The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 34

34 BROOKLYN? EAGLE, SUM, DEC. 1, 1946 Veteran Producer of Big-Scale Musicals Favors Old-Time Hits With New Day Stars THE SOUND TRACK Arthur Freed, producer of "Till opinion, Is the constant hope that formed We provide the best possible coachlns at the one may be able to find Important studio, for as long a period a la new talent. Known as one of the most astute necessary, and If the player has the i the Clouds Roll By," Thursday's Music Hall arrival, says that screen musicals today are deservedly more popular than ever because they of judges of young "potentials" In the; talent to make the grade, he cant picture colony. Freed had made a miss. number of musicals in which new "People like to make comparisons players made their bow to film'about the present generation as fer a special kind of relaxation, and because they aie made with all tnese fiImg either more or less talented Ingenuity and resources Hollywood -Babes in Arms." "Strike Ud the than the last one.

I think It's a can boast. "Babes on false comparison. Youngsters with Mr. Freed believes that there Is -cabin in the Sky." "Best Foot the talent needed 'to become stars at present a place on the screen for; Forward" and "Meet Me In St. are always around somewhere.

Of revivals of many of the old musical Louis." (course, the vastly expanded activity comedies, such as those nostalgic "There's no SBt rue for discover- of radio and the movies gives a old Princess shows, or "Sally," or jn? new talent." the producer be-1 bigger audition ground for these viSi ti I I 'V ine inn riom man. jlieves. "Manv of our vounesters candidates than was Dossiwe 2a The producer should know what n'pw Ynrk niiht. Hubs he is talking about; he has beenilne Broadway stage, or modeling ranks. We also find a lot of talent in radio, in vaudeville, in schools connected with the musical stage and screen for over a decade.

On Broadway he composed such hit tunes as Tit As a Fiddle." "Our and, now and then, just visiting the with a friend on a vacation years ago. Freed's "Till the Clouds Roll By" is a Technicolor musical production dealing with the life and melodies of Jerome Kern. Robert Walker has the role of the composer, and the all-star supplementary cast includes Van Johnson, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, June Allyson, Kathryn Grayson and Van Heflln. rmw Affair" nnri nt.bers Rincfl heit.iH ItH! tuir in Uil llTVL'rri Vl hflC Ttrn- 1 .1 U.IJ 1. 11 it makes little difference a newcomer has ever per- sum juw unw" 111 rnat "Strike Up the Band" and Little wt, Nellie Kelly." Among' his top compositions are "Sinain' in the Rain" and "The I Panan Love Song." He still composes when he has Steven Geray Exiled to Fortune Steven Geray left Europe at the I appeared In 40 European films.

In indirect request of Adolph Hitler the most famous of these, "The du Ki Unfinished Symphony," he por- and Benito Mussolini. Frans Schubert, co-starring Geray was playing in the Foliesiwjth Marta Eggerth. Bergere and giving impersonations! Geray is one Hollywood's of the two dictator when he was i busiest character actors. Among his warned by the German and Italian I strongest roles are those in time, but on the whole prefers the production field. Seeing a picture through lrom scratch is, for him, a fascinating job and a creative one.

He is constantly on the lookout for novelties, and when a new picture is started he works closely with the director. The most Interesting aspect of a ,,4 governments to quit. Refusing, he, Moon and Sixpence, Seventh Cross." "Mask of Dimitrios," "The was beaten up. He then decided to sere-en producer's Job, in Freed's GINNY SIMMS sings the throaty Cole Porter jings in the Fox Theater's "Night and Day Conspirators" and "Hotel Berlin." His role in "So Dark the Night" is his most important break to date. Although it is basically a strong character part, he is the leading player, around whom all of the action revolves.

On Current Films Good, and Only Fair-That Have Gems of Acting in Them By HERBERT COHN Many of the pictures around town these days might not be so overwhelmins as we'd likc.Tjut even with glaring weaknesses boast acting that rates a second mention. Take, as an example, "The Razor Edge," Lamarr Trottl's adaptation of the W. Somerset Maugham novel now drawing record crowd to the Ro.xy Theater. In many ways it is a disappointing film, lor the screen could have done wonders with the thought-provoking philosophy of the restless Larry Darrrll who found, through a priest in India, a way to happiness by doing good for others. Mr.

