Harrison's Reports (1930)

September 20, 1930 HARRISON’S REPORTS 151 “Last of the Lone Wolf” — with Bert Lytell and Patsy Ruth Miller (Columbia, August 26; running time, 67 min.) Aside from its own merit, “Last of the Lone Wolf” should draw good crowds on account of the popularity of this series of romantic crook melodramas, in which Bert Lytell takes the part of the clever romantic crook. 1 he action is speedy enough to hold one’s interest tight from start to hnish, and the hero’s liberty is endangered seriously enough to hold one in fairly tense suspense. In some of the situations the hero is shown outwitting his pursuers in such a clever way as to provoke laughs. This time the action unfolds in a lictitious European principality, where the hero is shown convicted to the salt mines for several years for a theft he had committed. Ihe Prime Minister, however, promises to give him his freedom if he would recover a certain ring of the Queen’s, presented to her by the King, which, as he had informed the King, the Queen had given to his Ambassador in the neighboring principality, with whom she had fallen in love. The Prime Minister had been ordered by the King to recover it as a proof of his accusation against the Queen. Ihe Queen entrusts her lady in waiting (heroine), who is her only trusted friend, to go to the Ambassador and retrieve the ring. Provided with the necessary papers, she starts. The Prime Minister has the hero shadowed by the villain. Hero, heroine, and villain take the same train. The villain annoys the heroine and the hero is compelled to throw him off the train. Thus hero and heroine become acquainted. The hero, masquerading as an officer, and bearing false credentials, calls on the Ambassador. There he meets the heroine. The hero succeeds in taking the ring out of the safe. The theft is discovered and the hero is forced to put it back in the safe secretly. The heroine is shocked, and at the hotel, she tells the hero the reason why she wanted the ring. The hero goes to the embassy and takes it out of the safe, but instead of giving it to the heroine he hides it and gives her the empty box. On their return the villain, who had communicated wdth the minister, has them both arrested. The hero, however, is able to outwit the guards and to escape. The heroine returns to the Queen broken-hearted at the failure of her mission. Just as the (^ueen was entering the reception room with her ring, the hero, who had managed to drag the commander of the King’s Guard behind a door and, gagging him, to take his uniform and to put it on, thus succeeding to remain undetected, approaches the Queen and puts the ring on her finger. She is overjoyed ; and so is the heroine. The Queen is thus able to discredit the Prime Minister. She obtains a pardon for the hero, w'hom the heroine accepts as a husband with great joy. Louis Joseph Vance is the author, and Richard Boleslavsky the director. Lucien Percival, Otto Matieson and others are in the supporting cast. The talk is clear. (Silent values, good.) “Big Boy” (If'arner Bros., Sept. 13; running time, 68 min.) A1 Jolson, who impersonates a colored servant, will offend audiences in the South, as he will also in other parts of the country, by his insolence, impertinence and garnilousness. Otherwise, the picture is fairly entertaining, with Mr. Jolson predominating. There is only one suspensive scene, and that is during the Kentucky Derby race, when Jolson, as the jockey, is riding Big Boy to victory, despite the efforts of his enemies to thwart him : — The hero, whose family had been servants of the Bedfords for generations, raises the horse. Big Boy, from the day it was born, and is expected to race it in the Kentucky Derby. A group of gamblers, however, have different plans. They want their own jockey to ride the horse so as to throw the race. They have the son of the Bedford family under their control because of a bad check he had given them, and plan to work out their scheme through him. The chief of the gang, although married, pays a good deal of attention to the daughter of the family, to the displeasure of the man who loves her. The Bedford son tries to talk his mother into permitting some one else to run Big Boy at the race, but she insists that the hero’s family have always been the jockeys for the family and that it was a tradition with her. The gamblers, seeing that it is impossible to carry out their schemes in that manner, insist that the son order the hero to take Big Boy out for some exercise at 3 o’clock in the morning, against the orders of the trainer. The hero does this, and when confronted, admits that he did so but at the orders of the