matter of fact, the article states that the discovery of Glycol may be considered one of the ten most important discoveries of the war. A theatre that will apply the Glycol method can induce many patrons to allow their children to attend the performances. As a matter of fact, it will attract many adults who now stay away from picture theatres because of their fear that they will breathe cold germs. "Ginger" with Frank Albertson, Barbara Reed and Johny Calkins (Monogram, Jan. 4; time, 64 min.) A harmless program drama. As entertainment, it is suitable mostly for the juvenile trade on Saturday afternoons. It is doubtful if adults will be entertained by it, for the story is thin and hackneyed, and it deals mainly with children. The youngsters, however, should enjoy it fairly well, for the action revolves around a young boy's love for a stray dog, and around his efforts to prevent a crooked politician from destroying the animal. Children should find the young hero's adventures exciting. The individual performances are satisfactory, but the players are handicapped by the ordinary material and the trite dialogue: — Compelled to give up prizefighting because of bad eyes, Frank Albertson decides to settle down in a small town with Johny Calkins, his ten-year-old nephew. Albertson meets Barbara Reed, secretary to Mayor Dick Elliott, who, in the mayor's absence, offers him a job as master of the town dog pound. Albertson accepts the appointment and, together with Johny, goes to live at Barbara's home, which was operated by her mother (Edythe Elliott) as a boarding house. A stray dog picked up by the dog-catcher is adopted by Johny, who, together with Janet Burston, Barbara's younger sister, keeps the animal in a playhouse behind the boarding house. Their young friends join them in a plan to put on a dog show with the animals from the pound. The mayor, who had long sought to get hold of Miss Elliott's property as a site for a public park — a monument to himself, uses the children's dog show in an attempt to condemn the property as a public nuisance. His scheme fails and, in a rage, he strikes Johny. The boy's pet comes to his rescue and bites the mayor. Enraged, the mayor discharges Albertson and Barbara as city employees and orders the dog destroyed. Johny engineers the dog's escape and goes into hiding. The police look for the pair in vain, but Gene Collins, the mayor's snivelling son, seeking to get into the good graces of Johny and his friends, finds them and offers to intercede with his father in their behalf. As the two boys and the dog make their way back to town, Gene is injured in a fall. The dog summons help from town, and the mayor, grateful, pardons the animal, reinstates Barbara and Albertson, and orders the park to be built around Miss Elliott's property. Oliver Drake and Donald McKean wrote the original screen play, Lindsley Parsons produced it, and Mr. Drake directed it. "Mr. Hex" with the Bowery Boys (Monogram, Dec. 7; time, 63 min.) The "zany" antics of the Bowery Boys are used to good advantage in this latest of their series of comedies; it should serve as a suitable supporting feature wherever something light is needed to round out a double-bill. This time the comedy is based on the hypnotic powers Leo Gorccy exerts on Huntz Hall, making of him an unbeatable pugilist so long as he remains under an hypnotic spell. The action is mostly slapstick, but it is highly amusing in spots and should provoke loud laughter, particularly in crowded houses. The situation in which Hall comes out of his hypnotic state in the midst of a crucial fight and tries to put distance between himself and his opponent is extremely comical: — When Gorcey and his pals (Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Billy Bendict, David Gorcey, and Gabriel Dell) learn that Gale Robbins, their favorite jukebox singer, had quit her job to take care of her sick mother because she could not afford a nurse, the boys decide to enter Hall as a candidate in a boxing tournament, the purse to sponsor Gale's career as a singer. Hall fails miserably in his first fight, and Gorcey, anxious to help Gale, induces Ian Keith, a professional hypnotist, to teach him how to put Hall under an hypnotic spell in order to make him believe that he was a first-rate fighter. In his hypnotic trance, Hall wins many fights, and the publicity given to the hypnotist-boxer team attracts the attention of Ben Weldon, a gangster, who arranges for a professional boxer to enter the tournament under the guise of an amateur. Meanwhile Weldon's henchmen induce Dell to solicit bets against his friends, offering him a percentage of the winnings, and on the night of the fight they force him to reveal that Gorcey hypnotized Hall by means of a shiny coin. Weldon arranges for a pickpocket to steal the coin from Gorcey, and at the same time employs a hypnotist to counter-hypnotize Hall during the bout. Gorcey manages to retrieve the coin in time to help Hall win the fight. Meanwhile Gale, learning of Dell's connection with the gangsters, talks him into exposing them to the judges. It all ends with the gangsters jailed and with Gloria's career as a singer assured. Jan Grippo wrote the original story and produced it, Cyril Endfield wrote the screen play, and William Beaudine directed it. The cast includes Bernard Gorcey, Sammy Cohen, Rita Lynn and others. Unobjectionable morally.