Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1930)

70 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD June 21, 1930 Jannings. Robert Montgomery, as Nick, is splendid, and Elliott Nugent, one of the authors of the play, as Johnnie, gives a simple, truthful characterization. The whole film seems to be written as a play upon the emotions and, with the exception of the ending, is unusually true in its portrayal of human relationships. That ending, however, which to my mind robs the rest of the picture of its significance, is just what an audience wants. It should wallow in it and come back for more, it being the sort of thing, as Mae Murray says, that makes life worth living for ribbon clerks and factory workers and the people who comprise so large a percentage of the motion picture going public.— Douglas Fox, New York. * * * BEAU BANDIT Robin Hood — Mexican version. Produced and distributed by Radio Pictures. Author, Wallace Smith. Director, Lambert Hillyer. Editor, Archie Marshek. Cameraman, Jack MacKenzie. Cast: Rod La Roequc, Doris Kenyon, Charles R. Middleton, Walter Long, Mitchell Lewis, George Duryea, Jim Donlon, Charles Brinley, Barney Furey, Bill Patton. Footage, 6,169. Release, March 2. T JL F II were not for the great hig spoon with which Rod La Rocque ladles out his Mexican accent, it would be much easier to enjoy “Beau Bandit,” the story of a chivalrous desperado who goes around the western countryside helping young lovers in distress and getting the ne’er-do-well citizenry of a small town into all sorts of tangles. Beau decides to rob a bank but is forestalled when he hears a girl singing. Investigation proves her beautiful, and he finds her sad because the one she loves is poor and, since he is old-fashioned about such things, unwilling to marry her. That same evening the local hanker, a would-be suitor for her hand, engages Mr. La Rocque to do a killing, just as a matter of business. Beau Bandit rides out to get acquainted with his victim and finds him to be the girl’s lover. He relates the banker’s offer and goes back to that worthy saying that, as a matter of business, his intended victim has offered him even more money to kill the banker. The hanker then offers him $5,000 to end the young man’s troubles and Beau Bandit agrees. The banker meanwhile engages the sheriff and his posse to capture Beau Bandit once and for all. But instead of ambushing him they are ambushed by him and the Beau rides off with the five thousand simoleons and gives them to the young man, thus, temporarily at least, ending his troubles. The banker, who is also justice of the peace, is forced to marry the pair and they go off happily while Mr. La Rocque successfully evades the sheriff’s posse which is by now once more hot on his trail. The picture ends with the Beau, just as poor as when he started his marauding, chuckling as the sheriff’s posse disappears around a bend. — Douglas Fox. New York. Jjs sic sfi ONCE A GENTLEMAN RATHER. A GENTLEMAN’S GENTLEMAN. Produced by James Cruze Productions, Inc. Distributed by Sono ArtWorld Wide. Directed by James Cruze. Adapted by W alter Woods from the story by George F. Worts. Dialogue by Maude F ulton. Photographed by Jackson Rose. With Edward Everett Horton, Lois Wilson, Francis X. Bushman, Sr., George Fawcett, Emerson Treacy, Cyril Chadwick, Frederick Sullivan, Charles Coleman, Evelyn Pierce, Drew Demarest, and Gertrude Short. Length, 7590 feet. Release date, June 12th. T X HIS laughable Horton farce goes P. G. Wodehouse one better by introducing a butler who is not only capable of coping with extraordinary situations as they arise, but can assume without a ripple the role of one of those he serves when circumstance precipitates him into it. Circumstance is aided and abetted by the ability to concoct a “bombshell,” one of the niftiest drinks ever to invade the Fifth Avenue Club whose members adopt the butler as “the greatest ever.” One of them insists on Horton becoming his house guest on Long Island, another carrying him for stock to the tune of fifty grand profit. Both his unearned increment and his vacation money are swept away in the sporty process of protecting the dissolute son of his host, and he exposes himself, giving up all thought of the housekeeper, whom he has won by visions of Rolls-Royces and Riviera villas when he gets the broker’s check. The housekeeper, ably portrayed by Lois Wilson, will have none of this sacrifice, and proudly accompanies him back to his regular post. The situations in this opus are well worked out, the only jarring note being provided by the over-acting of Bushman as the host, and the dialog is quite clever. Emerson Treasy gives a very clever performance. The balance of the cast is adequate, and, all in all, this is a sure-fire audience pleaser. — Hunter Lovelace, Hollywood. * * * “ANYBODY’S WAR” MY SIDES ACHED! Moran and Mack in a feature length comedy produced and distributed by Paramount. Neil Hamilton and Joan Peers in supporting cast. Directed by Richard Wallace. Original story bv Charles Mack. T X HE fact that I had never heard Moran and Mack on the radio, never heard them on a record, and never had any contact with them, may have been cause for me to feel little enthusiasm in “Anybody’s War” before the preview showing this week. I am now standing on my toes shouting the merits of this team in my own high, squeaky and quivering, although penetrating voice. It's a great comedy in addition to