The Film Daily (1931)

10 1 . OAILV Sunday, February 1, 1931 "Going Wild" inth Jot /•-'. Brown, Lawrence Gray, Oiui Muneon, Walter I'idgeon Mm in, Broe. Time, l hr,, lo mint, FAST AND HILARIOUS AIR COMEDY MADE CONSISTENTLY AMUSING BY THE EFFORTS OF A CAPABLE CAST. Made strictly for laughs and merriment, and it tills the bill. Joe E. Brown and Lawrence Gray, newspaper reporters and broke, are kicked off a train at a town where a big reception awaits a famous aviation authority, who rides past his station purposely to avoid the publicity. Brown is mistaken for the air guy, with Gray posing as his manager, and slated to take part in an endurance contest up in the clouds. Both lads incidentally fall in love and to complicate matters a menacing female, May Boley, arrives on the scene in search of the aviation man to make him do right by her sister. Brown, Laura Lee, Miss Boley and Prank McHugh. the latter, handling the hotel where much of the action takes place, are the principal comedv performers, while Walter Pidgeon is the rival airman. The action is mostly of the type that should amuse any audience. / Cast: Joe K. Brown. Lawrence Cray, Laura Lee. Walter I'idgeon, Ona Munson, Frank McHugh, May Boley, Harvey Clark. Anders Kandolf, Sam Cantor, Arthur Hoyt, Johnny Arthur, Freil Kelsey. Director, William A. Setter; Author, Humphrey Pearson; Adaptors, Humphrey Pearson, Henry McCarthy; Dialoguers, same ; Editor, Peter Fritcii ; Cameraman, Sol'PoKto. Direction, snappy. Photography, excellent. "Fighting Caravans" with <!(i>y Cooper, Lily Damita, Ernest Vorrenee, Fred Kohler, Tit Hi/ Marshall Paramount Time, 1 hr., 31 mins. COMPOSITE WESTERN CONTAINING ALL THE TRIED OUTDOOR INGREDIENTS. A CLEAN, MILDLY EFFECTIVE STORY FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY. Practically everything in the line of outdoor material has been brought together into this western cocktail of elaborate proportions. It has adventure, love, romance, Indians, soldiers, warfare, laugh.-, and the attractive atmosphere of the plains. The story, another tale of the conquest of the West, is an episodic affair with some good individual sequences but not very effectively fitting together. Noteworthy performances are given by Gary Cooper, Lily Damita, Ernest Torrence, Tully Marshall and Eugene Pallette. There is a liberal amount of action in the picture. It is a wholesome story of the type that will appeal specially to the kids, but also O.K. for adults. £ast: Gary Cooper, Lily Damita, Ernest .Xbrrence, Fred Kohler, Tully Marshall, EuWene I'allette, Roy Stewart, May Boley, James Farley, lames Marcus. Eve Southern Donald McKenae, Sid Saylor, Frank Hagney, Charles Winninger, Frank Campeau, A. Allyn Warren. Directors, Otto Brower, David Burton; Author, Zanc Grey ; Adaptors, Edward E. Paramore, Jr.. Kenne Thompson, Agnes Brand Leahy; Dialoguers, same; Editor, William Shea ; Cameraman, Lee Garmes ; Recording Engineer, Earl Hayman. Direction, spotty. Photography, good. Joan Crawford in "Dance, Fools, Dance" M-G-M Time, 1 hr., 21 mins. FAIR NEWSPAPER AND GANGSTER STORY SHOWS JOAN CRAWFORD OFF HANDSOMELY BUT LACKS PUNCH IN LOOSELY WRITTEN STORY. They started off with a colorful setting showing Joan Crawford and her society friends jazzing it up on a yacht party, and threw in a midnight bathing scene with the girls disrobing and hitting the briny in their undies. Then the story switches to a newspaper setting when Joan takes a job after her father's fortune goes in the Wall Street crash. And right here a lot of the story interest went with it. Joan is not very happily cast as a hard working business girl. And the newspaper stuff will make the journalist boys