Motion Picture Magazine (Feb-Jul 1927)

The Picture Parade WHAT PRICE GLORY?-Drama-95% THE long-awaited screen version of the celebrated war play, •* "What Price Glory?" is something to write superlatives over. The limitations of the stage are swept aside naturally — and as a film it takes on broad dimensions, without losing vitality in transference. It has been argued that the hot profane dialog of the "leathernecks" which characterized the stage play would find weak substitutions on the screen — and that the vivid caliber of the original would be lost entirely. Such is not the fact. There is a healthy man's language employed — and the cuss words are not missed. The picture adheres to the play in all of its essentials and improves upon it in the scope of its war scenes. If the characterization is not so vibrant, the reason may be found in the silence of the dialog. Yet one can make believe that the soldiers talk in tough idioms. Raoul Walsh, who directed, has brought forth a fine treatment. His atmosphere is perfect and his story progresses straightforward to its climaxes. He gets results from the players, too — Victor McLaglen, especially, contributing a lusty performance as the very he-mannish Captain Flagg. He is not so hard-boiled as Louis Wolheim was in the play. He doesn't have to be — not with the dialog missing. Dolores Del Rio makes a captivating heroine who loved and loved so generously, while Edmund Lowe as Sergeant Quirt is entirely vigorous if not always convincing. The picture is exciting and often humorous. And we highly recommend it as one of the hits of the season. — Fox. L. R. "GOD GAVE ME TWENTY CENTS^Drama-70% DERHAPS the opening of the new . Paramount Theater and the extensive program presented before the showing of the film were too much for us. Perhaps we were a bit worn out and when the melodrama, "God Gave Ale Twenty Cents," was shown, our appreciative faculties were strained. At any rate, we didn't particularly appreciate it, except photographically. We only enjoyed it moderately. Very moderately. It seemed to us to consist of the bad old hokum, if you know what we mean. The lurid ingredients consisted of a sailor on shore leave, the Mardi gras, a lady of the streets, prison bars, lust and love and a spotless maiden with a rosebud in her hair. These are the elements, including, of course, the titular and dramatic twenty cents. Jack Mulhall and Lois Moran as the sailor and the spotless maiden do get a quite real quality of emotion into their performances. They are, indeed, very good. We didn't care for Lya de Putti, but, as we have said, we were tired. Everyone to his own taste . . . kindly omit juveniles. The cast includes : Lois Moran, Lya de Putti, Jack Mulhall, William Collier Jr., Leo Feoforoff, Rosa Rosanova, Adrienne d'Ambricourt and Claude Brooke. It was directed by Herbert Brenon. G. H. THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM-Drama-85% Lf/E didn't see "Peter Grimm" on the stage, and so have no odious ' ' comparisons to make with the Warfield version. Alec Francis plays his role lightly and lovably, and gets across well the desperate efforts of the dead Oom Peter to communicate with his family, the helplessness he feels in trying to avert the calamity of which he, in life, had been the cause. But it seems to us that any number of men of about that age could have given as much to the role. These spirit pictures are hard to handle, and in this case the atmosphere of the supernatural is more convincing than usual. But even so, it's hard to accept the notion of a spirit that can walk about the house in his own old tweeds, and knock his pipe to the floor. The inconsistency of spirits is disconcerting. On the other hand, this picture should hold real interest for many people since spiritualism is one of the subjects on which public interest focuses today . . . and there are so few stories which handle spiritualism as satisfactorily as "The Return of Peter Grimm," despite the fact that this too seems a little strained at times. For the rest, the picture is loose in construction. Jaynet Gaynor is pleasing as Katherine, and John Roche is our idea of a perfect snakein-the-grass. — Fox. E. G.