Hollywood Spectator (1931)

August 29i 1931 is if producers ever acquire an understanding of how such pictures should be made. Ricardo has something in addition to an admirably trained voice of fine quality. He has the kind of personality that the public warms to promptly and he could acquire a following by his acting only. His real name is David Percy and he has done some picture work. He broadcasts nationally, which gives hi? radio name considerable exploitation value. T T ▼ ▼ PARAMOUNT announces that it is going to take a leaf out of Metro’s book and perform major operations on its pictures that reveal weak spots when they are previewed before audiences. A quicker and cheaper plan for Paramount to adopt would be to make pictures that did not require retakes. Public announcement of the fact that hereafter the retake policy will prevail on the lot amounts to an invitation to writers and directors to be as careless as they like in their first attempts to make their pictures. If scripts were prepared properly there would be no reason for retakes. ▼ T ▼ T It WOULD BE interesting to know where Paramount got the name, Night Angel, that is tacked onto the Eddie Goulding picture made at the Long Island studio. There is no more night in it than there is in most pictures, and throughout its entire length there is not the slightest suggestion of anything angelic. As it ends on top of something with Nancy Carroll clutching Fredric March against the sky, it might as well have borrowed an idea from Rene Clair’s Sous les T oils de Paris and called itself Au dessus des Toils de Prague. ▼ T ^ ▼ CULLED FROM my fan mail: “May I verbally shake your hand for your comment and predictions on Norma Shearer’s pictures? Miss Shearer is such a clean sort of a person, she even looks clean to me, as though she were just freshly scrubbed. Why then, should she play such questionable parts? Free Soul was good, even though Lionel Barrymore almost stole the show. Still it was a ‘dirty picture,’ so keep right on hammering for better pictures for Norma. You will be doing her a favor.” ▼ T ^ ^ The OTHER NIGHT I encountered a Pathe two-reel comedy that contained an excellent performance by Bobby Agnew, who was a great favorite a few years ago. His impersonation of a flirtatious girl is presented with rare skill and evidence of a lively sense of humor. I did not know that he could do such good work. Producers should not continue to overlook him. T ▼ ^ ^ As A MITIGATING circumstance we should consider the fact that although it has been operating for several generations, the Vanderbilt family has given us but one Neil. T ▼ ▼ Interesting If True (G. A. Atkinson in The Methodist Times, London) It interests me, as an informed commentator on this terrific panorama, to notice that the only Church which has made any kind of effective stand against diabolical films is the Roman Catholic Church and, for that reason, the only Church of which the cinema industry is afraid is the Roman Church. That is probably because the Roman Church has a touch of drama in its constitutional procedure and has the art of throwing the full weight of tradition into its movements. It is a fact that Italy and the Irish Free State, for example, have practically succeeded in smashing the onset of the evil films, even though, in the process, they have all but brought the theatres to a standstill. Italy is taking no risks with the elements in foreign entertainment that might undermine her patriotic ambitions, and Ireland has her traditional reputation to maintain as the country in which the standard of chastity is higher than in any other. Ireland bans the talkies in wholesale fashion, a policy epigrammatically expressed by the chief of its censoring board, who said that “what might be good enough for 120,000,000 people in America is not good enough for 3,000,000 people in Ireland.” And that, I may say, expresses my policy as a film critic — only the best is good enough for the English people. ▼ ▼ T The Insult of Vulgarity (Jeanette Stratton Porter in Motion Picture Herald) Now the old question of pictures for children is practically eliminated: we are forced to provide other diversion and amusement for them. I am now concerned with the much more important question of what pictures we may see which will not outrage our sense of decency and code of morals and insult our imagination, mentality and sense of humor. HARVEY GALLERIES CHINESE THEATRE 6927 HOLLYWOOD BLVD. HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA FINE PAINTINGS We Have The Best Money Can Buy Exhibition Gallery Open from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. And Evenings 7:45 P.M. to 10:45 P.M. PAINTINGS CLEANED AND RESTORED ARTISTIC FRAMING Appraisals of Paintings 1 SPECIALISTS IN INSURED INVESTMENTS ANNUITIES LIFE INSURANCE the Logan Agency BARNETT BLDG. HEMPSTEAD 2352 HOLLYWOOD CALIFORNIA