Motion Picture Reviews (1934)

Motion Picture Reviews Nine his adventures. It sounds like a highly sophisticated plot, and it is, but it is tempered almost to the point of pathos when one considers that the man is really in love with his youth of twenty years ago. So, too, with the little actress, youth calls to youth, and it all winds up as it should. Dialogue is good, and the whole play entertaining of its type. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Better not No •w TARZAN AND HIS MATE » » Johnny Weismuller, Maurine O’Sullivan, Neil Hamilton. Direction by Cedric Gibbons. MCM. In contrast to “Wild Cargo” (reviewed this issue), we have here an adventure tale of the jungle in which cruelty, savagery, and bestiality would seem to preclude its entertainment value for any but the most thrillseeking audiences. Two men, bent on finding and looting a hidden source of ivory, go into the jungle with a safari, are set upon by frightful cannibals who torture their victims, are tracked by savage beasts, and finally destroyed in fearful deaths. Tarzan and the white girl who has become his mate, also have terrifying experiences in which Tarzan defends her from lions, rhinos, and alligators. Swinging through the trees, yodeling his shrill unmelodic call and followed by his faithful and amusing friends, the apes, he seems always answering the panic-stricken shrieks of the girl in danger. The thrill of adventure is over-balanced by distressing scenes of horrible danger and cruelty, torture and violent death to men and beasts. Sound is a distinct disadvantage here because the roar of combat is almost continuous, and it is nerve wracking. The picture is banal for adults, and particularly objectionable for children. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Not for the discrimi Dangerous, nating. ■w THE TRUMPET BLOWS » » George Raft, Adolph Menjou, Frances Drake. From a story by Porter Emerson Browne and J. Parker Read, Jr. Direction by Stephen Roberts. Paramount. Adolph Menjou’s skill as an actor makes him convincing even as a reformed Mexican bandit, but George Raft, as his younger brother educated in an American college, would be more believable in a gangster role to which his diction, behavior and appearance seem more suited. The plot is not significant, apparently revolving merely around the question of which brother is the braver. Both eventually enter the bull ring to prove the point. The suggested Mexican atmosphere is the only interest in this mediocre production. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No. No. TWENTY MILLION SWEETHEARTS * » Pat O’Brien, Allen Jenkins, Grant Mitchell, Dick Powell, Joe Cawthorn, Ginger Rogers. Direction by Ray Enright. First National Warner Bros. A musical comedy romance which uses a radio setting and tells of the struggles and final success of a young crooner. In love too, he has his problem in his fear of alienating his sweethearts of the air by marrying a girl he meets when broadcasting. The story is very light but it serves as a vehicle for some pleasant songs which are so emphasized that were it a radio play we feel that spectators might be tempted to dial elsewhere occasionally. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Wholesome, but No interest unimportant •v UNCERTAIN LADY » » Genevieve Tobin, Edward Everett Horton. Directed by Karl Freud. Universal. A wife who is also a business woman, discovers her husband’s predilection for a siren and offers him his freedom if he finds her a new husband to meet specifications. The play is as sophisticated as may be imagined but it is so light in treatment that it will have little effect on adults. However, it can offer nothing for youth but confusion of morals and it fails to be as funny as one expects it to be. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No ■w VIVA VILLA » » Wallace Beery, Katherine DeMille, Leo Carillo, Pedro Rigas, Joseph Schildkraut, Stuart Erwin, George E. Stone. From the novel by Edgcumb Pinchon. Direction by Jack Conway. MGM. This film of Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionist, is hardy, tumultuous melodrama in which the brutalities and cruelties make it suitable only for stout-hearted adults. Wallace Beery is not always convincing as the glorified hero-villain, at times ferocious, brutal, vengeance dealing, again loving and child-like. By contrast Stuart Erwin as a sane young American newspaper reporter, is as refreshing as a drink of cool water. The photography is beautiful of country-side, clouds and sky, mass effects of soldiers and