Motion Picture Reviews (1934)

Six Motion Picture Reviews GIRL OF MY DREAMS » » Sterling Holloway, Mary Carlisle, Creighton Chaney, Arthur Lake, Eddie Nugent. Direction by Raymond McCarey. Monogram. The story combines a series of incidents in a small college, whereby vanity is deleted from the character of a popular track star. It is light, inconsequential farce, rather senseless and long drawn out and handicapped by dearth of plot. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Fair No interest -v GRIDIRON FLASH » » Eddie Quillan, Betty Furness, Grant Mitchell. Author, Nicholas Barrows. Direction by Glenn Tryon. R-K-O. A fantastic story of a young convict who is paroled from the penitentiary because of his ability to play football, and who is thereby reformed. It follows the pattern of the usual college movie; in other words, it is an extravagant satire in which Eddie Quillan provides the laughter. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Not recommended No Amusing 'W HELL IN THE HEAVENS » » Warner Baxter, Conchita Montenegro, Russell Hardie, Herbert Mundin, Ralph Morgan. Based on the play “The Ace” by Hermann Rossman. Direction by John Blystone. Fox. Pictures based on aviation in the World War are usually appreciated by men and boys more than by a feminine audience, and such is likely to be the case with “Hell in the Heavens.” Baron von Richtofen, the most sinister and dramatic of the German aces is, no doubt, the model for the baron of the film, hovering like the spirit of Death itself over the Allied air forces. The French heroine is slim and spirited and undeniably decent, the aerial combats are spectacular and breath-taking and there is a fine feeling of comradeship between the men. However, the picture is not one to make youth believe that war is all glory because the whole drama is a study in the psychology of fear which holds sway over all the flyers, from the abject, very young lieutenant to the bravest aces, each of whom is haunted by horrible dreams of falling in flames. Unfortunately for dramatic unity the happy ending is so incredible that the audience is inclined to laugh. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Very tense Terrifying I’LL FIX IT » » Jack Holt, Mona Barrie, Winnie Lightner. Author, Leonard Spigelgrass. Direction by Ray William Neill. Columbia. A political grafter tries to bribe a teacher to pass his kid brother. She refuses, is dismissed, and the incident provides ammunition for the reformers. The ethics of the plot become very confused from this point and it' does not ring true at any time. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No No xr IMITATION OF LIFE » » Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington, Rochelle Hudson. From the novel by Fannie Hurst. Adaptation by William Hurlbut. Direction by John M. Stahl. Universal. Two concurrent plots are embodied in this picture. One, a fairly trite example of the success story, has for its heroine a poor young widow who becomes a sensationally successful business woman; the other, much more fundamental and poignant, presents the problem of a colored mother who shares the financial good fortune of the white woman but is unable to help her white mulatto daughter to adjust herself to the stigma of her negro blood. Structurally the second pit is made subordinate to the first one in spite of the fact that the colored mother is the center of all the real drama of the picture. Because sentimental the film will undoubtedly gain wide popularity, but for critical audiences, although it presents very high ideals, it lacks proper balance and is too determined to bring tears even at the expense of artistic restraint. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Interesting but mature Far too emotional v IT’S A GIFT » » W. C. Fields, Baby Leroy, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol. Story by Charles Bogle and J. B. McEvoy. Direction by Norman McLeod. Paramount. Nonsensical slapstick like a comic strip in the newspaper which concerns an ineffectual, henpecked head of a family who stubbornly stakes an inheritance on a mythical orange grove in California. Chance alone protects him from the results of his lack of business acumen. Much of the humor depends upon the shrewish comments of the wife and her husband’s evasive reactions. The slapstick is absurd and sometimes funny; the whole will not strain one’s intelligence but may offer an hour’s relaxation. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Not elevating Not recommended