Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

24 JANUARY 1949 The crop of current releases could hardly be more instructive for the amateur had they been expressly produced for the purpose. Among the offerings, a travel yarn, mischievous children and marital mixups provide ideal examples which home filmers may study with profit. Here are four of them. VACATION HIGH JINKS Family Honeymoon: The serious business of getting married is further complicated, in this Universal-International picture, by the addition of the bride's three small children (by a former marriage) , who, it turns out, must accompany the happy couple on their honeymoon. Not many family filmers have faced the problems of Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert in these strained circumstances; but all parents know well the hazards of vacation travel Universal International TRAIN TRAVEL— or plane travel, too, for that matter— can be pictured easily by the amateur using direct sunlight and a newspaper reflector on the shadow side. Scene is from Family Honeymoon, typical holiday farce. with their offspring and the infinite variety of results possible. The small fry in this case are likable kids but with incredible talent for plunging all concerned into near mental collapse. From the rousing cross-country train journey to the bedlam that ensues at Crand Canyon National Park, a rollicking good comedy demonstrates the rich mine of provocative -ton material available first hand for famil) travel films. KITH AND KIN John Lo\ i;s Mary : Will Shakespeare line about the de\ Lous paths the course of true love takes has furnished more movie plots than could easily be counted in a long winter's night. Not often has it been employed more amusingly than in this Warner Brothers nonsense, distilled from Norman Krasna's stage play of last season. This merry melange of marital involvements concerns the plight of the charming daughter of a United States senator welcoming her fiance home from the wars in high hopes of early nuptials. Before the young man has a chance to explain the existence of his English war bride, all concerned are enmeshed in a set of circumstances which put everyone in low favor and high dudgeon, to the complete delight of the audience. Practically a one set story, most of the action is restricted to the living room of the hotel apartment of the senator's family. Even so, the small cast of eight has ample room in which to exploit the quietly frantic histrionics of the piece. The more violent scenes take place off-stage, merely being described on the screen, a legitimate evasion amateurs can employ in their own celluloid dramas. If you cannot get Ronald Reagan and Patricia Neal to play the starcrossed lovers, or a Broadway playwright to prepare the script, you can find a pair of attractive teen-agers and prepare your own version of the Bard's axiom. SIMPLE STRATEGEM Every Girl Should Be Married: In searching for the different and unusual to film, the amateur too frequently overlooks the dramatic possibilities in his home town and in the daily doings of his neighbors and friends, where scores of story ideas may be found. Don Hartman, who produced, coauthored and directed this delightful romantic comedy for RKO Radio Pictures, chose one such idea, with an average town as the setting. The theory that our fair helpmates are a good bit more aggressive than they let on furnished the theme, and an innocent encounter between Cary Grant and Betsy Drake at a corner drug store became the springboard lor the action. Possibly the most elaborate set employed to aid Miss Drake in trapping the wary Mr. Grant was a smart restaurant, the other scenes being enacted on the street, in the department store where the heroine works, in the home she aims to get and in her own modest apartment. A simple plot, commonplace settings and straightforward photography — here used to great advantage — offer the same possibilities (on a modified scale) to amateur filmers or to clubs for group production. RKO Radio SIMPLE SETTINGS to be found in any home are used widely in Every Girl Should Be Married. Note how natural placement of bureau in corner limits necessary scope of the set. LIGHT CARGO You Gotta Stay Happy: If you are looking for story ideas for your own productions, you might thumb through the Saturday Evening Post, where Universal-International found this one. A poor little rich girl, pint-sized Joan Fontaine, deserts the bridal suite immediately following the ceremony and flings herself into the protective arms of gangling James Stewart, leaving the unwanted groom in a state of apoplexy. A tumultuous flight to California on board Stewart's cargo plane — which an embezzler, a pair of Georgia newlyweds, a trained chimpanzee and the runaway heiress help to enliven — ends when the latter buys the airline, sheds her former spouse and succeeds in winning the shy Mr. Stewart's heart into the bargain. A merry farce, the film furnishes a good example of the magic of movies in turning a flimsy fable into engaging, evocative entertainment.