Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1937)

Tuesday, March 16, 1937 MOTION PICTURJt DAILY 13 Short Subjects "Organ Grinder's Swing" (Fleischer-Paramount) With the popular tune serving as a base, this adventure of Popeye and his troupe unreels as another entertaining cartoon. Bluto objects to Wimpy's organ grinding and gets into a battle with Popeye. Out comes the spinach and in the whirlwind action that follows, Popeye teaches Bluto to appreciate "swing." Production Code Seal No. 01,248. Running time, 7 mins. "G." "Swing Wedding" (Harman-Ising-M-G-M ) A lilting and colorful cartoon that satirizes the swing craze with an assortment of frogs made to resemble various and famous colored stars from Cab Calloway to Stepin Fetchit. It concerns the wedding of Smokey Joe to Minnie the Moocher and the best man, of course, is the swingiest. But before the ceremony there is much clever invention and rhythmic animation. It is well executed. Production Code Seal No. 3,075. Running time, 8 mins. "G." "Scrambled Legs" (Columbia) A hilarious assortment of clips dealing with the comic side of wrestling. It is a News World of Sports ' number. Starting with the Dusek brothers, it takes in highlights from I a few of the more humorous bouts including one refereed by Gunboat Smith, who makes the boys toe the line. It should be highly satisfactory. Production Code Seal No 01,481. Running time, 10 mins. "G." "The Hot Air Salesman" ( Fleischer-Paramount ) Betty Boop and Wiffle Piffle are animated in routine stuff that concerns the latter's rebuffs as he attempts to sell his scatter-brained gadgets. With some difficulty Piffle enters Miss Boop's house and wrecks the place when his appliances get out of control. Production Code Seal No. 01,222. Running time, 7 minutes. "G." "Going Places No. 33" (Universal) Highlighting these shots of the winter playground of Miami, which for the most part are neither new nor extraordinary, are scenes, partly from the air, of the Everglades, inhabited by Seminole Indians. Shots of animals and birds fleeing from the plane are good. Air views of the city itself are interesting. Production Code Seal No. 01,306. Running time, 9 mins. "G." "Grips, Grunts and Groans" (Columbia) The Three Stooges again. Arriving in a box car, they proceed to get involved with a wrestling "stable." More complications when they go out with the contender who is due to wrestle that night and he gets drunk. After the usual business Curly goes on and wins after plenty of spectacular comedy. It measures up to their best comedies. Production Code Seal No. 2,829. Running time, 19 mins. "G." Looking 'Em Over "Lealta' Di Donna" ("Loyalty of Love") (Nuovo Mondo) The outstanding feature of this Italian import is the interpretation of a hackneyed role by Marta Abba. Her acting is the sole relief from a story that drags and unwinds with little novelty or freshness. It is a historical drama based on the attempt to unify Italy in 1821 by a group of aristocrats who were tiring of Austrian rule. Miss Abba is concerned in the story as the wife of a leader of the political group. Her husband, however, is unworthy of her. He openly carries on an affair with the wife of a Polish official in Milan. When he is arrested, Miss Abba, after he has been in jail for over a year, finally gets to see him. She plans an escape which doesn't quite come off. Later, following a trial, her husband is sentenced to be hanged along with the other conspirators. Miss Abba journeys to the Austrian Emperor and, failing to move him through her father-in-law, the court chamberlain, she sees the Empress and convinces her of the false case against her husband. At length, following routine climactic business, she obtains commutation of his sentence to life imprisonment. The photography and direction lack the sparkle of other Italian offerings. It is a slow moving affair. The dialogue is capably interpreted in English subtitles. Reviewed without production code seal. Running time, 90 minutes. "G." Overseas Previews 'Orphan of the Wilderness" (Cinesound) Melbourne, Feb. 15. — (By Air Mail Via London). — This film, Cinesound's latest, compares well with other local pictures and in some respects is superior. The camera work and general production technique have always been an impressive feature of Cinesound's work but