The Film Daily (1937)

THE Tuesday, Feb. 2, 1937 -<£«: DAILY & ft Jlwiews o$ the VUw films ft <* Richard Tauber in "APRIL ROMANCE" M-G-M 71 mins. HAS APPEAL FOR MUSIC LOVERS WITH TAUBER SINGING SCHUBERT SONGS IN COSTUME PIECE. The life and loves of Schuberf, the composer, recreated on the screen in the typical leisurely and detailed manner of the British studio formula. Tauber proves himself a competent actor, and of course his rich voice in the rendition of the classic Schubert melodies is superb. The story sticks closely to the romantic events in the life of the composer, showing the love he has for Vicki, the landlord's daughter. He mistakes her sympathy for a return of his feelings, and spurred on by the expectation of marrying her after his concert proves successful, is supremely happy. He is forced to appear personally and give the recital when the singer advertised is unable to go on through illness. The concert is a great success, but when he later approaches the girl for her answer, he learns to his dismay that she is in love with a handsome young officer attached to the Archduchess' entourage. So accepting his loss with a heavy heart, he exerts his good offices to clear the path so that Vicki can marry the officer. To do this he visits the Archduchess and intercedes with her to allow the marriage of one of their officers with a girl of the people. The finale has Schubert singing his "Ave Maria" at the wedding of his sweetheart to another. The score is well handled, with Schubert's classics throughout. Tauber sings five melodies, and his voice is a delight. A competent cast supports the singer. Cast: Richard Tauber, Jane Baxter, Carl Esmond, Athene Seyler, Paul Graetz, Charles Carson, Marguerite Allan, Edward Chapman, Lester Matthews, Gibb McLaughlin, Ivan Samson, Cecil Ramage, Hugh Dempster, Spencer Trevor, Frederick Lloyd. Director, Paul L. Stein; Screenplay, John Drinkwater, Roger Burford, Franz Schulz, 'G. H. Clutsam; Editor, Leslie Norman; Cameramen, Otto Kanturek, Brian Langley. Direction, Good. Photography, Excellent. "MYSTERIOUS CROSSING" with James Dunn, Jean Rogers Universal 61 mins. ROUTINE MELLER, PACKS FAIR AMOUNT OF SUSPENSE FOR THE THRILL FANS. While this one will break no records, it does furnish a sizeable quantity of thrills, and good suspense in a story that keeps James Dunn hopping as a reporter with a detective complex. Dunn plays the role of a reporter on a New Orleans paper, who gets himself the job by claiming to have some inside dope on the disappearance of a prominent banker. Gradually he lets the editor in on the fact that it is a murder. He has nothing but suspicions, but goes to work to prove his theory of murder. The murderer is in evidence all the time, and no great effort is made to cover him up. But that very fact adds a certain zest to the proceedings. Dunn finally proves that the confidential partner of the murdered man pushed him overboard from a ferryboat, and dived in after him to make sure he drowned, being an expert swimmer and getting clear away, till Dunn trips up his alibi. Jean Rogers plays the -role of the victim's daughter, and looks lovely in a walk-through part. Andy Devine plays the stooge to Dunn, in a mechanical effort to build the laughs. He could have been dispensed with for all he adds to the entertainment. The rest of the cast is very well picked, and competent. Cast: James Dunn, Jean Rogers, John Eldredge, Andy Devine, Hobart Cavanaugh, Herbert Rawlinson, J. Farrell MacDonald, Clarence Muse, Jonathan Hale, Loren Baker, Libby Taylor, James Flavin, Pat O'Malley. Director, Arthur Lubin; Author, Fred Maclsaacs; Screenplay, Jefferson Parker. John Grey; Cameraman, Milton Krasner. Direction, Fair Photography, Good. "OUTCAST" with Warren William, Karen Morley, Lewis Stone, Esther Dale, Frank Melton (HOLLYWOOD PREVIEWI Paramount 75 mins. QUALITY ENTERTAINMENT, DESPITE OVERLOAD OF PLOT, THAT WILL BOLSTER ANY PROGRAM. Though constructed with too much plot, "Outcast" nevertheless emerges as quality entertainment capable of holding up its share on any bill. Fine performances by the leads, excellent