Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1943)

^ Hit The Ice (Universal) It's About: The tangle of two photographers and crooks. ABBOTT and Costello romp, stomp, ski, skate, clown, mug and go round in circles to the tune of audiences' loud guffaws. Little of it makes sense, but who cares? It's good clean fun, isn't it? The boys are sidewalk photographers who are mistaken by gangster Sheldon Leonard for a couple of Detroit gunmen when the boys innocently use the gangster password. Thinking he's hiring a couple of thugs, Leonard hires the boys to cover him while he robs a bank. When the boys discover they've been rooked and the police are on their trail, they leave town with an orchestra and follow the robber to Sun Valley where things really get going. Ginny Simms sings beautifully. Elyse Knox is so lovely. Patric Knowles and Marc Lawrence mingle with the slaphappy throng. Your Reviewer Says: Laugh your fill. ^ Background To Danger (Warners) It's About: Too many agents after one set of plans. HERE'S a story that goes overboard so thoroughly in its spy-ring doings it actually becomes enjoyable, like a mystery novel on a rainy night. It's fun just to sit back, relax and watch the various groups play button, button, who's got the button. When spy stories can reach this pleasant nirvana, they've gone some place and accomplished something — sheer relaxing entertainment. George Raft, an American agent posing as a machinery salesman through Central Europe, is slipped an envelope by Osa Massen on a Syrian-Turkey express. The envelope is full of maps whipped up by the Nazis to break Turkey's neutrality. Miss Massen is murdered, George accused and the spies gather like flies over honey to get them thar papers. It's more fun. Sydney Greenstreet, as bad and big as they come, Peter Lorre, cute and scheming, his partner Brenda Marshall, and a couple dozen others join in the mix-up. That handsome Turk, Turhan Bey, creates a stir. What is it about these foreigners? (Your Reviewer Says: A movie that is just that — a moving story. Two Tickets To London (Universal) It's About: A merchant seaman accused of being a traitor. M OT so good, McGee, not so good. Wobbly ■ ^ as all get out and insecurely constructed, this little house that Universal built needs a lot of going over. For one thing, the foundation is wrong. Alan Curtis, who wasn't in the mood for it, is arrested as a traitor as he leaves his ship and starts back to London in handcuffs. A bomb that hits the train carrying him, his captor and night-club singer Michele Morgan provides Curtis with an escape and off he flees, carrying Miss Morgan with him. Together they become ugitives from justice until Curtis abruptly »ives up and proves his innocence just as easy as rolling off a log. Miss Morgan's make-up is fantastic. So s the story, despite the efforts of C. Aubrey omith, Mary Gordon and Oscar O'Shea. The Shadow Stage (Continued from page 28) Dooley Wilson sings several songs with feeling. Your Reviewer Says: Make it three tickets, please. Get Going (Universal) It's About: The attempts of a girl in Washington to land a beau. GRACIE McDONALD comes down from Vermont to crowded Washington, D.C., in search of (1) a job; (2) a room; (3) a beau. She gets all three. The job is easy. The room she manages to obtain when it's discovered her clothes will fit the other three occupants, Vera Vague, Lois Collier and Maureen Cannon. The beau she gets when she pretends to be an enemy agent, thus attracting the attention of Robert Paige, F.B.I, agent. It's all cute, cozy and harmless and not a bit dull to watch. Gracie McDonald in her first straight role (no singing or dancing) does right well, bless her heart. Your Reviewer Says: Hot-weather cologne. The Kansan (U. A.) It's About: A marshal who refuses to carry out a banker's orders. A LWAYS, always in movies it's the rich ** banker of the frontier town who is the villain, a promoter of schemes and bad man behind the quick-trigger boys. This time it's banker Albert Dekker who elects peace-loving Richard Dix as marshal, expecting Dix to carry out orders. Only Dix doesn't. He exposes Dekker and his get-rich-quick schemes and the result is a shootin', tootin' mix-up of bad men, dance-hall girls, natives and — oh, just everything. Fights that wreck barrooms (cheers from Carrie Nation's ghost), cattle stampedes, dynamited bridges and all the usual claptrap fairly explode from the screen. Jane Wyatt is a capable heroine. Willie Best, a scared-to-death Negro, is very good. Your Reviewer Says: Old-timey. Best Pictures of the Month So Proudly We Hail Heaven Can Wait Dixie Hers To Hold The Constant Nymph Best Performances Joan Fontaine in "The Constant Nymph" Alexis Smith in "The Constant Nymph" Charles Coburn in "The Constant Nymph" Claudette Colbert in "So Proudly We Hail" Paulette Goddard in "So Proudly We Hail" Sonny Tufts in "So Proudly We HailGene Tierney in "Heaven Can Wait" Don Ameche in "Heaven Can Wait" All By Myself (Universal) It's About: A mix-up of couples. NEIL HAMILTON is head of an advertising agency. Evelyn Ankers is the beautiful career girl who loves Hamilton and loses him to night-club singer Rosemary Lane. Attempting to get even, Evelyn introduces Patric Knowles as her fiance and he in turn announces they're married. So it's all a jumble of hearts and misunderstanding and none of it means a single solitary thing to anybody. Your Reviewer Says: They can have it all by themselves. Ghosts On The Loose (Monogram) It's About: A gang of kids trap a Nazi spy. THE Dead End Kids have now become ' the East Side kids, creating as much disturbance as usual. The fun starts when the sister of Huntz Hall gets married and moves into a bungalow next to a house occupied by Bela Lugosi, Nazi agent. When Huntz, Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan finish with that nasty Nazi there is only enough left to say: Your Reviewer Says: Phooey! Hitler's Madman (M-G-M) It's About: The murder of Heydrich and the awful consequences. THIS is a pretty poor memorial to the ' tragedy that shocked the world, The Murder of Lidice. Alan Curtis and Patricia Morison struggle like trapped animals with the romantic leads and so do the couple who aid Ralph Morgan in killing Heydrich, played well by John Carradine. In fact, he was about the only bright and shining thing in the picture and after his death things got awfully boring. Your Reviewer Says: They hanged the wrong guyAlaska Highway (Paramount) It's About: Two brothers employed in the construction of the great highway. niCHARD ARLEN and Bill Henry are •^ brothers working as engineers on the famous Alaskan Highway. Both love the same girl, Jean Parker, and the rivalry plus some broad comedy sequences involving Ralph Sanford and Joe Sawyer form a basis for some lively goings-on. A spectacular forest fire, a landslide and a fallen giant tree keep the action high. Your Reviewer Says: Timely. Submarine Alert (Paramount) It's About: The recovery of a lost radio transmitter. DICHARD ARLEN, an engineer, loses ^ his job and finds himself employed by Axis agents while still under the watchful eye of the F.B.I. It seems a powerful radio transmitter, through which messages of our sailings are relayed to the Japs, has been stolen. The trick is to get it back. Wendy Barrie is cute as the girl. Nils Asther, Marc Lawrence and Abner Biberman are the spies. Your Reviewer Says: More of the same. 31