Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

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The Screen in ReVievtf Eva von Berne is Virginia. She is not a riot as an actress, but is well cast, and is so far removed from any one of a hundred ingenues who might have been given the role, that I found her refreshing and lovely. Alma Rubens, with too little to do, is extremely interesting, and Ralph Forbes, the late Theodore Roberts, Frank Reicher, and Ethel Wales make up the rest of the cast. A Box-office Magnet. Give Clara Bow half a chance and she will make it seem a whole one. Which is by way of saying that "Three Week-ends," her latest, is better than her recent pictures. Without being so novel that you need a libretto to understand the story, you will be amused by Clara's performance and the seeming freshness of the proceedings. This is due in no small part to the performances of Neil Hamilton and Harrison Ford, comedians whose methods bear no resemblance to each other's. Mr. Hamilton is the secretary of an insurance magnate and sets out to sell a million-dollar policy to Turner, in order to show his employer how easy it is — and earn a huge commission for himself. His only stipulation is that the magnate lend him his car. He crashes a party Turner is giving for a bevy of show girls in the hope of snaring Clara, and is mistaken by her for a rich youth. If you know your Bow scenarios, you won't be surprised that Clara promises to marry him, and on discovering he is poor repudiates him with tears of chagrin ; nor how, when he denounces her as a gold digger, she redeems herself by cunningly trapping Turner into signing for the policy. Thus Clara's sex appeal is the modus operandi by which a million-dollar deal is swung, while she remains miraculously a good little girl, though wild. Who cares if all this is just a formula, when the film is lively, amusing in spots and Clara is her impudent, raffish self ? Her status as an artist entitles her to a higher rating than that of a sprightly soubrette, however, but as long as she devotes herself to soubrette roles she will be estimated accordingly. The day that brings her a more mature character will find her ready to meet its demands. Give These Foreigners a Hand ! Don't let the lack of familiar names in the cast keep you away from "Home-coming," a notably fine German picture. You will find the tolerably familiar Lars Hanson in it, yes, but the others — Dita Parlo and Gustav Froelich — are strangers with whom you should become familiar. The strength of this picture lies in the acting rather than the story, which is not by any means unusual. The acting is poignant and the entire picture so real, that you forgive its slowness and forget its variation of the "Enoch Arden" theme. Two German prisoners in Russia escape, but the married one is recaptured and separated from his friend, who is single. Karl, the bachelor, manages eventually to get back to Hamburg after the war and goes to the home of his friend, expecting to find him there. Instead he meets his wife, who has given up her husband as dead, and Karl, against his will, falls in love with her and she with him. Of course, the husband returns at a critical moment and — the ending is one of the most moving and sensible I have ever seen. Mr. Hanson, as the husband, is perfect. His return to his native Sweden becomes more of a calamity each time he is seen. Miss Parlo is interesting — a great deal to say of a new actress, it seems to me — and admirers of Willy Fritsch. in "The Waltz Dream," will find a reminder of him in Gustav Froelich, as Karl. A Lady of the Evening. Every resource has been brought to bear in making "Outcast" seem more substantial than it is. The effort may be highly palatable to the majority, and a rare titbit for those who are excited about Corinne Griffith. But from me — and I cannot believe I am alone ■ — neither Miss Griffith nor her picture evokes a ripple. It may be because both star and film are old stories, this being especially true of the yarn. It has been seen before on the screen, following its success on the stage about fifteen years ago. That's the worst of being a veteran ; one always knows what's going to Continued on page 92