Motion Picture Daily (July–Sept 1938)

(Friday. July 29, 1938 MOTION PICTURE DAILY 13 Short Subjects "Music with a Smile" (Vitaphone) There is an earnest attempt evident here on the part of "Happy" Felton and his orchestra, "The Three Reasons" and Bob Robinson and Virginia Martin to deliver 10 minutes of snappy entertainment in this "Melody Master." Several familiar numbers are i—=«ed in good style by the band and \ Jspecialties are well done. Not quite up to the standard of the series. Running time, 10 mins. "G." "Fistic Fun" { Columbia) As the title indicates this deals with the manly art. The various clips show how it is done in the Naval Academy, by youngsters, women, the French la savate and finally a slugiest by a number of Golden Glovers. There's a sock in every scene and the him should find an interested audience. Running time, 9l/2 mins. "G." "Popular Science J7-6" (Paramount) From modern advances in the kitchen this number rambles around engrossingly to the up-to-date methods employed by Texas Rangers in apprehending cattle rustlers. A number of other items involving the application of scientific ingenuity to popular pursuits round out the reel. Running time, 11 mins. "G." "The Cheese Nappers" {Universal) Public Rat Number 1 decides to rob a supply of cheese. He enlists the aid of Baby Face Rat. A lot of excitement and entertaining action follows with the former winding up in jail. Good fun. Running time, IVs mins. "G." "Horseshoes" (Rice-Paramount) Ted Allen, number one horseshoe thrower, does his stuff here against a dude ranch setting with appropriate stunts, while Ted Husing gives vent to aws and ahs on the sound track Needless to say the film is another in the excellent sport series. Running time, 10 mins. "G." "City Slicker" (Mintz-Columbia) A city youngster descends on his cousin's farm in this cartoon and there follows a series of gags depicting the pair's efforts to outwit each other in the field of wit and horseplay. The action is comical and draws laughs easily. Running time, 6 mins. "G." "Vitaphone Pictorial Revue No. 11" (Vitaphone) The manufacture of bakelite articles, greyhound racing and the distilling of perfumes comprise this issue It holds attention. Running time mins. "G." 11 Para. Signs Sandrich Hollywood, July 28. — Mark Sand rich, RKO director, has signed a onepicture deal with Paramount. He will do "Man About Town" featuring Jack Benny. Hollywood Previews "Give Me a Sailor" (Paramount) Hollywood, July 28. — A Cinderella story, with the kitchen drudge becoming the princess, is always well received, but when Martha Raye, whom film audiences have come to regard as one of the prime favorites of hoydenism, is the cocoon which metamorphoses into beauty, the results are — well, as Miss Raye would say, "Oh, Boy !" That is the motivating idea behind Paramount's "Give Me a Sailor," which teams Martha Raye with Bob Hope, and has supporting them Betty Grable, Jack Whiting, Clarence Kolb, J. C. Nugent, Bonnie Jean Churchill and Nana Bryant. A comedy with music, "Give Me a Sailor" is an ocean of laughs based on dialogue and situation and augurs well for the continuation, as Paramount recently announced, of Miss Raye and Hope as a team. Elliott Nugent directed the screenplay of Doris Anderson and Frank Butler, based on a play by Anne Nichols. Paul Jones draws his first screen credit as associate producer. Jeff Lazarus is the executive producer. Hope is in love with Miss Grable, beautiful sister of Miss Raye, to whom falls the household tasks of a motherless family. Miss Grable is in love with Whiting, and so is Miss Raye. Failing in attempts at glamour, Miss Raye is disconsolate until a photograph of her legs, taken by a relative who was supposed to have taken a picture of her with a cake, wins a "legs beautiful" contest. When everyone is about to marry the person he or she thinks he or she loves, discoveries that switches should be made contribute a hilarious climax. Exploitation of the picture naturally finds the idea of publicizing Miss Raye in her first "glamour" role as the most salutary of procedures to follow. For various localities where houses cater to service men, there is the navy angle, but this is not given too much prominence in the picture. There are three songs — "What Goes on Here (In My Heart)," "The U. S. A. and You" and "A Little Kiss at Twilight," all written by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin. Running time, 80 minutes. "G." Vance King Variety Club Cincinnati Cincinnati, July 28. ■ — Red Devaney of the local M-G-M office has been enrolled as a resident member. Barkers accepted in the nonresident classification are : J. C. Newbold and E. L. Keesling of the Newbold circuit, Branville, W. Va. ; Jack Frisch, Washington