Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1947)

66 OUOIfS What the Newspaper Critics Say About Neiu Films Bogey & Baby Not Treated Kindly By Critics Those lovebirds, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, are given the rough treatment by the New York movie critics who covered their latest melodrama, "Dark Passage". The chief complaints seem to be against the story's lack of credibility and Bogey's rather tame performance. The critics, like ordinary filmgoers, apparently like him at his toughest. Bosley Crowther of the Times, finds the scenery of the San Francisco background one of the films chief assets. If you should be bored by the "over-stretched fable" he says, "you can usually enjoy the scenery, which is as good as a travelogue." Mr. Crowther places most of the blame for the film's weaknesses on director Delmer Daves. The Daily News, which always tries to be kind, gives "D rk Passage" only two and one-half stars. Reviewer Kate C meron •■THE LONG NIGHT" RKO-RADIO "HTense and taut. . .Director's picture. Thin as to story, it hsi s interest through the intensity of its telling, the skillful manner in which director Anatole Litvak sets and sustains the mood of impending doom. . .It isn't a pretty picture, but it's an engroi:ing one." — PELSWICK, N. Y. JOURNAL-AMERICAN, "persistently unconvincing picture ... Mr. Litvak's production i? an obviously theatrical fake, exposed by its own pretensions and an over-talked John Wexley script. . .Layout of flashy performances." — CROWTHER, N. Y. TIMES. " A Ptly named. It's one of the longest nights on record, and it gets longer as it goes along. . .Messrs. Litvak and Wexley alternate Beethoven's Seventh with Wexley's Unabridged. . .Regrettable that so many good people. . .should talk themselves out of a good picture." — WINSTEN N. Y. POST. "JL^elodrama with patches of vivid action, longer interludes of a not too interesting romance, and a strange brooding atmosphere...Used the flashback technic to ill advantage here... Constant switching of moods is helpful to neither past nor present " — CREELMAN, N. Y. SUN. "Qeems to lack real emotional power, it seems bent on be:ng clever and arty... But for all its faults, I think you will want to see 'The Long Night.' It is a movie with a brain." — PECK PM. "SINGAPORE" UNIVERSAL-INTERNATIONAL "pretty poor excuse for an entertainment, even as minor leagua ■■■ jewel smuggling fare." — PRYOR, N. Y. TIMES. " A ction, plenty of it from start to finish. It is well overlaid also with romance. . .Lurid tale, openly so. Something is always happening. Usually it is something of a melodramatic nature " — CREELMAN, N. Y. SUN. "^ot bad enough to be funny. . .Fred MacMurray doesn't trouble himself to overact. He knows a pot-boiler when he's up to his ears in stale situations and dialogue to match." — WINSTEN N. Y. POST. "A 11 very pat and contrived. . .Neither of the principals is too happily cast. . .Scripters substituted dialogue for action '* — PELSWICK, N. Y. JOURNAI^AMERICAN. "Jn Singapore the word for bunk is 'walla walla.' They tell you that in the film and though you won't believe anything else they tell you, you can take their word for it about bunk and walla walla. On that subject the guys who made 'Singapore' are authorities. Their movie is walla walla from beginning to end " — PECK, PM. "KISS OF DEATH" 20TH-CENTURY FOX "T Jnusually impressive realism .. .Hits an audience hard with action, emotion, and suspense. It brings you to the edge of your seat, and keeps you there." — WINSTEN, N. Y. POST. "1-Jorror film, vivid with murder... Its melodrama is breathtaking, its acting and direction fi^st rate and it is twice as brutal as any of the pre-war gangster films." — CREELMAN, N. Y. SUN. "Deali-m illuminates a savage melodrama. . .Definitely worth seeing. . .A tired screen form has suddenly been jerked into enormous vitality." — BARNES, N. Y. HERALD TRIBUNE, "^^ne of the season's first rate adult melodramas, made to stir ^ a little thought as well as excitement. . .Richard Widmark says, "The story is full of improbabilities and its one big climactic scene leads