Motion Picture Daily (July–Sept 1938)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Wednesday, August 10, l< Variety Club Cincinnati Cincinnati, Aug. 9. — The fourth annual Variety Club golf tournament will be held Aug. 22, at Summit Hill Country Club, with swimming, softball, baseball, horse shoe pitching, ping-pong and cards as added attractions, in addition to a dinner and a floor show. Maurice White, president LibsonWhite Theatres, is general chairman. Indianapolis Indianapolis, Aug. 9. — The annual golf tournament drew 125 players and 145 diners in the evening. John J. Kennedy won the cup, with A. A. Phillips, second, and Stuart Tomlinson, third. Floyd Brown, Universal branch manager, was chairman of the committee. Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Aug. 9. — John H. Harris has taken a home at Longport, near Atlantic City, for the remainder of the summer. Charlie Kurtzman, the Penn's new manager, has switched his active membership from the Washington tent. The dramatic critics are vacationing. Kap Monahan of the Press is at Cape Mav, N. J., and Harold W. Cohen of the Post-Gazette is at Provincetown. Sam De Fazio, the Harris manager, is spending a couple of weeks in Atlantic City. Harry Kalmine's entire family went to Atlantic City to celebrate his mother's 75th birthday. The club has taken a box at Forbes Field for the remaining Pirate games of the season. Big Colorado Picnic Planned for Aug. 18 Denver, Aug. 9. — The annual Rocky Mountain Motion Picture Industry Round-Up will be held Aug. 18 at the Eddie Ott clubhouse and Evergreen golf course at Evergreen, Colo. Golf will start in the morning, with bridge in the afternoon, dancing and a banquet in the evening. Other diversions will be races, baseball game between exhibitors and distributors, horseshoe pitching, nail driving contests and horseback riding. The picnic will be held on the closing day of the Fox Intermountain Division managers' meeting and the opening day of the annual convention of the Theatre Owners and Managers of the Rocky Mountain Region. Rick Ricketson, Intermountain Fox manager, will preside at the Fox meet. Overseas Previews Standard Puts On Drive Oklahoma City, Aug. 9. — To beat the August box-office slump here, Standard Theatres is putting on an August Jubilee of Movie Hits promotion. Mayor Frank Martin has issued a proclamation congratulating W. B. Shuttee, general manager, on the promotion. Sol Davis Celebrates Oklahoma City, Aug. 9. — Sol Davis, Republic franchise holder here, is celebrating his 25th anniversary in the business by putting on a sales drive. "St. Martin's Lane" ( Mayflower-Association British ) London, Aug. 1. — There are two immediate points of appeal in this second creation of the Pommer-Laughton team — the half section it opens on, a slice of London's low life, and the performance of its star. Despite a certain fidelity to subject and setting, despite revealing glimpses of the world of London's curbstone entertainers, and the lamplit nightlife of the Metropolis, the subject matter is reminiscent of the molehill rather than the dramatic mountain, and interest revolves rather on Laughton's performance as Charlie the busker. The star has never done better in sympathetic characterizations, making a strangely fascinating figure of this lumbering dog-like fellow, who develops a street waif to stardom to find only that the glamorous world of the stage claims her rather than his own half adult devotion. It is a clever conception etched with studied strokes, at times crudely funny, at others poignant. Sympathy is with him all the time, despite the physical repulsion, rather than with Vivien Leigh's somewhat unconvincing Cockney whose actions and accents have ever the underlying groundwork of over refinement. Tim Whelan's direction is both sympathetic and sensible, and the settings for the most part reminiscent of the London original. The script is from an original by Clemence Dane. Erich Pommer produced. Running time, 85 minutes. "G." "Alf's Button Afloat" ( Gainsborough-General Film) London, Aug. 1. — Designed as a vehicle for the London Palladium's celebrated "Crazy Gang" — Flanagan and Allen, Nervo and Know and Naughton and Gold — this very free variation on the theme of Darlington's best seller lacks nothing in inconsequential and crazy comedy. Its laughs, built for the most part on native humor, came so fast and so frequently that the premiere audience was literally unable to keep pace with them. Sheer clowning from beginning to end, with its gags, dialogue and slapstick paced at a feverish rate, it is probably as successful a British comedy