Motion Picture Reviews (1938)

Four MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS BROADV/AY MUSKETEERS O O Margaret Lindsay, Ann Sheridan, Marie Wilson, John Litel, Janet Chapman, Dick Purcell. Original screen play by Don Ryan and Kenneth Garnet. Direction by John Farrow. Warner Bros. -First National. Three young women, Isabel, Fay, and Connie, agree to hold a birthday party once a year to report the main events of their lives. Isabel who is bored by too much good fortune, lets the worth while things in life escape her and ends in tragedy. Fay finds complete happiness because she is able to appreciate home and a good husband. Connie too finds her heart’s desire. The passage of time is artistically handled. Repetition of the birthday dinners, with the variations which each year brings about, is a triumph of direction. Utilizing as it does so many of the sure fire elements of pathos, suspense, and humor, this picture is destined to be popular. Morals are obvious, but good acting and direction keep the story from being banal and preachy. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Too mature Unsuitable © BULLDOG DRUMMOND IN AFRICA O O John Howard, Heather Angel, H. B. Warner, Reginald Denny, E. E. Clive, J. Carrol Naish Based on "Challenge" by H. C. McNeile. Screen play by Garnett Weston. Direction by Louis King. Paramount. Captain Drummond is really going to marry Phyllis this time. But hold everything! When she calls for Colonel Neilson, she finds that he has been abducted and whisked away to Africa by an international spy, and the wedding party becomes a crime hunt. The first part of the film is pleasing with delightful English dialogue and amusing situations, but the second half is fantastic and almost too horrible for endurance. One is held in suspense for fear the kidnapped victim will be eaten alive by a starving lion which eventually claws its master to death. On the credit side are placed the fine photographic studies of Morocco and the efficient acting of H. B. Warner and John Howard. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Too brutal Too brutal © CAREFREE O O Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Luella Gear, Clarence Kolb Screen play by Allan Scott and Ernest Pagano. Based on original idea by Marian Ainslee and Guy Endore. Direction by Mark Sandrich. R.K.O. Here is good news for all Astaire-Rogers fans! This time Astaire is a psychiatrist who is asked to treat his best friend’s offagain-on-again fiancee, Ginger Rogers, in an effort to make her more constant. Instead of responding properly to the treatment, she falls in love with the doctor and the fun is on. The scenario is exceptionally clever. There are several good tunes and unusually good dance routines. Most beautiful of all is the dance done in slow motion which occurs in Ginger Rogers’ dream. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Good Good if interested © THE CHASER O O Dennis O'Keefe, Ann Morriss, Lewis Stone, Nat Pendleton, Henry O'Neill. Screen play by Everett Freeman, Harry Ruskin and Bella and Samuel Spewack. Based on an original story by Chandler Sprague and Howard E. Rogers Direction by Edwin L. Marin. M. G. M. Another racket is exposed in “The Chaser” which protrays a shyster lawyer who hunts up victims of accidents and persuades them to sue for large sums on trumped up evidence and inadequate grounds. The story concerns a plot to trap the shyster through a girl posing as an accident victim. The two fall in love, and after various complications, we are given to understand that the girl is going to succeed in reforming her husband. The film is in the pot-boiler class. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Poor No © THE CROWD ROARS O O Robert Taylor, Edward Arnold, Frank Morgan, Maureen O'Sullivan, William Gargan, Lionel Stander, Jane Wyman. From a story by George Bruce. Screen play by Thomas Lennon, George Bruce, George Oppenheimer. Direction by Richard Thorpe. M. G. M With the completion of this film Robert Taylor should be established as a red-corpuscled, tough-skinned hero, popular with sports-loving males as well as the feminine contingent. As Tommy McCoy, born in the slums, fathered by an exasperating drunkard, he fights his way upward in the only way open to him, the boxing arena. To offset his father’s debts he is forced to fight under the sponsorship of a big-time gambler and racketeer, and he falls in love with the gambler’s daughter. It is melodramatic to be sure; the beginning and the ending drag somewhat, and ethical values are not always clear cut. However, the cast is unusually good with praise due Robert Taylor, Frank Morgan, Edward Arnold, Maureen O’Sullivan and others; there are pleasing comedy bits, and for those who are interested in prize-fighting the film is high in entertainment values. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Questionable Too much violence