Motion Picture Reviews (1939)

Six MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS gangster story in costume. The gangsters are smugglers and murderers who wreck vessels on the rocky shores of the English coast and leave no survivors to tell the tale. Their hideout is Jamaica Inn, a lonely place usually avoided by respectable people. To this inn comes a young girl to make her home with an aunt, and she finds herself involved in a sinister and frightening experience. The brains of the gang, known to one man only, is Sir Humphrey Pengallon. Charles Laughton, who excels in diabolical characterizations, plays this role to the hilt, the chief gangster in another era, the forerunner of the present day man higher up. Any appearance of Mr. Laughton is an event. He is no disappointment in this, for he is very clever in the role of a seeming dandy and fop who is in reality the cruel, bestial leader of the cutthroats. The sympathetic character is played by lovely Maureen O'Hara, a newcomer to the screen, whose histrionic possibilities seem very great. She has a magnetic personality and shows restraint and sureness in her acting. There are numerous striking bits played by others in the cast who are unfamiliar on the American screen. It is a blood curdling tale, but unusual and very interesting. Some of the dialogue is lost by enunciation too rapid for ears attuned to English as Americans pronounce it, but the production is a striking one, handsomely set and photographed and splendidly directed by the man who guided “The Lady Vanishes’’ and “39 Steps.” Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Exciting but well done Inappropriate ❖ KID NIGHTINGALE O O John Payne, Jane Wyman, Wafer Catlett, Ed Brophy, Charles D. Brown, Max Hoffman, Harry Burns. Story by Lee Katz. Screen play by Charles Belden and RaVriond Schrock. Direction by George Amy. Wa,flef Bros. “Golden Boy” is apparently the model for “Kid Nightingale,” since again we have a boy with a musical talent going into the fight game. This time he is lured by a false promise of voice training, and the physical work is supposed to be only a means to an end. The stress is laid on comedy, ably executed by Walter Catlett and Ed Brophy, and the romantic leads are not particularly stimulating. It is stereotyped entertainment which will hold second place on a double bill. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No value No MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON O O Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, Thomas Mitchell, Eugene Pallette, Beulah Bondi, H. B. Warner, Harry Care, Astrid Allwyn, Ruth Donnelly, Grant Mitchell, Porter Hall, Pierre Watkin, Charles Lane, William Demarest, Dick Elliott, Billy Watson, Delmar Watson, John Russell, Harry Watson, Gary Watson, Baby Dumpling, H. V. Kaltenborn. Story by Sidney Buchman and Lewis R. Foster. Direction by Frank Capra. Frank Capra Production. Columbia. The following is a condensed report. A more complete review will appear next month. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” deserves highest praise. The theme is significant, touching on social, political and patriotic values. It is superbly directed and offers thrilling entertainment which arouses intellectual as well as emotional response. Both young people and adults will find inspiration and encouragement in the belief in the ultimate power of practical idealism. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Extremely interesting Very mature and worth while, especially for high school age ❖ THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX O O Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Haviland, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, Vincent Price, Henry Stephenson, Henry Daniell, Nanette Fabares. From the stage play by Maxwell Anderson. Screen play by Norman Reilly Raine and Aeneas Mackenzie. Direction by Michael Curtiz. Warner Bros. Maxwell Anderson’s stage play, “Elizabeth the Queen,” has been adapted for the screen as "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.” Possibly the original title is the better, for it is Bette Davis’ interpretation of Elizabeth which makes the film significant. The story concerns the tragic passion of the Virgin Queen for the Earl of Essex, a man younger in years, handsome and fascinating, proud and overbearing, and consumed by an irrational ambition. Errol Flyn plays the role of Essex, and while, for the most part, he seems more the dashing hero of “Robin^od” than a man torn between love for a w“nan and the desire for power, there are scenS, notably the last one, in which he reacht, convincing heights. Miss Davis, on the otLr hand, is exceptionally fine. She has sacrf}cei] beauty to give a faithful impression v the aging Elizabeth, but her personal m^net;sm ;s tremendously convincing. In the o*jn;ng scenes she seems possibly too hysterical <or a Woman in the exalted position of Qutn 0f England, but as the play progresses a j tbe strain under which the character labor. js understood, the depth