The Film Daily (1931)

DAILV Sunday, June 7, 1931 So, ma Sht an r in "A Free Soul" )t-<;-M Time, 91 mi)U. GOOD AUDIENCE PICTURE ALTHOUGH BELOW THE USUAL SHEARER STANDARD. HANDICAPPED BY WEAK STORY. This is distinctly adult entertainment, somewhat hard-boiled and rusticated, and certainly not for the kiddies. The story is slow in ting under way and is frequently ficial. Shearer veers away from her customary excellent performance by going highly theatrical and unre >traincd. Dialogue is grade A, how Norma plays the daughter of irunken criminal lawyer. She throws over her fiancee to become the sweetie of a gangster and gambler. Finally, an an effort to save her dad from an alcoholic death, she agrees to forsake her boy friend. He returns to drink and she to the gangster. Eventually her ex-fiancee steps in and kills the gambler. The attorney assumes the moral responsibility for the death and gets the young chap off, clearing the way for a happy ending. Lionel Barrymore playing the lawyer is exceptionally fine. Cast: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, James GleaLucy Beaumont, Claire Whitney, Frank •dan, E. Allyn Warren, George Irving, ard Brophy, William Stacy. Director, Clarence Brown ; Author, Adela Rogers St. Johns ; Adaptor, Becky Gardiner ; Dialoguer, John Median ; Editor, Hugh Wyiin ; Cameraman, William Daniels, Recording Engineer, Ansstruther Mac Donald. Direction, box-office. Photography, splendid. /'<"// Lukaa in "The Vice Squad" I'm amount Time, 80 mins. FEEBLE DRAMA BASED ON NEW YORK VICE SQUAD EXPOSE. STORY PRINCIPAL WEAKNESS. MAY GET BY IN SMALL STANDS. Paramount has tried to cash in on the tremendous newspaper publicity connected with the recent vice squad probe, but the story built around the episode is far-fetched and generally dull. The subject has been treated so carefully from the standpoint of censorship that it lacks any big quantity of entertainment meat. An attache at a Washington embassy, rather than involve an ambassador's wife in scandal, allows himself to become a stool pigeon. His job is to work with a crooked officer in helping him frame girls. He disappears from his usual life, abandoning his fiancee. An aspiring writer befriends him and eventually she is framed. In order to save her from jail he confesses. Acting is generally competent. Cast: Paul Lukas, Kay Francis, Helen Johnson, William B. Davidson, Rockcliffe Fellowes, Esther Howard, Monte Carter, G. Pat Collins, Phil Tead, Davidson Clark, Tom Wilson, James Durkin, William Arnold. Director, John Cromwell ; Author, Oliver H. P. Garrett ; Adaptor, not credited ; Dialoguer, not credited ; Editor, not credited ; Cameraman, Charles Lang ; Recording Engineer, not credited. Direction, fair. Photography, good. Janet Gaynor "Daddy Long Legs" with Warner Baxter Fox Time, 73 mins. ADAPTATION OF OLD STAGE PLAY WITH CINDERELLA THEME WILL PLEASE JANET GAYNOR FANS. This one is the old cinderella theme following the plot of the original stage play with some modern revisions to bring it up to date. Janet Gaynor is a slavey m an orphan asylum looking after the younger kids, she having grown up there herself as an orphan. Warner Baxter, one of the trustees of the institution, a confirmed bachelor, gets a notion to send her to college and educate her, without letting her know the identity of her benefactor. So she writes to him at college as her Daddy Long Legs, thinking him an old man. At college he meets her under his right name, and falls in love with her. Through a misunderstanding, he believes that she does not care for him as being too old, and is in love with a college boy. It is all straightened out in the usual happy ending, and is pretty sugary diet for sophisticated fans. But the Gaynor and Baxter fans will go for it. Both handle their roles satisfactorily. Cast: Janet Gaynor, Warner Baxter, Una Merkel, John Arledge, Claude Gillingwater, Sr.. Kathlyn Williams, Louise Closser Hale, Elizabeth Patterson, Kendall McComas, Sheila Mannors, Edwin Maxwell, Erne Ellsler, Martha Lee Sparks. Direction, Satisfactory. Photography, Okay. "Lover Come Back" with Betty Bronson, Jack Mulhall, Constance Cummings Columbia Time, 73 mins. SIMPLE LITTLE DOMESTIC DRAMA. HOLDS INTEREST FAIRLY WELL DESPITE WEAKNESSES IN STORY AND CASTING. For the not-too-particular audiences, this production holds a passable quota of entertainment. Story and situations are familiar. A smart little husband-seeker with a babytalk complex steals a desirable bachelor from the girl who really loves him. After they are married she induces his boss to send him on outof-town trips, so she can play around with the boss, and out-and-out lothario. Eventually she is found out, and, upon being trapped with the rich employer in a hotel suite, the husbands hits for Reno in company with his original sweetheart who has remained devoted to him. The demure Betty Bronson, as the deceitful wife, is sometimes amusing in her efforts to play the vamp. Except for this major piece of miscasting, the players are capable and do quite well with their commonplace lines. Production has a good flash background. Cast: Constance Cummings, Jack Mulhall, Betty Bronson, Jameson Thomas, Frederick Santley, Jack Mack, Katherine Givney, Loretta Sayers, Susan Fleming. Director, Erie C. Kenton ; Author, Helen Topping Miller; Adaptor, Robert Shannon; Dialoguer, Dorothy Howell ; Editor, Gene Havelick ; Cameraman, Joseph Walker