Motion Picture Reviews (1943)

Six MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS joke, who live for the mail from home, who can forget the moment in a broadcast of a baseball game, and who, not through any melodramatic acts of spectacular bravery, all emerge heroes. The strength of the picture is that it is the record of the achievement of a task force, not a personalized story of individuals. Of the excellent cast, William Bendix, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Zaeckel, Preston Foster and Anthony Quinn should be noted for fine performances. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Good Depends on inter est and emotional stability HAPPY LAND O O Don Ameche, Frances Dee, Harry Carey, Ann Rutherford, Richard Crane, Cara Williams, Henry Morgan, Minor Watson, Dickie Moore. Screen play by Kathryn Scola and Julien Josephson from novel by MacKinlay Kantor. Direction by Irving Pichel. 20th Century-Fox. Presenting the best American standards, “Happy Land” is a beautiful and an inspirational picture. Don Ameche, in the leading role, gives sincerity and strength to the character of an Iowa small-town druggist who, embittered by the loss of his only son in the present war, is unable to reconcile himself to the death of so young a man until he reviews the years of his son’s life and comes to the realization that a country which offers so healthy, normal and delightful a childhood and youth is worth fighting for — even dying for if necessary. He knows that his son, in his short span of years, lived fully and not in vain. The story is pictured simply and without sentimentality. It is one which will make every American proud of his country. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Excellent Good HENRY ALDRICH HAUNTS A HOUSE O Jimmy Lydon, Charles Smith, John Litel, Olive Blakeney, Joan Mortimer, Jackie Moran, Lucien Littlefield. Original screen play by Val Burton and Muriel Roy Bolton. Direction by Hugh Bennett. Paramount. If this film shows Henry in a typical American home-life setting, then America has changed for the worse. It is more like one of Henry’s adolescent dreams. First Henry drinks a concoction of the chemistry professor’s manufacture, which gives him superhuman strength. Then, when the school principal is missing, he fears that, under the elixir’s influence, he may have murdered him. ( Perhaps the principal is not one of Henry’s favorites.) He then sets out with some of his pals to investigate his own “crime,” a quest which leads the young people into an abandoned house full of secret doors and passages, and through hair raising experiences. Of course Henry is not guilty, but others are. The cast does well enough with a plot which demands synthetic emotions only. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 1 2 Matter of taste Full of thrills and chills ❖ HIGHER AND HIGHER O O Michele Morgan, Jack Haley, Frank Sinatra, Leon Errol, Marcy McGuire, Victor Borge, Mary Wickes, Elizabert Risdon, Barbara Hale, Paul Hartman, Grace Hartman, Dooley Wilson. Screen play by Jay Dratler and Ralph Spence from musical play by Gladys Hurlbut and Joshua Logan. Direction by Tim Whelan. R.K.O Even without Frank Sinatra this film would be good entertainment because it is a delicious fantasy. With him in the cast, the ’teen age (and their elders) will get more than their money’s worth. The story is about a bankrupt millionaire who is on most democratic terms with his large and devoted household staff. They decide to recoup their employer’s lost fortune by incorporating to glamorize the pretty scullery maid and get her a rich husband. This scheme works out satisfactorily, but not as they had planned. Sinatra is natural and pleasing, and has a number of new songs which are especially suited to his voice and smoothly interpolated into the action. The plot avoids serious sentiment. It is a delightful, gay musical. Frank does not win the heroine in the end. Can you imagine that, girls? But never mind, he’ll make another picture some day. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Good Yes HI YA, SAILOR O O Donald Woods, Elyse Knox, Jerome Cowan, Frank Jenks, Matt Willis, Eddie Quillan, Phyllis Brook. Screen play by Stanley Roberts, suggested by a story by Sonya Lawrence. Direction by Jean Yarbrough. Musical direction by Charles Previn. Universal. A short musical follows the fortunes of a quartet of sailors who crash the gates of fame when one of their number composes a popular song and has it presented at a canteen. The action sets an erratic pace which frequently comes to a stop when there is a song or dance number to go on. The music is pleasant but not unusual, and while the story is slight it is bewildering because of lack of valid motivation. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Only fair No interest