Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

, ECElXT screenings, devoted chiefly to the usual frothy summertime product, were relieved by the heartening efforts of a bold new independent group, which should prove especially interesting to amateurs. The simpler entertainment pieces, however, are not entirely without value as studies in technique. — D.C. JUSTICE Lost Boundaries: Louis de Rochemont, who fathered the semi-documentary style in American films with such pictures as The House on 92nd Street and Boomerang, here brings to full flower his particular talents for dramatic presentation of factual material. Produced under the banner of the RD-DR Corporation and released by Film Classics. Inc., this first venture of the producer's new independent company is based on a real life story written originally for the Reader's Digest by William L. White. The story concerns a young doctor in a small New England town, his wife and two children. Although of the Negro race, they are light complexioned and pass for NATURAL SETTINGS, such as this New England street scene, are feature of Lost Boundaries. Note reflector on off side. CROWDED QUARTERS, the equal of any home filmer's, created production problems in Boundaries familiar to all amateurs. Aids for the amateur cameraman, to be seen in current theatrical films white, so that through the years they earn the love and respect of the community. Then, during the war, the doctor's application for a commission in the Navy is rejected when it is discovered that he is a Negro. The blow falls most heavily upon the young son and daughter, while the shocked townspeople react as expected. Only the minister remains a friend, and it is through his efforts that the community finally relents and slowly extends a helping hand to the hapless family in its difficult period of adjustment. The story is related in part by an off-screen narrator, who introduces the characters and circumstances in the initial sequence and sums up the account in the last. Deftly told, in chronological order, the film was shot entirely in the actual settings of the real life experience. Aside from the principals, most of the roles are handled by non-professionals. The picture's convincing authenticity is further enhanced by the newsreel type of camera work employed. Amateurs are urged to study this film as a fine example of filming the familiar local scene. Perhaps the more ambitious may want to choose a similar story of typical Americana in their own communities and try to match this sterling example of the fact film. NOSTALGIC You're My Everything: Hollywood holds a mirror up to itself and is obviously pleased by what it sees in this original story by George Jessel, which was produced by Twentieth Century-Fox. Set in the flamboyant Twenties, the film presents Dan Daily as an old-time vaudevillian and Anne Baxter as his Boston Back Bay wife. Called to Hollywood for a screen test, it is she of the couple who gets all the attention and presently appears in the "flickers" of that Clara Bow period. But, with the advent of sound, her musical comedy husband replaces her as a famous movie star, and a little later their small daughter replaces them both as a young Shirley Temple. Amateurs should be delighted with a look at early movie making, as Hollywood shows how it was done twenty-odd years ago. At several places the movie-withina-movie idea is employed with great effectiveness, one of the tricks of the trade which amateurs can adapt with comparative ease. The smooth transitional devices used and the means employed to telescope action will also be of particular interest to aniateur filmers. PERENNIAL Once More, My Darling: In this hardy boy-meets-girl item from Universal-International, Robert Montgomery, Ann Blyth and Jane Cowl (making her screen debut here) do their utmost to make a merry farce of a very slight comedy situation. But if the thin story material is without particular interest, amateurs will find the [Continued on page 308]