Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1945)

SHORT SUBJECTS reviews and synopses BALKAN POWDER KEG (UA) World in Action Timely attention to Europe's "powder keg," the six countries in the Balkan peninsula, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Roumania and Yugoslavia, is given in this latest "World in Action" film, produced by the National Film Board of Canada and released through United Artists. A comprehensive and succinct commentary, written by Stuart Legg, who also edited the picture, traces the historical course of the Balkans from the time the Ottoman Empire drove northward into Europe 500 years ago, down to modern times, when Sarajevo, in Serbia, lit the world fire of 1914. The film succeeds in highlighting the fateful events of the last four decades and outlines the intrigues of Balkan monarchies to retain their power after the First World War ; the spread of Fascist and Nazi racist theories among the people of 19 dififerent races and nationalities in the six countries and the rise of partisan movements in World War II. It concludes with the hope that the United Nations will help the Balkan people to develop democratic forms of government after the war. — J. E. S. Release date, not set. 18 minutes GLAMOUR IN SPORTS (WB) Sports Parade (1503) The location of Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, is an invitation to year-round outdoor sports, and the women students are an invitation to the camera. They are shown doing calisthenics and dancing, playing volley ball, field hockey, golf and tennis, swimming in the pool and shooting with bow and arrow on the archery range. Release date, January 13, 1945 10 minutes RHYTHM OF THE RHUMBA (WB) Melody Masters (1606) This musical reel takes the popular dance, the rhumba, back to its origin in Latin America and shows some native dancers and musicians beating out the rhythm on maracas, claves and bongos. Chuy Reyes and his orchestra play "Bim Bam Boom," "Bacoso," "Linda Mujer," "Rhumba Matumba," "Castina" and "Ahi Vieni la Conga" while Chinita Marin and the Three Cuban Diamonds sing the choruses. Two dancers, Antonio Triana and Lola Montez, execute the steps. Release date, January 27, 1945 10 minutes NOVA SCOTIA (20th-Fox) Sports Review (5353) Among the views of Canada's eastern province presented in this reel is one with a genuinely Scottish flavor. At the Highland Games of Antigonish, the descendants of famous clans assemble for music and dancing in the style of their ancestors. Another sequence is devoted to the capture of a 900-pound blue-fin tuna after a fight of two and a half days. The last is concerned with lobster fishing, a profitable industry as well as sport along the coast. Release date, February 9, 1945 8 minutes CANYONS OF THE SUN (20th-Fox) Movietone Adventure (5257) These are the famed canyons of Colorado filmed in Technicolor. At Mesa Verde are the remains of adobe homes which housed groups of early Indian settlers. The sand dunes of Alamosa are now sporting sites for sand skiing. Also pictured are views of Denver's parks and lakes, of Pike's Peak, of the memorial to Will Rogers and the tomb of Buffalo Bill. Jack Painter jihotographed the scenes. Release date, January 5, 1945 8 minutes PIGTAIL PILOT (Univ.) Person-Oddities (9374) The title refers to a 12-year-old girl on call at the airport in Fort Stockton, Texas. An antique clock collection by a bank cashier in Hickory, N. C, a New York bird-lover who teaches tricks to love-birds and a man in Denver, Colo., who makes casts of growing plants, complete the reel. Release date, January 22, 1945 9 minutes ABC PIN-UP (Univ.) Person Oddities (9373) Five alphabets carved on the head of a p'n is the record of an Orange, N. J., engraver. Otner unusual pursuits pictured here are a hon.c museum of wild animals maintained by five brothers in Denver, Colo., and the raising cf a familv ui skunks by a Vancouver man with the aid of his household cat. There is a view also of the highest bridge in the world, which spans the Royal Gorge in Colorado. Release date, January 15, 1945 9 minutes WHAT'S YOUR NAME (WAC-20th-Fox) War Information Film This pictorial presentation of the need for factory workers is told in a stirring and admirable manner. The timeliness of this film is emphasized by today's manpower shortage. This WAC short fulfills a service to the -nation by presenting a convincing plea for war workers. It will give complacent Americans cause to think. Adequately and efTectively it tells the story of the valor and steadfastness of GI Joes and contrasts these Americans with persons on the home front who are shirking their duty. The anonymous soldier is compared with the anonymous worker, both doing a job that will hasten victory. This short with its timely and important theme, if given adequate distribution, should be a healthy influence on easing