The Film Daily (1930)

THE Sunday, July 20, 1930 -<^* DAILY is "Girl of the Port" RKO Time, 1 hr., 12 mins. SOUTH SEA ROMANCE THAT IS VERY IMPROBABLE, IMPOSSIBLE AND NOT SO WELL ACTED. This one stretches the implausibilities to the limit. A show gal gets stranded in the Fiji Islands for no good reason, and becomes a bar maid to the natives and an assortment of English expatriates. One English derelict she befriends. He has a horror of fire, due to a war experience with liquid fire at the front. The villain uses this knowledge to torture the drunk, so the outcast and the gal take up light housekeeping in a perfectly nice way, and she sets out to reform him. The "big scene" shows a native ordeal of walking through fire. The Englishman, to make good with his charmer, also walks through the fire unharmed. Then his English friends arrive on a yacht, and he proves to be a titled Lord, and goes off with the little barmaid on their honeymoon. Cast: Sally O'Neil, Reginald Sharland, Mitchell Lewis, Duke Kabanamoku, Donald Mackenzie, Renee Macready, Arthur Clayton, Gerald Barry, Barroe O'Daniels, John Wecb Dillon, William Burt, Hugh Crumplin. Director, Bert Glennon ; Author, John Russell; Adaptor. Beulah Marie Dix ; Dialoguer, the same ; Cameraman, Leo Tover ; Monitor Man, Clarence Wicks. Direction, poor. Photography, fair. "Strictly Unconventional" M-G-M Time, 1 hr., 12 mins. HEAVY SATIRE IN ENGLISH SETTING FALLS FLAT WITH UNSYMPATHETIC THEME FOR AMERICAN AUDIENCES. An adaptation of the old stage play, "The Circle," by Somerset Maugham. It is a story of English society life that will find little appeal to American audiences. The theme is the kind that will create little sympathy for any of the characters. A young member of Parliament neglects his pretty wife, he being interested in antiques while she is developing an infatuation for a young visitor from Canada. The husband's father is invited to the house for a week-end, and is embarrassed to find that his former wife and her present husband, for whom she deserted him 30 years before, are also guests. It winds up by the girl eloping with her lover, even as her husband's mother had done years before — for love. On the stage this was a clever satire on married life, but in its screen version it falls pretty flat. Good work by Lewis Stone and Ernest Torrence fail to save it. Cast : Catherine Dale Owen, Paul Cavanagh, Tyrrell Davis, Lewis Stone, Ernest Torrence, Alison Skipworth, Mary Forbes, Wilfred Noy, William O'Brien. Director, David Burton ; Author, Somerset Maugham ; Adaptors, Sylvia Thalberg, Frank Butler; Editor, Margaret Booth; Dialoguer, Somerset Maugham ; Cameramen, Oliver Marsh, William Daniels. Direction, fair. Photography, okay. "Paradise Island" Tiffany Time, 1 hr., 8 mins. FAIR COMEDY DRAMA WITH ROUTINE SOUTH SEA PLOT AND INTERPOLATED MUSICAL NUMBERS. HELPED BY SOME GOOD COMEDY. A few touches of fairly good comedy constitute principal enjoyment in this rather obvious story with a South Sea Island background. Some nice singing by Kenneth Harlan also helps. The musical numbers, however, are not very smoothly worked in, and consequently strike a jarring note. Plot concerns a girl (Marceline Day) who goes to the South Seas to meet her intended husband (Harlan). He is sunk in debt to a gambler (Tom Santschi), who pulls the old gag of pretending to be a helpful friend to the girl, with the idea of walking off with her himself. After the usual see-sawing and a couple of fights, the hero manages to come out on top. For the small stands and less discriminating audiences, the picture has some interest, but it is too much on the cut and dried order for wise audiences. Cast: Kenneth Harlan, Marceline Day, Tom Santschi, Paul Hurst. Betty Bovd. Vic Potel, Gladden James, Will Stanton. Director, Bert Glennon; Author, M. B. Dearing ; Scenarist, Monte Katterjohn ; Editor, Byron Robinson ; Cameraman, Max Dupont ; Monitor Man, Deane Daily. Direction, fair. Photography, good. "Lost Gods" (Synchronized) Talking Picture Epics Time, 53 mins. HISTORICALLY INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF EXCAVATIONS IN THE SAHARA. HAS VERY LITTLE ENTERTAINMENT VALUE FOR GENERAL AUDIENCES. A record of an expedition conducted by one Count Byron Khun de Prorok, under the auspices of some museum in Algiers, into the Sahara wastes of Northern Africa, where various excavations were made in ancient cities. The picture is accompanied by a synchronized lecture and some native music, both of which have a tendency to get monotonous at times. For the historically minded there may be some points of keen interest in the objects brought forth from the tomb of Queen Tin Hinan, the children's toys found in ancient Utica, the ruins of Carthage, the