A.S.C.; Recording Engineer, Edward Bernds. Direction Okay. Photography, Good. "Transgression" with Ricardo Cortex, Kay Francis, Paul Cavanagh RKO Time 72 mins. HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED DRAMA APPEALING MOSTLY TO WOMAN PATRONAGE. DIRECTION GOOD, BUT STORY PUNCHLESS. Kay Francis' display of beautiful gowns and negligees, Ricardo Cortcz's smooth reading and Herbert Brenon's distinguished direction give this production audience appeal, notwithstanding the familiar theme and talkative story. It concerns the separation of Paul Cavanagh from his wife, Kay Francis, he going to India on business and she to Paris to while away the time. Kay falls in love with Cortcz, a wealthy play-boy, and spends a week-end at his villa in Spain. While there, he induces her to write a letter to her husbad, asking for a divorce. Before Cortez is able to take her in his arms, he is shot by the father of a native girl whom he formerly knew. There is little comedy relief and a wealth of talk, but particularly no action. Cast: Kay Francis, Paul Cavanagh, Ricardo Cortez, Nance O'Neil, John St. Polis, Adrienne d'Ambricourt, Cissy Fitzgerald, Doris Lloyd, Augustino Borgato. Director, Herbert Brcnon ; Author, Kate Jordan; Adaptor, Elizabeth Meehan; Dialoguer, Benn W. Levy ; Editor, not credited ; Cameraman, Leo Tover ; Recording Engineer. John Tribby. Direction, Artistic. Photography, Fine. Tom Tyler in "God's Country and the Man" Syndicate Time, 59 mins. FAST MOVING WESTERN WITH ORIGINAL STORY AND SOME GOOD DIRECTORIAL TOUCHES THAT LIFTS IT OUT OF THE RUT. Looks as if the Syndicate outfit has struck a good working combination in Wellyn Totman as a writer of Westerns that get away from the routine blah, and Director J. J. McCarthy who understands how to handle action stuff and still keep the story human and appealing. This one is above-average entertainment, with Tom Tyler doing fine work as the government agent sent to get his man in the bad town on the Mexican border. He takes along an ex-bad man as side kick, and secures the cooperation of the girl in the cantina who is the apparent "property" of the proprietor — the gent Tom is out to get as a smuggler of firearms across the border. There are some good twists in the plot, and it moves ahead with mounting suspense and -nine neat atmospheric bits that are unusual in westerns. The finale is peppy, with some surprises, and a strong finish fight in landing the outlaw and his gang. Cast: Tom Tyler, Betty Mack, Al Bridge, George Hayes, Ted Adams, Julian Rivero. Director: J. P. McCarthy; Author, Wellyn Totman ; Adaptor, same : Dialoguer, same ; Editor, not credited ; Cameraman, Archie Stout ; Recording Engineer, not credited. Direction, peppy. Photography, okay. "Never the Twain Shall Meet" with Leslie Howard and Conchita Montenegro M-G-M Time, 79 mins. FAIR ADAPTATION OF PETER B. KYNE'S SOUTH SEA ROMANCE. LESLIE HOWARD UNSUITED TO PART. It is difficult to imagine a man of Leslie Howard's personality and obvious background leaving a luxurious home, a beautiful and charming sweetheart, and considerate parents, to follow a South Seas Island girl back to her native land and there live a miserable existence. It is also difficult to imagine a man of his type condoning her confessed infidelity. These things you are asked to believe in this moderately interesting picture of Kyne's novel. Conchita Montenegro is well cast and carries on admirably, especially in the "hellcat" scenes in San Francisco where Howard, who has promised her late father he would take care of her, tries to modernize her. A goodly amount of South Sea atmosphere surrounds the scenes on "the island." The remainder of the cast give convincing readings. Cast: Leslie Howard, Conchita Montenegro, C. Aubrey Smith, Karen Moi ley, Mitchell Lewis, Hale Hamilton, Clyde Cook, Bob Gilbert, Joan Standing, Eulalie Jensen. Director, W. S. Van Dyke; Author. Peter B. Kyne ; Adaptor, Edwin Justus Mayer; Dialoguers. Edwin Justus Mayer, Ruth Cummings ; Editor, Ben Lewis ; Cameraman, Mcrritt B. Gerstad ; Recording Engineer, Douglas Shearer. Direction, Fair. Photography, Good. "Le Culte De Beaute" ("The Beauty Cult") Osso Productions Time, 85 mins. FRENCH FILM FROM OPERETTA IS TYPICALLY PARISIAN WITH STORY OF MARITAL INFIDELITY AND HAS GOOD COMEDY AND ENTERTAINMENT VALUES. This one will no doubt please French audiences, for it is typically Parisian, with its story of affairs between married couples and their sweethearts. It is adapted from the French operetta by Christine and Barde. Boucot, the well known Parisian music hall comedian, is featured. In the story, he turns from his work as a comedian and becomes proprietor of a Beauty Institute, and most of the action takes place at his summer villa, where his women patrons take their beauty culture sporting around in bathing suits, beach pajamas, and sometimes less. It has been handsomely staged, and is well acted. It moves along very sprightly, and is a succession of affairs between married couples and their sweethearts, all done in the light Parisian manner, and nothing very "hot" about any of the scenes. Boucot sings several songs, and carries the burden of the acting, and is very good. Cast: Boucot, Mme. Edith Mera, Mile. Lily Zevaco, Berval, Robert Darthex, Marguerite Ducouet. Director. Leonce Perret ; Authors, Christine and Barde ; no other credits furnished. Direction, Good. Photography, Very Good.