The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 3

VOL. CLXXII. No. 183 THE GAZETTE. MONTREAL' SATURDAY.

AUGUST 7, 1943. CABIN IN THE SKY' AND MONEY ISLAND' ARE NEW FILMS OUR JOE NEEDS A POWERFUL PRAYER Was on Shortage of Girls More The Merrier' Metro's Version of Stage Hit Arrives on Screen at Loew's; Betty Grable Stars at Palace Shown in 'The Film Alaska Highway, Hollywood The gigantic taslc of building the Alaska Military Highway stretching from Dawson Creek. B.C.. to Fairbanks, Alaska, is the subject of Arctic passage. RKO Radio's August release in its This Is America scries.

To secure the dramatic coverage, Larry O'Reilly. Bob Donahue. Jr. and Bill McClure traveled miles by plane, ship, train, bulldozer, trucks and jeeps. They returned with 30.000 feet of exposed negative and tales of unique than-passing interest in McCrea, and brings up as a reason for his unwanted solicitude the city's 8-to-l ratio.

She retorts that a girl can still get a man if she wants one badly enough, a moot question that is sure to find interesting repercussions from some cf Washington's "CONEY ISLAND" AT LOEW'S THEATRE Tn'pnticth Centurv-Fox oicture di rected by Walter Lang. Screen play by George -Seaton. Songs by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainer. Photography young feminine government work ers. by Ernest Palmer.

Characters Players Kate Grable Eddie Johnson George Montgomery Joe Cesar Romero Finnlgan Winninger Frankie Silvers William Hammerstein Matt Briggs I iii Paul Hurst Bartender Ortn Dolly Phyllis Kenneay Dancer fc. Carmen D'Antonio Cashier Hal K. Dawson Carter Andrew Tombes i I- ilk l1 1SISkvB I If I KiVlki It would not do to expect more or i-ileaeant hniir and a half from Coney Island, the 20th Cen Hollywood. It happened in Washington. the other day, so the scene from the movie goes, that a young man walked into one of those dining and dancing establishments and was immediately pounced upon by eight girls.

The young man was Joel McCrea and the scene was from Columbia's George Stevens comedy, The More The Merrier, co-starring McCrea with Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn and due at the Palace Theatre shortly. It was Hollywood's way of illustrating the 8-to-l ratio existing in wartime Washington and it proved manna to the cinema city's extra girls. Heeding the ratio, Columbia hired almost 300 girl extras as atmosphere for the huge dance hall sequence at which Miss Arthur has literally to fight off the horde of girls swooping down on her man. By contrast, and in strict conformity with the current girl-toman proportion in Washington, a mere 3 men were sprinkled through the crowd of girls. Incidentally, it's one of the few times on record that a motion picture portrays a dance scene in which girls dance with girls.

And to make it appear that they didn't like it. the girls were asked to look as bored and indifferent as possible. In the same picture. Coburn tries to arouse in Jean Arthur a more- North African Yarn At Imperial Monday Against the background of history on the sands of Africa, Paramount has fashioned a motion-picture called Five Graves to Cairo, which comes to the Imperial Theatre on Monday. The story takes place behind, the lines of Rommel's then victorious Afrika Korps and has to do with a British tank soldier accidentally stumbling into Rommel's staff head TINA THAYER-- HENRY KINO HIS ORCHESTRA I i' 7 I i NOW iHOWINGlgggy-frgg tury- ox musical, it is i nign-powered stuff by any means, but it has one great virtue seeing it is a pleasant form of escapism.

The picture must have been thought up, written, produced, directed and photographed for one person only, namely Betty Grable. Miss Grable sings and dances her way through, and when she isn't singing and dancing she is playing romantic to her two leading men, George Montgomery and Cesar Romero. Outside of" that there are very few sequences to remember. Miss Grable most certainly is an attractive person of her type. She is also an exceedingly efficient song and dance entertainer, although although whether she is strong enough to bear three-quarters of the weight of an entire screen production is another matter.

The story has it that George Montgomery discovers her in his friends Coney Island bar. At that point in her career, she is given to jazzing up her songs at all costs. Montgomery tones her down, slows up her pace and turns her more or less into something more ladylike. This leads to a big Broadway contract and complications in the love affair. Montgomery is adequate as the con man turned showman.

Romero as his pal and rival does a neat job and. as usual, reforms at the end of the picture. Charles Winninger is admirable as a genial, compo tat-in Irishman and the balance of the cast is adequate. The songs, practically all sung by the hard-working Miss Grable. are tuneful.

