Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1945)

Emerson, George Coulouris, Robert Shasme, i George Tobias, Richard Gaines, Ralph Peters, James Flavin, Alex Havier, William Edmunds. MELODRAMA. A racketeer who has been honorably discharged from the Army returns to !his haunts on Broadway and looks for a way to I make a dishonest dollar. He meets a wealthy 'widow and plans to mulct her out of her money, j His plans misfire, however, when he falls in love with her. She is kidnapped by his associates, but I he rescues her and all ends well. ;topeka terror ifRepublic) I ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Stephen Auer. [DIRECTOR: Howard Bretherton. PLAYERS: .j Allan Lane, Linda Stirling, Twinkle Watts. WESTERN. Disguised as a cowboy, a secret investigator for the Territorial Land Department helps break up a land grab engineered by a crooked promoter and an equally crooked land I agent. The story is laid at the time of the Chero Jkee Strip land rush. I |the bullfighters j20th CenturyFox) PRODUCER: William Girard. DIRECTOR: Mai St. Clair. PLAYERS: Laurel and Hardy, 'ICarol Andrews, Richard Lane, Ralph Sanford, IjMargo Woods. ii COMEDY-DRAMA. Laurel and Hardy are ijpst as two detectives who go to Mexico City on jii sleuthing niission. While there, Laurel is mis^itaken for a well-known Mexican bullfighter and Iforced to impersonate the fighter when the latter is delayed in arriving in Mexico. Fortunately, ' the bullfighter arrives in time. -[THE CHICAGO KID i)|Republic) ('t>RODUCER: Eddy White. DIRECTOR: jiPrank McDonald. PLAYERS: Don Barry, Lynne Roberts, Otto Crehan, Henry Daniels. ; CRIME DOESN'T PAY. A young Chicagoan fwho believes his father has been framed on a , criminal charge, for which he has been imprisoned, sjets out to trap the man he suspects of doing the -raming by using his own tactics against him. Committing minor offenses at first, he finds himj;elf involved with a gang engaged in selling ['frozen" articles of commerce in the black market, roo late to withdraw, he learns he has been misjaken about his father having been framed, and jie is killed in a gun fight. irHE PHANTOM OF 42ND STREET PRC) 'PRODUCER: Martin Mooney. DIRECTOR: M Herman. PLAYERS: Dave O'Brien, Kay .Vldridge, Alan Mowbray, Frank Jenks, Iris Adrian, Edith Elliott, Jack Mulhall. j MELODRAMA. A dramatic critic attends the prst performance of a play. One of the actors is tiurdered and suspicion falls on another member of cast, the daughter of a Shakesperean actor, rhe critic becomes interested in the girl and unJertakes to solve the murder. After various com'ilications, he succeeeds in doing so. f NIGHT IN PARADISE flniversa! Walter Wanger) ^RODUCER: Walter Wanger. DIRECTOR: irthur Lubin. PLAYERS: Merle Oberon, ^ilrhan Bey, Thomas Gomez, Ray Collins, ale Sondergaard. , FANTASY. The setting of this tory is ancient ■reece, and the time is the year 580 B. C. It Jlates the adventures of a Persian princess, of 5ie wealthy King Croesus, and of the story-teller -'^esop, and tells how their lives are affected '\y the machinations of a wicked sorceress. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, JANUARY 20, 1945 A GUY. A GAL AND A PAL (Columbia) PRODUCER: WaUace MacDonald. DIRECTOR: Oscar Boetticher. PLAYERS: Lynn Merrick, Ross Hunter, Ted Donaldson. COMEDY DRAMA. A girl, accompanied by her 10-year-old nephew, sets out for Washington to marry her fiance, who is living there. She misses the train and meets a Marine hero, who gets her aboard the next train by pretending that she is his wife and the boy their son. Complications ensue when newspapermen along the way write the girl up in their dispatches as the hero's wife. Eventually matters are straightened oiit, she discovers that she loves the Marine hero, and marries him instead of her original fiance. OVER 21 (Columbia) PRODUCER: Sidney Buchman. DIRECTOR: Charles Vidor. PLAYERS: Irene Dunne, Alexander Knox, Charles Coburn, Loren Tindall, Jeff Donnell. WAR DRAMA. A newspaper editor gives up his job to join the Army, even though he is overage. He goes to Officer Candidate School while his wife rents a bungalow near the school. When the publisher of the newspaper with which he was formerly associated appears to urge the army man to continue contributing to the paper, the wife writes the articles and submits them under her husband's name. They are accepted and she wins a following. Her husband, meanwhile, successfully completes his training and becomes an officer. HIGH POWERED (Paramount-Plne-Thomas Prod.) PRODUCER: Pine-Thomas. DIRECTOR: William Berke. PLAYERS: Robert Lowery, Phyllis