Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1939)

Friday, September 15, 1939 Motion Picture Daily 7 Two Columbia Latin America Parleys Billed J. A. McConville, Columbia foreign manager, will sail for Havana on the Oriente Saturday, accompanied by Charles Roberts, home ofsupervisor for Latin America, to^ireside over the first two conventions the company has held in Latin America. Because of the war in Europe, McConville believes that business in the Latin American countries will be materially improved, and that extra effort will be required to build up maximum revenues. In addition to the Hollywood product, which, it is stressed, will not be curtailed because of the war, the company has four Spanish films made in Mexico, and a French picture, all of which will be shown in Latin America. Conventions will be held in Havana from Sept. 20 through 22 and in Buenos Aires from Oct. 30 through Nov. 1. 'Oz' Hits $16,500, Leads in Capital Washington, Sept. 14. — "The Wizard of Oz" took $16,500 at Loew's Palace. "Lady of the Tropics" took $18,500 at Loew's Capitol, and "In Name Only" was good for $9,500 at the RKO Keith's. Estimated takings for the week ending Sept. 7: "Lady of the Tropics" (M-G-M) LOEW'S CAPITOL — (3,434) (25c-66c) 7 days. Stage: Fall Follies. Gross: $18,500. (Average, $16,500) "Stanley and Livingstone" (20th-Fox) LOEW'S COLUMBIA— (1,243), 25c-40c) 7 days, 2nd week. Gross: $4,500. (Average, $4,500) "The Wizard of Oz" (M-G-M) LOEW'S PALACE — (2,370) (25c-55c) 7 days. Gross: $16,500. (Av erage, $12,000) "In Name Only" (RKO) RKO KEITH'S— (1,836) (25c-55c) 7 days. Gross: $9,500. (Average, $6,000) "Golden Boy" (Col.) WARNERS EARLE— (2,218) (25c-66c) 7 days. Stage: Vaudeville. Gross: $17,500. (Average, $16,000) "Indianapolis Speedway" (W. B.) WARNERS' METROPOLITAN— (1,591) (25c-40c) 7 days. Gross: $3,000. (Average, $4,000) Feature Reviews 'Dawn' Kansas City Leader at $6,700 Kansas City, Sept. 14. — With $6,700, "Each Dawn I Die" and "Everybody's Hobby" at the Orpheum made the best showing. "Lady of the Tropics" and "Coast Guard" drew $12,600 at the Midland. The weather was hot. Estimated takings for the week ending Sept. 5-7 : Stanley and Livingstone (ZOth-Fox) ESQUIRE— (800) (25c-40c) 7 days. Gross: $2,800. (Average, $3,000) "Lady of the Tropics" (M-G-M) "Coast Guard" (Col.) Midland— (4,000) (25c-40c) 7 days. Gross: $12,600. (Average, $11,500) "The Starmaker" (Para.) NEWMAN— (1,900) (25c-40c) 2nd week. Gross: $3,700. (Average, $7,000) "Each Dawn I Die" (W. B.) "Everybody's Hobby" (RKO) ORPHEUM — (1,500) (25c-40c) 7 days. Gross: $6,700. (Average, $5,000) "I Stole a Million" (20th-Fox) TOWER— (2,200) (25c) 7 days. Stage: Hank Browne & Co., Maidie & Ray, Paul & Petit, Dick Ware. Gross: $5,800. (Average, $5,000) "Stanley and Livingstone" (20th-Fox) UPTOWN— (2,000) (25c-40c) 7 days. Ciross: $4,200. (Average, $3,500) "The Day the Bookies Wept" (RKO) Hollywood, Sept. 14. — When producer Robert Sisk, writers Bert Granet and George Jeske and director Leslie Goodwins got their heads together to concoct "The Day the Bookies Wept," they must have had the prophetic vision that along about the time of the picture's release people would be in the mood for a lot of hearty laughs. Anyway, they cooked up a nonsensically funny race horse story, recruited competent funsters Joe Penner, Richard Lane, Tom Kennedy, Thurston Hall, added Betty Grable and Bernadene Hayes for the necessary feminine touch and told them to get out there and be as funny as they could be. The result is a full hour of farce hokum, jam packed with laughter in lines, situations and characterizations. Bled white by long shots that never win, the Lane-Kennedy gang of taxi drivers thirst for vengeance on the bookies. They buy a horse and commission pigeon fancier Joe Penner to get and train it. Penner is a hopeless trainer and the horse is a hopeless runner until Miss Grable learns that the steed likes its beer and that, when full of it, can run faster than a hurricane. Wanting marriage with Penner and a suburban cottage, she commandeers Penner's savings and the taximen's kitty, buys the steed a keg of high-powered brew which it consumes avidly, and then comes in at 80 to one. That's why the bookies wept, and the preview audience laughed. Running time, 60 minutes. "G."