Motion Picture Herald (Sep-Oct 1944)

ADVANCE SYNOPSES and information THE CLOCK (M-G-M) PRODUCER: Arthur Freed. DIRECTOR: Fred Zinnemann. PLAYERS: Judy Garland, Robert Walker, Hume Cronyn. COMEDY DRAMA. A working girl, returning from a weekend in the country, accidentally meets a soldier in the Grand Central station in New York. She discovers that he is on a 48-hour furlough, and offers to show him the town. During the next two days they fall in love and are married, compressing the experiences that in normal times would cover many months into the 48-hour time span. DR. RED ADAMS (M-G-M) PRODUCER: Carey Wilson. DIRECTOR: WilUs Goldbeck. PLAYERS: Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson, Marilyn Maxwell, Gloria DeHaven. PSYCHIATRIC DRAMA. A chorus girl dancing at a night-club faints one evening when Dr. Adams is in the audience. He examines her and finds that she has all the symptoms of starvation, although there is nothing physically wrong with her. Psycho-analysis discloses that the girl has subconsciously identified herself with a friend who has previously lost her job and starved to death. This revelation cures the chorus-girl. BLONDE FEVER (M-G-M) PRODUCER: William H. Wright. DIRECTOR: Richard Whorf. PLAYERS: Philip Dorn, Mary Astor, Gloria Grahame, Felix Bressart, Marshall Thompson. SOPHISTICATED COMEDY. Philip Dorn and Mary Astor are a married couple in their late thirties who run a swank cafe at Lake Tahoe. Dorn becomes infatuated with a young waitress, and asks his wife for a divorce. The wife, abetted by the cafe's bartender, determines to prevent this. When Dorn wins $40,000 in a lottery, the bartender pretends to give the money to a filling-station attendant, who thereupon becomes the object of the waitress' affections. Dorn and his wife are reconciled, and later it is revealed that the bartender only gave $1,000 of the money away. THE BRIGHTON STRANGLER (RKO Radio) PRODUCER: Herman Schlom. DIRECTOR: Max Nosseck. PLAYERS: John Loder, Rose Hobart, June Duprez, Michael St. Angel, Rex Evans, Olaf Hytten, David Thursby. PSYCHOLOGICAL MELODRAMA. This story is laid in wartime London and concerns an actor cast in the part of "The Brighton Strangler." On the night of the last performance, he is wounded in an air-raid and upon regaining consciousness believes himself to be the character he has been portraying. He commits a number of crimes and is exposed by his fiancee, a playwright, who notices the similarity of the methods used by the real and the fictional "Brighton Strangler." LAKE PLACID SERENADE (Republic) PRODUCER: Harry Grey. DIRECTOR: Steven Sekely. PLAYERS: Vera Hruba Ralston, Vera Vague, William Frawley, Eugene Pallette. ROMANTIC DRAMA. A Czechoslovakian girl takes refuge in the United States. She is a talented ice-skater and soon skates her way to fame and fortune. Through a misunderstanding, she quarrels with the man she loves, but' they are later reunited. 2142 HOLLYWOOD AND VINE (PRC) PRODUCER: Leon Fromkess. DIRECTOR: Alexander Thurn-Taxis. PLAYERS: James Ellison, Wanda MacKay, June Clyde, Ralph Morgan, Franklyn Pangbom. COMEDY DRAMA. A girl en route to Hollywood to join her girl friend, who she believes is a star, meets a young man who shares her interest in a stray dog. In Hollywood she works as cashier in a drug store at Hollywood and Vine and finds the young man employed there as soda fountain clerk. She doesn't learn until their romance has progressed further that he is a screen writer working as a clerk to gain information for a picture, a discovery that leads to a rift. They are brought together again when the writer's producer decides to make a dog picture featuring the stray animal. MUSIC FOR MILLIONS (M-G-M) PRODUCER: Joe Pasternak. DIRECTOR: Henry Koster. PLAYERS: Margaret O'Brien, Jose Iturbi, June Allyson, Jimmy Durante, Marsha Hunt, Hugh Herbert, Marie Wilson, Larry Adler, Madeleine Le Beau, Katherine Balfour. ROMANTIC DRAMA WITH! MUSIC. A group of girls who are replacing men in a great symphony orchestra live together in a boardinghouse. One of their number is the young wife of a soldier stationed in the South Pacific, from whom she has not heard for many months. She is about to have a baby, and the strain of not hearing from her husband is telling on her nerves although she is continually urged to have faith by her little sister, played by Margaret O'Brien. The other