and the hardboiled reporters smile, for it depicts some situations that couldn't happen in a modern city room. The gangster stuff is well handled, and packs plenty of suspense and drama. Climax goes rather flat with weak ending, and the love story isn't very convincing. Cast: Joan Crawford, Lester Vail, Cliff Edwards, Wiliiam Bakewell, William Holden Clark Gable. Earl Foxe, r'urnell B Pratt' Hale Hamilton, Natalie Moorhead, Joan Marsh, Russell Hopton. Director, Harry Beaumont ; Author, Aurania Rouverol ; Dialoguer, same; Adaptor, Richard Sckayer; Editor, George Hively Cameraman, Charles Rosher. Direction, satisfactory. Photography, ex cellent "Finn and Hattie" with Leon Errol, Mitzi Green, Zasu Pitts Paramount Time, 1 hr., 18 mins. GOOD COMEDY WITH LEON ERROL SCORING LAUGHS THROUGHOUT WITH THE HELP OF MITZI GREEN. A POP NUMBER. Thanks to the craftsmanship of that real humorist, Donald Ogden Stewart who wrote the story, here is a light and breezy comedy that keeps the laughs rippling right through the reels. There is a strong interest built up for the juvenile fans in the work of Mitzi Green and Jackie Searl, who play an important part in the proceedings throughout. Errol and his wife (ZaSu Pitts) decide to visit Paris from their midwest town, and take their child (Mitzi Green) and a nephew along. An adventuress on board frames Errol, but Mitzi cleverly saves him for the time being. In Paris the siren gets him in her clutches again, and at the climax Mitzi again saves her daddy by a clever ruse. Stewart's clever comedy keeps the Jbughs coming, and it is a light and breezy story that will tppeal to the popular fancy. Mitzi Green almost makes it her picture. Cast: Leon Errol, Mitzi Green. Zasu Pitts, Jackie Searl, Lilyan Tashman, Slack Swain, Regis Toomey, Harry Beresford. Directors. Norman Taurog, Norman McLeod ; Author, Donald Ogden Stewart ; Adaptor, Sam Mintz; Dialoguer. Joseph L. Mankiewicz ; Editor, not credited ; Cameraman, Dev Jennings. Direction, Very Good. Photography, The Best. Marion Davies in "The Bachelor Father" M-G-M Time, 1 hr., 21 mins. FAIR ENTERTAINMENT IN MECHANICAL AND ARTIFICIAL STORY FROM STAGE PLAY THAT GIVES MARION DAVIES LITTLE CHANCE. It looks like a poor choice of a vehicle for Marion Davies, who gets little chance to show her comedy flair, and imposes some dramatic work on her that puts her out of character. The film, adapted from the stage play by Edward Childs Carpenter, works out very stagy1 and lacks screen technique because of the nature of the construction. The theme is too sophisticated for family trade, with anj Englishman of title collecting his children from various alliances in his youth, and bringing them to live in his manor house to comfort his old age. Marion Davies is one of the "illegitimate" children, so -he is informed, but it develops later that her ma was properly married to an actor, and when Marion learns the truth, as does also her new father, there is a bust-up. But it works out happily with a pretty artificial ending. Cast: Marion Davies. Ralph Forbes, C. Aubrey Smith. Ray Millard, Guinn Williams, David Torrence, Doris Lloyd. Edgar Norton' Nena Quartaro. Halliwell Hobbes, Elizabeth Murray. Jame* Gordon. Director. Robert Z. Leonard; Author, Edward Childs Carpenter ; Adaptor, Laurence E. Johnson; Dialoguer. same; Editor, Harry Reynolds ; Cameraman, Oliver T Marsh • Recording Engineer, Karl Zint. Direction. Best material afforded. Photography, The best. "Under Texas Skies" with Bob Custer, Bill Cody Syndicate Time, 1 hr., 5 mins. ACTION WESTERN. MOVES FAST BUT THE PLOT IS TOO CONFUSED AND MAKES IT HARD TO FOLLOW DEVELOPMENTS. The trouble with this one is that they tried