Hollywood Spectator (1937-39)

Page Six March 27, 1937 Some Late ^Previews Great Job, Done Greatly SEVENTH HEAVEN, 20th Century-Fox. Associate producer, Raymond Griffith; director, Henry King; play, Austin Strong; screen play, Melville Baker; photographer, Merritt Gerstad; music and lyrics, Lew Pollack and Sidney D. Mitchell; musical direction, Louis Silvers; film editor, Barbara MacLean; assistant director, Robert Webb. Cast: Simone Simon, James Stewart, Jean Hersholt, Gregory Ratoff, Gale Sondergaard, J. Edward Bromberg, John Qualen, Victor Kilian, Thomas Beck, Sig Rumann, Mady Christians, Rollo Lloyd, Rafaela Ottiano, George Renavent, Edward Keane, John Hamilton, Paul Porcasi, Will Stanton, Irving Bacon, Leonid Snogoff, Adrienne D'Ambricourt. Running time, 92 minutes. SEVENTH HEAVEN , with all its emotional power, all the greatness of its simplicity and its elemental tug at our heart-strings, is born again on the screen. It was an audacious challenge the talkies made to match their technique with that of pre-talkie days in the treatment of a story the silent screen made into a picture that will live long in the memory of those who saw it. As a talkie it will rank high among its kind. The silent version ran twenty-two weeks at the Carthay Circle, its run being exceeded at that house only by What Price Glory ? which ran for twenty-three weeks, three days. But if the talkie duplicates the success of the first version, it will not be a complete triumph for the new treatment. Henry King’s long experience in directing silent pictures is responsible for the greatest factor in making the new Seventh Heaven superlative entertainment. The two outstanding performances, of course, are those of James Stewart and Simone Simon, and practically all the values of both performances are brought out by the camera. The most eloquent speech of Stewart, the one which made the lump in my throat expand to the point of pain, was one he did not utter. He tries to tell Diane that he loves her, but chokes and says nothing. There are perhaps a dozen emotion-producing scenes in the picture in which a few words are spoken, but whose values are expressed in visual terms. The picture is the nearest approach we have had yet to the perfect blending of the old and the new technique, the silent and the talkie forms. Ml ELVILLE BAKER’S screen play is brilliant screen writing. He never loses sight of the camera, never strives obviously for emotional climaxes, always balances nicely the causes and the effects until he gives us a logical succession of events which maintains a smooth forward flow of filmic motion. And Henry King has molded the whole with the touch of a master. I always feel like applying the adjective “nice” to every picture Henry directs. He exhibits consistently the best of taste without sacrifice of dramatic values, and attains emotional power without sacrifice of sensitivity and delicacy in intimate and tender scenes. Seventh Heaven must rank among the finest demonstrations of sympathetic direction the screen has given us. The picture is a triumph for James Stewart. He must be rated hereafter among the finest actors we have. In my review of the first picture in which I saw him, Rose Marie (Spectator January 18, 1936) I wrote: “What interests me in Stewart as a recruit from the stage is his intelligent and immediate grasp of the difference between stage and screen acting. He is a young fellow who will go a long way in pictures.” His role in Marie Was a brief one, but it revealed enough to make his brilliance in Seventh Heaven what we might have expected. Jimmie Stewart is a great actor. Simone Simon is an appealing Diane, a completely satisfactory piece of casting. Jean Hersholt is superb as always, John Qualen, J. Edward Bromberg, Victor Kilian completely competent in their various roles. « HE new Seventh Heaven runs ninety-two minutes. The old one was shorter. As the silent method of telling a story on the screen moved much faster than is possible for a talkie, there was more story in the play’s first appearance on the screen. Not as much is made of the taxi driver which the late Albert Gran made so outstanding in the silent version, and which the loud, harsh voice of Gregory Ratoff makes the only disagreeable feature in the talkie. Missing also is the dramatic taxicab advance from Paris carrying thousands of soldiers to the front line trenches. And I liked the ending of the silent picture better than I do the talkie’s. We saw Charlie Farrel fight his way through the armistice crowds, grope his way up the winding stairs to the seventh heaven, all the time crying the name of Diane until he felt her in his arms when his goal was reached. The emotional appeal of the sequence was terrific. In the talkie the situation is reversed. Diane returns to the seventh heaven and finds him waiting for her, an ending much weaker emotionally. Another moment I looked for in the talkie disappointed me. I never will forget Janet Gaynor’s “I, too, am a remarkable fellow!” In comparison, Simone’s was weak. Nor will I forget Janet’s close-up as she sat in the gutter, her back to a cartwheel, after a beating by her sister. Simone’s lacked the appeal of Janet’s. However, although comparisons are suggested when the sound picture remakes a silent one, do not let anything I have written give you the impression that Seventh Heaven is not satisfactory screen entertainment. It is a great picture, has great production value, great performances and is directed greatly. It would have been improved by a continuous score instead of only bits here and there of the Diane theme. Continuous musical background is an essential of a dialogue picture, but the talkies are not old enough yet to know it. Dialogue As It Should Be QUALITY STREET, Radio production and RKO release. Starring Katharine Hepburn and Franchot Tone; from the play by J. M. Barrie; produced by Pandro S. Berman; directed by George Stevens; screen play by Mortimer Offner and Allan Scott; assistant director, Argyle Nelson; photographed by Robert DeGrasse; musical score by Roy Webb; art director, Hobe Erwin; costumes by Walter Plunkett; set dressings by Darrell Silvera; recorded by Clem Portman; edited by Henry Berman. Supporting cast: Eric Blore, Fay Bainter, Cora Witherspoon, Estelle Winwood, Florence Lake,