Trottl didn't crystallize the philosophy. Nor did he capitalize on the colorful chronicle of the Maugham hero any more effectively than did its original author. As it stands, it is little more than an average good film. Yet it contains at least two of the most gratifying screen performances on hand today. The first is Anne Baxter's impressive portrait of Sophie, the Chicago Kill who lost her husband and her child in an auto accident and who found forget fulness in the sordid dives of Paris' left bank.

Mij-s Baxter has never had so lush a role hardly ever hinted, for that matter, that she could do one so well. That she can and dues puts her in line for a supporting-role Oscar. More prominent in "The Razor's Edge" Clifton Webb. UioiirIi his excellence as Elliot Templeton, the hoity-toity American expatriate, comes as no surprise, He has been a grand actor lor years, though not on the screen. He makes Elliot understandable, even like-Jble, and delivers a sample of what the Roxy's film miht have been were it graced with a little more of the same brand of imagination.

There are failings, too, in "The Jol.on now spending its final week at the Radio City Music Hall, but the Jolson singing and the portrayal of the leading role by young Larry Parks are not among them. His characterization is a triumph of mimicry. There are some who picked flaws in "Two Years Before the Mast," now at the Rivoli and the Brooklyn Paramount, but none who have denied, to my knowledge, that Howard da Silva and William Bendix, as the brig's captain and first male, provide outstanding characterizations. In "Cloak and Dagger," the Gary Cooper adventure now on neighborhood screens, Liili Palmer is the new girl to watch. Monty Woolley as the acid professor in "Night and Day" alone is worth the price of admission at the Fox.

if only for his rendition of "Miss Austin Regrets." i You 11 also find the Cole Porter music a bargain.) And Rex Harrison, most popular lor beins the King of Siam opposite Irene Dunne Aune, displays his virtuosity with excellent effect in "Notorious Gentleman," the Winter Garden's British import that is mostly good. I found "Undercurrent," now at the Capitol, to be an exciting thriller a well-planned psychological suspense film that moves gracefully from climax to climax sketching the detail into the outline of a normal-looking American Industrialist who actually is a complex neurotic. Others found it less fascinating, but none had anything but praise for the acting of Katharine Hepburn as the Industrialist's country-bumpkin wife. She is entirely delightful as she pieces together the odd facts she picks up about the man to whom she Is married, never forgetting that her own mousiness, too, must be built into a suave sophistication. Trust Katy to do the job.

And need anything be said here about Laurence Olivier as Henry in his Shakespearean production at the John Golden Theater? Or about Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy and Teresa Wright in "The Best Years of Our Lives" at the Astor? Only that, in addition to their standout performances March, for one, has never been finer on the screen their pictures are the two best shows in town. fory of Migration Scheduled as Fox Film The story of the migration of Darling Clementine," Entitled "The ven orphan children in 1844 from Trek." the film will be di- rcctcd by Louis King from a screen. Missouri to Oregon is the next pro- by Mafy MCflll Jr My (Suction scheduled for Samuel GJ Darling Clementine" comes to the Engel, producer of John Ford's "My Rivoli Tuesday. leave for Hollywood. Currently in Columbia Pictures' new psychological mystery, "So Dark the Night," which opens at the Rialto Theater, Friday.

Geray was born in Uzhored, Czechoslovakia, and played in all the leading theaters of Europe before he came to America. He was a member of the Hungarian National The Look Out, Fremiti ater and gave two command per tury Fox' Technicolor musical, "Carnival in Costa Rica." Starred in the picture are Dick Haymes, Vera-Ellen, Cesar Romero and Celeste Holm. Veteran character actor J. Carroll Nalsh, who has done about everything else on the screen, will formances for King George of Eng "MY DARLING CLEMENTINE," big new Western about Wyatt Earp and his days at Tombstone, is Tuesday's film at the Rivoli Theater. Cathy Downs and Henry Fonda (above! are Clementine and Wyatt, and Linda Darnell and Victor Mature (with Fonda, right) play Chihuahua and Doc Halliday in the John Ford-directed adventure.

land in 1936 In addition to his stage career, he sing for the first time in 20th Cen-1 EVERYTHING I EVER HOPED TO SEE IN A Mary Astor Notes How Times Change i Mary Astor, still-sirenish survivor of the sexy silents," says love has changed in the movies and how! I Miss Astor is currenty menacing 'the conjugal happiness of Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young in the R.KO Aibce's "Claudia and David," ba-ed on Rose Franken's stories. "A nice, unwitting menace," she deplores, "without a kiss in a carload of scenes! Dorothy merely mistakes Bob's interest in my archi tf) 1 tectural plans for interest in me a situation that often exists in real life where the men of the family work with even half-way attractive women. But when I first started," she 1 Twomen believed her Jies.muidyou? VNs into TYRONE POWER GENE mryNw JOHN PAYNE Anne BAXTER Clifton WEBB Herbert MARSHALL Oorry) f. 2wk'i production W. SOMERSET MAUSHAM'S recalls, "love scenes were on the stiff and formal side.

