Motion Picture Magazine (Feb-Jul 1927)

Reviews of the new pictures by critics whose view-points are unbiased Th cture WHEN A MAN LOVES J/T/TTH gracious gestures, John Barrymore permits Dolores Costello the honors in "When a Man Loves," the Warner Brothers interpretation of "Manon Lescaut." The first half of this picture, moving, slowly, altho with an interest and charm, thru the love idyll of Manon and the Chevalier Sabien des Gricux, is far superior to the last half. There is the luxury of the French Court of Louis XV . . . there is the fragile beauty of Dolores Costello, combined with her altogether commendable acting. And there is John Barrymore foregoing his penchant for the grotesque, which has marred his recent appearances, and substituting instead an interesting and subtle charm . . . and his profile. But later he begins to cut up antics so frightful and against such revolting backgrounds that you turn horrified eyes from the screen. — Warner Brothers. LOVE'S GREATEST MISTAKE Z7DDIE SUTHERLAND, the boy comedy director with heavy ambitions, has had his fling at the serious drama, and one comes away feeling more than ever that Eddie certainly has a flair for comedy. "Love's Greatest Mistake" suffers from its cast — for they attempted to hang the picture on the quite inadequate tho very pretty shoulders of Miss Josephine Dunn, late of the Paramount School. Miss Dunn tries hard — but there's a vast difference between a cute girl and a good trouper, as Evelyn Brent's performance so clearly proves. James Hall and William Powell present the same painful contrast. The story is of a country girl whose clean hands and pure heart are almost sullied by city life. There is one really dramatic sequence. The comedy which frequently crops out is bright and racy. — Paramount. THE GENERAL DUSTER KEATON has evolved a mild little comedy *-* of Civil War days, which takes place almost entirely on an engine. It's amazing that so many things can be done with a train of cars. And it's a pleasure to laugh continuously but comfortably, with no painful sidesplitting, while Buster inadvertently becomes the hero of the Confederate Army. He is relentlessly aided, thruout the picture, by his heroine, who is nothing short of an inspiration. This girl is so dumb that it at first seemed to us she must be sub-moron, as she tirelessly did everything all wrong, and willingly submitted to Buster's rather primitive rebukes. But it gradually seeped in upon us that she was merely feminine. Marian Mack plays this delightful new brand of leading lady with infinite good nature. Dont miss her and Buster. — United Artists. ALIAS THE DEACON 7 EAN HERSHOLT'S first starring vehicle, in spite of J all the good things which can be said of it, is in the main flat and disappointing. We have come to expect Jean Hersholt to give a wonderful characterization, but he misses on the Deacon. He is too sweet, too soft, too much the Deacon and too little the card-sharp. He has no ironical appreciation of the situation, no sense of humor. It is too bad — for both those who like Hersholt and those who have enjoyed the play are going to be disappointed in the picture. It also misses fire on some of the main situations, and there are wide-open holes in the continuity, but the adapter evidently knew his movie onions, for he has added a race between an automobile and a train, a prize-fight, _ an interrupted wedding, and several little touches which are always sure-fire. — Universal. 60