Silver Screen (Nov 1938-Apr 1939)

more beauteous dames could hardly be found, but they've been cast together, until saying Michael and Gloria is like saying "ham 'n eggs" and saying "Rochelle and Michael" is like saying "mustard with ham." The script of this picture is not yet finished and, as it has a very short shooting schedule, the picture will undoubtedly be shown in your favorite theatre before the writers have completed their work. This for it reminds me Christmas is just around the corner and here I haven't yet finished paying for my last year's prodigality, although last year's prodigality of my friends (both of 'em) has long since been downed and forgotten. I leave the above set and gloomily return to "By The Dawn's Early Light." Mr. Ratoff has had lunch— a big lunch— and is in fine fettle. He greets me effusively and I return the greeting for, next to Jack Benny, there is no comedian of whom I think more highly than Mr. Ratoff. He is developing into a first rate director but the woods are full of those. But the screen hasn't developed another comedian like him and I think it's a shame he should be lost to picture audiences. Although there is no dialogue in this scene it is tense and gripping. The scene is the cellar of a house and very realistic. Boxes are stacked up, there are old, dusty file The horrors of war in China coming through at last in "By The Dawn's Early Light." Charles Winninger in the midst of an alarming tale. Lucille Ball and Ralph Forbes in "Annabel Takes a Tour," a new brand of comedy — "not screwball." much I do know, however. It is Christmas morn, for there is a huge tree in the corner, the Victorian-furnished living room is all decorated with holly and mistletoe and the whole family, in dressing gowns, are sitting around while Spencer Charters distributes the gifts. He hands several gifts to Jean Rogers. She seems quite surprised when she finds they are all from Mike. "I don't know whether you'll like these things," he vouchsafes apologetically. "I had to buy them in the dark. I didn't know what you looked like or anything—" (which may throw some light on the plot). "I never expected anything like this," she murmurs, hugging the presents. "I didn't get you one single present." Just then Spencer picks up a present for himself from Jane Darwell. He gleefully discovers it is a bottle of liquor. "Well, Mary," he exclaims, "I'll be doggoned. Just what I needed." He starts to kiss her but she evades him and takes the bottle from him. "Yes, sir," she rejoins firmly, "I thought it'd go mighty fine in the plum pudding." Although the scene is one of joy and good cheer, it gives me an uneasy feeling cases, an old worn-out bed spring stands in a corner alongside a huge clothes hamper. An upright lamp with a beaded fringe tilts crazily against a table. There are a couple of old battered trunks and all the other junk a family accumulates over a period of years. It is war-torn China and refugees are flocking to the cellar to escape a Japanese air raid. Charles Winninger is trying to reassure the frightened populace. Alice Faye, as a phony Russian, and Warner Baxter, as a stalwart American are somewhere in the background. In the distance, the sound of bursting bombs is heard. It is all very depressing until the scene is finished and Arthur Treacher (who is also in the picture) comes up to shake hands. "They previewed 'My Lucky Star' the other night," he tells me. "Was it good?" I inquire. "I didn't see it," he rejoins and adds with horrifying candor, "and all I asked was if I got laughs. You see," he explains, "if I didn't they won't take up my option. I have no friends at court and my workingdepends on my ability. I've been here three years and I haven't yet met Mr. Zanuck. This is very swell because he only knows me by my reviews and the exhibitors reports. If I met him personally he might start asking himself, 'Is this the duffer we've been paying all that money to?' " I can't argue with Mr. Treacher and as there is nothing else to see on this lot I merely smile ambiguously and trickle out to— M-G-M THREE pictures going out here— "Listen Darling" with Freddie Bartholomew, "Stablemates" with Mickey Rooney, and "Vacation from Love" with Florence Rice and Dennis O'Keefe. Take the first, for instance. Mary Astor is a pretty young widow who is in desperate financial straits as the result of the unbusiness like methods of her dreaming, inventor husband. She lives with her two childrenJudy Garland and Scottie Beckett. Judy realizes all her mother's troubles are financial ones so she calls on her friend Freddie for advice and help. They plan to have her mother Ifefe*.. marry a likely man with plenty of money, and Walter Pidgeon is l In' In m in. mi I lii-i mi! into. But before mey can carry out their plans Pidge disappears. They start off in pursuit but before they catch him they run into Allan Hale and Freddie talks plenty. When Mary finds out what they've told him, they find out she hasn't got that red hair for nothing. She corners Judy and Freddie. "Buzz Mitchell," she says sharply to Freddie, "what have you been saying to Mr. Slattery?" "Nothing, Dottie— honest!" he protests, and then at the look in her face, "Well, hardly anything. At least, all I did say was what— well, only what you said." "That's all, "Judy amends. "Just the reasons." "Reasons?" Mary repeats, baffled. "Well, I mean," Freddie squirms, "only the reasons why you were going to marry Drubbs (Gene Lockhart)." "Buzz!" she exclaims aghast. "Whatever possessed you to tell that to a total stranger?" Freddie starts perspiring. "Gosh, Dottie," he whimpers, "he didn't seem like a total stranger at all. I felt like I knew him all my life, particularly after he was so nice about the skunk." "Stablemates" comes next and it's all for November 1938 59