Motion Picture Reviews (1934)

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Four Motion Picture Reviews lovers of the unique and tasteful in films. We feel sure that there is a growing audience of discrimination for pictures like “Berkeley Square,” “Zoo in Budapest,” and this one. The theatres showing them need patronage and we feel that you will not be disappointed in the offerings. Mr. Arliss is again appearing in “Disraeli.” Many who witnessed it before and those who missed this genuinely artistic and entertaining picture will welcome its return. “Smoky,” of its type, deserves highest praise and Will Rogers’ genuineness (“Mr. Snitch”) always appeals, although we wish that writers could adapt their vehicles so that distracting superficialities might be eliminated. These, we think, are the best of the month’s releases but others offer distraction of varying excellence. Personal taste is difficult to measure, but even free seats at movies, to return to Mr. Shippey’s complaint, come high to previewers who sit through some productions. FEATURE FILMS ABOVE THE CLOUDS » » Dorothy Wilson, Robert Armstrong, Richard Cromwell. Direction by Roy William Neill. Columbia. This is a mediocre picture of newsreel reporters There are some interesting shots and some amusing incidents but the story as a whole is commonplace. The climax of the picture is the crack-up of a giant dirigible, modeled after the tragedy of the Akron, with the two reporters taking pictures from inside the airship. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Doubtful No ALICE IN WONDERLAND » » Charlotte Henry, W. C. Fields, Richard Arlen, Cary Cooper, May Robson, Alison Skipworth, Jack Oakie, Roscoe Karns, Charles Ruggles, Edward Everett Horton, Edna May Oliver, Louise Fazenda, Skeets Gallagher, Cary Grant. From the book by Lewis Carroll. Direction by Norman McLeod. Paramount. We suppose there are people who do not remember “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” with a warm glow of recaptured fairy-land, but we hope they are few. The beloved fantasy now appears in picture form with its preposterous characters so ingeniously presented and the two stories so cleverly combined, that it will be a rare spectator who will cavil at the rearrangement of the incidents or the loss of a favorite. “Alice in Wonderland” is not hilarious but it offers constant opportunity for delighted chuckles. The wit and satire are as significant and as ridiculous as ever. The costumes, sets and make-up are metriculously clever and the whole is a joyous gift to children aged six to one hundred. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Excellent Excellent yr BY CANDLELIGHT » » Elissa Landi, Paul Lukas, Nils Asther. Direction by James Whale. Universal Pictures Corp. This is a sophisticated continental farce of a prince and his butler who aid and abet one another in playing Casanova. The episode in which the two change places — the prince voluntarily playing butler to his butler's prince is most amusing. The glamour of a Monte Carlo background, the suavity and dash of the principal characters and a finesse in direction all combine to produce a gay and entertaining romance. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Too sophisticated Not suitable ■w CHRISTOPHER BEAN » » RETITLED “HER SWEETHEART” Marie Dressier, Lionel Barrymore. Based on the play, “The Late Christopher Bean.” Direction by Sam Wood. M-C-M. Greed is not an esthetic sedative, but when this human weakness is cleverly held up to ridicule in a satirical sense, it becomes amusing. The fact that the original play was French and that it could be adapted to the American scene with such success is ample proof of its universal appeal. The plot concerns the sudden recognition of the work of