The Film Daily (1931)

'Stout Hearts and Willing Hands" RKO Pathe Time, 20 mins. .1 Knockout This i the first offering of the Masquers Club of Hollywood, and it's a bear. It rates easily the finest kidding example of the old-time niellerdrammcr ever produced on the screen, to our knowledge. Here we have all the old favorites— Our Nell, the Old Folks, the Old Homestead, the Villain with the Mortgage, the Pure Hero with High Ideals, the Old Mill with the villain planning the murder of the hero hy slicing him in half with the buzz saw. It's one swell, howling parody on the triumph of Right over dastardly Villainy. Done with class, an all-star cast, and perfectly timed for the laughs that click like a box-office turnstile working overtime. And what a cast! Everyone in a spot that fits like butter on toast. Frank Fay, the hero; Lew tody, the villain; Alec B. Francis, the broken father; Mary Carr, the mother; Laura La Plante, the virtuous heroine; and Tom, Owen and Matt Moore as the three bartender.^ who look just alike. Add to these the Original Keystone Cops doing their stuff the way they did in the old Mack Sennett slapstick days, and boy, you've got something to stick in the marquee lights and shout about like a feature. For it is a feature— short and very sweet. It's a pleasure to give honorable mention to Bryan Foy as director; Harry Joe Brown as supervisor; authored by Al Au-tin and Walter Weems. And whoever gagged it deserves a permanent place in the Comedy Hall of Fame. If you pass this up you're a goof and a sucker. "The Foolish Forties" Educational Time, 21 mins Snappy A Gayety Comedy featuring Ford Sterling and June MacCloy. The comedian is the proprietor of a modiste shop, and falls for the wiles of a girl who persuades him to visit her apartment in the evening and bring along some of his most fashionable gowns. Then the girl and her male partner, a couple of blackmailers, get him soused, photograph him in a compromising position, and settle for a $10,000 check. But the cops bust in in time to save him, but Ford Sterling has a tough time straightening it out with the wife. The comedian handles his part with plenty of comedy class, and rolls up the laughs easily. "A College Racket Educational Time, 20 mins. Peppy A Vanity Comedy, featuring Glenn Tryon, Vernon Dent and Betty Lorraine. It is a fast moving and nicely paced college comic, with plenty of slapstick gags. The college class stages a racket at the Pirates' Den, a night club forbidden them by the dean. Here they start to wreck the place, when one of the boys arrives disguised as the college professor, and they all beat it. He sells the proprietor of the night club the idea that if he will return the I.O.U.'s of a certain student, which is himself, he will see that the boys patronize the club every night. The arrival of the real dean starts the fireworks with the discovery of the imposter, and a free-for-all as the other students come to the rescue of their pal. See Increased Production By U. S. Firms in England (Continued from Page 1) "Against the Rules" RKO Pathe Time, 21 mins. Flat A pretty sappy so-called comedy that fails to click. Franklin Pangborn and Tom Dugan are the comics who overpower a titled English lord and his lady in a hotel room, and impersonate them at a banquet where they tell of their lion hunting exploits in Africa. The gags are far fetched, and from any angle the offering rates just sillv. They went to a lot of trouble to produce a very flat comedy. Chic Sale in "The County Seat" RKO Time, 20 mins. Fair Chic Sale appears as the know-itall provincial and gives a good characterization, but the story will not cause an overabundance of laughter. Chic is the much abused farmer about town who, throtifh meeting an old friend of school days, puts over a business deal which enables him to "high hat" the townsfolk's. There are a few good laughs. several years of struggle, and indications point to increased activity. With the continual rise in distributors' quota obligations, it becomes necessary for U. S. firms to obtain more and more British pictures, and in view of the big grosses made by many English films in the past year it is considered good business for American companies to launch their own units here. Paramount already has taken space at the British & Dominions studios in Elstree for a considerable number of Charming People," and is following this with "The Man Who Killed," in which a prominent continental star is to be featured. Radio Pictures is linked with Associated Talking Pictures, the Basil Dean unit, which has turned out "Sally in Our Alley" and is working on others. P.D.C. announces that it will make its own pictures in future, and Fox is expected to settle here shortly. Other companies are expected to follow. Productions now in work at the various British studios are as follows: "2000 B.C Educational Time, 7 mins. Nice Cartoon A Paul Terry-Toon, with the locale placed 'way back in the prehistoric period, and the Adam and Eve stuff being pulled a la the Stone Age. The loving couple make love to each other with rocks, with little love words carved on them, such as the German "Fur Mich" (for me). And when Romeo gets that rock love note, he knows he has had something. It's lively, with good cartoon gags, and done with appropriate incidental music and sound effects. years. It has completed "These BRITISH INTERNATIONAL PICTURES Bobby Jones in "The Niblick" Vitaphone Time, 9 mins. Very Good This is an interesting release for both golfers and those who don't know the game. It has been cleverly worked out without any effort being made to put over a lot of questionable comedy in the dialogue. Jones plays some difficult niblick shots with uncanny precision. If the audience knows that the golf ball is supposed to land in the cup, that will be sufficient knowledge to guarantee a few minutes of good entertainment. "The House Opposite" "The Flviner Fool" "Love Lies" "The Shadow Between" "TheLove Lorn Lady" "Fascination" (Regina) Directed by Walter Summers Walter Summers Lupino Lane Norman Walker Milton Rosmer Miles Mander TWICKENHAM STUDIOS Rodney Steps In" (Fox) Guy Newall BRITISH & DOMINIONS "Almost a Divorce" "Those Charming People" "Up for the Cup" "Carnival" Arthur Varney Louis Mercanton Jack Raymond Herbert Wilcox GAINSBOROUGH PICTURES Walter Forde GAUMONT Victor Saville BRITISH LION FILMS Footsteps in the Night" Maurice Elvey "The Ghost Train" "Hindle Wakes" "The Bells" "A Gentleman of Paris "Deadlock" A. S. F. I. Harcourt Templeman STOLL Sinclair Hill NETTLEFOLD STUDIOS George King Starring Wallace Geoffrey Stanley Lupino Godfrey Tearle Athene Seyler Madeleine Carroll Nelson Keys Sydney Howard Godfrey Tearle Sydney Howard Matheson Lang Joseph Schildkraut Jack Hulbert Sybil Thorndike Benita Hume Donald Calthrop Arthur Wontner Stewart Rome "The Strangler" Educational Time, 11 mins. Okay Thriller One of the best of the William J. Burns Detective Mysteries, for in this one they produce a real plot, with some dramatic suspense building to a strong climax. A prominent man's wife is mysteriously strangled in her home. The detectives finally track down a gang hired to kill the husband, but the strangler killed the wife by mistake. It carries its interest as a murder chapter from real life, and has been well handled for realism and thrills. "Just a Gigolo" Vitaphone Time, 8 mins. Slow This is a "novelty organ-songnata" that lacks a punch and carries little of interest. It is a series of double exposures, badly photographed and poorly synchronized. Cameron Crosbie, organist, is shown at the console playing "Just a Gigolo" while a series of drawings pass across the screen in panorama. A singer is introduced and he renders two choruses of the number. "Memorial Day" FitzPatrick Time, 4 mins. Patriotic Flash Made especially for Decoration Day week, this short is a series of titles and shots of still pictures of Lincoln, Grant, Roosevelt, Wilson and other presidents. It ends with an American flag, which pulls the usual applause.