BLOOD-&-THUNDERING IN CHINA

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 223, 17 June 1944, Page 5

BLOOD-&-THUNDERING IN CHINA

Popular Film With Encyclopaedic Title

(By

T.L.)

Fearing that audiences would eventually get fed up with an unbalanced screen diet, Hollywood has reversed its 1940-43 policy so that, out of 40 top-grade films to be released this year, only nine tire war stories. “China” (St. James) is one of the latter, which turns out to be a shrewdly-fashioned popular story designed to augment Alan Ladd’s growing list of admirers. . This time the specialist in mildly abnormal behaviour is a truck-driver who has no scruples at all about delivering oil to the Japanese. No scruples, that is, till he meets a girl (Loretta Young), who sees a spark of decency in him and proceeds to fan it into some semblance of a flame. In this project she is assisted by Ladd's sidekick (William Bentlix), a clumsy, uncouth bloke with plenty of homely virtues, and who' incidentally offers what might be called the comic relief. The nasty oil-seller falls in love, with the girl, improves rapidly and winds up by redeeming himself iu spectacular fashion. Added to all this there is a very human Chinese baby, who has allowed himself to lie exploited from every possible angle. The romantic interludes —which find Miss Young in a businesslike attitude and Ladd in bis customary hard-to-get mood' —-are well done. But when Japanese atrocities swing the Americans on the side of China’s guerrillas. John (“Wake Island”) Farrow stages the resultant blood-and-t.hundering with a forceful wallop. In passing, the producers treat our Chinese Allies as our equals socially and, if anything, as bur superiors in the matter of Jap-killing. “HELLO BEAUTIFUL” Charles R. Rogers’ gay and colourful comedy, “Hello, Beautiful.” which was introduced to the Wellington public at the State Theatre yesterday, has all the Ingredients necessary for satisfying entertainment. The story starts off at a country fair, in which Benny Goodman and hl« famous orchestra are hoard in some appealing numbers, and Dennis Day, the singing star in v Tack Benny’s radio programme, is hoard at his best. The rollicking story follows the fortunes of Kay Evans, teacher at a junior high school, who loses her position when she is found in the arms of the town drunk after the pair have accidentally stumbled into a mud puddle iu the rain. Carole Landis is in her element in the role of the-ambitious school marm, who seeks her fortunes in New York. At the 42 Club the heroine sets her heart on a career as a beauty model, and surely the world has never seen such a galaxy of beauties as grace this him. And the costumes are no less alluring. Anne Shirley wears some lovely younggirl things, among them a red and white checked gingham frock trimmed with white pique, topped -by a red straw cartwheel. Other stars in this colourful comedy are George Murphy, Alan Mowbray, Jean Amos, and Mary Treen. Among the galaxy of American beauties who appear are Jane Hazard. Lillian Eggers, Linda Sterling. Evlvn Frev, Eloise Hart. Patricia Mace. Barbara Slater, and Rosemary Coleman. Swing music plays a big part in this bright production, which was given a most favourable reception by a large house last night. “PHANTOM OF THE OPERA” (Third week).—lf the fates that watch over France had taken the same drastic steps with that country’s corrupt politicians as they did with Gaston Leroux s Paris phantom, the world need never have known the moment of the June 6 invasion. “The Phantom of the Opera” (Regent) provides something quite new in screen operas. The Phantom of the Paris Opera becomes a sort of unofficial agent for a gifted young soprano who is only an understudy, retarded, and getting nowhere fast. Under his patronage things beg n to move: a publisher is strangled and death comes as quickly to a prima donna, her dresser and a policeman. Nelson Eddy and Susanna Foster sing excellently, and Claude Rains scuttles menacingly round the flies as the Phantom. The colour is splendid and so Is the musical score. This is entertainment of a high order

“SAHARA” Cast, like “Bataan,” without a female (unlv concession is a tank named Lulubelle), “Sahara- (King’s), brings Humphrey Bogart back to the-screen in a part as line as the one he played in “Casablanca, the Academy Award him that has not yet been seen in Wellington, but which was shown nearly a year ago in Auckland. Though we must wait till the passion or victory has passed, history will probably record incidents such as that chronicled in “Sahara.” Of such stuff are victories made. Things are going badly in North Africa. The British have had to yield to the Nazis at Tobruk. Sergeant Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) and his two-man crew are working like demons repairing- the 28-ton tank, Lulubelle, It it. they hasten southward to locate the re-forming British lines. Allied stragglers, a Sudanese and an Italian prisoner. join them. Lumbering 60 miles, Lulubelle carries the dozen men to a waterhole which is dry. The desert-wise Sudanese—Tambul by name—directs them ther to an Ancient caravan stop. Here. too. the well is almost dry. but Tam bill locates a faint trickle and drop by drop the liquid is passed to the fainting men. A Nazi scout car comes in search of water, aud is eantured. the occupants revealing that a German detachment is heading that: way with plans to outflank the British. The sergeant decides to hold the little post and sends the former German jeep in search of reinforcements. “Sahara” moves up to a climax of a place beside “Bengal Lancer. ’ Finally—as also in “Bataan”—only • Bogart and Ids mechanic are left to light the superior Afrika Korps that has arrived: they prepare for the onslaught. which turns into the surrender of the Nazi remnants. J. Carrol Naish is faultlessly cast as the Italian prisoner: lie rises to heights in his denunciation of Hitler and Mussolini to a captured Nazi airman. Rex Ingram portrays the imperturbable Sudanese. I’eter Van Eyck makes his third film (others were “The Moon is Down” and “Five Graves to Cairn”) as a German soldier, und maintains his record of death at Allied hands.

