The Film Daily (1936)

r THE -szzi DAILY % * JlwUws o% the VUw Tilt** * * Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor in "CAMILLE" with Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Jessie Ralph. Henry Daniell (HOLLYWOOD PREVIEW! M-G-M 115 tnins. GREAT LOVE DRAMA, EXPERTLY ACTED AND PRODCUED, HOLDS APPEAL FOR ALL TYPES OF AUDIENCES. Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor in this love drama should mean big box-office, for its appeal should be to all classes of audiences, especially the women from whom it will elicit many a tear. Although the ending is tragic, the plot development throughout indicates such a finish, and when the end comes it is not at all unexpected. Garbo is beautiful and a few of the love scenes have what it takes. Her emotional portrayals rank with her best work. Taylor, handsome as ever, does some of the best acting of his career, and his admirers will like the manly role which he plays. Laura Hope Crews is splendid in a large assignment which carries most of the comedy. Henry Daniell, as the haughty Baron de Varville. is very good, as is Lenore Ulric who plays a charmer and rival of Garbo's in attracting men. Lionel Barrymore has a short role in which he is superb, and Jessie Ralph and Elizabeth Allan are other important members of the cast. George Cukor has directed with fine feeling bringing forth splendid characterizations in this highly dramatic piece. A good share of the footage has Garbo and Taylor near the cameras or in close-ups. The cameramen, William Daniels and Karl Freund, deserve much credit for the results obtained. Zoe Akins, Frances Marion and James Hilton have made an interesting screenplay from Alexandre Dumas' play and novel. While dealing with women of the play-girl type, they have been drawn in such good taste that nowhere is there a cheap note, and in a production containing as many torrid love scenes as does this picture the dialogue is especially praiseworthly being very appropriate and of the highest type. The picture is lavishly mounted in every department and it expresses the very best. Herbert Stothart contributed the musical score which in many spots is effectively used to depict mood. David Lewis serves as associate producer on this meritorious production. Camille, a play-girl, meets Robert Taylor who immediately falls in love with her. She has expensive tastes and Baron de Varville (Henry Daniell) supplies the luxuries. When she again meets Taylor, she falls so in love with him that she forsakes her luxuries for the country and Taylor. His father, Lionel Barrymore, believing that she is not the girl for his son, talks her into giving him up. To cause a break-up she tells Robert she no longer loves him and goes back to the Baron. Never a strong girl and unhappy without the one she loves, she becomes desperately ill. When Taylor does come back she is so elated and excited that her heart can't stand the strain. Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Jessie Ralph, Henry Daniell, Lenore Ulric, Laura Hope Crews, Rex O'Malley, Russell Hardie, E. E. Cl>ve, Douglas Walton, Marian Ballou, Joan Lily Pons, Jack Oakie and Gene Raymond in "THAT GIRL FROM PARIS" with Herman Bing, Mischa Auer, Frank Jenks, Lucille Ball (HOLLYWOOD PREVIEW) RKO Radio 110 mins. FAMOUS DIVA IN A STORY RICH IN MUSIC AND COMEDY THAT SHOULD PLEASE ALL HER FOLLOWING. Lily Pons' second picture is rich in music and comedy. In fact, it is a swell blending of song and fun, with much credit due Leigh Jason, who moves into the ranks of important directors. The French singer is a warm, vivid personality and handles comedy with ease. Aiding materially in the funmaking are Jack Oakie, Mischa Auer, Herman Bing and Frank Jenks. Gene Raymond is very good as the love interest opposite Lily. Howls of laughter are caused when Lucille Ball, whose dancing shoes have been soaped by Lily, takes numerous falls during her number. Lily says "no" when about to marry an operatic manager, Gregory Gaye. She stows away on a boat bound for the U.S.A. and is given a little aid by Raymond, Oakie, Auer and Jenks, who are members of an American swing band. She also invites herself to the boys' apartment in New York and manages to elude immigration officers who are hot on her trail. She, Lucille Ball and the boys get jobs in Bing's New Jersey roadhouse. When a newspaperman tips off the authorities to Lily's identity, she dashes off to New York. She again meets Gaye and sings at the Metropolitan Opera House. They again face a minister and are about to be married, when Raymond and his musician pals break up the ceremony, and, of course, Lily goes off with Gene. Willard Robertson, Vincent Haworth and Rafaela Ottiano are among the principals in the cast. Lily's most popular number is "The Blue Danube", with the swing band boys accompanying her and doing their stuff. Nathaniel Shilkret did an excellent job as musical director. Arthur Schwartz and Edward Heyman wrote the English songs sung by Lily. Pandro Berman deserves a bow for the production. Cast: Lily Pons, Jack Oakie, Gene Raymond, Herman Bing, Mischa Auer, Frank Jenks, Lucille Ball, Patricia Wilder, Vinton Haworth, Gregory Gaye, Willard Robertson, Rafaelo Ottiano, Ferdinand Gotrschalk. Producer, Pandro S. Berman; Director, Leigh Jason; Author, Jane Murfin; Adaptation, Joseph A. Fields; Screenplay, P. J. Wolfson and Dorothy Yost; Music, Arthur Schwartz; Lyrics, Edward Heyman; Musical Director, Nathaniel Shilkret; Conductor of "Tarantella", Andre Kostelanetz; Cameraman, J. Roy Hunt; Editor; William Morgan. Direction, Tops. Photography, Excellent. Brodel, June Wilkins, Fritz Leiber, Jr., Elsie Esmonds. Associate Producer, David Lewis; Director, George Cukor; Author, Alexandre Dumas (fils) ; Screenplay, Zoe Akins, Frances Marion, James Hilton; Cameramen, William Daniels and Karl Freund; Editor, Margaret Booth, Musical Score, Herbert Stothart; Dance Director, Val Raset. Direction, Splendid. Photography, Excellent. