Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (Sep 1934 - Aug 1935)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1935 AS I SEE THEM ... Reviews of New Films By ROLAND BARTON Boxoffice Rating * • • — ! BRcGHT EYES With Shirley Temple, James Dunn, | Judith Allen Fox — 84 Minutes • This is exactly the type of picture you expect with adorable Shirley Temple as the leading figure. A rather thin story is woven around the child's performance, and that, probably, is just what the patrons are seeking when they come to see her. In "Bright Eyes," Miss Temple is as cute and lovable as ever. The muttered "Ahs!" and "Ohs!" emitted by the audience every time she flashes that dimpled smile, attests to the hold she exercises on their hearts. But Shirley has a rival in this film; a youngster who is the acme of juvenile rascality. Jane Withers is her name, and as the spoiled, snobbish opponent of 'the little heroine she creates an intense antipathy for herself that reflects itseif in additional affection for little Shirley. More will be seen of this young Jane Withers. The story of "Bright Eyes" has Shirley as the sweetheart of all the men at an airport where her daddy had been employed until he "cracked up." Her self-appointed guardian is James Dunn, a pilot. The child's mother is employed as a maid in a wealthy home occupied by a snobbish young couple, their coddled young brat and Uncle Ned, a chair-ridden cripple whose death they are hopefully awaiting. When Shirley's mother is killed by an automobile, Dunn attempts to adopt her, but finds a rival in he cantankerous old Uncle Ned, who has a soft spot only for Shirley. The efforts of both men to have the child leads into some excitement when she hides away on a plane that Dunn is trying to fly to New York through a terrific storm in order to earn SI 000 with which to adopt Shirley. He finally has to bale out with the child clinging to his neck. A court finally settles the question of adoption by satisfying both Dunn and Uncle Ned, at the same time effecting the marriage of Dunn and the girl who had jilted him once before. A few scenes will bring tears, as when Shirley is told of her mother's death. Much of the comedy is provided by little Miss Withers and Charles Sellon as Uncle Ned. David Butler has done a well enough job of direction, getting everything possible out of the young star's performance. I understand that Radio City's Music Hall had booked "Bright Eyes" for two weeks, but pulled it at the end of the first week. However, the vast popularity of Shirley Temple can be relied upon to account for well above average business everywhere. Excellent for the entire family. Boxoffice Rating • • + MIGHTY BARNUM, The With Wallace Beery, Adolphe Menjou, Janet Beecher, Virginia Bruce United Artists — 205 Minutes A pretentious production that seems to have everything to make it a boxoffice smash, but just fails to be that. It's rousing, lusty entertainment purporting to be a combination of fact and fiction, but obviously as much on the humbug side as the great Phineas T. Barnum's own schemes which led him from a three-headed frog to a vast circus business. Wallace Beery is never really Barnum, he's the same blinking, squinting timid Beery of all his pictures, and those who like him as I do will be amused. One of the foremost ballyhooers and spoolers of modern times, this movie Barnum is, at the same time, as guileless and susceptible as a babe; actually the greatest sucker of them all. He can be sold anything. A teetotaler, he made it one of his missions in life to reform that poetry-reciting sot, B. (for Bailey) Walsh. And this Mr. Walsh is played to perfection by that reliable trouper, Adolphe Menjou. With the brainy Walsh guiding him, the lumbering naive advances from ownership of a barn containing a collection of minor freaks to the great American Museum, despite the objection and fears of his wife. Several times his progress is interrupted. Once, when the charge is made in Greeley's newspaper that his bearded lady is a fake, and that fuzzy female betrays him by permitting a man to take her place for an examination to prove her authenticity. Again, when the stupid, heavy-handed Barnum insults lovely Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale who had been brought to the U. S. by Walsh when he could not obtain Jumbo, the elephant. She leaves the country and P. T., who had fallen in love with her, sinks to the depths, his museum closed, his wife and friends all gone. But he comes back, with the aid of the freaks he had once employed, only to have a jealous rival set fire to his museum the day before it is to reopen. With his dream in ashes everything seems black, but, like a vision of hope, there apepars Jumbo, a gift from the repentant Jenny Lind, and, together with Bailey the Mighty Barnum starts again, planning this time to put his show into a tent. The picture closes with the proud showman prophesying, "In a hundred years from today, I'll bet people will talk about