Motion Picture Reviews (1943)

Eight MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS willingness to fight only to protect the people he loves and the ideals that belong to America will strike a responsive chord in many hea rts. While there are too many characters to enumerate, all the parts are admirably done. Direction is inspired. It is not a sad picture in spite of the shadow of war. It is full of vitality and natural humor and great beauty. Many of the episodes are so well rounded and so perfectly finished that they could be lifted from the production and still be enjoyed for their individual merit. Many of the scenes will remain in memory when a year or more has gone. In a world which is too often cynical and hard, it is well to see through humble lives the good inherent in America and in all humanity. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Very fine Good but too long ❖ I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE O O James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway, Edith Barrett, James Bell, Christibe Gordon, Richard Abrams, Teresa Harris, Sir Lancelot, Darby Jones. Direction by Jacques Tourneur. R.K.O. Although you may not feel that you like horror films, this one is in a class by itself. It is unique and interesting, well written and very well acted. It pictures life in the strange household of a rubber planter in the West Indies, and into the action are woven native superstitions and belief in voodooism, of which William Seabrook has written at length. It makes no attempt to explain the superstitions, but they provide an eerie motivation for the plot. The characters involved are two half brothers who are antagonistic to each other, an erratic mother, a beautiful woman who is the victim or a strange illness, and a pretty young nurse who comes to care for the invalid. As the action moves relentlessly to a well conceived ending, the nurse is introduced to the curious rituals of the natives and the suspenseful atmosphere is intensified by appropriate background music. Direction, acting, lighting all contribute to make the plot seem entirely plausible. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 If "conditioned" to No this type ❖ IT AIN'T HAY O O Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Patsy O'Connor, Grace McDonald, Leighton Noble, Cecil Kellaway, Eugene Pallette, Eddie Quinlan, Shemp Howard, Dave Hacker, Samuel Hinds, Richard Lane. Musical direction by Charles Previn. Direction by Erie C. Kenton. Universal. This typical Abbott and Costello story is daffy to begin with, and becomes more cockeyed when the pair of comedians discover a horse they have stolen is the famous racing champion, Tea Biscuit. The film is embellished with the singing of Grace McDonald and little Patsy O’Connor, and there are lively interludes by Eugene Pallette in an original role, three Damon Runyonish characters, and four apparently boneless negroes who arise intact from the heaviest falls. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Good fun if they like Funny slapstick LADIES' DAY <> O Lupe Velez, Eddie Albert, Patsy Kelly, Max Baer, Jerome Cowan, Iris Adrian, Joan Barclay, Cliff Clark, Carmen Morales, Geo. Cleveland, Jack Briggs, Russ Clark, Nedrick Young. Music by Roy Webb. Direction by Leslie Goodwins. R.K.O.-Radio. Wacky, a star baseball player, and Pcpita, a fiery movie performer, are newly-weds, kept apart by anxious baseball fans because Wacky cannot concentrate on a pennant and a petticoat at the same time. Although some of the situations are funny, the picture is noisy, tedious and occasionally vulgar. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Waste of time No ❖ LADY BODYGUARD O O Eddie Albert, Anne Shirley, Raymond Walburn, Ed Brophy, Donald MacBride, Roger Pryor, Maude Eburne, Gus Schilling, Clem Bevans, Olin Howlin, Chas. Halton, Warren Ashe. Direction by William Clemens, Associate Producer Burt Kelly. Paramount. Through an error in making out a policy, a test pilot’s life is insured for a million dollars. In jest he names three odd individuals as beneficiaries, a barkeeper, a boarding house manageress and an antiquated actor, who immediately become eager to have him crash, and use every means in their power to accomplish this, even to the point of administering a soporific drug before he is about to take off in his plane. In spite of implications of danger, the plot results in amusing comedy with spontaneous acting by all members of the cast. Adolescents. 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Yes May need adult explanation ❖ THE MOON IS DOWN O O Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Henry Travers, Lee J. Cobb, Dorris Bowdon, Margaret Wycherly, Peter Van Eyck, William Post, Jr., Henry Rowland, E. J. Ballantine, Violette Wilson, Hans Schumm, Ernest Dorian, John Banner, Helene Himig. Produced and written for the screen by Nunnally Johnson. Direction by Irving Pichel. Photograhy by Arthur Miller, A.S.C. Music by Alfred Newman. 20th Century-Fox. This is an excellent and dramatic adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel, the tragic story of freedom loving people whose creed is that the subjugation of free men through