Motion Picture Reviews (1933)

Motion Picture Reviews Nine standpoint of the brewer and the wet propagandist, and to anyone who can see beyond a foaming glass it will probably seem both dramatically and ethically out of focus. The incidents are cleverly chosen and vivid, but the whole presents the ragged effect of having been thrown hastily together to cash in on the present vogue for propaganda pictures. Though Jean Hersholt makes an interesting character of the kindly German brewer whose fortunes are threatened by the Eighteenth Amendment, the film makes no contribution to dramatic art or motion picture technique and is not one to which Hollywood may point with pride. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Unsuitable No interest ■sr STRANGE ADVENTURE » » Regis Toomey, Lucile LaVerne, Eddie Phillips. Direction by Phil Whitman. Monogram Picture. One murder mystery plot is so like another in the telling that it seems useless to try to describe this one. It is all about a will that was never signed and uses all the wellknown characters such as detectives, newspaper reporters, stupid policemen, a scared negro and plenty of relatives of the murdered man, all under suspicion. It is fair entertainment of its kind. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Not recommended No •v STRANGE PEOPLE » » John Darrow, Gloria Shea, Hale Hamilton. Direction by Richard Thorpe. Allied Film Corp. A rather complicated murder mystery story with the germ of a good idea, not very plausibly worked out. An old man is murdered and someone is convicted of his murder. In an effort to prove the possibility of error in circumstantial evidence the lawyer of the convicted man assembles the members of the jury that tried his client and stages a fake murder. Ensuing complications all add to the chilly feeling of the audience. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Passable No SUPERNATURAL » » Carole Lombard, Allan Dinehart, Vivienne Osborne, Randolph Scott, H. B. Warner. Direction by Victor Halperin. Paramount. The story is unsavory, not because it touches the realms of the unknown, but because it does so in the guise of experimental science in a wholly unscientific and sensational fashion. The theory expounded is that the soul of a criminal may return, take pos session of an innocent person (who then becomes a sort of dual personality) and continue to wreack vengeance and evil. Both cast and director struggle unsuccessfully with the unpleasant melodrama. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Dangerous Dangerous v TODAY WE LIVE » » Joan Crawford, Cary Cooper, Robert Young. From a story by William Faulkner. Direction by Howard Hawks. M-C-M. In this sombre drama enacted against a war background, interest centers in four characters: a young English girl, her brother, their childhood friend who becomes her fiance, and a young American who arrives in England to rent her father’s house and with whom she later falls in love. The story itself is wandering and jerky and with the exception of two exciting sequences, an airplane battle and a torpedo speed boat in action, it has very little movement. The picture however is distinguished by a spiritual quality that is far more impressive than thrilling events. Emphasis upon family loyalty, honor and tradition and a gallant sort of bravery that makes a game of war heroics, these are what one remembers rather than the actual plot in which love, self-sacrifice and the tragedy of war are combined in a not unusual formula. William Faulkner, who wrote the story, is responsible for the cryptic dialogue which is probably symbolic of complete understanding existing between the characters, but though the effectiveness of a good actor saying “Stout fellow” cannot be denied, this like other stylistic tricks, occasionally comes between the characters and the audience and gives a curious artificiality to some of the scenes. On the whole the picture is intelligent and seems designed for thoughtful audiences. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Very sophisticated No v THE WOMAN I STOLE » » Jack Holt, Donald Cook, Fay Wray. From the novel “Tampico” by Joseph Hergesheimer. Direction by Irving Cummings. Columbia. A man decides to run away with another man’s wife but changes his mind when he finds that she is just as ruthless as he. With good story material and an adequate cast, this picture falls short in entertainment value because it lacks sensitive direction and because the atmospheric backgrounds, supposedly of North Africa, are so obviously of Hollywood. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Unsuited No