Silver Screen (Nov 1938-Apr 1939)

Love that is deep as a canal. Loretta Young and Tyrone Power in "Suez." THE CITADEL A Brilli\nt Story Of An English Doctor -M-G-M NOT since "Louis Pasteur" has there been a picture to make such a profound impression. "The Citadel", adapted from the A. J. Cronin best selling novel of the same title, was made in England and is the second of the highly successful Metro pictures to be made there— "The Yank at Oxford" was the first. The picture deals, as did the book, with an attack on the English medical association, and comes at a time when the American Medical Association is being criticised by the press. Robert Donat, the best of the English actors, which is no faint praise, plays the young idealistic doctor who starts his career in the Welsh mining communities but finds that through ignorance, superstition and greed he cannot advance his study of tuberculosis. He goes to London where he and his wife suffer all kinds of poverty and hardship while he tries to establish a practice. Eventually he falls in with some of his former classmates, who have become "society" doctors, and he too goes in for easy money. He is on the verge of separating from his wife, who has become too old-fashioned for him, when his one close friend dies on the operating table at the hands of one of the biggest surgeons in London. Dr. Donat knows that the operation, simple as it was, was badly bungled and that the great surgeon with his great fees is nothing less than a murderer. This brings him to his senses and once more he finds happiness in becoming an honest doctor. Rosalind Russell, the one Hollywood person in the cast, gives a brilliant performance as the doctor's wife who is not afraid of poverty. Ralph Richardson stands out as the doctor's friend. Under the capable direction of King Vidor the picture is vigorous and realistic. JUST AROUND THE CORNER The Shirley Temple Fans Will Eat This Up— 2olh Century— Fox IN HER newest picture little Miss Temple —w ho is still Number One box-office star —plays the daughter of a young widowed architect (Charlie Farrell) who lives in the basement of the swanky Riverview Apartments and acts as the house engineer. He and Shirley once lived in the penthouse of the same building— but that was before depression set in. Through a natural, childish misunderstanding Shirley thinks that a crochety old banker (Claude Gillingwater) is the "Uncle Sam" her father is always talking about. Her father has told her that "Uncle Sam" needs money so that he can help business conditions, and when business conditions are helped people will need architects again. Through pity for the old man Shirley sets out to be kind to him and her bungling but charming efforts gradually win him over completely. She gives a benefit for her "Uncle Sam" that is one of the high spots of the picture. The cast is tops, with Joan Davis playing the caretaker of the apartment house dogs, Franklin Pangborn the fluttery manager, and Bert Lahr a chauffeur. Bennie Bartlett deserves special praise as the banker's smarty nephew, and son of the frantic Cora Witherspoon, too elegant »for words as a Park Avenue matron. Charlie Farrell makes his first screen appearance in a long time— he should make them much, much oftener. Bill Robinson, Shirley's ever dependable side-kick, shares two excellent tap routines with her. BLONDIE A Popular Comic Strip Makes Its Movie Debut— Col. ONE of the most widely read comic strips in this country is "Blondie"— and so it is big news when "Blondie" suddenly becomes a movie series too. If you had looked a million years you couldn't have found a better Dagwood than Arthur Lake, a better Blondie than Penny Singleton, a better Baby Dumpling than little Larry Simms, and a better Daisy than Daisy "himself." The first in this series, which is bound to be popular, deals with Dagwood 's financial predicaments. It seems that as he and Blondie approach their fifth wedding anniversary they have paid off their final installment on the furniture, and Blondie is all ready to surprise her mate with new installments! Dagwood gets caught on the short end of a loan shark's note he has endorsed— and gets an introduction to Gene Lockhart, a big money sales prospect. Everything becomes badly involved until Blondie comes to the rescue. ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES A Two-fisted, Vigorous Picture That's Surefire Entertainment — Warners JIMMY CAGNEY returns to his old familiar role of the gangster in his latest picture, and when Jimmy plays a gangster he's well-nigh perfect. Pat O'Brien, his pal on screen and off, plays an East Side priest and, as Father Jerry, Pat is well nigh perfect himself. The picture opens in the slums of a big city. Two boys in their teens, Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connally (played by Frankie Burke, who not only looks like Cagney but talks like him, and William Tracey) need money to see a movie, so they break open a freight car and steal a lot ol fountain pens. Rocky is caught and sent to reform school— and there begins his life as a gangster. Years later, after serving a stretch at the state prison, he returns to his former neighborhood and finds that his old side-kick, Jerry, has become a priest, that the little girl he used to tease has become the attractive Ann Sheridan, and that his old basement hang-out is now the rendezvous of the tenement toughies, the Dead End boys. When they discover that the new guy in the neighborhood is Rocky Sullivan the Dead End kids become hero worshippers, much to the distress of Father Jerry, who wants to make honest American citizens of them. When Rocky kills off Humphry Bogart and George Bancroft, rival racketeers, and is himself caught by the police he is sentenced to be electrocuted. The last sequence, where Rocky goes to the chair screaming like a "yellow rat" as a favor to Father Jerry, who wants to" break the thrall of hero worship, is one of the most thrilling you've ever seen on the screen. It fairly brings out the goose pimples. Mixed in with the drama of this picture there is a lot of swell comedy. The scene where the Dead End kids play basketball is a knockout. 52 Silver Screen