Motion Picture Reviews (1941)

Eight MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS NO. NO, NANETTE O O Anna Neagle, Richard Carlson, Victor Mature, Roland Young, Mrs. Broderick, ZaSu Pitts, Eve Arden, Billy Gilbert, Tamara, Stuart Robertson, Dorothea Kent, Aubrey Mather, Mary Gordon, Russell Hicks. Screen play by Ken Englund. From the musical comedy by Frank Mandel, Otto Harbach, Vincent Youmans and Emil Nyitray. Music by Vincent Youmans. Lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach. Direction by Herbert Wilcox. Musical direction by Anthony Collins. RKO-Radio. The film version of a musical comedy is sometimes disappointing to those who found the light and frothy unreality engaging on the stage. This screen-play places less emphasis on the musical numbers and so elaborates the plot that much of the original sparkle and lilting rhythm is lost. Miss Neagle is pleasing but not at her best as the lovely heroine who is continually devising ways to keep her philandering uncle out of trouble. The artificiality of the story may have been a handicap. She reverts to a stage technique which has none of the natural qualilty which made her “Queen Victoria” and “Nurse Edith Cavell” such memorable characterizations. However, a musical comedy should be taken lightly, and although many will find this version disappointing, no doubt many others will enjoy it as the laughable confection it is intended to be. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Over 1 4 No ❖ PLAY GIRL O O Kay Francis, James Ellison, Mildred Coles, Nigel Bruce, Margaret Hamilton, Katherine Alexander, George P. Huntley. Story and screen play by Jerry Cady. Direction by Frank Woodruff. RKO-Radio. Stripped down to the bare bones, this is an account of Grace, a “shake-down” artist of middle years and her nineteen-year-old apprentice, but who wants to get down to bones when Kay Francis is so beautiful and soft spoken and charming in all the luxury wrapping and accoutrements of modern life? After all, one is on Grace's side from the beginning, for it takes a good deal of courage for a middle-aged woman to admit that she is slipping and to play second fiddle to a young girl; also the men who sell prayerbooks for a living and indulge in very extraecclesiastical activities on the side probably get what is coming to them. Many of the lines are clever. Nigel Bruce is exceptionally humorous as Bill Vincent, and George P. Huntley adds comedy as his successor who is handy with a check-book. Margaret Hamilton, faithful secretary and handmaid, scores with some trenchant comments. There is the contrast of fresh, young love, and little Ellen (Mildred Coles) finds a boy of her own age to adore. This is obviously a play for the sophisti cates. It is poison for any young girl who thinks she can acquire mink coats and threecarat diamonds without even kissing the donor good-night. It requires as expert a technician as Kay Francis to get away with that — or could she? Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No. Wrong viewpoint Quite impossible ❖ SANTA FE TRAIL O O Errol Flynn, Olivia de Haviland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, William Lundigan, Van Heflin, Gene Reynolds, Henry O'Neill, Guinn (Big Boy) Williams, Alan Baxter, John Litel, Moroni Olsen, David Bruce. Direction by Michael Curtiz. Warner Bros. “Santa Fe Trail” is a stirring picture of the tragic background of the Civil War, the issues which divided friends and fanned rebellion until the bitter struggle became inevitable. The film opens in 1854 as the graduating class at West Point is addressed by Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. Even then the seeds of conflict have been planted among the classmates by the activities of John Brown and his followers who are smuggling slaves out of the South. After graduation a number of the young officers are sent to Leavenworth, Kansas, the farthermost outpost of the Santa Fe Trail, to patrol the region made particularly dangerous by Brown’s lawless and inflammatory exploits in a state where violent conflict between “free-state” and pro-slavery settlers is already beginning. The picture is memorable both because of Raymond Massey’s portrayal of the fiery zealot, and because it paints the background for the irreconcilable differences which soon grew up between Northern and Southern sympathizers. A love story is of minor interest. The young people are all well cast with Van Heflin in the role of traitor and Gene Reynolds as one of Brown’s sons especially outstanding. Max Steiner’s musical accompaniment adds greatly to the dramatic force. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Good Exciting ❖ SECOND CHORUS O O Fred Astaire, Paulette Goddard, Artie Shaw and his Band, Chas. Butterworth, Burgess Meredith, Frank Melton, Jimmy Conlon, Don Brodie. Original story by Frank Cavett. Screen play by Elaine Ryan and Ian McClellan Hunter. Direction by H. C. Potter. Paramount. Movie audiences who have learned to expect unusually good entertainment from pictures featuring Fred Astaire will perhaps be disappointed in “Second Chorus,” for although it is a sufficiently entertaining show with plenty of modern music by Artie Shaw’s popular band, and the usual expert dancing, neither Fred Astaire’s dances nor the en