Motion Picture News (Jan-Mar 1929)

February i 6 , 1929 501 The Man Who Cheated Life Your Audiences Will Say You Cheated Them (Reviewed by Freddie Schader) HERE is a German made production that is about, as rambling a tale that has been witnessed on the screen in this country in a long: while. Of course the foreign idea in production leans to the costume period stuff, and in this case it is no exception. "The Man Who Cheated Life," is just another one of those versions of "Faust," which would indicate that in German film production we have much the same idea as exists in America. Only in this ease it was the evident intent of the producers to see just how much footage they could shoot without getting anywhere at all. The character of the Devil in the story took a note on the hero's soul for 90 days, and from the way that the picture rambled on it looked as though it was going to take the whole 90 days before one got to the end of the story. A check up of the audience at the Little Carnegie Playhouse in New York at the last performance on the first Sunday night that the picture was shown revealed nine people asleep in the five rows of the little theatre before the film was halfway finished. The story deals with a young student in a school in Bohemia who is poor and wishes for wealth. He wants to marry an heiress and the Devil overhears him and comes to him with a proposition to which he agrees and immediately the heiress is thrown into liis arms from the back of a horse. Of course, she is engaged to wed a Count and finally when the student and the girl are discovered by the 'Count there is cause for a duel, and as the student is acknowledged as the best swordsman in the country the girl's father makes him pledge his word that he will not fight the Count. But when the boy gives his word he reckoned without the powers of the Devil, who takes the inner-conscious self of the student and has him kill the Count in the duel. And finally he must pay the price that Satan exacts for his brief time as a wealthy man. At that it must be admitted that a couple of names were secured for the cast for it is Conrad Veidt who plays the student and Werner Krauss impersonates the Devil. Drawing Power: If you have a neighborhood house where there is a strong Hungarian or Bohemian population you might get by with this, but otherwise pass it up. Produced by Sokal G.M.B.H. Distributed by Affiliated European Producers. Length 8,000 feet. Running time an hour and twenty-two minutes. Released Feb. 8, 1929. Story by Hans Heinz Ewers. Directed by Henrik Galeen. THE CAST The Student Conrad Veidt The Devil Werner Krauss ".45 Calibre War" A Punk Western (Reviewed by Raymond Ganly) ''PHIS western has been on the Pathe *■ shelves for some time. It could just have well stayed there for it certainly will not add any to the prestige of Pat hewesterns. Ordinary, inadequate, the production is a wobbly affair. It is difficult to understand how Leo Maloney who directed and Ford I. Beebe who did the story could have been guilty of so poor a piece of work. As the writer saw it, the following faults contributed forcibly to make it the mediocre number it is : (1) very little action, mostly shots of groups engaged in conversation, and a feeble attempt to indulge in a riotous blood and thunder finale; (2) entirely hammish acting from the star, Don Coleman, and equally punk performances from the villain, heroine, etc. The best acting conies from a minister. (3) But he is pictured as setting fire to a dance-hall and is seen running around like a pyromaniac with a blazing torch in his hand. A few captions hint at his actions as being justified because of the end he is striving at — the elimination of the dance-hall as a habitat for the villains. This is not an enlightening spectacle: a minister committing the crime of arson. (4) the general appeal of the picture. It lacks tenseness and is far too passive. Drawing Power: AVe can't give this one the stamp of approval. Out in the sticks where they take their westerns in any shape and form it may get by. But it is only another western. THEME: Western drama in a cow town. Land-owners are forced to sell to a rascally crew or accept a bullet in the back. The young hero and his pal clean up the villains and restore justice. Produced by Leo Maloney Productions, Inc. Distributed by Pathe. Story and scenario, Ford I. Beebe. Photography, Edward A. Kull. Release date, Feb. 17, 1929. Length, 4790 feet. THE CAST Reed Lathrop Don Coleman "Toad" Hunter Ben Corbett Rev. Mr. Simpson Al Hart Sheriff Henshaw Edward Jones Nick Darnell Duke R. Lee Jim Walling Floyd Ames Ruth Walling Jeanette Loff Mark Blodgett Murdock MacQuarrie Dr. Sprague Orrin Jackson Napoleon "The Barn Dance" (Disney Sound Cartoon Comedy) (Reviewed by Freddie Schader) WALT DISNEY has evolved another of those animal characters for comedy purposes. This is Mickey Mouse. Mickey is wooing another mousie and takes her to a barn dance with a lot of the usual comedy ticks following. There are some laughs in it. The reel has sound synchronization via the Powers Cinephone. Its running time is seven minutes. "At The Front" (Universal — Two Reels) ( Revietved by George J. Reddy) THIS release starring Arthur Lake in the latest of the "Horace in Hollywood" comedies, shows him as an extra appearing in a war sequence of a picture. He considers himself a knockout — and certainly would have them, could the top kick in his company have had his way. A gun was an unknown quantitv to Horace and when the orders to "fall in" were given, he spent most of his time falling down. In the trenches Horace's method of handling a grenade nearly gave his buddies fluttering of the heart. At getting orders of any kind mixed up he was a genius. Everyone was relieved when the sequence was finally shot and Horace was discharged as a private. Arthur Lake seems to have quite a following among fans as a result of some excellent work he has done in feature productions, so his name and appearance in this comedy might balance what is just passable fun. A Very Poor Foreign Made Picture (Reviewed by Freddie Schader) IF you are an exhibitor and you play this one, the chances are that your audiences will send you to St. Helena for life. It is a very poor apology for a motion picture and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer must have had a lot of pressure brought to bear on them to bring about the distribution of the picture by that organization. Not only is the story of the early life of Napoleon handled in a most episodical fashion in the sciven version of the tale, but the photography is wretched and the direction even worse than that. If I was running a house and the picture was offered me I wouldn't play it for nothing. The answer is that the French company that produced it should have been ashamed to send it to America, unless they intended it to be an example of how bad they can make pictures there. If America is going to be compelled to buy this sort of junk to meet quota conditions, then the American producers should take the loss and shelve the pictures and not compel American audiences to look at them. And if the foreign nations that produce pictures of this ilk insist on distribution on this side of the Atlantic why just stop giving them American pictures at all and let their audiences suffer with this sort of product and it won't be long before the public abroad will revolt. This version of the life of Napoleon first shows him as a cadet in a French military school and then his rise in the ranks of the army of the revolution until he returns from the Italian campaigns. It also carries his romance and final marriage to Josephine as its love theme. Abel Gance directed the picture for "The General Society of Films." He was also the author of the story, and for all that it matters he might as well have been the whole cast of players. Albert Dieudonne characterizes the young Napoleon and Gma Manes has the role of Josephine. Neither of them will ever mean anything to American audiences and they do not show anything in this picture that would make them a possibility for an American producer. Of course, there is always the possibility that the version of the picture that is being shown in America has been chopped in the cutting and that might account for the decidedly jumpv episodical telling of the screen storv. But the chances are that it there were more of the story it would have meant that the audiences would have had to suffer that much more. Drawing Power: Onlv where there is a ■ry strong French population is there any chance at all. Produced by "The General Society of Films of France," distributed by MetroGoldwyn-Mayer. Released: October, 1928. Running time an hour and twelve minutes. Story and direction by Abel Gance. THE CAST Napoleon, Boy Waldimir Roudenko Napoleon, Man Albert Dieudonne Danton Alexandre Koubitzky Rouget de Lisle Harry Krimer Robespierre Edmond Van Daele Marat Antonin Artaud Josephine Gina Manes Fleuri Nicholas Koline