girls persuade a forger to write a fake letter, purporting to be from the husband. The letter arrives just before the baby is born. In the end, however, it is revealed that the letter was not a forgery, but actually came from the missing husband. SHERIFF OF SUNDOWN jRepublic) 'associate PRODUCER: Stephen Auer. DIRECTOR: Lesley Selander. PLAYERS: Allan Lane, Linda Stirling, Max Terhune, Duncan Renaldo, Roy Barcroft, Twdnkle Watts. WESTERN. A young rancher drives his herd of cattle into town to sell them before taking a trip abroad. He finds the market in the hands of crooks, who refuse to pay a fair price. He organizes other small ranchers into a protective association, which the crooks attempt to rout by starting a stampede when the herds are driven to market. In the melee the sheriff is killed and the young rancher takes his place. The villains are driven off, the rancher proceeds on his trip, leaving peace and prosperity behind him. DOUBLE EXPOSURE (Paramount) PRODUCERS: William Pine and William Thomas. DIRECTOR: William Berke. PLAYERS: Chester Morris, Nancy Kelly, Phillip Terry, Jane Farrar, Richard Gaines, Charles Arnt. MELODRAMA. Chester Morris is the editor of a New York picture magazine. Sight unseen, he hires a girl photographer. She meets and falls in love with a playboy whose wife is later murdered. The girl is accused of the murder, and the editor tries to establish her innocence by producing a faked photograph which indicates the playboy is the real criminal. Confronted by this evidence, he confesses. BREWSTER'S MILLIONS (UA-Small) PRODUCER: Edward Small. DIRECTOR: Allan Dwan. PLAYERS: Dennis O'Keefe, Helen Walker, "Rochester," Gail Patrick, Garry Moore. COMEDY-DRAMA. Based on the famous novel by George Barr McCutcheon, this is the story of a young man who returns from the war to find that a relative has left him $7,000,000 on condition that he spend $1,000,000 within six months. According to the terms of the will, he cannot tell his fiance about it, nor marry her until the six months are up. She continues to have faith in him, although he postpones their marriage, and makes a fool of himself by spending money like the proverbial drunken sailor. When the terms of the will are finally fulfilled, the boy and girl are reunited. THE FALCON IN HOLLYWOOD (RKO Radio) PRODUCER: Maurice Geraghty. DIRECTOR: Gordon Douglas. PLAYERS: Tom Conway, Veda Ann Borg, Emory Parnell, Frank Jenks, Barbara Hale. MYSTERY MELODRAMA. The principal scenes of this feature are laid in a Hollywood studio, at the Hollywood Bowl, and at the Hollywood Park race track. The story concerns two mysterious deaths and a shooting, all involving members of the cast and crew of a certain motion picture production. Tom Conway, in his role of the Falcon, solves the crimes and brings the criminals to justice. SHERIFF OF LAS VEGAS (Republic) ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Stephen Auer. DIRECTOR: Lesley Selander. PLAYERS: Wild Bill ElUott, Bobby Blake, Alice Fleming, Peggy Stewart. WESTERN. This is another in the "Red Ryder" series. Wild Bill Elliott becomes sheriff in order to save an innocent boy from hanging for the murder of his father. The murder was instigated by the town banker, who contrived to place suspicion on the boy. The sheriff exposes the plot, and the banker pays for his crime. CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (Warner Bros.) ' PRODUCER: William Jacobs. DIRECTOR: Peter Godfrey. PLAYERS: Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, S. Z. Sakall, John Alexander, Frank Jenks, Joyce Compton. COMEDY. As a promotion stunt, a magazine invites a soldier, victim of a recent shipwreck, to spend a quiet Christmas in the country. His hostess is Barbara Stanwyck, pretending to be a country lass, but in reality a sophisticated featurewriter for the magazine. Confusion ensues, resulting in a romance between the soldier and the magazine writer. . ANCHORS AWEIGH (M-G-M) PRODUCER. Joseph Pasternak. DIRECTOR: George Sidney. PLAYERS: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jose Iturbi, Kathryn Grayson. COMEDY WITH MUSIC. Two sailors on shore leave, one bashful, the other brash, befriend an aspiring young singer, and manage to obtain an audition for her. The girl makes good, and marries one of the sailors, after imagining herself in love with the other. PRODUCT DIGEST SECTION. OCTOBER 14, 1944