* G. McC. "Two Bright Boys" ( Universal) Hollywood, Sept. 14. — Despite its title, Universal's "Two Bright Boys" is a comedy melodrama which makes the most of every opportunity to amuse. It is a story of the fight of a boy and his widowed mother against the scheme of an avaricious oil baron to seize their land. Another boy, the son of an English confidence man, and his father, enter the scene and complicate matters further as hirelings of the racketeer. Title roles are played to the hilt by Jackie Cooper and Freddie Bartholomew, their personalities providing interesting contrast. Supporting are Melville Cooper in one of his best performances — that of the confidence man ; Dorthy Peterson as the widow ; Alan Dinehart as the oil mogul ; J. M. Kerrigan as an Irish oil driller ; and Willard Robertson, Eddie Acuff, Hal K. Dawson, Harry Worth and Eddy C. Waller. The original screenplay by Val Burton and Edmund L. Hartmann is a concisely wrought piece of cinema entertainment, bristling with bright dialogue. Joseph Santley directed the Burt Kelly production. Posing as an English banker under threats by Dinehart, Cooper lends $3,000 to Cooper and his mother to drill their land for oil. When they near success, Dinehart wrecks their derrick and is about to take over the land on a foreclosure. However, Cooper, having become regenerated, decides upon one more last crime — he forges Dinehart's name to a check and enables Cooper to bring in the well. Running time, 73 minutes; "G."* Vance King "Tropic Fury" (Universal) "Tropic Fury" is solid, melodramatic entertainment lightened by comedy touches and an unusual view of the methods of rubber production. Exploitation centered around rubber plantations and the modern developments of this commodity should arouse interest in the film's theme. The plot is concerned with the difficulties of Richard Arlen, a young chemist, who is sent to the jungle to rescue the leader of a previous expedition, Charles Trowbridge, and to investigate the possibilities of American rubber production. En route, he picks up Andy Devine, a stranded sailor, who accompanies him. To his amazement Arlen finds that a young girl, Beverly Roberts, is also headed for the jungle. Arlen and Devine pretend to be laborers in order to secure employment and once more find Miss Roberts on the scene. The subsequent sequences take place on the plantation and show how the natives tap the rubber from the trees and cure it. Performances are uniformly good. Ben Pivar produced and Christy Cabanne directed. The screenplay was written by Michael Simmons from an original by Maurice Tombragel and Pivar. Running time, 62 minutes. "G."* Edward Greif *"G" denotes general classification. 15 New Film Houses Built In Cincinnati Cincinnati, Sept. 14. — New theatre construction here and in the Cincinnati trade territory from Sept. 1 of last year to date has exceeded any similar activity in the past several years. In all, 15 theatres have been built or are in the course of construction, with a total of 10,130 seats. Locally, the new Grand, which will replace the Grand Opera House, an old landmark in the heart of the theatre sector, is the largest project, with 1,500 seats. The old structure now is being razed, upon completion of which work, building operations will be started immediately. The house is being erected by the Taft Estate, and has been leased by RKO for a long term of years. The old Times-Star building, likewise in a prominent downtown location, is being demolished, and a new 700-seat house will be built on the site by Gifts, Inc., composed of Ike and Abe Libson and associates, Louis Wiethe recently opened the 900-seat Kentucky at nearby Latonia, Ky. The 700-seat Mariemont, known as the Thomas J. Emery Memorial, in a suburban location, was opened within the past 12 months, as was also the Silvertone, with 600 seats, operated by J. W. Nordloh, at Silverton, a suburb. Willis Vance, who opened the 450-seat Ohio in suburban Norwood during the year, is building the State, with a 470-seat capacity at Newport, Ky., just across the river from here, while a new house with 600 seats is practically completed at suburban College Hill. William Murrison and R. V. Tusch are the builders. Nat Galley and associates are about ready to open the 900-seat Elmwood, a suburban unit, the same interests having launched the Avon, neighborhood house with 600 seats, and the Miami-Webster, an 800-seater at Oxford, Ohio. Throughout the territory, Rappold Brothers are building a 600-seat house on Parsons Ave., a neighborhood location in Columbus, Ohio, and Rader Brothers have started work on a theatre with 525 seats at Eaton, Ohio. A new theatre to have 500 seats is being built by Harry Schwartz, at Paris, Ky., and work is starting on a 300-seat house, at Beverly, Ohio, with C. O. Dixon as the builder. Pearces Arrive In East for Week Al Pearce and Mrs. Pearce arrived by train Wednesday from California They will remain here one week to complete plans for the new radio series Pearce has been signed for, and then return to California, whence the series will originate. Dorothy Haas of the Fanchon & Marco office came to New York with the Pearces and will accompany them on the return to the coast. The new Peare program is to start in October over CBS. Howard Allen Dead Denver, Sept. 14. — Howard Allen, manager of the Pace theatre at Gordon, Neb., died of a heart attack. Black Hills Amusement Co. owns the Pace theatre.