Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

144 rVestem and adventure tales dominated recent Hollywood showings, as many studios turned to horse opera to fill out their agenda. Meanwhile, one of them and a brave new independent group in the East devoted serious attention to social problems. Amateurs are urged to study these examples, both in the serious and lighter vein, to improve and broaden the scope of their own productions. — D.C. SALT TANG Down To The Sea In Ships: The taste of salt spray is not often as convincingly conveyed to the audience as it is in this Twentieth CenturyFox production. You are not likely to build your own four masted whaling ship, as the studio did for this saga of the deep; but you will pick up a few hints for those boating and waterfront scenes you want to shoot this summer. Captain Bering Joy (Lionel Barry more), aged 80, a mariner of the old school and master of the Pride of Bedford, is determined to make another expedition, to instill the whaling traditions of the Joys in his young grandson, Jed (Dean Stockwell). He agrees to take along a younger seaman, Dan Lunceford (Richard Widmark), whom the company sends to watch over the old man. The inevitable struggle between younger and older generations vies with the struggle of the ship against the elements, a powerful and moving drama revolving around and within the parallel conflicts. COUNTRY LIFE The Green Promise: This RKORadio release is a simple, if not particularly inspired, film about the activities of the 4-H boys and girls in the Midwest. It is concerned, however, with a subject widely popular with and ideally adapted to amateur RKO Kadio 4-H CLUB activities, popular in personal movies, is theme of The Green Promise. filmers. They can easily copy the honest cinematic treatments of farm subjects, children and animals and of a children's party here displayed. POIGNANT The Quiet One: Produced originally on 16mm. black and white, at a fraction of the cost of most Hollywood features, this first release of Film Documents, Inc., presents in simple documentary style a young boy's quest for love and understanding. The screenplay (by Janice Loeb, Helen Leavitt and Sidney Meyers) leads Donald through the maze of Harlem slums, the only home he knows, to a camp for delinquent boys, where he ultimately finds the warmth and affection he so sorely needs. To achieve the utmost realism, Mr. Meyers filmed this eloquent appeal for slum clearance and child care in the actual homes and streets of New York City's Harlem and at the Wiltwyck School for Boys, at Esopus, N. Y. He combined actors with non-actors and, to avoid theatricality further, he employed newsreel type photography. Its significant social theme, elemental performances and straightforward reporting earned the film high critical acclaim last summer at the Edinburgh Film Festival. This led in turn to its enlargement to 35mm. stock for current theatrical distribution. ENVIRONMENT City Across The River: Another rather more dangerous phase of juvenile delinquency is explored in this Universal-International presentation of Irving Shulman's revealing novel, The Amboy Dukes. The documentary style, now so popular, is used here to fine advantage to tell the shocking story of boy gangs. The scenes are laid in Brooklyn, where most of the film was shot, but Drew Pearson, in a brief commentary at the beginning and end of the picture, reminds the audience that the same things may be happening in a hundred other American cities where slum conditions exist. Besides its obvious social significance, the film's cinematic treatment of ordinary street scenes and commonplace objects will interest the amateur. There is also a particularly well executed montage of Manhattan scenes upon which are superimposed the figures of two youngsters on a rare Sunday holiday, an ingenious method of telescoping material amateurs might like to use in vacation films. 20th Century. Fox INDIAN DAYS fete, seen in Canadian Pacific, is annual tourist feature at Banff. SUMMER TRAVEL Canadian Pacific : One of two horse operas to be included here, this story of the building of a famous railroad, released by Twentieth Century-Fox, is of no special interest from the standpoint of story content or treatment. It does, however, contain an abundance of excellent footage shot in color in the region around Banff and Lake Louise. Amateurs planning to film there this coming summer may like to see what is in store for them and study the difficult technique of effective scenic panning. Red Canyon: The other horse opera, this one released by Universal-International, takes place in the area of Southern Utah. Also in color, there are some wonderful shots of the open country, with especially well framed compositions of desert, sky and boulders. Based on the novel, Wildfire, by Zane Grey, the story concerns the capture of a wild stallion and the roundup of some unpleasant desperadoes.