Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1939)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST Columbia. Probably it would bo just as safe to say 'THE best.' Director Al Hall is in a carefro-, bubbling stride with this scries, the players are at homo, and the script in the present case provides both players and director with ample opportunities." + Box Office Digest p7 N 22 '39 ••Comedy— but good— rather than mystery or suspense affords the dominant note in the latest adventure of Kenny Williams, Columbia's contribution to the current crop of suave sleuths. . . The picture is substantially produced; the story and direction are top-rate. 4.11 of which adds up for an above-par feature which will prove pleasing to the customers in average situations." + Boxoffice pl7 N 25 '39 "It is superlative comedy entertainment from start to finish." + Film Bulletin pG D 2 '39 "Detective comedy drama should satisfy all types of film audiences." + Film Daily p6 N 22 '39 " 'Amazing Mr. Williams' is one long, loud, lusty laugh, the kind of show that sends audiences home happy and brings them back for more. It is a credit to its creators and to the industry. This latest in the series is immensely better than either 'There's Always a Woman' or 'There's That Woman Again,' which were both superior entertainment themselves. . . It is a perfect little mystery comedy and roaring good entertainment." + Hollywood Reporter p3 N 18 '39 Reviewed by Roscoe Williams + Motion Pict Daily p7 N 21 '39 "Smartly paced and amply embellished with laugh-provoking lines and situations, 'Amazing Mr. Williams' hits a merry clip to qualify as light entertainment well equipped to fill the top spot in many situations. As support on a dualer, it is safely above average." + Variety (Hollywood) p3 N 18 '39 ANGELS WASH THEIR FACES. First national-Warner 86min Ag 26 '39 Cast: Ann Sheridan. Billy Halop. Bernard Punsley. Leo Gorcey. Huntz Hall. Frankie Thomas. Ronald Reagan. Bonita Granville. Henry O'Neill. Eduardo Ciannelli Director: Ray Enright Music director: Leo F. Forbstein Original story: H, Jonathan Finn Screen writers: Michael Fessier. Niven Busch. Robert Buckner Melodrama. Frankie Thomas and his sister Ann Sheridan move into a neighborhood where Frankie soon joins a gang of tough boys. Frankie, with a reform school record, is blamed for neighborhood fires started by racketeers. This is a sequel to Angels With Dirty Faces. SEE ALSO issue of September 25 Trade Paper Reviews "It is cracking good entertainment and action all the way. It is hard to picture an audience that will fail to get in the mood of this story and be fighting every reel of its development right along with the 'Dead End Kids' and their adult team-mates. It's in that category of action entertainment that keeps the spectator on the edge of the seat every second and suffers no scripting loopholes that let audience interest down." + Hollywood Reporter p3 O 6 '39 Reviewed by Charles S. Aaronson + Motion Pict Daily pl4 S 13 '39 " 'Dead End' kids and Ann Sheridan give a corking performance. It's good entertainment and will draw by word of mouth and exploitation to excellent grosses. . . It's the director's picture. . . This sequel to 'Angels With Dirty Faces' is not quite the sockeroo its predecessor was." + Variety (Hollywood) p3 O 6 '39 ANOTHER THIN MAN. MCiAI 101105min N 17 '39 Cast: William Powell. Myrna Loy. Virginia Grey. Otto Kruger. C. Aubrey Smith. Ruth Hussey. Nat Pendleton. Patric Knowles Director: W. S. Van Dyke, II Original story: Dashiell Hammett Screen writers: Frances Goodrich. Albert Hackett Mystery comedy. Third in the Thin Man series. William Powell and Myrna Loy and their year-old baby go to New York and immediately find themselves tangled in a mystery in which three murders occur. The scene is a Long Island estate. Audience Suitability Ratings "Excellent. The story is as exaggerated yet sure-to-be-popular as the first 'Thin Man.' Good dialogue and direction. Handsome settings. Mature-family." DAR "It is an excellent detective story well acted and directed, although shortening would improve it. Adolescents: sophisticated; children: no. Adults." Women's Univ Club, Los Angeles + + Fox W Coast Bulletin N 11 '39 "While the picture is somewhat sophisticated, its broad comedy, cleverness and technical excellence will win the approval of most audiences. Mature." Gen Fed of Women's Clubs (W Coast) "An excellent cast and deft direction make a trivial and confused story interesting and suspenseful. Mature-family." Nat Council of Jewish Women + Fox W Coast Bulletin D 2 '39 "Adults." ^T nn ,nn Nat Legion of Decency N 23 39 "Family. Both the situations and the dialogue are amusing." + Wkly Guide N 18 '39 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "Not quite so comic, if memory serves, as the original 'Thin Man,' which is a penalty that sequels pay. But comic enough. As for the mystery plot and the clues, which your correspondent admits never being able to remember very long anyway, they seem to be O. K. John K. Hutchens _ _, inn + Boston Transcript p20 D 1 39 "Adults and young people." Christian Science Monitor plv D 2 39 "Affectionate regard for William Powell, who has been regrettably absent from the screen for almost two years, inclines one to be more lenient about the third film in the Thin Man series of debonair comedy-mysteries. This one has its bright and gay moments, but they are rather less frequent than we have come to expect in these films. The picture is merely passable There are the usual melodramatics, occasional suspense, and exciting denouement. Jesse Zunser \ Cue p43 D 2 '39 "Rather indifferent entertainment. . . Conventional murder mystery. Of some interest to study groups as a demonstration of the importance of intelligently directed dialogue, a lesson, however, which the great majority ot pictures teach. Not recommended for children, but its star names should make it good box _j_' — Hollywood Spectator p6 N 25 '39 " Another Thin Man' is just about what you might have expected from the title. It attempts to capitalize for a second time on the fact that the original 'The Thin Man' was one of the brightest shows that Hollywood ever concocted out of murder and merriment It follows the formula of its eminent prototype, but it ends up by being formulanzed rather than inspired. . . Dashiell Hammett has conceived several exciting melodramatic situations, and the film has been given an unstinted production The trouble is that Another Thin Man* suffers the sad fate of most sequels.' Howard Barnes «.'■** n, ,«« _) NY Herald Tribune pl4 N 24 '39 "This third of the trade-marked Thin Men takes its murders as jauntily as ever, confirms our impression that matrimony need not be too