Boxoffice-11.11.1950
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'ipln/MS on Current Productions; Exploitips for Selling to the Public<br />
FEATURE REVIEWS<br />
(FOB STORY SYNOPSIS ON EACH PICTURE. SEE REVERSE SIDE)<br />
20th-Fox (032) 105 Minutes<br />
(Technicolor)<br />
Rel. Dec. 'SO<br />
Accorded the same unstinting production mountings and<br />
film-making knowhow that earmarked other 20th-Fox pictures<br />
dealing with World War II and its altermath, the screen<br />
version of Ira Wolfert's widely read novel emerges as a<br />
thoroughly enthralling and exciting document. Under any<br />
circumstances it wins easy recognition as an inevitable boxoffice<br />
bonanza, while current renewed hostilities in Asia<br />
should enhance its appeal. The feature was filmed in its<br />
entirety in the Philippines, with Technicolor photography to<br />
accent their natural marine and jungle beauties. Prodigious<br />
in incident, but still adhering to interest-commanding<br />
continuity, the masterful screenplay—excellently performed<br />
by a sterling cast—has something to command respect<br />
from every taste in film fare: High adventure, emotionwringing<br />
suspense, touches of comedy and torrid romance<br />
aplenty. Expertly directed by Fritz Lang,<br />
Tyrone Power, Micheline Prelle, Tom Ewrell, Bob Patten.<br />
Tommy Cook, luan Torena, Miguel Anzures. Jack Elom.<br />
Rio Grande<br />
F<br />
Super<br />
Wutern<br />
Republic (5004) 105 Minutes Rel. Nov. IS. 'SO<br />
Director John ("She V/ore a Yellow Ribbon") Ford, firmly<br />
established as one of Hollywood's most effective fabricators<br />
of pictures projecting the colorful era of cavalry and Indian<br />
warfare, herein surpasses even himself with a feature so<br />
brimming with action, suspense, spectacle and drama that<br />
cannot avoid becoming a must-see among a preponderant<br />
it<br />
percentage of film fans. And further to assure such sureprofits<br />
evaluation, the feature has a gripping, tender story<br />
to appeal to those who may not be too enthralled with the<br />
derring-do of saddle soldiers. Although he is given tough<br />
competition by an excellent and wisely chosen cast, John<br />
Wayne, again portraying the hard-bitten commanding officer,<br />
turns in a thoroughly excellent and ingratiating performance.<br />
There are scores of facets to please the ticket<br />
buyers—musical interludes, alleviating comedy, and horsemanship<br />
the likes of which has seldom been photographed.<br />
John Wayne, Maureen O'Hcn-a, Ben Johnson, Claude Jarman<br />
jr., Harry Carey jr.. Chill Wills, J. Carrol Naish.<br />
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone F Comedy<br />
MGM (ill)<br />
69 Minutes Rel. Dec. IS, 'SO<br />
A new comedy team, Marjorie Main and James Whitmore,<br />
is born in this rough-and-rowdy picture which will undoubtedly<br />
have several sequels. Played strictly for laughs and with<br />
plenty of slapstick action, it will go over big in the neighborhoods<br />
and in small towns. It's probably too corny for<br />
the metropolitan key theatres. Miss Main, with her frowzy<br />
getup, is in her element as a fiftyish and forthright widow,<br />
who wins a $50,000 prize on a radio program, and Whitmore<br />
overacts to good effect as a criminal attorney who is always<br />
just one step ahead of his creditors. While the others have<br />
less footage, Ann Dvorak stands out as a designing divorcee.<br />
Much of the action takes place on a Chicago-to-New York<br />
train and, after two people are murdered, Whitmore and<br />
Miss Main frantically try to hide the bodies in compartments<br />
and washrooms. Director Norman Taurog sticks to a fast pace.<br />
Marjorie Main, James Whitmore, Ann Dvorak, Fred Clark,<br />
Dorothy Malone, Douglas Fowley, Phyllis Kirk.<br />
Three Husbands<br />
^<br />
Emergency Wedding<br />
Columbia (332) 78 Minutes Rel. Nov. 'SO<br />
This relates the hilarious misadventures which follow a<br />
whirlwind marriage between an heir to a department store<br />
fortune and a serious young woman doctor. His unsuccessful<br />
struggle to control his overpowering jealousy of her<br />
male patients brings about one crisis after another for them.<br />
The pace is fast and the situations amusing in the first half<br />
of the picture. The general tone becomes more serious in<br />
the latter half of the picture when the young husband develops<br />
a social consciousness and convinces his wife he is<br />
not the idler she has thought him. The American Medical<br />
Ass'n won't like the introduction of the subject of the licensing<br />
of foreign doctors, but this may create publicity-gaining<br />
controversy. The picture is entertaining and Larry Porks<br />
shows his timing is deft and his comedy sense sure. Direction<br />
