Motion Picture Reviews (1943)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS Five farce. It is about a woman stage director whose desire to pursue her career interferes with her wifely duties. After a lot of screaming and ranting and a visit to Reno, the husband and wife are reconciled by the stork, but the indications are that the screaming and ranting will continue and that the new arrival will undoubtedly be a problem child. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No ♦ FIRST COMES COURAGE O O Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, Carl Esmond, Fritz Leiber, Erville Alderson, Erik Rolf, Reinhold Schunzel, Isobel Elson. Screen play by Lewis Meltzer and Melvin Levy. Direction by Dorothy Arzer. Columbia. This is a gripping story of Norway under the Nazi heel, of a brave people who struggle for freedom through the darkest hours. It is chiefly the story of Nicole, a lovely young girl who engages the affections of the German major so that she can reveal his secrets to the English Commando, Captain Lowell, and aid in a daring scheme to dynamite oil tanks and other installations of vital importance. Merle Oberon and Brian Aherne give fine sympathetic performances, and all roles are well played. The photography is beautiful and the direction very effective. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 For those over 14 Too exciting ♦J. FLESH AND FANTASY O O Betty Field, Robert Cummings, Edgar Barrier, Marjorie Lord, Edward G. Robinson, Thomas Mitchell, Anna Lee, Dame May Whitty, Charles Boyer, Barbara Stanwyck, Charles Winninger, Clarence Muse. Screen play by Ernest Pascal, Samuel Hoffenstein and Ellis St. Joseph, based on stories by Oscar Wilde, Laslo Vadnay and Ellis St. Joseph. Direction by Julien Duvivier. Produced by Charles Boyer and Julien Duvivier. Universal. “Flesh and Fantasy” is something like the short stories of Hawthorne or Stephen Vincent Benet, in which the supernatural is skilfully blended with events of ordinary life. It is built on the thesis that in every man’s experience are things which cannot be explained by facts and figures, and that phrophetic dreams and the prognostications of fortune tellers may have something in them. The picture is divided into three parts: one about a drab young seamstress who finds the true expression of herself one night at the Mardi Gras through the intervention of a mysterious old man, one of a lawyer who is hounded to his doom by the message he receives from a palmist, and one of a tight-rope artist who proves strong enough to surmount the terror a tragic dream has cast upon his soul. The film is not darkly fatalistic, because, in each case, it is the reaction of the individual to disturbing prophesies which decides his course. The picture is packed with plot, and every episode, even every incident, is vividly portrayed. The cast is excellent from the six or more main participants to the smallest bit players, and fine lighting and composition are combined to produce an atmosphere of story-tale charm. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Yes, if they discount No. Mature and the supernatural frightening ❖ FRONTIER BADMEN O O Diana Barrymore, Robert Paige, Anne Gynne, Leo Carrillo, Andy Devine, Noah Beery, Jr., Lon Chaney. Original screen play by Gerald Geraghty and Morgan B. Cox. Direction by William McGann. Universal. Two Texas rangers drive a herd of cattle into Abilene, Kansas, only to find that unscrupulous middlemen have squeezed all profit out of the business. Before they have cleaned up the town and the middlemen, there is a stampede, a brush fire, a near lynching and a desperate shooting affray. An easy vein of humor lightens the film when the action becomes too furious. The two partners fall in love with the same girl, but this difficulty is settled amicably in the end. Photography is excellent, notably in the views of large herds of moving cattle, and the picture as a whole should please the Western fans. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Yes Very exciting in places ❖ GIRL CRAZY O O Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Gil Stratton, "Rags" Ragland, Nancy Walker, Robert E. Strickland, June Allyson, Guy Kibbee, Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra. Direction by Norman Taurog. Music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. M-G-M. With its youthful star leads, favorite dance orchestra, songs, dances and rollicking comedy “Girl Crazy” has what it takes to make popular entertainment. Mickey Rooney plays the role of Danny Churchill, Jr., a spoiled New York youth who is sent by his father to a small college in the cattle country of Wyoming to get him away from girls and night clubs. Ginger Gray (Judy Garland) catches Danny's eye when she delivers the mail, and they finally manage to turn the college into a combination of vaudeville show and coeducational institution. Judy is charming and sings delightfully. Mickey in musical comedy cowboy get-up clowns his way most engagingly through a variety of amusing adventures, and other young members of the cast help to make the production unusually gay and appealing. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Good Yes