The Film Daily (1935)

THE -cSZ! DAILY Tuesday, July 30, 1935 REVIEWS OF THE NEW PICTURES "EVERY NIGHT AT EIGHT" with George Raft, Alice Faye, Patsy Kelly, Frances Langford (HOLLYWOOD PREVIEW) Paramount 80 mins. NICE BOX OFFICE ATTRACTION PACKED WITH GOOD ENTERTAINMENT IN THE MUSICAL CLASS. Mark this down as real entertainment. It should do excellent business at the boxoffice and is worthy of much exploitation. It is a credit to Walter Wanger and everyone connected with the picture. Patsy Kelly delivers in a big way, her every move and comment bringing laughs. George Raft has an ideal role and will please his fans. Frances Langford, making her screen debut, can sell a song and is an important discovery. Alice Faye is decorative and effective as a singing partner of Patsy and Frances. The girls and Raft's band are leaders in an amateur radio contest. Raft signs up the girls and guides them to success on the air. He is a tough taskmaster, but Frances falls for him. The girls walk out on him to attend a Long Island society party, but when they hear him on the air they rush back to him and their radio work. Of course, Raft and Frances go into a clinch, Graham Baker and Gene Towne have done a fine job of scripting, while Bert Hanlon's dialogue is worthy of mention. Raoul Walsh's direction is high class. Cast: George Raft, Alice Faye, Frances Langford, Patsy Kelly, Three Radio Rogues, Walter Catlett, Harry Barris, Eddie Conrad, Herman Bing. Producer, Walter Wanger; Director, Raoul Walsh. Author, Stanley Garvey, Screenplay, Gene Towne, Graham Baker; Music-Lyrics, Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh; Cameraman, James Van Trees; Editor, W. Don Hayes. Direction, Aces. Photography, A-l. Bob Steele in "SMOKEY SMITH" William Steiner 58 mins. WESTERN HUMMER PACKS THE FAST FIGHTS AND THRILLS WITH BOB STEELE IN ACTION MOST OF THE TIME. This one is up to the usual Bob Steele standard of plenty of action, and Bob doing his share of fighting with fists and gunplay. The plot is well knit, and nothing involved about it. Just a plain theme of revenge, with Bob the nemesis pursuing the unknown murderer who killed his parents years before while they were en route to their new home in a wagon train. Finally the hero gets on the trail of the bandit gang whom he has reason to believe were involved in the killing of his parents. There is plenty of excitement as Bob finds himself at odds with the lieutenant of the bandit gang, with whom he becomes identified as he works out his scheme of revenge. He is really a deputy sheriff trailing his man. He pins it on the lieutenant that he is the killer of his parents, and then in a final gun battle evens the score, and grabs the girl that the villain was trying to kidnap. Cast: Bob Steele, Mary Kcrnman, George Hayes, Warner Richmond, Earl Dwire, Horace Carpenter. Producer, A. W. Hackel; Director, Robert N. Bradbury; Author, R. N. Bradbury; Editor, S. Roy Luby; Cameraman, William Nobles. Direction, Fast Photography, Good. "HOP-ALONG CASSIDY" with William Boyd (HOLLYWOOD PREVIEW) Paramount 62 mins. BETTER-CLASS WESTERN WITH GOOD CAST, INTERESTING STORY AND PLENTY ACTION AND COMEDY. Every exhibitor who can possibly run a Western will want to play this. William Boyd, as the experienced, hard, worldly cowboy with a heart of gold, and Jimmy Ellison, young spitfire of the ranch, make a swell team. This well-produced interesting yarn has plenty of action, beautiful scenery that you don't see in every outdoor picture, a nice smattering of comedy, some romance, and a cast that handles its work very well. Howard Bretherton's direction is nicely paced. The original story, plus Doris Schroeder's and Harrison Jacob's writing, contains interesting characters who do things that hold attention at all times. A battle is brewing between Robert Warwick and Charles Middleton, ranch owners. Kenneth Thomson, Warwick's trusted foreman, is head of a gang which is rustling cattle from both ranches, while Warwick believes Middleton is doing the stealing, and vice versa. Through Boyd, Ellison and George Hayes as Uncle Ben, the outlaws are discovered and, after a gun battle in the big rock area, the gang is wiped out. Cast: William Boyd, Jimmy Ellison, Paula Stone, George Hayes, Charles Middleton, Robert Warwick, Kenneth Thomson, Frank McGlynn, Jr., Willie Fung, Frank Campeau, Ted Adams, Jim Mason, Franklyn Farnum. Producer, Harry Sherman; Director, Howard Bretherton; Author, Clarence E. Mulford; Screenplay, Doris Schroeder; Cameraman, Archie Stout. Direction, Lively. Photograpry, Fine. "CAPTURED IN CHINATOWN" Superior 50 mins. LURID MELLER OF CHINATOWN MADE FOR THE MOB, CARRIES PLENTY OF THRILLS FOR POP APPEAL. As mellers go, this one is the usual variety of hectic and slap bang action stuff that will appeal to the lovers of thrills for the sake of the mere excitement. It has no particular class in presentation, but should go well in the smaller houses where they want plenty of action. Ta-zan, the police dog, is featured as the four-footed hero who finally downs the villain and saves the situation for the principals in the cast. Marion Shilling and Charles Delaney have the roles of sweethearts who both work for a newspaper and are covering a wedding in Chinatown of the son and daughter of two warring tongs. A crook steals a jade necklace from the bride, and her new-found husband is stabbed by the thief when he attempts to capture him. Thus the tong war is on again, amid lots of excitement and the imprisoning of the heroine by the crook. Then Tarzan gets in his fine work and all ends happily as the dog