The Film Daily (1929)

THE Sunday, September 22, 1929 ■c^Hk DAILY 13 William Haines in "Speedway" (Syn ch ronized) ti-G-M Length: 7,075 ft LIGHT MATERIAL WITH HAINES DOING HIS SMART ALECK STUFF. SOME GOOD THRILLS IN AUTO RACE. RATES FAIR. This is an original written around William Haines' personality, and a? such it proves a fairly acceptable vehicle but it will break no records. Haines is seen as a conceited auto racing driver and his pal is the older driver, a part taken by Ernest Torrence. John Miljan is the heavy who owns a rival racing car, and frames Haines to desert his pal and drive for the heavy in the tryouts, promising him to let him drive in the big 500-mile race. Torrence is forced to send in his mechanic, as the doctor tells him he has a weak heart and cannot stand the gruelling pace. At the start of the race, Miljan takes the driving away from Haines, and goes in himself. It looks as if Torrence and his car are licked. But Haines comes to the rescue when they are five laps behind, and stages a whirlwind finish to victory. A light story, but cleverly handled by director Harry Beaumont. Cast: William Haines, Anita Page, Ernest Torrence, Kail Dane. John Miljan, Eugene Besserer, l'ol'y Moran. Director, Harry Beaumont ; Author, Byron Morgan; Scenarists, Byron Morgan, Ann Block. Ann Price: Editor, Not listed; Titler, Joe Farnham; Came aman, Henry Sharp. Direction, clever, photography, very good. ,» "When Moscow Laughs (Silent) Amkino Length: 4,850 ft. RUSSIAN COMEDY DRAMA RATES POOR WITH SLOPPY STORY THAT WILL PROVE OF LITTLE MERIT TO FILM HOUSES. Produced b) Mezhrapom-Russ. This attempts to be a comedy, but misses by a mile. All about a Russian peasant gal who earns her living by making millinery at home in the little village. She conies to Moscow u> sell her wares, where she has a room. In the city she meets a farmer, and in that beautiful sentimental Russian manner, they decide to get married immediately, which they do. Then she takes him to her room. Here the landlord raises objections. A legal procedure is started to oust the gal from her apartment, she loses her job, and is having a tough time when she gets hold of a lottery ticket which was given her in settlement of her salary. The lottery number proves to be the big winner, and she and her farmer husband are made very happy, of course. Just a lot of sentimental applesauce, that tries to be comical, and is, but the wrong way. Cast: Anna Stern, V. Mikhailov, W. Fogel, KowalSaraborski, Mme. S. Birman, P. Pol. Director, B. Barnet ; Authors, V. K. Turkin, V. G. Shershenevitch ; Editor, Shelley Hamilton; Titler, the same; Cameraman, V. Francisson. Direction, fair. Photography, okay. .. Living Russia" (Silent) Amkino Length: 4,650 ft. UNIQUE FILM WITHOUT TITLES OR PLOT IS INTERESTING PRESENTATION OF RUSSIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS WITH FINE CAMERA TECHNIQUE. Here is a novel exposition of just what can be done with a camera in filming disassociated scenes and making a film of more than ordinary entertainment value. It is really a newsreel, but presented in such an original manner that it becomes a very absorbing photoplay. It shows the rebuilding of Russia under the Soviet government, and the method by which this is accomplished through a well organized system, also the military policies. The subtitle of the film is "the man with the camera," and he is the director, cast and just about the whole works. He takes you on a regular camera orgy including a peasant wedding, mining activities, all kinds of city sights, with shots from all heights and angles. It is a highly imaginative and artistic piece of work, and ranks with the best impressionistic stuff that has ever been done on the screen. The theater owner must decide for himself just how strong an appeal this kind of subject will hold for his patronage. Director, Dziga Vertoff; Cameraman, M. Kaufman. No other credits. Direction, very good. Photography, excellent. Buddy Roosevelt in "Mystery Valley" (Silent) Rayart Length: 4,548 ft. JUST A FAIR WESTERN WITH THE OLD HOKUM PILED ON THICK. WILL PLEASE THE UNCRITICAL FANS WITH FAST ACTION AND FIGHTING. Western. Adapted from the novel, "Snow Dust," by Howard E. Morgan. Buddy Roosevelt does his usual heroing in a story that hits all the old angles with its intrigue and counterplotting. Buddy is summoned west by his father who realizes that the gang are trying to do him out of his gold mine. Before the son arrives, the father is mysteriously shot. The only clue is an empty cartridge with the firing pin off center. Buddy finds that the head of the gang has taken possession of the property, and it is up to Buddy to discover the land grant that will prove his claim. This he accomplishes after a lot of fighting and mixups with the gang. Of course the gal is there to help him, also her kid brother. The climax shows the hero barricaded in a room with the girl and her kid brother. While he holds the gang off, the gal rides for the sheriff, and all is hotsy totsy. Just an ordinary western that will fill in. Cast: Buddy Roosevelt, Carol Lane, Tommy Bay, Jimmy Kane, Art Rowlands. Director, J. P. McGowan; Author, Howard E. Morgan; Scenarist, Howard E. Morgan, Editor, Irma Horsley; Titler, Not