Variety (Dec 1928)

24 VARIETY FlfcM^ R E V I«*W S Wednesday, December 5, 1928 BATTLE OF SOMME (Continued from pa go 19) ■n'orth seeing. Its photography pins • big rose on one Sydney Elythe. This Sonime battle film seems a, ti'y at reality from war records and therefore doesn't ■ qualify, for com- parison with American-made war pictures that drive continuity along with a pretty girl, athletic herp and a war background to bring out phony boloney*^ heroism, However, that's film license.. . Mark. . Son of the Golden West FBO proOucilon and' release. . Starring Tom Mix. Directed by Eugene Ford from story by George. Pyper, In east: Lee bhum'way', Frltzl RIdgeway, Sh;»rori Lynri, . Duke Lee. At Loew'a New York, one day, .Nov. 13, half double , bill. ^Running time. 05 minutes. "Son Of the Golden West" has a theme, composed of others that have been ground out hundreds of tinies. But-.Tom Mix is> in .it, ..does. .hLs shooting and riding and carefui' love making in the Mix way., so that this.is a .safe bet for Mix audiences. Single handed, Mix shoots away a tribe of , redskins at the'opening. Juf5t before the closing, with only a bit of cactus to shield him, he pops over man after rhan who not only outnumber him 15 to one, but who have the additional odds \of a shack to. safeguard them. '.. Long stretches of film are used to show Mix galloping along long stretohcs of. prairie. A bunkhouse singer not only flats vo<;ally, ac- cording to the titles, but "bores as a long distance filler in the footage. Sharon Lynn, Mix's leading lady, has little that will appeal. Person- ality registers mostly negative In this one. The usual bad men overact In this to show their wickedness. Las- soing a house In which they have hidden themselves, troopers,, called by the daring telegraph wlrer (Mix) manage to pull It over. This Is a fitting climax to what has gone be- fore. Waly. Triumph of Scarlet Pimpernel (BRITISH MADE) ■ I-K)ndon, Nov. 9. Produced by British &. Dominions-Com- pany. Directed by t: Haye.-j Hunter. Dis- tributed In the U. K. by W. & F. Com- pany; U. S. and Canada by Wide World Film Corp. Censors' certificate "U." Run- ning time. tM minutes. Pre-view .at th« Marble Arch Pavilion. Nov. 5. Sir Percy Dlakeney (Scarlet Pimpernel) Matheson Lang •I.,ady Blakcney.......;... .Marjorle Hume Robespierre............;.Nelson Keye« T.lllleh...-.. 1.... .^. .Haddon' Mason Theresia Cabbarus........ ..Juliet Compton NOW LV SECOND TEAR "B.B.B." More Than s Master of Ceremonies At COFFEE DAN'S, Los Angelea. Csl. ORIGINALS ADAPTATIONS HOWARD J. GREEN Management, Edw^ard Small Co. TITLES CONtlNUITIES Anotheir -Fi-cnch Revolution. film, with angles of the popularity of the iiuthoress's novels and-of Mathcson Lang here. But direction and act- ing are Only fair, with the. crowd scenes'■ well handled but at times rather badly grouped- A weakness is Matheson Lang's disguises never do, and the sii.sponse falls in consequence. Nelson Keys makes Robespierre a shade too .stagy. He is inclined to mug and stride overmuch. Story is a thread, concerned with Robespierre's attempts , to get rid of. Blakehey, responsible- for saving a number of folk from the guillo- tine. Action is mainly devoted to 131akeney's maneuvers to outwit him and to save Lady Blakeney after Robespierre has had her abducted. Very wealt; this spot, as the lady Is kidnapped ^nd rushed over to France almost in caption. She appears, in Robespierre's house with several changes of gown and plenty of jewels. Nothing outstanding but still fairly fast-moving and colorful melo with good sales angles for this sidei Its. value except as a one-day pro- gram picture in America is prob- lematical, as its cast is hot known and the subject has been done aplenty already. Frat. of codes, rules or principles, to judge from this production. This Is the kind of a picture that proves the absence of brain matter. The story could be told In three sticks of 12-polnt type, with blanka and dashes as the major means of expression. It la one of the slowest, dreariest state rlghters ever seen. The frozen north, also dismal and unromantle, la again the uninspiring background. A/- white girl, ait or- phan, In love with a trapper who Is later beaten up twice by the vil- lainous half-breed, disproving the contention In the : subtitles relative to the heroic one's bravery. Anywhere from three to six anti- antl-climaxes; Action consists mainly of lengthy subtitles, shots of people talking or gesticulating, and a couple of weakly staged fight sequences. Mori. Daoml. He is called In and accepts, despite his deep hatred for the de- ceased. Paoml thus again meets his wife in the death chamber, and orders her out. Nicole seizes a knife and tries to commit suicide. Her for- mer husband prevents her. After his departure she is haunted with the idea. of Hara-Kari as the nieans of crossing the Styx, but jibs when it comes to the plunge. Finally she goes outside with a re- volver and kills herself under niore modern methods. » Daomi returns, looks with sorrow on the corpse, and pardons his ex- wife for her conjugal infidelity. Marie Iribe reveals much taleht In her Impersonation of the rather un- sympathetic . part of the guilty, spouse, while the camera maniDula tion Is first class; Pruning'is much, needed in "Hara-Kari." Kendrcw. THE OLD CODE Crescent production, "released by Anchor Film Dlstrlbutlner Co. Presented by. Morris R. Schlank. Directed .by Benjamin Franklin Wilson from, the story by .James