Theatre, Maysville, Ky., and Bud Silverman of the Schine circuit, Bellefontaine, O. Tent No. 3 is preparing a stunt to raise $25,000 to purchase iron lungs and other equipment for unendowed hospitals. Billy Bein is chairman, with John Allen and Andy Neidenthal as assistants. Joe Goetz, skipper of the RKO Paramount, has returned from a vacation in Florida, where his family has been for several months. "Garden of the Moon" { Warners) Hollywood, July 28. — About nine out of every 10 filiuusicals turned out by Warners since that studio pioneered the field a decade back have possessed in prosperous abundance a vital quality variously known, for lack of dictionary words to fit it, as zing, sock, swat and etc. The thing seems to derive from a singularly inspired matching of pace, rhythm, story and score, or perhaps essentially from simple, rare knowhow. This filmusical possess this quality in extraordinary degree. It is the most completely successful application of swing principles to screen technique thus far accomplished. The screenplay by Jerry Wald and Richard Macauly from a story by H. Bedford Jones and Barton Browne is about a swing band, a swing parlor and its hard-swinging manager. The picture, produced by Lou Edelman and directed by Busby Berkeley, opens in brisker tempo than most musicals close in and never misses a beat. The music by Harry Warren, Al Dubin and Johnny Mercer includes no single soft number and the performance of it by Joe Venuti and other name bandsmen making up the orchestra headed by John Payne, a romantic lead sure to go far in films, is of a sort to send jitterbugs into the aisles instanter. Pat O'Brien plays the night club proprietor in memorable manner. Margaret Lindsay is a convincing press agent who falls in love with Payne. Melville Cooper, Curt Bois, Granville Bates and Edward McWade make sterling contributions to the comedy department. Jimmy Fidler acts himself. The dialogue is pointed, pithy and timely as a newscast. Situations are fresh and complications never overstep plausibility. The place is Los Angeles, the time is now, and what happens not only could but has and will again. Running time, 90 minutes. "G." William R. Weaver Drop McLeod Sentence Mobile, Ala., July 28. — The sentence of Roye McLeod, former theatre manager, to a year-and-a-day in Federal prison for extortion, was suspended by Judge John McDuffie of United States district court. Judge McDuffie put McLeod, who wrote a threatening letter to E. V. Richards, circuit head, under probation for four years. Heads Union in Canada Toronto, July 28. — O. Elliott, for merly inspector of theatres in the Provincial Treasury Department and a projectionist in recent years, has been elected president of the Canadian Moving Picture Operators' Union in succession to H. J. McCallum of To ronto. The organization is a company union identified with Hanson Theatres Corp. and Associated Theatres, Ltd. Omaha Omaha, July 28.— Sol J. Francis, president of American Distributing Corp., has been elevated from second to first assistant chief barker of Omaha Variety Club. He succeeds Evert R. Cummings, Tri-States district manager, who resigned. Ted Mendenhall is the new second assistant and chairman of the house committee. Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, July 28. — The weekly Friday Family Nights have been discontinued for the remainder of the summer. Most of Film Row was down at the club helping C. C. Kellenberg of 20th-Fox celebrate his 40th birthday. Larry Katz received word from the boys' camp near White Sulphur Springs where his son is spending the summer that the nineyear-old lad broke his arm in a fall from a horse. Harry Kalmine and Art Levy are spending practically all of their weekends in Atlantic City, where the families are living this summer. The latest resident members are Ben Steerman and Sid Jacobs, both of Warners. Plan Dallas Opening Dallas, July 28. — Another Texas Premier, this time the new Hopalong Cassidy Picture, together with personal appearances of Bill Boyd and Jane Clayton, is scheduled for August 6 at El Paso. Miss Clayton's home is at El Paso. As a further stimulant, Boyd will present a $200 saddle to the best dressed boy cowboy attending the shows. Griffin Buys Theatre Cullman, Ala., July 28. — Bill Griffin, manager of the Cullman and Strand Theatres here, has closed the Strand and has purchased the Lyric from the McMinn interests. The Lyric will be remodeled. Mr. Griffin is well known in association activities in the southeast. Set (iSon of Sheik" Deal Artcinema Associates, Inc., has sold the distribution rights for the United Kingdom on "Son of the Sheik" to General Film Distributors, London. The film will open at the Leicester Square on Friday.