Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (Sep 1934 - Aug 1935)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1934 AS I SEE THEM . . . Reviews of New Films By ROLAND BARTON BOXOFFfCE RATING We have been requested by many exhibitors to use some simple system of indicating our rating of the boxoffice value of the films reviewed below. The "point" system of evaluation, at best, can give you only an arbitrary estimate of a picture's drawing power, so we urge you to read the entire reviews. Some pictures are particularly suitable for certain types of audiences and this must be covered in the detailed criticisms. • Means POOR • • Means AVERAGE • • • Means GOOD • • • • Means EXCELLENT Plus ( + ) and minus ( — ) will be used occasionally to indicate slightly above or below the point rating. Boxoffice Rating EVELYN PRENTICE With William Powell, Myrna Loy, Una Merkel, Isabel Jewell MG-M — 76 Minutes Here is a commonplace story made to seem vital and important by the expert playing of the cast. "Evelyn Prentice" will not match the boxoffice strength of "The Thin Man" in which the two stars achieved their greatest popularity, but their performances in this film surpasses anything they have done before, either individually or collectively. The playing of Myrna Loy and William Powell, supported by one of the most gripping bits of screen acting this department has ever witnessed, rendered by Isabel Jewell, and a novel climax, contrive to hold one engrossed to the very end. The tippling young couple who were so gay in "Thin Man" now are a sober and serious lawyer and wife. He has little time for his home, being ever busy aiding his clients. You know the pattern : husband, although innocent, becomes involved with another woman ; the wife seeks companionship with a young artist, who develops into a blackmailer. Upon learning that her husband really loves her and has had no affair with the other woman, the wife goes to the artist's apartment to get some letters she had written to him, which might be misconstrued if read by her husband. The blackmailer demands money. She sees a gun in the drawer, shoots at him, and escapes. The girl who had been in love with the artist is found in the room and is charged with the crime. The famous lawyer-husband is urged by the wife to defend the girl. Finally, on the last day of the trial, the wife can stand her deception no longer. Seh goes to court and confesses that she killed the artist. Then comes the trick climax, played so well by the characters involved that it will keep you on the edge of your seat untli it's over. The wife is really innocent, so all ends well. Myrna Loy, who has been growing in acting stature since Metro raised her to stardom, takes the honors with a performance that is powerful because it is so restrained. Powell, too, has never been better. And, if her part in that courtroom scene is to be taken as an indication of what we may expect of her in the future, you're going to see a lot of this Isabel Jewell. "Evelyn Prentice" should please everywhere— especially the ladies. Boxoffice Rating • • + LITTLE MEN With Ralph Morgan, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Frankie Darro, Dickie Moore, Junior Durkin, Cora Sue Collins Gold Medal — 80 Minutes Just as RKO's production of "Little Women" caught the basic flavor and heart-appeal of that tale by Louisa M. Alcott, so an independent producer has accomplished the feat of faithfully transposing onto the screen the honeyed tenderness from the pages of "Little Men," by the same authoress. Nat and Franz and Demi and Dan, "the bad lot," and all the other children who make their home in the boarding school of Jo and the Professor, have been brought to life just as the millions who have read the novel would expect them to be. We are given a thoroughly human, natural bunch of youngsters and are compelled to understand, sympathize and like them, as their two guardians in the story must do. To director Phil Rosen we doff our imaginary hat in tribute to the job he has done in compelling us to feel those emotions. There has never been a more efficient handling of a group of child actors. Never does he permit his film to degenerate into a maudlin display of phoneykid histrionics. Simplicity and naturalness is the keynote and it is this very virtue that makes, "Little Men" the grand job it is. There isn't a semblance of sex and the only romances are those between Jo and her husband, and a boy and girl who holds hands under the table. Of plot, in the accepted sense, there is little. The story principally concerns the efforts of the kindly, lovable owners of the school to reform Dan, the uneducated, untrained ruffian of the streets, whom they have admitted to their school only because Jo cannot say no; how Dan assumes blame for a theft of which he believes his pal guilty; his expulsion from the school, to be sent to Paige's, where cruelty, rather than kindness, is the cure for disobedience, and finally, of his return in triumph. It has all been effected with a gentle touch and with adept facility. While the first quarter of the film moves a bit slowly, acquainting us with the characters and showing the life in the house, as soon as Dan appears things begin to happen, as they do until the finish. Of the younger players, Frankie Darro as the tough Dan and David Durand as the sensitive Nat are outstanding. Both boys etch their characters sharply. Erin