Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

November 2 9, 19 3 0 Motion Picture News 41 Opinions on Pictures It Happened in Hollywood ( Universal) A Howl THIS is loaded with laughs. It's the story of a sap (George Chandler), who gets on a Hollywood lot with the gate keeper (Tom Kennedy) trying to get him out. There are a lot of tunny and original gags, which keep the heehaws coming thick and fast. It's a great subject for any kind of bill. Running time, 22 minutes. Polo (i'isugraphw ) A Pip! SHORTS of this type come few and far between. The thrills of the ponies riding the picturesque field at Meadowbrook, Long Island, driven by such famous players as Hitchock, Guest and others in a hard-fought game between American and British teams ; and a certain pronounced instructional value when polo leaders explain various strokes combine to make this reel highly entertaining. Will fit nicely into any bill at practically every type theatre, with a particular appeal to the more sophisticated. Running time, 20 minutes. In Mexico ( Universal) Will Get By APPARENTLY Universal intends to send Oswald on a trip around the world, for here he is in the land of the tamale, becoming mixed up with chicken fights, sexy senoritas, etc. Too much singing and dancing get on the nerve. Running time, 6 minutes. In Africa ( Universal) Fair OSWALD the rabbit visits the dark con tinent and has some fun with camels, lions dancing girls, mummies, etc., etc. There are a few novel bits of business, but there is too much noise emanting from the horn. This series is far from what it used to be when it was silent. Running time, 6 minutes. The Picnic (Columbia) Diverting MICKEY MOUSE gets himself nicelymessed up in a picnic. What the birds, ants and whatnot do to the food is just too bad for Mickey and the picnic, but perfectly swell insofar as the audience and its inclination to laugh are concerned. Produced in his usual, inimitable style by Walt Disney. Running time, 7 minutes. All for a Lady {Universal) Okay NO. 6 in the "Leather Pusher" series, but far below its predecessors in quality and interest. Up to date each of the series has packed a good story and has been embellished with production values, but in this one the yarn develops a farcical vein that is an anti-climax and will disappoint those who have been sold on the general excellence of the series. The usual prize fight is staged in a barn and Jhe audience consists of more cowboys than you ever saw in a western. Directed by Al Kelly. Running time. 20 minutes. Short Subjects Audio Review No. 46 (Pathe) Weak A MARIONETTE show, cleverly done, will appeal to the children, but the other units are lacking in interest. They include a covered wooden bridge in Pennsylvania, children being fitted with new transparent shoes, and a selection played on the virginal, the type of piano popular in Queen Elizabeth's time, with a talk by Lotta Van Buren. Running time, 10 minutes. Talk-o-Graphs (Henry Sonenshine) Interesting NORMAN BROKENSHIRE, Canadian traveler, lectures through this magazine reel which boasts a number of subjects widely diversified and entertaining. Two of these subjects demonstrate that the series should be diverting and entertaining, a camel fight in the second standing out particularly. Running time, 9 minutes each. Office Boy (Pathc) Good MILTON MOUSE is the office boy in this Aesop Fable and in love with the pretty stenog, but he can't compete with the boss in that direction until Mrs. Boss appears on the scene and sails into hubby. Whereupon the course of true love runs smoothly. Does not pack a punch, but it is free of the usual banal striving for musical effects. Running time, 8 minutes. Came the Pawn (Columbia) Amusing EDDIE BUZZELL did a three-barreled job on this ; he wrote the yarn, directed the picture and also plays the radio announcer who tells the story of the pictures you see. Most of the film is silent, accompanied by Buzzell's running dialogue with the words of the silejnt actors pretty well, although not always, matched up with the actual dialogue. The tale takes the form of a radio bed-time story for grown-ups and concerns the double-crossings of a young, but bored, married couple. Running time, 9 minutes. Spanish Rhythm (Imperial Pictures) Fairly Good Felix Fernandino and his orchestra put number of tuneful Spanish melodies in tins. here are some good singing and dancing to ■e it pep and color. A fairly good offering over this. The give u pep anu tuioi . .rv iuil , of the stage band variety. Running time, 8 minutes. Welcome Home (Tiffany) Fair Song Number PRESENTING Forbes Randolph and his jubilee singers in a series of songs. The Negro troupe is shown first in a dugout in France, where the boys leave their comrade presumably dead. Then the scene shifts to a drawing room, where they get together for several song numbers. Fairly good and novel. Running time, 9 minutes. Lambs Will Gamble ( Columbia ) Swell Cartoon CLEVER boys, Manny Gould and Ben Harrison, who conceive the Krazy Kat series. Produced by Winkler Pictures for Columbia distribution. "Lambs Will Gamble" deals with the stock market, the tussle between the bears and the bulls and how Krazy Kat brings enough dough to the rescue just when the stock tape goes completely blooey. This conveys the idea only ; the actual cartoon work is far more clever. Running time, 7 minutes. Dangerous Youth (Pat he) Punk IF your audience is interested in Daphne Pollard's bloomers here's a treat for them. Daphne does a continuous routine of falls, jumps, splits and other contortions during the course of a story that must have been born during a nightmare. Very sad. Directed by Arch Heath. Running time, 21 minutes. Guiseppe Verdi (Fitzpatrick) Interesting, Educational Another of the Music Masters series and a good one. These subjects are nicely done and have great educational value, showing the lives of the great composers. Verdi, composer of 'Aida" and other notable works is shown as the sorrowful music master, who struggles against great odds and sorrow to achieve eminence. Running time, 9 minutes. W. E. New Recording "Mike" in Studios, Jan. 1 A new recording microphone designed by Western Electric to eliminate ground noises, development of which was exclusively reported in Motion Picture News last week, goes into operation in the studios of licensed companies on January 1. The first picture so recorded is "The Right to Love," starring Ruth Chatterton. Details of the "mike" have been held very secretive, but it is understood the device is about the size of a quarter. Its diaphragm forms the front wall of a chamber filled with carbon granules. Speech waves, coming partly from the speaker's lips and partly from his chest, set the diaphragm into vibration, which is transmitted to the carbon grains. Contact between individual grains are made alternately tighter and looser and electrical waves are set up which are a good copy of the speech waves. To increase the likeness of one kind of wave to the other, a circuit has been designed to lessen response to the heavy chest tones, which would otherwise be unduly prominent. The device was originally designed for an operator's transmitter, but it is predicted that it should prove of assistance to weak-voiced actors, especially in theatres where the acoustics are faulty. Martin Gets Theatre Omaha — Clyde S. Martin, formerly assistant manager of the Strand at Hastings. Neb., and now a freshman medical student at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, has been made manager of the Circle, one of the Nebraska Theaters Corp., houses.