Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1939)

72 MOTION PICTU RE HERALD December 9, 1939 SHOWMEN'S REVIEWS This department deals with new product from the point of view of the exhibitor who is to purvey it to his own public. Gentleman from Arizona (Monogram) Action and Color Produced by Charles Goetz, ice manufacturer of Phoenix, Ariz., this is the first of four films contemplated both as features for the entertainment market and by way of demonstrating the virtues of Arizona as a site of production. The film is in Cinecolor and compares favorably with much western product produced in and around Hollywood, although somewhat less tightly constructed as to story and somewhat more leisurely in lens canvassing of natural backgrounds. John King and J. Farrell MacDonald are the best known of the Hollywood players imported by Mr. Goetz, the large cast including many, such as diminutive Ruth Reece, who have Arizona followings of one kind and another. Mr. King and Miss Reece sing several songs, an entertainer named in the film and credits as Adrianna both sings and dances, and there is orchestral music in the Spanish manner on the expansive grounds of the Phoenix Biltmore. Arizona is presented as an extremely attractive place, both in town and on the range, convincingly. Earl Haley, who wrote the story and directed the film, uses a horse, Rex Jr., to open and close the picture, and provides the best entertainment of the production in a horse race (The Phoenix Handicap) for the closing sequence. This is handled not dissimilarly to previous handlings, the winning of the race saving the ranch for the heroine's father, exposing the villain, vindicating the hero, and so on. It generates considerable interest for its own sake, however. The picture's strong point throughout is the use of color on fascinating exteriors. — William R. Weaver. Produced and distributed by Monogram Pictures. Producer, Charles E. Goetz. Associate producer and director, Earl Haley. Photographer, John Boyle. Sound director, Corson Jowett. Musical score. C. Bakaleinikoff. Original story, Earl Haley. Screen play, Earl Haley and Dack O'Donnell. P.C.A. Certificate No. 5340. Running time, 73 minutes. Release date, December 5, 1939. General audience classification. CAST John King Doc Pardee T. Farrell MacDonald Ross Santee Joan Barclay Adrianna Craig Reynolds Sherry Hall Ruth Reece John Morris Nora Lane Rex Jr. Nick Carter, Master Detective (MGM) Boyhood Hero Rapid-fire action and excellent characterizations mark this first of what bids fair to be as popular a series, film-wise, as were in their field, the Nick Carter stories on which it is based. As the Nick Carter remembered by successive generations of boys, Walter Pidgeon provides an interpretation which should be welcome to those who have only been able heretofore to picture him on the printed page. Donald Meek, as an eccentric apiarist with leanings toward criminology, provides some hilarious moments, while Rita Johnson and Henry Hull give good accounts of themselves. Engaged to ferret out the method by which secret plans are being stolen from a plane factory, the detective portrayed by Pidgeon succeeds in his job; a story which in its screen telling moves with a swift sureness towards its finale without a single let-down en route. Topical in its content to the extent of its concern with planes and the attempts of foreign agents to steal or sabotage, the picture also has in its main character a name known to the countless readers of the 1,200 Nick Carter yarns. Directing his first feature after short subjects experience, Jacques Tourneur has imbued it with life and vitality more than sufficient to maintain a level which should please old followers of Nick and create new ones. Previewed at the Village theatre, Westwood, Cal., to a highly enthusiastic audience. — Walter Selden. Produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Producer, Lucien Hubbard. Director, Jacques Tourneur. Screen play, Bertram Millhauser. Based on a story by Bertram Millhauser and Harold Buckley. Musical score, Edward Ward. Recording director, Douglas Shearer. Art director, Cedric Gibbons. Associate, Howard Campbell. Set decorator, Edwin B. Willis. Director of photography, Charles Lawton, A.S.C. Film editor, Elmo Veron. P.C.A. Certificate No. 5621. Release date, December 15, 1939. Running time, 60 minutes. General audience classification. CAST BiCu FM'T \ Walter Pidgeon Robert Chalmers 1 Lou Farnsby Rita Johnson John A. Keller Henry