Motion Picture Reviews (1943)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS Nine dame Litvinov (Barbara Everst), of lovely Tanya Litvinov (Maria Palmer) who trained to be a parachutist, of men and women who, regardless of their political beliefs, are human beings meeting problems even as you and I. The photography, settings, beautiful and expressive musical score, and acting, are superb. The large and judiciously selected cast submerge their personalities in the characters they portray until we feel that we are looking at the men and women who are making history today. Russia is our ally. It seems only fair that we be given an opportunity to see her through the eyes of a respected and competent observer. We may then balance our impressions and find a satifactory mean. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children. 8 to 1 2 Excellent Mature but much to interest older ones ❖ MR. BIG O O Gloria Jean, Donald O'Connor, Peggy Ryan, Elyse Knox, Robert Paige, Samuel S. Hinds, Bobby Scheerer, Florence Bayes, Ray Eberle with Eddie Miller's Bob Cats, the Ben Carter Choir and the Jivin' Jacks and Jills, Screen play by Jack Pollexfen and Dorothy Bennett from an original story by Virginia Rooks. Direction by Charles Lamont. Universal. Donald O'Connor is an original youngster whose talents could be, and have been, used to better advantage than they are in this artificial film with a feeble plot about a group of boys and girls in a dramatic school who contrive to substitute jitterbug entertainment for the Greek drama selected for them. The boisterous, slapping, punching, exaggerated action of the “Jives and Jills” is not an inspiring example of art. Gloria Jean is also “in the groove” but in a ’more dignified and attractive fashion. The one highlight of the picture is the performance of the colored singers in Ben Carter’s Choir. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Questionable. "Jive" No value addicts would enjoy it MR. LUCKY O O Cary Grant, Laraine Day, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney, Henry Stephenson, Paul Stewart, Kay Johnson, Erford Gage, Walter Kingsford, J. M. Kerrigan, Edward Fielding, Vladimir Sokoloff. Direction by H. C. Potter. Music by Roy Webb. Musical director, C. Bakaleinikoff. Produced by David Hempstead. RKORadio. Popular actors and expensive production efforts are eclipsed by a tawdry, unethical, and impossible story about a big-shot gambler who attempts to rob a war charity of some $200,000 and is reformed by a priest and a socially elect maiden. The one outstanding scene is that in which Sokoloff as the Greek priest reads a letter from a woman in Greece to the gambler who he believes is her son. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Bad principles Very unsuitable THE MORE THE MERRIER O O Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn, Richard Bennett, Frank Sully, Clyde Fillmore, Stanley Clements, Don Douglas. Screen play by Robert Russell and Frank Ross, Richard Flournoy and Lewis R. Foster. Story by Robert Russell and Frank Ross. Directed and produced by George Stevens. Columbia Pictures. “The More the Merrier” is a gem of sophisticated comedy, a scintillating travesty on the overcrowded living conditions in Washington and the general disorder of war time civilian life. It tells the story of a charming young woman, a government employee, who, for patriotic reasons, decides that she should sublet half of her small apartment. She places an ad in the paper and finds upon her return home that a tycoon in Washington has dispersed the mob of applicants and taken possession. By force of will and wily cajolery he remains in spite of her protests and, in a romantically cunning frame of mind, sublets half of his half to an eligible bachelor. The necessarily intimate relationships of this assorted trio in their tinv living quarters are hilariously funny, and the casual delivery of the lines makes the dialogue seem exceptionally spontaneous. It is all verv funny, and very human, and it is handled in excellent taste. Aftolnsrents, 1 2 to 16 Children. 8 to 12 Sophisticated but Not harmful handled tastefully »** THE OX-BOW INCIDENT O O Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn, William Eythe, Henry Morgan, Jane Darwell, Matt Briggs, Harry Davenport, Frank Conroy, Marc Lawrence, Paul Hurst, Cris-Pin Martin, Leigh Whipper, Francis Ford. From the novel by Walter Van Tilling Clark. Produced and written for the screen by Lamar Trotti. Directed by William A. Wellman. Twentieth Century-Fox. Those who have read the novel from which this film is adapted will not expect to see the usual Western. Instead it is a parable, a stunning preachment for the application of the devine law of order, tolerance, and decency in man’s relation to man without which civilization will perish. As illustration of the tragedy which follows any transgression of this law, three innocent persons are lynched. The action opens in the familiar setting of a Western town. Two cowboys ride in, tie their horses in front of the saloon and enter the bar. Then follows word that men in neighborhood have rustled cattle and committed a murder. A mob gathers, rough men and one woman, who pacify their consciences by saying that they do not trust the slow machinations of the law, and in spite of those few who stand for law and order, the inevitable tragedy results. The characters are set in the pattern of another era but they might be anyone today.