Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

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16 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, November 12, 1949 The Box'Ottice Slant Current and Forthcoming Feature Product Reviewed from the Theotreman's Standpoint Losl Youth (Italian Dialog — English Titles) Lux Film Drama 90 mins. AUDIENCE SLANT: (Adult) Well performed story of a cold-blooded young criminal. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: Theme and title qualify for grinds as well as foreign situations. Cast: Carla Del Poggio. Massimo Girotti. Jacques Sernas, Franca Maresa, Diana Borghese, Nando Bruno. Credits: Producer, Carlo Ponti. Director, . Pietro Germi. Story, Pietro Germi. Photography, Carlo Montuori. English titles, Clare Catalano. Plot: A university student leads a group of his friends in several robberies, one of which results in an accidental death. Later the boy cold-bloodedly kills the girl who loves him when she becomes a dangerous witness. It is his sister's boy friend, a detective, who sets the trap in which the hoodlum dies. Comment: This is for a long time more a report that clucks its tongue than a drama that creates suspense or highlights violence. Competent performances, however, and the latter part of the film with the deliberate murder and the police trap pull it through satisfactorily. The theme and the title, of course, well qualify it for the grinds as well as the foreign houses. Massimo Girotti, who plays the detective, is one of the better-known performers in Italian films ("The Iron Crown") and Jacques Sernas as the hoodluni is a very cool, arrogant, good-looking blond. Without Honor United Artists Drama 69 mins. AUDIENCE SLANT: (Adult) This dramatic offering should appeal particularly to the women, for the main character will arouse their sympathy and keep them deeply engrossed, and tense. Good entertainment for those who like strong dramatic films. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: Fine performances in an interesting story makes this drama a good choice paired with a comedy. Cast carries enough name-draw for general audience interest. Cast: Laraine Day, Dane Clark, Franchot Tone, Agnes Moorehead, Bruce Bennett, Franke Marlowe, Harry Lauter, Peter Virgo, Margie Stapp, Lester Dorr, Patricia Ann Ewing, Joan Dupius, Harrison Hearne. Credits: Directed by Irving Pichel. Screenplay by James Poe, Photography, Lionel Lindon, Produced by Robert and Raymond Hakim. Plot: The jealous, psychopathic hatred of a brother-in-law causes untold trouble and agony to a young housewife who thouglit herself in love with another man. Tense situation arises when the other man is accidentally stabbed in her home, and the brother-in-law tries to present her in a bad light to her husband, so that he and his brother can spend the rest of their lives together, without her around. Comment: Limited locale makes this drama somewhat slow and static, for most of the action is confined to the inside of a small house. But it does have lots of tension and suspense, and the perforrnances ,ire first-rate. Subject matter makes it a good dramatic oflFering for the women, whose sympathy will be aroused by the predicament National Reviewing Committees' Audience Classifications SWORD IN THE DESERT (U-I) FAMILY — National Board of Review CLASS .A.-SEC. 2— National Legion of Decency PRINCE OF FOXES (20th-Fox) FAMILY — National Board of Review CLASS A-SEC. 2— National Legion of Decency INTRUDER IN THE DUST (MGM) F.\MILY — National Board of Review CLASS A-SEC. 1 — National Legion of Decency of the leading character, and they'll probably have a good time shedding a tear or two in her behalf. Laraine Day gives an excellent portrayal of the young housewife whose quiet existence is suddenly upset when she becomes involved in a set of peculiar circumstances. Dane Clark is rugged and convincing as the psychopathic, revengeful brotherin-law and Bruce Bennett gives an understanding delineation of the husband whose wife has fallen for another man. There's fine support by Franchot Tone and Agnes Moorehead, the only other members of the cast who have anything much to do. Irving Pichel directed; Robert and Raj^mond Hakim produced. The Golden Stallion (Trucolor) Republic Musical Western 67 mins. AUDIENCE SLANT: (Family) Has all' the varied elements that make a good Roy Rogers picture. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: Should do well wherever westerns can be used, with the Roy Rogers name and color to pull them in. Cast: Roy Rogers. Dale Evans, Estelita Rodriguez, Pat Brady, Douglas Evans, Frank Fenton, Greg McClure, Dale Van Sickel, Clarence Straight, Jack Sparks, Chester Conklin. Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage, and Trigger. Credits : Associate producer, Edward J. White. Director, William Witney. .Screenplay, Sloan Nibley. Photography, Jack Marta. Music. Nathan Scott. Plot: Roy Rogers does a three-year stretch with the road gang after confessing to a charge that threatened his horse. Trigger, with destruction. A man had been killed, actually by a newly caught horse lie was attempting to steal from Rogers' corral. Later Roy is able to prove that the man and his gang had been using that horse to lead a freeroaming wild herd back and forth across the Mexican border — with diamonds smuggled in a si^ecially designed shoe. Comment: Wherever westerns can be used this picture should do well, for it's a good Roy Rogers vehicle with all the elements that have made him so eminent among screen cowboys. There's action, including a fight by Roy and plenty of good wild horse scenes (and the beautiful Trigger gets a chance to show the tricks a tame horse can do) ; music, with songs by Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage, Roy and by the lady stars: a square dance called by Roy; comedy, with Pat Brady riding the range crazily in a jeep; a hint of romance for Roy and Dale Evans; and Trucolor. The plot provides a good background for all this, and even protrudes itself a bit with the surprising angle of the hero, for the sake of his horse, actually spending a long time in jail. Free for All Univ.-Int'l Comedy 83 mins. AUDIENCE SLANT: (Family) Generally good all-around comedy entertainment for average audiences. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: Good to balance a strong dramatic feature and may well prove strong enough, based on cast names and local area conditions, to play alone in certain situations. Cast: Robert Cummings, Ann Blyth, Percy Kilbride, Ray Collins, Donald Woods, Mikhail Rasumny, Percy Helton, Harry Antrim, Wallis Clark, Frank Ferguson, Dooley Wilson, Lester Matthews, Murray Alper, Bill W-ilker, Kenneth Tobey, Harris Brown, Willard Waterman. Credits: Produced and screenplay by Robert Buckner. From a story by Herbert Clyde Lewis. Photography, Georcfe Robinson. Special photography, David S. Horsley. Plot: Having developed a tablet that changes water into gasoline, Robert Cummings becomes involved in several complications in Washington as he seeks to patent his new invention. Comment: Although in a number of instances it struggles too hard to draw laughs, "Free for All" is generally good all-around comedy entertainment for average audiences. The spontaneity of some situations provokes chuckles and occasionally belh^-laughs, but there are other times when the efforts to amuse are too forced. Nevertheless, as an offering to balance a strong dramatic feature, this comedy can serve exhibitors satisfactorily, and it may well prove strong enough, based on cast names and local area conditions, to play alone in certain situations. Robert Cummings and Ann Blyth are capable, and good jobs are turned in by Percy Kilbride and Ray Collins. Dear Wife Paramount Comedy 90 mins. AUDIENCE SLANT: This delightful, domestic comedy, made as a sequel to "Dear Ruth," should please generally. Audiences will be amused and their sympathies pleasantly titilated by the perplexities that arise when a young man, living with his wife's parents, is drafted to run against the father for the state senate. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: Exploited as a sequel to "Dear Ruth," this picture may be expected to cash in on the popularity of the previous film. Recent well publicized Holden comedies ought to give the William Holden name added box-office draw, and Joan Caulfield and Edward Arnold will have power in most situations. Cast: William Holden, Joan Caulfield. Billy De Wolfe, Mona Freeman, Edward Arnold, Arleen Whelan, Mary Philips. Credits: Produced by Richard Maibaum. Directed by Richard Haydn. Written for the screen by .\rthur Sheekman and N. Richard Nash, as a sequel to Norman Krasna's "Dear Ruth." Photogr.iphy, Stuart Thompson, A,S.C. Plot: A young man finds his domestic life complicated when he is forced, not only to live with his wife's parents, but to work for her rejected suitor at the job she had previously held. His difficulties increase when his wife's teen-age sister starts a movement to draft him to run for the state senate, and he finds the opposing candidate is his father