Hull Doctor Frankton Stanley C. Ridges Bartholomew Donald Meek Hiram Streeter Addison Richards T. Lester Hammil Henry Victor Dave Krebs Milburn Stone Otto King Martin Kosleck Pete Frank Faylen Bee-Catcher Sterling Holloway Cliff Parsons Wally Maher Denny Edgar Deering All Women Have Secrets (Paramount) College vs. the Biological Urge This moderately if not modestly produced little offering is notable, if at all, as the film in which first screen use is made of the timing of labor pains for entertainment purposes. This incident, following upon long and varied discussion of the question as to whether college boys and girls should marry and the further question of whether, having done so, they should have babies, is of a sort to seem to warrant somewhat specific description in the interests of showmen who may contemplate exhibition of the film. The coed whose labor pains are referred to above is one of three who have married fellow students and found out that the necessity of making a living while going to school interferes with their studies. This one lives with her spouse in a trailer attached to a jaloppy. Her husband's away when her pains start, but another pregnant coed and a drunken fullback have dropped in and the girl abed checks the progress of her condition by repeatedly asking the football player what time it is. When he and the visiting mother-to-be find out what's going on they hitch the trailer to the jaloppy and start for the hospital but run out of gas. A gas station attendant who was studying to be a doctor when he got married and had to quit school delivers the baby before the ambulance arrives. The picture is notable otherwise as the first appearance of Jean Cagney, sister of James. Previewed at the Alexander theatre, Glendale, Cal.— -W.R.W. Produced and distributed by Paramount. Associate producer, Edward T. Lowe. Directed by Kurt Neumann. Screen play by Agnes Christine Johnston. Story by Dale Eunson. Photographed by Theodor Skarpuhl. Edited by Arthur Schmidt. P.C.A. Certificate No. 5690. Release date, Dec. 15, 1939. Running time, when seen in Glendale, 70 minutes. Adult audience classification. CAST Jennifer Virginia Dale John Gregory Joseph Allen, Jr. Kay Parker Jean Cagney Slats Warwick Peter Hayes Susie Blair Betty Moran Joe Tucker John Arledge Doris Janet Waldo Professor Hewitt Lawrence Grossmith Mary Una O'Connor Flo Kitty Kelly The Devil Is an Empress ( Columbia ) Old-Russia Intrigue A French production that is being released in this country by Columbia, "The Devil Is an Empress," has been based on the H. DupuyMazuel story, "The Chess Player of Vilna." It concerns a bizarre character, an Austrian baron whose hobby it was to create robots, of which "The Chess Player" was one, and in which the Baron attempts to smuggle a Polish patriot out of Catherine the Second's realm. Russian court intrigue plays its important role. Catherine is here presented as an eccentric woman who wears male riding attire, smokes a long clay pipe and in the semi-privacy of her chambers dons large-rimmed spectacles. The acting is uniformly good, with the cast including such well-known performers as Conrad Veidt, Francoise Rosay, Micheline Francey, Paul Cambo and Gaston ModoL The film was directed by Jean Dreville. "Boleslas," the Polish patriot, is in love with "Sonia," born of Russian parents but reared in Vilna. The Baron is a friend of both, and when "Boleslas" is tricked into a fight with a Russian officer a price is set on his head. The Baron hides him in the "Chess Player." The Russian officer finds out about the hiding place and has the "Chess Player" sent to Catherine, who orders a firing squad to fire at it. In the meantime the Baron has substituted himself in the automaton and it is he who is killed while "Boleslas" and "Sonia" escape. Reviewed at the Belmont theatre, New York. A small afternoon audience viewed the film intently but without applause. — Paul C. Mooney, Jr. Distributed by Columbia Pictures. Directed by Jean Dreville. From the story "The Chess Player of Vilna," by H. Dupuy-Mazuel. Music by Jean Lenoir. French dialogue with superimposed English titles. P.C.A. Certificate No. 02401. Running time, 70 minutes. Release date, Dec. 1, 1939. General audience classification. CAST The Baron Conrad Veidt Catherine II of Russia Francoise Rosay Sonia Micheline Francey Wanda Edmonde Guy Prince Serge Bernard Lancret Boleslas Paul Cambo Major Nicolaieff Gaston Modot Prince Potemkin Jacques Gretillat (Reviews continued on page 74))