Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1948)

So Dear to My Heart RKO Radio-Disney — Fundamental Entertainment There's a good deal to be said about this Walt Disney venture, and all of it good, but the fact of uppermost importance is that it is fundamental entertainment, fine, heart-warming diversion for all kinds and classes of people. This fact is mentioned first here for the trade reason that a showman analyzing the attraction strictly on the basis of marquee name power could under-estimate the picture gravely. That could lead to his depriving his customers of a rare experience and himself of some of that precious goodwill so important to exhibitors and the industry at this time. The thing that Mr. Disney has accom plished here has not been done, before. He has taken the essence of a big book by Sterling North about rustic life in the Midwest of 1903 and distilled a plain, potent picture pointed straight 'at the soul of the people. He has combined the uses of cartoon animation and live action (15 per cent of the former and 85 per cent of the latter) so artfully that the transitions from one to the other are practically imperceptible, which would be quite a feat in itself but is immensely more than a feat in that each powerfully augments the effectiveness of the other. The result amounts to the equivalent of a totally new form of filmic expression, and rates declaration as such. The story told is of a small boy living with his grandmother on an Indiana farm. The boy's ambition is to possess a colt which he can raise and train to succeed the then idolized Dan Patch, but he settles perforce for a black sheep born without explanation into his grandmother's white flock. She reluctantly permits him to keep the pet, which turns out to be a very rambunctious and destructive critter indeed, but determines to end the association when she observes that his devotion to the animal, and his ambition to enter it in the County Fair, is undermining his allegiance to the religious principles she has taught him. The outcome of this conflict is a thing to be told by Mr. Disney in his fine picture, and not otherwise. Mr. Disney's players serve him and his story as admirably as have his pen-created charac ters down the years, which is to say perfectly. Bobby Driscoll is the American boy of every man's generation in every inch, word and gesture. Beulah Bondi's portrayal of his grandmother is the utter image of every man's grandmother. Luana Patten is the little girl who always lived next door to every little boy in the world, and Burl Ives is the living counterpart of the village blacksmith or carpenter or butcher or baker who was at once his confidante, pal and idol. And the late Harry Carey, ring master of the County Fair, is imperishable Americana. Mr. Ives, famed afar as the foremost exponent of American folk music, has opportunity here to exercise his vocal talent to the utmost, and it is a circumstance of commercial important that his songs include not only such beloved familiars as "Billy Boy" but also two numbers now riding high in radio favor, "Lavender Blue" and the title song. Mr. Ives, it is pleasantly to be discovered, is even better when seen than when merely heard. To Harold Schuster for extremely intelligent direction, to John Tucker Battle for a strikingly simple screenplay, and to Perce Pearce, associate producer, industry and public owe much for a picture every man, woman and child can relish. Previewed at the Disney studio playhouse. Reviezver's Rating : Excellent. — W. R. W. Release date, December, 1948. Running time, 84 minutes. PCA No. 11749. General audience classification. Boy Bobby Driscoll Grandmother Beulah Bondi Luana Patten, Burl Ives, Harry Carey. Raymond Bond, Walter Soderling, Matt Willis, Spelman B. Collins Chicken Every Sunday 20th-Fox — Laughs for the Family Twentieth Century-Fox probably couldn't have found a better writing and acting team to bring to the screen Rosemary Taylor's famed best-seller and stage hit about a man with the investment bug and his long-suffering wife, who made up for his financial failures by taking in boarders. This is a warm, humorous film which should be well received by all kinds of audiences. It is quite long and in parts repetitious, but many of its sequences, covering a wide range from the hilariously funny to the tragic-comic, hit the spot with unerring steadiness. Where the women-folk will sympathize with Celeste Holm as the harried wife and mother, the men will enjoy the careless and irresponsible investment adventures of Dan Dailey, seen here in a straight part. Drama, comedy and romance have been cleverly blended to spell out an hour-and-a-half of good entertainment and the film's human value should translate itself satisfactorily to the box office. It's a fine picture for both the small and the big town, the writing team of George Seaton and Valentine Davies — you remember them from "Miracle on 34th Street" and "Apartment for Peggy" — have seen to that. Dialogue flows smoothly and there is sincere understanding and friendly human appeal in many of the finely etched episodes. Director Seaton has done well by this period story— it is laid in Tucson, Arizona, about 1900 — and under his skilled hand the film rolls along to a touching finish. William Perlberg was producer. Performances by Miss Holm and Dailey