Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (Sep 1934 - Aug 1935)

10 INDEPENDENT EXHIBITORS FILM BULLETIN about Current Releases This is a listing of all films recently reviewed by our Roland Barton, noting the exchange, title, boxoffice rating, stars, running time, and a brief summary of the review, indicating the type of audience tie picture is suitable for. • means POOR • • means AVERAGE • • • means GOOD • • • • means EXCELLENT CAPITAL ARE WE CIVILIZED? • • William Farnum, Anita Louise. 70 Minutes. Excellent exploitation possibilities. For average audience. COLUMBIA DEATH FLIES EAST • ( + ) Conrad Nagel, Florence Rice, Raymond Walburn. 65 Minutes. Complicated mystery yarn that will have a tough time at the boxoffice. LET'S LIVE TONIGHT • ( + ) Lilian Harvey, Tullio Carminati, Hugh Williams, Luis Alberni. 70 Minutes. Flop yarn of love-sick lovers. Carminati can be sold in Italian neighborhods. THE WHOLE TOWN'S TALKING • • O • (— ) Edward G. Robinson, Jean Arthur, Wallace Ford, Arthur Hohl. 95 Minutes. Comedy Melodrama of meek bookkeeper mistaken for gangster. Has everything for boxoffice. BEST MAN WINS, The • • ( ) Jack Holt, Edmund Lowe, Bela Lugost. 68 Minutes. Commonplace melodrama suited for action houses and children. MILLS OF THE GODS • ( + ) May Robson, Fay Wray, Victor Jory. 65 Minutes. Weak story. Robson is its only asset. Title a "phoney." FIRST DIVISION NUT FARM, The © 9 Wallace Ford, Joan Gale, Oscar Apfel. 66 Minutes. Fair comedy taken from old stage play. Oke for neighborhoods. THE MYSTERY MAN • • Robert Armstrong, Maxine Doyle, Henry Kolker. 64 Minutes. Ordinary drunk newspaperman yarn. Slight gangster angle to help action houses. WORLD ACCUSES, The # ( + ) Vivian Tobin, Russel Hopton, Dickie Moore, Cora Sue Collins. 62 Minutes. Below average mother love drama. WOMEN MUST DRESS • • Minna Gombell, Gavin Gordon, Hardie Albright, Robert Light. 76 Minutes. Comedy Drama with special appeal for women. Drudging wife loses husband to other woman. SING SING NIGHTS • • Conway Tearle, Hardie Albright, Boots Mallory, Berton Churchill. 59 Minutes. Mediocre mystery with a novel angle. Title and fair action makes it OK for neighborhoods. MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG • • (_) Bela Lugosi, Arline Judge, Wallace Ford. 68 Minutes. Old-fashioned Chinese murder thriller. OK for cheap neighborhoods and kiddies. FOX GEORGE WHITE'S SCANDALS OF 1935 • • (— ) James Dunn, Alice Faye, Ned Sparks, Lyda Roberti, Cliff Edwards. 82 Minutes. Weak musical comedy. LITTLE COLONEL • • • • (— ) Shirl ey Temple, Lionel Barrymore, Bill Robinson, Evelyn Venable. 88 Minutes. Not up to "Bright Eyes," but has enough to pack 'em in. CAUMONTBRITISH MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, The 9 9 9 Leslie Banks, Peter Lorre, Nova Pilbeam, Edna Best. 72 Minutes. Gripping melodrama, combining mystery, murder and kidnapping. A swift thriller that will leave them gasping. IRON DUKE • • ( + ) George Arliss, A. E. Matthews. 86 Minutes. Historical drama of the man who defeated Napoleon. Disappointing, but has enough to do slightly above average. MY HEART IS CALLING • • Jan Kiepura, Marta Eggert, Sonnie Hale. 88 Minutes. Excellent British musical made to please Americans as well. If it can be sold, they will like it. COLD MEDAL IN OLD SANTA FE • • Ken Maynard, H. B. Warner, Evalyn Knapp. 65 Minutes. Better-than-average western with excellent cast. BEHIND THE GREEN LIGHTS • • ( + ) Norman Foster, Judith Allen, Sidney Blackmer, Purnell Pratt. 