Harrison's Reports (1930)

HARRISON’S REPORTS 95 June 14, 1930 heard the villain’s confession that it was he who had murdered the trapper, orders him to put up his hands and after taking his gun away from him orders him to march to the sheriff with him. On the way they grapple and fall into the river. The heroine jumps on the logs but falls into the swift current. The hero, however, rescues her just before she was carried away by the floating logs. They marry. The plot has been founded on a novellette by Kenneth B. Clark. A. F. Erickson directed it. Mr. O’Brien does good work. Helen Chandler is the heroine, and Antonio Moreno the villain. The talk is clear. (Silent values, fairly good.) “In Gay Madrid” — with Ramon Novarro (^MGM, May 17; runnning time, 8l minutes) It has been a long time since Ramon Novarro appeared in as entertaining a picture. One may, in fact, say that it is as good a picture as he has ever appeared in. The acting is charming throughout, and in parts cheerful to those who see it, by reason of the fact that he is presented as a student, making mery with other students. The fact that the action unfolds in quaint Spain makes the picture more interesting. The love affair between Mr. Novarro and Dorothy Jordan is extremely charming. Mr. Novarro is called upon to sing several songs and he does so artistically. He has a good voice and the songs he sings are tuneful. The action unfolds in Madrid, Spain, where the hero, the pleasure loving young son of an aristocratic Spaniard, is told sternly by his father that he has had his last escapade in Madrid, and that he must go to Santiago to continue his studies in the University there. The father hoped that, by putting his son in the care of an old friend of his there, he might reform him. The hero goes and soon becomes popular with the other students ; but not with the heroine, young daughter of his host, who had heard about his many escapades in Madrid, nor with her fiance, who had never let an opportunity go by without slighting him. The heroine soon falls in love with him, however, and when her fiance insults the hero in her presence she breaks her engagement with him. The heroine’s aunt likes the hero and wants her niece to marry him. But she advises the heroine not to be so warm towards him, for that might make him careless and show less love towards her ; she advises her to receive him coldly until he asked her to marry him. The hero is heart-broken at the heroine’s change of attitude. In one of his despondent moments he sends for his old “flame” from Madrid. The ex-fiance happens to see her in the hero’s room and notifies the heroine’s father. Her father and the hero’s father demand proof of his accusations and he takes them to the hero’s room, where they find the woman there. The engagement is naturally broken, despite the hero’s efforts to convince them that he had meant no wrong ; they would not listen to his explanations. The heroine’s brother strikes the hero in the face. The hero, telling him that not even the brother of the woman he loves could so insult him, challenges him to a duel. The duelling place is appointed and the seconds chosen. The heroine is informed of the contemplated duel but arrives on the grounds too late to prevent the shots being fired. The heroine’s brother is unharmed because the hero had fired in the air but the hero is shot near the heart . The heroine, not knowing that the hero had been wounded, upbraids him severely for having attempted to murder a mere boy and tells him how much she hates him. Just as she had finished, however, the hero reels and falls to the ground unconscious. The heroine is frantic ; she embraces him and calls him to look at her, telling him how much she loved him and how much she regretted having said bitter things to him. The hero in time recovers and he and the heroine marry. The plot has been founded on the novel, “La Casa de la Troya,” by Alejandro Perez Lugin. Robert Leonard has directed it. In the supporting cast are : Claude King, Eugenie Besserer, Beryl Merecr, William V. Mong and others. The talk is clear. (Silent values, excellent.) “Numbered Men” (D) — with a Star Cast (First National, rel. not yet set; time, 66 minutes) A very good melodrama revolving around prisons and prisoners. There is much human interest, and there are several thrills. The thrills are caused by the hunt of an escaped prisoner, and the human interest by the hero’s selfsacrifice. There is plentiful love interest, too. The story opens in a prison and shows the hero and several other prisoners, all honor men, due to an honor system installed by the warden, feeling upset over the fact that a vicious prisoner (villain) had been assigned among the honor prisoners ; they feared that he might do something that would cause the warden to lose faith in them and thus to cancel their rights. A young man, chum of the hero, is