Motion Picture Reviews (1933)

Motion Picture Reviews Five cessful warfare. It creates no enemy attitude, but shows honestly the bitter futility of being forced to kill one’s fellow men. Frederic March gives a sterling performance as the sensitive young flyer whose first idea of war was a “game of glory,” and whose later reaction to the cumulative horror of his experience is bitter disillusionment. Anti-war, it certainly is, but the picture would have been more consistent had the final tragedy not been softened by a stirringly sentimental ending. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Very interesting and No probably good EMERGENCY CALL » » Bill Boyd, Wynne Gibson, William Gargan. Direction by Edward Cahn. R.K.O. Although thoroughly familiar with most forms of racketeering, we are nevertheless unpleasantly startled to find human nature running true to type even in hospitals! A young doctor, an heroic ambulance driver and a hard-boiled big-hearted nurse work together to fight graft and politics in the management of a city hospital. The result is a swift moving, vivid melodrama of ambulance chasing, faked accidents, fighting and murder. It is dramatically handled and is exciting entertainment. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Exciting No interest yr COLD DIGGERS OF 1933 » » Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks, Joan Blondell, Ginger Rogers, Alene MacMahon, Warren William. Based on play by Avery Hopwood. Direction by Mervyn Le Roy. Warner Bros. The “Gold Diggers” is spectacular, colorful and entertaining but, produced by the same company and using much the same cast and setting, comparison with its recent predecessor, “Forty-second Street,” is unavoidable. The story is more commonplace as well as more familiar. The music less alluring, and it lacks the spontaneity and freshness of “Forty-second Street.” “The Forgotten Man,” the final and most impressive number, seems utterly incongruous and out of place in a light comedy of this worldly type. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Passable Little interest GICOLETTES OF PARIS » » Madge Bellamy, Gilbert Roland, Theodore Von Eltz. Equitable Production. Madge Bellamy as the heroine who has been jilted for a bizarre platinum blonde, nurses revenge in her heart. She becomes the feminine counterpart of the gigolo, sings and dances in a Parisian cafe and although showered with diamonds and pearls from numerous admirers, remains pure as the driven snow, a situation which calls for more credulity than may be expected of the modern audience. Feebly motivated, the play has few pleasing features, except for a certain engaging sincerity on the part of Gilbert Roland, and it is wholly lacking in the dash and sparkle one might anticipate from its title. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Not recommended No •w GIRL IN 419 » » James Dunn, Gloria Stuart, David Manners. From a story by Jules Furthman. Direction by George Somnes and Alexander Hall. Paramount. A gangster story with a city emergency hospital as the scene of action. In the director’s effort to make the production “snappy” he cheapens his characters and by dialogue and suggestion lessens respect for hospital personnel. It holds interest because the setting (for the moment) has not been overdone and because the acting is good, but the plot turns upon two incredible acts (one criminal) perpetrated by doctors, and it is entirely unfair, if not dangerous, to suggest that such unethical procedure on the part of physicians is customary or can possibly be excused. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 1 2 No No •w HELL BELOW » » Robert Montgomery, Madge Evans, Walter Huston, Robert Young, Jimmie Durante. Direction by Jack Conway. M-G-M. An overpowering tragedy of submarine warfare in 1918, this picture is so packed with tense dramatic moments, horror and realism that at times it is almost unbearable. The sight of the crew trapped in a submarine on the bottom of the ocean and slowly dying from chlorine gas, bombs dropped from an aeroplane upon men in an unprotected rowboat, a gruesome battle at close range between bombers and machine gunners, work the audience up to a point where they hysterically applaud the sight of