70 Minutes. Swell crooked lawyer-detective melodrama. OK for any house. CRIMSON ROMANCE • • Ben Lyon, Sari Maritza, Erich von Stroheim. 67 Minutes. Action and romance. Well done. General appeal. LITTLE MEN • • ( + ) Ralph Morgan, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Frankie Darro, Dickie Moore. 80 Minutes. Fine family film. Great kid cast. Little action, but it's not missed. HOLLYWOOD LOST CITY, The • • • William Boyd, Claudia Dell, 65 Minutes. Fantastic thriller for action and juvenile audiences. Great exploitation show. SCHOOL FOR GIRLS • • ( + ) Sidney Fox, Anne Shirley, Paul Kelly, Dorothy Lee, Lois Wilson. 73 Minutes. Fine exploitation melodrama about girls' reform school. HIGH SCHOOL GIRL • • • Cecelia Parker, Helen MacKellar, Crane Wilbur. 60 Minutes. Exploitation wallop for Naborhood Audiences. Parents too busy to teach children "facts of life." MASTERPIECE THE PERFECT CLUE • • David Manners, Skeets Gallagher, Dorothy Libaire. 60 Minutes. Fair mystery melodrama for neighborhoods. METRO-GOLD WYN-MAYER NAUGHTY MARIETTA •••( + ) Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan. 105 Minutes. Grand musical comedy version of Victor Herbetr's operetta. Eddy is great. VANESSA: HER LOVE STORY • • ( + ) Helen Hayes, Robert Montgomery, May Robson, Otto Kruger, Lewis Stone. 76 Minutes. Rather slow heavy drama from Hugh Walpole novel. Cast fine. SHADOW OF DOUBT • • (— ) Ricardo Cortez, Virginia Bruce, Isabel Jewell, Regis Toomey. 74 Minutes. Mediocre murder mystery that will mean little at boxoffice. WINNING TICKET, The • ( + ) Leo Carrillo, Louise Fazenda, Ted Tealy, Luis Alberni. 70 Minutes. Comedy about a barber who wins a sweepstakes tciket. Poor. OK for Italian naborhoods. SOCIETY DOCTOR 9 9 Chester Morris, Virginia Bruce, Robert Taylor, Billie Burke. 63 Minutes. Melodrama for General Audiences. Two hospital internes in love with one girl. Fair. GAY BRIDE, The 9 9 (— ) Carole Lombard, Chester Morris, Zasu Pitts, Leo Carrillo. 80 Minutes. Gangster satire. Fair for action fans. PARAMOUNT FOUR HOURS TO KILL • • Richard Barthelmess, Helen Mack, Gertrude Michael. 72 Minutes. Fairly exciting melodrama of condemned man's revenge in a theatre lobby. Oke for action houses. Not for the kiddies. MISSISSIPPI • • • Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields, Joan Bennett. 75 Minute. W. C. Fields' grand comedy rescues this. Crosby sings a few new ones. Just average. PRIVATE WORLDS # • • Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Joel McCrea, Joan Bennett. 83 Minutes. Heavy drama placed in mental hospital. Enough romance to make it popular, however. Colbert to sell. RUGGLES OF RED GAP • • • Charles Laughton, Charlie Ruggles, Mary Boland, Roland Young, Zasu Pitts. 90 Minutes. Knockout comedy with Laughton in great role that will bring hundreds of laughs. ALL THE KING'S HORSES • ( + ) Carl Brisson, Mary Ellis, Edward Everett Horton, Eugene Pallette. 83 Minutes. Poor musical operetta with unknowns. This will flop. Poor for children. HOME ON THE RANGE • • ( — ) Randolph Scott, Jackie Coogan, Evelyn Brent. 55 Minutes. Fair western bringing Jackie Coogan back. Good for kids. ONE HOUR LATE • • (— ) Joe Morrison, Helen Twelvetrees, Conrad Nagel, Arline Judge. 75 Minutes. Romance with songs for General Audiences. Below par. LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER • • • • Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone, Richard Cromwell, Kathleen Burke, Guy Standing. 