being a love story. Mack’s story has a definite and well laid plot in which two “black crowds” endure entanglements enough for one complete plot. His story also has a juvenile and an ingenue who are also confronted with a definite menace. How he managed to work both stories into one without jeopardizing either and without loss of interest to either side of the story is one of the puzzles that scenario writers here are toying with. The “crows” experience exerything in a war that makes war worse than Sherman said it is. Mack’s dog, “Deep Stuff,” is one of the important characters in the story. He plays the part of the canine hero of the war in great shape. Richard Wallace’s handling of the cast dialog and story is an intelligent piece of workmanship. Wallace is a director of exceptional sense of humor and drama. — Douglas Hodges, Hollywood. * * * BROKEN WEDDING BELLS DANEARTHUR! Produced by Larry Darmour. Distributed by R KO. Story and direction by Lewis Foster. Dialog by Johnny Grey. Gags by Billy West. Musical supervision under Lee Zahler. With Karl Dane, George Arthur, Daphne Pollard. Irving Bacon, Harry Bowen and Fern Emmett. Photographed by Len Powers. 1,800 feet. N UMBER two of the funny Dane-Arthur two-reel series being produced by Larry Darmour for R K O. It’s okay for lots of laughs. Story and dialog were written for the team by Johnny Grey. Billy West acted as gag-master. The Dane’s dialog is reduced to a minimum and is rather noticeable. The combination lias a good supporting cast with Irving Bacon, the landlord, doing most of the work. The film might have been titled “Installing a Radio.” Originality marks Lew Foster’s direction and the closing sequence is a panic where Bacon uses a fireman’s ax on the large console. Lee Zahler’s music adds much to the merriment. — Douglas Hodges, Hollywood. THE SOCIAL LION Delightful pugilism, piffle and polo! Produced and distributed by Paramount. F rom the story by Octavus Roy Cohen. Directed by Edward Sutherland. Adapted by Joseph Mankiewicz. Photography by Allen Seigler. Cast: Jack Oakie, Mary Brian, Skeets Gallagher, Olive Borden, Charles Sellon, Cyril Ring, E:. H. Calvert, James Gibson, Henry Roquemore, William Bechtel, Richard Cummings, Jack Byron. Footage, 5,403. Release, June 7. j" ACK OAKIE, stepping high and wide, walks away with this picture at the New York Paramount. The story is one of Octavus Roy Cohen’s yarns concerning a dumb middleweight prize fighter who gets knocked out when his opponent tells him his shoe lace is untied. He looks to see and gets it on the chin. The boy, who takes the prize for conceit, goes back home to work in his father’s garage. The little girl next door, Mary Brian, who has been goofy about him since their childhood, works as a telephone operator at a fashionable country club near by. Members of the club, bent on chaffing the hoy, stop by at the garage and take him along to see some polo. Oakie is not impressed. The teams, he admits, have talent, but that is all. They laughingly offer to let him have a shot at it, and for one chukker he does. He’s so darn good fit appears he learned in the Army) that the president of the club offers to make him a member so that he can play on the team. Oakie then proceeds to fall for one of the club lassies who, the night before the big game, takes him for a tremendous ride. Oakie walks out on everybody but, his courage being appealed to, turns up for the match and wins it for his side. He fixes things up with Mary Brian and soon you see him in the ring again, this time wearing zipper shoes. Oakie makes a continual ass out of himself and is thoroughly amusing. He enters into the spirit of the thing so grandly that you cannot help enjoying it. The polo is amusing, but shots showing our hero actually hitting the ball are faked, although there is a lot of middle class polo actually photographed. Skeets Gallagher, as Oakie’s manager, is not at all bad. The gags are good, situations amusing and the whole picture is calculated to provide a laughable hour or so. — Douglas Fox, New York. * * * BORN RECKLESS Produced and distributed by Fox. From the novel, “ Louis Beretti,” by Donald Henderson Clarke. Photolay by Dudley Nichols. Directed by John Ford. Cast: Edmund Lowe, Katherine Dale Owen, Lee Tracy, Marguerite Churchill, W'arren Hymer, William Harrigan, Frank Albertson, Eddie Gribbon, Paul Page, Ben Bard, Paul Dorcasi, Joe Brown, Roy Stewart, Ferike Boros and Pat Somerset. Footage, 7,123. Release, May 11. Horn RECKLESS” is a good competent entertaining picture of the gangster of fiction, the fiction of Donald Henderson Clarke from whose book, “Louis Beretti,” the film was taken. It was made into a photoplay by Dudley Nichols. In the old days Nichols and Clarke worked on the World. The dialog of “Born Reckless” is good and well delivered by a nicely chosen cast working smoothly under able direction. Edmund Lowe shines as the gangster hero. Caught with two other members of his mob in a jewel robbery he is released by a vote seeking judge who permits him to enlist. After a series of amusing adventures in training and in France he returns to New York and sets himself up in business as the proprietor of a night club and while he no longer engages in crime, except for bootlegging, he still keeps contact with his old mob. Lee Tracy of “The Front Page” is good as the reporter and others who assist are William Harrigan, Paul Page and Katherine Dale Owen. — Douglas Fox, New York.