Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1944)

SHOWMEN'S REVIEWS SHORT SUBJECTS )morrow, the World [-Cowan — Post-War Problem The Fighting Lady 20th Fox-U. S. Navy — Carrier in Action 'roducer Lester Cowan presents here in stark plification one of the major questions to be wered by the post-war world: how to deal in e of peace with the millions of individuals )m the Nazis have indoctrinated for war. The blem is posed in terms of a tj^pical Nazi-trained man boy, placed in a tj'pical American home, ) proceeds to attempt to dominate the family by Nazi method of "divide and conquer." 'he producer has brought the stage play by les Gow and Arnaud D'Usseau to the screen ti fidelity and complete success. It is a presenon of blunt facts, boldly handled, in a film of :e and power that challenges the fascinated in:st of everj' man, woman and child, 'he cast is, witliout exception, brilliant. Skippy meier, who created the role on Broadway, holds audience spellboimd with his portrayal of the nstrous little German hoy. While he is probably most detestable child in dramatic history, he is ertheless a child, and, as such, evokes occasionsympathy. In contrast, Joan Carroll, as his sin, is consistently enchanting. Fredric March, the scientist so wrapped up in his war work t he fails to see what is going on in his own isehold, is so convincing that the spectator longs pinch him awake. Betty Field is exactly right :he role of the school teacher, and Edith Angold tributes a splendid characterization as the Gera-American housekeeper. rhe screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr., and Leod Atlas tells in simple and believable terms the ry of the German child, infected with the deadly son of Nazi propaganda, who browbeats his oolmates, lies, cheats, steals and finally attempts kill, all in the name of the Feuhrer and the aster race." A terrific beating administered by lassmate, an appeal to reason made by the adults charge of him, and a belated realization of the .rmity of his murderous act, in the end combine break down his defenses. The final sequence ers some hope for the boy's personal rehabiliion, diluted by the revelation that as an infant, has been beaten and tortured by the Nazis. The iblem, therefore, remains unsolved, for there I3t be hundreds of thousands of German children ,0 have not been tortured, or beaten, and who .ertheless have been corrupted by the false, ious doctrines of Nazism. Leslie Fenton's direction is a masterful marilling of contrasting moods which increase in inisity until the whole reaches an almost unbearle pitch. Louis Applebaum's musical score, lile never obtrusive, adds to the picture's emonal value. "Tomorrow, the World" is an ab"bing, thought-provoking experience. Previewed at the Westwood Village theatre, estwood, where the audience received it with attention. Reviewer's Rating : Excellent. — iAiAA Bell. leiease date, Dec. 29, 1944. Runninpr time, 86 min. A No. 10491. General audience classification. :nael Frame Fredric March ina Richards Betty Field isie Agnes Moorhead lii ..Skippy Homeier Carroll, Edith Angold, Rudy Wissler, Boots Brown, irvin Davis, Patsy Ann. Thompson, Mary Newton, Tom dien. Other films, both fact and fiction, have told of life on an aircraft carrier and bombing sorties in the Pacific war, but "The Fighting Lady" ^ goes far beyond these to present in vivid Technicolor four Naval air operations just as they were seen by the men who took off in the planes, dodged antiaircraft fire, fought off enemy fighters and returned to the flight deck. Highlighting this hourlong report, photographed by Navy cameramen under the supervision of Commander Edward J. Steichen, are aerial combat pictures taken automatically, alongside a gun-barrel in the_ nose of a bomber in action. They are right up with the best screen reporting of the war. The ship, which is referred to only as The Fighting Lady, is a new carrier, commissioned last year, which sees action at Marcus, Kwajalein, Truk and the Marianas. Some planes and men are lost in each battle, some come back torn and broken, but the ship survives her baptism of fire on D-Day for the Marianas. This is the bare narrative of a film of keen excitement and breath-taking reality. It is no "dry run." The men talking anxiously at the breakfast tables, lifting their planes majestically from the deck and limping back have little interest in the camera recording history. They go on fighting a war as the audience watches spellbound. Louis de Rochemont has done a splendid production job, achieving a straightforward story, with simple narration, excellently spoken by Lieutenant Robert Taylor. Seen in the