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey in "MUMMY'S BOYS" with Barbara Pepper, Moroni Olsen, Frank M. Thomas, Willie Best RKO Radio 68 Mins. MILDLY EFFECTIVE COMEDY WHOSE HUMOR AND SITUATIONS GENERALLY LACK PUNCH. That there are all degrees of humor is proved by this comedy. Audiences whose taste for fun lies along path of the obvious and slapstick may find this palatable; but those patrons who like laughs served with some semblance of the spice of cleverness and the salt of subtlety will be disappointed. For example, on the streets of Cairo a fakir undertakes to make Wheeler disappear from the confines of a huge basket. Woolsey helps his sidekick step into it with the remark, "Put all your legs in one basket." It's equally easy to "get" the other dialogue quips. The comics are cast in roles of ditchdiggers who graduate to join as excavators a couple of archaeologists on an expedition to replace articles snitched from the tomb of an ancient Pharaoh. One of the scientists has a pretty daughter, to whom Wheeler takes a hearty shine. The other scientist goes literally mad when the party reaches its destination, and runs berserk, threatening death to all his companions via a hypo-needle. Barbara Pepper, the apple of Wheeler's eye, succumbs to his aphasia-like charms. The treasures are duly replaced, the mad scientist is subdued, and love triumphs. And that's the story, and nothing but the story. Fred Guiol, comedy's director, does as well as could be expected with the material, — as does the cast. Cast: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Maroni Olsen, Frank M. Thomas, Willie Best, Francis McDonald, Frank Lackteen, Charles Coleman, Mitchell Lewis, Frederic Burton. Director, Fred Guiol ; Authors, Jack Townley, Lew Lipton; Screenplay, Jack Townley, Philip G. Epstein, Charles Roberts; Cameraman, Jack MacKenzie; Editor, John Lockert. Direction, Fair Photography, Good FOREIGN "MUJERES SIN ALMA" ("Soulless Women"), Mexican-made film with Spanish dialogue; a Juan Orol production; directed by Ramon Peon, with Carmen Guerrero, Juan Orol, Alberto Marti, et al, in cast. Presented at Teatro Cervantes. Fiery Carmen Guerrero essays role of flirtatious, dissatisfied wife of an electrical company's chauffeur. She accepts advances of firm's manager who frames the husband and sends him to prison. Latter escapes and avenges himself. Acting is commendable, but film is not strong either technically or in ability to entertain. SHORTS Buster West and Tom Patricola in "The Screen Test" Educational 18 mins. Boisterous Fun The two comics, Buster West and Tom Patricola, are understudies in a show to the hero in the mellerdrammer, but lose their jobs when they muss things up. They try for a job in a film studio, and the head man says he needs a romantic type who can also fight. So Patricola appoints himself manager for Buster, and arranges for a screen test to be taken in an actual fight with a tough bruiser right in the ring. Buster is nearly massacred by the tough guy, and when they come back to ask for the screen job, the producer says he has signed the tough pug instead. Gives Buster West plenty of opportunity to do his eccentric steps as he dances around the ring trying to avoid the slugger. In the cast are Dudley Clements, Don McBride, Eddie Roberts, June Earle, Alice Weaver, Eddie Hall. Directed by William Watson. Story by Parke Levy. Photographed by Parke Levy. Buster Keaton in "Mixed Magic" Educational 18 mins. Tricky Laughs A Buster Keaton laugh special, with Buster securing the job as assistant to the magician who gives Buster the job on the pleadings of his beautiful girl associate in the act. Buster's job is to do the manipulations of the props backstage. But he succeeds in getting everything balled up, and putting the Professor's act on the bum. He retrieves himself at the end as a hero, however, when he saves the girl from the mad rival whose job he had taken. In the cast are Eddie Lambert, Marlyn Stuart, Eddie Hall, Jimmie Fox, Walter Fener, Pass Le Noir. Directed by Raymond Kane. Story by Arthur Jarrett and Marcy Klauber. Photographed by George Webber. "Strike! You're Out" (Song and Comedy Hit) Educational 11 mins. Novelty The housewives in a big apartment house decide to organize a union, and go on strike for shorter hours. Their husbands are licked, till a strikebreaker comes along and sells them the idea of hiring his beautiful strikbreaking gals who dance and entertain in between the cooking business. So all the hubbies hire a cutie. When the wives learn of this they call off the strike and surrender. Several specialty numbers are introduced as the girls dance for their employers in the kitchens. In the cast are Russ Brown, Sandra Johnson, Marie Hartman, Maxine Forman, the Carlyle Sisters, Buddy Page and orchestra. Directed by Robert Hall. Story by Art Jarrett and Marcy Klauber.