The Film Daily (1930)

12 THE ■jZgfi DAILV Sunday, December 28, 1930 REVIEWS OF SOUND SHORTS "Three Hollywood Girls" Educational Time, 21 mins. Unusual Comedy This one departs from the usual Hollywood comedy by giving some of the real inside dope on how the girls who come from the small towns manage to scrape along and live until such time as they land a studio job. It is well directed by William Goodrich, and the story shows an intimate knowledge of just how the screenstruck girls live in their little furnished rooms while they wait for Dame Fortune to smile on them. It is well gagged, and mixes the laughs with the natural situations. Should go over well, for it gives the flappers with screen aspirations a good idea of what they are up against, but does it with a smile. boarders find out she has inherited an oil well. Then they pitch in and prepare her for the trip, with the whole gang going along. On arriving at the location, the oil property turns out to be a ramshackle filling station. A good string of comedy is extracted from the boarding house routine and also during the airplane trip to the oil spot. Should prove acceptable for audiences generally. "Winter" Columbia Time, 6 mins. Fair Cartoon This Disney Silly Symphony doesn't stand up with previous releases. The synchrony is well done and the animation up to the average but it lacks gags for laughs. Much snow, skating and sliding, with the usual animal antics for nothing particularly clever. Lulu McConnell in "Tongue Tied" Paramount Time, 7 mins. Swell Comedy Another of the rapid-fire talking performances by Lulu McConnell. This time she assails her husband verbally regarding everything from the old man himself to his friends and everything and everybody that happen to come up in the course of her monologue. The scene is a hunting lodge and while Lulu jab-, hers away the husband sips liquids! and acts as though he wasn't hear-; ing a thing. Then he starts to toy with guns and ?harp-edge tools, ap-j parently with crime motives, hut winds up by grabbing his wifei around the neck, planking her on a] sofa, and restoring quiet in the house. Miss McConnell's snappy1 running talk is punctuated with plenty of good cracks. Additional punches are injected by her mugRing. Louise Fazenda in "A Fall to Arms" RKO Time, 19 mins. / 'a 88a hie Comedy Louise Fazenda does a characterization along her familiar lines in this edition of her series for Larry Darmour. As a boarding house toiW she is looked upon and treated as a kitchen dumbbell until the snoopy "The Naggers Go South" Vitaphone 1129 Time, 18 mins. Good Comedy Mr. and Mrs. Jack Norworth appear in another of this series, which might be improved a bit if Jack/would sing some of his old time ditties. However the duo put over some clever dialogue as they pack for a trip south. Jack has planned to travel alone, but the wife can't see it that way and nags him into buying another ticket. Norworth is a clever actor and Mrs. Norworth a good feeder. "The Suppressed Crime" Educational Time, 7 mins. Lacks Drama In this William J. Burns Detective Mystery, Burns himself attempts to sketchily introduce an episode in the experience of one of his operatives, but with little success. Both the story and action of the trailing of an absconder, who with the aid of a very poor disguise, manages to dodge the police until one of the Burns men tears off the false mustache and wig, are weak and unconvincing, as are players. This short won't arouse any excitement. "His Price" with Johnny Burke Paramount Time, 8 mins. Fair Sketch A domestic comedy with a slightly involved plot. Johnny Burke, as a husband with stock-market proclivities, gives his wife $1,000 to keep for him until morning, when he must put it up for margin. Wifie is aching to buy a fur coat at $500. Johnny's neighbor offers him $500 if he will kiss the latter's wife as a frameup for evidence. Meanwhile, Johnny's wife bets $1,000 with the neighbor's wife that Johnny is a 100 per cent faithful husband. In due course Johnny does his kissing act and collects $500, which he brings home to the wife for her fur coat, whereupon wifie bowls him over with the new. of her $1,000 bet on his fidelity. The plot holds interest and the comedy is fairly well distributed, with the finish punch going over nicely. "Sitting Pretty" with Joe Phillips and Ruth Donnelly Vitaphone 1107 Time, 8 mins. Mild Comedy Even Joe Phillips, who ordinarily has no trouble at all getting the laughs, is unable to overcome the handicaps of the weak material given him in this comedy dealing with flag-pole sitting. Some of the patter between Phillips and Ruth Donnelly, who has the role of his wife, arouses a mild response, but it isn't much considering the many comedy opportunities afforded by the basic idea of the sketch. Okay as a filler. "The Spirit of the Shogun" Pathe Time, 19 mins. Good Vagabond Adventure A Vagabond Adventure, with Tom Terriss taking us through an interesting sightseeing tour of unusual sights in Japan. It starts with a parade of the Shinto priests in one of their ceremonials, with side shows going on among the crowds, and all sorts of vendors selling their wares. Geisha girls are presented in one of their graceful fan dances. Views of Japanese Boy Scouts, the Wishing Gate on which the natives tie their paper prayers, making bath tubs out of barrels, and many other odd customs and sights are presented and explained in the inimitable manner of Terriss, who should be a radio announcer. He sure has the voice, and knows how to dramatize it. Then a trip is made on a dinky train to the interior, and then comes a boa* ride through the whirling rapids. Final shots show the famous cherry groves in full blossom. Interesting and novel, as are all of this well edited series. "Pigskin Capers" Educational Time, 7 mins. Nice Cartoon A Paul Terry-Toon with the animals in a football scrimmage and doing a good parody on the regular football procedure at the college games. The synchronized music and funny sound effects are good, and put this over with pep and a nice quota of laughs. Ginger Rogers in "Office Blues" Paramount Time, 9 mins. Nice Miniature Musioal Brevity, a neat little plot and the talents of Ginger Rogers combine to make this a very pleasing piece of musical entertainment. Scene is a business office, with Miss Rogers playing the role of a secretary. She writes a letter, in song form, to hei boss, with whom she is in love. This leads into the musical comedy atmosphere, with a gigantic notebook background and the requisite chorus. The theme song, entitled "Dear Sir," is quite engaging. "Seem' Injuns" Pathe Time, 19 mins. Kid Fun Daphne Pollard is featured as the comic in a circus story principally designed for the kids. Daphne does the role of an Englishwoman with her boy who wants to see the Indians. When Daphne gets inside the show, she gets mixed up with the wild west holdup of the stage coach, finds herself facing the wild bull in the arena, and other gags. The upshot of it is that the audience mistake her for an "act," and the show owner rewards her. It carries the laughs for the kids, who will enjoy it. Pathe Audio Review No. 50 An authority on ancient musical instruments, Miss Van Buren, gives a descriptive talk on the Octavina, an instrument of the fifteenth century originating in Italy, on which she plays an old melody of those bygone times. One of the Pathe cameramen takes us on a journey in the clouds for an inspection of the roofs of New York skyscrapers. Another presentation of the Marionettes is given in the form of a wedding ceremony, done in the Pathe Coloratura process. The final bit is a journey through the ancient caverns of Postumia Grotto, in Italy, which were supposed to have inspired Dante in writing his immortal "Inferno." A party of explorers go through the cavern, with giant torches, and the crystals from the grotto and the lights form dazzling patterns in the semi-darkness. "Rough Idea of Love" Educational Time, 21 mins. Peppy Comedy This Mack Sennett is handsomely staged and would do credit to a feature production. In a swell night club Marjorie Beebe and Frank Eastman are seen as the entertainers. Frank has a blonde trying to take him away from Marjorie, and the succeeding mixups give the comedienne olenty of chances to put over her comedy work and score the laughs. The finish is strictly modern, with a fancy wedding, and Marjorie's boy friend taking her from his rival, a gang leader, at the fatal moment. Then the machine guns get into action for an exciting finish.