Harrison's Reports (1930)

2 HARRISON’S REPORTS January 4, 1930 “Seven Keys to Baldpate” (100% T-F&D) — with Richard Dix (Radio Piet., Jan. 12; syn. time 78 min.) To those that did not see the two Paramount versions, produced long ago, and the stage play, the present version should prove extremely amusing, but to many of those that have seen it, it may prove only a fair entertainment. It has been founded on the story by Earl Derr Biggers and on the stage play by George M. Cohan It is a comedy-melodrama, the action of which unfolds mostly at an inn (Baldpate Inn), which is supposed to be haunted, and to which the hero went, on a bet of $5,000, to write a story within twenty-four hours. The hero is supposed to be the only person living that has a key to the inn, but no sooner does he enter it than others, possessing keys, start arriving until the guests become seven in number. Some of the guests are supposed to be crooked politicians and other crooks, double-crossing each other, supposedly to gain possession of a large sum of money. There are shootings and threats to shoot ; these keep most spectators pretty well interested. There is considerable corned}’. The revelation that the actors in the drama were real actors from a theatre, sent to the Inn by the hero’s friend, with the purpose of keeping the hero busy and frightened so that he might not find time to write the novel will hardly surprise many spectators. There is, of course, a love affair, the hero having fallen in love with the heroine at first sight. Richard Dix acts well in the hero’s part. Miriam Secgar is good, too, as the heroine. Craufurd Kent, Margaret Livingston, Lucien Littlefield, DeVVitt Jennings, Allan Roscoc, Harvey Clark, Edith Yorke and others are in the cast. Reginald Barker directed it. The sound reproduction is excellent. (Silent values, fairly good. Silent length not yet determined.) “Tiger Rose” (100% T-D) (IVanter Bros., Dec. 21; syn. 58 minutes.) Only fair. It is the story of a half-caste French girl who falls in love with the hero. A doctor, who loved the heroine secretly, feeling jealous, sends for the hero and when he presents himself in his cabin the doctor takes out his gun to shoot him. The hero grapples with the doctor. The gun accidentally discharges itself and the doctor falls on the floor dead. A kerosene lamp falls on the flood during the struggle and the cottage catches fire from the spilt kerosene. The doctor’s body is consumed. The hero is accused of murder and hides. The heroine hides him in her father’s house and, during a rainstorm at night, leads him to a canoe, where both enter to go away. While they are rowing away, the policeman, suspecting that tlie hero would try to get away in that canoe, had concealed himself in it, comes out of his hiding place and orders the hero to hold up his hands. The canoe was drifting down stream and could not be controlled. After riding the rapids and reaching shore, the mounted policeman, who loved the heroiner seeing how much the heroine loved the hero, lets them escape. The heroine is grateful to the hero. The plot has been founded on the stage play by Willard Mack. It was the play in which Lenore Ulric appeared successfully. George Fitzmaurice directed it. Monte Blue is the mounted policeman, Lupe Velez the heroine, and Grant Whithers the hero. Bull Montana, Slim^ Summerville, Heinie Conklin, Gaston Glass, H. B. W arner, Emil Chautard. Tully Marshall, Rin-Tin-Tin and others are in the cast. The sound reproduction is pretty good. (Silent values, fair. Silent length not yet determined.) “The Girl from Wool worth’s (100% T-D ) — with Alice White (Hirst Nat., syn. Oct. 27 ; time 54 min.; sil. rel. Dec. 15) A nice program picture, in which the heroine is a shop girl and the hero a subway guard. The usual complications, which show the villain becoming infatuated with the heroine, and the hero getting angry at her and leaving her. later regretting his hastiness and begging her forgiveness, occur. There are some melodramatic episodes in it. In one of them, the hero is shown, while rushing to the night club to save the heroine from the hands of the villain, crashing into an ambulance; he is injured only slightly, however, and is shown seizing the ambulance and rushing to the night club. The other melodramatic incident is where the hero strikes the villain and fells him. These offer fairly good thrills. There is considerable wisecracking by some of the characters, particularly by the heroine, who is presented