Motion Picture Reviews (1938)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS Nine WHEN WERE YOU BORN? O O Margaret Lindsay, Anna May Wong,, Lola Lane, Anthony Averill, James Stevenson, Leonard Mudie. Original story by Manly Hall. Screen play by Anthony Coldeway. Direction by William McGann. Warner Bros. In this film, an astrologer, played with impressive seriousness by Anna May Wong, demonstrates how a Leo in love with an Aries, entering an apartment in conjunction with a Cancer, can cause no end of havoc. Settings and photography are pleasing, but dialogue and the solution of the mystery are rather elementary. A class B picture. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 1 2 Poor No © WIVES UNDER SUSPICION O O Warren Williams, Gail Patrick, Constance Moore, William Lundigan, Ralph Morgan. Suggested by a play by Ladislaus Fodor. Original screen play by Myles Connolly. Direction by James Whale. Universal. A certain Los Angeles murder case which recently has been given wide publicity seems to have furnished the basic motif for this picture. Here, however, the focus of interest is not the prisoner but the District Attorney who, following his profession with zest, marks off his convictions on a macabre counting board with ivory skulls. Through a strange parallel of events he finds himself in the same situation as the accused man whom he has been trying to convict. Although he himself does not commit murder he is roused to a murderous frenzy by jealousy of his wife and for the first time is able to realize and understand the passions which actuated the other man. He concludes that “There, but for the grace of God, go I,” and the following day in court he asks that the charge be reduced to manslaughter. Acting and direction are unusually capable, but the plotting is mechanical. Whether or not one is in sympathy with the “unwritten law” the subject is an unpleasant one. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Unsuitable No © WOMAN AGAINST WOMAN O O Herbert Marshall, Virginia Bruce, Mary Astor, Janet Beecher, Marjorie Rambeau, Juanita Quigley. Screen play by Edward Chodorov. From the story "Enemy Territory" by Margaret Culkin Banning. Direction by Robert B. Sinclair. Metro-GoldwynMayer. Due to good casting and superior production values this film appears less superficial than it really is. It is a polite examination of the difficulties that are likely to confront a second wife when she has to live in the same town with wife number one. In spite of a great deal of talk the picture provides no panacea for second wives, but may serve as a warning to women who marry without taking into account that a divorce does not always cut a man loose from his first wife’s apron strings. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 1 2 No No © YOU AND ME O O Sylvia Sidney, George Raft, Robert Cummings, Barton MacLane, Harry Carey, Roscoe Karns, Warren Hymer. Screen play by Virginia Van Upp. Direction by Fritz Lang. Paramount. An incredible story of paroled convicts who reform when shown by a diagram on a blackboard that crime does not pay dividends in dollars and cents! The direction combines realism, symbolism, and sentimentality into a distasteful whole. Strangely, the acting of Miss Sidney and Mr. Raft is sincere enough to hold a measure of interest throughout. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Impossible No © YOUNG FUGITIVES O O Harry Davenport, Robert Wilcox, Dorotheo Kent, Larry Blake, Clem Bevans. Screen play by Ben Grauman Kohn and Charles Grayson. Original story by Edward James. Direction by John Rawlins. Universal. Here is a slight variation of an overworked theme made acceptable by a good character actor. Henry Davenport as Joel Bentham receives an award of fifty thousand dollars because he is the last surviving G. A. R. veteran. Realizing that his erstwhile friends are after his money, he leaves town and goes to live on a farm. He gives shelter to an itinerant girl who becomes his housekeeper, and to the son of an old friend, who accepts his hospitality in order to rob him. The stage is then set for regeneration of the young people and romance. The lovable character of the old soldier is the saving grace in a mediocre film. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Ethically confused No