The Film Daily (1930)

THE 10 is: "3&>"l DAILY Sunday, August 3, 1930 Cyril Maude in "Grumpy" Paramount Time, 1 hr., 21 mins. EXCELLENT PRODUCTION WITH OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY CYRIL MAUDE. MAYBE TOO HIGH GRADE TO GET THE MOBBUT IT'S A DARB. All hands can take a bow on this one. It is the type of show that gives the lie to the highbrow critics who say Hollywood can't turn out anything with intelligent story and treatment. Cyril Maude in this adaptation of the well known stage play does the part of "Grumpy" so that you'll remember it long after. It ranks as one of the classic roles of the screen. He is a sheer delight all the way. iHe has an excellent supporting cast Direction is skillfully handled, and the entire production will click big with intelligent audiences. As pop fare, it is a question. Lots of the clever lines and subtle business of the great stage actor seemed to drift over the heads of many in a Broadway audience. The play is too well known to require detailing here. As a self-appointed detective, the star is excellent. A great characterization. Cast: Cyril Maude, Phillips Holmes, Paul Cavanaugh, Frances Dade, Halliwell Hobbes. Doris Luray, Olaf Hytten, Paul Lukas, Robert Bolder. Colin Kenny. Directors, George Cukor, Cyril Gardner ; Authors, Horace Hodges, Thomas W. Percyval ; Adaptor, Doris Anderson ; Dialoguer, the same ; Editor, not listed ; Cameraman, David Abel. Direction, excellent. Photography, the best. "Little Accident" Universal Time, 1 hr., 22 mins. HIGH GRADE COMEDY. FAIRBANKS, JR. CARRIES THE BURDEN OF A DELICATE SUBJECT NICELY. WELL DIRECTED AND ACTED. In presenting this transcription of the stage play, much care was taken in its handling, both as to the dialogue and the acting. The result is an amusing fabric woven by persons who have done well in their particular field. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., is given a difficult role and he handles it in true finished style. A supporting cast, which includes Anita Page and several other popular players, aids much in the success of the picture. Direction is very neatly handlW by William James Craft. The story centers about a youth, who on the day before his second marriage, learns that his former wife, whose marriage was annulled, is to become a mother. He gains her consent to have the babv adopted, then steals it and brings it to his home. The mother learns of this and so does his sweetheart. Left alone, the wife and husband make up and the sweetheart walks off with her future hubby's friend. Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Anita Page, Roscoe Karns, Zasu Pitts, Sally Blane, Slim Summerville, Henry Armetta, Joan Marsh, Albert Gran. Director, William James Craft ; Authors, Floyd Dell and Thomas Mitchell ; Adaptor, Gladys Lehman ; Dialoguer, Anthony Brown ; Editor, Harry Lieb ; Cameraman, Roy Overbaugh. Direction, very good. Photography, good. "Common Clay" with Constance Bennett, Lew Ayres Fox Time, 1 hr., 28 mins. POPULAR TEAR-WRINGER, JUST AS EFFECTIVE IN TALKER VERSION AS ON STAGE. FINE DIRECTION AND CAPITALLY ACTED BY A TOPNOTCH CAST. Widely popular as a piece of stage merchandise, this tear-wringer should have no difficulty duplicating its effectiveness as a talker, since the cast here is far and away superior to the average stage and stock company that has brought down the house with the emotion and irony of the human events set forth. Plot concerns a pretty girl of uncertain parentage who winds up in court with a baby and is flayed by the lawyer of the rich man's son involved. It turns out that the hard-hearted lawyer is the girl's own father, her mother having committed suicide after he wronged hex because she did not want to brinc/nim disgrace or stand in the way of his climb to success. Constance Bennett, Lew Ayres, Hale