Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1948)

Columbia's lulu Belle' Gets A Going-Over Dorothy Mainour's initial effort ujKk-r the Colunilyia banner is a sorry spectacle, according tc New York's newspaper critics. The film version of the Broadway sex saga, which, a generation ago, gave Lenore Ulric a chance to strut her stuff as a New Orleans harlot, loses whatever punch it may have had in the screen's purifying process, they f,ny. Folk. wing is their opinion of "Lulu Belle": "Play-acting of ancient vintage . . . as trite, wicom'incing and dated as ever," says Abe Weiler in the Times. The laundering "to avoid censorial Zi'rath . . . seems a waste of effort", with Miss Lamour "merely a pretty but lukeivarm danic" and the rest of the cast struggling "manfully hut unsuccessfully ivitli a clutch of mar-crlously stilled lines." The few laughs in the picture are "all in the tvrong places", says Otis Guernsey, the Herald Tribune's critic. With a script "ivhose dialogue and situations progress from banality to worse banality", the film is a near-satire on "pictures about bad little girls. Unfortunately," he adds, "it is not quite enough of a joke to he funny." The Post's Archer Winsten terms it "one of those dreadfully incomprehensible histories that occur whenever a sexy play is 'licked' for screen exhibition." He admits that "making movies out of zvhat's left is pretty tough But no tougher than making sense out of what's made from ivhat's left." The makers, says Seymour Pack in PM, shouldn't have taken, their work so seriously. "They arc playing a hokey, old-fashioned story ivith absolute sincerity and laying a great big egg in the process." The Sun's Eileen Creelman notes that it's associated zvith Miss Lamnur." She calls it "forthright melodrama" with a "forthright cast." But, she adds, ''it cheats a little as a ivho-dun-it." •GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROADWAY' 20th Century-Fox ■'Dull, sentimental fa'inily drama poorly disguised with Technicolor and occasional music . . . Unusually insipid mixture of blondes and anguish." —GUERNSEY, N. Y. HERALD TRIBUNE. "You'll be mildly, pleasantly surprised . . . Presented with charm, unemphasized sentiment, and a warm feeling for people . . . -Although the picture does "ot try for high praise it avoids most of the grosser faults."— WINSTEN, N. Y. POST. "Thoroughly enjoyable comedy . . . Enough show business stuff in it to divert the theatrically minded and at the same time it has warmth and down-to-earth humor." — PELSWICK, N. Y. JOURNAL AMERICAN. "Pleasantly modest Technicolor musical . . . lyight entertainment strongl\ flavored bv sentin»entality."— COOK, N. Y.' WORLD TELEGRAM. "Nine painful reels of argumentation . . . Whatever charm it might have is ultimately lost. It becomes simply a film about a tedious old bore."— PECK, PM. •DREAM GIRLPARAMOUNT "As dreary a botch of a good thing as we have ever seen . . . Have 'Hollywoodized' the whole idea and then have drowned it in a torrent of words."— CROWTHER, N. Y. TIMES. "Good-plus . . . Most enjoyable American picture in months."— WINSTEN, N. Y. POST. "Pair to middling farce In spite of Miss Hutton's shortcomings, her frisky and mischievous exuberance is soon contagious." — COOK, N. Y. WORLD TELEGRAM. "Played for Slapstick, but the characteristic Hutton exuberance is considerablv toned down 64 OUOTtS What the Newspaper Critics Say About New Fi\ms . . . Miss Hutjon works very hard to put over a role that isn't exactly suited to her talents." —PELSWICK, N. Y. JOURNAL AMERICAN. "Miss Hutton js acting 'Dream Girl' so broadly and so artificially in her familiar screwloose style that there is no believing any of it ... As pure farce, it is not nearly wild enough nor funny enough." — PECK, N. Y. STAR. ■THE EMPEROR WALTZ' PARAMOUNT "Add to the Crosby singing and acting, a slick, satirical script, lavish Technicolor settings and a just-right cast headed by Joan Fontaine, and you have an entertainment that goes down in the books as one of the year's comedv delights."