work by bit character players, good direction by Robert Florey and a well built script by Doris Malloy and Dore Schary from the original story by Frank R. Adams raise the picture above the average. Warren William, Karen Morley and Lewis Stone are somewhat overshadowed by excellent character bits by Esther Dale, as the intolerant small-town gossip-monger boarding house owner, and local newspaper publisher, John Wray, her hen-pecked husband, Christian Rub, Stone's faithful Scandanavian servant, and Frank Melton, the young farmer, whose wife has her first child. Unable to continue the practice of medicine because he was the central figure acquited by a jury in a notorious medicalmurder case, Warren William drifts to a small mid-western town. There, with the help of Lewis Stone, retired internationally famous attorney, he rehabilitates himself. In the meantime, Karen Morley, sister-inlaw of the woman he was acquitted of murdering, locates him and plans to carry out her brother's wish to avenge the "murder". She goes to Stone, a mutual friend, but instead of helping her, he manoeuvers a meeting so that she falls in love with Warren, after helping him deliver a baby for Frank Melton and Lois Wilde. When Karen returns to her boarding house she is evicted as an undesirable, and in the process, bigoted Esther Dale, the proprietor, finds the clippings about the "murder" incident. Miss Dale, who also publishes the local paper, gets out an extra exposing Warren and soon the village is in arms. Her own son is ill, but she refuses to have a doctor. As the youngster becomes worse and finds breathing almost impossible, her husband, John Wray, brings Warren. The doctor completes a successful operation putting a tube in the boy's windpipe just as Miss Dale learns what is happening. She storms in and not realizing what she is doing, pulls out the tube. The boy dies and she accuses Warren of murder. Word of this spreads and soon mob-law decides to hang both Warren and Karen. Reason is returned when Stone in an impromptu court at the planned scene of the execution, gets Miss Dale to admit that unknowingly she had murdered her own son. Karen and Warren are saved for each other. Cast: Warren William, Karen Morley, Lewis Stone, Jackie Moran, Esther Dale, John Wray, Christian Rub, Virginia Sale, Ruth Robinson, Murray Kinnell, Jonathan Hale, Richard Carle, Frank Melton, Lois Wilde, Tommy Jackson, Mathew Betz, Harry Woods, George Magrill, Dick Alexander. Producer, Emanuel Cohen; Director, Robert Florey; Author, Frank R. Adams; Screenplay, Doris Malloy and Dore Schary; Cameraman, Rudolph Mate; Editor, Ray F. Curtiss. Direction, Excellent Photography, Fine "NOBODY'S BABY" with Patsy Kelly, Lyda Roberti, Lynne Overman, Robert Armstrong, Rosina Lawrence, Don Alvarado (HOLLYWOOD PREVIEW) M-G-M 69 mins. AN ENJOYABLE COMEDY WITH KELLY AND ROBERTI AT THEIR BEST. This Patsy Kelly-Lyda Roberti starrer is the best thing the girls have done together and it looks like Hal Roach spent more money on this production than he did on any of their previous efforts. The piece opens with a load of fast slap-stick comedy which moves especially fast. Then the girls become nurses and the pace slacks up. They are forced to carry the whole load and it is a little too much. However, there is still a lot of entertainment centered around the situation of who is mother of the babe. Patsy's comedy antics are always good for laughs and Lyda garners her share by mussing up the English language to suit herself. A beautiful ball-room set is used in which Rosina Lawrence and Don Alvarado do some swell dancing to Jimmie Grier's music. Gus Meins builds a host of light weight situations into some good laugh getters. The original story and screenplay by Harold Law, Hal Yates and Pat C. Flick may be lightweight in theme but they have furnished some hilarious moments and some good laugh lines. Lynne Overman and Robert Armstrong haven't a lot to do with Kelly and Roberti on most of the time. Rosina Lawrence is a picture of sweetness itself, her vocalizing is nice and she surprises with her dancing ability. Although