Motion Picture Herald (Sep-Oct 1941)

September 13, 194 MOTION PICTURE HERALD ADVANCE SYNOPSES and information LADIES IN RETIREMENT (Columbia) Drama PRODUCED by Lester Cowan and Gilbert Miller. Directed by Charles Vidor. PLAYERS: Ida Lupine, Louis Hayward, Elsa Lanchester, Edith Barrett, Evelyn Keyes. SYNOPSIS . Adapted from the Broadway stage play of last season by Edward Percy and Reginald Denham, this tells the story of a lady companion (Ida Lupino) who kills her employer when she objects to having the companion's two mentally unbalanced sisters (Elsa Lanchester and Edith Barrett) around the house. Her crime is discovered by a distant relative (Louis Hayward), who takes refuge in the house in flight from the police as a result of a peculation. When he is threatened with exposure if he should talk about the crime, a maid (Evelyn Keyes), who has overheard, rushes off to inform the police. OUTLAWS OF CHEROKEE TRAIL (Republic) Western ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Louis Gray. Directed by Les Orlebeck. PLAYERS: Bob Steele, Tom Tyler, Rufe Davis. SYNOPSIS The Three Mesquiteers are Rangers in this one of the series and when refused permission by their superior officer to cross the border into the Cherokee Strip to apprehend outlaws, they overstep their authority and capture a murderer. He is brought to trial, but his brother, thirsting for revenge, brings a reign of terror and kills the jurors, one by one, then retires to the immunity of the Cherokee Strip. The Mesquiteers, disguised as Indians, move into the Strip bringing the outlaw leader and his gang to justice. HARD GUY (Producers Rel. Corp.) Melodrama ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Alfred Stern, Arthur Alexander. Directed by Elmer Clifton. PLAYERS: Jack LaRue, Mary Healy, Kane Richmond, Iris Adrian. SYNOPSIS The chief characters here are a rich playboy, a show girl, her sister, a detective, a westerner and a nightclub owner who operates a marriageannulment racket. The show girl, in the employ of the nightclub owner, marries the playboy, and after the cash settlement is arranged, has a change of heart. The nightclub owner kills the girl and plants the gun on the drugged playboy. The dead girl's sister, suspecting the nightclub owner, gains his confidence and plots to bring him to justice. In the climactic scene — a gun dual — the nightclub owner is wounded and captured and his marriage racket exposed. HARMON OF MICHIGAN (Columbia) Football Story DIRECTED by Charles Barton. PLAYERS: Tom Harmon, Anita Louise, Forest Evasheski. SYNOPSIS Tommy Harmon, Michigan's great football star, graduates and instead of accepting a professional spot at a fancy figure, becomes an assistant coach at a small college. He settles in the small town with his bride. But, Tommy doesn't get along with the new head coach and resigns. He takes a pro job. An old beloved coach takes an interest in Tommy and makes him his assistant at Reserve. The head coach is ill most of the season and Tommy, given credit for the showing of the school, is hired as head coach of Wheelock, Reserve's traditional rival. He adopts the dangerous wedge play which results in the injury of a player. He resigns when everyone turns against him, but his old mentor sticks by him and the two move on to a small Pacific college as coach and assistant. THREE GIRLS ABOUT TOWN (Columbia) Comedy PRODUCED by Sam Bischoff. Directed by Leigh Jason. PLAYERS: Joan Blondell, Binnie Barnes, Janet Blair, John Howard. SYNOPSIS Three sisters (Joan Blondell, Binnie Barnes and Janet Blair) bcome involved with a "dead body" in a hotel where a magicians' convention has just moved out and a morticians' convention has moved in. The sisters try to get rid of the "body" with the help of the manager while a newspaper reporter keeps one step behind. The situations have a comic aspect. The "body" turns out to be merely hypnotized — not dead. ADOLESCENCE (Monogram) Drama DIRECTED by Louis Gasnier. PLAYERS: Leon Janney, Eleanor Hunt, Esther Muir. SYNOPSIS Reared in a Catholic school, an eighteen-yearold youth, who believes he has a vocation for the priesthood, is taken to live with his father in his palatial Florida home. There he falls in love with his step-sister, ten years his senior. Realizing what is happening, he runs away and joins the R. A. F. Shot down in flames, he is taken to a monastery where he renounces the world to study for the priesthood. BAD MAN FROM BODIE (Monogram) Western PRODUCED by Scott R. Dunlap. Directed by Spencer G. Bennett. PLAYERS: Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, Raymond Hatton. SYNOPSIS Buck Jones as a United States Marshal goes to the town of Larabie to round up cattle rustlers. He finds a rancher and his wife shot dead. Buck poses as the Bad Man from Bodie, joins up with a rustler gang and is eventually made head man. Buck traps the gang and assumes his status as a marshal. TWILIGHT ON THE TRAIL (Paramount) Western PRODUCED by Harry Sherman. Directed by Howard Bretherton. PLAYERS: William Boyd, Brad King, Andy Clyde, Jack Rockwell, Wanda McKay. SYNOPSIS "Hopalong Cassidy" (Bill Boyd) and his pals (Brad King and Andy Clyde) answer a rancher's call for help in tracking down a cattle rustler. "Hoppy" discovers that the rancher's foreman is the actual leader of a gang of rustlers and with the assistance of King and Clyde wipe the gang out. RIDERS OF THE TIMBERLINE (Paramount) Western PRODUCED by Harry Sherman. Directed by Lesley Selander. PLAYERS: William Boyd, Brad King, Andy Clyde, Eleanor Stewart, J. Farrell MacDonald. SYNOPSIS "Hopalong Cassidy" (Bill Boyd) and his pals (Brad King and Andy Clyde) go to the timber country to deliver money to the lumber camp owner (J. Farrell MacDonald). "Hoppy" is regarded as a blackguard emissary of timber thieves. It turns out that the owner has a contract with an eastern magnate to ship a certain amount of wood by a certain date, and that the easterner has caused the trouble so that the contract will be broken. "Hoppy" straightens out the situation. SECRETS OF THE WASTELAND (Paramount) Western PRODUCED by Harry Sherman. Directed by Derwin Abrahams. PLAYERS: William Boyd, Brad King, Andy Clyde, Barbara Britton. SYNOPSIS "Hopalong Cassidy" in the person of Bill Boyd and his two pals (Brad King and Andy Clyde) attend an archeological expedition into the desert. "Hoppy" discovers a hidden Chinese settlement in the middle of the desert, with a gold mine being worked by the Chinese. He befriends the Chinese and convinces them that they should register the mine with the U. S. government. He is entrusted with the papers to register the mine and does so after outwtting a desperado gang. STICK TO YOUR GUNS (Paramount) Western PRODUCED by Harry Sherman. Directed by Lesley Selander. PLAYERS: William Boyd, Brad King, Andy Clyde, Jennifer Holt. SYNOPSIS A former Bar-20 cowpuncher, now operating a ranch of his own, is having considerable trouble with rustlers. He sends an appeal to his old boss, who in turn sends out a tocsin call to all the former Bar-20 men. They, in turn, join "Hopalong Cassidy" (Bill Boyd) and his pals (Brad King and Andy Clyde) in a move to exterminate the outlaws who have their hideout somewhere in the Black Buttes. OUTLAWS OF THE DESERT (Paramount) Western PRODUCED by Harry Sherman. Directed by Howard Bretherton. PLAYERS: William Boyd, Brad King, Andy Clyde, Jean Phillips. SYNOPSIS "Hopalong Cassidy" (Bill Boyd) and his pals (Brad King and Andy Clyde) are sent to Arabia to buy horses from the Sheik, who gives the trio the animals as a gift, thus saving the buyer (Forst Stanley) a goodly sum of money. Adventurers trick Stanly and hold him for ransom. "Hoppy" investigates for himself befor giving the Arabian kidnapers the money. He cleans up the lawless element, with the aid of the Sheik ; helps the Sheik fight off marauding attackers, and brings back the horses for the Army Remount Service. Product Digest Section 263