Hollywood Spectator (1937-39)

Page Ten January 30, 1937 to his medical duties has earned, and suggests he is, after all, weak enough to get drunk again as soon as he can find the time. Never have I seen in any picture a more gratuitous undermining of a carefully developed characterization. T i HE production is bound to provoke controversy, with the medical profession as the protestant. Vividly it portrays how completely the public is at the mercy of those upon whom it must depend for the curing of its physical ills, and openly charges that at least some doctors have more regard for the ethics of their profession than for the lives of those whose fees support it. Sue Carol, who plays a small bit with dramatic impressiveness, dies on the operating table because no other doctor will take the place of the one whose patient she is and who is delayed in his arrival at the hospital. That is the first indictment of the medical profession. Several others follow. Another instance of professional neglect eventuates in a suit for damages against the offending doctor. The trial scene is directed admirably by Charles Vidor and acted splendidly by all those who appear in it, but it is here that the story begins to wabble and leave us up in the air. The hero stultifies himself by compromising with his conscience in giving his testimony, is shot in the shoulder by the plaintiff, and we are not informed as to the result of the trial or what happened to the shooter. But the important thing about A Doctor’s Diary is that it is a picture well worth seeing. Ben Schulberg has given it a production which in itself will engage your close attention. It fairly reeks of ether, a great deal of the action taking place in operating rooms. Owing to Vidor’s skilful direction we get the impression of technical authenticity in the depiction of hospital routine. That is a valuable element of direction — sincerity which in itself make us accept, as being done accurately, things we never before have seen done and of which we know nothing. Vidor did his job really brilliantly and it should earn him other important assignments. George Bancroft gives an excellent performance, as does Helen Burgess, an appealing and talented young woman. A boy, Ra Hauld, proves himself a born actor. His mother is played feelingly by Molly Lamont. Sidney Blackmer, always one of the screen’s most dependable players, gives another of the thoughtful, convincing performances we can expect when we see his name in a cast. Harry Fischbeck’s photography is of the best. Lloyd and Estabrook MAID OF SALEM, Paramount. Producer, Howard Estabrook; director, Frank Lloyd; original, Bradley King; screen play, Walter Ferris, Bradley King and Durwood Grinstead; photographer, Leo Tover; musical director, Boris Morros; original music, Victor Young; art directors, Hans Dreier and Bernard Henbrun; costumes, Travis Banton; assistant director, William Tummel. Cast; Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Harvey Stephens, Gale Sondergaard, Louise Dresser, Bennie Bartlett, Edward Ellis, Beulah Bondi, Bonita Granville, Virginia Weidler, Donald Meek, E. E. Clive, Halliwell Hobbes, Pedro de Cordoba, Madame Sul-te-wan, Lucy Beaumont, Henry Kolker, William Farnum, Ivan Simpson, Brandon Hurst, Sterling Holloway, Zeffie Tilbury, Babs Nelson, Mary Treen, J. Farrell MacDonald, Stanley Fields, Lionel Belmore, Guy Bates Post. AN exceedingly well done job. Regarded solely as a /m specimen of the work Hollywood turns out, Maid of Salem must rank high among the most meritorious productions of any season. Howard Estabrook has given it a setting authentic as to detail in interiors and costuming and which brings to the screen the actual locale in which the story is laid. To its credit also is the fact that the story itself is strictly accurate history. Extreme care was taken and considerable expense incurred in exhaustive research to establish as a fact of history every incident shown on the screen which had a direct bearing on the theme of the story. Frank Lloyd, with many notable pictures to his credit, never has given us a more finished bit of direction. In all phases of the story he is equally at home, from the playfulness of children to the stark horror of the tree on Gallows Hill. And from the members of his distinguished cast he derives evenly excellent performances. So if screen craftsmanship in itself has box-office value, Maid of Salem is destined to enjoy a successful box-office career. If honest presentation of the facts recorded on one of the darkest pages of United States history lacks elements of popularity as screen entertainment, then the picture may not do so well. With impressive grimness it takes us back to Salem Village when that speck of New England was convulsed with the insanity of its belief in witchcraft, an obsession born of such passionate ignorance, distorted beliefs in the supernatural and unbridled bloodlust that eighteen of its people were hanged on Gallows Hill, with the men, women and children of the village as witnesses of the ghastly spectacles. T I HE picture softens history by its refusal to carry the audience to the foot of the gallows, building its tragedy more by what it implies than by what it shows; yet the tragedy of the almost unbelievable ignorance and viciousness of some of the early New England settlers loses none of its strength by such treatment. And the story has application to conditions existing today. That is the excuse for making a photoplay of a page which has been turned and which could profit us little if in its turning back it did not teach us the folly of blind superstition, of ignorance rampant and the danger of misdirected mob psychology. For this lesson which the photoplay teaches we are indebted to Frank Lloyd for the selection of the story material and the graphically impressive manner in which he presents it to us. An alieviating element in the general drabness of the story is the pleasant background against which it is told. Paramount sent its technical experts to the actual scenes in which the tragedies of a belief in witchcraft were enacted. Thus by the magic of the motion picture camera early New England is recreated authentically for us. Leo Tover’s photography is one of the picture’s assets. The same meticulous attention to detail exercised by Bradley King, writer of the highly creditable story, was displayed in the architecture of the sets and their decoration. From a pictorial standpoint alone Maid of Salem is a notable production. ThE acting honors go to Claudette Colbert. She has many excellent performances to her credit, but at the