in no way terrific, audiences will find a lot of enjoyable entertainment in this comedy. In a nursing school, Patsy and Lydia land up as roommates. The latter forever seems to be in the former's way. Rosina, Alvarado's wife and dancing partner, disappears because he will not allow the world to know of their marriage. The girls discover Rosina and her baby in their hospital and it is through their efforts that the father is informed of his newly acquired heir and he and the mother are happily reunited. Cast: Patsy Kelly, Lyda Roberti, Lynne Overman, Robert Armstrong, Rosina Lawrence, Don Alvarado, Tom Dugan, Orrin Burke, Dora Clemant, Laura Treadwell, Tola Nesmith, Florence Roberts, Si Wills, Herbert Rawlinson, Jimmie Grier's Orchestra, The Rhythm Rascals, The Avalon Boys. Producer, Hal Roach; Director, Gus Meins; Authors, Harold Law, Hal Yates, Pat C. Flick; Screenplay, the same; Cameraman, Norbert Brodine; Editor, Ray Snyder Photographic Effects, Roy Seawright; Music, Marvin Hatley; Lyrics, Walter Bullock; Musical Arrangements, Jimmie Grier; Dances staged by Roy Randolph. Direction, Fluent Photography Good. Annabella and Henry Fonda in "WINGS OF THE MORNING" with John McCormick, Leslie Banks, Stewart Rome, Irene Vanbrucgh (HOLLYWOOD PREVIEW) 20th Century-Fox 86 mins MASTERPIECE OF THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION STAFF, FILMED IN TECHNICOLOR AND SPLENDIDLY PLAYED. While technicolor is the primary and thrilling factor from a box-office standpoint in Robert T. Kane's first production in England for 20th Century-Fox, it is not the type that yells its label. Instead, it is an integral, pleasing part of the whole. Direction by Harold Schuster is evenly paced, and extracts every drop of the Donn Bryne stories which were adapted by Tom Geraghty. A charming and capable personality, doubly so in color, reaches the American screen in Annabella. Henry Fonda does his usual grand job, while Leslie Banks is stiff in little more than a bit. Dragged into the picture as he is, John McCormick seems out of place. "Wings of the Morning" as a whole is a masterpiece of the entire production staff. When as a bride of a few months her aristocratic husband is accidentally killed, Annabella goes back to her tribe as princess of the gypsies. Fifty years later, now the greatgranddaughter of the man, she returns to Ireland, having escaped from war-torn Spain disguised as a boy. In the disguise she meets and falls in love with Henry Fonda, who is training Rome's horses for the Epsom Downs Derby. By the time her fiance, Teddy Underdown, arrives, Fonda has penetrated her disguise and fallen in love. Because of this, he trains "Wings of the Morning," a horse which belongs to Irene Vanbrugh, Annabella's grandmother. When the horse seems to have lost the race because of a Derby technicality, it becomes clear that Underdown is marrying Annabella for money only. This allows her to go to Fonda before he, heartbroken, has carried out his intention of returning to Canada. Cast: Annabella, Henry Fonda, John McCormack, Leslie Banks, D. J. Williams, Philip Syndney Frost, Stewart Rome, Irene Vanbrugh, Harry Tate, Helen Have, Teddy Underdown, Mark Daly, Sam Livesey, E. V. H. Emmett, Capt. R. C. Lyle, Steve Donoghue. Producer, Robert T. Kane; Director, Harold Schuster; From stories by Donn Byrne; Screenplay, Tom Geraghty; Cameraman, Henry Imus and Jack Cardiff; Editor, James Clark; Color Director, Natalie Kalmus; Director of Technicolor Photography, Ray Rennahan; Musical Arrangement, Arthur Benjamin. Direction, Fine Photography, Beautiful. Tex Ritter in "ARIZONA DAYS" Grand National 52 mins. EXCITING WESTERN WHOSE SINGING STAR, CAPABLE CAST AND STORY SHOULD MAKE IT CLICK WITH FAMILY AUDIENCES. Plenty of action, a straight-forward story and Tex Ritter's singing and heroics conspire to make this Western good, substantial entertainment that will appeal to enthusiasts of outdoor dramas. The hard-riding, quickon-the-trigger Ritter joins a traveling show troupe. This itinerant group of performers arrives in wild and wooly Tombstone, Arizona, (Continued on Page 8)