Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

112 MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST SUZY — Continued) Audience Suitability Ratings " 'When in doubt, wave a flag.' . . It is this psychology upon which 'Suzy' is fashioned. Portrayed in a manner of a giant festival, this purported drama of World War days is as flagrant a glorification of war as you would care to see. Not to mention the lesser misdemeanors of bigamy, illicit love affairs, and drunkenness, 'Suzy' attempts to employ all the hysterical flag-waving devices which make for thrills and applause." — Bui on Current Films Ag 3 '36 "A: good of kind; Y: doubtful; C: no." Christian Century pl071 Ag 5 '36 "Mediocre. Adults." DAR j Fox W Coast Bui Jl 25 '36 "Expert directing of a star cast . . . has brought us a great piece of entertainment. Adults." Am Legion Auxiliary "The excellent photography including very interesting montage shots of actual warfare makes this an outstanding picture. Adults: fair; family: doutbful; 14-18: no; 8-14: no." Calif Cong of Par & Teachers "This picture has its dramatic moments, but as a whole it lacks freshness or originality. Mature." Calif Fed of Business & Professional Women's Clubs "Contrast, carefully finished portraiture and stirring scenes of wartime aviation make this an interesting film for mature audiences." Nat Soc of New England Women "A melodrama suitable for an adult audience. Mature." S Calif Council of Fed Church Women Fox W Coast Bui Ag 1 '36 "The picture [is] an entertaining one. Adults." + Gen Fed of Women's Clubs (W Coast) Jl 24 '36 "Fair for adults." _| Nat Council of Jewish Women Jl 22 '36 "Adults." Nat Legion of Decency Jl 30 '36 "A and Y: action war drama; C: mature." Parents' M p70 S '36 "[It has] a rather complicated plot reminiscent of several earlier war melodramas." Sel Motion Pict Ag 1 '36 "Mature." Wkly Guide Jl 25 '36 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews " Metro -GoldwynMayer took Herbert Gorman's rather sensational World War melodrama . . . and blurred the whole thing with a hasty Legion of Decency sponging. Result is a strangely uneven melodrama — at its best, ingeniously directed and lively; at its worst, trite, stuffy and unconvincing." B. L. -| Boston Transcript p3 Ag 8 '36 "For adults in search of an emotional spree." ECS Christian Science Monitor pl3 Ag 8 '36 "It will give satisfaction. We could wish for less talking than it contains, and a greater reliance on the camera in developing the psychological phases of the story, but as we seem doomed to have such pictures until Hollywood learns how to use the microphone, we will be lucky if we get none less entertaining than this well-made Metro offering." _| Hollywood Spec p5 Jl 18 '36 "One of M-G-M's lavish productions, 'Suzy' is expensively mounted, handsomely dressed, and features a cast of favorites. Unfortunately all this visual display decorates a wartime story so seething with bewildering coin cidents and inaccuracies that the picture destroys what believable moments it might have had." (iy2 stars) Beverly Hills Liberty p41 Ag 22 '36 "The story has the now familiar backgrounds of Europe in 1914, its spy scenes are brightly contrived, it has a melodramatic punch of undeniable force. The ending is intelligently arrived at and is logical. For all that the picture was made for Miss Harlow and all the important scenes are pointed in her favor, the honors for performance go mainly to Franchot Tone and Cary Grant. Direction by George Fitzmaurice is brilliant, and he has the foresight to insist on new treatment for scenes which, otherwise, would be much like dozens of scenes in dozens of other spy and war films." + Lit Digest pl8 Jl 25 '36 "We are more or less innured to the complete indifference with which Hollywood dishes out the minor fables of our time. . . But cynical hokum toward so unmitigated a catastrophe as the last war and future wars brings you up with a savage wrench. After all these years, how do they dare? Yet once again the Harlows, the Baxters, the William Faulkners and Joel Sayres, the Zanucks, play fast and loose with mortality, dancing lightly over the mass graves, the great charnel houses of the last generation." — New Theatre p22 S '36 " 'Suzy' is by no means a bore. It is lively and it is well played, but I fear that it is in the Three-Eye League tradition. I will go on screaming in my customary wilderness that it is a great shame to waste Miss Harlow in such a role, when she should be exercising her vast gifts as a half-sophisticated, half-innocent comic." Richard Watts, Jr. H NY Herald Tribune p6 Jl 25 '36 " 'Suzy' like most spy drama, depends greatly upon coincidence to make the plot revolve. The scenarists work this old device pretty hard in 'Suzy.' Only George Fitzmaurice' s careful direction saves the script. . . The result, of course, is melodrama, not always plausible but at least never dull. . . If not taken too seriously, [it is] a fairly entertaining [production]." Eileen Creelman -\ NY Sun p8 Jl 25 '36 "With padded horns of dialogue and venerable plot whiskers, it plunges across the screen, creates some mild excitement and careens out again, leaving us with a few esthetic bruises and a feeling that a little fresh air would do no harm. . . Miss Harlow's performance may be numbered among her least [interesting], and we still insist she would be wiser not to stray beyond the green pastures of comedy. Mr. Tone can be thanked for the few honest moments of drama that the film possesses." F. S. Nugent — NY Times pl6 Jl 25 '36 "Frankly, there is nothing much to pant about one way or another, and when you see [it] — if you do — you'll be bound to admit that ['Suzy'] leaves the state of the current cinema just about where [it] found it. . . 'Suzy' is a pretty feeble fable, and nothing that Miss Harlow and Franchot Tone, Cary Grant and Lewis Stone, her chief companions, can do helps matters much. Because of its banalities 'Suzy' is beyond the helping stage. . . Personally, I think it is pretty dull." William Boehnel — NY World-Telegram pl5a Jl 25 '36 "Just when it seemed that things were too awful to be borne, Jean Harlow turned up in 'Suzy.' . . Platinum blonde or brownette, Miss Harlow is, if she will pardon the expression, my meat. When, as in 'Suzy,' she has a good role, and is surrounded by competent colleagues, the total effect is almost too much. . . Franchot Tone, Cary Grant, and Lewis Stone stand by Miss Harlow nobly, making 'Suzy' something that you really ought to see." Russell Maloney -f New Yorker p39 Ag 1 '36 -f -f Exceptionally Good; + Good; -\ F; -f Mediocre; — Poor; Exceptionally Poor