are tops. They make a wonderful couple and Miss Holm proves once again that she is an unusually gifted actress. Dailey is charming as the man with plenty of ideas and no money. Alan Young steals many a scene as the shy suitor of Celeste's daughter, Colleen Townsend. Dan, an enterprising young man, is vicepresident of the Tucson bank when he marries Celeste. Later, despite being always broke, he founds a street car line, a laundry service, a creamery and builds a hospital, never sticking around long enough to make a profit. Meanwhile his wife takes in boarders to keep feeding a growing family. A copper-mine investment which flops finally enrages Celeste, who seeks a divorce. Friends of the family help out financially and Celeste realizes how much her man has done for the town. The divorce is dropped and bedlam' continues to reign at the happy couple's household. Previewed at the RKO 58th Street theatre, where a lively audience appeared to enjoy what it saw. Reviewer's Rating: Very Good. — Feed HlFT. Release date, February, 1949. Running time 94 minutes. PCA No. 12492. General audience classification. Jim Hefferen Dan Dailey Emily Hefferen Celeste Holm Rosemary Hefferen Colleen Townsend Alan Young, Natalie Wood, William Frawley, Connie Gilchrist, William Callahan, Veda Ann Borg, Porter Hall Whispering Smith Paramount — Two-Gun Ladd It is a factor of high importance in the business of merchandising screen fare that the word "motion" in the phrase "motion picture" is of real significance, although often enough overlooked. In "Whispering Smith," Leslie Fenton, director, has seen to it that the Frank H. Spearman novel of the west in the early days of mountain railroading is made to move. In consequence, here is a Western, in full and striking color, which should fill that everpresent exhibitor need for action, with overtones of romance and excitement in the screenplay by Frank Butler and Karl Lamb. Alan -Ladd, as the trouble-shooter, with accent on the shooter, for the railroad, is effectively cast, and offers exhibition a highly salable marquee ingredient. With him, and equally capable, are Robert Preston, road wrecking boss and friend of Ladd, Brenda Marshall as Preston's wife, Donald Crisp as the rancher-rustler, and William Demarest as the railroad foreman. Ladd, whose appellation of "whispering" stems from his quiet demeanor, cleans up the Barton gang of desperados who have been holding up trains on the mountain division, then leaves Medicine Bend for other chores. However, it is established that he and Miss Marshall had been in love before she had married Preston, who has been making a good thing out of looting the freight trains whose wreckage he was responsible for clearing. When Preston is fired, he joins Crisp and the two, with their gang, set about wrecking freights on the mountain grades, and robbing the wreckage. Ladd comes back on the scene, and in a final sequence quite in the typical Western pattern, tracks down, pursues and disposes of the gang, with Preston the last to go. That's the skeleton of the story, but there's a goodly share of red meat around the bones, for the action audience in particular. It is a Western, but carries somewhat beyond that range of audience appeal for its basic story, performances and the enhanced values provided by the skillful use of Technicolor. Seen at the Normandie theatre in New York, where a miscellaneous audience found its attention held firmly. Reviewer's Rating: Good. — Charles S. Aaronson. Release date, February 18, 1949. Running time, 88 mintes. PCA No. 12494. General audience classification. Luke Smith Alan Ladd Murray Sinclair Robert Preston Marian Sinclair Brenda Marshall Barney Rebstock Donald Crisp Bill Dansing William Demarest Emmv Dansing Fay Holden Whitey DuSang Frank Faylen George McCloud John Eldredge J. Farrell Macdonald, Don Barclay, Murvyn Vye, Robert Wood, Robert Kortman, Will Wright One Sunday Afternoon Warner Brothers — Remake with Music "One Sunday Afternoon" was called "The Strawberry Blonde" when Warner Brothers produced it back in 1941 and "One Sunday Afternoon," again, when Paramount produced it back in 1933. Practically the only differences, outside of the cast changes, between the 1941 and the 1948 versions are new music and Technicolor. The same dentist has the same flashbacks about the same fellow who put him in jail and who took the girl of his dreams away from him. , In this version Dennis Morgan, Janis Paige, Don DeFore and Dorothy Malone play the four leads— and that newcomer, Miss Malone, is worth the price of admission, particularly in the earlier scenes when she's allowed to be pert and charming and rather free and easy with a song. This turn-of-the-century musical-melodrama is complete with brown stone fronts, barber shop quartets and such local color as excursions on steamboats, but the curious blending of a relatively grim story — imprisonment, disillusioned love — with the light tunes of a musical comedy puts "One Sunday Afternoon" in the hybrid class, a classification that its immediate predecessor escaped. The color is good, the music outstanding, and there's some slapstick comedy furnished by Ben Blue and Alan Hale, Jr. Mr. Morgan, the dentist, thinks he is in love with Janis Paige, but later falls in love and 4418 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, DECEMBER II, 1948