Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

tween this is the job of educating herself at night sessions of the university. Williams shows up, lies about the early incident for a consideration and, subsequently, is exposed along with Baker, who turns out to be local head of an organization clearly indicated as the Klu Klux Klan, but without ever naming it. This exonerates Miss Young and leads to a joining of the political fortunes of both parties with her as the single candidate. She wins, marries Cotten and off to Washington they go. But beyond a clever story, well rounded out, there is the matter of performance and incident. "The Farmer's Daughter" is rich in both under the Rivkin-Kerr script, H. C. Potter's very capable direction and the adroit producing controls of Dore Schary. Miss Young was never better. Cotten is very good. Miss Barrymore, of course, is a tower of acting strength in her own knowing manner. Charles Bickford, as the family retainer, has a fat part from which he exacts fullest values without overplaying. Fitting logically into the story fabric are several passages developed in the traditional school of democratic fundamentals. There is also a bit of never-too-gentle satire thrown at the heads of political numbskulls. But it should be understood this is not a political tract. It is a piece of entertainment, and a very swell one at that. Seen at the exchange projection room. Reviewer's Rating : Excellent. — Red Kann. Release date, February 18, 1947. Running time, 97 min. PCA No. 11735. General audience classification. Katrin Holstrom Loretta Young Glenn Morley Joseph Cotten Mrs. Morley Ethel Barrymore Clancy Charles Bickford Rose Hobart, Rhys Williams, Harry Davenport, Tom Powers, William Harrigan, Art Baker, Harry Shannon, Anna Q. Nillson (.Review reprinted from last week's Herald) The Sin of Harold Diddlebock UA-California — Harold Lloyd Harold Lloyd comes back to the screen in a fantastically constructed piece of slapstick, a wonderful hodgepodge of nonsense, a Mack Sennett-styled comedy of silliness that will have audiences hysterically gasping for breath at some of the sequences. Produced, directed and written by Preston Sturges and presented by the California Pictures Corporation (Howard Hughes), "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" begins with the ending of one of Harold Lloyd's greatest successes — "The Freshman," produced back in 1923. In that picture, if you'll remember, Lloyd played a college man sent into a football game at the last moment. Through an hilarious sequence of events, he made the touchdown that won the game. That's the prologue. The main body of this followup is the story of what happened to Lloyd about 23 years later. For over 20 years he had labored as a bookkeeper for an advertising firm. A perfect Casper Milquetoast, he is fired to make way for someone a little more imaginative. Down in the dumps, not at all comforted by the going away present of a gold watch, Lloyd allows himself to be picked up by a wandering bookie who propels him into a bar for a drink. In the bar Lloyd meets an imaginative bartender who is enchanted with the idea of mixing Lloyd's first drink. That drink sends Lloyd from the bar howling drunk. When he sobers up he finds that he has .won $15,000 on a horse race and purchased a circus. What follows then is Lloyd's attempts to sell his circus. He does this by means of walking a leashed lion through Wall Street and attempting to frighten bankers into whipping out their check books. The most sustained bit of funny business in the film is a piece of comedy second only to throwing custard pies in drawing laughs. Lloyd, the bookie and the lion find themselves out on a window ledge, 30 or 40 stories above the street. For about 20 minutes all the changes that can be rung on this theme are rung out and wrung dry : the slips over the ledge, the charging lion, the terrified screams and the panicky long shots down to the street below. It's unabashedly corn and unashamedly burlesque. But it's basic comedy, the kind that can't fail to draw laughs. The film falters at times. The comedy is by no means sustained. There are long periods of explanation — unfortunately needed to build up to a gag. There are times when the picture gets cute instead of sticking to the broad side of comedy. But these are minor complaints. Sturges has picked a supporting cast that comprises some of Hollywood's best comics. Some of them are slighted in the story, but all are in there plugging : Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Rudy Vallee, Edgar Kennedy, Arline Judge, Franklin Pangborn and Lionel Stander. Frances Ramsden makes her screen debut in the picture. Seen at the home office projection room. Reviewer's Rating: Good. — Ray Lanning. Release date, April 4, 1947. Running time, 89 min. PCA No. 11970. General audience classification. Harold Diddlebock Harold Lloyd Miss Otis Francis Ramsden Wormy Jimmy Conlin Raymond Walburn, Franklin Pangborn, Margaret Hamilton, Arline Judge, Al Bridge, Edgar Kennedy {Review reprinted from last week's Herald) Ramrod UA-Enter prise — Super-Western Enterprise is off to a distinguished start with this Harry Sherman production of Luke Short's widely read Saturday Evening Post novel of the same