One, Miss Lulu of n-KiK ic eta naA io a colored -CABIN IN THE SKY" AT THE CAPITOL. Metro-Gold wyn Mayor picture directed bv Vmcente Mineili. Screen plav by 'Joseph Schrank. Music by Vernon Duke with additional songs bv Harold Arlen and E. Y.

-Harburg. Photoeraphy by Sidney Wagner. Characters Players Petunia Ethel Waters Little Joe 'Bochester' Anderson Georgia Brown Lena Home The Trumpeter Louis Armstrong Lucius Rex Ingram Lucifer. Jr Rev. Green Kenneth Spencer Tnc General Domino 'Bubbles' (John W.

Sublett) The Deacon Fleetfoot Polk First Idea Man Mantan Moreland Second Idea Man Willie Best Tft.rd Idea Man Moke (Fletcher Rivers) Fourth Idea Poke ILeon James) Bill Bill Bailey Messenger Boy 'Buck' (Ford L. Washington) Butterfly McQueen Mrs. Kelso Ruby Dandridge Dude Nicodemus Jct Henry Ernest Whitman By THOMAS ARCHER Cabin In The Sky might have been a great picture if it had been treated in the same folk sense as was The Green Pastures. As it is it emerges in this Metro screen version as a fantasy that has great moments and other moments which rise little above the routine of the common or garden Hollywood musical. Tnere was plenty of opportunity for imaginative treatment with rich coloring.

The simplicity of Negro's religious approach, its tenderness and its touching humor, are inherent in this story of Little Joe Jackson who was reprieved from immenent death by the prayers cf his devoted wife Petunia and allowed time on earth once more to wrestle with old Lucifer and his emissaries. Bat the producers of the film, end perhaps even the producers of the Broadway play from which it is taken, are too prone to sink from r.oble simplicity into lush sentimentality. The humor, particularly in respect to Little Joe himself, is often more of the Hollywood variety tvpe than of the kind which made "Green Pastures a great of the folk theatre. Cabin In The Sky is too often self-conscious to be altogether convincing. It is interesting to note in this respect that by far the more entertaining as well as convincing among the scenes are those which takes place in Jim Henry's night club where the emissaries of Lucifer really get to work on Little Joe.

Sweepstake winnings enable him to take the seductive Georgia Brown Lucifer's trump card) there for a h.gh old time. And this introduces pec-rue like Duke Ellington, Oscar Polke. the gunman, who does a magnificent song and dance number, and an array of colored talent tr.st is class. Here, you than in the religious epi-sr'Hfs. is the real thing.

There is no doubt that much of the acting rests upon the capable noulders of Ethel Waters who was drafted from the stage production. Miss Waters is a tower of strength even if she does lay on the sentiment pretty thickly. As the faithful Petunia she is likely to bring the picture all the success it will gather. Perhaps, however, that success will also be due to Lena Horne as Georgia Brown. Miss Horn doesn't ffcgt fife' Little Joe has won that sweepstake which won't do him any good.

The Lord's A.D.C. (Kenneth Spencer) looks powerful worried, while that sneaking Lucifer Jr. (Rex Ingram) watches to see whether his and his pappy's plot will come off. The scene is from Cabin In the Sky at the Capitol. Below Betty Grable and Cesar Romero indulge in confidences during Coney Island, the 20th Century-Fox musical film at Loew's Theatre.

quarters and gaining his confidence along with some precious secrets. Franchot Tone plays the British soldier. The cast also includes Akim Tamiroff. Anne Baxter and Erich von Stroheim, the latter as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The second film will be Dr.

Gillespie's New Assistant, starring Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson and Susan Peters. The picture takes its name from the three young men engaged to act as Dr. Gillespie's assistants, to aid in taking the burden of work from the shoulders of the old physician. The roles are filled bv Van Johnson, Keye Luke and Richard Quine. Susan Peters is the woman in the story.

Guide to Theatres number, sounded decidedly out of the rut. xne recnmcoior pnoio-graphy is excellent and adds much to the film. T. A. 1 ib mm a- MA.

(Saturday Schedules Only.) ON THE SCREEN LOEWS "Coney Island," at 11.05, 1.45, 4.30, 7.10. PALACE "China," at 10.00, 12.15, 2.45. 5.10, 7.40. 10.10. CAPITOL "Cabin In The Sky," at 10.10, 1.05, 4.00, 6.55: "All By Myself," at 11.50.

2.45, 5.40, 8.35. TRINXESS "The Ox-Bow Incident." at 10.05. 12.45. 3.25. 6.05.

