Harrison's Reports (1928-1928)

July 7, 1928 HARRISON’S REPORTS 107 “The Michigan Kid” — with Conrad Nagel and Renee Adoree ( Univ.-Jcwel , Oct. 21 ; 6,030 ft.; 70 to 86 min.) There are several features in this picture that make it atractive as a booking. First, the name of the author, Mr. Rex Beach; secondly, a fight between the hero and the villian, which almost approaches that of “The Spoilers”; thirdly, the forest fire, which endangers the lives of hero and heroine; fourthly, the riding of the rapids through the flaming forest, a feat of extremely dangerous nature. At the Roxy Theatre, where this picture was shown last Sunday for the week, the audiences groaned and exclaimed when the hero, the heroine and the villain, were riding the rapids through flaming timbers. At one point, the noise of the exclamations became a roar; it was at the point where the little canoe with its occupants was seen leaping down the falls. The thrills one get's from the picture are, in fact, almost as piercing as are those in “The Trail of ‘98.” The only shortcoming is Mr. Conrad Nagel, who takes the part of the hero. Mr. Nagel is more of a parlor hero than a hero of frozen Alaska. However hard he tries to appear a "tough guy,” he is hardly successful. But the story is so trong that it carries him along, despite his misfitness in the part. An actor like Harry Carey in that part would have strengthened the picture still more. Miss Adoree does not do bad work. At times she is charming. Lloyd Whitlock makes a good villain. Fred Esmelton, Adolph Millar, Maurice Murphy, Virginia Grey, Dick Palm and others are in the cast. Irvin Willat has directed it well. The story concerns a young boy, whose feelings are so slighted by the father of his playmate, a little girl, that he decides to go away and make himself a fortune. He goes to Alaska. In the years that followed he became a successful owner of a gambling hall, and was known in Alaska as the Michigan Kid. The superintendent of some mines gambles and loses not only his own money but also the payroll of his company. He appeals to the hero for help. The hero learns from him that he was to marry the very same girl he loved when a boy. The superintendent (villian) takes the money the hero gave him and gambles it again. But again he loses it. In desperation he shoots one of the dealers. The wound is only slight. The sheriff arrests him. The hero uses his influence and has the villain freed. He orders him to go to the mines. He (the hero) meets the heroine when the boat lands but he does not disclose his identity to her. He asks her to follow him to the mines, where her finance is supposed to be waiting for her. On the way, a storm overtakes them and they are forced to seek asylum in the mining company's midway house. The villain, feeling restless when they failed to arrive, goes out in the storm and finds them in the midway house. During the night the villain hits the sleeping hero on the head with a club, binds him, and puts him in a closet. As a fire had broken out in the forest, he wakes up the heroine and asks her to follow him. He tells her that the hero had already gone. While in the cabin she becomes aware of the fact that the hero is locked in the closet. She opens the closet and frees him, just as the villain comes back into the house. There is a terrible fight between them, in which the hero comes out the victor. Fie drags the villain in the boat, and all three ride the rapids to safety through the flaming forest. “Stormy Waters” — with Eve Southern and Malcolm McGregor ( Tiffany , June 1; 5,735 ft.; 66 to 82 min. ) If your customers can find enjoyment in the doings of a common woman, a shameless creature, a woman who would not hestitate to leave one man to take up another, and who finds enjoyment in making men beat each other up or knife each other for her love, then they would enjoy “Stormy Waters.” Otherwise they may be disappointed. The story is decidely “sexy”; and it makes no “bones" about it, even though the sex situations have been handled with kid gloves. In one situation the young hero is shown entering the supposed-heroine’s room and after embracing her, the flame of a candle light is shown in a close-up shooting up and then dying out. The implication is too plain even for children. The situations that show her on the boat, presumably the wife of the young hero, flirting with the sailors and acting in any but a lady-like manner, also are strongly suggestive. The action unfolds either on board a ship or in ports. Miss Southern portrays the part of the common woman very well. Malcolm McGregor is good, too. Roy Stewart, as the hero’s brother, does well. Shirley Palmer is the girl the young hero was engaged to. The plot has been suggested by Jack London’s story, “The Yellow Handkerchief.” It has been directed by Edgar Lewis well. The story is about a young man, engaged to a girl, who becomes infatuated with a common woman. She makes him believe that they had been married the night before. The hero had been so intoxicated that he did not remember anything. And he took her word for it. He takes her on board his brother’s ship. When they return home and his sweetheart learns that he gave her up for another woman, she is heart-broken. The supposed wife is tired of the hero and makes ready to run away with a pugilist. The hero’s brother finds her packing up and forces her to go to the ship with him. On board the ship she flirts with other tnen. Finally she tries the hero’s brother. He calls her vile. She so resents it, however, that he makes the hero believe that his brother had made advances to her but that she had repulsed him. There is a fight between the brothers, but soon the hero finds out the real nature of the woman that had posd as his wife. He begs forgiveness of his brother and of the girl he loved. “The Big Killing” — with Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton ( Paramount ; May 19; 5,930 ft.; 68 to 84 min.) A good hot weather entertainment. It is mostly slapstick work. Nevertheless, it causes laughs. This time Messrs. Beery and Hatton, patent medicine men, find themselves in a feud country, where one clan had hired them to kill the members of the opposite clan. The comedy is caused chiefly by the two hero’s misunderstanding of words, taking them to mean one thing when those who uttered them meant them for another thing. For instance, when the head of the clan that had hired them to do the killing told them that their job would be to kill the Beagles, the two heroes thought that “beagles” meant dogs or something simlar to dogs. There are thrills, too, caused by shooting. Most of the thrills are caused in the scenes where the two heroes trick the members of the clan that had hired them into the basement of the old shack, while outside men of the other clan started shooting in an effort to kill the two heroes and those that had hired them. There is a love affair, too, between the young son of the leader of the one clan and the daughter of the leader of the other. In the development of the plot, it is shown that an end was put to the feud by the marriage of the boy and the girl, which marriage is brought about by the aid of the two heroes. Grover Jones wrote the story. F. Richard Jones directed it. Gardner James is the boy; Mary Brian, the girl. Anders Randolph, Paul McAllister, James Mason and others are in the supporting cast. “The Red Dance” — with Dolores Del Rio and Charles Farrell ( Fox , 1928-29 Release; 9,250 ft.; 107 to 132 min. ) The production of it is first class, well enough, but the story is not such as to arouse the spectator’s interest strongly. There is nothing extraordinary about it. It is a Russian story and shows a Russian Grand Duke in love with a girl of the working classes. The only difference in the charactertization of the heroine in this picture from the characterization of heroines in other Russian pictures is the fact that in this picture she is educated, being presented as a teacher. Outside of that, it is the regular formula Russian drama. It is not easily believed by the spectator of average intelligence that a proud Russian Grand Duke would marry a girl that had sprung up from the working classes. A mild thrill is caused here and there by the scenes of the Russian revolution. The scenes that show the hero’s life in danger hold the spectator in mild suspense. Mr. Farrell does well in a part that does not offer him great opportunities; but his magnetic personality helps a great deal. Miss Del Rio’s part, too, is one that lacks much color. The plot has been founded on a story by Harvey L. Gates and Eleanor Brown; it has been directed well by Raoul Walsh, from a scenario by James Greelman. Ivan Linow, Boris Charsky, Dorothy Revier, Andre Segurola, and Dimitri Alexis are in the supporting cast.