Oliver Curwood. Adaptation by E. C. Maxwell Featuring Lillian Rich and Walter Mc Grail. Cast Includes Cllft Lyons, Mel- bourne McDowell, J. P. MoGowan, Neva Gerher, EJrwln Renaird, • Mary Gordon Rhody Hathaway. At Stanley, New York one day, Nov. 14. . Running time, 05 min- utes. Concerns neither the old code nor the new. The producers never heard HARA-KARI (FRENCH MADE) •■ Paris, Nov. 15. ■ •'Hara-Kari," scenario by Pierre Lestringuez, prodiaced by, Marie Louise Iribe, who plays lead, spon- sored by Artistes Reunis and dis- tributed by Jean de Merly, is to be classed among the good local pic- tures released this iseason. Scenario is perhaps a bit off color. The technical work has been care- fully nursed, the redeeming point, but the story is too slow, with sdenes often repeated. It would seem Mme. Iribe was trying to. catch all the sunlights, with more concern about her role than the run of the picture, an ar gument against a producer playing first roles. All thei same, she and Maurice Porster, as one of the producers of "Hara-Kari," havie done justice to the book furnished, while Constant Remy, l»Ia6-Szi-Jen, Labusciuiere, Toshi Komou, Mich'aud, Andre Ber ley and "Wuriu worked hard to put some kick Into it. A European woman, Nicole, mar- ried a cultured Asiatic, F'rofessor Daomi, specialist in religious ritcis of the. extreme Orient, and soon leaves her husband to join a lover, Prince Fujlwum. Daomi, learning of her intention In time, tries in vain ,to retain her, to warn her of such a fatal step with a man far. above her_ In rank. But the lovers go to a winter re sort In the Alps, where the Prince is killed while mountain climbing The Japanese ambassador receives instruction to have the Prince's body buried according to the rites of the Shinto religion. No one In Europe can do this excepting Professor Phyllis of the Follies Universal'produotlon and release. Direct- ed by . Ernest L,aemmle. In. cast: Alice l)ay; Matt Moore, Bdmund Burns,~Lllyan Tashman. At L,pew'3 Circle, one day, Nov. 10, half double feature. Shown with non- ayhchronlzcd disk, accompaniment. Run- ning time, 00 minutes. Highly moral and strictly con- ventional. Thread . of story and overacted with just enough flash of backstage to work follies into title. Generally cheap production safe in the grinds but precarious for better second runs and others! The rich bach,, who meets mar- ried dame on the make, painfully^ exaggerated by Edmund Burns, Palming off young, friend, Alice Diay, as wife, Lilyan Tashman mas- querades single. Little twist . in situation but story open book in first reel with accomplice falling. Husband, Matt Moore, returning from phoney trip and unraveling of Identities to bachelor seen thou- sands of times. Titles, on same order. Laughs in spots with right audiences. Waly. scenic settings and ability of Clair* Windsor are assets. . D'Arcy and Gray behave like a couple ot comedians, registering very much like a team doing a broad burlesque of heavies in the 'DO's D'Arcy, as the entirely too de- bonaii: sales manager, begins to covet the credit man's wife, early He has. Walter and Claire in his apartment for dinner. Walter pa.sse8 out after a couple of drinks and the evil one lures, the beautiful young wife up . to a roof garden for a dance. The whisper of scandal soon after reaches the young husband's ears with the usual suspicions arising. Did his wife and his friend, do any- thing wrong, or no, Wonders young Walter. In the end he learns of his wife's pure, sterling character and, like Sir Jos. Ginsberg, denounces the menace in loud, angry voice issuing from a distorted mouth. Ends fittingly with a severe horse-« whipping for the covetous one who, after all, couldn't be blf\nied, con-^ sidering the nifty appearance of ,th6. pulseTquickener. Mori, . ; SILKS AND SADDLES Universal production and release. Marlon Nixon and Richard Walling featured. Dl« rected by Robert' F. Hill' from story bi^. Gerald. Beaumont. Joseph Brotherton,'cam. eraman. In cast: Mary Nolan, Otis Harlan," Claire McDowell, Sam deGras.se. At Loew's New .Yorlti one day, Nov. 27, halt double bill. Running ilhie, about CO minutes;. •Good race track entertainment along the usual lines. Scenes at the track with the yoUng jockey double^. crossing his owners for a blonde decoy have their suspense. . For a. Jockey Richard Walling stands in a little too high with his old Virginia employers. But this is in tone with the theme. . A safe bet for general bookings. ■ Waly. DOMESTIC MEDDLERS TlfTany-Stahl production and release. Di- rected by. James Flood from the etory by Wellyn "iolman. Continuity by • Wellyn Totman. titles by Frederic and Fanny Hat- ton. Photography by Ernest Miller. Fea- turing. Claire. Windsor, Lawrence Gray and Roy D'Apcy. At Loew's New York, one day, Nov. 30. One-half of' double bill. Running time, over OO .mlns, Claire .... .Claire Windsor Walter. .Lawrence Gray tjew. .Roy D' Arcy Jonesy. , ..Jed Prouty Split week material in the neigh- borhoods. Plot light, . direction lighter, but studio work, suitalble VINCE SILK MASTER OF CEREMONIES Golden Gate Theatre Los Angeles ■ • Says .' ■ ''Hello, Walters and Russell" FRANK JENKS M. C. aind Orchestra Leader . Now in 24th Week. Appearing with Publix Units METBOPOUTAN THEATRE LOS ANGELES HAVE YOU SEEN FRANK DIGAETANaS Son and Daughter ADAM AND AMELIA SOCKING AWAY AT THE PARAMOIIT, NEW irS A PLEASURE! Much obliged to ABE LASTFOGEL and LESTER HAMMELL for Niggemeyer's "BUBBLE?? WE THANK YOU