By VIRGINIA VALE Released by Western Newspaper Union. AN ENTIRE apartment jlV house, in sections, was constructed for Columbia’s •*The More the Merrier” (Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn starring), which is certainly the most amusing picture of the year so far. The rooftop was laid out •cross the floor of an entire sound stage, the four room apartment that's the scene of most of the action occupied another, the building front and a block of similar structures oc cupied another—the latter being the scene of the love scene which is likely to go down in movie history as one of the most delightful ever made. -* The way James Cagney mauls his women on the screen is a Hollywood ! legend; actually, he has struck women only four times, never bruised one. But in "Johnny Come Lately" he's beat up by a girl. Mar Jorie Lord. She slapped him, hit him on the jaw, pounded his chest. He suffered no ill effects. But Mar jorie sprained a wrist. -* There's not a woman featured In “Bataan”—but the wives of the all star cast include Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Lucille Ball and Jen nifer Jones, soon to make her ap pearance in the lead of "The Song JENNIFER JONES of Bernadette.” Her husband it Robert Walker, screen newcomer, who an enthusiastic press agent tells us has “the wistful appeal of Jimmy Stewart, plus a dash of Gary Cooper.” -* Now that we all have to read maps, to keep up with the war, Walt Dis ney’s set to help us; in “Victory Through Air Power” he has intro duced an entire sequence to acquaint audiences with the fundamentals of cartography and map-reading. -* Freddie Bartholomew’s last act before reporting for service in the army air corps was to say good-by to Miles Mander, who gave him his start in pictures. Freddie dropped in on the set of “Five Graves to Cairo,” where Mander, formerly a director writer-actor in English pictures, was playing the part of a British officer. . -* Till recently Dick Stark, announc er on “Abie’s Irish Rose,” would fight anybody who called him “Baby face.” Now he’s changed his tune— Paramount likes that baby face, and has signed him to replace Alan Ladd in gangster roles lined up for Ladd before he joined the army. /i When a quizmaster makes a mis take listeners burn up the wires tell ing him so. On a recent ‘Take a Card” program Wally Butterworth said that hot dogs are made of pork; he’s been snowed tinder by wires, letters and phone calls telling him an assortment of meats is used. -■¥ Brian Donlevy lost half his mus tache during the final day’s shooting for “America” at a steel plant; imi tated the workers in throwing his arms across his face after flipping a shovelful of ferro-manganese into a furnace, but took his arm down too soon. -H* Paulette Goddard predicts that Sonny Tufts, who appears opposite her in “So Proudly We Hail,” will become a big star. A year ago be was trying to get extra parts on the air, but radio producers wouldn’t lis ten. Recently she told Charles Mar tin of the CBS Playhouse that she’d bet him a pound of steak he’d be offering Sonny $1,500 an appearance after the picture’s released. Both radio and movies took a hand In the build-up of Jack Carson. Pro ducer Vick Knight announced his en gagement as star of an air series; ; then Mark Hellinger said he’d get star billing in “The Widow Wouldn’t Weep,” first meant for Jack Benny. . -* ODDS AND ENDS-Martha Raya dropped in on the “Let’s Face If set to tell Bob Hope what he’d better take along on his overseas trip ... She hopes to go back herself soon . . . Jack Ben ny’s been signed to star in “The Horn Blows at Midnight." the scenes of sohich are laid in Heaven and New York . . . They’ve changed the title of The Pentode’’ to “Conflict,” much easier to understand—but “Five Graves to Cairo’’ is still a puzzler, since it doesn t mean what it seems to ... Stage 29 on the Metro lot, where Gregory Ratoff is directing “Russia,” has been christened “Ratoffgrad" by the many hen of the company. You Can't Keep a Good Ship Down Navy authorities revealed that 14 of the 19 ships named as lost or damaged at Pearl Harbor have been returned to active duty. At left, the smashed sections of the main deck of the battleship Oklahoma are cov ered with mud and barnacles after 17 months immersion. Righting her was one of the most spectacnlar Jobs of salvage done in the