Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (Sep 1934 - Aug 1935)

12 WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1935 AS I SEE THEM . . . Reviews of New Films By ROLAND BARTON 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 • • • • Means EXCELLENT Plus ( + ) and minus ( — ) will be used occasionally to indicate slightly above or below the point rating. Boxoffice Rating • • + BREAK OF HEARTS RKO 80 Minutes Katherine Hepburn Charles Boyer John Beal Jean Hersholt Directed by Phillip Moeller Slow-moving, dull emotional drama . . . Will do Hepburn no good . . . Boyer helps somewhat, but not enough to make this mean much at the b. o. Fair; only for class spots. A tedious emotional drama, depicting the romance between a handsome orchestra conductor and a young girl composer, that will fail to stir much emotion in the average audience. Another vehicle like this one and RKO will quickly have dragged down Katherine Hepburn's well-earned popularity. Her peculiar individual talents are given little opportunity in this, and Phillip Moeller's static, stage-like direction puts her at a decided disadvantage. The fast-moving Charles Boyer turns in another splendid role as the maestro Casanova and it his work, almost exclusively, that endows the film with whatever merit it achieves. PLOT: Katharine Hepburn is a poor composer, she marries Boyer, a famous orchestra conductor who has a reputation for being quite free with women. In this case, however, he really has fallen in love. But, after a colorful honeymoon, he returns to work and, through circumstances, to other women. Whereupon Hepburn, disillusioned, leaves him and cuts loose on her own in order to get even. When Boyer meets her at a gay party on New Year's Eve he realizes that he still loves her. He goes out on a drunken spree and ruins his concert the next day. From this he continues to drink himself to the dogs, only to be saved by Hepburn in a final reunion. Do not fail to co-star Boyer with Hepburn in all billing. His past performances have given him a definite and rather wide following. Only the Hepburn-Boyer combination's attraction will pull this slightly above Average. Better for class spots than for nabes and small towns. ELK. Boxoffice Rating • • + HEADLINE WOMAN, The Gold Medal 74 Minutes Roger Pryor Heather Angel Conway Tearle Jack LaRue Ford Sterling Russell Hopton Directed by William Nigh Fast-moving comedy melodrama that will click wih any audience . . . Pryor and Angel make a swell romantic duo . . . Engrossing from start to finish. Will do above average generally. I've seen at least 50 major films so far this season that do not compare to this independent production in story, direction, star values, action or comedy. Nat Levine, who has consistently delivered quality films this season, has stuck another feather in his cap, and he may well be proud of it. "The Headline Woman" is an amusing and exciting comedy-melodrama that cleverly contrives to engross the spectator from the opening scences to the end title. The two leading players have appeared only in major pictures before and neither has ever been seen to better advantage. Heather Angel and Roger Pryor (Mae West's male lead in "Belle of the 90's") makes an appealing romantic duo. If it's cast you ask for, there are such attractive names as Conway Tearle and Jack LaRue in support of the stars. Ford Sterling will bring many laughs as the dumb cop. PLOT: When the Poiice Commissioner orders that no department news be given to the local newspapers, because of a feud with one editor, Roger Pryor, clever reporter, makes himself responsible for a patrolman's promotion and then uses the cop as his agent in getting department news. Grateful for Pryor's help, the policeman arranges to pull a raid on a notorious gambling den, and Pryor takes six of his friends there for an expensive feast, knowing that he will not have to pay when the place is raided. During the excitement, a gangster is killed and Pryor finds Heather Angel standing nearby with a smoking gun. He rushes her out of the dive and to his apartment, believing he has the murderess. After he learns that the girl is the daughter of his boss, and that she is innocent, he goes out to get the gangster whom he suspects. He finally gets him and clears the girl. There is some excellent comedy and plenty of exciting action. This is worth selling, as it will immensely please any audience. Pryor and Angel, as well as Tearle and LaRue are names worth billing. It should click anywhere. Boxoffice Rating • + A NIGHT AT THE RITZ Warner Bros. 62 Minutes William Gargan Patricia Ellis Allen Jenkins Eric Rhodes Directed by William McGann Awfully weak press-agent yarn . . . William Gargan imitates Lee Tracy . . . Double feature picture at its best. A cheaply produced farce concerning the escapades of a slick-talking press agent, played by William Gargan. Story is ridiculous and the leading characterization is very similar to several played by Lee Tracy in his frequent appearances a year or two ago. In fact Gargan's style of acting is so identical with Tracy's in this role, that if the visibility is poor from the rear of your house, people sitting there may readily imagine that it is Mr. Tracy cavorting on the screen. For a programmer it is slightly below Average from the boxoffice point of view. Farcical story never rises above being mildly amusing. Will satisfy only the less discriminating element. Direction is fast moving but nothing could make this move fast enough to get it out of the way for those who are seeking substantial entertainment. PLOT: Gargan is a high-pressure but irresponsible exploitation man for a hotel. Getting a taste of home cooking done by Patricia Ellis' mother and thinking it was her brother who prepared the meal, he proceeds to sell him to the Ritz as a famous foreign chef. The brother has delusions of being a great cook. When the time comes for him to do his stuff, the day is saved by calling in the mother to handle the actual cooking in the hotel kitchen. The big occasion is a national bankers' convention and the meal turns out to be a big success for the hotel thereby everything works out well for all concerned. A weak sister on any bill. You're just stuck! ELK. Boxoffice Rating • — ONCE IN A BLUE MOON Paramount Jimmy Savo Nikita Balieff Whitney Bourne Cissie Loftus Directed by Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur A total blank . . . No exhibitor should play this. As far as entertainment, boxoffice or any other value is concerned this opus strikes a new and rare quantity. To say that a picture such as this comes along only once in a blue moon is a sad understatement! You will probably never be so unfortunate as to witness anything worse on the screen as long as it exists! What its producers were thinking about when they conceived and created it will always remain one of the major mysteries of film history. After being on the shelf for many months Paramount has been practically forced to take it down for release of the tough spot they are in for product at present. To dump this on unwarned and unsuspecting exhibitors is a dastardly trick, as anyone who has seen the piece will readily admit. At one time it was rumored that it would be edited into a series of shorts. Shorts? In the entire footage there is not enough meritorious material to comprise a passable one-reel short! Basic idea of the film was to have it serve as a vehicle for Jimmy Savo, a vaudeville comic, practically unknown to screen audiences. It is amazing how unfunny he turns out to be with all the seemingly endless film at his disposal. Remainder of the cast also unknown. The story, at least as much as can be made out of it, seems to be a fantasy played against a Russian background. Savo is a traveling clown who aids a group of Russian nobles to escape from the Bolsheviks and flee the country. There are several spots in which it is absolutely impossible to follow because of the terrible continuity. The cutting is crude and confusing, and the lines uttered by Balieff, one of the main supporting players, are completely unintelligible. Then, again, there are scenes in which the musical scoring is so loud as to drown out most of the accompanying dialogue. The only sensible thing to do would be to bury it. What a disgrace for those whose names appear on the credit titles. How can Messrs. Hecht and MacArthur talk themselves out of this? No exhibitor can play it and maintain his self-respect. If this picture won't make the customers violent nothing could. ELK.