Harrison's Reports (1930)

58 HARRISON’S REPORTS April 12, 1930 “High Society iJlues” (100% T-F&D) (Fox, March 23; syn. time, 102 min.) A highly pleasing romantic tale of two young folk, unfolding among business and high society surroundings. There is charm in the love affair between Janet Gaynor, the higli society belle, and Charles Farrell, the son of a country business man, who had become wealthy. There are the heart-breaks and the humiliations, usual in stories where poor people become suddenly wealthy and fail to realize that they do not belong among the cultured. In this instance, however, the heroine is unconcerned how her mother feels at her befriending the hero and his family, and lets love be the dictator. They marry, just at the time when the hero’s father was about to bring financial ruin to the heroine’s father ; the heroine’s father had high-hatted him, and he swore revenge. Reconciliation naturally takes place ; the heroine’s parents, finding themselves before accomplished facts, had to make the best of it. The plot has been founded on the story by Dana Burnet. It was directed by David Butler. Janet Gaynor is charming ; Charles Farrell does good work. Some of the others in the cast are, William Collier, Jr., Hedda Hopper, Joyce Compton, Louise Fazenda, and Lucien Littlefield. The sound reproduction is good. (Silent values, good.) Note: “Playmates” (No. 108) was the original title. But it is not a substitution. “Under a Texas Moon” (100% T-D) (IT’ar. Bros., rel. date, April 1 ; time, 82 min.) From the point of view of acting, "Under a Texas Moon” is an excellent production. The color, too, is pretty good all the way through. But Frank Fay, who distinguishes himself by his acting as Don Carlos, the bandit, is no longer a young man ; and when one takes into consideration that youth is almost a necessity on the screen, one will realize what a defect this is. In addition, the hero is a bandit, although he is an amiable bandit ; towards the end of the picture, he is shown carrying away seven thousand dollars, five thousand having been paid him for the recovery of stolen cattle, and two thousand for the capture of the leader of the outlaws. The cattle was returned, because he himself had stolen it ; but the owner of the stolen cattle refuses to give him the remaining $2,000 of the agreement until he had produced tlie bandit leader. He demands, however, that the $2,000 be given him, promising to produce the bandit. When the money is handed to him he tells them that he is the bandit ; then he runs away with his men. There is a great deal of comedy in the acts of the hero, a “lady killer.” Whenever he meets a pretty girl, he forgets all the pretty ones he had met before. And he seems to encounter pretty senoritas at every step. The plot has been founded on a story by Stewart Edward White. It was directed by Michael Curtiz well. Raquel Torres, Myrna Loy, Armida, Mona Maris, Noah Beery, Georgie Stone, George Cooper, Fred Kohler, Charles Sellon, Tully Marshall and many others are in the cast. The sound is muffled somewhat. As a result, the words lack crispness. (It can hardly be of any value as a silent picture. Shown in this city NOT as a Road Show.) “In the Next Room” (100% T-D) — with Jack Mulhall (First Nat., syn. rel. date, Jan. 26; running time, 70 min.) A fair program picture. It is a double murder mystery melodrama, in which the spectator is kept in fairly tense suspense, in spite of the fact that the direction is not smooth and at times the voices sound unnatural, and at times even unintelligible : — The heroine’s father, an antique dealer, receives a valuable cabinet from Paris. A notorious French crook, who calls on him as representative of the French concern, attempts to get the jewels, hidden in the cabinet. But he is killed by prussic acid, which had been made to spurt from the cabinet, when the key was inserted. Another crook is mysteriously shot in the same room. When the hero opens the cabinet, a young girl, who is in a trance, falls out. When she comes out of it and is found mourning over the body of the Frenchman, she admits that she had escaped from France to avoid criminal prosecution and that the dead Frenchman was an international crook. The stage play by Eleanor Robson Belmont furnished the plot. Edward Cline directed it. Jack Mulhall is pleasing as the newspaper reporterhero who gets mixed up in the mystery while calling on the h**roiHe. Alice Day is charming as the heroine. Robert O’Connor, as the usual blundering detective, and -^ggie Herring as the Irish housekeeper, furnish the comedy relief. Claude Allister is gruesome as the evil-eyed old butler, who turns out to be a crippled bootlegger, in league with crooks, who make their headquarters in the winecellar of the house. John St. Poli is the heroine’s father. (Silent values as good as the sound. Silent release date, Feb. 10; footage 4,917 ft., 54 min.) “Murder Will Out” (100% T-D) — with Jack Mulhall (First Nat., rel. date, April 6; syn. time, 65 min.) A very good mystery melodrama. The spectator is held in tense suspense right from the beginning and the solution is quite a surprise. The story revolves around Chinese blackmailers, whose failure to make their victims pay causes the victims to be killed usually at odd hours, such as midnight or thereabouts, under peculiar circumstances, after having been warne<l by purple hieroglyphs just when they were to meet their fate. The first victim is a fellow-club member, a man whom the hero knew slightly ; the second is a doctor, who is supposed to be familiar with Chinese customs, and the third the British private detective, who volunteered to help the hero find the bandits. Finally the hero is warned to bring $..00,000 to the farthest buoy in New York Harbor. to prevent his fiancee from meeting a like fate. But the heroine, who knew all about the circumstances, urges her father, a Senator, to have a United States submarine on the scene. When the hero is about to hand over the $230,000 he had been able to raise, the submarine rises out of the water and fires on the bandits. When they are taken aboard, they turn out to be the clubman, the doctor and the detective, who had merely planted the situations to frighten the hero and the heroine and to force the hero to accced to their demands. Jack Mulhall is good as the wealthy hero. Lila Lee in her small part is a pleasing heroine. Noah Beery, as the detective, Tully Marshall, as the doctor, and Claude Allister, as the clubman, are good, too. Alec B. Francis is the heroine’s father, and Malcolm McGregor, the heroine’s brother, in charge of the submarine. Clarence Badger directed it very well from the stage play by Murray Leinster. (Silent values as good as the sound values. Silent footage not yet determined.) Note : The original title of this pciture is supposed to have been "On the Riviera,” to be founded on the stage play by Franz Molnar, but the finished product has been lounded on the stage play by Murray Leinster. Therefore, it is a story substitution and you are not obligated to accept It. “The Golden Calf” (100% T-F&D) (Fox, March 16; syn. time, 69 min.) A pretty good romantic musical comedy, in which the heroine takes a part somewhat similar to that Norma Shearer took in “His Secretary.” She is an old-fashioned girl, and wears old-fashioned clothes, until she overhears her employer speaking deridingly of her looks ; she then goes to some friends of hers, who massage her and dress her up in fine clothes, making her look like a million dollars, so beautiful, in fact, that even her own employer failed to recognize her. In the end, however, he recognizes her and as he had already fallen in love with the beautiful lady he asks her to marry him. The title is derived from the fact that the heroine wins a contest for the most perfect leg, sought for illustrations on posters advertising a certain brand of hosiery. The hero’s advertisement for girls with perfect legs brings so many girls to his studio that he is unable to control them. But none of them comes up to the measurements for a perfect leg, until the heroine, secretly in love with him, having gathered courage enough to measure her own leg, finds out that it answers to the required measurements. But she has a hard time convincing her employer, to whom she is a secretary, that she has the leg he wants. And it is not until her friends dress her up and remake her that he finds out that she had been telling the truth. The plot has been founded on the story by .Aaron Davis. Millard Webb directed it. Jack Mulhall is the hero. Sue Carol the heroine, and El Brendel the hero’s crony. Marjorie White. Richard Keene. Paul Page, and others are in the cast. The sound is pretty good. (Silent values, fair.') Note: “The American Beauty Review” (No. 107) was the original title. But the earlv Work Sheets stated that the story was to be by Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert : and since the story of the finished product has been written by .Aaron Davis, it is a story substitution.