the audience to a terrific let-down. She has some kind words for Lauren Bacall's performance, "the best since she made her spectacular appearance in 'To Have and Have Not'." The Herald Tribune's Howard Barnes pins the blame on "too much melodramatic flourish". However, he finds "originality and considerable force" in some of the sequences. "Too clever, too tricky, too complex, and too mysteriDus for its own good," is the opinion of Cecelia Ager, PM, who says thera is "story incredibility piled upon story incredibility." She too, liked Miss Bacall's performance. On the other hand, Eileen Creelman^ of the Sun. reports that Bacall is "never believable," and the picture is overwritten and overacted. Most laudatory of the reviews was the Mirror's. Lee Mortimer unashamedly confesses to being a Bogey-Baby fan and calls the picture "a bang-up job of crime filmmaking. " one of the most sinisterly menacing personalities the movies ever have uncovered." — COOK, N. Y. WORLD-TELEGRAM. "Tpwo highly noteworthy elements. . .first is a long but beautifully ■*■ sustained strip of tension, extending approximately through the final quarter of the picture ... and Mr. Widmark's 'Tommy Udo,' just plain scared the whey out of me." — MAYNARD, N. Y. JOURNAI^AMERICAN. "Dip of s melodrama. . .Has squeezed every last drop of suspense out of the story... A most satisfying entertainment." -PRYOR, N. Y. TIMES. 'SONG OF THE THIN MAN' METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER " VV/hatever the script lacks in the way of logic is more than " compensated for by the lighthe.irted manner in which the incidental scenes are worked cut... While 'Seng of the Thin Man' is no world beater, it still is a mighty pleasant picture to hsve around."— PRYOR, N. Y. TIMES. "Click blend of hum.or and homicide ..Flip dialogue and a light ^ touch... Keep this latest edition of the series romping along at a bright and diverting pace. "—PELSWICK, N. Y. JOURNALAMERICAN. " A painfully thin picture, in spite of all the padding that's been stuffed into it. . .Dialogue is as witty, smooth and crisply delivered as ever. T'ne story is prosperous, the motivation feeble, the characters taken right out of stock. "—CREELMAN, N. Y. SUN. "Vy/illiam Powell and Myrna Loy have a firm grip on the Chailes business, the picture, and the audience. Love them, love the picture. But if the 'Thin Man" series has not yet made the grade for you, from nausea to nostalgia, watch out." — WINSTEN, N. Y. POST. "^J'ora and Nick Charles are nice predictable people and fun to ■'•^have around. . .Uncomfortable irresolution between the brightness of much of the talk and the dustiness of much of the story ...Nick and Nora remain steadfast to their own unique and engaging style." AGER, PM. 'SOMETHING IN THE WIND' UNIVERSAI^INTERNATIONAL "Pbullient, girlish Deanna Durbin of old is back again. . .Light and pleasantly amusing charade. Gay and tuneful score... All in all, entertainment is the word for 'Sljjmething in the Wind'." WEILER, N. Y. TIMES. " 'Something in the Wind' turns her (Deanna Durbin) back to rec'.pture a lot of the girlish freshness and vivacity... Frothy wisp of absurd nonsense done by a lot of people full of a bounding good humor and mirth... A picture one does not remember much about except that it was effortlessly pleasant as it ran across the screen."— COOK, N. Y. WORLD-TELEGRAM. "T Tack stuff, produced like a quickie, a comedy put together with all the lightness of a Mack Truck assembly line. . . Deanna just staggers and reels and keeps a bright smile, but she winds up quite the loser. So does everyone else in 'Something in the Wind'."— PECK, PM. "HPhe songs and the singers save 'Something in the Wind' from complete mediocrity .. .Fair plus on Post Movie Meter." — THIRER, N. Y. POST. "■^[either musical nor amusing. . .One of the dullest, most boring •■-^ screen plavs to come out of Hollywood."— BARSTOW, N. Y. HERALD TRIBUNE. "T^elightful entertainment, the best picture Deanna Durbin's '-^ made since her early successes. . .Light and gay romancewith-music."— PELSWICK, N. Y. JOURNAL-AMERICAN. . SEPTEMBER 29, 1947 23