The Movies ... and the People Who Make Them (1940)

"The MOVIES 1940” DULCY: Produced by Edgar Selwyn for MGM Director: S. Sylvan Simon Screenplay: Albert Manneheimer, Jerome Chodorov, Jos. A. Fields Story: George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly Photography: Charles Lawton Art Director: Cedric Gibbons Editor: Frank E. Hull Dulcy Ward Ann Sothern Gordon Daly Ian Hunter Roger Forbes Roland Young Schuyler Van Dyke Reginald Gardiner Eleanor Forbes Billie Burke Angela Forbes Lynne Carver Bill Ward Dan Dailey, Jr. 'Sneezy' Donald Huie Homer Patterson Jonathan Hale Henry Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams Vincent Leach Hans Conried Spirited comedy of errors starring Ann Sothern as a disarming but ever blundering blonde who provokes amusingly involved comedy situations as she attempts to sell her sweetheart's airp'ane invention to a fussy buyer. (Adults & Young People) (Running time, 67 minutes) Kaufman and Connelly’s blonde stage dumbbell of some twenty years ago muddles her way across the screen again for the third time in the person of Ann Sothern. Previously portrayed in able fashion by Constance Talmadge and Marion Davies, Dulcy retains her hilarious knack for devising screwball complexities in the hands of Miss Sothern. The story itself has been altered considerably, but the emphasis on nitwit situations and zany antics remains. Dulcy invites Roger Forbes, a prominent airplane manufacturer, and his wife and daughter, to her mountain estate for a week end in the hope of persuading the financier to invest in sweetheart Gordon’s new type motor, and also to gain his consent for her brother's marriage to his daughter. Mirthful complications set in when Schuyler Van Dyke, a slightly demented playboy, barges in to pose as an airplane tycoon. Dulcy does her best, or rather her worst, to smooth things out but the farce situations get knottier and knottier until the final unexpected happy ending. The speedy slapstick situations and nonsensical byplay should sell the show to the majority of audiences. The Dulcy role falls to Miss Sothern like a coat of tan and she plays it through with flawless despatch. Roland Young as the nervous airplane maker, Ian Hunter as Dulcy’s inventor friend, Reginald Gardiner as the unbalanced playboy, and Dan Dailey, Jr. as Dulcy’s brother support without a letup. Billie Burke and Lynne Carver as the investor’s wife and daughter are more or less submerged. S. Sylvan Simon directs deftly. TRIPLE JUSTICE: Produced by Bert Gilroy for RKO Director: David Howard Screenplay: Arthur V. Jones, Morton Grant Story: Arnold Belgard, Jack Roberts Photography: J. Roy Hunt Ann Sothern “DULCY” Editor: Frederic Knudtson Brad George O'Brien Lorna Virginia Vale Susan Peggy Shannon Reeves Harry Woods Cleary Paul Fix Bill Gregory LeRoy Mason Wiley Glenn Strange Payson Malcolm McTaggert Well-assembled, actionful western melodrama in which George O’Brien as a Wyoming cowboy fights a bank robbery frameup and overcomes a deceitful deputy sheriff. (Adults & Young People) (Running time, 65 minutes) Cantering down into Arizona to act as best man at Sheriff Gregory’s wedding, Brad unknowingly rides into town in company with a bandit gang. When they loot the local bank, the sheriff is killed and Brad is involved in the holdup. Reeves, the deputy sheriff and actual leader of the crooks, tries to hang the innocent cowboy, but he escapes and at length captures all the culprits after plenty of hard riding and a furious free-for-all. As Lorna, the girl of the piece who feels sure the suspected cowboy has a heart of gold, Virginia Vale provides unobtrusive romantic interest. George O’Brien does everything required of him with crisp dispatch. Harry Woods plays Reeves, assisted by Paul Fix, Glenn Strange and Malcolm McTaggart as the crook cronies. The picturesque outdoor locations, the swift direction, and the minor musical renditions contributed by the Lindeman Sisters enhance the full action content. YOUTH WILL BE SERVED: Produced by Lucien Hubbard for 20th Century-Fox Director: Otto Brower Screenplay: Wanda Tuchock Story: Ruth Fasken, Hilda Vincent Photography: Edward Cronjager Editor: Nick DeMaggio Eadie-May Supervisor Stormer ... Jane Darwell Dr. Bob Robert Conway Pamela Elyse Knox Benjy Clem Howie Ephraim ... Charles Holland Lisbeth Miss Bradshaw Clara Blandick Rufus Britt Tully Marshall C. C. C. Major Edwin Stanley Lily Mildred Gover Mr. Hewitt Sheriff Buck Miller Dan McKay Henrietta McNutt Casual but pleasant comedy melodrama starring Jane Withers as the daughter of an imprisoned moonshiner who sojourns in a girls’ N. Y. A. camp where she thaws the heart of a hard-bitten lumber tycoon and saves the land. (Adults 8C Young People) (Running time, 68 minutes) Presenting a maturing Jane Withers as the resourceful daughter of a southern moonshine maker, Youth Will Be Served unreels a mildly satisfying comedy story which should be relished especially by the Withers fans. Mistress Jane brings her customary vim to the story. When EadieMay’s papa gets sent to prison for operating illegal stills, Little Eadie lands in a girls’ National Youth Administration camp where she makes a hit with the matrons and almost everyone except crusty old Rufus Britt, who wants to grab off the camp land for his own interests. Just when everything looks blackest, EadieMay magically stages a homespun revue which warms the cockles of the old codger’s heart. The capture of a brace of bank bandits by Eadie’s escaped father also helps point the plot in the right direction. Miss Withers, a Georgian, delivers her lines with the correct inflection and flounces through her role with all her usual vitality. Charles Holland, a young Negro tenor, scores heavily with his rendition of “Hot Catfish ’n’ Corn Dodgers.” GIVE US WINGS: Produced by Ken Goldsmith for Universal Director: Charles Lamont Screenplay: Arthur T. Horman, Robert Lee Johnson Story: Eliot Gibbons Photography: John Boyle Editor: Frank Gross Tom Pig String Ape Bernard Punsly Rap York Tulie Anne Gwynne Carter Whitey Shemp Howard Tex Bud Link Unlikely melodrama featuring the Dead End Kids as air-minded moppets who take 67