Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1943)

July 3 1, 1943 MOTION PICTURE HERALD In This Week: SHOWMEN'S REVIEWS SHORT SUBJECTS CHART ADVANCE SYNOPSES THE RELEASE CHART This Is the Army (Warner Brothers) Military Musical Showmen can wave the flag for this one, blow exploitation bugles to the echo and parade in full dress the news that 'a great picture, produced, distributed and exhibited for a great cause, has come to town. The picture constructed by Warners from the Irving Berlin stage show, which it contains virtually intact, is a rich and potent entertainment, stimulating as a military band and twenty times as colorful. It's a cinch to better the anticipated two million dollars for the Army and Navy Relief. For purposes of the screen, producers Jack Release date, August 14, 1943. Running time, 114 Warner and Hal Wallis devised a preliminary min PCA No 9357 General audience classification, sectidn showing the production of Berlin's ie[ry J??f?-, George Murphy \r -\z u i « imi * ui u Eileen Dibble Joan Leslie Yip, Yip Yaphank in 1917, establishing as Maxie Twardofsky George Tobias principals in this section the characters whose Sgt. McGhee Alan Hale sons are seen in the 1943 production of "This Is CTharle»s. Butterworth, Dolores Costello, Irving Berlin. „ a _ „ tt j / Una Merkel, Stanley Ridges, Rosemary De Camp, the Army. Under this arrangement, Casey Ruth Donnelly, Dorothy Peterson, Frances Langford, Robinson and Captain Claude Binyon, who Gertrude Niesen, Kate Smith, Ilka Gruning, Lieuwrote the script, managed a personal story, ™n»an1; RoTna,!d Reagan, Sergeants Joe Louis, Tom running alongside.the musical show, which pro A^X^rt^ Vldes emotional Stimulation of the personal kind. liott, John Mendes, Alan Manson, Earl Oxford. Cor The Hollywood professionals carry this thread P?raJ? „H2r~'ert Anderson, Ralph Magelssen, James of story, some participating also in the musical ctk ";. " y' Weeks and Private Joe show, while soldier players duplicate their stage performances with only such variations as the screen needs require. | QqqJ Nineteen Berlin songs are used in the picture, ranging from his personally sung "Oh, How I (MGM) Hate to Get Up in the Morning" to "This Is \ the Army, Mr. Jones." All are used as pro Skelton Starts Here duction numbers, staged on a vast scale and Tr , , t, , „. ,, with full benefit of Technicolor. All the camera H you ve thought Red Skelton was a pretty tricks in the Warner bag are brought into use g0°J co.mefdian' eve? an extra good comedian, on these numbers, and Director Michael Curtiz °r ™e tlp"top comedian of his generation forget maintains a fast tempo from start to finish ^-because you haven t seen Comedian Skelton which prospers the few sentimental interludes "T y,on™ seen 1 Dood It. What he s done interspersed betore s been no more than random rehearsal for what he does here. Give him plenty of After a sprawling start in which story lines playing time, plenty of challenge in the billing, are established, the_ film snaps into a straight then batten down the benches, so the customers line when Kate Smith takes to the microphone can't wrench them loose in their excitement, and to sing "God Bless America" in a manner to let him prove it to their satisfaction and yours, lift any audience to its feet. An early standout You know well enough that Skelton's a funny is a reproduction of a 1917 Follies, the only man on the air. number in which the chorus girls are really You know he's been funny enough in his girls, and the hottest section in the picture is "Whistling" series of pictures, at least, using "What the Well-Dressed Man in Harlem Will words, movement and mugging to get his effects. Wear," performed by Negro soldiers with Toe But you haven't had a chance to know that Louis punching a bag in beat with the rhythm. he's no less than sensational, and not to be com A catalogue of the hits and the bits that stav Pared with anybody in pictures, in straight in mind when the picture has been experienced fetches of pantomime without a word spoken is an item to tax even the compiler of the for L ™,nu.tes°" e™' „ He s ^ot tw0 such printed list of credits. No need to catalogue stretches in I Dood It, one performed en solo them, though, for the customers who will come a"d. £he other w!th a silently> sleeping beauty, expecting to see the stage production which has w.h'ch top anything of the kind ever seen> in made Army history will find all that and much, Plctures, ta kinar or silent, specifically including much more. "This Is The Picture, Exhibitor." L^, n<^w, f1^8'^ ,,Chaphn ballet-of-the-buns m The Gold Rush. Seen at a Los Angeles preview showing. This Skelton excursion into pantomime ex Reviewer's Rating: Excellent.— "William L. pands the comedian's scope, takes in areas un Weaver. touched by his competitors in the field of Reviews This department deals with new product from the point of view of the exhibitor who is to purvey it to his own public. humor, brings to audiences a variety of entertainment never plentiful and totally lacking in recent years. These stretches of the picture threw the preview audience into gales of laughter which, it is to be noted with profit by producers and by other actors, are not required to be abated or stifled lest dialogue be missed. This is new and potent screen medicine. But the Skelton pantomime is not the whole of "I Dood It," not by any — which is to say many — means. Opposite Skelton in the billing and the story is Eleanor Powell, dancing her head off in a series of production numbers, acting over her previous best as the actress he's in love with, and — in the first of the Skelton pantomimes — — turning in a mute and limp portrayal of a sleeping bride which calls for more trouping than most stars pack into a career. Alongside these are Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra, dishing up music the way the youngsters like it, and Bob Eberly, singing the songs the kids like the way they like them sung. Set into the picture, without disturbing the course of the narrative and considerably profiting the enterprise, are Hazel Scott, who does with a piano all the things there are to do and some that approach the impossible, and Lena Home, leading a Negro chorus in a massive production number. There are, also, doing various chores well, Richard Ainley, Patricia Dane, Sam Levene and Thurston Hall, principal participants in the story whipped up by Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy for the purposes of narrative. Music numbers are from six sources, ranging from Count Basie to Cole Porter. Production by Jack Cummings and direction by Vincente Minnelli are to be remembered hereafter as the works of the gentlemen who gave Skelton's talent room in which to thrive. Previewed at the Village theatre, Westwood, Cal., on a Friday night and to a partially collegiate audience which screamed its delight. Reviewer's Rating, Excellent. — W. R. W. Release date, not set. Running time, 103 min. PCA No. 9171. General audience classification. Joe Reynolds Red Skelton Constance Shaw Eleanor Powell Richard Ainley, Patricia Dane, Sam Levene, Thurston Hall, Lena Home, Hazel Scott, John Hodiak, Butterfly McQueen, Marjorie Gateson, Andrew Tombes, Morris Ankrum. Charles Judels. Product Digest Section | 453