Hollywood Filmograph (Jan-Jul 1930)

HOLLYWOOD F1LM0GRAPH 29 Review "FREE AND EASY" M-G-M All-talking-Singing Comedy. Starring Buster Keaton. Shown at Loew's State Theatre. Well — Buster Keaton in a moment of reckless temerity (outbraving Charlie Chaplin) has busted into the vocables, and if gusts of laughter coming from the auditories can be taken as a criterion of his success, he surely has gone over the top with a warn. Buster's voice is very much like that of Dante's Satan — sepulchral, low, baleful and unmelodious, and through all his spoutings and guttural exhalations he still maintains the famous frozen face. The crazy, patchwork plot of "Free and Easy" gives Keaton ample opportunity to festoon his line of funmaking with plenty of slap-stick knockabout abandon. Under the effeminate name of Elmer, and emanating from a little burg that is a pimple on the face of Kansas, he assumes the part of a glug with a moving picture complex. Into this complex he draws Elvira (Anita Page), an amaryllis, afflicted with an awful cinema urge. Constituting himself as her manager and promising her early stellar eminance, he induces her and her mother to "Hollywood it" with him. Arriving at the M-C-'M studio and crashing the gate, he is pursued by the gate officer, and then things occur good and plenty, the glug, in endeavoring to elude the copper, hutting into many scenes that are being shot and putting most of them on the fritz. In one of them he almost blows up the entire studio, including Karl Dane. From here to the final sequence Elmer is in a maelstrom of comic difficulties that keeps the paid customers in an uproar of laughter almost every moment of the journey. The denouement finds him losing his lady love Elvira, to Larry (Robert Montgomery), a sort of movie sheik. In the final sequence, Buster has a chance to display his versatility as a comic opera comedian and in this he is a warn. Anita Page, regarded by many as the most beautiful girl in Shadowland, on and off the screen, turns in a dandy portrayal of a stage-struck bucolic. Her naive sweetness is illusively hit off in her love scenes with Larry, and she is arrestingly attractive in several closeups. During the twirling, one gets transient gleams of William Haines, Gwen Lee, John Miljan, William Collier, Sr., Lionel Barrymore, Dorothy Sebastian and Karl Dane. Trixie Friganza is excellent as the mother Robert Montgomery, suavely convincing as the enamored Larry. Fred Niblo tore off a dexterous bit of directorial acting (we should like to see more of Freddie in thespic flights). Hats off to Director Sedgwick, whose keen eye for details never missed a cog. He made "Buster" funnier than ever in this one and should be signed for a long time by one of the big shots. Tuneful music was contributed by Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert. Leonard Smith twirled off the photography with a dab hand. "Free and Easy" can be set down as a triumphal debut for Buster Keaton in the talkies. An excellent two hours' entertainment was rounded out with Preview "FOX MOVIETONE FOLLIES OF 1930" AH talkie singing production. Previewed at the Ritz Theatre, Wilshire and La Brae. The "Fox Follies of 1930," as far as cinema merit is concerned, is just another case of wife in name only. True it boasts a well-knit plot to hang on its bag of tricks, intermingling ensembles and elaborate scenic flashes, but there the heart thrill ends (done to death stuff), and the entertainment lapses into a rapid decline simply because the vehicle in its entirety is scandalously lacking in novelty and scintillating talent. We are beginning to apprehend that the moving-picture public is about in the last of Matthew when it comes to lending a glad eye to Ziegfeld effusions. The Fox people might have lifted their "Follies of 1930" into the first flight of Ziegfeldian phantasies had they chosen to shoot it in technicolor, but the production is spun off entirely in black and white. Then again, the music is not catchy, the only real song hit bobbing up in "Here Comes Emily Brown," exquisitely pulled off by little Margery White, the greatest "find" in "Talkieland" since the advent of Old Mike. Little Margery is excellently assisted by Frank Richardson who is fast developing into a clicking comedian. But to our moutons. The yarn, of stereotyped vintage, finds Conrad Sterling (Buster Collier), a young rounder with a bosom thoroughly impregnated with footlight sirens. Of course he has an opulent uncle, Kingsley, who threatens to disinherit him if he stretches his love for Mary Mason (Miriam Seeger), to the altar. Well, to make a long story short, Conrad wins his lady love simply because Fate shows Unky in the same boat with him, a sort of a "darling Dodo" for a gold digger. This is all discovered when Young Sterling pulls off a wow of a whoopee party in his Unky's mansion while Unky is away languishing in the smiles of a basilisk, Gloria De Witt (Noel Francis). Then it's simply another case of "here comes the bride." Little Margery White is a juvenile Marie Dressier, her mimic effervescence and spontaneous humor saving the film from the doldrums. Every moment of her work in the picture is greeted with gales of laughter. Frank Richardson goes over big as her side kick. Buster Collier, however, is colorless and moreover his voice is of a lowpitched, raucous vibrancy that is anything but pleasing. Miriam Seeger lacks sparkle and her singing parks close to mediocrity. Al Brenden's comedy is good as a Swede servant, but too often he hangs superfluous on the scene. Noel Francis, a newcomer, displays a lot of robust vivacity and sings fairly well, but is hardly able to show at her best while rubbing elbows with her apathetic co-workers. Yola d'Avril in the role of