in love with a young woman. He is so deeply in love with her, in fact, that his fear lest she fail to wait for him to come out of prison puts in his head thoughts of breaking jail. But the hero quiets him down. The hero and the other honor prisoners are sent to construct roads. While they are away, the villain influences the prisoners to revolt. During the riot he escapes. The warden with prison guards calls on the hero and informs him of the riot and regretfully tells him that he is compelled to cancel their privileges. The hero begs the warden to give them a chance to capture the villain so as to prove to him that the honor system is not a failure. They hunt him everywhere. One of them eventually spies him and shoots and kills him just as he was about to shoot and kill the hero’s chum. The villain had previously shot and killed the man who had framed the heroine’s sweetheart, and who had also framed him. This man was infatuated with the heroine and had followed her to the farm. His death makes the heroine’s chances of getting evidence of her sweetheart’s innocence vanish. The hero, however, gives information that lead to his chum’s freedom at the expense of his own liberty. The plot has been founded on the play, “Jail Break,” by Dwight Taylor. It was directed well by Mervin Leroy. Conrad Nagel is the hero, Raymond Hackett the chum, Bernice Oaire the heroine, Ralph Ince the villain. Some of the others in the cast are Blanche Frederici, Tully Marshall, Ivan Linow, William Holden and George Cooper. Mr. Cooper contributes considerable comedy. The talk is clear, but the sound is not sharp. (Silent values, very good.) “Holiday” — v/ith Ann Harding (Pathe, June 3; running time, 90 minutes) I have not seen the stage production, which is said to have been a very good drama and therefore I am not able to compare the talking picture with it. But, although the talking moving picture version is a good dramatic entertainment, it is not e.xtraordinary. One of the main drawbacks is the fact that too much importance is placed in the hero’s desire to have a holiday while young, so as to spend the money that he might make and then start all over again — an importance altogether out of proportion to what the idea deserves. AikI because the action revolves mainly upon this idea, it does not impress one as much as the good direction and the excellent acting, combined with the beautiful settings, make the picture deserve. Yet it is, as said, a good entertainment. What pleases the spectator is the fact that Ann Harding, as the heroine, and Monroe Osley. as her brother, although they are children of an extremely wealthy father, are not snobbish. They, in fact, lack snobbishness to such a degree that when their young sister (Mary Astor) brings a commoner (Robert Ames) into their house and tells them that she is in love with him and that she is going to marry him, they applaud and urge her not to be discouraged by the inevitable stern opposition of their inflexible father. One likes to see them show traits of regular human beings. The action keeps one interested, well at times, comfortably at other times, all the way through. One is never, in fact, bored. There is considerable pathos, and some comedy. The story deals with a wealthy man’s daughter, who meets at an ice carnival the hero, a self-made man .and falls in love with him. He, too, falls in love with her. They decide to marry, and she takes him to her father to break the news to him. Her sister (heroine), a different girl from what one would expect of the daughter of a rich man, congratulates her and urges her not to weaken at the expected opposition of their father. The father is compelled to make the best of it. The hero insists that after their marriage they shall take a holiday until the money he had made up to that time is gone, promising that he will start all over again afterwards. As the father had made connections for him in the business world, he insists that he accept his plans. To this he is aided by his young daughter. But the hero would not have it that way. He feels uncomfortable as his prospective father-in-law outlines what they should do after their marriage and where they should go. One argument leads to another and the engagement is cancelled. The heroine, who loved the hero secretly, and who, as she had later found out, was loved by him, having appreciated the hero’s manly qualities, follows him to the boat to Europe after being convinced that there was no chance to heal the breach between the hero and her young sister. The plot has been fotmded on the stage play by Philip Barry. Edward H. Griffith directed it. Mary Astor is the young sister, Ann Harding is the heroine, Robert Ames, the hero, Monroe Osley, the heroine’s brother. Hedda Hopper, Hallam Cooley, Creighton Hale and others are in the supporting cast. The talk is clear. (Silent values, pretty good.)