Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1944)

dance with lanky but attractive agility. Four men, playing one part apiece, can take it or leave it. Bob Crosby and Freddie Mercer are on the taking side, while Alan Mowbray and Walter Catlett play their comedy straight. Edward Lilley, producing and directing, has combined them into a pleasant hoax about a young lady who pretends to be a child prodigy at torch ballads, and the complications that ensue. The results are musically above the average and should supply adequate program fun. The whole thing comes up because of a lack of funds and an over-supply of vitamins. Two show girls are stranded with a medicine show in a vitamin town. The capsule king wants to advertise his product with a child entertainer chosen by competition from local talent. The prize includes fare to New York. One of the girls becomes fourteen immediately and the other dons a wig and lorgnette as the doting mother. Crosby is sufficiently attracted by the kid to be glad it's all a put-up job. Eugene Conrad wrote the screenplay from an original story by Patricia Harper, adapted for the screen by Edward Dein. Seen in the home office projection room. Re-^ viewer's Rating : Fair. — E. A. C. Release date, December 15. 1944. Running time, 61 min. PCA No. 10317. General audience classification. Mel Murray Bob Crosby Judy Mason Grace McDonald Peggy Quinn Betty Kean Alan Mowbray, Walter Catlett, Freddie Mercer. Pauline Carter, Tom Daly, Gayne Whitman, Chinita, Trixie. Swing in the Saddle Columbia, 1943-44 — Songs on Horseback From the New West, where cowboys sing at Frontier Day celebrations but still have time to rescue city girls on runaway horses, comes this homey Western musical. It offers such local radio favorites as The Hoosier Hotshots, Cousin Emmy, Jimmy Wakely and His Oklahoma Cowboys and Red River Dave, in addition to Jane Frazee from Hollywood and the King Cole Trio from Harlem. The combination should be more attractive to the radio fans than to followers of crime and vengeance in the saddle. The story is right up to date in its recognition of the serious shortage of cooks. Two young actresses find themselves mistaken for kitchen help. They go along with the idea in the hope of discovering the identity of the Lonely Hearts correspondent who proposed marriage. When the singing festival arrives their legitimate talents prove useful and tangled romances are unraveled. Jack Fier produced the film and Lew Landers directed. The screenplay by Elizabeth Beecher, Morton Grant and Bradford Ropes was based on an original story by Maurice Leo. Seen in Loeis/s 42nd St. theatre, where the afternoon audience laughed moderately. Reviewer's Rating : Fair. — E. A. C. Release date, August 31, 1944. Running time, 69 min. PCA No. 10234. General audience classification. Penny Morrow Jane Frazee Guinn Williams, Slim Summerville, Sally Bliss, Mary Treen, Red Rider Dave, Carole Mathews, Byron Foulger, The Hoosier Hotshots, King Cole Trio, Jimmy Wakely and His Oklahoma Cowboys, Cousin Emmy. Dead or Alive Western with Songs Tex Ritter and Dave O'Brien, "The Texas Rangers" who typify . the defenders of law and order in the Old West, co-star again in an outdoor quickie, supported with comedy lines by the gangling Guy Wilkerson. "Dead or Alive" follows the old, accepted formula of the hero (in this case heroes) cleaning out a gang of bad men to make the town decent and law-abiding again. The production budget was obviously trimmed to the bone, stamping the picture's market for the juvenile Saturday afternoon trade in consequent run neighborhood houses. Between gun shooting and chase scenes, Tex relaxes long enough to warble a couple of his own ditties. The negligible feminine interest is supplied by Marjory Clements and Rebel Randall. The picture was produced by Arthur Alexander and directed by Elmer Clifton. Reviezved at the Downtown theatre, Chicago, 2194 where a small audience received it coldly. Revieiver's Rating : Fair. — Sam Honigberg. Release date, Nov. 9, 1944. Running time, 63 min. PCA No. 10409. General audience classification. Tex Haines Tex Ritter Dave Wyatt Dave O'Brien Panhandle Perkins Guy Wilkerson Arline Arthur Marjory Clements Belle Loper Rebel Randall Clint Yackey ■ Ray Bennett Qiarles King, Bud Osborne, Henry Hall, Ted Mapes. londe Fever MGM— Romantic Comedy The theme from many a sophisticated comedy about the dashing older man with an understanding wife and the pretty young thing with an impetuous boy friend is served up again as "Blonde Fever." Philip Dorn and Mary Astor head the cast in the more mature roles and a couple of youngsters, Gloria Grahame and Marshall Thompson, personify youth in none too complimentary fashion. Some expensive trappings have been used to dress up a minor effort from the Metro lot. An exclusive restaurant is the backdrop, and a lottery ticket worth $40,000 turns the tide. The fact that the film vacillates between comedy, farce and nonsense makes the going difficult for such capable performers as Miss Astor, Dorn and Felix Bressart. At times they rise above both story and dialogue for a good laugh all around, but more frequently they succumb. Screen actor Richard Whorf might have hoped for more promising material for his first assignment in direction, for light comedy calls for a special talent and a practiced hand. Patricia Coleman based the script on a play by Ferenc Molnar, transferring it to Reno in 1944, but gaining little reality in the process. William H. Wright produced. Seen in the home office projection room. Reviezver's Rating : Average. — E. A. C. Release date, not