Screenland (May 1943-Oct 1944)

r There's joy ahoy for every girl and boy!... Hop on board the show-boat for gay, exciting entertainment! . . . WENT FILMS Selected MR. SKEFFINGTON — Warner Bros. Bette Davis' new picture has all the flavor of a popular melodrama of "East Lynne" vintage. There's Fanny, shallow, vain and selfish, with nothing else to do except to be charming to her various swains. There's her worthless, extravagant brother who becomes indebted to his employer, Mr. Skeffington, whom Fanny marries. The underlying motif is Fanny's fear of growing old — which, of course, she does between 1914 and 1940, and the makeup man goes practically berserk in dishing out the wrinkles. Bette Davis' performance as Fanny is skilful. Claude Rains gains new appeal as Mr. Skeffington. THE CANTERVILLE GHOST — M-G-M For a delightful, thoroughly enjoyable fantasy you couldn't ask for anything better than this film based on an Oscar Wilde story and starring Charles Laughton as the timid nobleman ghost whose cowardice in 1600 has doomed him to ghostdom until a kinsman releases him by doing a brave deed in his name. Just his costume will send you off on a laughing spree, so his ghostly antics, rattling chains, materializing unexpectedly add greatly to the hilarity. Margaret O'Brien is neatly professional as little Lady Jessica, a Canterville, and Robert Young gives one of his best portrayals as the kinsman whose bravery frees the woebegone ghost. HAIL THE CONQUERING H ERO — Paramount Preston Sturges, author and director of this film, has a great knack of gleaning comedy out of ironic situations. Eddie Bracken does a fine job as the "conquering hero," who won't go home a failure when he's discharged from the Marine Corps for hay fever. But some real Marine heroes from Guadalcanal pin a medal on him and sneak him back to see his mother. The plan miscarries and he finds himself out of his depth when the townspeople elect him mayor. His speech condemning himself as a phoney is superb. William Demarest, as a tough sarge, and Ella Raines, hero's sweetheart, are fine. BATHING BEAUTY — M-G-M With a fine array of bathing beauties (who actually go in the water) in Technicolor, this is one for the boys. There's a plot, but it usually gives way to zany situations, plentiful in Red Skelton films. He plays a tunesmith, daffy about a pretty swimmer whom he marries. She goes back to her job in a girls' school when his producer (a short but good part by Basil Rathbone) brings forth a fake wife. He spends the rest of the footage in the girls' school as a co-ed, trying to get his real wife back. Esther Williams, pretty and talented, too, contributes a grand aquacade. Cugat's band with Lina Romay, and Harry James' band are in the groove. ROGER TOUHY, GANGSTER — 20th Century-Fox Based on known facts this film is designed to prove crime doesn't pay. That it does, but its documentary effect, ending with a speech by warden of Illinois' Stateville Prison where Touhy was sentenced to serve 99 years on a kidnaping charge, dulls the dramatic impact of the lesson. Preston Foster does a fine job of the title role, but he looks too nice to be a gangster. There's plenty of action, most exciting is his escape from prison (filmed at Stateville) with his henchmen played by Victor McLaglen, Frank Jenks, George E. Stone, Horace MacMahon, Anthony Quinn and John Harmon. SCREENLAND