8.45: "Jitterbugs," at 11 JO, 2.10, 4.55. 7.35. 10.15. ORPIIEUM "Battle Is Their Birthright." at 10.20. 1.00.

3.45, 6.25, 9.10; "Stage Door Canteen," at 10.40. 1.20. 4.05, 8.45. 9.30. -AtiRLfc- n-'-- al Tetti cbubie) yiiiiiyEiT CESM ROMERO V4 really need to act.

All she needs to do is to make the requisite emotion and let the camera do the rest. Little Joe was certainly sorely temDted. Eddie Anderson, the Rochester of Jack Benny's program, proves himself a good comedian, if given a little to what is known in the parlance as -hugging." In other words Anderson is sometimes a comic just when he shouldn't be. After all he is supposed to be dealing with ultimate things. The balance of the cast is good.

The songs, too, are good, more particularly Life's Full of Consequences, a number that should make the rounds. The camera work includes the spectacular onrush of a tornado and. in the end, the stairway to Heaven. outdoor An Impressive Star and Filpn List Issued for Warner Productions SNOWDON "Immortal Sergeant," at 2.35, 5.30, 8.30, 11.25; "Air Raid Wardens," at 1.05, 4.10. 7.05.

10.05. VICTORY "Secrets of a Co-Ed" and "The Yanks Are Coming." IMPERIAL "It Ain't Hay," and "Three Hearts For Julia." YORK "Nightmare" and "Tennessee Johnson." MONKLAND "China Girl' and "Behind The Eight Ball." WESTMOUNT "Stand By For NEW VICTORY PICTURE Action" and "Careful, Soft Shoul TO -My TO'MMROV Abbott and Costello "It Ainr Hoy" Added Feature "3 Hearts For Julia" Eric von Stroheim "Five Graves to Cairo" Added Feature The supporting cast is headed by Helmut Danline. Bette Davis, on vacation since she finished Old Acquaintance and Thank Your Lucky Stars, is en-route back to Hollywood with Mr. Skeffington scheduled to start immediately after her arrival. Only idle players on the star roster are Olivia de Havilland who is on loan-out, Geraldine Fitzgerald, who has just returned from New York, and Walter Huston who is active on his ranch.

Among former well-known stars of the stage and screen now in khaki is Lance-Corporal Douglas Montgomery, star of Little Man What Now and other hits, who is an instructor in a Canadian Army basic training centre. Raya Letz, sister of George Montgomery, will make her own bid for screen stardom in The Girl From Leningrad. ders." KENT "The Goose Steps Out" and "The Common Touch." CABARET TIC TOC Two Shows Nightly. 111E SAMOVAR Two Show Nightly. EL MOROCCO Two Showi Nightljr.

ASTOU Two Shows Nightly. CAFE ST. MICHEL Two Shows Nightly. ESQUIRE Two Shows Nightly. NOW SHOWING "Dr.

Gillespie's New Assistant" 'A Hollywood. A check of Warner Brothers production records discloses that more than 200 of Hollywood's top stars, featured players, character actors, comedians and comediennes have worked at the Burbank lot since January 1. The trend is evident in current call sheets which list six big productions before cameras with practically every important player under contract, plus outsiders on hand for one-picture deals, toiling daily. In Our Time has Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid and Nancy Coleman heading a lengthy cast. Humphrey Bogarl and Alexis Smith top Conflict, with Bogart slated to join Sydney Green-street, Peter Lorre.

Claude Rains, John Loder, George Tobias and others in Passage To Marseille as soon as he finishes his current chore. Rhapsody in Blue, story of George Gershwin, has Joan Leslie, who just finished This Is The Army, newcomer Robert Alda, Rosemary De Camp and Albert Basserman in the regular acting crew, with Al Jolson. Paul Whiteman, George White and Oscar Levant who play themselves. Ann Sheridan, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson and Irene Manning head the cast of Shine On Harvest Moon, based on the life of Nora Bayes, with S. Z.

Sakall and others in featured roles. Cary Grant, who made Arsenic And Old Lace for Warners has returned to work in Destination Tokyo, story of an American submarine, in which he co-stars with John Garfield. John Ridgely, Dane Clark, Alan Hale and similar names head the supporting cast, Errol Flynn is just finishing Northern Pursuit, in which he co-stars with Julie Bishop, elevated to star ranking because of her work in Action In The North Atlantic. UNITED THEATRES TODAY Kent Begins Series Of British Pictures The management of the Kent Theatre announces that, for the first time in the Vest End. a series of British pictures will be shown at this theatre.

