Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Oct-Dec 1928)

December 15, 1928 EXHIBITORS HERALD and MOVING PICTURE WORLD 53 w SERVICE TALKS Incorporated in this department of Exhibitors Herald, which is a department containing news, information and gossip on current productions, is the Moving Picture World department, "Through the Box Office Window." "Sl\S OF OUR FATHERS" D EAR FOLKS: If you like Janning-, and it seems a great many of us do, I know nothing better to advise (were I addicted to the giving of advice, as I'm not) than that you see the early part of "Sins of Our Fathers." The fir>t reels of this seem to me to be his finest work. Of the later reels it is perhaps as well that as little be said as can be. In the early part of the picture Jannings is at his be-t. He's a waiter, subsequently a saloon keeper in a big American city, who devotes his life to the upbringing of a son. An oak against other weaknesses, and weaknesses in others, he spoils the son in the good old American manner. Of course this is what the picture's all about. In detail, characterization, acting, Jannings is here at his best. Later, when prohibition is declared in America, the picture swings into bootleg stuff (with Jannings, a king bootlegger, as which he is still Janning-, but never the bootlegger) and slumps down steadily toward a molasses ending which doesn't jibe with anything in Jannings history or the principles of good fiction. It may, of course, be a box office device. I know nothing of these things and so cannot say. "THE BARKER" T j AST summer I met George Fitzmaurice in Chicago. He had just finished "The Barker" and was on his way to New York. "I think I've got a fine picture," the director said, "but you never can tell what the public will think of it." Well, this highly important part of the public thinks George was right. "The Barker" is as realistice a picture of carnival life as I ever want to see, and if I must be personal, I have seen quite a bit of the real stuff. There's a big fight in the picture which made me want to grab a tent pole and whang my neighbor on the head. This fight alone is enough to make the picture a knockout for me. If you've ever heard the SOS of carnivals, "Hey Rube," and seen the kinkers and roustabouts wade into the village cutups, I ju?t know you'll get a great big kick out of "The Barker." The picture was made from the stage play by By T. O. Service Kenyon Nicholson and is a sympathetic story about a carnival barker whose one ambition is to make a great lawyer out of his young son. But tin' kid joins up with the carnival and falls for one of the gals. This ju>t about upsets the dad's center pole, but when the kid and his wife make good, he goes back to his old carni\al life and pals content. Dorothy Mackaill and Doug Fairbanks, Jr., give the be-t performances in both the silent and talking parts. Betty Compson gives a fine interpretation of a carnival hayshaker, but her voice is not quite up to the level of the above two. I'll have to confess I was a bit disappointed in Milton Sills as the barker. He is ju-t the same as Milton Sills in any other picture, and a real carnival barker is a type all alone. His characterization of a he-man is all o. k. but that's not enough. He fails to get over the flavor of the real barker, and his talking sequences don't ring true to type. (A tip for Sills. If you ever want to make another barker character, ju-t go out and hunt up the barker who was with the Al G. Barns show a couple, of years ago. You listen to this fellow 10 minutes, Sills, and you'll he 10 times as true a barker as you are in this picture.) But that i> not telling you what good entertainment "The Barker" is. Folks, the big fight scene is a real punch. George Fitzmaurice has done a great job of directing. As the picture went along, I felt I was making the jumps with them; I got tfee thrill again of getaway nights, and the lure of the midway came back to me. In addition to the direction, the musical score and carnival sounds woven into a background of the musical score and talking sequences helps to get over the real atmosphere of the carnival. You hear the caliope, the bands and the barkers, and its the real McCoy. I hot-e that you get the idea that I'm trying to tell you here is a real picture of carnival life on the lot and on the jump. "SHOW GIRL" T J_'M told that "Show Girl" is from the pen of Mr. J. P. McEvoy, who has had success in the production of comic-strip fiction of one kind and another, and who used to write senti ments for postal card manufacturers. Be that as it may, "Show Girl" is a right snappy little yarn with a bunch of the best gag captions I've seen in years. And with Alice White doing things commonly expected of Clara Bow and doing them at least as well. And with a lot of other good actors and actresses whose work combines to make bright, amusing, smart, modern, middle-class entertainment of a sort which any and all classes may look upon with upturned lips and an open mind. I hope the amplitude of titles having the word "show" in them does not result in keeping people away from this one. It is the best of the several, by miles. "PHIPPS"— "CONFESSION" H ERE are two short talking subjects, made by M G M, that are real talking picture entertainment. Each one runs about 1,800 feet and I am sure that I have seen no better entertainment in talking pictures of this length. "Phipps" is a comedy skit with the veteran Lowell Sherman as the principal character, an English butler. A sophisticated English couple decide to get a divorce and that the divorce shall be obtained on the grounds of the husband's cruelty. Phipps is called in to witness the cruelty, and in the end, succeeds, unwittingly, in bringing about a reconcilation. The dialogue is clever and possesses many a chuckle. Sherman is great as the butler, and the voices of all three characters register exceedingly well. "Confession" is as fine a short dramatic skit as I want to see. Lionel Barrymore directed it, and his knowledge of dialogue and acting is apparent throughout. The skit presents a war time incident of a soldier who has killed his superior officer. Another man has been accused and is to be shot. The real murderer is run over by an ammunition truck, and as he dies tries to confess, but only two French women who cannot understand English are present. He dies shouting his confession in vain. It is a powerful, gripping and intensely interesting sketch. With these two short subjects, M G M undoubtedly shows that it knows how to use dialogue. I just hope I'll have the pleasure of seeing more like these two.