Boxoffice-Febuary.07.1948

lOp/flfons on Current Productions; txploitips for Sellmg to the Public
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A Miracle Can Happen
United Artists (- 100 Minutes Rel. Feb.
Eight stars—the seven belbw, and Harry James— share the
topUne and their talents are bolstered by a supporting
cast nearly as luminous. If such an array of Thespian might
doesn't in itself make this a top grosser, then those who make
pictures and those who exhibit them had better revise their
opinion of name-value. In this case, the film offers sufficient
entertainment to back up the promise of marquee magnitude.
There is a trio of comedy situations—each a story unto itself
loosely bound together by a breezy tongue-in-cheek yarn.
This three-in-one arrangement endows the film with virtually
every type of humor, so there is something for any celluloid
taste. Probably it is reporting the obvious to say that performances
are excellent, and they are accented through lush
production and the skilful dual direction of King Vidor and
Leslie
Fenton.
Paulette Goddard, Burgess Meredith, James Stewart, Henry
Fonda, Fred MacMurroy, Dorothy Lamour, Victor Moore.
The Hunted
Monogram-Allied Artists ( ) 85 Minutes Rel. —
With this. Allied Artists, Monogram's silk-stocking running
mate, makes still another convincing bid for wider and better
markets than those served by the latter outfit's run-o'-mill
product. Personally made by Scott R. Dunlap, the company's
production chief, it is crisp, hard-boiled drama of crime and
punishment which offers a fertile field for the talents of a
carefully selected cast — one, incidentally, sufficiently
freighted with known names to command fan attention in
most situations. In technical and production accoutrements
there is ample additional evidence of the sizable budget.
Preston Foster garners more than his share of acting honors
in his portrayal of a tough but honest copper in love with a
gal just out of stir, to which he has sent her. Her innocence
established, he starts a search which gives the piece its title
and motivation. Jack Bernhard directed.
Preston Foster, Belita, Pierre Watkin, Edna Holland, Russell
Hicks, Frank Ferguson, Joseph Crehan.
Fighting Mad
Monogram (4709) 75 Minutes
F
F
Rel. Feb. 7, '48
Fourth in the Joe Palooka series predicated on the popular
comic strip by Ham Fisher, this again reflects the group's
steady trend toward improvement with each successive
entry. Resultantly, the latest chapter is easily the best to
dale, rating such evaluation on several counts. In the first
place, young Joe Kirkwood, who without previous acting
experience initiated the title role, is beginning to show
enough Thespian ability so as to seem more at home among
the more experienced mummers with whom Producer Hal
E. Chester surrounds him. The story in this case is above
par, solidly constructed and entirely believable, and the
fight sequences are exceptionally well staged. While the
offerings still are clearly earmarked as supporting fare, there
are few programs to which this entry cannot lend luster.
Reginald LeBorg directed.
Leon Errol, Joe Kirkwood, Elyse Enox, John Hubbard, Patrica
Dane, Charles Cane, Wally Vernon, Frank Hyers.
U You Knew Susie
RKO Radio ( ) 91 Minutes Rel. Feb. 7. '48
Audiences looking for laughs to deliver them, for an hour
and a half, from the world's worries will find them in
abundance in a hunk of celluloid which unashamedly dedicates
itself to wringing the utmost in comedy from the antics
of two experts in the field, Eddie Cantor and Joan Davis.
They sing, dance and clown their way through a yarn which,
at every turn, sacrifices credibility for a chuckle or a guffaw,
and the sum total spells entertainment of the kind that should
result in popular and profitable bookings. Five musical
numbers, none of them lushly mounted but all deftly performed,
are woven logically into the plot. Cantor and Miss
Davis, retired vaudevillians, become world famous when
it is discovered the government owes them billions, due on
a debt pledged to one of Cantor's ancestors in the Revolutionary
War. Gordon Douglas directed.
Eddie Cantor, Joan Davis, AUyn loalyn, Charles Dingle,
Bobby DriscoU, Phil Brown, Sheldon Leonard, Joe Sawyer.
Saigon
Paramount (- 95 Minutes Rel.
That Ladd lad seems to be getting into something of a
rut. Herein again he portrays the hard-boiled ex-army
flyer who stays in the orient to match wits, fisticuffs and
hot lead with the sinister forces, determined the while to
win fortune and, of course, the steeped-in-mystery gal
this time, none too surprisingly, Veronica Lake. That wellworn
story situation is spread transparently thin, a weakness
which is alleviated but slightly by the patent efforts
of the producer to bolster the literary shortcomings through
characterizations and interpolation of atmosphere byplays
Confronted with the same yarn-imposed hurdles, performances
are not up to the best individual and collective standards
of the cast, tempo is too leisurely and suspense is lacking,
with the action expected in such offerings limited to a
climactic sequence. Directed by Leslie Fenton.
Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Douglas Dick, Wally Cassell.
Luther Adler, Morris Carnovsky, Mikhail Rasunmy.
Black Bart
Univ-Int'l ( ) Minutes Rel.
Available to the producer were all of the elements necessary
for the making of a topflight western—among them
Technicolor, the adventure-laden history of California during
the gold rush, and the factual story of one of that era's
colorful bad men. That such assets weren't utilized to their
best advantage is probably due to the fact that an attempt
was made to write a torrid romance into the accepted spgebrush
procedure, which passion passages failed to jell.
Resultantly the offering became slightly hybridous. While
the action elements are acceptable they are insufficient in
quantity and length to enthuse inveterate seekers of six-gun
fare, and the love facets possibly will be comparably inadequate
for others. Strength of the cast and tint photography
assure satisfactory business but it cannot be expected
to engender huzzas. Directed by George Sherman.
yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, Jeffrey Lynn, Percy Kilbride,
Lloyd Gough, Frank Lovejoy, John Mclntire.
Man of Evil
United Artists ( ) Minutes HeL Jan. 30, '48
James Mason's fans in the United States—and there are a
goodly collection of them—are not going to be especially
happy when they discover he appears in the footage of this
interminable offering for not more than a quarter of its length,
and that his part therein is distinctly not a top-billing assignment.
What's more, the picture is several notches below the
standard, productionwise, of recent J. Arthur Rank importations.
It spins a maudlin and melodramatic hodgepodge of
a plot, the heavily-accented dialog is frequently difficult to
understand and it is considerably overlength for what entertainment
content there is in It. What the film's exhibition
fat will be here is dubious. The locale is England in the
1870s and Mason, a rascally fellow, meets his just doom
when killed in a duel. Directed by Anthony Asquith.
James Mason, Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger, Wilfred
Lawson, Jean Kent, Margaretta Scott.
February 7, 1948
Piccadilly Incident
MGM ( ) 87 Minutes Rel.
Upon its release in England nearly two years ago, this
gooey wartime problem play was accorded considerable
critical acclaim, the annual kudos of the British film industry
it
and, presumably, wide patronage. Obviously cannot hope to describe so desirable a curve during its
American exhibition life. The incurable romantic, those who
relish their sentiment in dripping doses regardless of circa
and aura, can find in the offering much to sate their tastes.
For more matter-of-fact spectators, however, the film probably
will be just another of the too-great number of photoplays
which stressed the chin-up, carry-on-at-all-costs attitude
li'l
of the tight island during the devastating days of
blitz. the Performances generally are acceptable, the picture
is
impressively mounted by Producer Herbert Wil-
who also directed.
cox,
Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Reginald Owen, Michael
Laurence, Frances Mercer, Carol Browme.