Atlas Mountains and the plains of Han1, and other relics of a lost civilin. A few of the exhibits, including personal adornments supposed to have belonged to princesses and •lancing girls, are particularly interesting. These items include vanity < ases, necklaces, braclets and various pieces of jewelry. Taking the picture as a whole, however, it does not ""lain sufficient points of general entertainment and is likely to prove a rather tedious affair for the big run >f film fans. "The Great Power" Exhibitors Film Exch. Time, i hr., 25 mins. ONE OF THE EARLY TALKIES DUG UP FOR SMALL STANDS. PRETTY BAD ALLAROUND PRODUCTION. Adapted from a flop stage play of the same name. It is directed amateurishly, and some good stage names in the cast from the original company fail to help it. The story is too involved, and consists of too much heavy dramatics and endless conversation. It entirely lacks any film technique. The Great Power is a gent of that name who controls Wall Street, legislators and nearly the whole works. After trying to trap a youth and disgrace his family, his own son becomes involved through love for the boy, and the gal turns out to be the big shot's own daughter. Given this situation for a set-up, it rambles into a spiritualistic seance sequence, where we see the heads of the characters talking to each other in the other world. Pretty far fetched and generally bad. Cast: Minna Gombel, Conrad Veidt, M chel M.iv.ill, Xcl.in Jaap, Allen Birmingham, Tack Leslie, G. Babysonclark, John Anthony. Walter F. Scott, Conway Winfield, i Walker, Elinor Martin, Helen Shipman. Director, Joseph Rock; Author, Myron ('. Fagan; Adaptor, the Bame; Dialoguer, .rue ; Editor, the same ; Cameraman, not listed. Direction, crude. Photography, poor. "Pamir" Amkino Time, 1 hr., 11 mins. TRAVELOGUE OF ADVENTURES OF SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION CLIMBING AFGHANISTAN MOUNTAINS. FINE PHOTOGRAPHIC SHOTS BUT LACKS GENERAL FILM HOUSE APPEAL. This is the straight photographic record of the experiences of a Russian-German scientific expedition who took two years to explore the country between China and Afghanistan. The party consisted of about 40 persons, with a big train of horses and camels. They climbed Russia's highest mountain — Mount Lenin — which towers 21,000 feet, and discovered the largest known glacier. Wild animal shots are caught that are immensely interesting. The natives of that little known territory are shown giving a festival in honor of the arrival of the visitors. The contrasting shots of burning desert sands on the lower slopes and then later the snow-capped mountains are all done with the finest camera technique. The thrills come with the arduous and dangerous efforts of the caravan in climbing the mountains and fording precipices and ravines. As a picturesque travelogue it is very interesting, but the pop film house appeal is slight. Director. V, Eropheev ; Titler, Shelly Iton; Cameraman. V, M. Beliaev; Expedition conducted by Prof \i I Vndreyev and 1). V. Malinkin. Presentations SS By JACK H ARROW ER ^ PUBLIX INTRODUCES VAUDE ON THE PARAMOUNT BILL A Jack Partington revue is at the Paramount, called "Varietrix." It shows a hotel set called "Rhythm Hotel," and opens with the Foster Girls in a trapeze number and doing tableaux. Then two tap dancers, clever colored boys, put on a peppy act with a drummer boy doing some hot stuff with fine acrobatics as he keeps perfect time with his drum. A colored tenor warbles "Pining for the Carolines," and then two comedians, Gifford & Gresham, do a neat bit of clowning assisted by a girl, offering a burlesque of a Spanish dance as their main bit. The Kemmys, with Eva Ivey, present a fast adagio combined with some fine posing of their athletic bodies that was a real novelty. BACCHANALIAN SHOW CLICKS AT THE ROXY The Roxy has a nicely balanced summer show, opening with the orchestral presentation of "Bolero," by Ravel. The first stage bit is "On the Farm," a timely number featuring Rose and Arthur Boylan, M. Vodnoy and Daisy, the wonder-horse. A colorful offering is "By the River Volga," a legend of the 17th century, employing the stage set of the old boat used in a previous number. This features some fine choral numbers by the Russian Cathedral Choir and the male quartette. Featured in this act are Nina Polsley, Nicholas Vasilieff and M. Vodnoy. The Roxyettes follow with a snappy and fast routine in their usual expert manner. The main event is "Glory to Bacchus," an elaborately staged presentation with grape vine decorations, and the dancing girls with garlands of grapes. AMALGAMATED VAUDEVILLE AGENCY Attractions for Picture Theatres Standard Vaudeville Acts 1600 Broadway, New York City Phone Petm. 3580