Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1930)

April 5, 1930 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD 37 w SERVICE ON PICTURES TROUPERS THREE ACTORS AS SOLDIERS! Produced and distributed by Tiffany. Directed by Norman Taurog. Story by Arthur Guy Empey. With Rex Lease , Dorothy Gulliver , Slim Summerville , Roscoe Karns, Joseph Girard and others. Seen by TOM J. HACKER in Hollywood ^^S^ORMAN TAUROG directed “Troupers Three” for Tiffany and succeeded in turning out a smooth, breezy type wise-cracking comedy packed with giggles. The fun honors go to Slim Summerville. Rex Lease is in a Bill Haines role, a smart cracking, ham actor getting his goose cooked as he tries to “gag” his way through a cavalry post. He is heard in several song numbers which reveal a crooning ballad voice that’s not bad. (Not so good, either.) Lease, Summerville and Roscoe Karns join the cavalry after unsuccessful attempts, as actors, to crash a small time try-out vaudeville house. They plan on rehearsing a new act and only staying a month. I, ease, as the wisecracker of the offensive kind, meets Dorothy Gulliver, the captain’s daughter. Their experiences in learning to become first class cavalry men with Lease in love form the story. ONE ROMANTIC NIGHT Seen by PETER VISCHER in New York i(rP 1 HE SWAN” was, not so many years ago, one of the most charming plays on the New York stage. In being made over into “One Romantic Night,” by United Artists, much of the flavor of Molnar’s stage play has been retained, but, as one might suspect from the vapid change in title, something has been sacrificed. The picture brings Lillian Gish to the talking screen and I found her performance quite captivating. She is much the same Gish, fragile, delicate, lovely, and she was beautifully photographed. Her voice is good, and adds expression to her sensitive features. I liked her immensely. On the stage, the story was a grand tale of Continental royalty. For the sake of her family’s fortunes, a young princess had to be married off to a rich and powerful young prince. Secretly, her young brothers’ tutor was madly in love with her and one gala evening, on the occasion of the prince’s visit, he felt the unaccustomed flush of wine and rebelled at a fate that made one man a commoner and another a prince. Most amusing were the frantic efforts of the girl's mother to get her married off, and most philosophic were the commentaries of her uncle, a padre of benevolent mien. The story remains much the same, but a slightly different manner of handling has, to some extent, affected the result. Conrad Nagel could hardly be described as an inspired choice for the part of the earnest young tutor. Rod La Rocque, as the prince, makes him something of a cad, with a trace of a Bowery accent. Marie Dressier is, of course, superb as the mother of the princess. But the part of Father Benedict, which cast a mellow glow over the entire stage production, has been cut to practically nothing and that bit is so flatly played by 0. P. Heggie, usually so competent a performer, that it seems a waste of footage. “One Romantic Night” is, I must say, a pleasant picture, but “The Swan” could have been so lovely! By T. O. Service DAMES AHOY THE NAVY WITH LIMITATIONS. Produced and distributed by Universal. Directed by W illiam James Craft. Story by Sherman Lowe. Adapted by Matt Taylor. Dialogue by Albert DeMond. Sound footage 5,773 feet. Silent footage 5,270 feet. Release date February 9. With Glenn Tryon, Otis Harlan, Eddie Gribbon , Helen W'right and Gertrude Astor. Seen by HARRY TUGEND in New York HANDFUL of laughs, thinly spread, fail to make this a first class picture. The plot contains possibilities, but indifferent dialog and direction keep them in the background. Otis Harlan, a gob with thirty years service, has been shanghaied into matrimony by a dame with blonde hair and a strawberry birthmark above her starboard knee. These are the only marks of identification he can recall to his buddies, Glenn Tryon and Eddie Gribbon. In an eventful search for her he strays into a dancehall where he wins a contest. The money is used to release Otis from his blonde, who is finally found. The cast does all that can be expected. MAMMY Seen by PETER VISCHER in New York T HE newest Warner picture starring Al Jolson is, in some respects, superior as a box office attraction to all those that preceded it. “Mammy?’ has songs by Irving Berlin, and how Jolson sings them! It has some light-hearted minstrelsy, some fine scenes in color, some views for Magnascope. Taken all in all, the picture is box office and no questions asked. Personally, candor compels me to say that I don't think the picture began to make use of Jolson. I bow to no one, not even Abe Waxman, in my admiration for Jolson as an entertainer, and I think it’s about time the boy was given a chance. Jolson means an evening of fun and entertainment in the theatre. In the old days, when he “used to sing his brains out at the Winter Garden,” as he himself puts it, you went to see Jolson because you could bet your life you’d get laughs, swell songs sung as nobody else can sing them, and an armful of lighthearted entertainment. Jolson meant comedy, and believe me that’s a compliment. Well, somebody’s gone and done a Fanny Brice on Jolson! He can’t be light-hearted any more, for there comes a time in every one of his pictures when he has to go without a shave, look like a bum, and go off with the coppers for some crime he’s committed by mistake. It’s all very sad, too sad, if you ask me. In this latest picture, Jolson shoots his buddy by mistake during a minstrel show when some dastardly villain puts real cartridges in the gun in place of the blanks that are supposed to be there. What a perfectly silly and unnecessary hit of invention to give the star a chance to show bathos, which, if you ask me, is a decidedly unwelcome addition to any picture, never an asset. Maybe I’m finicky, too finicky. I'll go to see Al Jolson anyway, and so, I suppose, will a lot of other people. PLAYING AROUND THE WHITE HAIRED GIRL ! Produced and distributed by First National. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy from the story by Vina Delmar. Adapted by Adele Commandini. Dialog by Humphrey Pearson. Photography, Sol Polito. With Alice White , Chester Morris, William Bakewell, Richard Carlyle, Marion Byron, Maurice Black, Lionel Belmore, Shep Camp, Ann Brody and Nellie V. Nichols. Seen by NORMAN KRASNA in New York THOROUGHLY enjoyable and clever program picture with box-office angles that plead for being capitalized on. Capricious Alice White winds her way in and out of a plot studded with an impromptu knees beauty contest, a love affair with gangster Chester Morris, a robbery, a musical revue in a night cluh, and sundry other entertaining ingredients. Alice White and Chester Morris are as alluring names as can be placed on one theatre marquise and in a vehicle of this type are shown to best advantage. The story involves a fun-loving girl accepting attentions front a gentleman who represents the money and flash that is sadly lacking in her soda-jerker fiance. Fun she has aplenty, but just before complications complicate themselves to Alice’s detriment Chester Morris is unmasked as the holdup man he is, and in nothing less than getting caught robbing Alice’s father. Of course the soda-jerker fiance with the heart of gold does the trick and this fixes everything as everyone knew it would be. The story is the barest bit transparent but it’s done so well that you’d never know it without me telling you. HONEY THEY’LL SW IRM TO SEE IT. Produced and distributed by Paramount . From the stage play by Alice Duerr Miller and A. E. Thomas. Adapted by Herman J. Mankiewicz. Directed by Wesley Ruggles. Photographed by Henry Gerard. Footage 6,701 feet. Released March 29. With Nancy Carroll, Stanley Smith, Skeets Gallagher, Lillian Roth , Harry Green, Mitzi Green, ZaSu Pitts, Jobyna Howland and Charles Sellon. Soon by HARRY TUGEND in New York rp _L HIS old farce, “Hon^v,” brought into the Paramount, has been given new and better life. A splendid cast, and inteligent direction of good, clean dialog and situations, have made a funny play practically hilarious. I heartily recommend it to anvone, anywhere. Nancy Carroll and Skeets Gallagher, son and daughter of newly poor parents who are abroad, decide to rent the old homestead to Jobyna Howland and her daughter, Lillian Roth. When the new tenants arrive, accompanied by Lillian’s fiance, Stanley Smith, Nancy and Skeets have taken over the duties of cook and butler without disclosing their real identities. Stanley falls in love with Nancy, and Skeets with Lillian. Also vice versa. The resultant intimacies are most carefully observed by little Mitzi Green, who always happens to be sitting in a nearby tree. For a price, which rises with the importance of her disclosures, she tattles to Jobyna and finally reveals the real identity of Nancy and Skeets. The. clinches are unanimous and everybody’s happy. A group of Negroes in a revival meeting are stuck in for apparently no other reason than to give Lillian Roth an excuse for singing “Sing You Sinners.” But that’s reason aplenty. If you haven't already heard this song, you will.