Hollywood Spectator (1938)

Hollywood Spectator Page Nine the three screen play writers. The yarn concerns the activities of an oddly-assorted group of passengers on a giant airliner bound for China, which is wrecked in a storm at sea, leaving the group stranded on a remote island. There is already a man on the island, a fugi¬ tive from justice, who has a boat but refuses to take the party back to civilization; finally he changes his mind, having fallen in love with a fair lass of the group. There are a few minor bickerings and an ir¬ relevant fight, but nothing much really happens to anyone and there is no climax in the action. The script covers so much territory, dividing its attention among so many persons, that we develop interest in none of them and have little concern with what hap¬ pens to them. Emphasis Is Lacking . . . HERE are a few touches of irony in the inverted positions in which certain ones of the group find themselves in the new social order, especially a pom¬ pous senator and a wealthy heiress, who, by vote of the majority, are put to work at menial tasks, pre¬ sumably unfitted for anything else. Occasionally flashes of this sort lead one to believe that the story was once supposed to be a study of character, which might have constituted an interesting theme. At the finish most of the characters assure us they have undergone a metamorphosis, but we have to take their word for it; we were not let in on the process. Per¬ haps some of their regenerating was left on the cutting room floor. A measure of humanness and conviction might have been added to the film by greater finesse in direction, but this is the least imaginative of any of James Whale’s work. His constant heavy-handed¬ ness is hard to reconcile with his past experience. Cast Is At A Loss . . . EMBERS of the cast seem to have been placed at as great a loss as was the preview audience by the story’s utter lack of emphasis. John Boles’ characteri¬ zation is monotonous and wanting in definiteness. The attractive Madge Evans tries hard to make some¬ thing of a negative part, but her task proves insupera¬ ble. Marion Martin, as a gal with a past as well as a Mae West complex, “turns on the heat” capably and contributes some vitality to the picture. She mimics cleverly, too. Gene Lockhart brings vigor to his role of the bombastic and stupid senator, but the role was ill-conceived, and his work suffers from his being re¬ quired to shout so much. Milburn Stone is seen to advantage as far as his performance is concerned; too NEW YORK TIMES' PICTORIALS of the World War . . . From Beginning to End . . . Make Offer • PLeasant 5250 bad his part could not have had more relationship to the story. Willie Fung, as a Chinese servant, turns in one of the most convincing portrayals, his death scene being really impressive. These Orientals die aw¬ fully well. I can recall the passing on of two or three others. MOMENTUM IS EXTRAORDINARY . . . • STORM IN A TEACUP; a Victor Saville production; direct¬ ed by Victor Saville and Ian Dalrymple; from the play by Bruno Frank; Anglo-Scottish version by James Bridie; a Lon¬ don Film released through United Artists. Cast: Vivian Leigh, Rex Harrison, Ursula Jeans, Cecil Parker, Sara All¬ good, Gus McNaughton, Edgar Bruce, Robert Hale, Quinton MacPherson, Arthur Wontner, Eliot Makeham. George Pughe, Arthur Seaton, Cecil Mannering, Ivor Barnard, Cyril Smith, W. G. Fay. Scruffy. Reviewed by Bert Harlen ISTINGUISHED for its vitality. Most of the world’s greatest dramas have been based on con¬ flict, and this play is based upon one of the greatest of all conflicts — the struggle of the lower stratum of society against tyranny and injustice. Not that the film is in any sense heavy or savoring of propaganda. Its dominant tone is one of whimsicality. The story is simple: A Scotch man of affairs, campaigning for the presidency of the Scotch parliament, makes the fatal mistake of kicking down his stairs a poor wo¬ man who has come to beg for the life of her little dog, which is being taken from her because of her failure to pay a tax on it. A young newspaper writer plays up the incident; it looms into a national scan¬ dal and the hypercritical politician’s career is knocked into a cocked hat. But the sheer momentum the story gathers is simply remarkable, equalled by few films I have seen. The climax is effected by some rarely clever devices. Shots are shown of groups and indi¬ viduals reacting with growing ire against the persecu¬ tion which the politician has brought to bear on the writer, the shots being interspersed by flashes of light¬ ning and rolls of thunder — truly a storm. And there are montage effects of the breaking of waves on the shore and the wind combing tall trees, indicating the relentlessness of natural forces, once they are aroused. Dialect An Obstacle . . . OR the benefit of the hypothetical average theatre¬ goer it must be mentioned that the spectator is re¬ quired to overlook certain things before he can enjoy the picture. Foremost of these is a Scotch dialect, which becomes a little thick on occasion and cannot then be understood. The indistinction of some of the lines is contributed to by the fact that the record¬ ing is not at all times as meticulous as in American films. Most of the principal characters, however, speak very clear English, and the action is never con¬ fusing. For another thing, there are leisurely digres¬ sions in story which some, accustomed to our stream¬ lined plotting, may not favor. But the spectator will be more than rewarded for his forbearance by what he gets out of the picture. Devotees of good cinema, who have gotten beyond being disconcerted by super¬ ficial differences in technique between foreign and