Cinema Quarterly (1933 - 1934)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

GUIDE TO FILM-GOING THE BATTLE {French. Gaumont-Briiish) . An English version of a French film adapted from Claude Farrere's novel and directed by Nicolas Farkas, camerman on Don Quixote. An artificial quality marrs the melodrama but the spectacular battle scenes are authentic and Farkas ensures that the film is always interesting pictorially. Charles Boyer in Sessue Hayakawa's part and Merle Oberon act with strength and sincerity. BLACK MAGIC (German. British Lion). A folk tale of the Malayan island of Bali, directed by Friedrich Dalsheim and Victor von Plessing, with native music and dialogue. A naive story of primitive superstition gives the film unity and allows for a fascinating description of life on the island, with its striking religious ceremonial and curious trance dances. Finely photographed, exciting to listen to and put together with a sound sense of documentary. CRAINQUEBILLE {French). The veteran Baroncelli's sound version of Anatole France's story, done as a notable silent by Feyder. It has atmosphere and observation, good characterisation and humour, although cinematically it is slow going. A Starevitch puppet sequence is clumsily inserted, striking the wrong note for such a dream sequence which Feyder achieved so well in Les Nouveaux Messieurs. CRIME ON THE HILL {British. B.I.P.). A murder mystery of familiar type, interesting for the distinctive treatment of Bernard Vorhaus, a director rapidly attaining a position of importance in the studios. A film full of technical ingenuities is directed with a sincerity rare in British pictures. DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY {American. Paramount). A moving and impressive adaptation of Alberto Casella's play describing in psychological terms the events of three days spent on earth by Death in search of the source of mortal fear among men. Mitchell Leisen's exceptionally sensitive direction and the carefully controlled performances of an able cast secure a compelling expression of the author's theme, to whose peculiar qualities the film proves more sympathetic than the stage. After a whirlwind opening newT to the play, movement dwindles but the theme does not become lost in a welter of words. A sincere gesture by Hollywood towards a more intelligent cinema. EMPEROR JONES {American. United Artists). Theatrically conceived, naively directed, Paul Robeson's personality surmounts Dudley Murphey's amateurish handling of this O'Neill subject and in flashes reveals the tremendous screen presence that one day he may achieve. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT {American. Columbia). Frank Capra, most skilful of Hollywood's craftsmen, expends his talent in telling vivaciously and ingeniously the story of a tenacious reporter who, to secure a scoop, follows a runaway heiress across America in a transcontinental bus. An overlong account is kept entertaining through Capra's persuasive direction and the interpolation of several quite brilliantly observed sequences of which the hitch-hiking episode is the chief. Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. PECHEUR DTSLANDE {French. Beacon). A stagey adaptation by Pierre Guerlais of Pierre Loti's novel, descriptive of the hardships endured by the Breton fisherfolk. A director out of sympathy with his medium has handled the story as if it were a stage play : people emote in front of the camera and talk endlessly. Some of the incidental shots are lovely, the atmosphere of the fishing village is effectively conveyed and there is a fine performance by Yvette Guilbert. 253