Beginning today, the program will start with The Goose Steps Out" starring Will Hay (runner-up on George Formby). This farce-comedy is described as a new experience in hearty laughs. To ensure a nicely balanced program, the companion picture is The i BOB HOPE, DOROTHY LA-HOUR In "They Got Me Covered" I fi I mm 5th WEEK A STORY OF lomME with Marion Martin. "WHEN JOHNNY oar COMES MARCHING HOME" With Alan Jones, Jane Frazee and SPITALNY and His Hour Of Charm All Girl Orchestra. JN IVARTfMEL ROBERT TAY- Common Touch showing life just OR in "STAND BY FOR AC 7 TION with Brian Donlevy.

Charles I.aughton and Walter Brennan. VIRGINIA BRUCE -JAMES K.IXISON In "Careful Sort Shoulder." around the corner London. The famous London Symphony Orchestra provides musical entertainment of a quality said to be seldom captured in film. Mark Ham-bourg. famous pianist, playing Tchaikovsky's No.

1 Piano Concerto and Carrol Gibbons and his Orchestra provide other musical i I'll 1 III iENE TIERNEY I Li. 1 1 In "CHINA -r Mont- Otto Krugcr croi-s-examinos a none too bright witness in the. trial cene from Secrets Of A Co-Ed which is at the Victory Theatre. 48 STARS 6 NAME BANDS Komery. Lynn Barl and Victor Mcl.

alien. THE RITZ BROTHER'S in "Behind the 8-Ball" with Carol Bruce, Johnny Downs, Grace MacDonald. SCOOP First Montreal Showing of the New Associated British News-reel. SEE Allied troops actually landing in Sicily, accompany the camera in the Front Line through subsequent advances. Late Show ot 9.45 tonight.

tfie, BROADWAY MUSICAL HIT NOW 0Vff SCREE FULL 1 Of OFJOyf Ttarts today hi End HUGHS GA10RE if I II 11 I mi ECM7 Newcomer Is Chosen For Rogers Picture Hollywood. One of the prize screen roles of the year goes to a comparative newcomer, Robert Ryan, chosen recently by David Hempstead for the male lead opposite Ginger Rogers in RKO-Radio's Tender Comrade. Former middleweight boxing champion at Dartmouth, one-time cowboy, seaman, sandhog and soldier of fortune, tall, rugged Ryan came to Hollywood less than a year ago after attracting attention on Broadway for his work with Luise Rainer in A Kiss For Cinderella and with Tallulah Bank-head in Odets Clash By Night. Seen by the movie public in but one picture to date, Bombardier, Ryan has already been marked for stardom by preview audiences who have seen him in three films yet to be released, The Sky's the Limit, The Iron Major and Behind The Rising- Sun. As Miss Rogers' new leading man in Tender Comrade, Ryan plays an average American, a lusty fellow who woos and wins the girl next door and leaves her to go to war.

The film is from Dalton Trumbo's of tho home front. Tender C-tmrrde is scheduled to go before the cameras 011 August 10. with a number of important roles still to be Wards and Ringens At Belmont Tomorrow A double-header will be offered patrons of Belmont Park tomorrow. In addition to the current free out-dorr attraction, The Flying Wards, trapeze performers, the management of the park will also present Peejsy. Ringens as the second half cf the double header.

The Flying Wards present a routine of somersaults and body twists in mid-air. Ringens, on the other hand, rides a free-wheeling down a lofty highway, soaring into space. As momentum is lest, he lets the cycle fall from under him while he continues on his way, finally diving into a metal tank containing less than four feet cf water. The Flying Wards will terminate their engagement tomorrow evening while Ringens will continue as the free outdoor attraction all next week. Today the Robert Mitchell Co.

Ltd are holding their picnic, and. cn Sunday, the Silver Bullet Club. D.I.L. Verdun, will be holding their outing. Borden's Kiddie? days will be celebrated 3t ire park all next week remmencing I.Innday until next Saturdaj-, ineius.ve.

Stan Wood's orchestra plays music in the after-soon and evening. yr ft. rrurt uiirrno m. AW EDDIE "ROCHESTER- ANDERSIN inrI i 0 'litirrj) or fts rn Is henry" Fonda I tweed t-lt i UNA HORNE IJSffiSS) 1 mf 1 INJ Meet Life a sit is just around the corner from you. mi' it THE COMMON TOUCH SBLF it MARK HAM BOURG.

Canadian Pianist playing Tschaikowky's N. 1 V'-an Concerto; also LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. now showing WW mmi I VI awrrsvrrvrrarrv I.