Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1943)

July 3 1, 1943 MOTION PICTURE HERALD Hi Diddle Diddle (UA-Stone) Comedy Farce Produced to provide audiences with escapist fare, this should accomplish its purpose. It is a comedy satire with numerous individual gag sequences which somehow fit together at the finish. The plot concerns a sailor boy who arrives late for his wedding and then learns that his mother-in-law has been swindled out of her money and stock by a jealous suitor of the bride. Sonny has only a 48-hour leave and enlists his father's aid to redeem the lost finances. Dad recovers the money after a series of financial manipulations which take place in a crooked gambling house and at the stock exchange. Sonny and the bride, anxious to be together for their honeymoon, are constantly interrupted and separated by dad's antics, but are finally re-united at the finish. Adolph Menjou plays his usual suave role as the father and Billie Burke is again cast as the forgetful mother. Martha Scott and Dennis O'Keefe play the parts of the young couple as capably as possible. Pola Negri who makes her return appearance after a long absence, looks well and handles her part effectively. The film was produced and directed by Andrew Stone. Seen at a private showing in a New York projection room. Reviewer's Rating : Fair. — Chester Friedman. Release date, not set. Running time, 71 minutes. PCA No. 9143. General audience classification. Sonny Dennis O'Keefe Father Adolphe Menjou Mother Billie Burke Pola Negri, Martha Scott, June Havoc. Here Comes Kelly ( Monogram ) Two-fisted Comedy If a spot on a heavy program needs a little action-comedy relief, this is the picture for that spot. It's the old, old story of a hot-headed youth whose girl despairs of him and is unwittingly led into a situation with her boss from which the quick action and fists of her sweetheart extricate her. Eddie Quillan and Joan Woodbury, with the help of Sidney Miller, get all there is out of their roles under William Beaudine's skillful direction, while Ian Keith supplies good menace. Mary Gordon is lovable as Mrs. Kelly, Eddie's mother. Maxie Rosenbloom relieves the early tedium of the plot with good comedy as a blustering gangster, but it's direction that saves the story from faltering in most of spots where it's a bit on the hackneyed side. William T. Lackey produced from a screenplay by Charles R. Marion based on Jab Schary's original story. Previewed at Monogram Studio project room, ivherc an audience of professicntals and trade press got a few chuckles out of the comedy situations. Reviewer's rating, Fair. Release date, August 20, 1943. Running time, 64 min. PCA No. 9444. General audience classification. Jimmy Kelly Eddie Quillan Margie Joan Woodbury Trixie Bell Maxie Rosenbloom Armida, Sidney Miller, Mary Gordon, Ian Keith, Luis Albcrni, Charles Jordan, Emmet Vogan. Report from the Aleutians (Victory Film) War Documentary This battlefront film released without charge by the War Activities Committee shows people at home what is behind the headline, "Kiska Bombed". Cameras follow the U. S. Army from the occupation of a barren Alaska island through the culmination of a successful bombing of the Japs at Kiska. Engineers and service forces drain a lagoon and build an airport in 11 days while ground forces emplace their guns. The big aircraft arrive and keen young pilots map their first raid. Photographers go with them to record in their lenses the fiery Jap anti-aircraft barrage and show destruction by U. S. bombs and strafing. The action pictures of this climax rank with the best of the war. Army cameramen made a vivid first hand record. The faces are typical, and familiar, and there are no poses as the soldiers work, man guns or relax on the rain-swept island. One scene, the burial of a pilot by his comrades, is ANDY HARDY'S BLONDE TROUBLE (M-G-M) Romantic College Comedy PRODUCER: Carey Wilson. Directed by George B. Seitz. PLAYERS: Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Fay Holden, Sara Haden, Herbert Marshall, Bonita Granville, Marta Linden, Lee and Lyn Wilde, Keye Luke, Jean Porter. SYNOPSIS This is a new one in the Hardy series picking up at the point where the last one left Andy on a train bound for his father's