Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1938)

50 MOTION PICTURE H ERALD January 8, 1938 (.Continued from page 48) lightly, but that's the way things sometimes go. It's really a quite tremendous production effort, full of action, mountains, shooting, and it's all done in sepia. It's no more absurd than westerns have a right to be, and it wouldn't take much clipping to do away with a few dialogue lines the folks wouldn't have spoken in 1879. These are matters the people who love westerns probably won't mind anyway. And it is, as stated in the opening stanza, the stuff that Messrs. Ince and Hart thrilled the world with. If only Wally hadn't shot himself with a blank. . . . Previewed December 30th at the Alexander theatre, Glendale, California. This would be about the right kind of an audience for this kind of a picture and these folks liked it right well after the first 30 or 40 minutes, especially the shoo tin'. — William R. Weaver. Produced by Harry Rapf. Distributed by MetroGoldwyn-Mayer. Directed by J. Walter Ruben. Story by J. Walter Ruben and Maurice Rapf. Screen play by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum. Photographed by Clyde DeVinne. Film editor, Frank Sullivan. P.C.A. certificate No. 3812. Release date, December 31, 1937. Running time, when seen in Glendale, 88 minutes. General audience classification. CAST "Trigger" Bill Wallace Beery Loretta Douglas Virginia Bruce Jeffrey Burton Dennis O'Keefe Ben Joseph Calleia Mr. Jackson Douglas Lewis Stone "Eight Ball" Harrigan Guy Kibbee "Blackjack" McCreedy Bruce Cabot "Buzz" McCreedy Cliff Edwards "Vulch" McCreedy Guinn Williams "Doc" Laramie Arthur Hohl Ambrose Crocker Noah Beery "Loco" John Qualen Barney Lane Charley Grapewin "Hank" Summers Robert Barratt Spirit of Youth ( Grand National) Joe Louis, Thespian Most noteworthy of mention in this film is the appearance of heavyweight champion, Joe Louis, before the camera. Fashioned to exploit Joe's famed pugilistic prowess and peopled with negro players in the principal parts, the production will accordingly hold special . appeal for those two particular classes of audiences, namely, sport fans and colored movie attenders. Perhaps, a more general and widespread interest may be stirred up in less specialized audiences by the promotion of the announcement that the film carries, besides a prominent public personality in the star assignment, a presentation of material which is played under circumstances different from the exhibition of the usual motion picture feature. Working with an original screen play manufactured from the pen of Arthur Hoerl, which reads more biographical than fictional, Louis, as was to be expected, is cast to type in the role of a prize fighter. When he gets into character and the ring, Joe is naturally convincing and in his own element. However, when the lines must be recited, Louis' famed dead pan expression becomes as uncomfortably heavy as some of the wooden words he must speak and as a result the situations at times become unintentionally humorous. Supporting the fighter enthusiastically is a capable collection of colored players headed by Clarence Muse, Edna Mae Harris and Cleo Desmond. Using the perennial theme that the fighter, who forgets his rigid rule of training for fun and frivolity found in the treacherous trinity of wine, women and song, is leading with his chin, the narrative traces the rise and fall and finally the redemption of such a pugilist. First seen in his home surroundings of Birmingham, "Joe Thomas" leaves home to further the support of his crippled father and eventually finds himself in the fighting business. After a spectacular send off in the Golden Gloves contest, the lad is headed for the top spot in his profession when trouble in the form of cabaret singer acts as a lorelei and sidetracks Thomas from his goal. As a result of such tactics, the young man loses a match and his true and real love at the same time. But for some hidden and unexpected reason, the siren repents her ways and persuades Joe's silent and suffering girl friend to make a last minute appearance at the ring where the fighter is at the receiving end of a good trouncing. The sudden entrance of the young lady works strange and tonic effect on Joe's failing punches with the result that the opponent is soon floored, the world championship secured and the girl is won. Previeived at a Trade Screening in New York. — Joseph F. Coughlin. Produced by Globe Pictures Corporation. Distributed by Grand National Pictures. Produced by Lew Golder. Associate producer, Edward Shanberg. Directed by Harry Fraser. Original screen play, Arthur Boerl, P. C. A. Certificate No. 3980. Running time, 66 minutes. Release date, December 29, 1937. General audience classification. CAST Joe Louis Clarence Muse Edna Mae Harris Mae Turner Cleo Desmond Mantan Moreland The House of Mystery (Columbia-Larry Darmour) Comedy Mystery The title of this Larry Darmour production is "The House of Mystery." Those who saw its preview seemed to interpret it as "Entertainment for Sale." For "The House of Mystery" is a showman's show and an audience picture, packed full of the ingredients which both need. To begin with there is a good, interesting story. Basically it is melodramatic, yet it contains an unusual amount of comedy and a dash of romance. It presents a group of capable players, all of whom seem to be working for the good of the picture and none of whom seem to be trying to steal scenes from each other. The lines they are given to speak are smart and clever. The situations in which they find themselves are