in ''Orphan of the Wilderness" there is very definite evidence that under the direction of Ken G. Hall the technical staff has made even further advances and very few American or English films would surpass it in this respect. In performances it does not attain the same high standard, and local players still do not seem to have acquired the art of appearing natural before the camera. There is a disconcerting unreality about their work that robs the story of much of its conviction. Herein, however, the players enact subordinate roles to that of a kangaroo, "Chut," which has the title role. The plot was adapted by Edmund Seward from Dorothy Cottrell's story in the Cosmopolitan Magazine, and is a story of the animal's adventures from the time his mother is shot by bushmen. Becoming a station pet he is trained to box with his paws, and the prowess he develops makes him a circus star. The cruelty of his trainer, the romance between Chut's owner and one of the circus girls, and a novel twist to the happy ending form the story's basis. As an animal picture, "Orphan of the Wilderness" is brilliant. As a drama it has sufficient merit to show that Australian studios are slowly but surely making headway towards the goal of international equality in production. Running time, 85 minutes. "G." Holt "Calling All Stars (British Lion) London, March 9. — Just a string of cabaret, variety, radio acts, strung on the thinnest thread of story interest. The idea is that a world search is in progress for stars to re-make a batch of master phonograph records broken by a clumsy porter. It is soon lost sight of and it doesn't matter that it is. The material is uneven, apart from its very inconsequential presentation, but there is some good dancing from the Twelve Aristocrats, plenty of singing and tapping from colored performers, including Turner Layton, Elisabeth Welch, Buck and Bubbles and the Nicholas Brothers. Ambrose and his orchestra and Leon Cortez and his band do the dance and chorus stuff, and Larry Adler is there with his mouth-organ. It is not so much a film as a series of illustrated numbers. Running time, 76 minutes. "G." Allan Short Subjects "The Star Reporter No. 2" (Paramount) A collection of singing and dancing acts which includes the Boswell Sisters, Stanley Worth, from Vincent Lopez' band, Jack Blair and Yasha Bunchuk's Cossack singers, who improvise on Massachusetts. Ted Husing does the introductions. It is diverting. Production Code Seal No. 01,500. Running time, 9 minutes. "G." "The Lyin' Hunter" (Columbia) Routine cartoon stuff concerning the Krazy Kat aptitude for bragging in front of his nephews. This time a zoo is the location. The climax occurs after Krazy is chased by a fake tiger which is being used by a film company. A good item for the children. Production Code Seal No. 01,031. Running time, 7 mins. "G." "The Big Race" ( U niversal ) Meany, Miny and Moe, extremely animated monkeys, get themselves into fast-moving trouble when one of them, seated in Hippo's racing car with his girl, finds himself going places in a hurry. The result, until the tree crackup, prior to which the car takes to the air, is average cartoon comedy. Production Code Seal No. 3,024. Running time, 7 mins. "G." "When the West Was Young" (Columbia) An interesting camera visit to Tombstone, Ariz. Bud Jamison and Charles Sargent, as a pair of prospectors, serve to bring out the historical sights of the town as they question the sheriff. It is done in color. Production Code Seal No. 3,084. Running time, 9 mins. "G." "Duck Hunt" ( U niversal ) Oswald goes duck hunting, but he forgets to introduce his dog, Elmer, to the intricacies of mechanical decoys. Elmer becomes tangled with them, then with Oswald, and the real ducks show the unfortunate hunter how hunting should be done. The ducks win, and the cartoon is entertaining. Production Code Seal No. 3,023. Running time, 7 mins. "G." "Lumber Camp" ( U niversal ) The three monkeys, Meany, Miny and Moe are in a lumber camp, with somewhat disastrous results. One tries to fell a rubber tree, a second is taken over the hurdles by a squirrel and the third, the cook, chases a bear cub for stealing, meets the angry mother, and turns the tables — or the stove — on her. It is a fairly amusing cartoon. Production Code Seal No. 3,022. Running time, 7 mins. "G."