Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1941)

November 1, 1941 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW Page 43 HOLLYWOOD STUDIO ROUND-UP Seventeen new features went into production this week on ten different lots, coming near to a record for the past few years. METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER JOE SMITH, AMERICAN — Principals: Robert Young, Marsha Hunt, Van Heflin. Director, Richard Thorpe. CHINA CARAVAN — Principals: Laraine Day, Barry Nelson, Keye Luke. Director, George Seitz. MONOGRAM RIOT SQUAD— Principals: Richard Cromwell, John Miljan, Mary Ruth. Producer-Director, Ed Finney. LONE STAR LAW— Principals : Tom Keene, Betty Miles, Sugar Dawn. Producer-Director, Robert Tansey. PARAMOUNT THIS GUN FOR HIRE— Principals : Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, Alan Ladd. Director, Frank Tuttle. TRUE TO THE ARMY— Principals : Judy Canova, Allan Jones, Ann Miller, Jerry Colonna. Director, Albert S. Rogell. PRODUCERS BLONDE COMET— Principals: Robert Kent, Virginia Vale. Director, William Beaudine. RKO-RADIO MAYOR OF 44TH STREET — Principals : George Murphy, Anne Shirley, Richard Barthelmess. Director, Alfred E. Green. REPUBLIC RED RIVER VALLEY— Principals : Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Sally Payne. ProducerDirector, Joseph Kane. WEST OF CIMARRON— Principals: Tom Tyler, Bob Steele, Rufe Davis. Director, Les Orlebeck. 20TH CENTURY-FOX TALES OF MANHATTAN — Principals: Charles Laughton, Rita Hayworth, Victor Francen. Director, Julien Duvivier. ROXIE HART — Principals: Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, George Montgomery, Lynne Overman. Director, William Wellman. UNITED ARTISTS DUDES ARE PRETTY PEOPLE — Principals: Marjorie Woodworth, Jimmy Rogers, Noah Beery, Jr. Producer, Hal Roach. UNIVERSAL PANAMA KID — Principals: Peggy Moran, Eddie Albert, William Frawley, Mantan Moreland. Director, Ray Taylor. DESTINY — Principals: Claude Rains, Maria Ouspenskaya, Dick Foran, Lon Chaney, Jr. Director, George Waggner. FRISCO KATE — Principals: Irene Hervey, Kent Taylor. Director, Erie Kenton. WARNER BROTHERS IN THIS OUR LIFE — Principals: Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, George Brent, Dennis Morgan. Director, John Huston. Lubin May Go to MGM If the deal can be arranged, Arthur Lubin will direct MGM's "Rio Rita," the Abbott and Costello starrer which Pandro S. Berman will produce. Lubin piloted the comics in their five Universal vehicles. Next picture on their home lot will be "Pardon My Sarong," which will be produced by Jules Levey. Cummings Casts "Rings" Irving Cummings starts casting immediately for "Rings on Her Fingers," his next directorial assignment at 20th Century-Fox, and his first picture under his new 4-picture contract. WEST OF TOMBSTONE (Col.) Western. Principals: Charles Starrett, Russell Hayden, Marcella Martin, Cliff Edwards. Plot: A stagecoach is held up and the robbers escape after killing everyone but the driver. This arouses the speculation that Billy the Kid, thought dead these many years, still lives. The real Billy the Kid turned respectable, lends a hand in capturing the outlaw gang. Director, Howard Bretherton. THE FLEET'S IN (Para.) Musical-Comedy. Principals: Dorothy Lamour, William Holden, Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Jimmy Dorsey and His Band. Plot: A musical comedy about the battle between a Shakespeare-reading sailor, who suddenly finds himself the lady-killingest man in the fleet, and the girl singer, Dorothy Lamour, who has never been kissed. Director, Victor Schertzinger. LADY IS WILLING (Col.) ComedyDrama. Principals: Marlene Dietrich, Fred MacMurray, Aline MacMahon, Roger Clark, Marietta Canty, Stanley Ridges. Plot: A Broadway star adopts an abandoned baby. In order to get him she must prove she is either financially solvent or married. Being neither, she arranges a marriage of convenience with the young doctor called in to look after the child. Jealousy, blackmailers and lots of other things intervene before these two discover their love for each other — and the baby. Producer-Director, Mitchell Leisen. Release, Dec. 15. THE BODY DISAPPEARS (WB) Comedy. Principals: