Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1930)

40 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD November 8, 1930 ting a good deal of punch into the story. The Strand audience seemed to be decidedly appreciative of it. Ayres plays Louis Ricarno, racketeer who has beaten the other gangs into submission to the extent of running the whole show in his own way. It is only the excellent acting of Ayres which prevents several scenes from appearing rather incongruous when the fresh faced young gang leader exerts his will successfully on the tough looking rival bosses of the city beer racket. Then, after Ricarno has organized the competing factions, split the territory covered and brought peace to the gang section, he meets Doris and decides to quit the game. Dorothy Mathews, as Doris, does a fairly competent piece of work, but is hardly up to the standard set by Ayres. Trouble starts as soon as the racketeer leaves the city. In their efforts to protect their interests by getting Ricarno to return, two of the lesser leaders attempt to kidnap Ricarno's small brother from a military academy. The child is run over and killed while trying to escape from them. Ricarno does return, finds out who was responsible for the death of the boy, and "puts them on the spot." He is jailed, but escapes. O'Grady, police detective, finds him in a room located in his old stamping ground and warns that if he leaves the house he will be welcomed by numerous machine gun bullets as a present from the gang leaders whom he previously ruled. Realizing the game has played itself out, Ricarno buttons his coat, sets his hat at the correct angle, sticks a long cigar in his mouth, and the picture closes with the shots which finish the story, but not as Ricarno had ended it in the memoirs he wrote while away on his honeymoon, believing himself out of the game. The supporting cast is uniformly good with honors going to Robert Elliott as the detective, and James Cagney as Mileaway, friend of Ricarno, who assumed the leadership when his chief left town. Cagney is excellent in this role, his work being nearly on a par with the splendid performance he gave in the screen version of "Pennv Arcade." — Charles S. Aaronson, New York City. ONE HEAVENLY NIGHT EVELYN LAYE. Produced by Samuel Goldwyn. Director, George Fitzmaurice. Photography by George Barnes. Edited by Stuart Heisler. Original story by Louis Bromfield and Sidney Howard. Cast: Evelyn Laye, John Boles, Leon Errol, Lilyan Tashman. 7100 ft. S AMUEL GOLDWYN'S importation to Hollywood, Evelyn Laye, appears to advantage in the central role of "One Heavenly Night." Many who witnessed the preview have the conviction that she is good news to the picture business. She has freshness of appearance, charm that is distinctively individual and a fine ability. Her lover, John Boles, provides the other half of the romantic interest. He is the count who holds forth as sovereign of Zuppa, a small kingdom. That need not lead one to believe that the picture is a costume show. It is in modern dress, with minor exceptions. It apparently was decided to use Boles in the part because of his splendid voice and the fact that a number of difficult vocal selections are required of him. He does them well. The picture is told with action, words and song. The dialog is commendably well done and the action is well timed and convincing. The director (Fitzmaurice) has difficulty keeping the movement speeded up on account of the, song numbers interwoven into the story. Although the songs were charming things in themselves they were the source of nervous impatience to an audience following with great interest the development of the plot. Boles' voice, fine as it is, is unable to satisfactorily compete with pantomime and dialog. Extraordinarily good work is done by Lilyan Tashman and Leon Errol. Miss Tashman's first scene, the music hall situation, is a great opening for a picture. Not five minutes after the picture began (and during some of the Tashman and Errol work) I heard it whispered in the audience that "you can tell by the opening that this is a swell show." Errol is fine throughout but his comedy is best in the sequence that involves the art room. Previously he has entered a wine cellar with the estate's overseer and it looks as if Errol is preparing to do a long comedy routine built of wine cellar hokum. That is not the case. He is there only a moment, or long enough for a half dozen laughs. He goes directly to the part of the mansion that boasts of antiques thousands of years old. Therein is a reel of laughs. The story is told from the viewpoint of Lili, the young flower girl who wants the fame and adulation that are Fritzi's. The plot is a little thin in that Lili is never in any great jeopardy. She finds herself in the mansion owned by the count. The climax arrives when he locks her in her bedchamber and threatens to enter within a few minutes. When he enters she has fled. The director's characteristic smoothness is everywhere evident. The mounting and staging of the picture are of the high caliber always found in Samuel Goldwyn productions. The musical score is made up of a number of beautiful and beautifully executed selections. — Douglas Hodges, Hollywood. A ESCAPE HUNTED FOX! Produced by Assodated Radio Pictures for distribution by R K O. Directed by Basil Dean. From the play by John Galsworthy. Adapted by Basil Dean. Dialog by John Galsworthy. Editor, Jack Kitchen, Camera, Jack Mackenzie. With Sir Gerald du Maurier, Mabel Poulton, Ian Hunter, Edward Addison, Gordon Harker, S. J. Warmington, Edna