Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1941)

REVIEWING MOVIES OF THE MONTH A reliable guide to recent pictures. One check means good; two checks, outstanding • ? i f i v ' ^ Tops in taps: Fred Astaire, Paulette Goddard and Artie Shaw in "Second Chorus" Super Western excitement: Franchot Tone, Peggy Moran in "Trail of the Vigilantes" order to play in the school orchestra. Nor would they believe the two lads could keep up a feud that constantly ruins their chance with Paulette Goddard and Artie Shaw's band. Wouldn't they catch on sometime, for goodness sake? At any rate, the film has bright moments. Shaw's music is "Shawfull" catchy, Paulette is beautiful, Fred and Burgess amusing. Outside of that, one chorus would have been sufficient. Your Reviewer Says: Nonsense in tapdance rhythm. " Lady With Red Hair (Warner Brothers) It's About: The life story of Mrs. Leslie Carter. TWO beautiful performances by Miriam Hopkins and Claude Rains and one outstanding directorial achievement by Kurt Bernhardt lift this biographical story of a woman famous in the nineties into the category of fine motion pictures. No happier choice could have been made than Miss Hopkins to portray the fiery-tempered, highly emotional Mrs. Carter who lost custody of her son through the divorce court and who embarked on a stage career in order to get money to fight for her child. Running parallel with the story of this woman is that of the man who helped her to fame — David Belasco. Claude Rains plays the great theatrical impresario with the touch of true genius. What the story lacks in dramatic climaxes, it makes up in smoothly flowing continuity. Helen Westley as the boardinghouse keeper is outstanding. Your Reviewer Says: An "arty" gem. ^ Tin Pan Alley (20th Century-Fox) It's About: The love story oj a young soiig publisher and a vaudeville lass. D IGHT into the socko class of film fare ■^ leaps "Tin Pan Alley," laden with FEBRUARY, 1941 melodies of nostalgic memories and packed with events that stir the heart, tying together yesterday and today into one grand package of entertainment. Back to the days when song publishing was at its glorious height goes this story, weaving into the tale the grand songs of yesterday, "America I Love You," "Goodbye Broadway, Hello France," "Moonlight Bay" and "The Sheik of Araby." John Payne and Jack Oakie are an ambitious pair of songwriters who become famous publishers and then lose out — to march overseas as doughboys. Alice Faye and Betty Grable are sisters, struggling along in vaudeville, until Alice, losing her heart to Payne, becomes a song plugger for the boys and then leaves them when her heart has been double-crossed. Betty, in the meantime, goes on to stardom. Alice and Betty are outstanding as a team, believe me. John Payne becomes an important leading man and Oakie walks off with one of the best musicals of the year. Your Reviewer Says: A hit. ^ Escape To Glory (Columbia) It's About: A British freighter carrying Americans home in the early days of the war. DANGER from submarine attack provides the drama aboard an English freighter crowded with passengers going to America when war is declared in Europe. When the freighter is crippled by a submarine, the true natures of the assorted passengers assert themselves in the face of imminent death. Pat O'Brien is an adventurer; Constance Bennett, the secretary of corrupt district attorney John Halliday; Alan Baxter, a gangster; Marjorie Gateson, a society woman. How they all meet danger provides a well-rounded, exciting drama. Melville Cooper, Erwin Kaiser and the rest of the cast also lend credibility to their roles. Your Reviewer Says: Tense and dramatic. ^ Fantasia (Walt Disney Productions) It's About: Music and its pictorial interpretation by the Disney studios. HEOPLE who take their music very ' seriously are shocked by the idea of mixing any other art with it. Walt Disney and Leopold Stokowski, the great conductor, have joined hands to challenge the purists. You are offered a concert of eight classic masterpieces, each one interpreted musically by Stokowski, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the new multiplane recording device; interpreted graphically by Walt Disney and his superb, if erratic, group of artists. Deems Taylor appears as commentator. At first, in the Bach "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor," the pictorial illustrations are pure design without any story. Here you come as close to the emotions of taking an anesthetic as you'll ever find in the theater. The interpretation of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" will remind you of that first marvelous Silly Symphony which introduced Disney's real genius to us. Most shocking is Disney's interpretation of Mount Olympus which illustrates Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony." Although the characters of Bacchus, the centaurs and the centaurettes are amusing, they are far from appropriate to the superb music of the deaf musician. The origin of the earth is the subject of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" and it is appropriately horrifying. So also is the morbid charade illustrating Moussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain." Our old friend Mickey Mouse is the central character of a delightful fantasy telling the story of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," who puts on his master's cap and teaches the brooms to carry water. You must see this because it is one of the most important pictures ever made. You must be prepared to be bored by some of it, shocked by some of it and delighted by much of it. But don't miss it. Your Reviewer Says: Important. (Continued on page 99) 15