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40
MOTION PICTURE HERALD
January 23, 1937
{Continued from page 38) charges the doctor and his serum with responsibility. He leaves the hospital where he is a respected staff member, seeking to lose himself in the city, and while in a deeply melancholy state reads newspaper stories about the case which influence him to attempt suicide by drowning.
Rescued, he believes he is another person searching for the missing doctor Dumartin. His superiors seek by old-fashioned methods to restore his reason, frankly considering him insane. During this treatment he is subject to hallucinations graphically and logically depicted in the film. Ultimately a younger member of the staff is permitted to apply modern psychiatry to his case and a cure is effected.
Production and direction are finely attuned to the nature of the story. Performances are strong in simple allegiance to characterization. There is no extraneous incident and there are no secondary story elements or humorous interludes. In its depiction of the experiences resulting in the principal's mental state and the fancied experiences which follow the film is a splendid demonstration of motion picture technique.
Reviewed at the Filmarte theatre, New York, where an adult and intelligent audience manifested appreciation by applauding the by no means melodramatic or artificial ending. — William R. Weaver.
Produced by Progress Films, Berne, Switzerland. Distributed by Arthur Mayer and Joseph Burstyn. Directed by Werner Hochbaum. Novel and adaptation by Leo Lapaire, Art direction by Hans Jakoby. Photographed by Oscar Schnirich. Music score by Anton Profes. No. P.C.A. certificate. Release date, January 12, 1937. Running time, 70 minutes. Adult audience classification.
CAST
Madame Negar Olga Tschechowa
Sister Anna Thekla Ahrens
Professor Tscherko Peter Petersen
Doctor Dumartin Mathias Wieman
Doctor Wendt Tom Kraa
Adam Negar Franz Schafheitlin
Les Petits
( FrancoA merican ) French Comedy Drama
This is a not especially significant or tremendous French film, presenting what appears to be, so far as English titles supplied somewhat sparingly divulge, life as it is lived by children in French boarding schools. It is possible, perhaps, to regard it also as a psychological study of the juvenile under mildly dramatic circumstances, but its value as such, if any, is not glaringly evident to the Anglo-Saxon ear.
The picture offers a simple story in which a girl and boy committed to a boarding school, neither of them happily, are attracted to each other and come to regard their sympathetic relationship as equivalent to that of husband and wife. Grotesquely caricatured faculty members, entrusted with their care, misinterpret the situation, expel the boy and summon the girl's guardian to withdraw her. (Reaction of an audience evidently accustomed to French dialogue seemed to regard much of this as comic.) The boy becomes lost and is believed drowned but returns ultimately to his father's home, where he is reunited with the girl and it becomes manifest that their mutual interest is merely that of normal children.
Reviewed, under linguistic handicap, at the Cinema de Paris, New York, which is patronized by people who like French films and seemed to consider this one average. — W.R.W.
Distributed in the United States by FrancoAmerican. Directed by Constant Remy and Alfred Machard. Story by Alfred Machard. Music by Marcel Pollet. No. P. C. A. Certificate. Release date, December 29. Running time, 90 minutes. General (French) audience classification.
CAST
Aurore Alice Tissot
Rosalie Christiane Dor
La Directrice Teddy Dargy
La Concierge Cecile Didier
Martin ...Donnio
Paturelli Rognoni
Dede Le petit E. Roncier
Blanche La petite C. Borelli
Le Directeur Saturnin Fabre
Henri Tardier Constant Remy
Helene Jeanne Boitel
Slalom
(George Kraska) Romance on Skis
Against a background of the snow capped Alps in Switzerland, a light romantic story has been woven around the sport of skiing. The "Slalom" is an obstacle race, and the title is peculiarly fitted to the story as well, incidental as it is. It relates the adventures of a girl (Hella Hartwich) who, having quarreled with her fiance, undertakes to master the art of skiing to prove her independence of him and to "show him up."
The highlights of the production center about the two ski enthusiasts, one tall (Walter Riml) and one short (Guzzi Lantschner), who take it upon themselves to teach Miss Hartwich the sport. Comedians on the skis, they are also masters of every intricate maneuver. The amazing ease with which these two glide up and down the mountainside is a particular delight of the picture.
One sequence of their exploits, to indicate one of many unusual shots, involves a chase in which they are pursued by a gendarme on skis. The policeman in a fall is separated from his boots, which continue downward strapped to the skis.
Miss Hartwich, becoming adept at the sport, enters the winter sports competition dressed as a boy. She defeats her fiance. Then a reconciliation is effected.
The picture has very little dialogue. Photography is excellent.
Reviewed at the 55th Street Playhouse, New York — Paul Mooney.
Distributed by George Kraska. Produced by H. H. Sokal, Vienna. Directed by Max Obal. Based on a story by Ludwig von Wohl and Helmuth Orthmann. Screen play by Dr. Arnold Fanck. Photography by Hans Schneeberger, Richard Angst and Heinrich Gaertner. Running time, 66 minutes. Release date, December 15, 1936. General audience classification.
