Harrison's Reports (1930)

34 HARRISON’S REPORTS March 1, 1930 “Roadhouse Nights” (100%T-F&DN) {Paramount, Feb. 15 ; syn. time, 69 minutes) This is the second picture that has been produced in the East by the distinguished director, Hobart Henley, the first one having been “The Lady Lies,” one of the best pictures produced since the voice was adopted in pictures ; and if one is to judge by the quality of this one. one is forced to come to the conclusion that it will not be the last one, for “Roadhouse Nights” is a rare melodrama. While it is tense melodrama, having to do with murderous bootleggers and the rest, one is kept in roars all the way through, thanks to the finished direction and to the good acting of the cast, particularly of Charles Ruggles, inimitable in comedy roles. One other distinguishing characteristic in this picture is the fact that there is no gun display, no dead bodies lying around, and hardly any drinking. The use of gmis, the killings and the drinking are done chiefly by implication. Even the arrest of the villains in the end is done by implication. One does not see the officers of the law pouncing upon their victims and putting the hand cuffs on their hands. Yet one knows that they were there, and that they put the handcuffs on the violators of the law. The audience at the Paramount, where the picture was shown, was kept lireathless, and at the same time was made to laugh heartily : they roared at times. They showed what they felt within them when they applauded the picture heartily at the close, although the performance that I attended was in the morning, when people are not, as a rule, in mood to become exalted by anything. The story deals with bootleggers and newspaper reporters. A representative of the “Chicago Times” is sent to investigate a certain Inn, in a Chicago subu’'b. Because he had learned too much about the bootleggers and was about to “spill the beans” to his editor over the telephone, the leader murders him and casts his body into the lake. The editor receives information that his reporter had got drunk and sends the hero (Charles Ruggles) to investigate the case himself. At the Inn the hero meets the heroine, who was a sweetheart of his when they were school children. When she hears of his mission she, realizing the danger he was in, has him “doped” by one of her associates (Jimmy Durante) and put on the train, unknown to the bootlegger leader, whose woman the heroine was. When the hero regains consciousness he alights from the train and returns to the Inn. The heroine is compelled to acquaint him with the danger he was in. and as she did not like her work they run away in her machine. The villain becomes informed of it and speeds after them and overtakes them. The hero poses indifference : he pretends that he is intoxicated and that the heroine was taking him to the station to catch the train. He orders them back. The hero, still pretending indifference, asks permission to telephone to Chicago to give his edito’* a piece of his mind for having discharged him. While talking to the editor he pretends that there was a had connection and was calling down the telephone operator when in fact he, bv using his ring, was telegraphing to his editor, hy use of the Morse code, the fact that the other reporter had heen murdered hy the bootleggers and that he was cornered by them, giving instructions what to do to rescue him. The editor informs the police authorities, who rush to the Inn and catch the bootleggers bv surprise. The hero telephones his story to his editor, giving due credit to the heroine, whom he had decided to marrv. The storv has heen written by Ren Hecht. Helen Morgan, Fred Kohler, Timmy Durante, Eddie Jackson, Tammany Young and others are in the cast. They all do good work. Jimmy Durante, however, stands out with his good work. The sound reproduction is the best heard in any Paramount picture so far produced. “Personality” (100% T-F&D) (Columbia, Feb. 18 ; syn. time,6s minutes) A good program picture. The theme is too much motherin-law. The mother objects to her daughter’s marrying a clerk (hero) when the hero’s employer himself, a wealthy man. wanted her as a wife. But she marries him because she loves him. The hero’s salary is so small that the two can hardly make the two ends meet. And to make matters worse, the heroine’s mother was of a grabbing disposition — she would take from the hero’s pantry anything she wanted. In desparation. the hero tries to bluff his way to a highsalaried position ; by making some big business poeple believe that he was of great value to them, he is engaged at a big salary. But his bluffing is found out when he, in carrying it out, pretends that he had startl'd negotiations with a big buyer while the buyer, whom