Hollywood Spectator (1931)

16 covered him. Even if we are not to see him in The Dove , he remains the “best damn’ Caballero” we have. Again he is the rollicking dare-devil, handsome as they make ’em, with a lively appreciation of feminine beauty, a heart of gold and a spontaneous sense of humor. Fox should keep him in such picturesque romantic parts. There are lots of others available for the sophisticated roles that he has played. One can picture Warner as a swashbuckling rogue with a ready sword and a gay smile, cutting his way through an army of men to rescue some dumbfounded princess. ▼ ▼ Eddie Lowe does well in Cisco Kid as the sargeant assigned to the job of catching the bad man. James Bradbury, Jr., Jack Dillon and Charles Stevens also have capable characterizations to their credit, Conchita Montenegro and Nora Lane supply the feminine touch. Conchita is clever and I think we are going to hear from her. Nora has a charming screen personality. We should see her oftener. Irving Cummings directed the picture in a manner that derived the utmost values from a story that suffered from the fact that it was manufactured solely to bring back to us a character we would be glad to see again. A1 Cohn deserves credit for the writing job even though at times he reveals what tough going it was to spin the thing out to feature length. There are several unnecessary dialogue passages that serve only to retard the action. But despite this handicap Cummings’ direction keeps it moving in a manner that makes it first class entertainment. It is another of the good pictures we are learning to expect from Fox again. Interesting 17 VEN IF IT does not do well at the box-office Universal J has no reason to be ashamed of Heaven on Earth. It permits some cinematic sms, but we can excuse that because of the glimpse it gives us of a new locale and the cross section it presents of a life that I did not know existed — that of the shanty-dwellers , along the banks of the Mississippi river. I doubt if it will be a great J I box-office success as it is not so much screen entertainment of the popular sort as it is a really creditable study of the life and manners of a race of people who elect to live lives so different from ours that it is hard for us to muster up a lively interest in what they do. The background of the picture is one of glamorous unloveliness. The shanty people, obviously uncouth and apparently uneducated, live in wretched structures tethered along the muddy banks of the river. They rather fascinated me and I became more interested in them for what they were rather than for what they did. I regarded them as biological specimens and the picture as a scientific treatise, something that Universal undoubtedly achieved while it was struggling to make a motion picture designed only for entertainment and not a study of some neighbors of whose existence most of us were unaware. Everything looked authentic and consequent Russell Mack Hollywood Spectator ly I found the picture engrossing. Russell Mack’s direction is to be commended. ▼ ▼ Heaven ON Earth is rich in scenic value and has several excellent performances to its credit. Lew Ayres is coming along rapidly as a sincere and intelligent young actor. With each of his performances he intrigues me more. Elizabeth Patterson contributes an excellent characterization, her matured technic combined with an intelligent grasp of the possibilities of her part, resulting in one of the best performances I have seen recently. Harry Beresford also does splendidly. Anita Louise makes a pretty heroine, but still is too inexperienced to be wholly satisfactory. Many smaller parts were handled in a capable manner. The picture is a departure from the usual screen routine and was a rather brave thing for Junior Laemmle to attempt. I see that all the other reviewers attribute few virtues to it, but they judge it by accepted standards. I regard it as something rather odd, and as such I overlook the weaknesses that are revealed when we apply cinematic standards to it. ▼ T ^ v Just WHY I did it, I don’t know, but I read The Private Life of Crela Carbo all the way through. It was written by Rilla Page Palmborg and published by Doubleday, Doran and Company. I never have been curious about what Miss Garbo eats for breakfast or at what hour she goes to bed at night, but I found myself turning page after page that was loaded with precise information on such tremendously important matters. In the fore part of the book, Mrs. Palmborg Terribly Busy Edward Everett Horton T