Motion Picture (Feb-Jul 1932)

PARADE Newest Pictures HER MAJESTY, LOVE A Nifty Musical: This is the first musical comedy to be translated successfully into screen terms — probably because the music was mostly left out. The old story of the poor girl and the prince — in this case a prince of finance — who woos her in a dance is as good as new, furnished with some reliable comedy by W. C. Fields and decorated with Marilyn Miller, and a different Ben Lyon. Instead of the rather worn juvenile we are accustomed to, Ben looks debonair and romantic and he sings and dances well. If only for the scene where Marilyn appears at the banquet after her lover has rejected her by order of his haughty family, and wrecks the table in a gorgeous orgy' of smashed dishes and thrown food, you should see the picture. The tango song is haunting, and the ending, which shows the heroine meeting the hero on her wedding night and planning a somewhat vague future is satisfactory, SAFE IN HELL Picture Carries A Punch: This picture is disappointing at the end because so much of it has been so very good. Dorothy Mackaill plays one of her pure-hearted trollops, a girl who, betrayed through no fault of her own, earns her living in the only way she knows till her sailor lover returns from a long voyage to find her wanted for murder. He takes her to an island in the Caribbean where there is no extradition, and there, among a motley assembly of picturesque refugees from the law, he leaves her to wait his next return. She is safe — but safe in hell. With all the odds against her she makes a brave struggle to keep decent among the lustful women-starved ruffians. Nina Mae McKinney, by the way, is remarkable as the smiling, secret half-caste keeper of the place. The picture has the ring of truth up to this point; then without warning it goes movie. Why? one wonders. w^ / sK. ~~ *&' ■ f^Mft. i B» ARROWSMITH Exceptional Picture — Don't Miss It: Ronald Colman's "Arrowsmith" is one of the finest characterizations he has ever brought to the screen — sensitive, finely drawn, alive, likable. And to back him up, he has been given a cast of extraordinarily fin€ players, and direction and photography that in some cases is marvelous. The Sinclair Lewis story is pretty well known — the tale of the young medical student who, for love, gives up opportunity for fame to become a country doctor, only to achieve fame after all. Yet, in doing so, he loses the wife he loves beyond anything else in life. It is a story of extremes — lightness and tragedy flash before you, and twist your emotions. There are some of the finest bits of poignant drama the screen can achieve in some of the Colman-Helen Hayes scenes. This Hayes girl, still new to the screen, has great heights before her! UNDER EIGHTEEN Just Fair-To-Middlin: \n this modern fairy tale Cinderella, played rather cynically by Marian Marsh, goes out to find a Prince who will buy her a fur coat and a limousine and a pent-house. Being a thoroughly modern Cinderella, who works in a gown establishment and listens to the chatter of the models, she realizes that Princes don't marry working girls. But the arrival in their tenement home of her married sister (Anita Page does some good comedy work as the shrewish blonde with the good-fornothing husband) confirms her distrust of marriage and the cheery platitudes of Regis Toomey as her iceman lover. A typical movie view of the pastimes of the rich, which consist of dancing in bathing suits and swimming in evening gowns in a pent-house, is presented. The maudlin ending is given the saving touch of humor by Warren William whose charm could justify a much worse picture. 63