Motion Picture Reviews (1933)

Six Motion Picture Reviews boldly played before one’s eyes. A young man eluding the law after an unpleasant entanglement visits the South Seas, seduces the fiancee of his friend and escapes to sea after his friend’s suicide. (The girl is conveniently secreted in the boat.) If characterization, motivation, substance existed in the book, the picture has lost them. It is movie hodge podge with Mr. Fairbanks and Patricia Ellis especially miscast. Were it not for Dudley Digges, who gives a splendid performance as the doctor, and one or two other character actors who are excellent in their parts, the photoplay would be utterly banal. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No ■V ONE MAN’S JOURNEY » » Lionel Barrymore, May Robson, Dorothy Jordan, Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, David Landau. From the story “Failure” by Katharine Haviland-Taylor. Direction by John Robertson. R.K.O. Glorifying the doctor of the “old school,” this story of one man’s beautiful life is a touching tribute to character and humanness. It is a charming story delightfully acted, with Lionel Barrymore giving a superb performance, a picture everyone will want to see. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Excellent Mature ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON » » Cary Cooper, Fay Wray, Neil Hamilton, Roscoe Karns. From the play by James Hagan. Direction by Stephen Roberts. Paramount. Whenever the gay nineties are brought to the screen we can be sure that dialogue, acting and costumes will be exaggerated. To some extent the director of “One Sunday Afternoon” has yielded to the temptation to burlesque the period, but in spite of this tendency the picture is a very sincere and rather touching little study of an egotistical small town boy whose life had been so embittered when he was jilted by the village belle that he could not appreciate the staunch and loving wife who married him to save his pride. There are enough funny situations to balance the pathos and the picture leaves a pleasant memory. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Entertaining No interest ▼ PADDY, THE NEXT BEST THING » » Janet Caynor, Warner Baxter, Walter Connolly. From the novel by Gertrude Page. Direction by Harry Lachman. Fox. An alluring little heroine, a handsome hero, a sentimental romance, and exquisite pictorial beauty of Irish countryside for setting. Here’s an hour’s pleasant entertainment for the family. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Excellent Good PENTHOUSE » » Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, Charles Butterworth, Mae Clark, Phillips Holmes. Direction by W. S. Van Dyke. M-G-M. We have here a story which exalts the gangster and his beautiful moll and pictures them as thousands of small boys and girls “back of the yards” in Chicago (or elsewhere in America), know them to be: brave, generous, well dressed, rich — the perfect hero and heroine. Entertaining? Very! Unfortunately so, because of sure and skilful direction, a popular cast and good acting, luxurious and tasteful settings, lovely clothes and stirring melodrama. It is subtle, insidious, and absolutely anti-social. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Poisonous Dangerous THE POWER AND THE CLORY » » Reviewed fully in June, 1933, from a theater preview. Later reports uphold our commendation of this picture. It is unusual and interesting. •w RAFTER ROMANCE » * Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster, George Sidney. Direction by William Seiter. R.K.O. A colorless and rather obvious comedy romance in which two likable young people fall in love in spite of, rather than because of propinquity. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Passable Perhaps ■sr SHANGHAI MADNESS » » Spencer Tracy, Fay Wray, Ralph Morgan. Direction by John Blystone. Fox. Once every so often we have the inevitable studio-made foreign-setting picture. In this one the hero is a navy boy with a heart of gold who has somehow been misunderstood by his superior officer because he relied upon his own judgment rather than his orders. The heroine is a head-strong, foolhardy, predatory flapper who, nevertheless, is able to don a becoming uniform and nurse the wounded. The heavy drama is supplied by clashes with Chinese communists and the humor by caricatured missionaries. It is