Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1928-Jan 1929)

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Current Pictures WEST OF ZANZIBAR /ON CHANEY is back at his old gruesome habits. This time he's * a thing that crawls, dragging himself around on the palms of his hands with his useless legs behind him. And very convincing, too. He is known as "Dead Legs," a fiend incarnate, and bald-headed into the bargain. He devotes his life to the pursuit of revenge, only to find that his diabolical schemes result in his own destruction. This is mad, weird, grotesque, and completely nutty melodrama. You will get lots of laughs out of it, and I think it's far more entertaining than some of the Lon Chaney pictures that make sense. It takes place in a dismal swamp, in the thick of a studio jungle, and it's full of drunkards, cripples, savages, fire-eaters, and other innocent delights. Lon Chaney is ably aided by Lionel Barrymore and Warner Baxter. But the thing that makes it really worth seeing is the blonde and beautiful Mary Nolan, who looks very fair indeed against the mud and slime of Zanzibar. The plot is "The Shanghai Gesture" with slight alterations. THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND TI^ARK this down as one which must be seen by you and your 1 VI sistersand your cousins and your aunts. The photodrama is a real cinematic accomplishment. There is an excellent story, capably adapted from the old Jules Verne thriller, and masterfully directed by Lucien Hubbard. There is plenty of fine acting contributed by such maestros of the art as Lionel Barrymore, Montague Love, portraying two opposing forces . . .young affection appealingly offered by Lloyd Hughes and Jacqueline Gadsden . . . comedy by Snitz Edwards and Harry Gribbon ... a thousand thrills and a thousand more gripping surprises. And just to top it all off, some of the best color photography recently proffered. The most unusual portions of the picture are naturally those depicting the events taking place in an under-sea city peopled by strange creatures never before beheld by the eyes of man. So skilfully have real underwater shots been merged with those accomplished through studio wizardry, that there is never a let-down in the illusion. In case you have forgotten Jules Verne's tale, it treats of a sub-sea boat created in his imagination long before the advent of submarines. A noble of an oppressed land invents it in the hope of freeing his people. "The Mysterious Island " is a terra incognita well worth exploring. 62 THE RIVER WOMAN rHE treacherous Mississippi river constitutes the menace of this drama. At first I thought it was going to be Lionel Barrymore — just from force of habit — but he turned out to be the hero after all. It's the story of a beautiful woman, and two men whose temperatures rise indoors while the river is rising outside. Jacqueline Logan is a hostess in Lionel's waterfront dive, and Charles Delaney is the piano player. They all have to move up to the second floor when the water invades the first, and in these close quarters the situation naturally becomes rather strained. Jacqueline Logan is so beautiful and so endowed with sex appeal, Charles Delaney is so winning, and Lionel Barrymore so intriguing that you may find the picture interesting. It achieves quite a good sombre effect, ominous and strained. Lionel Barrymore enjoys the luxury of a sacrifice ending, everybody does his best, and it's just a matter of taste whether you like this sort of thing or not. But you ought to be able to tell from the plot exactly what it will be. SINS OF THE FATHERS r I THE sound of a hundred noses being blown testified immediately J and surely to the effectiveness of the latest Jannings. The versatile and brilliant Emil has no particularly novel situations to help him here, but he gets 'em sniveling just the same. The picture starts out to be a repeat on "The Way of All Flesh," with ZaSu Pitts making a superb effort to give some point to the part of the harassed wife who dies of shock when she sees her husband in the arms of the gold-digger (Ruth Chatterton). Sorry as we are to see ZaSu out of the way, it is from here that the picture really starts. The real meat is served when Jannings, as a big Broadway bootlegger, is responsible for the blinding of his own son through liquor made by himself. One delicious comedy scene between Emil, in his intimate unmentionables, and Ruth Chatterton, in her teddies, and several dramatic moments between the star and Barry Norton as his son, make this a more than worthwhile show. Even if you don't like the story and characterizations, which have many weak points, you can't afford to miss Emil in his aforementioned unmentionables. Jack Luden manages to score in a small character bit, and Barry Norton proves he's the most intelligent and mature of the screen's younger players by nearly acting Jannings off the screen. Altogether, we advise you not to pass up this picture.