Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1945)

SHOWMEN'S REVIEWS ADVANCE SYNOPSES SHORT SUBJECTS CHART SERVICE DATA 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. . Medal for Benny iramount — Democracy Dramatized 'Showmen can sell their customers tickets to this dw with the same confidence they sell them war nds. It's backed by the same thing — American nocracy — and it is made of the same plain, deidable material. It's money in the bank, on inrest The property comes equipped with the names Dorothy Lamour and Arturo de Cordova for ling purposes, and the two excel their previous )rks in the paradoxically secondary assignments yen them, but it's by no means a property to be jasured by the signatures it bears. Its strength in the story it tells and in the quiet simplicity the telling. It's got impact. The story is from the not always popular pen of 'hn Steinbeck, plus Jack Wagner, and it should good news in anti-Steinbeck circles, where the ntleman's skill in fashioning a story was never lestioned, that this time the writer's craftsmanip has been turned to the task of proving, very isitively, that good Americans are to be found i both sides of any railroad tracks. Ditto bad mericans. In simple. "A Medal for Benny" concerns some or people, descendants of early California Spani, whose modest and most impeccable routine is iset when the son of one of them, previously n out of town, becomes a hero in the Pacific, hen he's awarded a Congressional medal, postimously, the governor comes to the town to prent it to the boy's father, and the townsfolk move m out of his shack into a fine house for the cereDny. When the father learns why, he goes back his shack, the governor and his party follow, d the democracy of democracy is established. It as simple as that, fundamentally, but it packs a illop for any and all comers. To Frank Butler for the screenplay, to Paul nes as associate producer, and to Irving Pichel director, "A Medal for Benny" is a credit that 11 stand long and high on their lists. J. Carrol Naish and Mikail Rasumny, whose rformances overshadow all others, should be awing up on next year's list of Academy nominans. Previewed at the studio. Reviewer's Rating : rcellent. — William R. Weaver. lelease date, Block 5. Running time, 79 min. PCA . 10249. General audience classification. lito Dorothy Lamour ; Morales Arturo de Cordova Carrol Naish, Mikail Rasumny, Fernando Ivarado, arles Dingle, Frank McHugh, Rosita Moreno, Grant tchell, Douglass Dumbrille. he Valley of Decision GM — Greer Garson and Company Greer Garson and company — and a most distinished company it is, too — give full meaning and rpose to the two hours of running time allocated the picturization of Marcia Davenport's novel out a family of Pittsburgh steel-mill owners 870 and thereafter) and their employees and conctions. It is a long story, possessed also of eadth and depth, and it affords opportunities for : expert cast to achieve moments of emotional :ensity which capture and hold the observer. As produced on the grand scale by Edwin H. Knopf, and directed with perception and judgment by Tay Garnett, the film appears certain to fulfill the commercial expectations inherent in the presence of Miss Garson. Miss Garson's role, that of an Irish girl who becomes house maid of the mill-owning family and falls in love with the eldest son, displays to complete advantage her personality and talent. But it is not Miss Garson's performance alone that the showman is given to sell his customers, for those of Lionel Barrymore, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp, Gladys Cooper, Reginald Owen and Marsha Hunt are lengths from the same bolt. Mr. Crisp portrays the head of the mill-owning family, a rugged individualist with a heart of gold, and Mr. Barrymore, in a gratifying switch from the sweetness and light in which he's specialized in recent years, enacts an embittered employee who, as a strike is on the point of being settled, kills his employer and is killed, in turn, by the mill guards. Scenarists John Meehan and Sonya Levien have handled this labor-capital sector of the story in such a manner as to give both laborites and capitalists dialogue lines to remember with satisfaction. Previewed at the studio. Reviewer's Rating: Good.—W. R. W. Release date, not set. Running time, 120 min. PCA No. 10866. General audience classification. Mary Rafftery Greer Garson Paul Scott Gregory Peck Donald Crisp, Lionel Barymore, Preston Foster, Marsha Hunt, Gladys Cooper, Reginald Owen, Dan Duryea, Jessica Tandy, Barbara Everest, Marshall Thompson, Geraldine Hall, Evelyn Dickson, Russell Blake, Mary Lord, Arthur Shields, Dean Stockwell, Mary Currier. BRITISH WAR FILM RELEASED BY PRC "The Silver Fleet", a drama of Nazioccupied Holland produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger who made "The Invaders", is being released in this country by PRC Pictures. The film stars Ralph Richardson, Googie Withers and Esmond Knight in a story of underground sabotage in the guise of collaboration. The review from London in Motion Picture Herald, issue of March 20, 1943, said in part: "A sympathetically handled film, with a basically strong story, some arresting characterizations and a realistic flavour. The dialogue is dull at times, but the action takes the edge off. A film to be considered seriously." PRC has given the film a national release date of June 15, 1945. It is currently playing pre-release engagements. The running time has been cut to 62 minutes. Diamond Horseshoe 20th Century-Fox — Betty Grable Again Twentieth Century-Fox signalizes the return of Betty Grable with appropriate fanfare, luxurious costumes and trappings, an elaborate production in Technicolor and a flock of good, new tunes. The bright vivacity of Miss Grable herself makes it a happy occasion all around. She is much in evidence and up to her previous best form singing, dancing and even acting a little, while Phil Silvers flashes his individual brand of harassed comedy and Dick Haymes and Beatrice Kay sing in their familiar styles. The setting, adapted from Billy Rose's famous New York night club, promises and produces an array of dazzling showgirls to grace the production numbers. All that's needed is a simple story to hold the show together. For this George Seaton has dressed up a John Kenyon Nicholson play about the son of an old trouper who wants to try show business instead of medicine and falls for a pretty singer. The father's attractive partner wants to marry him and the singer wants a mink coat. A little applied psychology solves the conflict without much trouble. Production numbers, however, take the spotlight. One in rhumba rhythm features a breezy dance by the star and a catchy tune by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren called "Acapulco." Another gives Miss Kay a chance to sing some old songs in the metallic turn-of-the-century manner which brought her radio fame, while Miss Grable counters with jive. Two ballads, right in the groove for Haymes, should be favorites before long, "I Wish I Knew" and "The More I See You." William Perlberg integrates the show with a practiced hand, and George Seaton, who has been writing screenplays heretofore, finds himself quite at home directing the troupe. Seen in a New York projection room. Reviewer's Rating : Good. — E. A. Cunningham. Release date, May, 1945. Running time, 104 min. PCA No. 10421. General audience classification. Bonnie Collins Betty Grable Joe Davis, Jr Dick Haymes Blinky Walker Phil Silvers Joe Davis, Sr William Gaxton Beatrice Kay, Margaret Dumont, Roy Benson, George Melford, Hal K. Dawson, Kenny Williams, Reed Hadley, Eddie Acuff, Willie Solar, Carmen Cavallaro. Murder, He Says Paramount — Polling the Mountaineers Anyone who has ever bridled at the impertinence of polls and poll-taking will get a chuckle from the original idea of this unusual farce. A representative of the Trotter Poll — it's a little slower than the others — arrives in a purely mythical mountain fastness to investigate "how they live in the rural areas.'' He finds a family combining the most outlandish characteristics of "Tobacco Road," 'You Can't Take It with You" and "Arsenic and Old Lace," and winds up neatly trussed in a bundle of hay. The poll-taker is Fred MacMurray, a dapper young diplomat who played the saxophone in the home office band and was noted more for his tact than his brains. His is the strongest name in the OTION PICTURE HERALD, APRIL 14, 1945 2401