he did not know, is present. He is discharged forthwith. But the advice he had given his employer about holding on to a piece of real estate for more money proves valuable; his employer holds out and sells it for the price the hero had suggested, netting himself a big sum over the sum he would have made had he .sold it at the price originally offered him. The ex-employer seeks and finds the hero and offers him his old position at a big salary. There is considerable comedy in the picture, which retains the spectator’s interest well. The picture has been directed by Victor Heerman. No credit is given to any author, even in the introductory title of the picture ; and as no author was given in the literature it cannot be declared a substitution. Sally Starr is the heroine. Johnny Arthur the hero, Blanche Frederic! the mother-in-law. The sound reproduction is good. (Silent values, good.) “The Vagabond King” (100% T-F&DN) (Faram., March 15; syn. time, i hr. and 45 min.) An excellent entertainment. It is all in color, having been photographed by the Technicolor process, and although its dramatic values are not so strong as are those in “The Rogue Song.” the MGM all-color production, its color work is the finest that has so far been seen in moving pictures. The close-ups are all sharp, just as are the mediumdistance shots. The long shots, too, are fairly sharp. The grain fault is not so pronounced as it is in the average color picture. The plot has been founded on Justin Huntly McCarthy’s novel, “If I Were .\ King,” which was made also into an operetta. The talking version, however, is a mixture of romance and singing, mostly romance. Mr. Dennis King takes the leading part in the picture iust as he took it in the oi)cretta. His singing is very good, although it does not come quite up to the standard of that of Lawrence Tibbett. There is action, and there is life in “The Vagabond King.” j\s a result, the interest is held pretty tight all the way through. The beauty of some of the scenes ran hardly be described. It is owed to melodious singing, to the dramatic tensity of the situation, to the good acting, and to the en'hanting color work. The sto’’y deals with the hero, king of the Paris beggars, who, while passing by a church, notices some thugs attacking a beautiful woman (heroine). He attacks the thugs, beating them all, and saves the heroine from harm. The heroine is thankful.. Her beauty so enchants him that he follows her and learns the place of her residence. The King of France, in order to find out for himself what his people had thought of his reign, goes incognito to the place where the beggars and others congregated and made merry with wine, women and song. There he sees the hero, king of the beggars, making merry and being lionized by his followers. The hero approaches the King and opens up a conversation with him. He tells the King of France what he would do if he were a King, and the King has him drugged and brought to the palace. He orders that he be shaved and dressed in the best of clothes and the title of Count be given him. When the hero awakes he thinks he is dreaming. He is brought before the King and is told that his wish is about to be fulfilled, but at the end of a week he will be executed for having said mean things against the King of France, unless he wanted to reject the bargain and to go back to the gutter, where he came from. At that moment the beautiful woman he had rescued from the thugs passes by; she was the niece of the King. Her sight induces him to accept the bargain ; he wanted to be near her, even for so short a time as one week. (Instead of being made a King, however, he is made Commander of the King’s troops.) The Duke of Burgundy is at the gates of Paris threatening the city. The hero, with his beggars as soldiers, and with the help of the few soldiers the King had, attacks the Duke and defeats him. freeing Paris Horn danger. The last day of grace approaches and the King prepares the guillotine for the execution of the hero. But at the last minute the heroine rushes up to the scaffold and, proclaiming her love for the hero, asks of her uncle that she be hanged in his stead. The King, fearing a revolution amongst his people were he to pxecute the hero, pardons him. Jeanette MacDonald is the heroine ; her part does not give her as much onportunity to demonstrate her talents as it g^ve her in “The Love Parade.” But whatever she does, she does it well. O. P. He.ggie. as Louis XI, stands out : the humor he iniects into his part is charming. Warner Oland is the villain of the piece. Arthur Stone. Lillian Roth, Thomas Ricketts. Lawford Davidson and others are in the cast. Ludwig Berger has directed the picture. The sound is good. (There will be no silent version.)