Inside facts of stage and screen (March 1, 1930)

PAGE FOUR INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1930 Picture Reviews ~ Previews ~ Shorts By A. H. FREDERICK ‘SEVEN KEYS TO BALD- PATE’ Radio Pictures picture (Reviewed at Orpheum) This old-time and much-played George M. Cohan show has again been put on the screen, and, as usual, holds to fair authenticity. It is not by any means the fun- niest comedy which the talkies have developed, but it gets a good return of laughs and is most pas- sable entertainment. The thrills of the stage version are not so climactical upon the screen, the eeriness possible to the new me- dium having been sacrificed to authenticity to the stage play. The thrill-seekers will find pictures which gratify their wish more than does 2‘Seven Keys.” The laughs of the picture are largely due to the excellent far- ceur qualifications of Richard Dix, though good individual scores in this department are made by Joseph Allen as the hermit, and Margaret Livingston as the hard- boiled girl plotter. The screen version opens in a club, with Dix and his friend (played by Crauford Kent), mak- in gthe $5000 bet as to whether Dix can write a 10,000 thrill story in 24 hours, the site of the ex- periment to be the deserted sum- mer hotel of Baldpate. Dix travels there, and then in- truding upon him are the various complications of the crooked mayor and street railway mag- nate, the $200,000 bribe and the rest of the Cohan twists down to the double-barreled surprise finish. EXHIBITORS’ VIEWPOINT: This is good program entertain- ment, its draw being the name of Dix and the title of the picture. PRODUCERS’ VIEWPOINT: Reginald Barker’s direction is quite satisfactory, as is the screen play by Jane Murfin. CASTING DIRECTORS’ VIEWPOINT: Dix keeps up to his reputation as perhaps the screen’s premier farceur. Miriam Seegar is both attractive and able opposite him. However, Margaret Livingston steals the top fern honors with her consistently well-done hard- boiled ability, always certain to be good. Joseph Allen plays the hermit as an alternating extremely fero- cious-speaking individual and one of feminine mannerisms. He' BEAUMONT STUDIOS SCENERY Drops, Curtains, Drapes RENTALS Los Angeles, Calif. 400 W. 96th St. YO. 8346 Best of the Month in Pictures Best Pictures: “The Rogue Song” (M-G-M); “Anna Christie” (M-G-M) M-G-M made virtually a clean sweep in top picture honors during the past month, with “The Rogue Song” and “Anna Christie,” far overshadowing anything else offered. Choice be- tween them for the top honors is impossible. Other candidates for consideration when the time comes to select the ten best of 1930 were “Lummox” (U. A.) and “Son of the Gods” (F. N.). Bests of the month follow: Best performance: Lawrence Tibbett in “The Rogue Song” (his magnificent voice included) and Greta Garbo in “Anna Christie,” both M-G-M. Next best performance, man: William Powell in “Street of Chance” (Paramount). Next best performance, woman: Marie Dressier in “Anna Christie.” Best character performance, male: Joseph Cawthorn in “Dance Hall.” Best character performance, fem (above excepted) : Clara Lan- gesner in “Lummox.” Best heavy, male: Francis McDonald in “Burning Up.” Best heavy, fem: Margaret Livingston in “Seven Keys to Bald- pate.” Best comedy relief: Nothing outstanding. Honorable mention for performances: Charles Bickford in “Anna Christie”; Winifred Westover in “Lummox”; Lydia Titus in “Lummox”; Maurice Chevalier in “The Love Pa- rade”; Richard Barthelmess in “Son of the Gods”; Kay Francis in “Street of Chance”; Roland Young in “The Bishop Murder Case”; Paul Hurst in “The Racketeer.” Candidates to date for ten best pictures of the year: “Romance of the Rio Grande” (Fox—Alfred Santell, director; Warner Baxter, star); “Seven Days’ Leave” (R-K-O—Richard Wal- lace, director; Gary Cooper, star); “Show of Shows” (War- ner Brothers—John Adolfi, director; all-star); “Anna Christie” (M-G-M—Clarence Brown, director; Greta Garbo, star); “The Rogue Song” (M-G-M—Lionel Barrymore, director; Lawrence Tibbett, star) ; “Lummox” (U. A.—Herbert Brenon, director; Winifred Westover, star) “Son of the Gods” (F. N. —Frank Lloyd, director; Richard Barthelmess, star). scores. Carleton Macy, playing the chief of police, is extremely good, never losing a chance. Lucien Littlefield’s work will be pleasing to those who like Lucien Littlefield. Others in the cast who hold up to all requirements include Crau- ford Kent, Nella Walker, Alan Roscoe, Harvey Clark and Edith Y orke. LUMMOX’ U. A. PICTURE (Reviewed at U. A. Theatre) “Lummox” is highly reminiscent of Emil Jannings’ pictures, in fact so close to one of them that one big sequence could be lifted from one to the other without break in the continuity. As an artistic achievement it is a distinct success, credit for this to be divided between Herbert Brenon, the director, and Winifred Westover, playing the title role. Boxoffice returns will depend en- tirely upon the class of patronage Mumby Health Extension Institute Gladys S. Mumby EM. 2348 SWEDISH MASSAGE CABINET BATHS REDUCING TREATMENTS WITH VITA-MOTOR Specializing in. Electrical Facials and Rejuvenation 1107 S. Western Ave. Los Angeles (We Keep Well People Well) to which it is played. It is not “movie,” lacking both a love story and dramatic-action situations. The story is episodic, bound to- gether only by the character of the central figure a Swedish girl who earns her title through good efforts which others miscontrue as a bungling interference. The story opens with The Lum- mox as a charwoman in a sailors’ rendezvous. Working with her is a young girl (Dorothy Janis). Fearing this girl is on the verge of going wrong, The Lummox re- ports