If there is any trend this season, except that previously mentioned downward one, it is not immediately apparent. The operatic cycle seems to have halted in mid-whirl. Biographies could be counted on the fingers of a Disney dwarf—Jean Lafitte in "Buccaneer," Marco Polo, the Chicago O'Learys, including the low's cow, Daisy, and—indirectly—Major Walter Reed and researchers in "Yellow Jack." More in this line is promised for the next six months.
Otherwise the screen is blanketting the field in its casual way, swinging blithely from horse opera to who-unit, from musical to romantic comedy, from the homespun of the Jones family to the silks of a Joan Crawford "Mannequin." Realism was served by "Boy of the Streets" and "Crime School," which followed the rugged "Dead End" lead. "Blockade" touched the Spanish situation and the industry is still suffering from shock.
So ends the semi-annual report. The market at the moment is bearish. Box office is down. Several of the producers are taking cover and stop orders—"The Exiles" and "Personal History"—have been filed. Shirley Temple holds firm. Master Breen is experiencing a reaction. Foreign credits are slipping—Luise Rainer's and Marlene Dietrich's notably—but the franc is sound, spported by Danielle Darrieux. Still, there is no cause for alarm. As Mr.
Hays always says, this will be the greatest year in motion-picture history.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.