The Film Daily (1927)

THE Sunday, May 15, 1927 ■c&H DAILV Laura ha Plante in "The Cat and the Canary" Universal Length: 7713 ft. WHOOPEE, WHAT THRILLS AND CHILLS. MYSTERY, PRESENTED WITH MANY NEW HAIR RAISERS, CERTAIN TO BAFFLE THE VERY BEST OF THEM. Cast. . . .Laura La Plante, the beautiful victim of a fanatic's will, does very good work and others in a uniformly good cast are Creighton Hale, Forrest Stanley, Tully Marshall, Gertrude Astor, Flora Finch, Arthur Edmund Carew, Martha Mattox, Geo. Siegmann, Lucien Littlefield, Joe Murphy. Story and Production. ... Mystery. Paul Leni has endowed the picture with skilful direction and in the matter of a spook yarn it is doubly beneficial since it would have been such an easy matter to have made it a purely mechanical affair with the already familiar brand of thrills. There are mechanical twists employed, quite naturally, but they are so cleverly executed that under Leni's direction they become new. The introduction of shadows, flickering lights, and, above all, the array of new and interesting camera angles. are of unusual interest. Direction Paul Leni ; clever. Author John Willard Adaptation Alfred Cohn Photography G. Warrenton "The Understanding Heart" M-G-M Length: 6674 ft. SATISFYING MELODRAMA. CONTAINS FAMILIAR TWISTS BUT DEVELOPMENT IS SMOOTH, CONSISTENT AND HOLDS THE INTEREST QUITE NICELY. Cast. . . .Joan Crawford good as the mountain girl lookout and Rockliffe Fellowes contributes another of his splendid performances. Francis X Bushman, Jr., the handsome hero who has his inning at the close. Carmel Myers the vamp. Richard Carle and Harvey Clark a pair of comedy sheriffs. Story and Production. . . .Thrills, romance and comedy blend again to good advantage as far as the average audience is concerned. It matters little that the basic routine is the same and the development winding around to the famous old clinch finish. There are forest fires, fugitives in flight, airplane rescues and twists of various kinds to provide the thrills. There are two women and three men to provide the love interest and a pair of hick sheriffs to supply the comedy relief. The formula is reliable and the results likely to satisfy most audiences. The story has not the dramatic suspense that Peter B, Kyne injected into his original story. Direction Jack Conway; suitable. Author Peter B. Kyne Adaptation Edw. T. Lowe, Jr Photography John Arnold; good. Buck Jones in "Hills of Peril" Fox Length: 4943 ft. THINGS HUM FOR THE FIVE REELS. SOME NEW TWISTS TO ONE OF THE ESTABLISHED WESTERN FORMULAS. GOOD ACTION AND PARTICULARLY WELL SUSTAINED INTEREST. Cast.... Buck the slow but sure hero who cleans up the town. Georgia Hale, the girl; Albert J. Smith, the bootlegger masquerading as the upright mayor. Others Buck Black, Wm. Welch, Marjorie Beebe. Story and Production. .. .Western. Lambert Hillyer has handled the story skilfully enough to keep its formula type of plot pretty well concealed. There are occasional new twists and, as a whole, the picture stands a shade above the general run of westerns. Of course it follows the same route with hero eventually the victor over the villain and the girl all his own but the development takes a detour or so that makes for added interest and at the same time rings in all the thrills and action stunts that go with the western entertainment. Buck diving into a pool whose surface is covered with burning oil and swimming under water as part of his effort to rescue the girl is one of the new touches. Direction Lambert Hillyer; good. Author Winchell Smith Geo. Abbott. Scenario Tack Jungmeyer Photography .... Reginald Lyons ; very good. "Eyes of the Totem" Pathe Length: 6228 ft. SEES A HECTIC LOT OF MELODRAMA BUT THAT SEEMS TO PLEASE CERTAIN TYPES OF AUDIENCES. UNCONVINCING, OF COURSE. Cast.... Tom Santschi as hard hearted as they come. Wanda Hawlev plays a highly emotional role with small restraint and screens poorly. Anne Cornwall a cute miss and Gareth Hughes her protecting sweetie. Bert Woodruff "phoney" blind man. Story and Production .... Melodrama. It isn't altogether a cheery atmosphere that pervades these six reels of thoroughly hectic melodramatic proceedings. Crime and vice in varying degrees help to make up the thrills and, of course, for the truly well educated audience it is rather useless to expect them to accept such hokum as entertainment. On the other hand there is a profitable market for a picture of th:s tvpe. It will undoubtedly thrill certain crowds, especially wherein it deals with the traffic conducted by fakers who beg under the guise of cripples and profit by the donations of sympathetic passers by. There is a smash bang melodramatic finish that shoud send them out satisfied. Direction Wm. S. Van Dyke ; ordinary. Author W. S. Dickson Scenario E. C. Maxwell Photography Abe Sholtz ; fair. and the DEBRIE CAMERA "Chang" — the new film thriller made in Northern Siam by Mr. Ernest B. Schoedsack and M. C. Cooper with a "DEBRIE" allmetal camera, is the one topic of conversation in film circles today. "Chang" is beyond doubt the most realistic, authentic, thrilling melodrama of jungle life ever filmed. Mr. Schosdsa;k has this to say about the film — and the "DEBRIE" camera: — "The 'DEBRIE' all metal camera with which the thrilling scenes of 'Chang' were photographed was selected by us because of its utility and reliability and because it alone answered every requirement of the work we were called upon to do with it. We were 1 V2 years in the making of this picture, under the most severe of tropical conditions, and we never experienced any trouble or loss of even one foot of film. Nor do we see how we could have made some of the shots with any other type of outfit." We are American Agents for the "DEBRIE" cameras — and stock all the new models, including the one selected for this marvelous film, as well as all equipment and accessories. WILLOUGHBYC 110 West 32nd Street, New York, N.Y. ^^