Motion Picture (Feb-Jul 1929)

And Sound^I n Review HIS CAPTIVE WOMAN ^|f r^'p Dorothy Mackaill leaps at her first chance in years "" to portray a real person, and walks away from under Milton Sills's sturdy nose with the honors of the picture in her pocket. As the gold-disgin', gun-totin' night club girl of the first part of the story, Dorothy not only shows the fans plenty for their money but contributes one of the screen's most noteworthy characterizations. An entireh new angle on the familiar desert island romance is presented, but unfortunateKDorothy discovers along about reel si.x tiiat she has a soul, which sort of puts a damper on things. Despite this, tlie picture is very much one not to be missed: it is fresh in treatment and has genuine suspense. George Fitzmaurice did a fine job of the direction. It was not his fault that during his location trip to the South Seas the sun was an absentee and the pictures of the Island Paradise look a good deal like London on a foggy day. The titles by Paul Perez are more than excellent, and outstanding comedy support comes from a talented lady of color. THE DRIFTER Well, boys, Tom Mix is certainly getting a trifle SILENT settled these days, but he still puts up a good show of being less, in years, than the dust. In this, his last horse opi'ia hut one before going into circuses and European tours, In intrcuiuces an airplane and has considerable fun several thousand feet up playing tag with the heavy. Apart from the air stuff, wliicii is well done, this is a distinctly novel Western story w ith definite suspense to it, and merits the attention of an\ open-space fan. Dorothy Dwan looks perfectly nice as the heroine. Tom puts up a good, breezy performance, impeded only by tiie fact that he is now rather heavy about the chassis. Admirers of him and of the Western as a form of entertainment had better get a load of this one, which is near the end of the road so far as both are concerned. Perhaps a few have already heard about the "talkies," which have thrown open-space dramas on the junk-pile for the time being. Go see Thomas i\Iix while yet there is time. He is standing on the last line of the frontier. IN OLD ARIZONA YVLKIE ^°^ Films, with the able directorships of Raoul Walsh and Irving Cummings and the A-i performances of their all-star cast have certainly delivered the goods in " In Old Arizona." I don't know when I've seen a better picture. I know I've never seen a better talkie. In every way. The dialogue, praise be, is intelligent. When it is necessary to speak Mexican lingo or Spanish or whatever it is, it is spoken. The characters talk like people, people of their time and ilk. And not like the silly stilted pens of the new art form. The story, adapted from O. Henry's "The Caballero's Way" is adapted from O. Henry and not from the pens of meddlesome middlemen. With the result that story, plot and most of the characterizations are preserved intact. Warner Baxter, Edmund Lowe and Dorothy Burgess give star performances and no doubt about it. The best test being that you never once think of them as Warner Baxter, Ed Lowe and Dorothy Burgess but only as the people they are playing. The rest of the cast is of equal excellence. WOLF SONG Were it not a fait accompli that Western pictures are TALKIE dead, this one would be classified as a great-openspace drama. Perhaps this is a South-Western, for the town of Taos, in those days a suburb of Santa Fe, is the central location. There are trappers and redskins, bowie-knives and guns. And Lupe Velez. All of which makes the screen story as wild and woolly as any of the out-of-doors operas. The thrills begin as the main title is flashed upon the screen. For as the various "by-lines" appear, the sound device roars the stirring chorus of the "Wolf Song" rendered by the most masculine of choruses. In the opening sequences there are a few, a very few, spoken words. And aside from these the film's claim to be a talker is based upon several songs by Lupe, Gary Cooper and others. The most prominent of these, oft repeated, is in the way of being a " hit." It is a haunting Spanish melody peculiarly suited to Lupe's voice, which, incidentally is pleasantly surprising. The little Mexican is cast in character and Gary Cooper is romantic in buckskins of the early frontier. 63