Word: boxful
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Jolson Sings Again," is a prime example of their handiwork. "The Jolson Story," to which the present effort is a lame sequel, made very good business for the box offices when it came out two years ago; a movie about the "mammy" singer of the twenties, with Al Jolson's voice on the sound track, was almost a sure thing from the start. But there were a few of Jolson's top numbers that couldn't be fitted in. When the film turned out to be a hit, the moviemakers couldn't resist the temptation to have Jolson sing again...
...every satirical revue can find two pleasant new ways of ribbing Hollywood: once in a studio scene where a trained gorilla seems, by comparison with the leading lady, a mental Einstein; and once when three stars who proved box-office as slatterns (Olivia de Havilland, Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Wyman) chant their triumphal formula: Be a mess, be a mess, be a mess! And not many revues can offer two full-length parodies that hit at least as many right notes as wrong ones: a musical-comedy Hamlet (with Dick Sykes), which has the good sense to swipe its music...
...Rank's troubles were caused by the fact that he had grown too big too fast. After he had won critical huzzahs and made money on such pictures as Henry V, he had attempted to increase his annual output of pictures from 25 to 60. Directors like Sydney Box (The Seventh Veil), who had been turning out five good films a year, were told to make 20. There was not enough moviemaking talent for all the pictures and the result was a dreary parade of box-office flops which cut into the profits of Rank's theaters...
...other little girl had ever grown up quite like Shirley Temple. She was a movie actress at four,* a star at six, and then a dimpled, curly-topped national institution. Between seven and ten, she was the No. 1 box-office draw in the U.S.; at eight, she was the most photographed human being on earth. At nine, while other little girls waited for their permanent teeth to come in, she wore costly false teeth to hide the gaps from the camera. When she was ten, a Dies Committee witness denounced her as a Communist dupe...
Skinner places his pigeons in a small closed box with a button in one wall. The birds must peck at this button at least once every five minutes to be paid off with food. The eager but ignorant pigcon, however, not knowing he will get the same reward with less exertion, will hammer away rapidly for great lengths of time to get his dinner...