Motion Picture Reviews (1938)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS Three MOTION • PICTURE • REVIEWS Published monthly by THE WOMEN'S UNIVERSITY CLUB LOS ANGELES BRANCH AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN Mrs. Palmer Cook, General Co-Chairman Mrs. John Vruwink, General Co-Chairman Mrs. Chester A. Ommanney, Preview Chairman Mrs. Thomas B. Williamson, Assistant Preview Chairman Mrs. Raymond Young, Subscription Chairman Cooperating Branch Chairmen Long Beach: Mrs. H. A. Barr Whittier: Miss Jeanette Perdew Glendale: Mrs. R. T. Thayer Santa Monica: Mrs. Sheldon N. Hayden EDITORS Mrs. Palmer Cook Mrs. J. Allen Davis Mrs. George Ryall Mrs. Walter Van Dyke Mrs. John Vruwink Address all communications to The Women’s University Club, 943 South Hoover Street, Los Angeles, California 1 Oc Per Copy $ 1 .00 Per Year Vol. XII JULY, 1938 No. 7 Copyright 1938 by Women's University Club of Los Angeles FEATURE FILMS ALGIERS O O Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, Hedy LaMarr, Alan Hale, Joseph Calleia, Gene Lockhart, Nina Koshetz, Johnny Downs. From the French novel, "Pepe le Moto," by Detective Ashelbe. American screen play by John Howard Lawson. Cinematography by James Wong Howe. Music by Vincent Scotto and Mohammed Igorbouchen. Direction by John Cromwell. A Walter Wanger production. United Artists. Atmosphere — exciting, sinister, and sensual, is the particular quality of this production. It tells the story of Pepe le Moto, a notorious French criminal, exiled and living a precarious and hunted existence in the Cabash, the native quarter of Algiers. It is a keen and penetrating study of a man for whom there is no hope; warped in character, loved by women, even admired for certain qualities by men who know what the inevitable end must be and who work deliberately toward that end. This feeling of doom, certain and dreadful, creates a thrilling and emotional climax which, while anticipated, is none the less dramatic. Charles Boyer is exceptionally convincing as Pepe, cruel, exacting, courageous, and fascinating, but bitterly unhappy in his exile, for he is trapped in the Cabash as certainly as if he were in jail. Sigrid Gurie is very fine in the role of his Algerian sweetheart. Hedy LaMarr is exquisitely beautiful as the alluring Parisienne whose arrival in Algiers leads to Pepe’s ultimate downfall. The men in the cast are very fine also: Joseph Calleia in the role of the crafty Provincial detective; Gene Lockhart as a native informer; Stanley Fields, a member of the band ; Alan Hale, the fence for stolen jewels. The local color of the native quarter is unusually interesting. The photography is very beautiful and the musical accompaniment fascinating with its oriental influence. The production is to be particularly commended because it has used superb cinematic technique to picture the psychological disintegration of a man’s character. It is theatrical and melodramatic, but it is exciting and enthralling entertainment. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Very sopristicated. No Not recommended. © THE AMAZING DR. CLITTERHOUSE O O Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, Humphrey Bogart, Allen Jenkins, Donald Crisp, Gale Page, Maxie Rosenbloom, John Litel, Henry O'Neill. From the play by Barre Lyndon. Screen play by John Wexley and John Huston. Direction by Anatole Litvak. First National-Warner Bros. We are always certain of an interesting performance when Edward G. Robinson is in a cast, and in “The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse” he has a particularly good role. The