Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST 55 GESUZZA, LA SPOSA GARIBALDINA. Cines Pittaluga 75min N 2 '36 Cast: Aida Bellia. Guiseppe Gulino. Gian franco Giachetti Director: Alessandro Blassetti Italian dialogue film produced in Italy without English sub-titles. "Historical drama dealing with the freeing of Naples and Sicily from Bourbon rule by heroic followers of Italy's great patriot Garibaldi." (Film Daily) Newspaper and Magazine Review's "Despite its technical defects, this sketch . . . is bound to grip both Italians and Americans familiar with the history of those days. The picture leaves the spectators hoping for another installment of a story which needs no retouching by scenarists. . . All of them act well, as do the rest of a numerous cast." H. T. S. + NY Times p33 N 3 '36 GIRL FROM MAXIM'S. Hoffberg 53min O 1 '36 Cast: Frances Day. Lady Tree. Leslie Henson. George Grossmith Director: Alexander Korda Music: Kurt Shroder Based on the play of the same title by Georges Feyder. It is a dialogue film made in England about five years ago and just released here. "It is one of the those devilish, Mauve Decade farces in which a straightlaced doctor, married to an unattractive wife, goes to Maxim's on a spree, becomes involved with a chorus girl who is mistaken for his wife, and then must try to explain his folly to his wife and a wealthy uncle." (N Y WorldTelegram) Audience Suitability Ratings "A cheap production that has little or no entertainment value. Adults." — Nat Legion of Decency S 24 '36 Trade Paper Reviews "While lacking technical strength, this film story of heroic manhood and womanhood in the struggle for liberty is impressive entertainment." + Film Daily pll N 4 '36 "It appears to be a foreign attempt with historical costumers, and is not without its exciting episodes. . . Uneven direction and varying pace permit story interest to dwindle, which are handicaps that even excellent photographic work and bits of vivid acting fail to overcome. Because it develops into a cumbersome costume play, seems dubious if this feature will go well even with Italian language houses. No English titles, which means it's out for other U.S. theatres." h Variety p29 N 18 '36 GHOST PATROL. Puritan 58min Ag 3 '36 Cast: Tim McCoy. Claudia Dell. Walter Miller Director: Sam Newfield A western melodrama. Audience Suitability Ratings "General patronage." Nat Legion of Decency Ag 20 '36 "A, Y & C: fair." Parents' M p32 D '36 Newspaper and Magazine Revieivs "This time Tim McCoy rides down some desert air raiders with the aid of his trusty steed and saves Claudia Dell — but not the film — into the bargain. Adults." — Christian Science Monitor pl3 S 19 '36 Trade Paper Revieivs "This Tim McCoy vehicle deviates from the out-and-out Western path and instead combines some G-man stuff with airplane material, resulting in a generally actionful melodrama that should please the McCoy fans and other neighborhood grind patrons as well." + Film Daily p7 S 10 '36 + Motion Pict Daily p3 S 16 '36 "As with all McCoys, good in all departments including interest held throughout." + Phila Exhibitor p35 S 15 '36 "Putting G-men into chaps and 10-gallon hats is something that had to happen but it doesn't add up to much for screen purposes. The picture is just another Western of the type the exhibitor buys when he calls up the exchange and asks 'em to send him a hoof opera to fill out a double bill. . . McCoy is rather stiff and Miss Dell only fair." h Variety pl6 S 16 '36 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "A hapless little farce that utterly wastes the services of a notable company, it is having a belated American showing. . . It is not obvious why it ever should have been exhibited here. The most tolerant film-goer is not likely to find it entertaining. . . The photoplay is much more of a museum piece than its halfdecade of age might suggest." Howard Barnes NY Herald Tribune p23 S 16 '36 "The film shows traces of age, especially in lighting and sound. . . Even so, this picture has some of the Korda comedy and the Korda direction. . . 'The Girl from Maxim's' does manage to whip up quite a bit of jollity now and then." Eileen Creelman H NY Sun p23 S 16 '36 "The impious Paul Pry who operates the little World Cinema has tiptoed into Alexander Korda's closet and dragged out a family skeleton called 'The Girl From Maxim's,' which Mr. Korda produced back in '31, when he was operating on a frayed shoestring and a frazzled nervous system. . . The photography is gray, the speech indistinct and the lively ladies of Maxim's are quite devilish in a mauve decade way." F. S. Nugent NY Times p29 S 16 '36 "Having achieved an enviable reputation as a producer of outstanding films with his remarkable 'The Private Life of Henry VIII' Alexander Korda must now suffer the ignominy of having some of his pre'Henry VIII' indiscretions flung back into his face by way of the public screens. . . Frankly, 'The Girl from Maxim's' is a conspicuously mediocre film in every department of production. The direction is heavy and ponderous, the dialogue is completely lacking in freshness or sparkle, and the acting, even though the cast includes some well known names, is pretty awful to contemplate." William Boehnel h N Y World-Telegram p25 S 16 '36 Trade Paper Revieivs "If this production, made years ago, had been intended as a burlesque of a serious drama of early vintage you might laugh at it, but you laugh at it anyway because it is so unbelievably bad. . . Acted by an English cast, [which] goes through [its] parts with a great deal of over-emphasis, the material is so colorless and lacking in humor that it dwindles rapidly into the classification of just a plain boresome film without any excuse for being released." Film Daily p25 S 16 '36 — Motion Pict Daily plO S 17 '36 "[This is] weak in practically all departments. Estimate: weak; for neighborhoods, twin bills." — Phila Exhibitor p39 O 1 '36 "[It] would mean little to the American box-office even if it boasted familiar name players. It was produced by Alexander Korda about five years ago, when the now-noted British producer was just getting started and -J+ Exceptionally Good; + Good; -\ Fair; f Mediocre; —Poor; Exceptionally Poor