as yet has been achieved, a triumph as much for scenarist and director, as for the six comedians. The whole comedy centers on the possession of a button, made from a portion of Aladdin's lamp, getting the most from the situation, obtaining crates of beer, getting a court martial translated into a material tribute to their service and — thanks to the Genii's misunderstandings of English — having supplied for the hunt a bevy of circus horses who persist on going into their ring routine at the wrong moment. Marcel Varnel directed, with an undercalculation of its laughter stimuli ; the script was brilliantly written by Marriott Edgar and Val Guest, and Arthur Crabtree handled the excellent camera work. Running time, 89 minutes. "G." Aubrey Flanagan Hollywood Preview "Rich Man, Poor Girl" (M-G-M) Hollywood, Aug. 9. — M-G-M has brought forth a family drama in "Rich Man, Poor Girl" which, judging from the audience reaction at the preview, will bring satisfaction to the patrons and the showmen. Reinhold Schunzel had this as his first American directorial assignment. Featured are Robert Young, Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey, Lana Turner, Rita Johnson, Don Castle, Guy Kibbee, Sarah Padden, Gordon Jones, Virginia Grey and Marie Blake. It's a new twist to the old story of rich man and the poor girl who wants to be sure it's really love. Creditable performances are turned in by the dependable Mr. Young and the regenerated Mr. Ayres whose role in Columbia's "Holiday" reestablished his popularity. Two newcomers — the Misses Hussey and Turner — captivate the audience with their portrayals of a rich man's secretary whom he desires to marry, and her sister, who is anxious to leave the slums for the gilded circle of "society." Miss Turner's emotional outbreak upon learning that her hope of leaving a tawdry tenement house have been blasted away, is a classic. The screenplay by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov heightens the poignancy of Edith Ellis' play, ''White Collars," and the story by Edgar Franklin. Schunzel, a recent European import, makes the most of its comedy and heart throbs. Edward Chodorov produced the film. Running time, 65 minutes. "G." Vance King Short Subjects "A Sporting Test" {Paramount) This Grantland Rice "Sportligl offers a pleasant questionnaire on variety of sporting subjects with T Husing calling the right answers scenes of the particular pastime s later screened. The content is vari and has sequences and queries i\ the entire audience. Running 10 mins. "G." "Unusual Occupations L 8-1" (Paramount') Filmed in Technicolor, this numb offers additional insights to the lit known occupations that make absor ing screen fare. A good deal of m|: terial is packed into the reel and t narration, while it tends to go in fi puns and witticisms, hits off we Running time, 10 mins. "G." Crowell Co. Testing Advertising Pictur Crowell Publishing Co. has tak 3,700 feet of motion picture film to t< j the story of national magazines as force for public action, and therefoi the perfect advertising medium. "Yankee Doodle Goes to Towr was produced for advertising nr who, in turn, will use the film to car: the message of national advertising magazines to their conventions ai sales meetings. Crowell Publishing Co. sought tl cooperation of M-G-M when th< planned this advertising and pr motion medium. M-G-M takes l credit on the film and Howard Die says the company does not make cor mercial films but did cooperate wi Crowell in doing this short for Cro\ ell's own use. "This is not a poli< with our company and is not likely be repeated," said Mr. Dietz, "sfn our facilities are fully employed wi our own films." Working from the premise that t. printed word and the periodical ha' been hand-maidens of progress sin; our country's inception, they highlig incidents where the influence of n; tional advertising has changed Ame ica's history. D. J. Selznick Passes Pittsburgh, Aug. 9. — D. J. Seh nick, manager of the Monogram e: change here, father of Louis and unc of David O. and Myron Selznid died here today following a long il ness. At one time he was Sel; nick's representative in Australia. H wife and a daughter survive. Sam Serwer Is Dead Sam Serwer, sales and advertisin manager for Music Publishers Hole ing Co., a Warner subsidiary, die yesterday of a heart attack. Funen services will be held at 11:30 th: morning at Riverside Memori; Chapel. Clark Twelvetrees Dies Clark Twelvetrees, actor and forme husband of Helen Twelvetrees, die yesterday in Bellevue Hospital from fractured skull suffered when he fe on the sidewalk of East 33rd St. la: Sunday.