The Film Daily (1931)

10 -3VK DA6LY Sunday, March 22, 193: "The Front Page" / 'nited Artists Time, 1 hr., -11 in i us. SURE-FIRE BOX OFFICE ENTERTAINMENT. NEWSPAPER COMEDY-DRAMA KICKS OUT THRILLS AND LAUGHS AT GREAT SPEED. Audience stuff for any house. This Howard Hughes production, sophisticated though it is and with plenty of raw meat tossed in, is the kind that everybody will get excited over. Hildy Johnson, reporter, is going to ditch the newspaper game for marriage. He is about to leave for New York with his future wife and her mother, when a condemned murderer escapes and eventually falls into his hands. The newspaper instinct in him makes him sidetrack the wedding and plenty of exciting complications result. Adolphe Menjou, playing the hard-boiled editor, turns in a swell performance. Pat O'Brien is excellent and the rest of the players are also fine. The dialogue is grand stuff. Milestone's direction is corking. Cast: Adolphe Menjou, Pat O'Brien, Mary Brian, Edward Everett Horton, Walter Catlett, George E. Stone, Mae Clarke, Slim Suramerville, Matt Moore, Frank McHugh, Clarence H. Wilson, Fred Howard;. Phil Tead. Eugene Strong, Spencer Charters, Maurice Black, Erne Ellsler, Dorothea Wolbert, James Gordon, Dick Alexander. Director, Lewis Milestone; Authors, Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur ; Adaptor, Bartlett Cormack ; Dialoguer, same ; Editor, W. Duncan Mansfield; Cameraman, Glen MacWilliams ; Recording Engineer, Frank Grenzbach. Direction, box office. Photography, good. "Tabu" Paramount Time, 1 hr., 20 mins. ENCHANTING SOUTH SEA ROMANCE WITH NATIVE CAST. SUPERB PHOTOGRAPHY, APPEALING STORY AND FINE MUSICAL SCORE. Rare and out-of-the ordinary entertainment of a class order is provided in this simple but dramatically engrossing romantic story of the South Seas. It is the work of F. W. Murnau, in association with Robert J. Flaherty, and was made in the true natural surroundings of the Polynesian race. The scenic beauty and alluring atmosphere of the South Seas have been caught with remarkable effectiveness, and this achievement alone makes the picture distinctly worth while. In addition there is the touching story of the love between a gay, daring pearl diver and a charming maid who has been chosen for consecration to the native gods. The love of these two is so strong that they defy all and run away to another island. But they are eventually overtaken, and in order to save her lover from being put to death for his offense the girl consents to return and fulfill her destiny. Cast is entirely native and attractive to look upon. There is no dialogue and very few titles are needed to explain the straightforward action. Excellent musical accompaniment supplied by Hugo Riesenfeld and recorded by RCA helps the production materially. Floyd Crosby's camera work is outstanding. Director, F. W. Murnau; Authors: F. W. M urnau and Robert J. Flaherty ; Cameraman, Floyd Crosby. Direction, painstaking. Photography, notable. "Air Police" with Kenneth Harlan, Charles Delaney, Josephine Dunn Son,, Ait-World Wide Time, 1 hr., 3 mins. GOOD ACTION ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE POP CROWDS WITH THRILLS IN AIRPLANE BATTLES. This production was obviously made for the action-loving crowds. Kenneth Harlan and Charles Delaney are two buddies who enlist in the border patrol airplane service and are sent across the Mexican line to break up a gang of smugglers. The two buddies fall in love with Josephine Dunn, who plays the role of the dancer in the Mexican cantina which the gang uses as its hangout. They land their plane, labeled "Air Patrol," in an open field near the gang's hangout and saunter into the cantina on several occasions before they are spotted. The punch is [here with the airplane fights, machine-gun battles, falling planes, and Harlan being "taken for a ride" in his own plane. Acting at times is unconvincing. The thrill lovers will go for this action stuff. Cast: Kenneth Harlan, Charles Delaney, Josephine Dunn, Richard Cramer, Arthur Thahasso, Tom Loudon, George Cheseboro. Director. Stuart Paton ; Author, Arthur Hoerl ; Adaptor, Dennett Coh ; Dialoguer, >ame ; Editor, same ; Cameraman, not credited ; Recording Engineer, not credited. Direction, fair. Photography, okay. "Woman Hungry" with Sidney Black mer, Lila Lee First National Time, 59 nth ADAPTATION OF OLD STAG PLAY OUTDATED AND DRAC ALONG WEAKLY WITH OU' WORN PLOT. This is an adaptation of "The Gre Divide," the old stage play th thrilled them two decades ago, b \ since then western dramas have be. snapped up considerably, and this oi shows the contrast very much to i disadvantage. It is an all-color pr duction, and in many spots the col. runs too heavy, blurring the facial e: pressions of the players. The pi follows the old stage play, with thn bad hombres crashing a cabin whe an Eastern girl is alone, and gar bling as to who will take her. Sidnt Blackmer plays the part of the eh; who wins, and later marries her ai falls in love with her. But the gi sulks and he can't make her forg how he won her. And so on and ; on till the thing grows tedious, wi1 no action to stir it up and put a kic in it. Finally comes reconciliatio but no real story interest has bet created meanwhile. Cast : Sidney Blackmer, Lila Lee, Raymoi Hatton, Fred Kohler, Kenneth Thomso Olive Tell, David Newell, J. Farrell McDo aid, Tom Dugan, Blanche Frederici. Director, Clarence Badger ; Author, Willia Vaughn Moody ; Adaptor, Howard Est brook ; Dialoguer, same ; Editor, Al Hal Cameramen, Sol Polito, Charles Schoenbaut. Direction, handicapped by material. Photo raphy, good. "Behind Office Doors" with Mary Astor, Robert Ames, RKO Time, 1 hr., 26 mins. MODERN STORY OF OFFICE SECRETARY WHO WINS HER BOSS AFTER TOUGH STRUGGLE, WILL GET THE FEMMES. This is a natural for all the business girls, especially the secretaries, for it gives them a great break over the incompetent society dame who can't hold the boss after she becomes engaged to him. It is done in the strictly modern manner, with Mary Astor as the secretary looking very sweet and competent. Robert Ames is the boss whom his secretary builds up from a salesman to the head of the organization. But he doesn't realize she is the cause of his success till he loses her when he becomes engaged to the society dame and his sec quits. It looks as if she is going to go to the devil with the rich rounder, Ricardo Cortez, but her pride saves her, and she returns to her secretay job when the boss finds he can't do without her. Then the breaking of his engagement with the society belle, and all is roses and honey for the sec. Has the pop appeal. Cast: Mary Astor, Robert Ames, Ricardo Cortez, Kitty Kelly, Edna Murphy, Catherine Dale Owen, Charles Sellon, William Morris. Director, Melville Brown ; Author, Alan Brener Schultz ; Adaptor, Cary Wilson ; Dialoguer, same; Editor, not credited; Cameraman, Roy Hunt; Recording Engineer, George Ellis. Direction, smart. Photography, very good William Powell in "Man of the World" Para/mount Time, 1 hr., 11 mins. WEAK AND DRAGGY DRAMA OF A SHAKEDOWN RACKETEER. MOTHBITTEN YARN AND SLOW DIRECTION HANDICAPS GOOD CAST. This story is just a bad break for Powell and the players who support him. It travels a familiar route and attached to it, is a burden of generally inane dialogue. Powell in Paris is a shakedown artist who falls in love with the niece of one of his victims. The third party in the triangle is his accomplice, a fair femme, who tries to monkeywrench the stuation. Powell reveals his life to his sweetheart and she okays him. Then realizing that his past will some day pop up to jeopardize his matrimonial happiness, he again works his shakedown racket to convince the girl that he's a dyed-in-wool bad egg. The finale is that the marriage is off, with Powell and his accomplice heading for South Africa and his ex-sweetheart for America. It's highly unsatisfactory. Cast: William Powell, Carole Lombard, Wynne Gibson, Guy Kibbee, Lawrence Gray, Tom Ricketts, Andre Cheron, George Chandler, Tom Costello, Maude Traux. Director, Richard Wallace; Author. Herman J. Mankiewicz ; Adaptor, same ; Dialoguer, not credited ; Editor, not credited i Cameraman, Victor Milner; Recording Engineer, not credited. Direction, sluggish. Photography, good. "Charlie Chan Carries On" with Warner Oland Fox Time, 1 hr., 16 mins. EXCEPTIONALLY WELL MADE MURDER MYSTERY WITH WARNER OLAND FINE AS GENIAL DETECTIVE-PHILOSOPHER. The adaption of this Earl Derr Biggers novel proves to be a natural for the screen and Warner Oland a perfect selection for the part of Chan. It is a well developed murder mystery with the finger of suspicion continually pointing to various characters leaving the solution or any suggestion of it, to the very end. Several murders take place and are investigated by a Scotland Yard inspector who in turn is seriously injured and Charlie Chan, a Chinese detective, carries on. Charlie is more than a detective. He is a witty philosopher and in this characterization Oland is at his best. Well cast, and excellently directed by Hamilton MacFadden. Cast: Warner Oland, John Garrick, Marguerite Churchill, Warren Hymer, Marjorie, White, C. Henry Gordon, William Holden, George Brent, Peter Gawthorne, John T. Murray, John Swor, Goodee Montgomery, Jason Robards, Lumsden Hare, Zeffie Tillbury, Betty Francisco, Harry Beresford, John Rogers, J. G. Davis. Director, Hamilton MacFadden; Author, Earl Derr Biggers; Adaptors, Philip Klein, Barry Connors; Dialoguers, same; Editor, Al De Gaetano ; Cameraman, George Schneiderman, Recording Engineer, George P. Costello. Direction, excellent. Photography, fine. "Laugh and Get Rich" with Edna, May Oliver, Hugh Herber Dorothy Lee RKO Time, 1 hr., 13 min VERY FUNNY FAST-MOVIN'; COMEDY-DRAMA WITH SNAI i PY DIALOGUE, EFFECTIV SITUATIONS AND GREA' CAST. Edna May Oliver and Hugh Hej bert have been happily teamed an| they form a combination that, fc well delivered repartee, laughab comedy and clearly handled situil tions, is pretty near perfect. Th] story matters little, but with thes clever players, genuine entei-tainmerl is handed out and every type aud ence should be satisfied. Miss Oil ver, as a boarding-house landlad; and Hugh Herbert, her genial bi good-for-nothing spouse, encountt many domestic difficulties, one bein the selection of a husband for Dorc thy Lee, their daughter. Herbei buys oil stock with money "borrow ed" from his wife and also sponsor a "crazy" invention of Dorothy' sweetheart. Things look black unt both the oil and the invention brin them fame and fortune. Cast: Dorothy Lee, Edna May Olive Hugh Herbert, John Harron, Russell Gle: son, Joyce Davis, Maude Sealy, Charles Se Ion, Robert Emmett Keane. Director, Gregory LaCava ; Author, Dou( las McLean ; Adaptor, Gregory LaCava ; Dil loguers, Gregory LaCava, Ralph Spenet Editor, Jack Kitchen ; Cameraman, Jac MacKensie. Direction, good. Photography, good.