The Film Daily (1938)

TOE DAILY Friday, Feb. 25, 1938 v :< R€VI€UJS Of TH€ nCUl fiLfllS :< :< "Hawaii Calls" with Bobby Breen, Ned Sparks, Irvin S. Cobb, Raymond Paige and His Orchestra RKO Radio 73 Mins. HIGHLY ENTERTAINING FEATURE FOR FAMILY AUDIENCES, WITH BOBBY BREEN AT HIS BEST. Melody, the melodramatic, human interest, and picturesque land and seascapes conspire to make Bobby Breen's new picture, whose backgrounds are shipboard and romantic Hawaii, interesting entertainment. Although the youthful star's talent and personality are the essence of the production and the film is a standout for the younger generation of patrons, nevertheless the footage is admirably geared for adults and should fare with more than average success at the box-office. The story is simple in structure and recounts the heroics of Bobby Breen, a juvenile bootblack of San Francisco, and his pal, Pua Lani, a newsboy there, who stow away aboard a liner bound for Honolulu. Discovered in their lifeboat hideout by Ned Sparks, a musician in the ship's orchestra, and befriended by him, the youths work their way into the heart of the captain, Irvin S. Cobb, but fearful lest he send Bobby back to 'Frisco, the kids jump overboard in Honolulu harbor and find refuge in the house of Mamo Clark, a comely native girl. Before the liner reaches the Islands, a germ of a plot is planted re a sinister gang's conspiracy to steal defense plans from a U. S. Navy Commander, Warren Hull. The action in the Islands deals chiefly with Bobby's tribulations in keeping from being "deported." He and his sidekick, Pua Lani, are instrumental in uncovering the conspiracy and bringing the gang to justice. As a result, both kids are national heroes. The cast is virtually at all times subservient in importance to Breen and Lani, but what acting the supporting players contribute is adequate. Ned Sparks carries the comedy, and Gloria Holden and Mamo Clark the element of eye-filling femininity, together with a bevy of alluring native dancers. Bobby Breen handles his songs very capably. Score includes a trio of original melodies, "Hawaii Calls" (a tip-top number), "Down Where the Trade Winds Blow" and "That's the Hawaiian in Me." Edward F. Cline directs skillfully; the photography is good, but could have been better; and the dialogue is solid, all except one line read by Ned Sparks to a "dowager-type" woman as the steamship reaches Honolulu. CAST: Bobby Breen, Ned Sparks, Irvin S. Cobb, Warren Hull, Gloria Holden, Juanita Clark, Pua Lani, Raymond Paige, Herbert Rawlinson, Dora Clement, Philip Ahn. CREDITS: Producer, Sol Lesser; Director, Edward F. Cline; Author, Don Blanding; Screenplay, Wanda Tuchock; Cameraman, Jack McKenzie, Editor, Arthur Hilton; Art Director, Lewis Rachmil; Musical Supervisor, Abe Meyer; Dance Director, Aggie Auld; Sound Technician, Hugh McDowel, Jr.; Songs by Harry Owens, Johnny Noble. DIRECTION, Skillful. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. "No Time To Marry" with Richard Arlen, Mary Astor, Lionel Stander Columbia 63 mins. PLENTY OF WACKY GAGS BRING LAUGHS IN NONSENSICAL FARCE TOO FAR-FETCHED FOR CLASS AUDIENCES. Here is one of the wackiest stories the films have produced. The wacky material was designed to bring laughs, which it did at the showing caught in the Rialto on Broadway. But the nonsensical material goes so far afield for the laughs that it automatically rules itself out for presentation to discriminating audiences. It is a mob picture that will go with indiscriminate audiences because of the snickers that are fed persistently through the action regardless of the particular appropriateness to the business in hand. For instance, they have a sergeant at the desk in the police station who every time you see him is playing the match-pyramid game, calling for piling matches one on top of another on the mouth of a beer bottle. We counted six occasions when the pyramid was sent scattering over the desk and the sergeant went wild and the audience snickered. The producers thought so well of this gag, that they use it for the fade-out. Richard Arlen and Mary Astor are newspaper reporters who fall in love and are set to get married Christmas eve. Their wedding has been postponed before because the prospective groom was sent out on some assignment. This time a Boston heiress is reported as kidnapped, and at the same time the publisher's wife phones in that she must have two goats for her darling son's new red Christmas wagon. So the prospective bridegroom gets the job of finding the goats. And so on through a maze of nonsensical didoes winding up with the two reporters discovering the missing heiress somehow has got mixed up in their goat expedition, for she has taken a romantic interest in Lionel Stander, the sentimental photographer who tags along and supplies a lot of the comedy. All ends hapnily, with the goats found in a trip to Yonkers, a couole of mobsters outwitted for the heiress-discovering reward, and the girl and boy reported all set for the happy marriage climax. Richard Arlen and Mary Astor work heroically to make the reporter roles sound plausible. Lionel Stander is fine relief as the comedy photographer, and Virginia Dale plays the dumb heiress realistically. Harry Lachman directed the wacky material for the laughs and excitement, and that's all there was for him to get out of it. CAST: Richard Arlen, Mar" Astor, Lionel Stander, Virginia Dale, Marjorie Gateson, Thurston Hall. Arthur Loft, Jav Adler, Matt McHugh, Paul Hurst, George Humbert. CREDITS: Director, Harry Lachman; Author, Paul Gallico; Screenplay, Paul Jarrico; Editor, Otto Mayer; Cameraman, Allen