Motion Picture Reviews (1934)

Motion Picture Reviews Seven in the picture, and it is an interesting experiment in the use of classics for screen material. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Probably of interest No interest •v THE KEY » » William Powell, Colin Clive, Edna Best. Direction by Michael Curtiz. Warner Bros. Ireland during the Sinn Feinn uprising is the colorful setting for a triangle romance which is well acted, exciting and novel in atmosphere. Bill Tennant (William Powell) is the gay, reckless soldier of fortune who has defied conventional morality throughout his entire career; Andy Carr (Colin Clive), the serious, pleasant, likable member of the British secret service whose love for his wife is shadowed by the knowledge that she once loved another man. Edna Best plays the attractive wife who loves her husband but is haunted by the memory of a Devonshire spring some years before. The triangle is complete when we find Bill Tennant is the “other man.” The ending has the happy originality of an ethical solution, a circumstance rare enough in moves to excite comment. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Yes; entertaining Mature and exciting •w LADIES SHOULD LISTEN » » Cary Grant, Frances Drake, Edward E. Horton. From the play by Alfred Savoir and Guy Bolton. Direction by Frank Tuttle. Paramount. The presence of Edward Everett Horton in the cast of a picture is usually an indication that breezy sophisticated entertainment is in store for the audience. This inconsequential comedy is somewhat less clever and sparkling than one might expect it to be because the story is so thin as to be almost non est. The financial and social troubles of two young French bachelors are disentangled by a telephone operator. The players do their utmost with the available material. The result is fairly amusing. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No NOW AND FOREVER » » Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, Shirley Temple. Screen story by Vincent Lawrence and Sylvia Thalberg. Direction by Henry Hathaway. Paramount. Take a few disreputable characters, a stolen necklace, a children’s party to display Shirley Temple’s ability to dance or sing and that delightful little person to hold the story together, and we have the ingredients for vehicles for the most exquisite and unspoiled child actress in the world! Soon it will be hard to identify which picture we have seen. And yet, curiously enough, in spite of a maudlin story her rare ability to act, her apparent complete understanding of the role she plays, or the situation she confronts, hold our absorbed attention when she is on the screen. For a time we will accept the rubber stamp formula of the setting and the pathos of the crook’s reform. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Passable Not recommended — too melodramatic and emotional ■v THE NOTORIOUS SOPHIE LANG » » Gertrude Michael, Allison Skipworth, Leon Errol, Paul Cavanaugh. Paramount. In this picture a gang of jewel thieves headed by a woman perpetrates an audacious robbery and by various wiles, feminine and otherwise, eludes the police force and sails away to England. The fact that Leon Errol is cast as a detective might lead one to expect a comedy, but aside from the exaggerated stupidity of the detectives it is straight drama. As such it is unsatisfactory because it offends one’s sense of the fitness of things. The crooks are attractive, their lives glamorous and exciting and they are so far superior to their opponents that they outwit them at every turn. It leaves one ardently desiring to defend the police from such unfavorable publicity. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No ■w THE OLD FASHIONED WAY » » W. C. Fields, Judith Allen, Joe Morrison, Baby LeRoy. Direction by William Beaudine. Paramount. W. C. Fields is the central figure in this slapstick farce depicting the adventures of a troupe of actors who travel about the country in 1900 presenting “The Drunkard.” The picture introduces almost the entire cast of the play, and those who enjoyed the revival of this old melodrama on the stage will be entertained by the experts shown on the screen. Possibly only admirers of Mr. Fields will enjoy the character of “The Great McGonigle,” a blustering scoundrel and humbug, a theatrical manager who never pays a debt and always relies upon bluff to get him out of difficulties. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Not recommended No