110 Minutes. Excellent. Has everything. BEHOLD MY WIFB • • ( — ) Sylvia Sidney, Gene Raymond, H. B. Warner, Laura Hope Crews. 78 Minutes. Implausible story made just fair by good performances. Adult stuff. RKO STAR OF MIDNIGHT 9 9 9 ( + ) William Powell, Ginger Rogers. 90 Minutes. A good carbon copy mystery-comedy of "The Thin Man." A clicker. ROBERTA • • • • Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Claire Dodd. 105 Mintues. Great dance musical. Astaire and Rogers top work in "Gay Divorcee." MURDER ON A HONEYMOON • • ( + ) Edna May Oliver, Jimmy Gleason, Lola Lane, George Meeker. 73 Minutes. Good comedy-mystery. Best of Oliver-Gleason series. Great for children. SILVER STREAK, The • ( + ) Charles Starrett, Sally Blane, Irving Pichel, Hardia Albright. 72 Minutes. Fast action yarn about a streamlined train. Good for kids. UNITED ARTISTS THUNDER IN THE EAST • • Charles Boyer, Merle Oberon. 80 Minutes. Heavy drama of Jap naval officer who sacrifices his wife and life for his country's honor. Boyer very good. BREWSTER'S MILLIONS • • (— ) Jack Buchanan, Lily Damita. 85 Minutes. English comedy that won't mean much to American audiences. THE WEDDING NIGHT • • • ( — ) Anna Sten, Gary Cooper, Ralph Bellamy, Helen Vinson. 82 Minutes. Best Sten vehicle to date. Cooper helps her considerably. Better than average drama. SCARLET PIMPERNEL, The • • • ( — ) Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Nigel Bruce. 95 Minutes. Grand adventure yarn that should please everywhere. General audiences. PRIVATE LIFE OF DON JUAN • 9 Douglas Fairbanks, Benita Hume, Merle Oberon, Binnie Barnes. 90 Minutes. Clever satire idea, spoiled by Fairbanks in role of the great lover. Class only. UNIVERSAL STONE OF SILVER CREEK • • ( + ) Buck Jones, Marion Shilling. 61 Minutes. Above average western. TRANSIENT LADY • • ( — ) Henry Hull, Gene Raymond, Francis Drake. 68 Minutes. Melodrama of cruel Southern politician. Weakened by attempt to make it a love story. NG for kiddies. IMITATION OF LIFE • • • • ( — ) Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington. 110 Minutes. Excellent heavy drama, great for ladies. Very big for neighborhoods. SECRET OF THE CHATEAU • Claire Dodd, Osgood Perkins, Clark Williams. 63 Minutes. Very poor mystery about a valuable Bible. I'VE BEEN AROUND • Chester Morris, Rochelle Hudson, Isabel Jewell. 6} Minutes. Senseless comedy-drama that will not satisfy. CRIMSON TRAIL, The • • Buck Jones, Polly Ann Young. 61 Minutes. Western with more than average action and romance. WARNER FIRST NATIONAL SWEET MUSIC • • ( + ) Rudy Vallee, Ann Dvorak, Allen Jenkins, Ned Sparks, Robert Armstrong, Britton's Band. 95 Minutes. Fairly entertaining musical without the lavish dancing scenes. WOMAN IN RED, The • • (— ) Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Raymond, Genevieve Tobin. 69 Minutes. Romantic Melodrama. It is stupid and pretty uninteresting. NG for kiddies. WHITE COCKATOO, The • • Jean Muir, Ricardo Cortez, Minna Gombell. 72 Minutes. Murder-mystery. Enough thrills and chills to please shrieker fans. I AM A THIEF • • (— ) Ricardo Cortez, Mary Astor. 63 Minutes. Mediocre mystery-detective yarn. For action fans and children. I SELL ANYTHING • ( + ) Pat O'Brien, Ann Dvorak, Claire Dodd. 69 Minutes. A "dud." May possibly crawl through in cheapest neighborhoods. WHILE THE PATIENT SLE* C 9 9 ( — ) Aline MacMahon, Guy Kibbee, Lyle Talbot, Patricia Ellis. 66 Minutes. Murder Mystery. Just ordinary. Below average in novelty.