captures the villain with the aid of the police. Cast: Tarzan, Marion Shilling, Charles Delaney, Philo McCullough, Paul Ellis, Robert Walker, Bobby Nelson, John Elliott, Bo Ling, Jimmy Leon, Wing Foo, Paul C. Feng. Producer, Bert Sternbach; Director, Elmer Clifton; Author, Arthur Durlam; Screenplay, Elmer Clifton, Arthur Durlam; Cameraman, Harry Forbes. Direction, Snappy. Photography, Okay. "RECKLESS ROADS" with Regis Toomey, Judith Allen, Lloyd Hughes Majestic 60 mins. FAIRLY ENTERTAINING DRAMA-ROMANCE WITH COMPETENT CAST BUT ROUTINE STORY. The plot ingredients of this production are so familiar that the audience is never very much intrigued or kept in suspense, but on the whole the yarn has fair entertainment value for the not too particular pop audiences. Regis Toomey, a newspaper reporter, is in love with Judith Allen, whose mother is still living in the past when they were socialites and whose brother is a gambling no-account. Through an auto crash in which the brother is involved, Judith meets an old suitor of her mother's, Gilbert Emery, who gives Judith a job in his office. There she is pestered by Lloyd Hughes, the philandering nephew of Emery, and for a while she humors him because he also gives a job to her brother. So Regis appears to be getting the air, but after helping the kid brother to get out of a jam and rescuing Judith from Lloyd's unwelcome advances, Regis wins the girl as well as the good-will of the aristocratic mother. A racetrack scene provides a good action finale. Cast: Regis Toomey, Judith Allen, Lloyd Hughes, Gilbert Emery, Ben Alexander, Louise Carter, Mathew Betz, Dorothy Wolbert, Kit Guard. Producer, Larry Darmcur; Director, Burt Lynwood; Authors, L. A. Heifetz, H. A. Carlisle; Screenplay, Betty Burbridge; Cameraman, James S. Brown; Editor, Dwight Caldwell. Direction, Satisfactory. Photography, Good. John Wayne in "WESTWARD HO" with Sheila Mannors Republic 60 mins. LIVELY WESTERN WILL PROVIDE SATISFACTION FOR THE THRILL FANS. Plenty of action, an intriguing story, an able cast and special attention to scenic backgrounds makes this red meat for the action fans. A bit of song and novelty is worked in through a band known as the Singing Riders, recruited by John Wayne to help him in a search for the murderers of his parents and the abductors of his younger brother. His quest leads Wayne and his men to capture several outlaw bands, and finally to the capture of the gang which killed his parents. In his encounter with this band, Wayne is fought at every step by his brother, who is the brains behind the band. Their kinship is revealed to them just as Wayne faces death in a trap set by his brother. A romance is nicely interwoven. Cast: John Wayne, Sheila Mannors, Frank McGlynn, Jr., Jack Curtis, Yakima Canutt, Bradley Metcalf, Hank Bell, Mary McClaren, Jim Farley, Dickie Jones. Producer, Paul Malvern; Director, R. N. Bradbury; Author, Lindsley Parsons; Screenplay, Lindsley Parsons, Harry Friedman and Robert Emmett; Cameraman, Archie Stout; Recording Engineer, Dave Stonert; Film Editor, Carl Pierscn. Direction, Good Photography, Fine. "CALM YOURSELF" with Robert Young, Madge Evans, Betty Furness, Ralph Morgan, Nat Pendleton M-G-M 70 mins. AMUSING COMEDY WITH VARIED INGREDIENTS TO KEEP THINGS HUMMING AND AMPLE LAUGHS. By virtue of an assortment of action 1 twists and an amusing basic situation, this is a generally satisfactory laugh number. ! Robert Young, fired from an advertising agency because he paid too much attention to Betty Furness, daughter of the sour ' boss, Claude Gillingwater, starts a business of his own, with the motto of "Calm | Yourself", his idea being to handle other people's worries. This brings him many I curious and comical cases, along with one [ romantic interest when the rich Ralph 1 Morgan hires him to keep his daughter, Madge Evans, who is about to visit him ' after an absence, from meeting up with I Morgan's second wife, who doesn't know he has a grown daughter. Robert takes Madge into his business, where plenty of lively things happen before reaching the finale where things are straightened out all around and Robert heads for the altar with Madge. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Betty Furness, Nat Pendleton, Hardie Albright, Ralph Morgan, Claude Gillingwater, Paul Hurst, Shirley Ross, Hale Hamilton, Claudelle Kaye, Clyde Cook, Herman Bing, Raymond Hattcn, Tempe Piggott, Richard Tucker, Ivan Miller, Charles Trowbridge. Producer, Lucien Hubbard; Director, George B. Seitz; Author, Edward Hope; Screenplay, Arthur Kober; Cameraman, Lester White; Editor, Conrad A. Nervig. Direction, Good. Photography, Good. « SHORT SUBJECTS » Ernest Truex in "The Light Fantastic" Educational-Fox 18 mins. Good Domestic Comedy Another of those domestic complications in which Ernest Truex is at his hest. As the truant husband with a suspicious wife, necessitating all sorts of camouflage to conceal his entanglement with another man's wife, Truex hands out a good quota of laughs. When caught in a compromising situation with the other woman, Ernest explains that she has been giving him dancing lessons, whereupon his wife tries him out with a tango, finds him able to do his stuff, and so forgives him. "Stop That Noise" (Betty Boop Cartoon) Paramount 7 mins. Okay Animated An average good animated cartoon. Driven frantic by the noises of the city, especially the rumble of the elevated trains, Betty beats it out to the country where the farmyard animals, bugs, etc., make such a clatter of their own that she is glad to rush back to the comparative peace of the big town.