The Film Daily (1931)

THE Sunday. June 14, 1931 -Sinn DAILY 21 REVIEWS OF SOUND SHORTS "I'm Telling You" Paramount Time, 8 mins. A Pip Willie and Eugene Howard in a skit where they are interviewed by a reporter about their lives. Willie has most of the gag lines, and the material is very funny, especially Willie's delivery. It's smart patter, and filled with nifties in the typical Howard manner. Willie does an impersonation of one of Chevalier's son^s that is a wow. This one will get a big laugh in any audience. One of the best of its type. "The China Plate" Columbia Time, 7 mins. Excellent Novelty Entertainment for both juvenile and adult audiences is to be found in this Walt Disney Silly Symphony. Novelty rather than humor is the keynote. It has to do with a young h-herman who falls for a Chinese maiden. Her irate dad tries to kill the young man but finally a dragon, equipped with fire-producing apparatus, gobbles up pop. It's real and different entertainment all the way. "The Bandmaster" Universal Time, 6 mins. Poor An Oswald cartoon with the rabbit leading a jazz orchestra, and winding up trying to entertain a baby hippo. There is little sequence to the reel, and it is made up of a series of musical gags, with all the emphasis placed on trying to get cartoon stuff to build the harmony. Consequently it has little interest as a cartoon, and the cartoon work is below par. The gags have been done so many times in other animateds, that this resembles a hodgepodge oi a dozen that have eone before it. 'Strange as It Seems' Universal Flat Time, 11 mins. Just a fair assembly of novelty shots done in color. Items include a mother and daughter showing their long tresses; a Rent in Wisconsin who let his beard grow on a bet to refrain from cutting it as long as prohibition lasts; the cobra plant, which catches flies; a native Egyptian being buried alive for a few hours, after hypnotizing himself; two middle aged ladies doing men' work, running a ferry boat and operating a town's telephone lines; Governor Rolph of California in a special interview demonstrating the boots he wears instead of shoes. All of which is a very liKht assortment. And the cheap wisecracks of the announcer delivering the explanatory talk make the reel look cheaper than it really is. "Curiosities"— Series 220 Columbia Time, 10 mins. Engrossing Shots of Houdini, airplane flights, the first woman to fly across the English Channel, and other engrossing items make up this issue of Walter Fulter's "Curiosities." A little novelty enhanced by suitable synchronized dialogue. Rosco Ates in "A Cleanup on the Curb" RKO Time, 18 mins. Good Laugh Number Rosco Ates delivers a batch of laughs as a stuttering gigolo in tins Lou Brock production effectively directed by Lloyd French. A neglecte'd moll, in order to make her racketeering boy friend jealous, hires Rosco at $100 to dress up in fancy pajamas and make love to her up in her penthouse apartment, just when Rosco had gone on the roof to jump off ana end it all because he had lost HTs wife's $100 in the stock market. The girl's efforts to make a Romeo out of Rosco are very humorous. Additional comedy action is supplied by arguments between a street cleaner and a vegetable wagon down on the curb, with the racketeer's tw-o pars, and finally Rosco himself, tumbling off the roof and down into the load of vegetables. Enough action and comedy to please audiences generally. Flip the Frog in "Ragtime Romeo" M-G-M Time, 6 mins. Okay Though it contains nothing of an outstanding nature, this cartoon comedy is a passably entertaining number of its kind. Shows Flip out serenading his sweetie. The musical antics arouse the neighbors and there is some gay disporting by the whole gang in the yard. But at the height of the joyous affair an old cow sends for the cops and Flip is given a ride in the wagon. Hobby Jones in "The Mashie Niblick" No. 5204 Vitaphone Time, 10 mins. Fine \ sWell golf number, one of the besl of the Jojncs series. It is given a lot of color with Leon Errol as a member of the foursome. Leon tries to loft the ball over a tree to gel on the green, and has a lot of funny trouble in his usual manner. Finall\ Bobby show him how the (rick is done with ;. mashie niblick, rones' explanation and detailed work is finally presented. It is the inside dope from the champ which every golfer will eat up. "Bimbo" Paramount Time, 7 mins. Classy Cartoon A Max Fleischer Talkartoon. Bimbo I- a detective, a la Sherlock Holmes, who is called in to solve the mysterious death of Mr. Goldfish. It's very clever and original, and carries a real plot and continuity — about the only series of cartoons, by the way, which does so at the present writing The others have gone mostly musical. Bimbo solves the crime, pinning it on the Cat, who appears like an enormous gorilla. Cartoon work is technically in a class by itself. And the laughs are there plenty. About the best cartoon we have caught in a blue moon. Eddie Buzzell in "Check and Rubber Check" Columbia Time, 10 mins. Good Gag Number Another excellent comedy skit in the Kddie Buzzell series. This time Eddie plays the role of a busted business man who intends to marry 'is -icno as soon as he gets on his financial feet again. One of his creditors agrees to come to his aid if he will marry the former's daughter. Eddie falls in with the idea, only to have the creditor's check come bouncing back. Lines have plenty of laughs in them, and the action moves along at just about the right pace. "Laughing Gravy" M-G-M Time, 13 mins. Swell Hokum Laurel and Hardy garner a bushel of laughs in this one, directed by T. W. Home. Putting it on heavily with the slapstick brush, the comic pair gambol through the -bow. Slight storv depicts the boys' difficulties in preventing their landlord from kicking their mongrel out into the snowy night. Their antics include falling <iff the roof, shattering chimneys and other laughter-producing movements. Ted Husing in "SPORTSLANTS" No. 1 "Sportslants" No. 1 No. 1218 Vitaphone Time, 9 mins. Snappy This is (he first of a series presenting the well known rail nouncer who introduces some of the leaders in various sports The Introductions are supplemented with shots of wrestling, gymna ketball, and hocke> \ nice feature handled with snap and Hus ing's personality and voi< ' ■ of a popular series. "Fair and Square Ways" Paramount Time, 8 mins. Good Novelty A novelty short, the min nie golf course with Eddie Miller the golf pro leading a big squad male and female golf pupils in a Negro spiritual, in which they chain about golf from the first to the 18th hide. Finishes with Eddie as the minister-teacher calling on Brother Jones, Brother Smith, etc., to explain their crimes of being in love with Work, Night School, Home and V. instead of Golf. It is well done, with no black face, which makes the Negro atmosphere all the funnier, coming from a bunch of golf houn Mickt i/ M> "The Moose Hunt" Columbia Time, 8 mins. Swell Right up to the high averaf the Mickey Mouse cartoon As the title implies, the antics in this case have to do with a moose hunt. Mickey is accompanied by a flea-bitten hound and there is ,, ',,i of comedy business dealing with the search for a moose and the failure of the gun to go off when the animal is at bay. There is a fast chase finrsh, with Mickey and the hound coming out winners after a narrow escape. Art work and music excellent. Ford Sterling, Lucien Littlefield in "Trouble from a Broad" RKO Time, 20 mins. Good Cometh/ Plenty of action and a sure-fire comedy idea make this an entertaining affair for almost any audience. Ford Sterling and Lucien Littlefield break away from their wives for an evening to attend a reunion of their A.E.F. company. Fifi, who was the company's sweetheart on the other side, also turns up as the surprise number on the program. Thi husbands engage in a ■mpe tition to get rid of the half-d: girl by smuggling her into other's rooms. When they finally get her as far as the elevator on her way out. the suspiciou up and sock them for a finale Sandrich din Edd " i" Humanettes No. 12 "On the Spot" RKO Time. 10 mins. .1 musing Eddii comedj i" I r the k by the V and ' ■ him I: