Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1943)

MOTION PICTURE HERALD March 27, 1943 stapo all turn in able performances. John Wexley, who wrote the screenplay, and Bert Brecht, who contrived the story with Fritz Lang, are also to be commended for an exciting idea. Seen in the home office projection room. Reviewer's Rating : Good. — E. A. Cunningham. Release date, March 26, 1943. Running time, 131 min. General audience classification. Dr. Svoboda Brian Donlevy Prof. Novotny Walter Brennan Mascha Anna Lee Czaka Gene Lockhart Dennis O'Keefe, Alexander Granach, Margaret Wycherly, Nana Bryant, Billy Roy, Hans V. Twardowski. Tonio Selwart, Jonathan Hale, Lionel Stander. He's My Guy (Universal) Joan Davis Entertains Put this one down in the record as the picture that gave Joan Davis plenty of opportunity to display her talent for buffoonery. She lifts this minor musical by its budgetary bootstraps and she stirred its Hollywood preview audience to more laughter than many a production costing a dozen times as much money. The proceedings in which Miss Davis hurls laugh after laugh to the customers, who hurl them back with interest, have to do with a vaudeville duo which separates for reasons of temperament and regains its unity for reasons of war, which is to say that a man and wife who can't get along together in show business find that they can do very well together when putting on shows in a war plant. It is Miss Davis' performance as a former hoofer who's taken up riveting that makes the picture click, however. Gertrude Niesen sings a couple of songs, as do the Mills Brothers, likewise the Diamond Brothers, who also dance, and Louis Da Pron, Lorraine Krueger and the Dorene Sisters figure in the vaudeville (war plant) side of the entertainment. Nine songs, from almost that many sets of writers, are utilized in the enterprise. Production is by Will Cowan, direction by Edward F. Cline, screenplay by M. Coates Webster and Grant Garrett from a story by Kenneth Higgins, all of whom collaborated in the matter of giving prominence to the performance by Miss Davis, who carries the picture. Previewed at the Fairfax theatre, Hollywood, to a neighborhood audience drawn by "In Which We Serve." A lot of laughter and some applause indicated enthusiasm for Miss Davis' brand of humor. Reviewer's Rating : Good. Release date, March 26, 1943. Running time, 65 min. PCA No. 9072. General audience classification. Madge Donovan Joan Davis Van Moore Dick Foran Terry Allen Irene Hervey Fuzzy Knight, Don Douglas, Samuel S. Hinds, Bill Halligan, Gertrude Niesen, Diamond Brothers, Mills Brothers, Louis da Pron, Lorraine Krueger. Salute for Three (Paramount) Canteen Musical Comedy Smartly presented, fast moving, well dressed, this musical comedy is wartimely against a canteen background. It provides light entertainment with a definite love interest that should please. A hero sergeant, Macdonald Carey, is brought from the fighting front to join the 'keep up civilian and soldier morale' campaign. He is the victim of a publicity maneuver to land the beautiful and well-voiced Betty Rhodes a radio sponsor's contract. The girl unwillingly agrees to make a play for him and, while succeeding in a conquest that brings him into her camp, falls in love with him. His rival is the plotting publicist Mart May, operating with a photographic dumbbell played by Cliff Edwards. The lovers part when the hoax is discovered, but at the end of the play's journey they reunite. The rival, after getting into a uniform himself, is elected to a good friend role. Four outstanding songs adorn the piece: "Don't Worry," 'What D'ya Do When It Rains," "I'll Wait for You," "Left-Right," all sung by Miss Rhodes, and "My Wife's a W.A.A.C.," sung by Cliff Edwards. Lorraine and Rognan team in an amusing dance number. Walter MacEwen produced and Ralph Murphy directed the picture with competence. A large supporting cast of dancers and soldiers participate. Seen in a New York projection room. Reviewer's Rating : Good. — A.J. Release date, not set. Running time, 75 min. PCA No. 9007. General audience classification. Buzz McAllister Macdonald Carey Judy Ames '. Betty Rhodes Dona Dona Drake Jimmy Gates Marty May Foggy Cliff Edwards Aerial Gunner (Paramount) Martial Melodrama Increasing their budget and elevating their sights, Producers William Pine and William Thomas aim here at top-spot programming with accuracy acquired during long years on firing line exhibition and exploitation. Their picture deals with and glorifies the duty and responsibility of a tail-gunner who protects bombers on attack and return, and was filmed with the full, effective cooperation of the aerial gunnery training department of the Army. The screenplay by Maxwell Shane opens with Richard Arlen, bomber pilot, returning from a successful mission and reporting the death of his gunner, played by Chester Morris, his enemy since boyhood in Brooklyn, but his buddy at last when mutual devotion to the cause of victory had ended private differences. Conflicts between the two, plus a sub-plot concerning an unsuccessful enlistee and competitive romance, are played out against the background of special training for gunnery which is new material for the screen. The picture is William Pine's first undertaking as director and an achievement in two departments for a man who came from exhibition via exploitation to production. Previewed at the studio. Reviewer's Rating: Good. — William R. Weaver. Release date, not set. Running time, 78 minutes. PCA No. 9095. General audience classification. Foxy Pattis Chester Morris Ben Davis Richard Arlen Peggy Letty Ward Jimmy Lydon, Dick Purcell, Keith Richards. Billy Benedict. Ralph Sanford (Review reprinted from last week's Herald.) tract a maximum yield from the funds allocated. Previewed in a Hollywood projection room. Reviewer's Rating : Good. — W. R. W. Release date. March 29. 