Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1951)

6 MOTION PICTURE DAILY Thursday, October 11, 1951 Motion Picture Daily Feature Reviews 'Two Tickets to Broadway" (RKO Radio) THE BACKSTAGE life of a group of showpeople trying to get a break on Broadway is detailed in familiar fashion in this Technicolor musical. What gives it a novel twist is that the show they would like to get across is not the customary Broadway theatrical production but rather a one-night television spectacle. The picture has a splendid array of songs, dances and production numbers. It also boasts good name performers and a satisfactory balance of comedy and drama. This Howard Hughes presentation features such talent as Tony Martin, Janet Leigh, Gloria DeHaven, Ann Miller, and the old vaudeville team of Joe Smith and Charles Dale. As an added premium, Bob Crosby appears long enough to get across a song and help unravel a dramatic complication. Miss Leigh appears as a small-town girl who is given a rousing send-off as she heads for Broadway. Presently she meets singer Martin and before long they are in love. Bracken, a well-meaning, fast-talking agent, promises the stars to the kids, plus a trio of showgirls. When his promises fall short, he invents a story about Bob Crosby wanting them for his television show. Thus the little troupe rehearses while Bracken tries desperately but futilely to get Crosby interested. Eventually Miss Leigh learns of the hoax and heads for home. When hope is at its lowest ebb, a series of events happen, culminating in Crosby really wanting the troupe. What ensues is a frantic effort to get the show together and retrieve Miss Leigh from a homeward bound bus. The show is a big hit and romantic bells ring for Martin and Miss Leigh, and Bracken and Miss DeHaven. Smith and Dale, as a pair of delicatessen store proprietors, infuse the proceedings with their special brand of delightful humor. Martin's voice is in excellent form, and the same applies to the dancing of Miss Miller and Miss Leigh. There are songs in bountiful measure. Among them : "Manhattan," "There's No Tomorrow," the prologue from "Pagliacci," "Let's Make Comparisons," "You Are a Beautiful Dream," "The Closer You Are," "Baby, You'll Never Be Sorry," and several others. James V. Kern directed, from the screenplay by Sid Silvers and Hal Kanter. Running time, 106 minutes. General audience classification. For November release. Mandel Herbstman "Gold Raiders" {Schwarz Productions — United Artists) THE TRADITIONAL Western form is invaded by a trio of zany comics in Jack Schwarz Productions' "Gold Raiders." Whoever conceived the idea of turning the Three Stooges loose on the range deserves applause. They play havoc with the formula. The picture meets the customary requirements of the Western and has the added entertainment of the Three Stooges' slapstick. George O'Brien plays an insurance agent who is bent upon protecting gold shipments from robbery. Since nobody would ever think of entrusting the Stooges with a shipment, O'Brien does just that. Unfortunately, badman Lyle Talbot learns that the Stooges are to convoy the shipment and in no time he raids them. There is the customary allotment of gunplay and fisticuffs before O'Brien safely retrieves the gold and gives the outlaws their just desserts. Sheilah Ryan provides a slight feminine angle and Fuzzy Knight is a comical sheriff. Moe Howard, Shemp Howard and Larry Fine are the Stooges. An example ot their antics : when surrounded by outlaws who are firing at them furiously, they defend themselves with exploding cigars. A Jack Schwarz production, it was produced by Bernard Glasser and directed by Edward Bernds. Running time, 56 minutes. General audience classification. M. Herbstman YVONNE DE CARLO stars in Hotel Sahara r .released thru UA Break Into 2 Theatres Boston, Oct. 10. — Two motion picture theatres in Everett, Mass., were broken into last night. Reporting for his first day's work as manager of the Warner Capitol Theatre, Steven Barbett found holes punched in the safe's top, its door hinges sawed thru and the combination ripped off. It contained no money as Anthony Forte, assistant manager had deposited the day's receipts at a night depository at a nearby bank. Money was taken by smashing vending machines at the nearby Park Theatre. Schneider Promoted Sam Schneider has been named editor-in-chief of Motion Picture Magazine by Ralph Daigh, Editorial Director of Fawcett Publications. Schneider has been with Fawcett in an editorial capacity for the past eight years, and before then he was a New York newspaper reporter. He replaces Maxwell Hamilton, who has resigned. "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" (Dorkay-Ronvulus Films — M-G-M) A STRANGE, eerie tale, based on the legend of the Flying Dutchman, is unfolded in this M-G-M release which headlines James Mason and Ava Gardner against the lush Technicolor background