Modern Screen (Dec 1935 - Nov 1936)

MODERN SCREEN bit twitches of the Herbert nose, and Hugh gets plenty of them between housework and Hstening to his domineering spouse, Dorothy Vaughan. But suddenly over the dishpan all Hugh's pent-up emotions burst forth. The result is riot, no less. Between getting fired, knocking out his boss, getting mixed up with bank bandits and landing in jail, then coming home bloody but uncowed, Hugh has himself a time. Patricia Ellis is good to look at as his daughter and reels ofT some brand new wisecracks. Warren Hull is satisfactory as the nice young man who has honorable intentions toward the heroine, and Dorothy Vaughan is convincingly bossy. But it's a Hugh Herbert picture pure and simple. Preview Pos+scripl The company had a hectic time chasing from Warners' Son Fernando studio to their Sunset studio, for the interior of the main character's home was built on the latter lot, while the exterior was on the larger valley lot. Every set at Warners' larger studio was being utilized and in order to complete the picture in the scheduled three weeks it was necessary to chase around in this fashion. . . . Hugh Herbert spent all his spare time on the lot drawing plans for the elaborate new swimming pool which he is going to have constructed on his Son Fernando ranch, "El Rancho Herberto." The pool is to be lined with plate glass mirrors so his guests can see how silly they look when taking flat dives. The ranch is Herbert's pride and joy, and at present he is raising a special grade of goats. Each year the Herberts specialize in a different crop — of grain and livestock. * Early to Bed (Paramount) The marital adventures of Mary Boland and Charlie Ruggles seem to go on forever. In their latest comedy of domestic affairs they manage to struggle through another series of farce comedy situations which will probably amuse most audiences, although they never reach the heights of hilarity they achieved in such memorable little numbers as "Mama Loves Papa" and other earlier efforts. This time Charlie, a timid little clerk in a glass eye concern, asserts himself long enough to propose to Mary Boland, to whom he's been engaged for twenty years. Their honeymoon is spent trying to land a big order from a vacationing glass eye tycoon, George Barbier. The fact that Charlie is a sleep walker accounts for a number of old-time Mack Sennett gags, some of which are funny and some of which could have been left with Mr. Sennett. Ruggles and Boland are as good as their material allows them to be, George Barbier and Robert McWade are excellent as a pair of big business men, and Gail Patrick is wasted on a minor role. Preview Postscript Charlie Ruggles' long talks with the "prop" department hod everyone guessing. But the reason was soon uncovered. It seems that they had mode him a pair of rubber feet so Charlie could run around in that wet gross without making this his farewell picture. Of liquid rubber, the feet were fashioned on a plaster cost of the Ruggles foot, allowing room for a pair of socks underneath, and you'd never know from nothing. . . . Lucien Littlefield has been threatening for some eight years to express himself on paper insteod of celluloid. And he's made good the threat at last, by collaborating on this story's scenario with Chandler Sprague. . . . This marks Mary Boland's first picture since her return from the New York show, "Jubilee." If she has her way, Miss B. will stay riaht here, too, thank you. Says the stage bored her and she'd much prefer a series of quickies in Hollywood to the most successful play on Broadway. ** Trouble for Two (M G M) Based on Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Suicide Club,'' Bob Montgomery and Rosalind Russell are presented in a mythical kingdom setting. Bob and Rosalind are both handsome in their curls, and the picture is entertaining at times, but one leaves it convinced that M-G-M will have to take steps if Mr. M.'s popularity is to be maintained. The simplest step, of course, would be to provide him with a good picture. In this one he's a prince who hops to Paris to get out of marrying a princess of a neighboring kingdom. He doesn't know, at the time, that she's Rosalind Russell. In Paris, looking for exciternent, he joins The Suicide Club, a gay little organization which kills one of its members at each meeting. In Paris he also learns that the princess he's been ducking is the same gal he's been chasing all over town. So two mythical kingdoms are happily united in marriage. Montgomery and Russell are both competent, but their work is overshadowed by better portrayals from Frank Morgan, E. E. Clive and Louis Hayward. Preview Postscript Robert Montgomery not only gained that moustache in the last few months but some fifteen additional pounds to boot. No one is more puzzled than Mr. M. obout the latter, since those swanky costumes he wears forced him to stand up for some two months straight while on the set. Satin breeches are very nice to look at but very bod to sit in, so "standing chairs" used by the "Ziegfeld" gals were brought in to recline on. Frank Morgan, however, come out of the picture some five pounds less hefty. Says it was the strain of keeping an eye on Montgomery while they played backgammon — which was every minute that the two were not in front of the cameras. They played standing up, on a table raised a couple feet from the ground. . . . Miss Russell spent every spare moment on the set scribbling away on reams of paper, or gnawing countless pencil stubs with a far-gone expression in her dark orbs. It developed that she is writing her life story in scenario form. She's had two offers to dote for the MSS. when the last soul-searching sentence is completed. * Bunker Bean (RKO-Radio) Mildly amusing is this latest picturization of Bunker Bean's adventures and misadventures. What high spots there are have been achieved in spite of the story by an excellent cast, notably Owen Davis, Jr., Robert McWade, Louise Latimer, and Jessie Ralph. One or two scenes nearly brought down the house, particularly a grape-rolling sequence, but we couldn't quite believe in some of the hilarity. For instance that a young man smart enough to add six columns of figures in his head would fall for a fake mummy imported overnight from Egypt. The victim of a terrific inferiority complex, our hero goes to a seeress and finds that in a previous reincarnation he was Napoleon. Straightway he begins modelling his wife on Bonaparte tactics, progressing far enough to spank the boss's daughter. But Napoleon evidently didn't know too much about women so Bunker again visits the seeress and begs to be someone else. He ends up with twenty thousand dollars in the bank and the boss's daughter on his lap, if you care. Preview Postscript Everybody had a lovely time; that is, every WRINKLESI BLACKHEADS ENLARGED POREi "I used to have a terrible complexion. Not only did I have wrinkles, but my skin was covered with blackheads and enlarged pores. Everything I tried seemed to do no good . . . then on a friend's advice I used Hollywood Mask. In just a few days my skin began to show miraculous signs of improvement. In a week every blackhead and enlarged pore disappeared. What a transformation I My skin was clear, soft and smooth. 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