to cram too much plot into the footage, and the direction or scenario was not as clear as it should be. The result is that you are trying to figure out who is who and which is which, and this will make it tough on the gallery boys who like to root out loud for their heroes. The action is there plenty, in a story where Bob Custer appears as a mysterious gent who is accused of being a rustler but who is really a Secret Service agent. The rustlers have stolen th^ cattle from the girl's ranch, and a phoney Secret Service agent causes all the trouble till Custer uncovers him. But by the time you get a line on who the real hero is, the offering is almost over. It rates a fair mark because of the fast action and fighting, which keep the reels pepped up all the way. Cast: Bob Custer, Natale Kingston, Tom M,'™' rBl c C°Jy-uLanr,e Chandler, William McCall, J. S. Marba, Bob Roper. Direction, J. P. McGowan ; Author, G. A Durlam; Adaptor, the same; Editor, Alfred Brook; Dialoguer, G. A. Durlam; Cameraman, Otto Himm. Direction, fair. Photography, good. "Seas Beneath" Fox Time, 1 hr., 39 mins. DULL DRAMA OF NAVAL SIDE OF WORLD WAR. PRINCIPAL FAULT IS MUDDLED STORY AND POOR CUTTING. The basic idea in the story is weak and its treatment serves to make matters worse. It moves sluggishly along with so many characters that it is nearly impossibly to recognize them. One of the United States "mystery ships" puts to sea under sealed orders which eventually are revealed as instructions to "get" a bad-acting German U-boat off Gibraltar. The mysfery ship, camouflaged as a defenseh/ss merchantman, stops at the Canary Islands and awakes a nest of Gfyman spies. The finale is a battle between the mystery ship and it companion submarine and two German vessels, including a sub. Both the acting and direction are undistinguished. Cast: George O'Brien, Marion Lessing, Warren Hymer William Collier, Sr., Walr i C Kelly. Walter McGrail, Larry Kent, vfrin TP1fnd,T,°? Nat P^d'eton, Henry ***' w T,L°2er F,er<Iinand Schumann •r I • ,Ha,\S ,Furbere. Kurt Furberg, Harry Tenbrook, Mona Maris, Terry RaV Ren Ha.,.oHarry Weil, Maurice Murphy? ' Fr^n" Director John Ford; Author, James Paruer'. ^e^tor! 8SWES ' rjarnerf rwJ°L?nU,T,; R6C0rding E"S' Sphenoid*0"' NOt S° 8°0d Photography, "Aloha" with Ben Lyon and Raquel Torres Tiffany Time, 1 hr., 30 mins FAIR DRAMA WITH GOOD COMEDY RELIEF. SOPHISTICATED INTER-RACIAL MARRIAGE STORY, RISQUE IN SPOTS. The marriage of a native South Sea girl to a white gentleman of social position forms the; basis of this production, which is hampered greatly by lack of action and inferior photography. Ben Lyon, as the White gentleman trader, is vamped into marriage with Raquel Torres, a native girl. She is brought backto the states by Lyon, who attempts to place her in ,his father's house on an equal social basis with his relatives and friferids. The girl's life is made miserable by the insults of her husband's friends. Husband and wife with a party of friends return to the South Seas for a visit. While there, the disillusioned native girl ends her life by leaping into the crater of an active volcano. The husband returns to the states in the arms of his former society fiancee. Cast: Ben Lyon, Raquel Torres, Robert Edeson, Alan Hale, Thelma Todd, Marian Douglas, Otis Harlan, T. Roy Barnes, Robert Ellis .Donald Reed, Al St. John, Dickie Moore, Marcia Harris, Addie McPhail, Phyllis Crane, Rita Rey. Director Albert Rogell ; Authors, Thomas H. Ince, J. G. Hawks; Adaptor, Adele Bufhngton ; Dialoguers, Leslie Mason, W. Totman; Editor, Richard Cahoon ; Cameraman, Charles Stumar ; Recording Engineer, H. R. Hobson. Direction, Fair. Photography, Poor.