Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

SHOWMEN'S REVIEWS SHORT SUBJECTS ADVANCE SYNOPSES SHORT SUBJECTS CHART THE RELEASE CHART This department deals with new product from the point of view of the exhibitor who is to purvey it to his own public. Monsieur Verdoux UA-Chaplin — Comedy of Murder, With Message Whatever picture Charles Chaplin might have chosen to make after a seven-year absence from the screen would have been a box office commodity of stature. This one happens to be not only that but so many more things besides that a measure of the property may best be had by breaking it down into components parts, remembering always that about all a showman has to do to pack his theatre is to let the customers know he's got a new Chaplin picture for them to look at. Star-producer-director-writer Chaplin, who also composed the music score, calls his picture "a comedy of murder," and the phrase fits. Perhaps only Chaplin could make the murdering of a number of bigamously acquired wives an amusing spectacle, and at times the task taxes even his justly renowned artistic virtuosity, but it is undisputable that his characteristic alacrity, displayed here in dispatching ladies of means, generates audience laughter in volume. When he is trying for laughs, which is most of the time but by no means always, he is fully as successful as in his yesteryears, and it may be noted that he gets some of his laughs with dialogue but more with gesture and grimace. Comedy is not, however, the whole of the Chaplin objective, but rather, in fact, a form employed as a tool of utterance, for the man seen here for the first time without the baggy pants, oversized shoes and undersized derby of his beginnings is the bearer of at least two messages. The major message, delivered directly to the camera and with unrelieved gravity, is to the effect that whereas mass murder committed by millions, as in war, is heroic, mass murder committed by an individual is criminal. The secondary message, delivered with less emphasis but quite firmly, is to the effect that a man discharged by a corporation without cause after long service (30 years in this instance) may not be without extenuation in resorting to crime as a means of maintaining his family. To say these things he has devised a story, based loosely on the Bluebeard legend, which is very, very funny when it is funny, and very static when the oratory interrupts. What the paying customers will have to say about the blending of message and humor is a thing to be discovered. Doubtless the pundits will make it a matter of controversy, and doubt.less the plain public will be made that much more anxious to see the picture, probably settling for the laughs they get and leaving the rest to the intelligentsia. It is extraordinary. The Chaplin story picks up M. Verdoux in Paris in about 1929 and carries him to the guillotine in 1937. He is a dandified little man, skilled in charming women of wealth, who makes a career of marrying them and disposing of them, profitably, as a means of supporting his invalid wife and their small son in the manner to which he has aspired through 30 abruptly terminated years of service as a bank clerk. His devices for fascinating and dispatching his victims are varied and expert, and his manner of doing it is strictly businesslike as well as, in an incredible sort of way, immensely amusing. The market collapse of 1929 breaks him financially, and the death of his wife and son breaks his spirit, as well as removing the reason for his pursuit of profitable homicide. Finally, although offered succor by a girl he once allowed to escape his murderous attentions upon learning that her dead husband, like his wife, had been an invalid, he allows himself to be apprehended, convicted and sentenced to death. It is in his last words before sentence is pronounced, and again in death cell statements to reporters, that he utters his observations about mass murder and the responsibility of employer to employee. Although the character undertaken by the star is in emotional essence the same frustrated little man he_ portrayed in the days when all the kiddies in the world were his fans, he portrays him here exclusively for grownups, a point for showmen to take into consideration before stumbling into the error of children's matinees. The Chaplin craftsmanship is in evidence— which is to say hardly evident at all — throughout the picture. His own performance is authoritative, and the other players, most of whom are character actors or unknowns, fullfill requirements. Martha Raye, given feature billing, tears through a rough-hewn role with all stops open, and Marilyn Nash, as the girl he befriends, establishes herself as a player to be heard from further. Robert Florey and Wheeler Dryden are down as associate directors, and Rudolph Schrager arranged and directed the Chaplin music score, which is an especially effective one. Previewed at the Academy Awards theatre, Hollywood, to a press audience including the full list of accredited Hollywood correspondents. Laughter was frequent and loud during the major part of the picture, and respectful silence greeted the message section, general applause marking the end. Reviezver's Rating: Good. — William R. Weaver. Release date, not set. Running time, 123 min. PCA No. 12225. Adult audience classification. Monsieur Verdoux Charles Chaplin Annabella Martha Raye Mady Correll, Allison Rodman, Robert Lewis, Audrey Betz, Ada May, Isobel Elsom, Marjorie Bennett, Helen Heigh, Margaret Hoffman, Marilyn Nash. Irving Bacon, Edwin Mills, Virginia Brissac. Almira Sessions, Eula Morgan, Bernard J. Nedell, Charles Evans Born to Kill RKO Radio — Murder Melodrama Dispensing utterly with customary endeavors to surround its murders with mystery, "Born to Kill" is an out-and-out presentation of Lawrence Tierney as a deliberate killer, a man without principle who pursues ruthlessly the theory that he can achieve fulfillment of any wish by slaying persons who stand in his way. It is strong meat, slammed across without extenuation, and in no sense a film for children. Whether it is too unrelieved for adults is a question for exhibition to determine. Alongside Tierney, and but slightly less coldblooded, goes Claire Trevor, portraying a wealthy divorcee, preparing to marry another man for his money, who falls under Tierney's spell and tries to shield him, getting killed finally for her pains. A like fate is met by Elisha Cook, Jr., his pal, these killings following a double murder with which the picture opens starkly. The scene is Reno and San Francisco, the time now, and police bullets mowdown the killer at the end. Production by Herman Schlom, for executive producer Sid Rogell, is painstaking and polished, and Robert Wise's direction maintains a steady pace. The screenplay by Eve Greene and Richard Macaulay gets wordy occasionally but hews to the line in the main. Produced for melodrama fans, it contains killing enough for anybody, but furnishes less than adequate reason for it. Prcvieivcd at the studio. Reviewer's Rating : Good.—W. R. W. Release date, not set. Running time. 92 min. PCA No. 11703. Adult audience classification. Helen Claire Trevor Sam Lawrence Tierney Arnett Walter Slezak Fred Phillip Terry Georgia Audrey Long Marty Elisha Cook, Jr. Laury Palmer Isabel Jewell Mrs. Kraft Esther Howard Kathryn Card, Tony Barrett, Grandon Rhodes Honeymoon RKO Radio — Light and Amusing Mostly fluff. Mostly amusing. Always farfetched and occasionally boring. "Honeymoon," in the main, is a spring-and-summer show, never to be regarded seriously. It won't linger, but will entertain. Shirley Temple, pert and pretty and never displaying any particular dramatic qualities, lands in Mexico City from Minnesota. Guy Madison, corporal, is flying up from the Canal Zone. Their object is matrimony. His plane is delayed. Miss Temple is at wit's end, but not for long. She turns to the American consulate for aid, practically monopolizing the time and energies of Franchot Tone, vice-consul, whose theories about the diplomatic corps and the behavior of American citizens in a foreign land probably represent an approach the State Department would wish for all its representatives MOTION PICTURE HERALD, APRIL 19, 1947 3585