Motion Picture Reviews (1944)

Eight MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS MOON OVER LAS VEGAS O O Anne Gwynne, David Bruce, Vera Vague, Vivian Austin, Joe Sawyer, Alan Dinehart, Lee Patrick, Milburn Stone. Direction by Jean Yarborough. Universal Pictures. A young couple having a tiff, arrange a legal separation, but secretly, each schemes to patch up their quarrel They both go West, planning to be “hard to get.” True to farce, almost impossibly fantastic developments keep the lovers apart for the length of the picture. In more expert hands it might have been successful comedy, but the leads are too inexperienced and the plot is so slim that it fails to be very entertaining. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No * THE NAVY WAY O O Robert Lowery, Jean Parker, Bill Henry, Roscoe Karns, Robert Armstrong, Horace McMahon, Richard Powers, Sharon Douglas. Screen play by Maxwell Shane. Direction by Wm. Berke. Produced by Pine & Thomas. Paramount. The visualization of the training given recruits in our Navy camps enhances the value of this picture. Humor blends with the seriousness of purpose as the typical heterogeneous group is molded into Navy material. It is to be regretted that the incident in which the young hero is almost dishonorably discharged on account of a drunken debauch should have involved a member of the Waves. The girl herself is above reproach, but the scene leaves an impression of the dubious value of women at training camps. However, the picture is good entertainment and the two hymns sung by the Navy choir add a note of spirituality. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Yes Theme too mature ❖ NINE GIRLS O O Ann Harding, Evelyn Keyes, Jinx Falkenburg, Anita Louise, Leslie Brooks, Lynn Merrick, Jeff Donnell, Nina Foch, Shirley Mills, Marcia Mae Jones, Willard Robertson, William Demarest. Adapted from the play by Wilfrid H. Pettitt. Direction by Leigh Jason. Produced by Bert Kelly. Columbia. Grace Thornton chaperones a group of younger sorority sisters on an initiation house party in the mountains, and there a murder mystery develops. While the murders are not adequately motivated, and the perpetrator is revealed too early in the play for high suspense, Ann Harding adds distinction to the production. Dialogue and direction are good, and comedy lightens situations which might otherwise seem macabre. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Only passable No. Mature theme ONCE UPON ATIME O O Cary Grant, Janet Blair. James Gleason, Ted Donaldson, Howard Freeman, William Demarest, Art Baker, Paul Stanton, Sig Arno, Mickey McGuire. Screen play by Lewis Meltzer a'nd Oscar Saul from story by Norman Corwin and Lucille Fletcher Herrmann. Direction by Alexander Hall. Columbia Pictures. We have here an adaptation of Norman Corwin’s fantasy, “My Client Curly,” written and produced for radio. It is about a disheartened and bankrupt Broadway producer who tosses his last nickel to two small boys who insist that he look at their peepshow, a dancing caterpillar who responds to the strains of “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby,” as pla3red on the harmonica. Instantly the man visualizes the publicity angles possible and opens up a campaign which has unexpected results. Fantasy is perhaps the most difficult subject to film because the screen medium seems best adapted to realism. So to some, the story told by this whimsical parable may seem too fragile and “much ado about nothing.” On the other hand, many will delight in its whimsy, its satire, and in the spiritual truth to which it draws attention Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Yes Yes ❖ PIN-UP GIRL O O Betty Grable, John Harvey, Martha Raye, Joe E. Brown, Eugene Pallette, Dorothea Kent, Dave Willock, Condos Brothers, Charlie Spivak and his Orchestra. Screen play by Libbie Block. Direcion by Bruce Humberstone. 20th Century-Fox. The title is appropriate only because the film is about a girl whose photographs were in demand with the G I’s whom she served in a small town U.S O. Club — except, of course, that it stars a favorite Pin-Up Girl, Betty Grable. The action goes on to tell what happened to Lorry when her ambitions took her out of her element to New York and Washington. The plot is fanciful. Interest is centered on the lavish settings glamorized by Technicolor, on sprightly and tuneful music, and on the specialty acts. One roller skating sequence has spectacular beauty in performance and color, but the military finale is overlong and anti-climactic. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Entertaining Matter of taste THE PURPLE HEART <> O Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Farley Granger, Kevin O'Shea, Donald Barry, Trudy Marshall, Sam Levene, Chas. Russell, John Craven, Tala Birrell, Richard Loo, Peter Chong, Gregory Gaye, Toren Meyer, Kurt Katch, Martin Garralaga. Screen play by Jerome Cady from a story by Melville Crossman. Photography by Arthur Miller, A.S.C. Music by Alfred Newman. Direction by Lewis Milestone. Produced by Darryl Zanuck. 20th Century-Fox. Although the facts surrounding the trav