Motion Picture Reviews (1941)

Four MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS really likes just to satisfy her vanity. Although she does not have as much footage as usual, this is one of Miss Lamour's best parts. It is a picture in which several actors are strongly individualized: Guy Kibbee, owner of the circus; John Carradine, the advance agent; Jane Darwell, unbelievably corpulent, as the circus master's wife. Henry Fonda and Linda Darnell are very appealing as Chad and Caroline. The most violent part of the picture comes when a rival circus tries to keep them out of a certain territory, and a pitched battle ensues at the crossing of a bridge, the most pathetic when the beloved old lion rolls over in death. Although it is a circus story and a good one, this is anything but a picture for children; it is far too lusty and frank in its dealings with human nature. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No ♦> CHEERS FOR MISS BISHOP O O Martha Scott, William Gargan, Edmund Gwenn, Sterling Holloway, Sidney Blackmer, Mary Anderson, Dorothy Peterson, Marsha Hunt, Rosemary DeCamp, Ralph Bowman. Screen play by Stephen Vincent Benet, Adelaid Heilbron, and Sheridan Gibney from a novel by Bess Streeter Aldrich. Direction by Richard A. Rowland. United Artists. The screen version of Bess Streeter Aldrich's moving story of a woman teacher’s life in a small college will be deeply interesting to adults who can read into it the compensations which balanced the heroine’s frustrations. Because of its academic background it will inevitably be compared with “Mr. Chipps,” but it has not the dramatic appeal which gave the latter such general audience appeal. It is episodic in form, covering fifty years of service and giving more detail to the disappointments in Miss Bishop’s life than to her understanding approach to youth's problems and her influence on the students, which, in numerous instances, were the pivotal incentives to ultimate success. Had increased footage been given this study of human relations, the character of Miss Bishop would have been warmer and more appealing. The story opens when Ella Bishop graduates from college and is offered a place on the faculty. The changing social pattern of fifty years is unfolded as Miss Bishop dedicates her life to her calling and twice meets frustration in love affairs. She never marries the man who from boyhood remains her faithful suitor, but happily she dies immediately after her worth is publicly recognized and before she has to meet the inevitable reaction which would have followed her retirement. It is Martha Scott's picture. She is ideally cast and her sensitive work is reminiscent of Helen Hayes. Although the others in the cast are excellent, Miss DeCamp merits special mention. One of her scenes is particularly important, for it illustrates the significance of Miss Bishop’s role as teacher, and both Miss Scott and Miss DeCamp play it beautifully. The picture is unusual and merits attention. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Too mature No interest THE DEVIL'S PIPELINE O O Richard Arlen, Andy Devine, Jeanne Kelly, James Flavin, Francis McDonald, John Eldredge, Eddie Waller. Screen play by Paul Huston. Direction by Christy Cabanne. While this picture contains the makings of an interesting plot, it develops into something grotesque and impossible. Much of the action is exceedingly grim. Men are thrown into a tropical prison, made to undergo unbearable hardships and farmed out as slave laborers to an oil company to fatten the bank rolls of the superintendent and his partners in crime. Not satisfied with tragedy, the makers of the picture try also to make it a comedy but without success, for Andy Devine’s asinine remarks and blunderings are as fitting as laughter at a funeral. The wild battle at the end with machine guns and nitroglycerine is so overdone and unreal that even one of the participants is caught laughing. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Very poor Too sordid ♦J. FLIGHT COMMAND O O Robert Taylor, Ruth Hussey, Walter Pidgeon, Paul Kelly, Sheppard Strudwick, Red Skelton. Based on a story by Commander Harvey Haislip and John Sutherland. Screen play by Wells Root and Commander Harvey Haislip. Direction by Frank Borzage. M.-G.-M. Made with the full consent and cooperation of the U. S. Navy and photographed at North Island, the air base at San Diego, this is one of the most authentic films on aviation to be made. The views of the planes are fascinating, in echelon formation against great banks of cumulus clouds, in stunning power drives, take-offs from the deck of an aircraft carrier and in a rescue attempt on the shores of a magnificent, towering island off the coast of Mexico. Less spectacular but none the less interesting is the life of the men in the station, experimenting on new devices, operating radio signals, performing each duty with a keen responsibility and great courage. The high morale of the unit is emphasized when a young graduate of Pensacola (Robert Taylor) comes to join the vaunted Hell Cat company and is held in contempt because he breaks the rules they have set for themselves. It is not until he has proved his worth by extraordinary valor that the record of his foolhardy mistakes is