Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST 99 " 'One Rainy Afternoon' is fair and mild — a bit too mild for the purposes of rollicking French farce and merely fair enough to provide an hour or so of moderate entertainment." F. S. Nugent H NY Times p29 My 14 '36 "Mr. Lederer's art tends to over-ripeness; unbridled, he is coy to being luscious. Seemingly knowing this, his present employers try to overcome the tendency by making him what he is not — a comic. It only makes 'One Rainy Afternoon' all wet as entertainment when it might well have been a smart sophisticated pastime." Douglas Gilbert 1 N Y World-Telegram p23 My 14 '36 "The film happens to be really quite funny, smartly turned, and fanciful, with a general lightness of treatment that's rare. In fact, it is astonishing, when you stop to think about it, how seldom movies actually achieve anything like a bit of foaminess. . . It's remarkable that it remains farce to the end, and throughout every scene, and that it does not, in the grand Hollywood manner, suddenly turn to pure love, ultimate passion., and the verbose agonies of crushed souls.!' John Mosher + New Yorker p78 My 16 '36 "The masses should be delighted and if highbrows don't chuckle over it they have dyspeptic senses of humor." + News-VVk p42 My 16 '36 "The absurd story ripples on without bellylaughter but with perpetual purring and delicious giggles. . . Francis Lederer was never more happy or charming in a part and he sets the key for everybody. . . Mary Pickford and Jesse Lasky were entitled to their postpreview smiles." Robert Wagner + Script plO My 23 '36 "[It] has possibilities for fresh screen humor. Mr. Lee, however, has pummeled his actors into overdoing every gesture, with the result that subtlety, necessary as a base, crumples into burlesque. There are several painful instances of the actors trying to be funny, but humor is at best intermittent." h Stage plO Je 1 '36 " 'One Rainy Afternoon' is probably the most completely casual picture ever offered as the first production of a new company. . . It is a musical comedy without words and without plot. Its virtue is its nonchalance, which inexplicably becomes a striking feat of dramaturgy." + Time p26 My 4 *36 Trade Paper Reviews "Rollicking comedy that will delight all audiences, the initial Pickford-Lasky production is exceptionally meritorious. Family." + Box Office p63 My 2 '36 "The plot itself is insignificant, but it is the comedy that permeates the whole picture that makes it such a hit." + Canadian Moving Pict Digest p5 Je 6 '36 "Take our word for it, this is a swell picture. It ought to hit the box office bulls-eye in any situation. A rare combination of comedy, romance, smart direction and acting. Francis Lederer certainly has never been better in any picture and his supporting cast all register strongly." + Film Curb pl5 My 2 '36 "As a delightful, highly enjoyable romantic comedy, this picture rates tops. Francis Lederer has one of those light-hearted easygoing roles that seem to be patterned just for him. It's a pleasure to watch him breezing along. Judging from returns on Lederer's previous pictures built on these lines, this show should play to nice grosses. . . The better houses, especially, should do well with it." + Film Daily p8 Ap 27 '36 "It is distinctively continental in manner and in theme. In fact, had it come from a foreign studio, it would have been widely acclaimed by the artistic critics as something quite revolutionary in the art of story-telling. It is revolutionary. And it is thoroughly delightful. . . The picture will definitely reestablish Francis Lederer, its star, as one of the reigning film romantics. He delivers a performance that will stand unchallenged for a long time." + Hollywood Reporter p3 Ap 23 '36 "It bubbles over with mirth and merriment. It seems to have everything the audience or exhibitor will want — bright, subtle dialogue, novel and amusingly contrived situations, and fast, well-paced action. . . The show has speed and coherence. The high quality of action, dialogue and acting frequently brought spontaneous applause from the preview audience here." Motion Pict Daily p8 Ap 24 '36 "Mary Pickford and Jesse Lasky, who certainly know what theatregoers need for entertainment and what exhibitors require for exploitation purposes, have whipped together in this, their first picture, an attraction potentially pleasing to both. . . [It has] a verve and sparkle that keyed the preview audience to a high pitch of appreciative enthusiasm." + Motion Pict Herald p47 My 2 '36 "Class houses will probably like it most because its satire, comedy, etc., are such that the upper strata will better appreciate it." + NY Exhibitor p26 My 10 '36 "For the American production there was obviously too much regard for the original. . . Francis Lederer is a handsome juvenile with considerable charm, but on his own has not any box office pull, and needs strong story support. He doesn't get it here. . . Ida Lupino is lovely as the vis-a-vis, but not flip enough for the assignment. Roland Young is fine as a theatrical producer, but doesn't get enough to do." H Variety pl2 My 20 '36 " 'One Rainy Afternoon' is high class entertainment and an impressive initial production for the Pickford-Lasky organization. Picture has charming flippancy to delight the cultivated taste and with aggregate weight of name roster should hit handsomely in the A houses, with prospects of fat grosses. Appeal is not limited to the sophisticate, however, because story and treatment are in no sense precious or exclusive but have comedy gauged to common level of picture-goers far down the line." -f Variety (Hollywood) p3 Ap 23 '36 OURSELVES ALONE. (Release date not determined) 70min Associated British Players: John Loder. John Lodge. Antoinette Cellier. Niall MacGinnis. Bruce Lister. Clifford Evans Directors: Brian Desmond-Hurst. Walter Summers Based on the play, The Trouble, by Dudley Sturrock and Noel Scott. "[It is] a Sinn Fein story of brutal ruthlessness, showing the unceasing feud between the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Irish Republican Army. . . It leads up to the point where the hero, in love with a sister of the leader of the Republican Army, shoots her brother, who is trying to escape, without knowing his identity. She is then placed in the position where she is forced to lure the man she loves to what seems inevitably his doom." (Variety) Audience Suitability Ratings 'Suitability: adults & adolescents.' Mo Film Bui p82 My '36 + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; H Fair; {-Mediocre; Poor; Exceptionally Poor