Brooks, Roger Pryor, Mary Treen," Ed Gargan, Joe Sawyer. ACTION MELODRAMA. Lowery and Pryor portray construction riggers, hazardously employed in erecting a gasoline-cracking plant. They are rivals in professional daring and for the hand of Phyllis Brooks, waitress in a hamburger stand. Fights, including a brawl at a boiler-makers' ball, and narrow escapes, climaxed by an accident threatening to destroy the project and all hands, precede the happy ending. DOCKS OF NEW YORK (Monogram) PRODUCERS: Sara Katzman and Jack Dietz. DIRECTOR: Wallace Fox. PLAYERS: Gloria Pope, Joy Reese, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Billy Benedict, Mende Koenig, Leo Borden. COMEDY-DRAMA. A group of refugees have in their possession a valuable diamond necklace. Members of the Gestapo are sent overseas to recover it. During the course of the chase, numerous acts of sabotage are committed by the refugees and their pursuers. The East Side Kids are drawn into the course of events, and expose the saboteurs. FAIRY TALE MURDER (Universal) ASSOCIATE PRODUCER DIRECTOR: Charles David. PLAYERS: Gloria Jean, John Qualen, Keefe Brasselle, Bill Godwin, Sheldon Leonard, Jack Grimes, Douglas Croft, Rocco Lazo, Billy Henderson. MYSTERY-COMEDY. Gloria Jean portrays a girl who persists in believing in fairy stories and is laughed at by young folks her age who organize a jive band with instruments lent by a pawn broker. When crooks, secretly confederates of the pawnbroker, become involved with the police, one of them is killed. The kids in the band take a hand in matters, but it is the girl who finally discovers the identity of the murderer. WHAT A BLONDE (RKO Radio) PRODUCER: Sid Rogell. ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Ben Stoloff. DIRECTOR: Le's Goodwins. PLAYERS: Leon Errol, Veda Ann Borg, Michael St. Angel. CONTEMPORARY COMEDY. A New York business man who lives up-State undertakes to solve the gas rationing problem, which doesn't permit him to drive freely to work and back, by extensive use of the carpool plan. One thing leads to another, as he invites more and more people to come and live with him so he can list them as daily passengers. Finally, he winds up with his house filled with chorus girls and other residents, much to the distaste of his home-coming wife. An inventor, who's one of the guests, figures in the final outcome of the coiT>edy. ENCHANTED FOREST (PRC) PRODUCER: Jack Schwarz. DIRECTOR: -Lew Landers. PLAYERS: Edmund Lowe, Brenda Joyce, Harry Davenport, Billy Severn, John Litel. FANTASY-DRAMA. A little boy who gets lost in the forest is befriended by an old man who lives in a redwood tree. The boy's parents, both of whom are neurotic, come to the forest in search of him. They learn the ways of the forest and make friends of the birds and the beasts. This leads them into a healthier attitude toward life. Eventually their son is restored to them. JEALOUSY (Republic-Gong Prod.) PRODUCER-DIRECTOR: Gustav Machaty. PLAYERS: John Loder, Jane Randolph, Karen Morley, Nils Asther, Hugo Haas. PSYCHOLOGICAL MELODRAMA. A famous European writer comes to America, where he becomes embittered by failure as he is unable to master the language. His wife drifts away from him and falls in love with a doctor who is, in turn, loved by a woman associate. The writer is found dead, and suspicion attaches to his wife. Eventually the doctor proves her innocence and she marries him. PENTHOUSE RHYTHM (Universal) ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Frank Gross: DIRECTOR: Edward CUne. PLAYERS: Kirby Grant, Lois Collier, Judy Clark, Edward Norris, Louis Da Pron. COMEDY WITH MUSIC. A quartet consisting of a brother and sister, and two male friends, are anxious to break into show business. A friend moves them into the apartment of her boss, who is out of town, so that they can put up a front. The boss' lawyer finds out, but is persuaded not to evacuate the friends. When the boss himself arrives, there is a free-for-all which lands everyone in jail. Eventually matters are straightened out, and the quartet gets a chance to do the act before the proper audience. POWER OF THE WHISTLER [Columbia) PRODUCER: Leonard Picker. DIRECTOR: Lew Landers. PLAYERS: Richard Dix, Janis Carter, Jeff Donnell, Loren Tindall. MELODRAMA. This number in the "Whistler" series concerns a homicidal maniac who suffers from loss of memory. He escapes from an insane asylum, determined to kill the warden and the man responsible for his own confinement. By chance he meets a young woman who, when she realizes his insanity and her own danger, kills him with a pitchfork. 2279