credited; Cameraman, Ernest Depew. Direction, fair. Photography, spotty. Accord in France at Last ! (Continued from Page 1) sider them as they appeared in the •news: Monday: Stepping fast these days is the Fox West Coast organization, in its eastward expansion. Twentyseven more (the Consolidated Theaters chain), today are added to the inter-mountain holdings They'll be dropping the West Coast part of the name very soon, because the circuit has outgrown it Univer al and Fox Midwesco, it seems, couldn't get together on a deal for Wisconsin houses Fox Midwesco has some of the L. K. Brin houses and is understood to be getting the rest, but there's keen rivalry with Universal and it's to continue.. Continental Theater Accessories, new national equipment firm, aims to get started Oct. 1 From the Berlin front comes the word that Klangfilm-Tobis is mobilizing for a general European offensive against American talker equipment. It's too bad an agreement couldn't have been reached to avert the unpleasantness which must follow Here at home, the patent situation is kept boiling with suit of Western Electric against General Talking Pictures Tuesday: Independent exchangemen of the nation are going to bat with their own team, composed of members from all keys. They're ready to play ball with 24 pictures to offer and Adoph Pollak of Hollywood Pictures, New York as president. With the number of names they have to offer, the new association should have plenty on the ball.. Now it's whispered that Famous Players-Canadian is to be sold but the whisperings bring a prompt and positive denial from I. W. Killam, one of the three voting trustees, a director of the firm and head of the Montreal banking firm which handled the deal by which Paramount sold control to Canadian interests. Control will remain in Canadian hands, he asserts in no uncertain terms Eddie Silverson continues his Chicago program, getting 12 of the smaller Lubliner & Trinz theaters in the Windy City St. Louis, musicians strike is widening, the players at Skouras-Warner and St. Louis Amusement Co., houses going out, when the two weeks' truce ends without a settlement of the dispute. About 50 other houses experienced walkouts early in the month. It's hard to reconcile the two viewpoints, exhibitors feeling it a waste of money to hire players they don't need, and the latter averse to giving ground to the relentless onslaught of sound pictures General Talking, "Pete" Woodhull says, welcomes the Western Electric suit, and wants to go to the mat. Wednesday: It's good to know that "the little fellow" is going to receive major attention at the forthcoming M.P.T.O.A. convention at Memphis. His problems are the concern of the industry and the adjustment program mapped out by distributors and exhibitors recognized the fact. That's why both distributors and exhibitors are determined to find out just how the program is working, and the Memphis meeting should tell them And to those who have been worrying about the next development in pictures, we say, "Get a load of Grandeur." The process is the first to be offered commercially, and will cause plenty of talk and a possible upheaval. Fox is so sold on the new proposition that it's being billed as "The Entertainment of the Future." What a proposition the Grandeur idea is going to be for newsreels of the future. And Fox has a tie-up with William Randolph Hearst for the development of newsreels. It looks like the winter will be an interesting one Thursday: The whispered reports of a deal involving Famous PlayersCanadian reach a head. The blowoff finds N. L. Nathanson resigning as managing director, declaring he favors sale of the chain to Gaumont British, a move which is opposed by Adolph Zukor and I. W. Killam. Nathanson tried to negotiate a buy of Gaumont British, he says, and was blocked in this, whereupon the British firm offered $75 a share for acquisition of the Canadian company Arthur Cohen is new managing head of the Canadian chain, a move recommended to the board of directors by Nathanson. A big deal that, with many ramifications and plenty of inside maneuvering reported Allied's been going along, gathering 200 theaters into its membership fold at Boston and getting the aid and co-operation of Nathan Yamins, who always has been a strong exhibitor leader And southern exhibitors, gathering at New Orleans, indicate they want to travel under the Allied banner. Those Grandeur projectors are to be made on a large scale and will be available to all exhibitors. The firm has the facilities and manpower and can turn the new machines out at a rapid rate Now the Canadian government is determined to figure out whether there is need for any probe of the industry in Canada, as asserted by some exhibitors, and has named a professor of economics to get the lowdown on the situation Friday: They need American films in France. The fact has been generally known for years, but it has taken a dearth of American pictures to prove the fact. At any rate, an agreement has been reached to abandon plan for the 3 to 1 quota, and maintain a status quo, which is a 7 to 1 arrangement, until October 1930. American distributors withdrew from the French market last spring when (Continued on Page 16)