Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1928)

August 18, 192{ EXHIBITORS HERALD and MOVING PICTURE WORLD 71 for UB. but frankly, didn't like him in this role so well. First reel etarte the picture off like a continued chapter in a serial. This was another Metro that we could not show up well with our light. Eieht reek. — Tivenan & Wolfe, Screenland theatre, Nevada, O. — Small town patronage. BRINGING UP FATHER: Farrell MacDonald— 40%. July 23-24. Not so good. Some comedy, some that wasn't. I think that Metro should buy a paper with these characters in it and cast accordingly. Their idea of Jiggs, Maggie and Dinty Moore is a poor one. — Ray W. Musselman, Princess theatre, Lincoln, Kan. — Small town patronage. FOREIGN DEVILS: Tim McCoy— 40%. July 27-28. Fair. Tim should have remained in the army. Print in jioor shape. Five reels. — Geo. Cohen, Princess theatre. West Union, la. — General patronage. MADEMOISELLE FROM ARMENTIERES: Special cast— 39%. July 22-23. Well, this is a Gaumont-British, so we did not expect too much and were, therefore, not disappointed. British films are evidently, quite evidently, not made with the ,primai-y design of pleasing the Yankee taste. By no means another "Big Parade," although it would have been fine with American treatment. Very good paper on this, and with the title it rates about 100 per cent drawing power. Majority of patrons satisfied. Six reels. — Tivenan' & Wolfe, Screenland theatre, Nevada, O. — Small town patronage. THE ACTRESS: Norma Shearer — Not as good as "Latest from Paris." Not good for small town. Just "perhaps" for city. Too slow. — Frank Johnson, Opera House, Louisville, Neb. — Small town patronage, ANNIE LAURIE: Lillian Gish— Good Scotch story with some good settings. Did not draw the crowd. Eight reels. — John Kamuda, Grand theatre, Indian Orchard, Mass. — General patronage. THE BIG CITY: Lon Chaney — Disappointing both in pulling power and satisfaction. Am afraid it hurt Chaney to give him a weak picture like this. Scarcely took in enough to cover film rental Wednesday and Thursday, with no competition, heavy advertising and good weather. — Geo. E. Fuller, Playhouse theatre, Fairhope, Ala. — General patronage. THE BUGLE CALL: Jackie Coogan — A good picture, but not quite up to the Coogan standard. The name of Jackie Coogan drew them in. Six reels. — S. R. Cook, Althea theatre, Dunseith, N. D. — General patronage. CIRCUS ROOKIES: Dane-Arthur— July 27-28. A fairly good comedy, but nothing to write home about. Played it Friday and Saturday and had two good crowds. They all come out for the weekend shows anyway. Karl Dane is well liked, but the majority don't fall for Arthur. — Gibbs & Shore, Opera House, Neepawa, Man., Canada. — General patronage. DETECnVES: DaneArthur— August 3. Rather cheap. Six reels. — J. S. Walker, Texas theati-e, Grand Prairie, Tex. — Small town patronage. THE DIVINE WOMAN: Greta Garbo— July 26. Just a fair picture. Not much good for small towns. Metro wants too much for these pictures. Seven reels. — Andrew Rapp, Theatorium, Emlenton, Pa. — General patronage. THE LATEST FROM PARIS: Norma ShearerHad many favorable comments. One of Metro's best pictures. Seven reels. — John Kamuda, Grand theatre, Indian Orchard, Mass. — General patronage. LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT: Lon Chaney— A very good mystery story based on impossible facts. Pleased and business was fair. Seven reels. — S. R. Cook, Althea theatre, Dunseith, N. D. — General patronage. LOVE: Gilbert-Garbo — Not bad, but certainly has no box office kick. — Russell C. Dey, Reedville, Movies, Reedville, Va. — General patronage. THE LOVELORN: Sally O'Neil— July 28. This is a good picture. Well liked by my patrons, especially the younger set. Six reels. — Andrew Rapp, Theatorium, Emlenton, Pa. — General patronage. ROSE MARIE: Joan Crawford— Good. At last we receive a real special in this day when all pictures are supposed to be specials. — Frank Johnson, Opera House, Louisville, Neb. — Small town patronage. ROSE MARIE: Joan Crawford— July 25-26. If you believe it, it is so! We made them believe it on this one, but between us I don't believe it is so. Eight reels. — J. S. Walker, Texas theatre. Grand Prairie, Tex. — Small town patronage. SKIRTS: Syd Chaplin— Was very much surprised at the drawing power of this picture, and it certainly got the laughs. I consider it a good "nutty" comedy, even if it was made in Ehigland. Directing and photography very good. Six reels. — P. G. Vaughan, Sun theatre, Kansas City, Mo. — Neighborhood patronage. SPOILERS OF THE WEST: Tim McCoy— August J. C. Jenkins — His Colyum RED CLOUD, NEB., August 3, 1928. DEAR HERALD-WORLD: And the Lord said to Noah, "Prepare an ark and take therein thy family and all the living things of the earth," or something like that, and then it set in and rained for 40 days and 40 nights and Noah cruised around for the better part of the baseball season before he found a place to land. That was some years back, but that would be good advjce today out here in Southern Nebraska and Northern Kansas. One flood has to hurry up to make room for the next one, otherwise they would overlap. We drove into Bellville, Kan., expecting to cover that state and had to drive right back onto Nebraska's gravel roads or else wallow in Kansas mud. Here we are in Red Cloud and last night it rained 1.83 inches and is still raining with no prospects of letting up and no place we can drive except over territory we have already covered. Whatalife, whatalife. Sam Blair at Bellville is erecting a big hole in the ground and we accuse him of going to build a theatre over it. Sam won't talk much about it, only smiles when he is interviewed, but he talks louder when he smiles than when he talks. He can't think of anything but his new