Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1947)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, January 25, 1947 m BOX-OFFICE SLANTS fleeted at the ticket window. Exhibitors who cater to western fans should have excellent results with this one. Cast: Jimmy Wakely, Lee "Lasses" White, Jean Carlin, Jack Baxley, Iris Clive, Jonathan Black, Bob Duncan, Wesley Turtle, Brad Slaven. Credits: Producer-director, Oliver Drake. Associate Producer, Glenn Cook. Screenplay, Elmer Clifton, from a story by Oliver Drake. Photography, Marcel Le Picard. Plot: Jimmy Wakely and "Lasses" White go to the aid of a pretty girl and her father, who are being set upon by an unscrupulous female rancher and her gang. Despite many efforts to prevent Jimmy and "Lasses" from reaching their goal, the two succeed in rounding up a bunch of wild mustangs and training them. With these horses, they defeat the villainess' thoroughbreds in a test run to prove which equines should be purchased by the Army. Comment: This is by far the best western in which Jimmy Wakely has yet appeared. But the most credit must go to a gentleman named Oliver Drake, who not only gave the film superior production values for this type of picture, but directed it skillfully. Moreover, Drake penned the original story from which Elmer Clifton wrote the better-thanaverage screenplay. Usually, westerns are set in the same old setting of the "cattle-rustling days" — but this is in modern dress with an up-to-date yarn. There are plenty of musical numbers to satisfy the most ardent fans, with Wakely and Wesley Tuttle and his musicians doing splendidly by the tunes. "'Lasses" White is excellent as Wakely's comic aide, and pretty Jean Carlin handles her lines well. Iris Clive provides a different, refreshing type of villainy. Showmen can be thankful to Drake and Monogram for this one, ironically enough Drake's last for the studio. Boomerang 20th Century-Fox Drama 88 mins. AUDIENCE SLANT: (Adult) A strange, abscrbing and highly entertaining drama of fact, with what is surely becoming known as "the de Rochemont touch." A fine, important picture. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: With the upand-coming Dana Andrews' name for marquees, plus the film's certain exploitable angles, plus positive word-of-mouth praise, it should do better than average business in most situations. Cast: Dana Andrews; Jane Wyatt, Lee J. Cobb, Cara Williams, Arthur Kennedy, Sam Levene, Taylor Holmes, Robert Keith, Ed Begley, Leona Roberts, Philip Coolidge, Lester Lonegan, Lewis Leverett, Barry Kelley, Richard Garrick, Karl Maiden, Ben Lackland, Helen Carew, Wyrley Birch, Johnny Stearns, Guy Thomajan, Lucia Segerm, Dudley Sadler and others. Credits: Directed by Elia Kazan. Produced by Louis de Rochemont. Screenplay by Richard Murphy, based upon an article published in the Reader's Digest, December, 1945. Photography, Norbert Brodine. Plot: A minister in a small Connecticut town is murdered on the streets. Seven witnesses positively identify a man picked up in Ohio as the man who committed the crime. Other witnesses place him at the scene of the crime and the ballistics expert of the police department states positively that a gun found on the suspect fired the bullet taken from the murdered man's head. Despite the overwhelming evidence against the sus pect, including his signed confession, the state's attorney is not convinced of the man's guilt, and proceeds, through a series of tests and leading questions, to confound the witnesses, whose previously positive statements are then given qualifications. In a dramatic courtroom scene, another man commits suicide, apparently because he has become involved in crooked real estate deals that the minister might have known about. Comment: The story opens with a foreword which states that the story is fact, and that both exterior and interior scenes have been photographed on the spot and that several of the characters appearing in the film actually took part in the proceedings on which Anthony Abbot based his article which appeared in Reader's Digest and on which the screenplay was based. With this establishment of authenticity the film goes on its Town Wins Big Hand By CARL B. SHERRED I. M. Rappaport's new Town Theatre, with its colorful exterior, distinctive decorations and luxurious appointments, won an ovation in its own right Tuesday evening at a double premiere such as has not been witnessed in Baltimore in many a year. The occasion was an engraved-invitation affair for the Baltimore premiere of Liberty Films' "It's a Wonderful Life" and the opening of a theatre on which Izzy Rappaport lavished his showmanship knowledge and financial resources. The Town opening was attended by James Stewart and Frank Capra, respectively (as though you didn't know) star and director of "It's a Wonderful Life," by RKO Radio officials Ned Depinet, Robert Mochrie, S. Barrett McCormick, Harry Michalson, Walter Branson, Nat Levy and others. leisurely way to establish its characters, their backgrounds, etc., and then takes audiences along the actual development of the crime, the hunt for the criminal, the steaming-up of the police department for its ineffectuality in solving the mystery. When the police get their hands on a likely suspect, they proceed to develop what appears to be an airtight case against him. The denouement is a series of highly dramatic scenes in a Connecticut courtroom in which Dana Andrews, as the state's attorney, proceeds to show why he doubts the evidence against the suspect, even though a conviction is certain to make him governor of his state. It is Andrews' picture, from an audience point of view, with strong assistance from Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt and Sam Levene; but for those who know their picture business, it is another Louis de Rochemont development of his semi-documentary technique which he used so successfully in "The House on 92nd Street" and "13 Rue Madeleine." The production is nearly perfect, the direction definitely superior and the acting of the professionals all that could be asked for, and slightly more. "Boomerang" is a fine, absorbing melodrama with great exploitation potentialities that should do better than average business when word of its excellence gets around. Selznick Writers Active David O. Selznick has assigned J. O. C. Orton to write the screenplay of "Trent's Last Case," which is scheduled to star Joseph Corten, with David Hempstead producing. Selznick has also assigned David Hertz to do the screenplay of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender Is the Night," which will have an all-star cast. Both pictures will be released through the Selznick Releasing Organization.