Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1930)

32 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD November 29, 1930 them in the Sahara. Seven of the men, headed by the hero, befriend their leader and hold off the mutineers nntil help arrives. Upon questioning, the hero misinforms the rescue commander. In order to get himself thrown into penal servitude he makes a false confession that he led the mutiny. It gets him into the hard labor battalion but it likewise gets his six aids there too. That false confession was not entirely convincing on the screen. He has wanted to get into the penal battalion in order to aid in the escape of his friend, played by Ralph Forbes. By the assistance of Arabs and a vampire the two boys make a getaway from a death cell. A dramatic scene follows when the hero attempts to enter the garrison during an exciting attack upon it. By adventurous maneuvering he gains entrance despite a terrific machine gun fire. The picture moves rapidly in many places. It thrives well upon the love of one young man for another, and the underlying and almost obscure menace in it is in the love of both these men for the same girl. That is a difficult situation to develop. It terminates satisfactorily, however. Many beautiful camera shots appear in the picture. The desert stuff is every bit as excellent as it was in "Beau Geste." The work of Loretta Young, although minor, is good. Perhaps the best work of the cast is done by Lester Vail. The character work in the picture is highly important to its success and especially that of Hale Hamilton. Considerable footage is given him, and deservedly so. — Douglas Hodges, Hollywood. FREE tQVE DOMESTIC GRIEF! Produced and distributed by Universal Pictures Cor ' poration. Directed by Hobart Henley. From original story "Half Gods" by Sid I. ney Howard. Screen adaptation by Edwin Knopf. Scenario by Winifred Dunn. Supervised by< E. Mj Asher. Cameraman, Hal Mohr. i Cast.' Genevieve Tobin, Con '. rad Nagel, Zasu Pitts, Monroe Owsley, Bertha Mann', George Irving, Reginald Pasch, Slim Summerville and Ilka Chase. A SOPHISTICATED and broad comedy drama of domestic trouble is "Free Love." Excellent acting, combined with good lines and a clever and fast moving plot, make it interesting entertainment. The play closes with a moral — and that moral is that modern love is getting to be a little bit too modern if marriage is to continue to exist as an institution. Outstanding in the production is the intimate treatment of married life by Hobart Henley, and the scenario work of Winifred Dunn who, by incomplete lines, gives it to the audience in a very open manner. The capable portrayals in these scenes done by Conrad Nagel, the husband, and Genevieve Tobin, the wife, make both the situations and lines acceptable. The play opens with a shot of a honeymoon suite on an ocean liner and jumps ahead with five years of happy wedded life. Then come quarrels, which Henley, through delicate directing, reveals are caused by the wife. She is psychoanalyzed, and decides that she and her husband are not suited to each other — that she must find outside interests. These interests include a job and Monroe Owsley, the convincing young friend of Nagel. Nagel runs wild, gets well under the influence of liquor, smashes Owsley in the jaw, smashes his wife in the jaw, and ends in jail after an automobile crash. His uncle and wife call at the jail to get him out and they find that a night club hostess is with him in the toils of the law. Miss Tobin heads for Reno, Nagel persuades the night club entertainer to give him enough evidence for a New York state divorce. Miss Tobin doesn't go to Reno. The fist blow by Nagel cured her of Owsley and modern love. The picture fades out with Owsley asking the night club entertainer to run down to Atlantic City, to which he had invited Miss Tobin pre viously. Incidentally, Ilka Chase is great as the entertainer. The entire picture is crowded with incidents based entirely on sex, but is given delicate direction and clever acting. Running through the play is a love affair between Zasu Pitts, the domestic, and Slim Summerville, the gas man. Their work lightens and dresses the plot, both giving excellent portrayals. I found it interesting to watch Miss Pitts' hands, which have a knack of bringing out her lines — a very unusual combination. The photography is excellent, with deft touches throughout. — Edward Churchill, Hollywood. ONLY SAPS WORK DELIGHTFUL COMEDY. Produced and distributed by Paramount. Directed by Cyril Gardner and Edwin H. Knopf. From a play by Owen Davis. Adapted by Sam Mintz, Percy Heath and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Photographed by Rex Wimpy. With Leon Errol, Richard Arlen, Mary Brian, Stuart Erwin, Anderson Lawler, Charlie Grapewine, George Irving, Nora Cecil, Charles Giblyn, Fred Kelsey, G. Pat Collins, George Chandler, Jack Richardson, Clarence Burton and Clifford Dempsey. December release, 1930. Footage, 6644. W HEN Leon Errol assumes the role of an accomplished burglar, and his leg begins to "buckle," it is time to laugh. And when the buckling is coupled with a few remarks flavored with true "Errolian" humor, it is time to laugh heartily. And when Richard Arlen, the poor boy just out of school, finds that a diploma doesn't mean a thing and decides to take a job as a pantry boy at an exclusive health farm, and then meets Mary Brian, the daughter of an oil magnate, who is planning, (after