harbor. The battleship bad capsiicd at an angle of 151H degrees—leaving her practically upside down. L'pper right: A side of the hull of the capsized mine ship Oga’a is shown before she was salvaged. Lower right: Two barnacled guns of the Arizona are shown after removal from the ship. Japanese Relocation Center in California Two pictures of the activities being carried on at the Japanese relocation center at Tulle Lake, Calif. Left: These older Japanese men are busy weeding onions for the large truck farm maintained at the cen ter. Right: A small section of one of the several large, modern, well-equipped beauty salons at the center. Hair cuts here cost only 20 cents. In discussing the relocation problem, Roane Waring, national commander of the American Legion, stated that he believed the army should irwnage Japanese relocation centers. Army Engineers Rescue Flood Victims ■Cl-:-- i. .> || T "TiiTTr"-~r.TT"'---—■ ■ • Mill' I Ml When the White river in Arkansas broke its banks and flooded the adjacent country, United States army engineers came to the rescue. This photo shows an amphibious jeep driving up to a front porch to rescue a family of flooded out residents. The top of a partially submerged automobile may be seen over the edge of the jeep. Before It Met the Allies A Nazi Mark VI tank is shown plowing through a house in this photo from a German propaganda magazine. This is one of the very few good pictures of this tank to reach America. Most of the other pictures show the tank after it has tangled with Allied equipment, been knocked out of action, damaged, and captured. Note here that its long high Telocity gun is turned back over its tail to avoid injury. Still Working at 95 At 95. Marcus Turner, a Negro, works for an Allied victory at the Post Engineers section in Miami Beach, Fla. Attu Commander MaJ. Gen. Eugene M. Landrum, pictured in his working clothes, was named commander of all U. S. army troops on the island of Attn by Sec retary of War Henry L. Slims—, They Came, They Saw, They Conquered Scores of American soldiers carrying their equipment poor out of landing barges onto the black volcanic sand of Massacre Bay, on the Aleutian island of Attu which had been held by the Japanese. Fighting in conjunction with army air forces these men forced the enemy to retreat to the sea. Even Mules Fight Axis Despite mechanization, the army needs the lowly mole. These three have been picked from a mule market in St. Louis, Mo., to be transported to a branch of the armed service. The demands of military forces have caused prices on mules to soar and there is a brisk rush of trading each day for this cross between a Jackass and a mare. On the Road to Tokyo British engineers in Burma are harking highways through jungles, mountains, to create a system of roads and supply lines over which they plan to force the Japanese from their positions in that sector. At top: British troops are working on a new stretch of road. Below: A convoy of jeeps carry supplies around a loop on a new road in Burma. British Strategists at Allied War Talks Three of Britain’s war leaders take their places across the table from the United States war chief* at a meeting of American and British war strategists in Washington, D. C. Left to right: Lieut. Gen. Sir Hastings L. Ismay, chief staff officer to the minister of defease; Admiral Sir Dudley Found, first sea lord and chief of naval staff; and Gen. Sir Alan Brooke, chief of the imperial staff. ‘Oh Suzarma’ On a banjo made from the metal ef a wrecked Japanese Zero fighter plane, Lieut. Walter E. Moore strums oat American favorites at a U. 8. base in Bona, New Guinea. Toning screws are 25 caliber car* tridges. Adrift 131 Days Fish and rainwater was com plete diet of Poon Lim, this 25-year old Chinese sailor, while he drifted on the Atlantic for 121 days with only a raft between him and Dary Jones’ locker. His ship had been torpedoed. —. Jaws of Death - “Excessive speed” was named as the cansc of a wreck of a Pennsyl vania train. New York boimd from Atlantic City, killing 14 persons and injuring 89 others at Delair, N. J. The wrecked vestibule looks like a grim jaw ready to devour the in specting officials. Mud in His Eye This front cover of a Nasi propa ganda magazine which devoted an entire issue to the mud and water in Russia shows a German trooper taking a drink of muddy water.