Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1940)

February 10, 1940 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW Page 23 Actual newspaper headlines of the workings of the G-men should be used in your lobby, together with a display of crime prevention apparatus used by j^our local police. Reward dodgeis could be distributed before opening. (ADULT) Catchline: "The inner workings of the FBI". AUDIENCE SLANT: WILL PLEASE THEATRE GOERS WHO LIKE MELODRAMA. BOX OFFICE SLANT: WILL FIT IN OKAY IN THE ACTION SPOT OF MOST BILLS. Invisible Killer Producers Drama 63 mins. (Nafl Release, Jan. 31) Cast: Grace Bradley, Roland Drew, William Newell, Alex Callam, Frank Coletti, Sydney Grayler, Clen Wilenchick, Boyd Erwin, Jeanne Kelly, David Oliver, Harry Worth, Ernie Adams. Credits: Original story by Carter Wayne. Screenplay by Joseph O'Donnell. Directed by Sherman Scott. Director of Photography, Tack Greenhalgh. Musical Director, Fred Preble. Film Editor, Holbrook N. Todd. Plot: Grace Bradley, a reporter, seems to get to the scene of all crimes before the police. This bothers the latter, especially Roland Drew, a Uentenant of detectives, W'ho is trving hard to locate the ringleader of a group of gamblers. The murders which occur are all of men who are about to reveal the ringleader. They are contrived by an ingenious device in a telephone which causes two chemicals to combine when the receiver is lifted. Grace discovers this device and when Drew finally captures all the gamblers, he marries her. Summary: Although highly imbelievable, this picture may prove to be entertaining to the large number of people who like stories about reporters as they think they ought to be rather than as they are. The picture has its comedy moments, its dramatic situations, etc. and for an independent picture it has been well produced and directed. There's plenty of action in it to satisfy the action fans and so it ought to give a good account of itself on those bills where an action picture is demanded. Because of the telephone method of killing, you can tie up with drug stores selling telephone antiseptics. Give a free blood pressure test in the lobby. (FAMILY) Catchline: "She was always one jump ahead of the cops". AUDIENCE SLANT: SHOULD BE WELL LIKED WHERE REPORTER STORIES ARE POPULAR. BOX OFFICE SLANT: GOOD FOR ACTION SPOT ON WEEK END BILLS. Pioneer Days audience at the Central Theatre in New York didn't. The goings-on are much on the same order with June Wilkins taking an awful bouncing in a runaway stage coach but remaining hidden for several minutes after its stoppage Lo allow Randall and his friends to complete their lines. There isn't any singing to speak of in this one, so it may be labelled as old fashioned by the crowd which expects its Western heroes to warble while riding. Sell it in typical Western fashion with d'splays of cowboy equipment in the lobby, etc. (FAMILY) Catchline: "Out-gunning gunmen is Jack's ^"audience SLANT: FOR THE RABID WESTERN FANS. BOX OFFICE SLANT: ABOUT AVERAGE WESTERN BUSINESS. Louise Mayer-Burstyn Opera 72 mins. (Nat'l Release, Feb. 2) Cast: Grace Moore, Georges Thill, Andre Pernet, Suzanne Despres, Ginette Leclerc, and others. Credits : Directed by Abel Gance. Adapted from the opera bv Gustave Charpentier. Orchestra conducted by Eugene Bigot. Foreword and English titles by Deems Taylor. Plot: Louise, the daughter of a laborer, is in love with the poet and musician Julien, whose love for the boheinian life of Paris plus his precarious means of making a livelihood makes the parents of Louise oppose their friendship. Louise finds her love for Julien too great to be deterred by her parents' objections, and she deserts them for Julien, but returns when she learns her father is dangerously ill. The separation from her lovt-r is too great a sorrow for Louise to bear, and in a stormy scene she is di-nounced and ordered from her home by the father. Comment: Grace Moore had a big following among picturegoers during the seasons when outstanding pictures made by Columbia in Hollywood placed her in the forefront. Since that time she has been in eclipse so far as the pictures are concerned, and it is a question if her name means box office now. Nevertheless, operagoers last week were laying it on the line at fancy prices to hear Grace Moore in the role of Louise at the ^Metropolitan in New York. The star is the only factor to be considered in weighing the box office possibilities of this ofifering from France. It is opera in films — never very