good old alma mater. Andy and Bonita both meet Herbert Marshall, college faculty member, en route and Andy becomes entangled with blonde twins (the Wilde sisters), whom he doesn't know are twins since he meets them separately. He gets himself into all kinds of situations by mistaking one girl for the other and finally at college faces the faculty boot. His father, Lewis Stone, rushes to the rescue and straightens out the tangle. Andy falls for Bonita and shuts the blonde menaces out of his heart and all is rosy with the Hardy family once again. MAN OF THE FAMILY (Universal) Youngsters Come Of Age PRODUCER: Bernard Burton. Directed by Charles Lamont. PLAYERS: Donald O'Connor, Susanna Foster, Lillian Gish, Richard Dix, Anne Gwynne, Noah Beery, Jr., Peggy Ryan, Samuel S. Hinds, David Holt, Marcia Mae Jones, Count Basie and His Band. SYNOPSIS Beth and Tom Warren (Lillian Gish, Richard Dix) are the parents of three lively, 'teen age youngsters (Donald O'Connor, Anne Gwynne, Peggy Ryan). Warren, who was a flier in 1918, takes a call to naval duty in 1943. Donald becomes the man of the family which changes his jitterbug ways and interrupts his courtship of both Susanna Foster and Marcia Mae Jones. Donald smooths out a quarrel between his sister and her boy friend, finds a way to boost production at the aircraft factory where all work, which wins the plant an "E" award. The kids stage a big musical show at the plant. a poignant view of the reality of war which will not be forgotten easily. Technicolor adds much to the sweep of Alaskan sky, sea, barren mountains and to the blazing gunfire of the action sequence. Although running 47 minutes, smooth documentary editing by Captain John Huston, recently of Hollywood, tells the story with dramatic suspense. Narration alternates between the off-screen voices of Captain Huston and his father, Walter. Considerably more timely than previous official films from war zones, "Report from the Aleutians" would appear to have important use in connection with the forthcoming Third War Loan. — J. S., Jr. Release date, July 30, 1943 . 47 min. General audience classification. MEET THE PEOPLE (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) Defense Plant Musical PRODUCER: E. Yip Harburg. Directed by Charles Reisner. PLAYERS: Dick Powell, Lucille Ball, Virginia O'Brien, Bert Lahr, June Allyson, Johnny Boyle, Victor Borge, Vaughn Monroe and his Band, Spike Jones and City Slickers. SYNOPSIS For the film version of the famed west-coast, little theatre hit revue, M-G-M has added a story about a playwright (Dick Powell) who also works in the shipyards. Lucille Ball is a movie star and the defense plant worker who sells the most bonds gets a date with her. It's Powell. He also meets her agents, who like his play and want to make an elaborate movie musical of it. He wants to see it filmed as he wrote it — with a message. He takes his play back. Miss Ball goes to work in the shipyards as a welder to try and get the play again. She is frozen to her new job. So they put the play on with talent from the shipyards. CONFLICT (Warner Bros.) Murder Psycho-drama PRODUCER: William Jacobs. Directed by Curtis Bernhardt. PLAYERS: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Charles Drake, Sydney Greenstreet, Rose Hobart, Robert Shayne, Tom Tully. SYNOPSIS Based on "The Pentacle," the psychological murder mystery by Robert Siodmak and Alfred Newman, Bogart plays a man who murders his wife because he is in love with her sister. It looks like a perfect crime. An old professor, a friend of the dead wife, comes to offer his sympathy to the husband and sister. He finds a minor clue — a rusty key he knew had belonged to the wife, in the pocket of her hus i {Js coat several weeks after her death. As the Me soiiv casually drops remarks, the husband bc6i. ^IJlp worry, the story building up to his growing'' mental anguish. He goes crazy, returns to the scene of the crime. He had caused his wife to drive their car off the road, over an embankment through a hillside covered with logs. As the car became buried under the logs, five logs stuck out on top, forming a perfect pentacle at the scene of the crime. The husband is apprehended at the spot. ADVANCE SYNOPSES and information I 456 Product Digest Section