Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1948)

200 ALL IN THE FAMILY MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE, a screen play by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, from the novel by Eric Hodgins, filmed by James Wong Howe, ASC, edited by Harry Marker, directed by H. C. Potter, produced by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank and presented by Selznick Releasing Organization. The minor domestic crises that most families experience at one time or another have been delightfully and adroitly duplicated in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. With H. C. Potter calling the shots, Cary Grant and Myrna Loy enact all the familiar situations that confront a couple when they undertake the responsibilities of building a home. A good portion of the guffaws, however, come at the beginning of the film, with Mr. and Mrs. fighting it out for the last word with the alarm clock. A hilarious sequence follows, when Mr. Blandings is finally routed from his pillow. The contents of an overcrowded closet come tumbling down about him; he finds his wife's lingerie in the drawer where his socks should be; and his morning shave is balked at every scrape by a steamy shower and his overzealous wife. Ordinary, everyday situations like this are good for extraordinary RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. laughs; and they can be easily staged by the amateur in his own bedroom and bath. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is a brisk airing of some of author Eric Hodgins's pet peeves; it's an ill wind indeed that doesn't blow up a good story situation or the makings of a mirthful movie. TRICKS FOR TEMPO SO THIS IS NEW YORK, a screen play by Carl Foreman and Herbert Baker, based on a novel by Ring Lardner, filmed by Jack Russell, ASC, edited by Walter Thompson, directed by Richard O. Fleischer, produced by Stanley Kramer and presented by United Artists. The comic possibilities of a postrecorded narrative are exploited to the last chuckle in So This Is New York, the film which introduces radio's Henry Morgan to the theatrical screen. Endowed with a naturally impudent voice and a flair for ironic humor, the madcap Morgan has enlivened this Ring Lardner story with his slightly embittered comments on urban customs, as portrayed by some amusing passages of pantomime. Morgan's dry invective is aimed at rambunctious cabbies, tip hungry menials, snooty hotel clerks and all those metropolitan types who make life miserable for visiting firemen. Aids for the amateur cameraman, to be seen in current theatrical films This is another of those comedies featuring the heckled husband, an ever popular character with amateur photoplay enthusiasts. Writers Foreman and Brown have capitalized on the star's aptitude for whimsy and eccentric comedy, and many of the gags are as wacky as Morgan's wit. When, after Morgan's trek to Manhattan, a taxi driver yells at him in thick Brooklynese, a superimposed subtitle appears across the bottom of the screen translating the speech into proper English; and as the comedian's favored horse takes the lead in a fixed race, the other nags on the track suddenly appear in slow motion. This sort of flip use of special effects is good for comic relief in your informal family films and travelogs; stop camera, reverse action, change of camera speed and split screen tricks can provide clever variations to routine footage. So This Is New York, like its star, derives much of its entertainment value from its fresh and casual spoofing of Big Town behavior. United Artists THE BATHROOM BLUES, one of the Blandings' big reasons for building the Dream House, pursues them even unto the country— here without heat. NATURAL POSES like this chair shot from So This Is New York often have inherent grace and composition.