us!" This film is siimlar to "The Bowery," and about on a par in appeal. It should pull better than ordinary generally, but doesn't quite deserve a "three-point" rating. It affords an excellent opportunity for exploitation. Family appeal. Another engrossing short subject from Capital Film Exchange is on the same bill. Entitled "The Olympic Winter Sports Capital," it contains some striking scenes showing the tryouts of wintersports athletes for the coming Olympics. Boxoffice Rating • • MY HEART IS CALLING With Jan Kiepura, Marta Eggert, Sonnie Hale Gaumont-British — 88 Minutes Following the general lines of "One Night of Love" this fine British musical lacks only marquee strength to make it a great bet. Although the names of the stars are unfamiliar, they are among the brightest personalities we have ever seen. We understand that two of them have already been signed by American producers, and the third will probably be over here soon. Jan Kiepura is the handsome young Pole who created a mild sensation by his singing in "Be Mine Tonight." He has the finest male singing voice on the screen, and when he acquires a more fluent flow of English he will become an important star. Marta Eggert is a lovely and luscious Hungarian girl, a combination of Marlene Dietrich and Anna Sten. And Sonnie Hale is much funnier than any other English comic we can recall. These three provide the romance, the song and the comedy in a gay, buoyant, tune-filled film. There are several songs that are superior to any you have heard recently, and the fun is more on the American style than anything that has come from the other side of the Atlantic. A struggling operatic troupe is bound for Monte Carlo to fill an engagement. The tenor finds a beautiful girl stowaway in his cabin, and promptly climbs to the top of the ship's mast and announces that he will sing a song to raise funds for her ticket. Arriving in the gambling city, the troupe finds that their engagement has been cancelled by the absent-minded impresario. All the efforts of Sonnie Hale, their manager, to have the company booked prove unavailing, until, finally, he obtains a permit to stage an opera out of doors. On the night that "Tosca" is put on in the opera house, they improvise a stage directly in front of the place and render their version of the same opera. Bit by bit, the crowd leaves the opera house to hear the open air company and success comes at last. The mood throughout is light and Kiepura proves he is an adept farceur, as well as a grand singer. On the face of it, "My Heart Is Calling" does not rate as a better than average attraction for theatres in this country, but there is a possibility that word-of-mouth advertising will build it up as it plays down the line. The same thing happened with "Be Mine Tonight," and even "One Night of Love" was said by exhibitors, who saw it at Columbia's preview, to lack general appeal. It has the goods, especially for better class houses. Made for adults. Boxoffice Rating • • — BEHOLD MY WIFE With Sylvia Sidney, Gene Raymond, H. B. Warner, Laura Hope Crews Paramount — 79 Minutes One of those highly improbable stories that requires a wide stretch of the imagination to make it acceptable. Because his snobbish parents and sister are indirectly responsible for the suicide of the girl he was about to marry, Gene Raymond promises to "pay them back," dashes off to the West, and marries an Indian girl (Sylvia Sidney). He wires his family that he has married a girl from "one of America's first families" and is bringing her home. After recovery from the shock of meeting their new in-law, the family plots to cover their shame before society. A ball is arranged and the new bride startles everyone with her beauty. Then, follows a chain of melodramatic events that will prove a strain on anyone's credulity. Sylvia learns that her husband married her only to have revenge on his family. She leaves the party in a huff with Monroe Owsley, the sleek heart-breaker. He takes her to his apartment, where, a short while later, comes the snooty daughter of Gene's family. She has been unfaithful to her husband and intimate with Owsley. Finding Sylvia there, she orders her out, but Owsley treats her cruelly and tells her that he is finished with her. The society girl pulls a gun and kills the villain. Sylvia decides to take the blame, feeling that she can avenge herself on Gene by hurting him. But it all turns out happily when Gene tries to tell the police that he really killed Owsley, and Sylvia is convinced that he loves her truly. Only the adroit and speedy direction of Mitchell Leisen rescues this from becoming farcical. The cast is satisfactory enough, but it is impossible to make the material seem plausible. This won't make the grade as a fair attraction. It is strictly adult fare. BOXOFFICE 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 • 9 • • Means EXCELLENT Plus ( + ) and minus ( — ) will be used occasionally to indicate slightly above or below the point rating.