Modern Screen (Aug-Dec 1943)

P. s. FREE CHARTS SUPER COUPON • How's your blood pressure? Can you stand a terrific bit of news? Listen! From now on, every chart but Horoscope and the Super Star Information Chart will be given away FREE. How's that for "something-for-nothing"? Delicious, isn't it? Whiz through the following directions, study the brain-stormy charts below (this month's new one is starred), and then reach for a pencil. Ready? 1. CHECK the boxes opposite the charts you want. 2. SEND NO MONEY for any of the charts except the individual Horoscope analysis and the Super-Star Information Chart. 3. HOROSCOPE and SUPER STAR INFORMATION CHART: If you want either of these charts, enclose 10c in either stamps or coins. 4. THREE CHARTS is all we can afford to enclose in one envelope. To get them send us one LARGE, self-addressed, stamped (3c) envelope. 5. MORE THAN 3 CHARTS! If you want 4, 5 or 6 charts, send two stamped, self-addressed envelopes; for 7, 8 or 9 charts send us three envelopes, and so on. ADDRESS: Service Dept., MODERN SCREEN, 149 Madison Ave., New York 16, N. Y. * Co-ed lleanty Chart No. 3 □ The third of our seasonal charts, guiding you toward sun-bronzed beauty, away from parched skin, streaky hair, peeling nose. Looking fall-ward, too, to a blessed Indian summer without fading sun-tan and undisciplined figure. Ilon't Throw It Away □ How to save and salvage not only for the government but for YOU. Care of your precious clothes and shoes . . . Mom's furniture, rugs and assorted treasures. This one's an absolute "must" for wartime living. How to Write a Love Letter □ How to keep your letters glowing, varied, exciting . . . how to bridge the miles between you . . . what to emphasize and what to avoid. Your Individually Compiled Horoscope (lOc) □ Your personality and life possibilities individually analyzed by the famous editor of "Horoscope," who'll be working from the chandelier if the stacks of requests mount much higher. Due to tremendous demand and the fact that this is a personalized service, we're forced to charge you 10c for it. Fill in your birthdate here. Year month day How to Lose or Gain Weight □ Scientific as a test tube, but easy as apple pie to follow. Exercises and diets for whittling or building weight, eating your way to lustrous beauty and health. Mind Your Manners □ Charm, poise and accepted etiquette used as tools to guide you from your first canteen meeting to the dizzying climax of a wedding on leave. Co-ed Fashion Chart No. 3 □ Summer fashions on a wartime shoestring. Where and how to buy. Super-Star Information Chart (lOc) □ A three-in-one affair, combining our former address chart, western stars and star data. Adolphe Menjou spent all his spare time brushing up on Russian, one of the many languages he speaks fluently . . . Billie Burke, Dennis O'Keefe and Menjou spent all their spare time entertaining the American and Australian soldiers who came to visit the sets . . . Negri and Menjou staged a reunion luncheon the first day they worked together. Last time they met was in 1928, when both were acting in an Ernst Lubitsch production. FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO Egypt, which used to mean just Cleopatra and the Sphynx, has suddenly become important to all of us. Rommel, the desert fox, is well known — and well hated. In Paramount's exciting desert drama, Von Stroheim is Rommel. It took a second World War to bring Erich back to the screen, as smoothly sinister as ever. He plays Field Marshal Rommel with a biting, effective irony. The star of the picture is Franchot Tone, as the young British corporal, Bramble. This is Franchot at his best, which is very good indeed. Bramble is in the tank corps, but he is left behind during a retreat. He stumbles into a desert hotel, run by friendly Farid ( Akim Tamiroff) , and before you can say Sidi Halfaya, he is disguised as a clubfooted waiter. Rommel and his staff take over the hotel, and they eye the waiter and his club foot carefully. Then they start asking him questions like "Have you anything new to report on the five graves?" It sounds like double talk to Bramble, but he stays deadpan and gives a noncommittal answer that gets him by for the moment. However, it's disconcertingly obvious that the dead waiter whose identity he has assumed was a German spy. The French chambermaid, Mouche (Anne Baxter), is at first all for handing Bramble over to the Germans. As she gets to know both him and the hotel's new occupants better, her feelings go into reverse, and she decides to help him. Bramble is determined to find out what the "five graves" are. He thinks they're important, and he's right — the success or failure of Rommel's advance depends on them. I won't tell you the secret because that's a discovery you'll want to make for yourself. But in the end there is a sixth grave to Cairo, and Bramble, now a lieutenant, stands before it, saluting. Nice casting in this. Anne Baxter plays Mouche with vibrant intensity, and Tamiroff affords just enough comic relief. — Par. P. S. Major General Walton H. Walker's command, the Fourth Armored Corps and Desert Training Corps, cooperated in the filming of the tank battle scenes . . . Erich Von Stroheim supervised the designing of the uniform he wears as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The candid camera Von Stroheim carried was the result of his own research reading on Rommel, an avid camera fan . . . This is Anne Baxter's eighth picture, and she uses the same French accent she made a hit with in "The Pied Piper." She had only three costume changes in the entire film, a cotton dress, a cotton skirt, plus blouse, and a $2.06 nightgown . . . Franchot Tone returns to pictures after a long absence via this one. Wore a club foot disguise, a shoe with a four-inch sole weighing five pounds. Could wear it only 15 minutes at a time during the five weeks he had to work with it. 18 MODERN SCREEN