Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1947)

The Ghost Goes Wild (Republic) DON’T just blame the poor ghost for going wild in this — everything and everybody else do, too. James Ellison and his butler Everett Edward Horton have to walk around tripping over sheets while Anne Gwynne registers horror. They can’t scare Ruth Donnelly, though, and that’s too bad because she’s the one who calls forth all this phenomenal nonsense. The background is Ellison’s farm “Haunted Hill” which really looks like a nice cozy place, not at all the setting for seances and a real ghost who walks through doors in search of chewing gum. Just for another complication, Grant Withers runs through doors with a shotgun looking for Ellison. The finale is a courtroom scene where everyone talks to an empty chair. By this time, most of the audience’s chairs will be empty, too. Your Reviewer Says: Ghastly business. Born to Kill (RKO) WHAT a nice little group of people turn up in this! There’s Lawrence Tierney who, when he gets upset about anything, just kills someone; Claire Trevor, a hardbitten lady who likes money; Walter Slezak, the detective who acts so shady as he looks for the murderer of Isabel Jewell (Lawrence, of course). Elisha Cook Jr. tries to keep Lawrence from shooting more people, but when things get touchy he even tries to knife harmless old beer-drinking Esther Howard. This is a dark outlook, you must admit; it’s not cheered up any at the end, either — which is one good thing in its favor. The bad stay bad and get their innings; good Phil Terry and honest Kathryn Card just walk out of the picture. They probably thought they’d be better out than in. Tierney has gone back to his steely-eyed law-breaking with ease and Claire looks the way you’d expect a lady to look when she makes love to a murderer. Your Reviewer Says: It’s a dead duck. Homesteaders of Paradise Valley (Republic) IjOT much Paradise about this valley — it’s 1* all a lot of trouble that has to be cleaned up by Allan Lane as Red Ryder and his juvenile companion, Little Beaver. It’s a Western that has something happening every minute, most of it routine. Some settlers want to homestead out in Paradise Valley, but Milton Kibbee as a s' ady newspaper publisher wants the land for himself. Red’s right in the thick of the fight for a while, but then he deserts to turn journalist, only reappearing just in the nick of time to show up the bad men. Ann Todd tosses her nice little hat in the ring to freshen things up. Your Reviewer Says: Red Ryder on a routine trail. Dishonored Lady ( Chertok-Stromberg-UA ) HEDY LAMARR looks beautiful throughout, despite the hectic life she has to lead as a neurotic who keeps chasing fun. Dennis O’Keefe is the young doctor who loves Miss Lamarr when she deserts the glitter life and takes up her paintbrush in an attic. John Loder, who has been made up into a menacing wolf with fake dark eyebrows, plays at being a playboy who just won’t let the poor girl alone. Gentle-faced William Lundigan is supposed to be the heavy villain who brings all this to a climax scene in a courtroom where the dishonored lady is presumably given a new chance at making a go of things. She may be able to manage it — especially since she’s the kind of a girl who can look beautiful just after she’s been scooped out of a messy smash-up. There’s nothing real about this whole business; the question is how any of the participants could have walked through it with straight faces. Your Reviewer Says: Too bad about Hedy — and the film. V Carnegie Hall (Federal-UA) READING like a benefit performance is the list of guest artists in this — from Walter Damrosch to Harry James with the N.Y. Philharmonic thrown in. You can expect — and you’ll get beautiful music. This is the film that was actually made in Carnegie Hall in New York. It hangs together on an innocuous little story about Marsha Hunt who works at the Hall and whose one desire is to see her son play on its stage. This is a good enough excuse for the artists to start making their bows — Pons, Piatigorsky, Stevens, Rubinstein, Heifetz, Stokowski are some of the performers who turn in their talented bits for the good of “Carnegie Hall.” Vaughn Monroe and Harry James wave their batons with the best of them and a sight-seeing camera roves around periodically through the Hall. But the music would definitely call for three checks, as this is the first time such a galaxy of famous artists has appeared under one banner. If you’re in the mood you’ll sit back, forget Marsha’s problems, and listen. Your Reviewer Says: Music festival. 12