Motion Picture Reviews (1938)

Eight MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS although it is fairly entertaining, lacks really stimulating qualities. The principal actors are good but have achieved better performances. Some of the photography is excellent. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Passable Mature & TOUCHDOWN. ARMY! O O John Howard, Robert Cummings, Mary Carlisle, Owen Davis, Jr. Story and screen play by Lloyd Corrigan and Erwin Gelsey. Direction by Kurt Neumann. Paramount. Football, plus the background of West Point, always offers sufficient pageantry for an entertaining film. There have been better films on the same subject, but this is worth seeing, and when a young man with political connections from a “gas house” district of New York City is actually made into a gentleman, one cannot fail to be impressed by the training accorded youths of the Military Academy. The football victory over Navy is won, of course, in the last split second of play. A real stroke of originality in films would be a game which was won in the second quarter. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Good Might enjoy it © VACATION FROM LOVE O O Dennis O'Keefe, Florence Rice, Reginald Owen, June Knight, Edward S. Brophy. Original story and screen play by Patterson McNutt and Harlan Ware. Direction by George Fitzmaurice. M-G-M. This is about the most “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable” film of the season. It completely outdoes itself trying to make an amusing story of ill-considered marriage and Paris divorce. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Very poor No © WHILE NEW YORK SLEEPS O O Michael Whalen, Jean Rogers, Chick Chandler, Joan Woodbury. Original story by Frank Fenton and Lynn Root. Twentieth Century-Fox. When seven messengers are killed, one by one, while carrying bonds from an insurance company to a bank, a reporter with keen intuition sets himself to find the identity of the murderer. As a mystery it is interesting enough to follow, but social values are poor with scant respect for officers of the law and a cloak of cleverness accommodated to criminal practices. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Bad point of view No indeed YOUNG DR. KILDARE O O Lionel Barrymore, Lew Ayres, Lynne Carver, Nat Pendleton, Joe Ann Sayers, Samuel S. Hinds. Screen play by Harry Ruskin and Willis Goldbeck. From an original story by Max Brand. Direction by Harold S. Bucquet. M-G-M. A new series has been promised by M.G.M. starring Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore. It is based on stories by Max Brand, and concerns the exploits of young Dr. Jimmy Kildare and the older, more experienced diagnostician Dr. Leonard Gillespie. In this first chapter, which is a complete story in itself, Dr. Kildare commences his internship at a large city hospital where he finds that politics play a considerable part in the career of a young doctor. He finally turns detective to prove the soundness of a diagnosis and eventually wins the respect of his chief after very nearly being dismissed from the hospital by the Board of Directors. Though Dr. Kildare’s experiences and the conduct of the hospital affairs cannot be considered typical, the story is convincingly and intelligently handled and stresses a high order of idealism and personal integrity. As Dr. Kildare, Lew Ayres immediately wins audience sympathy, and as Dr. Gillespie, Lionel Barrymore again creates one of his dynamic and lovable portraits. If the series continues as it has begun, it will be justly popular. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Interesting Too mature © THE YOUNG IN HEART O O Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Minnie Dupree, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Paulette Goddard, Richard Carlson, Henry Stephenson, Irvin Cobb. From a story "The Gay Banditti," by I. A. R. Wylie. Adapted to the screen by Charles Bennett. Screen play by Paul Osborn. Direction by Richard Wallace. Musical score by Franz Waxman. United Artists. David O. Selznick’s productions are pictures to be anticipated, and this one more than comes up to expectations. It has something to say and it says it eloquently. It combines subtle direction, an exceptional cast, and an unusual and human story which has spiritual significance. “The Gay Banditti” from which it was adapted was written by I. A. R. Wylie, a capable and inspiring writer. Its translation to the screen is very fine, and brilliant direction has kept it free from sentimentality, with just the right balance of smart flippancy and emotional depth to make it unusually appealing. It is the story of a wonderful old woman’s part in the regeneration of a family of shrewd and unscrupulous renegades who have planned to victimize her, but who gradually are completely won over by her