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Show Musical Shows Most Popular Films in Marine Camps, But They Like Any Movie That Has Plenty of Girls in It 8 Leathernecks Don't Like 'Flag Wavers' or SecondRate Westerns Entertainment values have changed but little for marines in the three I'ears since Guadalcanal. Leather-seeks Leather-seeks still prefer movies usually . because there is nothing else to "prefer," according to Sgt. Bill Ross, marine corps combat correspondent. cor-respondent. "Movies are better now than they were in the 'old days' and we get them from the states a lot faster," said Marine Lt. Everett G. Force of Valdosta, Ga., motion picture officer of the 3rd marine division. The men, however, still want much the same type of movies as when the scope of marine offensive operations in the Pacific was limited lim-ited to the Solomon islands, according accord-ing to the lieutenant. Survey Shows Preferences. A survey of the Leathernecks of the 3rd division, upon their return from the conquest of Iwo Jima, revealed re-vealed the following preferences in types of movies: First: Musicals (with girls). Second: Comedies (with girls). Third: Mysteries (with girls). Fourth: Dramas (with girls). Definitely on top of the "not wanted" list of films are war pictures. pic-tures. The men who fought on Bougainville, Bou-gainville, Guam and Iwo Jima don't even bother to explain why they'd almost rather sit through a mortar barrage than a "flag-waver," as they call war movies. Out-of-date newsreels, according to Lieutenant Force, also "are strictly from hunger." hun-ger." And second-rate "quickie" westerns are shunned like a Japanese Japa-nese ambush. Behind the showing of movies in the Pacific is one of the untold stories of the Pacific war. To get the films from the movie lots of Hollywood to the fighting fronts is, in itself, a vast and complex job. Film During Iwo Fighting. An example of the speed with which pictures are handled can be found in the fact that the movie "Saratoga Trunk" was shown on Iwo Jima while savage fighting was in progress, and before the film had been exhibited in any but the key cities back home. Prints of movies shown to marines are bought by a special section of the navy department in San Francisco Fran-cisco and New York. All film is flown overseas and from 25 to 30 new pictures virtually all of Hollywood's Holly-wood's output are received in the war zones each month. "Of course we get 'stinkers' now and then," said a marine private, a projectionist who used to manage man-age a chain of six theaters in Texas and Louisiana, "but we used to get them more often." Bob Hope and Bing Crosby hold top rank with the men of the 3rd marine division in any movie, old or new, Betty Grable, Judy Garland and Gene Tierney are prime feminine favorites. Like Re-Issues of Hits. Technicolor movies really hit the spot, and when it's a musical in color, "Mac, it's right on," says more than one marine. Curiously enough, Leathernecks don't mind reissues re-issues of outstanding hit pictures of former years. "It Happened One Night," "Lost Horizon," "100 Men and A Girl," and similar top-notch films are in great demand. "We've learned a lot of knacks that make outdoor sound better, and the pictures, too," Lieutenant Force explained. Regular periods of examination and repair on projectors projec-tors and sound equipment, he said, virtually has eliminated breakdowns while films are being shown. Now and then the outdoor cinemas give way momentarily to "live" productions: USO shows and home-talent home-talent affairs. But, by and large, entertainment in the vast reaches of the Pacific still comes from movies. Sit Through Rain-Storms. Each evening, seven nights a week, you'll see marines with improvised im-provised chairs in hand head for their respective movie areas. They sit through tropical rain-storms to see movies. They sit on empty oil-drums oil-drums to see them. They sit in coco-nu'. coco-nu'. groves and on hillsides where fierce fighting raged in the recent past. "I was a once-a-week moviegoer movie-goer before the war," said Pvt. Raymond Ray-mond J. O'Brien of Shreveport, La., "but now I'm an 'every-niter.' " And the funny part about it is that Marine O'Brien, like most of the other Leathernecks, won't think of going to a movie for at least six months when he returns to the states. "Then I'll be a twice-a-week man," he said. |