MPAA

Opinions on Current Productions; Exploitips for Selling to the Public
FEATURE REVIEWS
The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend F
Comedy
(Technicolor)
20th-Fox (91G) 79 Minutes Rel. Juno '49
During recent seasons the screen has been treated—and
profitably— to some outstanding features which undertook to
burlesque the time-honored gallopers. This goes one step
further inasmuch as it hovers between the screwball comedy
and a western, although about all that it adopts from
the latter category is locale, circa and aura. Written, directed
and enacted strictly for laughs, and lushly tinted in Technicolor,
the film's humor—which carries fairly well most of the
way—is broad and blatant and sufficiently rowdy to make
the picture a borderline case as concerns the production
code. As a straight-shooting dancehall gal, who gets in hot
water because she repeatedly plugs a judge in the derriere,
La Grable has plenty of opportunity to display the celebrated
gams which established her as No. 1 pinup girl, and
her fans will like her change of thespian pace. Limned and
megged by Preston Sturges.
Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, Rudy Vallee, Olga San Juan,
Leave It
Sterling Holloway, Hugh Herbert, El Brendel.
to Henry
Comedy
Monogram (4827) 57 Minutes Rel. June 12, '49
Stalwart trouping and a tight, laugh-laden script which
places emphasis upon wholesome, homespun comedy render
this eminently suitable for booking in that secondary spot,
for which exhibition niche it is further qualified by reason
of its compact running time. Second in a projected series costarring
Raymond Walburn and Walter Catlett (the initiale:
"Henry the Rainmaker"), the new entry reflects improvement
over the first, assaying higher in entertainment content and
benefiting from well-drawn, typical and humorous smalltown
characterizations. Most audiences should find it to their
liking. Walburn and Catlett carry the major part of the
thespian load, delivering in their standard slapstick style
the former as a busybody lawyer, the latter as the community's
muddle-headed mayor helplessly involved in one of
Walburn's wild schemes. Directed by Jean Yarbrough.
Raymond Walburn, Walter Catlett, Gary Gray, Mary Stuart,
Barbara Brown, Houseley Stevenson, Ida Moore.
Jimn
Mighty Joe Young F \'Zl7
RKO Radio ( ) 93 Minutes Rel. July 23. '49.
Hokum in unlimited quantities and of unabashed quality
ignites this pin wheel of adventure, fantasy, action and
humor. Some 16 years ago, Merian C. Cooper, the film's
co-producer, gave the screen "King Kong," the popularity
and profits of which will be remembered with drools by
I
veterans of the exhibition field. Whether this—cast in a
ina, A somewhat similar mold and again treating with a gigantic
"lit gorilla—can deliver similarly probably depends upon how
much tastes in screen fare have changed in that decade
and a half. Possibly because he suspects such changes,
Cooper apparently approached his chore with tongue in
cheek, which resulted in the offering being sufficiently flexible
so that spectators can look at it for laughs or for thrills,
depending upon the individual. Inasmuch as there are plenty
of both, the film should register stoutly at the turnstiles.
Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack.
Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, Robert Armstrong. Frank McHugh,
Douglas Fowley, Denis Green, Paul GuiHoyle.
Lust for Gold
F
~^'
Columbia ( )' 90 Minutes Rel. Juno '49
Purportedly this is a factual history of the fabulous Lost
Dutchman mine in Arizona's Superstition mountains, said
to be the hiding place of $20,000,000 in gold. If so—and a
foreword by the governor of Arizona attests to the film's
authenticity— then here is another and striking example of
truth being frequently stranger than fiction. For the film
spins a story of greed and passion, intrigue and murder
that is unrelentingly savage and violent, unleavened by
comedy touches and therefore destined to appeal more
strongly to masculine than to feminine patrons. Within that
limitation, it rates on a par with the other current entries—
and they are legion—in the present popular cycle of hardbitten
outdoor fare. The teaming of Glenn Ford and Ida
Lupino in the leads should prove a marquee asset, and S.
Sylvan Simon's dual chore as producer and director was
effectively accomplished.
Ida Lupino, Glenn Ford, Gig Young, William Prince, Edgar
Buchanan, Will Geer, Paul Ford.
The Gay Amiga
United Artists (604) 62 Minutes Rel. May 13, '49
^he second in Philip N. Krasne's new Cisco Kid series
has more laughs than action but is entertaining enough to
serve as supporting dualler in the neighborhood houses. Not
strong enough to stand alone in action spots. Made on a
modest budget, the film again plays up Cisco as a philosophical
adventurer and his pal, Pancho, as a loquacious
busybody. Duncan Renaldo is adequate, but not virile
enough as Cisco, while Leo Carrillo gives one of his stock
comedy portrayals as Pancho. Joe Sawyer contributes a few
laughs as a dim-witted army sergeant and Armida supplies
the feminine interest as a lively little spitfire. The scenic
backgrounds are outstanding. When Cisco is blamed for
banditry which was actually committed by an American
gang, he determines to capture the real outlaws. He has
several clashes -with on army sergeant before he exposes
the culprits. Directed by Wallace Fox.
Duncan Renaldo, Leo Carrillo, Armida, Joe Sawyer, Walter
Baldwin, Fred Kohler jr., Kenneth MacDonald.
F
only
$205
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FIv
The Walking Hills
Dram