Best. Horace Hodges, Lewis Casson, Ann Casson, Marie Ney, Madeline Carroll, Austin Trevor, David Hawthorne, Lawrence Baskcomb. Release date, September 8, 1930. J N this screen version of the famous stage play by John Galsworthy, brilliant English author and playwright, the theme and matter of the original has been closely adhered to by Basil Dean, who adapted it and directed the production in England for Radio. Galsworthy himself did the dialog, which has been intelligently recast for the talking screen, and edited the film. It is rather fortunate in this regard that the celebrated dramatist in transforming the dialog to screen use eliminated much of the speech of the principal character which dealt with his mental reactions to the social situation in which he finds himself. It seems extremely likely that if he had not, the picture might have been found dry and to a certain extent unintelligible to the average film audience. As it is, however, there is more action, set in a typical English countryside, and less of the introspective speech. It is almost exclusively the story of one man, Matt Denant, played in an excellent characterization by Gerald du Maurier. With the exception of Edna Best as the girl who aids the escaped convict as well as she is able, and Austin Trevor in the role of the parson who attempts to shield Denant from the pursuing constables, the entire cast is subordinated, playing minor roles in support of du Maurier. Denant is a former soldier whose confinement in a German prison camp during the war and subsequent escape have left him with a rather disillusioned outlook on the world in which he lives and the high English society in which he moves. He encounters a girl of the streets in Hyde Park, and becomes involved in an argument with an officer who attempts to arrest her. When Denant hits the other, the latter falls, strikes his head against a railing and is killed. It is rather incongruous that the officer, a much more powerful man than the ex-soldier, should be knocked down by a blow from Denant, but this is only a minor detail in the otherwise fine handling of the story by Basil Dean. Sentenced to prison for five years, Denant attempts an escape after two years. The remainder of the film is occupied with his flight through the English countryside, the effort made by several women and finally the parson to assist him, and his surrender in order to save the parson from lying in his behalf. A clever bit, lacking in the stage performance necessarily, is the opening scene showing a foxhunt, with the subsequent situation in which Denant himself becomes the human fox pursued by the hounds. Photography is very good, with excellent scenes of the foxhunt and the moors about the prison particularly noteworthy. The film must be considered as a fine effort to transport the original stage play to the screen without distortion and a definite effort to attract the picture public to the box office through a sacrifice of the Galsworthy theme. — Charles S. Aaronson, New York City. FEET FIRST THRILLS. Produced by Harold Lloyd Corporation for distribution by Paramount. Director, Clyde Bruckman. Authors, John Grey, Alfred A. Cohn. Adaptors, Felix Adler, Lex Need, Paul Gerard Smith. Dialog, same. Editor, Bernard Barton. Photographers, Walter Lundin, Henry Kohler. With Harold Lloyd, Barbara Kent, Robert McWade, Lillianne Leighton, Alec Francis, Noah Young. Release, November 8, 1930. Footage, 8351. H AROLD LLOYD'S latest opus, "Feet First," recalls his earlier success, "Safety Last." In some respects, however, the new offering does not move with the rapid pace generally expected in a Lloyd picture of this type. This is noticeable especially in the early reels of the feature. It is after the action shifts to shipboard, en route from Honolulu to San Francisco, that one recognizes the Lloyd touch. Two sequences especially during the boat trip are notable. One is the star's mad efforts to destroy all magazines containing a page advertisement, in which is published his picture and his endorsement of a correspondence school for personality. The second sequence reveals his trickery in obtaining the dress suit of a seasick traveler. The scenes in this sequence have been handled very carefully and result in good, wholesome comedy, as does the magazine sequence. It is after the star's arrival in Frisco that the fun and thrills begin. It is here that there are plenty of laughs and exclamations of "ohs" and "ahs." It is here that there is plenty of fun for everyone. Lloyd, securely tied in a mail bag, finds himself on a painter's scaffold which is controlled in its upward and downward course by two men who are more interested in the gossip of the day than in their labors. The situation offers many good thrills. The story is suffiicent for the Lloyd gags. It presents a shoe clerk who has ambitions to be an outstanding figure in the commercial world. However, he lacks the courage to meet people and decides to take a correspondence course. Following the receipt of his diploma he becomes involved in embarrassing situations through the unwelcome interest in him of a man whose brain has become slightly befogged by liquor. The day is saved, however, when he succeeds in hiding in a mail bag and is carried from ship to shore by a seaplane so that he may deliver a contract for Tanner shoes. Use of dialog has been minimized, and this is fortunate, for only occasionally is it necessary. Lloyd's is not the type of comedy which requires speech to put it over. "Feet First" should find a contented public. — Jay M. Shreck, New York City.