Harrison's Reports (1933)

April 15. 1933 59 HARRISON’S REPORTS “When Strangers Marry” with Jack Holt {Columbia, March 20 ; running time, 68 min.) A good program picture. The action is fast enough to hold the interest of the audience fairly tight, and the acts of the hero arouse fairly strong sympathy because they are manly. The closing scenes are fairly thrilling; they show Hindus attacking the hero and his engineering party, the latter putting up a stiff defense, killing most of the attackers and driving off the remainder : — The hero meets in Paris the wild young daughter of an American millionaire and marries her. She accompanies him to Hindo-China, where he had signed a contract to build a railroad. But life is soon monotonous for her because her husband is away. When the villain, who had every reason to prevent the hero from finishing the railroad, approaches her and invites her to sail with him to England, she half-accepts his invitation. The hero returns for supplies and she remonstrates with him. But he tells her that he must finish the railroad. When he leaves, she goes to the villain’s house. While there she learns that he had sent men to murder her husband and, managing to escape, obtains help and reaches her husband in time to warn him of the danger. When the attackers surround them and start shooting, the hero and his men are ready for them; they kill most of them, driving off the remainder. The hero then realizes how much the heroine loved him. Maximilian Foster wrote the story, Clarence Badger directed it. Lilian Bond plays opposite Mr. Holt. Barbara Baronde, and Gustave Von Seyffertitz are in the cast. Not harmful to children and to adolescents ; but whether you can show on a Sunday a picture that shows so much drinking and jazzing in the beginning it is for each one of you to determine. “Ex-Lady” with Bette Davis (Warner Bros., A{»'il 8; running time, 65 min.) Just fair entertainment. It is a rehash of a familiar theme — that of the modern conception of marriage. It is reeking with sex, since it is made up mostly of different love scenes, very evident as to their intent. The first half of the picture is demoralizing since it is shown that Bette Davis and Gene Raymond live together although unmarried. Also in these scenes Bette Davis e.xpresses her views very freely about free lov'e and the inconveniences of marriage. The story moves slowly and becomes rather tiresome. for tlie outcome is quite obvious. It is the sort of picture that will probably attract flappers, first because of the clothes worn by Bette Davis, and secondly because of the daring theme involved ; — Bette Davis, an artist, and Gene Raymond, owner of an advertising agency, are lovers. One night her father and mother call to see her and when they find Raymond there they denounce her. Because of this Raymond begs Davis to marry her, and although she feels it is the wrong thing to do she marries him. For a time they are very happy. They take a honeymoon trip and when they return Raymond finds that, because of his absence, some important business was lost. Bette Davis continues with her work, even doing drawings for rival advertising agencies. This irks Raymond. One quarrel soon follows another and they decide to live apart. While dining at a hotel with a friend one night she sees Raymond going up in the elevator with a married woman ; Bette knew this woman wanted Raymond. She follows them up to the hotel room and then denounces them. Enraged she goes with her companion to his apartment and when he starts making love to her she resents it and leaves. She returns to her apartment and there finds Raymond. He had come to apologize and beg her to return to him. They decide to live together again. The plot was adapted from a story by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin. It was directed by Robert Florey. In the cast are Frank McHugh. Monroe Owsley. Claire Dodd, Kay Strozzi. Ferdinard Gottschalk. and others. Not suitable for children, adolescents, or for Sundays. Substitution Facts : This is replacing No. 40Q which is listed on the work-sheet as “Barbara Stanwyck.” It is, therefore, a star substitution. “Elmer the Great” with Joe E. Brown (First National, A/^ril 2q; running time, 72 min.) A fairly good comedy. There are not as many laughs as in former Brown comedies, but it is clean and wholesome fun, and should particularly appeal to young baseball fans. It is somewhat slow and not until it is about half way through that it picks up speed. The closing scenes, even though they take a few liberties with the game of baseball, are exciting ; fans will howl with glee when Brown, in the last game of the World .Series, gets up to bat in the ninth inning with bases full and smashes out a home-run, winning the game for his team. As usual. Brown is presented as a sap, for whom one feels much sympathy. In this instance, he is an egotistical baseball player, who expresses so much confidence in his ability that every one teases him. One situation is unpleasant ; it is where Brown accepts a bribe from some gamblers to stay away from the game. It is not until later that one learns that Brown’s intentions were to double-cross the gambler and to play in the game. There is a pleasant romance between Brown and Patricia Ellis Brown, a small town clerk in a store owned by Patricia Ellis, and a member of the local baseball team, is bought by a Major League team. He refuses to leave town because he is in love with Patricia and he confesses this to her. In order to force him to leave she makes him believe she does not love him and tells him he is discharged. He signs the contract and becomes a sensation in the baseball world. The other members of the team play practical jokes on him, such as making him believe he is talking over the radio when in reality he is talking into a sunray lamp. Patricia comes to Chicago to see Brown ; in the lobby of the hotel she notices him kissing another girl and refuses to talk to him. Discouraged he goes to a gambling establishment with another team member and innocently plays at a game. It is not until the end of the game that he is told he lost $5,000. He gives the owner an 1.0. U. and when the owner suggests Brown could make money by throwing the game a fight ensues and Brown and his pal are taken to jail. He finds out about the radio joke and vows never to play with his team again. The heroine pays off the 1.0. U. and the gambler goes to the jail to tell Brown about it. He gives Brown $5,000 and Brown signs a paper promising to throw the game. But Brown has other ideas. He enters the game ; it takes much talking on his part to convince the ow’ner of the team that he is not crooked, for the gambler had shown the paper to the owner. He tells the owner he had double-crossed the gamblers by betting the $5,000 on his own team to win. He goes into the game and in the ninth inning wins it for his team. He and the heroine are united. The plot has been adapted from a play by Ring Lardner and George M. Cohan. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy. In the cast are Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd, Preston S. Foster, Russell Hopton, Sterling Halloway, Emma Dunn, and others. Suitable for children, adolescents and for Sundays. “The Phantom Broadcast” with Ralph Forbes (Monogram, March 30; running time, 71 min.) Fairly good. It could have been better had not the wouldbe radio crooner been presented with such unpleasant traits, and had gangsterism been left out. Another weakness is the fact that the hero is made to fall in love with the heroine too suddenly ; it is not convincing : — The story deals with a hero who, while he sings and accompanies himself on the piano, has a young man go through a singer’s motions and strain, so that people looking through the glass partitions at the radio station believe that the fine singing crooner is the young man. He does this because he himself is a hunchback and makes a poor appearance. A racketeer, seeing an opportunity to make easy money, tries to induce the would-be crooner to drop the hero and to sign up with him. He instructs his “flame” to do the coaxing. But she becomes infatuated with him. The heroine, a girl with a fine voice, calls on the hero to have him test her voice. The would-be crooner sees her and becomes infatuated with her. He makes himself known to her. The racketeer’s flame, seeing herself about to be displaced, shoots and kills the would-be crooner. The hero is already in love with the heroine and, fearing for her “safety” at the hands of the would-be crooner, goes to his apartment to kill him. When he finds him dead he thinks that the heroine had killed him and, in order to protect her. telephones to the police that he had shot him. The heroine calls and when she learns about the murder she tells the hero that she had nothing to do with it. In attempting to escape he is shot and wounded. He reaches the broadcasting station, sings the “crooner’s” song, and dies. The story is by Tristram Tupper; the direction, by Phil Rosen. Vivian Osborne, Gail Patrick, Rockliffe Fellows, and others are in the cast. Children under eight will not understand the sex situations. Not suitable for the others, and for adolescents. Unsuitable for Sunday showing.