The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 7

THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL: SATURDAY, MARCH 31. 1945. 'MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS' FULL OF GAIETY AND NOSTALGIA VOL. CLXXIV.

No. 78 other yearns to do her bit in the Navv. Miss Hutton carries off the Metro Musical Tops Easter Fare ST. LOUIS WOMEN AND A COgPLE OF TARS difference with some skill. Inciden tally, the magic of the camera shares the credit for this double job with Vera Marshe.

who is listed as Miss Hutton's double. This would mean that whenever you are With Tender, Melodic, 1900 Fun Directed by Vincent Minnelli concentrating on one Betty Hutton, the other is Miss Marshe. I suooose to wind up wiinoui paying tribute to Johnny Mercer' song, Accent-Tchu-atc the Positive, IU 'w v'PV i would be out of order. I was surprised to find that Miss Hutton didn't get a chance to blast at it It is sung bv Mr. Crosby ana Mr.

Tufts in a black-face number, and verv well handled indeed. Sug gested to Mr. Mercer by his psychiatrist's advice, it is surely the last word in the popularization of psychiatry. "SUDAN." AT THE CAPITOL. Universal release of Paul Malvern production directed by John Rawlins.

Story and adaptation by Edmund L. WHITTAKER world made uncomfortable only by high collars and tight corsets, are a handsome, healthy group of people. There is Miss Garland as the girl who falls in love with the boy next door, and lovely Lucille Brem-ner as her eldest sister; Leon Ames as the father of the period, and Mary Astor as the mother who made life with father smoother; Marjorie Main as Katie the maid, who took her ice-cream in the parlor with the family; Tom Drake and Henry Daniels, as the future Princeton men; Harry Davenport as Grandpa; Joan Carroll as one little sister, and and Margaret O'Brien as Tootsie, the demon child. This Is young Miss O'Brien's picture, if it belongs to anybody else but Mrf Minnelli. There is something so delightful about this child actress that ons melts more quickly than ice-cream in the St.

Louis sun. Her strut at the party, which she attends unofficially in a long flanelette night-gown, her serious conversation with her friend, Mr. Neely of the Ice Company, hex childish preoccupation with death, her Hallowe'en bravery and her wide-eyed prevarication they all add up to make Tootsie the one truly real-life portrait in the whole family album. iiartmann. Character.

Nalla Merab Herua Players. Maria Montet Jon Hall Turhan Bey Andy Devln George Zucco Robert Warwick Phil Van Zandt Harry Cording George Lynn Charles Arnt Nebka Horadef Maatet Seim Uba Brian Donlevy is being Initiated Into the great American sport of baseball, in his role of Slovenian emigrant in An American Romance, opening today at the Snowdon. 1 Bata Khafra Well. I suooose this one is no sil lier than the others in the series Tonltht and it is likely to prove just as HIS MAJESTY'S1." popular, lt is. as you Know, an other in the Maria Montez-Jon Hall-Turhan Bey pictures of love leaves nothing for Jon Hall but the role that Sabu used to handle, that of the faithful thief.

There is a lot of very glossy photography, to which Miss Montez responds very well, and a lot of, familiar American landmarks that keep cropping up in the middle of) Egypt for not all of it was filmed MAX CORDON prorata Ruth and action in me realms wnere Technicolor is king. These films appear as straightforward in their way as the Tom Swift books and the Bobsey Twins stories. Pr-' Wl 4 Nor can one forget the music, for Him Cjmtlr in California. Sudan is one of those picture: satire comes in a newspaper head and about as adult But I am not sure. Sometimes I think they are really made for a secret, national cult of Sun-worshiDrers.

and that line which cracks: Navy Require ments Lowered Johnny cabot in- it A which Hollywood excuses by saying they are Frankly Escapist They probably are at that They should be able to take any weak and willing mind right out of this world, present or pasL Meet Me In St. Louis is a musical first of all. and perhaps the closest thing the screen has come to the stage's famed Oklahoma! Most of the tunes have a convincing rhythm to them, quite an achievement in itself. It Is perhaps the greatest tribute to the musjeal score to say that, in a film which contains the infections, familiar But if you're not looking tor SXAOLO Of OiOStCE t. KAUFMAS Evrt.

