Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1936)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY At Last Night's Opening Metropolitan Photo Service Nicholas M. Schenck, right, president, and Louis B. Mayer, vice-president in charge of production, snapped as they arrived at the Astor last night for the notable premiere of "Romeo and Juliet." B Broadway Gay As "Romeo and Juliet" Opens (.Continued from t>aue I) considerable by both of the counts. There would appear to be no point in outlining the highlights of a play known so thoroughly and one so securely catalogued among literature's most famous love tragedies. Shakespeare, to many, offers no excitement and is devoid of thrills. Thalberg must have known that when he advanced his plans for "Romeo and Juliet" and that realization, no doubt, accounts for the adroitness, first, and the execution, next, of the decision which impart modern tempo, mood and speed to much of the picture. Not that "Romeo and Juliet" departs from the printed word in essential detail. To have attempted that would have risked a storm of abusive criticism. This version rather is skilfully moulded to a recognizance of the sweep of the camera and it results, where properly such could be done, in wild and thrilling duels, breakneck travel on horseback, pageantry and color in dance and movement. It also significantly transforms to the quiet and to the gentle in the love scenes — on the balcony, in the friar's hut, in Juliet's bedroom — and to moving tragedy in the death scene at the finish. This "Romeo and Juliet" is something of which Metro is very proud and that is thoroughly understandable. It is also an accomplishment fine enough and big enough for the entire industry to throw hats in the air and to reflect gratification that it was produced in the manner of its making. Audience a Notable One The mounted police, basking in the hot beams of sunlight arcs flooding the front of the Astor Theatre, were on display last night to maintain order at the premiere of "Romeo and Juliet." Injunctions of "move along" kept the crowds circulating and two lines of policemen, cleaving a narrow" path into the lobby, were necessary to permit ticket holders through the crush. In the lobby, Jay Flippen, at the WHN microphone, introduced celebrities, near and genuine, for a couple of words through the ether, including one woman who read hers which were more than a few. Many Executives Attend Film executives in New York w'ere on hand, including Barney Balaban, A. W. Warner, Leon Netter, Major Leslie E. Thompson and a flock of others. The audience likewise included Lee Shubert, Morris Gest, sitting all by his lonesome ; Clifton Webb, Ginger Rogers, Nicholas M. Schenck, Louis B. Mayer, E. M. Saunders, Thomas J. Connor, Louis K. Sidney, Charles C. Moskowitz, Howard Dietz, Si Seadler, Howard Strickling, Libby Holman. Jean Chatburn, Frank Orsatti, William Thalberg, the producer's father ; Herbert Mass. his attorney ; Ethel Levy, Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, president of the Shakespeare Ass'n ; Kitty Carlisle. Fannie Hurst, and Luise Uhlrich and Viktor Kowa, Viennese players who arrived on the Bremen yester day. Philadelphia critics, including Elsie Finn of The Record, Henry Murdock of The Evening Ledger, Jeff Keene of The Record, Linton Martin of The Nezvs and Hobe Morrison were there en masse as M-G-M's guests. What the Critics Say Midnight editions of three of this morning's newspapers carry reviews of "Romeo and Juliet." A consensus of their opinions : Daily Mirror — Made with rare taste and played by an inspired cast, the first film production of "Romeo and Juliet" is a distinguished triumph for Hollywood. Pho^ tographically exquisite, magnificently mounted, it is one of the most elaborate and opulent of the recent films. Liberated from the rigid confines of the stage, the film is active and spectacular, with brawls, duels and a suspense which brings it vividly to life. Despite the familiarity of its story, it awakens a gripping interest as the unfortunate young lovers meet and move forward to their inevitable tragedy. Norma Shearer is a bewitching Juliet. She assumes the exacting role with the assurance of a seasoned Shakespearian. Her voice is lustrous and stirring. Leslie Howard plays Romeo with his usual skill. With Edna May Oliver as the nurse, Basil Rathbone as Tybalt and John Barrymore as Mercutio, the acting is uniformly inspired. Rathbone contributes the outstanding performance. The vigorous direction of Mr. Cukor and the unobtrusive musical score of Herbert Stothart intensify the mood of the play, which emerges as a history-making film. Herald-Tribune — With rare good taste and surprising resourcefulness the screen has translated Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" into a distinguished and beautiful photoplay. The singing measures of the tragedy have been framed in sumptuous pageantry. The acting, always effective, rises at times to genuine brilliance. Under George Cukor's knowing and sensitive direction, the angularities of the plot have been shaped to a smoothflowing narrative exposition.*** No speeches have been added, but episodes have been interpolated to give the production an almost continuous action. There are elisions, as there are in all theatrical productions of the play, but the bulk of the poetry remains and benefits by eloquent expression. Beautifully photographed. per'ormH vi-h f»i»'i"'u ?nd restraint and consummately decorated, it is an offering that should commend itself both to Shakespeare lovers and those to whom the dramatist is only a name.*** In Talbot Jennings's carefully wrought scenario the plot loses its jerky, episodic quality, and the misadventures that lead to Juliet's tomb are explained for the first time with clarity and dramatic conviction. Meanwhile, all the tricks of the camera have been used to give the production an excitingly varied tempo and to conjure up a visual accompaniment to the shifting moods of the drama.