Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1945)

SHOWMEN'S REVIEWS SHORT SUBJECTS ADVANCE SYNOPSES COMPANY CHART THE RELEASE CHART Thai department dealt with new product from the point of view of the exhibitor who is to purvey it to hii own public. itrs Dakota Republic — Grand Scale Western Here is one of the bigger and better Westerns hi the season Starring John Wayne with Vera ' Hruba Ralston, who, down off her ice skates, makes •quite a fetching dramatic actress, "Dakota" is sureire of its type, good enough to move into those louses which customarily are wary of cowboy epics. Carefully and cleverly made , this slick-paper Western has a sound, though obvious, story line md spots prominently such solid acting talents as those belonging to Walter Brennan and Ona Mun|on. The usual whoop-and-a-holler climax to the grind-'em-out Westerns has been edited and embellished with a large-scale prairie fire that is certain to prove exciting to any audience. The story, a sensible and believable one, concerns a pair of newlyweds, Wayne the ex-soldier and Miss Ralston, the daughter of a Chicago railroad man, who move into Dakota in the 1870's to Duy up land ahead of the railroad. At Fargo they pnd the villain of the piece, played, naturally enough, by Ward Bond, trying to do the same thing —only in a highly unorthodox manner. Before it is decided who buys what land, the picture unwinds as an exciting bit of rough and tumble history, complete with the customary number of fist and gun fights and stagecoach chases. Brennan, as the irascible captain of a river boat, does an excellentjob with the comedy relief in the screenplay by Lawrence Hazard. Joseph Kane, associate producer, directed. All has been so neatly packaged that you can't very easily go wrong in giving this picture playing time. Seen at the home office projection room, Reiewer's Rating : Good. — Ray Lanning. Release date, not set. Running time, 82 min. General audience classification. John Devlin John Wayne Sandy Vera Hruba Ralston Captain Bounce Walter Brennan Jim Bender Ward Bond Dna Munson, Hugo Haas. Mike Mazurki, Olive Blakeney, Nicodemus Stewart, Paul Fix, Grant Withers, Robert Livingston, Olin Howlin, Pierre Watkin, Robert H. Barrat, Jonathan Hale, Bobby Blake. Paul Hurst, Eddy Waller, •Sarah Padden, Tack LaRue. George Cleveland, Selmer lackson, Claire DuBrev. Roy Barcroft. The Seventh Veil Sydney Box Ortus G. F. D. Elegant Psychotherapy Psychotherapy is the theme herein ; the Veils of the piece having nothing to do with the dancing Salome, they being instead those imponderable protections behind which the human mind shelters. -A world-famous pianist suffers a secret, nevertheless persistent inhibition that she may lose the use of her hands. She had been caned on those Fands as a school child on the eve of a pianoforte examination. Always in the recesses of her mind istirs the fear-memory of that punishment. It escapes to mania when her guardian, the man who devoted his life to the nurture of her genius, lashes at those same hands in fury on learning she plans to elope with a portrait-painter. In her agonized .dementia, she essays suicide. Under hypnosis the siseven veils of her mind are lifted and the inhibition dissipated. Around the framework of that theme, producer i VfOTION PICTURE HERALD. NOVEMBER 10, 1945 il, Sydney Box and his director, Compton Bennett, have built a film of much elegance ; one moreover which infallibly warms the heart of the beholder. Not only elegance is there but suspense, excitement, subtle undertones of suggestion and intelligence, all the essentials of motion picture appeal. The piece is beautifully played. Ann Todd — she has hovered this long while on the hinterland of fame — is the pianist; James Mason (sure-fire bet in Britain's theatres) was never more"assured than he is as the guardian-lover. Also, there is much equally immaculate playing of symphonic music. Eileen Joyce — she's one of the better-known concert pianists this side — made the music. But it's the hands of Miss Todd you see. It is no detraction of Miss Joyce's art to claim that this is still Ann Todd's film. The plaudits of a crowded first night audience proclaim that here's another winner which will knock the British box office barometer sideways. It will be a pleasant piece of reverse lend-lease when it crosses the Atlantic. Seen at the Leicester Square theatre. London, premiere. Revieiver's Rating: Excellent. — Peter Burnup. Release date, not ^et. Running time. 94 min. Adult audience classification. Nicholas James Mason Francesca Ann Todd Dr. Larsen Herbert Lorn Peter Gay . Hugh McDermott Maxwell Leyden Albert Lieven Yvonne Owen, David Home. Manning Whiley, Grace