Hollywood Spectator (1931)

November, 1931 29 the production of too many pictures of the same kind, is one. Bawdiness — the result of making pictures primarily for the downtown affiliated houses — is another. But generally Hollywood is doing a pretty good job. Road to Prosperity (Argonaut, San Francisco) There is no royal road back to prosperity. It can not be accomplished by any overt act by anybody. The difficulty with us is not actual but mental. It can be dissipated not by any such concrete act as a reduction in wage scales or a miracle by the administration. It can only be accomplished by a recapture of confidence. Thus far confidence has eluded our spiritual net. In fact we don’t know where to go chasing for it. Sherwood’s Remedy (Robert E. Sherwood in Detroit Saturday Night) There is only one thing that will ever stop it, and that is insufficiency of cash. As long as the Warner boys have access to enough currency to pay Constance Bennett’s $30,000 a week salary, they will pay it, under the delusion that she is worth it — just as Metro-Goldwyn will pay its ornamental executive, Louis B. Mayer, $750,00 a year. Entertainment For Kids (Film Daily) Out of one hundred ninety-four features currently being shown throughout the country, according to the Parents’ Magazine, only twenty-eight per cent are fit for children and only forty-four per cent suitable for adolescents. This statement is made by George J. Hec-ht, publisher. Getting Down to Points (Kann in Motion Picture Daily) We have speculated at length on whether it is the gang picture per se that has aroused criticism, or the flood of very bad ones that has glutted the market. It is our idea that treatment is the ingredient most sorely needed in connection with underworld stuff. If that is true, the job becomes one for Hollywood’s vastly touted miracle men to perform. We think it can be done. Labor and the Cinema (To-Day’ s Cinema, London) Never was it more important than now that the goodwill of the labor side of the industry should be retained, and that the citadel should not be divided against itself. \\ anted — the Common Denominator (Creighton Peet in Outlook and Independent) The big companies still cling blindly to the belief that one grade of film, shown to vastly differing audiences, will make everybody happy. This Month’s Scoop (Wid’s) Normally Hollywood has a feeling that New York doesn’t know what it’s all about. Sometimes New York feels the same about Hollywood. Reviewed in this Number Y Y BOUGHT— A Warner Brothers picture. Directed by Archie Mayo; story by Harriett Henry; adaptation and dialogue by Charles Kenyon and Raymond Griffith; photographed by Ray June; film editor, George Marks. The cast: Constance Bennett, Ben Lyon, Richard Bennett, Dorothy Peterson, Raymond Milland, Doris Lloyd, Maude Eburne, Mae Madison, Clara Blandick, Arthur Stuart Hull, Edward J. Nugent, Paul Porcasi. DEVOTION— An RKO-Pathe picture; a Charles R. Rogers production. Directed by Robert Milton; from the novel, A Little Flat in the Temple, by Pamela Wynne; adaptation by Graham John and Horace Jackson; photographed by Hal Mohr; recording engineers, D. Cutler and H. Stine; musical director, Arthur Lange; art director, Carroll Clark; film editor, Dan Mandell; costume designer, Gwen Wakeling; assistant director, Gordon Hollingshead; associate producer, Harry Joe Brown. The cast: Ann Harding, Leslie Howard, Robert Williams, O. P. Heggie, Louise Closser Hale, Dudley Digges, Allison Skipworth, Doris Lloyd, Ruth Weston, Joan Carr, Joyce Coad, Douglas Scott, Tempe Pigott, Forrester Harvey, Margaret Daily, Pat Somerset, Olive Tell, Claude King, Donald Stewart, Cyril Delevante. GUILTY HANDS— A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. Directed by W. S. Van Dyke; original screen story by Bayard Veiller; photographed by Merritt B. Gerstad; film editor, Anne Bauchens. The cast: Lionel Barrymore, Kay Francis, Madge Evans, William Bakewell, C. Aubrey Smith, Polly Moran, Alan Mowbray, Forrester Harvey, Charles Crockett, Henry Barrows. GOLDIE— A Fox picture. Directed by Benjamin Stoloff ; adaptation and dialogue by Gene Towne and Paul Perez; photographed by Ernest Palmer; recording engineer, Eugene Grossman; art director, Joe Wright; assistant director, Lou Breslow; film editor, Alexander Troffey; costumes by Polly Tree; associate producer, A1 Rockett. The cast: Spencer Tracy, Warren Hymer, Jean Harlow, Lina Basquette, Maria Alba, Eleanor Hunt, Lelia Karnelly, Ivan Linow, Jesse de Vorska, Eddie Kane. GRAFT— A Universal picture. Directed by Christy Cabanne; story, continuity and dialogue by Harry Barringer; photographed by J. Ash; recording engineer, C. Roy Hunter; film editor, Maurice Pivar. The cast: Regis Toomey, Sue Carol, Dorothy Revier, George Irving, Richard Tucker, Boris Karloff, William Davidson, Willard Robertson. HIGH STAKES— A Radio picture. Directed by Lowell Sherman; original play by Willard Mack; screen play and dialogue by J. Walter Ruben; photographed by Roy Hunt; recording engineer, George Ellis; assistant directors, Eddie Killy and Harmon Waite; art director, Max Ree. The cast: Lowell Sherman, Mae Murray, Edward Martindel, Karen Morley, Leyland Hodgson, Charles Coleman, Ethel Levey, Phillip Smalley, Maud Turner Gordon, Alan Roscoe. LAST FLIGHT— A ( First National picture. Direc-te'd by William Dieterle; story and adaptation by John Monk Saunders; photographed by Sid Hiekox; film editor, A1 Hall. The cast: Richard Barthelmess, John Mack Brown, Helen Chandler, Walter Byron, Elliott Nugent, David Manners. or your convenience HOLLYWOOD SPECTATOR 6362 Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood, Calif. 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