as beautiful but not dumb. The direction and acting are of high order. Charles Delaney is the hero, and Wheeler Oakman the villain. William Beaudine directed it. The sound reproduction is fairly good. (Silent values fairly good; silent length, 5,011 ft. and the time, from 58 to 71 minutes.) “Devil May Care’’ (100% T-F&D)— with Ramon Novarro (.MG.M, Feb. 7; syn. time 95 min.; sil. not yet determ.) This picture will not excite anybody; Novarro fans may get a good evening’s entertainment out of it, while others may consider it just passable. It is a costume play, its action revolving around an officer of Napoleon, who plots with other officers and with Bonapartists to rescue Napoleon from Elba. In carrying out his plot, Ramon Novarro, as the hero, puts his life in jeopardy. But he succeeds in escaping with his life. There is a love affair, too, done well. Miss Dorothy Jordan does a bit of good acting as the heroine. There is considerable comedy in the scenes where the hero acts as the butler of the countess, a Royalist, aunt of the heroine, so that it might not be suspected that he was the famous A'-mand, who had escaped when he was about to be shot. The heroine hated Bonapartists because of a tragedy they had brought to her family. But in the development of the plot she is shown falling in love with him just the same, even though she had learned who he was. The scenes in the beginning showing Napoleon addressing his troops before he abdicated and left for Elba, have been done well. A song, sung by Napoleon’s officers, is tuneful. The plot has been founded on ‘ La Bataille des Dames." by Scribe and Legouve. The picture was directed by S'dncy Franklin. Marion Harris, John Miljan. William Humphrey. George Davis. Gifford Bruce and others a e in the cast. The sound reproduction is fairly good. (.Silent values, fair. Silent length not yet determined.) “Her Unborn Child’’ (100% T-F) (IVindsor Pictures-State Rights; syn. lime 80 min.) When I saw “The Silking Fool,” I said to myself that there would be a long time before another picture could be produced to exert as powerful an appeal to the emotions of sympathy and tender pathos. But I was mistaken, for “Her Unborn Child’’ directs as powerful an appeal, and even more powerful. And it does not leave the harrowing feeling one felt at the death of the child in “The Singing Fool’’ ; there is no death in this picture. One’s emotions are stirred to the very depths by the sight of a mother and of a brother standing by a daughter and sister in her hour of the greatest need a young girl can ever have. One admires the heroic cha-acters for that. It is the story of a young girl, who loved her sweetheart so well that she surrendered herself to him. But the situations are handled so delicately that a most powerful lesson is conveyed to young folk. The young man. whom the heroine loved, is not presented as a cad. This is refreshing. There is some propaganda for birth control, carried on by one of the characters (the ultra-modern mother of the boy the heroine loved), hut this is more than offset by the womanly attitude of the heroine’s mother, who, when the boy’s mother tried to convert her to her views, stood like a rock ; also by the fine lecture the he-oine’s family doctor gave the hoy’s mother when she took the heroine and her hoy to him to talk to him about an illegal operation. The conduct of the heroine is above reproach. The agony she felt because of the predicament she was in ; her desire to avoid breaking her mother’s heart, cannot help arousine the spectator’s most kindly feelings towards hec. Every one of the players does good work — Adele Ronson, as the heroine. Elisha Cook, Jr., as the heroine’s brother, Frances Underwood, as the mother, Elizabeth Wragge. as the little sister, an imp, Harry Davenport, as the doctor, Doris Rankin, as the hero’s mother, and Pauline Drake, as the brother’s fiancee. Miss Wragge contributes considerable comedy by spying on everybody and by making wisecracks ; also Pauline Drake, as the somewhat foolish sweetheart. The plot has been founded on the stage play of the same name by Howard McKent Barnes. Albert Ray has directed it with skill. The sound has been recorded well, as a result the words are clear. This picture will do a great amount of good wherever sho'vn, for it convevs the horror a girl that has erred feels most vividiv. While the theme is delicate, it has been handled so well that it will hardly offend anybody. (Silent values as good as the sound values.)