Harrison's Reports (1930)

February 15, 1930 HARRISON'S REPORTS 27 “Slightly Scarlet” (100% T-F&D) — with Clive Brocks and Evelyn Brent (Pai atnounl, I cb. 22; syn. time, 71 min.) For those that do not object to seeing a hero and a heroine being crooks, "Slightly Scarlet” should prove a good entertainment, because it holds one’s interest alive all the way through. But for those that object, it may leave a bad taste, even though both are in the end shown as giving up their crooked career. The story opens showing the villain forcing the heroine, over whom he exercised a powerful influence, to do a theft for him ; he asked her to steal a valuable necklace, which an American wealthy man, visiting Nice, France, had bought from an Indian potentate. The hero, also a crook, bent upon getting hold of the same jewel, comes upon the heroine and becomes fascinated by her beauty. He makes an effort to get acquainted with her but in vain : she does liot encourage him. He hires a house next door to the house where the .Americans were living. The heroine purposely has a breakdown in her automobile in front of the house of the Americans and enters to ask for help. She poses as a countess. Her first acquaintance w'ith the Americans eventually leads to friendship. Proud that they have become acquainted with a noblewoman, the Americans invite the "countess” to stay with them for a while. The hero has his confederate steal the dog of the .Americans and then takes it to them. This is the cause for their becoming accpiaintcd. The hero is invited by the .Americans to dinner often. The heroine succeeds in getting hold of the combination of the safe. One night she decides to open it and to take the necklace, but she is discovered by the hero, who had gone there with the same object in view'. Each, then, learns of what the other was. They express love for each other. The hero tells her that he had made up his mind to gi\ e up his crooked career because of his love for her. She tells the hero that she had been made, against her will, to steal the necklace. Tliey decide to put it hack. .At that moment, however, the villain appears and orders them to hold up their hands, intending to get hold of the necklace. Hut ‘he hero grapples with him, and in the struggle, the villain’s gun discharges and the villain drops dead. The police congratulate the hero for having killed a most dangerous international crook. F’ercy Heath is the author, and Louis Gasnier the director. Miss Brent and Mr. Brook do good w'ork. Paul Lukas i^ the villain. Eugene Pallette, the wealthy American, Helen Ware, his wife, and Virginia Bruce, his daughter. The words are clear. (Silent values, fairly good.) “Cameo Kirby” (100% T-F&D) (Fo.r. Jan. 12; .<;ynchroniaed time, 75 min.) Only fair 1 The silent version Fox made several years ago with John Gilbert in the star part was far better. It seems as if some of the characters in this version are too stiff : they act lil:e automatons. Mr. Gilbert was a far better Cameo Kirby than is J. Ha 'old Murray, even though .Mr. Murray does good singing in it. The spectators are ke|)t in some susitense, but not very tense. Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson are the authors of the play upon wdiich the picture has been founded. It deals with a fair gambler (hero) who meets on a steamboat plying the Mississippi an unscrupulous gambler (villain 1 gambling vvith an elderly man for high stakes. The hero, know'ing that the stranger was being cheated, joins the .game and takes everything away from both of them. The stranger had bet everything he possessed in this world, iiichnling his plantation. The hero is ready to return his winnings to the stranger when he hears a shot and finds the stranger dead ; he had committed suicide. The hero goes to the plantation and is greatly surprised to come upon the heroine, whom he had met once at the Mardi Gras in New Orleans and had become fascinated by her beauty. She is glad to see him, and confesses to him that she had dreamed about him often. When the villain, who had proceeded the hero there with the view of ingratiating himself to the heroine, succeeding in his purpose, sees the hero, he tells the heroine that it was he that had brought about the suicide of her father. The heroine now despises the hero. The hero approaches the villain and slaps his face. The villain challenges him to a duel. The following day they meet and the hero shoots and kills him. The villain’s paramour, who had been unsuccessful in her efforts to win the hero's friendship, conceals the villain’s gun, and then tells the townsmen that the hero had murdered the villain in cold blood. -\ posse seeks the hero to lynch him. They eventually find him at the heroine’s, where he had gone to convince the heroine that it was not he but the villain who had caused her father’s suicide. The heroine forgives him. But the posse are bent upon lynching him. TTe confession of the dead man’s paramour, however, clears the hero. The heroine is joyful. Norma Terris is the heroine. Douglas Gilmore, Robert Edeson, Charles Morton, Stepin Fetchit, Myrna Loy and others are in the cast. The sound is fair. (Silent values, fair.) “Burning Up” (100% T-F&D) {Paramount , Feb. 1 ; syn. time, 55 min.) A good melodrama, in which automobile racing is the .greatest point of interest. It is shown that the hero discovers that the man who had bet a large sum of money on the automobile race between him and the villain was the father of the girl he had met and fallen in love with and tries to presuade his backer to call the race off, because the game was crooked, he being part of it. His backer refuses to do so and he tells him that he will wdn the race anyway. The villain, who had a way of getting rid of stubborn men like him, by wrecking their machines durin the race and lose it or he would be picked up dead. The accident, informs the hero that either he had to take part in the race and lose it or he wuold be picked up dead. The hero smiles and goes away. The villain goes to the heroine and fills her head with tales about the hero’s affairs with other women. She believes him and when the hero appears she is cold towards him. He .so loves her that he runs after her in an effort to explain things. But she does not give him an opportunity. The hero is heart-broken and is determined more than ever to win the race to prove himself worthy of her. The races are on and every time the hero tries to get ahead the other driver (villain) would block him. When the hero became insistent upon getting the necessary room to race ahead the villain gives his wheel a twist, touches the hero’s machine, and sends it crashing through a fence. But the hero’s alertness prevents a tra.gedy. He goes back on the track and resumes racing. After several laps he overtakes the villain and, fearing a repetition of the trick, places himself in a position where his car would roll beyond the tape line, the end of the course. The villain does his trick ; the hero counters it, and both machines roll over. But the hero’s machine is on the other side of the winning mark. The heroine rushes to him and embraces him, satisfied that he is a real man. William Slavens McNutt and Grover Jones wrote the story. A. Edward Sutherland directed it. Richard Alien is the hero, Mary Brian the heroine, Francis McDonald the villain, Sam Hardy the backer, and Tully Marshall one of the confederates. The words are clear. (Silent values, .good, ) SILENT NEWS REEL CONTRACTS "We have a contract with Paramount for 104 issues of their Silent News,” an exhibitor writes, "and have been using two issues each w'cek. "We were recently notified that after issue No. 56, they would issue but one Silent News per week and cancelled the one issue. “We w'ere unable to get to terms with them on the Sound News and asked them to cancel the other issue, too, but they refused to do it. Are we compelled to take the other issue?” The contract is very ambiguous in a case of this kind ; since it has been drawn by the producers to protect their interests and not the interests of both contracting parties, they can interpret it their own way. However, there is no moral, and perhaps no contractual, justification in their refusing to accept the cancellation of the other issue, for the reason that Clause Sixteen does not give the voluntary dropping of the production of a picture as one of the causes for which a producer-distributor is absolved from blame for not delivering that picture. It is not because Paramount cannot continue making the second issue that causes its nondelivery. but because they can make more money by converting it into sound. It should be equitable, then, for the exhibitor to cancel the other issue. It is mv opinion that an exhibitor who does not want to take such a case to a Court of Equity may refuse to accept the second issue and let Paramount bring a court action. Rut he had better consult his lawyer about the matter.