Heroines were as "pure as the driven snow," making it tough on vamps. Nowadays they make films about hero The Razors If It ines who hold their men by beating the vamps at their own game." Fashions in smovie love changed dractically about every five years, according to Miss Astor. The passionate era of back-breaking embraces was ushered in with Valentino: then there was the flaming youth cycle, to become outmoded by the pretty, tough girl who was hard to get until the right man forcefully kissed her. "Movies are a good bit more subtle these days in every way. Restraint in love scenes makes for reality on the screen and I'm glad the movies have grown up to that fact.

Bu, while the good old days were more torrid than good, they were fun too." 7th HIT WIBKAT WARNERS' UOLLYWOOD n.rvi ii. a rrojiiunous LAtl fILM AT MIDNIOHT iROAOWAf AT Jill Edge by DARRYL F. ZANUCK fcr mm oouidins ZANUCK mm ROSARIO ANTONIO BOB HANNON EMMA OTERO Tiotti TOMMY TRENT mam fbot 3 DOORS OPEN 77:30 AM 7th I SO St. i SEA YARN "Two Yeors Before the Most," adapted from the Richard Henry Dana Chronicle, has Barry Fitzgerald, Bnan Donlevy and Alan Ladd in its cast as well os Howard de Silva and William Bendix, ALAN HDD WILLIAM BENDIX BRIAN DONLEVT BARRY FITZGERALD in "TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST" co.uatuhi donna tom REED DRAKE "FAITHFUL IN MY FASHION" LATE STA6E AND SCREEN SHOW 10:30 fM" NOW 7vm il 0 GARY WfD ID JOHN GARFIELD MMUAY COOPER In th YMr'j Moil Expletiv Romaiw AdvnlorThrillrl ANNI GERALDINE FITZGERALD In AAIU 'SMOKV LIVES FOREVER, PLUS BLONDIE KNOWS BEST" JQUN FORD'S an L1LLI PALMER mm aida mi not jnoaniMmtotm mm iMHiiei Atlantic PLAYHOUSE IUIIU1H HVI. OltK II.

IT. J- i linen lion till Tfimiu 1ST TIME IN BROOKLYN: AIDEnICARY GRANT INGRID BERGMAN VACATION IN RINO' Hi ntwatl fri-Mnph from Jki el Academy Award vlnntri "Th OtaM WrtV cmd "How GrM.i Wat My Vatlcy' I0SAY "PORTRAIT WOMAN" Jack HAtlf autukoTOSCANINI IN Hit "HYMNofthe NATIONS" SHORE ROAD tlOTHUt -A NIGHT IN CASAtLANCA' 4 -OYS RANCH ALBEE IDOROTHY McGUIRE GARY I DADf DT A HUM III A a. i (AB mm tr M. HENRY LINDA VICTOR kit 2a GARY GRANT ALEXIS SMITH FONDA DARNELL MATURE waiter mm A Last Stage Show at 10:45 P. Feature at 12 MIDNIGHT in NIGHT AND DAY IN IfCMNICOLOR th MONTY WOOUEV GINNY SIMMS TRVWG ALAN LADD BUM BERLINS (f Man I twk Dwt iM UN WVMtN MIRY MARTIN I mQi siiccno ino'r suutcrj'i Two Years Before The HflVOLl nnwi rvv a iirnniinu T3a3a1C BING CROSBr Willi" BENDIX IY JVIast RIVOLI FRED i4STATRE JOAK CAULFIELO Rob-tiTAYlOR CARLE TUESDAY A Poromount Piclur STARTS ritinrniiA riltttKALU III.

JIIMmI Luiiuphwiiciii iri-CAPITOL. Jtt I' f(M f0UA1 9 MIDNIGHT rCATUIC Nlt LA 4TIT ii'y-r Mir'Ty.