Hollywood Spectator (1937-39)

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Page Ten July 17, 1937 Trenchant Commentary HOOSIER SCHOOLBOY, Monogram Pictures. Associate producer, Ken Goldsmith; directed by William Nigh; screen play, Robert Lee Johnson; photographed by Paul Ivano, A.S.C.; technical director, E. R. Hickson; recorded by Glenn Rominger; film editor, Roy Livingston; assistant director, Michael Eason; musical director, Abe Meyers. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Anne Nagel, Frank Shields, Edward Pawley, William Gould, Dorothy Vaughan, Anita Denniston, Harry Hayden, Bradley Metcalf, Doris Rankin, Walter Long, Helena Grant, Cecil Weston, Mary Field, Zita Moulton, Fred A. Kelsey. JT would seem that Monogram Pictures js serious in its I.^vowal to place upon the market a higher type of independent film. This one not only provides good entertainment, but it goes in for no little social commentary, taking some trenchant pokes at the meanness of small town life, with its gossip, intolerance, and class distinction, and airing as well the conflicting views of capital and labor as they feature in a milk strike. The whole social set-up is viewed with the level eye of the journalist. Some of the scenes are so human that more than once the spectator finds a catch in his throat. Mickey Rooney, who stars, makes a touching little figure of the boy he plays, the youngster who lives on the wrong side of the tracks. Bristle-haired, resentful, his good qualities hidden beneath a superficial toughness, the result of a defense mechanism set up against the hurts he has had at the hands of those who won’t understand, the character brings to our minds with vividness some youngster of the same type from our own school days, and induces us to look back at him from our vantage point of greater experience and view him with greater charity. Mickey’s scenes wdth the understanding young school teacher, and with his father, a drunken shell-shocked war hero, scenes which so easily could have curdled into sentimentality, are directed by William Nigh with admirable restraint and insight. The story develops consistantly, the social commentary being strung unobtrusively along the main thread of action, and builds to a strong climax. It is probable that the young school teacher effects her reforms with a little too much dispatch, and there are other incidents in the story which seem a bit arbitrary, such as the youngster’s encouraging his father to drive the milk truck through the picket blockade when the boy must have known that his teacher and the dairy owner’s son favored the striking farmers; but these incidents far from invalidate the force of the film. AnNE NAGEL exhibits many of the attributes of a fine actress in her performance of the young teacher — a rich and flexible voice, poise, emotional depth, and intelligence. She should progress far in pictures. Sadly overshadowed by her playing is Frank Shields, who reflects inexperience and, I should say, a lack of imagination. His gestures are awkward and he handles lines with little shading. Fortunately he is a good type for the part, and his few important scenes are with considerably better actors, so that his presence in the film is no very great detraction. Edward Pawley does excellent trouping as the former war hero, realizing expertly the contrasting facets of the character. His style is singularly suggestive of that of Lionel Barrymore. Dorothy Vaughan gives a neat performance as the school principal, and two of the children, Anita Denniston and Bradley Metcalf are good. The character women in the boarding house scene are much too broad — would be in the Hollywood Bowl — and are unfortunately a jarring note in the picture. The photography is first-rate throughout. A particularly striking scene was the soft-toned one of the train approaching in semi-darkness, its headlight fused into the rest of the picture but dominating it like a twilight moon. Paul Ivano filmed it. Ken Goldsmith, associate producer, is to be commended for his handling of the production. Neither Fish Nor Fowl WINDJAMMER, Radio picture and RKO release. George A. Hirliman production. Stars George O'Brien. Associate producer, David Howard; directed by Ewing Scott; original story by Major Raoul Haig; screen play by Dan Jarrett and James Gruen; photographed by Frank B. Goode; recorded by W. C. Moore; film editor, Robert Crandall; art director, Frank Sylos; musical direction by Abe Meyer. Supporting cast: Constance Worth, William Hall, Gavin Gordon, Brandon Evans, Lai Chand Mehra, Ben Hendricks, Lee Shumway, Stanley Blystone, Frank Hagney. Running time, 58 minutes. George o'brien, one of our outstanding heroes, according to the bes,t tradition, can be impressively stern and righteous, brave, jocund, or furious; but he errs in trying to be whimsical or arch. Subtlety is not his forte. In justice to O’Brien, of course, it should be said that the nifties he is called upon to mouth in tVindjammer inherently are not always convulsing. They are doubtless provided by the scriptists, as a step in making of the hero a very clever fellow, as per the formula for action films, but the story’s being set against a background of the social uppercrust, with whom the audience associates a higher level of repartee, somehow places O’Brien’s verbal “lulus”, as well as much of his general deportment, at a disadvantage. The actor plays a young attorney who conspires to board a yacht engaged in a race to Honolulu, in order to serve the wealthy owner with a court supoena, and from then on our hero is simply too clever for words, getting in gibes on the slightest provocation, even though put at menial labor for his passages, rising to the occasion and manning the yacht almost single handed when the crew deserts it in a storm, and finally effecting a rescue of the Commodore and his party, including his beautiful daughter, from the clutches of a piratic captain holding them prisoner on his barge. There is one good fight in the picture, and considerable Suspense is contrived, but the heavy emphasis on “society” detracts from the picture’s success as an action film. Of course, the fact that O’Brien spends much of his time showing up the socialites as an ineffectual lot may give some gratification to the “five-and-ten” audiences who ultimately will make the film profitable. My opinion, how ever, is that the“five-and-teners” would like better a little more rough-and-ready action. And as far as the more discriminating audiences are concerned, they will not find the mirroring of “society” very credible. This confusion