son. The son, however, denies this and the hero, not wishing to cause any pain into the young man, leaves and goes away. He becomes a waiter and the night before the Derby receives a visit from the daughter’s sweetheart. He tells him that he is sure the race is being framed. In the restaurant they overhear a woman saying that she is the wife of the villain and that she, because of jealousy, is going to squeal that the check is a fake and that the race is being thrown. The hero, realizing the importance of the information, goes back to the Bedford stables. He is welcomed with open arms, as the daughter’s sweetheart had been able to secure the check from the villain’s wife and there was nothing to fear. The hero comes through to victory, although two of the racing jockeys were, according to orders from the villain, trying to push him off the road. The plot was taken from the stage play of the same name. It was directed by Alan Crosland. Others in the cast are Claudia Dell, Louise Closser Hale, Lloyd Hughes and Eddie Phillips. The talk is clear. It has been shown in this city as a regular picture. “Her Man” — with Helen Twelvetrees and Phillips Holmes (Pathe, Sept. 2i; running time, 83 minutes) A powerful story, unfolding in the Havana underworld. There are some deeply moving situations, but the entire picture holds the interest w’ell. Though the story is not saintly, and unfolds in no saintly environment, yet the director has handled it so well that it is hardly offensive to any one. But it is not a Sunday School picture by any means. The main point in the story is the great love of a sailor boy, (hero), mate in a freighter, with the young heroine, working in a dance hall, her job being to rob the sailors of their money and to hand it over to a confederate of hers, (villain), who had, as the spectator is made to understand, been a benefactor to her. The hero stops a sailor from annoying the heroine. But the heroine, although she likes the hero, tries to rob him as she did others. The hero catches her, but although it broke his heart to see her do that, he recognized in her better traits, hidden deep. When she hears that the hero’s ship is about to leave she goes to the dock to take a glimpse of him. After the ship is gone, however, and she turns around, she comes face to face with the hero. She tries to get away from him, but he follows her and eventually makes her admit that she loves him. They spend several hours together and, after confessing that they loved each other, they agree to leave the island. The heroine goes back to get her things, and they agree that he should meet her at the dance hall. The villain had seen them together and lays a plan to murder the hero. The heroine learns of it and in order to save his life, when the hero came to take her, she pretends that she had been “kidding” him. The hero leaves broken-hearted. But a friend of the heroine overtakes him and informs him why she had acted towards him that way. His desire to rescue her from that environment sends him back, full of fight. He rushes up to the villain and engages in a desperate fight with him. He succeeds in taking her away. The fight in the saloon is the fiercest seen in a picture for several years. There is much comedy in it, too. The plot has been founded on a story by Howard Higgin and Tay Garnett. It was directed by Tay Garnett. Ricardo Cortez, James Gleason, and others are in the cast. The talk is very clear. Miss Twelvetrees does a fine bit of acting. “From Soup to Nuts” — with a special cast (Fox, Sept. 28; running time, 70 min.) This is a good comedy, and if it should be shown in crowded houses people should split their sides with laughter. There is hardly any plot to it ; it is really a conglomeration of nonsensical situations. But it is laughable nonsense. The plot has to do with the heroine’s uncle, who conducts a costume shop. He is about to lose his shop to the creditors, chief among w’hom is the heroine’s father. The hero is sent to take charge of the store. He meets the heroine and is attracted by her beauty. But when she learns that he was taking the shop away from her uncle, she gets angry at him and does not want to have anything to do with him. In the end, of course, she finds out that he meant to do no harm to her uncle. This was when the shop caught fire and burned and he told her that the insurance had been taken out in her uncle’s name. The story was written by the famous cartoonist, Rube Goldberg. Benjamin Stoloff directed it. In the cast are Ted Healy, Frances McCoy, Stanley Smith, Hallam Cooley, George Bickel, William H. Tooker and others. The talk is fairly clear. (Silent values, very good.)