Picture Play Magazine (1938)

it resembles circus lithographs. That is how the color strikes me here. Of course, a less boring film would find me more tolerant no matter what the photography. The scene is the South Seas, and there is some good acting — character acting — but it counts for little because neither the characters nor their objective are interesting. Three men take over the trading ship of a dead captain whose daughter, a stowaway, turns up to claim ownership. There is considerable plot,, ting and counter-plotting during the long voyage which ends when a | storm blows the ship off its course and the quartet land on an un3 charted island. It is in possession of a morbid trader who kills two I of the intruders in their attempt to rob him of pearls. This leaves hero and heroine free to sail away to doubtful happiness. Oscar Homolka, the Dutch actor, is impressive. So, too, is Barry Fitzgerald of the Abbey Players. Ray Milland has a negative role and Frances Farmer is laughably hoity-toity as the dead captain's daughter. Her stock in trade seems to be holding herself superior to everything and everybody. «• "The Great Garrick." — Warners. A wealth of wigs and costumes and beauty patches tell us that the period is 1750, that David Garrick was the greatest actor of his time, and that that isn't enough to make anything more than a stagy picture. The germ of life is missing from this elaborately decorated eggshell. If it's artificial comedy you want, however, this is the only one of its kind now current. Brian Aherne, too seldom seen in films, is a graceful, resourceful Garrick, and Olivia de Havilland is his lovely ladylove with more depth and feeling than any one else. She is concerned in a fanciful adventure that might have occurred in the life of the actor and obviously didn't. An aristocratic beauty, she stops at a wayside inn for the night and finds herself suspected by Garrick of being part of a plot. The inn has been taken over by members of the Comedie Franchise disguised as guests and servants in revenge upon Garrick for a fancied slight. He sees through the deception, turns the tables on his enemies, but is fooled by Miss De Havilland who is, of course, innocent of plotting to snare him. The piece ends happily in florid bombast. "The Awful Truth" has Cary Grant and Irene Dunne in infectious nonsense that everybody likes. "Live, Love and Learn." — MGM. Robert Montgomery returns to,, light comedy after sinister doings in "Night Must Fall" and he never has been pleasanter. Paired with Rosalind Russell, he plays with restraint and keen insight into character while she is mocking, charming and not quite sincere. They have an excellent aid in Robert Benchley as a flippant, friendly observer of one of the more interesting 1 and believable screen marriages. Mr. Montgomery is a penniless artist, Miss Russell a society girl who faces facts in the modern manner and strikes no sacrificial attitude in rr exchanging luxury for love in an attic. She is coolly in Ittelligent, even in the face of her husband's bohemian habits "land friends and her own inquisitive schoolmate, Helen ■Vinson. Success comes to the artist by a fluke, Miss Vinson ■promotes him among the rich, he has a penthouse studio and paints trash for fat fees. Inevitably comes the crash, the awakening, and a happy ending. All this is bright, witty, often amusing, but I don't think audiences will like it much. The story is told in such a way that not every one will "get" the fine ethical point involved. Many will take it as a success story that goes wrong when the artist doesn't go on painting dowagers and horses for fat fees. They will sympathize with Miss Vinson as a promoter whose efforts weren't appreciated. "Double Wedding."— MGM. Here is William Powell's and Myrna Loy's contribution to higgledy-piggledy farce. It's all right of its kind, but I'd just as soon see these ingratiating, accomplished stars in a more legitimate picture. The antic mood becomes definitely rough-house and that doesn't become the subtle talents of Mr. Powell and Miss Loy. We must accept this as a salaam to the box office on the part of their employers, and forgive and forget. After all, the picture is entertaining nonsense. Just what it's all about doesn't matter. Enough to say that Mr. Powell is a violently eccentric artist who lives in an auto trailer. Miss Loy is a proper young (Continued on page 71 > "Double Wedding" pitches Bill 'I Powell and Myrna Loy into roughhouse. "It's Love I'm After" shows the "The Perfect Specimen" is Er comic futility of fan worship rol Flynn's best since "Captain Blood."