Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

102 MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST SEVEN SINNERS. Gaumont British 70min Ag 15 '36 Players. Edmund Lowe. Constance Cummings. Thorny Bourdelle. Henry Oscar Director: Albert de Courville Dialogue film produced in England. Based on the play, The Wrecker, by Arnold Ridley and Bernard Merivale. This is a remake of a silent film called The Wrecker. When Lowe, an American detective discovers a dead man in his hotel room at Nice, he determines to track the guilty person. With the help of an English girl he runs into a series of accidents and narrow escapes which take them to England. Audience Suitability Ratings "The direction is deft, smooth and competent, the photography is excellent and thrilling, exciting, suspense is maintained to the very end. Mature." + Nat Council of Jewish Women S 2 '36 "Adults." Nat Legion of Decency Ag 27 '36 "A, Y and C: excellent detective drama." Parents' M p31 S '36 "The production moves very rapidly, is intensely exciting, superbly acted and introduces many humorous incidents. The direction is deft, with a fine distinction in tempo for the different exigencies of the story. Adults & young people." + Sel Motion Pict S 1 '36 "A good detective plot, with the mystery well sustained, though the effort to inject 'Thin Mannish' comedy is not always successful. Family." H Wkly Guide Ag 22 '36 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "To date, the average English film has been far below the average American in technique, story and acting. . . 'Seven Sinners' is an English film remarkable in that it has no cluster of stars, no midnight preview, no big press campaign, but is a competent, sparkling, fastmoving, well directed and well acted film. . . 'Seven Sinners' makes no film history, but is worth seeing." + New Statesman & Nation pl92 Ag 8 '36 "The British cinema continues to demonstrate its flair for melodrama in 'Seven Sinners.' Borrowing heavily from what must be called the Alfred Hitchcock technique, the film spins out a fast-paced and exciting yarn of intrigue and violence. . . It is a smart and diverting variation on an excellent formula. . . Although in no sense an important production, 'Seven Sinners' is a skillfully constructed and vastly entertaining screen thriller." Howard Barnes + NY Herald Tribune p6 Ag 22 '36 "The Roxy is billing . . . 'Seven Sinners' as the successor to 'The Thirty-Nine Steps.' This is a bit on the strong side. . . But there is an unmistakable resemblance to the Hitchcock melodrama in the picture's rapid direction, urbanity and cleverness. . . On its own merits it is a crisp, humorous and deftly turned murder mystery. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Alfred Hitchcock has been sincerely flattered by 'Seven Sinners.' " F. S. Nugent + NY Times p6 Ag 22 '36 "The Roxy has been an admirable rendezvous for the mystery films the British, wisely, keep feeding us, but the house lets down with 'Seven Sinners,' its current [mystery], which is a lot of palaver about some nice people who go around wrecking trains. . . Mr. Lowe portrays the detective with a minimum of mugging. . . Poor Miss Cummings has nothing to do but look O. K., which must pall upon her, too." Douglas Gilbert 1 N Y World-Telegram pl3 Ag 24 '36 "Wrecking of trains is a pastime with which the camera is fitted to deal, and by the end of this film no one should be in any doubt upon that point. The picture, however would have been much less successful if it were not for the dialogue. All the way through this is light and amusing, and maintaining this level the improbabilities of the story are kept at arm's length." Mark Forrest + Sat R pl92 Ag 8 '36 Reviewed by Herb Sterne Script plO S 12 '36 "Like Hitchcock, de Courville injects a predominant note of humor in his film; and like Hitchcock, he attains his effects by special photographic tricks, deftly juxtaposing horror and humor, tragedy and amusement. . . Both Constance Cummings and Edmund Lowe are likable and lively, and add an American gusto to an otherwise all-English production." Stage pl21 Ag '36 " 'Seven Sinners' is a frank attempt to duplicate the success of last year's outstandingly good Gaumont British comic-melodrama 'The Thirty-Nine Steps.' . . Pursuing a bland course through all this excitement, Detectives Harwood and Fenton eventually dig through the intrigues of a bogus reform group, pin the crimes on the least suspectable person in a final melee, which, for those cinemaddicts who want their mysteries solved with explicit completeness, is about the only unsatisfying thing in the picture." Time p23 Ag 31 '36 Trade Paper Reviews "Without a doubt the fastest-moving picture ever to issue from an English studio, this comedy-drama has the additional advantages of sparkling dialogue, several hair-breadth escapes and crack performances by Edmund Lowe and Constance Cummings." + Box Office p31 Ag 22 '36 "GaumontBritish have turned out one of the crispest and most sparkling murder mysteries ever screened, and 'Seven Sinners' has that same rare atmosphere that made 'The Thin Man' so delightful." + Film Daily p5 Jl 31 '36 "[It] succeeded in sustaining audience interest in spite of a badly knit story. A good deal of humorous dialogue, almost entirely irrelevant to the main thread, is cleverly introduced and forms a distinctly welcome relief from the generally pervading drama. Another highlight of the production is a series of train smashes, breath-takingly realistic and comparing with anything of the type yet seen on the screen. Edmund Lowe . . . gives an eminently satisfying performance. Constance Cummings, on the other hand, has an unconvincing role which could have been interpreted by any young feminine player possessed of a modicum of ability. . . The picture has a definite appeal for the not too discriminating masses." H Hollywood Reporter p6 Jl 11 '36 "Real action drama with three sensational train wrecks, masterfully directed by Albert de Courville and featuring Edmund Lowe and Constance Cummings, with an excellent supporting cast. Suspense, comedy and action are combined to make satisfactory entertainment to lovers of thrillers. . . [It is] an all-round entertaining, amusing and exciting picture." + Motion Pict Daily p8 Jl 6 '36 "This is a weirdly suspenseful drama in the '39 Steps' tradition. Estimate: fair melodrama." H Phila Exhibitor p33 Ag 15 '36 "This British effort at a detective story in the light, flippant manner has most of the correct trimmings, but the story doesn't bear up under the strain. For American business it rests its case on Edmund Lowe and Constance Cummings, and that's not sufficient. + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; -| Fair; [-Mediocre; — Poor; Exceptionally Poor