successful, and here not^ at all S'iccessful ' as motion picture entertainment. The author of the opera had supervision of tiie filming. Tliat may mean much to music lovers, but as results stand it didn't seem to help this picture. Judged by the usual standards "Louise" the film is a bore re Monogram Western 51 mins. (Prod. No. 3953, Nat'l Release, Jan. 25) Cast: Jack Randall, June Wilkins, Frank Yaconelli, Nelson McDowell. Ted Adams, Bud Osborne, Robert Walker, Glenn Strange. Credits: Produced and directed by Harry Webb. Photographed by Edward Kull. Sound by Glen Glenn. Editor, Robert Golden. Original screenplay by Bennett Cohen. Plot: Randall and his pals are about to hold up the stage coach when a gang beats them to it. But they rout the villains and bring the stage coach and its pretty passenger to town. The latter, June Wilkins has come to claim her share of Adams' saloon. But he defrauds June out of it and Randall helps to put things to rights, including the arrest of Adams for murdering the express company's messenger. Randall is then revealed as a private investigator for the express company, June sells her saloon and they get married. Comment: "Why didn't ya tell me ya witz a private operator fer th' express company", says the sheriff to Jack Randall at the end of the picture. \\'ith this concession to public indignation over their hero possibly being a bandit, "Pioneer Days" is a pretty typical Western. It is hard to believe that all the audiences for pictures of this type are so gullible as to swallow the above line. An lieved only by the din of an of¥ stage orchestra which seems strident and noisy due perhaps to an inferior brand of recording. The Moore vocalization does not compare to the reproduction thereof in her American films — again, no doubt, the fault of recording. Georges Thill, the tenor, is not a romantic figure as Julien, but his singing of the Charpentier arias has appeal. Play up the opera angle, ballyhooing that here is opera witli Grace Moore in the operatic role which has been acclaimed as her best and which opcragoers cheered in her Metropolitan appearances this season. (ADUL'T) Catchline: "America's favorite soprano in her greatest operatic role." AUDIENCE SLANT: ON THE DULL SIDE, WITH THE "AINT LOVE GRAND" THEME SEEMING VERY DATED AND THE PRODUCTION LACKING AN ENLIVENING ELEMENT OF ANYTHING ATTRACTIVE OR SPECTACULAR. BOX OFFICE SLANT: A MINOR ATTRACTION EVEN WITH GRACE MOORE IN REAL OPERA AS A MAGNET, THIS IS AT BEST A COMPANION FEATURE ON WHICH SOME NON-REGULAR PICTUREGOERS MIGHT BE BROUGHT IN PROVIDED THERE IS A LIVELY INTEREST IN MUSIC AMONG GROUPS IN YOUR TOWN. Trebilcock Doesn't Overlook a Bet in Selling "The Hunchback" Fred Trebilcock, manager of the Uptown Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, didn't overlook a bet in bringing to the attention of his city the opening of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame.'" Trebilcock arranged a tieup with Radio Station CBC and CFRC, giving the picture an endorsement over the air. Other highlights included a tie-in with Eaton's. Toronto's big department store; Birks-Ellis-Ryrie Ltd., the "Tiffany" jewelry store of the town and 20 other prominent store windows on Yonge Street, the principal thoroughfare of the city. Tyrrell's Book Shop featured a window display, using the Victor Hugo classic as a background. Billboards announcing the attraction, theatre and playdate were placed throughout the citv and surrounding sections, and the Toronto Public Library featured a good pictorial display at its main entrance. Floyd's Cathedral Display Two weeks in advance of the showing of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" at Sioux Falls, S. D., Manager Joe Floyd of the Hollywood Theatre used a giant indoor cathedral front in his lobby. Everyone entering the theatre had to go through the cathedral door. When the feature was played, the display was moved to the theatre front. Getting Ready for Variety Club Convention Johnny Harris, Chief Barker of National Variety Clubs, pays a visit to Dallas Tent No. 17 to assist in arrangements for the Variety Club National Convention to be held in Oallas. April 18-20— and is met at the airport by a representative committee of Tent ^o. L. Reading from left to right are Francis Barr. W alter Henshel, John Adams. George Tyson. Harrv Harris. George Schepps. Hal Noble. Charlie Rader, John H. Harris. R. J. O'Donnell. James O. Cherry, Dave Lutzer, Jake Lutzer. Raymond Willie, William O'Donnell, Louis Cnarnmsky.