G. Siegler. DIRECTION, Fair. PHOTOGRAPHY, Okay. Mack Back at Desk Albany — W. A. V. Mack, special sales representative for GB, returned to his office in Albany today after an illness of several weeks. "The Daredevil Drivers" with Beverly Roberts, Dick Purcell, Gloria Blondell Warners 59 mins. GOOD THRILL MELLER BASED ON STORY OF SPEED MOTOR DRIVERS WILL PLEASE FANS. Designed for the consumption of the action fans, this one makes the grade nicely with some very fast action and a couple of swell thrill sequences that are the highlights of a yarn with a business background. Dick Purcell is the racing driver who has been disbarred temporarily from the circuit, and takes up motor bus work. Beverly Roberts is the girl who has inherited a local bus service, and there is a rival bus concern that is using underhand means to keep her from having her franchise renewed. Purcell undertakes to help her in her fight, and soon finds himself with a man-sized job on his hands. There is one suspense and thrill sequence that is a wow, as the girl drives a bus with a load of school children on a picnic, not knowing that the striking bus drivers have loosened the brakes. The car hits a steep grade that runs for miles down a mountainside. Here is a gasping sequence that will have the thrill-fans on the edges of their seats, before the hero races up in his car, hops aboard the runaway bus, and saves the kiddies. Another good thrill sequence involves the motor speedway race as the hero starts out to win the first-prize money which his lady friend and boss needs to carry on the bus war and secure her franchise. Beverly Roberts and Dick Purcell both turn in creditable performances. Direction by B. Reeves Eason is snappy and paced to a breath-taking tempo. CAST: Beverly Roberts, Dick Purcell, Gloria Blondell, Gordon Oliver, Charles Foy, Donald Briggs, Eric Stanley, Max Hoffman, Jr. Ferris Taylor Cliff Clark, Earl Dwire. CREDITS: Director, B. Reeves Eason; Author, Charles R. Condon; Screenplay, Sherman Lowe; Cameraman, Ted McCord. DIRECTION, Very Good. PHOTOGRA PHY, Okay. 1,000 See New Projector Exhibit of the new Simplex E-7 Projector, made by International Projector Corp. and marketed by National Theater Supply Co., close's tonight at the Hotel Lincoln. During the five-day period since the mechanism has been on view, attendance at the display has been close to a thousand, according to NTS officials. James Frank, Jr., has been in charge of the exhibit. Darmour Denied Writ Judge Peter B. Schmuck in Supreme Court yesterday denied application for temporary injunction sought by Larry Darmour against use of title "Second Honeymoon" in connection with 20th Century-Fox film. Case comes to trial shortly, it is expected. Edwin P. Kilroe is 20th-Fox attorney, and Julian T. Abeles argued for defense. "Love On Toast" with Stella Ardler, John Payne, Grant Richards, Benny Baker, Katherine Kane Paramount 65 mins. COMEDY AND ROMANCE MERGE IN THIS LAUGH-GETTER SUITED T<Fv»LL AUDIENCES. Seriousness is hurled to the four winds, and comedy of the raucous, slapstick sort is unleashed with reckless abandon in "Love On Toast." Descriptively, the film is difficult of diagnosis as to whether it is a comedy romance or a romantic comedy, for the love theme is so intertwined with the incongruous, ludicrous situations that first one element is in the ascendency and then the other. That the stately Stella Ardler is a fabricator of clever publicity stunts is the hypothesis established by the dialogue and introductory scenes; but as the story waxes, it is apparent that her impractical ideas are second only to the more impractical amenability of the board of directors of Sanford Soups to accept them. Since, however, it's all in fun and travesty, the plausibility of her role can be forgotten. The soup barons are hard-pressed for business, so Miss Ardler suggests the launching of a gigantic contest to keep the soup pots boiling. The purpose immediately is to capture the public's imagination and their patronage of the Sanford products by choosing a Mr. Manhattan and a Miss Brooklyn, and then, to the blare of publicity bands, wed the couple. Right here is where the feminine heart-wrecking John Payne comes in. He's a soda and sandwitch artisan who works deftly, obscurely and contentedly behind the counter. The chef at the emporium, Luis Alberni, without the knowledge of the Adonis-like Mr. Payne, enters him in the contest, and Payne wins. Miss Brooklyn is found in the person of Katherine "Sugar" Kane. The whole promotion backfires. Stella Ardler falls like a ton of brick for Payne and pains as a publicist. When all the cake-throwing, pie-hurdling, doughnut grenading is over, she captures her elusive quarry. Feature moves along at a crisp clip, has some tuneful melodies and is, on the whole, a lot of fun. Cast is capable, E. A. Dupont's direction good, ditto photography, and any <~ne with a sense of humor will get giggles falore and some livelier laughs. CAST: John Pavne, Stella Ardler, Luis Alberni. Bennv Baker. Katherine Kane, Grant Richards Isabel Jewell. Edward Rob:n> \v:Hi1rn Davidson, Franklyn Pangborn, Daisy Befferh CREDITS: Producer, Emanuel Cohen; Director. E. A. Dupont; Screenplay, Richard Connell, Jane Storm, Doris Malloy; Cameraman, Charles Schoenbaum; Editor, Ray Curtiss; Art Director, Wiard Ihnen. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. (Additional Reviews on Page 7) Martin Works on Scripts Charles Martin, recently signed by Universal as writer-director-producer, plans to leave for Hollywood in two weeks to assume new duties on Coast March 15. Meanwhile, Martin is finishing up several scenarios in which Universal is interested.