Harrison's Reports (1933)

190 HARRISON’S REPORTS “Havana Widows” with Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell {I'irst Xat’l, JStovetnber i8; running time, 62 wi«.) A pretty good program comedy of the gold-digger variety. borne 01 tlie situations, although a little suggestive, particularly where Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell attempt to put Guy Kibbee in a compromising position, are very funny, and the wisecracks will arouse laughter. The closing scenes are wild, noisy and hectic, and even though they are a little silly one cannot help laughing. Allen Jenkins is an amusing character because ot his dumbness in trusting Joan and Glenda, who give him a hard luck story about needing fifteen hundred dollars to give to Joan’s mother in J^^nsas for an operation. What they really wanted the money for was to go to Havana to attach themselves to millionaires, for they had heard that millionaires were there by the dozens. The fun starts in Havana when they cannot catch a millionaire and find themselves without tunds and with a bill due the hotel for more than six hundred dollars. They get in touch with Frank McHugh, a drunkard, who had a reputation of being a good lawyer in breach of promise actions, and arrange with him to compromise Guy Kibbee, a wealthy old man, so as to collect some money from him. Joan is rather averse to entering into their plot because she had fallen in love with Lyle Talbot, Kibbee’s son, but Joan felt she could not desert her pal, Glenda, and joined in their plans. In the meantime Allen Jenkins, when he found out he had been cheated, followed them to Havana. -■Another reason for his Havana trip was his having forged his chief’s name to the check for the money he had given the girls and he was afraid of being killed. After a hectic endeavor to trap Kibbee they are all arrested and released on condition that they leave Havana. Jenkins’ boss finds him and tells him he forgives him ; asks him to return to the gambling establishment because his luck had been bad ever since he had left. Joan marries Talbot, Glenda marries Jenkins, and they all leave for New York happy. The plot was adapted from a story by Earl Baldwin. It was directed by Ray Enright. In the cast are Ruth Donnelly, Hobart Cavanaugh, Ralph Ince, Maude Eburne, and others. It is all done in such a silly way that it is doubtful if it is harmful to children, or for adolescents or Sundays ; Init an exhibitor will have to use his own judgment about this. “Christopher Bean” with Marie Dressier and Lionel Barrymore (MGM, November 17; running time, 88 min.) Because of the presence of Miss Dressier and of Mr. Lionel Barrymore, the picture entertains well in the first half. The second half, however, falls down considerably because of the exposition of selfishness on the part of Mr. Barrymore, for he is shown as attempting to cheat Miss Dressier of a large sum of money from the sale of valuable paintings, the value of which Lionel knew but of which Marie was ignorant. Lionel had been offered twenty-five thousand dollars for one painting but he was offering Marie only fifty dollars. Since the acts of the protagonists in a play are supposed to stimulate the audience to emulation, Lionel’s change of character is demoralizing. On the whole, the picture will get by : but if any one thinks that it will approach “Tugboat Annie,’’ he will be disappointed. The story revolves around the following idea: .^fter the death of Christopher Bean the artistry of bis paintings is recognized and a big price is offered for them. A story, printed in a magazine, giving details of his life and death, sends two fakers to Lionel Barrymore, who had helped Christopher Bean with money. The first faker poses as an intimate friend of Christopher Bean and generously pays Lionel the small debt Bean owed him. Lionel is naturally pleased. The arrival of the second faker makes Lionel Barrymore realize he had been duped. The Metropolitan Museum offers a large sum for the paintings. Lionel finds out that his cook (Marie Dressier), who was resigning after a service of nineteen years with the Lionel family, held one of the paintings and the Lionel family conspire to take it away from Marie. But Marie held the painting as a keepsake and would not part with it. Cajolings and even intimidations have no effect on her. Through conversation carried on between Lionel and Marie, Lionel finds out that Marie held a large number of Bean’s paintings. He makes her give them to him. But the disclosure by Marie that she is Mrs. Bean compels Lionel to hand the paintings back to Marie again, to the great discomfiture of the Lionel family. The plot has been taken from Sidney Howard’s