1 0 to 12; Mit tiLl.MUl noveltv (and why should you be. in By HERBERT "MEET ME IN ST LOUIS" AT LOEW Metro release of Arthur Freed production directed by Vincente Mmneili. Screen play by Fred Finklehoffe and Irving Brecher. from book by Sally Benson. Charieieri.

-Player. Esther Smith Judy Garland Too;" Smith Margaret O'Brien Mrs. Anna Smith Mary Astor Ruse Smith Lucille Brem John Truett Tom Drake Kaue (Maid) Marjorie Main Mr. Alonzo Smith Leon Ames Grandpa Harry Davenport Lucille Ballard Lockhart Lon Smith, Jr Henry H. Daniels, jr Afnes Snuth Joan Carroll Cojorel Darly Hugh Marlowe Warren Sheffield Robert Sully Mr.

Neely Chill Willi I have never been in St. Louis. Missouri. I nve never attended a World's Fair. I wasn't alive in 1S03.

But by the time Meet Me In St Louis was over, there was feeling quite homesick for that Missouri city, excited about the St Lotus World's Fair and full of nostalgia for those Good Old Days. This Metro musical will probably do 'the same thing to you. It's an Easter treat. For in Meet Me In St Louis, Metro has made a movie that is tuneful, funny, a constant delight to the eye and with plenty appeal to the heart. As this studio has been spending vast sums in the past making musicals that too often have succeeded only in.

two out of the four departments, one is led to believe that something new has been added. That something new, I am convinced, is the Vincente MinnelH tojeh. Mr. Minnelli. who directed this picture, comes from the Broadway stage where he was notably successful as a designer.

He has to his credit such stage shows as Du Barrv Was A Lady, Very Warm For May and At Home Abroad. 1 suspect that it Is his background of design that gives Meet Me In St Louis its amazing pictorial charm and taste. He has underscored the quaintness of the costumes and interiors, and kept in mind a picture of life at the beginning of the century that is highly reminiscent of the family album and the tinted daguerrotypc- He has emphasized such picturesque factors' as the gas light, the tennis dress, the rites of Hallowe'en, and the cluttered, cosy parlors of the 1900'. His direction of this film (it is his second such Job. I understand) is so good that the reward tney gave him after the picture was f.tting and right.

He was allowed to marry Judy Garland. But it must be pointed out, in all farnes. that Mr. Minnelli had plenty of the right kind of co-operation. From Sally Benson's New Yorker stories.

Fred Finklehoffe and Irving Breecher have fashioned a most skilful screenplay, doing service to those ford memoirs as tenderly as was done to Clarence Day's Life With Father. Mis Benson's well remembered episodes have been strung together in a fashion less dramatic than constantly endearing. The long-distance phone call (with Father voicing his opinion of anyone who would propose a film labelled Here Come The Waves?) you'll probably get plenty their seemingly innocent tales of love and hatred must somehow convey a message to some people. If they do, however. I must admit I've never been able to decipher it Probably it's really all propaganda issued by the State of California Chamber of Commerce.

Now this one rretends to be all of fun out of it. Mr. Crosby is on .41 familiar ground again, the love- Trolley Song, you may still re able easy-going guy with tne reap main true to the sound-tracks r. shares the bil i uits song. Sonny ine with him as his sailor pal.

an purpose by emerging from the theatre whistling Meet Me In St Louis. Louis, and causing onlv to other role that doesn't call for any then there's Miss Hutton. call out to the usherette, in a de The thoueht of there being two vilish debonair wav: "Oh. vou 1 kid!" In Glorious, Singing; Miss Huttons in one picture should delight everybody (with the possible exception of Cary Grant). The Meet Me In St.

