The Film Daily (1929)

8 DAILV Sunday, August 25, 1929 "Hallelujah" (All-Talker Version) M-G-M Length: 9,711 /*. NOTABLE AND, IN THE MAIN, IMPRESSIVE PICTURIZATION OF AMERICAN NEGRO LIFE. HAS POWER AND FASCINATION, BUT IS DUBIOUS BOX-OFFICE. Drama. King Vidor, a Texan, here has attempted to film a cross-section of the life and mentality of the Southern negro. As a general thing. he has succeeded admirably. His insight at all time seems to bear the stamp of authenticity. Never is the spectator inclined to doubt the director's treatment. And yet, the story, toward its close, totters and consequently loses in dramatic effectiveness. The picture is, in effect, the life story of Zeke, his affair with Chick which begins with the accidental death of his own brother at Zeke's hands; his adoption of religion finally to leave the spiritual again for the flesh; the death of the girl, the murder of her lover and the final return of the wayward to his family. Spirituals are used frequently. Cast: Daniel L. Haynes, Nina Mae McKinney, William Fountaine, Harry Gray, Fannie Bell De Knight, Everett McGarrity, Victoria Spivey, Milton Dickerson, Robert Couch, Walter Tait, Dixie Jubilee Singers. Director, King Vidor ; Author, the same ; Scenarist, Wanda Tuchock : Adaptor, Richard Schayer; Dialoguer, Ransom Rideout ; Editor, Hugh Wynn ; Cameraman, Gordon Avb. Direction, excellent. Photography, lovely. "The Dance of Life" with Hal Skelly and Nancy Carroll (All-Talker Version) Paramount Length: 10,619 ft. SPLENDID WOMAN'S PICTURE. FINE ENTERTAINMENT IN INTELLIGENTLY HANDLED STORY OF BACKSTAGE LIFE. HAL SKELLY IMMENSE. Drama. A load of heart interest has been injected into the film version of "Burlesque," which as a stage play excited much comment during its New York run. Other producers have been chipping away at the story for some time. It is the treatment, plus the excellent performance of Hal Skelly, which make "The Dance of Life" fine audience fodder. The yarn, as usual concerns the couple, this time in burlesque, and the up-grade fight which lands the comic on Broadway only to forget his wife. Women and liquor lick him and he slides rapidly down the bow-wow path until the girl, played sympathetically and charmingly by Nancy Carroll, returns. The picture has considerable power and denotes a high order of intelligence in its treatment. Cast: Hal Skelly, Nancy Carroll. Ralph Theadorc, Charles Brown, Dorothy Revier, Al St. John, May Boley, Oscar Levant, Gladys Du Bois, James T. Quinn, James Farley, George Irving. Directors, John Cromwell, Edward Sutherland ; Authors, George Manker Watters, Arthur Hopkins; Scenarist, Benjamin Glazer ; Dialoguer, George Manker Watters ; Editor, George Nichols, Jr. ; Cameraman, Roy Hunt. Direction, worthwhile. Photography, firstrate. "The Flying Fool" (All-Talker Version) Pathe Length: 6,720 ft. BOYD CLICKS STRONG IN REAL COMEDY PEPPED UP WITH JIMMY GLEASON'S CLEVER DIALOGUE. THRILL STUFF IN SWELL FLYING STUNT SHOTS. Comedy drama. William Boyd does his best work to date in this one, and goes over strong with a fine comedy sense that few probably suspect he had. Boyd is a good looker, a heman type, and the kind that will go heavy with the flaps as well as their T>oy friends. Neat brother love angle in the original story by Elliott Clawson, that is nicely balanced between real sentiment, thrills and plenty of human stuff and sure-fire comedy. It just misses being a standout picture, which could easily have been built up with more production values to that level. But it's got plenty as it is, and for any type of house will stand up easily. Good clean number, with wholesome and unique love angle. Boyd is the stunt flyer whose kid brother, also a flyer, falls for a night club girl. Boyd also falls, and the way the problem is worked out holds real suspense. Fine thrill stuff in stunt flying, with spectacular climax. Give it a ride, and collect. Cast: William Boyd, Marie Prevost, Russell Gleason, Tom O'Brien. Director, Tay Garnett ; Author, Elliott Clawson ; Dialoguer, James Gleason ; Scenarists, Elliott Clawson, Tay Garnett ; Editor, Not listed ; Cameraman, Arthur Miller. Direction, Showmanship. Photography, very good. Robert Warwick in "Unmasked" (All-Talker Version) Artclass Length: 5449 ft. CROOK YARN WITH ROBERT WARWICK DOING FINE ROLE AS SCIENTIFIC DETECTIVE. HAS PUNCH IN UNUSUAL STORY. Drama. This is one of the Arthur Reeve Craig Kennedy stories, and the adaptation has not missed any of the highly dramatic story values. Robert Warwick as the scientific detective uncovers the plot of an unusual and clever crime. The manner of unfolding the story on the screen is original, and holds the interest throughout. Unlike most crime films, the audience is let in on the manner of perpetrating the crime in the early reels, and you follow the disclosures as the detective uncovers them with absorbed interest. It is told in a long flashback, with the criminal forced to sit and listen to the tale at a house party, and this works up to a strong and dramatic climax. Cast: Robert Warwick, Sam Ash, Milton Krims, .Lyons Wickland, Susan Corroy, Wiliiam Corbett, Charles Slattery, Kate Roemer, Waldo Edwards, Roy Byron, Clyde Dillson, Helene Mitchell, Marie Burke. Director, Edgar Lewis ; Author, Arthur B. Reeve; Scenarist, Albert Cowles; Dialogues, Bert