Hamilton, Tully Marshall, Beryl Mercer, Purnell Pratt do commendable work. Cast: Constance Bennett, Lew Ayres, Tully Marshall. Matty Kemp. Beryl Mercer, Hale Hamilton, Purnell B. Pratt, Ada Williams, Charles McNaughton, Genevieve Blinn. Director, Victor Fleming ; Author. Cleves Kinkead ; Adaptor, Jules Furthman ; Dialoguer. Jules Furthman ; Editor, Irene Morra ; Cameraman, Glen MacWilliams ; Monitor Man, Eugene Grossman. Direction, fine. Photography, good. Dorothy Mackaill in "The Flirting Widow" First National Time, 1 hr., 14 mins. GOOD MELODRAMA. FINE ACTING BY PRINCIPALS AND CLEVER DIRECTION PUT IT OVER NICELY. Melodramatic entertainment whose chief boast is the swell acting by the principals, especially Dorothy Mackaill and Basil Rathbone, who1 vie for the spotlight honors in the telling of this story. Miss Mackaill again plays the sob sister on whom I the family depends for every little [ thing. She even goes so far as tol improvise her own engagement toj an imaginary colonel so that herf younger sister may marry. But after | this happens she decides to turn the: tables and starts out by inserting af notice in the papers of. the death of| her imaginary lover. Coincidentally, there happens to be a colonel in the English army by the name of Smith: to whom she has written a letter. Colonel Smith, under an assumedj name, sets out to unravel the mystery! and falls pretty hard for the girl.i Just as he is beginning to like her, she tries to hie off to London with, her aunt. As Dorothy is about toi leave, Colonel Smith makes his ap-l pearance and joins her. Cast: Dorothy Mackaill, Basil Rath-, bone, William Austin, Leila Hyams, Claude; Gillingwater, Emily Fitzroy, Anthony Busliell.i Flora Bramley. Director, William A. Seiter ; Author, A. E. W. Mason; Adaptor, John F. Goodrich ; Dialoguer, John F. Goodrich ; Editor,] same; Cameraman, Sid Hickox; Titler,' John Goodrich. Direction, good. Photography, good. "The Love Racket" with Dorothy Mackaill First Nat'l Time, 1 hr., 14 mins. WEAK NUMBER WITH TEDIOUS COURT SCENE AND DOROTHY MACKAILL MISCAST IN DRAMATIC PART THAT SWAMPS HER. Adapted from the stage play, "The Woman on the Jury," and, with a pretty ragged scenario, it fails to carry much of a punch. Too much of the film is given over to a tedious and uneventful court scene with little dramatic punch. Dorothy Mackaill is called upon for a heavy dramatic role, and it is too much for her. The story opens with her living in a mountain resort with a man to whom she Jbelieves herself lawfully wedded. \Be leaves her abruptly, telling her trie truth. Brokenhearted, she departs, and several years later you see her a prosperous interior decorator. A rich youth falls in love with her, and they become engaged. Then they both serve side by side on a jury trying a girl for killing the man she lived with who tired of her. Slain man is same that deserted heroine, who tells own story and saves girl. Falls pretty flat. Cast: Dorothy Mackaill, Sidney Blackmer, Edmund Burns, Myrtle Stedman, Alice Day, Edith Yorke, Martha Mattox, Edward Davis, Webster Campbell, Clarence Burton. Tom Mahoney, Jack Curtis. Director, William A. Seiter; Author, Bernard K. Burns ; Adaptor, Adele Commandini ; Dialoguer, same; Editor, same; Cameraman, Sid Hickox. Direction, ordinary. Photography, all right. "The Medicine Man" with Jack Benny, Betty Bronson Tiffany Time, 1 hr., 5 mins. FAIRLY APPEALING STORY OF A MEDICINE SHOWMAN AND A SMALL-TOWN CINDERELLA WITH A CRUEL AND MERCENARY FATHER. If a more glamorous romantic personality had been cast in the title role, this story might have turned out at least 50 per cent better. Jack Benny is fine as a wise-cracking comedian of the vaudeville and musical comedy stage, but as the hero in a love drama he is out of his line. Especially opposite Betty Bronson, a winsome