Motion Picture Reviews (1944)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS Seven pie negro. The cast is superb: Tallulah Bankhead as the hard, materialistic woman journalist, Henry Hull as the decadent capitalist, William Bendix as the appealing, everyday worker, John Hodiak as the superficially pleasant but dangerous Nazi. Whether or not one reads an allegory into the tale, it is highly entertaining in the well-known Hitchcock style. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Mature Too mature ❖ THE LODGER O O Merle Oberon, George Sanders, Laird Cregar, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Sara Allgood, Aubrey Mather, Queenie Leonard, Doris Lloyd. Screen play by Barre Lyndon from the novel by Mrs. Marie Belloc Lowndes. Direction by John Brahm. Produced by Robert Bassler. 20th Century-Fox. Mrs. Marie Belloc Lowndes is known for her classic mysteries, and this one, a favorite of Alexander Woollcott, became especially popular. The story has been given an excellent cast and all the trappings of Whitehall of the nineties. It has properly dismal, damp holes for Jack the Ripper to hide in, and the settings and atmosphere are impressive. But the mystery is solved almost at once, and the story thus becomes one of suspense and horror with little subtle psychological interpretation of character to hold mature interest. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No. Very unsuitable ♦% MINESWEEPER O O Richard Arlen, Jean Parker, Russel Hayden, Emma Dunn, Guinn Williams. Screen play by Edward T. Lowe and Maxwell Shane. Direction by William Berke. Pine-Thomas. Paramount. An improbable story with mediocre dialogue and music is woven around a former naval officer with a bad record of gambling, who redeems his past by heroic action on a minesweeper as a common seaman, plain Jim Smith. The chief asset of the picture are underwater scenes, which are accurate, exciting and unusually well done. While children might overlook the poor qualities of the film, the subject matter is not especially suitable for them. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Fair Not recommended ❖ THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK O Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn, William Demarest, Porter Hall, Emory Parnell, Alan Bridge, Julius Tannen, Victor Potel, "McGinty" and "The Boss." Written and directed by Preston Sturges. Paramount. “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek” has the delicate touch of a dream — one in which you get run over by a locomotive! Apparently, in striving for novelty Preston Sturges has mixed his ingredients with too much high explosive, but underneath the noisy slapstick is a really moving theme. A young man loves a girl so deeply that he offers to marry her to give his name to her unborn child. When it is discovered that she has already married a chance acquaintance when befuddled by Champagne after a party given for departing soldiers, the boy tries to free her legally from her predicament, but his efforts land him in jail; and then comes the miracle. Betty Hutton gives a restrained and lovely performance, and Eddie Bracken plays his role so sincerely that he wins genuine sympathy. The picture will undoubtedly entertain many adults, but for others the contrasting elements will not seem to “jell.” Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No MOONLIGHT IN VERMONT O O Gloria Jean, George Dolenz, Fay Helm, Sidney Miller. Direction by Stacy Keach, Universal. As a starring vehicle for Gloria Jean, this is a disappointing production. The cast is made up of amateurish young singers and jitterbug dancers, and the plot is routine. A musically talented youngster from a Vermont farm enters a theatrical school in New York, but has to return home because of financial troubles. Her schoolmates follow her to Vermont, harvest her father’s crop, and put on a show to raise funds to bring her back to school. Gloria Jean looks pretty, but her voice is not recorded to advantage. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Fair Little interest ❖ NONE SHALL ESCAPE O O Marsha Hunt, Alexander Knox, Henry Travers, Erik Rolf, Richard Crane, Dorothy Morris, Richard Hale, Ruth Nelson, Kurt Kreuger. Screen play by Lester Cole from a story by Alfred Neumann and Joseph Than. Direction by Andre De Toth. Columbia Pictures. This is the first film to forecast the fulfillment of the pledge by Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin that those guilty of oppression and cruelty in the present war shall be held for trial. The story opens in a courtroom in Litzbark on the Silesian border of Poland, where the Nazi commandant is on trial. As each witness comes forward to give testimony, flashbacks trace the history of the accused as he was known to the Catholic priest, to a Polish woman to whom he once was engaged, and to his own brother who has never subscribed to the Nazi creed. The man’s life story begins in Litzbark where he was a school teacher prior to World War I. After the war interval he returns and is cordially received, but later the community forces him to leave when he shows a sur