theatre and his wife told us that he is so wrapped up in his theatre project and has become so absent minded that she feeds him sawdust for corn flakes and he doesn't know the difference. We advised against this, for suppose that sawdust would go to Sam's head, then what? The Lord knows that it is woody enough now. Anyhow, Sam has plans for a showhouse that will be the chief topic of conversation for all Northern Kansas when it is completed. Sam is all right on rough details but we surmise that Mrs. Blair is the one who will work out those finer touches that will add beauty and comfort to the place. The recent rains have removed any doubt in Nebraska of the biggest corn crop in the history of the state. In any direction one goes he sees a sea of corn as far as the eye can reach. It is all tasseled out and the ears are forming and with this abundance of moisture all danger of hot winds has passed and now the only thing to worry about is a place to store the corn, all of which indicates that business will be good. We ordered our mail sent to Norton and Phillipsburg, Kan., and now the only way to get there is by airplane and there would be no place to land when we got there. Wish Noah was here. We saw a bunch of colored boys playing Jungle Polo in the basement of the hotel and one boy said, "Peers like dese bones am gone democratic, ah jes caint win nuffin no mo, come on heali Herb Hoover, do yo stuff for papa." If you want some fun just listen to a bunch of colored crap shooters, they talk to the bones like a mother talks to the baby. A few nights ago we saw Norma Talmadge in "The Dove" and we want to go on record as saying that what we don't know about pictures would make several large sized volumes. We are making this admission for two reasons, one that it is a fact and the other that it may forestall anything Thomas 0. Service might want to say bearing on that point after he reads what we have to say about "The Dove." "The Dove" opens up in the first two reels with a scene in a dive on the "Red Coast" wherein a bunch of one-fourth clad women with a three-fourths souse are doing the tango, and other contortions, for the edification of a motley gathering, the most of whom belonged South of the California line, and one of the principal swaggers around the room trying to make love to Norma on the oft repeated statement that, "I'm the best damn caballero on the Red Coast." He was about as repulsive a looking Greaser as the screen has recorded in many a day and Miss Talmadge seemed to have no serious disposition to discourage him in his attempted lovemaking. We have always had Miss Norma placed at the head of our list of screen favorites and to see her in such stuff as "The Dove" is not only shocking to us but painful as well, for to us it seems to be pulling an idol down to the level of the dance-hall debutant. Just why the picture was made we haven't discovered. What uplifting thought there was in it, if any, must have gone over our head, and the fact that it passed the board of censors is another proof of the inefficiency and uselessness of that body. Now we have proven what we said in the first instance, that we know nothing about pictures, which you no doubt discovered ere this, but our individual guess is — and we would very much dislike to see that time come — that if they continue to put Miss Talmadge in such pictures as "The Dove" the time is not far off when she will be classed among those who once were but who now aren't. Miss Talmadge is capable of the best roles on the sceen. She has been a strong factor in the building up of screen entertainment, more so in our judgment than any other actress, and to see one of our screen idols playing such roles as in "The Dove" makes us stop and meditate on the frailties of the human race. We wouldn't call it depravity on part of the casting director, but a misconception as to what constitutes screen entertainment. {Continued on next page) 4. Very refreshing after a siege of ordinary Westerns. No mortgage, no crooked foreman, no mines, no rustlers. A pleasure to show these. Six reels. —J. S. Walker, Texas theatre. Grand Prairie, Tex.— Small town patronage. THE STUDENT PRINCE: Novarro-Shearer— July 11-12. This is a wonderful picture. Had a pretty good crowd on first day but didn't get many on the second day. Ten reels. — Andrew Rapp, Theatorium, Emlenton, Pa. — General patronage. THE STUDENT PRINCE: Novarro-Shearer— July 13-14. A fair picture but not what it was cracked up to be. If Metro had made it in seven or eight reels instead of 10. our audience would have liked it better. No box offiee attraction for us. Just average receipts for a so-called special. — Gibbs & Shore, Opera House, Neepawa, Man., Canada. — General patronage. THE THIRTEENTH HOUR: Special cast— Another good story of scares and gasps. Drew fairly* well. Five reels. — S. R. Cook, Althea theatre, Dunseith, N. D. — General patronage. WEST POINT: William Haines— Well, the director and scenario writer took many liberties with this picture, but reel one carried an endorsement of the war department of the United States, so if they are satisfied to put over the "bologna" that way it's all okay with us — with the exception that it was overdone in the effort to get over the point in the picture. There is this to say, it was a very interesting picture and well acted, and brought much laughter, but we would like to sit right back of two army officers who were graduates of West Point and hear their comments on this picture. We imagine their comments would make an Indian cigar sign laugh. Eight reels. -^Giacoma Bros., Crystal theatre. Tombstone, Ariz. — General patronage. WEST POINT: William Haines— Very good. The best we have had from Metro. — Russell C. Dey, Reedville Movies, Reedville, Va. a^.' .ZT": ■''.''JT""~.,j