Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1929)

44 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD October 5, 1929 SERVICE TALKS Incorporated in this department of the Herald-World, which is a department containing news, information and gossip on current productions, is the Moving Picture W orld department, "Through th<> Bnr Offtrp Window." CHESTER MORRIS LvOOKING backward is not one of my weaknesses, nor have I great interest in the giving of credit in an industry where credit giving is almost a fetish, but I take this occasion to look back upon my reports of "Alibi" and "Woman Trap," wherein I spoke praises of an actor whose name I did not remember, and to add here that this actor is Mr. Chester Morris and he's greater than I intimated in even those enthusiastic comments. I have learned his name through seeing him again in "Fast Life" and I remark here that this is his best exhibit of the three. I set this information up here above the comment of the week because I know that an actor of crook roles, even so capable an actor as Mr. Morris, probably will never receive top billing elsewhere. Such are the breaks of an advertising system based on the theory that the world loves Pollyanna more than it loves Peck's Bad Boy. I quarrel with this theory to the extent of saying that Mr. Morris is a better actor of villains than any actor I know is of heroes. I quarrel with the theory, but I know in advance that I'm licked. I think, however, that I win this round. "THE: COCKEYED W ORLD" ^^OU'VE read about the big business this picture has done in its early exhibitions. I can personally attest that the line in front of McVickers has been so big that I delayed two weeks in crashing it to find out the reasons. You are not interested, then, in any report I might make of the picture as to merit and so forth. So I'll just talk about it a bit and let nature and "The Cock-Eyed World" take their markedly parallel courses. The story is, of course, an extension of "What Price Glory." Captain Flagg has become a mere top-kicker, but Sergeant Quirt is still a sergeant. The war is over and the boys, now Marines, are busy in Russia and some islands where insurrectionists are shooting up the populace. There are women here, there and everywhere, the principals' contest for them being the central theme and Lily Damita being the chief of the several women they battle about. The warfare is a relatively minor incident. The scrapping about women is the chief item of interest. The wisecracks are the chief weapons and they are sharp, swift, deft and rough, as the wit of upstanding Marines is quite likely By T. O. Service to be. The Chicago censor board took out quite a number of them, shortening others, but those that are left in the Chicago print are enough to have the town talking and whispering and giggling in high if somewhat undercover glee. (Speaking of under-cover stuff, I make no secret of the fact that I'd like to see the complete picture.) Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe are much as they were in "What Price Glory," a bit better actors perhaps, but this may be due to their vocality. Yet Lowe is much better vocally than in "In Old Arizona" and McLaglen is better than in "The Black Watch." (I guess this makes them pretty good actors.) Lily Damita is not, of course, what Renee Adoree was to "What Price Glory," but she is plenty, visibly and audibly, and the job is slightly different. A good many others should be named but no doubt you know who they are and what they do. I've an idea that "The Cock-Eyed World" will be followed by a good many pictures of similar character. Things run that way in production. And it's quite all right with me; I assure those of you who so kindly worry about me that I'll not fall asleep in front of pictures like this one. But I'd like to hear what the dear old ladies in Primrose, Pennsylvania, will say about it all. I know they'll be in to see it, hear it, and then I know what they'll say about it to each other. I've no idea what you exhibitors of Primrose will reply to them, but I can name a destination whereto you might as well direct them now as later. "HER PRIVATE LIFE" It took a lot of nerve for Billie Dove to attempt Ethel Barrymore's famous role in "Declasse," which "Her Private Life" is. It would take a lot of nerve for any actress to do it. When a role has been done by a Barrymore, and is surrounded by the tradition that settles upon a Barrymore performance before it is cold and hardens steadily thereafter, it's high explosive for another performer. And Miss Dove's vocal ability is new, relatively unsung, notably un-Barrymoresque. But this isn't a prelude to a knock. On the contrary, it's preface to the statement that Miss Dove not only had a lot of nerve to tackle the job but enough more to get away with it. "Her Private Life" is easily the best picture she has ever made and one of the best pictures of the day. Miss Dove is better and better vocally, incomparable physically, and her associates are up to the high standard that she sets for them all the way. Montague Love is splendid as the brutish husband. Walter Pidgeon is okay as the lover and Zasu Pitts contributes a priceless maid. The direction is smooth, the continuity flawless, the production spic and span, the ensemble up to the very top notch. I sweep my chapeau in a long, graceful arc to the humble dust and proclaim Miss Dove the Ethel Barrymore of the speaking screen. Take it or leave it. "FAST LIFE" ^3eCAUSE a major sequence in "Fast Life" shows a man and his wife getting ready for bed, the picture is limited in Chicago to adult exhibition. But don't let that fool you. It's a splendid bit of entertainment and the first footlighting of flaming youth since "Flaming Youth" that has seemed to me worth the film it's printed on. Chester Morris — starred or not — is the star of "Fast Life." He comes into the picture inconspicuously, stands in the background most of the time, goes out suddenly and quietly toward the end, but the kick that the picture has is the kick he puts in it. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., is the principal by casting, Loretta Young is the girl in the triangle, and several others do well with prominent assignments. "SKIN DEEP" I T seems to me that it was Milton Sills who made a picture called, "Skin Deep," in which a bad man's face was repaired by plastic surgery and his character straightened out accordingly. The same thing happens in this picture, also called, "Skin Deep," but the incidents of this one recall to me none of the incidents of the other. This time the bad man, a gangster, is Monte Blue. Betty Compson is the bad girl, John Davidson is the second bad man, and Tully Marshall is the facial carpenter who fixes things up for everybody concerned. I'm glad to see Mr. Blue standing up alongside the other good male actors in the talkingpictures. A bit selfishly, this business of being glad, because Mrs. Service thinks Mr. Blue is a great guy and I'm, going to have to go to all his pictures whether I want to or not. If they continue as good as this one, and I see no reason why they shouldn't, I imagine I'll be an addict, too, in no time at all.