Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (Sep 1934 - Aug 1935)

6 INDEPENDENT EXHIBITORS =F I L M BULLETIN WHAT THE CRITICS SAY about the current films . . . Excerpts of newspaper and magazine reviews OUR LITTLE GIRL Fox With Shirley Temple Baltimore Sun ". . . . At the risk of making the grown-ups in the film appear pretty silly, 'Our Little Girl,' the current Shirley Temple nursery rhyme . . . proves that divorce courts are unnecessary when there is a golden-curled child in the family. . . . The picture is tailored to Shirley's measurements very exactly. The famous smile, the cute grimaces, the heart-breaking sobs are given plenty of celluloid space, and the total effect is calculated to boom the handkerchief trade. . . . The story gets better acting than it deserves. . . . The most dangerous competitor to the young star, however, is a lugubrious Scottie, who steals both his major scenes. Philadelphia Ledger ". . . Fox Films appear to be doing their best to drown their million-dollar baby in molasses. They are cashing in on her cuteness, and lettting her talent for acting go to waste. . .. May set new styles in frocks for very young misses. . . . But it will not satisfy those who remember our little girl when she was just plain Shirley Temple, unknown actress, in 'Little Miss Marker'. . . . A conventional and slow-moving story. . . . General theme . . . has been used to good advantage in such films as 'Little Friend' and 'Wednesday's Child.' But those who prepared the dialogue seem to have been trying to write down to Shirley's age, and the acting is routine. What the film has to offer, therefore, is Shirley Temple in various poses. . . . 'Our Little Girl' is a particularly fine film for children. They will not be much impressed by the divorce angle, which is handled with studied ambiguity." BABY-FACE HARRINGTON M-G-M With Charles Butterworth, Una Merkel Phila. Evening Ledger . . . The conventional theme of the meek little man who is mistaken for a bold adventurer. . . . The picture is not terrifically hilarious and the possibilities of the plot are never developed in more than routine fashion, but there is a fair share of amusing incidents in the yarn. . . . The photoplay breaks no new trails and Raoul Walsh, usually a resourceful director, appears to have just tossed this affair over his shoulder. . . . Most of the comedy comes entirely from Butterworth." Philadelphia Record ". . . Charles Butterworth is given his first full-length role in 'Baby-Face Harrington'. . . . J l< has built up a large and enthusiastic film following, and it is that following 'Baby-Face Harrington' aims to please. That the film is rately successful in this respect is due almost entirely to Mr. Butterworth's personal efforts. He gets little help from the story, gags, dialogue or supporting cast. Raoul Walsh, the director, has done a particularly poor job. The film is slow-moving, and rambling, the big scenes lack point, the theme is treated with an adequate sense of humor . . . possibilities in the way of farce and melodrama are not realized." COIN' TO TOWN Paramount With Mae West New York Times ". . . The great lady is revealing intimations of mortality in her new picture. ... In "Goin' to Town' Miss West continues to be, as she herself points out, a good woman for a bad man. But there are distressing signs that she is beginning to crack up. ... As the cattle queen who crashes the swanky set. . . . She still performs miracles of undulation and she discovers a few good wisecracks among the collection of wet firecrackers that the scenarists have worked up for her. But you have the uncomfortable feeling that she has developed a slight feeling of inferiority toward the social elect whom she is presumingly lampooing. . . . The photoplay has its Westian guffaws, to be sure, and you ought to be amused by the episode in which Miss West sings the feminine lead in a fashionable performance of 'Samson and Delilah'. . . . But 'Goin' to Town' is the least successful of the Mae West pictures." New York Herald-Tribune ". . . It finds the buxom blonde in the role of a social climber, adding a touch of bright burlesque here and there to her limited and familiar acting tricks. The show itself is patently a vehicle and occasionally the wheels creak rather badly, but, on the whole, it runs along briskly enough and should prove eminently satisfying to the West fans. . . . There are times when Miss West fairly outdoes herself as a rather vulgar retailer of indelicate wisecracks, which are sometimes as uproarious as smoking room anecdotes can be, but more often as dull. One suspects, in these intervals, that her brash and lusty attack on the sex taboos is no longer as diverting as it once seemed." New York World-Telegram ". . . . A more or less daring, more or less dizzy farce-melodrama. . . . Although the material is familiar and commonplace, the manner and treatment are sprightly and audacious. . . . It would be inaccurate to report that 'Goin' to Town' is as racy or as hilarious as some of Miss West's previous offerings. But it is, none the less, out of the same mold, in spirit and mood, and that is good enough to make it enjoyable screen fare." Philadelphia Ledger ". . . Mae West, the creative intellectual, is at war with Mae West, the actress, or perhaps it just means that she didn't want any plot taking attention from her free-wheeling walks and gags. . . . When the plot gets under foot she kicks it aside as easily as the train of one of her glittering gowns. . . . Two new songs, 'He's a Bad Man, but He Loves So Good,' and 'Now I'm a Lady,' are built to order for her. A third song, from the opera, 'Samson and Delilah,' does not fit her nasal voice. ... In spite of her faults the film will intrigue women because they will picture themselves in Mae West's place." SPECIAL TRAILERS II Us and Learn How Cheaply You Can Get a Trailer for That Special Attraction FILM SERVICE CO. 25th ST. and LEHIGH AVE., PHILA., PA SAGamore 1633 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS Ten cents per word, including initials, address, or box number. Minimum insertion 15 words. Cash or money order with each copy. Yearly contract rates are lower. Send for contract scale. Address communications to FILM BULLETIN, 1313 Vine Street, Phila., Pa. THEATRES WANTED PENNA., N. J., DEL., MD. Buy or lease. Goodis, 1201 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. INSURANCE A!l forms of special insurance applying to theatre operation handled on minimum rates. Representative will be sent on request. Box FB 107. BREAK OF HEARTS RKO With Katherine Hepburn, Charles Boyer New York Times ". . . Tale has been rewritten and produced repeatedly for the last twenty years in the cinema . . . scarcely a cliche of emotional dialogue nor a rubber stamp of the drama of passion has been omitted from this chronicle of the love-life of an eminent musical conductor and a woman composer. . . . Philip Moeller's direction possesses the lifeless and static quality which marred his debut as a film director last winter in 'Age of Innocence'. . . . Miss Hepburn, like Charles Boycr, works overtime in her courageous determination to find some freshness in the piece. New York Herald-Tribune ". . . Katherine Hepburn is not likely to enhance her reputation as one of the screen's first sorceresses in 'Break of Hearts'. . . . The synthesis of odds and ends that make up the narrative defies a cohesive dramatic production. . . . Treating of the complicated romance between a famous orchestra conductor and an inspiring young composer, it relies heavily on msuical interludes to point up an emotional intensity that is too frequently merely implicit in the action. . . . Mr. Boyer overshadows Miss Hepburn throughout much of 'Break of Hearts' ... Is neither a superior entertainment nor a happy choice as a medium for Miss Hepburn's peculiar acting gifts." New York World-Telegram ". . . An exaspcratingly spotty and indifferent drama that performs the service of bringing the lovely and talented Katherine Hepburn back into the ranks of the town's active screen players. . . . Despite an early indication to be a charming and delightful romance between a famous orchestra leader and a pretty, young composer, 'Break of Hearts' resolves itself into a serious film about the death of love. ... It is in the fantastic schemes for making the dormant love rise and walk again that the film sinks in the bog of its own vast improbability. Everything in equipment NATIONAL THEATRE SUPPLY CO. 1315 Vine St., Phila. SPR. 6156