she meets him) to spend the summer there with her father, well — you have the ingredients which go to make up a wholly entertaining and delightful comedy. A remarkable bank robbery, which Enrol executes in broad daylight by just walking into a bank with a bag and coming out with the bag filled with money, starts the complications that are too involved to attempt to mention here. Arlen as his unwitting accomplice, adds savor to Errol's remarks, while the ''wealthy girl" thinks, for some reason, the newly hired pantry boy is in reality the director of the institution to which she and her father, played excellently by Charlie Grapewine, are going. Stuart Erwin adds new laurels to his crown by his portrayal of the gullible bellhop who believes Errol to be a great detective on the trail of the robbers and wants to take lessons from him. Fred Kelsey and G. Pat Collins are splendid as the two bogus plain clothes men who attempt to wrest the money from Errol. Unusually well cast, progressing with a smoothness that commends the direction, interspersed with situations that are compliments to the adaptors, the picture should enhance any program. The title was somewhat of an unfortunate choice, in that it needs a bit of cogitation to work it out, but that makes the comedy no less delightful. — Jim Little, Chicago. THE DANCERS YOUNG LOVE! Produced and distributed by Fox. Directed by Cliandler Sprague. Story by Gerald De Maurier and Viola Tree. Adaptation and dialog by Edwin Burke. Edited by Alexander Troffey. Cameraman, Arthur Todd. Cast: Lois Moran, Walter Byron, Phillips Holmes, Mae Clark and Mrs. Patrick Campbell. A YOUNG man who put honor above everything and a woman who did not are the central characters in this psychological tale, "The Dancers," produced by Fox. Misunderstandings between the young man, Phillips Holmes, and the young woman, Lois Moran, motivate the plot. Walter Byron is the heavy and Mae Clark the self-sacrificing fourth member of the quadrangle. Chandler Sprague, the director, did well with a story which is long drawn out. The photography stands out, there being a sequence of an airplane receding over the ocean which is exceptionally good. The locale carries the audience from the lumber camps of Canada to castles in England, and the backgrounds are authentic and not at all stagey. Lois Moran seems more attractive than ever, and does well in her part — that of a young girl who makes a misstep and redeems herself. Phillips Holmes is excellent as the honorable young man, and Walter Byron is just as effective as a dishonorable young man. Mae Clark makes the most of her part as the girl who loves — and loses. Holmes' love and his faith in love are very touching, but one feels, in this day and age, that the role as played is a trifle over-sentimentalized. The story is built to appeal to the younger generation, it reveals — for it treats of problems which young lovers perennially face. — Edward Churchill, Hollywood. A FAST AND LOOSE BETTER THAN PLAY. Produced at Paramount Long Island Studios and Distributed by Paramount-Publix. Directed by Fred Newmeyer. Dialog by Preston Sturges. Screen play by Jack Kirkland. Photographed by William Steiner. Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Charles Starrett, Carol Lombard, Henry Wadsworth, Frank Morgan, Winifred Harris, Herbert Yost. David Hutcheson, Ilka Chase and Herchel Mayall. J. have never found a way to prevent myself from comparing a picture with one made previously from the same story or the same play. In the case of "Fast and Loose" it profited by that comparison. It is based on the play, "The Best People," on the stage in numerous cities a few years ago. It has been revamped considerably for adjustment to talking screens but it has lost nothing in the revamping process. It is play material, novel material or screen material. There is no double about it. It has a very definite and obvious premise, objective, menace, plot, set of characterizations and in short a plentiful supply of strong motivation. In addition it lends itself readily to good comedy work. The screen number has lost none of these highly important assets. The heaviest portion of the comedy has been served by Ilka Chase and David Hutcheson with craftsmanship and good taste. Major interest in the picture has been shifted to the male instead of the feminine lead. That interest falls upon Charles Starrett. He is the mild and meek mannered Honest Henry Morgan who admires simplicity and homely things. He is the young mechanic, working in a garage, who becomes quite infatuated with the daughter of a very wealthy and social family. Her (Miriam Hopkins') infatuation for him is much more marked, and at once a love story is underway concerning the beautiful heiress and the toiling laborer. Complications form when her inebriated brother announces plans to marry a poor chorus girl. The father (Frank Morgan) determines in a quite fatherly fashion upon breaking up both matches. There is strength of direction and story — extraordinary strength of story, that is to say. The idea of the two commoners refusing to wed the offspring of the highest social families is extremely well sold to the spectators. There remains no doubt in your mind that those two young people have the greatest contempt for the order of things that is represented by the Lenox family. The complex situation works itself out smoothly and quickly into a fadeout, as was done in the play. The denouement of