Motion Picture Reviews (1934)

Motion Picture Reviews Seven pictures is not the solution of the problem. Some substitution must be made. Since producers insist that they produce films with only adult audiences in mind, then they should be the first to lend assistance to any plan to keep little children out of performances except those which are suitable to their appreciation, which train them to develop good taste and which guide them into “socially valuable channels.” Laura Osman Vruwink. NOTICE Owing to lack of new pictures there was insufficient material for the September fifteenth Advance Supplement. It was therefore omitted. We wish to call attention to the fact that the reviews printed in the Advance Supplements are always reprinted in the following monthly issue of Motion Picture Reviews, because the bulletins are a more convenient form for permanent reference. — — — «3> FEATURE FILMS BELLE OF THE NINETIES > * Mae West, Roger Pryor, John Miljan, John Mack Brown, Katherine DeMille. Directed by Leo McCarey. Paramount. This story of a mauve decade entertainer has been so emasculated by censorship that the principal remaining criticism is dullness. It has become purely a wise-cracking vehicle for Mae West, who looks beautiful in the clothes of the period, speaks through her nose, and undulates continuously throughout her entire screen footage. With the exception of Katherine DeMille, the other characterizations are entirely without color or virility, a fatal flaw in this type of production. The plot comes briefly to life towards the very end, but actually the only justification for the picture is the real syncopation of Duke Ellington’s band and Mae West’s unique personality in her singing. This makes for isolated spots of good vaudeville, but it is a bad motion picture with rather lugubrious naughtiness. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Objectionable Of no interest •w BULLDOG DRUMMOND STRIKES BACK » » Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, Warner Oland, Charles Butterworth, Billie Burke. Direction by Roy del Ruth. United Artists. Bulldog Drummond, always debonair and resourceful, gets lost in a fog, finds a corpse in the house of a mysterious East Indian Prince, is instrumental in thwarting a smuggler and still has time to fall in love. The picture is entertaining because, with the as sistance of Charles Butterworth’s comedy, it evokes as many laughs as thrills, an unusual achievement for a murder mystery. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Entertaining Not recommended CHAINED » » Joan Crawford, Clark Cable, Otto Kruger. From a story by Edgar Selwyn. Direction by Clarence Brown. M-C-M. We have here extravagent and glamorous settings, smart dialogue and Joan Crawford modeling an amazing array of elaborate gowns and different styles of hairdressing. As she is a secretary-stenographer away on a vacation, her wardrobe is the more bewildering. But we are fast learning not to connect this actress with any story which might connote actuality. This one is a confused triangle which does not arouse any intelligent interest. She falls in love with her married employer. The wife refuses a divorce. The secretary goes to South America with forty trunks, a maid and the deluxe trappings of a millionaire. She meets the heman rancher who shows her what “reel love” is, but her first suitor gets his divorce. Her conscience demands she marry him. She does. Her sacrifice is rewarded when he realizes that Joan must have Clark Gable in the last act. Another divorce — so that the two may laugh their way together back to the ranch. Ho-hum — what price ethics when the censors find no scenes to cut? Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No; pretty cheap and No demoralizing