Word: roach
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Tanks a Million (Hal Roach; United Artists) puts a cheeky Quiz Kid (William Tracy) just where most cinemagoers would probably like to see him: in the U.S. Army. Unfortunately, the Army is in such shape that the Kid (named Dodo Doubleday) very nearly runs away with...
Cinemaddicts who want to see Tanks will have to see it on a double bill. About half as long (50 minutes) as a standard feature picture, it was thought up by Producer Hal Roach as the answer to the double-feature exhibitor's prayer: a short feature to combine with a standard-length picture so that cash customers will still think they are seeing two pictures for the price of one and the exhibitor will be able to squeeze in an extra show...
This ruse, if successful, may end the curseworthy and costly double feature. For if movie audiences take to featurettes like Tanks (which is merely a stretched-out episode), they may be weaned down to one standard-length feature and an extra-large helping of good, inexpensive shorts. Producer Roach is so hopeful about his new "streamlined features" that he has made five of them, has another block of five on the fire...
...Topper Returns," Hal Roach's third venture into ectoplasmic comedy, blends murder and laugher into a mixture which falls only inches short of a Bob Hope rib-tickling, spine-tingling cocktail. Bovine-bosomed Joan Blondell as the lady who vanishes and Roland Young as Cosmo Topper, the defective detective, pace an excellent cast which includes Rochester, Carole Landis, and Billie Burke. Much above the average little girl who isn't there type of picture, this is if anything better than Topper's first two appearances...
Died. Marguerite Nichols Roach, 45. wife of Movie Producer Hal Roach; of pneumonia; in Los Angeles. Last October Mrs. Roach sought a separation order after 25 years' marriage, said: "If Hal wants his freedom I think he should have...