Motion Picture Reviews (1942)

Eight MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS that her performance might leave a feeling of insecurity with children who see the film, although her attitude serves to highlight the devotion of father and son. John Boles’ voice is beautiful in various numbers: “America,” “Danny Boy” and selections from opera. The director has handled his story material well, and there is more genuine human interest than is found in many more pretentious films. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 1 2 Good Might have a bad effect .♦ ♦ SEALED LIPS O O William Gargan, John Litel, Anne Nagel, Ralf Harold, Mary Gordon. Universal. This detective melodrama has a new twist which makes it interesting. A district attorney suspects that a notorious gangster, supposedly serving a term in a California jail, is not the man held. He assigns a detective to investigate, and with the aid of a lipreading assistant and a newspaper reporter he uncovers the hoax. While rather improbable, the plot is fast-moving, and photography and good acting heighten the effectiveness. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 1 2 No No V SHANGHAI GESTURE O O Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Victor Mature, Ona Munson, Phyllis Brooks, Albert Basserman, Maria Ouspenskaya, Eric Blore, Ivan Lebedeff, Mike Mazurki, Clyde Fillmore, Grayce Hampton, Rex Evans, Mikhail Rasumni, Michael Delmataff, Marcel Delio. From the play by John Colton. Adapted by Joseph von Sternberg with the collaboration of Geza Herczeg, Karl Vollmoeller and Jules Furthman. Direction by Josef von Sternberg. Music composed and conducted by Richard Hageman. Produced by Arnold Pressburger. United Artists Release. The familiar, sordid story of the oriental woman who avenges her unhappy past through her own daughter, is given lavish and exciting atmosphere in the screen version of a play popular over twenty years ago. The elaborate settings, the excellent musical score with oriental motifs, and the polyglot types of character extras enliven the production and give the creaky plot whatever interest it may hold for modern audiences. The leading characters are all despicable people. Gene Tierney plays the girl who, with all her training and advantages, has only cheap emotions; Walter Huston, her father, who has money but a rotten soul ; Victor Mature, the insidious Levantine mystic (in lieu of the Japanese diplomat in the original); Phyllis Brooks, a hard-boiled chorus girl stranded in Shanghai; Ona Munson, Madame Gin Sling, the evil woman who controls the human puppets to avenge herself on the whole white race. They all play their roles well, but the dialogue at times seems stilted and direction fails to make the production a vital or important picture of life. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No STEEL AGAINST THE SKY O O Alexis Smith, Lloyd Nolan, Craig Stevens, Gene Lockhart, Edward Ellis, Walter Catlett, Howard da Silva, Edward Brophy, Julie Bishop. Direction by A. Edward Sutherland. This is one of those unfortunate pictures which bring credit to no one. The slapstick is so forced that it is seldom funny, and the hairbreadth escapes are so exaggerated that they lack conviction. The plot is hackneyed and the acting routine. The general idea of the film is to glorify the construction men in the building of a great modern bridge such as those at San Francisco, and whatever value it may possess is in the photographic studies of the towers, the catwalks and cables of the giant span. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Mediocre Too harrowing for them TARZAN'S SECRET TREASURE ❖ O Johnny Weismuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, John Sheffield, Reginald Owen, Barry Fitzgerald, Tom Conway, Philip Dorn, Cordell Hickman. Original screen play by Myles Connolly and Paul Gangelin based on characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Directed by Richard Thorpe. Produced by B. P. Fineman. M.-G.-M. Tarzan, Jane and Boy swing through the trees with abandon, display their remarkable ability in under water swimming and repair to their sylvan abode to eat an idealistic repast cf caviar, eggs the size of grapefruit and grapes as big as apricots. Boy plays with his precocious ape companion, Chita, and rides his baby elephant while repulsing lions, tigers and hyenas with wellaimed gold nuggets hurled from a sling-shot. When Boy learns that these nuggets are valued bv civilized roan he ventures too far in search of more and falls into the hands of savages from whose indescribable cruelties he is saved by a safari of white men who, in turn, become equally ruthless in their greed for gold. Thus Tarzan as usual has to rescue both Boy and Jane from horrifying dange r. The first sequences are entertaining because of their imaginative quality. The later scenes stress barbaric cruelty of both natives and white men. The encounter with man-eating crocodiles is terrifying. The picture is less successful than the previous one because of its overemphasis on horror. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Matter of taste but Not of doubtful interest recommended