the manpower shortage. — M. R. Y. Release date, January 18, 1945 9J4 minutes WHITE TREASURE (Univ.) J'ariety Vieivs (9354) The title refers to one of our most common household articles, salt, but the value is not restricted to human consumption. Its wartime uses include material for high test gas, munitions, synthetic rubber, chlorine and vitamin capsules. The scene is the largest salt mine in the British Commonwealth of nations. Release date, January 29, 1945 9 minutes LAND OF 10,000 LAKES (20th-Fox) Movietone Adventures (5258) The land is Minnesota, where lakes dot the landscape with beaches and playgrounds and the swirling course of St. Anthony's Falls separates the twin cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. It is also a great source of iron ore as views of the Hibbing Mine, the Grand Canyon of Minnesota, will attest. Fully 26 per cent of the iron produced in the United States is mined here. A Chippewa Indian settlement and the old Franch trading fort at Grand Portage complete the reel. Release date, April 27, 1945 8 minutes DRAFTEE DAFFY (WB) Looney Tunes (1701) Daffy is busy giving out about his patriotism and cooperation with the war effort when the picture changes. It seems his draft board is interested in using his services for the army. Daffy takes to his heels and the man takes after, up and down the stairs, in and out of the house. The ending is a bit, of a surprise. Release date, January 27, 1945. 7 minutes Reviews and synopses of shorf sab/ects prtatoi in Product Digest ore indexed la ibe SbeH Sab iecfs Charf, Product Digest Section, pages 228Q 2287. j Running times are those furnished by the fribufor. I i TROLLING FOR STRIKES (20th-Fox) \ Sports Review (5352) This survey of one of the country's most popula! sports takes the audience to the lake country ai the border of Maine and New Brunswick, Canada} Here fishing is for salmon but the sport is unliki that of the western rivers. The fish is landlocked calling for a technique much like lake trout. Thi short covers a morning's fishing and a meal server at a camp fire'. ! Release date, December 15, 1944 8J^ minute.^ BRENDA STARR, REPORTER (Col.) Chapter Play i From the comic strip created by Dale Messicl comes a new heroine of the chapter play, a girl re porter on the trail of crime. Joan Woodbury and Kane Richmond are featured in the picture, supl ported by a cast including Syd Saylor, Joe Devlin George Meeker, Wheeler Oakman and Ca; Forester. . The story starts in a burning house where th( newspaper woman and her photographer discove; a dying gangster and some clues to the stolen pay' roll. When the police arrive the clues are gonej and when the gangsters come back the money ii gone. The desperate search for the gang, tb money and a story for the paper takes Brenda an( the police through gas explosions, into a dynamite^ mine, in the midst of gun fire and, after man^ harrowing experiences, to the end of the trail. Andy Lamb and George H. Plympton wrote thi original screenplay. Wallace W. Fox directed tht film, and Sam Katzman produced. ! Release date, January 26, 1945 13 episode] BLUE WINNERS (Para.) \ Sportlights (R4-5) I Under the guidance of Bob Kiphuth, Yale Unij versity swimming teams have made sports historj^ This reel shows some of the training tricks of thi champion teams in slow motion with underwate; shots to show just how it's done. Alan Ford the current champion at 100 yards, gives a demonj stration of the results of careful teaching — breath^ ing, foot work and timing. I Release date, February 23, 1945 9 minutel POPULAR SCIENCE, NO. 3 (Para.) ' J4-3 With many of the sources of natural late^ closed to us by war in the Pacific, the synthetic product has been developed to a degree of use fulness in some ways surpassing the original. Thi' short pictures some innovations for the postwa: home, following it with an invention which wit remove the fuzz from peaches. The last sequend is devoted to the Second Air Force at Pueblc Colorado, where flyers train with their new bomb, ers and crews for duties overseas. Release date, February 16, 1945 10 minutei HERR MEETS HARE (WB) ; Bugs Bunny Special (1721) Bugs Bunny, who has been practicing his wile, on less prominent opponents, turns up in Geri many's Black Forest just as Herman Goering i| out rabbit hunting. It's the master race agains American cunning, and tlie latter has a worthj representative. Goering brings in his Fuehrer but this just adds spice to the rabbit's triumph. Release date, Janiwry 13, 1945. 7 minute. ALASKAN GRANDEUR (20th-Fox) Movietone Adventures (5256) , The spectacular camera views of Alaska whici proclaimed the skill of Father Hubbard have th^ added interest of color in the priest's latest photo graphic offering. Lowell Thomas provides tW^ background commentary. ' Release date. March 2, 1945 8 minute 2282 PRODUCT DIGEST SECTION. JANUARY 20, I