Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1934)

November 2 4, 19 3 4 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 39 are to be turned out of the shoe, because BoPeep refuses to marry terrible old Mr. Barnaby. There is a spectacle of the toyland characters finding Bo-Peep's always lost sheep, before romance is established with Tom-Tom. Laurel and Hardy's clowning continually intervening, Barnaby frames Tom-Tom into being arrested for stealing one of the three little pigs. But Dum and Dee, finding the pignaped victim, frustrate Barnaby's villainy. Fleeing before the aroused fairyland folk, Barnaby arrives in Bogeyland with all his monsters. Endeavoring to capture him, Dum, Dee, Bo-Peep and TomTom are trapped in the caverns to be scared out of their wits by the Bogeymen. Getting back to Toyland, they are besieged by the Bogeymen. As panic grips the town, Dum and Dee release the wooden soldiers, who in a thrilling sequence, made more dramatic by the stirring "March of the Toys" music, rout the menacing raiders, put Mr. Barnaby in his place, make the Bo-Peep-Tom-Tom romance possible, restore the shoe to Mother Goose and her brood, and make heroes of Dum and Dee. Nobody should encounter any difficulty in obtaining sponsored backing of the groups advocating better films for this picture. For audiences, it's straightaway amusement every foot of the way ; for exhibitors it's an exploitation gold mine, to be sold so that the maximum interest of both adults and children is aroused. — McCarthy, Hollywood. Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Produced by Hal Roach. Directed by Gus Mains and Charles Rogrers. Photographed by Francis Corby and Art Lloyd. Film editors, William Terhune and Bert Jordan. Recording engineer, Elmer Raguse. Musical director. Harry Jackson. Composed by Victor Herbert. Books and lyrics written by Glen MacDonough. Screen play by Frank Butler and Nick Grinde. Running time, when seen in Hollywood, 67 minutes. Release date, Dec. 14, 1934. CAST Stanley Dum Stan Laurel Oliver Dee Oliver Hardy Bo-Peep Charlotte Henry Tom-Tom Felix Knight Barnaby Henry Kleinbach Widow Peep Florence Roberts Mother Goose. Virginia Karns Santa Claus Ferdinand Munier Toymaker William Burress Little Boy Blue , Johnny Downs Curly Locks Jean Darling Maybe It's Love (Warner) Comedy Romance Drama While there is nothing great in cast, story or production value of this picture, there is plenty of reason to assume that it should prove better than satisfacory average entertainment for the run of the mill picture fans. In character, dealing with regular every-day folk, the yarn is a comedy romance drama. Two qualities, the menace of the wealthy employer's son attempting to come between the working boy and his working girl sweetheart, and the menace of the in-laws interfering with the young folk's married life, serve to add interesting and laugh-creating color to the basic idea. The familiar domestic angle gives the picture an intimate and understandable tone. As such, it is a family picture, one with entertainment for the more mature as well as for the 1934 modernes. Playing up the vital significance of family interference, financial difficulties and real and fancied jealousies, it hits a human note, the kind of entertainment that the general public is more apt to appreciate than any one else. Bobby and Rims, working for the Mengle Shipping Company, are in love. Demon jealousy rears his head when Mengle's son, Adolph, comes to work in the office and takes a shine to Bobby. Between Bobby's natural inclination to keep her sweetie on the anxious seat and the smart advice of Rims' sister Florrie, the pair split. Offered a job in the Havana office. Rims realizes that his acceptance would leave Adolph a clear field. Instead of accepting, he marries Bobby. Between family interference, trying to keep the budget balanced and the continued threat of Adolph, plus in-law interference, things go haywire. Adolph, realizing his responsibility, decides that it's up to him to do something. To reunite the little family, he has to have Rims pinciied for stealing his car. His exi>lanation of the unusual act proving satisfactory. Rims and Bobby are in a clinch, when in troops the whole Sands melange with an idea of how they all can live happily in one hou.se. Bobby and Rims put their respective feet down on that pronto, the family is invited to pass out of the picture as the young folk decide to work out their destiny alone. While the leading names, Gloria Stuart and Ross Alexander, imply little of what to expect of the picture, this shortcoming is more than accounted for in the presence in the cast of Frank McHugh, Joseph Cawthorne, Ruth Donnelly, Helen Lowell and Henry Travers. — McCarthy, Hollywood. Produced and distributed by First National. Directed by William McGann. Based on the play "Saturday's Children" by Maxwell Anderson. Screen play by Jerry Wald and Harry Sauber. Adaptation by Lawrence Hazzard. P. C. A. Certificate No. 381. Running time, when seen in Hollywood, 69 minutes. Release date to be determined. CAST Bobby Halevy Gloria Stuart Rims O'Neil Ross Alexander Willie Sands Frank McHugh Mrs. Halevy Helen Lowell Adolph Mengle, Sr Joseph Cawthorn Adolph Mengle, Jr Philip Reed Florie Sands Ruth Donnelly Lila Dorothy Dare Mr. Halevy Henry Travers Mrs. Gorlick Maude Eburne The cop J. Farrell Macdonald Pursued (Fox) Drama Localed somewhere in South America, this rather sordid story of a cafe hostess in a seaport town who was the object of too emphatic and unscrupulous attention of a crooked and evil-appearing plantation operator, hardly has the value of a standard major studio production. The rejuvenation of the girl, through romance developing when she nurses a man who has been brutally attacked near her dwelling, despite the efforts