Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

Vacation Days Monogram — For Juveniles Only The 'Teen Agers series, designed primarily to engage the interest of the quite young, lets down a bit here in a film that gives exhibitors little more than the names of the Jerry Wald and Spade Cooley orchestras to promise their customers. When these orchestras are doing their stuff, which takes up a relatively minor portion of the footage, the picture is as good as the orchestras are. At other times it's a laboriously compounded assortment of hokum comedy and Western shoot-'em-up. It is, as stated, for the quite young. The tale has to with some high school students who go to spend their vacation on a ranch inherited by one of their teachers. The ranch is located hard-by a cow town of the kind used for minor Westerns, and a bank-robber melodrama of the same variety is run off in connection with the determinedly comic incidents which engage the students at the ranch. Mistaken identity of a kind only a scriptwriter could credit ties the two dissimilar quantities together loosely, but the strain on the tie is terrific. Sam Katzman produced the picture, with Maurice Duke as associate, and A*rthur Dreifuss directed it from a script by Hal Collins. Previewed at studio. Reviewer's Rating : Fair.—W. R. W. Release date, January 25, 1947. Running time, 66 min. PCA No. 11976. General audience classification. Freddie Freddie Stewart Dodie June Preisser Frankie Darro, Warren Mills, Noel Neill, Milt Kibbee, Belle Mitchell, John Hart, Hugh Prosser, Terry Frost, Edythe Elliott, Claire James, the Jerry Wald and Spade Cooley orchestras Trailing Danger Monogram — Action Drama Johnny Mack Brown, as a stalwart man of the West, accomplishes superhuman tasks in subduing and capturing a band of outlaws in this film. It has a better than average amount of exciting outdoor action scenes and hand-tohand combat and stagecoach chases. As the film opens an outlaw, played by Steve Darrell, escapes from prison, and the remainder of the footage is devoted to his recapture. Brown is supported by Raymond Hatton as Waco. They engage the gang of bandits in gunfights and through clever tricks finally succeed in capturing the murderer and his henchmen. Barney Serecky produced, and Lambert Hillyer directed. Seen at the New York theatre, New York, where a midday audience registered approval. Reviewer' s Rating : Fair. — M. R. Y. Release date, March 29. 1947. Running time. 5S minutes. PCA No. 12131. General audience classification. Johnny Johnny Mack Brown Waco Raymond Hatton Marshall Reed, Edwin Parker, Steve Darrell, Pat Desmond, Peggy Wynne, Bonnie Jean Bartley Bells of San Fernando Screen Guild — Period Melodrama At a time when every picture that comes out of Hollywood is suspected of ideological content, it is perhaps not surprising that even a modest offering like James S. Burkett's production presents a political theme. It stresses the seamy side of dictatorship as it existed in California under Spanish rule. The dictator in question is an overseer appointed by the Governor to rule the prosperous San Fernando Valley. As Anthony Warde interprets the character, he is a minor Mussolini with a bull-whip in his hand, and a primitive "iron curtain" to prevent word of his tyranny from reaching the outside world. Love, reputed to conquer all, not unnaturally conquers the cruel Don as well. He falls in love with a local lass who has already given her heart to a tile-setter — a role in which Donald Woods betrays the fact that an Irish brogue is not his natural accent. The young lovers defy the Don, escape to Monterey, and return to the valley accompanied by the Governor's Guard, just in time to prevent the Don from burning out the eyes of the mission priest, who had the temerity to refuse to reveal the source of a lode of gold. The screenplay is by Jack DeWitt and Renault Duncan. The latter, under the more familiar name of Duncan Renaldo, is credited as associate producer. Terry Morse's direction is somewhat leisurely. Seen at the studio. Reviewer's Rating : Average.— Thalia Bell. Release date, March 1. 1947. Running time, 74 min. PCA No. 12199. General audience classification. Michael Donald Woods Maria Gloria Warren Shirley O'Hara, Byron Foulger, Paul Newlan, Anthony Warde, Monte Blue, ' Claire DxtBrey, David Leonard. Gordon Clark Buffalo Bill Rides Again Screen Guild — Western In concocting his latest offering to the nation's Western fans, producer Jack Schwarz has followed a time-honored— and time-wornformula. The formula runs somewhat as follows : Select an actor of experience and reputation (in this case, Richard Arlen) and cast him in the title role. Add a dash of femininity in the person of pretty Jennifer Holt. Combine with a liberal quantity of Indians in colorful regalia. Surround the whole with a story by Barney Sarecky and Fran Gilbert — in lieu of anything more original, the one about the sharpers seeking to deprive the settlers of their hard-won homes will do — and sprinkle with gunfire, fistfights and war-whoops. Simmer slowly for 70 minutes, under direction of Bernard B. Ray. Serve on Saturday afternoons to an audience of children and youthfully-minded adults. Results are guaranteed, if the above instructions are followed to the letter. Seen at the studio. Reviewer's Rating : Average.