Motion Picture Reviews (1943)

Eight MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS cast give some very good performances. Richard Dix, as John Bonniivell, is riding through a Kansas town when Jesse James and his gang ride in to rob the bank. Bonni<ti sell breaks up the holdup and when he recovers from wounds received in the encounter, he learns that the grateful citizens have elected him sheriff. Reluctant at first, he sees the pretty proprietress of the hotel and decides to stay. He finds that the banker runs the town to his own profit although cleverly always within the law. Bonnizvell tries to figure a way to depose him and finallv does so legally. The scenery is gorgeous, although Kansans will recognize that poetic license has been taken in substituting a California background. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 1 2 Good Good, if condi tioned to violent action THE LEATHER BURNERS O O William Boyd, Andy Clyde, Jay Kirby, Victor Jory, George Givot, Shelley Spencer, Bobby Larson, George Reeves. Direction by Joseph E. Henabery. United Artists. Hopalong Cassidy and his faithful partner, California, come to the rescue of a group of ranchers whose herds are disappearing. Because they are strangers in the community they contrive to join the outlaw band and learn the identity of its leader and the unusual methods employed. While the sensational plot is not one of the best in the series, Russell Harlan’s superbly photographed scenery compensates. Adolescents, 1 2 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Matter of taste Exciting sequences THE LEOPARD MAN O O Dennis O'Keefe, Margot Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, James Bell, Margaret Landry, Abner Biberman, Tula Parma. From the novel "Black Alibi" by Cornell Woolrich. Screen play by Ardel Wray. Music by Roy Webb. Direction by Jacques Tourneur. Musical director, C. Bakaleinikoff. RKO-Radio. For those who like horror pictures this is an unusually good one. Skilful direction has combined interesting photographic qualities with fine music and sound effects to create an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. Trouble begins when a Spanish dancer in a New Mexican cafe clicks her castanets in the face of a trained panther which escapes into the night and is responsible for the death of a little girl. Close upon this tragedy follows a series of killings, which are attributed to the beast until the publicity man of the show substantiates the fact that they are the work of a human monster. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Only for those condi Too gruesome tioned to horror films MISSION TO MOSCOW O O Walter Huston, Ann Harding, Oscar Homolka, George Tobias, Gene Lockhart, Eleanor Parker, Richard Travis, Helmut Dantine, Victor Francen, Henry Daniell, Barbara Everest, Dudley Malone, Roman Bohnen, Maria Palmer, Moroni Olsen, Minor Watson, Vladimir Sokoloff, Maurice Schwartz, Manart Kippen, Leigh W’nipper. Screen play by Howard Koch, adapted from the book by Ambassador Joseph E. Davies. Direction by Michael Curtiz. Warner Bros. “Mission to Moscow” is an important film for two reasons: first, because it is an impressive production technically; and second, because it courageously takes a stand on a highly controversial subject. The introduction acknowledges partisanship. It presents Ambassador Davies in person expressly stating that the film outlines his own personal impressions of the accomplishments, aims and integrity of purpose of the Russian leaders and the Russian people. With no story outline to follow in this adaptation of the confidential dispatches of Joseph Davies to the State Department, the film manages to be dramatic and exciting. It opens with the day in 1936 when Hailie Selassie appealed to the League of Nations for help against aggression and only Maxim Litvinov, representing the Soviet Government, was willing to support his claim. The action then turns to Walter Huston, as Mr. Davies, as he receives and accepts President Roosevelt’s request that he undertake the mission to Moscow. He goes first to Germany, and thence to Russia. In Russia Davies frankly tells the Russians that he believes in the Democratic form of government. Later, as he sees the accomplishments of the Soviets during the past twenty years, though still convinced that Democracy is infinitely preferable, he gives the Russians credit for a system which apparently seems acceptable to the majority of those living in that country. The Moscow trials are telescoped into one dramatic sequence which will not settle anything as to their fairness or unfairness for the average skeptical American, regardless of Mr. Davies’ conviction that the purges were merely liquidations of Trotskyist traitors. He finds that Russia’s preparedness for war was a realistic view of world affairs. The final scenes show Walter Huston, as Davies, making impassioned speeches on a tour of the States, trying to get over his message to the American people. The film is documentary in character and yet human in its appeal as it pictures an intelligent and open-minded gentleman and his delightful family in their reactions to a new and strangely complicated situation, humbly acknowledging their great responsibility to the Government of the United States of America. It leaves an unforgettable picture of a soft-spoken leader, Stalin, (Manart Kippen), of charming and intelligent Ma