Motion Picture Reviews (1933)

Motion Picture Reviews Seven the whole diverting in its way. Ruth Donnelly is clever as an ambitious and unscrupulous mother. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Trashy No interest •w HER MAD NIGHT » » Irene Rich, Mary Carlisle, Conway Tearle, Kenneth Thomson. Direction by E. Mason Hopper. Mayfair Pictures Corp. All Star Release. This is a sordid and melodramatic story of a woman who, having run away from her husband and small daughter, later comes back into the girl’s life in time to save her from a charge of murder. The acting is sure and smooth and the direction is fair, but on the whole the plot is too threadbare and the sentiment too maudlin to have much appeal. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Very bad No v HOT PEPPER » » Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, Lupe Velez. Direction by Edmund Blythe Stone. Fox. When Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen began their exchange of snarling repartee, the productions in which they appeared were novel and dramatic enough to be thought entertaining by many audiences. “Hot Pepper” however is neither novel nor dramatic, and the jokes must have been salvaged from those deleted by more considerate directors from earlier pictures. As diamond studded proprietors of a night club Sergeants Quirt and Flagg indulge in rough by-play that seems more crude than it would have been had they stayed in the Marines. Several funny sequences do not redeem this second rate, vulgar production. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Unsuitable No v LAUGHTER IN HELL » » Pat O’Brien, Gloria Stuart. Universal. (Seen at a theatre preview and subject to change.) Misinterpreting the success of the realistic film “I Am a Fugitive From Justice,” Universal here presents another chain gang plot featuring an escaping criminal, a man who has murdered his wife and her supposed lover. The audience is expected to condone his escape because of the brutality of the treatment he receives. The picture is immoral, unmoral, and anti-social. The action throughout is exaggerated cruelty so revolting and horrible that it defeats its purpose (if the purpose is propaganda — which we question). We deplore the release of such a film. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Bad Dangerous LAWYER MAN » » William Powell, Joan Blondell. Direction by William Dieterle. Warner Bros. The leading role in this picture gives William Powell somewhat more scope for his powers as an actor than he has recently been allowed and the plot gives an interesting insight into the difficulties besetting the straight and narrow path to fame in the legal world. It stresses the precept that lawyers are the servants of the public, but the exigencies of the story lead the harassed “lawyer man” a long way astray from ideal ethics before he finally heads in the right direction. The picture is intelligently directed and very well acted, and the dialogue is adept. It is good entertainment. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Mature but harmless No interest LUXURY LINER » » George Brent, Zita Johann, Vivienne Osborne, Alice White. Direction by Lothar Mendes. Paramount. “Luxury Liner” is a Grand Hotel of the briny deep, revealing vital experiences in the lives of its passengers en route from Bremen to New York. It runs the gamut of human society from the gay, bibulous wasters in its sumptuous saloons to the pathetic, povertypinched denizens of the steerage, none of them persons one would wish to know. Its numerous episodes are given continuity by the throbbing engines of the ship. It will be remembered not so much as a cynical commentary on life but as a collection of fine pictures of the sea: the photographic shots of crowds, docks and ship’s machinery are like a group of modernistic etchings. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Not recommended Too sophisticated TT THE MYSTERIOUS RIDER » » Kent Taylor, Berton Churchill, Irving Pichel. Direction by Fred Allen. Paramount. With Irving Pichel as the villain one may feel confident that the Western is coming into its own. And indeed the whole treatment of this story of Zane Grey’s is far above one’s expectancy. The action takes place in the Coalinga valley just after the