“THE REMARKABLE ANDREW”

“The Remarkable Andrew” (De Luxe) is an odd film that shows how the ghosts of Andrew Jackson, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. Benjamin Franklin, and, of all people, Jesse James, rouse themselves to clean up a case of municipal graft In a small American town. A conscientious young clerk, balancing the municipal books for the fiscal year, finds a discrepancy in the accounts and, refusing to cover it up with a false balance. is sent to. trial. Only the legal experts of the past can save him, and they do, with a modern dictaphone record which seems hardly fair. The ghosts are played by Brian Donlevy and the other robust revenants. (Brian Donlevy, by the way. is no artistic snob. One week he is a top-liner in the film of the moment; next he is to' be seen in some little film that creeps in and out of town unnoticed.) William Holden was pleasant, I thought, as the young clerk, and our overworked politicians might make a note of the film as suggesting quite a hatful of entirely new definitions of democracy.

More modestly named than the other “China epic” in town this week is “Lady of Chungking,” also on the De Luxe bill. Anna May Wong, who has done everything from Hollywood movies to Australian vaudeville, is the slim little lady who fools the Japanese and brings the ever-obliging Flying Tigers to smoke the Sous of Heaven out -of their foxholes. “THE MAN~FROM DOWN UNDER” (Second week). —In 40 years of American film history, Hollywood has not before seen fit to make a story of Australia. But the great lumbering continent, which has known the tread of millions of American feet in the last two years, is now sufficiently newsworthy to warrant a film—- “ The Man from Down Under’’ (Majestic). In many ways it does not do the Commonwealth justice. On the surface it would seem that meticulous, carefully-spoken Charles Laughton was a ludicrous choice for the Man from Down Under. Actually,' it Is one of the finest pieces of casting of the year. First, he Is the Australian soldier fighting World War I. Then he is the father of two pieces of postwar flotsam and jetsam and sees one of them go off to World War II to fight for an Australia that has done so magnificently in the dark days since 1939. Blnnie Barnes, Richard Carlson and Donna Reed support Laughton in this film, whose location is so near home. ADD THEATRES PARAMOUNT “FOREVERAND A DAY” (Fifth week). —The management of the Plaza is in danger of being charged with cruelty to critics. No cinema in New Zealand screens fewer films and none taxes the ingenuity of the critic more. It is possible, week by week, to inject a dash of newness into a criticism when the film runs for, say, three weeks, but if the show persists In remaining in the city for a season extending over months, well 1 give up. Sir C Aubrey Smith (this month's recipient of a Birthday knighthood) is cast ns a choleric admiral who insists on building a fine home in the very face of Napoleon’s projected invasion. The house remains inviolate, just as the England of the period did (circa 1594), and the film traces its history down to the time when a Nazi bomb did not prove such a damp sq4iib as- did the Hitlerian invasion that was to follow it. Merle Oberon, Brian A borne, Herbert Marshall, Anna Neagle, Rav Millarid and Charles Laughton are other members of the gargantuan cast. , “HERS TO HOLD” In the eight years since she shyly ran away with “Three Smart Girls” Deanna Durbin has grown up, made (I think) 13 pictures, become one of the most consistently successful stars in Hollywood, and has just signed a contract with Universal for another seven years. Since 1937. her studio has evolved a sort of formula for the pleasant stories in which Miss Durbin is permitted to appear. She usually has a kind but wealthy father (seldom a mother, oddly enough), and a butler who is graciously gruff and paternal. too. “Hers to Hold” (Paramount) unfolds the story of a younjr singer who is a pleasant girl and lives in a mansion. She is in love with a young Air Corps man (played, surprisingly enough, by Joseph Cotten) who. however, will not betray his love for her lest lie go off, got killed, and s # poil her young happiness. So Miss DurKin puts on some natty overalls, goes to work in a munitions factory and sings to the workers at lunch time for the sake or Morale. Eventually, the U.S.A.A.C. man is posted overseas. Does he declare his love for her before he goes? Well, your guess is as good as mine. Abbot and Costello, helped in n big way by America’s favourite radio voL,-e. Ginny Sims, fill almost every moment of the other film on the bill—“ Hit the Ice.’’ Their antics on skates are not likely to fill Sonja Henle with envy, but they do succeed in making this film really funny and a big improvement on several A, aud C. efforts that have none before. “Behind the Rising Sun” I Tudor).— A film record of. Japanese brutality, starring Toni Neal and Margo. “Ladies Day,” with Eddie Albert and Lupe Velez also shows. “Balalaika” (Tivoli).—An old favourite starring Nelson Eddy and Ilona Massey. Wallace Beery and Marjorie Main star in the enrond feature. “Jackass Mail.” Star Spangled Rhythm” (State, Petone). —Dazzling movie entertainment witli Paramount's leading stars all contributing their talent. Bob Hope and Bing Crosh.y are notable. SUBURBAN THEATRES Ascot (Newtown). —“Presenting Lily Mars” and “Mercy Island.” Kinemu (Kilbirnie).—“Once Upon a Honeymoon” and “Harrigau’6 Kid.” Rivoli (Newtown). —“The Forest Rangers’’ and “Syncopation.” Vogue (Brooklyn).—“Young Mr. Pitt” ji nd “Journey Into Fear.” Capitol (Miramar).—“Springtime In the Kni.-kios” and “Salute to the Marines.” Tatlpr (Lyall Bay).--“My Sister Eileen” and “Babes on Broadway.” Prime Edward (Woburn). — “Rond to Morocco” and “The Black Raven.” King George (Lower Hutt).—“The War Against Mrs. Hadley.” Do I.uxc (Lower Unit).—“Spider Woman” ;i nd “Hi Ya, Sailor.” Empire (Island I’av). —“This Above All” and “Police Bullets.’ Regal (Karorl).—“Went The Day Well” and “Henry Aldrich Swings It.”