lass who could be teamed very favorably with the right sort\ of chap. In this yarn, Benny is ttye operator of a medicine show and has all the earmarks of a philandering lady-killer. He is smitten in the soft spot, however, upon meeting the mistreated daughter of a hard-hearted small-town merchant with a yen for whipping his children. When the storekeeper is informed by the village gossips that his daughter kept a midnight date with the med. doctor, the old man rushes to marry off the girl to an ugly farmer, but the hero appears and walks off with the lass himself. Cast: Jack Benny, Betty Bronson, E. Alyn Wan-en, Eva Novak, Billy Britzs, Adolph Milar, George Stone, Tommy Dugan, Vadim Uraness, Caroline Woldert. Director, Jack Tembroke ; Author, Elliott Lester ; Adaptor, Eve Unsell ; Editor, Russell Schoengarth; Cameramen, Art Reeves and Nat Dupont ; Monitor Man, Deane Dailey. Direction, fair. Photography, okay. "Cheer Up and Smile" with Arthur Lake, Dixie Lee Fox Time, 1 hr., 16 mins. LIGHT SUMMER NUMBER PLEASES WITH COLLEGE PRANKS AND COMEDY CHARACTERIZATION OF ARTHUR LAKE. CARRIES PLENTY OF LAUGHS. This was directed by Sidney Lanfield, who evidently has a real sense of humor. He plays up the laughs, and they are good and plentiful. It will mainly interest the flappers, being light and collegiate, with the usual college love story that works out with a different ending. Arthur/Lake is kicked out of College through no fault of his own, and lands in New York in a ritzy night club playing in the orchestra headed by "Whispering" Jack Smith. Here he is vamped by the siren wife of the French proprietor, and handles the comedy effects very well. Later bandits hold up the club, and in the broadcasting room Lake is forced to take the place of the singer on the mike, who has been knocked cold. At the point of a gun he sings, half scared to death, and the listeners-in accept him as a new radio star for his funny singing. Cast: Arthur Lake, Dixie Lee, Olga Baclanova, Whispering Jack Smith, Johnny Arthur, Charles Judels, John Darrow, Sumner Getchell, Franklin Pangborn, Buddy Messinger. Director, Sidney Lanfield ; Author, Richard Cornell; Adaptor, Howard J. Green; Dialoguer, the same ; Editor, Ralph Dietrich ; Monitor Man, Al Bruzlin; Cameraman, Joe Valentine. Direction, okay. Photography, good. Joan Crawford in "Our Blushing Brides" M-G-M Time, 1 hr., 19 mins! CINDERELLA STORY OF SHOP GIRL GETTING HEE MILLIONAIRE MAN. FOR THE FLAPPERS BUT NOT THE IN-1 TELLEGENTSIA. Another of those pretty screen!! stories made for the shop-girl vote.! The department store cutie gets her;l millionaire husband, after he tries to get her the wrong way and she) proves to him that she is a virtuJ ous and pure girl and opens his eyes>l to bigger and better standards. Joanil is the girl, of course. Meanwhile: working in the department store with her are her two innocent and trust-J ing friends who get gypped by richj rotters who take them for the works.!; And after Joan has moralized and| warned them, too. It's really very!' shocking, how these shop girls arej treated. A lot of the film is given, up to fashion displays of lingerie,! with the girls behind the counter alsoj acting as models — and all for 20| bucks a week. From all of which you may gather that the story isl Second Reader grade. Full of holes] and slobbery sentimentalizing. Cast: Joan Crawford. Anita Page, Dorothy Sebastian, Robert Montgomery, Raymond Hackett, John Miljan, Hedda Hopper, Al-I bert Conti, Edward Brophy, Robert Eramett O'Connor, Martha Sleeper, Gwen Lee, Catherinee Moylan, Claire Dodd. Director, Harry Beaumont ; Author, Bess Meredyth ; Adaptor, the same ; Dialoguers, Bess Meredyth. Edwin Justus Mayer; Editor, George Hively ; Cameraman. Merritt B. Ger-| stad ; Monitor Man, Douglas Shearer. Direction, okay. Photography, first class.