Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1947)

ruiEimj miidiions for 'uerdoux ON A WHIRLWIND of controversy harles Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux" repares to meet its waiting millions i October. With but a six-week debut nowing in New York as a teaser in■oduction, the Chaplin production has -eated the most sensational controersy in the history of show business. When "Verdoux" hits its general ■lease on October 1 5th exhibitors can irow their hats into the air, open -ide the cash tills, preparatory to the reatest avalanche of boxoffice gold of ie year. Chaplin, with unerring aim, has in Monsieur Verdoux" answered the rayers of exhibitors and the public. ,nd the time is now at hand for a Verdoux" to beat recession, or the ireat of recession, at the boxoffice. Much has been written of the revoitionary entertainment that is dynamislly packaged in "Verdoux." You have eard that it is jolting, shocking, aunting — "the most unsual enteriinment ever filmed." You know by ow that in "Verdoux" Chaplin, for ie first time, abandons his little tramp wacter to play Monsieur Verdoux, ie diabolical, charming and modern rench Bluebeard. All of this is true. But there is more -much more to tell. "Monsieur Verdoux" is a comedy, ie greatest of all comedies because it ; interlaced with a satirical thrust that light only be found in the pages of >ean Jonathan Swift. It is a new kind f comedy, with a new kind of laugher— some of it bordering on hysteria. >nd yet with its original humor there re the priceless moments of the Chapn that has dominated comedy since ie birth of the screen. "Monsieur Verdoux" presents the lost fascinating and haunting romance ver screened. No one has ever been ble to come near the Chaplin formula. Ie holds a unique copyright on his /pe of love story — a love story that urts, that frightens, that stays with ou ds a haunting lingering memory. • There is beauty and there is pathos; lere is laughter and there are tears — ie great and infallible ingredients 'hich have made Chaplin the master f screen story-telling. Chaplin is supported by the hilarious lartha Raye, the luscious Marilyn Nash Chaplin's newest discovery) , the tener Mady Correll, the frustrated Isobel Isom, the mellow Robert Lewis and ie love-hungry Barbara Slater. Modern Bluebeard Shocker To Out-Cross MI Chaplin Pictures, Says D .J. McNerney San Francisco. — Charles Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux" will top a twenty million dollar gross within one year, D. J. McNerney, one of the nation's leading showmen and executive vice-president of the Blumenfeld chain of theatres, predicted today. "Chapl'in has produced a box-office gold mine for the exhibitors and an entertainment feast for the public," declared McNerney, whose chain of forty leading theatres also has a partnership with United Artists. " 'Monsieur Verdoux' will out-gross anything Chaplin has ever done — and that goes for 'The Dictator'. which took in more than fifteen million dollars. 'Verdoux' will easily pull in twenty million within a year and it wouldn't surprise me at all if 'Verdoux' turns out to be the biggest grosser of any picture as it is that rare kind of production that can easily be re-issued for the next ten years." McNerney said the Chaplin production had been booked solid in their forty theatres. Winchell,Time,Cite ChaplinControversy New York.— Words of extravagant praise and violent controversy swept the nation as "Monsieur Verdoux" closed its pre-release debut here. Walter Winchell told his twentyfive million readers and Time Magazine advised its five million, that Chaplin's "Verdoux" is big-time news. Wrote Winchell: "James Agee has written a monumental piece for The Nation in praise of Chaplin's 'Mons. Verdoux.' Agee thinks the film 'is one of the great works of our time.' " Time went to town with three columns, hailed "Verdoux" as "the most notable film in years — the most fascinating" and described Chaplin's portrayal of the modern French Bluebeard as "one of the most beautiful single performances ever put on film." Summarized Time: "The film is a daring individual gesture, dared in an era when such acts are rare. He has replaced his beloved sure-fire tramp with an equally original character. The set pieces of pure slapstick are as skilled and delightful and as psychologically penetrating as any Chaplin has ever contrived." 'Charm, Wit, Spice Verdoux1 — Scheuer Lauding Charles Chaplin as "a man of rare personal charm, magnetism and wit," Famed Writer and Critic Phillip K. Scheuer told fifteen million readers, through the pages of Collier's Magazine, that the star "turns on all three full force as Monsieur Verdoux." Wheeler Dry den Back Wheeler Dryden, associate director on "Verdoux," returned yesterday from Big Bear-ing. Critics Still Trail In Dust With Chaplin Hailed As Master In a colossal eulogy of Charles Chaplin and his "Monsieur Verdoux," Jimmie Tarantino, famed trade magazine editor and critic, over this past weekend on page one of the Hollywood Nite Life, wrote in part: "But Chaplin is not one of the Screen Greats — or, as we believe — the Screen's Greatest — for nothing. "Since celluloid first flickered at the Nickelodeons, Chaplin has shown the way. Today, with 'Monsieur Verdoux,' Chaplin irrevocably proves again he stands at the head of the entertainment parade. "In his dust of a score of years ago trail the critics who are still trying to master his technique, probe his subtleties, analyze his entertainment for the world's millions. "In 'Monsieur Verdoux,' the unmatched genius of Chaplin has started something that will be remembered with acclaim, awe, reverence and controversy as long as motion pictures are made!" Exhibitors Get Set For Chaplin Splash A few minutes after you have finished reading this extraordinary page, 20,000 of them will be in the airmajl to that number of exhibitors who are awaiting the October 1 5th signal to unleash Chaplin's greatest picture. 'Verdoux1 Tops British Rating In « All Empire Press British press, covering the Empire, raised its typographical voice as one to cheer Charles Chaplin as the modern French Bluebeard in "Monsieur Verdoux." Stuart Gelder, London News-Chronicle, wrote in part: "Likely to be the first convincing answer out of Hollywood to Sir Stafford Cripp's demand for better productions." Brighton English Argus: "Epochal. . . . one of his inimitable blends of slapstick, pathos and satire." P. H. Powell, in London Star: "Chaplin as Bluebeard just as funny. Everyone will be relieved to know that although we have here Chaplin, the tragedian, the murderer in kid gloves, he is also in a thousand little delicious touches the comedian in baggy trousers. He cannot do anything crude." London Evening News: " 'Monsieur Verdoux' brought cheers." Picturegoer: "Chaplin is marvelous. The story is so thickly peppered with comedy that one has to hold tight to one's seat to keep from rolling." 'Verdoux' Great Says Sage; Must Be Seen Many Times Harold Clurman, famed author, in Tomorrow Magazine, wrote in part of "Verdoux" : "Charles Chaplin's 'Monsieur Verdoux' is one of the most fascinating documents of our day. The picture is great! Chaplin does not escape the world through his comic disguise; he faces it. That is why he is an artist of singular force. Those who do not quite decipher his meaning or who do not wish to fathom it because it disturbs tSem, would do well to listen and attend again and again." Mady Correll 'Skinned* Mady Correll, featured in "Verdoux," will play the Tallulah Bankhead role in the Lake Tapaco Players production, "Skin of Our Teeth." CHARLES CHAPLIN HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER HAUNTING ROMANCE SHOCKING DRAMA 'MONSIEUR VERDOUX' (Advertisement)