her to juvenile authorities. For this she loses her job. The Lummox then goes to work for a private family, and is seduced by the son (Ben Lyon), who fascinates her into compli- ance by his poetic phraseology. She becomes pregnant, but the son refuses to even speak to her. She goes away to a charity hos- pital and has the baby. It is adopted by a wealthy family (Cosmo Kyrle Bellew and Anita Bellew). The Lummox gets other em- ployment, going to various fam- ilies, and once doing day work in a house of prostitution. Here she finds her friend of the ren- dezvous employed as one of the girls, and urges her to leave. The girl refuses, but later accepts and through the Lummox a love match is brought about between the girl and a copper on the beat (Danny O’Shea). At another of her jobs, an aged Jewish mother (Clara Langesner) is about to be turned out by her son (William Collier, Jr.), be- cause of the ill-tempers of his wife (Edna Murphy). The Lum- mox interferes in this situation by not giving heart drops to the old woman, thus writing her death certificate. And so it goes until one day The Lummox comes across the house where he son lives. She meets the man caretaker (Torben Meyer), and makes friends with him in order to constantly get news of the child, now five years old (played by Robert Ullman). Upon one of the boy’s birthdays The Lummox sends him her be- loved accordion, and so well does he learn to play it that his foster- parents take him to Europe to study piano. This sequence goes into a big concert at which the now finished student is to make his debut. The Lummox purchases standing-room, and the expected scene trans- pires of her teary, drab weariness offset against his triumph, and of her going out into a weary world while he is hailed as a new maestro. (As usual the applause of the audience is overdone, but otherwise this scene is extremely effective and held to splendid modulation). Final sequence finds the now aged woman obtaining haven in the home of a widower where she mothers his five young children, to her own great happiness. EXHIBITORS’ VIEWPOINT: This one is one to be looked over before booking. Its artistic merits are high, and it will be a strong candidate to be hailed among the ten best pictures of the current year. But those who are accus- tomed to the old strife-and-suc- cess motif of pictures may find it strange. PRODUCERS’ VIEWPOINT: Herbert Brenon’s artistic rating goes up among the best of them with “The Lummox.” He has disclosed a truly artistic sym- pathetic understanding in his ten- der regard of the wide variety of characters in this story, and the overtone of the play is that of a Dostoievski or a Proust, the vil- lianies of life rather than of people. Elizabeth Meehan did the adap- tation of the Fannie Hurst story well. CASTING DIRECTORS’ VIEWPOINT: Winifred West- over distinctly scores with her work as The Lummox. She wins the required sympathy at once and holds it throughout the pic- ture. It is an excellent come-back via the talkies of a girl who had faded in the silents. Clara Langesner, playing the aged Jewish mother, gives one of the best character studies seen in many a day. Her part, while brief, is nothing short of a little mas- terpiece. William Collier, Jr., playing in the same sequence, of- fers splendid work, the best this reviewer has ever seen from him. Lydia Titus, beloved character woman who died recently, is an- other with a highly artistic per- formance to contribute: Another who deserves especial mention is Dorothy Janis. Balance of the cast includes Ben Lyon, Ida Darling, Myrta Bonillas, Cos- mo Kyrle Bellew, Anita Bellew, Robert Ullman, Edna Murphy, Sam Rourke, Myrtle Stedman, Danny O’Shea, and Sidney Falkon, all of whose work is quite ade- quate; Torben Meyer, who is very good; and William Bakewell in a role which could have been better cast. ‘THE RACKETEER’ Pathe Picture (Reviewed at RKO Theatre) This story is very similar to that of Paramount’s William Powell vehicle, “Street of Chance,” which showed at the Paramount Theatre simultaneously. Like that picture it is one which the men will find as interesting as do the women, and one with some twists which men will en- joy much more than they do the average run of sequences. Three marked similarities be- tween the two pictures are appar- ent. First is that a racketeer is one of the chief parties to the love interest; another is that in both instances the racketeer is killed at the finish; and the third is that in both, poker games are shown hand-by-hand to further the plot. A fourth might be named in that both have unusual love stories. “The Racketeer” is Robert Armstrong, a grim man whose bootlegging and other unlawful activities are carried on with re- lentless purpose. He meets a girl (Carol Lom- bard), who has bestowed her love upon a weakling musician, drawn down by drink. The weakling is played by Roland Drew. _ Armstrong rehabilitates the mu- sician, and in doing so falls in (Continued on Page 13) 19^ SEASON 100 IN CAST JI©N 4HAK GABRIEL R.D. Mac Lean as frayjunipcro sprra EVERY AFTERNQON-EXCEPT MON DAY-2. 1 $ — WED. AND SAT. EVE O 0 $ MARCAL Hollywood Blvd. at Gower HO. 8069 Sun., Mon., Tues., Wed., March 2-3-4-5 Laura La Plante in "HOLD YOUR MAN” Mack Sennett’s “Midnite Daddies” Thurs., Fri., Sat., March 6-7-8 “Broadway Scandals of 1930” With Sally O’Neil, Jack Egan and Carmel Myers MARQUIS Melrose at Doheny Dr. OX. 2208 Sun., Mon., Tues., Wed., March 2-3-4-5 New E. C. A. Equipment with “SALLY” Marilyn Miller Thursday and Friday, March 6-7 “ME. ANTONIO” With Leo Carillo and Virginia Valli Saturday Only, March 8 Laura La Plante in “HOLD YOUE MAN” And FIVE ACTS OF VAUDEVILLE MEREDITH WILL/CN CONCERT DIRECTOR LFCC /AN FLANCISCO