Motion Picture Daily (July–Sept 1938)

Thursday, September 29, 1938 MOTION PICTURE DAILY LEADS THROUGH BASIC MECHANICAL SUPERIORITY PROJECTOR Designed and Built for a New and Greater Era. Will enable your patrons to see and hear pictures better than they ever have before. OUTSTANDING ADVANTAGES Synchronized Front and Rear Shutters — INCREASED LIGHT, SHARPER PICTURE, LESS EYE STRAIN. One-Shot Oiling System — CLEANER PICTURE, BETTER SHOW. LONGER LIFE. LESS MAINTENANCE. Removable Film Gate — READILY DEMOUNTABLE FOR CLEANING AND ADJUSTMENT. Cone-shaped Pad Springs — REDUCES SPROCKET WEAR. Demountable FUm Trap — AVOIDS SCRATCHING FILM. Studio Type Guides — PREVENTS SIDE SWAY OF FILM. Threading Facilities — GIVES PROJECTIONIST MORE TIME TO WATCH HIS SCREEN AND ATTEND TO MAINTENANCE. Oversize Drive Gears — LONGER LIFE — EASIER MAINTENANCE. Rear Shutter Cooling Fins — INSURE MUCH COOLER FILM PATH. Ring Type Governor For Fire Shutter — BIND-PROOF. SILENT. Intermittent Movement — Readily Removable. FACILITATES MAINTENANCE. Intermittent Movement Oil Cushion — GIVES LONGER WEAR. REDUCES VIBRATION. INCREASES STEADINESS AND PROVIDES A PERMANENTLY BETTER PICTURE. MANUFACTURED BY INTERNATIONAL PROJECTOR CORPORATION 88-96 GOLD STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. DISTRIBUTED BY NATIONAL THEATRE SUPPLY COMPANY BRANCHES IN PRINCIPAL CITIES Hollywood Previews "Straight, Place and Show" (20th Century-Fox) Hollywood, Sept. 28. — The Ritz Brothers never have been funnier than they are in this headlong comedy about a race horse named Playboy (for Playmay, last year's box car mutuel payoff at Santa Anita) and the strange assortment of people variously and separately interested in his erratic career. The boys have been louder in shorter sequences, and repetitious in longer ones, but here they seem to have hit their screen stride. The preview audience, which included Sidney R. Kent and Charles E. McCarthy, exploded repeatedly during the earlier reels and kicked the chairs apart during the steeple chase finish, a totally incredible production feat which brings Harry Ritz down the home stretch in the lead and jumping his mount on the flat so Richard Arlen's can pass him and win. The screen play, derived by M. M. Musselman and Allen Rivkin from a play by Damon Runyon and Irving Caesar, is a simple little thing about a fellow whose girl is so crazy about a horse that she can't find time to marry him, wherefore he makes a bet with her, wins the horse, gives it to three roughnecks who operate a pony-ride, loses the girl on account of giving the horse away and then wins her back by riding it to victory. The romantic interest, played lightly and formally by Richard Arlen, Phyllis Brooks and Ethel Merman, who finds spots to pitch in a couple of vocal numbers by Lew Brown and Lew Pollack, is brought forward now and again to give the audience a breather but isn't important otherwise. The gay, giddy, glad, sad, swift and generally terrific comedy sequences conducted by the Ritzes, who also find time to do one of their mass attacks on a song number, this one winding up with Swiss bells, are the materials that count, and for plenty. A wrestling bout and a pair of telephone gags rank second and third to the final madhouse masterpiece in which the three masquerade as abducted gentlemen jockeys, with intent to lose the race, and discover they can't run worse than "straight, place and show." This is probably a new high in slapstick. David Hempstead, associate producer, and/or David Butler, director, displayed a new and needed cunning in the handling of the Ritzes. They are kept going steadily but never allowed to choke a gag to death. They are in front of the lens most of the time but don't get a chance to crowd it. The result is a tremendously funny picture. Running: time, 65 minutes. "G." Roscoe Williams "Girls' School" (Columbia) Hollywood, Sept. 28. — This is a fresh, sound, straightaway story about girls in a private school, what they do, how they get along with each other or don't, what their ideals are, their ambitions, heartbreaks, excitements and thrills. It is a wholesome story involved with no probings into the esoteric and it has nothing whatever in common with "Maedchen in Uniform" or any of the imitations of that film. It is a distinct novelty as to subject matter and treatment and susceptible of profitable exploitation as such. The screenplay by Tess Schlesinger and Richard Sherman, from Miss Schlesinger's original, has Anne Shirley as a poor scholarship student acting as monitor in a private girls' school and Nan Grey as leader of the rich girls who scorn her. How Miss Shirley reconciles Miss Grey's separated parents and how incidents of a single day and evening bring to all the students a mature understanding of Miss Shirley and each other is told in a series of varied, arresting, plausible and frequently humorous sequences. Ralph Bellamy and Gloria Holden contribute a brief but brilliant interlude. Marjorie Main, Cecil Cunningham, Dorothy Moore, Margaret Tallichet, Heather Thatcher, Doris Kenyon, Noah Beery, Jr., Pierre Watkin and Peggy Moran are other members of a large and well matched cast. Samuel Marx, associate producer, and John Brahm, director, handled with impressive success the telling of a primarily emotional story in terms of actionful incident. The result is a rounded, forceful, wholesome picture far off the beaten track of production but well inside the boundaries of box-office usefulness. Running time, 70 minutes. "G." Roscoe Williams Motiograph Names Two Chicago, Sept. 28. — Motiograph, Inc., equipment firm, has appointed Leroy R. Boomer authorized distributor in the St. Louis territory. Victor B. Coster has been named export manager. Norman Goes to Saenger Pensacola, Fla., Sept. 28. — R. E. Norman, former manager of the Rex here, has been named manager of the Saenger, succeeding Henry Stearnes, no longer connected with the Saenger concern. % tku factum alotvA all OAft 'jinoinc fjifit souno svsTEm tt o PROFITABLE INVESTMENT Theatre Location Rosco Chicago, 111. Co-Ed Champaign, 111. East Moline State Hospital East Moline, 111. Massaic Metropolis, 111. Vogue Indianapolis, 111. LaFayette LaFayette, Ind. Ohio Madison, Ind. Pantheon Vincennes, Ind. State Dubuque, la. Iowa Lake City, la. Keck Wapelo, la. Strand West Liberty, la. Main Street Chanute, Kan. Uptown Wichita, Kan. Royal Seneca, Kan. Garden Louisa, Ky. Washington Maysville, Ky. Pastime Vicco, Ky. Dixie Olive Hill, Ky. Roseville Roseville, Mich. Wyandotte . Wyandotte, Mich. Delft Munsing, Mich. Gem Saginaw, Mich. Plaza Lansing, Mich. Lyric Lapeer, Mich. Bijou Mt. Clemens, Mich. Soo Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Temple Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Four-Star Grand Rapids, Mich. Ritz Minneapolis, Minn. Longwood St. Louis, Mo. Downtown Kansas City, Mo. McNair St. Louis, Mo. Kingsland St. Louis, Mo Aubert St. Louis, Mo. Shaw St. Louis, Mo. Lafayette St. Louis, Mo. Manchester St. Louis, Mo. Broad Lancaster, O. Vernon Mt. Vernon, O. Royal Chillicothe, O. Lincoln Columbus, O. Chardon Chardon, O. Park Mansfield, O. Lyric Lancaster, O. Garrettsville Garrettsville, O. Colony Hillsboro, O. Hiland Natrona, Pa. Freeman Northfork, W. Va. Eastland Fairmont, W. Va. Fayette Fayetteville, W. Va. Burwell Parkersburg, W. Va. Penn Pennsboro, W. Va. New Logan Logan, W. Va. Lincoln Warwood, W. Va. Court Wheeling, W. Va. Smithers Smithers, W. Va. Parkway Milwaukee, Wis. Classic Waupun, Wis. Avalon Black River Falls, Wis. MANUFACTURED BY INTERNATIONAL PROJECTOR CORPORATION 88-96 GOLD STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. DISTRIBUTED BY NATIONAL THEATRE SUPPLY COMPANY BRANCHES IN PRINCIPAL CITIES