Hollywood Spectator (1938)

Page Six May 7, 1938 SOME LATE PREVIEWS MAGNIFICENT ACHIEVEMENT . . . • THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD; Warners; executive producer. Hal B. Wallis; associate producer. Henry Blanke; directors. Michael Curtiz. William Keighley; screen play. Nor¬ man Reilly Raine. Seton I. Miller; music, Erich Wolfgang Korngold; music director, Leo F. Forbstein; arranger. Hugo Friedholer; photographers. Tony Gaudio. Sol Polito; art direc¬ tor, Carl Jules Weyl; costumes. Milo Anderson; film editor, Ralph Dawson; assistant directors. Jack Sullivan. Leeman Katz. Cast: Errol Flynn. Olivia de Havilland. Basil Rathbone. Claude Rains. Patric Knowles, Eugene Pallette, Alan Hale, Melville Cooper. Ian Hunter, Una O'Connor. Herbert Mundin. Montagu Love, Leonard Willey. Robert Noble, Kenneth Hun¬ ter. Robert Warwick, Colin Kenny. Lester Matthews, Harry Cording, Howard Hill. Ivan Simpson. NOT HER Warner success. Produced on an elab¬ orate scale, ably directed. Cast with full apprecia¬ tion of the comedy and dramatic possibilities of the different parts, this version of the legendary Robin Hood’s exploits in and about Sherwood Forest will take its place among the finest things of the sort the screen has done. It is entertainment plus. While I still maintain that color photography does not add enough box-office value to a picture to justify its great cost, I must repeat what I have said about it before — that it is capable of bringing some beautiful effects to the screen. There are a score of shots of surpassing beauty in the picture, attractive composi¬ tions superbly photographed. The period of the story permitted Milo Anderson to let himself go in the matter of designing the costumes which add so greatly to the historical values of the production. His contribution to the picture is a notable one. Wisely selected outdoor locations, imposing studio sets and the colorful array of costumes made it possible for skilled cameramen to bring to the screen one of the greatest visual treats in its history. Legend's Liberal Latitude . . . AMPERED by nothing more exacting than legend and dealing with a central character who never existed, Norman Reilly Raine, who had as his collab¬ orator Seton I. Miller, let himself go in crowding stirring incidents into his script. The story is fit com¬ panion to its time and the Robin Hood tradition. Only a knight as great as legend has made him, could encounter in such quick succession so many hair-raising adventures and come so safely through them. Good writing, intelligent direction and able acting, all recorded against an alluring background, combine to put the audience mind in a mood for any¬ thing, to see possibilities in the impossible, to let it¬ self go, to enter into the fun of the thing and thus thoroughly enjoy itself. This Warner production is a great screen moment, a credit to pictures as a whole, another notable demonstration of the vast possibili¬ ties of the motion picture as a medium of entertain¬ ment. Thrill Piled on Thrill . . . HE adroit manner in which Reilly and his collab¬ orator get Robin Hood (Errol Flynn) into im¬ possible situations and bring him out unscathed, is what makes the story engrossing to the point of spine-tingling. Every situation is wrung dry of its opportunity to build suspense, every emotion of the audience is appealed to; thrill is piled on thrill and there is action galore. And through it all runs like a golden thread a beautiful romance, a tender, sweet love affair which blossoms bravely along the path which the succession of deeds of daring takes. The beautiful and gracious Olivia de Havilland is the Maid Marian who loves the heroic Robin Hood. Never before has she given such a performance. With but few lines to speak and only one sustained speech, she nevertheless looms as a big figure among the many hundreds who crowd the screen. Never before have eyes played such a big part in a characterization. Olivia’s tell her story more vividly than words and physical action could, and reveal an active mind at work. The romance is directed superbly. In one scene Olivia and Flynn converse in tones scarcely above a whisper, dialogue direction for which the Spectator has pleaded ever since the screen was given a tongue, but which so few directors give us. Direction Is Notable . . . HE cast is so long and the performances so uni¬ formly excellent that to give individual mention to all who deserve it would involve praise carried to the point of repetitious monotony, and to mention a few would be unfair to the many. To the two directors, Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, goes joint credit for a magnificent achievement. From what I know of the work of the two, and with no soecific information to guide me, I imagine that to Curtiz fell the task of directing the physically stirring scenes, the dashing exploits of horsemen and men at arms, the great mass shots in which the picture abounds; and to Keighley the more intimate scenes, the ro¬ mance, the shots with restricted camera range. In any event, no picture ever has been given better direc¬ tion. And certainly no picture ever has been given a more notable musical score, the evaluation of which I leave to the more capable Dr. Bruno David Ussher (page 11). ONE OF THE CLEVEREST . . . 9 VIVACIOUS LADY; RKO release of Pandro S. Berman pro¬ duction; produced and directed by George Stevens; screen play by P. J. Wolfson and Ernest Pagano; original story by I. A. R. Wylie; photographed by Robert de Grasse; art direc¬ tor, Van Nest Polglase; associate art director. Carroll Clark; musical score by Roy Webb; orchestral arrangements by Russell Bennett; songs by George Jessel, Jack Meskill and Ted Shapiro; vocal arrangement by Roger Edens; costumes. Irene and Bernard Newman; edited by Henry Berman; assist¬ ant director, Argyle Nelson. Cast: Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, James Ellison, Beulah Bondi, Charles Cobum, Frances Mercer. Phyllis Kennedy, Franklin Pangbom, Grady Sutton, Jack Carson, Alec Craig, Willie Best. RILLIANT comedy. It moves Producer-Director George Stevens up to the front rank. Some of the sequences in Vivacious Lady are among the most ex¬ pertly directed I ever saw in a picture. Stevens has a delicious sense of humor and thorough knowledge of how to reveal it on the screen. He builds securely to