Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (Sep 1935 - Aug 1936)

8 INDEPENDENT EXHIBITOR 'FILM BULLETIN' 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. THESE THREE BOXOFFICE RATING DRAMA . . . Taut, gripping drama set in handsome Goldwyn production . . . Strictly adult entertainment, but not too high class for mass audiences . . . Excellent performances . . . Rates • • • generally. United Artists 91 Minutes Miriam Hopkins . . . Merle Oberon . . . Joel McCrea . . . Alma Kruger . . . Catherine Doucet . . . Bonita Granville . . . Marcia Mae Jones Directed by William Wyler "These Three" is a poignant screen drama, simply, but powerfully told, masterfully directed and containing an emotional appeal that cannot be denied. Written by Lillian Mel 1 man, who authored the play from which it was adapted, "Children's Hour," which has been running on Broadway for a full year, the screen version shrewdly drops the play's dealings with the alleged abnormal relationship between the two young women and substitutes rumored illicit conduct between one of the girls and the fiance of the other. Obviously, it is strictly adult entertainment. However, that does not mean that "These Three" is a class picture. It should prove to be a very popular attraction in average naborhood houses. It is taut, tense drama that leaves the emotions liam Wyler has done a magnificent job with flood of sympathy for the three innocent people whose lives are very nearly wrecked by a cruel, neurotic child's malicious lying. The production has been given typically handsome Goldwyn care and Director William Wyler has done a magnificent job with a tough script. Acting awards go to Merle Oberon and the two children, Bonita Granville and Marcia Mae Jones. The Jones girl, particularly, is downright superb. She doesn't appear to be acting at all, and that, I think, is the test. "These Three" will rank with the pick of this year. PLOT: Merle and Miriam run a private school for children. Merle is affianced to McCrae, a local doctor, who, in turn, is secretly loved by Miriam. Bonita, a neurotic, maladjusted child, hates the school and proves a disrupting influence among the other pupils. After being taken to task a number of times, she breaks out of the school and dashes home to her grandmother, Alma Kruger. As an excuse for her own misbehavior, Bonita tells her grandmother that Miriam and McCrae are having an affair. She compels her weaker companion, Marcia, to substantiate her story. The resultant scandal brings about the withdrawal of the other children and the school is forced to close. When even Merle begins to suspect McCrae has been untrue to her, the engagement is broken and the doctor goes to Vienna. Hopkins, distraught, visits Marcia and draws the truth from her. Bonita's lies are exposed and Merle follows McCrae. AD TIPS: Sell this as a great drama adapted from one of Broadway's most sensational plays. Use photographs of the three central characters and caption them: "These Three had their lives ruined by a child's malicious lie." Try the old saw of advising parents NOT to send their younger children to see this picture, it is too deep for youngsters. RUDY. REVIEWS, in. a paper, with the COURAGE to say what it thinks are the only REVIEWS worth reading1. FILM BULLETIN Now Located In New Offices 1323 VINE STREET Philadelphia, Pa. Robin Hood of El Dorado BOXOFFICE RATING ADVENTURE DRAMA . . . First half is strong indictment of early California settlers who grabbed land from Mexicans . . . Second half is hokum melodrama, but OK for action spots . . . Baxter renders another fine performance . . . Rates • • + M-G-M 90 Minutes Warner Baxter . . . Bruce Cabot . . . Margo . . . Ann Loring . . . Eric Linden ... J. Carroll Naish Directed by William Wellman For some 4 5 minutes this film provides a forceful indictment of the tactics employed by the early settlers of California, who it seems, forgot all about justice and honor when they compelled the Mexicans who tilled the land to accept the domination of the United States Government just after the War of 1848. At the 46th minute, however, the script writers went beserk, resorted to the crudest hokum and almost completely ruined the film. The result, then, is one half documentary stuff that will please class audiences and one half cheap action stuff that will be loved by action fans; a sum total that may not satisfy either element enough to make this the important boxoffice picture it might have been. Another marker against "Robin Hood's" business possibilities is its lack of romance; this serving to alienate the average nabe audiences. There is plenty of action, beautiful photography and some fine emoting by Baxter, Naish and Margo. This script encountered a flock of trouble on the Metro lot before it was filmed, passing dozens of hands before an acceptable version was found. The inconsistencies in the plot are undoubtedly due to this fact. Ann Loring, who plays one of the leads, was snatched from Brooklyn via the beauty contest route. She should be sent back by the first mail. PLOT: Baxter is a Mexican peon farming on the California land that has just become part of the U. S. One night a group of American prospectors, in an effort to secure the gold that has been found on his property, attack Baxter and ravage his wife, Margo. She dies and he resolves to kill those responsible. He hunts them down and does his job, but, bewildered by the American concept of justice, he