Motion Picture News (Nov - Dec 1926)

November 2 0, 19 2 6 1961 April Fool Alex Carr Does a War field Characterization (Reviewed by Paul Thompson) A" PRIL FOOL" is based on the stage play by Edgar Allan Woolf and Alexander Carr, "An April Shower." It is the type of play which made Warfield famous under the Belasco direction: the kindly old East Side Jew who is always selfsacrificing, makes money and loses it, but in the end finds happiness. If the formula used in such outstanding stage successes as "The Auctioneer" and "The Music Master" spells success, why not in the movies also? Add the asset of the author-star of the original playing the same role in the silent-drama version and you make doubly certain that it will make an appeal. And "April Fool" has all these merits. It proves to be good entertainment. Carr is a discharged pants-presser. On a rainy day he buys and re-sells an umbrella at a profit to a theatre-goer caught in a shower. That is the beginning of his fortune in the umbrella business. For the sake of a plot there is a grasping neighbor, Snitz Edwards, who also graduates financially and socially from the East Side, and his son and nephew. The former steals from his father and the nephew gets the blame. This nearly disrupts the marriage of nephew and Carr's daughter, Duane Thompson, until Carr sacrifices everything so the wedding may go on. Also Carr's own romance with Mary Alden, one-time owner of the local delicatessen store, which reaches a culmination at the end of the play. It is a trite story but well told photographically by the actors and the director. The Cast: Alexander Carr (starred). Duanc Thompson, Mary Alden, Raymond Keane, Edward Phillips, Snitz Edwards, Nat Carr, Baby Peggy, Pat Moore, and I. eon Holmes. Director, Nat Ross. THEME : Paternal love of an East Side peddler. PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS: Carr's characterization. East Side scenes, espe cially in rainstorms. EXPLOITATION ANGLES: Carr as the "David Warfield" of pictures. DRAWING POWER: Good. Prod need and distributed by Chadwick Pictures Corp. Length, 7,300 feet. Released November 15, 1(>26. Comedy highlights in the Warner Bros, presentation. "Millionaires" Forever After Old Familiar Plot and Sentimental Hokum Here (Reviewed by Laurence Reid) NOTHING is exposed here which can by the widest stretch of imagination be called out of the ordinary. It's the old, old yarn of the poor chap who has a tough time marrying the rich girl — and who is forced to perform all kinds of sacrifices before he takes her to the altar. It's an innocuous little effort — charged with the proper dashes of heroics and sentiment to please those easily satisfied. The scheming mother of the girl gets in her deadly work and the youngsters are constantly frustrated in their romantic desires. It uncovers a deal of padding, but such a course is necessary to bring it out to feature length. A football sequence and another dealing with the late war have their innings, but they have no real place in the plot — being' introduced to add punch to the picture. The performances are first rate — and the settings are good. To audiences who digest the best in the market the film won't have much appeal. But there is a public for it — the average picturegoers. And so it should do tolerably well. The Cast: Lloyd Hue/lies. Mary Astor, Hallam Cooley, Eulalie Jensen. Alee Francis, Lila Leslie. Director, IP Harmon W eight. THEME: Romantic drama of poor boy and rich girl who are constantly interfered with in their love affair by heroine's mother. Ends happily. PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS: The fine acting by principals. The football game. The sequence of the late war. The scene in the hospital. The settings. The romance. EXPLOITATION ANGLES: Bill as adaptation of p'ay by most prolific author of the day. Play up Lloyd Hughes and Mary Astor. Exploit the football sequence and that of the late war. Tease the title. DRAWING POWER: Suitable for average houses. Camera angles of the Tiffany production, "College Days' Produced and distributed by First National. Length, six reels Released Nov, ruber, 1926.