of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. While the credulity of some theatre patrons may be challenged in this adaptation, the film offers the compensation of a hair-raising bull-fighting episode and a tension-packed auto racing scene. Because of the off -screen narration and the centuries-old character portrayed by the usual vitriolic Mason, the film tends to be too stylized and slow in spots, but for an audience which loves to lose itself in a legendary tale, the film should prove satisfying. Redemption through love and sacrifice is the theme, for the Flying Dutchman has been sentenced to endlessly sail the seven seas for the murder of his innocent wife and his blasphemy against God. His one hope to end this curse is to find a woman who loves him enough to give up her life for him. For that search, James Mason as Hendrick van der Zee, is allowed every seven years to land and live among mortal men for a short time. Mason's ghost ship takes him to an out-of-the-way Spanish seaport where a colony of foreigners live, among them selfish, beautiful, Pandora (Ava Gardner), and archeologist Harold Warrender (Geoffrey Fielding), who first detects Mason's true identity. Miss Gardner impetuously swims out to the ghost-ship, a graceful schooner, and finds Mason painting a portrait of her — a woman he had never before seen. From there on, both are magnetically attracted to each other through many twists and turns of the plot which ends with Miss Gardner offering her life by drowning to redeem Mason. Others in the cast include Nigel Patrick, Sheila Sim, Mario Cabre, Marius Goring, John Laurie, Pamela Kellino and Patricia Raine. Albert Lewin and Joseph Kaufman directed, from a story and screenplay by Lewin. Running time, 123 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, Nov. 30. Murray M. Horowitz 'Drums in the Deep South" {RKO Pictures) CREDIT the King Brothers with bringing to the screen the vigor, fire, noise and confusion of battle action, as well as the color and panorama of a typical costume drama of Civil War days. Not only have they done these things well, but they have achieved them without a heavily populated cast Our guess is that this offering will enjoy a good return at the box-office, particularly below the Mason and Dixon Line, since the story's sympathies lie with the Confederates. The effects seem to have been won through the excellent direction of William Cameron Menzies, a designer, aided by competent camera work, and by the musical score of Dimitri Tiomkin. Maurice King and Frank King produced from a screenplay by Philip Yordan and Sidney Harmon. Color is Supercinecolor, and not too satisfactory. This story has James Craig, the Southern romantic forever in love with married Barbara Payton, plantation mistress. War, much less her husband, separates them for a time. Craig leads a raiding party to her location. His mission : to seize a nearby mountain, and with four artillery pieces, destroy trains on Sherman's supply line. Miss Payton, at her plantation, signals him when trains come. The Confederates destroy two trains. Then the Northerners bring a railroad gun. Craig and his men destroy that, too. Basic drama has entered by now because commanding the Northerners is Craig's former buddy and Miss Payton's former friend, Guy Madison. Desperate at his losses, and still not knowing Craig commands the men on the mountain top, Madison orders the mountain mined. When Miss Payton discloses to him the truth, it is almost too late. He allows her to climb to the top to give Craig time to surrender. She is shot; and the ensuing delay is fatal. She and Craig die in the explosion which Madison reluctantly orders. Good in supporting roles are Barton MacLane, Craig Stevens, Tom Fadden, Robert Osterloh and others. Running time, 87 minutes. , General audience classification. Release date, Oct. 20. Cleveland's Tower Raises Cleveland, Oct. 10. — The Tower Theatre here (formerly the Telenews) has raised its scale to 75 cents up to one P. M. and $1.00 after that for "Bright Victory." The established scale is 55-60-75-80 cents. Abolish 'Screen Guide* To conserve dwindling paper supplies, Hillman Periodicals, Inc. announced that the publication of Screen Guide Magazine will be suspended with the Dec, 1951 issue. Screen Guide, one of the oldest fan magazines, has been in continuous publication since the 1930's. Hillman will continue publication of Movieland, the firm's other fan magazine, and Dorothea Lee McEvoy will continue as its editor. She will concentrate her efforts on Movieland, and the paper made available by the suspension of Screen Guide will be used to allow Movieland to expand. IN A SPECIAL TRAILER. Chicago, Illinois FILMACK New York, N.Y. INDEPENDENT FILM EXCHANCE equipped to distribute new American and foreign films, in New York metropolitan area, as well as on a national basis. Call or write Jack Bellman, Realart Film Exchange, 630 9th Avenue, New York City. Telephone Circle 6-1717.