Bender

Last week Hollywood went on a musicomedy binge, set up four in a row. But the treat was less likely to give cinemaddicts a lift than the staggers.

P: Most potable offering was Knickerbocker Holiday (United Artists), a cine-version of the 1938 Broadway hit which delved deep into Manhattan's Dutch past in order to be thumpingly arch (in Gilbert & Sullivan style) about dictators, democracy, the masses, freedom of the press and young love. Cinemactor Charles Coburn plays Walter Huston's old part as a period dictator--Peter Stuyvesant. Nelson Eddy is the singing editor whom Stuyvesant jails for his opinions and to get his girl. The girl: Constance Dowling who, besides singing likably enough, has the high surface gloss and hardness of a Dutch tile. Carmen Amaya, who has nothing to do with the plot, dances powerfully, continues to convey passion by making faces as if her partner had just trod on her corns. Kurt Weill's score has moments notably the gay-sad September Song, that suggest his great Die Dreigroschenoper.

P: Mostly icewater was Seven Days Ashore (RKO-Radio), which detailed the embarrassing simultaneous involvements of a merchant mariner (Gordon Oliver) with three girls. It was spiked by the presence of swart Comic Alan Carney, and there was a fine moment when haughty Margaret Dumont shattered a cocktail glass with a sour note in her rendition of Over the Waves. But the film is best summed up in one critic's quip: "Seven days can be a long time."

P: Most routine offering was Show Business (RKO-Radio), a clearance sale of pre-World War I vaudeville, featuring Eddie Cantor, George Murphy and girl friends Constance Moore, Joan Davis and Nancy Kelly. Samples: the principals singing and dancing I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad; Dinah in blackface; a four-voice rendition of the Sextette from Lucia, with Murphy (as a matador) and Cantor (as a knight-at-arms) munching bananas; Eddie Cantor and Joan Davis impersonating Antony & Cleopatra. The story concerns George Murphy, a wolf, who has heart trouble with Nancy Kelly, a wolverine, and Constance Moore, who 1) shuns, 2) marries, 3) divorces, 4) remarries him. Common sense is left strictly (in small doses) to Comics Cantor and Davis, who get along fine with each other. The picture's chief novelty is an oldtime song hit, It Had To Be You.

P: Biggest cinemiscarriage was Pin-Up Girl (20th Century-Fox), which Betty Grable made during the early stages of pregnancy. Cinemactress Grable plays the toast of a midland chapter of the U.S.O., becomes so amiable a Pin-Up Girl that half the war effort thinks it is engaged to her. Later in Manhattan and Washington she meets a heroic sailor (John Harvey), takes his advances seriously, whiles the reels away with deceptions, misunderstandings, quarrels, songs & dances. Typical number: Martha Raye sings Red Robins, Bob-whites and Bluebirds, while a lot of girls rhythmically wag the red, white & blue rear ends of ostriches.

The film's only funny moment: hugely fat Eugene Pallette, a desk sailor, growling his regret he can't be out there fighting.

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