Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1948)

SHOWMEN'S REVIEWS ADVANCE SYNOPSES REISSUE REVIEWS SHORT SUBJECTS 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. My Girl Tisa Warner Brothers — Top Americana Toss your hats in the air. Here's a wond erf ul demonstration of the potential of the screen, a warm and human and important picture with the flavor of a folk tale, an intelligent story that presents with sincerity and sympathy the explosiveness and the strength of a growing United States. Its freshness and originality, its smart, clean writing, its top-notch direction and, best of all, exciting performances from a top-to-bottom blue ribbon cast adds up unquestionably to delightful entertainment for vast audiences. New York, 1905, is the time and place, the city's vast foreign-born and first generation populations the heroes and heroines. Specifically. "My Girl Tisa" is concerned with the love of brash, fast-talking Mark Denek, who hopes some day to be a lawyer and a Senator, for Tisa Kepes, an immigrant working for six dollars a week in a sweat shop, hoarding her money to get passage fare to bring her father to America from the old country. But more than this, "My Girl Tisa" is an authentic study of the many peoples who came to America looking for opportunity — the good and the evil that they found in America and what they did about it. It's a period of early New York, the sweat shop labor, the gas-lit dancing schools, the political picnics given by the wardheelers, the sidewalk and rooming house life of the city, the terribly serious and frightening business of studying for the citizenship examination. The picture has rather a never-never land ending, but it's an acceptable one, presented with considerable grace and with the same warm humor that clothes the entire picture. When Mark is kicked out of party politics because of playing the egotist a little too heartily, Tisa gives him the money she has been saving for her father's passage. He's to use the money for law lessons. But to get the money back from the steamship ticket agent, she unwittingly signs a contract which would force her father to work out his passage money for a period of 10 years. Mark tries to get the contract back, but only succeeds in very nearly getting Tisa deported. Only the intervention of President Teddy Roosevelt saves the situation. Lilli Palmer and Sam Wanamaker play Tisa and Mark with remarkable style and authority, emerging as completely believable characters, far off the stereotype path. Akim Tamiroff as Mr. Grumbach, the penny-pinching manager of the sweat shop ; Alan Hale, as Dugan, the local politician, and Stella Adler, as Mrs. Faludi, boarding house owner, all contribute performances that set high marks for character acting. Milton Sperling produced and Elliott Nugent directed from the screenplay by Allen Boretz. They and the actors were obviously hand in glove all through the production, for the feature is all of a piece, something to' remember with pleasure after you've left the theatre. Reviewed at the home office. Rev-iewer's Rating : Excellent. — Ray Lanning. Release date, February 7, 1948. Running time, 95 min. PCA No. 12523. Adult audience classification. Tisa Kepes Lilli Palmer Mark Denek Sam Wanamaker Mr. Grumbach Akim Tamiroff Dugan Alan Hale Hugo Haas, Gale Robbins, Stella Adler. Benny Baker. Sumner Getchell, Sid Tomack, John Qualen. Tom Dillon, Sidney Blackmer Fritz Feld, John Banner Call Northside 777 20th Century-Fox — Semi-Documentary Drama Plucked from a real life drama dealing with a murder, a miscarriage of justice and an eventual exoneration, "Call Northside 777"* is another in the series of semi-documentary dramas from 20th Century-Fox and among its best in this category. Time and some incident, including names, bow to dramatic license or maybe it was expediency. But the widely-known story of a young PolishAmerican who proved to have been railroaded to Illnois State Prison in 1932 on a 99 year stretch for a crime he never committed is in evidence in its major essentials. This is an account of how the city editor of the Chicago Times first set forth on the trail, relying on his news instinct for a story in a want ad offering $5,000 for information about the death of a policeman 11 years earlier. The newspaper reporter assigned the lead at first is cynical. He interviews the woman who inserted the ad, learns of her faith in the innocence of her son and how she has scrubbed floors throughout those years saving reward money for information which might establish his innocence. As he gets into the situation further, the reporter begins to understand the mother's faith and, eventually, becomes convinced that her son is innocent. In interesting and engrossing detail, the film then reveals how the slippery truth is run down and the innocent man completely exonerated. The city editor is Lee J. Cobb ; the reporter, James Stewart ; Helen Walker, his wife ; the convicted man, Richard Conte. Kasia Orzazewski is the believing mother ; Betty Garde, the unscrupulous key witness whose false testimony sends Conte to prison. Like some of these, there are others unfamiliar to picture theatre audiences but top-grade in their roles. Richard Bishop, as the warden, and John McIntire, as state's attorney, are among them. Where possible, which appears to have been most of the way, scenes were shot in their original locales — the Chicago Criminal Courts Building, Police Headquarters, in the Polish quarter, on "Skid Row" and "Bughouse Square" in the South Wabash and South State slum districts, and in the Stateville prison near Joliet. The outcome is a sharp degree of realism and a prime example of how resorting to the actual can enhance the make-believe. Performances are good and decidely above average in the instances of the stage players recruited by producer Otto Lang and director Henry Hathaway. The director, a leading exponent of the technique of combining the documentary flavor with the dramatic, is the man who previously has made "Kiss of Death," "13 Rue Madeleine" and "House on 92nd Street." Here, he maintains his reputation. The story base stems to the series of articles written by Chicago Times reporter James P. McGuire. Leonard Hoffman and Quentin Reynolds did the adaptation and, finally, Jerome Cady and Jay Dratler the script. Rez'icizvd at home office. Reviewer's Rating \ Excellent. — Red Kann. Release date. February. Running time, Ul min. PCA No. 12397. Adult audience classification. McNeal James Stewart Wiecek Richard Conte Tillie Kasia Orazewski Kelly Lee J. Cobb Helen Walker, Betty Garde, Joanne de Bergh, John Mclntire, Moroni Olsen, J. M. Kerrigan, George Tyne, Richard Bishop, Michael Chapin, E. G. Marshall, Walter Greaza You Were Meant for Me 20th Century-Fox — Nostalgic Musical The Dan Dailey who skyrocketed to fame as the vaudevillian in "Mother Wore Tights" proves here, promptly and convincingly, his right to a place in the top flight of screen entertainers. This time he portrays a band leader, one of those versatile gentlemen of jazz whom the flappers idolized in the turbulent 'twenties, and his characterization is even more strikingly authentic. Opposite him is Jeanne Crain, again the small town girl in love, and alongside is Oscar Levant this time accommodating his personality to his part instead of vice versa. The picture, done in black and white, is in the same general category as "Margie," and should give the same kind of satisfaction. The period is 1929, just before, during and after the stock market break. Dailey and his band are touring the Middle West dance circuit by bus. Miss Crain falls in love with him in Bloomington, follows him to Peoria, and they marry forthwith. Two months later he loses his funds in the market debacle, the band breaks up, and they go to live with her parents until things get better. The economic strain is background for an imminent separation which is prevented by the timely arrival of his business manager, Levant, and Dailey 's tardy decision to take on some manual labor while waiting for PRODUCT DIGEST SECTION, JANUARY 24, 1948 4029