Hollywood Spectator (1931)

August 1, 1931 17 some director with stark genius transplants pure insanity on the screen. I do not know how he will do it, or when. But it will be done eventually, and when the task is accomplished motion picture art will have something which will rank favorably with the best that other arts have produced. Action ▼ Y THE PUBLIC DEFENDER proves once more that RKO is dealing very gingerly and very cleverly with Richard Dix. It is not permitting him to be abandoned to stereotyped roles. By maintaining the gentleman’s versatility in the public eye it is increasing his reputation and enlarging his value to the studio. In Cimarron he was a pioneer, in Young Donovan’s Kid he was something quite different, and in The Public Defender he is represented as an idle but alert young gentleman of society. His latest picture makes no pretentions to greatness, but it is excellent entertainment, and its action is maintained at a rapid speed from beginning to end. I think that not once is there a noticeable let-down in the story. Dix is presented as “The Reckoner,” an avenger of the innocent and a nemesis to that particular variety of crooks who rob their own banks and swindle orphans. Shirley Grey’s father is threatened with prison as a result of a conspiracy among his directors which has wrecked his bank and thrown the blame upon his shoulders. Dix, it develops, is in love with Miss Grey. I do not blame him in the slightest for the affection, but he has a disagreeable habit of hiding it. In their endeavor to escape from sickly sentimentality I detect a concerted effort on the part of directors to cut sentiment to the bone. I hope it will not be over-emphasized, because sophisticated love is not exactly good business in the villages. The tensest moments of The Public Defender are shot in silence. Dix and his colleagues, Paul Hurst and Boris Karloff, elude guards and steal manuscripts from under the nose of everybody but the state militia. And they do it in a silence which keeps the audience on edge. Even the dialogue on the outskirts of these silent shots is curtailed, so that the dramatic value does not sag too abruptly. The camera tells most of the story, for which Director J. Walter Ruben is to be felicitated, and for which he will be rewarded by generous public patronage. Max Ree’s settings are as usual excellent and restrained, and Carl Gerard, Frank Sheridan, Edmund Breese, Purnell Pratt and Nella Walker handle their parts in a highly satisfactory manner. The Public Defender is one picture that I distinctly enjoyed. Good and Bad ▼ ▼ BIG BUSINESS GIRL is a fairly amusing and highly improbable affair about a young woman from college who vamps her boss into an excellent job, vamps her boss’s best customer into a job for the boy friend and husband, and ends happily with everything solved. Accepting the story, one may enjoy it, but there are portions which will outrage many. I refer chiefly to Warner Brothers-First National-Vitaphone’s insistence upon advertising the Brunswick radio. The feat was accomplished in Gold Dust Gertie and again in Business Girl one finds Brunswick grabbing a lot of footage. I am forced to wonder why the automobile, which was called the Royal Eight, was not likewise branded Cadillac or Packard. It should have been in order to justify the inclusion of Brunswick. Perhaps I am an exception, but I become highly indignant at such crudity. V V But to compensate in part for this mistake, there is at least one delightful sound effect. A newspaper excerpt announcing the departure of the hero and heroine is flashed on the screen, and while the audience reads it, the sound of a train bell conveys the suggestion of travel. While I still was chuckling with happiness at this inclusion, I was brought sharply to reality by the bad tempo of Frank Albertson as an orchestra director. Albertson is a charming actor, and carried his big boy role with considerable success, but as an orchestra leader he is like nothing that was ever seen on earth or over the earth or under the earth. Ricardo Cortez shared masculine honors with Albertson, but the performance of Miss Joan Blondell as the professional co-respondent struck me harder than anything else in the picture. The direction of William A. Seiter is brilliant in spots, and considering the story material he may be forgiven for those portions which are not so brilliant. Although Miss Loretta Young is absolutely devastating — perhaps the most beautiful young woman on the screen — I am not yet convinced that she is a completely finished actress. But as far as that goes, she doesn’t have to be. Better stories would help her. For summer fare Big Business Girl is probably good entertainment, although I didn’t believe a bit of it. All for a Woman YV THREE WHO LOVED is a serious drama which is effective but not memorable. The story is an interesting one, and Conrad Nagel, Robert Ames and Betty Compson, who never turn in bad performances, are included in the cast. George Archainbaud directs capably enough, but there is too much conversation. The picture begins with talk and ends with talk, and the cessation between beginning and end is hardly noticeable. It is a welcome relief from current pictures because it is utterly unsophisticated. The characters do not have a particularly easy moral standard, and their difficulties become genuine and interesting. Conrad Nagel and Robert Ames are bank clerks when Betty Compson arrives fresh from Sweden to marry Nagel. While her future husband keeps his nose in law books the young lady falls in love with Ames, who gives us an excellent interpretation of a trifler. Nagel steals from the bank, Ames is blamed and goes to prison, and the resulting complications. 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