*** Norma Shearer has not the exquisite diction of several great Juliets of the past, but her soliloquy when she drinks the potion is superbly moving. As Mercutio John Barrymore gives a matchless reading of the part and the other players, with scarcely an exception, do no violence to the verse. Of all the splendid performances in the film, that of Mr. Barrymore is outstanding.*** In her (Miss Shearer's) most ambitious role she does the finest acting of her career. As Romeo, Leslie Howard is almost too restrained, although he conspires with Miss Shearer to make the lovers' meetings incidents of haunting beauty. One suspects that he is too conscious of the part's frailties. His characterization takes on stature and conviction in the desperate journey from the apothecary's shop to Juliet's tomb.*** Pictorially, "Romeo and Juliet" is surpassingly lovely. Backgrounds that have reached bare suggestion behind footlights emerge here in a gorgeous panorama of fifteenth century Italy. Renaissance art has been culled assiduously by Cedric Gibbons and Oliver Messel to inspire striking street scenes at Verona, palatial interiors, elegant trappings and bright costumes. The visual imagery is ' carried to extremes at times. ***The screen version of "Romeo and Juliet" has flaws, but they are trivial when weighed against the beauty and compelling power of the production. Times — Metro the Magnifcent has loosed its technical magic upon Will Shakespeare and has fashioned for his "Romeo and Juliet" a jeweled setting in which the deep beauty of his romance glows and sparkles and gleams with breathless radiance. Never before, in all its centuries, has the play received so handsome a production as that which was unveiled last night at the Astor Theatre. All that the camera's scope, superb photography and opulent costuming could give it has been given to it here. Ornate but not garish, extravagant but in perfect taste, expansive but never overwhelming, the picture reflects great credit upon its producers and upon the screen as a whole. It is a dignified, sensitive and entirely admirable Shakespearean — not Holly woodean — production.*** But there is more to "Romeo" than mechanical perfection, and if we seem to have delayed unduly in reporting upon Leslie Howard's Romeo, IVorma Shearer's Juliet and the others it is because the best news should be kept to the last. Considering the nerformances en masse, they are splendid. Here and there we can expect imoer*ections: Miss Shearer was not at her best in the balcony scene. Mr. Howard came a cropper in a few of his soliloquies — there must be some inherent antaeonism between the Screen and soliloquy — Conwav Tearle was a bit on the declamatory side as the Prince of Verona.*** Fortunately we need not value a perfor Friday, August 21, 1936 mance as the proverb instructs us to judge a chain. With more pleasure, and with a sense that this memory will endure the longer, do we recall Miss Shearer's tender and womanly perverse Juliet during her farewell scene with Romeo before his flight to Mantua. Bright, too, is the recollection of her surrender to uncertainty, fear and suspicion before swallowing the potion, and of that scene in which she finds her lover dead beside her in the tomb. Miss Shearer ha-, played these, whatever her earlier mistakes, with sincerity and effect. Mr. Howard is a pliant and graceful Romeo, overly weak perhaps in those moments when his hot blood should have boiled and he shared some of Mercutio's fiery spirit. But as a wooer and whisperer of Shakespeare's silver-sweet lines, he is as romantic as any lady on a balcony might desire.*** Metro's film of "Romeo and Juliet" is a a lovely thing; if it should not be well received the fault will not be Hollywood's. It will mean only that Shakespeare has become a literary exercise or a matter for a drama cult's admiration. Somehow we cannot believe that. Lauds Romeo and Juliet Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, presidentof the Shakespeare Ass'n. of America, has addressed a letter to Irving Thalberg on the coast, lauding M-G-M's production of "Romeo and Juliet." "Ziegfeld" Weekly Average Is $16,480 The average weekly gross for "The Great Ziegfeld" during its 19-week tenancy at the Astor on a two-a-day policy was $16,480, according to figures compiled by Motion Picture Daily. The total intake for the run was $313,331. According to Loew's bookkeeping records, the first week, ending April 11, closed with a tally of $12,427. The last week, ending Aug. 19, was listed at $7,000, of which $2,600 was chalked off as the final day's receipts. As figured by the circuit, the first week amounted to four days and the last, three days. This is due to the fact the musical film opened on a Wednesday night and the week ended on Sunday. Unlike previous two-a-day films, no passes were issued the last three days of the run. There was standing room at the final three performances. The grosses from week to week are as follows : Week Ending Gross April 11 (four davs) $12,42" April IS $18,954 April 25 $18,000 May 2 $17,950 May 9 $17,775 May 16 $17,400 May 23 $17,125 May 30 $17,200 June 6 $16,100 June 13 $16,900 June 20 $17,400 June 27 $17,300 July 25 $14,700 Aug. 1 $13,900 Aug. 8 $14,400 Aug. 15 $15,600 Aug. 19 $ 7 000 Considering that the Astor has a seating capacity of about 1,600 and the lowest figure during the whole run was $13,100. the final take is unusual for a two-a-day extended engagement. "Mary of Scotland," which ran three weeks at the Music Hall, came pretty close to aggregating in that time as much as the 19-week booking of "The Great Ziegfeld." With $75,100 garnered in the last week, the 21-day hooking of the film wound up with a total take of $263,300. The first week's business was $100,200. the second. $88,000.