title. On cast names alone — Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Donald Crisp, Preston Foster, Don DeFore, Charles Ruggles— it rates as super-western fiction, and as directed by Andre DeToth it accounts engrossingly for everjr running minute. Packed with action and unremittingly _ suspenseful, it's sure to prosper in exhibition, shunning familiar plot patterns, dialogue cliches and other pitfalls commonly encountered by undertakings in kind. Producer Sherman's picture abounds nevertheless is physical melodrama. There are fights — fistic and with guns, beatings, chases, escapes and pursuits, culminating dramatically and with justice triumphant in circumstances which leave the outcome in doubt until the final second's. And there is sharp characterization backgrounded by inter-woven cross-plots skillfully unwound in tight script by Jack Moffitt, Graham Baker and Cecile Kramer. It's Sherman's west at its best. McCrea portrays a drink-addicted cowhand who gives up his wastrel ways to work as foreman for Miss Lake when her weakling fiance, opposed by her father and Foster, boss of the valley, runs away, leaving her his ranch. Foster promptly burns her ranch buildings, and McCrea, aided by DeFore, his fervent but none too honest pal, takes possession of the Foster property in retaliation. McCrea tries to keep within the law, represented by Sheriff Crisp, but resorts to personal justice after Foster murders Crisp. The "complications are many and the surprises frequent in a succession of violent incidents which follow. Splendid scenery ably photographed and a powerful music score by Adolph Deutsch are supplementary values adding to a commanding whole. Previewed at the studio. Reviewer's Rating : Excellent. — William R. Weaver. Release date, May 2, 1947. Running time, 95 min. PCA No. 12056. General audience classification. Dave Nash Joel McCrea Connie Dickason Veronica Lake Walt Shipley Tan McDonald Ben Dickason ' Charles Ruggles Frank Ivy Preston Foster Rose Arleen Whelan Red Cates f Lloyd Bridges Bill Schell Don De Fore Sheriff Jim Crew Donald Crisp Rose Higgins, Chic York, Sarah Padden, Nestor Paiva. Cliff Parkinson. Trevor Bardette, John Powers, Ward Wood, Hal Paliaferro, Wally Cassell (Review reprinted from last week's Herald) ADVANCE SYNOPSES BACKLASH (20th Century-Fox— Wurtzel) PRODUCER: Sol Wurtzel. DIRECTOR: Eugene Forde. PLAYERS: Richard Travis, Jean Rogers, Larry Blake. MELODRAMA. A body, believed to be that of a criminal lawyer, leads the police on a hunt for a murderer. The lawyer's wife, his partner, and an ex-convict are in turn suspected of the crime. Eventually it develops that the body was wrongly identified. The lawyer is still alive. He murders his partner and is about to murder his wife when he is prevented from doing so by police, who kill him when he tries to escape. TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS (RKO Radio-Lesser) PRODUCER: Sol Lesser. DIRECTOR: Kurt Neumann. PLAYERS: Johnny Weissmuller, Brenda Joyce, Johnny Sheffield, Patricia Morison. JUNGLE DRAMA. _ A group of traders, including a woman, go into the jungle to buy or steal as many animals as possible for resale to zoos. They are disconcerted when the chief of the region informs them they cannot take more than two specimens of each species. They conspire to kill the chief. "Tarzan" warns the animals to flee, and calls to his side a herd of elephants, with whose assistance he drives the invaders from the jungle. BLAZE OF NOON (Paramount) PRODUCER: Robert Fellows. DIRECTOR: John Farrow. PLAYERS: Anne Baxter, Sterling Hayden, Sonny Tufts, William Holden, Johnny Sands, William Bendix, Howard da Silva, Jean Wallace. AVIATION DRAMA.' Four brothers give up barnstorming to form a commercial airline. One of the brothers meets and marries a girl. When the brothers get an airmail contract, they attempt to fly through all kinds of weather without adequate equipment. One of them is crippled, two of them — including the married brother — are killed. His son, however, grows up to fly in World War II. FUN ON A WEEKEND • (United Artists) PRODUCED, DIRECTOR and SCREENPLAY: Andrew Stone. PLAYERS: Eddie Bracken, Priscilla • Lane, Tom Conway, Allen Jenkins, Arthur Treacher. COMEDY-ROMANCE. Eddie Bracken and Priscilla Lane, both flat broke, decide to pose as millionaire husband and wife and worm their way into Florida society. They meet the right people, become socially known and then are exposed. However, everything works out well for both when, through legitimate business transactions, they finally gain a half-interest in a thriving business. (Columbia) FRAMED PRODUCER: Jules Schermer. DIRECTOR: Richard Wallace. PLAYERS: Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, Barry Sullivan, Edgar Buchanan, Karen Morley. MELODRAMA. A waitress plans to run away with a bank president who has stolen a quarter of a million dollars, and intends to kill another man, who resembles the banker, in an automobile crash, to cover the banker's disappearance. At the last moment, she kills the banker instead, and takes all the money herself. The other man, deducing that she has killed the banker, finds the money in her safe-deposit box, and turns her over to the police. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MARCH I, 1947 3503