Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1951)

p slim or regular y ps are °n*^ more exciting 29 * than ever. . .with lipstick Stays on longer! Creamy! Non-Drying! Scented with Irresistible Perfume! after a man's heart. . . Svwmt iib PERFUME 10« and 254. For after-bath freshness all day long . . . (DEAR KISS) TALCUM Smooths and sweetens your skin Protects against chafing. 'tfif hutfumd ifwt •oJuififU Jyttt WtC. ✓ (F) The Tall Target (M-G-M) THIS movie, supposedly based on a little known episode in American history, tells of the work of a New York detective, Richard Powell, to prevent a planned assassination of President Lincoln during his inaugural address. Most of the action takes place on a train traveling between New York and Washington with a stopover in Baltimore. Aboard the train are Adolphe Menjou as a Zouave Colonel, Florence Bates as a novelist, Marshall Thompson as a young Southerner, his sister Paula Raymond and her slave, Ruby Dee. After getting through a message of warning to the President, it becomes Powell’s duty to ferret out the schemers. In so doing he all but loses his life. In view of the dire event that actually happened later on, one has the feeling Mr. Powell should have stayed right on the job. Not that we hold Dick in any way responsible for the foul deed. Your Reviewer Says: A case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Program Notes: Authentic 1861 decorations, costumes and customs have been so faithfully adhered to, one instantly gathers the feel and atmosphere of the times. The engine, of 1861 vintage, tvas overhauled and repaired so that it could travel under its own steam over two miles of track. Hooked to the engine were ten cars of the exact period . . . Adolphe Menjou became so enthused with this historical mystery, he cut short a lecture tour of 200 colleges, universities and women’s clubs to return to Hollywood for the role. Dick Powell grew his own sideburns and was very proud of them. P' (F) Meet Me After the Show (20th Century-Fox) MACDONALD CAREY, playing a Broadway producer, dolefully observes, in part, that this is the greatest achievement of his career and after this there’s no place left to go. There he errs: The first place to go, for instance, would be to the man responsible for this claptrap. And whether this did or did not precipitate Betty’s studio walkout, we don’t know. She plays a “refeened” dame, made over into a Broadway star by her producer husband, Macdonald Carey, who can’t be true. On her way to the law courts, Betty suffers a slight accident that results in amnesia so, forgetting all, she goes back to her old dive singing in Miami. She is finally tracked down by Carey who discovers she is faking the amnesia but, knowing a good thing when he sees it, Carey grabs off a chunk of amnesia for himself and nobody knows who anybody is. Eddie Albert behaves as if he’d wandered into the wrong picture and couldn’t find his way out. Rory Calhoun and Lois Andrews are glimpsed here and there. The songs are fair. Your Reviewer Says: A Grable musical and that’s that. Program Notes: It takes over 300 men, brave and true, to keep Betty Grable’s feet dancing and her voice singing, so says her studio. In this one 31 7 men worked in the wings alone. It took thirty-seven composers 1 and arrangers to put the songs on paper and ninety musicians to accompany her. Then, 'the studio insists, on the stage where Betty danced, there labored thirty-two carpenters, twelve painters and one plumber. Technicolor experts, hairdressers, dressmakers, shoemakers, Georgie Jessel, dancers, actors, extras comprised the rest. For the first time in ten years Betty appears in a bathing suit, wrapped, for some reason, in more garments than a Hindu. Male customers should sue ■ . . Macdonald Carey paid for his own singing lessons and is now studying dancing and ballet. ^ (F) The Lady from Texas (U-I) DO you believe petite, dainty and so pretty Mona Freeman could be a cook for a bunch of Texas cowhands? Even in Technicolor could you believe it? Could you swallow the idea that Howard Duff, a hardened cowhand, wants to protect Josephine Hull (for free, too) who has become so downright pixilated in this one as to be ridiculous? Or wait, here’s another one. Do you think Gene Lockhart looks like a little pig, or that a skunk chooses the exact time and place to let fly? If so, you deserve to see this utterly preposterous Western that has Miss Hull completely off the beam, living in decayed elegance off the bounty of Miss Freeman, with Duff her reluctant guardian. At a court trial, brought by conniving Craig Stevens, who wants her land, it is decided Miss Hull is as sane as you and I. So pack your bags, kids. I’ll meet you at Bellevue. Your Reviewer Says: Oh, come now, you’re a big, grown-up studio! Program Notes: After eight months at home with a broken leg, Howard Duff returns to the screen in this one, of all movies. When word was given out that Duff was the loneliest man in Hollywood, his fan mail ripened with offers from hundreds of women anxious to alleviate his condition . . . When the studio first introduced Miss Hull to the skunk, she inquired timidly, “Has it been defrosted?” . . . Barbara Knudson, who plays Craig’s wife, is the daughter of a Las Vegas high school principal. This is her first movie. When Gene Lockhart was told to look as much as possible like the little animal Miss Hull thinks he resembles — a piggy — he batted not an eye. Fifty years in show business has taught him many things. ^y2 (F) Sunny Side of the Street (Columbia) MUSIC, good, popular and lots of it! Such favorites as Billy Daniels, who pours a ton of emotion into his songs and Frankie Laine, current favorite, pad out a little story until its mother wouldn’t know it. But wait. Guess who else gives forth with vocal music — and not too badly, either? Jerome Courtland! Actually the story revolves about Jerome who wants to sing on television. His ambition meets the approval of his girl friend, Terry Moore, who wangles him an audition with Frankie Laine. Jerome then is on his way up, the hard way, when who enters the plot but Audrey Long, daughter of a prospective sponsor. The usual happens. Jerome courts Audrey to please two weary writers who promise him a star spot on the show. Terry hears about it and all sorts of misunderstandings ensue. Toni Arden plays herself in a tuneful, liltful little musical. Your Reviewer Says: Teenagers will love it. Program Notes: Frankie Laine has two fan clubs in far off Baghdad and thinks it’s wonderful. Claims it proves his voice has no national barriers of understanding. Jerome Courtland, on the other hand, complains even his next door neighbors won’t believe he does his own singing. “Come on, Jerry,” his friends say, “you’re among friends. Who did your dubbing for you?” Frankie Laine married Nan Grey, ex-screen starlet, just before the picture began . . . When a studio publicity blurb described Terry Moore as a cross between June Allyson and Janet Gaynor, she moaned, “l wonder how I’d look if I looked like myself?” The swer? Not bad at all, not at all. 30