— T. B. Release date, February 15, 1947. Running time, 70 min. PCA No. 12161. General audience classification. Buffalo Bill Richard Arlen Dale Harrington Jennifer Holt Lee Shumway, Gil Patrick, Edward Cassidy, Edmund Cobb, Ted Adams, Shooting Star, • Charles Stevens, Many Treaties Temptation Harbour ABPC-Pathe — Conscience — and a Hussy Based on a best-selling novel by Georges Simenon (leading French practitioner in the Ellery Queen motif) this might have developed as just another blood-curdler. The thrills, chills, frills, are all there, plus a satisfying allotment of bloody murder and other varieties of violence. But producer Victor Skutezky, director Lance Comfort, essayed the more hazardous path of portraying the tortured anguish of a good man's soul when he falls victim to the lure of big money and the seductive sidelong glances of a cross-channel siren. Master Good Man is a simple railway signalman— one of the authentic innocents — who operates the night trains in and out of an English Channel port. From his cabin on the dark harbor he sees murder done, rushes to the rescue, but retrieves, instead of the victim's body, a suitcase packed with a fortune in the form of Bank of England bills. It's a fortune that he'd never earn by working. So what to do : particularly as he has a motherless child and — more particularly — in view of the languorous, disturbing curves of that French hussy from across the water? He slips into the uneasy trail of trifling with temptation. It's a trail which leads Master Good Man himself to murder. Robert Newton invests the simple innocent with an ocean of sympathy. Simone Simon is as naughty, sly, disturbing, comely a chit as we have lately encountered on or off the screen. There is also a new young lady — Margaret Bar ton— who plays the motherless child. Being endowed with obvious ability and charm it is fortunate for Miss Barton that she makes her screen debut in a picture of such merit. Previewed at the Pathe Projection Room, London. Reviewer's Rating : Very good. — Peter Burnup. Release date, not set. Running time, 101 min. British adult audience classification. Mallinson Robert Newton Camelia Simone Simon Brown William Hartnell Betty Margaret Barton Marcel Dalio, Edward Rigby, Joan Hopkins, Kathleen Harrison, Leslie Dwyer, Charles Victor, Irene Handl, Wylie Watson, Edward Lexy, George Woodbridge, Kathleen Boutall. Dave Crowley, Gladys Henson, John Salew, W. G. Fay Forbidden Music Continental — Musical Romance Under the English title of "Forbidden Music" Continental Pictures is releasing the Italian film "Musica Proibita" produced by Elica Film. Like many Italian pictures this has undertones of tragedy in its story of unrequited love. Heading the cast is Tito Gobbi, leading baritone of La Scala Opera in Milan, and Maria Mercader, one of Italy's popular actresses who has appeared in other foreign films playing in this country. The story opens in modern Italy with Tito Gobbi as a successful but lonely and aging opera singer. Flashing back to the days when he was a struggling student it tells of his romance with the beautiful "Claretta" and their eventual separation through a misunderstanding resulting in a life of loneliness for each. However, the picture ends on a happy note with the old couple reunited. With this as the theme and the city of Florence as the background Gobbi has opportunity to sing in Italian numerous songs and arias from many operas. For the most part the picture will appeal to nearly all adult aduiences and especially to those who know Gobbi by reputation. However, there is one unecessary scene in which a chorus line presents the dance, the Can-Can, with typically European flavor. Carlo Campogalliani directed. English subtitles are included. Reviewed at the Cinema Verdi theatre in Nezo York. Reviewer's Rating: Good. — G.H.S. Release date, February 28, 1946. Running time, 90 min. Adult audience classification. Claretta Maria Mercader Paolo Tito Gobbi Giuseppe Rinaldi, Loradana, Carlo Romano, Giorgio Costantini, Mario Casaleggio ADVANCE SYNOPSES THE CORPSE CAME C.O.D. (Columbia) PRODUCER: Sam Bischoff. DIRECTOR: Henry Levin. PLAYERS: George Brent, Joan Blondell, Adele Jergens, Jim Bannon. MELODRAMA. Two reporters from rival papers set out to solve the mystery behind the murders of a studio publicity director and a studio costume designer. They discover that the two were linked in a ring of jewel thieves, and had been killed by a butler employed by the studio's top feminine star. CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE (20th CenturyFox) PRODUCER: Lamar Trotti. DIRECTOR: Henry King. PLAYERS: Tyrone Power, Jean Peters, Cesar Romero, Lee J. Cobb, John Sutton, Antonio Moreno, Thomas Gomez, Roy Roberts. PERIOD DRAMA. In the year 1518, a young Spaniard and his family are cast into prison by the Inquisition. They make their escape, and the young man goes to Mexico. There, after many adventures, he is stabbed by a servant-girl with whom he has fallen in love, and who fears that he may be executed for murder. He recovers, is pardoned for the murder, and marries the servant-girl. 3562 PRODUCT DIGEST SECTION, APRIL 5, 1947