The New Pictures

Fog Over Frisco (First National). By the time a newshawk and a cameraman discover the body in a rumble seat, enough has happened in this picture to suggest many a motive for murder. Arlene Bradford (Bette Davis) is a moody socialite, addicted to thievery for fun. Daughter of a banker (Arthur Byron) whom she dislikes, she consorts with underworldlings, gets her name in gossip columns, disposes of stolen bonds through her fiance and the Honolulu manager of her father's business. When Banker Bradford becomes suspicious and recalls his manager from Honolulu, there are altercations in a speakeasy and mysterious stirrings in the Bradford house. Arlene turns up dead in the garage. The newshawk's loyalties waver between his paper and Arlene's half-sister (Margaret Lindsay) whom he loves. A free-for-all chase leads to more mystery. Who sent the spurious telegram? Who threw Jake Bello into the bay? What about the sinister butler, the yacht Nowishn and Arthur Burchard to whom Arlene willed her money?

Brisk to the point of confession, Fog Over Frisco is not the best of Director William Dieterle's pictures. Typical shot: Bette Davis begging her anxious fiance to tolerate just one more swindle.

Many Happy Returns (Paramount). When Gracie (Gracie Allen) arrives in Los Angeles, she says: "I know I'm going to like California because I've always wanted to see the Statue of Liberty." She and her exasperated husband Burns (George Burns) meet a studio chief; Gracie expects him to be an Indian. When they arrive at the studio, the gateman looks suspiciously at Gracie. She points to the president of the company behind them, says: "That's all right. He's with us." In the studio she watches a picture being filmed, meets Bandmaster Guy Lombardo. Her greeting: "Guy, you don't mind if I call you Mr. Lombardo, do you?" Whenever it appears likely that someone is going to give her a scrap of useful information, Gracie utters her idiotic slogan: "Don't tell me. Let me guess."

The story of Many Happy Returns is loosely wound around the efforts of Gracie's father to get rid of her when he returns from Europe and finds her pro posing to turn his Manhattan department store into a bird sanctuary. The trip to Hollywood is the result of a marriage arranged when her father offers to pay Burns $10 for every mile away from New York the honeymoon takes the couple. An overextension of Burns & Allen radio programs, Many Happy Returns, like Six of a Kind, should delight audiences who can stand such gags as: "I've never been psychoanalyzed. Does it leave a scar?" Best shot: Veloz and Yolanda, dancing.

Heart Song (Fox). Hurt in a hunting accident, the Duke de Pontignac (Charles Boyer) is ready to start recovering when, lying in bed with his eyes bandaged, he hears a girl's voice singing an unknown song. Well again, he tries to find the singer. At first he thinks she must be the stately, flirtatious Empress Eugenie (Mady Christians). Instead it turns out to be the Empress's vivacious little hairdresser (Lilian Harvey). The song was written for and dedicated to her by her sweetheart, an ambitious young musician. He does not much mind losing her when he gets a chance to conduct the opera company that the Duke supports. Slight, implausible, edged with a thin glitter of cruelty and sentiment, Heart Song illustrates an important point in cinema technique. In Hollywood, the accepted procedure for musical films is to elaborate and enlarge. Heart Song, which was financed by Fox and Gaumont British for UFA production, strives, like most of Director Erich Pommer's productions, to be as small and delicate as possible. Its sly and trivial grace is becoming to the miniature charms of Lilian Harvey, who was too often lost in the exaggerations of Hollywood productions. Good shot: an audience at the palace dozing uneasily at a concert given by the Empress's four nieces.

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