Hollywood Spectator (1937-39)

Page Six April 9, 1938 izon. If you would know what constitutes the best in assembling film, see this little picture, particularly the sequence in which the mail pouches fairly fly ahorseback across the plains. It is beautiful work. Buck's Popularity Well Founded . . . ONE easily can understand why Buck Jones has so many million admirers. This picture affords me only my second glimpse of him, but I am numbered among the millions. Buck is something bigger than an actor; he is a person. Although he lives just two turns in the road from where we live, I never have seen him off the screen, but when I carry out my long deferred resolution to toddle over to his ranch and meet him, his horses and dogs, I expect to find only the Buck I already know, a likable fellow, clean, a square shooter with enough gumption to know that the first rule of acting is not to act. There are two young people with him in this picture who will bear watching by talent scouts. Marjorie Reynolds is a nice looking youngster endowed with a personality which will take her places if she gets half a chance. She will supply the other half. Carlyle Moore, a good looking youth, also is the possessor of a pleasing personality and ability to make the most of it. I think all he needs is the Big Chance. . . . Reading over what I have written thus far, I find I have overlooked a most important contribution to the picture — the excellent photography of Allen Thompson. Some of his shots possess great beauty and all of them are of high artistic merit. ONE FOR WITHERS FANS . . . • RASCALS; 20th-Fox production and release; directed by H. Bruce Humberstone; associate producer. John Stone; original screen play, Robert Ellis and Helen Logan; music and lyrics by Sidney Clare and Harry Aksk dances staged by Nick Castle; photography, Edward Cronjager; art direction, Bernard Herzbrun and Haldane Douglas; film editor. Jack Murray; costumes, Helen A. Myron; musical direction, Samuel Kaylin. Cast: Jane Withers, Rochelle Hudson, Robert Wilcox, Borrah Minevitch and Gang. Steffi Duna, Katharine Alexander, Chester Clute, Jose Crespo, Paul Stanton, Frank Reicher, Edward Cooper, Kathleen Burke, Myra Marsh, Frank Puglia, Robert Gleckler, Edward Dunn, Howard Hickman. J\ESPITE her proud position among the Big Ten LP of box-office honors. Jane Withers’ pictures appealed to me so little that I have been assigning them to other reviewers as I was afraid I could not do them justice; but when the preview of Rascals was announced I determined to see it myself, to take it apart and see if I could find out why little Jane is such a box-office magnet. Century wisely staged the showing on Friday night in a neighborhood house, a week-night when a large audience of children could be counted on. Rascals went over with a bang, the younger element of the audience expressing its approval in whistles, cheers and joyous laughter. Thus the picture accomplished the purpose for which it was made. It was not made for you or me. We can enjoy Shirley Temple, for she is a child apart, a rare personality with extraordinary gifts. But Jane is for children; she is one of them, one of the sort you can find wherever you go, and in her each child can see herself or himself more readily than in the case of Shirley. Not so beautiful that other girls envy her, permitted on the screen to realize the suppressed desires of the children in the audience, her screen appearances give them vicarious enjoyment they can get from no other star, big or little, male or female. Directors with Eye on Market . . . ISELY has Bruce Humberstone directed Rascals to please the tremendous audience Jane has won. Where plausibility or logic might get in the way of good fun, he gives fun the go signal and lets plausibility and logic duck for cover and stay there until they are wanted again — not that he is called upon very often to perform the trick, for most of the things Jane does are just what we would expect such a lively, optimistic, and audacious youngster to do. Of course, she meets emergencies with a resourcefulness we might expect only an adult to display, but Withers fans are not going to be disturbed by a little thing like that. In any event, some probability is lent the improbabilities by the casting of Jane as a member of a band of gypsies, and gypsy children develope rapidly. At that, though, a little more credibility might have been displayed in some of the sequences. The final fade-out is of a couple being married without having attended to the detail of securing a license. The best direction cannot compensate for a script of that sort. Has Engaging Music . . . ONE feature of the picture which will appeal to adult audiences is the music of the Minevitch Gang. Their harmonica playing always get me, even in spite of Minevitch’s efforts to ruin its effect by his insistence upon having his crazy antics occupying the center of the stage even when a selection of musical value is being played. In Rascals Minevitch plays his first character role of importance, going all the way through the picture as Jane’s chief lieutenant. Humberstone directs him in a way that will make his performance delight the youngsters and make adults laugh even though they will have a hard time believing some of it could happen. The whole picture, however, is sketched in broad strokes, elemental stuff, but, as I have said — squarely hitting the target aimed at. What more could you expect from any director? The picture is well mounted, showing us many interesting shots of gypsy camps. Also there is some first class ensemble singing by the gypsies. GREAT SCREEN MUSICAL . . . • THE LIFE AND LOVES OF BEETHOVEN; direction and scenario, Abel Gance; dialogue. Steve Passeur; cameras, Robert Lefebvre and Marc Fossard; settings, Jacques Colombier; editor. Marguerite Beague; sound. Philippe Gauberfc music by Orchestra de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris, under the direction of Louis Masson. Cast Harry Baur, Annie Ducaux, Jany Holt, Pauley. Debucourt, Lucien Rozenberg, Yolande Lafon. Lucas Gridoux. Reviewed by Robert Joseph HIS review is advisedly captioned “The Great Screen Musical.” The term “screen musical, usually implies dancing girls, bleating, cacophonous swing