home office projection room. Reviewer's Rating : E.vcellent. — E. A. Cunningham. Release date, January, 1945. Running time, 61 min. General audience classification. House of Frankenstein Universal — A Weird Tale The adventures of the monster Frankenstein, the Bat Man and the Wolf Man are told in the "House of Frankenstein" in a manner certain to induce gasps and chills. In this excellent horror film each member of the cast portrays his part effectively. Skilled makeup, clever photography, lighting effects and musical background all add to the weird and striking effect. Boris Karloff as Dr. Gustave Niemann, a scientist and disciple of Frankenstein, escapes from a prison with a psychopathic hunchback killer, Daniel, played by J. Carrol Naish. Dr. Niemann sets out to kill the persons responsible for sending him to jail. .He releases a wooden peg from the heart of Dracula's skeleton and sets the Bat Man to work for him. The mad doctor frees tl^e Wolf Man and Frankenstein from glacial tombs and immediately they commence to kill. The Wolf Man strangles a villager and the Monster grasps Daniel, the hunchback, and hurls him through a window to his death. Then Frankenstein seizes Dr. Niemann and, pursued by enraged villagers, takes to the swamps. They are engulfed by quicksand. The production in its assortment of weird crea RELEASE CHART BY COMPANIES ADVANCE SYNOPSES THE RELEASE CHART This department deals with new product from the point of view of the exhibitor who is to purvey it to his own public. tions — all engaged in breath-taking crimes and adventures— measures up well to the best standards of the horror film cj'cle. The screenplay, written by Edward T. Lowe, is based on a story by Curt Siodmak. Paul JMalvern produced and Erie C. Kenton directed. Seen at the Rialto theatre, New York, zvhere a matinee audience was more than satisfied. Rez'iezver's Rating: Excellent. — M. R. Y. Release date, not set. Running time, 70 min. PCA Xo. 10190. General audience classification. Doctor Niemann Boris Karloff Larry Talbot Lon Chaiiey Dracula John Carradine Daniel J. Carrol Naish Anne Gwynne, Peter Cree, Lionel Atwill, George Zucco, Elena Verdugo, Sig Ruman, William Edmunds, Charles Miller, Philip Van Zandt, Julius Tannen, Hans Herbert, Dick Dickinson, George Lynn, Michael Mark, Olaf Hytten, Frank Reicher, Brandon Hurst, and the Monster played by Glenn Strange. ril Be Seeing You United Artists -Selznick International —Problem, Post-War Dore Schary's first producer enterprise for Selznick International is a worthwhile and intelligent drama about a problem which is digging itself more deeply into the home front with each added day of war : the returning, nerve-frayed veteran, seeking hard and desperately to recapture his old place in society or to etch a new one. The theme of "I'll Be Seeing You," therefore, has its underlying seriousness and a significance which cannot be lost upon the audiences which will see it. The seriousness and the significance, however, are not advanced in terms of messages. They take their stride and assume their weight through the story of a man and woman who find rehabilitation through love and understanding. The opportunity was present for moving and tender passages ; the opportunity, moreover, was seized by William Dieterle in his direction of the two principals, Joseph Gotten and Ginger Rogers. In mood and in tempo, this attraction is quiet. The kind of a story it tells evidently held no. room for the spectacular, and, in this respect, dramatic development is sound and believable because the individuals are little people about whom the spectacular rarely revolves. At half-way mark. Miss Rogers is permitted a short respite from prison where she is serving a six-year term for manslaughter ; her former employer had tried to attack her and, in the scuffle, she had pushed and he had fallen out of a window to his death. On a train, she meets Gotten, healed of a bayonet wound encountered in the South Pacific but with some distance to go in a readjustment of mental attitudes acquired from what he had seen of war at close range. He is a neuropsychiatric case for whom complete recovery is predicted if his surroundings are friendly and understanding and if his will remains sufficiently steel-like. The romance grows. His situation is known. To him. Miss Rogers' is not, although the relatives she is visiting are aware of her histfery. It is Shirley Temple, injudicious in her youth, who tells Gotten on the day of his departure. Th^j>r«i)lem is one to consider well because it is through SK-s^s Rogers' love that he finds the road to rehabilita DTION PICTURE HERALD, DECEMBER 23, 1944 2237