"Broadway Melody of 1940."

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1940, Page 10

"Broadway Melody of 1940."

Theatre-goers' most favoured dancers, Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell, appear together in "Broadway Melody of 1940," which is accounted the brightest of all the famous "Broadway Melody" films, the annual appearance of which- is now regarded as a fixture. The new attraction, in the words of a pffominent critic, "shines with all of the ingredients of bright entertainment, music that is melodious, ensembles that sparkle, dancing that. is the best and brightest, comedy that is comedy, and a flrst-class story which holds the production tqgether as a top-flight presentation." Many new: songs released with the film will make memories of it lasting. "The Grapes of Wrath." No book in the last decade has.stirred the world more than John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath." Its touching story of hunger, sickness and desperation among California's migratory workers shocked millions of people throughout the world. Even before the novel was on the bookshelves, Darryl F. Zanuck read the proofsheets and recognised the gripping human story it told. This story was real, it was happening to tens of thousarids of hard working farmers who had lost their lands in the Oklahoma dust-bowl. Zanuck assigned Nunally Johnson, famed writer and scenarist, to adapt the book to the screen. The only drastic change was the ending, which for obvious reasons could not be portrayed on the screen. ■ To develop completely the human, every-day warmth and power of the most discussed novel of modern literature, was the primary concern of the great director, John Ford, Motion Picture Academy Award winner. Ford forbade the use of makeup for this film, and also used new candid camera technique in shooting scenes. The cast is headed by Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, John Carradine, Jane Darwell, Ch'arlie Grapewin and Doris Bowdon.