Showmen's Trade Review (Jul-Sep 1943)

July 10, 1943 SHOWMEN'S TRADEREVIEW 29 Pacific Island No. 43 (Reassuring) RKO Radio (33109) This Is America No. 9 17 mins. A typical South Sea island, No. 43, is taken over by the Navy for a base hospital site. Work crews massage the land, build huts, install plumbing, string electric power lines, and make the hospital town modern in every respect. The Navy doctors war, not on the Japs, but on mosquitoes. The island is shown during a tropical rain storm and afterward when mud lies a foot deep. Through it all the doctors work, and the "boarders" come in. Soldiers on the Pacific front are seen transported in hospital planes to this base hospital, where they receive the best possible care. Even Jap prisoners get tliis attention. As the narration points out, the percentage of deaths among those reaching the base hospital is less than one-half of one per cent, compared with a rate of seven per cent in similar hospitals during the last war. This reassuring statement plus the evidence of modern care in the Pacific area will do much for the peace of mind of those with relatives in that sector. Bring out this fact to your patrons. Three Little Twirps (Average) Columbia — Stooge Comedy 15% mins. Typical of Stooge Comedies is this latest release : Slapstick and goo, and mugging, and merriment — if that's the word — and "you smear me up and I'll smear you" technique. The boys are at it again ; and for those who like 'em, "Three Little Twirps" is made to order. Popular Science (Weak) Paramount (J2-5) 10 mins. The latest Popular Science release in Magnacolor offers four subjects. The surgical institute (Released Wednesday, July 1) MOVIETONE (Vol. 25, No. 87)— MacArthur opens new offensive in South Pacific ; American fighter aces over New Guinea; Armored vests for airmen; Flier whose forced landing caused early surrender of Lampedusa; Two Nazi spies seized by F.B.I. ; Record sheep herd in Canada; Sailors harvest potatoes; New food chief of U. S.; Introducing Mr. America of 1943. NEWS OF THE DAY (Vol. 14, No. 285)— MacArthur launches big drive on the Japanese ; Only dead Japanese left on Attu as American soldiers consolidate gains; F.B.I, closes trap on Nazi spies; King George in Africa; Lampedusa's one-man captor; Armored vests for airmen; Sheep-herding in Canada; Introducing Mr. America of 1943. PARAMOUNT (No. 90)— Pantelleria's liberation; Armored vests for airmen ; Gay Nineties Pageant in Chicago; MacArthur begins Pacific drive; Nelson demands more steel production; Miners slow in returning to work; Sec'y Ickes warns of necessity of all-out work by all; Nazi spies rounded up by F.B.I. PATHE (Vol. 14, No. 90)— Total U. S. victory on Attu; England's Queen Elizabeth sees ambulances from U. S.; 70,000,000 fingerprints in F.B.I, files; Armored vests for airmen; Aftermath of Pantelleria's fall; MacArthur advances in Pacific. UNIVERSAL (Vol. 16, No. 203)— F.B.I, captures Nazi spies; Explosion at Grand Junction, Colo.; Fingerprints in F.B.I, files; "Flying box cars" to New Guinea; Ace pilots in New Guinea; Armored vests for airmen; Aftermath of Pantelleria's fall; Introducing Mr. America of 1943. (Released Saturday, July 10) MOVIETONE (Vol. 25, No. 88)— Germans launch Summer offensive in Russia; Japanese bombers raid founded by Oswaldo Cruz in Rio de Janiero is shown in reference to its use of monkeys as guinea pigs for the advance of human surgery. The monkeys are given a vote of thanks. A Victory garden sequence shows new gadgets for weeding, raking, and watering, aided by demonstrators in the shape (stet) of starlets Lynda Grey and Louise LaPlanche. A comedy sequence with the "Wily Wizard of Waukesha" fails to come of?. The final, and best, section shows methods of training glider pilots, with the large transport gliders featured. Who Killed Who (Fair) MGM (W-448) MGM Cartoon 8 mins. This is not a "whodunit," but a "whatisit." A kind of burlesque on the "Crime Doesn't Pay" series, it might be the nightmare of the dignified "official" who opens the film at his desk. From then on cartoon-work carries the audience through a wild melange of screams, horrendous laughs, haunted houses, ghosts, falling bodies, drooping guns, and every possible murder mystery device, with a silly detective as the central point. Effect on your audience is debatable. It all comes so fast and disconnectedly that the cartoon utterly lacks point — just eight minutes of amusing insanity. The best theoretical audience would be made up of kids and sophisticates. Farm Hands (Slovf) MGM (C-495) Our Gang Comedy 11 mins. The kids are all for helping the war effort, so they go back to the farm to do their bit. There are such items as asking a cow to fill milk bottles, taking care of a