a French maid, throws a lot of pep into several of the sequences. Huntly Gor Fanchon and Marco's "Milky-Way Idea" and a farrago of vaudeville turns. ED O'MALLEY. Review "FAY MARBE" Belasco Theatre. The Belasco Theatre, stronghold of the best that has been thought and said in the theatre, has gone modernistic for the current week at least, sports new programs, and presents entertainment that is in last analysis vaudeville. Fay Marbe is offering her "A Continental Night" for a one week engagement. To call the presentation a onegirl revue is somewhat erroneous, for the dancing done by Miss Marbe's brother Gilbert is as fine as any one feature of the show, and his work with her in the Blue Danube number was responsible for the biggest hit the program scored. But Miss Marbe unquestionably has a great burden to carry in holding the Belasco stage more or less by herself for a whole evening, and she gives evidence of hard work in doing it. Obviously, only one commodity will assist a little lady in such a task, and of this ware, personality, the performer has an abundance. To say that the performance was too sophisticated, too esoteric for a Pacific coast audience would not do justice to the large number who seem to have grasped every nuance of the presentation. For one thing, it was not as polyglot as one would expect. A large majority of the numbers were in German, a few in French. Again, the numbers were announced as being somewhat risque, and the gestures attendant on such numbers are Esperanto. Appropriately enough. Miss Marbe established a cabaret atmosphere in the theatre. There is no such thing as sitting back and relaxing with her. The audience worked as hard as she did. In one number she got right down to business and begged the gentlemen in the audience to "prennez moi," if you get the idea; she even offered little mirrors as awards to those who were brave enough to come up and take them from her. Lest anyone should feel neglected, the ushers helped her out in this little number by passing out mirrors to the rest of us. In another number she coerced us into smacking our lips and sighing in unison — a sort of sublimated community singing. An excellent concert ensemble assisted Miss Marbe in her presentations. MOLLIE LEWIN. i i i WORKING Robert Haines who recently was signed by Columbia Studios to play the role of The Warden in "Temptation," which E. Mason Hopper is directing, finished yesterday. Lawrence Gray and Lois Wilson are being featured in this production. don was suavely convincing as ye Uncle Kingsley. Director Ben Stoloff did wonders with the rather poor material he had to deal with in the thespic line. His directing of the extravaganza quirks and ensembles is commendably clean cut and expert. L. W. O'Connell's photography is almost a classic, in its line, but here the tale ends and we sadly desist, with that famous requiem. "Hie jacet the Follies of Fox in 1930." ED. O'MALLEY. Review "HOLIDAY" Hollywood Playhouse. When "Holiday," Philip Barry's reigning Broadway success, made its Los Angeles debut at the Hollywood Playhouse last Sunday night, it took theatregoers and dramatic critics by storm. It is the sort of play which classifies itself among the season's best. Not only that, but it lends zest to one's conversation and brings joy to a troubled soul. "Holiday" is that rare combination of delicious comedy and subtle drama. The repartee is scintillating throughout, but so adeptly maneouvered that one is never conscious of obvious "gags." The situations follow one another so logically that one is not annoyed by superimposed motivation. Henry Duffy has endowed "Holiday" with excellent settings, an admirable cast, and exquisite wardrobes. Dale Winter is Linda, the unhappy, restless girl who lacks the conventionality of her family and surroundings. Her interpretation is characterized by an understanding which should delight Barry's heart. The audience has no fault to find. Miss Helen Baxter makes of the ungrateful role of Julia one of the season's surprises. Though the part she plays is narrow and hidebound, her portrayal is sincere enough to prove convincing. Phil Tead is Ned. the almost-always intoxicated son. His part is played with a refreshing originality. Alexander Clark, Jr., lends a delightful spontaneity to the role of Johnny Case, the ardent young lover who nevertheless knows what he wants and refuses to be denied it. Clarence Geldert as the head of the family, "Big Business Himself," dominates with no visible effort. Several outbursts of applause rewarded Nick and Susan Potter, played by Robert Keith and Olive Cooper for their ingenious mimicry. Herbert Fortier, John Mackenzie, Jane Elton, Dorothy La Mar, and Harry Adams complete the cast. Very much the sort of thing that "Let Us Be Gay" is, "Holiday" evidently represents another attempt on the part of the Duffy menage to appeal to a more sophisticated audience. Those of us who prefer problem plays to mystery melodramas and sophisticated drawing room farce to overwholesome family complications will rise and cheer as we wend our way to the Hollywood Playhouse. FANYA GRAHAM. 4 i i FIELDS BUSY Stanley Fields, the bootleg king of the William Powell starring picture, "Street of Chance," portrays a western outlaw in Zane Grey's "The Border Legion," which Paramount is making as an all-talking picture, r.nd follows this with another fine part in "Manslaughter," directed by George Abbott. 111 "REPORTED" According to box-office statistics compiled by the Warner organization from exhibitors' reports, Roy Del Ruth's latest Technicolor production, "Hold Everything," has already established net receipt figures unequalled by any other comedy production. Del Ruth recently completed the direction of "Three Faces East."