Word: riskin
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...mooning wistfully over their early triumphs. But a famous moviemaker in the same plight can simply dig out an old success and do it all over again. Producer-Director Frank Capra has done just that in this remake of his 1934 hit, Broadway Bill. With basically the same Robert Riskin script, at least seven character actors playing their original roles and Capra repeating his crafty directorial touches, the new movie is as beautifully turned a piece of hokum...
...Robert Riskin, it is reasonable to suppose, must be a very brave man. He has allowed his name to appear portentously in all publicity concerning "Magic Town," a deed which serves to point him out publicly as the person chiefly responsible for this poor and clumsy movie. And such an admission requires courageousness beyond the ordinary, as it is no ordinary density that fails to achieve something worthwhile with the services of James Stewart and Jane Wyman...
...Riskin's primary mistake, both as the producer of "Magic Town" and as its scenarist, is that he has attempted to invade the very special cinematic territory held securely by Frank Capra. "It's a Wonderful Life," Stewart's last picture, was a Capra production, and its successful mixture of fantasy, allegory, and sentiment was a demonstration of brilliant skill and showmanship. "Magic Town," on the other hand, aims for sentiment and achieves mawkishness; it reaches out for allegory and it grasps chaos and incongruity. And, to round out the comparison, although it appears to have scarcely any intent...
...this is particularly unfortunate when considered in the light of the fact Stewart has not made many pictures recently. His remarkable abilities are too rare to be treated carelessly when he does make a picture. They are evident in "Magic Town," but Riskin has made the least of them...
Most of the bright, personable U.S. propagandists in London were on OWI's payroll. CBS's restless William Paley, 43, his dog tag made by Cartier, bombarded Europe by radio. Litteratéur Lewis Galan-tiere plotted U.S. propaganda for France. Ace Hollywood Scenarist Robert Riskin (It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town), intermittently in & out of London, Washington and Sicily since 1941, managed the OWI film division. Deep in publications & pamphlets: the Viking Press's wealthy president, Harold Guinz-burg, and wealthy George Backer (who was reported to be spending his idle hours translating...