Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

118 Motion Picture News December 6, 19 3 0 Opinions on Pictures The Right to Love {Paramount) Chatterton's Best (Reviewed by Don Ashbaugh) RUTH CHATTERTON'S newest picture is bound to cause discussion. "The Right to Love" may never become a box-office knockout, but the sophisticates will find it eminently to their satisfaction. Its drawing abilities will depend entirely upon the strength of the title and the star. Once in, however, any but the most provincial audience will probably like the picture. The work of the star will bring her no end of praise, but the theme of the story will in a large measure go over the heads of the major portion of the ordinary audience. These assumptions are based on the reactions of preview audiences in two different Southern California theatres. In both cases Miss Chatterton sustained an emotional interest for unbelievably long stretches of time. But the audiences "let go" during dramatic sequences. Quite evidently the strain was too much for theatregoers trained to sugary romances, melodramatic thrillers and tawdry love scenes. It is Miss Chatterton's picture from start to finish. She dominates from her first entrance to the final fadeout. A large portion of the story sees her in dual roles — parts in which the characters are diametrically different. The finesse of the star as an actress is never more amply demonstrated than in these scenes. She enacts both parts so expertly that the audience, forgetting that the star is playing both roles, find its sympathies divided. The technical work on these dual scenes is excellent. Not only does the actress play both roles superbly, but the photographers and cutters did their work so well that the two characters move about together with complete smoothness. There are numerous cross-overs of one of the characters in front of the others, several embraces but the highlight of technical work and cutting comes when Ruth, as the mother, helps the daughter to don a party gown. The story was taken from the novel "Brook Evans" by Susan Glaspell and has been admirably adapted to the screen by Zoe Akins. It concerns the love of a young farm girl of the mutton-sleeve era for the son of a haughty neighboring farm woman. The parents of both disapprove of their love affair. Their stolen moments result disastrously when the boy is killed and the girl is robbed of her lover. An upright and honest but dour farmer, whose advances have been spurned, offers to marry the girl when it is evident that the family will be disgraced by the birth of an illegitimate child. The next sequences show the mother, eighteen years later, trying to gain those things for her daughter that she missed during her joyless married life. When the daughter discovers her mother's true story, with youth's narrow idealism she turns to the foster father who has been kind. She breaks her mother's heart by becoming a missionary to China. There a romantic figure enters her life and she finally discovers a similar love to that her mother had experienced and learns to understand the parent who gave so much for her happiness. Miss Chatterton is seen first as the farm girl, then in the dual role of the mother and daughter on the wind swept Colorado farm and finally as the girl missionary. Paul Lukas. in the part of the man who wins the girl in China, is as poised and charming as ever in a role which was all too short. David Manners is the young farmer boy lover, an entirely delightful impersonation. Irving Pichel does a strong portrayal as the husband and foster-father. Richard Wallace deserves credit for fine directing. The story is a real romance of a woman's life and loves. Yet the box-office appeal is questionable. Certainly it is for adult audiences ; the more sophisticated the better. That portion of any audience which understands the delicate psychological situation involved and the finished acting will appreciate and applaud. It will need light relief — preferably slapstick comedy, lively music and cartoons to balance. Produced and distributed by Paramount. Directed by Richard Wallace. Based on "Brook Evans" by Susan Glaspell. Screen p.ay and dialogue by Zoe Akins. Photographed by Charles Lang. Edited by Eda Warren. Length not set. Release date, Dec. 27. CAST Naomi Kellogg I „ , _, Brook Evans i Ruth Chatterton Eric Helge Paul Lukas Joe Cooeland David Manners Caleb Evans Irving Pichel Mrs. Copcland Louise Mackintosh Mr. Kellogg Oscar Acfel Mrs. Kellogg ..Veda Buckland Willie Robert Parnsh Martha Lillian West Mrs. Waite Edna West Alice Ruth Lyons. Tony George Baxter' Dr. Fowler William Stack Dr. Scudder George Pearce Hook, Line and Sinker (Radio) Diverting Foolery (Reviewed by Jack Grant) NONSENSE with a capital "N" and sense with a lower case "s." Neither sense nor comedy can possibly reach a lower depth than in a Wheeler-Woolsey release, and "Hook, Line and Sinker" is no exception. It's title is indicative of the