—PELSWICK, N. Y. JOURNAL AMERICAN. "Consistently plea.mnt and ingratiating." — PECK, N. Y. STAR. "Sly and opule>it semi-operetta ... In no sense a distinguished screen musical, but it is di.sarming and delightful."— BARNES, N. Y. HERALD TRIBUNE. "Light-hearted musical farce-romance . . . Bracket! and Wilder have made up with casualness and charm — and with a great deal of clever sight-humor — for the meagerness of the idea. .And Bing has provided the substance which the farcical bubble mav lack" — CROWTHER, N. Y. TIMEvS. "Just for delight, just for the fun of it, just for the joy of living and of loving, there's no place right now like the Music Hall." — CREELMAN, N. Y.' SUN. "Good-plus . . . Shows that Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett can whip up as good a musical as anyone . . . But now that they've proved it let's hope they go back to forms of movie entertainment in which originality is invited to run wild."— WINSTEN, N. Y. POST. •MAN EATER OF KUMAON' UNIVERSAL INTERNATIONAL "Suprisingly imadventurous . . . All pretty old hat, not worth a second shudder. Well, mavbe it'll be fun for the kiddies, if it doesn't give them nightmares."— J'ECK. N. Y. STAR. "Occasionally exciting animal picture . . . Sociological and philosophical overtones • . . are no aid to a show which depends for most of its suspense on rampant tigers, crocodiles, bears and panthers."— B.ARNES, N. Y. HERALD TRIBUNE. "As long as the film confines itself to scenes of and about the animal it contains a good measure of suspense . . . W^hen it devotes itself to a leisurely plot . . . the piece slows down considerably."PELSWICK, N. Y. JOURNAL AMERICAN. "Audiences should eat it all up with more relish than the tiger . . . Straight adventure melodrama, makes most of its tiger attacks too real for comfort."— CREELMAN, N. Y. SUN. CLASSIFIED BUSINESS STIMULATORS Comic Books Again Available as premiums, give-aways at your kiddie matinees. Large variety, latest 48-page news stand editions. Comics Premium Co., 412 F. Greenwich St., New York, N. Y. THEATRE WANTED Will lease or buy theatre in Eastern Pcnna. or New Jersey. Write FB, Box 72, Film Bulletin. "fair . . . Beware of Hollywood Man-Eaters. They exact a toll not only from burnt-cork extras and the medical profession but even from spectators sitting restlessly in the theatre." — WINSTEN, N. Y. POST. 'SUMMER HOLIDAY' Metro-Cicjldwyn-Ma} er "Stripped down to a vehicle for Mickey Rooney's use . . . clowning in his familiarly broad and impish way . . . Sacrifices character for laughs which may make for round-house entertainment, but does not 'make for a sensi.tive, balanced scan." —CROWTHER, N. Y. TIMES. "At its best, a bemused, rustic comedy . . . .Attempt at something very superior in musical comedy . . . occasionally becomes one of the most amiable of the season and then momentarily loses its way." —COOK, N. Y. WORLD TELEGRAM. "Folksy play with music . . . Some of it is pleasant, some of it is tuneful, and most of it is corny . . . Sugar candy straight from the M-G-M factory, but is not of as high a grade as the wrapping on the box would indicate." — B.ARNES, N. Y. HERALD TRIBUNE. "Obviously had a very big idea about being new and different . . . Runs ainok with atmosphere . . . Collection of pretty pictures with people as immobile as figures in a painting . . . Rooney is entirely unsuited to the film." — PECK, PM. Your Service — Our Responsibility NEW JERSEY MESSENGER SERVICE Member Nat'l Film Parrteni 850 N. Juniper St., PhUa. 7. Pa. LOcust 7-4823 THEATRE MANAGERS and OWNERS w< thank all theatre owners an< Managers who cooperated with us fcy pitting retort trailers In the proper addressed contaioers and for wrafiping and addressing all retirn adiertisiif. We can serve all theatres better if they give us a copy of their program Tuesday each week. IMPORTANT Don't put your return film in the lobby until all yottr patrons have left after the last show. HIGHWAY EXPRESS LINES, Inc. 236 N. 23rd St., Philadelphia 3 1239 Vine St., Phila. 7 LOcust 4-0100 Member National Film Carriers 26 FILM BULLETIN