Allardyce. Ernest Davies. John Slater, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Detour PtfC—Melodra^a Venturing far from the familiar melodramatic pattern, director Edgar G. Ulmer has_ turned out an adroit, albeit unpretentious production about a man who stumbles into a series of circumstances which seal his doom. Making no compromise with the "happy ending" formula, the film has a number of ironic and suspenseful moments. Martin Goldsmith's original screenplay has Tom Neal, a seedy wanderer, unfold the story of his downfall over a cup of coffee in a Las Vegas diner. Delineated by narration, the sequences come flashing back in chronological order from the time, as a piano player in a third-rate New York night club, he decides to hitchhike to California to marry. En route he gets a ride in the car of a dissipated socialite who dies while driving. Fearful of being accused of murder, he conceals the body, takes the man's' belongings and assumes his identity. Further on he picks up a girl hitcher, well-enacted by Ann Savage. As it turns out, she previously .was given a ride by the dead man. and knowing Neal to be an imnoster, sets out to blackmail him. By some quirk of adverse fate, she is accidentally killed by Neal. With the torturing weight of two deaths on Ids disordered mind, he can never rejoin his sweetheart. The closing reels of Leon Fromkess' production show Neal's apprehension by the police. Seen in a New York projection room. Reviewer's Rating : Fair. — Mandel Herrstman. Release date, Nov. 30, 1945. RuniTing time, 69 min. PCA No. 11048. General audience classification. Roberts Tom Neal Vera Ann Savage Claudia Drake. Edmund MacDonald. Tim Ryan. How Do You Do? PRC — Comedy-Drama A number of melodramatic events, adorned with comic surprises, happen in quick succession, to make this modest production, featuring Bert Gordon (The Mad Russian) satisfying entertainment for those who do not take their plots too analytically. The Harry Sauber-Joseph Carole screenplay, taken from an original by Sauber, who also produced, is about two radio comedians who go to a vacation resort, one to get away from his jealous wife, the other to escape the attentions of a comedienne. While there, the body of a radio agent is found in a hotel room. To solve the crime, Gordon recruits some actor-sleuths, who show up as miserable detectives but succeed in getting laughs. In the closing reels, the murdered man reveals himself to be very much alive. As it turns out, the whole idea had been a film screened in Hollywood projection room before players, who decide that he should have been dead to satisfy audiences. Thereupon, Gordon calls for a re-running of the film's final footage and then shoots the revived murder victim, who tumbles in a heap on the screen. As an added bit of entertainment, Ella Mae Morse vocalizes a pair of boogie-woogie numbers. Frank Albertson, as a sleuthing newspaperman, shares a romantic angle with Cheryl Walker. Ralph Murphy directed. Seen in a Nezv York projection room. Reviewer's Rating: fair. — M. H. Release date, December 17, 1945. Running time, 80 min. PCA No. 11162. General audience classification. Bert Gordon Himself Harry Von Zell Himself Cheryl Walker Herself Frank Albertson, Ella Mae Morse. Claire Windsor, Keye Luke, Charles Middleton, Thomas Jackson. James Burke. Fred Kelsey, Matt McHugh, Leslie Denison, Francis Pierlot, Sidney Marion. Rough Riders of Cheyenne Republic — High-powered Western The Martins and the Coys, those reckless mountain boys, aren't in the same league with the Carsons and the Sterlings when it comes to feuding. Sunset pitches into the family fight with the vigor of a Kansas tornado, and the results are just about as devastating to the surrounding landscape. All this adds up to an exciting hour for the Western fans, an hour crammed with action, suspense, and more shooting than took place at a World War battle. Sunset, returning home to find his father dead, presumably at the hands of a Sterling, sets out to exterminate that family, which consists of a widowed mother, a weakling son, and a winsome daughter. Unaware that their private fight is being fanned by a gang of crooks who will come into possession of the entire valley when its leading families have been wiped out, the Carsons and the Sterlings go to it with gusto, men and women alike. There's a snag in the villains' plans, however, when a dying gangster talks too much, and Cupid, shooting an arrow amid the bullets, causes Sunset and Melinda Sterling (Peggy Stewart) to fall in love. Mira McKinney, cast as the Widow Carson, puts up some stiff opposition to this romance, and threatens her daughter with a bull-whip. Love and 2709