Harrison's Reports (1930)

90 HARRISON’S REPORTS June 7, 1930 “Temptation” (ATF&D) (Columbia, June 5; running time, 6g minutes) A fairly appealing program picture. The hero could have aroused much more sympathy had the fact that he had gone to jail to shield others been told the spectator. The love affair is sympathy arousing ; the heroine gets the biggest share of such sympathy, because love makes her give up the wealthy man she was engaged to in order to ina. ry tne hero. The story opens showing the hero being released from jail and receiving a lecture from the kind-hearted warden. W'hen he comes out of the jail walls, he is met by some gangsters, who tell him that “the boss” wanted him to do a job. Instead of going to Rochester in accordance with the parole agreement, the hero goes to New York; he hoped that, by finding a job there, he might escape the pressure that the crooks were exerting on him to become a fullfledged crook, and thus lose the opportunity of living down the past. In New York he is unable to find a job. Feeling hungry, he enters a lunch room and orders coffee and cake. The heroine, who had waited on him, tells him that the quarter he had given her was counterfeit, and as he had no other money, she threatens to call the police. The hero pleads with her not to call the police and the heroine, having believed that he did not know the money was counterfeit, refrains from doing so. A middle-aged business man, having sold his interest in his business for a quarter of a million dollars, proposes to the heroine. The heroine accepts. The hero returns several days later and gives the heroine a good quarter, repaying her kindness. One meeting leads to another and the hero falls in love with her. The heroine, too, falls in love with him. But because he had no monev. she was determined to go through with her marriage with the wealthv man. The hero, in desperation, threatens to hold up a bank so as to get money enough to satisfy her cravings for fine clothes. The heroine, fearing lest he carry out his threat, and knowing what that would mean if he were caught, tells her fiance the whole story and asks him to release her from her promise to marry him. She then goes to the hero and prevents him from doing a desperate thing. She tells him that she is willing to marry him, rich or poor. The story is by Leonard Praskins ; the direction, by E. Mason Hopper. Lawrence Gray is the hero, and Lois Wilson the heroine. They do good work. Billy Bevan, Eileen Percy, Jack Richardson and others are in the cast. The talk is clear. (Silent values, fairly good.) “Back Pay” (ATD) — with Corinne Griffith (First National, June i ; running time, 64 minutes) Not only is it uninteresting, but also unsuitable for the family circle, for the reason that the heroine takes the part of a kept woman. There is hardly any human appeal all the way through except in the scenes where the hero is shown in the hospital blinded as a result of gassing in the World War, and in the later scenes, where he dies. The action starts in a small Virginia town, showing the heroine in love with the hero, and the hero madly in love with her. But she is unwilling to marry him, because he is poor and she all her life hoped for the day when a marriage to money would save her from drudgery. A travelling salesman arouses beautiful pictures of big city life in her mind and she goes to the city. There she meets a wealthy man and becomes his mistress. While on an automobile trip to some hot springs with her “gang,” she passes by her old home town ; she asks that she be left there for a half hour. There she finds the hero, who had been waiting for her. Ashamed to tell him the life she had been living, she goes away with her friends, who had returned for her, without making any promise to the hero whatever. The hero, heart-broken, joins the Army and goes to France. Several months later he returns gassed. She learns he is in the hospital and goes there to see him. The doctor tells her he has but two weeks to live. Saddened, she returns home and begs her “man” to let her marry the hero so as to make his last moments happy. He consents to it. She marries him and takes him to her apartments where he dies alter a few days. But the heroine does not go back to her old liie. The story is by Fanny Hurst; the direction, hy William A. Seiter. Grant Withers is the hero, Montague Love the wealthy “friend” of the heroine. The talk is lairiy intelligible. (Silent values, very poor,) “The Medicine Man” (ATF&D) (1 ijfany, June 15; 64 minutes) A mediocre entertainment, despite the fine acting and direction, the reason lor it is the fact that the story is unpleasant ; it shows mostly the cruelty ot a lather towards his children, one 01 whom is the heroine, and the other a boy. In two different situations he beats his children, i he actual beating is not shown but the action is implied vividly. One other unpleasant teaiure is the tact that the lather tries to lorce his daughter, a mere child, to marry a big middleaged man. Ihere is some comedy, provoked by Oeorgie bione and Tommy Dugan, who pose as shell-game men and tleece several people. i lie story deals with a tyrannical father, merchant in a small country town, who treats his daughter (heroine ) and Ins iilllc son cruelly. A medicine show comes to town and tne he.oine, hungry for affection, which her father had denied her, falls m love with the nice-looking young propncior (hero). Gossipers carry tales to her lather, who, tearing a scandal, induces a widowed farmer, who was seeking the heroine as a wife, to marry her. 'ihe heroine rushes to the hero to inform him of her father’s decision. 1 he hero instructs her to go home and pack up, for he was going to take her and her little brother along with him. 1 he heroine goes back home but just as she and her brother were ready to leave the house their father returns with the prospective husband. He instructs his daughter’s prospective husband to watch the heroine while he went to get a marriage license for them. While he is gone, the hero retu ns with a minister, marries the heroine on the spot, and lakes her and her brother away. 1 he plot has been based on the play by Elliott Lester. Scott Pembroke directed it. Jack Benny makes a good hero, and Betty Bronson a charming heroine. Billy Butts is the young brother. Eva Novak, Adolph Milar, and others are in the cast. The talk is clear. (Silent values, mediocre.) “Not Damaged” (ATF&D) (Fox, May 25 ; running time, 76 minutes) With the exception of one spot, where it is “brutal,” “Not Damaged ” is an appealing picture, chiefly because the hero shows real character ; he has it in his power to take advantage of the heroine but he does not do so, because he loves her. The “brutal” spot is where the heroine’s fiancee, a co-worker in a department store, misjudging the heroine because she had been with the hero alone in his apartment, makes an insulting proposal to her. The producers should have employed different means to show that the fiance was a cad ; or at least, the action should have been more subtle. The players are youthful. This adds charm to the picture. The story deals with the love of the heroine, a saleswoman in a department store, and of the hero, a wealthy much travelled young man. The hero meets the heroine and becomes charmed with her ; soon he falls in love with her. The heroine likes the hero, but she is engaged to another man. Things, however, so shape themselves that the fiance proves himself a cad and the hero a real man. The heroine feels like a Cinderella when the hero proposes marriage and a trip to Europe. The plot has been founded on a story by Richard Connell. Chandler Sprague has directed it. Lois Moran is a charming heroine and Walter Byron a good hero. Robert Ames, Inez Courtney, George (Red) Corcoran and others are in the cast. The talk is clear. (Silent values, fairly good.)