adaptation of the Rene Fauchios plav : the direction is by .Sam Wood. Helen Mack, Russell Hardie, Jean Hersholt. H. B. December 2, 1933 Warner and others are in the supporting cast. Children will like it ; and so will adolescents if you forget the demoralizing part of Lionel’s act; likewise for a Sunday showing. “Duck Soup” with the Four Marx Brothers {Faramount, November 17 ; running time, 70 min.) Good entertainment. It is as funny and nonsensical as the preceding Marx Brothers pictures ; it should be thoroughly enjoyed by those who like this type of comedy. As usual, there is no sense to the story, or to what they do, but they are so comical and “pull” so many gags that the audience is kept laughing throughout. One of the funniest scenes is where Harpo and Chico, who ran a peanut stand, tease and torment Edgar Kennedy, who ran a lemonade stand. They pinch him, kick him, and finally burn his hat. Kennedy throws over the peanut stand thinking he had put an end to them. But to his amazement Harpo jumps on his stand and starts bathing his feet in the lemonade bowl; this drives all Kennedy’s customers away. The war scenes, too, are extremely comical ; they show Groucho changing his costume every few minutes, but doing no actual fighting. This time the action takes place in a mythical kingdom. The wealthiest woman of the town likes Groucho and so she insists that Groucho be made dictator, otherwise she threatens that she will refuse to lend money to the government. And so Groucho becomes dictator, disrupting the usual procedure of the cabinet and forcing them all to resign. Louis Calhern, an ambassador from a neighboring country, is out to marry the wealthy woman, and thus take over her fortune and her country. He wants Groucho out of the way and engages Raquel Torres to vamp Groucho. He engages also CTiico and Harpo to act as his spies and watch Groucho. They become all mixed up and before one knows it they are working for Groucho. Finally war is declared between Calhern’s country and Groucho’s country because Groucho had insulted Calhern. Groucho’s army, with little help from him, win the war and Groucho falls in the arms of his wealthy admirer. The plot was adapted from a story by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. It was directed by Leo McCarey. In the cast are \Iargaret Dumont, Verna Hillie, Leonid Kinsky, Edmund Breese and Edwin Maxwell. Suitable for children, adolescents, and for Sundays. “East of Fifth Avenue” with Wallace Ford and Mary Carlisle (Columbia, October 20; running lime, 74 min.) Mediocre program fare. The story drags, and the acts of the characters do little to arouse any sympathy for them, with the exception of Walter Connolly and Louise Carter, two old people who loved each other dearly and looked forward to going back to England to live in their own home. But the other characters are spineless. For instance. Wallace Ford, after having been intimate with Dorothy Tree, runs off and marries another girl (Mary Carlisle). He does not know that Dorothy is going to have a child. Dorothy goes around moping when he returns with a wife, and when he finds out the cause of it, he does not think he is the guilty person, accusing her of being no good. His wife, Mary Carlisle, carries on an affair with one of the lodgers in the rooming house, and eventually runs away with this man, taking all of Ford’s money with which he had planned to go into business. But the worst situation of all is the one in which Dorothy Tree, in order to help Wallace Ford get some money together, takes the one thousand dollars the old couple had saved: her intention was just to give it to Ford to bet on a horse which he knew was a sure thing, and then return the money to the couple. The fact that he might have lost the money, thus depriving the old couple of their chances to go back to England, did not concern her. .^s a matter of fact this incident brings about the death of the old woman, who had noticed that the money was gone but did not see the note that Dorothy had left explaining the matter; she had died from shock. And when the husband finds her dead he takes poison, and he, too, dies. Eventually Wallace Ford realizes how worthless his own wife was and is happy to know that he is the father of Dorothy’s child. He and Dorothy are united. The plot was adapted from a story by Lew Levenson. It was directed by .A.lbert Rogell. In the cast are Willard Robertson. Walter Byron. Lucien Littlefield. Maude Eburne. Harry Holman and Fern Emmett. Not suitable for children, adolescents, or for Sundavs. SimsTiTUTTOx Facts : In the worksheet “East of Fifth .\venue” is described as a story by Fannie Hurst. It is a story substitution.