Harrison's Reports (1932)

90 HARRISON’S REPORTS “Night World” with Lew Ayres and Mae Clarke {Universal, May S; running lime, 56 min.) This picture is not particularly entertaining for it is a mixture of murder and drinking, of gangsters and shooting, and also of sordidness. The story is too disconnected to hold one’s attention all the way through. Some sympathy is felt for the hero, particularly in the situation where he learns the real reason why his mother had murdered his father ; but it is in bad taste to pit a son against his mother. The closing scenes hold one in suspense, for they show the hero and the heroine trapped by gangsters who plan to murder them. The heroine is a sympathetic character ; — The heroine is a night club entertainer. She is attracted by the hero for she had noticed him at the club on the previous three nights, always intoxicated. She picks up a convesation with him, but asks no questions for she knows that he is unhappy due to the fact that his mother had killed his father when she found him with another woman. The hero learns that there had been nothing but friendship between his father and the other woman and that his mother knew it. She had murdered her husband because she hated him. This makes the hero hate his mother. He asks the heroine to marry him and sail with him for some quiet spot. She jokingly agrees. After the closing of the club they remain there one night for a cup of coffee. Gangsters enter and kill the night club owner and his wife. Fearing that the hero and the heroine will talk they plan to kill them, too. But they are stopped by a policeman, and the hero and the heroine are saved. The plot was adapted from a story by P. J. Wolfson and Allen Rivkin. It was directed by Hobart Henley. In the cast are Boris Karloff, Dorothy Revier, Russell Hopton, George Raft, and others. Not suitable for children or for Sunday showing. (Not a substitution.) “Night Court” with Walter Huston and Anita Page {MGM, April 23; running time, 90 minues.) This is not an entertainment; it is worse than going to a funeral, for it is a vivid account of the agony a husband and a wife, happily married and with a baby, went through when a corrupt judge, in order to hide his criminal career from becoming known, sent the innocent wife to the work house for six months. Apparently it is a re-enactment of the disgraceful occurrence of this kind in this city, when that Spanish stool pigeon was involved, and when it was disclosed that several innocent women were sent to jail for immorality by the Vice Squad. Those who will see the picture will feel that they have spent the most agonizing one and one-half hour of their lives. The only meritorious part of it is in the closing scenes, where the corrupt judge is brought to justice. But it is not enough to offset the distressing feeling the remainder of the picture creates : — An investigation of the city judiciary is ordered by the Governor and a Judge in the Magistrate’s Court sends his “flame” to engage a room in a poor quarter of the city until the affair blew over. A detective follows the woman. The judge and his “sweetheart” had noticed the detective talking to the woman occupying the next apartment and, fearing less she had said something to him that would have disclosed their whereabouts, call on a confederate to have him frame the woman; by sending a stool pigeon into her apartment while her husband was away, it is made to appear as if she were an immoral woman ; the stool pigeon, who had been found half-disrobed, had sworn that she had invited him in and that she had asked him for an additional twenty dollars. The judge’s accomplice, a lawyer practicing in his court, induces the bewildered woman to plead guilty, making her believe that she will thus escape with a light sentence. Once she pleads guilty, the corrupt judge sends her to the work house for six months. The poor husband, unaware of the occurrence, returns home and learns from the neighbors what had happened. He becomes frantic. At first he does not believe the story ; then he believes it ; then he is sure his wife could not have done such a thing. He goes to the judge to plead with him for her but the only satisfaction he gets is to be deprived of his baby, which the judge orders to a home. He calls on his wife and after hearing her side of the story is determined more than ever not only to bring about her liberation but also to make the judge pay. He succeeds; the judge had been trapped by a dictaphone ; be had uttered threats to kill the chief investigator, and when the investigator is found murdered he is forced Jun^ 4, 1932 to make a clean breast of everything in order to save his life, for even though he had not committed the murder the circumstantial evidence was strongly against him. The plot was adapted from a story by Mark Hellinger and Charles Beehan. It was directed by W. S. Van Dyke, in the cast arc Phillips Holmes, Lewis Stone, Noel Francis, jean Hersholt, and others. Not suitable for children or for Sunday showing. (Not a substitution.) “Street of Women” with Kay Francis {Warner Bros., June 4; running time, 59 mm.) There is not enough to this story to hold the spectator’s interest. It is slow moving and consists of talk and little action. The heroine arouses some sympathy when her brother leaves her, but not enough to oftset the tact that she had been living with a married man, whose wife knew nothing about the affair. It is difficult to sympathize with the heroine’s young brother, for he behaves stupidly. There is no suspense to the story : — The heroine and the hero had been living together for three years. No one knows about the affair for he is a respectable married man with a grown-up daughter. The heroine inspired him to do fine work, whereas his wife was a cold and selfish person. The heroine’s brother, whom she had kept in school in Paris, returns to America. This forces, her to break her relationship with the hero for a time. The brother falls in love with the hero’s daughter and they become engaged secretly. He discovers the true facts of his sister’s affair and goes to South America. After a year he returns and they become reconciled. He and the hero’s daughter marry. The hero’s wife is persuaded to give her husband a divorce and so the hero and the heroine are free to marry. The plot was adapted from a novel by Polan Banks. It was directed by Archie Mayo. In the cast are Allan Dinehart, Marjorie Gateson, Roland Young, Gloria Stuart, Allan Vincent and others. Not suitable for children or for Sunday showing. Substitution Facts : This picture is replacing “Exclusive.” which was to have been founded on a story by Carolyn Sharpe. It is a story substitution, and you are not obligated to accept it. “Escapade” with Anthony Bushell, Sally Blane and Jameson Thomas {First Diinsion; running time, 65 min.) Indifferent ! It could have been made into a good picture, hut the characterization of the hero is poor ; he is shown as having a sex relationship with his brother’s (willing) wife, an act which deprives him of sympathy. The fact that towards the close he sacrifices his life, saving that of his brother, is impotent to efface from the spectator’s memory the bad taste as a result of his caddish act. The heroine does not awaken any sympathy, either ; she is presented as a woman of weak character, even though of not despicable character : — Phillip Whitney (Anthony Bushell), after serving time in the penitentiary for a crime he had committed, goes to his brother Bennie (Jameson Thomas), whom he worshipped. He is accompanied by a friend, former confederate of bis, to whom he tells that the dishonest career days are over for him. His time in jail he had served under a fictitious name. Wlicn he reaches his brother he tells him that he had inst returned from Japan. His brother’s wife Kay (Sally Blane) is young, prettv and charming, and as the brother was always busy with his law affairs Phillip and Kay are thrown too much together with the result that one dav they forget themselves and surrender to their passions. Afterwards they regret it. Kay begs PhilUn to go away so that both might forget their indiscretion. Phillip first promises; later, however, he changes his mind, but does not tell Kay whv. The fact of the matter is that Phillip had seen Gumpy McLane, his ex-cellmate (Walter Long'), prowling around the house, and as the cellmate had told him that ■H’ben he got out of jail he would kill a certain P.ennie Wbitnev because of a wrong he had done to him, Phillip decides to stay to protect bis brother. The ex-convict gains entrance into the house and was waiting for an opportunity to shoot and kill Bennie. But he is confronted by Phillip. Gumpy was not to be deterred from his purpose ; the two shoot it out and kill each other. Thus Rennie never knows about the affair between his brother and his wife. The jilot was based on a story by E. T. Lowe ; it was directed by Richard Thorpe. Not for children or for Sunday showing.