Motion Picture News (Apr - Jun 1929)

April 6 , 19 29 1123 Opinions on Pictures Square Shoulders Good For Young Or Old (Silent Version) (Reviewed by Don Ashbaugh) WHEN you can close the chattering' mouths of an audience in previewjaded Glendale, Calif., and make 'em sit spellbound for a picture featuring a couple of youngsters you have "something." That's what happened when "Square Shoulders," a tale of military school life, was previewed. It features Junior Coghlan and Louis Wolheim with Phillipe <le Lacey and a little blonde girlie named Anita Louise supporting. Good editing and excellent directing make it a crowd holding picture. Mason Hopper is credited for the direction In Southern California cities adjacent to Hollywood previews are advertised "blind." Glendale gets many of them because it's just a stone's throw across the dusty Los Angeles River. The audience generally vents its enthusiasms or displeasures so that studio heads are not left in doubt regarding audience reaction. The fact that the entire audience stayed in its seats for "Square Shoulders" the best recommendation possible. The acting in the picture puts t * > shame many recent attempts of some of the socalled bigger and better stars. Junior Coghlan gets away with some pathetic and heart tearing sequences that dampen the hankies of the nice old ladies. The tale is simple. A hard-boiled, booze sopping hobo comes back to his home town for the first time since the war He discovers his son selling newspapers, the boy's mother having died. The kid is crazy over the unknown father who won a medal on the field of battle. Because of the boy's interest in things military Wolheim, playing the unknown father, steals money and enrolls the boy in military school. The ending is pathetic with Wolheim dying, the secret that he is the boy's father still untold, after saving the youth during a fight with two of his former hobo pals who try to force him into robbing the commander of the school. The fadeout should be the scene where Coghlan buries the D. S. C. and then plays taps over the grave. Instead the studio has left a tag end showing a long shot of the grave. It 's not needed. Young de Lacey is cast as the rich man's son and Coghlan's rival tin the attentions of the commandant's daughter. A clever comedy scene is staged in a drug store with the two boys attempting to outdo each other in the purchase of expensive sundaes to impress the little girl. The technical direction at the military academy is as near perfect as could be asked, the scenes and dress parade shots being made in one of the west's big academies. The picture is not a box office record breaker but once you get the crowd in they'll like it. Drawing Power: Feature the three The Eternal Woman Just Another Picture (Silent Version ) (Reviewed by Bill Fiirman) t i-THE ETERNAL WOMAN" is one of A those pictures that cannot get above the classification of general program material. A sordid story, combined with the usual triangle and a cold-blooded murder, makes it a picture that will get bookings mainly because it was sold on a group program. John McCarthy struggled through the direction of a story that was apparently impossible before the picture started. Olive Borden and Ralph Graves do the best they can with what material they have to work with; which isn't much. The balance of the cast, which includes John Miljan, Ruth Clifford, Nena Quartaro, Josef Swickard and Julia Swayne Gordon just amble along. The only comedy relief is furnished by a donkey. The story has to do with a sister wronged, her father murdered by her betrayer and a second sister swearing revenge. It starts in the mountains of the Argentine, drags through a poorly faked shipwreck in which the wicked wife of the hero is drowned while the hero and the avenging sister are the only survivors. They are married after the avenger nearly bumps him off when she mistakes him for the slayer of her father. The real murderer is identified by the wronged sister who has arrived from Buenos Aires, and he is carted off to be shot or something. Drawing power: Not much in the picture aside from the featured names in the cast. Produced by Harry Cohn. Released by Columbia Pictures. Story and scenario by Wellyn Totman. Directed by John P. McCarthy. Cameraman, Joseph Walker. Length, 5,800 feet. Release date during March. THE CAST Anita (Hive Borden Hartley Forbes Ralph Graves Gil Martin John Miljan Doris Forbes Ruth Clifford Consuelo Nena Quartero Uvaldo Josef Swickard Mrs. Forbes Julia Swayne Gordon youngsters to attract the juvenile trade, and play up Wolheim and his character angle to snare the adults. You can promise this one will please all ages. Produced and Released by Pathe. Producing supervisor, Paul Bern. Story by George Dromgold and Houston Branch. Scenario by Peggy Prior. Directed by E. Mason Hopper. Photography by David Abel. Length, 5477. Release date Mar. THE CAST Tat Junior Coghlan Snag Louis Wolheim Eddie Phillipe de Lacey Mary Jane Anita Louise Hook Johnny Morris Mr. Cartwright Montagu Shaw Delicate Don Kewpie Morgan Commander Clarence Geldert Queen Of The Night Clubs Hey, Sucker! Here's A Chance To Get Even (Reviewed by Freddie Schader) YOU'VE heard of Tex Guinan, haven't you ? Remember, she started in pictures making Westerns as a " Two-GunWoman"? The Warners hired Tex for a talkie which they titled "Queen of the Night Clubs." "Wot Queen? Victoria? Tex looks old enough on the sciven to be Victoria's sister. At that, Mamie Duffey is o.k. when she's herself, but when she tries to get dramatic — oh boy — she's terrible. But there is this angle to look at, Tex has been front page copy for the dailies, especially the tabloids so long that the theatregoers away from Broadway might like to gel a load of her and may be willing to pay to catch her on the screen. That is the only chance that there is for the picture. After they had signed Tex, the Warners shipped her to Hollywood and Bryan Poy had to get a story together and make a picture with her as the star. Well they knocked a story together that had a night club background, which is sufficient to carry Tex through. There is enough wild stuff in it to give the umpchays out in the sticks that a night club on Broadway is all that they expected it would lie, which is exactly what it isn't. Then Bryan got busy and shot the picture. When it was finished they decided to lay it on the shelf. Then they had a change of heart and shipped it East and Bryan recut it and the result is a good meller for the sticks. Tex is made the pawn in a battle between two night club factions. She is a drawingcard in one club and the proprietor of another wins her over to his place, at the same time having the rival establishment padlocked. Of course, the boys who were forced out of business want to get even. The way that they manage it is by planting a bullet in a gun that is used in a number in the club. But when their plant doesn't work they decide to unload the gun. Why a couple of gangsters should want to do that is a mystery. But they start to do it anyway, and that leads to a shooting of which a youngster is accused. This boy has been the vaudeville partner of one of the girls in the club. After the shooting Tex finds out that he is her own son and right then and there she tries to get dramatic and lets a squawk out of her that will hand anyone a laugh. In the end the real gunmen are discovered, and the boy is freed and all ends happily. There is a lot of stuff shot that has Tex. doing her mistress of ceremonies stuff from the back of a chair in the middle of a floor show in a night club. Tex is herself and right at home in those sequences. A couple of reporter boy friends are introduced and referred to as Winchell and Mark, but the boys .don't look the part. Lila Lee and Eddie Foy, Jr., the pair to whom is en(Continued on following page)