Four Days Wonder
(Universal) Comedy-Melodrama
Well produced and pleasantly acted, this picture contains definite interest and entertainment value for the family audience. Opening with what looks like the makings of another murder mystery, the production forsakes this theme and concentrates on the more saleable features of a fast paced and refreshingly blended comedy-melodrama.
Exploitation possibilities are not many, but nevertheless tangible. The vehicle serves to introduce to the screen a charming new personality, the young and very talented Miss Jeanne Dante, who last year scored such an outstanding hit in the New York Theatre Guild's presentation of "Call It a Day." Playing opposite Miss Dante and matching her in acting ability is another juvenile in the person of Kenneth Howell. Indeed, much of the picture's entertainment value is due to the winning naturalness of these two youthful players. Capable support is given the young folk by Martha Sleeper, Margaret Irving, Charles Williams and Spencer Charters. Alan Mowbray in the role of a mystery novelist more infatuated with himself than his craft and Walter Catlett as a dumb but hilarious detective provide much of the story's many comic minutes. The fact that this altogether pleasing story was fashioned from one of the novels by the noted English penman A. A. Milne may hold some attraction for the more literary minded of the fans. The title itself suggests teasing possibilities for exploitation.
Trouble begins for Miss Dante when she discovers the dead form of her Aunt Jessica, Margaret Irving, who much the worse from liquor has slipped on the polished floor and fallen heavily against a metal doorstep. Miss Dante becomes panicky and, in her fear that she will be unjustly accused of the death because of the unfriendly relations that existed between the aunt and her niece, she runs away. The law,
in the person of Mr. Catlett, arrives on the scene and finds Miss Dante's handkerchief.
Complications grow thicker and more confused and the action faster and more suspenseful when Mowbray, as the dim-witted novelist brother of Howell, inadvertedly pawns one of Miss Dante's rings, which had been given to him by his secretary, Martha Sleeper. Naturally enough the evidence is traced and the mad Mr. Catlett hurries onto the scene
Reviewed at Loew's Ziegfeld Theatre where an upper class mid-afternoon audience registered its polite interest by generous and spontaneous laughter. — Joseph F. Coughlin, New York.
Produced and distributed by Universal. Executive producer, Charles R. Rogers. Associate producer, Robert Presnell. Director, Sidney Salkow. From the novel by A. A. Milne. Screen play by Harvey Thew and Michael H. Unis. Photographed by Stanley Cortez. Special effect by John P. Fulton. P. C. A. Certificate No. 2678. Running time, 60 minutes. Release date, January 3, 1937. General audience classification.
CAST
Judy Widdel Jeanne Dante
Tom Fenton Kenneth Howell
Nancy Fairbrother Martha Sleeper
Archibald Fenton Alan Mowbray
Duffy Walter Catlett
Kasky Chailes Williams
Aunt Jessica Margaret Irving
Morris Murray Kinnell
Gilroy Spencer Charters
The Tramp Rollo Lloyd
Also: Arthur Hoyt, Mae Beatty, Viola Callahan, Horace Murphy, John Kenny, William Arnold, Russ Clark, Lane Chandler, Monte Montague, Lee Ford, Georgia Cooper and Helen Lowell.
Counterfeit Lady
( Columbia) Melodrama
This modest melodrama pertains to the theft and recovery of a $30,000 diamond, to a series of subsequent thefts and recoveries and, of course, ultimate restoration of the gem to its owner. Characters principally involved in the reasonably credible incidents are a pretty girl, an honest jeweler, a dishonest jeweler, assorted crooks, sundry detectives and John Pierce, the character portrayed by Ralph Bellamy, whose adventures and romance chiefly engage the lens.
The story is told in chronological sequence and the players are experienced in and generally associated with the type of work assigned them. Action transpires in a metropolitan city, a village, a roadhouse, a small town hotel, a cottage and aboard cross country buses, taxicabs, large and small passenger motor cars, covering considerable territory. Various characters supply comedy relief at intervals. There are fist fights and there is brandishing of guns, but no one is killed. Justice triumphs.
The gem in question has been stolen from a small town jeweler, who is indicted for the crime, and his daughter traces it to a city jeweler from whom she steals it back. He employs John Pierce, a free lance detective, to recover it from the girl, then employs two thugs to beat Pierce to the assignment. In the adventures that ensue Pierce outwits the thugs, recovers the jewel, returns it to the head of a jewelers' association which appears to have been his undercover employer all along, wins the girl and so forth.
Reviewed at the Globe theatre, New York, where a small crowd in attendance on a damp, midweek afternoon witnessed the exhibition without audible ado. — W. R. W.
Produced and distributed by Columbia. Directed by D. Ross Lederman. Assistant director, Morey Lightfoot. Story by Harold Shumate. Screen play by Tom Van Dycke. Film editor, James Sweeney. Photography, Allen G. Siegler. P. C. A. certificate No. 2822. Release date, Dec. 31. Running time, 60 minutes. General audience classification.
CAST
John Pierce Ralph Bellamy
Phyllis Joan Perry
Marino Douglas Dumbrille
Pinky George McKay
Clancy Gene Morgan
Bemis Henry Wilson
Mike , John Tyrrell
Kit Max Hoffman, Jr.
Girard Edward Le Saint
Swanson John Harrington
(Reviews continued on page 42)