Motion Picture Reviews (1934)

Ten Motion Picture Reviews peons, views of Mexico City. It is an interesting spectacle but disappointing after the anticipatory notices. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No •<r WILD CARGO » » Based on the book "Wild Cargo" by Frank Buck and Edward S. Anthony. Narration by Frank Buck. Direction by Armand Denis. RKO. This picture has no plot in the usual sense. It is, rather, a series of incidents and experiences in the life of Frank Buck. The action takes place against a background of Malayan jungle and concerns the ruses and tricks used to secure alive, the dangerous, the queer, the harmless, the unique, the little known animals which find their homes eventually in our zoos. There are tense encounters with man-eating tiger, deadly cobra and a long list of similar adversaries; yet it is pleasantly free from revolting scenes of carnage. It combines thrilling adventure with comedy and fascinating photography. Not the least of its value lies in the contrast between the superb courage of the hunter himself and his unemotional manner of narration. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Absorbing. Exciting. WE RE NOT DRESSINC » » Bing Crosby, Carole Lombard, George Burns, Gracie Allen. Story by Benjamin Clazer. Screen play by Horace Jackson, Francis Martin and George Marion, Jr. Direction by Norman Taurog. Paramount. This slap-stick comedy concerns the fantastic adventures of a yachting party which is wrecked on a desert island. The helpless rich, wrestling with the fundamental problems of existence, furnish some mildly amusing and some really good comedy. For the most part it is trivial fare made up of a succession of manufactured incidents and an indiscriminate jumble of various elements each worn thin from extensive previous use. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Poor No interest WHERE SINNERS MEET » * Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Billie Burke, Reginald Owen. Adapted from the play, "The Dover Road,” by A. A. Milne. Direction by J. Walter Ruben. RKO. A sophisticated farce which so carefully evades the immorality which is its focal point, that it remains inoffensive. A man and wife, each eloping with a new love, meet at a strange hostelry on the Dover Road. The subsequent episodes are unusual, improbable and entertaining. The choice of players is delightfully apropos, and each makes the best of lines which are light and occasionally witty. At times the plot progresses slowly and deliberately. This is perhaps the more apparent because of the absence of any highly dramatic sequences. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Too mature for apprecia Unsuited tion of philosophy THE WITCHING HOUR » » Sir Guy Standing, John Halliday, Judith Allen, Tom Brown. From the stage play by Augustus Thomas. Adapted by Anthony Veiller and Salisbury Field. Direction by Henry Hathaway. Paramount. A murder is committed by a young man who is under the influence of hypnotic suggestion and he is acquitted when it is proven that he was the involuntary instrument in the fulfillment of the thought of another person. The play was written in a period when hypnotism was less widely accepted than it is today. Consequently the eldritch qualities associated with thought transferrence are stressed and can be recognized as belonging to a different period of the theatre, of science and of popular acceptance. In spite of the subject matter, the characters of the play are good people, with good motives and because of their charm and honesty have made fairly interesting entertainment. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Questionable No SHORT SUBJECT THE BIG BAD WOLF » * With Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Little Pigs and Grandma. Walt Disney, Silly Symphony. United Artists. A delicious adaptation of the Little Red Riding Hood story which will delight all audiences. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Cood Good