O'Brien-Moore is a lovely Jo, while Ralph Morgan endows his role as the Professor with proper sympathy. The balance of the cast of children all act like real, breathing boys and girls, not like movie children. "Little Men" will bring out every youngster from Maine to California, and the grown-ups who bring them will relish the gentle humor and childish tragedies. Congratulations, Mascot! Boxoffice Rating ♦ ♦ PRIVATE LIFE OF DON JUAN With Douglas Fairbanks, Benita Hume, Merle Oberon, Binnie Barnes United Artists — 90 Minutes The two most vivid impressions I gathered from this latest importation from the British studio that gave us "Henry the Eighth" are: one, there was a brilliant story germ at the bottom of it; two, this picture marks the finis of one of the most colorful careers in film history — that of Douglas Fairbanks. That this clever satire on Romance does not "jell" is due largely to the presence of Fairbanks in the role of Spain's great lover. The English film makers have not yet learned the finer points of make-up, and consequently the wrinkles in Doug's forehead dispel whatever illusion of youth and amourousness one might catch from his balcony climbing agility. And, further, the microphone is cruel to Doug, revealing a voice unsuited to the physical appearance of the man. Only because there is so much gay sex suggest iveness, coming as a relief from the stodgy, lily-whiteness of the present-day American movies, will "The Private Life of Don Juan" do fairly good business. Broad innuendoe,, not so subtle, abound in the smart dialogue by Frederick Lonsdale and the bevy of beautiful ladies, who move languorously and intoxicatingly through the film, accent the lines with de.igl tful hidden meanings. The story tells of Don Juan, tired of climbing balconies for a moment's p easure with the ladies of Seville, deciding to retire for a rest. Furthermore, his wife, persistent creature that she is, has given him his choice of coming home to her or going to jail. Quite conveniently, on the night that the great lover must make his decision, a youth who has been imitating Don Juan is slain in a duel with an irate husband. Seizing the opportunity for a simple exit, Doug allows the imposter to be buried as the real Juan. While all the ladies of Seville mourn "his" death, Doug leaves the city. After six months of uneventful life in a seaport, the real Don Juan finds cause to believe that hia romantic powers are slipping. A barmaid repulses his attentions and an old woman offers him marriage! Anxious to prove to himself that he is as good as ever, he returns to Seville, once again to awaken the women of the city to the meaning of Love. The first balcony he climbs brings him into the bedroom of a girl who kisses his forehead, tells him he reminds her of her father, and asks him to to take a note to her sweetheart. Distracted, he tries to convince the people of the city that he is the real lover, that he was not killed. They laugh at him. He realizes then that the "real" Don Juan has become a legend to them, as every lover becomes to the one who adores him. At last he finds comfort in the arms of the wife from whom he had fled in search of others. She, alone, understands him now. Locking her bedroom door, she forces him to climb her balcony, seeking one more "forbidden" kiss. Boxoffice Rating CAT BRIDE, The With Carole Lombard, Chester Morris, Zasu Pitts, Leo Carillo M-G-M — 80 Minutes _ What started out to be a serious investigation into he post-repeal activities of the boys who used to run beer during prohibition too/a turn somewhere along its production route toward satire. So, in The Gay Bride" we have a fairly fast moving if nonsensical, movie about a gang of these ex-bootleggers and a blonde who seemed determined to get all the money they had by marrying every one of them. These farcical proceedings won t cause your customers to do any handsprings from sheer joy. In those spots where ™nJ «iregarlthe dean-Up crusade ^inst gangster films with regret, this may reach average business, but elsewhere it seems doomed to fairminus. Carole Lombard is the indiscriminate chorus lady who is out to get enough money to make herself 'secure at 60." She marries Nat Pendleton and keeps him up his entire wedding night making out his will. One of his "palspresents him with an armored car to show his loyalty. It has a bomb planted in it. So the blonde selects the "pal" as her next husband, but while she is waiting for him to place a trust fund in her name before the marriage, she falls in love, really, wtih .her first husband's bodyguard, Chester Morris, an honest boy. In the meantime, the mug she has promised to marry is "wiped out" by another buddy who likes the blonde. Now, this charming fellow advises her that he is her nevt husband. She takes a hundred thousand dollars from him and skips. Chester, disillusioned and disappointed, has opened a garage and bought a home where he had intended to house his bride. She shows up there with the money she had taken from her other intended husband. She offers it to the man she loves, but he tells her he wants none of her money and even less of her. So, what is there for the poor girl to do but to go out and distribute the hundred grand to the hungry souls who are standing in a breadline. That fixes her right with the garage man, but the police butt in before the end to add a little excitement to the picture. Oh, well!