set. Running time, 69 min. PCA No. 10425. General audience classification. Peter Donay Philip Dorn Delilah Donay Mary Astor Felix Bressart, Gloria Grahame, Marshall Thompson, Curt Bois, Elizabeth Risdon, Arthur Walsh. Hi Beautiful Universal — Comedy with Songs Martha O'Driscoll and Noah Beery, Jr., cast as the young lovers in this unpretentious comedy, give skilled and convincing performances. They are supported by Hattie McDaniel, Walter Catlett and Tim Ryan, also sterling performers. Under Leslie Goodwins' direction, the result emerges as satisfactory secondary fare. The story, unfortunately, is not on a par with the acting. Dick Irving Hyland, who also produced, wrote the screenplay, based on a story by Eleanore Griffin and William Rankin. It's all about a soldier who can't find a place to sleep, so he breaks into a model home, and falls in love with the young woman whose job it is to show off the house to prospective purchasers. There's very little suspense, and the dialogue strains without success for comic effect. Miss O'Driscoll has three songs, including "Don't Sweetheart Me" and "Sing, Everybody, Sing," which she puts over with grace and facility. Miss McDaniel sings a comedy version of the familiar "Tiger Rag." Seen at the studio. Reviezver's Rating : Average.— Thalia Bell. Release date. Dec. 8, 1944. Running time, 64 min. PCA No. 10352. General audience classification. Patty Callahan Martha O'Driscoll Jeff Noah Beery. Jr. Millie Hattie McDaniel Walter Catlett, Tim Ryan, Florence Lake, Grady Sutton, Lou Lubin. Virginia Sale, Tom Dugan, Dick Elliott, Tames Dodd. Army Wives plays the part of a sergeant's wife, the mother of six children. The story is that of a girl engaged to marry a soldier. They cannot obtain a license because she will not be 21 for four days. She follows him to a camp in the south and just 10 minutes after she arrives he is sent on maneuvers. Upon his return from the war games he is ordered to the West Coast. In Chicago they are married in a taxi cab with the assistance of the general's wife. The female taxi driver is so touched by the wedding that she takes the wrong turn and the groom misses his train. The newlyweds get tickets on a fast coast-bound train and at the conclusion of their brief honeymoon Miss Knox joins the rest of the war widows, waiting patiently the return of the soldier husbands. Lindsley Parsons produced and Phil Rosen directed this swift-moving, sometimes gay, sometimes sad film, which pictures some of the current difficulties of soldiers' wives. Seen at the New York theatre. Reviewer's Rating : Average. — M. R. Y. Release date, January 12, 1945. Running time, 67 min. PCA No. 10360. General audience classification. ( Jerry Elyse Knox Mrs. Shanahan Marjorie Rambeau Barney Rick Vallin Dorothea Kent, Hardie Albright, Murray Alper, Ralph Lewis, Ralph Sanford, Jimmy Collins, Kenneth Brown, Billy Lenhart, Danny Guthrie, Patsy Creighton, Susan Lester, Eileen Janssen, Phil Warren, Gladys Blake, Dorothy Christy, John Hamilton, Robert Homans. Monogram — Romance in Wartime Romance and light comedy are blended in "Army_ Wives." It is a story that sentimentalists will enjoy, yet there is comedy relief. Elyse Knox and Rick Vallin are the young people in love and the comedy is supplied by Marjorie Rambeau, who SHORT SUBJ WEST POINT (RKO-Pathe) This Is America A strictly wartime view of the U. S. Military Academy, this should be a source of interest and pride to the nation as well as the West Pointer. The stress is on the traditions of battle stemming from the very site of the buildings at the bend where Washington set up his field pieces to defend the Hudson River. The film shows the training for modern war in the latest model tanks on land where Revolutionary foot soldiers pitched camp. Planes take off with student pilots in formation over the historic river while men practice landing maneuvers on its shores. Inside the buildings, too, the tug of history is strong. Heroes of the present war spent their college days in the same neatly-kept rooms and stood wearily at attention before the same tailor. Frederic Ullman, Jr., has avoided peace-time glamour, at a time when this would be out of place, and achieved a suitable dignity and significance. Release date, November 17, 1944 17 minutes SADDLE STARLETS (RKO) Sportscope Youngsters, some of them none too sure on their feet, are here shown getting their first training in horsemanship. Young Florence Taylor, a teenage champion, shows the finished product, riding with perfect poise, jumping, and then has a turn i at the reins with a pair of trotters. Release date, November 3, 1944 8 mirmtes INSIDE OF CHINA TODAY {20th-Fox) March of Time (Fll-4) Passing over, for the moment, the front-page stories which tell of victories in Europe and the Pacific, the editors of March of Time take their cameras to the front where Axis forces are pressing forward. In China the enemies are internal and geographic as well as Japanese. Vast inland stretches of the country have never been tied together. Communication is poor and transportation totally inadequate' to the huge supply problem of modern armies. In addition, political dif¥erences, especially those between Chiang Kai-Shek and the Chinese Communist forces in the north, are serious barriers to a concerted national effort. The scope of the subject is sketched in broadly, but the many conflicting elements cannot be treated adequately in two reels. The film is, however, a npre^=ary counter-balance to the growing assurance of victory. Release date, December 1, 1944 17 minutes PRODUCT DIGEST SECTION, NOVEMBER 25, 1944 t