Jeffrey Lynn, Jane Wyman, Edward Everett Horton, Herbert Anderson. Plot: As the aftermath of a bachelor dinner, the groom-to-be is deposited on a slab in the dissecting room of a college. Taken for a corpse by a professor who delves in mysterious concoctions, he is given an injection of serum to be used to bring back the dead. The serum makes him invisible and many weird things happen before matters are finally straightened out. Director, D. Ross Lederman. YOU'RE IN THE ARMY NOW (WB) Comedy. Principals: Jimmy Durante, Jane Wyman, Phil Silvers, Regis Toomey, Donald MacBride, George Meeker. Plot: Two ace vacuum cleaning machine salesmen find themselves recruited into the Army when they try, unsuccessfully, to sell a vacuum cleaner to a recruiting officer. With their knack for getting into trouble, they make life pretty hectic for their Colonel and the other men in their regiment. However, they get Reunion on the Set Frankie Darro was directed in his first picture by Armand Schaefer, several years ago. He is now working with Schaefer again in Republic's "Tuxedo Junction," which Schaefer is producing. a chance to do one good deed, and much to their own surprise, it turns out well. Director, Lewis Seiler. WE WERE DANCING (MGM) ComedyDrama. Principals: Norma Shearer, Melvyn Douglas, Lee Bowman, Marjorie Main, Reginald Owen, Nella Walker. Plot: Two penniless noble refugees are gambling for high stakes in a Shanghai Club, because each feels that his debts will be cleaned up with his child's marriage. In America, one has a son and the other a daughter, and in spite of the fact that each is engaged to someone with money, when they meet they fall in love and marry. After a struggle, they find success together and bring the refugees to this country. Director, Robert Z. Leonard. CADETS ON PARADE (Col.) Drama. Principals: Freddie Bartholomew, Jimmy Lydon, Minna Gombell, Raymond Hatton. Plot: Taunted by students at a Military College for his lack of manliness, the son of a millionaire runs away. He makes friends with a newsboy, who teaches him how to take it, but returns to the school when it looks as though the newsboy will be held responsible for his disappearance. He then prevails upon his father to back the newsboy's education at the same school. Director, Lew Landers. THE PERFECT SNOB (20th-Fox) Comedy-Drama. Principals: Lynn Bari, Cornel Wilde, Charlie Ruggles, Charlotte Greenwood, Anthony Quinn, Alan Mowbray. Plot: A father makes a bargain with a supposedly poor young man. He will pay him a hundred dollars if he'll break up the romance between his daughter and a middleaged social catch. The boy goes to town, but steps out when he realizes he has fallen in love with the girl. When he finds that she returns his love, his only worry is how to break the news of his wealth to his bride-to-be. Director, Ray McCarey. BORROWED HERO (Mono.) Drama. Principals: Alan Baxter, Florence Rice, John Hamilton, Stanley Andrews, Constance Worth. Plot: A young lawyer is appointed special prosecutor in the District Attorney's office when he captures the killer of a newspaperman who was to have been a state witness against a crooked organization. He then sets out to find the head of the gang, so that the entire racket can be broken up. In this he succeeds, with the aid of his fiancee, a newspaperwoman. Director, Lewis Collins. Release, Dec. 5. DR. KILDARE'S INSIDE STORY (MGM) Drama. Principals: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Sterling, Ann Ayars, Barry Nelson. Plot: Lew Ayres is suspended by the hospital authorities when he picks up an accident case, out of his district, and operates immediately to save the patient's life. It seems that hospitals are zoned and no ambulance can pick up a case in another's zone. Ayres finds a way to correct the evil. Then he is reinstated. Director, W. S. Van Dyke. Ginger Rogers at 20th-Fox Ginger Rogers reported to 20th Century-Fox studio for the starring role in "Roxie Hart," which William Wellman directs. Adolphe Menjou, Lynne Overman and George Montgomery have important roles in the production, which Nunnally Johnson is producing. Phil Silvers. Nigel Bruce, Spring Byington and Sara Allgood head the supporting cast.