Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1928-Jan 1929)

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Current Pictures THE SAWDUST PARADISE EVANGELISTS in the movies are like the Royal Mounted *-* — they always get their man. You know right at the start that any atheists in the cast are going to be praying in the last reel. They haven't a chance against our movie traditions. In "The Sawdust Paradise," Esther Ralston is the first to go. She is a very nifty young woman with no scruples, who works in a crooked carnival. To escape a jail sentence, she joins an itinerant preacher, and under the influence of the dear whitehaired old gentleman .and the little baby who creeps into their tent, she realizes the error of her ways. Next thing she is leading all her old irreverent pals down the sawdust trail. In spite of the carnival atmosphere, this isn't a very colorful story. But Reed Howes is a good leading man. The baby will delight all the women in the audience with some de luxe coos and gurgles. And just looking at Esther Ralston will give you your money's worth, anyway. She grows handsomer, more capable, and more charming in each successive picture. HALF A BRIDE TF I had to live on a desert island, I'd leave the proverbial ten books behind and take Gary Cooper. With practically nothing to work with but a penknife, a cigarette lighter, and his sex appeal, this boy does wonders. Esther Ralston, as a spoiled darling of the rich, is the lucky girl who gets cast away with him. They have a trial marriage (in name only) for three months, and they conclude what never before has occurred to any movie hero — that any man would fall in love with any girl if they were alone on a desert island. Just as this interesting point is reached, it turns out to be the last reel, and the quickest way to end it is for them to fall back into each other's arms when they are returned to civilization. While this is highly improbable and silly, it is almost sure to amuse you. Especially as Gary Cooper is at his best, and Esther Ralston is particularly winning. Esther proves that her hair is naturally curly (unless it was more of that trick photography) and that she looks ravishing even in a gunny sack. THE VANISHING PIONEER JACK HOLT is back as king of the Paramount Westerns. His newest picture starts off almost as impressively as "The Covered Wagon," but soon diminishes into a not very exciting tale of prairie villainy. It has one of those complicated plots about politicians, which puts too much of a strain on the mind, considering the pleasure involved. It seems a group of pioneers settled in Happy Valley, a land of plenty watered by a river that was needed to supply drinks for a famished city some distance to the south. A crook, representing the innocent Mayor, goes to the Valley and tries to get control of the water, and I simply can't go on from there. It's enough to know that William Powell is the villain. There's a lot of turning on and off of water, and fighting. In the end Jack Holt gets terribly noble and leads his people from their happy homes, leaving the disputed water to do the greatest good to the greatest number, so that politicians might not perish from this earth. 62 ■ n| m ■ B EXCESS BAGGAGE ZL/OW it feels to be a movie star's husband is the unhappy theme of this drama. It starts off with the love affair of a second-rate vaudeville team, with William Haines doing extremely well in a big romantic role. Everything is fine until his wife gets an offer to play opposite the cinema's handsomest sheik, and has one of those overnight successes that turn every girl's head. After that things go' exactly as they so often have in the private lives of our best movie stars. Only there's a happy ending, which didn't fool me. You just know that no prima donna is going to give up her suite at the Ritz and move out to Flatbush. Nevertheless, it's one of the better pictures, with lots of humor and colorful atmosphere. Billy spends too much of his time sulking. I really think this craze for clown make-up has gone far enough. It may be an improvement on Lon Chaney. but when God gives the movies something like Mr. Haines, it seems like blasphemy to make him wear a disguise.