Louis is as wel about Egypt It's not Shakespeare' Egypt, or that of Tutankhamen. It's more the Egypt of Ballet Egypt-ienne, with a dash of The Rover Boys Among The Papyrus Miss Montez is an Egyptian Queen, and Mr. Bey is a humble slave. With admirable foresight, Mr. Bey has set up a democracy on a rocky plateau.

These two characters meet and in monosyllabic dialogue, pledge their vows. This come as spring. 1 CA.JrjUUAC a VvhisUing, Bomendag bouncing Betty plays herself, tne true daughter of jive, and her sis lit "THE FIGHTING LADY" AT THE PRINCESS 20th Century-Fox release of Louis ter, a more serious type with darK hair and a conservative way of looking at things. The one sister GARLAND (r -A de Rochemont production. Photo is the arch-type or bobby-soxer; tne graphed bv S.

Navy under supervision of Commander Edward Steicben. U.S.N.R. Narration writ II ten by John Stuart Martin, spoken ammm i 0 UJUIYASTDX llvr Dy JLt. Robert Taylor. The one serious picture of the week, this one really deserves top Tri 1'Gjrzc A 1 mention lor it is one of the best documentary films shown recently and packs plenty of wallop.

The fighting female of the title Is an unidentified U.S. carrier, and the film was taken, every foot of it, by official U.S. photographers. But it is evident that they were men of some special training. From the mass of footage taken, Louis de Rochemont, who makes the March of Time films, has selected with care, and a constant attention to the draonatic, enough film to run about an hour.

His iSmi iia V-v The tennis girl of 1903 at the top, poised on a St. Louis carriage block, is Judy Garland as she appears in Meet Me In St Louis, the Technicolor film which is Loew's Easter attraction. Below are Sonny Tufts and Bing Crosby, sailor heroes of Here Comes The Waves, at the Palace. NOW SHOWING sand times before, even back when they thought of Waves as things that were only effective on the editing gives The Fighting Lady plenty of variety, contrasting as it water. Let me see.

there's a weary-of over an Invention); the snaring of does scenes of life aboard the carrier with the exciting shots of action in the Pacific. The Fighting Lady is first dis it-all crooner, his sailor friend and a couple of twin sisters. The fact that the heroine is twins gave the script-writers a chance to work in ine Doy next door ana the party did it: the ride on the trolley, out to the Fair Grounds; the delightful sequence of "eoinz out" all the mistaken identity gags since Graustark. Everybody gets covered when the planes assigned to her sight their new on the broad Pacific. Thev land and we are shown how things work into the Navy in time and (Sur prise! Surprise!) they nut on i show.

The only novel idea in aboard this floating Inland. en Hallowe'en; the Christmas ball, and finally glorious day! the opening of the World's Fair "right here in St. Louis!" these are the pearls linked by the thread of a The men who man The Fighting Lady are shown, from the "glamor cluded is that of having Mr. Crosby's role of Johnny Cabot a mildly satirical one, it being a take-off on Frank Sinatra. The peak of this boys' wno fly her planes to tne Mory in which Father considers men who serve in her butcher shoD and who make her bread.

leaving at ixuis io worn in new York and then reconsiders it in For The Fighting Lady is a self- time, much to the family's relief. fighting plane itself, and the pilots of those planes have not come through unscathed. From the early, well-calculated landings of the beginning of the film we progress to the hasty, blind, desperate descents of the planes crippled after battle. One of the film's most memorable moments is that of the return of a pilot, his face a pulp of blood and flesh after an engagement with Zeros. But scenes of suffering are few, and the audience is regaled more with the destruction of the Jap than with the effects of his bullets.

But the end of the picture, which takes us through the attacks on Kwajalein Island, Guam, Truk and the Marianas, some 360 Jap planes have been accounted for and 17 of the enemy's destroyers! The most unique feature of The Fighting Lady is that fact that it was shot in Technicolor. It was made on 16 mm. film then blown up to the commercial 35 mm. That color i crude, naturally, but it makes use of the colors for contrast, heightening the narrative and also the dramatic presentation of the action. John Stuart Martin's narration is well-spoken by Lt.