is by Edward Buzzell.<br />
Larry Parks, Barbara Hale, Willard Porker, Una Merkel, Alan<br />
Reed, Edouard Franz, Irving Bacon.<br />
United Artists (642) 78 Minutes Rel. Nov. 17, '50 Columbia (246)<br />
70 Minutes<br />
Rel. Nov. '50<br />
Western<br />
(Sepiatone)<br />
Sophisticated, satirical comedy with clever lines and situations<br />
in which the flashback story-telling technique is used.<br />
It has a powerful appeal for women who yearn to make<br />
their men feel the pangs of jealousy. Suspense is maintained<br />
throughout. Emlyn Williams, as Maxwell Bard,<br />
wealthy bachelor, who entertains the wives of three friends<br />
and buys presents for them, leaves letters after his death<br />
which convey the impression he has had affairs with them.<br />
The story begins with the reading of these letters and the<br />
dramatic complications result from the husbands' efforts<br />
to reconstruct the past from memory. Bard leaves his money<br />
to the women. They threaten divorce. I. G. Goldsmith produced<br />
and Irving Reis directed from a story by 'Vera<br />
Caspory.<br />
Emlyn Williams, Eve Arden, Howard DaSilva, Shepperd<br />
Strudwick, Ruth Warrick, 'Vanessa Brown, Billie Burke.<br />
Undercover Girl<br />
F<br />
""""<br />
Univ.-Int'l ( ) 81 Minutes Rel. Dec. 'SO<br />
Directorial eagerness to build incidents into over-dramatic<br />
situations and an aggregation of wooden performances detract<br />
from rather than enhance this, which, at best, was<br />
nothing more than a routine cops-and-robbers yarn to begin<br />
with. Resultantly it finds a niche somewhere below par in<br />
that standard category. To confront the showman who books<br />
it as a topside attraction with an additional problem is the<br />
paucity of sure-fire cast names. There is one story twist<br />
onto which the exhibitor might advantageously toss his<br />
merchandising lariat, to wit, the fact that the cop who<br />
relentlessly rounds up the dope peddlers is a femme, indicating<br />
tieups to appeal to the career gals of the community.<br />
Producer Aubrey Schenck mounted the vehicle substantially<br />
and convincingly as concerns atmosphere and backgrounds,<br />
but there just wasn't enough in scripting, megging and<br />
trouping to make the film jell. Directed by Joseph Pevney.<br />
Alexis Smith, Scott Brady, Richard Egan, Gladys George,<br />
Edmon Ryan, Gerald Mohr, Royal Dano, Harry Landers.<br />
The Blazing Sun<br />
This is a typical, well-made Gene Autry western which<br />
will please his many followers and the devotees of cowboy<br />
fare. Because the picture has two feminine leads, both of<br />
them involved in the plot in addition to being decorative,<br />
it will also satisfy general audiences in all except the key<br />
city first runs. Sepia photography, which adds to the beauty<br />
of the desert backgrounds, is anv^ther asset. The picture also<br />
has a goodly quota of action, including chases and several<br />
gun battles on a fast-moving train. The star sings only twice,<br />
but both "Along the Navajo Trail" and "Brush Those Tears<br />
From Your Eyes" are good standard numbers. Anne Gwynne,<br />
formerly featured in Universal melodramas, returns to the<br />
screen to give a convincing portrayal of a gun-totin' gal and<br />
Lynne Roberts also does well. Pat Buttram supplies a fair<br />
amount of comedy. Directed by John English.<br />
Gene Autry, Lynne Roberts, Pat Buttram, Anne Gwynne, Edward<br />
Norris, Kenne Duncan, Alan Hale jr., Tom London.<br />
The Sun Sets at Dawn<br />
Eagle Lion Classics (046)<br />
76 Minutes<br />
1202 BOXOFHCE November 11, 1950 1201<br />
3<br />
F<br />
Rel. Nov. 8,<br />
That the exhibition fate of this entry may be dismal is<br />
an inevitable surmise. It is an unrelentingly grim and<br />
gloomy yarn, off-beat in approach and treatment, written<br />
and directed with apparent disregard for those audiences<br />
which seek even a modicum of action in their celluloid<br />
entertainment. There are moments of genuine dramatic<br />
appeal, and performances—by a cast which carries no marquee<br />
weight—occasionally rise to compelling heights. But<br />
in the main the exhibitor who books it is going to find<br />
himself confronted with merchandising problems which he<br />
might discover to be insurmountable. Patrons who have<br />
been crying for new faces may react favorably to a pair<br />
of newcomers, Sally Parr and Philip Shawn, to whom were<br />
entrusted the leads. Credited as virriter and director is Paul<br />
H. Sloane, who also co-produced with Helen H. Rathvon.<br />
Sally Parr, Philip Shavm, Walter Reed, Lee Fredericks.<br />
Houseley Stevenson, Howard St. John, Louise Lorimer.<br />
'SO
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