Harrison's Reports (1933)

December 2, 1933 HARRISON’S REPORTS 191 “Carnival Lady” with Boots Mallory {Goldsmith Prod.; rumiing time, 67 min.) A moderately entertaining program picture. In the beginning its movement is slow, and the acting is rather listless ; but it picks up a little in the second half. The most exciting feature is a diving act in a carnival show in which a man jumps from a height of one hundred feet into a tub of water five feet deep. Some sympathy is felt for the hero and the heroine, and the closing scenes hold one in fair suspense because of the death of one of the performers ; one fears lest this involve the hero. The carnival atmosphere might be enjoyed by some audiences : — When the hero loses his fortune he takes to the road and picks up two companions. With them he joins a carnival, and when the performer in the high-dive act is injured he takes his place. The heroine, a singer in the carnival, falls in love with the hero as he does with her. They go out together one night and meet some of the hero’s former friends. The hero refuses an easy position from one of his friends because he does not want to leave the heroine. His friends induce her to give him up. The former performer, fully recovered, returns. In a quarrel with one of the hero’s pals he is knocked out and hits his head against a board ; he dies. The hero covers this up to make it appear as an accident. He induces the heroine to leave the carnival with him. They marry and his friends learn to respect her. The plot was adapted from a story by Harold E. Tarshis. It was directed by Howard Higgin. In the cast are Allen \'^incent, Donald Kerr, Rollo Lloyd, Gertrude Astor, Jason Robards, and others. Suitable for children, adolescents, and for Sundays. “Design for Living” with Miriam Hopkins, Gary Cooper, Fredric March and Edward Everett Horton (Paramount, December 9; running time, go min.) Cultured audiences should enjoy this picture, but the masses should be bored by it. It is a high comedy, with the appeal directed chiefly to sophisticated men and women. The direction and the acting are excellent but the action is too slow for the picture-goer of the rank and file. The plot has been taken from Noel Coward’s play. Most of the sex suggestions have been either eliminated or treated with a delicate hand — so delicate, in fact, that many young folk will miss the point. But there is no mistaking the fact that a woman, who had befriended two men, one a playwright and the other an artist, liverl first with the one and then with the other, finally leaving both and marrying a third — a business man, with whom she had been friends Ijefore she had met the other two, in the end to leave her husband to follow the two friends. Ernst Lubitsch directed the picture with skill. The acting of the four principals is artistic. Unsuitable for either children or adolescents, and not a good Sunday show. “Counsellor At Law” with John Barrymore {Universal, Dec. 4; running time, 81 min.) Good entertainment. It has an abundance of human interest, fast action and situations that hold one in tense suspense. Even though the story unfolds entirely in a law office, the audience never has the feeling as if the action is confined to one certain spot for the characters move around from room to room, and there are several good character stiKlies of people who work in the office and others who visit the office. The suspense is sustained throughout because of the dangerous position John Barrymore finds himself in as the result of a kind but shady act he had once committed to save a man from a life sentence ; he had established a false alibi. But this does not lessen the sympathy one feels with him because it was more of a human act of kindness rather than one of crookedness. The closing situation comes as a pleasant surprise ; Barrymore obtains information about his enemy with which he forces him to abandon his efforts to disbar him. Bebe Daniels, Barrymore’s secretary, is a sympathetic character, as is Barrymore’s mother, for they are both devoted to him in an unselfish way. There are some good comedy situations that should arouse laughter. Barrymore, a famous Jewish lawyer, is happily married to Doris Kenyon, a Christian society woman, mother of two children from a former marriage. Although he loves her he senses that he does not receive the proper sympathy from her or her children. A politician friend informs Barrymore of the fact that a certain lawyer was going to make an effort to have him disbarred. He had raked up facts about an old case that Barrymore handled in which he used a false alibi to free a poor man who had promised to go straight. Barrymore is forced to postpone his contemplated trip to Europe with his wife, but she tells him she will sail alone so as to avoid being mixed up in the scandal. By having this man shadowed, Barrymore obtains evidence that he was leading a double life ; thus he forces the lawyer the withdraw disbarrment proceedings. He telephones to the ship to ask his wife to get off so that they might sail together a few days later, but she refuses. He then realizes she vvas leaving him for good and that there was another man in her life. Alone in the office he is just about to jump out of the window when Bebe Daniels, who had gone back, screams. This brings him to his senses. And a telephone call from a very prominent man who wanted him to handle a murder case brings back his interest in life. He joyfully leaves the office with Bebe. The plot was adapted from the Play by Elmer Rice. It was directed by William Wyler. In the cast are Onslow Stevens, Melvyn Douglas, Isabel Jewel, Thelma Todd, Mayo Methot, and others. Suitable for children, adolescents, and Sundays. “The Worst Woman in Paris” with Adolphe Menjou and Benita Hume {Fox, October 20; running time, 76 min.) Mediocre ! It is almost amateurish in story and presentation ; it drags during most of its unfolding, and just barely holds the interest. The action never strikes a note of realism. The story is thin, and the characters do little to win the sympathy of the audience. It is only in the closing scenes that one feels some sympathy for Benita Hume, when she sacrifices love and marriage with a good man for another man who had once been kind to her and now needed her help : — Benita Hume, a resident of Paris, is Adolphe Menjou’s mistress. She had a reputation of being a very bad woman. Menjou had given her jewels and money and she saved enough to feel quite independent. So when Menjou hints at the fact that he should like to be free she gladly consents to this and sails for America. While on a train bound from New York to the west there is an accident and Benita is quite heroic in assisting people. She is injured herself, and is taken to the home of one of the town residents, a school teacher Harvey Stephens, and his mother. Stephens and Benita fall in love with each other, and she inspires him with confidence in himself. She agrees to marry him. But her plans are all upset when she reads an item in the paper that Menjou had lost his fortune and was down and out. She realizes that she is not the woman for Stephens, and so she leaves him, and goes back to Paris and Menjou. She gives Menjou all her jewels and money to go back into business again and with this aid he is able to recotip his fortune. The gossip in Paris is that Benita had left Menjou when she knew he was going to lose his fortune and she had come back when he had regained it. Benita and Menjou marry, but this does not stop him from carrying on flirtations with other women. The plot was adapted from a story by Monta Bell and directed by him. In the cast are Helen Chandler, Margaret Seddon. and others. Not for children, adolescents, or for Sundays. Substitution Facts : In the worksheet Myrna Loy is promised as the star. In the finished product Benita Hume has the leading role. It is, therefore, a star substitution. “The Chief” with Ed Wynn (MGM, Nov. 3; running time, 65 min.) If this picture was produced for the amusement of twoyear-olds, it serves its purpose; it certainly cannot be classed as adult entertainment. It is clean enough, but that is as far as it goes ; the story, even for a comedy, is exceedingly silly, the action is slow, and only occasionally does it arouse any laughter. It is just an ordinary program comedy that will probably amuse the children because of the antics of Ed Wynn, who wrestles a bear, makes silly speeches, does the wrong thing at the wrong time, and behaves like a simpleton. His jokes are old, the comedy weak, and the whole thing rather amateurish. The closing scenes, showing him at a broadcasting station, reveal the fact that the whole story was just a broadcast given by Wynn. In the story Wynn is a bashful man who becomes a hero and a fire chief through an accident and not because of any real bravery on his part. He is nominated for office to run against a tough gangster. The picture was directed by Charles Riesner. In the cast are Chic Sale, William Boyd, C. Henry Gordon, Mickey Rooney, Purnell Pratt, George Givot and others. (Out-oftown review. ) Suitable for children, adolescents, and Sundays.