Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

56 MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST GIRL FROM MAXIM'S— Continued} was operating on a limited budget. Compared with pictures of that year this undoubtedly loomed as an ambitious English film try. Today it's obviously dated. . . Because of its multitudinous flaws, most of them due to ancient vintage of the film, this feature is not strong enough even for dualers. American audiences won't stomach it. It is not worth risking the abuse likely to be heaped on the exhibitor by his regular patrons." Variety pl7 S 23 '36 GIRL ON THE FRONT PAGE. Universal 72min O 4 '36 Cast: Edmund Lowe. Gloria Stuart. Reginald Owen. Spring Byington Director: Harry Beaumont "Story depicts the romance of Lowe and Gloria Stuart and the former's exposure of a gang of servant blackmailers. Lowe is managing editor of a metropolitan newspaper which Miss Stuart inherits from her father." Variety (Hollywood) Audience Suitability Ratings "A: perhaps; Y: fair; C: no." Christian Century pl438 O 28 '36 "This [is] entertaining social comedy. Family." Am Legion Auxiliary "A slight story which gets off to a good start but has a weak ending. Adults: fair; 14-18: possibly; 8-14: beyond." Calif Cong of Par & Teachers "The picture is exciting without being 'hairraising.' Light entertainment. Mature." Calif Fed of Business & Professional Women's Clubs "Amusing bits make this trite newspaper mystery pleasing though not convincing entertainment. Mature-family. Mediocre." DAR "Mature." Nat Soc of New England Women "[This is] an exciting story, well told and enacted. Family." S Calif Council of Fed Church Women Fox W Coast Bui S 26 '36 "[This is] an entertaining picture, swiftly paced, smartly dialogued, with plenty of suspense and humor. Family." + Gen Fed of Women's Clubs (W Coast) S 16 '36 "Mature." Jt Estimates S 15 '36 "Fair. Adults & young adults." -j Motion Pict Guide D '36 "An unnecessary and irrelevant sub-plot is introduced when the girl is black-mailed by her own butler. . . Acting and direction are good, though not outstanding. Adolescents, 12-16: not recommended; children, 8-12: no interest." -| Motion Pict R p6 O '36 "This fairly interesting newspaper story introduces a new angle on blackmail. . . Sophisticated comedy suitable for the family." -I Nat Council of Jewish Women S 9 '36 'General patronage." Nat Legion of Decency O 1 'A & Y: fair; C: no." Parents' M p32 D '36 '36 "This film starts with verve from a novel angle, becomes confused and deteriorates to an unsatisfactory conclusion. Mature." 1 Sel Motion Pict p3 O 1 '36 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "Adults." Christian Science Monitor pl3 O 10 '36 "When Charlie Rogers gave us 'My Man Godfrey' as the first production to come from the New Universal, he set a standard which his second effort, 'The Girl on the Front Page,' lowers abruptly. Perhaps it was a case of too many cooks, as I see no less than five people are credited with having had something to do with the story. It is an exceedingly poor picture, a complete waste of time spent in viewing it." Hollywood Spec p7 S 26 '36 "Take away Reginald Owen and there would be little left to recommend in 'The Girl on the Front Page.' Portraying a lesser role in a comic melodrama that is rarely accented by fun or excitement, he takes over the show on several occasions with diverting results. . . Edmund Lowe and Gloria Stuart, it might be noted, are starred in the piece, but they cannot hold a candle to Mr. Owen in wrestling with shoddy material." Howard Barnes h N Y Herald Tribune plO N 7 '36 "The Roxy this week has one of those newspaper comedy melodramas usually so irritating to any one who has ever worked in a city room. 'The Girl on the Front Page' is a welcome exception, a slight, light little film, to be sure, but quite diverting. . . The film's most amusing performance is given by Reginald Owen as a slyly villainous butler. 'The Girl on the Front Page' is not bad for routine entertainment." Eileen Creelman -] NY Sun pl3 N 7 '36 "What this country needs today, Mr. President, is not the 5-cent cigar nor the nickel stein of beer, but the CAA — Cinema Adjustment Administration — to plow under some of our motion-picture production before it weakens a strong entertainment market. "The Girl on the Front Page' . . is not a capital offense, not a felony, nothing quite so bad. But it is a misdemeanor. . . Five writers are credited . . . with the story and, having told it all in the picture's first five minutes, they repeat it steadily thereafter. . . Call it mediocre and extend your sympathies to the cast, particularly to Reginald Owen, who tried to make something of the sinister butler, and to Spring Byington as a bewildered matron." F. S. Nugent r N Y Times pl5 N 7 '36 ' "[It] is a spotty but reasonably diverting blend of love, wisecracks and blackmail that may not be any great shakes as art, but should keep you interested with its breezy humor and its fast moving events. . . When it is said that 'The Girl on The Front Page' is spotty it does not mean that the film has been thrown together carelessly but rather that parts of it are so well managed that it is a pity all of it could not have been better planned and executed. However, it is buoyant enough so that its slow patches can be forgiven, and if you are not too analytical you should find it breezy fun." William Boehnel -| NY World-Telegram p9a N 7 '36 "Movies, just movies." John Mosher New Yorker pll7 N 14 '36 " 'The Girl on the Front Page' gets there through the efforts of a couple of hard-working males who know what's what in the realm of acting . . . Edmund Lowe and Reginald Owen. The always reliable Eddie . . . plunges through his performance with such form and good humor that what might have been just another programmer (made today, dual-billed tomorrow and forgotten shortly) becomes considerably better than that. . . Watch for the finale when Lowe wrings a confession from Owen by placing his fingers in Reggie's ribs; there's terror and exhaustion in a spine-chilling combination." Herb Sterne + Script plO O 24 '36 Trade Paper Reviews "Aided by a pair of classic performances — those of Edmund Lowe and Reginald Owen — this yarn ... is smart entertainment in a + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; -| Fair; [-Mediocre; — Poor; Exceptionally Poor