Hollywood Motion Picture Review (1944)

Nite-Life Pix Parade By Bill James _ _ _ SCENES ON THE SET A CASUAL check-up shows the astonishing inroads into Hollywood already accomplished by J. Arthur Rank’s international plan. The list of British names now engaged here is huge and growing almost daily And conversely, local luminaries Bill James are beginning to crowd the London ledgers, while they temporarily disappear from the home lots. The signing and counter-signing will be¬ gin to show strikingly in another six or eight months. FOR EXAMPLE, David 0. Selznick has signed several top Eng¬ lish names along with Vivien Leigh and husband Laurence Olivier who will report here after “Mary Mag¬ dalene” is filmed. IT IS REPORTED that Peggy Cummins will make two more pic¬ tures before returning to the Isles. And Rex Harrison is expected to alternate between countries. LOCAL OPINION, of course, has it that all this international activiLy is working heavily against Hol¬ lywood prestige and accomplishes no good except for the London stud'os. This feeling seems reflected in American boxoffice resistance to British films. But the hypo of Yank talent has already made itself manifest in England, where British pictures are getting an average of three times more playing time than before the war. This fact seems to weigh significantly here. THE FACT that Rank organiza¬ tions contemplate a minimum of thirty productions this year, dei pite a cost raise of seventy-five per cent, is interpreted to mean that 1 cal talent is expected to spark¬ plug the product. CONSERVATIVE THINKING, however, points out that foreign players in the past have been big •uoney-makers for Hollywood. Such names as George Arliss, Ilona Mas: ey, Luise Rainer, Simone Simon rnd Jean Gabin are used to imply that exchange is of mutual benefit. THIS POINT, unfortunately, has been tossed back in the faces of pro-exchangers, who are reminded that Arliss and other British stars preferred contracts with their own outfits in order to evade the Cali¬ fornia tax law. THE FIGHT goes on strongly under the surface, while the ex¬ change of talent keeps on flowing even more strongly. It’s Holly¬ wood’s newest and most interesting unsolved problem. NOW LET’S catch up with some of the secondary pix you’ll be see¬ ing around town . . . Earl Carroll Sketchbook Routine in every way, “Earl Carroll Sketchbook” offers nothing but standard hunks of cheezecake, corn comedy, simple complication and a colpla nice dance numbers. Plot threads hang loosely around cleffer William Marshall whose secretary keeps trying to make him break away from writing singing commercials and go back to doing “the better things” in music. When secretary Constance Moore gets a chance to star in an Earl Carroll extravaganza and thus plug Willie’s tunes — she gets herself, show producer Bill Good¬ win and Mr. Marshall into a heck of a lotta grief. Seems the song she gave Good¬ win as her own — and which he finales the show on — has been sold by song-maker Marshall as a com¬ mercial. This complication, along with assorted romantic difficulties is ironed out with the usual cliche technique. Cast is capable and Robert North’s prepping glitters above the budget. A1 Rogell’s direction fails to maintain proper pace. The Last Crooked Mile There are occasional moments of masterful contrived suspense and action in “The Last Crooked Mile” but that old Hollywood weak¬ ness of leaving a mystery only half explained knocks down the batting average. Also, a large hunk of the h’stronics is heavily garnished with ham. Net total is okay hinterland fare. Donald B'arry makes a believable rleuth but his performance doesn’t match his easy saddle manner. Barry should either return to oaters, where he’s tops, or tone down the mugging. Here, he spends time alternating between wolfing and working out the clues on a big bank robbery. Trail leads him into a few assorted killings for which there are lotsa suspects. The yarn is interrupted endless¬ ly for his amours with Ann Sav¬ age who gives out occasionally with a burst of song. Sheldon Leon¬ ard tunes in his usual smooth job of being a rat and Adele Mara does nicely. Production by Rudolph Abel amply fulfills budget needs, sup¬ ported by Alfred Keller’s adroit camera work. Phillip Ford directed. An average lower-shelf mystery. ROBERT YOUNG, who plays a playboy stock broker in RKO Ra¬ dio’s “They Won’t Believe Me,” was an assistant customer’s man in a brokerage office while studying drama nights at the Pasadena Community Playhouse . . . ROB¬ ERT STACK, who is under con¬ tract to Liberty Films, holds the world’s long run skeet record for 364 straight hits which he set in 1937 . . . JOSEPH COTTEN won’t go to London to star with MAR¬ GARET SULLA VAN in “The Voice of the Turtle” after all. The lengthy shooting schedule on “Ka¬ tie for Congress” forced cancella¬ tion of his plans. WARD BOND, featured in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” was a star foot ball player at the University of Southern California. HENRY TRAVERS, in the same picture, was a practicing architect in Lon¬ don before he became an actor . . . DONNA REED, who co-stars with JIMMY STEWART in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” has never tasted tea or coffee . . . DANNY KAYE learned to play golf before he began filming “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” now shoots in the low 80’s. ROBERT RYAN, while filming “Trail Street” at RKO Radio, re¬ marked that in the San Fernando Valley where he lives real estate men are so numerous “they wear badges so they won’t try to sell to each other” . . . LORETTA YOUNG on the “Katie for Con¬ gress” set revealed that she hopes her daughter, Judy, 10, will be¬ come a nun and that her sons, Christopher, 2, and Peter, 1, will enter the priesthood . . . They’re saying that the fight between LAWRENCE TIERNEY and BARTON MacLANE in “San QUENTIN” will supplant the fa¬ mous fight between WILLIAM FARNUM and TOM SANTSCHI in “The Spoilers” as the yardstick by which screen battles will be judged. Meanest thieves! While Jeffrey Lynn, the Warner Bros, star, was in the Army, vandals stripped his mountain cabin down to the bare, including hinges and window weights. Looters broke through a sign on the door which read, “Off to the wars” . . . With some dis¬ may and no little inconvenience, film folk are learning that globe trotting is becoming a mighty com¬ plicated business. Ere going to Mexico on location, cast and crew of “Captain From Castile” must be inoculated against typhoid, tetanus and smallpox! Goldwyn beauties on a goodwill tour of South America will have to carry 70 photos, 22' health, 19 police and 20 vaccination certificates, a bale of passports and visas and — a ticket home! . . . London friends write Irving Rapper that England is parching for olive oil, just like Hollywood. Absolutely none to be had for anything short of a mort¬ gage on the old homestead . . . Local gossipers have been wonder¬ ing why Paul (the great lover) Henried keeps a huge tank of goldfish in his bedroom! “They’re better for sleep than counting sheep,” explains Paul . . . Maddest equine in Hollywood this week is Mr. Rogers’ Trigger, whose next picture, “Apache Rose,” is to be a color film. They’ve gone and peroxided his mane and tail! . . . Known From Coast to Coast Towers Jewelry Co. Presents . . . BONDED JEWELRY FINE WATCHES JEWELY DISTINCTIVE GIFTS 6677 Hollywood Blvd. THE CLOVER CLUB 8477 Sunset Blvd., on the Famous Strip OPEN AT MIDNITE TILL 4 A.M. — BREAKFAST, ETC. CONTINUOUS ENTERTAINMENT THE FOUR NOTES Featuring from Ruben Blue in New York U Frank Kertvin Presents “ Post War Dream Come True ” Jt SEACOMBER Dining Phone Cocktails Mai 797* On shoreline of beautiful Malibu. Afternoons, evenings. Talk of all movie colonies. It’s out of this world. No Service Mondays NITE-LIFE Page Five