of the crook to keep her for himself, forms the backbone of the not particularly new yarn around which the story is built. The small cast is headed by Rosemary Ames, as the cafe girl; Victor Jory, as her pursuer; Pert Kelton, as her friend and sister hostess, and Russell Hardie as the man with whom she falls in love. These names will mean comparatively little to the box office in drawing power. Copy lines might be developed about the title, conveying the idea that the girl, pursued by the stigma attached to her position, nevertheless found her way to freedom and romantic happiness. Jory, it is understood, is posing as owner of a plantation he is operating, after having successfully disposed of the rightful owner, the father of Hardie, who is en route to claim his property following the death of his father. Jory is ready and waiting to meet him. After cleverly relieving him of his suitcase which he drops in the sea, Jory has his employees follow Hardie, slug him, remove his papers and leave him for dead. Miss Ames finds him, brings him into her own house, and nurses him back to health, although he is afflicted with temporary blindness caused by a blow on the head. She, meanwhile, is the object of the greasy and extremely unappetizing aft'ection of Jory, who tries to bribe her with pearls and promises. She is obdurate, although Miss Kelton cannot quite appreciate her fussiness. She and Hardie fall in love with one another, he, still unable to see, believinf^ she is a wealthy girl, an idea fostered through the connivance of the knowing doctor. When he asks her to marry him immediately, she leaves, with the cooperation of the doctor, planning to rehabilitate herself in San Francisco, then return to Hardie when she feels she is fit to marry him. Finding her gone, Hardie, now able to see, tries to find her, and finally goes to his plantation, where he finds Jory and Iiliss Ames, who, trying to leave the country, had been kidnaped by Jory. When Jory attempts to kill Hardie. ]\Iiss Ames saves his life, and in the ensuing rough and tuniljle, she kills Jory. The conclusion is as expected. It is midweek material, and an adult attraction only. — Aaronsox, Xew York. Produced and distributed by Fox. Produced by Sol M. Wurtzel. Directed by Louis King. Screen play by Lester Cole and Stuart Anthony. Adapted from a story by Larry Evans. Photographed by L. W. O'Connell. Gowns by Royer. Settings, Duncan Cramer. Sound, S. C. Chapman. Musical director, Samuel Kaylin. P. C. A. Certificate !S'o. 109. Running time, 68 minutes. Release date, Aug. 24, 1934. CAST Mona Rosemary Ames Beauregard Victor Jory Gilda Pert Kelton David iJandeen Russell Hardie Dr. Steiner George Irving Hansen Torbcn Meyer It's a Gift ( Paramount-LeBaron) Comedy As may be readily imagined, W. C. Fields heading the cast, this picture is nonsensical, laugh-packed comedy. For both commercial and entertainment purposes. Fields with his brand of comedy, is the whole show. Gags that follow fast and furiously in dialogue, action and situations, are the basis of all the fun-making. In each, absurd foolishness is stressed. In this character of entertainment, the sustaining story is insignificant. While one idea carries all the way through, the picture is actually an amalgamation of a series of situations, wherein when the last drop of hilarity is squeezed out of one, the whole melange moves on to another. Bissonette, a successful failure at running a country grocery store, comes into an inheritance which enables him to realize his life's dream, a California orange ranch. Bought through a sales pamphlet, and also as a mean of furthering the romance of his daughter Mildred and salesman John Durston, he autocaravans to the state of lemonade, wells and rock-candy mines. His beautifully depicted orange grove is a sun-baked desert and the junk of a broken-down shack, but w-hen fortune is at its lowest ebb, along comes a race track promoter to buy up the ground at a fabulous figure to make Bissonete a 1934 Midas. Not much to that, but plenty in what accompanies it. The shaving gag with which the picture opens has all the fun necessary to put audiences in the proper mood. The fun with the blind man in the grocery store gives way to more with Baby Dunk and Everet Ricks. Field's attempt to get some sleep on the back porch is a riot of nonsense. The auto trip is funny and the California climax is clever, laughloaded satirical buffoonery. By this time, most patrons know what to expect of Fields, but his value in this particular instance should be completely realized. It automatically suggests endless interest-creating gags, all of which can be adapted from sequences in the show, promising audiences nothing but laughs and using the title significance to assure them that this attraction is a gift to everybody's happiness. — AIcCarthy, Hollywood. Distributed by Paramount. Produced by William LeBaron. Directed by Norman McLeod. Original by Charles Bogle and J. P. McEvoy. Screen play. Jack Cunningham. Sound, Earl S. Hay man. Art directors, Hans Dreier and John B. Goodman. Photographed by Henry Sharp. P.C.A. Certificate No. 343. Running time, when seen in Hollvwood, 70 minutes. Release date, Nov. 30, 1934. CAST Harold Bissonette W. C. Fields .Mildred Bissonette Jean Rouverol John Durston Julian Madison Amelia Bissonette Kathleen Howard Norman Bissonette Tom Bupp Everett Ricks Tammanv Young Baby Dunk Baby LeRoy Jas. Fitchmueller Morgan' Wallace Jlr. Muckle Charles Seilon Jlrs. Dunk Josephine \\TiitteI Miss Dunk Diana Lewis Insurance Salesman T. Roy Barnes Gate Guard Spencer Charters Harry Payne Bosterly Guv Usher j\rr. Abemathy Del Henderson Vegetable Man Terrv Mandv Ice Man James Burke Old JIan in Limousine Wm. Tooker Old Woman in Limousine Edith Kingdon Mrs. Frobisher Patsy Q-'Byme {Continued on page 42)