engaging. Their actions result in plenty of chills and thrills and just as many laughs. As the production is bare of all nonessentials, it is intelligently directed. Sticking to the plot continually, there is no fooling around to make for confusing complications. All that happens is the result of an enterprising reporter's efforts to help his policeman pal who has been given a demoted promotion. The early sequences are mainly comedy in which Jack Holt, Marjorie Gateson and Dorothy Appleby are prominent and a suggestion of romance which features Craig Reynolds and Beverly Roberts. The threat of melodramatic mystery arises when an eccentric old man's will is read and as a result of a prank theft which Reynolds perpetrated the ensuing action takes place in a house of mystery as the loss of a necklace and the disappearance of "the papers" cause a couple of murders. How Holt traps the killer, as both comedy and melodrama have their innings in the action is the surprise feature of the show. As it had the audience up on chair edges alternately giggling and gasping, it may be anticipated that the film will exert a similar influence on average audiences. Considering the entertainment quality of the picture, it should be given the kind of exploitation campaign that is accorded a "sleeper" attraction. Those who saw it in Forum Theatre, Hollywood, Dec. 30, regarded it as that kind of picture. — G. M. Distributed by Columbia. Produced by Larry Darmour. Directed by Louis D. Collins. Screen play by Jefferson Parker and Howard J. Green. Story by Howard J. Green. J. A. Duffy, assistant director. Dwight Caldwell, film editor. Photographed by James S. Brown. P.C.A. Certificate number 3974. Running time, 65 minutes when seen in Hollywood. Release date, Jan. 14, 1938. General audience classification. CAST Jack Holt Lewis Nagel Beverly Roberts Jeane Sandford Craig Reynolds Steve Withers Marjorie Gateson "Muffin" Wilder Dorothy Appelby Claire Sandford Gilbert Emery Edmund Sandford Tom Kennedy Sergeant Handley Corbet Morris Ronald Sandford Sheila Bromley Grace Sandford John Wray Herbert Sandford Maurice Cass Edgar Keer Tully Marshall Stuart Hackett Swing Your Lady (Warner Bros.) Comedy In addition to a cast of evenly billable comedians, showmen have a genuine cinema novelty to advertise. In it are combined two still hardy fads of the cockeyed genre, hippodromed wrestling and caricatured hillbillying. Both are made to give up capacity laugh revenue. Both afford copious catchline copy. The Pendleton, McHugh, Jenkins, Fazenda roles were tailored to measure. Bogart plays an uncriminal straight man adequately. The Weaver Brothers and Elvira step up from vaudeville, bringing along their trick musical instruments with which they panicked the preview audience. Penny Singleton introduces modernized rhythms a little too persistently but not disastrously. The story concerns a barnstorming wrestler of subnormal mentality matched with an Ozark lady blacksmith, with whom he falls into dumb love. He refuses to wrestle but her irate former mountain suitor challenges him. They meet in the ring, with the bride promised to the winner. After winning he marries the blacksmith and gives up the ring for horseshoeing. The treatment throughout is bluntly farcical with all points heavily underscored. Five musical numbers by Jerome and Scholl pep up what might been passive stretches to register individually. The dialogue, ribald but not vulgar, only once approaches the risque in a borderline mock explanation of sex in terms of flowers. The pace is rapid and smooth. The comedy material is considerably more legitimate than most offered this season under louder ballyhoo. Previewed at the Warner Hollywood, where a well mixed audience enjoyed itself immensely, especially during the wrestling bout, which adhered closely to yet spoofed unmercifully the current standard procedure of professional wrestling. — W. R. W. Produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Associate producer, Sam Bischoff. Original by Kenyon Nicholson and Charles Robinson. Screen play, Joseph Schrank and Maurice Lee. Director, Ray Enright. Assistant director, Jesse Hibbs. Art director, Esdras Hartley. Sound, Charles Lang. Unit manager, Louis Baum. Dialogue director, Jo Graham. Cameraman, Arthur Edeson. Film editor, Jack Killifer. Gowns by Howard Shoup. Music and lyrics, M. K. Jerome and Jack Scholl. Dances, Bobby Connolly. P. C. A. Certificate No. 3787. Running time, when seen in Hollywood, 75 minutes. Release date, January 8, 1938. General audience classification. CAST Ed Humphrey Bogart Sadie Louise Fazenda Popeye Frank McHugh Shiner Allen Jenkins Waldo Leon Weaver Joe Nat Pendleton Ollie Davis Frank Weaver Noah Daniel Boone Savage Mrs. Davis Elvira Weaver Rufe Tommy Bupp Mabel Sue Moore Hotel Proprietor Olin Howard Len Sunny Bupp Cookie Penny Singleton Specialty Number by Sammy White Mattie Joan Howard Smith Hugh O'Connell Jack Miller Ronald Reagan Love on a Budget (20th Century-Fox) Domestic Comedy "Love on a Budget" registered with a preview audience as an hour's wholesome amusement. With Alan Dinehart added to the familiar Jones Family cast, the film's value as entertainment and for showmanship surpasses any of previous seven episodes in the series. Domestic comedy, rich in homey humor, warm love interest, high pressure business promotion, political skulduggery, and hectic family life, the picture is family entertainment of a most desirable character from beginning to end. Freshly different in idea, the story has Shirley Deane, as Bonnie Thompson wanting every (Continued on page 52)