Robert Taylor, who keeps The Fighting Lady's biography clear in our minds, and never intrudes itself. The Fighting Lady an Oscbt in the recent Academy Awards. It deserves it. It is a picture to Frighten Hirohito himself. serving community in herself.

You can doubtless look up the HALL newspapers or. the cay and nd When the film gets under way. few of the men aboard have seen that St. Louis life was cluttered action. When the film is over those with other things besides anti VT to men are veterans of some of the most violent fichtina of this war.

not the long drudgery of the other services, but the swiit. wearing macassers and puppy-love at that time. There may have been usly things in St. Louis, back in 1903. but that is not the concern of this film, or of us.

It holds out for the richr.efs of happy family life, with entertainment to be found in life under attack. The vulnerabii ity of the carrier is not stressed but one becomes aware of it and of its affect on the men aboard. humf.n relations, rather than sec sir ond hand, via radio, motion pic tures. television, fast automobiles Scene after scene of action in the Pacific is depicted, each more spectacular than the last The cameras are often those of the sra merit clubs. Living this happy life, in this VV3 TROPICAL ACTION shSwYng I MraO-DENMSMORlM JMN LESLIE ttOSOJ vujwkx7 IT bito -sc isf if Lyr JACK CARSON GLADYS GEORGE Now Showing 'iifc 3U2 i 0 MP.

noMAtice "HERE COME THE WAVES" AT THE PALACE Paramount release of the late Mark Sandrich's production, directed by Mr. Sandrich. Screenplay by Allan Scott, Ken Englund and Zion Myers. Characters Players Johnny Cabot Bing Crosby Susie Rosemary Allison, Betty Hutton Windy Sonny Tufts Ruth Ann Doran Tex Gwen Crawford Dorothy Noel Neill Towneend Catherine Craig Isabel Marjorie Henshaw Band Leader Harry Barris Ensign Kirk Mae Clarke High Ranking Minor Watson If you can't get into Meet Me In St, Louis (and not everybody can) this Paramount musical will 'make a very good second choice. What with Bing Crosby, two Betty Huttons and that song, Accent-Tchu-ate The Positive, wouldn't be? But in -retrospect it must be admitted that, given these valuable irgredients.

Paramount did no better than it should with them. Perhaps it's just that Mr. Crosby set such a high standard of popular entertainment with his last film (something called Going My Way) that we are a little disappointed to find him back at the old grind of being pleasant and effortless to less purpose. But Here Come The Waves Is a lively enough show, with a plot that serves only to keep the film running. It doesn't touch much 3 -A ACTION mm mr tm mm till in I -m mm i mm mm iiixiiiira ALAN LADD LORETTA YOLNG NOW SHOWING 'AND NOW TOMORROW Added Feature "MAIN STREET AFTER DARK" A DCDDKnncn 'EXPERIMENT PERILOUS' I Added Feature "BABES ON SWING STREET" I Terrlfylna in is mJki TWmM AW that hasn't been touched a thou Th haunted love i SAT.Y7 1 tikVi 6 m.

'r a 1 FOR RESERVATIONS MIDNIGHT EVERY FRIDAY MA. 7160 TODAY at 2.30 7.30 10 p.m. "HOLLYWOOD FOLLIES" Storting Monday m. kCALMCj "Tht Qun of Rhythm zi kwa -Jul EDDIE "NUTS" KAPLAN DALE St CO. ADELE PARISH PHYLLIS WILLIS TERR I LA FRANCONIA WAYNE MARLIN TANGLEFOOT DAZZLING CHORt'S Li NOW SHOWING HARRY SPEARS 'COLLEGE CUTIES' Action in the SoiUh Pacific occupies the screen of the Princess, hen The Fighting Lady is being ihown.

Action in an, ancient Egyptian boudoir occupies Maria Montez and Jon Hall in Sudan, the Capitol taster egg. a.