Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

54 “Tell It To the Marines” Lon Chaney Without Elaborate Character Make-up Gives a Fine Performance as Hard-Boiled Marine Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents Lon Chaney in ‘•Tell It to the Marines” With Eleanor Boardman, William’ Haines and Carmel Myers A George Hill Production CAST: Sergeant O'Hara Lon Chaney Pvt. “Sheet” Burns William Haines Sorma Dale Eleanor Boardman Corp. Madden Eddie G ribbon Zaya Carmel Myers Chinese Bandit Warner Oland Native Mitchell Lewis Gen. \1 ilcox Prank Currier Harry Maurice Kains Length — S,S00 Feet Sheets Brown, beating his way from Kansas City to San Diego on the pretext that he will join the Marine Corp, legs it to Tia Juana on his arrival. A few days later Sheets is bach and answers to the lure of the mess call. He nearly precipitates a native uprising in the Philippines and does his bit in a Chinese bandit raid, eventually winning the pretty Navy nurse. Excellent class melodrama. HERE'S WELCOME, and a hearty one, to O’Hara, of the Marines, a top sergeant, who is not so hard boiled that he cannot feel a single generous impulse ! He’s a tough egg — as Lon Chaney paints him — and he is plain poison to the recruits, but he’s human and not merely the figment of a disordered screen writer’s imagination. Much interest has been evinced by the fans in the fact that in Tell It To the Marines Chaney discards the elaborate character make-ups which have brought him so much renown and plays more or less “straight” the character of a Sergeant of Marines. As a matter of fact this is one of his best character roles, and he makes himself O’Hara and not Lon Chaney, but he has recourse to the make-up box for the outward evidences of O’Hara, and he makes the Leatherneck one of the best character bits in his fine record. He gets under the skin of the fictitious character and makes him real from the heart out. He cherishes the belief that a Marine recruit must be chastened in MOVING PICTURE WORLD spirit before he is qualified to wear the insignia of the corps, and he is proud of his boys when he has them ground and polished. As he says in the epilogue, he loves every lousy recruit, but he surely dissembles his love, though the middle action of the story shows him putting his own heart’s desire aside to help the hero win the girl he himself loves. This is one of the weak points in the story, for it brings a technically unhappy ending even though the hero and heroine are clinched at the close of the picture. Most spectators want Chaney to win the girl in spite of his face. The picture has been superbly mounted. Most of the early action takes place in and around the naval base at San Diego. By arrangement with the Marine Corps the base and the Pacific Fleet were placed at the disposal of the director and men were detailed to see that the atmosphere was strictly preserved. As a study of life in a Marine barracks the first half of the picture is accurate, interesting and a bit too long. But the second half of the production lifts this picture to the plane of the World War dramas. There are three sequences here that equal anything to be found in earlier releases. The first of these deals with life at an oil station, where a handful of men stand guard over the supplies of crude oil for the fleet. It is the rainy season and nothing more drearily desolate than these locations has ever been done in pictures. Even in the comfort of your upholstered seat you seem to feel the chill of the penetrating rain and fairly smell the reek of the water soaked earth. Here “Skeets” Brown gets into a tangle with a native girl who dampens the romance by openly and unashamedly chasing the cooties which bother her. Brown starts to quit and her jealous native sweetheart — or one of them — precipitates a small riot. O’Hara saves Brown’s life and then promptly knocks him cold for disobeying orders. January 1, 1927 The incident comes to the ears of Brown’s sweetheart, a Navy nurse, and when they meet in Shanghai she flouts him, though the generous O’Hara lies nobly to save the boy. The girl, Norma, is ordered with other nurses, to an inland station to aid in an epidemic and the Fleet puts to sea. Chinese bandits attack the station and the Marines are landed just in time to save the little handful of nurses and missionaries from death. A detachment is told off to act as rear guard and cover the retreat. A mere handful of men hold the bridge against the Chinese hordes in a battle that is epic, but native flyers come to their aid in time to prevent their extermination and Brown and Norma, their terms of enlistment expired, marry and go to ranching. They offer O'Hara a partnership, but his heart is with the Marines and he starts in on a new batch of recruits. In the Chinese sequences part of the scenes were made near Los Angeles with cuts from a reel of film made of actual bandit fights. The only way to tell them apart is to locate the players. If you see them, it’s local shooting. If they are not in the scene the picture was made on the other side of the Pacific. They are so perfectly matched that there is no suggestion of “library” stuff. Pictorially and in point of vivid action, the second half of this picture stands brilliantly forth. No finer or more convincing work has been done, and there is a sweep to the action that carries the spectator along. The author and editor do not keep pace with the director. The early action drags and would be materially improved through liberal cuts, but “Tell It To the Marines” is an outstanding play that will long be remembered. LAURA LA PLANTE’S newest starring vehicle for Universal, “Butterflies in the Rain” is an adaptation of a story by the celebrated writer, Andrew Soutar, and James Kirkwood is co-featured with her in this production. The plot is worked out along the lines of a romance between a newly rich man and an aristocratic English girl who misled by crooks posing as intellectual swells have instilled into her mind advanced ideas regarding marriage and feminine independence. Carried away by his sterling qualities and semi-cave-man methods she marries him “Butterflies in the Rain” Laura La Plante and James Kirkwood Featured in Pleasing Romantic Story of a Modern Girl but insists on her independence. Her false friend get her into a compromising situation and try blackmail, and when her husband goes broke to clear her name she learns that she really loves him and finally convinces him of her innocence. Miss La Plante gives a capable and pleasing portrayal of the English girl and Kirkwood has a congenial role as the exceptionally honorable and upright hero. The remainder of the cast has been well chosen and renders effective support. This picture while it has a certain amount of comedy relief is lacking in the highly humorous situations of some of this star’s recent releases such as “Her Big Night” and the appeal is focused on the drama arising out of the conflict between her views of hero and heroine and it should prove of average en tertainment value for patrons who like so ciety comedy dramas. Carl Laemmle presents “Butterflies in the Rain” With Laura LaPlante and James Kirkwood Story by Andrew Soutar Directed by Edward Sloman CAST: Tina Laura LaPlante John Humphries James Kirkwood Charlton Robert Ober Lady Pintar Dorothy Cummins Purdon Oscar Berigi Miss Flax Grace Ogden Length — 7319 Feet John wins and marries Tina an aristocrat who has advanced ideas about marriage, but when she gets mixed up in a blackmailing scheme and John goes broke to aid her she changes her views and all ends happily. Light romantic society comedy.