Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (Sep 1934 - Aug 1935)

8 INDEPENDENT EXHIBITORS :F I L M BULLETIN WHAT THE CRITICS SAY about the current films . . . Excerpts of newspaper and magazine reviews STOLEN HARMONY Paramount With George Raft, Ben Bernie Phila. Evening Ledger ". . . . Possibly figuring that since one-reel shorts devoted to jazz bands are popular, a feature picture should be ten times as good, Paramount has made 'Stolen Harmony'. . . . Most of the footage is an out-and-out plug for Ben Bernie's orchestra. . . . The plot has callouses from overwork. . . . The first half of the film deals almost entirely with the orchestra, which is filmed in conventional stage-band numbers. Several good tunes are introduced. The latter half turns to melodrama to keep things moving and to save Paramount from the embarrassment of having only half a feature to sell exhibitors." Phila. Record ". . . Starring a whole band is a difficult job — even when its leader has camera ease and Bernie's engaging screen personality. 'Stolen Harmony' attempts the task by weaving a gangster story around the band and its star dancer, George Raft. The idea is good — so good, in fact, a better film should have resulted. . . . Mildly pleasing film. But it hardly offers the 'mosta of the besta'." New York Times ". . . . Runs along for three-fourths of its length, doing its best to imitate a Capitol or Roxy stage show, and then decides, belatedly, to become a gangster melodrama. About 57 Vz per cent entertainment." New York Herald-Tribune ". . . Mr. Raft is not at his best. . . . Cast in an implausible role that stretches his acting talents to the breaking point. ... A satirical treatment might have been helpful with 'Stolen Harmony,' a show crowded with material and devoid of dramatic unity." THE INFORMER RKO With Victor McLaglen Baltimore Sun "... A milestone in screen history. ... By a great margin the finest film of 1935 to date. . . . Among the five best pictures produced since the coming of sound. . . . Goes straight to fundamentals of human nature and distills powerful emotions that are universal. Here film classes and masses meet on common ground. . . . Tenderness is intertwined with wrath, hate with devotion, patriotism with treachery, fear with wild carousing, love with vengeance. It is a fighting tale of tense, hunted men and women suffering in the desperate struggle for Ireland's freedom." New York World-Telegram "... A truly magnificent film. ... A grim, tragic study of a betrayer in the days of the successful Sinn Fein rebellion against England . . . Realistic, truthful, spirited. . . . Sympathetic study of a betrayer who has become so befuddled by events and people that he betrays his best friend to the Black and Tans for twenty pounds. . . . Victor McLaglen is magnificent as Gypo. As the prostitute, Margot Grahame . . . makes the part at once luminous and clarified." New York Times ". . . An astonishing screen drama. ... A striking psychological study of a gutter Judas and a rawly impressive picture of the Dublin underworld during the Black and Tan terror." New York Herald-Tribune "... A screen tragedy that is at once memorable and provocative. . . . Honest, compelling and magnificently produced. . . . This is terrifying drama, unrelieved by even a touch of sentimental sympathy. . . . Victor McLaglen hauntingly masterful." THE SCOUNDREL Paramount With Noel Coward New York Times ". . . Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, the literary madmen of Long Island, have lured Noel Coward into their den and composed an enormously entertaining, witty and bizarre photoplay. . . . Dazzling writing. ... A suavely mannered portrait of decadence." New York Herald-Tribune ". . . An imaginatively conceived and frequently enthralling production. . . . Mr. Coward's portrayal ... is one of the finest acting achievements of the season." BRfDE OF FRANKENSTEIN Universal With Boris Karloff Washington Star "... A superior horror film, although the horror is not so potent perhaps as it was in the first picture. . . . The audience followed the further adventures of Mr. Frankenstein and his monster with great eagerness. . . . Each move was accompanied by mild hysterics from somebody or other. . . . Karloff is the perfect monster." Phila. Record ". . . Really grand entertainment. . . . The creation of a lady Monster is quite an elaborate show. The screen becomes a luminous chart of dots, dashes, flashes, thunderous bangs and queer gadgets — truly a handsome affair as conceived under the imaginative direction of James Whale. . . . Produced with a great deal more humor than was its predecessors." Phila. Ledger ". . . That most difficult of productions — a good sequel to a popular story — has been achieved by Universal. . . . The story craftsmanship behind the new photoplay strikes one as being better than that of the first film. . . . James Whale is again at the directorial helm, and while he must repeat some of his stunts with Frankenstein's monster, he contrives a full quota of eerie chills." Read what the movie critic of the world's greatest newspaper had to say about it . . . "For sheer, cold-blooded, suspenseful and spine-chilling melodrama nothing like it has been seen since . . . 'M'." New York Times about "THE PHANTOM FIEND'