Hollywood Manufacturing Fun For Grim Days

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21819, 23 November 1940, Page 10

Hollywood Manufacturing Fun For Grim Days

The stress, strain, suffering, and problems of a war-torn world today are turning motion picture producers to the field of comedy because comedy is an escape from realities. For years, producers have known that when everyone is fundamentally happy and all is well, there Is no objection to a little cry now and then. But when everything seems serious, comedy is what the world wants. So Hollywood today is manufacturing fun. More than 20 comedies are now before the cameras in all studios, an extraordinarily large number. Columbia, for instance, is making “So You Won’t Talk,” with Joe E. Brown as star, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has “Strike Up the Band,” with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, “Go West,” with the Marx Brothers, and “Bittersweet” with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. R.-K.-O. has three comedies in work including “Dance, Girl, Dance,” “Too Many Girls,” and “No No, Nanette.” Twentieth Century-Fox and Universal each have three comedies in production. Paramount seems to be running to a new record with four comedies before the cameras. One of these is “Arise, My Love,” with Claudette Colbert cast as an American newspaper woman, and Ray Milhind as an American aviator, both having comic and adventurous times in Europe in spite of the world conflict. Jack Benny and Fred Allen, traditional enemies of the American Radio, carry on their little feud under the direction of Mark Sandrich, in a film called “Love Thy Neighbour," which is guaranteed to take anyone’s mind off his or her immediate problems, including high taxes. “Rhythm on the River” brings Bing Crosby, Mary Martin and Basil Rathbone together with music and plenty of laughs. Basil Rathbone is a song writer who is too lazy to write, and who gets Mary Martin and Bing Crosby to do his work for him. There is said to be a lot of fun in their doing of it. Last, but certainly not least,

is “There’s Magic in Music,” with Allan Jones, Susanna Foster, Lynne Overman and Margaret Lindsay in the cast.