way the preview audience went for it. They laughed long and heartily and were still grinning as they came out. What more can you ask ? The Wheeler and Woolsey pictures for Radio continue to conform to the plots generally associated with musical comedy. The music, however, has been eliminated, and without song interludes the story structure looks a bit barren in retrospection. The comics are introduced as a couple of high-powered insurance agents. They meet Dorothy Lee, who is running away from the proverbial man her mother wants her to marry. It seems she has fallen heir (or heiress) to a hotel and, suspicious of its management, is going to take charge herself. Wheeler and Woolsey proffer their aid and are signed on as the new hotel managers. In attempting to put the place on a paying basis they get mixed up in a gang war and through their very stupidity emerge triumphant. This in its bare outline is all that serves for plot. Padded with typical Wheeler-Woolsey gags, some of which are new, it is nothing to tax the brain, but will prove rib-tickling fare for the whole family. Where comedies are popular "Hook, Line and Sinker" should do a nice week's business. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey divide honors and footage. Wheeler plays a bit straighter than usual so that Woolsey, with more answers, seems to have a slight edge. Their antics are a blend of slapstick and wise cracks and undeniably funny. Jobyna Howland garners her share of laughs with the ease of an experienced farceur. Dorothy Lee gives her usual cute performance and Natalie Moorhead draws a routine vamn assignment. The others are all capable with especial mention due Hugh Herbert as the house detective. Llerbert is rapidly making a place for himself on the screen as a "wandering" comic. This is his third straight role in which he has strolled in and out of the script having nothing to do with plot development. His work bears watching. Local audience registered an inside laugh at a Radio Picture plug in the dialogue. Jobyna Howland asks Woolsey where he is from. Bob replies, "I'm from Oklahomy — down 'Cimarron' way." Anything except slapstick comedy shorts 'will fit. Produced and distributed by Radio. Directed by Edward Cline. Original story by Tim Whelan. Adaptation and dialogue by Tim Whelan and Ralph Spence. Photographed by Nick Musuraca. Edited by Archie Marchek. Running time. 73 minutes. Length, 6,570 feet. Release date not set. THE CAST Wilbur Boswell Bert Wheeler P. Addington Ganzy Robert Woolsey Mary Marsh Dorothy Lee Mrs. Marsh Jobyna Howland John Blackwell Ralf Harolde The Duchess Natalie Moorhead The Duke William Davidson House Detective Hugh Herbert Bell Boy George Marion The Midnight Special (Chesterfield) Packs a Punch (Reviewed by Robert Hage) CRAMMED with action from start to finish, this is the type of outdoor drama that is decidedly in vogue at the present time and one that will elicit whoops and cheers from juvenile audiences, thrilling adult devotees as well. It is a railroad drama, as indicated by the title, and travels almost as fast as the flyer. It is highlighted with punch scenes, chief of which is the collision of the midnight special with a freight train. Of course, it's done in miniature, but so cleverly that the average audience will be unable to spot that fact. Glenn Tryon has the leading role, but this time he plays a straight part and is not called upon for any comedy. He and Merna Kennedy carry the romance with repression and satisfaction, and the balance of the cast, including Mary Carr, Phillips Smalley, Jimmy Aubrey, Tom O'Brien and Norman Phillips, Jr., also give adequate performances. Direction by Duke Worne was loose at times, and the story frequently ignored plausibility, but the production stacks up well with others of its type. Glenn is a telegrapher in a small town railroad depot and a rival with his superior, the chief dispatcher, for the affections of Miss Kennedy. The dispatcher is in league with a band of crooks who stage the wreck after binding and gagging Glenn. The girl believing him to be a coward, spurns him, but with the aid of his kid brother, Glenn gets a line on the situation, rounds up the yeggs and gets the girl. The thrill scenes include a break-neck auto race up a winding mountain road, with Glenn leaping from one car into another to fight it out with the dispatcher, and a number of fights. The picture is not of Class A calibre, but will get over in houses where audiences want their screen fare raw and speedy. Any type of comedy short will serve to balance. Produced and distributed by Chesterfield. Directed by Duke Worne. From the story by Arthur Hoerl. Edited by Tom Persons. Photographed by M. A. Anderson. Length, 6,190 feet. Running time, 60 minutes. Release date, Dec. IS. THE CAST Gerald Boone Glenn Tryon Ellen Harboard Merna Kennedy Mrs. Boone Mary Carr Mr. Harboard Phillips Smalley Joe Jimmy Anhrev Dan Padden Tom O'Brien Billy Norman Phillips, Jr.