jackass, and falling into a hay baling machine, to say nothing of a well. Pace is slow and the comedy moments do not always come off. If your patrons know the kids the offering will pass. Allied air base; King George visits North Africa; American fliers in New Guinea honored; Col. Hobby's Wac taken into regular Army; Field Mass at Sampson Training Station (except Denver) ; Paratroop maneuvers (Denver only) ; Patty Berg wins golf tournament; Bathing beauties in war industry. NEWS OF THE DAY (Vol. 14, No. 286)— U. S. air base, hit by Japanese, carries on ; King George on tour of Malta and Africa; Col. Hobby's Wac taken into regular Army; South Pacific heroes honored; Louis B. Mayer aids recruiting; New Liberty Ship George M. Cohan launched; Balloon barrage in East; Keeping war workers fit. PARAMOUNT (No. 91)— Patty Berg wins golf tournament; Mass for 16,000 sailors; Col. Hobby's Wac taken into regular Army; Dutch Castle in New York becomes museum; King George tours North Africa and Malta; Japanese bomb American base in South Pacific. PATHE (Vol. 14, No. 91) -King George tours North Africa and Malta; New Liberty Ship George M. Cohan launched: Barrage balloons guard East Coast; Pellet guns train Army gunners ; Wac now part of regular Army ; Japanese planes fire Allied oil dump in New Guinea; Destroyer escort vessel named for William C. Miller. UNIVERSAL (Vol. 16, No. 204) — King George tours North Africa and Malta: Balloon barrage guards East Coast; South Pacific heroes honored; Japanese bomb Allied oil dump in New Guinea; Build new hospital in New Guinea; Patty Berg wins golf tournament; Wounded soldiers enjoy sailing regatta at Seattle. ALL-AMERICAN (Issued Weekly— Vol. 2, No. 37)— First Negro ration board does great job; Crippled children aid scrap drive; Waacs display military precision; Boy artist on road to fame; "Get tough," says physical fitness chief; Jive gets into military drill; Feast of Corpus Christi celebrated at Churchill Downs, Louisville, Ky. Screen Snapshots No. 9 (Good) Columbia (4859) 10 mins. iriollywood at the film actors' homes, with glimpses of Edward G. Robinson, Basil Rathbone, Donald Crisp, Allan Jones, Rochester, Lucille Gleason, and Jean Hersholt. Ann Miller dancing at an Army camp — with audience wisecracks. A show at Lemoore Field, with Shirley Dinsdale, feminine ventriloquist, and Fibber McGee and Molly. The Fibber and Molly go into a card-playing routine that will not let down their followers. Also George Riley and Helene Heller, comedians, and the Kings Men, quartet — all of radio. Harlow Wilcox is the M.C., and a good one. Film holds to the level of former Screen Snapshots and will please the real fans. Tree for Two (Routine) Columbia (4509) Color Rhapsody 7 mins. The fox and crow are at it again, with the fox this time a tree surgeon who wants to eject the crow from his home in a ramshackle tree. The Brooklynese crow finally gets the fox's head in a block of cement and the subsequent action derives from his efforts to knock it off again. Dedicating the short satirically to tree surgeons isn't going to win much applause from members of that profession. In Technicolor — with nice bright hues. Men Working Together (Excellent) Columbia (4963) America Speaks 10 mins. You know that Government poster, "Men Working Together," with the picture of the three Americans — a soldier, sailor, and a welder. This is the story of how the poster came to be made, and how the welder wrote to the Government asking how he could get in touch with the other two men. The servicemen are sent to the welder's steel mill, and the three are seen in a tour of the plant, showing the audience how the priceless war material is turned out. This will hit home in every locality and will do much to illustrate the close connection between the mill worker and the serviceman. Red Hot Riding Hood (Tops) MGM (W-446) Cartoon 8 mins. Little Red Riding Hood, et al. are sick of being portrayed in the usual style, so they revolt. He becomes a wolf in Hollywood, she becomes a sexy night club singer, and grandma, an elderly siren in a skj'scraper apartment. There she tries to win the wolf for herself, when he turns up in pursuit of LRRH who has fled his advances. Unusual twists and turns make this far from the runof-the-mill cartoon, a Technicolor ribbon of continuous laughter. Memories of Australia (Timely) MGM (W-438) FitzPatrick Miniature 10 mins. This subject is a good one to keep in mind, for it shows the best-known cities Down Under — Melbourne and Sidney. When the war effort suddenly shifts to the Pacific area — as it does occasionally — the FitzPatrick number fits like a glove. This was done in Technicolor just before the war started, and is not dated in any way. . . NEWSREEL SYNOPSES . .