Ennis, Edward Clark ; Editor, Mack Cohen; Cameramen, Tom Molloy. Irving Browning, Buddy Harris. Direction, excellent. Photography, very good. "Her Way of Love" (Silent) Amkino Length: 6000 ft. BEAUTIFUL AND ARTISTIC PRODUCTION. ONE OF BEST SO FAR FROM RUSSIA, BUT SPOILED BY PROPAGANDA. WORTH LOOKING AT. Drama of the Russian revolution. Produced by Sovkino in Russia. Here is one of the best films ever sent from Russia, with some marvellous photographic treatment that approximates high art and should be seen by the powers that be in the Hollywood studios. It is a story of Russian peasant life, and the rural scenes are beautiful. The life of the peaceful peasantry torn apart by war is dramatically presented. The opening shows a typical peasant wedding ceremony. The husband is called to the front, and an Austrian prisoner is sent to the farm to work in the wheat fields. A romance develops between the wife and the Austrian. Later he sees the "light" of the Soviet cause, and goes to the front to fight for "world freedom." Here's where the film goes blooey with the introduction of the propaganda bunk, and kills off what was an unusual and beautiful love drama. But the camera work in many spots is exquisite. Cast: Emma Zessarskaya, A. Zhukow, Karl Gurnyak. Directors, Alexander Strizhak, Dmitri Poznanski ; Authors, D. Poznanski, M. Smnnova; Scenarists, the same; Editor, Shelly Hamilton ; Titler, same ; Cameraman, Vladimir Semenoflf. Direction, very good. Photography, excellent. "My Lady's Past" with Joe E. Brown, Belle Bennett (Part-Talker Version) Tiffany-Stahl Length: 8,077 ft. GOOD NUMBER FOR SMALL HOUSES WITH SENTIMENTAL YARN THAT IS SHY ON ACTION. JOE BROWN GETS IT OVER. Drama. The story material is pretty thin and is carried along on a sentimental strain with little real action to support it. It tells of a couple engaged for a good many years and the boy, who when he thinks he is going to lose her, gets up his courage to propose marriage. Joe Brown makes the part stand out with his characteristic style of acting. He is anything but the handsome lover, but somehow the humble role fits his qualifications aptly. Belle Bennett is the girl, a little too old for the part, but she manages to get away with it. She gives a sympathetic performance and makes the rather sappy situations seem almost plausible. The story will not appeal to the sophisticates, but it is okay for the neighborhoods. Brown does a pip of a drunk scene talking to himself as he tells what he is going to do to the heavy. Cast: Belle Bennett, Joe E. Brown, Alma Bennett, Russell Simpson, Raymond Keene, Joan Standing. Director, Albert Ray ; Author, Francis Hylnnd : Scenarist, the same ; Editor, George Merrick: Titlers, Frederic and Fanny Hatton; Dialoguers, the same; Cameraman, Harry Jackson. Direction, adequate. Photography, fair. "Conquest of the Holy Land" (Silent) Od-Films Length: 4700 ft. BRITISH WAR OFFICE FILM NOTHING BUT SECOND-RATE NEWSREEL MATERIAL BUILT UP WITH POOR ADDED SEQUENCES. NOT GOOD BOX OFFICE. War material based on General Allenby's campaign for the British against the Turks during the world war. From the files of the British War Office. The film has been strung together with added sequences to give it some form of continuity. These are pretty poor and very amateurish. When a government tries to compete with the film industry in making pictures for popular entertainment, the result is bound to be somewhat less than successful. This is. Scenes in the Palestine campaign are simply the routine campaign of the British troops in driving back the Turks and taking possession of Jerusalem. Considering that Allenby's campaign was one of the most picturesque highlights of the world war, it is amazing that the official British war cameras have caught so little of the atmosphere and color of the affair. But it just goes to prove that films taken for war records don't necessarily have general popular appeal as entertainment. Cast: British and Turkish troops engaged in the Palestine campaign. No credits available on this film. I "Half Marriage" with Olive Borden (All-Talker Version) RKO Length: 6481 ft INANE LOVE STORY FAILS TO CLICK WITH THIN LONGDRAWN-OUT YARN THAT TRIES TO BE SEXY. Love drama. Just another example of an adaptation from fiction of a theme that was never intended for the technique of the screen. Especially the sound screen. But the dialogue is to blame for that, and it is one of the poorest samples of dialogue that has yet assailed these poor abused ears of ours. Goo-goo talk of the dizzily happy -young bride is anything but edifying on a screen, and that's what you get along with other banal lines that it gives us a lotta grief just to think about. Olive Borden does her usual sexy stuff, and is good, as far as the script would allow her to be. She is the daughter of a rich man who secretly marries the poor boy, and the villain tries to lavish unwanted attentions on her, falls over a roof, and the upstanding hubby tries to take the blame. Cast: Olive Borden, Morgan Farley, Ken Murray. Ann Greenway, Anderson Lawlor, Sally Blane, Hedda Hopper, Richard Tucker. Director, William J. Cowan ; Author, Geoige Kibbe Turner; Dialoguer, Jane Murfin ; Adaptor, Jane Murfin ; Editor, Archie Marshek; Cameraman, not listed. Direction, blame the material. Photography, fair.