1943. Runnine time. 74 min. PCA No. 9075. General audience classification. Jan Stockman Otto Kruger Dr. Royce Lee Elissa Landi Michael Donald Woods Frank Jenks, Rick Vallin, Wanda McKay, Ian Keith, Ruby Dandridge, Eddie Hall, Charles Jordan. Corregidor (Producers Releasing Corp.) Historical Melodrama Lifting its budgetry ceiling in an endeavor to justify the subject, PRC paints here in entertainment terms the crisis at Corregidor, treating it both as an historic incident and as a provocative factor which brings a solution to the romantic impasse confronting the three principal characters. The film is, within its bracket, screen merchandise meriting respect. The principals in the screenplay by Doris Malloy and Edgar Ulmer are three doctors, two men and a woman, brought together under fire on Corregidor after the woman has married one while loving the other. They toil together in a hospital, attending the wounded, until a bomb kills the husband as the order to surrender is received. The woman is evacuated by plane, and the doctor of her choice remains behind to face capture. Otto Kruger, Elissa Landi and Donald Woods handle the leads acceptably, while Frank Jenks supplies comedy to temper the proceedings. Strafing, bombing and hand-to-hand conflict between troops provide pictorial excitement, which is penalized to some extent by overemployment of stock shots seen in other pictures. Production by Dixon R. Harwin and Edward Finney, and direction by William Night, ex High Explosive (Paramount) Occupational Melodrama This time it's the drivers of nitroglycerine trucks whom producers William Pine and William Thomas treat of in their merchandise (as it was housewreckers a few pictures back) and again it is the danger inherent in the job that poses the menace to the principals, instead of saboteur, spy or routine villain. The subject lends itself to purposes of excitement and the picture stacks up as a contrasting factor for programs stressing' a major attraction of mild pattern. Chester Morris is the nitro driver hero and Jean Parker the girl to whom he pays court while promising to protect her brother from the risks of their calling. He fails to do this and flies a plane full of nitro into a ragingfire which threatens destruction of a warplant, killing himself in so doing. It's a script by Maxwell Shane and Howard J. Screen, from a story by Joseph Hoffman, and it accentuates movement. Direction is by Frank McDonald. Previewed at studio. Reviewer's Rating : Fair.—W. R. W. Release date, not set. Running time, 62 min. PCA No. 8844. General audience classification. Buzz Mitchell Chester Morris Connie Baker Jean Parker Barry Sullivan, Rand Brooks, Barbara Lynn, Ralph Sanford, Dick Purcell, Vince Barnett. China ( Paramount) Love and War Tense, exciting entertainment, well presented by a flawless cast, this picture is a thriller of love, warfare and sacrifice. Three Americans, many English speaking Chinese and Japanese participate in action on a war front and the offering is both a spectacle and an action drama. Loretta Young, as "Carolyn Grant," an American teacher, Alan Ladd as "Mr. Jones," a hard and handsome man -who winds up as a hero and who loses his life, plus William Bendix, as "Johnny Sparrow," the third American, are the starring trinity and they turn in well played performances. The story is laid in China, just before Pearl Harbor. "Mr. Jones" sells oil to Japs and Chinese alike and picks no favorites. He meets "Carolyn," who is endeavoring to get a large group of her girl pupils to safety in an area that is being heavily bombed. She likes "Mr. Jones" and breaks through his hard shell after a well handled battle of wits and will. The bombing raids, bridge destruction and the blowing up of half a mountain to foil the Japs are vivid, realistic and convincing. "Mr. Jones" dies in the avalanche that wipes out a Japanese general and part of a Jap division. Alan Ladd will increase his growing popularity with this picture and Miss Young and Mr. Bendix will enhance their status. Dick Blumenthal produced and John Farrow directed the screenplay written by Frank Butler from the play by Archibald Forbes. Reviewed in home office projection room. Reviewer's Rating : Excellent. — A. J. Release date, Block 4. Running time, 78 min. PCA No. 8954. General audience classification. Carolyn Grant Loretta Young Mr. Jones Alan Ladd Johnny Sparrow -... William Bendix Philip Ahn, Richard Loo, Sen Yung, Iris Wong, Jessie Tai Sing, Irene Tso, Chinese Wah Lee, Soo Young. (Review reprinted from last week's Herald.) 1226 Product Digest Section